The article overlooks the indisputable fact that priestly celibacy arose only in the Partiarchate of Rome. All of the other Patriarchates maintained the custom of permitting the ordination of married men to the diaconate and priesthood, though by the 7th century only celibates (whether monastics or widowers) could be consecrated to the episcopate.
The canons of the Council of Gangra and of the Sixth Ecumenical Council make it clear that priests were not to be denied carnal relations with their wives, however ideal that state might be (for instance St. John of Kronstadt and his wife lived in contience throughout their entire marriage).
In the East, however, it is the rule that priests who are to celebrate the Liturgy must abstain from carnal relations with their wives from the time of Vespers on the night previous (as also all of the faithful who wish to receive the Holy Mysteries must abstain).
There is an amusing story about a Russian Archbishop of the 19th century who was teaching a seminary class. When the rule about abstaining from carnal relations from Vespers on was discussed, a young, conventionally minded seminarian, sputtered, something like "But. . .Father Sergei. . .back home. . . he celebrates Liturgy every morning. . .you mean he and his wife never. . ." The Archbishop looked over his glasses at the young man as asked, "And for what purpose did the Good Lord make the afternoon?".
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Saint Siricius
born c. 334, , Rome [Italy]
died Nov. 26, 399, Rome; feast day November 26
pope from 384 to 399.
Ordained a deacon by Pope Liberius, he was elected as Pope St. Damasus I's successor in December 384. His famous letters—the earliest surviving texts of papal decretals—focus particularly on religious discipline and include decisions on baptism, consecration, ordination, penance, and continence. Siricius' important decretal of 386 (written to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona), commanding celibacy for priests, was the first decree on this subject and has remained in force ever since the pontificate (440–461) of Pope St. Leo I the Great. Significantly, Siricius asserted papal authority by accompanying his decretals with threats of sanctions against those who contravened them; his letters designate the pope as a sovereign of the whole Western church, for which he makes laws.
Likewise, Siricius believed he was entitled to intervene in the affairs of the Eastern church. At the request of Bishop St. Ambrose of Milan, he became involved with settling the Meletian Schism, a complex situation involving the disputed bishopric of Antioch. His instructions to the Council of Caesarea (393) for recognizing Flavian I as the legitimate Antiochene bishop terminated the long-standing schism. He arbitrated in 394 in a dispute within the Arabian church on the bishopric of Bosra (Bostra).
A column still surviving in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome, commemorates Siricius' dedication (390) of that church
*The Petrine Primacy is there for any unbiased eyes to see