How common was the practice of a Catholic priest keeping a concubine in the period from the Fall of Rome to the Renaissance?

by Martial_Artiste

I've been reading The Tailor King by Anthony Arthur, and in it he says that Jan Matthias appointed Anna Kolthave, a former concubine to a Catholic priest, as one of the people who collected material possessions and goods from the commonfolk. That got me thinking, how many Catholic priests clergymen had concubines?

The_Manchurian

I'd first mention that Clerical celibacy wasn't really enforced until the reforms of the 11th century. So before that, a lot of Catholic priests didn't have concubines, they had wives.

As a subsidiary question, my medieval teacher in the first year of my undergraduate degree told me that it was extremely common in most places for Catholic priests to keep a concubine after Clerical celibacy was demanded by the Church, except in England. He said in England priests were normally actually celibate. Does anyone know if that's true?