On Celibacy

Quote from Letter 4,34 to Leo, bishop of Catana. July 594.

From the report of many, we have found that this old custom prevailed among you, that sub-deacons should be allowed to have intercourse with their wives. A deacon of our see, Servusdei, prohibited anyone from presuming to do so again, on the authority of our predecessor. He did so in such a way that, at that time, those who had already had sex with their wives should have one of two choices. That is, they should either abstain from their wives, or definitively not presume to act as ministers at all. And as far as we know, Speciosus, at that time a sub-deacon, suspended himself from his office of administration for this reason, Right up to the time of his death he carried out his office of notary instead, and ceased from the ministry that a sub-deacon ought to have served.
After the death of Speciosus, because his widow Honorata had been associated with a husband, we know that your Fraternity allotted her to a convent. And for that reason, if her husband suspended himself, as is said, from his administrative position, it ought not to harm the aforesaid woman that she had sexual union with a second husband, especially if she was joined to the sub-deacon with no such intention of abstaining from the pleasures of the flesh. And so, if you know that our information is true, it is altogether right that you release the aforesaid woman from the convent, so that she can return to her husband without any fear.

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 314