FEMININE IMAGES IN THE PATRISTIC CHURCH That: got “to chm 05 M. A. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Nancy E. Meulendyke 1968 W IIIIIWMLMWW . 5135.41 3:? __,..._—r—-IuD—"" :g .i. 1...?“ 9 5.... I. .3, .. t F intellec develctr civiliz the Chi order ‘ tries in t1 The iVa‘ FEMININL IMAGES IN THE PATRISTIC CHURCH by Nancy E. Meulendyke Since the sub-Apostolic age was one of moral and intellectual ferment, it was a crucial period for the develOpment of women's rights and status in Western civilization. This study examines Patristic theology on the Church, virginity, marriage, and the Virgin-Mary in order to abstract early Christian feminine ideals. It also tries to determine woman's actual ministry in the Church, and the influence women had on the Fathers. The secondary sources relating to Christian woman in the first five centuries have been examined through 1966. The primary sources, the writings of the Church Fathers aVailable in English, have also been studied to try to determine the overall view of particular Fathers and to seek evidence not available in the secondary sources. Both positive and negative views about women were encountered, bUt the evidence uncovered indicates that due to the very positive influence of Christ and the Apostles on feminine sexuality, the Patristic teaching was favorable to women even when the feelings of some of the Fathers were to the contrary. FEMININE M3655 IN THE PATRISTIC CHURCH BY \ i Nancy BI‘M ulendyke A TbeIS submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER.OF ARTS Department of History 1968 Preface Two events of the past decade prompted the writing of this thesis. The first was the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (New York, 1963). The author challenged the traditional assumptions that there were significant differences between men and women. She concluded that the role one played should be left to choice and not predetermined by society in the name of nature. This prompted me to question sexuality on a deeper level and to study the biological, psychological, religious, and historical roots underlying western sexual mores. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, also in 1963, brought home to me the amount of barbarism and violence in our society and turned my attention from the effects of sexuality on individuals to the needs of society itself for some kind of balance between the pro- gressive, assertive, competitive, masculine qualities and the conservative, civilizing, feminine ones in order to maintain both thrust and equilibrium. Sexual differences Viewed from this perspective did not seem so much the result of cultural prejudices as had been postUIated by Mrs. Friedan, but looked much more like the cosmic forces which the ancient Chinese had called the yin and the yang. iii Because I was looking for sexual ideals as well as masculine and feminine roles in western society, I felt that religious history would be more fruitful than the economic, political, or social spheres. More importantly, I felt that early Christianity would serve as a model of how the masculine Fathers influenced and were influenced by the feminine institution--the Church. iv ACKN OWL E DGM ENTS I wish to thank Dr. Richard E. Sullivan, professor and Chairman of the History Department, for his time and guidance in the preparation of this paper. I am also indebted to the library staffs at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, Princeton Theological Seminary, St. John's Theological Provincial Seminary, Radcliff College, and the State of Michigan for helping me obtain the necessary sources. My deepest thanks go to my family, husband and five children, without whose encouragement, blessings, and helping hands this work could never have been begun. fin. um ESE. fl \- CDC ANF FC NCE NPNF, lst ser. NPNF, 2nd ser. ODCC LIST OF ABBRLVIATIONS The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations Q: the writings g: the fathers down pp A D. 325. Revised and arranged with prefaces and4 notes by A. Cleveland Coxe. 10 vols. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950-51. The American Reprint of the Edingburgh Edition, 1867-97. The Fathers 2; the Church: A New Translation. edited by Ludwig SchOpp, gt a1, 58 vols. New York: CIMA Publishing Co., Inc., 1947- 1966. New Catholic EngyclOQedia. Edited by William J. Mc Donald. 15 vols. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1966. 5 Select Library 9: the Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers 9: the Christian Church: First Series. edited by Philip Schagg. 7 vols. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. berdmans Publish Company, 1956. 5 Select Library 9: the Nicene and Post- Nicene gathers 9f the Christian Church: Second §erie§. 9 vols. bdited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1952—56. The Oxford Dictionary 9; the Christiag Church. Edited by F. L. Cross. London: Oxford University Press, 1958. vi TABLE OF CONTsNTS Page PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii ACKNOWLEDGMdNTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v LIST OF ABSRLVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. CHRISTIAN FEMININE IMAGERY . . . . . . . . . 13 III. VIRGINITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 IV. MARRIAGE .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 V. WOMAN'S MINISTRX IN The CHURCH . . . . . . . 60 VI. ANTI—FERINISM IN THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . 86 VII. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 BIJLIOGRAPHY O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 106 vii CHAPTER I I NT RO DUCT ION This thesis is an attempt to reconstruct the accept— ance or rejection of feminine qualities and attributes during one period in the deveIOpment of Western civilization. It is not just a study of women in the early Christian Church, although it includes that, but it takes up the whole spectrum of feminity--woman's role in marriage, her function in society, and the feminine ideas and ideals which have religious weight behind them. There have been many historical studies of women in Western civilization. There have also been many studies of women's official role in the early Church. Writings on Marian theology are voluminous. But a direct look at the Church in order to determine its role as preserver and teacher of femininity itself has not been attempted. This is becoming of more and more interest today. The principal difference between the feminist move- ments of the late nineteenth and those of the mid-twentieth centuries is that today women are confused about their own sexual identity. Some would go so far as to deny that there are any such things as constituent feminine elements. Seventy years ago this was not overtly questioned: women then merely sought more influence in public life. If it 1 2 could be shown that women had once had an official role to play within the Church hierarchy, this could be used as a wedge for readmittance. The basic research on woman's official function in the Church was done in the late nineteenth century and led to the establishment of deaconesses in the Anglican Church.1 Today woman's public role is only part of a much larger question. Political democracy, socialism, and the feminist movement itself have led to a confusion and blurr- ing of sexual roles. Some women wish to push this to the ultimate extreme by removing every law and custom which differentiates between men and women, even seeking to repeal legislation originally passed to protect women-~such as laws which made it illegal to use women in underground mines. They now call this discrimination. Other men and women have wondered if such a solution would have the desired result of giving woman equal dignity with man. Politics and economics have generally been man's domain, and in these areas he has made up the ground rules. Margaret Meade has pointed out that economic status always goes with the work which men do--even when women fish and men do the beadwork.2 If this is true, woman by competing l“Deaconesses,“ ODCC, p. 377. 2"woman. Position in Society," anyc10pedia 9f the Social Sciences, XV (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1935), p. 440. with her. probi woman man, areas that i the tr comple dualiti that th of the this c1; Church E more tha mOGels f. 1 111ages in itself wo logical a: exPrESSion each other masculine except in h3V€ seen . odlthal f, 3 with man on his terms may find the cards are stacked against her. On such terms she would become a c0py of man and probably an inferior c0py at that. Depth psychology, religion, and literature provide woman with another alternative. Rather than compete with man, she can complement him and even excell in the very areas where he is weakest. The danger here, however, is that in an expanding and technologically oriented society, the traditional feminine qualities cease to be regarded as complementary or even relevant to technocracy. The feninine qualities become inferior attributes and the myth develops that this has always been the case. Only a careful study of the ideals of Western civilization can refute or sustain this claim. An examination of the thought of the Christian Church Fathers seemed the logical place to begin, for they more than any others formed the moral and intellectual models from which Western civilization gradually deveIOped. Before embarking on a discussion of the feminine images in the Christian Church, a definition of the feminine itself would be in order in historical, biological. psycho- logical and theological terms. Femininity is not an absolute expression. Masculinity and feminity are both relative to each other. To be feminine is not to be masculine. To be Inasculine is not to be feminine. Each term is meaningless except in the context of the other. A few anthrOpologists have seen woman's social role purely as the result of cultural forces. They seem to deny that woman has any around She tel chores: the sma passed the wom after t outside and chi rESP-”One. Of 9107131 that th: long be, SUPStant Chapter aCtive 1 EVen mil evidence barbaric has been Civilizil 4 particular role of her own to play--a role determined by her biology or psychology. But in recorded history there does seem to be a certain pattern. The woman was found around the house. She bore and raised the young children. She tended to what have come to be called the domestic chores: cooking, weaving, sewing, housekeeping, tending the small garden and the smaller animals. As the centuries passed and technology changed the work patterns of peOple, the woman continued to be the heart of the home. Even after the industrial revolution when woman was forced to go outside her home to join the labor force, the housekeeping and child-rearing chores continued to be her primary responsibility. Mary Beard has written an interesting study of woman's role in history. She has come to the conclusion that the contention of American feminists that women have long been held in subjection by law and tradition cannot be substantiated by the facts. She fills page after page, chapter after chapter, with examples of women who have been active in religious. economic, social, intellectual, and even military fields. But she concludes after weighing the evidence that while woman has sometimes been engaged in barbaric atrocities, such as murder and war, in the main she has been the promoter and sustainer of the more humane and civilizing activities of mankind.3 3Mary R. Beard, Woman dfi Force ig_§i§tg£y: é Study in Traditions and Realities (New York: The MacMillan Co., I946) . p. 331. real fami lead cern pres: relat ships betwe here 1 domain real 1 ever, he Sai: the pri Many ha' social a if this tive fun However, \ 4 5 Some social scientists have recently begun to realize that there are two kinds of leadership in the family. They now distinguish between the instrumental leadership of the male and the eXpressive leadership of the female.4 Instrumental leadership is primarily con- cerned with the economic well-being of the family. Ex- pressive leadership is leadership in nurture and social relati onships. The nurture of the family and the relation- ships within the family as well as the social relationships between families are not only the domain of the woman, but here the male follows her lead. That this was the woman's domain has been generally acknowledged: that she exercised real leadership here was not always as self-evident. How- ever, Pope Pius XI in 1930 stated this most clearly when he said that "the man has the primacy in ruling, the woman the primacy in love."5 Most obviously woman has a biology of her own. Many have underestimated the effect this biology has on the social and psychological functioning of the female. Even if this biological difference were confined to the reproduc- tive function, the difference would still be significant. Iiowever, medical research has discovered that biological 4”Woman,“ NCE, XIV, 992 quotes. Morris Zelditch, "Role Differentiation in the Nuclear Family: A Comparative Study," Family Socialization and Interaction Process, ed. T. Parsons and R.F. Bowles. 5A3 quoted.in "Woman," NCB, XIV, 992. diffe SEXQa metab rate: tion 1 more I physic stren; can be ant ps cultur the do Charac WhiCh 1 6 differences of the male and the female are not limited to sexual characteristics alone. The woman has a different metabolism, a different chromosomal content, a different rate of reproducing white corpuscles. Her hormones func- tion differently: she has a much greater viability and a more sensitive central nervous system. She is not physically as strong, nor can she work as many hours at strenuous activity as can the male. Every female cell can be recognized as female: The woman also has a differ- ent psychologiCal make—up. Whether this is sex-linked, culturally determined, or a combination of these is outside the domain of this paper. But it is these psychological characteristics even more than the biological ones for which we generally use the term feminine. The German psychologist C. G. Jung has done the pioneer work in the polarity of the human personality. Following in his footsteps and pursuing the feminine prin— ciple even further has been Eric Neumann. In a major work The Great Mother he has analyzed both the positive and negative elements which make up the female psyche and their projection into the symbolic or prototype. According to Dr. Neumann there are two fundamental traits which make up the feminine -- the elementary character of containment and the secondary character of develOpment or transition. 'The elementary character is the womb: the Great Round: the conservative, possessive, stable container. The second character is the drive to develOpment, movement, unrest: 7 it fascinates, sets personality in motion, and produces change. These two characteristics are.sometimes antagonistic and sometimes interpenetrating, but both are basic to the female spirit.6 The basic feminine functions correspond to this spirit, for these functions are first 3g gigs life, nourishment, warmth, protection, and secondly to foster growth.7 - Beyond these first two constitutions of the feminine which are omnipresent, is the feminine spiritual principle which has the function of spiritual transformation. This is the Sphere of the religious mysteries. Fruit, birth, re- birth, immortality tend toward the Mother pole: wisdom, vision, inepiration, and ecstacy belong to the transformation character.8 Beyond this level is the mystical sphere where the feminine becomes concept and allegoryg. This is the realm of Mary, SOphia, the Virgin-Mother.lo 6Eric Neumann, The §£§§E gother, tr. Ralph Monheim (New York: Bollinger Foundation, Inc., 1963), facing p.24. 7I'bid. , p. 43. 81bid., facing p.82. 9.1.1229. p. 78. loin the fourth circle polarity has been transcended and the negative characteristics have disappeared. This is the realm beyond good and evil, male and female, virgin and mother. In this sphere virginity symbolizes complete Open- ness to God. 8 While the first feminine characteristic is so fundamental to the preservation of the race that its self- evidency needs no comment, the third or mystical or in- epirational role of the feminine has been well attested to by both the Church and literature. Dante's beatrice is the most obvious literary example. It is the second realm - woman as catalyst to growth - which is often overlooked. Because of this oversight she could be so easily under- estimated. Woman not only bears life, she transforms it. It is a misplaced femininity which overprotects and smothers. The truly feminine also releases, encourages growth and develOpment, and incites change in others. It is here that woman is a real contributor to history. Perhaps because a psychology of woman had to wait until the twentieth century, a theology of woman has never been formulated. A theology of mankind has been the prOper study of the Western Church since the fifth century when St. Augustine turned the attention of theology from an exclusive study of the Godhead to a theology also concerned with man-- a theology which sought to understand the relationship of psychology and grace. Yet, because gig and BEE can both be used interchangeably for either man or mankind, there has always been a certain ambiguity. However, from the beginning Hebraic-Christian theology has always acknowledged the sexuality of mankind and the resulting complementary natures of the male and the female. In Genesis we find: "so God created man in his own image, in the image of God 9 11 he created him: male and female he Created them? And later: WWherefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh212 In the Christian diSpensation St. Paul says: "Yet, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman - independent of man "13 ”D" in the Lord. This is a theology which recognizes man's Kym-w sense of incompleteness and alienation. This incompleteness is the source of man's restlessness, his Spirit of adventure, his creativity. However, his most basic behavior pattern “In-l n! - compensating for this lack of wholeness has always been marriage. Consequently, marriage was seen as the symbol of man's thirst for the absolute, his desire to be united to God. Also in marriage man perceived that he was to represent in union with woman all of humanity in submission and obedience to God. The Christian Church called marriage a sacrament. It also used marriage as an eschatological symbol of the union of man and God. The Christian Fathers continued the theology of the New Testament and idealized the feminine in the theology of the New Eve, the Virgin-Mary, and the Church, but their critics would add that on the other hand these same Fathers humiliated woman. These critics would of course point to Tertullian's famous phrase that woman is "the gateway to hell.“ They would also indicate her lack of liturgical participation and function. 11 Gen. 1.27. lzGen. 2.24 (or Ibid.. 24?). 131 Cor. 11.11. 10 They would have us understand, too, that through faith woman must seek to transcend her sex, something the male in turn would not be asked to do. They would claim this has been a traditional mySOgynistic teaching of the Church. A careful review of patristic literature is necessary in order to sub- stantiate or refute this claim. While pursuing this study it should be born in mind under what condition these Fathers have become an authority in the Church. Johannes Quasten says that the authority of the Fathers in the Catholic Church is important because it . . l4 . . preserves tradition. The unanimous consent of the rathers is regarded as infallible if it concerns the interpretation of scripture. He quotes John Henry Cardinal Newman who says that Christians recognize the authority of the Fathers because they are witnesses. These doctrines have been received not here or there but everywhere in the Church. They are informants not authorities in themselves.15 Thus, isolated Opinion of any Father remains a private Opinion. It is only when their testimony shows universal agreement that this testimony is considered as official doctrine. Quasten goes on to define the tcrm "Father." Father is an ancient synonym for teacher. St. Paul says: "For al- though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you l4Johannes Quasten, Patrplogy (3 vols.: Westminister, Isaryland: The Newman Press and Utrecht/Antwerp: Spectrum Publishers, 1950—60), I, ll. 15Ibid., 11-12. He notes his source as Discussions and. BiELIIEQEi II. 1. ll have not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, I have begotten you.“16 Clement of Alexandria also remarks: "words are the progeny of the soul. Hence we call those who instructed us fathers ... and everyone who's instructed is in respect of subjection the son of his instructor."l7 In the primitive Church the teaching office belonged exclusively to the bishOp, and at first the term "Father" was applied only to him. Later it came to be applied to ecclesiastical writers who were not bishOps. During the fourth century for instance St. Jerome was called Father although he was not a member of the episc0pacy. Teaching was a very masculine function. Since men were the teachers, the authorities, their works have been pre- served. It is these masculine works that are the evidence for what were the feminine images in the ancient Church. There is little evidence of what the women themselves had to say, but only the women and the feminine functions as men perceived them. We shall now turn to the writings of the Fathers themselves to see if the documents support the conclusion of the German Church historian harl Bihlmeyer that: It (Christianity7 elevated woman and recognized her as the autonomous equal of man and explained 16; Cor. 4.15. 17..‘uasten I, 9 quotes Stromata 1' I' 2-2’ 1’ 12 the marriage bond in the light of the super- natural. In the writings of some ascetics of Christian antiquity ..., views are sometimes expressed derogatory of woman and marriage: but these are the narrow views of individuals and not the official teaching of the church.18 Dr. Bihlmeyer's view shall be the thesis of this paper with the feminine being accepted as defined above. 18:(arl Bihlmeyer, Churgh History, Vol. I: Christian Antiguity, trans. Victor a. mills (13th German ed. rev. Herman Tuchle: Westminister, Maryland: The Ixewman Press, 1958), p. 377. CHAPTER II CHRISTIAN FdMIhINd IMAGbRY Because Christianity was a religion and not a philOSOphy, imagery was used initially to carry the Christian message: only later was a scientific, rational theology develOped. Images appealed to the whole man--his intellect, his imagination, and his emotions, and he responded to them. Also analogy was the best way the Christian could find to communicate his experience of God. Images were used by the Christian Fathers to ex- press perfection. They alsoillustrated concepts and ideas in a concrete graspable form. On the other hand, images also served as archetype for human develOpment and models for human behavior. There were three important feminine patristic images: the Church, Mary, and certain aspects of the Divinity--especially the Holy Spirit. The Church was Spontaneously described by all Christians in feminine metaphors, because in its very essence the Church was mystery. Mystery is a constituent element in all great religions because the deity is beyond the comprehension of man. For Christianity the central znystery was God's intervention in history. Through this intervention came the reconciliation or union of God and 13 nun! ' 14 man. It was within the community, however, that this mystical union was celebrated and realized. Christian mysticism was from the beginning a communal or sacramental mysticism. Woman, too, has always been associated with the mysterious so it was natural to describe the Church in . . l . feminine language. Clement of Alexandrla expressed the V -v__ 1.4:.“ feelings of the Fathers on this particular face:of the Church by EXClaiming: “O mystic marvel!“2 The mother symbol suggested other mysterious and 1 transforming aspects of the Church. This image was omni- I present in patristic literature and can be found as early as the second century in the so-called Second Epistle attributed to Clement of Rome "Rejoice, O thou barren that barrest not."3 The Church was primarily mother because her children were born from her womb which was the baptismal font. Didymus the Blind spoke not only of the Church's motherhood, 1An interesting piece of information confirms this point. Eusebius prOposed a masculine name for the Church-- Thaisos--which means "religious festival association." his suggestion was firmly rejected. Willi Roll, The Christian Image of woman, tr. Elisabeth Reinecke and Paul C. baileyfifwotre Dame, Indiana: Hides Publishers Inc., 1967), p. 164. 2Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor in Fathers of the Second Century; Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, gfheOthlus, and Clement of Alexandria (entireT, rev. A. Cleveland Coxe (Ami: Vol. 2), p. 220. 1 vs a “Clement of Rome, The So-Called gecond bolstle to tide Corinthians, tr. Francis X. Glimm in The Apostolic Fathers (EC Vol. 1), p. 65. 15 but of a motherhood made productive through the Holy Spirit. "The baptismal pool of the Trinity is a workshOp for the salvation of all those who believe. It frees from the serpent sting all those who are washed therein, and, remaining a virgin, becomes the mother of all through the D" Holy Ghost."4 Of all the ante-Nicene Fathers, Cyprian was prob- 2"" ably the strongest advocate of the Mother-Church concept. He used the term mother in his writings many times. Writing On the HEIEX g: the Church, he pictured her as hold- Q ing her children in her bosom and in her womb.5 He also stated even more emphatically, "He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his Mother." For Cyprian the primary unity of the Church was feminine relatedness. Any masculine organization of the Church would not be the source of its unity, but only an external . . . . . 7 expreSSion of an é prior; unbreakable feminine bond. 4Didymus the Blind, Qg Trinita as quoted in Quasten, III, 97. ,SCyprian, 93 the Epity pf the Church in Fathers 9; the Third Century: Hippolytus, C 25222: 93%pg, Epvagiag, Appendix rev. A. Cleveland Coxe ANF, Vol. 9 . pp. 12d—29. 61bi§.. b. 423. 7Hans von Campenhausen, Men Who Shaped the Egsgggg Church, tr. Manfred Hoffman (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965), p. 122. He is speaking here of St. Amtuose, but this is a general idea in the patristic literature. 16 If the Church was the mother of Christians, it soon became evident that she was also the bride of Chri st. The Church was called the bride of Christ by the Fathers as early as the first century in The Shepherd pf §§£2a§.8 Didymus the Blind called her the bride of Christ and his mystical body.9 Cyprian also called her Christ's bride and went on to say that she could never be an adultress, but whoever separated himself from the Church would attach himself to one.10 This bridal imagery . was finally carried to its ultimate conclusion in Spain by Aponius who called the union of Christ and the Church "the gloriosa coQula."11 Bride, union, obedience, and trusting intimacy have thus always been marks of the Church. Other feminine appellations were used by the Fathers to describe the Church. In the theology of Methodius it was not Mary but the Church who was the second Eve.12 To 8The Shepherd 9: Hermas, tr. Joseph M.-F. Marique in The Apostolic Fathers, 0. 255. 9 III, 97. Didymus the Blind, I salm as quoted in ouasten, M '5'"- m loCyprian, 93 the Unity, p. 523. 11Joseph Hugh Crehon, "Theological Trends," mlogy hin Transition: A Bibliographical Evaluation of the "Decisive Decade, 1954-1964, ed. blmer O'Brien (New York: iierder & Herder, 1965), p. 25. 12Methodius, The Banquet 9: Ten Virgins quoted in Quasten, II, 132. 17 the Fathers the Woman clothed with the Sun in the Apocalypse also represented the Church.13 In the Shepherd 9; Bermas she was called pre-existent. She was "created first, before all things ... it is for her that the world was made."14 Ignatius of Antioch writing to the Ephesians said the Church was "predestined from eternity to eternal ... glory."15 Methodius called her queen. "For the prOphet's word compares the Church to a flower-covered and variegated meadow adorned and crowned not only with the flowers of virginity, but also with those of child-bearing and of con- L tinence: for it is written: 'in embroidered garments with golden fringes the queen takes her place to the right of the bridegroom”.16 The inscription of Abercius taken from a second century tombstone also called the Church of Rome "a queen with golden robes and golden shoe."17 The respect,honor, and devotion that the Fathers showed to feminine qualities, as evidenced by their writing 13The communal reSponse was emphasized by the Fathers. thus their preoccupation with the Church. The individual only gradually became singled out, for the initial teaching was that through the Redemption and one's incorporation in- to it through Baptism, one became a member of Christ's body and only in, with, and through this body did union with God take place. "Outside the Church there is no salvation." Cyprian. 113.12 Elsie-Elsa. 9.: grades in flashers 93’. see Third (Century, Hippglyggg, pp. 388-89. l4Shepherd Q; Hermes, p. 240. 15Ignatius, 29 the Ephesians, tr. Gerald G. Walsh iJl‘The gpgstolis Fathers, p.87. 16Methodius, Banquet as quoted in Quasten, II, p.132. 17Quasten, I, 172. 18 on the Church, can best be summed up with the following quotation from Clement of Rome. There was no bias here against either the female or the flesh, but an acceptance of everything both human and divine. Thus, brothers, by doing the will of God our Father, we shall belong to the first Church, the Spiritual one established before the sun and the moon: but if we do not the will of the Lord, we shall verify the Scripture which says: "My house has become a den of thieves." Let us choose, there— fore, to belong to the Church of life, that we may be saved. I do not think that you are ignorant that the living Church is "the body of Christ." For the Scripture says: “God made man male and female:” the male is Christ and the female is the Church. The sacred books, moreover, and the Apostles say that the Church is not of the present time, but existed from the beginning. For she was Spiritual, as also our Jesus, and He was revealed in the last days to save us. And the Church being Spiritual, was revealed in the flesh of Christ, showing us that if any of us guard her in the flesh and do not corrupt her, he shall receive her again in the Holy Spirit.‘ For this flesh is an antitype of the Spirit: no one, accordingly, who has corrupted the antitype shall receive the reality. So, then, brothers, it means this: Guard the flesh, so that you may share in the Spirit. But if we say that the flesh is the Church and the Spirit is Christ, then he who has abused the flesh has abused the Church. Such a one, accordingly, will not share in the spirit, which is Christ. While devotion to Mother-Church existed from Apostolic times, appreciation of the Blessed Virgin develOped more slowly. Her glory was not so firmly and uniformly estab— lished in antiquity. It took five or six centuries for her cult to mature. It also grew at a different rate in different areas. In Africa Tertullian believed in the laglggggg of Rome, The So-Called Second Epistle, p. 74. ‘I’w . 19 virginal conception of Christ, while at the same time he felt that Mary had no faith in Christ's preachings.19 The Alexandrian school, emphasizing the divinity of Christ and allegorical, mystical exegesis, first took up the cause of Mary as Mother of God. Alexander of Alexandria explicitly 20 calls her theotokos. The Antiochian school, which emphasized the humanity of Christ and a literal sense of scripture, accepted Mary's virginity but found many moral faults in her. St. John Chrysostom was explicit on both points. “he are ignorant of many things, as for instance, ... how the Virgin gives birth and continues a Virgin." And concerning Mary's request at Cana: "For she desired both to do them a favor, and through her Son to render her- 21 self more conSpicuous.“ It was in Syria that her cult grew most rapidly, though how it began remains undocumented. The extent of the cult can be seen by a warning of Ephanius that Mary was not to be accorded the worship which was due only to God.22 There is no trace of a Marian cult in the Western liturgy before the fifth century. But after the Council of 19Bdward Dennis O'Connor, The Dogma pf the Immaculate Conception: History a_nd Significance (Aotre Dame, "Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1958), pp. 65-66. 20Alexander of Alexandria, Letters, quoted in Quasten, III, 19. 218t. John Chrisostom, ggmily 3 9n flatthew 4—5, (quoted in Quasten III, 476—77. 22Hilda Graef. zzary: A Historz of Doctrine and Devotion, ‘Vol, I: From the Beginnings SE“ the Bve f the Reformation (New York: Sheed and ward, 1963), p. 73. 20 Epheseus, holy days in honor of the Blessed Virgin begin to 23 .increase and multiply. She took on the queenly, womanly, motherly functions which an increasingly celibate priest- hood could neither perform nor signify. Mary's theological significance was first noted by St. Justin when he called attention to the Christ-Adam parallel having a counter-part in the Mary—Eve comparison. “Christ became man by the virgin in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent's (disobediencg7 might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the Angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her, that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the highest would overshadow her: where- fore the holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God: and she replied, 'Be it done unto me accord- ing to thy word'."24 Irenaeus continued the parallelism by noting that giv- ing birth or life to the new Adam—-Christ, Mary became the true five or Mother of mankind. He called Mary mankind's 25 womb, teaching her universal motherhood. This theology gave a soterological character to Marian theology. Her recognition and significance came from the part that she played in the Incarnation, the first act in the drama of redemption. 23O'Connor, p.67. 24Justin, Dialogue 100 quoted in quasten, I, 211-12. 25Iraneus, Against the Heresies as quoted in Quastin, I, 299. 21 The fifth century saw a real flowering in Mariology and significant new insights were seen in the Mary-hve contrast. Proclus, Patriarch of ConstantinOple, wrote that by being born of woman Christ "made gate of salvation her who of old was door of sin."26 Cyril of Alexandria noted that when the Savior was born of a woman he removed the 27 curse "in sorrow shall thou bear children." Cyril of Jerusalem had previously noted that through Eve came death, but through Mary life.28 Ephram of Syria was the first to call Mary the bride 2 Proclus calls her "God's only bridge to man."30 of Christ. This is an insight into the psychological truth that the religious Openness of mankind is towards the feminine pole. Probably Mary's most celebrated title in the early centuries was that of theotokos or Mother of God. This title was not a defense of Mary--although it proved to her honor. It was a succinct statement of the orthodox doctrine that in Christ 26Walter J. Burghardt, ”Mary in Eastern Patristic Thought," Mariology, ed. Juniper B. Carol (3 vols.: Milwaukee, 'Phe Bruce Publishing Co., 1955-1961), II, 95. 27Ibid (Genesis 3. l6.) 28Burghardt, II, 93. 29Graef, p. 58. 3OBurghardt, II, 100. 22 there are two natures but only one person. This person is God and Mary is his mother. Though this title was a victory for the divinity of Christ in a Christological con- troversey, the peOple perhaps did not understand it that way. The crowds outside the Church at Epheseus in 431 cheered and carried torches shouting "Theotokogy" The Western Fathers took up Mary's cause in the fourth century. St. Ambrose accepted Mary as virgin, mother, morally perfect, and as the patroness of virgins. But he, too, warned against adoring her on the same level with God. St. Jerome's views on Mariology were brought out in a Scriptural dispute aboutIsaiah.7.l4. This dispute centered around whether the feminine appelation in this verse should be translated virgin or young woman. Jerome argued not only should the word be translated virgin, but also this word carried the connotation of spiritual virginity as well as a biological one.31 To St. Augustine Mary's motherhood was a motherhood which was a type of the motherhood of the Church. Both Mary and the Church extend Christ to the individual Christian. "How do you not also belong to the child-birth of the Virgin when you are members of Christ?"32 The Marian dogma of Christian antiquity was undoubtedly ‘best summed up in a famous sermon of Cyril of Alexandria 31Graef, p. 88. q “ZIbid., p, 98, 23 after the Council of Epheseus. He gave her many beautiful appeflations, the chief of which was “sceptre of orthodoxy."33 Nothing could have been more apprOpriate because in all of the Christological controversies of the first four centuries the relationship of Christ to Mary had been brought into the dispute to clarify and protect the doctrines concerning the Son. As asceticism gained ascendency, the interest in Mary's virginity became more pronounced. Obedience had been linked to virginity in the Eve-Mary parallelism. Irenaeus noted: "And if the former th§7 did disobey God, yet the later [Mary7 was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the advocate of the virgin Eve. Thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so it is rescued by a virgin: virginal disobedience having been balanced in the Opposite scale by virginal obedience."34 From the beginning, then, Mary's virginity was neither sterile nor asexual, but was for the purpose of a spiritual mother- hood. The desert Fathers extolled her virginity and made her an ideal to emulate.35 The Council of Chalcedon in 451 recognized Mary's complete virginity at a time when virginity . . 6 was becoming more and more equated with sanctity.3 In the 33Walter J. Burghardt, "Theotokos: The Mother of God," 'The Mystery 9; the Woman: Essays pg the Mother 9: God, ed. sdward D. O'Connor (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1956), p. 5. 34Irenaeus, Against the Heresies as quoted in quasten, I, 298-99. 35 Graef, p. 51. 36O'Connor, p.02. ‘m-I " 24 writings of the very early Fathers, moral deficiencies had been regarded as incompatible with Mary's dignity. She was upbraided for her presumption at Cana and accused of a lack of faith during the passion.3‘7 The early centuries also produced mixed testimony about her virginity in partu and post partum. beveral Fathers held she bore children to Joseph h after the birth of Jesus: others denied it.30 In the end how- ever, both her holiness and complete virginity prevailed along with her motherhood. Christianity had idealized the feminine under both collective and individual signs—-Mary and the Church. But it did more than that. Heretofore the highest feminine characteristics were projected onto a goddess figure and honored there, but woman herself was often not so highly regarded; this was true particularly in the EaSt. In Mary, these feminine ideals were incarnated into actual history in a real woman, and henceforth the human woman could identify with and lay claim to what before had been considered divine. The third area where the feminine was idealized was in the deity itself. Feminine appellations for the godhead were first found in the apocryohal literature of the first two centuries. Although gnostic in character, this literature was still used by some of the early Fathers. Origen often 37Graef, p.45. 38:229.. 25 quoted the Gosoel 9; the Hebrews39 in which Christ called the Holy Spirit his true mother.4O In more orthodox writings Clement of Alexandria understood an andrOgynous God when he said: “the word is all to the child, both father and mother, and tutor, and nurse."41 And he says again: al if, “Therefore, we fly trustfully to the 'care-banishing breast' of God the Father: the breast that is the Word, who is the only one who can truly bestow on us the milk of love."42 Syneus of Cyrene writing at the beginning of the fifth century sang a hymn to God-tflueFather and Mother of us all. i I sing your praises, 0 Father, healer of hearts, Healer of bodies, Giver of wisdom, Remedy of evil, 0 Giver also Of a life without evil, A life not troubled By earthly fear-- Mother of distress, Mother of sorrow—-. Keep my heart In purity, Let my song speak Of the hidden sourge Of created things: ’ 39quasten, I, 111. 40Robert M. Grant, The Secret gazings 9; Jesus. Collab. David Noel Friedman, The Gosoel of Thomas tr. Wm. R. Schoedel (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 19603, p. 75. 41Clement of Alexandria, The lgstructor. p. 220. 421bid. . 43Louis Boyer, The Spiritualigy 9; the new Testament and Egg Fathers, trans. Mary P. Ryan (new York: burns a Oates T i:td. and Desclee & Co., Inc., 1963), pp. 451-52. 26 Christ, too, was linked with the feminine. In the Shepherd 9; figggag virgins were symbolized as the powers of Christ.44 Tertullian, commenting on the Lord's Prayer, wanted the catechumens to understand that when they prayed to their Father in heaven, thexSon was also included. In the idea of Father, Mother cannot be precluded for it is in relationship to Mother that Father and Son have signifi- cance.45 It can thus be ooserved that to the Fathers the Father and Son were not exclusively masculine. In the mystery of the’Trinity the feminine role is most often played by the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine having noticed this warned against a Mother-Father-Child family concept because of the great danger of the doctrine of the Trinity deteriorating into polytheism.46 It was the Holy Spirit, however, who was present in man and who was the reconcilor or intercessor between man and the transcendent God - a very motherly role. There was more devotion to the Holy spirit in the East than the West and the East has been his chief defender against any subordinist tendencies. In the Syrian translation of the new Testament, the Holy Spirit . 47 , . . . was called consolatrix, a deliberate use of the feminine form. The relationship of the Holy Spirit, the Church, and 44Shepherd 9f Hermas, o. 330. 45Tertullian, 93 Prayer in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, rev. A. Cleveland Coxe (ARE, Vol. 3) p, 682. 4CMoll, p. 69. 471bid., p.17. 27 humanity was so close that Clement said that the flesh was a figure of speech for the Holy Spirit.48 This again feminizes him. For flesh is warm and feminine (body) in contrast to intellect which is cold and masculine. To Irenaeus the Holy Spirit was the source of inspiration, an- other feminine function. It was the Holy Spirit serving the ?} Logos who filled the prOphets with charism under the E direction of the Father.49 E The Holy Spirit was the conciliator between man and God. It was through the Holy Spirit that the human and divine Lj were able to meet because man resembles God in the spirit. Tatian said in an address to the Greeks, "but further, it becomes us now to seek what we once had, but have lost, to unite the soul with the Holy Spirit and to strive after union of God."50 The doctrine of the Spirit was never fully developed by the Fathers. Due to historical circumstances they were caught up in Christological controversies. The nature of Christ and his relationship to the Father were the first questions that were asked by philiSOphically oriented men. .Another difficulty which prevented a clear theological 48Clement, The Instructor. p. 220. 49quasten, I, 295. sosssrsss e: Issise is the Greeks tr. J.d. Ryland. Fathers 9: the ggcond Century, p. 71. 28 definition of the third person of the Trinity was that the early Fathers in their exegesis of the Old Testament, bi— furcated the Wisdom of the Hebrew Scripture. This Wisdom was sometimes associated with the Son and sometimes with the Holy Spirit. The weakness of this exegesis prevented definition and develOpment of the theology and personality of the Paraclete. The develOpment of Trinitarian dogma however did insure that the Holy Spirit could never be com- pletely lost or forgotten. Strict monotheism is rigid, moral, and masculine. The God of the Christians was a God of moral action, but also one of mystical communion. The diversity of such actions and interactions with man could only be expressed by a fuller, more complex divinity. God's goodness had always been seen as coming from his perfec— tion. The doctrine of three in one became the most sublime mystery of the Christian Church and revealed not only an androgynous God, but the God who surpasses all understanding and syntheses. St. Augustine thinking of the diversity of God writes: "g; inhorresco-et inardesco." Sometimes I recoil in fear - sometimes I am drawn by love.51 It would seem then that feminine ideals and functions were an integral part of the early Christian Church. The mother functions of birth and nurture were expressed in the two most important sacraments-—baptism and the eucharist. Church and Holy Spirit alike served as conciliator and 51Moll, p. 14. 29 mediatrix. Active passivity as evidenced in Mary's obedience was admired and emulated. Both fruitfulness and virginity were esteemed. The bride as proxy for all humanity, both male and female, represented the prerequisite disposition for an intimate union with God. Difference of sexuality was thus not only accepted, but seen as the very means by which was made possible the most intimate of unions. The feminine was balanced by masculine traits of authority, dis- cipline, morality, a highly deve10ped Church organization, and asceticism. One of Christianity's greatest appeals was that it met the needs and encouraged the response of all positive humanism. CHAPTLR III VIRGINITY The virginal state has always been regarded by many. Christians as more perfect than the married one.1 Christ was both born of a virgin and unlike the founder of any of the other major religions remained one. The immediate eXpectation of the end of the world added an additional impetus for Christians to remain celibate, but virginity endured because of its theological significance. An acute tension between marriage and celibacy persisted throughout the early centuries resulting in the Encratistic heresy in Judaeo-Christian circles which forbade marriage altogether. Much of this Encratistic teaching Can be found in the apocryphal writings of the first two centuries, but the Shgphegd g; EEEEQE also bears witness to it.2 This heresy finally was condemned by the Church leaders in the second century. Clement of Alexandria devoted a whole book of his Stromata to the defense of marriage. 1I Cor. 7.25. 2Shepherd pf Hermas, p. 238. 3Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata 9£.Miscellanies i Fathers 9: the Second Centugy, pp. 381-402. ” 30 31 At first virginal vows were private and personal. St. Ignatius cautioned against the publication of them. "If he is boastful about it he is lost: and if he reveals it to any other than the bishOp, his purity is gone."4 Clement of Rome also cautions virgins to modesty and secrecy: "Let him who is pure in the flesh be so without boasting, . 1r, kn0W1n9 that it is Another who grants him this continence."5 Within the Christian community the virgins were often con- fused with the widows. Toward the end of the second century public recognition began to be given to virgins. They formed a special class within the community and received communion before the other laymen.7 The Apostolic Tgadition g§_Hippolytu§ pre- scribed fasting and intercession for them as well as for the widows.8 4Ignatius, 29 Polycarp, p. 126. 5Clement of Rome, 29 the Corinthians, pp. 39-40. 6Ignatius, T9 the magpegiags, tr. Gerald G. Walsh, The Apgstolic Fathers, p. 97. 7H.J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decree g: the General Councils: Textg, Tgapsl tions, and ggmmentary (London: 5. Herder Book Co., 1937), p. 22. Footnote 4p. 8Hippolytus, The Apostolig Tradition pf Hippolytus, tr. Burton Scott Easton (Cambridge: At the UniverSity Press, 1934), p. 50. 32 In the third century the Fathers praised virginity by word and example. Methodius wrote The Banquet g; the Ten Virgins in which he praised virginity as the perfect imitation of Christ and a symbol of the purity of the Church.9 Cyprian extolled virgins with a parade of metaphors: 1 The flower of ecclesiastical seed, the grace and ornament of spiritual endowment, a Joyous dis— position, the wholesome and uncorrupted work of praise and honor, God's image answering to the holiness of the Lord, the most illustrious portion of Christ's flock, the glorious fruitfulness of Mother Church.l Origen departed from the mystical style and praised virginity L: as a sacrificial offering. We may understand from this what it is for a man to dedicate himself to God. If thou devotest thyself to God, thou must imitate the beast (offered in sacrifice) which must no longer serve human purposes, nor do anything whatsoever con- cerning men and the present life.ll Origen himself lived a life of such extreme asceticism.12 9Methodious, Egg gagqggg 9f the Ten Virgins, in Fathers pf the Third Century: grgggry, Thagmaguggug, Dionysus the figgag, gglggg Africanus, Apatolius and fliggg Writerg, Methodigg, Arnobius, rev. A. Cleveland Coxe (AHE, Vol. 6), p. 132. 10Cyprian, 93 the Dress 9: Virgins in gathers g: the Third Century: Hippolytus, p. 431. llOrigen, Homily £9 fiumbers 24, as quoted in J.M. Perrin, Virginity tr. Katherine Gordon (Westminister, Maryland: Newman Press, 1955), p. 23. 12Husebius, Church History in Busebius: Church History, ILife pf Constantine the Great, and Oration i2 Praise 9: ‘Egnstantine (NPUE 2nd ser., Vol. 1), pp. 25I-52. 33 It was also during the third century that the custom of Christian ascetics and virgins living together began to fall into disrepute. Some ascetics conceived of this arrangement as a spiritual marriage and the only marriage truly compatible with Christianity. Paul of Samosta, bishOp of Antioch, was the first to reproach them. The pseudo- En w letter of Clement 5g Virgingg, which was written in Syria - in this century, also disparaged this custom. The Council of Ancyra was the first council to forbid these "marriages," but the custom must have continued, for censures were also made by later synods.l3 1L— ' ' By the fourth century the Church found it necessary to pass disciplinary decrees to regulate the virgins. The Council of Elvira (306) in Spain excommunicated virgins who had been unfaithful to their vows. The penalty was severe. They were received back into communion only when in danger of death. This synod also carefully distinguished between consecrated virgins and maidens. The Council of Ancyra (314) pronounced that consecrated virgins who later married committed bigamy.l4 The civil code later followed Church law and legislated against the breaking of virginal vows. Under Christian influence a Roman law which had enjoined both l3Bihlmeyer, p. 139. 14"Virginity,“ NCp, XIV, 701—03. 34 marriage and children was repealed by Constantine.15 In 354 legislation was passed which made the rape of religious women a civil crime.16 The Fathers of the fourth century wrote many treatises in defense of virginity. Due to mass conversion there was a decline of morals among Christians, and virginity became a both a reaction and a defense against this. St. John 2: Chrysostom wrote a book 93 Virginity in which he gave a "detailed interpretation of the words of the Apostle (I Cor. 7.38) that marriage is good but virginity better.“17 He uj wrote that "the root and flower of virginity is a crucified life.“18 St. Gregory of Nyssa gave to Eastern asceticism a Spirituality which was often lacking. He called virginity “a necessary door of entrance to a holier life.“19 Gregory's model was the Blessed Virgin. "What happened in the stainless Mary when thefullne531of the Godhead which was 15P.R. Coleman-NortonJ figmag gtate and Christian Church: A Collection of Legal Documents to A.D. 535 (3 vols.. London: S-P-C-K, 1966), II, 78. ‘ lerid., p. 234. l7Quasten, III, 464. 18Chrysostom, 92 Virginity as quoted in Perrin, p. 148. 9Gregory of Nyssa, 93 Virginity as quoted in cuasten III. 270. 35 in Christ shone out through her, that happens in every soul 20 In the West st. that leads by rule the virgin life.” Ambrose wrote four treatiSéS' on virginity. St. Jerome dic- tated several polemics in favor of the celibate state and St. Augustine composed a long work on asceticism.21 Neither St. Augustine nor St. Gregory were themselves celibates. rm It was also in the fourth century that a rite for the consecration of virgins began to deve10p. sometime between 352 and 354 Marcellina, the sister of St. Ambrose. took the veil.22 That the ceremony for the consecration of a virgin should resemble the marriage ceremony was apPrOpriate because the virgin became a bride of Christ and the veil signified the mystical marriage. By the time of the Synod of Hippo (393) virgins were officially consecrated to God and were 23 under the special protection of the Church. It was also at this time that virgins began to live in communities. Happy the virgin who places herself under a rule, she shall be as a fruitful vine in a garden. Unhappy is the virgin who will not follow a rule, she is a ship that lacks a rudder.24 2OIbid. 21"Virginity," p. 702. 221bid., p. 703. 23Schroeder, p. 22, note 46. 24Philip Hughes, a history g: the Churgh, Vol. I: The Church and the fiQEiQ in w ' he Church fléé Founded (rev. ed.: New York: Sheed & Ward 9 9 , p. 139. 36 This fourth century saying is evidence of a desire for many to find some stability and regularity in a century of moral and social tumult . The Empire was ready to absorb monasticism: monasticism would soon absorb the virgins. The theological implications of virginity were well- thought out by the Fathers. In the first place they emphasized that virginity was never praised for its own sake but was a means for union with God. St. Augustine was very explicit: It is not on its own account, but because it is consecrated to God, that virginity is held in honour ... It is not their virginity we extol in virgins but theig consecration in plighted con- tinence to God. In the Shepherd of Hermas continence is already called the daughter of faith.2b Always fearful that celibacy would be the source of Spiritual pride, the Fathers emphasized that 27 virginity was "a gift" from God. St. Gregory of Nyssa called it "the method and the means for making life divine."28 The intimacy between the virgin and Christ was suggested by the Fathers in their profuse use of the bride symbol. St. Ambrose states that “a virgin is one who gives 25Augustine, 9_ HolyflVirginity as quoted in Perrin, 26Shepherd g§_Hermas. pp. 248-49. 27Ambrose, QB Virginity as quoted in Perrin, p. xi. 28Gregory of Nyssa, 93 Virginity,ibid., l6. 37 , . . l 79 . . her hand in marriage to God.““ at. Athena51us not only calls virgins brides of Christ, but argues that these brides are the sign that the Church possesses the true religion. The Catholic Church has adOpted the custom of calling those who possess this virtue the brides of Christ; when pagans see them, they admire them as temples of the Logos. It is certain, indeed, that this venerable and celestial condition is honored nowhere but amongst us. This is one of the great proofs that we have the true religion.30 Although the term bride of Christ was used for celibates of both sexes, there can be no doubt but that women were given the greater preference when the Fathers extolled what they considered the highest virtue. As brides, virgins were eXpected to be fertile. Without doubt, from the embrace of Christ, she receives the seed of his word. Blessed is the fertility that results from this union of the soul with God's Word and from their mutual embrace. A noble offspring is born of it, modesty, justice, patience, sweetness and charity, followed by the sacred train of all the virtues.31 St. Augustine preached that Mary's virginity was no hindrance Q to her maternal fertility.”2 St. Gregory spoke of the maternal qualities of his chaste sister. She was the Spiritual mother first of her own brothers and sisters, and then later of her convent of nuns. To Gregory his sister's 29Ambrose, 93 Virginity, $bid., 132. 3OA’CJ'XaI‘Iasi.us, Apology E9 Constantinius, ibig., p. 38. l 0 r - -.- n I a" —\ Origen, homily on bumpers, ipid., p. 33. 32 Burghardt, "Theotokos," p.24. 38 . . _ .— o ‘2 death was her crowning as the bride Of Christ."3 Also they were compared to the martyrs in courage and self-giving. As with the martyrs there is no thought of the flesh of the world, no small and trifling, and delicate encounter: so also in you, whose reward is second in grace let there be the strength and endurance next to theirs.34 Finally virginity was presented as an eschatological Sign. The kingdom of God which will be realized by the many only at the BQEQEEEE is already present for the virgin. That which we shall be, you have already begun to be. You possess in this world, the glory of the resurrection. ... in that you continue chaste and virgins, you are equal to the angels of God.35 While the Fathers were always careful to qualify their praise of virgins by insisting that marriage also was a holy estate, the tension between marriage and virginity con- tinued. The feelings of the Fathers was perfectly summed up by Gregory Nazianzen who contrasted this tension thus: Marriage is the key of moderation of desires. The seal of unbreakable friendship, ... the unique drink from a fountain enclosed That those outside do not taste: It does not Spread outside nor draw from without. Those who are united in the flesh make but one soul And they raise a like spire of their piety by their mutual love For marriage does not remove from God But brings all the closer to him because it is God himself who urges us to it ... 1 , ,, -1 . . " “3Gregory of hyssa, The Life of Rio magrina in Grepory o” gysga: Ascetical Works, tr. Virginia woods Callahan (cc, "J01. 55), p. ldb. 3 . _ U. . , '4Cypr1an, On the uress of Virgins, p. 430. BSIbid. 39 But virginity answers: I leave to others what makes up the reward of this life. But for me . There is only one law, one thought: that, filled with divine love, I depart from this earth toward the God who reigns in heaven, the author of light ... Carrying out the law of the king of all things, to him alone Am I bound alone and I have abandoned all earthly love.36 Marriage builds up the earthly city while virginity searches for the heavenly one. The exalted position given virginity by the Fathers had both a positive and negative effect on the status of women. In the positive sense it broadened and increased her self-concept. Her Sphere of activities were expanded. Her biological motherhood was sublimated in order that she might exercise a more spiritual and far-reaching one. She nurtured and nursed the sick, the forelorn, and the abandoned. She fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and instructed the ignorant. All humanity became her child. But the nncratistic heresy sometimes persisted, and a bias against marriage is a bias against the flesh with which woman is so closely associated. The Fathers were often inconsistent due to their masculocentric perspective. They called the virgin the “bride of Christ," thus implying some recognition that humanity's highest spirituality and deepest mystical relation- ship with God is closest to the feminine side of mankind's a” , " 'bGregory Nazianzen, Poem I as quoted in pouyer, pp. 346-47. 4O nature, but they also often implied that woman reached the peak of perfection by transcending her own sexuality and becoming spiritual like man: A great reward awaits you, a great recompense of virtue, the immense advantage of chastity. ... With that 9: 333 your lot and your condition is equal.7n 37 ITALICS. Cyprian, 9g the Dress 9; Virgins, p. 436. HIS CHAPTLR Iv MARRIAGE In the beginning Christian converts were adults and t: already married. This, combined with an immediate eXpectation of the Second Coming, discouraged any analysis of how the . married state contributed to the building of the Kingdom. Marriage continued to follow secular forms. Gradually, j customs and Church laws began to gather about this institu- ‘ tion so as to protect it and give Spiritual insight into its mystery. But this develOpment was very gradual and even to this day has not reached complete fruition. Two factors mitigated against the develOpment of a mature theology of matrimony. One, was an unorthodox but persistent bias against the flesh, the other was that celibacy, replaced martyrdom as the supreme act of heroic sacrifice. Thus virginity was both the interest and the state of Christian theologians. The Roman-Hellenistic forms which Christians first used in their marriage ceremony had themselves undergone an evolution and had become decadent. Originally the marriage ceremony was a religious act in the early family cult of the 41 :2 :3 J. v v in,» x. . a... .... .D . u . .3.. ._ -..... 4. . ”1,4 l. a. .§&.. , in“. ...w [E 42 hearth.l each household had its own gods and each family was a self-contained religious unit. Legitimate sons were necessary to carry on the cult, care for the aged, and honor the dead. The only prOper mother for such progeny was a woman who herself had been received into this cult. The marriage ceremony then was really an initiation rite r into her husband's household cult. She took leave of her father's household gods and joined herself to her husband's 2 hearth, the community of water and fire. As tender of the fire She became the materfamiliasg The religious significance J ; of the family served to elevate the woman and fortified monogomy. The woman was co—priestess with her husband, the paterfamilias, and administered the household and educated the children. When the wife died the husband lost his priestly function.4 Nevertheless, legally she was considered to be "in his hand;" the husband was the sole guardian of the children and held the power of life and death over his wife. Her status was based on religious principles, not human laws. 15. Schillebeeckn Marriage: Human Realigy and Saving Mystery, tr. N.D. Smith (New—YorKYWSheed and Ward, 1965), p.234. 2Ibid., p. 235. 2 . , .. “Abe Minerva White, floman in florid history: Her ace In The Great Religions (London, Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 34.). p. 272. 4 g; 19 Schillebeeckn p. 235. 51bid., p. 237. lifimfif - Hi}. i a ..,an,.....x..t..r4...wvt I 43 As the old religion lost ground during the waning days of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, the family began to disintegrate and woman lost much of her significance. Also in a more complex society economic activity began to move outside the home and again there was a deterioration of the wife's influence and function. Set loose from meaningful activity, woman became more independ- ent and marriage became a civil contract. Concensus replaced ,n- . . . b . . the religious confarreatio. Divorce became easy to obtain: If r' ‘flf v- there was no moral bond. Offspring was no longer as highly esteemed as religious outlook declined, and many men began to shun marriage for'theyno longer needed a helpmate. Stoicism was one factor which continued to influence a man to take to the altar. This highly ethical philos0phy confined sex to marriage. Stoic philosophy contained a much higher sexual standard than that provided by the mores of the Empire. But philOSOphy can never be the impetus nor the constraining force that a transcendental religion can be. This particular philOSOphy was also very logical and un- emotional and as such had little appeal for most women. In the beginning of the Christian era Roman marriage was a two stage ceremony - the betrothal and the marriage itself. In connection with the betrothal often an engage- ment ring was exchanged. Marriages were performed without any real judicial formula. Mutual consent was the basis of Ibid., p. 239. .4. . .... . E 53;" .3: in... 1... or. w i; kiln»; ...... h. . s. . r... .7. . . a | 44 marriage and this could either be with or without accompany- ing religious ceremonies. Eventually the mutual consent sufficed: even consummation was not considered necessary. This mutual consent established a contract which could be broken again by mutual consent with no other grounds. Human nature, and especially feminine human nature being what it was, more often than not religious and traditional ceremony continued to accompany the legalistic compact. The consent was asked in the form of the question “Did she (he) wish to become a mother (father)?" This was followed by the Joining of hands.7 Often an animal was sacrificed and the pagan priest pronounced a prayer over the couple. A marriage document came into use during the Empire period which stated that the marriage was undertaken in order to bring forth children.8 Augustus Caesar also tried very hard to reestablish the old solid ties of religion and family in order to stabilize the social structure of the Empire. To do this, he revived the old tax gxggigmL on the unmarried and childless. In the Christian era this law worked hardship on those who elected celibacy. The law was finally rescinded by Constantine I. The ceremonies in the Eastern empire were quite Similar except that the bridal contract was between the 7325300 P0 2420 81bid. 1'08!- ' I I I v .v u: —-_ 1E Elam”... .... .... ...? 4 43414113an 45 bride's lord or master, usually her father, and the bride- groom. Semitic and Grecian women never had obtained the status of their Roman sisters. The wedding feast was of central religious importance. These ceremonies took place in the home within the confines of the family with friends as witnesses.9 When the EiEQEéiQ did not come and Eastern Christians began to marry, they, too, continued to follow the pagan customs leaving out some of the more SUperstitiouS traditions. Christians in the East always insisted on the necessity of a priestly blessing for a valid marriage in contrast to the more legalistic Romans. Even though the Christians used secular marriage form, St. Ignatius of Antioch pointed out very early in the Christian era that it was fitting for Christians to enter a 10 This state— marriage only "after the bishOp's approval." ment, however, stands in isolation in the early Christian literature. The Synod of Elvira (306) not only accepted that Christians were married in ceremonies similar to those of the pagans, but also that Roman law had jurisdiction over Christian matrimonial affairs.ll Christian families were the chief instigators of marriage as were pagan families 9 Ibid., pp. 242-43. 10St. Ignatius, IQ Polycarthr. Gerald G. Walsh, The Apostolic Fathers, p. 126. llSchillebeeku, p. 245. 46 although as more time went on the bride and groom took more 12 The father of the Christian family of the initiative. was responsible for his family's religious training as had been the father in the pagan household. The Syrian Didascalia assigns the responsibility of choosing a Christ- ian mate for his children to the father. Special Christian doctrines began to mutate the secular and pagan marriage practices from the beginning. We have Tertullian's testimony that from the very first clandestine marriages were held in low regard by the Church.13 The special problem of slaves contracting a valid marriage led to what has been called “marriages of conscience.“ Since a large majority of the early Christians were women, there were not enough Christian men to go around. The Shortage was particularly acute among the upper classes. Many Christian women preferred to have a slave for a mate rather than either to marry a pagan or remain a virgin, but according to Roman law marriage with a slave was forbidden. The woman in such a union was thus a concubine. POpe Callixtus (217-222) reCOgnized these unions as valid marriages for Christians.14 When Christianity became the religion of the Empire, the civil law followed the lZIbid., p. 245. l3lbid., p. 236. The Montonists viewed such marraige as prostitution. l4Ibid. 47 ecclesiastical. This papal action was consequently a sig- nificant step in raising the dignity of all women and a step away from all forms of human bondage. Marriages of the clergy and the catechumens were Special cases which reouired eXplicit approval from the bishOp. The only part of the pagan ceremony which the church perpetually felt was a danger to the faith of her children was the sacrifice of the animal. The wearing of the garland or crown gradually was accepted, however, for its ancient religious significance had been lost and a Christian one began to supplant it.15 It was again Tertullian who first referred to the Christian practice of using the engagement ringsand the marriage con- tract.17 The bishOp signed this document when he was present at the family ceremony. It was not until the fourth century that we find any evidence of what could be truly called liturgical practices growing around the pagan-civil ceremony. Prayers and bless- ings by the bishOp or priest became traditional in recog- nition of the holiness of marriage. It was not usual for a bishOp or priest to come to a second marriage, and the bless- . . 18 . . . ing was never given in such a case. marriages with pagans lsIbid., p. 247. 16E. Schling, “Marriage," The New Schaff-Herggg Encyc10pedia pg Religigus Knowledge, ed. Samuel N. Jackson (Grand Rapids: Baker dock hse., 1950), p. 196. l7Schillebeeclqg, p. 247. 18;££§.. 255. The Council of Ancrya in canon 19 for- bids the clergy to honor second marriages by partaking of the festivities. Bihlmeyer, p. 138. 48 19 By the fourth century a were condemned by the Church. papal decree insisted that the lower clergy have their marriages solemnized. For the laity it still remained a 20 By the beginning privilege--a reward for good conduct. of the fifth century there was evidence of true Church weddings. Paulinius of Nola described this liturgy. It 'consisted of the veiling of the bride and groom by the priest. There is no reference to a nuptual mass.21 Thus, for the first five centuries Christian marriage continued to be a secular and family affair. Only in a few very special cases did the Christian hierarchy consider it necessary to intervene in these ceremonies. But it was becoming more and more the custom for the peOple to ask the bishOp to bless their union.22 Positive Catholic theology on marriage was precipitat- ed as a reaction to rigorist and Gnostic heresies which plagued the Church. Some of these views were even voiced by otherwise orthodox clergymen. Origen, generally suspected ”Tertullian. 22 sis. @232 in Esth.....ers 9.: 3.12.9. Lugs Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian: Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. A. Cleveland Coxie (Ami, Vol. 4), pp. 47-48. ZOSchilLebsecer p.255. 2lIbid., p. 261. 22Blunt, p. 444. The Synod of Carthage (397) ordered parents to present the bridal couple to a priest for the benediction (13th Canon). Ask-$9.5; a. ....HJ . an ... 5......3.%e ,... . ... ... ..v.. | 49 of Gnostic leanings, said that marriage was permitted only 23 because of human weakness. bspecially in Syria un- orthodox views that the baptized should not marry persisted until the middle of the fourth century.24 Dionysus of Corinth rejected this view. He stressed that marriages should be allowed and the Church should not insist on con- tinence.25 Manichean tendencies were probably corrective by forcing the Fathers to compensate for these extreme leanings. The Church had to teach that heresies against the flesh were heresies against both Christ and humanity, for it is the flesh which makes man human and distinct from the angels. Prejudice against second marriages were in part due to rigorist tendencies which persisted in the Church, but also due to the respect Christians had for the permanence of marriage. Athenagoras testifies to this. “A person should either remain as he was born or be content with one marriage: for a second marriage is only a decent adultery. For he who deprives himself of his first wife, even though she be dead is a cloaked 'adulter', resisting the 23Origen's Commentary on Matthew ed. John Patrick in The Gospel of Peter, The Diatessaron of Tatian, The Apocalypse of Peter, The visio Pauli, The Apocalypses of the Virgin and Sedrach, The Testament of Abraham, 1he Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, The narrative of dosimus, The apology of Aristides, The ppistles of Clement (Complete Text), Origen' s "Conmentary on John, dooks ~l-A, and Commentary on Patthew dooks l, Ll and a.-." X-XIV. (Aim, “Vol. ”9), p. 5.1.0. 24 achillebeeckx, p. 245. 25nusebius, Church History, p. 200. 50 hand of God, because in the beginning God made one man and one woman."26 In theory divorce has always been condemned by the Church. In The Shepherd 9: Hermas it is pointed out that while in the case of adultery a man may put away his wife if she refuses to repent, he must remain unmarried and chaste in order that he will be free to accept her back and forgive her if she is sorry.27 The Christian Church by rejecting both divorce and concubinage and by not encouraging re-marriage even after the death of one of the partners raised marriage from a civil contract to an unbreakable moral bond. By confining sex to marriage for both man and woman and putting fornica— tion on the same level as adultery, the double standard was broken and the highest sexual morality was expected from 8 . . . 2 Woman was now secure in her relationships with men, all. and freed from the fear of being shoved aside she was able to devote her energies to becoming a lifelong companion to her husband. 26Athenagoras, Apology ig Fathers pf the Second Century, pp. 146747 , 27W; 9.3:. Her—mas. p. 262. 28Cf. Didascalia Apostolarpim, ed. R. Heigh Connolly (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929) Chapters II and III, 8-28. The sexual norms for men are identical to those for women. 51 Feminist critics of Christian marriage are always most nettled about the subordination of women in marriage which was clearly stated by St. Paul. ”Let wives be subject to their husbands as to the Lord. Because a husband is head of the wife just as Christ is head of the Church being himself savior of the body. But just as the Church is subject to Christ so also let wives be to their husbands in all things."29 Subordination was not introduced by the Christians: it was the marriage state of both Semitic and Greek women. Paul had merely taken things as they were and uplifted them and spiritualized them. Christianity was not a social revolution but a moral one. St. John Chrysostom spoke most beautifully and elegantly on this verse. In his homily on Ephesians St. John said that it is through the love of man and woman that the whole human race is to be joined. Through marriage the family is constantly enlarged until someday it will be but one interlocking giant clan. And not only is marriage going to be the source of the unity of the whole human race, but it will be the source of the harmony of society also. For when there is harmony in the home it extends out into the neighborhood.JO Thus, the wife should be subject to her husband for order and peace. zgsph. 5. 22-24. 30$t. John Chrysostom, Homilies pp EEDE§1QE§t in g5. John Chrysostom: figmglies pg Talaticns, Ephepians, Phillipians, Calossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (NPNF, lst ser., Vol. 13), p. 143. 52 Hence he places the one in subjection and the other in authority that then may be peace. For when there is equal authority there can never be peace. Neither when a house is a democracy nor where all are rulers, but the ruling power must of necessity be one.31 He went on to tell husbands how they were to rule their wives not lording it over them but guarding them with their "'1 love. But the partner of one's life the mother of one's children, the foundation of one's every joy, one I ought never to chain down by fear and menaces, i but with love and good temper. For what sort of union is that where the wife trembles at the husband? And what sort of pleasure will the husband himself enjoy, if he dwells with his wife as with a slave, and not as with a free—woman? Yea. though thou shouldst suffer anything on her account, do not upbraid her: for neither did Christ do this.32 1'11 'a. W 1"”. : In another homily St. John Chrysostom spoke about another dictum of St. Paul's that marriage partners have mutual authority over each other's bodies. He said: "there is great gggaligy of hgpgg, and no pgerogatives.“33 St. Basil pointed out that marriage is as much a necessity to man as to woman, for it is in marriage that man 311bid., p. 147. 32Ibid., p. 144. 33"'t. John Chrysostom,"Homilies on First Cprinthians'in D The Homilies of saint Johg pggysgsgpg arcnbisngp 9; EonsfantinoplET on the'lpistles g; Pail 59 the Corinthians, The Oxford Translation, rev. Talbot W. Chambers (REEF, lst Ser., Vol. l2), p. 105. Italics mine. 53 becomes civilized and humanized.34 St. Augustine is attri- buted with saying that dve was taken from the side of Adam to be his partner. She received Adam's bone for strength, and Adam in return received her flesh to obtain her tender— ness.35 So not only were man and woman equal in dignity, but they were mutually dependent upon each other for psycho- ll logical completion. Sex differences were recognized as of divine origin as an impetus to carrying out the divine plan for mankind. Clement of Alexandria also spoke of woman as man's helpmate, his helpmate in both procreation and the j management of the household. He said that man is by nature active while woman is by nature passive-—again complement- ary functions.36 He held that woman is not a detriment to man's rational life as many other authors taught, for if she loved him she would be his "faithful reflection."37 So throughout the writings of the Fathers, the idea of the head-heart concept was found. The wife as the heart of the home was subordinate to the husbandas head, and she 34Basil, Hexaemeron in Thg Treatise d3 Spiritu Sancto, The Nine Homilies 9f the fiexaemeron and the Letters 9: saint Basil the ggéég, archbish09_gflgaes rea, tr. dloomfield Jackson (NPNE, 2nd Ser., Vol. 8), p. 93. 3513111119 Schaff. dietary. 9.1”. Ebe 911283.142 Search. Vol. 11: Ante;_-_-§_Lg_efl§ §3£L§gifli£13 5.2.9:. 105-325 (Grand Rabids: NIH. B. berdman's Publishing Co., 1959), II, 363. ‘2 "6Clement of Alexandria, Th§_lnaLLQQEQI: D. 276. 37113131., p. 231. 54 strove to carry out his orders. On the other hand, the hus— band as the head cf the family endeavored to carry out his wife's wishes. This subordination was necessary not only for peace, harmony, and order in the home, but it took society and marriage as it existed, and sanctified it. Con- versely, the Fathers were quick to point out that the WA husbands hardly had it all their way. Responsibility can be a burden. Those who love are bound much more securely than those who only fear. It is the woman after all who is held in the greater respect for it is she who is the beloved one.38' And treating her maliciously does not dishonor her; it dis- honors the one who is being ruled by his lower passions. "And I say not this for a wife to be beaten; far from it; for this is the extremest affront: not to her who is beaten, but to him who beatest."39 “Since thy wife is to thee both a harbor, and a potent healing charm to rejoice they heart."40 The female was called woman (companion) before she was called bve (mother). This subordination never was applied to the moral or spiritual nature of the wife. St. Clement said: "As far as respects human nature, the woman does not possess one nature, and the man exhibit another, but the same: the same 38Chrysostom, homilies on Ephesiang, p. 147. 39124.4... :0. 155. 4OL€L€OI p. 1560 55 41 also with virtpg. He also said that woman was given to man as a help. A good wife will try by her common sense to help her husband, but if he does not yield to her moral persuasion, she is to live in accordance with her own reason and God will be her helpmate and associate—-her true . 4 _ . . defender and sayior. 2 So in an unhappy marriage where the husband could not or would not provide moral leadership, God was her guide. Man had abdicated his right. "None of the Church Fathers acknowledged that differences in sex affected salvation.“43 That a Christian marriage is also a union on the spiritual level has been well put by that so-called misogynist Tertullian. In a famous letter to his wife he writes: Whence are we to find (words) enough fully to tell the happiness of that marriage which the Church cements, and the oblations confirms, and the benediction signs and seals: (which) angels carry back the news of (to heaven), (which) the Father holds for ratified? For even on earth children do not rightly and lawfully wed without their fathers' consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers, (partakers) of one hOpe, one desire, one discipline, one and the same service? Both (are) brethern, both fellow servants, no difference of spirit or of flesh: nay, (they are) truly "two in one flesh." Where the flesh is one, one is the spirit too. Together they pray, 41Clement, Stromata. p. 419. Ibid., p. 432. 43Kenneth Scott Latourette, é §£§§QEZ pf the Expansion ' e: Shaistianitgyi Vol. I: The sires. Five Geesitiss (3rd ed- ".-.- ..- New York: Harper & Bros., 1937): p. 260. 53m i... .4 4 2...... u a.“ Iflmidfifi.‘ 56 together prostrate themselves, together perform their fasts: mutually teaching, mutually exhort— ing, mutually sustaining. Equally (are they) both (found) in the Church of God; equally at the banquet of God; equally in straits, in persecu- tion, in refreshments. Neither hides (ought) from the other; neither shuns the other: neither is troublesome to the other. ... Between the two echo psalms and hymns: and they mutually challenge each other which shall better chant to their Lord. Such things when Christ sees and hears, He joys. V To these He sends His own peace. Where two (are), r“ there withal (is) He Himself Where He (is), there the Evil One is not.44 Clement was one of the earliest Fathers to state ex- plicitly that desire of the flesh was more than that, for “in..-“ ‘1 it really was the desire for the union with God. He told the story of St. Peter rejoicing when his wife was led to her martyrdom because she soon would join the Lord. He quoted St. Peter as saying: “The love of one's wife is inseparable from one's love of the Lord."45 Clement had such a high regard for marriage that he said that "the married man is superior to the single." For the married man must find the strength to withstand so many more dis- tractions: children, wife, house and possessions. He ad- mitted however, to being alone in this Opinion.46 TheOphilus's exegesis on the Genesis account of God making five out of Adam's rib also stated the equality of 44Tertullian, T his gigs, p. 48. ”m 45Clement, Stromata, p. 541. 461bid., p. 543. 57 woman to man. He said that God did this so that man would never think that one godrmde man and another god made woman. He also made woman in this way so that “their mutual affection might be greater!47 He said that when the two became one flesh they were mutually fulfilled and that this fulfillment was so great that men often sacrificed themselves to death out of love for their wives. The dignity for both the male and the female is con— I -_"l. (”JI'I 11' ...“II'JJI‘I \ tinually stressed by Clement. In Thg Igstructog he insisted m that both men and women were to be given the same education, because "their food is common, marriage an equal yoke: respiration, sight, hearing, knowledge, hOpe, obedience, love all alike."48 Sexuality was seen as the very basis for the social life of the world. Conjugal union produced both social life and the spiritual one. The fruits of this con- jugal union would be rewarded in the next life, but sexual desire which haunted men in this life will be removed. Yet, man through his sexuality imitated God. For “man becomes an image of God insofar as man c00perates in the creation of 49 man." Agraphon in his Second Letter 59 Clement said that the parousia will not come while mankind is sexually divided. 47TheOphilus. $9 Antolycus,in EREDEEQ 9f the Second Century, p. 105. 43 Clement, The Instructor, p. 2l. 49Clement, The Instructor, as quoted in quasten II, p. 34. This passage is in Latin in AME, II. t... : - . . hut-.9. ... $3.4. . .v . . : .Nr. 58 when two peeple will become one and the outer like the inner and man one with woman, when there is neither masculine nor feminine. This is when the kingdom will come. St. John Chrysostom commenting on "for the un- believing husband is sanctified in the wife,"51 says that even though there is no spiritual meeting of minds as such, .3?!" still through the mixture of the bodies communion does exist, and the physical union with the woman will save the husband. Marriage was the epitome of the sacramental prin- ciple that through the stimulation of the senses the spirit can be aroused. For this reason virginity had no exclusive possession of the Christian virtue of purity. Sex was of divine institution and thus holy. Chastity was the guardian of this sacred institution.52 In the marriage of God and man God was always the man. He took the initiative and to him belonged the power. Humanity was womanly. It was only through her active recep- tivity that the fruitful union with God occurred. This imagery could not help but raise the status of women as well as the feminine principle. Man for all his great organiza- tional ability, his tremendous feats of logic, his physical SOMoll, p. 77. 511 Cor. 7.14. SZSt. John Chrysostom, Homilies 93 First Coringhians, p. 107. if i flies ll| 59 strength, and self discipline could never reach God. He had to turn to his wife, his own recessive feminine psyche, the Church, or the Blessed Virgin to learn how to be responsive when God sought him. In doing so man admitted his incomplete- ness. He found that the sacred marriage was the human marriage, not the marriage of the gods. God was complete, it was man who was sexual. It was only through living marriage and learning from it that the conflict of eggg and lgggg could be harmonized. This was true of every natural human marriage and in the Christian marriage both were finally lifted up into agapg. Could a woman have felt in- ferior to either her husband or her virgin sister when she has been given such a magnificent role in such a tender union? ism... . n v... I! o. . .w. 1. its??? eaw‘ CHAPTER V WOMLN'S MINISTRY IN THE CHURC' Before embarking on a discussion of women's ministry in the early Church, we must try to delineate some workable definition of the Christian ministry in general. It has been pointed out by K.S. Latourette that the Christian ministry, while including the priestly function which it inherited from the Levitical tradition of the Old Testament, expanded upon it and "embraced a purpose which seems to have been derived directly from the example of Jesus himself, that of pastor or shepherd."l The Christian ministry joins cult worship and social service. The priest- hood of Christ was a true sacrificing priesthood when he offered himself as victim in a bloody manner upon the cross. His followers were commanded to represent this sacrifice in the offering of bread and wine and continuedtflfidrpriest- hood. But Christ's sacrifice was different from the Old Testament sacrifices in that the priest and victim were the same. Thus self-sacrifice was wedded to the love of others. Love, concern and care for others was demonstrated by Christ in his role as good shepherd. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, brought peace to the demented. 1K.S. Latourette, I, 252. 60 61 From the first it was this aspect of the ministry which the women spontaneously performed. They visited the sick, gave consolation to the bereaved, made funeral arrangements, assisted in baptism, took over the upbringing of orphans, and did other charitable acts. There has never been any evidence, though, that woman ever performed any priestly functions. The offering of the sacrifice was reserved to the man. Men like Christ have always performed both roles. In the New Testament, women were already performing three different functions: those of prOphetess, deaconess, and widow. The role of prOphetess probably has been the most disguieting to the masculine hierarchy for prOphets both male and female often Operate outside the cultic structure. PrOphetesses were known in the Old Testament. Besides Miriam, the sister of Moses, Deborah and Hilda2 per- formed this role of one called to communicate divine revelation. In the New Testament the daughters of Phillip were explicitly mentioned.3 St. Paul, while not allowing women to teach publicly with authority,4 did allow women to prOphesy, but he wanted them subject to regulation and 21 Sm. 9.9.: Bx. 15.20.: 4 K98. 22.14-20. 3 Acts 21.8. 4 1 Cor. 14.34-35. 62 insisted that when they engaged in this activity they should have their heads veiled.5 In Christianity while the charisma of prooheCVWisshared by all, it is left to the hierarchy to discern what is truly from the Holy Spirit. Tertullian strongly stated that women were excluded from the sacerdotal ministry. "Women are not permitted to speak in the church, but equally they are forbidden to give the official teaching, to baptize, to make the Offering or to lav claim to any function (EBBBE) of men, or of the sacredotal ministry (offigiup)."6 But he admitted with the apostles that they were allowed to prOphesy. So in some sense woman was allowed an active liturgical part, although this has never been definitely linked with eucharistic service. women were very active in the first and second centuries. Unfortunately, in their zeal, they often were carried away and the early heresiareh were usually surrounded by such women. In the Gnostic sect women were the bearers of secret revelation. wary Magdelan in Pistas SOphia, and Salomi in the Egyptian Gospel, and Mary in the Goseol g: flary were all sources of esoteric teaching in the apocryphal literature.7 51 Cor. 11.5. oJean Janielou, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, tr. Glyn Simon (London: The Faith Press, 19015, p.10. 71bid. '4‘ :‘Q A.".- .. I, . . ‘fip'!_ u“; «.5 7‘ v.u‘l' ...-1;: a - arut 31,..EI'M 63 Montanus and his women pIOphetesses thought of them- selves as instruments of the holy spirit.d Their enthusias- tic new pIOphesy was the speedy approach of the Kingdom. Their ecstatic pronouncements were accompanied by extreme rigorism. Their greatest convert was Tertullian who, after joining this sect, held that "ecstacy is the only prOper form of revelation."9 The Narcionites were another heretical sect which allowed the women complete freedom of action. Tertullian before his schism raged against them. "The very of these heretics, how wanton thev are: For they are bold enough to teach, to disoute, to enact exorcisms, to undertake cures - it may be even to baptize."lo After the hontanist controversy, prOphetic theology bifurcated into two streams: the mystical and the rational. In the West prOphetic mysticism can be traced through the writings of the contemplative saints. In the East only mysticism without charism survived. It is the rational proohetic theology which has had the greatest impact on the orthodox. In this school charism becomes associated with understanding the canonical texts and is restrained. 18 oHans von Campenhausen, Nien who Lhaped the Western Church, tr. Manfred hoffman (New rork: Harper & Row, 19b57, E. 30. gi'ertullian. easiest. £6,391.99 is Essie 9hristian$tL p, 446. lOIbid., p. 263. 11"PrOphecy," nee, kl, 862. a a5 ; ”up: 64 Another way woman was able to express her Christian calling and teach the faith was by giving her life, for Christ. Martyrdom was never reserved for men. In fact, the women martyrs have been among those most highly ex— tolled in the legends of the Church. There was a slave girl Blandina, one of the several martyrs of Lyons who died in the year 177. Her living body was enmeshed in a 12 net and then tossed to the horns of wild bulls. St. AQatha, a woman of Sicily, died in prison in about 250 after having been brutally mutilated.13 St. Agnes, a young girl of twelve died in Rome during the persecutions of Diocletian.l4 St. Cecilia who is listed in the canon of the mass has been honored since the fourth century. The legends surrounding her death, however, are not reliable.15 The martyrdom of St. Perpetua and Felicitas is one of the most touching stories in all Christendom. St. Perpetua, a young matron of high social position,left in her own diaries an account of her trial. Her brother continued the diary which may have been edited by Tertullian.l6 12The Book of uaintsz A Dictionary of Perso_ns Ce nonized or “peautified _y the Catholic Church, compiled by the Benedictine ,onks of St. Augustinefls Abbey, Ramsgato (5th ed.rev.- mew xork: Thomas r. Crowell,Co., 1966), p.578. I l3;§;§., p. 17. l4Ibid., p. 20. Ibid., p. 139. 16 Thgi gassion of Perpetua nd gelici tas, tr. R.E. Wallis in La Christianity, pp. 17 7O 65 The missionary field was another area in which women were able to play a very active part in the primitive church community. Hiooolytus calls Mary Magdalen "the apostle of the apostles."17 Adolph Harnack reiterates this ‘1 point many times in his Church history. Christianity particularly appealed to the women, and they played a lead- “. ‘_- .11."; .r‘nxn} ing role in its spread. Unlike Mithraism which Spread through the Roman army, Christianity Spread quickly through the women's chambers. Licinius, the author of the last persecution, issued a decree, which was especially harsh on j the women, forbidding them to worship publicly. Harnack induces from this that the emperor considered them the stronghold of Christianity.19 Nevertheless from the beginning certain cultic func- tions and roles were reserved for men. The sacrificial priesthood was masculine. St. John Chrysostom clearly 1) stated that the sacrificing priest is Christ himself.“0 Yet, feminine qualities were stressed in St. Polycaro's advice to the presbyters, "the presbyters also must be sympathetic, 17Danielou, Ministry, p. 16. 18Adolf Hornack, The Mission and §§BQE§192 of Christianity in the first Three Centuries, 11 V018,, trans. and ed. James Moffatt (2nd ed., new York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1903), I, 368. 19 ig;g,, II, 64-65. 205t. John Chrysostom,,flgmily ég on gatthew as Quoted in QUastin, III, 481. is. .1... ~ i i. . .,,an.u.,.::.w.§ 66 merciful to all, guiding back the wanderers, visiting all the sick."21 Another role which the men coveted strongly for them— selves was that of teacher. The.kid§§h§ stated, "we do not allow women to preach in the church, but only to pray,"22 The rationale was that the Master had women whom he could 23 have sent, but he did not send them. Tertullian was equally vehement on this point. Women were not to speak in church, officially teach, baptize, or to make the offer- 24 ing. St. Clement spoke of men being the successors to the aoostles, Our apostles, too, were given to understand by our Lord, Jesus Christ that the office of the bishoo would give rise to intrigues. For this reason, equipped as they were with perfect fore- knowledge, they apoointed the men mentioned be- fore, and afterward layed down a rule once and for all to this effect: when these men die, other approved 323 shall succeed to their sacred ministry.25 It would be difficult to argue that the men here mentioned meant mankind. Women were allowed, however, to teach privately and at. John Chrysosuvm coupled this with 21Polycaro of Smyrna, getter to the Philipoians, tr. Francis X. Glimm in Aoostolic gathers, p. 138. 2221 ascalia Apostolorum, p. 133. 23Ib d. H 24Ibid., p. 25Clement of Rome, The Letter 39 the Corinthians, tr. Francis X. Glimm, {he ggostolig Fathers, p. 43. T71 {MI E] ..‘ 67 the fact that they exceeded men in good works.:6 Not be- ing allowed to teach, however, did not lessen their obli- gation to learn. St. Basil said that women should keep silence in church, but be zealous at home to inquire about the manner of pleasing God.27 In The Shepherd g§_§§;ma§, Grapte, a woman.was sent to teach the widows and orphans,the shep- henihimself would teach the Elders.28 It can be seen in the early centuries, that the mnmtni ministry of women was spontaneous and unstructured. As the hierarchy became established, it viewed this anarchy as ‘? less and less desirable. Spontaneous enthusiasm made a good beginning, but organized, sustained thrust was neces— sary to consolidate the original gains. In the third century the Church began to regulate the women. It first tried to absorb them into an order instituted by the apostles-- the widows. There were two orders of widows from ancient times. The first class were those who were dependent upon the Church, like the orphans. The second class were ministers of the church. They assisted at the baptism of women and performed other nonliturgical functions similar 26John Chrysostom, The Epistle to the Romans in The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom Archbishpp of Constigginoole on The Acts of the Apostles tr. J. walker et al. (mPnr, lst ser., Vol. X17, p: 554. h~y italics. 27Saint Basi il: Asectical Works tr. Sr. M. Monica Wagner (EC, Vol. 9), p. 191. 28gheoherd g£_fierna8a P. 240. .. .. thrifamqw v7 lip .. . 68 to those of the deacons. Until the end of the third century, they constituted the ordo viduarum. While their exact position is difficult to ascertain, it was probably more honorary than clerical.29 These women were aged. Originally, they could not be enrolled before they were sixty. They could be married but once and must have proved their worth by their good works. Their purpose was to seek perfection, to be intercessors for the Church, and to teach the young women.30 St. Polycarp called them the altar of God.31 Clement of Alexandria listed then with the chosen persons along with bishops, priests, and deacons.32 Tertullian and Origen spoke of them as enjoying ecclesiasti— cal honors 3150.33 They were placed after the deacon in the enumeration of order. That they were truly an order was witnessed by several of the Fathers. Origen said: “Not only fornication, but also second marriage, are a bar to ecclesiastical dignities. Indeed, neither bishOp, priest, deacon, nor widow, is allowed a second marriage." He Spoke of the ministerium of widows in his commentary on the Romans a and of their “ecclesiastical honors" in his homily on Isaiah." 29H.J. Schroeder, p. 54, note 124. 3ODanielou, gihistry, pp. 13-14. '2 ‘lIbid. 323chroeder, p.54. 1 '3Ibid. 34Danielou,Minist§y, p. 17. 69 The pseudo-Clementine listed the order of widows after the three male orders. Tertullian bore testimony that a widow could not be enrolled in the order if she had been married twice. He called them a guild — gggga. He mentioned them alongside the presbyters in the congregation.35 In the Didascalia of the third century, there is evidence of the decline of the office of widows and the rise of deaconesses. "And thou also has need of a deaconess for many things; for a deaconness is required to go into the houses of the heathen where there are believing women, and to visit those who are sick, and to minister to them in that of which they have need, and to bathe those who have begun to recover from sickness.“36 And more explicitly "and the deaconess shall be honored by you in the place of the Holy Spirit: and the presbyters shall be to you in the likeness of the Apostles: and the orphans and widows shall be reckoned by you in the likeness of the altar."37 By the end of the fourth century the status of widows was ambiguous. Canon 11 of the Council of Laodicea (ca. 380) surpressed the oresbytides--that is the higher rank of widows but not the lower.38 This lower rank needed 351bi Q; 36Dida§calia, p. 148. 3.7Ibi_d., p. 88. finn‘ '38 . . a ' Danielou, ginistgy, pp. ,6-27. 70 no ordination for they had been instituted for prayer and fasting which was really the function of all Christians.39 The deaconate was another female order established by the Apostles along with the widows.40 It didn't reach its zenith, however, until the fourth century. The first post-Apostolic reference to deaconesses came from a secular source. Pliny the Younger writing to Trajan in about 112 Spoke of torturing two serving women who are called 41 deaconesses (ministrae) by the Christians. Clement of Alexandria does not refer to deaconesses by name but spoke of how the Apostles took “sisters“ to share in their ministry to women.42 In a listing of the Roman clergy under the pontificate of Cornelius in about the year 251, no deaconesses were enumerated. so their status was not universally the same.43 The first general council of Nicaea (325) did take 39Hippolytus, The Apgstolic Tradition, p. 40. 4030111. 16.1. 41Josef Jungmann, The Early Liturgy_lg the Time 9: grggorv E22 EEEQE: tr. Francis A. Brunner (South bend, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959), p. 62. 42Clement of Alexandria, Stromaga p. 391. 43The term diaconissa did not come into use until the fourth century. giacona, yidga, and Virgo cononica~ were terms used for female ministers. The distinction De- tween widows and deaconesses has always been obscure: deaconesses probably formed the upper ranks of the widows, and they at least definitely received a laying of hands, ODCC, p. 377. liar... ... v... . .. ..a...¢......_m........- 4.5....“ 71 up the orders of widows and deaconesses. Canon 19 attempted to deal with the return of lapsed Catholics from heresies. The question was whether ordinations and baptisms of these sects should be considered valid. In the case of deacon- esses the canon read "the same holds good in the case of their deaconesses, and, in general, this rule is to observe 3&3“! in regard to all who have been enrolled among their clergy.“ LVII i ..A. But again: "We have mentioned the deaconesses who have been found in this state, that since they have not been ordained, they are to be accounted among the layity."44 Church historians are divided on whether women were then counted asnemebers of an ordained clergy. In part the problem is one of denotation. Clergy like presbyter is often used ambiguously, sometimes in a broad sense and some— times in a narrow technical one. In the third century Syrian Didascalia the duties of deaconesses were listed. Deaconesses were to go to heathen homes where deacons would not be allowed: they were to anoint women catechumens with holy oils before their baptism, and after baptism they were to further instruct these women in matters of faith. Their ministry was also to the sick. They were to bathe those who were reCUperating. In general they were to confine themselves to the ministry to women as deacons confined themselves to the ministering 44Schroeder. p. 52. 72 to men.45 The Appstolig Canogg from the fourth century listed the deaconesses' duties as doorkeeper, intermediary between ,- women and the clergy, and as the deacon's assistant.4° These are all rather inferior positions. It would seem she was combination usher and union-steward, but as a steward she would perhaps have had some influence with the clergy. Whether or not she was continuing her teaching duties with the women of the congregation cannot be ascertained from this passage. These same Apostolig Qggggigggiggg implied that the deaconess did have a clerical position for it mentioned the laying of hands for the deaconess. CONCLRNIRG Tfib DbACONbbS--THL CONSTITUTION OF BARTHOLOMEW. XIX. Concerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew make this constitution: O bishop, thou shalt lay thy hands upon her in the presence of the presbytery, and of the deacons and deaconesses, and shalt says-- THE FORM OF PRAYLR FOR THE ORDINATlON OF A DhACONbSS. XX. 0 Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of woman, who didst replenish with the Spirit Miriam, and Deborah, and Anna, and Huldah: who didst not disdain that Thy only begotten Son should be born of a woman: who also in the tabernacle of the testimony, and in the temple, didst ordain women to be keepers of Thy holy gates,--do Thou now also look down upon this Thy servant, who is to be ordained to the office of a deaconess, and grant her Thy Holy Spirit, and "cleanse her from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit," 42 Cor. 7.1t7 that she may worthily dis- charge the work which is committed to her to Thy 4oDanielou, Ministry, p. 23. 2 \Mh 73 glory, and the praise of Thy Christ, with whom glory and adoration be to Thee and the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.47 A fifth century document the ESEEQEEEE pf 93; Eggg gave the deaconess a more eminent place than the Canons. She was mentioned right after the deacons and she sat on the bishOp's left--the deacons on his right. She received communion before the layity and assisted at baptism. But she was ordained without the imposition of hands.48 The Council of Chalcedon in 451 testified that ordination of 3 women still was being practiced. Canon 15 stated that a woman may not be ordained under forty years of age,49 but 5; in the West the Council of Orange 441 had stated: "UGaCOD- 50 esses should not be in any way ordained? There have al- ways been divergent practices between the East and West. Deaconesses are another case in point. Most of the docu- mentation concerning them comes from the East. It was there in fact that they were invested with both the stole and chalice.51 In contrast in the West Tertullian, Hippolytus 47Apostolic Constitutiggs, in gathers g: the Third and Fourth—Centuries: gactantigs, yenantius, Asterius, yictorinus,-§ionysig§, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, homily and Liturgies, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe (ARE, Vol. 7), p. 492. 43Danielou, ginistry, p. 20. 4gflidaSCalia, p. 22. Ibid.' p. 230 74 and Cyprian were earnestly extolling virginity. No virgins are even mentioned in the Didascalia.52 Danielou interprets the divergence between the Didascalia and the Apostolic Constitutions over the status of widows, as an attempt on the part of the bishOps to gain more control over their women helpers. They did this by elevating deaconesses, who were more under their control, over the widows. who were not as well regulated.53 In the Qidascalia quite bitter complaints were made against widows taking advantage of their position and not tending to their duties. But let a widow know she is the altar of God: and let her sit ever at home, and not stray or run about among the houses of the faithful to receive. For the altar of God never strays or runs about anywhere, but is fixed in one place.54 While the deaconess survived in some places in both the East and West until the tenth or eleventh centuries, in general, this office was absorbed by the convents and evolved into the great medieval abbesses who were both leaders of religious women and administrators of huge fiefs. They even sat in great councils and the parliaments of kings. They were Church invested with the ring, the pectoral . 55 - . . . . . cross, and the crOSier. reminine liturgical functions had 52Didascalia, p. xxxi. 53Danielou, ministry, p. 20. 54DidaSCalia, p. 133. 55"Abpesses,” NCL, I, 6. IE . vfl us“ . ..i. 14713.1? .3“.— ..dashwx‘ 75 become defunct with the rise of infant baptism, so it had become much more common for the deeply religious woman to now seek out a monastery and find her ministry there. The tremendous influence of women on the develop- ment of monasticism has seldom been pr0perly told. Saints Anthony, Basil, and Benedict are familiar names to most liberally educated Christians, but there were women who _ ...—J I I" 9 were also of great importance. Christian monasticism can if. be traced back to the desert of Egypt and the magnetic per- sonality of St. Anthony. It was, however, St. Pachomius who gave communal celibacy its first rule and started y monasticism along lines peculiarly Christian. It is seldom known, however, that Pachomius had a sister Mary who also founded a monastery——a nunnery--in 328.56 But even before monastic life was regularized by Pachomius and Mary, com- munities of women had formed in the deserts during the persecutions of Diocletian. Many of these women suffered grotesQue tortures and death for their faith. One of the most beautiful and heroic of these virgins was St. Fabronia. From her infancy a member of a community of women in Mesopotamia, she had never seen a man until she was dragged naked before the Roman magistrate. savagely dismembered, her courage held out until she was finally beheaded. The SbKenneth Scott Latourette, A a L__ p ipy (New York: harper & Brothers, 19535, p. 32 76 legend of her martyrdom was preserved by an eyewitness and she became a model for future generations of nuns.57 St. Basil the Great was probably in many ways the mightiest of the Greek Fathers. He is the acknowledged founder of Eastern monasticism, renowned as an administra- tor, admired as a writer and preacher, a liturgist of such repute that his devotions are still the main stay of the Orthodox Church. He was also an apostle of Christian human- ism. His brother, Gregory of Nyssa, was almost as illus- trious. Together with their friend Gregory of Nazianzus they formed the three great Cappodocian eastern Fathers. Gregory was a philosopher and a mystic. His "Great Cate- chism“ was a systematic ordering of Christian doctrines. But praised and honored as they were, both Basil and Gregory bowed before and acknowledged the direction they had been given by the women of their family--especially their grand- mother and their sister, both called Macrina. Gregory wrote two treatises in which he honored his sister. "On the Soul and the Resurrection" was written in the form of dialogue with Macrina. Although the thoughts are undoubtedly his, his sister is put in the role of teacher. He so desired her greatness to be remembered by posterity that he also wrote a short monograph on her life. 57The Count de Montalembert, The Monks e: 333 West from St. genedicp t9 gt; eegnard,intro. F.A. Gasauet (VI; London: John C. Nimmo, 1896) 1, 221—24. w... 31:- 77 In a letter Te eye geocaesageans dasil acknowledges his religious dependence on his grandmother, Macrina. He says: What clearer evidence Can there be of my faith, than that I was brought up by my grandmother, blessed woman, who came from you? I mean the celebrated macrina who taught me the words of the blessed Gregory: which as far as memory had preserved down to her day, she cherished herself, ‘ while she fashioned and formed me, while yet a 7 child, upon the doctrines of piety.55 His brother Gregory relates how it was another Macrina, this time his sister, who was most influential at one of the turning points in Basil's life. Besides the sound orthodox education he received from his grandmother, he also received one of the finest secular and liberal educations that could then be had. After school in Caesarea, he went to ConstantinOple to study rhetoric and philOSOphy. Finally, he arrived at the intellectual capital of the world, Athens. When he returned home, al- ready famous and successful, the doors to all the great secular careers were Open to him. "but Macrina took him over and lured him so quickly to the goal of philos0phy that he withdrew from the worldly show and began to look down upon a claim through oratory and went over to this life full of labors for one's own hand to perform, providing for himself through his complete poverty, a mode of living . . 59 that would without impediment lead to Virtue.“ 535t. Basil, Letters, he TreeEiee, p. 245. 59 - m . _. . Gregory or Nyssa. 4...? _i_f.s 2?. at... 3.2.1211. 73 The eldest of ten children, macrina had always taken it upon herself to be a second mother to the family and a faithful companion and helpmate to her own mother. Especially after the death of her father, Macrina was more and more of an aid to her mother in the running of the household and the teaching of the younger children. Though betrothed while very young, she was Spared from marriage by the death of her fiance before their union took place. She dismissed any further talk of another marriage alliance by saying this would be unfaithful to the first vow which she had accepted as the will of her father and the will of God. She led her mother more and more along the lines of philos— Ophy. When the younger children were grown, Macrina and her mother began to live on the same level with their maid- servants, in poverty, continence and humility. Prayer and unceasing singing filled their day. Macrina's youngest brother, Peter, was born about the time of the death of their father. Macrina raised him from infancy. ‘She became all things to the boy: father, teacher, attendant, mother, the counselor of every good, and she held him in check so that, even before his flowering in the tenderness of youth, he was raised to the high goal of philOSOphy and by some good fortune of nature, he had skill in every form of handicraft, that without instruction he arrived at a complete mastery of skills uoon which most peOpleexpend much time and energy. 00 When he reached maturity he was her chief aid in maintaining the convent she had established for women. Her example and °°iai§.. p. 172. 79 teaching on the ascetic life was such a strong influence on Basil that he himself turned his attention to monasticism, founded a monastery like hers for men, and wrote his Rule. With this in mind, Macrina can be called the true foundress 61 Perhaps this is be- of Eastern regularized monastic life. for an official function they nevertheless exerted a tre- In the West where women had even fewer Opportunities mendous personal and private influence. cause in the West women had traditionally played the part of co-worker as wife and were accepted more equally by the It is hard to see why anyone could ever say that St. His mysogynistic writings con- men. Jerome was an anti-feminist. but his dependence on women for In Rome he came in contact cern sex and marriage, but they 62 with a group of wealthy, devoted women already dedicated to encouragement is well-known. He became their spiritual director, Marcella was their asceticism. had a reciprocal influence on him. leader--one of the first foundresses of a Western convent. It was at her instigation and suggestion that he wrote many of his commentaries on difficult scriptural passages. She herself was such an exegete that Jerome has called her his The stem 2: the Harper & sros., §l£§i New York: Robert Payne, The hel he eastern Church t. Jerome, Letter CXXVII in The Principle Works 61 Ea- erS 9: E 195 ), p. 62- D -th_._ . o 115. 9: StL Jerome, tr. W.H. Freemantle (ANF, Vol. 6), p. 253. 80 It was at Marcella's request that judge rather than disciple. heLmdeNxmk the exegesis of Ephesians which he considered 63 i . Her intellect and moral courage perhaps his'best gnark. Anastasius condemning the Roman were responsible for POpe “Of this glorious victory, defenders of Origen's heresies. . . . "64 Marcella was the origin. Another sister who made her influence felt in the With the estab- [.1 field of monasticism was 3t. Marcellina. lishmau:of Christianity as the state religion in the In- J fourth century, virgins sought a common life together. formation about such convents in the East had been infilt- rating the West for some time. At the request of Marcellina. Ambrose synthesized these teachings on virginity. These were consolidated into three books. Marcellina, then, like Paula and Marcella, Macrina and others was among that in- fluential group of women who point out the new directions, horizons, and activities towards which man should direct his intellect. Of all the Christian mothers, St. Monica is un- doubtedly the most famous due to the esteem that many In his confessions generations have had for her son. Augustine's only deviation from his own introspection 62+- |--'" " . was to interrupt himself to recount the life of his mother 81 and to relate the effect that she had had on the develOpment of his soul. "As a boy then I had already heard of an eternal life, promised us through the humility of the Lord our God, stOOping to our pride: and even from the womb of my mother, who greatly hoped in Thee, I was sealed with the mark of His Cross and salted with His salt265 That he wondered and deviated from these primeval, maternal f} teachings is the story of his Confessions, but his mother “ a never ceased hooing and praying finrhis eventual baptism in- to the faith of his youth. "For she by that faith and spirit which she had from Thee, discerned the death wherein I lay, and Thou heardest her, oh Lord; Thou heardest her, and despithesed not tears, when streaming down, they watered the ground under her eyes in every place where she prayed, yea Thou heardest her."66 . i- ' W’J ‘ I 1r ‘4 ‘7 She was the epitome of the Christian woman, strong but tender. Augustine said how God used her to speak to him even though he did not know it at the time. "These seem to me womanish advises, whiCh I ShOU1d blush to obey. But they were thine, and I knew it not: and I thought Thou were silent and it was she who spake: by whom Thou wert not silent unto me: and in her was despised by me, her son, the son of thy handmaid, thy servant, But I knew it not.“ Her whole life, then was devoted to the conversion of son. I can think of no man who has gained a brighter e Pusey, Vol. yII. Collier & Son Co., 19097, p. 13. 66Ibid., p. 4?. 67iblg‘. I DO 25. her star ssions of St. Augustine, trans. Edward B. The Harvard Claesics (new York: P.F. 62 for Christendom by either his pleading, his rhetoric, or his example as did this woman by hers. So many other women by the gifts of their money, their time, and by their example gave the Church a bright and holy light, that the Christian women were an amazement to the pagans.68 St. Melania the younger, a cousin of Paula the friend of St. Jerome, was one of these marvelous Christian women. She was married in 397 to Pinianus when she was only fourteen. She led such a holy life that she attracted thirty different families, along with many virgins and widows to her villa so they could live near and follow the example of such a pious woman. She had vast estates and over eight thousand slaves. With the advent of the Goths, she went to Carthage where she founded two monasteries, one for men and one for her former female slaves. She wrote a very mild rule for her virgins, but she herself ate only every other day. Her work was to transcribe books, both in Greek and Latin, and her influence on her husband was such that he too was canonized.69 While this story is perhaps not typical, her way of life was a pattern that certainly does 68The pagan Libanius said about the mother of St. John Chrysostom: "What women have these Christians!" Schaff,II, 363. 69Butler's Lives 9; the Saints, ed. & rev. Herbert Thurston and Donald Attwater (new York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1956), IV, 646-48. .9. a}: .. and... x Swimitafla‘ 83 not stand in isolation among the wealthy matrons of the late fourth century. The final way in which woman could have exercised her influence and her ministry in the church was by parti- cipating in Church politics. For the first millennium, bishops were elected by the clergy and the peOple. Women often participated and voted in these elections. in the Apostolic Tradition 9£_H ppolitusL written about the turn of the third century, ordinances are given for the consecra- tion of a bishOp. It begins, "Let the bishOp be ordained after he has been chosen by all the pepple."7o Women were not precluded from this election. But even when a woman could not vote, her influence was not thereby precluded. A certain fourth century Spanish lady, Lucilla, was among the first women of record to use her wealth to bribe the way of her men into Church offices.71 Woman was not always an influence for good; but she did have some influence. 7OHyppolitus, Apostolic Tradition, p. 33. 71.8 QiC§.,i_9.na.§Y 9E Shristian .5199}:wa Literaturei sects. and DOCtrines. Pyrifls-§he Firs; Eight gesturies. Eeihg a"Continuation of the dictionary of the Bible, ed. William Smith and Henry Nacev4vols: London: John Murray, 1882), III, 751. Cf. Jean Danielou and Henri Morrou, The Christian Centuries, Vol. I: The First Six Hundred Years, tr. Vincent Cronin (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964), p. 240. 84 The early Christian Church used and recognized woman's talents, both officially and unofficially. In the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic era, she performed as a prophetess, and she was an active and effective missionary. Her sincerity, fortitude, and bravery were proven by martyr- dom. The reciprocal concern that women and the Church had for each other is best evidenced by widows. Widows and _i orphans were SUpported and cared for by the Church. In return the widows prayed and fasted for the whole congrega- tion and often performed functions which overlapped those of the deaconry. As deaconess, woman was often ordained , ; into major orders and assisted officially at the sacraments. Women also instructed the children and other women and in conjunction with men helped care for the poor and the sick. In her social roles she exercised leadership by stimulating men to undertake new activities at either her request or as the result of her example. She never shared in the offices of public teacher or sacrificing priest, however, as these were always felt to be masculine roles and incompatible with the feminine virtues. She exercised her spiritual apostolate in a motherly or supporting role in which she complemented and stood next to the man in his apostolate as father (priest). Her apostolate was usually one of silence; she was hidden within the Church. If woman is to identify with the Holy Spirit, perhaps the lack of any definite form to her work is the one note of her ministry. From time to time she has exercised other liturgical prerogative such 95 as the preparation of the chalice, pouring wine into it, and distributing the host to women and children.72 She performed where and when she was needed. She went where the official hierarchy could not penetrate and did things they were unable or unreadv to perform. What she lost in honor or status, she gained in freedom. ...-“ ~—‘—— —— ‘— 7.. .. 2Danielou, Eifli$EEYo p. 29. ,V J'V!‘x '- ‘_¥ CHAPTER VI ANTI—FEMINISM IN THE CHURCH Historical evidence concerning the status of woman . . $5., in any one period has never pointed in only one direction, and the Patristic era is no exception. To be a complete misogynist would be unChristian. Yet, neither Christians nor the Church itself, have ever so far been found without j Spot or wrinkle. Christianity was an attempt to make one a people out of the nations by providing a universal goal and harmonizing individual differences with love. It preached a brotherhood where there was neither Jew nor Greek: slave nor freeman: male nor female.“1 Christian psychology accepted man as a creature at war with himself. He sought to be perfect but was always less than that. He often tried to love his neighbor before he had learned to love himself. Bias, prejudice, misunder— standing, ignorance, pride, and unbridled passion occasion- ally creep out in even the best of men. Consequently, as a result patristic literature does contain some anti-feminine vieWpoints. Even the most converted of Christians still carried the imprints of their own biology, psychology: and Gal. 3.23. 87 historical prejudices. Traces of anti-feminism could be found in St. Paul.2 It appeared early in the post- Apostolic Fathers. Athenagoras, a second century bishOp of Athens found woman's sexuality to have had only one positive end - childbearing. Having the hOpe of eternal life, we deSpise the things of this life, even the pleasures of the my soul, each of us reckoning her his wife, whom he '1 has married according to the laws laid down by us, and that only for the purpose of having children. a for as the husbandman sowing seed into the ground ? awaits the harvest, not sowing more Upon it, so to us the procreation of children is the measure of our indulgence and appetite.3 In another work he stated that a second marriage was nothing s_ more than Specious adultery because God made one man and one woman for the strictest union in the intercourse of the race.4 To him those who would truly live a God-centered life would reject sexuality and marriage and remain a virgin. In the Alexandrian school Clement has the highest regard for women in the realm of spiritual things. “Women are therefore to philOSOphize equally with men, though the males are the best at everything unless they have become 21 Tim. 2.11-12. 3Athenagoras Apology quoted in cuasten I, 234. 4Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians in gathers m; the Second CenturyL pp. 146-47. 88 effeminate.“5 But a difference in nature is acknowledged by Clement who thought how imprOper it is for man who is endowed with reason to do anything disgraceful but it is even worse for women to whom it brings shame even to re- flect of what their nature is. Because of her biology he believed woman was destined for child-bearing and house- keeping, but he had a very lofty conception of woman's relation to her husband, elevating her to a place of equal- ity, a sister in reality, after she had borne him children. Clement saw procreation as the lawful end of marriage. He believed a woman was subordinate to her husband and yet gave her high honor within the family. This idea was Jew- ish rather than Greek or Roman. He made no references to any official status of woman in the Church.6 He gave very detailed descriptions of how a woman should act and dress. He carried this to the extent of saying, "fornication in a woman is the raising of the eyes."7 His theology of man, however, coincided with the highest biblical theology: "The soul of man is confessedly the better part of man, and the body the inferior. But neither is the soul good by 8 nature, nor on the other hand, is the body bad by nature. 5As quoted in Charles Cladwell Ryrie, The Place 9; Woman in the Church (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1958), p. 1067‘ 6 Ibid. 7Clement, The Instructor, 0. 263. 8Clement, The Stromata,p. 439. 89 Here there is no evidence of Manichean or Gnostic tend- encies. Tertullian calls woman the "gate of Hell" and the cause of man's fall. And yet he equates truth with the feminine: "Truth knows that she is a stranger on earth and easily finds enemies among men of another allegiance, but she knows that her race, home, hOpe, recompense, and honor are in heaven."9 And finally he exclaims: "Oh handmaidens of the living God, my fellow servants and sisters, the law that sets me, most unworthy, in your ranks, emboldens me as your fellow-servant to address you."10 "Not animus but anima is 'naturaliter Christiana' that is Christian by "11 The heretical sect nature says Tertullian so rightly. in which Tertullian spent his last days allowed women into its upper clergy. His gate of hell statement obviously is more forceful out of context. Anti—femininism was most strongly expressed in the African Church by the desert fathers. While the more moder- ate monasticism even appealed to women, and sister convents grew up in conjunction with monasteries, the more extreme *— 9Tertullian, The applggy as quoted in cuasten II, 256. 10A3 quoted in Harnack, Missions II, p. 71. 11Tertullian, T.e App_op as quoted in Moll, p. 54. 2" ‘ '1' T. \‘almflm ! -' I H .1! All) A 90 forms of the ascetic life, such as the hermits who were dwelling in the deserts of bgypt, were the antithesis of the feninine Spirit. It was at this masculine extreme where irregularities and deformities crept into the monas- tic system. This life was often more similar to athletic training and bizarre practices of circus performances than anything that resembled a contemplative life. Shunning all men, these Anchorites particularly abhorred women and feared even their own mothers and sisters. The Lastern fathers were more Platonic in philOSOphy and less legalistic and rigid than their western counter- parts. Nevertheless, certain distaste for women appeared also in their writings. St. Basil the Great had a tendency towards Stoicism, legalism, and moralism. He encouraged continence in all things. In his zeal for virginity, he replaced the Christian family with the monastery as the deal Christian community.12 Gregory of Nyssa also an apostle of virginity, though he himself was married, spoke of perfect virginity as the virginity of the soul. This virginity consisted of dis- engagedness of the heart and lofty aspirations. ‘And yet he did not “deprecate marriage,“ and believed that virginity of the soul could be practiced by all.13 Basil also affirmed 1213asil, Letter IV in Thg Tgeatisie, p. 113. c» 'm—g ‘ 13Gregory of Nyssa, 9n Virgigity in Gregory pf Nyssa, D. 51. v—. Q r -' ~ . . 'P ‘.l . ' A".'"(.-tw.’l. ... w Iris, 4...... ...... Jla ‘ transgris 91 that celibacy does not solve human concupiscence for “all in the world whether married or virgin have cares and appetites.“l4 The writings of St. John Chrysostom contain perhaps the strongest bias against women that can be found among the Eastern Fathers. Louis Bouyer attempts to reconcile this with other writings of St. John which contain some of if} the most beautiful treatises written on marriage. Bouyer's interpretation is based on circumstances in St. John's life. Early in his career, St. John Chrysostom embraced monasticism. ; But the asceticism he practiced was an asceticism based on EJ moralism, and it lacked mystery. Built on such a founda- tion, this asceticism was destined to become arid and brittle, St.John's‘misogynisticumitings were writings that not only lacked an appreciation of woman but even a real appreciation of the monastic life. In a letter to a certain Theodore who was tempted to marry rather than to continue a vocation of virginity, St. John tries tociisuade him with the analogy thatloss of virginity would be like physical beauty which loses its life and bouyancy and decomposes. He also argued that marriage brings only heartaches and concerns-- children, illness, a nagging wife. none Of this shows much depth of thought. In his treatise on virginity he goes on to say that if marriage is not continued in the next life, it is absurd to spend any part of this life with such cares l4Basil, Letter II in The Treatise, p. 110. 92 as marriage brings. He even says that the help that God promised man by the creation of a woman has been refused to him by woman's sin.ls After St. John returned to civilization and became a priest and then a bishOp, his pastoral letters reveal a reservoir of charity which had been lacking in his writings as a cenobite. His letter to a young widow profoundly penetrates the feelings and emotions of matrimony. He would have a Christian suitor write: "A girl who is prudent and generous, who applies herself to devotion, is worth more than the whole universe. It is for this reason that I have chosen you, and I love you more than myself. The present life is nothing: I ask you then, and I abjure you by every means in my power, that we should spend the time of the present life in such a way as to merit being reunited in the life to come, without any fear of them being separated. The time is short and strewn with difficulties and failures: If here we have been pleasing to God then we shall find one another together in eternal happiness. I prefer your life to everything and I could have no more mortal pain than to have to be separated from you. If I had to lose everything, to fall to the lowest depths of poverty, to suffer anything, all this would be bearable if only your feelings remain for me, and even children seem desirable to me only if you love me in this way. ... The man who takes a wife with all this in mind is hardly inferior to the solitaries."l6 St. Ambrose tolerated woman but lacked a mature appreciation of her worth. He considers her good and yet an 7:.” 15Bouyer, pp. 440-47. ”its... 0. 447. 93 . g . l7 . . inferior to man. Her main purpose and salvation is pro- 8 -. . creation.l In a discu851on of the Soul, St. Ambrose says that the feminine parts of the soul are pestilence, malice, sensuality, and immodesty. The masculine parts embrace chastity, wisdom and the four cardinal virtues.19 St. Jerome has a high regard for women in spite of himself. In his ggeface t“ gephaniah he defends himself ”v.0 su- for writing for women. He uses examples from both Scrip- ture and the classics to show the capacities and worth of the feminine sex.20 But he is not always so profuse in his praise. Sometimes he equates women with simpletons.21 His condemnation of marriage, however, is much more precise. He says that he would "cut down with the axe of virginity, the wood of Marriage."22 _He does realize however where his virgins come from. "I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, bUt only it is becaUSe they give me virgins."23 17St. Ambrose, Paradise tr. John S. Savage in St; Ambrgge: Hexameron, Paradise, and Cain and Abel (EC, Vol. 42), p. 301. leiais.. p. 400. Ibid. 2OJerome, Preface t Zephomiah in grincipal Works, p. 502. 21Louis Duchesne. sarix EisEQEX 2: The Christian stages (3 vols: New York: Longman's, Green & Co., 1920), III, 120. 22White, p. 3?3. 23Jerome, Letter XXII in ggingipal_figrks, p. 30. ._._.. ... . =1 94 st. Augustine summed up the feelings of most of the ancient Fathers that original sin was connected with sex. In fact Augustine said that the original sin in the off- Spring was due to the concupiscence of the parents. In fact the marriage act could never be performed without sin. It is difficult to see how a mind as great as Augustine's especially in one so disposed to introspection could have failed to have noted the positive goodness that results from man's sexuality. Augustine's lack of perception in this area and all the anti-feminism latent in the patristic world is best summed up by Father souyer. With the young Chrysostom, still more with Jerome, we have seen an asceticism introduced that tended to justify itself by a disgust of the world, of the body, and, what is even more serious, of woman seen simply as the inter- mediary by which the religious man finds him— self wholly absorbed in the body and as it were nailed to the world. Augustine should be given the credit for having tried as well as he could, and increasingly so, to react against the Manicheanism latent in this way of looking at things. Unfortunately, neither his own temperament not his experiences as a young man, nor, above all perhaps, grafted on all this his tendency to lift introspection to the very heart of wisdom, help to make his reaction on this point a very effective one.25 Introspection produced the greatest masculocentrocism of all. Justification of asceticism rather than production of a positive theology of celibacy could not help but serve the cause of the deorecation of the female. 24"Original Sin," NCs, X,780. 25Bouyer, p. 494. Ll um- .m 339...”! <‘zfié ' . 95 An even greater force against woman and against an appreciation of her dignity was the heresies. Mithraism was not strictly a heresy but more a parallel and rival to Christianity. This religion was strictly masculine. Women were only given an auxiliary membership. The Gnostic movement also had a detrimental effect on women, for as . .1}. .' TIRE women assumed more and more important positions in Gnostic circles, the Church reacted by excluding women from orders. By the middle of the second century feminine subordination, borrowed from marriage, was prevailing in the Church. In "dz-z... the New Testament which was read at Rome, Aquila was now named before Prisca who was the more influential of the two, but the wife.26 The heresiarch Manes and Marcion were both horrified at the thought that the Lord had been born of a woman. "Perish the thought," said Manes, "that our Lord Jesus Christ should have descended through the womb of a woman.“27 Marcion cried: "He descended, but without touch- ing her or taking ought from her.u28 PhiliSOphic rationalism also contributed to the lack of appreciation of the womanly. Rec-platonism and Stoicism, 26Harnack, II, 76. I ' I ---.— 0 _§ DeveIOpment of ar es k‘rederick Co 0., 1949), p. 377. 7 H , 2 John Henry Newman, An LS_ .2 Q Christian Doctrine new edition, ed. -w~..-Cl-.—-—-— /" \o Harrold (New xorK: Longmans, Green a_n 28 b1 :35 21.2.1.9. . 96 were both anti-feminine, the first for its intellectualism and the second for its extreme moralism. Gnosticism also attempted to make knowledge out of faith. Mystery is known by the initiate through an esoteric teaching rather than mystically experienced by the complete person. Arianism was a different form of rationalism. It ignored the question of the inner life of the Trinity, saw the Son as the first creature of the Father and the Holy Spirit as the first creature of the son. The bon did not become flesh but became the soul only of Jesus Christ. The Father created, he did not beget. This is a denial of the feminine function with a much more mechanistic and mascu— line theology. Within the Church three separate tendencies had tended to deprecate the role and status of women. First, there was asceticism as described above. Celibates must always be on their guard against the temptations of Eve, and therefore fall into the error of thinking that there is virtue in deprecating womanhood. Secondly, the highly develOping church structure and organization along with a complex penitential system tended to displace women from key roles. By her nature, woman was neither an organizer nor a disciplinarian. These were masculine roles and talents. The third mitigating factor was the elevation of the sacredotal nature of the priesthood. Roots in Judaism and the example of Christ himself suggested that sacrifice was performed by the man. Roman paternalism 97 and Greek customs reinforced all theSe.tendencies. In summary it can be said that the Fathers were anti-feminist or afeminist to the extent that they did not develOp an adequate theology of woman. But this was partly due to the fact that they did not have an adequate psycho- logy of woman to build upon. It was futile for theologians to know and proclaim the equality of man and woman as human persons in relation to grace and salvation, morality and especially marriage rights and duties, before the special psychology of woman had been developed: it was difficult for them to break with an age-old habit of’taking man (the male) as the standard and pattern of everything human, of evaluating woman by a comparison with him and not preferably with her own type, and of appreciating her mind from the point of view of her aptitude for reasoning, without taking into account the admirable compensations for her lack of logic that are furnished by her faculties of intuition. That barrier has been passed.29 298. Lavaud, "Toward a Theology of Woman," The Mist II, 4, Oct. 1940, p. 470. ...... CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION This thesis was an outgrowth and continuation of some graduate work done in the religion department on the Old Testament. In studying the develOpment of the strongly masculine ethical monotheism of the Hebrews, it soon became evident that in spite of the prOphets,feminine religious undercurrents were never completely eradicated. The advent of Christianity was like the breath of spring for woman, for no longer were these feminine qualities hidden and sub- merged, but were Openly accepted and embraced in Mother- Church and the comforting, mediating role of the Holy Spirit. It would seem to follow that honor for the woman and the womanly would follow the Christian religion as it spread throughout the world. Feminists shouted that this had not been the case. If this were true what had happened to women and the feminine in the Patristic Church may have been critical events in the history of the status of woman. In seeking to understand any period in history it is difficult to recreate it without modern viewpoints creep- ing in. The study of woman has even greater difficulties. History has suffered for many millenniafrom a potent dose of masculocentricism. Henry Adams stated: 98 1.». m E... ... .1 Qfiflrgw‘ p , _ . 99 The study of history is useful to the historian by teaching him his ignorance of women: and the mass of this ignorance crushes one who is familiar enough with what are called historical sources to realize how few women have ever been known.1 The early Church accepted woman on an equal basis: she also accepted woman with a particular role to play. That this role was regarded as of equal importance with the masculine one can be inferred from the fact that male clerics often tried to usurp it. The teachings of the Church on the role and dignity of woman has had a far reaching effect on her history. But what is not as frequently mentioned is that what woman is and becomes has a reciprocal effect on the Church (and perhaps on society, too), for the Church must look to woman for the image of herself. In Patristic theology universal original sin re- sulted in depraved passions or concupiscence for all, both male and female. Woman, usually enuated with feeling and passion, suffered from this. Saints Attanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, and John Chrysostom felt if there had been no fall there would not have been any distinction of sexes.2 For them sexuality was the result of sin. St. Augustine rejected this, but he was distrustful of the delight which accompanied sexual union, and he felt before the fall this delight would have been absent. But he, too, can find no 1Henry Adams, The Education pf Henry_Adams as ouoted in Beard, p. 274. 2Lavoud, p. 478. 100 value in the feminine sex except for procreation. He felt another man would have been a better helpmate,3 Yet, he had noted the very feminine role played by the Holy Spirit: In spite of this woman was never completely eouated with evil as she was in Gnosticism; in Christian theology the devil or pure evil has always been male. The Fathers' ex- treme preoccupation with asceticism did serve to bifurcate each woman's role as both virgin and mother. But there was never any confusion in Christian theology that through the sacrifice of the cross woman had now been elevated to the status of divine daughtership and that this was indeed a dazzling height. Christianity of the first five centuries also lifted woman in her social human role. Admirers of Rome and Roman civilization point with pride to the Roman emancipated women. Yet most Roman women were humiliated by the moral breakdown in family life. They were subjected to divorce, encouraged in infanticide and abortion, and were expected to accept concubinage as an approved institution. It wasn't until Christianity became a dominant force within the Empire that lower class women were freed from public servitude and cohabitation with their masters.4 Institutional change, however, came slowly, for Christianity brought not revolu— tion but a moral and religious uplifting. Woman's social 31bid., p. 450. 4Coleman-Norton, p. 360. lOl status was not immediately affected, but the Church's teachings on the sacredness of human life and matrimony could not help but to obliviate these customs. The respect for family and family life is truly indicative of a woman's status in a society, legal status not withstanding. It is in family life that the beginnings a fir IH‘I '1 of morality towards persons is develOped. It is in the family where a woman is best able to exercise her civiliz- ing role. The Christian Church through the Fathers not onlyrmwestablished woman's family role, but extended her ‘1’; role to a universal spiritual motherhood.' In a sex-satiated society the Church gave woman other feminine social func- tions to perform in the areas of contemplation and social service. Christianity uplifted womanhood by stressing the feminine attributes of purity, gentleness, humility, care of others, and love. woman's qualities were accepted as both different and necessary. Masculinity no longer was the only standard for the total human community. More research is needed before the role and influ- ence of the Christian woman during the Roman Empire can be truly presented in all of its facets. Christians live in two worlds: the spiritual realm, the Church: and the earthly realm, the secular city. To present woman's place in the Church is only half of the story. The interaction between Christian, Roman, Greek, Jewish, and German mores and ideals will have to be studied before woman's real place can be ascertained and the truly original contribution law. J ...-9. 1.5.1. Bidifllabs‘ 102 of Christianity can be assessed. Research, at least in English, is particularly deficient concerning the origins and develOpment of feminine monasticism. It appears to me that this is a crucial area. Woman's official status within the Christian community changed a great deal during the fourth century especially in the Western Empire. Deaconesses and the order of widows disappeared as monasticism developed. was this a deliberate attempt by the males to monOpolize every single official function? Or did the double threat of German barbarism and Roman moral degeneration drive the women themselves to seek refuge in the convents? A care— ful contrast with the Eastern Empire where the female deaconate had more vitality and invasions were not the same threat might throw some interesting lights on these ques- tions. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LSSAY As source material The Ante-Nicene Fathers (lO vols., Grand Rapids, 1950-51) and The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers pf Egg Christiag Church (9 vols., Grand Rapids, 1956) are most useful to the English reader because they are the most comprehensive. They are American reprints of the nineteenth century Edinburgh Editions and are conse— quently outdated in the commentaries, and the translations as literature leave much to be desired. The fifty eight volumes of 222 waghggg 9f Ehg_§hp§gh (New York, 1947-56) have smoother prose, but they lack breadth concentrating mostly upon St. Augustine. Johannes Quasten in his Eaggglggy (3 vols., Westminister, 1950—60) supplies what the source books are lacking. He combines the latest scholarly findings with comprehensive bibliographies, cap- sule biographies, a discussion of the literary output of each Father, and a discussion of the significance of each author in the develOpment of Christian doctrine. He also provides generous excerpts, many of which are otherwise un- available in English. His volumes are the most helpful ones in the field. Another source book which was of great help in determining the influence of the Church and the Empire was P.R. Coleman-Norton's ggmap gtate and Christian 103 104 Church: A Collectigg 9: Legal Documents £9 ALD. 535 (3 vols., London, 1966). As for Church histories, Adolf Harnack's The Mission and Expa 3393 9f 99"$_£}init in the First Three -..-n ...-I. —— Centuries (2 vols., New YOrk, 1908) still supplies the basic information on woman's role in the founding of 7 Christianity. An excellent supplement to this is Father Jean Danielou's The Ministgy 9E flgmsasie Pbg EagTy Churqh (London, l961)--an invaluable up to date source. Karl I "t‘ 5» Bihlmeyer's Ehli§£$22 antiouigy, revised by Herman Tuchle 3 (Volume I of Church History, Westminister, 1958) is a E bibliographical cache with a straightforward commentary based on sound scholarship. E. Schillebeeckx, a prominent theologian, has pub- lished Marriage: Human Reality and saving mystery (New YCrk, 1965). This book combines the first two volumes of a projected four volume work on the theology of marriage. His treatment of the historical develOpment of marriage during the Patristic era is very extensive. Articles and monographs were also of value. Two monographs by Walter J. Burghardt in Mariology ( 3 vols., Milwaukee, 1955—61) edited by Juniper B. Carol were parti- cularly illuminating. "Mary in Eastern Patristic Thought" and “Mary in Western Patristic Thought" are both scholarly treatments of the Fathers' Mar10109Y. The "Virginity" article in the Egg Catholic encyclopedia was written by the 105 French scholar P.T. Camelot who has published a monograph on the same subject in French. This article is probably the best treatment of virginity in a historical perSpective in bnglish. "Woman" presents the traditional Catholic position on women slightly liberalized by Vatican II. BIBLIOGRAPH PRIMARY SOURCLB Ambrose. garadise. Translated by John 8. Savage. £21 Ambrose: Hexameron, Pagadisg, gag Qflifl agg gng. (1c, Vol. 42). Apostolic Constitutions. Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, zenatius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionvsius, Apostolic Teach1_g and Constitutions, “Homily and Liturgies. Bdited Why A. Cleveland Coxe. (ANF, Vol. 7;. Athenagoras. Apology. Fathers of the Becond Century: -—-—-w-— Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theoohilus, and Clement of Alexandria :ntire)— American Edition. Chronologically arranged, _with notes, prefaces, and elucidations by A. Cleveland Coxe. (ANF, Vol. 2). A Plea ror Christians. Fathers of the Second _~ ~-~———-- Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athen_goras, Theooh1lus, —-t.--”t- a_nd Clement of A1e§and§ia (Bntire). American Bdition. Chronologically arranged, with notes, prefaces and elucidations by A. Cleveland Coxe. (ANF, Vol. 2). Augustine. Contessions of St. Augustine Translated by bdward B. Pusey. "Vol. VII The Harvard Classics. (New York: P. F'. Collier and Son Co., 1909). Basil. Letters. Translated by Bloomfield Jackson. Th_e Treatise de Spiritu Sancto, The Nine Homili_es of the Hexaemeron and the Letters of” Saint Basil The 959a}, Archbishpp g; Caesarea. “(NPNF, 2nd ser., Vol. 8). Hexaemeron. The Treatisie de Spir_it u Sancto, [he Nine Homilies of the Hexaemeron and the Letters of Saint Basil the Great, 7\rchbishon 9f Caes sarea. (NPNF, 2nd ser., Vol.8). Ascetical Wor