The nicolaïsme indicates, in the Christianisme, and particularly in the Latin Church of the Moyen-âge, the incontinence (marriage, cohabitation, etc) of the clerks compelled with the celibacy.

Origin of the term

In the Bible

The term “nicolaïtes” is quoted twice in the Apocalypse. The first mention appears with the verses 2:6 in the words addressed to the Church of Éphèse: “you however have this, it is that you hate works of Nicolaïtes, works which I hate too. ” One second appears in the letter with the Church of Pergame (2,14-15):

“But I have something against you, it is there that you have the people attached to the doctrines of Balaam, which taught in Balak to put a stone of obstacle in front of wire of Israel, so that they ate meats sacrificed to the idols and that they were delivered to the impudicity. ”

Obviously, the lifestyle nicolaïte enfreint directly the apostolic Decree, which enjoint “to abstain from the meats sacrificed to the idols, blood, the choked animals, and the impudicity”. The nicolaïsme is also evoked, although its name is not quoted, in the letter with Thyatire, which specifies that it is about “doctrines” which teach “the depths of Satan”: it is thus probably of a form of radical Dualisme, or about a sect venerating Satan, which would explain the acrimony of the author of the Apocalypse.

In the Fathers of the Church

The Pères of the Church offer the more precise interpretations, derived from the tradition (2nd century), it acts of a reference to Nicolas, quoted by the Acts of the Apostles: proselyte of Antioche, it is one of the seven first Diacre S of the Church of Jerusalem. For Irenee, the nicolaïtes are gnostic that he regards as the predecessors of Cérinthe and who, apparently, always exist of its time.

About at the same time, Tertullien shows the nicolaïtes to preach the lust but does not seem to have of direct knowledge of their doctrines: it is satisfied to bring them closer to kainites, which preach God redeemer opposed to creative God and rehabilitate the character of Caïn, persecuted by this last.

The Syntagma lost Hippolyte describes the nicolaïsme like a dualism of origin Perse, based on the opposition between the light and darkness, which points out the later Manichéisme.

Clément of Alexandria describes the nicolaïtes like “goats lascifs” followers of the pooling of the women, who do not exist any more her time. He tells that Nicolas was married with very a beautiful woman, of which he was extremely jealous. As the apostles reproached him, Nicolas brought his wife before the community and offered it to which would like it. Clement specifies that Nicolas carries out a life of ascetic thereafter, just as his children. The nicolaïtes are thus in the error when they interpret its maxim “one needs mésuser the flesh” like an incentive for the vice, and not with the asceticism.

This distinction between Nicolas himself and the nicolaïtes will not be taken again thereafter. At the 4th century, Épiphane de Salamine indeed takes again the history of the woman of Nicolas, but the interpreter in a radically different way: having failed to remain pure at the sides of his wife, Nicolas builds doctrines where the sexual relationships become the key of the Kingdom of heaven. Lastly, Victorin de Pettau allots to the nicolaïtes the doctrines according to which the meats offered to the idols (idolothytes) could be exorcized then eaten, and according to which the fornicators could obtain forgiveness the eighth day. It is obviously about a Anachronisme, the mentioned problems not being posed before the 3rd century.

Thereafter, the Fathers of the Church are satisfied to reiterate the former judgments of the nicolaïtes, while focusing themselves on the character obscene of their lifestyle. Jerome de Stridon thus makes of Nicolas “the inventor of all the obscenities”, asserting which it “led of the troops of women. ” Augustin d' Hippone summarizes in its Against the heresies (CH. V) all the charges which are carried against them.

Fight against the nicolaïsme

Under the patristic influence, the actors of the Gregorian Réforme popularize the term with 11th and 12th century to indicate the “incontinence” of the clerks. Indeed, at that time, the marriage of the priests is completely licit, in the Greek Church like the Latin Church, under some conditions: a clerk can marry as long as it has only the minor orders; starting from the rank of Sous-diacre, it must keep his wife if there is married and to remain unmarried if he is not it. The men called to become priests must thus choose their lifestyle: at the age of adolescence according to gun 6 of the Council of Carthage, later in the Byzantine habit. In opposite direction, the council '' in Trullo '', which brings together only Eastern bishops, excommunicates the clerks who would leave their wife “under pretext of piety”. In Occident, Burchard de Worms condemns in its Pénitentiel (towards 1010) the laic ones which refuses to follow the office of a married priest or boyfriend.

However, mentalities evolve/move: as of the 11th century, the ideal of the celibacy is spread in the Church of Occident, under the influence of the monastic ideal. The word “nicolaïsme” seldom appears under the feather of the popes: it is then closely associated with the Simonie, i.e. the traffic of spiritual goods, even included by this last term: the priests married or boyfriends having children, the latter often inherit the parishes or the benefit of their father. The term is quoted only once in the acts of Gregoire VII. It is the cardinal Humbert da Silva Candida which makes the fortune of the term. In a letter addressed to an Eastern monk, Nicétas, it reproaches this last for promoting the marriage of the priests. Taking again the remarks anti-Greeks of Épiphane, he affirms that “the deacon curses Nicolas, prince of this heresy, came straight of the hell. ” In 1059, Nicolas II registers with the list of the Greek heresies “the heresy of the nicolaïtes conceiving the marriage of the priests, deacons and any member of the clergy. ” It renews the decree against the simony of Leon IX, which included/understood already a judgment of the marriage of the priests, and interdict with faithful to attend the masses celebrated by priests living in cohabitation. The exact origin of the term tends to be lost, Pierre Damien writing thus that “the married priests are called nicolaïtes because of Nicolas, who is at the origin of this heresy. ” The apogee of the denunciation of the nicolaïsme occurs at the 12th century. The abbot Rupert de Deutz explains thus that the Nicolas deacon instituted the habit of the exchange of the women.

Parallel to the use of the word strictly speaking, the marriage of the priests is firmly condemned since the 10th century, that it is by Odon of Cluny, Abbon de Fleury or Fulbert of Chartres. Gregoire VII legislates abundantly on this subject and promotes on the contrary the image of the pure and modest priest, whose canons of Saint-Augustin constitute an example. On the one hand, one shows the married priests to introduce the vice into the Church, on the other hand, one starts to doubt the validity of sacraments conferred by married priests. Faithful the, anxious ones, react in a various way. Some, like the movement of Milanese Patarins, reject with violence the priests married or suspected of undertaking a sexual activity. Others defend their clerks. The Normandy and the England thus refuse any obligation of the celibacy for the priests. In Germany one goes until exclaiming: “If the pope needs angels for his service, it has only to reduce them from the Sky! ” Lastly, the reactions vary according to the hierarchy: the celibacy is initially binding to the bishops and to priests, then with the deacons, then finally with all the clerks.

The assertion of the celibacy of the catholic clerks would have allowed a stronger separation of the caste sacertodale, dedicated to the sprirituelle reproduction of the company thanks to the sacraments, of laic, dedicated the marriage and the reproduction on body behalf of the company. (A. Vauchez)

The councils of Lateran III (1179) and Lateran IV (1215) still reiterate the prohibition of the marriage. This one plays a considerable part in the digging of the gap between Catholic churches of the East and Occident.