[Claud]

(Also hard to be a "husband of one wife" if you're a Catholic Bishop.)

Who was John's wife? Who was Polycarp's wife? Who was Ignatius of Antioch's wife?

Dare you say that all of the bishops of the first two centuries was married? Your understanding of this passage seems to be belied by the lives of the men who actually held the office.

[PetroniusMaximus]

"Your understanding of this passage seems to be belied by the lives of the men who actually held the office"

I'll let Paul answer...

"This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?"
- 1 Corinthians 9

Many of the NT Church leaders were married - including Peter.

[pravknight]

There were married bishops during the first four or five centuries, and Pope Hadrian VI was married in the 9th century.

I'm posting this, not because I belive the practice ought to be revived, but as a historical point.

[RobbyS]

We had married bishops, but Protestants are not happy to learn that the common practice for them to abstain from sex after they came to office. It has uniformly been the case of no marriage AFTER ordination. True of the Greeks as well as us Latins.