Before we consider woman’s position in Christianity, we must take a
glance at her status among another important branch of the Aryan race,
the =Germans=.
As is familiar to every student of history, the Germans are indebted to
an alien, the Roman Tacitus, for the best account of the character and
manners of their ancestors. In his famous book “Germania” he describes
them as a pure and unmixed race and gives many valuable particulars
about their family life. He says: “Matrimony is the most respected of
their institutions. They are almost the only barbarians who are content
with one wife. Very few among them are exceptions to this rule and then
they do so not for sensuality but for political considerations. The
young men marry late, and their vigor is unimpaired. Nor are the maidens
hurried into marriage. Well-matched and in full health they wed, and
their offspring reproduce the strength of their parents. The wife does
not bring a dowry to the man, but the husband to his bride. These
presents are not trinkets to please female vanity or to serve for
adornment, but on the contrary, they consist of cattle, a bridled horse,
and a shield with sword and spear. While the wife is welcomed with such
gifts, she too presents her husband with a piece of armor. All these
things are held sacred as a mysterious symbol of matrimony. Lest the
wife should think that she is shut out from heroic aspirations and from
the perils of war, she is reminded by the ceremony which inaugurates
marriage that now she is her husband’s partner in his toil as well as in
all danger, and destined to share with him in peace and in war alike.
This is the meaning of the yoked oxen, the bridled horse and the
weapons. And she must live and die with the feeling that the weapons she
has received, have to be handed down untarnished and undepreciated to
her sons, from whom they are to pass to her daughters-in-law, and again
to the grandchildren.
“So the wife lives under the protection of clean manners, uncorrupted by
the allurements of voluptuous comedies or licentious festivals.
Clandestine communication by letters is absolutely unknown. Adultery
among this numerous people is exceedingly rare. Its punishment is left
to the husband and quickly executed. In the presence of her relatives
the guilty woman is kicked out of the house, naked and with her hair
cut. And thus she is whipped through the whole village. Loss of chastity
finds no excuse. Neither beauty nor youth nor wealth wins the culprit a
husband, because no one indulges in vice or pardons seduction. Blessed
the country where only virgins enter matrimony and where their vow to
the husband is binding and final for all time. As they are born only
once so are they married but once and they devote themselves to their
husband as well as to the duties of matrimony. To limit the number of
children or to kill one of them is regarded as a sacrilege. Thus good
habits accomplish more here than good laws in other countries.”
Tacitus as well as other Roman writers state likewise that the women
frequently accompanied the men in times of war and encouraged them in
battle by their cheers and actions. “They always stay near them, so that
the warriors may hear the voices of their wives and the wailing of their
children. Women’s approval and praise is to the men of the highest
value. To their mothers and wives they come with their wounds for
relief, and the women do not hesitate to count the gashes, and dress the
wounds. The women also encourage the men while they are fighting, and
provide them with food and water. We have been told that wavering battle
lines were made to stand fast by women, who with bare breasts mingled
with the warriors and admonished them by their cries to new
resistance.”—
[Illustration: