of marriage
would be without meaning. Observance of his orders he regarded as a
necessary preparation for an event then assumed to be near. It was
exacted as a means of grace.

On the other hand, it may be that there was an esoteric doctrine which
only the more spiritual among the disciples received. The significant
threat, "In this life ye shall have tribulation," contains a distinct
suggestion of other views. Possibly they concerned less the termination of
the world than the termination of life. Life extinct, obviously there must
ensue that peace which passeth all understanding, the Pratscha-Paramita,
or beyond all knowledge, which long before had been taught by the Buddha,
in whose precepts it is not improbable that Jesus was versed.

To-day there are four gospels. Originally there were fifty. In some of
them succincter views may have been expressed. The possibility, surviving
texts support. These texts are provided by Clement of Alexandria. They are
quoted by him from the Gospel according to the Egyptians, an Evangel that
existed in the latter half of the second century and which was then
regarded as canonical. In one of them, Jesus said: "I am come to destroy
the work of woman, which is generation and death." In another, being asked
how long life shall continue, he answered: "So long as women bear
children."[24]

These passages seem conclusive. Even otherwise, the designed effect of
the exoteric doctrine was identical. It eliminated love and condemned the
sex. In the latter respect, Paul was particularly severe. In violent words
he humiliated woman. He enjoined on her silence and submission. He
reminded her that man was created in the image of God, while she was but
created for him. He declared that he who giveth her in marriage cloth
well, but he that giveth her not doth better.[25]

Theoretically, as well as canonically, marriage thereafter was regarded as
unholy. The only union in which it was held that grace could possibly be,
was one that in its perfect immaculacy was a negation of marriage itself.
St. Sebastian enjoined any other form. The injunction was subsequently
ratified. It was ecclesiastically adjudged that whoso declared marriage
preferable to celibacy be accursed.[26] St. Augustin, more leniently,
permitted marriage, on condition, however, that the married in no
circumstance overlooked the object of their union, which object was the
creation of children, _not to love them_, he added, but to increa