SHOULD CLERGYMEN MARRY?

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14327, 12 April 1912, Page 10

SHOULD CLERGYMEN MARRY?

A WOMAN'S AHEW

"Do people ever prefer a married doctor, or a married lawyer, or a married tutor because they think that the fact of his having a wife will make, him understand their needs better? Then why prefer a married clergyman?" Thus Mrs Huth" Jackson, in nu article which, as you may iufer, is a plea for bachelor clerics. She has found that the "human types" to be met among the clergy of the Cliuroh of England are "almost invariably unmarried men." But it is not lnere.y und not mainly upon this ground of humanity, human sympathy, and knowledge of human nature that Airs Huth Jackson pleads for celibacy. ••There are signs in the air," she says, "that in England the need for priesV as opposed to clergymen, is more general than is popularly supposed. - . The demand for spiritual leaders and teachers is upon us. It it i.s to he met, it must be by tho realisation, once and for all, that the man who wishes to becomo a priest should - ecognise that if he is to do all that the priest claims to do, he cannot be as other men bound by the ties of home and kindred and wife and fluid."

SPIRITUAL LEADERS. Arguments on such a thesis might easily involve lis with questions of profound spiritual significance for which this is no place. We must be content to deal with the matter merely on tlie social side, which is of abundant- interest. Few of ns will be inclined to quarrel with tho dictum thnt a "demand for spiritual leaders and teachers is upon u^. ? ' AVo livo in streuuou* times. We are all much in earnest, and vastly anxious to hear of somebody with a message and a mission. Perhaps we are more concerned that the message should be new than true, but to such weakness human nature has always been prone. So far wo .nay take it that everybody is agreed. Controversy will arise over tho next slop in Airs Jackson's argument that the spiritual leader and teacher must not be "bound by the ties of homo ancl kindred and wife and child."

Somo people, many people, of course will heartily agree, will find most comforting, most trustworthy, tho ministrations of one who is aloof from ordinary life. It is equally certain that many others will feel the exhortation and advice of one who is not "hound by tho ties of home and kindred and wife and child." inevitably limited by lack of understanding of commonplace difficulties and pleasures, sorrows and joys. Of one thing oniy wo may be quite certain—neither party will convince the other. Tho more passionate on each sid" will grow angry, over the failure of their opponents 10 believe in the reasonableness of their position. For this difference is firmly rooted in differences of temperament and character. It is easy, of course, for either side to point to "spiritual leaders and teachers" of vast authority and influence married and celibate. It would not be difficult to trace tho power of one after another to his acceptance or his refusal of domestic life. But this, after all, is merely to declare that ono man's ability will reach its richest fruition in one set of conditions, another man's only in conditions utterly different. AVo* havo to recognise, whether wo liko it or not, tho vast diversity of human nature.

TO AIAIvE lUAI UNDERSTAND. AVhile wo allow that many peoplo will heartily support Airs Huth Jackson, it is necessary to point out that some of them will not ho able to agree with all her arguments. AVheu she asks scornfully whether people ever prefer doctors or lawyers or tutors mnrried because wives will make them understand marruxl folks' needs, we have-to hesitate about tho answer. It is surely common knowledge that niany people do prefer a married doctor, that many peoplo do like to call in for tho ailments of themselves and their children a man who has a wife and family of his own. They may bo quite wrong.. That is not tho question. We are not discussing what human nature ought to be.- Of all professions tho doctor's is. most closely analogous to tho clergyman's, and the preference for a married doctor, though certainly not universal, is no less certainly to Lo detected in many households.

As for lawyers and tutors, we. must, of course, agree that there is no desire to havo them married. Ono knows cf mothers who like their lioys to have a married house-master, but that is for purely material reasons. On the other hand, one has met boys and fathers who much prefer house-masters to bo bachelors, hut that may ho personal prejudice. The fact is that the case of tutors, and still more, obviously tho caso of lawyers, is not in this matter illuminating. The activities of the clergyman are essentially so different from theirs that wo learn nothing by the comparison. mis PROUDIE. There is one factor in tho problem which has so far been neglected.' What of the clergyman's wife? Has she not an individual value in his work ? Aro'thorp not many parishes in which tho prospect of a celibate incumbent would produce something like despair? Mrs Huth Jackson puts the other side of the question. As often as not, sho thinks, the wifo of tho clergyman is a trouble-maker. Thero are, of course, Mrs Proudics, Most of ns have met women who in a humbler sphere produced as much distress a.s that earnest and detestable woman brought upon Barchester. Probably few people in this world do more harm than the wife of ii clergyman who is meddlesome, irrogant, and stupid. And, of couiso, thero are such women. But we must remember, too, that few people do so much good as the cleric's wife who, with zeal and understanding and womanly sympathy, gives herself to his work. Is it fair to say that thero nre no more of these than of tho Mrs Proudics? How one answers is no doubt a matter of personal experience. But wo may suggest that most people will not he inclined to judge tlie wives of the clergy as hardly as does Mis Huth Jackson.

There is one other point on this question not to be neglected. Wo only too familar with jokes, most cf them very bad, about the embarrassing devotion with which some of the ladies of his flock encompass tho unmarried clergyman. It is. no doubt, a matter difficult to treat seriously. No one familar-with the social life of a parish wi'.l dismiss it as a matter of no importance. Wo may be quite suro that it explains the preference of a good many people for married clerics. if thero were a ge'nerai ordinance of celibacy, of course, no such difficulty would arise. But while there is not. it will remain a powerful argument for tho marriago of the clergy.