Doctrine · The Articles of Religion

Article XXI — Of the Marriage of Ministers. The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness.

well-settled

What it says

“Ministers are not bound by God's law to celibacy; like all Christians they may marry at their own discretion, as best serves godliness.”

The stake
Mandatory celibacy denied as a *required* discipline — while celibacy freely chosen for godliness remains entirely open.
Why it matters
It is Article V applied to ministry: the church may not impose as necessary what God's law leaves free.
The Wesleyan take
Wesley kept it, and his own life embodied its 'serve best to godliness' clause — he weighed singleness and marriage by usefulness to the work, and his own marriage was famously unhappy. The principle is freedom under godliness, not a brief for or against either state.
Original English
The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness. Thirty-Nine Articles Article XXXII (1571), 'Of the Marriage of Priests' (Wesley's title: 'of Ministers'), kept essentially verbatim. Its target was mandatory clerical celibacy. The ground is Article V's principle: what God's law does not command may not be imposed as necessary. ¶104 footnote 4 lists Article XXI among XIV–XXI for ecumenical reading; the criterion 'as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness' keeps celibacy as a *free* option, not a forbidden one.
VersionRendering
United Methodist Book of Discipline (¶104) The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness.
Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), Article XXXII Bishops, Priests, and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: therefore it is lawful also for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion… Wesley generalized 'Bishops, Priests, and Deacons' to 'ministers of Christ'; *Book of Resolutions* #3144 governs its ecumenical reading.

Traditions cited patristic ·roman catholic ·reformed ·wesleyan ·modern ecumenical

Article XXI — Of the Marriage of Ministers

The Text

Article XXI is brief and easily condescended to as a settled Reformation grievance, which is a mistake. It denies that “the ministers of Christ are… commanded by God’s law” to celibacy, and concludes they may marry “as for all other Christians… as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness.” Two things are doing the real work: the ground (God’s law does not command celibacy, so the church may not impose it — Article V again) and the criterion (“serve best to godliness” — the question is not personal preference but usefulness to holiness and the work). Wesley kept it, broadened “Bishops, Priests, and Deacons” to “ministers of Christ,” and lived its criterion with unusual seriousness.

Translation Notes

“not commanded by God’s law… therefore it is lawful.” The whole argument in one move: a required celibacy lacks scriptural command, so it may not be made necessary. The article does not attack celibacy; it attacks mandatory celibacy. This is Article V’s sufficiency rule applied to a discipline.

“as for all other Christians.” The leveling clause again (cf. Articles XI, XIX): ministers are not a caste under a different law. Whatever is lawful for the laity here is lawful for the clergy.

“as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness.” The governing criterion, and the article’s depth. The choice between marriage and singleness is referred not to appetite or convention but to godliness and usefulness. Celibacy freely chosen for the work is fully open; what is excluded is only celibacy imposed as law.

Historical Context

Article XXXII of the Thirty-Nine corrected mandatory clerical celibacy in the Western church. The Reformers’ case was scriptural (1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Corinthians 9:5; Peter and the apostles married) and pastoral (enforced celibacy had produced scandal). Wesley inherited the article into a movement whose itinerant preachers faced exactly the “serve best to godliness” question acutely — a married itinerant strained the connexion’s slender finances and a preacher’s mobility, and Wesley’s own conferences wrestled with it. ¶104 places the article under the 2016 Resolution of Intent: read ecumenically, it is not a polemic against the Catholic or Orthodox gift of celibacy but a denial of compulsory celibacy as divine law.

Lines of Interpretation

The disputed question: is celibacy a discipline the church may require of its ministers, or a charism that must remain free?

Patristic

Tradition: married and celibate clergy both ancient; the charism of continence

The early church had married clergy (the East still ordains married men) and honored celibacy as a gift, not a universal law. Article XXI’s “not commanded by God’s law” is historically accurate to antiquity.

Strengths

  • Grounds the article in genuine catholic practice, not Protestant novelty
  • Honors celibacy as charism while denying it as law

Weaknesses

  • Antiquity also developed strong ascetic preference; the article’s flat permission can understate that
  • The Eastern discipline (celibate bishops, married presbyters) is more nuanced than the bare article

Roman Catholic

Tradition: celibacy as a discipline of the Latin Church

Rome holds celibacy not as divine law but as a discipline fitting to ministry, freely embraced. It would agree with Article XXI’s premise (not commanded by God’s law) while defending the church’s right to require it of its Latin clergy.

Strengths

  • Narrows the real dispute: both deny celibacy is divine command; they differ on whether the church may make it a discipline
  • Recovers celibacy’s positive value the bare article omits

Weaknesses (of the dispute)

  • The article’s “lawful… to marry at their own discretion” does resist a required discipline, not just a doctrine
  • The historical abuses the Reformers cited were real

Reformed

Tradition: vocation; the rejection of a two-tier holiness

The Reformed read Article XXI with Article XI: no spiritual elite, no “higher” state of life that earns more. Marriage and singleness are vocations under God, neither meritorious, the choice governed by calling and usefulness.

Strengths

  • Connects the article to the anti-supererogation principle coherently
  • Keeps both states as honorable vocations, not a hierarchy

Weaknesses

  • Can flatten the genuine charism of celibacy into mere preference
  • “Vocation” language needs the article’s “serve best to godliness” to stay from becoming individualism

Modern / Ecumenical

Tradition: the Resolution of Intent; freedom and charism held together

The modern reading: the dispute over mandatory celibacy persists between communions, but the article’s principle (not divine law) is broadly shared, and celibacy as a freely embraced charism is honored across the church.

Strengths

  • Holds the article’s denial (not commanded) with respect for the gift it does not forbid
  • Models the Resolution of Intent’s temper

Weaknesses

  • Ecumenical irenicism can obscure that a real disciplinary difference remains
  • “Both are fine” can mute the article’s actual claim (no required celibacy)

Wesleyan Voice

Wesley kept Article XXI and is its most searching personal witness, because he took its criterion — “as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness” — with deadly seriousness and applied it, agonizingly, to himself. Wesley genuinely weighed singleness for the sake of the work; he believed an unencumbered itinerant could give more to the gospel, and his early ideal leaned toward a celibacy freely chosen for usefulness — exactly the article’s open option. His eventual marriage to Mary Vazeille was famously unhappy and, by his own and others’ accounts, a hindrance to the work — a living, painful commentary on the article’s “serve best to godliness”: the question is not whether marriage is lawful (it plainly is) but whether, for this minister and this calling, it serves the work of God. Wesley’s connexion legislated around it too — restricting the admission of married preachers when the societies could not support them — applying the article’s “serve best to godliness” corporately, not merely individually.

The Wesleyan reception therefore avoids both modern misreadings. Against the assumption that the article is simply pro-marriage boilerplate: Wesley shows it equally protects freely chosen singleness for the work — the article forbids only required celibacy, never the charism. Against any residual Protestant suspicion of celibacy as quasi-Romish: Wesley honored it as a genuine, useful gift and at times preferred it for himself and his preachers. The Wesleyan note is the criterion, not the slogan: ministry, marriage, and singleness are all to be measured by godliness and usefulness to Christ’s work — which is Article XI’s “no surplus merit” and Article XIX’s “no clerical caste” applied to the minister’s own state of life.

Hymnody

There is no Wesleyan hymn on clerical marriage, and the silence is appropriate; the article is a discipline, not a doctrine to sing. What the tradition sings around it is consecration to the work regardless of state — “A charge to keep I have… to serve the present age, my calling to fulfil,” and “Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go.” The hymnody refers the whole question where Article XXI refers it: to the calling and its usefulness, married or single, “my Master’s will.”

Pastoral and Liturgical Use

The first pastoral use is to recover the article’s criterion against its caricature. Preached as merely “clergy may marry,” it is a dead grievance. Preached as “the minister’s state of life is to be chosen by what serves godliness and the work,” it becomes a serious word to every minister and ordinand — and a defense of the single-for-the-sake-of-the-work vocation Methodism, with its itinerant heritage, has often quietly devalued.

The second use is the leveling. Article XXI, with XI and XIX, says ministers are not a caste under a separate law. Pastorally this cuts both ways: against any congregation that imposes on its pastor’s household a standard God’s law does not, and against any clericalism that claims a different rule. The minister marries or remains single “as for all other Christians” — under the same gospel, by the same criterion of godliness.

Further Reading

  • 1 Timothy 3:2; 4:1–5; 1 Corinthians 7:7–9, 32–35; 9:5 — marriage, singleness, and the work
  • Thirty-Nine Articles, Article XXXII (1571) — Wesley’s source; Book of Resolutions #3144
  • John Wesley, Journal and Letters on his own marriage and on married preachers; the Minutes’ regulation of married itinerants
  • The sufficiency principle behind it: [[articles-of-religion/article-5-of-the-sufficiency-of-the-holy-scriptures]]
  • The no-surplus, no-caste principle: [[articles-of-religion/article-11-of-works-of-supererogation]]
  • The freedom-in-things-indifferent article: [[articles-of-religion/article-22-of-the-rites-and-ceremonies-of-churches]]

Related

The Articles of Religion

Article I — Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Article II — Of the Word, or Son of God, Who Was Made Very Man. The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. Article III — Of the Resurrection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day. Article IV — Of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God. Article V — Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation. The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Article VI — Of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and Man. Although the law given from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and rites doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral. Article VII — Of Original or Birth Sin. Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually. Article VIII — Of Free Will. The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. Article IX — Of the Justification of Man. We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith, only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. Article X — Of Good Works. Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit. Article XI — Of Works of Supererogation. Voluntary works — besides, over and above God's commandments — which they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than of bounden duty is required; whereas Christ saith plainly: When ye have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants. Article XII — Of Sin After Justification. Not every sin willingly committed after justification is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore, the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after justification. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and, by the grace of God, rise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned who say they can no more sin as long as they live here; or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent. Article XIII — Of the Church. The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. Article XIV — Of Purgatory. The Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, worshiping, and adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but repugnant to the Word of God. Article XV — Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a Tongue as the People Understand. It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people. Article XVI — Of the Sacraments. Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's good will toward us, by which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in him. There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Article XVII — Of Baptism. Baptism is not only a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christians are distinguished from others that are not baptized; but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new birth. The Baptism of young children is to be retained in the Church. Article XVIII — Of the Lord's Supper. The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death… The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith. Article XIX — Of Both Kinds. The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both the parts of the Lord's Supper, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be administered to all Christians alike. Article XX — Of the One Oblation of Christ, Finished upon the Cross. The offering of Christ, once made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in the which it is commonly said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit. Article XXI — Of the Marriage of Ministers. The ministers of Christ are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christians, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve best to godliness. Article XXII — Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches. It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Every particular church may ordain, change, or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all things may be done to edification. Article XXIII — Of the Rulers of the United States of America. The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. Article XXIV — Of Christian Men's Goods. The riches and goods of Christians are not common as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as some do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability. Article XXV — Of a Christian Man's Oath. As we confess that vain and rash swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James his apostle, so we judge that the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth. Of Sanctification (appended 1939; legislative, not constitutionally protected). Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement cleanseth from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are washed from its pollution, saved from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts and to walk in his holy commandments blameless. Of the Duty of Christians to the Civil Authority (appended 1939; legislative, not constitutionally protected). It is the duty of all Christians, and especially of all Christian ministers, to observe and obey the laws and commands of the governing or supreme authority of the country of which they are citizens or subjects or in which they reside, and to use all laudable means to encourage and enjoin obedience to the powers that be.