As a part of the same movement, the pure_History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 2 of 2)

Pagan Empire was gradually replaced by religious marriages. There is a

manifest propriety in invoking a divine benediction upon an act which

forms so important an epoch in life, and the mingling of a religious

ceremony impresses a deeper sense of the solemnity of the contract. The

essentially religious and even mystical character imparted by Christianity

to marriage rendered the consecration peculiarly natural, but it was only

very gradually that it came to be looked upon as absolutely necessary. As

I have already noticed, it was long dispensed with in the marriage of

slaves; and even in the case of freemen, though generally performed, it

was not made compulsory till the tenth century.(763) In addition to its

primary object of sanctifying marriage, it became in time a powerful

instrument in securing the authority of the priesthood, who were able to

compel men to submit to the conditions they imposed in the formation of

the most important contract of life; and the modern authorisation of civil

marriages, by diminishing greatly the power of the Catholic priesthood

over domestic life, has been one of the most severe blows ecclesiastical

influence has undergone.

The absolute sinfulness of divorce was at the same time strenuously

maintained by the Councils, which in this, as in many other points,

differed widely from the civil law. Constantine restricted it to three

cases of crime on the part of the husband, and three on the part of the

wife; but the habits of the people were too strong for his enactments,

and, after one or two changes in the law, the full latitude of divorce

reappeared in the Justinian Code. The Fathers, on the other hand, though

they hesitated a little about the case of a divorce which followed an act

of adultery on the part of the wife,(764) had no hesitation whatever in

pronouncing all other divorces to be criminal, and periods of penitential

discipline were imposed upon Christians who availed themselves of the

privileges of the civil law.(765) For many centuries this duality of

legislation continued. The barbarian laws restricted divorce by imposing

severe fines on those who repudiated their wives. Charlemagne pronounced

divorce to be criminal, but did not venture to make it penal, and he

practised it himself. On the other hand, the Church threatened with

excommunication, and in some cases actually launched its thunders against,

those who were guilty of it. It was only in the twelfth century that the

victory was definitely achieved, and the civil law, adopting the principle

of the canon law, prohibited all divorce.(766)

I do not propose in the present work to examine how far this total

prohibition has been for the happiness or the moral well-being of men. I

will simply observe that, though it is now often defended, it was not

originally imposed in Christian nations, upon utilitarian grounds, but was

based upon the sacramental character of marriage, upon the belief that

marriage is the special symbol of the perpetual union of Christ with His

Church, and upon a well-known passage in the Gospels. The stringency of

the Catholic doctrine, which forbids the dissolution of marriage even in

the case of adultery, has been considerably relaxed by modern legislation,

and there can, I think, be little doubt that further steps will yet be

taken in the same direction; but the vast change that was effected in both

practice and theory since the unlimited licence of the Pagan Empire must

be manifest to all.

It was essential, or at least very important, that a union which was so

solemn and so irrevocable should be freely contracted. The sentiment of

the Roman patriots towards the close of the Republic was that marriage

should be regarded as a means of providing children for the State, and

should be entered into as a matter of duty with that view, and the laws of

Augustus had imposed many disqualifications on those who abstained from

it. Both of these inducements to marriage passed away under the influence

of Christianity. The popular sentiment disappeared with the decline of

civic virtues. The laws were rescinded under the influence of the ascetic

enthusiasm which made men regard the state of celibacy as pre-eminently

holy.

There was still one other important condition to be attained by

theologians in order to realise their ideal type of marriage. It was to

prevent the members of the Church from intermarrying with those whose

religious opinions differed from their own. Mixed marriages, it has been

truly said, may do more than almost any other influence to assuage the

rancour and the asperity of sects, but it must be added that a

considerable measure of tolerance must have been already attained before

they become possible. In a union in which each partner believes and

realises that the other is doomed to an eternity of misery there can be no

real happiness, no sympathy, no trust; and a domestic agreement that some

of the children should be educated in one religion and some in the other

would be impossible when each parent believed it to be an agreement that

some children should be doomed to hell.

The domestic unhappiness arising from differences of belief was probably

almost or altogether unknown in the world before the introduction of

Christianity; for, although differences of opinion may have before

existed, the same momentous consequences were not attached to them. It has

been the especial bane of periods of great religious change, such as the

conversion of the Roman Empire, or the Reformation, or our own day when

far more serious questions than those which agitated the sixteenth century

are occupying the attention of a large proportion of thinkers and

scholars, and when the deep and widening chasm between the religious

opinions of most highly educated men, and of the immense majority of

women, is painfully apparent. While a multitude of scientific discoveries,

critical and historical researches, and educational reforms have brought

thinking men face to face with religious problems of extreme importance,

women have been almost absolutely excluded from their influence. Their

minds are usually by nature less capable than those of men of impartiality

and suspense, and the almost complete omission from female education of

those studies which most discipline and strengthen the intellect increases

the difference, while at the same time it has been usually made a main

object to imbue them with a passionate faith in traditional opinions, and

to preserve them from all contact with opposing views. But contracted

knowledge and imperfect sympathy are not the sole fruits of this

education. It has always been the peculiarity of a certain kind of

theological teaching that it inverts all the normal principles of

judgment, and absolutely destroys intellectual diffidence. On other

subjects we find, if not a respect for honest conviction, at least some

sense of the amount of knowledge that is requisite to entitle men to

express an opinion on grave controversies. A complete ignorance of the

subject-matter of a dispute restrains the confidence of dogmatism; and an

ignorant person, who is aware that, by much reading and thinking in

spheres of which he has himself no knowledge, his educated neighbour has

modified or rejected opinions which that ignorant person had been taught,

will, at least if he is a man of sense or modesty, abstain from

compassionating the benighted condition of his more instructed friend. But

on theological questions this has never been so. Unfaltering belief being

taught as the first of duties, and all doubt being usually stigmatised as

criminal or damnable, a state of mind is formed to which we find no

parallel in other fields. Many men and most women, though completely

ignorant of the very rudiments of biblical criticism, historical research,

or scientific discoveries, though they have never read a single page, or

understood a single proposition of the writings of those whom they

condemn, and have absolutely no rational knowledge either of the arguments

by which their faith is defended, or of those by which it has been

impugned, will nevertheless adjudicate with the utmost confidence upon

every polemical question; denounce, hate, pity, or pray for the conversion

of all who dissent from what they have been taught; assume, as a matter

beyond the faintest possibility of doubt, that the opinions they have

received without enquiry must be true, and that the opinions which others

have arrived at by enquiry must be false, and make it a main object of

their lives to assail what they call heresy in every way in their power,

except by examining the grounds on which it rests. It is probable that the

great majority of voices that swell the clamour against every book which

is regarded as heretical are the voices of those who would deem it

criminal even to open that book, or to enter into any real, searching, and

impartial investigation of the subject to which it relates. Innumerable

pulpits support this tone of thought, and represent, with a fervid

rhetoric well fitted to excite the nerves and imaginations of women, the

deplorable condition of all who deviate from a certain type of opinions or

of emotions; a blind propagandism or a secret wretchedness penetrates into

countless households, poisoning the peace of families, chilling the mutual

confidence of husband and wife, adding immeasurably to the difficulties

which every searcher into truth has to encounter, and diffusing far and

wide intellectual timidity, disingenuousness, and hypocrisy.

These domestic divisions became very apparent in the period of the

conversion of the Roman Empire; and a natural desire to guard intact the

orthodoxy and zeal of the converts, and to prevent a continual

discordance, stimulated the Fathers in their very vehement denunciations

of all mixed marriages. We may also trace in these denunciations the

outline of a very singular doctrine, which was afterwards suffered to fall

into obscurity, but was revived in the last century in England in a

curious and learned work of the nonjuror Dodwell.(767) The union of Christ

and His Church had been represented as a marriage; and this image was not

regarded as a mere metaphor or comparison, but as intimating a mysterious

unity, which, though not susceptible of any very clear definition, was not

on that account the less real. Christians were the “limbs of Christ,” and

for them to join themselves in marriage with those who were not of the

Christian fold was literally, it was said, a species of adultery or

fornication. The intermarriage of the Israelites, the chosen seed of the

ancient world, with the Gentiles, had been described in the Old Testament

as an act of impurity;(768) and in the opinion of some, at least, of the

Fathers, the Christian community occupied towards the unbelievers a

position analogous to that which the Jews had occupied towards the

Gentiles. St. Cyprian denounced the crime of those “who prostitute the

limbs of Christ in marriage with the Gentiles.”(769) Tertullian described

the intermarriage as fornication;(770) and after the triumph of the

Church, the intermarriage of Jews and Christians was made a capital

offence, and was stigmatised by the law as adultery.(771) The civil law

did not prohibit the orthodox from intermarrying with heretics, but many

councils in strong terms denounced such marriages as criminal.

The extreme sanctity attributed to virginity, the absolute condemnation of

all forms of sexual connection other than marriage, and the formation and

gradual realisation of the Christian conception of marriage as a permanent

union of a man and woman of the same religious opinions, consecrated by

solemn religious services, carrying with it a deep religious

signification, and dissoluble only by death, were the most obvious signs

of Christian influence in the sphere of ethics we are examining. Another

very important result of the new religion was to raise to a far greater

honour than they had previously possessed, the qualities in which women

peculiarly excel.

There are few more curious subjects of enquiry than the distinctive

differences between the sexes, and the manner in which those differences

have affected the ideal types of different ages, nations, philosophies,

and religions. Physically, men have the indisputable superiority in

strength, and women in beauty. Intellectually, a certain inferiority of

the female sex can hardly be denied when we remember how almost

exclusively the foremost places in every department of science,

literature, and art have been occupied by men, how infinitesimally small

is the number of women who have shown in any form the very highest order

of genius, how many of the greatest men have achieved their greatness in

defiance of the most adverse circumstances, and how completely women have

failed in obtaining the first position, even in music or painting, for the

cultivation of which their circumstances would appear most propitious. It

is as impossible to find a female Raphael, or a female Handel, as a female

Shakspeare or Newton. Women are intellectually more desultory and volatile

than men; they are more occupied with particular instances than with

general principles; they judge rather by intuitive perceptions than by

deliberate reasoning or past experience. They are, however, usually

superior to men in nimbleness and rapidity of thought, and in the gift of

tact or the power of seizing speedily and faithfully the finer inflexions

of feeling, and they have therefore often attained very great eminence in

conversation, as letter-writers, as actresses, and as novelists.

Morally, the general superiority of women over men, is, I think,

unquestionable. If we take the somewhat coarse and inadequate criterion of

police statistics, we find that, while the male and female populations are

nearly the same in number, the crimes committed by men are usually rather

more than five times as numerous as those committed by women;(772) and

although it may be justly observed that men, as the stronger sex, and the

sex upon whom the burden of supporting the family is thrown, have more

temptations than women, it must be remembered, on the other hand, that

extreme poverty which verges upon starvation is most common among women,

whose means of livelihood are most restricted, and whose earnings are

smallest and most precarious. Self-sacrifice is the most conspicuous

element of a virtuous and religious character, and it is certainly far

less common among men than among women, whose whole lives are usually

spent in yielding to the will and consulting the pleasures of another.

There are two great departments of virtue: the impulsive, or that which

springs spontaneously from the emotions; and the deliberative, or that

which is performed in obedience to the sense of duty; and in both of these

I imagine women are superior to men. Their sensibility is greater, they

are more chaste both in thought and act, more tender to the erring, more

compassionate to the suffering, more affectionate to all about them. On

the other hand, those who have traced the course of the wives of the poor,

and of many who, though in narrow circumstances, can hardly be called

poor, will probably admit that in no other class do we so often find

entire lives spent in daily persistent self-denial, in the patient

endurance of countless trials, in the ceaseless and deliberate sacrifice

of their own enjoyments to the well-being or the prospects of others.

Women, however, though less prone than men to intemperance and brutality,

are in general more addicted to the petty forms of vanity, jealousy,

spitefulness, and ambition, and they are also inferior to men in active

courage. In the courage of endurance they are commonly superior; but their

passive courage is not so much fortitude which bears and defies, as

resignation which bears and bends. In the ethics of intellect they are

decidedly inferior. To repeat an expression I have already employed, women

very rarely love truth, though they love passionately what they call “the

truth,” or opinions they have received from others, and hate vehemently

those who differ from them. They are little capable of impartiality or of

doubt; their thinking is chiefly a mode of feeling; though very generous

in their acts, they are rarely generous in their opinions or in their

judgments. They persuade rather than convince, and value belief rather as

a source of consolation than as a faithful expression of the reality of

things. They are less capable than men of perceiving qualifying

circumstances, of admitting the existence of elements of good in systems

to which they are opposed, of distinguishing the personal character of an

opponent from the opinions he maintains. Men lean most to justice and

women to mercy. Men excel in energy, self-reliance, perseverance, and

magnanimity; women in humility, gentleness, modesty, and endurance. The

realising imagination which causes us to pity and to love is more

sensitive in women than in men, and it is especially more capable of

dwelling on the unseen. Their religious or devotional realisations are

incontestably more vivid; and it is probable that, while a father is most

moved by the death of a child in his presence, a mother generally feels

most the death of a child in some distant land. But, though more intense,

the sympathies of women are commonly less wide than those of men. Their

imaginations individualise more; their affections are, in consequence,

concentrated rather on leaders than on causes; and if they care for a

great cause, it is generally because it is represented by a great man, or

connected with some one whom they love. In politics, their enthusiasm is

more naturally loyalty than patriotism. In history, they are even more

inclined than men to dwell exclusively upon biographical incidents or

characteristics as distinguished from the march of general causes. In

benevolence, they excel in charity, which alleviates individual suffering,

rather than in philanthropy, which deals with large masses and is more

frequently employed in preventing than in allaying calamity.

It was a remark of Winckelmann that “the supreme beauty of Greek art is

rather male than female;” and the justice of this remark has been amply

corroborated by the greater knowledge we have of late years attained of

the works of the Phidian period, in which art achieved its highest

perfection, and in which, at the same time, force and freedom, and

masculine grandeur, were its pre-eminent characteristics. A similar

observation may be made of the moral ideal of which ancient art was simply

the expression. In antiquity the virtues that were most admired were

almost exclusively those which are distinctively masculine. Courage,

self-assertion, magnanimity, and, above all, patriotism, were the leading

features of the ideal type; and chastity, modesty, and charity, the

gentler and the domestic virtues, which are especially feminine, were

greatly undervalued. With the single exception of conjugal fidelity, none

of the virtues that were very highly prized were virtues distinctively or

pre-eminently feminine. With this exception, nearly all the most

illustrious women of antiquity were illustrious chiefly because they

overcame the natural conditions of their sex. It is a characteristic fact

that the favourite female ideal of the artists appears to have been the

Amazon.(773) We may admire the Spartan mother, and the mother of the

Gracchi, repressing every sign of grief when their children were

sacrificed upon the altar of their country, we may wonder at the majestic

courage of a Porcia and an Arria; but we extol them chiefly because, being

women, they emancipated themselves from the frailty of their sex, and

displayed an heroic fortitude worthy of the strongest and the bravest of

men. We may bestow an equal admiration upon the noble devotion and charity

of a St. Elizabeth of Hungary, or of a Mrs. Fry, but we do not admire them

because they displayed these virtues, although they were women, for we

feel that their virtues were of the kind which the female nature is most

fitted to produce. The change from the heroic to the saintly ideal, from

the ideal of Paganism to the ideal of Christianity, was a change from a

type which was essentially male to one which was essentially feminine. Of

all the great schools of philosophy no other reflected so faithfully the

Roman conception of moral excellence as Stoicism, and the greatest Roman

exponent of Stoicism summed up its character in a single sentence when he

pronounced it to be beyond all other sects the most emphatically

masculine.(774) On the other hand, an ideal type in which meekness,

gentleness, patience, humility, faith, and love are the most prominent

features, is not naturally male but female. A reason probably deeper than

the historical ones which are commonly alleged, why sculpture has always

been peculiarly Pagan and painting peculiarly Christian, may be found in

the fact, that sculpture is especially suited to represent male beauty, or

the beauty of strength, and painting female beauty, or the beauty of

softness; and that Pagan sentiment was chiefly a glorification of the

masculine qualities of strength, and courage, and conscious virtue, while

Christian sentiment is chiefly a glorification of the feminine qualities

of gentleness, humility, and love. The painters whom the religious feeling

of Christendom has recognised as the most faithful exponents of Christian

sentiment have always been those who infused a large measure of feminine

beauty even into their male characters; and we never, or scarcely ever,

find that the same artist has been conspicuously successful in delineating

both Christian and Pagan types. Michael Angelo, whose genius loved to

expatiate on the sublimity of strength and defiance, failed signally in

his representations of the Christian ideal; and Perugino was equally

unsuccessful when he sought to pourtray the features of the heroes of

antiquity.(775) The position that was gradually assigned to the Virgin as

the female ideal in the belief and the devotion of Christendom, was a

consecration or an expression of the new value that was attached to the

feminine virtues.

The general superiority of women to men in the strength of their religious

emotions, and their natural attraction to a religion which made personal

attachment to its Founder its central duty, and which imparted an

unprecedented dignity and afforded an unprecedented scope to their

characteristic virtues, account for the very conspicuous position that

female influence assumed in the great work of the conversion of the Roman

Empire. In no other important movement of thought was it so powerful or so

acknowledged. In the ages of persecution female figures occupy many of the

foremost places in the ranks of martyrdom, and Pagan and Christian writers

alike attest the alacrity with which women flocked to the Church, and the

influence they exercised in its favour over the male members of their

families. The mothers of St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, St.

Gregory Nazianzen, and Theodoret, had all a leading part in the conversion

of their sons. St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, Flacilla, the wife

of Theodosius the Great, St. Pulcheria, the sister of Theodosius the

Younger, and Placidia, the mother of Valentinian III., were among the most

conspicuous defenders of the faith. In the heretical sects the same zeal

was manifested, and Arius, Priscillian, and Montanus were all supported by

troops of zealous female devotees. In the career of asceticism women took

a part little if at all inferior to men, while in the organisation of the

great work of charity they were pre-eminent. For no other field of active

labour are women so admirably suited as for this; and although we may

trace from the earliest period, in many creeds and ages, individual

instances of their influence in allaying the sufferings of the

distressed,(776) it may be truly said that their instinct and genius of

charity had never before the dawn of Christianity obtained full scope for

action. Fabiola, Paula, Melania, and a host of other noble ladies devoted

their time and fortunes mainly to founding and extending vast institutions

of charity, some of them of a kind before unknown in the world. The

Empress Flacilla was accustomed to tend with her own hands the sick in the

hospitals,(777) and a readiness to discharge such offices was deemed the

first duty of a Christian wife.(778) From age to age the impulse thus

communicated has been felt. There has been no period, however corrupt,

there has been no Church, however superstitious, that has not been adorned

by many Christian women devoting their entire lives to assuaging the

sufferings of men; and the mission of charity thus instituted has not been

more efficacious in diminishing the sum of human wretchedness, than in

promoting the moral dignity of those by whom it was conducted.

Among the Collyridian heretics, women were admitted to the priesthood.

Among the orthodox, although this honour was not bestowed upon them, they

received a religious consecration, and discharged some minor

ecclesiastical functions under the name of deaconesses.(779) This order

may be traced to the Apostolic period.(780) It consisted of elderly

virgins, who were set apart by a formal ordination, and were employed in

assisting as catechists and attendants at the baptism of women, in

visiting the sick, ministering to martyrs in prison, preserving order in

the congregations, and accompanying and presenting women who desired an

interview with the bishop. It would appear, from the evidence of some

councils, that abuses gradually crept into this institution, and the

deaconesses at last faded into simple nuns, but they were still in

existence in the East in the twelfth century. Besides these, widows, when

they had been but once married, were treated with peculiar honour, and

were made the special recipients of the charity of the Church. Women

advanced in years, who, either from their single life or from bereavement,

have been left without any male protector in the world, have always been

peculiarly deserving of commiseration. With less strength, and commonly

with less means, and less knowledge of the world than men, they are liable

to contract certain peculiarities of mind and manner to which an excessive

amount of ridicule has been attached, and age in most cases furnishes them

with very little to compensate for the charms of which it has deprived

them. The weight and dignity of matured wisdom, which make the old age of

one sex so venerable, are more rarely found in that of the other, and even

physical beauty is more frequently the characteristic of an old man than

of an old woman. The Church laboured steadily to cast a halo of reverence

around this period of woman’s life, and its religious exercises have done

very much to console and to occupy it.

In accordance with these ideas, the Christian legislators contributed

largely to improve the legal position of widows in respect to

property,(781) and Justinian gave mothers the guardianship of their

children, destroying the Pagan rule that guardianship could only be

legally exercised by men.(782) The usual subservience of the sex to

ecclesiastical influence, the numerous instances of rich widows devoting

their fortunes, and mothers their sons, to the Church, had no doubt some

influence in securing the advocacy of the clergy; but these measures had a

manifest importance in elevating the position of women who have had, in

Christian lands, a great, though not, I think, altogether a beneficial

influence, in the early education of their sons.

Independently of all legal enactments, the simple change of the ideal type

by bringing specially feminine virtues into the forefront was sufficient

to elevate and ennoble the sex. The commanding position of the mediæval

abbesses, the great number of female saints, and especially the reverence

bestowed upon the Virgin, had a similar effect. It is remarkable that the

Jews, who, of the three great nations of antiquity, certainly produced in

history and poetry the smallest number of illustrious women, should have

furnished the world with its supreme female ideal, and it is also a

striking illustration of the qualities which prove most attractive in

woman that one of whom we know nothing except her gentleness and her

sorrow should have exercised a magnetic power upon the world incomparably

greater than was exercised by the most majestic female patriots of

Paganism. Whatever may be thought of its theological propriety, there can

be little doubt that the Catholic reverence for the Virgin has done much

to elevate and purify the ideal of woman, and to soften the manners of

men. It has had an influence which the worship of the Pagan goddesses

could never possess, for these had been almost destitute of moral beauty,

and especially of that kind of moral beauty which is peculiarly feminine.

It supplied in a great measure the redeeming and ennobling element in that

strange amalgam of religious, licentious, and military feeling which was

formed around women in the age of chivalry, and which no succeeding change

of habit or belief has wholly destroyed.

It can hardly, I think, be questioned that in the great religious

convulsions of the sixteenth century the feminine type followed

Catholicism, while Protestantism inclined more to the masculine type.

Catholicism alone retained the Virgin worship, which at once reflected and

sustained the first. The skill with which it acts upon the emotions by

music, and painting, and solemn architecture, and imposing pageantry, its

tendency to appeal to the imagination rather than to the reason, and to

foster modes of feeling rather than modes of thought, its assertion of

absolute and infallible certainty, above all, the manner in which it

teaches its votary to throw himself perpetually on authority, all tended

in the same direction. It is the part of a woman to lean, it is the part

of a man to stand. A religion which prescribes to the distracted mind

unreasoning faith in an infallible Church, and to the troubled conscience

an implicit trust in an absolving priesthood, has ever had an especial

attraction to a feminine mind. A religion which recognises no authority

between man and his Creator, which asserts at once the dignity and the

duty of private judgment, and which, while deepening immeasurably the

sense of individual responsibility, denudes religion of meretricious

ornaments, and of most æsthetic aids, is pre-eminently a religion of men.

Puritanism is the most masculine form that Christianity has yet assumed.

Its most illustrious teachers differed from the Catholic saints as much in

the moral type they displayed as in the system of doctrines they held.

Catholicism commonly softens, while Protestantism strengthens, the

character; but the softness of the first often degenerates into weakness,

and the strength of the second into hardness. Sincerely Catholic nations

are distinguished for their reverence, for their habitual and vivid

perceptions of religious things, for the warmth of their emotions, for a

certain amiability of disposition, and a certain natural courtesy and

refinement of manner that are inexpressibly winning. Sincerely Protestant

nations are distinguished for their love of truth, for their firm sense of

duty, for the strength and the dignity of their character. Loyalty and

humility, which are especially feminine, flourish chiefly in the first;

liberty and self-assertion in the second. The first are most prone to

superstition, and the second to fanaticism. Protestantism, by purifying

and dignifying marriage, conferred a great benefit upon women; but it must

be owned that neither in its ideal type, nor in the general tenor of its

doctrines or devotions, is it as congenial to their nature as the religion

it superseded.

Its complete suppression of the conventual system was also, I think, very

far from a benefit to women or to the world. It would be impossible to

conceive any institution more needed than one which would furnish a

shelter for the many women who, from poverty, or domestic unhappiness, or

other causes, find themselves cast alone and unprotected into the battle

of life, which would secure them from the temptations to gross vice, and

from the extremities of suffering, and would convert them into agents of

active, organised, and intelligent charity. Such an institution would be

almost free from the objections that may justly be urged against

monasteries, which withdraw strong men from manual labour, and it would

largely mitigate the difficulty of providing labour and means of

livelihood for single women, which is one of the most pressing, in our own

day one of the most appalling, of social problems. Most unhappily for

mankind, this noble conception was from the first perverted. Institutions

that might have had an incalculable philanthropic value were based upon

the principle of asceticism, which makes the sacrifice, not the promotion,

of earthly happiness its aim, and binding vows produced much misery and

not a little vice. The convent became the perpetual prison of the daughter

whom a father was disinclined to endow, or of young girls who, under the

impulse of a transient enthusiasm, or of a transient sorrow, took a step

which they never could retrace, and useless penances and contemptible

superstitions wasted the energies that might have been most beneficially

employed. Still it is very doubtful whether, even in the most degraded

period, the convents did not prevent more misery than they inflicted, and

in the Sisters of Charity the religious orders of Catholicism have

produced one of the most perfect of all the types of womanhood. There is,

as I conceive, no fact in modern history more deeply to be deplored than

that the Reformers, who in matters of doctrinal innovations were often so

timid, should have levelled to the dust, instead of attempting to

regenerate, the whole conventual system of Catholicism.

The course of these observations has led me to transgress the limits

assigned to this history. It has been, however, my object through this

entire work to exhibit not only the nature but also the significance of

the moral facts I have recorded, by showing how they have affected the

subsequent changes of society. I will conclude this chapter, and this

work, by observing that of all the departments of ethics the questions

concerning the relations of the sexes and the proper position of women are

those upon the future of which there rests the greatest uncertainty.

History tells us that, as civilisation advances, the charity of men

becomes at once warmer and more expansive, their habitual conduct both

more gentle and more temperate, and their love of truth more sincere; but

it also warns us that in periods of great intellectual enlightenment, and

of great social refinement, the relations of the sexes have often been

most anarchical. It is impossible to deny that the form which these

relations at present assume has been very largely affected by special

religious teaching, which, for good or for ill, is rapidly waning in the

sphere of government, and also, that certain recent revolutions in

economical opinion and industrial enterprise have a most profound bearing

upon the subject. The belief that a rapid increase of population is always

eminently beneficial, which was long accepted as an axiom by both

statesmen and moralists, and was made the basis of a large part of the

legislation of the first and of the decisions of the second, has now been

replaced by the directly opposite doctrine, that the very highest interest

of society is not to stimulate but to restrain multiplication, diminishing

the number of marriages and of children. In consequence of this belief,

and of the many factitious wants that accompany a luxurious civilisation,

a very large and increasing proportion of women are left to make their way

in life without any male protector, and the difficulties they have to

encounter through physical weakness have been most unnaturally and most

fearfully aggravated by laws and customs which, resting on the old

assumption that every woman should be a wife, habitually deprive them of

the pecuniary and educational advantages of men, exclude them absolutely

from very many of the employments in which they might earn a subsistence,

encumber their course in others by a heartless ridicule or by a steady

disapprobation, and consign, in consequence, many thousands to the most

extreme and agonising poverty, and perhaps a still larger number to the

paths of vice. At the same time a momentous revolution, the effects of

which can as yet be but imperfectly descried, has taken place in the chief

spheres of female industry that remain. The progress of machinery has

destroyed its domestic character. The distaff has fallen from the hand.

The needle is being rapidly superseded, and the work which, from the days

of Homer to the present century, was accomplished in the centre of the

family, has been transferred to the crowded manufactory.(783)

The probable consequences of these things are among the most important

questions that can occupy the moralist or the philanthropist, but they do

not fall within the province of the historian. That the pursuits and

education of women will be considerably altered, that these alterations

will bring with them some modifications of the type of character, and that

the prevailing moral notions concerning the relations of the sexes will be

subjected in many quarters to a severe and hostile criticism, may safely

be predicted. Many wild theories will doubtless be propounded. Some real

ethical changes may perhaps be effected, but these, if I mistake not, can

only be within definite and narrow limits. He who will seriously reflect

upon our clear perceptions of the difference between purity and impurity,

upon the laws that govern our affections, and upon the interests of the

children who are born, may easily convince himself that in this, as in all

other spheres, there are certain eternal moral landmarks which never can

be removed.

INDEX.

Abortion, diversities of moral judgment respecting, i. 92.

History of the practice of, ii. 20, 24

Abraham the Hermit, St., ii. 110

Acacius, his ransom of Persian slaves, ii. 72

Adultery, laws concerning, ii. 313

Æschylus, his views of human nature, i. 196.

His violation of dramatic probabilities, 229

Affections, the, all forms of self-love, according to some Utilitarians,

i. 9.

Subjugation of the, to the reason, taught by the Stoics, &c., 177, 187.

Considered by the Stoics as a disease, 188.

Evil consequences of their suppression, 191

Africa, sacrifices of children to Saturn in, ii. 31.

Effect of the conquest of Genseric of, 82

Agapæ, or love feasts, of the Christians, how regarded by the pagans, i.

415; ii. 79.

Excesses of the, and their suppression, 150

Agnes, St., legend of, ii. 319

Agricultural pursuits, history of the decline of, in Italy, i. 266.

Efforts to relieve the agriculturists, 267

Albigenses, their slow suicides, ii. 49

Alexander the Great: effect of his career on Greek cosmopolitanism, i. 229

Alexandria, foundation of, i. 230.

Effect of the increasing importance of, on Roman thought, 319.

The Decian persecution at, 451.

Excesses of the Christian sects of, ii. 196, 197, _note_

Alexis, St., his legend, ii. 322

Alimentus, Cincius, his work written in Greek, i. 230

Almsgiving, effects of indiscriminate, ii. 90, 91

Amafanius, wrote the first Latin work on philosophy, i. 175, _note_.

Ambrose, St., his miraculous dream, i. 379.

His dissection of the pagan theory of the decline of the Roman empire,

409.

His ransom of Italians from the Goths, ii. 72.

His commendation of disobedience to parents, 132

American Indians, suicide of the, ii. 54

Ammon, St., his refusal to wash himself, ii. 110.

Deserts his wife, 322

Amour, William de St., his denunciation of the mendicant orders, ii. 96

Amphitheatres, history and remains of Roman, i. 273

Anaxagoras, on the death of his son, i. 191.

On his true country, 201

Anchorites. _See_ Ascetics; Monasticism

Angelo, Michael, in what he failed, ii. 363

Anglo-Saxon nations, their virtues and vices, i. 153

Animals, lower, Egyptian worship of, i. 166, _note_.

Humanity to animals probably first advocated by Plutarch, 244.

Animals employed in the arena at Rome, 280.

Instances of kindness to, 288, 307.

Legends of the connection of the saints and the animal world, ii. 161.

Pagan legends of the intelligence of animals, 161, 162.

Legislative protection of them, 162.

Views as to the souls of animals, 162.

Moral duty of kindness to animals taught by pagans, 166.

Legends in the lives of the saints in connection with animals, 168.

Progress in modern times of humanity to animals, 172

Antigonus of Socho, his doctrine of virtue, i. 183, _note_

Antioch, charities of, ii. 80.

Its extreme vice and asceticism, 153

Antisthenes, his scepticism, i. 162

Antoninus, the philosopher, his prediction, i. 427

Antoninus the Pious, his death, i. 207.

His leniency towards the Christians, 438, 439.

Forged letter of, 439, _note_.

His charity, ii. 77

Antony, St., his flight into the desert, ii. 103.

His mode of life, 110.

His dislike to knowledge, 115.

Legend of his visit to Paul the hermit, 157, 158

Aphrodite, the celestial and earthly, i. 106

Apollonius of Tyana, his conversation with an Egyptian priest respecting

the Greek and Egyptian modes of worshipping the deity, i. 166,

_note_.

Miracles attributed to him, 372.

His humanity to animals, ii. 165

Apollonius, the merchant, his dispensary for monks, ii. 81

Apuleius, his condemnation of suicide, i. 213.

His disquisition on the doctrine of dæmons, 323.

Practical form of his philosophy, 329.

Miracles attributed to him, 372.

His defence of tooth-powder, ii. 148

Archytas of Tarentum, his speech on the evils of sensuality, i. 200,

_note_

Argos, story of the sons of the priestess of Juno at, i. 206

Arians, their charges against the Catholics, i. 418, _note_

Aristides, his gentleness, i. 228

Aristotle, his admission of the practice of abortion, i. 92.

Emphasis with which he dwelt upon the utility of virtue, 124.

His patriotism, 200.

His condemnation of suicide, 212.

His opinions as to the duties of Greeks to barbarians, 229

Arius, death of, ii. 196

Arnobius, on the miracles of Christ, i. 375

Arrian, his humanity to animals, ii. 164

Arsenius, St., his penances, ii. 107, 114, _note_.

His anxiety to avoid distractions, 125, _note_

Ascetics, their estimate of the dreadful nature of sin, i. 113.

Decline of asceticism and evanescence of the moral notions of which it

was the expression, 113.

Condition of society to which it belongs, 130.

Decline of the ascetic and saintly qualities with civilisation, 130.

Causes of the ascetic movement, ii. 102.

Its rapid extension, 103-105.

Penances attributed to the saints of the desert, 107-109.

Miseries and joys of the hermit life, 113 _et seq._

Dislike of the monks to knowledge, 115.

Their hallucinations, 116.

Relations of female devotees with the anchorites, 120.

Ways in which the ascetic life affected both the ideal type and realised

condition of morals, 122, _et seq._

Extreme animosity of the ascetics to everything pagan, 136, 137.

Decline of the civic virtues caused by asceticism, 139.

Moral effects of asceticism on self-sacrifice, 154, 155.

Moral beauty of some of the legends of the ascetics, 156.

Legends of the connection between the saints and the animal world, 161.

Practical form of asceticism in the West, 177.

Influence of asceticism on chastity, 319, 320.

On marriage, 320.

On the estimate of women, 337

Asella, story of her asceticism, ii. 133

Asia Minor, destruction of the churches of, ii. 14

Aspasia, the Athenian courtesan, ii. 293

Asses, feast of, ii. 173

Association, Hartley’s doctrine of, i. 22.

Partly anticipated by Hutcheson and Gay, 23.

Illustrations of the system of association, 26-30.

The theory, how far selfish, 30.

The essential and characteristic feature of conscience wholly

unaccounted for by the association of ideas, 66

Astrology, belief in, rapidly gaining ground in the time of the elder

Pliny, i. 171, and _note_

Atticus, his suicide, i. 215, and _note_

Augustine, St., on original sin, i. 209.

His belief in contemporary miracles, 378.

On the decline of the Roman empire, 410.

His condemnation of virgin suicides, ii. 47

Augustus, his solemn degradation of the statue of Neptune, i. 169.

His mode of discouraging celibacy, 232.

Miraculous stories related of him, 258.

His superstition, 376.

Advice of Mæcenas to him, 399.

His consideration for the religious customs of the Jews, 406

Aulus Gellius, his account of the rhetoricians, i. 313.

Compared with Helvétius, 313

Aurelius, Marcus, on a future state, i. 184.

On posthumous fame, 186.

Denied that all vices are the same, 192, _note_.

On the sacred spirit dwelling in man, 198.

His submissive gratitude, 199.

His practical application of the precepts of the Stoics, 202.

His wavering views as to suicide, 213.

His charity to the human race, 241.

Mild and more religious spirit of his stoicism, 245.

His constant practice of self-examination, 249.

His life and character, 249-255.

Compared and contrasted with Plutarch, 253.

His discouragement of the games of the arena, 286.

His humanity, 308.

His disbelief of exorcism, 384.

His law against religious terrorism, 422.

His persecution of the Christians, 439, 440.

His benevolence, ii. 77.

His view of war, 258

Austin, Mr., his view of the foundation of the moral law, i. 17, _note_.

His advocacy of the unselfish view of the love we ought to bear to God,

18, _note_.

Character of his “Lectures on Jurisprudence,” 22, _note_

Avarice, association of ideas to the passion of, i. 25

Avitus, St., legend of, ii. 159

Babylas, St., miracles performed by his bones, i. 382, and _note_.

His death, ii. 9

Bacchus, suppression of the rites of, at Rome, i. 401

Bacon, Lord, great movement of modern thought caused by, i. 125.

His objection to the Stoics’ view of death, 202

Bacon, Roger, his life and works, ii. 210

Bain, Mr., on pleasure, i. 12, _note_.

His definition of conscience, 29, _note_.

Balbus, Cornelius, his elevation to the consulate, i. 232

Baltus on the exorcists, i. 381, _note_.

Baptism, Augustinian doctrine of, i. 96

Barbarians, causes of the conversion of the, i. 410

Basil, St., his hospital, ii. 80.

His labours for monachism, 106

Bassus, Ventidius, his elevation to the consulate, i. 232

Bathilda, Queen, her charity, ii. 245

Bear-gardens in England, ii. 175, _note_.

Beauty, analogies between virtue and, i. 77.

Their difference, 79.

Diversities existing in our judgments of virtue and beauty, 79.

Causes of these diversities, 79.

Virtues to which we can, and to which we cannot, apply the term

beautiful, 82, 83.

Pleasure derived from beauty compared with that from the grotesque, or

eccentric, 85.

The prevailing cast of female beauty in the north, contrasted with the

southern type, 144, 145, 152.

Admiration of the Greeks for beauty, ii. 292

Bees, regarded by the ancients as emblems or models of chastity, i. 108,

_note_.

Beggars, causes of vast numbers of, ii. 94.

Old English laws for the suppression of mendicancy, 96.

Enactments against them in various parts of Europe, 98

Benedict, St., his system, 183

Benefices, military use of, ii. 270

Benevolence; Hutcheson’s theory that all virtue is resolved into

benevolence, i. 4.

Discussions in England, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as

to the existence of, 20.

Various views of the source from which it springs, 22.

Association of ideas producing the feeling of, 26.

Hartley on benevolence quoted, 27, _note_.

Impossibility of benevolence becoming a pleasure if practised only with

a view to that end, 37.

Application to benevolence of the theory, that the moral unity of

different ages is a unity not of standard but of tendency,

100.

Influenced by our imaginations, 132, 133.

Imperfectly recognised by the Stoics, 188, 192

Bentham, Jeremy, on the motives of human actions, i. 8, _note_.

On the pleasures and pains of piety quoted, 9, _note_.

On charity, 10, _note_.

On vice, 13, _note_.

On the sanctions of morality, 19, and _note_, 21.

Throws benevolence as much as possible into the background, 21.

Makes no use of the doctrine of association, 25, _note_.

His definition of conscience, 29, _note_.

On interest and disinterestedness, 32, _note_.

On the value and purity of a pleasure, 90, _note_.

Besarion, St., his penances, ii. 108

Biography, relative importance of, among Christians and Pagans, i. 174

Blandina, martyrdom of, i. 442

Blesilla, story of her slow suicide, ii. 48

Blondel, his denunciation of the forgeries of the Sibylline books, i. 377

Boadicea, her suicide, ii. 53, _note_

Bolingbroke’s “Reflections on Exile,” i. 201, _note_

Bona Dea, story and worship of, i. 94, _note_.

Popularity of her worship among the Romans, 106, 386

Boniface, St., his missionary labours, ii. 247

Bonnet, his philosophy, i. 71

Bossuet, on the nature of the love we should bear to God, i. 18, _note_

Brephotrophia, in the early church, ii. 32

Brotherhood, effect of Christianity in promoting, ii. 61

Brown, on the motive for the practice of virtue, i. 8, _note_.

On theological Utilitarianism, 16, _note_

Brunehaut, Queen, her crimes, approved of by the Pope, ii. 236, 237.

Her end, 237

Brutus, his extortionate usury, i. 193, 194

Buckle, Thomas, his remarks on morals, i. 74, _note_.

On the difference between mental and physical pleasures, 90, _note_.

His views of the comparative influence of intellectual and moral

agencies in civilisation, 103, _note_

Bull-baiting in England, ii. 175, _note_

Bulgarians, their conversion to Christianity, ii. 180

Butler, Bishop, maintains the reality of the existence of benevolence in

our nature, i. 20, 21, _note_.

On the pleasure derived from virtue, 32, _note_.

His analysis of moral judgments, 76.

His definition of conscience, 83

Byzantine Empire, general sketch of the moral condition of the, ii. 13,

14.

Moral condition of the empire during the Christian period, 147

Cædmon, story of the origin of his “Creation of the World,” ii. 204

Cæsar, Julius, denies the immortality of the soul, i. 182.

His condemnation of suicide, 213.

His colonial policy, 233.

His multiplication of gladiatorial shows, 273

Caligula, his intoxication with his imperial dignity, i. 259.

His superstitious fears, 367

Calvinists: tendency of the Supralapsarian to deny the existence of a

moral sense, i. 17, _note_

Camma, conjugal fidelity of, ii. 341

Capital punishment, aversion to, ii. 39

Carlyle, Thomas, on self-sacrifice, i. 57, _note_.

The influence of conscience on the happiness of men, 62

Carneades, his expulsion from Rome proposed by Cato, i. 399

Carpocrates, licentiousness of the followers of, i. 417

Carthage, effect of the destruction of, on the decadence of Rome, i. 169.

The Decian persecution at, 452

Carthaginians, the, amongst the most prominent of Latin writers, i. 235

Cassius, the tyrannicide, his suicide, i. 215

Castellio, his exposure of the forgeries of the Sibylline books, i. 377

Catacombs, the, i. 453, 455

Catholicism, Roman, the system of education adopted by, contrasted with

that of the English public schools, i. 114.

Conflict of the priests with political economists on the subject of

early marriages, 114, 115.

The teaching of, on many points the extreme antithesis of that of the

pagan philosophers, 208.

Its view of death, 208, 210.

Little done by it for humanity to animals, ii. 173, 177, 188.

Influence on despotism, 186.

Its total destruction of religious liberty, 194-199.

Causes of the indifference to truth manifested in its literature, 241.

Protestantism contrasted with it, 368

Cato, his refusal to consult the oracles, i. 165, _note_.

His stoicism, 185.

His inhumanity to his slaves, 193.

His study of the “Phædon” the night he committed suicide, 212.

His opposition to Greek philosophy, 231.

His view of pre-nuptial chastity, ii. 314

Cattle plague, theological notions respecting the, i. 356

Catullus, on the death of a sparrow, ii. 165, _note_

Cautinus, Bishop, his drunkenness, ii. 236

Celibacy among the ancients, i. 106.

The Catholic monastic system, 107.

How discouraged by Augustus, 232.

Celibacy the primal virtue of the Christians of the fourth and fifth

centuries, ii. 122.

Effect of this upon moral teaching, 122, 123.

History of the celibacy of the clergy, 328, 336

Celsus calls the Christians Sibyllists, i. 376.

And jugglers, 384

Celts, Spanish, their worship of death, i. 206, 207.

Causes of their passion for suicide, 207, _note_.

Their lamentations on the birth of men, 207, _note_

Censors, Roman, minute supervision of the, i. 168

Character, influence of, on opinion, i. 172.

Governed in a great measure by national circumstances, 172

Chariot races, passion for, at Constantinople, ii. 37

Charity, a form of self-love, according to the Utilitarians, i. 9, and

_note_.

Impossibility of charity becoming a pleasure if practised only with a

view to that end, 36.

Charity of the Stoics, 191.

Cicero’s emphatic assertion of the duty, 240.

Exertions of the Christians in the cause of charity, ii. 75, 79.

Inadequate place given to this movement in history, 84, 85.

Christian charity, in what it consists, 73.

Laws of the Romans, 73.

Pagan examples of charity, 78.

Noble enthusiasm of the Christians in the cause of charity, 78, 79.

Charity enjoined as a matter of justice, 81.

Theological notions of charity, 85, 90, 91.

Evils of Catholic charity, 93-94.

Legends respecting the virtue, 245, and _note_

Charlemagne, his law respecting Sunday, ii. 245.

Fascination exercised by him over the popular imagination, 271, 272.

His polygamy, 343

Charles V., the Emperor, his law against beggars, ii. 97

Charles Martel, his defeat of the Mohammedans, at Poictiers, ii. 273

Charondas, law of, on second marriages, ii. 325, _note_

Chastity, in Utilitarian systems, i. 12, 49.

Sketch of the history of, 103-107.

The Catholic monastic system, 107.

Modern judgments of, ii. 282, 283.

Cato’s views, 314.

Mystical views, 315.

Services of the ascetics in enforcing the duty of chastity, 318-320

Children, charge of murdering infants, among the early Christians, i. 417.

Abortion, ii. 20-24.

Infanticide, 24, 26.

Exposed children, 32.

Institutions of the Romans for the benefit of children, 77

Chilon, his closing hours, i. 207

Cholera, theological notions respecting the, i. 356

Christian and pagan virtues compared, i. 190

Christianity; distinctions between the pagan and Christian conceptions of

death, i. 208.

The importance of Christianity not recognised by pagan writers, 336.

Causes of this, 338.

Examination of the theory which ascribes part of the teaching of the

later pagan moralists to Christian influence, 340.

Theory which attributes the conversion of Rome to evidences of miracles,

346.

Opinion of the pagans about the credulity of the Christians, 347.

Incapacity of the Christians of the third century for judging historic

miracles, 375.

And for judging prophecies, 376.

Contemporary miracles represented as existing among them, 377.

Christian miracles had probably little weight with the pagans, 385.

Progress of Christianity to what due, 386, 387.

Singular adaptation of it to the wants of the time, 387.

Heroism it inspired, 390.

Explanation of the conversion of the Roman Empire, 393.

Account of the persecutions of the Christians, 395.

Reasons why the Christians were more persecuted than the Jews, 403, 406,

407.

The first cause of the persecution of the Christians, 406.

Charges of immorality brought against them, 414.

Due in a great measure to Jews and heretics, 416, 417.

The disturbance of domestic life caused by female conversions, 418.

Antipathy of the Romans to every system which employed religious

terrorism, 421.

Christian intolerance of pagan worship, 423.

And of diversity of belief, 424-427.

History of the persecutions, 429.

Nero’s, 429.

Domitian’s, 431.

Condition of the Christians under the Antonines, 434.

Become profoundly obnoxious to the people, 436.

Marcus Aurelius, 439, 440.

Introduction of Christianity into France, 442, and _note_.

Attitude of the rulers towards it from M. Aurelius to Decius, 451, _et

seq._

Condition of the Church on the eve of the Decian persecution, 448.

Gallus, 454.

Valerian, 454.

Gallienus, 455.

Erection of churches in the Empire, 457.

Persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius, 458.

End of the persecutions, 463.

Massacre of Christians in Phrygia, 464.

Moral efficacy of the Christian sense of sin, ii. 3.

Dark views of human nature not common in the early Church, 5.

The penitential system, 6.

Empire Christianity attained in eliciting disinterested enthusiasm, 8.

Great purity of the early Christians, 10, 11.

The promise of the Church for many centuries falsified, 12.

The first consequence of Christianity a new sense of the sanctity of

human life, 17.

Influence in the protection of infant life, 20-32.

In the suppression of gladiatorial shows, 34.

Its effect upon persecutions, 40, _et seq._

The penal code not lightened by it, 42.

Condemnation of suicide, 43.

Second consequence of Christianity Teaches universal brotherhood, 61.

Slavery, 61-66.

Ransom of captives, 72.

Charity, 73.

Exertions of the Christians in the cause of charity, 75, 79.

Their exertions when the Empire was subverted, 81, 82, 88.

Theological notions concerning insanity, 85-90.

Almsgiving, 90-92.

Beneficial effect of Christianity in supplying pure images to the

imagination, 99.

Summary of the philanthropic achievements of Christianity, 100.

Ways in which the ascetic mode of life affected both the ideal type and

realised condition of morals, 122, _et seq._

History of the relations of Christianity to the civic virtues, 140.

Improvements effected by Christianity in the morals of the people, 153.

Attitude of Christianity to the barbarians, 178.

How it achieved their conversion, 179-181.

Tendency of the barbarians to adulterate it, 181.

Legends of the conflict between the old gods and the new faith, 181.

Fierce hatred of rival sects, and total destruction of religious

liberty, 194, 200.

Polytheistic and idolatrous form of Christianity in mediæval times, 229.

The doctrine of purgatory, 232.

Benefits conferred by the monasteries, 243-245.

The observance of Sunday, 245.

Influence of Christianity upon war, 254, 259.

Upon the consecration of secular rank, 260, _et seq._

Upon the condition of women, 316, _et seq._

Strong assertion of the equality of obligation in marriage, 345, 346.

Relation of Christianity to the female virtues, 358, _et seq._

Chrysippus on the immortality of the soul, i. 183

Chrysostom, St., his labours for monachism, ii. 107.

His treatment of his mother, 132

Cicero on the evidence of a Divine element within us, i. 56, _note_.

His definition of conscience, 83.

His conception of the Deity, 164.

His opinion of the popular beliefs, 165.

Instance of his love of truth, 176, _note_.

His desire for posthumous reputation, 185, _note_.

His declaration as to virtue concealing itself from the world, 185.

His belief in the immortality of the soul, 204.

His view of death, 205, 206.

His complacency on the approach of death, 207.

His conception of suicide, 213.

His maintenance of the doctrine of universal brotherhood, 240.

How he regarded the games of the arena, 285.

His friendship with his freedman Tiro, 323.

His remarks on charity, ii. 79.

His rules respecting almsgiving, 92

Circumcelliones, atrocities of the, ii. 41.

Their custom of provoking martyrdom, 49

Civic virtues, predominance accorded to, in ancient ethics, i. 200

Civilisation, refining influence of, on taste, i. 79.

Pleasures of a civilised and semi-civilised society compared, 86.

Views of Mill and Buckle on the comparative influence of intellectual

and moral agencies in, 102, _note_.

Effect of education in diminishing cruelty, and producing charity, 134.

Moral enthusiasm appropriate to different stages of civilisation, 136.

Increase of veracity with civilisation, 137.

Each stage of civilisation specially appropriate to some virtue, 147

Clarke, on moral judgments, i. 77

Classical literature, preservation of, ii. 199.

Manner in which it was regarded by the Church, 200-204

Claudius, his delight in gladiatorial shows, i. 280.

His decree as to slaves, 307

Claver, Father, his remark on some persons who had delivered a criminal

into the hands of justice, i. 41, _note_

Cleanthes, his suicide, i. 212

Clemency, Seneca’s distinction between it and pity, i. 189

Clement of Alexandria, on the two sources of all the wisdom of antiquity,

i. 344.

On the Sibylline books, 376.

On wigs, ii. 149

Clemens, Flavius, put to death, i. 433

Cleombrotus, his suicide, i. 212, _note_

Clergy, corruption of the, from the fourth century, ii. 150, 237.

Submission of the Eastern, but independence of the Western, clergy to

the civil power, 264-268.

History of their celibacy, 328

Climate, effects of, in stimulating or allaying the passions, i. 144

Clotaire, his treatment of Queen Brunehaut, ii. 237

Clotilda, her conversion of her husband, i. 410; ii. 180

Clovis, his conversion, i. 410; ii. 180.

Gregory of Tours’ account of his acts, 240, 241

Cock-fighting among the ancients and moderns, ii. 164, and _note_, 175,

_note_

Cock-throwing, ii. 164, _note_, 175, _note_

Coemgenus, St., legend of, ii. 111, _note_

Coleridge, S. T., his remarks on the practice of virtue as a pleasure, i.

28, _note_.

His admiration for Hartley, 28, _note_.

On the binding ground of the belief of God and a hereafter, i. 55,

_note_

Colman, St., his animal companions, ii. 170.

His girdle, 319, _note_

Colonies, Roman, the cosmopolitan spirit forwarded by the aggrandisement

of the, i. 233

Colosseum, the, i. 275.

Games at the dedication of the, 280

Columbanus, St., his missionary labours, ii. 246

Comedy, Roman, short period during which it flourished, i. 277

Comet, a temple erected by the Romans in honour of a, i. 367

Commodus, his treatment of the Christians, i. 443

Compassion, theory that it is the cause of our acts of barbarity, i. 71,

Concubines, Roman, ii. 350

Concupiscence, doctrine of the Fathers respecting, ii. 281

Condillac, cause of the attractiveness of utilitarianism to, i. 71.

Connection with Locke, i. 122, _note_

Confessors, power of the, in the early Church, i. 390, and _note_

Congo, Helvétius, on a custom of the people of, i. 102, _note_

Conquerors, causes of the admiration of, i. 94, 95

Conscience, association of ideas generating, i. 28.

Recognised by the disciples of Hartley, 29.

Definitions of Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, and Bain, 29, _note_.

The rewards and punishments of conscience, 60-62.

Unique position of, in our nature, 83.

As defined by Cicero, the Stoics, St. Paul, and Butler, 83

Consequences, remote, weakness of the utilitarian doctrine of, i. 42-44

“Consolations,” literature of, leading topics of, i. 204

Constantine, the Emperor, his foundation of the empire of the East, ii.

12.

His humane policy towards children, 29, 30.

His sanction of the gladiatorial shows, 35.

His laws mitigating the severity of punishments, 42.

His treatment of slaves, 64.

His law respecting Sunday, 244.

Magnificence of his court at Constantinople, 265

Conventual system, effect of the suppression of the, on women, ii. 369

Cordeilla, or Cordelia, her suicide, ii. 53, _note_

Corinth, effect of the conquest of, on the decadence of Rome, i. 169

Cornelia, a vestal virgin, incident of her execution, ii. 318, _note_

Cornelius, the bishop, martyrdom of, i. 454

Cornutus, his disbelief in a future state, i. 183

Corporations, moral qualities of, i. 152

Councils of the Church, character of the, ii. 197, _note_

Courtesans, Greek, ii. 287.

Causes of their elevation, 291-294.

How regarded by the Romans, 300

Cousin, Victor, his criticism of the Scotch moralists, i. 74, _note_.

His objection against Locke, 75, _note_

Crantor, originates the literature of “Consolations,” i. 204

Cremutius Cordus, trial of, i. 448, _note_

Crime, value attached by the monks to pecuniary compensations for, ii.

213.

Catalogue of crimes of the seventh century, 237-239

Criminals, causes of our indulgent judgment of, i. 135

Critical spirit, the, destroyed by Neoplatonism, i. 330

Cromaziano, his history of suicide, i. 216, _note_

Cruelty, origin and varieties of, i. 132, 134.

Cruelty to animals, utilitarian doctrine concerning, 46, 47

Crusius, his adherence to the opinion of Ockham as to the foundation of

the moral law, i. 17, _note_

Cudworth, his analysis of moral judgments, i. 76

Culagium, a tax levied on the clergy, ii. 330

Cumberland, Bishop, his unselfish view of virtue, i. 19, _note_

Cynics, account of the later, i. 309

Cyprian, St., his evasion of persecution by flight, i. 452.

His exile and martyrdom, 455

Cyzicus deprived of its freedom, i. 259

Dæmons, Apuleius’ disquisition on the doctrine of, i. 323.

The doctrine supersedes the Stoical naturalism, i. 331.

The dæmons of the Greeks and Romans, 380.

And of the Christians, 382

Dale, Van, his denial of the supernatural character of the oracles, i. 374

Dead, Roman worship of the, i. 168

Death, calmness with which some men of dull and animal natures can meet,

i. 89.

Frame of mind in which a man should approach death, according to

Epictetus, 195.

Preparation for death one of the chief ends of the philosophy of the

ancients, 202.

Bacon’s objection to the Stoics’ view of, 202.

The Irish legend of the islands of life and death, 203.

The literature of “Consolations,” 204.

Death not regarded by the philosophers as penal, 205.

Popular terrors of death, 205, 206.

Instances of tranquil pagan deaths, 207.

Distinctions between the pagan and Christian conceptions of death, 208

Decius, persecution of the Christians under, i. 449, 450

Defoe, Daniel, his tract against beggars, ii. 98, and _note_

Delphi, oracle of, its description of the best religion, i. 167

Deogratias, his ransom of prisoners, ii. 72

Despotism, Helvétius’ remarks on the moral effects of, i. 129, _note_

Diagoras, his denial of the existence of the gods, i. 162

Diodorus, the philosopher, his suicide, i. 215

Dion Chrysostom, his denunciation of images of the Deity, i. 166, 167,

_note_.

His life and works, 312

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the creed of the Romans, i. 167

Disinterestedness, Bentham’s remarks on, quoted, i. 32, _note_

Disposition, what constitutes, according to the theory of association, i.

Divination, a favourite subject of Roman ridicule, i. 166.

Belief of the ancients in, 363

Divorce, unbounded liberty of, among the Romans, ii. 306-308.

Condemned by the Church, 350, 351

Docetæ, their tenets, ii. 102

Dog-star, legend of the, ii. 162

Dolphin, legends of the, ii. 162, and _note_

Domestic laws, Roman, changes in, i. 297, 298

Domestic virtues, destruction of the, by the ascetics, ii. 125

Domitian, his law respecting suicide, i. 219.

Anecdote of his cruelty, 289.

His law as to slaves, 307.

His persecution of the Stoics and Christians, 431, 432

Domitilla, banishment of, i. 433

Domnina, her suicide with her daughters, ii. 46

Donatists, their intolerance, ii. 195

Dowry of women, rise of the, ii. 277 and _note_

Dreams, opinions of the Romans concerning, i. 366, 367, _note_

Dumont, M., on vengeance quoted, i. 41, _note_

Duty, theory of morals must explain what is, and the notion of there being

such a thing as, i. 5.

Paley on the difference between it and prudence, 15, 16, _note_.

Distinction between natural duties and those resting on positive law,

93.

Duty a distinct motive, 180

Dwarfs, combats of, in the arena, i. 281

Earthquakes, how regarded by the ancients, i. 369.

Cause of persecutions of the Christians, 408

Easter controversy, bitterness of the, ii. 198

Eclectic school of philosophy, rise of the, i. 242.

Its influence on the Stoics, 245

Eclipses, opinions of the ancients concerning, i. 366

Education, importance ascribed to, by the theory of the association of

ideas, i. 30.

Contrast between that adopted by the Catholic priesthood and that of the

English public schools, 114.

Its influence on the benevolent feelings, 133, 134.

Two distinct theories of, 187

Egypt, the cradle of monachism, ii. 105.

The Mohammedan conquest of, 143.

Triumphs of the Catholics in, 196

Egyptians, their reverence for the vulture, i. 108, _note_.

Their kindness to animals, 289.

Contrast of the spirit of their religion with that of the Greeks, 324.

Difference between the Stoical and Egyptian pantheism, 325

Elephants, legends of, ii. 161

Emperors, Roman, apotheosis of, i. 170, 257

Endura, the Albigensian practice of, ii. 49

England, national virtues and vices of, i. 153.

Ancient amusements of, ii. 174, 175, _note_

Ephrem, St., his charity, ii. 81

Epictetus, his disbelief in a future state, i. 183.

His life and works, 184, and _note_.

On the frame of mind in which a man should approach death, 195.

His views of the natural virtue of man, 198.

On suicide, 214, _note_, 220.

On universal brotherhood, 254.

His stoicism tempered by a milder and more religious spirit, 245, 246.

His remarks on national religious beliefs, 405

Epicureans, their faith preserved unchanged at Athens, i. 128, and _note_.

Their scepticism, 162.

Roman Epicureans, 162, 163.

Epicureanism the expression of a type of character different from

Stoicism, 171, 172.

But never became a school of virtue in Rome, 175.

Destructive nature of its functions, 176.

Esteemed pleasure as the ultimate end of our actions, 186.

Encouraged physical science, 193.

Their doctrine as to suicide, 214, 215, _note_

Epicurus, the four canons of, i. 14.

Vast place occupied by his system in the moral history of man, 171.

His character, 175, 176, _note_.

Lucretius’ praise of him, 197.

His view of death, 205.

Discovery of one of his treatises at Herculaneum, 205, _note_

Epidemics, theological notions respecting, i. 356

Epiphanius, St., his miraculous stories, i. 378.

His charges against the Gnostics, 417.

Legend of him and St. Hilarius, ii. 159

Epponina, story of her conjugal fidelity, ii. 342

Error, the notion of the guilt of, ii. 190-193

Essenes, virginity their ideal of sanctity, i. 109, ii. 102

Euhemerus, his explanation of the legends, i. 163

Euphrates the Stoic, his answer to Pliny the Younger, i. 202.

Has permission from Hadrian to commit suicide, 218, _note_

Euphraxia, St., ii. 110

Euripides, beauty of the gentler virtues inculcated in the plays of, i.

228

Eusebius, on the allegorical and mythical interpretations of paganism, i.

163, _note_.

His account of the Christian persecutions, i. 463

Eusebius, St., his penances, ii. 108

Eustathius, condemnation of, by the council of Gangra, ii. 131

Evagrius, his inhumanity to his parents, ii. 125

Evil, views of Hobbes and the Utilitarians of the essence and origin of,

i. 8-10

Excellence, supreme, how far it is conducive to happiness, i. 56

Excommunication, penalties of, ii. 7

Executioners, always regarded as unholy, i. 41

Exorcism, among the early Christians, i. 378, 380.

Origin of the notions of possession and exorcism, 380.

Jews the principal exorcists, 380.

Belief of the early Christians in, 382.

Contempt of the pagans for it, 384.

Ulpian’s law against exorcists, 384.

Probable explanation of possession and exorcism, 385.

Speedy decline of exorcism, 385.

The practice probably had no appreciable influence in provoking

persecution of the Christians, 420

Experience, general statement of the doctrine which bases morals upon, i.

Fabianus, martyrdom of, i. 446

Fabiola, founded the first public hospital, ii. 80

Fabius, his self-sacrifice, i. 185

Fabius Pictor, his works written in Greek, i. 230

Faculty, moral, the term, i. 75

Fairies, belief in, i. 348, 349

Fatalism, Æschylus the poet of, i. 196

Felicitas, St., her martyrdom, i. 444.

In prison, ii. 9

Fénelon, on the unselfish love we should bear to God, i. 18, _note_

Fetishism, latent, the root of a great part of our opinions, i. 350

Fidenæ, accident at the amphitheatre at, i. 275

Fights, sham, in Italy in the middle ages, ii. 37, 38

Fire, regarded by the ancients as an emblem of virginity, i. 108, _note_

Fish, symbol of the early Christians, i. 376

Flamens of Jupiter, ii. 298

Flora, games of, i. 276

Forethought, brought into a new position by industrial habits, i. 140

Foundlings, hospitals for, ii. 23, _note_, 32.

In ancient times, 28, 29.

Adversaries of, 98, and _note_

France, condition of, under the Merovingian kings, ii. 236, _note_

Francis of Assisi, St., story of his death from asceticism, ii. 49.

His kindness to animals, 172

Franks, cause of their conversion, i. 410

Frédégonde, Queen, her crimes, ii. 236, 237

Freedmen, influence of, at Rome, i. 233.

Condition of the freedmen of the Romans, 236

Frenchmen, the chief national virtues and causes of their influence in

Europe, i. 152.

Compared with Anglo-Saxon nations, 153

Friendship, Utilitarian view of, i. 10

Galerius, his persecution of the Christians, i. 458, 461.

His illness, 462.

Relents towards the Christians, 462

Galilæans, their indifference to death, i. 392, _note_

Gall, St., legend of, ii. 182.

His missionary labours, 247

Gallienus, proclaims toleration to the Christians, i. 455, 457

Gallus, the Emperor, persecutions of the Christians under, i. 454

Gambling-table, moral influence of the, i. 148

Gaul, introduction of Christianity into, i. 442.

Foundation of the monastic system in, ii. 106.

Long continuance of polygamy among the kings of, 343

Gay, his view of the origin of human actions, quoted, i. 8, _note_.

His suggestion of the theory of association, 23, 24

Genseric, effect of his conquest of Africa upon Italy, ii. 82.

His capture of Rome, 83

George of Cappadocia, his barbarity, ii. 195

Germanicus, the Emperor, fury of the populace with the gods, in

consequence of the death of, i. 169

Germanus, St., his charity, ii. 245

Germany, conversion of, to Christianity, ii. 246.

Marriage customs of the early Germans, 278.

Their chastity, 340, 341

Gervasius, St., recovery of his remains, i. 379.

Girdles of chastity, ii. 319, _note_

Gladiatorial shows, influence of Christianity on the suppression of, i.

34.

Reasons why the Romans saw nothing criminal in them, 101.

History and effect on the Romans of, 271-283.

How regarded by moralists and historians, 284.

The passion for them not inconsistent with humanity in other spheres,

288.

Gnostics, accusations against the, by the early Fathers, i. 417.

Their tenets, ii. 102

God, the Utilitarian view of the goodness of, i. 9, and _note_.

Question of the disinterestedness of the love we should bear to, 18.

Our knowledge of Him derived from our own moral nature, 55.

Early traces of an all-pervading soul of nature in Greece, 161, 162,

170.

Philosophic definitions of the Deity, 162, _note_.

Pantheistic conception of, by the Stoics and Platonists, 163.

Recognition of Providence by the Roman moralists, 196.

Two aspects under which the Stoics worshipped the Divinity—providence

and moral goodness, 198

Gods, the, of the ancients, i. 161, _et seq._

Euhemerus’ theory of the explanation of the prevailing legends of the

gods, 163.

Views of Cicero of the popular beliefs, 165.

Opinions of the Stoics, of Ovid, and of Horace, 166.

Nature of the gods of the Romans, 167.

Decline of Roman reverence for the gods, 168, 169

Good, pleasure equivalent to, according to the Utilitarians, i. 8, _note_,

Gracchi, colonial policy of the, i. 233

Grazers, sect of, ii. 109

Greeks, ancient, their callous murder of children, i. 45, 46.

Low state of female morality among them.

Their enforcement of monogamy, 104.

Celibacy of some of their priests and priestesses, 105.

Early traces of a religion of nature, 161.

Universal providence attributed to Zeus, 161.

Scepticism of the philosophers, 161, 162.

Importance of biography in the moral teaching of the, i. 74.

Difference between the teaching of the Roman moralists and the Greek

poets, 195.

On death, and future punishment, 205, 206.

Greek suicides, 212.

Gentleness and humanity of the Greek character, 227.

Influence on Roman character, 227, 228.

The Greek spirit at first as far removed from cosmopolitanism as that of

Rome, 228.

Causes of Greek cosmopolitanism, 229.

Extent of Greek influence at Rome, 230.

Gladiatorial shows among them, 276.

Spirit of their religion contrasted with that of the Egyptians, 324.

Their intolerance of foreign religions, 406.

Condition and fall of their empire of the East, ii. 12-14.

Their practice of infanticide, 25-27.

Their treatment of animals, 164.

Their treatment of prisoners taken in war, 257, 258.

Their marriage customs, 277.

Women in the poetic age, 278.

Peculiarity of Greek feelings on the position of women, 280, 281.

Unnatural forms assumed by vice amongst them, 294

Gregory the Great, his contempt for Pagan literature, ii. 201, _note_.

His attitude towards Phocas, 264

Gregory of Nyssa, St., his eulogy of virginity, ii. 322

Gregory of Tours, manner in which he regarded events, ii. 240-242, 261,

277

Grotesque, or eccentric, pleasure derived from the, compared with that

from beauty, i. 85

Gundebald, his murders approved of by his bishop, ii. 237

Gunpowder, importance of the invention of, i. 126

Guy, Brother, his society for protection and education of children, ii.

33, and _note_

Hadrian, the Emperor, his view of suicide, i. 219.

Gives Euphrates permission to destroy himself, 218, _note_.

His laws respecting slaves, 307.

His leniency towards Christianity, 438.

His benevolence, ii. 77

Hair, false, opinions of the Fathers on, ii. 149

Hall, Robert, on theological Utilitarianism, i. 15 _note_

“Happiness, the greatest, for the greatest number,” theory of the, i. 3.

The sole end of human actions, according to the Utilitarians, 8, _note_.

The best man seldom the happiest, 69.

Mental compared with physical happiness, 87.

Influence of health and temperament on happiness, 88, and _note_

Hartley, his doctrine of association, i. 22.

Coleridge’s admiration for him, 28, _note_.

On animal food, 48, _note_.

His attempt to evade the conclusion to which his view leads, quoted, 67,

_note_.

His definition of conscience, 82

Hegesias, the orator of death, i. 215

Heliogabalus, his blasphemous orgies, i. 260

Hell, monkish visions of, ii. 221 and _note_.

Glimpses of the infernal regions furnished by the “Dialogues” of St.

Gregory, 221.

Modern publications on this subject, 223, _note_

Helvétius, on the origin of human actions, i. 8, _note_.

On customs of the people of Congo and Siam, 102, _note_.

Compared with Aulus Gellius, 313

Herbert, of Cherbury, Lord, his profession of the doctrine of innate

ideas, i. 123

Hercules, meaning of, according to the Stoics, i. 163

Hereford, Nicholas of, his opposition to indiscriminate alms, ii. 96

Heresy, punishment of death for, i. 98; ii. 40

Hermits. _See_ Asceticism; Monasticism

Heroism, the Utilitarian theory unfavourable to, i. 66.

War, the school of heroism, 173

Hilarius, St., legend of him and St. Epiphanius, ii. 159

Hildebrand, his destruction of priestly marriage, ii. 322

Hippopotamus, legend of the, ii. 161

Historical literature, scantiness of, after the fall of the Roman empire,

ii. 235

Hobbes, Thomas, his opinions concerning the essence and origin of virtue,

i. 7, 8, _note_.

His view of the origin of human actions, quoted, 8, _note_.

His remarks on the goodness which we apprehend in God, quoted, 9,

_note_.

And on reverence, 9, _note_.

On charity, 9, 10, _note_.

On pity, 10, _note_.

Review of the system of morals of his school, 11.

Gives the first great impulse to moral philosophy in England, 19,

_note_.

His denial of the reality of pure benevolence, 20, 21.

His definition of conscience, 29, _note_.

His theory of compassion, 72, _note_

Holidays, importance of, to the servile classes, ii. 244

Homer, his views of human nature and man’s will, i. 196

Horace, his ridicule of idols, i. 166.

His description of the just man, 197

Hospitality enjoined by the Romans, ii. 79

Hospitals, foundation of the first, ii. 80, 81

Human life, its sanctity recognised by Christianity, ii. 18.

Gradual acquirement of this sense, 18

Human nature, false estimate of, by the Stoics, i. 192

Hume, David, his theory of virtue, i. 4.

Misrepresented by many writers, 4.

His recognition of the reality of benevolence in our nature, 20, and

_note_.

His comment on French licentiousness in the eighteenth century, 50,

_note_.

His analysis of the moral judgments, 76.

Lays the foundation for a union of the schools of Clarke and

Shaftesbury, 77

Humility, new value placed upon it by monachism, ii. 185, 187

Hutcheson, Francis, his doctrine of a “moral sense,” i. 4.

Establishes the reality of the existence of benevolence in our nature,

20.

His analysis of moral judgments, 76

Hypatia, murder of, ii. 196

Iamblichus, his philosophy, i. 330

History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 2 of 2) · 第 8 / 11 章

As a part of the same movement, the purely civil marriage of the later