Back before every bishop had to report to the pope in Rome, a priest was allowed to be married. After Gregory VII, as part of a general effort to consolidate and control the Catholic franchise, the clergy was informed that they were to give up their wives. If you didn't agree, your wife was abducted and sold into slavery.
I asked for a source and you replied with:
Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry, by John J. Robinson, M. Evans & Company, New York, 1989, p. 261. ISBN 0-87131-602-1
Thank you. The quality of this contribution is now piercingly clear.