Furthermore,
Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (315–68), a Doctor of the Church, was a married bishop and had a daughter named Apra, who was baptized together with her father, when he and his wife became Christians.
Among Popes of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, the father of Pope Damasus I (366–84) was a bishop.
Pope Felix III (483–92), whose father was almost certainly a priest, was the great-great-grandfather of Pope Gregory I the Great (590–604).
Pope Hormisdas (514–23) was the father of Pope Silverius (536–37)
Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (315–68), a Doctor of the Church, was a married bishop and had a daughter named Apra, who was baptized together with her father, when he and his wife became Christians.
Among Popes of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, the father of Pope Damasus I (366–84) was a bishop.
Pope Felix III (483–92), whose father was almost certainly a priest, was the great-great-grandfather of Pope Gregory I the Great (590–604).
Pope Hormisdas (514–23) was the father of Pope Silverius (536–37)
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Wow, I had no idea that they allowed marriage this recently... Good work!
So why did they and when did they start instituting celibacy? According to Wikipedia...
The earliest textual evidence of the forbidding of marriage to clerics and the duty of those already married to abstain from sexual contact with their wives is in the fourth-century decrees of the Council of Elvira and the later Council of Carthage. According to some writers, this presumed a previous norm, which was being flouted in practice.[7]
Council of Elvira (c. 305)
(Canon 33): It is decided that marriage be altogether prohibited to bishops, priests, and deacons, or to all clerics placed in the ministry, and that they keep away from their wives and not beget children; whoever does this, shall be deprived of the honor of the clerical office.
Council of Carthage (390)
(Canon 3): It is fitting that the holy bishops and priests of God as well as the Levites, i.e. those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, observe perfect continence, so that they may obtain in all simplicity what they are asking from God; what the Apostles taught and what antiquity itself observed, let us also endeavour to keep… It pleases us all that bishop, priest and deacon, guardians of purity, abstain from conjugal intercourse with their wives, so that those who serve at the altar may keep a perfect chastity
Be careful. A man can be a widower at the time of his ordination, already have a son (or ten), and not be any sort of disproof of clerical celibacy. Hormisdas, for example, is known to have been a widower at the time he became Pope. (He was a deacon, not a priest, before his accession, and deacons were allowed to be married then as now.)
Pope Felix was also a widower at the time of his accession to the Papacy.