Reformation opponents saw its reinterpretation of the spirituality of marriage as one of its most scandalous aspects.
The standard line during the long medieval era had been that a robust Christian life could only be found in a state of celibacy. The early medieval author Bede (died 735) expressed this conviction when he maintained that the apostolic injunction to pray always could not be fulfilled if one was married and engaging in sexually intimate acts. Sex precluded a robust prayer life.
Not surprisingly the requirement of celibacy for vocational ministry led to an unbearable burden in the lives of many medieval priests, monks and nuns. Far too many of them were celibate but not chaste. The Reformation solution to this scandal of sexual immorality was to go back to the Scriptures and recover a truly biblical view of marriage.
