Women.
"The influence of Christianity tended at once to elevate and to narrow the position of women. It elevated her position, for, while the pagan ideal of life is essentially masculine, the Christian ideal is in part feminine. Justice, energy, strength, are the pre-eminent qualities of the pagan ideal; and mercy, love, gentleness, and humility, of the Christian. The coincidence of the characteristics of Christianity with the characteristics of the female heart resulted in the elevation of woman. This result was also achieved in other ways. In the realm of the emotions, and especially of the religious emotions, woman is superior to man. If she is inferior to him in her power of apprehending a system of truth, she is his superior in respect to her loyalty to individuals. Christianity demanded personal loyalty to a personal Christ as the first and comprehensive condition of admission to its church. Thus the influence of Christianity ennobled the position of woman. This increased power was manifest in various ways. Women flocked to the Church in large numbers, and were important factors in the conversion of the Empire. They embraced martyrdom with unflagging zeal and fortitude. Although not usually admitted to the priesthood, they performed ecclesiastical functions of minor importance. As deaconesses—an order for which may justly be claimed apostolic sanction—they were of peculiar usefulness in the great and arduous work of charity and of philanthropy. Of the asceticism which so early sprang up they were ardent defenders. In their households, their influence was more pervasive than in the Church. For the conversion of their husbands and sons and daughters they labored with constancy, if not always with wisdom, and often with success. The wife of Theodosius the Great was one of the most distinguished defenders of the faith. Augustine writes of the influence of his mother in the formation of his Christian character. The mother of Constantine bore an important part in the conversion of her royal son. In dignity and in useful influence, in social rights and family prestige, Christianity tended to elevate the place of woman. For force or passion as the basis of marriage—elements which when exercised degrade the husband more than the wife—was substituted love. The New Testament teaching was the foundation of practice.
"But in one respect the position of the married woman was narrowed by Christianity. It has been already noticed, that in the civil marriage of the period of the later Republic and Empire, the wife remained in the guardianship of her own family. She did not pass into the control of her husband. The consequence of this method was that the power of her guardian became less and less, and that the power of her husband did not increase. She, therefore, came to occupy a situation of great independence as to both person and property. Against the loose marital bond of the civil marriage, which was indeed a mere species of wedlock, the Church uttered its protest. It was contrary to the teachings of the New Testament; it was opposed to Christian practice. In their repudiation of the civil marriage, the Christian moralists also repudiated that liberty and independence of the wife which were among its essential elements. Thus the legal position of the married woman was narrowed by the Church."[205]
Among the early Germans, women were greatly respected. Woman was considered man's inferior only in physical nature and this very physical weakness was the one great cause of her being so well respected. The wife was not thought inferior to the husband in morality, courage, prudence, and wisdom, but his equal. Although this was somewhat changed by contact with the Romans, yet it appears to be the basis for the building of the high honor paid to women in chivalry. During the time of feudalism the wife tended to become the husband's peer and companion. In the age of chivalry women were held in high esteem, or at least women of the noble class, and they were subjects of great devotion by the knights and squires.
During the Middle Ages many women possessed property and because of this they had a social standing they would not otherwise have had. But riches brought disadvantages as well, as heiresses were in danger of being carried off and compelled to marry their captors or to give them large sums of money. If single a woman's property was more or less under the control of her guardian and when married her husband had control of her belongings. On the other hand, the wife had a certain right in her husband's possessions and upon his death she had her portion as dower.
Women entered into industrial affairs, as they engaged in the manufacture and sale of many articles. They occupied themselves in spinning and weaving, in making ribbons and laces, in making shoes and candles, and other articles; they sold fruit, bread, fish, poultry, and wares of different kind; they were employed in farm work and in unskilled labor such as carrying clay and water, gathering moss and heath, and waiting on thatchers and masons. Women carried on foreign commerce, in England exporting goods to France, Spain, and other countries. They were permitted to become members of guilds, although they did not take a very prominent part in them.