When Greek philosophy was no longer taught, the principles of equality and liberty which had been incorporated into the middle Roman law were annulled or practically forgotten; and when the doctrine of woman’s inferiority and total depravity became crystallized not only in religion but in law and in all the customs of the time, women sank to a degree of degradation never before witnessed in the history of mankind.
[CHAPTER VI]
THE RENAISSANCE
If the theory that the higher faculties and the moral sense originated in the female and that these qualities are by her transmitted to offspring, then the conditions existing in the first half of the sixteenth century are easily explained; or if, as is clearly proved by the facts brought out by scientists, woman represents the constructive and combining element in human society without which organized society would have been impossible, the degeneracy observed after thirteen hundred years during which time women were wholly without influence and power is exactly what might be expected. Indeed it is not singular that with the disintegrating or destructive forces in command over the conserving or constructive elements that war and religion should have become the business of the world and that a state of society should have prevailed which was in strict accord with these conditions.
However, that the constructive element was not dead is shown by the mental and moral unrest which began to manifest itself in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Women began to learn the alphabet and in a weak way to demand concessions hitherto denied them. Many men of genius who like the jurisconsults of Rome had not been submerged by the degeneracy of their time defied their persecutors and secretly promulgated the scientific theories which were to revolutionize human thought.
The demand for freedom of conscience and for the release of the intellect and reason from the domination of bigotry and superstition constituted one of the first steps toward reform. Galileo, Bruno, Copernicus, and Harvey are notable examples of the revolt against the intellectual tyranny which prevailed.
It is not a little singular that at this time the throne of England was occupied by a woman and that her reign should have been the most brilliant that that country has ever enjoyed. It has frequently been said that the success of Elizabeth’s reign was due not to her greatness but to that of the statesmen whom she called about her. But even were this true, which it is not, it would not detract from her greatness. The innate qualities developed within Queen Elizabeth, namely genius and intuition, can alone explain the brilliancy of her reign.
It is to be doubted if the progressive principle has ever been wholly dead. That even during the darkest period of the Middle Ages the constructive element was still alive in Europe is shown in the fact that as early as the year 1215 the idea of individual human liberty had already been formulated. In the Magna Charta wrested from King John at Runnymede appears the following:
No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him or upon him send except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell; to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.
Although a few attempts were made during the sixteenth century to better the conditions of the masses of the people, as all the institutions for the perpetuation of the slavery of the masses were firmly established, little was accomplished in this direction. That reforms move slowly is shown in the fact that as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, the greater portion of the human race was in a state of bondage. Slavery existed in every quarter of the globe. In Russia, in 1855, there were forty-eight millions of serfs, and in Austria and Prussia the peasantry were nearly all slaves. In Hungary nine millions of human beings belonged to a subject class.