<P> The clergy, like Plato's guardians, were placed in authority...by their talent as shown in ecclesiastical studies and administration, by their disposition to a life of meditation and simplicity, and...by the influence of their relatives with the powers of state and church . In the latter half of the period in which they ruled (800 AD onwards), the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire (for such guardians)... (Clerical) Celibacy was part of the psychological structure of the power of the clergy; for on the one hand they were unimpeded by the narrowing egoism of the family, and on the other their apparent superiority to the call of the flesh added to the awe in which lay sinners held them...In the latter half of the period in which they ruled, the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire . </P> <P> In his book The Ruling Class, Gaetano Mosca wrote of the medieval Church and its structure: </P> <P>... the Catholic Church has always aspired to a preponderant share in political power, it has never been able to monopolize it entirely, because of two traits, chiefly, that are basic in its structure . Celibacy has generally been required of the clergy and of monks . Therefore no real dynasties of abbots and bishops have ever been able to establish themselves...Secondly, in spite of numerous examples to the contrary supplied by the warlike Middle Ages, the ecclesiastical calling has by its very nature never been strictly compatible with the bearing of arms . The precept that exhorts the Church to abhor bloodshed has never dropped completely out of sight, and in relatively tranquil and orderly times it has always been very much to the fore . </P> <P> It is sometimes claimed that celibacy became mandatory for Latin Church priests only in the eleventh century; but others say, for instance: "(I) t may fairly be said that by the time of St. Leo the Great (440--61) the law of celibacy was generally recognized in the West," and that the eleventh - century regulations on this matter, as on simony, should obviously not be interpreted as meaning that either non-celibacy or simony were previously permitted . </P>

When did the catholic church stop allowing priests to marry