that it was woman in particular to whom Christianity owes a great part
of its success. Her proselyting zeal played a weighty _role_ in the
Roman Empire, as well as among the barbarous peoples of the Middle Ages.
The mightiest were by her converted to Christianity. It was Clotilde,
for instance, who moved Clovis, the King of the Franks, to accept
Christianity; it was, again, Bertha, Queen of Kent, and Gisela, Queen of
Hungary, who introduced Christianity in their countries. To the
influence of the women is due the conversion of many of the great. But
Christianity requited woman ill. Its tenets breathe the same contempt
for woman that is breathed in all the religions of the East. It orders
her to be the obedient servant of her husband, and the vow of obedience
she must, to this day, make to him at the altar.

Let us hear the Bible and Christianity speak of woman and marriage. The
ten commandments are addressed only to the men; in the tenth commandment
woman is bracketed with servants and domestic animals. Man is warned not
to covet his neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid-servant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his. Woman, accordingly,
appears as an object, as a piece of property, that the man may not
hanker after, if in another's possession. Jesus, who belonged to a
sect--the sect which imposed upon itself strict asceticism and even
self-emasculation[24]--being asked by his disciples whether it is good
to marry, answers: "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to
whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from
their mother's womb; and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs
of men; and there be eunuchs, _which have made themselves eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven's sake_."[25] Emasculation is, according hereto,
an act hallowed by God, and the renunciation of love and marriage a good
deed.

Paul, who, in a higher degree than even Jesus himself, may be called the
founder of the Christian religion; Paul, who first impressed an
international character upon this creed, and tore it away from the
narrow sectarianism of the Jews, writes to the Corinthians: "Now
concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: "It is good for a man
not to touch a woman;" "he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but
he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better."[26] "Walk in the
Spirit and fulfil not the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit and the Spiri