WOMEN OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
by MITCHELL CARROLL, ALFRED BRITTAIN




_WOMAN_

VOLUME III

_WOMEN OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY_

BY

Rev. ALFRED BRITTAIN and MITCHELL CARROLL, Ph.D.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
J. CULLEN AYER, Jr., Ph.D.
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY




[Illustration 1: _SEEKING SHELTER After the painting by Luc
Oliver Merson

Notwithstanding all that is said in these ancient writings in
the attempt to do her honor, we must conclude that the glory of
the halo which beautifies the head of the real Mary is derived
by reflection from the moral splendor of her Son.... We need
such a poetic creation as Mary; and her place at the head of all
the daughters of earth is the more secure and effective because
her figure in authentic history is but a shadowy outline. The
ideal woman whom all mankind loves and reverences as Virgin,
Mother, and Saint, is objectified by concentrating in Mary of
Nazareth all possible feminine grace, beauty, and purity._]




_Woman_

_In all ages and in all countries_


_VOLUME III_



_WOMEN OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY_

BY

Rev. ALFRED BRITTAIN
AND
MITCHELL CARROLL, Ph. D.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
J. CULLEN AYER, Jr., Ph. D.
_Of Harvard University_


_ILLUSTRATED_


_PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, Publishers_



COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY GEORGE BARRIE & SONS

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London




INTRODUCTION

WHEN the historian has described the rise and fall of empires and
dynasties, and has recounted with care and exactness the details of the
great political movements that have changed the map of continents, there
remains the question: What was the cause of these revolutions in human
society--what were the real motives that were operative in the hearts
and minds of the persons in the great drama of history that has been
displayed? The mere chain of events as they have passed before the eye
as it surveys the centuries does not give an explanation of itself.
There must be a cause that lies behind these events, and of which they
are but the effects. This cause, the true cause of history, lies in the
minds and hearts of the men and nations. The student of the past is
coming more and more to see that the only hope of making history a
science, and not a mere chronicle, is to be found in the clear
ascertainment and study of those psychological conditions which have
made actions what they were. Foremost among those conditions have been
the hopes, aspirations and ideals of men and women. These have been the
greatest motive forces in the history of the world. These, quite as much
as merely selfish considerations, have guided the conduct of the men who
have made history, not merely those who have been leaders in the great
movements of society, but the multitude of followers who have not
attracted the attention of historians, but have, nevertheless, given the
strength and force to the revolutions of the world.

The deepest interest in the history of Christian women lies in the way
in which woman's status in society has been modified by the new
religion. The chronicle of saintly life and deeds is a part of that
history. But there are, also, women who have signally failed to attain
those virtues for which their religion called. These, too, have their
place, for both have either forwarded or retarded the realization of
woman's place in society. Often the heathen spirit is but half concealed
under the mask of Christianity. But the whole tone of society has been
changed, nevertheless, by the ideas and ideals which that religion
brought before men's minds in a new and vivid manner.

The position of woman has been more influenced by Christianity than by
any other religion. This is not because there have not been noble
sentiments expressed by non-Christian writers; for among the rabbinical
writers, for instance, are many fine sentiments that could have come
only from men who clearly perceived the place of woman in an ideal human
society. Nor because in Christianity there have not been men whose
conception of woman was more suitable to the adherents of those faiths
that have regarded her as a thing unclean. But from the very nature of
the appeal which Christianity has made to the world, the place of woman
in society has been changed. The new faith appealed to all mankind in
the name of the humanity which the Son of God had assumed, and
consequently it was forced to treat men and women as on a spiritual
equality. It was forced by the natural desire for consistency to break
down any barriers that might keep one-half of the human race from the
full realization of the possibilities of their natures, which were made
in the image of God. It is in this relation of Christianity to the
world, quite as much as in the sayings and precepts of its Founder and
his Apostles, that has been found the ground for the great work of
Christianity in raising the position of women