University Communications
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

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Contact: Deb Hammacher, Assistant Director, 404-727-0644, or dhammac@emory.edu

EMORY EXHIBIT TRACES ORIGINS OF CHURCH DEBATE ON CELIBACY, GENDER

Debates on whether Catholic priests should marry and the role of women in the church-topics still making news today-are the themes of a new exhibit called "Celibacy and Gender in Sixteenth Century Christianity," on display at Emory University through Sept. 30 in Woodruff Library's Special Collections.

Exhibit hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday. For information call 404-727-6887.

The exhibit was organized by Emory religion professor Eugene Bianchi to coincide with the meeting on campus July 28-Aug. 1 of the Fifth Worldwide Congress of the International Federation of Married Catholic Priests. Knowing that attendees from across the globe would be at Emory, Bianchi decided to draw on the Pitts Theology Library's collections of 16th century books and documents to show the history of both the Protestant and Catholic debates on clergy marriage and celibacy.

"The 16th century was a time of major transitions in society, culture and religion," says Bianchi. "The Protestant Reformation re-established a married clergy in the Western church, while Catholic reformist efforts at the Council of Trent consolidated the discipline of a celibate clergy, which had been widely imposed since the 12th century."

The books on display, along with 16 large wall images, also address the status of women during the period. With the Reformation came not only the eventual closing of convents and monasteries, but also social changes that affected women's roles in both the family and within the economy, says Bianchi.

"In urban areas, women's roles became increasingly important to the economic structure of the family; women had to keep the family going, especially if the husband was involved in the guild movement," he explains. Convent life, an option that allowed some women to pursue goals beyond home and family, including art, music and literature, gradually declined in Protestant regions after the Reformation; the Protestant movement stressed the spiritual role of women in the home.

To the average person, says Bianchi, the Reformation was less about theological concepts than it was about everyday religious practice. "What you saw was this striking change of pastors having wives and children."

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