accomplished more than
the apostles, who remained on their seats of honor at Jerusalem. They
were the founders of Christianity, in respect of that which it possessed
which was most solid and enduring.

At an early period women were admitted to this office. They were
designated, as in our day, by the name of "sisters." At first widows
were selected; later, virgins were preferred. The tact which guided the
primitive Church in all this was admirable. The grand idea of
consecrating by a sort of religious character and of subjecting to a
regular discipline the women who were not in the bonds of marriage, is
wholly Christian. The term "widow" became synonymous with religious
person, consecrated to God, and, by consequence, a "deaconess." In those
countries where the wife, at the age of twenty-four, is already faded,
where there is no middle state between the infant and the old woman, it
was a kind of new life, which was created for that portion of the human
species the most capable of devotion. These women, constantly going to
and fro, were admirable missionaries of the new religion.

The bishop and the priest, as we now know them, did not yet exist.
Still, the pastoral ministry, that intimate familiarity of souls, not
bound by ties of blood, had already been established. This latter has
ever been the special gift of Jesus, and a kind of heritage from him.
Jesus had often said that to everyone he was more than a father and a
mother, and that in order to follow him it was necessary to forsake
those the most dear to us. Christianity placed some things above
family; it instituted brotherhood and spiritual marriage. The ancient
form of marriage, which placed the wife unreservedly in the power of the
husband, was pure slavery. The moral liberty of the woman began when the
Church gave to her in Jesus a guide and a confidant, who should advise
and console her, listen always to her, and on occasion counsel
resistance on her part. Woman needs to be governed, and is happy in so
being; but it is necessary that she should love him who governs her.
This is what neither ancient societies nor Judaism nor Islamism have
been able to do. Woman has never had, up to the present time, a
religious conscience, a moral individuality, an opinion of her own,
except in Christianity.

It was now about the year 36. Tiberius, at Capreae, has little idea of
the enemy to the empire which is growing up. In two or three years the
sect had made surprising