Volume I Part 96 (1/2)

Amid this vast discrepancy in regard to the truth of the Scriptures themselves; with no Hebrew ma.n.u.script older than the twelfth century; with no Greek one older than the fourth; with the acknowledgment by scholars of 7,000 errors in the Old Testament, and 150,000 in the New; with a.s.surance that these interpolations and changes have been made by men in the interest of creeds, we may well believe that the portions of the Bible quoted against woman's equality are but interpolations of an unscrupulous priesthood, for the purpose of holding her in subjection to man.

Amid this conflict of authority over texts of Scripture we have been taught to believe divinely inspired, destroying our faith in doctrines heretofore declared essential to salvation, how can we be sure that the forthcoming version of the Bible from the masculine revisers of our day will be more trustworthy than those which have been accepted as of Divine origin in the past?

This chapter is condensed from the writer's forthcoming work, ”WOMAN, CHURCH, AND STATE.”

FOOTNOTES:

[178] Maine (Gaius) says of the position of woman under Roman law before the introduction of Christianity: ”The juriconsulists had evidently at this time a.s.sumed the equality of the s.e.xes as a principle of the code of equity. The situation of the Roman woman, whether married or single, became one of great personal and property independence ... but Christianity tended somewhat, from the very first, to narrow this remarkable liberty. The prevailing state of religious sentiment may explain why modern jurisprudence has adopted these rules concerning the position of woman which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization.... No society which preserves any tincture of Christian inst.i.tutions, is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty conferred on them by middle Roman law.

Canon law has deeply injured civilization.”

[179] Canon law is the whole body of Church decrees enacted by councils, bulls, decretals, etc., and is recognized as a system of laws primarily established by the Christian Church, and enforced by ecclesiastical authority. It took cognizance first merely of what were considered spiritual duties, but ultimately extended itself to temporal rights. It was collected and embodied in the ninth century, since which period numerous additions have been made.

[180] The women claimed the right to baptize their own s.e.x. But the bishops and presbyters did not care to be released from the pleasant duty of baptizing the female converts.--_Hist. of Christian Religion from A.D. to 200_, _p. 23, Waite_. The Const.i.tution of the Church of Alexandria, which is thought to have been established about the year 200, required the applicant for baptism to be divested of clothing, and after the ordinance had been administered, to be anointed with oil.--_Ibid._, _p. 384-5_. The converts were first exorcised of the evil spirits that were supposed to inhabit them; then, after undressing and being baptized, they were anointed with oil.--_Bunsen's Christianity of Mankind_, _Vol. VII._, _p. 386-393_; _3d Vol.

a.n.a.lecta_.

[181] All, or at least the greater part of the fathers of the Greek Church before Augustine, denied any real, original sin.--”Augustinism and Pelagianism,” p. 43, Emerson's Translations (Waite). The doctrine had a gradual growth, and was fully developed by Augustine, A.D.

420.--_Hist. Christian Religion to A.D. 200 (Waite)_, _p. 382_.

[182] Milman says that Heloise sacrificed herself on account of the impediments the Church threw in the way of the married clergy's career of advancement. As his wife she would close the ascending ladder of ecclesiastical honors, priory, abbacy, bishopric, metropolitane, cardinalade, and even that which was above and beyond all.--”_Latin Christianity_.”

[183] The Christian Church was swamped by hysteria from the third to the sixteenth century.--_Rev. Charles Kingsley's Life and Letters_.

[184] In 1874 an Old Catholic priest of Switzerland, about to follow Pere Hyacinth's example in abandoning celibacy, announced his betrothal in the following manner: ”I marry because I wish to remain an honorable man. In the seventeenth century it was a proverbial expression, 'As corrupt as a priest,' and this might be said to-day. I marry, therefore, because I wish to get out of the Ultramontane slough.”--_Galignani's Messenger_, _September 19, 1874_.

[185] The abbot elect of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, in 1171 was found, on investigation, to have seventeen illegitimate children in a single village. An abbot of St. Pelayo in Spain in 1130 was proved to have kept no less than seventy mistresses. Henry 3d, Bishop of Liege, was deposed in 1274 for having sixty-five illegitimate children.--_Lecky_, ”_Hist. of European Morals_,” _p. 350_. This same bishop boasted in a public banquet, that in twenty-two months, fourteen children had been born to him. A tax called ”Cullagium,”

which was, in fact, a license to clergymen to keep concubines, was during several centuries systematically levied by princes.--_Ibid_, _Vol. 2_, _p. 349_. It was openly attested that 100,000 women in England were made dissolute by the clergy.--_Draper's ”Intellectua.

Development of Europe_,” _p. 498_.

[186] ”_Le Sorcerie_,” p. 259, _Michelet_.

[187] _Died in 1880_.

[188] In the dominion of the Count de Foix the lord had right once in his lifetime to take, without payment, a certain quant.i.ty of goods from the stores of each tenant.--”_Histoire Universelle_,” _Cesar Cantu_.

[189] In days to come people will be slow to believe that the law among Christian nations went beyond anything decreed concerning the olden slavery; that it wrote down as an actual right the most grievous outrage that could ever wound man's heart. The Lord Spiritual had this right no less than the Lord Temporal. The parson being a lord, expressly claimed the first fruits of the bride, but was willing to sell his rights to the husband. The Courts of Berne openly maintain that this right grew up naturally.--”_La Sorcerie_,” _Michelet_, p.

62.

[190] Margaret was canonized in 1351, and made the patron saint of Scotland in 1673. Several of the Scotch feudalry, despite royal protestation, kept up the infamous practice till a late date. One of the Earls of Crawford, a truculent and l.u.s.tful anarch, popularly known and dreaded as ”Earl Brant,” in the sixteenth century, was probably among the last who openly claimed leg-right (the literal translation of _droit de jambage_).--_Sketches of Feudalism_.

[191] At the beginning of the Christian era, Corinth possessed a thousand women who were devoted to the service of its idol, the Corinthian Venus. ”To Corinthianize” came to express the utmost lewdness, but Cornith, as sunken as she was in sensual pleasure, was not under the pale of Christianity. She was a heathen city, outside of that light which, coming into the world, is held to enlighten every man that accepts it.

[192] Les Cuisiniers et les marmitons de l'areheveques de Vienne avaient impose un tribut sur les mariages; on croit que certains feuditaires extgeaient un droit obscene de leur va.s.saux qui se marienient, quel fut transforme ensuite en droit de _cuissage_ consistant, de la part du seigneur, a mettre une jambe nue dans le lit des nouveaux epoux. Dans d'autres pays l'homme ne pouvait couche avec sa femme les trois premieres nuits sans le consentement de l'eveque ou du seigneur du feif.--_Cesar Cantu_, ”_Histoire Universelle_,” _Vol.

IX._, p. 202-3.

[193] _Le Michelet_, ”_Le Sorcerie_,” _p. 151_.

[194] The very word _femina_ (woman) means one wanting in faith; for _fe_ means faith, and _minus_, less.--_Witch Hammer_. This work was printed in 18mo, an unusually small size for that period, for the convenience of carrying it in the pocket, where its a.s.sertions, they could not be called arguments, could be always within reach, especially for those traveling witch inquisitors, who proceeded from country to country, like Sprenger himself, to denounce witches. This work bore the sanction of the Pope, and was followed, even in Protestant countries, until the eighteenth century. It based its theories upon the Bible, and devoted thirty-three pages to a proof that women were especially addicted to sorcery.