Nearly 15 million singles reside in France, a fairly average number within the European Union, which accounts for 18% of its total population. These singles, as historian and trained philologist Jean Claude Bologne notes, pose the question of who should and can be included in this category. “Celibacy, like virginity,” he writes, “can be erased by a single day of marriage.” It’s a delicate task indeed, and the author manages it quite well. He is no newcomer to the subject. Following his “History of Modesty,” published in 1997, he can proudly claim the near simultaneous publication of his books on the “History of Marriage” and “Celibacy.” The latter notion, absent from major founding texts, is defined by its absence from the first. In antiquity, celibacy was at best discouraged and at worst punished. Ancient religions, from Persian Mazdaism to early Judaism, condemned the unmarried man without the descendants needed for performing funeral rites for ancestors. Religion, marriage, and reproduction remain fundamentally linked. “Blessed by his parents, blessed by God,” says a Saudi proverb still used today.
Inspired by Socrates and nurtured on the fertile ground of Greek mythology, where the second generation of the Olympian gods violated family unity, Platonic doctrine introduces an essential idea that sets the stage for the advent of Christianity: the separation of soul and body allows for a distinction to be made between physical and spiritual conception. In the philosopher’s view, the latter is far nobler in achieving immortality. Plato cracked open a window, St. Paul turned it into a monumental door. Christ himself was not opposed to earthly marriage, but as the Apostle of Tarsus explains, he much preferred the union with a “kingdom not of this world.” His First Epistle to the Corinthians is explicit: “He who marries his betrothed does well, but he who does not marry her does even better.” Saint Augustine later pondered whether “celibacy” and “heaven” shared the same root. The mass has been served. And with it, the consummation of the break from ancient traditions.
In the ecclesiastical world, which the author devotes extensive, invaluable discussions to—especially in these times of apostolic exhortation to priestly celibacy by Benedict XVI—sexual continence amongst clergy took a while to enforce. While monastic communities voluntarily observed this restriction, according to Jean Claude Bologne, it was not until the Second Council of Lateran in 1139 that this prescription was extended to the entire clergy. However, aided by the French Revolution and the establishment of civil marriage, the path of celibacy, enriched with entertaining anecdotes by the author, continues for artists who choose to dedicate their lives to their work. Following a principle stated by Nietzsche, which was borrowed from Socrates: “either children or books.” Inspired by some of their forebears like Voltaire, grand writers of the 19th and 20th centuries uphold the celibacy formula in the name of artistic creative freedom, notably in literature: Balzac, married at the very last moment, Apollinaire wedded a few months before his death, Tchaikovsky who “a few more days of marriage would have driven mad.” As Jean Claude Bologne addresses in his conclusion to the new millennium, celibacy becomes a “single freedom,” perhaps more illusory than it appears if its purely economic significance is acknowledged. Singles have become a significant market segment, always hungry for new consumers. As solitary and unfortunate as Gustave Flaubert, who wrote under the “single” entry of his “Dictionary of Accepted Ideas”: “All selfish and debauched – They should be taxed – Preparing a sad old age for themselves!”
Jean Claude Bologne, History of Celibacy and Singles, Col. “Pluriel,” Editions Hachette Littératures, 2007, 500 pp., 10.80 Euros.
