Could priests evermarry

Answer 1

Yes, prior to the 16th century, there were various rules and during certain time periods marriage was allowed. However, the Council of Trent in the 1500's abolished marriage for priests.

Roman Catholic AnswerContemporary opinion, mostly among Protestants, attribute many changes to the Council of Trent, of which nearly all are unjustified. The council of Trent, in the sixteenth century was a very conservative council, coming up with almost no new definitions on any subject. They did nothing more than explain, in great detail, what the Church has always believed, and taught, including the discipline of clergy celibacy (the fact that priests can not get married). Lay celibacy was practiced already in the early Church. Religious life developed in the fourth century under St. Pachomius, and since then celibacy has been legislated to one degree or another frequently by the Church - up through and including Vatican Council II.

from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

Celibacy of the Clergy. In the Western church marriage is prohibited to all clergy of the rank of subdeacon and upwards (deacon since Vatican Council II). This is a matter of discipline which rests on a positive enactment of ecclesiastical law, which is never dispensed, except in the case of a subdeacon or deacon who relinguishes his orders; all who are ordained subdeacon by that very fact take a solemn vow of perfect chastity. It is grounded in the doctrine of the superior excellence of virginity and has been reinforced by the spiritual and temporal experience of many centuries: by it the clergy are left free for the things of God (cf., 1 Cor. Vii, 32-3), and on countless occasions have been enabled to carry on under circumstances wherein wife and children would have made it impossible. At the beginning of the 4th century the Spanish Synod of Elvira ordered marrried clergy to live in continence, and this discipline spread throughout the Latin church: by the first Council of the Lateran (1123) marriage of the higher clergy was declared not only unlawful but invalid...

Answer 2

Some priests have been known to marry but had to give up the priesthood to do so.

Answer 3

In religions other than Western Christianity, priests were allowed to marry. In Eastern Orthodox churches, priests could marry.