[HonorInPa]

I don’t think this is historically accurate. The church was losing much of its riches because the local priests - who controlled much of the wealth (land, buildings, cash) in villages and towns - were getting married, and/or having children to whom the riches flowed upon death. Often times the church leadership provided the only realy competition to whatever royalty or peerage had local control. The continued dilution of the assets of the church required that something drastic - like priestly celibacy - be instituted to stem the problem.

[A.A. Cunningham]

I think you're engaging in revisionist history and are simply parroting urban legends put forth by people who could never comprehend not allowing their libido to dictate how they lived their lives.

[Campion]

The church was losing much of its riches because the local priests - who controlled much of the wealth (land, buildings, cash) in villages and towns - were getting married, and/or having children to whom the riches flowed upon death.

Do you have any real, scholarly, historical sources for this?

I've read this multiple times on FR, and it doesn't make sense. Church property didn't belong to the priest and couldn't be bequeathed to his heirs.

What definitely did happen is nepotism -- children of clerics given preference for a church career. In a day when anyone not born into nobility could look forward to a short life of back-breaking labor -- unless they became a cleric -- this was a big deal.