116 East 19th, N. Y., _March 14, "81_.
The world still asks, What is Truth? A work has recently been published ent.i.tled, "The Christian Religion to A.D. 200." It is the fruit of several-years" study of a period upon which the Church has but little record. It finds no evidence of the existence of the New Testament in its present form during that time; neither does it find evidence that the Gospels in their present form date from the lives of their professed authors. All Biblical scholars acknowledge that the world possesses no record or tradition of the original ma.n.u.scripts of the New Testament, and that to attempt to reestablish the old text is hopeless. No reference by writers to any part of the New Testament as authoritative is found earlier than the third century (A.D. 202). The first collection, or canon, of the New Testament was prepared by the Synod or Council of Laodicea in the fourth century (A.D. 360). It entirely omitted the Book of Revelation from the list of sacred works.
This book has met a similar fate from many sources, not being printed in the Syriac Testament as late as 1562.
Amid this vast discrepancy in regard to the truth of the Scriptures themselves; with no Hebrew ma.n.u.script older than the twelfth century; with no Greek one older than the fourth; with the acknowledgment by scholars of 7,000 errors in the Old Testament, and 150,000 in the New; with a.s.surance that these interpolations and changes have been made by men in the interest of creeds, we may well believe that the portions of the Bible quoted against woman"s equality are but interpolations of an unscrupulous priesthood, for the purpose of holding her in subjection to man.
Amid this conflict of authority over texts of Scripture we have been taught to believe divinely inspired, destroying our faith in doctrines heretofore declared essential to salvation, how can we be sure that the forthcoming version of the Bible from the masculine revisers of our day will be more trustworthy than those which have been accepted as of Divine origin in the past?
This chapter is condensed from the writer"s forthcoming work, "WOMAN, CHURCH, AND STATE."
FOOTNOTES:
[178] Maine (Gaius) says of the position of woman under Roman law before the introduction of Christianity: "The juriconsulists had evidently at this time a.s.sumed the equality of the s.e.xes as a principle of the code of equity. The situation of the Roman woman, whether married or single, became one of great personal and property independence ... but Christianity tended somewhat, from the very first, to narrow this remarkable liberty. The prevailing state of religious sentiment may explain why modern jurisprudence has adopted these rules concerning the position of woman which belong peculiarly to an imperfect civilization.... No society which preserves any tincture of Christian inst.i.tutions, is likely to restore to married women the personal liberty conferred on them by middle Roman law.
Canon law has deeply injured civilization."
[179] Canon law is the whole body of Church decrees enacted by councils, bulls, decretals, etc., and is recognized as a system of laws primarily established by the Christian Church, and enforced by ecclesiastical authority. It took cognizance first merely of what were considered spiritual duties, but ultimately extended itself to temporal rights. It was collected and embodied in the ninth century, since which period numerous additions have been made.
[180] The women claimed the right to baptize their own s.e.x. But the bishops and presbyters did not care to be released from the pleasant duty of baptizing the female converts.--_Hist. of Christian Religion from A.D. to 200_, _p. 23, Waite_. The Const.i.tution of the Church of Alexandria, which is thought to have been established about the year 200, required the applicant for baptism to be divested of clothing, and after the ordinance had been administered, to be anointed with oil.--_Ibid._, _p. 384-5_. The converts were first exorcised of the evil spirits that were supposed to inhabit them; then, after undressing and being baptized, they were anointed with oil.--_Bunsen"s Christianity of Mankind_, _Vol. VII._, _p. 386-393_; _3d Vol.
a.n.a.lecta_.
[181] All, or at least the greater part of the fathers of the Greek Church before Augustine, denied any real, original sin.--"Augustinism and Pelagianism," p. 43, Emerson"s Translations (Waite). The doctrine had a gradual growth, and was fully developed by Augustine, A.D.
420.--_Hist. Christian Religion to A.D. 200 (Waite)_, _p. 382_.
[182] Milman says that Heloise sacrificed herself on account of the impediments the Church threw in the way of the married clergy"s career of advancement. As his wife she would close the ascending ladder of ecclesiastical honors, priory, abbacy, bishopric, metropolitane, cardinalade, and even that which was above and beyond all.--"_Latin Christianity_."
[183] The Christian Church was swamped by hysteria from the third to the sixteenth century.--_Rev. Charles Kingsley"s Life and Letters_.
[184] In 1874 an Old Catholic priest of Switzerland, about to follow Pere Hyacinth"s example in abandoning celibacy, announced his betrothal in the following manner: "I marry because I wish to remain an honorable man. In the seventeenth century it was a proverbial expression, "As corrupt as a priest," and this might be said to-day. I marry, therefore, because I wish to get out of the Ultramontane slough."--_Galignani"s Messenger_, _September 19, 1874_.
[185] The abbot elect of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, in 1171 was found, on investigation, to have seventeen illegitimate children in a single village. An abbot of St. Pelayo in Spain in 1130 was proved to have kept no less than seventy mistresses. Henry 3d, Bishop of Liege, was deposed in 1274 for having sixty-five illegitimate children.--_Lecky_, "_Hist. of European Morals_," _p. 350_. This same bishop boasted in a public banquet, that in twenty-two months, fourteen children had been born to him. A tax called "Cullagium,"
which was, in fact, a license to clergymen to keep concubines, was during several centuries systematically levied by princes.--_Ibid_, _Vol. 2_, _p. 349_. It was openly attested that 100,000 women in England were made dissolute by the clergy.--_Draper"s "Intellectua.
Development of Europe_," _p. 498_.
[186] "_Le Sorcerie_," p. 259, _Michelet_.
[187] _Died in 1880_.
[188] In the dominion of the Count de Foix the lord had right once in his lifetime to take, without payment, a certain quant.i.ty of goods from the stores of each tenant.--"_Histoire Universelle_," _Cesar Cantu_.
[189] In days to come people will be slow to believe that the law among Christian nations went beyond anything decreed concerning the olden slavery; that it wrote down as an actual right the most grievous outrage that could ever wound man"s heart. The Lord Spiritual had this right no less than the Lord Temporal. The parson being a lord, expressly claimed the first fruits of the bride, but was willing to sell his rights to the husband. The Courts of Berne openly maintain that this right grew up naturally.--"_La Sorcerie_," _Michelet_, p.
62.
[190] Margaret was canonized in 1351, and made the patron saint of Scotland in 1673. Several of the Scotch feudalry, despite royal protestation, kept up the infamous practice till a late date. One of the Earls of Crawford, a truculent and l.u.s.tful anarch, popularly known and dreaded as "Earl Brant," in the sixteenth century, was probably among the last who openly claimed leg-right (the literal translation of _droit de jambage_).--_Sketches of Feudalism_.
[191] At the beginning of the Christian era, Corinth possessed a thousand women who were devoted to the service of its idol, the Corinthian Venus. "To Corinthianize" came to express the utmost lewdness, but Cornith, as sunken as she was in sensual pleasure, was not under the pale of Christianity. She was a heathen city, outside of that light which, coming into the world, is held to enlighten every man that accepts it.
[192] Les Cuisiniers et les marmitons de l"areheveques de Vienne avaient impose un tribut sur les mariages; on croit que certains feuditaires extgeaient un droit obscene de leur va.s.saux qui se marienient, quel fut transforme ensuite en droit de _cuissage_ consistant, de la part du seigneur, a mettre une jambe nue dans le lit des nouveaux epoux. Dans d"autres pays l"homme ne pouvait couche avec sa femme les trois premieres nuits sans le consentement de l"eveque ou du seigneur du feif.--_Cesar Cantu_, "_Histoire Universelle_," _Vol.
IX._, p. 202-3.
[193] _Le Michelet_, "_Le Sorcerie_," _p. 151_.
[194] The very word _femina_ (woman) means one wanting in faith; for _fe_ means faith, and _minus_, less.--_Witch Hammer_. This work was printed in 18mo, an unusually small size for that period, for the convenience of carrying it in the pocket, where its a.s.sertions, they could not be called arguments, could be always within reach, especially for those traveling witch inquisitors, who proceeded from country to country, like Sprenger himself, to denounce witches. This work bore the sanction of the Pope, and was followed, even in Protestant countries, until the eighteenth century. It based its theories upon the Bible, and devoted thirty-three pages to a proof that women were especially addicted to sorcery.
[195] It was observed they (devils) had a peculiar attachment to women with beautiful hair, and it was an old Catholic belief that St. Paul alluded to this in that somewhat obscure pa.s.sage in which he exhorts women to cover their heads because of the angels.--SPRANGLER.
[196] One of the most powerful incentives to confession was systematically to deprive the suspected witch of her natural sleep....
Iron collars, or witches" bridles, are still preserved in various parts of Scotland, which had been used for such iniquitous purposes.
These instruments were so constructed that by means of a loop which pa.s.sed over the head, a piece of iron having four points or p.r.o.ngs, was forcibly thrust into the mouth, two of these being directed to the tongue and palate, the others pointing outward to each cheek. This infernal machine was secured by a padlock. At the back of the collar was fixed a ring, by which to attach the witch to a staple in the wall of her cell. Thus equipped, and day and night waked and watched by some skillful person appointed by her inquisitors, the unhappy creature, after a few days of such discipline, maddened by the misery of her forlorn and helpless state, would be rendered fit for confessing anything, in order to be rid of the dregs of her wretched life. At intervals fresh examinations took place, and they were repeated from time to time until her "_contumacy_," as it was termed, was subdued. The clergy and Kirk Sessions appear to have been the unwearied instruments of "purging the land of witchcraft," and _to them, in the first instance, all the complaints and informations were made_.--_Pitcairn_, Vol. I., Part 2, p. 50.
[197] The following is an account of the material used, and the expenses attending the execution of two witches in Scotland:
For 10 loads of coal to burn the witches..............3 06 8 " a tar barrel....................................... 0 14 0 " towes.............................................. 0 06 0 " hurdles to be jumps for them....................... 3 10 0 " making of them.................................... 0 08 0 " one to go to Tinmouth for the lord to sit upon the a.s.size as judge ............................... 0 06 0 " the executioner for his pains...................... 8 14 0 " his expenses there................................. 0 16 4
_--Lectures on Witchcraft in Salem, Charles W. Upham._
[198] See an account of the tortures and death of Alison Balfour, in which not only she, but her husband and her young children were also grievously tortured in order to wring confession from the wife and mother. This poor woman bore everything applied to herself, nor did the sufferings of her husband and son compel a confession of guilt.
Not until her little daughter of seven or eight years was put to the torture in her presence did the constancy of the mother give way. To spare the innocent child, the equally innocent mother confessed she was a witch. After enduring all the agonies applied to herself, and all she was made to bear in the persons of her innocent family, she was still made to undergo the frightful suffering of death at the stake. She was one of those who died calling upon G.o.d for that mercy she could not find at the hands of Christian men.
[199] No marriage could take place after 12 M., which is even now the rule of the established Church of England.
[200] Science of Law.
[201] Gerard say the doctrines of the Canon Law most favorable to the power of the clergy, are founded on ignorance, or supported by fraud and forgery.
[202] Whoever wishes to gain insight into that great inst.i.tution, Canon Law, can do so most effectively by studying Common Law, in regard to woman.--BLACKSTONE..
I have arrived at conclusions which I keep to myself as yet, and only utter as Greek [Greek: phonanta, sunetotsi], the principle of which is that there will never be a good world for woman till the last monk, and therewith the last remnant of the monastic idea of, and legislation for, woman, _i.e._, the Canon Law, is civilized off the face of the earth. Meanwhile all the most pure and high-minded women in England and in Europe, have been brought up under the shadow of the Canon Law, and have accepted it with the usual divine self-sacrifice, as their destiny by law of G.o.d and nature, and consider their own womanhood outraged when it, their tyrant, is meddled with.--_Charles Kingsley_, _Life and Letters. Letter to John Stuart Mill, of June 17, 1849_.
[203] Wives in England were bought from the fifth to the eleventh century (_Descriptive Sociology_, _Herbert Spencer_). By an ancient law of India, a father was forbidden to sell his daughter in marriage.
_Keshub Chunder Sen_, who recently spent a few years in England, objected, after his return home, to the introduction of English customs in regard to woman into India, on account of their degradation of the female s.e.x.
[204] Our laws are based on the all-sufficiency of man"s rights; society exists for men only; for women, merely in so far as they are represented by some man, are in the _mundt_, or keeping of some man (_Descriptive Sociology, England, Herbert Spencer_). In England, as late as the seventeenth century, husbands of decent station were not ashamed to beat their wives. Gentlemen arranged parties of pleasure to Bridewell, for the purpose of seeing the wretched women who beat hemp there whipped. It was not until 1817 that the public whipping of woman was abolished in England.--_Ibid._
[205] WIVES IN RUSSIA.--A peasant in the village of Zelova Baltia, having reason to doubt the fidelity of his spouse, deliberately harnessed her to a cart in company with a mare--a species of double harness for which the lady was probably unprepared when she took the nuptial vow. He then got into the cart in company with a friend, and drove the ill-a.s.sorted team some sixteen versts (nearly eleven English miles), without sparing the whip-cord. When he returned from his excursion he shaved the unlucky woman"s head, tarred and feathered her, and turned her out of doors. She naturally sought refuge and consolation from her parish priest; but he sent her back to her lord and master, prescribing further flagellation. An appeal to justice by the poor woman and her relatives resulted in a non-suit, and any recourse to a higher court will probably terminate in the same manner.
WOMAN"S LOT IN RUSSIA.--Here and there the popular songs hear traces of the griefs which in the rough furrows of daily life the Russian woman finds it prudent to conceal. "Ages have rolled away," says the poet Nekrasof; "the whole face of the earth has brightened; only the sombre lot of mowjik"s wife G.o.d forgets to change." And the same poet makes one of his village heroines say, _apropos_ of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the serfs, "G.o.d has forgotten the nook where He hid the keys of woman"s emanc.i.p.ation."
[206] One of the powerful German Electors, who formerly made choice of the Emperor of Germany.
[207] Even as late as the sixteenth century a plurality of wives was allowed in some of the Christian countries of Europe, and the German reformers were inclined to permit bigamy as not inconsistent with the principles of the Gospel.--"_Woman in all Countries and Nations_,"
Nichols.
[208] See report of the Seney trial in Ohio, 1879, in which the judge decided against the prosecuting wife, upon the ground of her lack of the same ownership over the husband that the husband possessed over the wife.
[209] The Birchall case.
[210] "History," says Voltaire, "is only a parcel of tricks we play with the dead."