Christianity.
While in the Roman empire the marriage and birthrate were permitted
to decline more and more, the Jews maintained far different customs.
The Jewess was not entitled to choose her own husband; he was chosen
for her by her father. But she regarded marriage as a duty which she
faithfully performed. The Talmud advises: “When thy daughter has
attained maturity, set one of thy slaves free and betroth her to
him.” The Jews likewise faithfully obeyed the commandment of their
God: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Accordingly the Jews have steadily
increased in spite of persecution and oppression; they are staunch
opponents of Malthusianism. Tacitus said of them: “They firmly hold
together and readily assist one another, but are hostile and full
of hatred against all others. They never eat or sleep with enemies,
and though very much inclined to sensual passion, they refrain from
pairing with foreign women. Yet they are eager to increase their
tribe. To destroy their offspring is a sin to them; and the souls
of those who have been killed in battle or executed, they consider
immortal. Therefore they combine love for propagation with a contempt
for death.” But Tacitus hated and despised the Jews because they,
regardless of their paternal creed, eagerly accumulated wealth. He
calls them “the meanest people,” “an ugly nation.”
Under Roman rule, the Jews became more and more closely linked with
one another, and during the long time of suffering they were doomed
to endure from this time on through the entire middle ages, that
intimate family life developed among them, which still is regarded
as a sort of model by bourgeois society. In Roman society meanwhile,
that process of decay and dissolution took place that brought the
empire to an end. The debauchery bordering on madness was opposed
by the opposite extreme, rigorous self-denial. Asceticism now
assumed religious forms, as the debaucheries had previously done.
Eccentric fanaticism made propaganda for it. The boundless luxury
and extravagance of the ruling classes was in striking contrast with
the want and misery of the millions and millions of people who were
brought to Italy into servitude by the conquering Romans from all
the countries of the world known at that time. Among these there
also were ever so many women, torn from their homes, their parents,
their husbands and children, who were most deeply afflicted by their
misfortune and longed for liberation. Many Roman women who were
thoroughly disgusted by what was going on about them, were in a
similar mental state. Any change in their position seemed desirable.
A profound longing for change, for redemption, manifested itself in
wide circles, and the Redeemer seemed to approach. The conquest
of the Jewish realm and Jerusalem by the Romans, resulted in the
destruction of national independence, and brought forth idealists
among the ascetics of that country who predicted the coming of a
new kingdom with freedom and happiness for all.
Christ came and Christianity developed. It personified opposition
against the beastly materialism that prevailed among the rich and
mighty ones in the Roman empire; it represented rebellion against
the oppression and disdain of the masses. But since it sprang from
Judaism that knew woman only as an oppressed being, and since it
was biased by the biblical conception that she is the source of all
evil, it preached the disdain of woman; it preached abstinence and
destruction of the flesh, that was sinning so much at the time, and
with ambiguous expressions pointed to a coming kingdom--conceived
by some as a celestial, by others as an earthly kingdom--that would
bring universal peace and justice. In the mire of the Roman realm,
the seeds of these doctrines were planted in fertile soil. Woman,
hoping for liberation and redemption from her position like all the
other unfortunates, gladly and eagerly embraced the new faith. Until
this day no great and important movement has taken place in all the
world in which women did not figure as heroines and martyrs. They
who praise Christianity as a great achievement of civilization,
should not forget that to woman it owed many of its victories. Her
eagerness to make converts played an important part both in the
Roman empire and among the barbarian peoples of the middle ages.
Through her efforts those in power often were converted. Thus, for
instance, it was Chlotilde who induced Chlodwig, King of the Franks,
to embrace Christianity. It was Bertha, Queen of Kent, and Gisela,
Queen of Hungary, who introduced Christianity in their countries. The
conversion of many prominent men was due to the influence of women.
But Christianity rewarded woman poorly. Its doctrines contain the
same disdain of woman that is met with in all the religions of the
Orient. It commands her to be an obedient servant to man, and even
to-day women must promise obedience to their husbands before the
marriage altar. Let us hear how the Bible and Christianity speak
of woman and marriage.
The ten commandments of the old testament are addressed exclusively to
the man. In the ninth commandment the woman is mentioned together with
the domestic servants and domestic animals. The man is warned not to
covet his neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his neighbor’s. Woman
then is an object, a piece of property, that man should not desire
if in someone else’s possession. Jesus, who belonged to a sect that
maintained rigorous asceticism and practised voluntary emasculation,
when asked by his disciples whether it were well to marry, replied:
All men cannot receive this saying save they to whom it is given.
For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s
womb; and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men; and
there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom
of heaven’s sake.
According to this, then, emasculation is agreeable to God, and
renunciation of love and marriage is a worthy deed. St. Paul, who
may be called the founder of Christianity even more so than Jesus
himself, St. Paul, who removed this creed from the narrow Jewish
sectarianism and gave it its international character, writes to the
Corynthians: Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me:
it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid
fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman
have her own husband.
“Matrimony is a degraded station; to marry is good, not to marry is
better.” “Walk in the spirit and resist the temptations of the flesh.”
“The flesh conspires against the spirit and the spirit conspires
against the flesh.” They, whom Christ has won, have crucified their
flesh with all its passions and desires.------
He was true to his own views and refrained from marriage. This hatred
of flesh is ~the hatred of woman, but also the fear of woman~, who
is represented as man’s seducer. In this spirit the apostles and
fathers of the church preached; in this same spirit the church
used its influence during the entire middle ages, by establishing
monasteries and introducing celibacy of priests, and it is still
using its influence in the same direction.
According to Christianity woman is ~impure~. She is the seducer who
brought sin into the world and wrought man’s destruction. Therefore
the apostles and fathers of the church regarded marriage as a
necessary evil, as prostitution is regarded at present. Tertullian
exclaims: “Woman, you ought to go about clad in mourning and rags,
your eyes filled with tears of remorse, to make us forget that you
have been mankind’s destruction. Woman, you are the gate to hell!”
And: “Celibacy must be chose, even though the human race should
perish.” Hieronymus says: “Matrimony is always a vice, all that can
be done is to excuse it and to sanctify it; therefore it was made
a religious sacrament.” Origines declares: “Matrimony is impure
and unholy; a means of sensual passion.” To escape the temptation
he emasculated himself. Augustin teaches: “The married people will
shine in heaven like radiant stars, while their parents (their
procreators) will be like dark stars.” Eusebius and Hieronymus are
agreed that the teaching of the Bible: “Be fruitful and multiply,”
is no longer suited to the times, and does not concern Christians.
Hundreds of similar sayings by the most influential teachers of
the church might be quoted, to prove that they all taught in the
same spirit. By their continuous teaching and preaching they have
disseminated those unnatural views about everything pertaining to
sex and the sex relation, which after all is a ~law of nature, and
the fulfillment of which is one of the most important duties in the
plan of life~. Modern society is still suffering from the effects
of these doctrines, and is but slowly recovering from them.
St. Peter exclaims with energy: “Wives, obey your husbands!” St. Paul
writes to the Ephesians: “The husband is the head of the wife, as
Christ also is the head of the church.” And to the Corinthians:
“The man is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of
the man.”
According to this any fool of a man may deem himself better than
the most excellent woman, and as a matter of fact it has been so
in practice until this day. Against the higher education of women
St. Paul also raises his voice. In the first Epistle to Timothy 2, 11,
etc., he says: “Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.
But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man,
but to be in quietness”; and in the Epistle to the Corinthians, 14,
34 and 35: “Let the women keep silence in the churches; for it is
not permitted unto them to speak. But let them be in subjection as
also saith the law. And if they would learn anything let them ask
their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for a woman to speak
in the church.” St. Thomas of Aquino (1227 to 1274) says: “Woman
is a rapidly growing weed, an imperfect being. Her body attains
maturity more rapidly only because it is of less value, and nature is
engaged less in her making. Women are born to be eternally maintained
under the yoke of their lords and masters, endowed by nature with
superiority in every respect, and therefore destined to rule.”
Such doctrines are not characteristic of Christianity only. As
Christianity is a mixture of Judaism and Greek philosophy, and as
both are rooted in the more ancient civilizations of India, Babylon
and Egypt, the inferior position alloted to woman by Christianity was
common to all the civilized nations of antiquity after the passing
of the matriarchate. In the Indian book of laws of Manu we find the
following: “The cause of dishonor is woman; the cause of hostility is
woman; the cause of worldly things is woman; therefore woman should
be shunned.” Beside the degradation of woman, the fear of woman is
repeatedly naively expressed. Thus it is further stated in Manu:
“Women are ever inclined by nature to seduce men; therefore a man
should never, even in the company of his closest female relative,
sit in a lonely spot.” The Indian conception, the old testament,
and the Christian conception, all unite in declaring woman the
seducer. Every condition of oppression entails the degradation of
the oppressed. The oppression of woman has been maintained until
this day; but among the Oriental peoples, whose social development
has been retarded, it has been maintained more rigorously than among
the Christian nations. Yet the factor that made for improvement in
the position of women among Christian nations was not Christianity
itself, but ~the civilization of the Western countries attained in
the struggles against the Christian conception~.
Christianity is not the cause that woman’s position is superior
to-day to what it had been at the time of the origin of Christianity.
Only reluctantly has it been compelled to abandon its true attitude
toward woman. They who are enthusiastic over the “redeeming mission
of Christianity,” of course, hold a different view. They claim that
Christianity has liberated woman from her former degraded position,
and they base this claim especially upon the cult of the Holy Virgin,
which they consider a token of respect for woman. The Catholic
Church which maintains this cult, might hardly share this opinion.
The above-quoted sayings of the saints and the fathers of the church
which could easily be multiplied, all express hostility to woman
and marriage. The Council at Macon during the sixth century, which
indulged in serious discussion as to whether woman had a soul, and
finally decided in her favor by a majority of one, also disproves the
claim that Christianity was favorable to women. The introduction of
celibacy of priests by Gregory VII,[28] the purpose of which was to
create a power by having an unmarried priesthood that would not be
withdrawn from the service of the church by any family interests, was
made possible only by that fundamental view of the church, that all
desires of the flesh are sinful. Many reformers, especially Calvin
and the Scotch ministers, have raved so vehemently against the “lust
of the flesh,” that they left no doubt in regard to the hostile
attitude of Christianity toward women.[29] By introducing the cult of
the Virgin Mary, the Catholic Church, with wise calculation, merely
put this cult in place of the cult of the ancient goddesses, that
existed among all the peoples who were converted to Christianity at
that time. Mary replaced Cybel, Mylitta, Aphrodite and Venus among
the Southern nations, and Freia, Frigga and others among the German
tribes. She was only endowed with a Christian, spiritual idealism.
[28] Among others the parish priests of the Diocese of Mayence thus
protested against this ordinance: “You bishops and abbots possess
great riches, elegant hunting outfits and enjoy royal banquets; we
poor, simple priests have but a wife for our comfort. Abstinence
may be a virtue, but it is forsooth severe and hard.”--Yves Guyot,
“Les Théories sociales du Christianisme.”
[29] A great many instances in evidence of this are furnished by
Buckle in his “History of Civilization in England.”