• Married:

  Research Notes:

She is called "a wife named Herleve" whom the bishop took "in his capacity as count" by Orderic Vitalis. Orderic Vitalis, in another passage, says that "the practice of celibacy among the clergy was so relaxed that not only priests but even bishops freely shared their beds with concubines and openly boasted of their numerous progeny". Chibnall mentions that clerical marriage was formally prohibited in Normandy in the 1064 Council of Lisieux. Ambivalence towards the marriage of senior members of the clergy in early medieval times is discussed by Taglia. The author highlights the uncertainty existing before the 12th century regarding the regularity of such marriages, and the legitimacy of any children produced, the position remaining unclear until the ecumenical councils of Lateran I (1123) and Lateran II (1139) which ruled that the major holy orders were an impediment to marriage. ¹