The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-26

From preapostolic times to the pres | ent there has never been a period or great religious awakening when wo- | men and men have not stood together ] in the forefront of the struggle. Ec- 1 clesiastical history will forever asso- ciate the names of Helen and Coastan- | tine, Monica and Augustine, Eusebia
 with the Gregory of Nissa, Marcella
 with Athanasius and Paula with Je- | rome.
 That many women were not only ac- i corded positions of trust and honor but
 were ordained and set apart for the work of the ministry is shown by 1 the writings of both sacred and profane | historians. When, in the second cen | tury, Pliny the younger was sent by | the Emperor Trojan to investigate the doings of the Christians he reported officially that he found women in the ministry of the church. From the apostolic constitu- tfon has come to us the following for mula for the ordination of apostolic women; Eternal God. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of men and women, Thou who didst fill with Thy spirit Miriam, Deborah. Hannah, and Hilda, look down Thou also upon this Thy hand maid and bestow on her the
 Holy Ghost, that she may worthily per l form the work committed to her 10 Thy honor and the glory of Christ" The simplicity of the democratic ideal of the unity of the human race. with l it's equality of honor, rights, duties | and privileges, taught by Jesus, was not understood by even His immediate disciples. What wonder, then, that when these simple lessons were carried out by men of lesser spiritual insight and narrower sympathies the ethical | teachings, with their deep spiritual significance, were gradually lost in l dogma; that arrogance began to man. | ifest itself in claims of superior wis | dom and authority. and the simple ser vice of loving ministry, which revealed itself in ''honor preferring one anoth- er," was supplanted by burdensome ceremonial and sybaritic and powerful | hierarchy?
 I It is a we'll established fact that in times of great, religious awakening and persecution, where there are no | honors of office or pecuntary compen- sation for service, women are accorded greater power and recognition than in periods of the church's prosperity.
 Therefore, when the hierarchy was es- Itablished, when the position of minister became a prize to be contended for and not a burden to be borne, when the office of deacon, presbyter or bishop was a sinecure eagerly sought by men who employed every possible device or | intrigue to reduce the number of class es eligible to these positions, women
 were naturally the first to be prescrib- | ed.
 l This action against women was be-
 gun in the third century by Tertullian. | Influenced by his mighty ambition up- | on his conversion to the new religion. | he immediately began to reconstruct | the simple life of Christianity 1m- | bued by the pagan contempt TOT Wo- men, he waged unrelenting war against | them, declaring 'Womani thou ought
 est always to walk in mourning and rags, thine eyes filled with tears of re- pentance to make men forget that thou | hast been the destruction of the race. Woman! thou art the gate of he'll" Many of his disciples were in ac- cord with these sentiments and fol- | lowed his example with unflagging zeal. They diligently preached of the beauty of self-exactment of the love Illness of self-sacrifice and modesty, or
 the admirable qualities of womanly l obedience and subjection, emphaslzlng
 the immodesty of her preaching and | teaching.
 | While the church denounced woman as the source of all evil. in instituting | the worship of the Virgin 1t deified | her. It was not the woman with her human desires, hopes and aspirations that 1t exalted. but the saint. secluded l from life's interests, struggles ana | temptations.
 It was but natural that during the reactionary period of the church life' while the attitude of its foremost teachers and writers was that of arro- | sant contempt for women in all Of | their human capacities, they should
 gradually lose the position which they l enjoyed in the early Christian church. For a thousand years they labored with
 unceasing devotion for the triumph Of the faith, the difference being that with Jesus and the early church fathers
 they labored with honorable equality
 with men. and after the triumph Of
 Tertullianism they served in obscure
 positions, neither receiving nor de-
 manding recognition, and under the
 domination of men.
 The worst result of any form Of
 ( Ia 1