Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-04
A BISHOPS REPLY

We gave recently an extended review OF
the essay of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in
the North AmerjcoR Rerie'r, assailing Chris
tianity, as having not stood the friend Of
the cause of woman and her social and po-
litical advancement 1t was a bitter
Witty and vigorous assault To it J. l..
Spalding, Bishop of Peoria has replied, and
m justice to that side OF the debate some
statement of his positions must be given
though we have already pointed out the
weakness Of Mrs. Stanton's assault. The
Bishop declares that to write of woman
worthily, one must approach the subject
with kind Of religious reverence, anG
then proceeds to pay a loving and Just
tribute 10 the helpfulness, nobility and
graces Of true womanly character But
though men sing her praises, it is absurd
in the light Of history, for man has treated
her inhumanly. At the origin of society
she was slave and drudge, and for cen
turtles she was bought and sold as a chat
tel, and her honor sacrificed by compulsion
in the temple Of the goddess of debauch.
Her position with the Lydians, Baby
lonians, Syrians Armenians and Modes,
was of degraded character. Even among
the Grecians the sentiment Of love as
known 70 us had no trace, and the Girecian
view Of marriage was physico-political In
the Homeric period woman's work was
slavish Hesiod called her the chief
scourge of the human race, and HEschvlus,
at later date, denounced her as the dircst
scourge Of both home and State. Aristotle
taught that she was an inferior. Plato
viewed her only a> breeder Of men. and
Socrates thanked the gods daily that he
was born neither q slave nor a woman.
In later Grecian history her condition
improved somewhat. In earliest DAYS
Of the Romans wives we're bought
or captured, and women were for
hidden to own or inherit property.
The husband might kill his wife for slight
offence; Cato pronounced her an "unrcas-
oning ANIMAL and indeed there IS moth
ing sadder in human history than the
condition Of woman during the decline of
the Roman state. Among the barbarous
populations from which modern Christian
nations developed, her state was not better.
1t IS said that the present position of
women Is the outgrowth Of the reverence
IN which woman was supposed to have
been held by the Teutonie tribes, and
Iaeitus, who wrote in the air of Roman
corruption, is quoted as saying that they
thought women something holy and
prophetical and did not despise their
counsels and listened to their predictions.
But, says Spalding, Tacitus here alludes to
superstitlous belief in woman rs 4 sorceress
and prophecies, in fact. in another passage
referring to the authority Of Nelleda, he 50
expressly states. Witchcraft to the latest
day was a survival Of ancient pagan super
stition. Throughout all Christian his
tory the law Of superior strength WAS the
rule of conduct II is not necessary to fol-
low the learned divine through his lengthy
exposition Of this truth. The advent of
Christianity found woman without honor.
freedom or hope. But Christ saw the
soul, and that determines the value Of
human life, making the soul of the slave
or the woman Of as much worth as the
soul Of Cesar. Christian doctrine declared
that there Is neither Jew nor Greek (:
neither male nor female. :" For you are
all one in Christ Jesus Love was the
supreme, and the houndless love Of God
poured into the channels of human life.
Christ was the fountain-hcad of the
" humanitarian love" that makes men
helpful to the weak and wrouged and that
supplants the supremacy Of force by the
supremacy of truth, and Justice, and love,
and mercy IN the light of this truth
woman became the equal of m,n, and
hence polygamy is abolished and marriage
is of one with one and for life, and is