lectual Development of Europe."

Such was the "_elevation" and civilization offered by the Church to
woman_. These are among her debts to the Church, and the men who fought
and contended against the incorporation of such infamy into the common
law were branded as infidels. It was said they denied their Lord. They
were pronounced most dangerous, and the clergy held up their hands in
holy horror and whispered that such men "as much as denied the Bible,
blasphemed their God, and sold their souls to the Devil." And the women,
poor dupes, believed it.

One method the Church took to benefit woman and show its respect for her
was this: any married man was prohibited from being a priest. Women
were so unholy, so unclean, and so inferior, that to have one as a wife
degraded a man to such an extent that he was unfit to be a minister or
to touch holy things. The Catholic Church still prohibits either
party who is so unholy as to marry from profaning its pulpit'; but the
Protestant Churches divide up, giving women the disabilities and mon the
offices. The unselfishness of such a course is quite touching. It says
to women: "You support us and we will damn you; there is nothing mean or
niggardly about us."

As to Blackstone's second count--"the right to personal liberty"--I can
perhaps do no better than give a few bald facts.

Under Pagan rule the personal liberty of woman had become very
considerable, as well as her proprietary liberty; but Christianity began
her degradation at once.

Christianity was introduced into England in the fourth century, and the
_sale of women began in the fifth_; and it was not until the eleventh
that a girl could refuse to marry any suitor her father chose for
her. In a word, she always had a guardian; she had no personal liberty
whatever; she could neither buy nor own property as her brothers could;
she could not marry when and whom she preferred, live where she wished,
eat, drink, or wear what she liked, or refuse any of these provisions
when they were offered by her male relatives. If they decided that she
had too many back teeth they simply pulled them out, and she had nothing
to say on the subject. She could be sold outright by her father, or
leased or bound out as he preferred. She never got so old but that
her earnings belonged to him, and a mother never arrived at an age
sufficiently advanced to be entitled to the earnings of her children.

Sharswood says, "A father is entitled to the benef