As I was doing my Church Fathers readings for the day I came across this in Socrates:
"In the same city of Alexandria, readers and chanters are chosen indifferently from the catechumens and the faithful; whereas in all other churches the faithful only are promoted to these offices. I myself, also, learned of another custom in Thessaly. If a clergyman in that country, after taking orders, should sleep with his wife, whom he had legally married before his ordination, he would be degraded. In the East, indeed, all clergymen, and even the bishops themselves, abstain from their wives: but this they do of their own accord, and not by the necessity of any law; for there have been among them many bishops, who have had children by their lawful wives, during their episcopate." - Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, 5, 22
Many times when the issue of clerical celibacy is discussed, Orthodox Christians take a defensive posture. This is really unnecessary, though. Admitting that there were priests who were celibate after being ordained does not (and will not) necessarily lead to the Roman practice as we find it today. I researched the "marital celibacy" issue some time ago, and thought it was a very interesting subject. I still got a lot of the notes, if anyone would be interested in discussing the topic? (if not, I might post some stuff anyway, just in case someone would be interested in reading about it but doesn't want to discuss it ).