[Mrs. Don-o]

Somebody better equipped than I am will answer your question, I'm sure, but let me just jump in there to clarify that priests--- East, West, Catholic, Orthodox, Byzantine or whatever --- have never been allowed to marry. An unmarried man who becomes a priest, cannot then get married unless he is laicized.

A married man, however, can become a priest in some of the above churches.

To clarify: a priest cannot marry. But a married man can (sometimes) become a priest.

And your assumption that it was all a matter of conserving ecclesiatical property will be properly contested.

[ECM]

Hold on: you’re saying priests were *never* allowed to marry? If that is the case, then there’s no real need to answer my question since it was based on the (rather common) belief that they were barred from marriage a very long time ago.