"In this tendency [to depreciate extremely the character and position
of women] we may detect in part the influence of the earlier Jewish
writings, in which it is probable that most impartial observers will
detect evident traces of the common oriental depreciation of women.
The custom of money-purchase to the father of the bride was admitted.
Polygamy was authorized, and practised by the wisest men on an enormous
scale. A woman was regarded as the origin of human ills. A period of
purification was appointed after the birth of every child; but, _by a
very significant provision, it was twice as long in the case of a female
as of a male child_ (Levit. xii. 1-5). _The badness of men_, a Jewish
writer emphatically declared, _is better than the goodness of women_
(Ecclesiasticus xlii. 14). The types of female excellence exhibited in
the early period of Jewish history are in general _of a low order, and
certainly far inferior_ to those of Roman history or Greek poetry; and
_the warmest eulogy of a woman in the Old Testament is probably
that which was bestowed upon her who, with circumstances of the most
exaggerated treachery, had murdered the sleeping fugitive who had taken
refuge under her roof,_"--Lecky, "European Morals," vol 1, p. 357.
Appendix L.
1. "Mr. F. Newman, who looks on toleration as the result of intellectual
progress, says: 'Nevertheless, not only does the Old Testament justify
bloody persecution, but the New teaches that God will visit men with
fiery vengeance _for holding an erroneous creed_."--Buckle.
2. "The first great consequence of the decline of priestly influence was
the rise of toleration.... I suspect that the _impolicy_ of persecution
was perceived before its wickedness. "--Ibid.
3. "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_."--Lechy.
4. "The domestic unhappiness arising from difference of belief
was probably almost or altogether unknown in the world before the
introduction of Christianity.... _The deep, and widening chasm between
the religious opinions of most highly educated men, and of the immense
majority of women is painfully apparent_. Whenever any strong religious
fervor fell upon a husband or a wife, its first effect was to make a
happy union impossible."--Ibid.
5. "The combined influence of the Jewish writings [Old Testament] and
of that ascetic feeling which treated woman as the chief source of
temptation to man, caused her degradation.... In the writings of the
Fathers, woman was represented as the door of hell, as the mother of
all human ills. She should be ashamed at the very thought that she is
a woman. She should live in continual penance, _on account of the curse
she has brought into the world_. She should be ashamed of her dress,
_and especially ashamed of her beauty_."--Ibid.
Appendix M.
1. "The writers of the Middle Ages are full of accounts of nunneries
that were like brothels.... The inveterate prevalence of incest among
the clergy rendered it necessary again and again to issue the most
stringent enactments that priests should not be permitted to live with
their _mothers or sisters_.... An Italian bishop of the tenth century
enigmatically described the morals of his time, when he declared,
that if he were to enforce the canons against unchaste people
administering ecclesiastical rites, no one would be left in the Church
except the boys."--Lecky.
2. In the middle of the sixteenth century ''the majority of the clergy
were nearly illiterate, and many of them addicted to drunkenness and low
vices.--Hallam, "Const. Hist, of Eng."