If you haven’t already looked at it, the Catholic Encyclopedia article “Celibacy of the Clergy” has a short discussion of priests and marriage in the middle ages. What many have argued is that since the law was openly flouted for so long that the law ceased to apply de jure as well as de facto.
The papal reformers were finally able to re-establish the rule for the Latin church.
One argument that might carry weight is that the law against simony was equally flouted during the middle ages. Should we then make simony legal (in canon law)?
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