[Pyro7480]

Clerical celibacy is a practice, not a teaching. Bishops, in either the West or the East, have never been married. The bishops who were, at any point in history, were breaking their vow to God!

[muawiyah]

The trick is that when the European monarchies began politicizing church offices married men regularly turned into bishops and cardinals right before the eyes of the amazed populations.

Interestingly enough, despite the strong positions taken by many involved in the Protestant Reformation, it was common for top ranked Protestants to keep concubines and/or plural wives.

No doubt those were dark days for Christianity. However, they came to an abrupt end during the conduct of the Thirty-years War ~ whatever you thought was necessary to make other men holy became a justification for mass murder.

Germany was almost destroyed.

Uh, BTW, the Thirty-years War put all previous "dark days" to shame. It was the darkest of times in the history of Western Christianity.

In the end they all agreed to create nation states and stay out of the other guy's church related business.

Christian belief regarding their obligation to force salvation on others changed at that time.

[philetus]

The bishops who were, at any point in history, were breaking their vow to God!”

Did the Catholic Church require them to take the oath?