All these doctrines of woman’s inferiority in time corroded the ideas of the Christian nations about woman to such a degree that her position in the religious service as well as in law and in all the customs of the early Middle Ages sank to a very low level.
Another reason for the failure of Christianity in regard to woman’s emancipation was that the minds of the leaders of the Church became occupied by aims which to realize seemed to them of far greater value and importance.
The early Christian communities had been simple associations of believers in a common faith. They had no settled form of doctrine or rules of discipline. They even had no body of magistrates. But the moment these associations began to advance and became a corporation, they started to mould a form of doctrine. At the same time the elders, who taught and preached, and morally governed the congregation, became priests, while those, who did service as overseers or inspectors, became bishops.
Among the latter the bishops of Rome adopted not only the title of Pontiff or High-Priest, but also assumed dictatorship over the bishops of all other dioceses. Professing to be of divine appointment and the representative of Christ they claimed in his name authority over all things, both temporal and spiritual. Accordingly they made the propagation of the Christian faith throughout the world their chief mission and organized for this purpose an army of clerical dignitaries, who held themselves responsible to no other authority but the Pontiff or Pope, to whom they were bound by the strongest vows. Also numerous orders of monks and nuns were established, who assisted greatly in the extension and strengthening of the Church.
The influence on human progress and culture of these vast religious armies has always been greatly overrated. No doubt, under the management of the monasteries and nunneries large tracts of virgin soil and forests were cultivated, and that architecture and art, as long as they served the interests of the Church, were patronized. But it is equally true that the Church tried to prevent its followers from thinking independently, that great masses of people, particularly those of the rural districts, were held in strict servitude and mental bondage, and that education and science were grossly neglected. Any attempts to question the authority of the Church or the truth of the Scriptures, were cursed as heresy and punished with death.
Among the first who had to suffer the wrath of the Popes, were the Waldenses, Albigenses, Stedingers, and several other Christian sects, which during the 9th, 10th and 11th Centuries had formed in various parts of Europe for no other object than the re-establishment of the simplicity and sincerity of the early Christian communities. As these sects were found at variance with the rules of the Church, they were decried as heretical, and almost extinguished.
Intolerant against all other creeds, the Popes also opened a series of wars against the Mohammedans, professedly for the purpose of delivering the “Holy Land” from the dominion of the “Infidels.” Aside from these “Crusades” a similar war was directed against the most western branch of the Mohammedans, the Moors, who had occupied a large part of the Iberian Peninsula. These struggles ended in 1492 with the fall of Granada and the surrender of the famous fortress Alhambra. While in the treaty of peace certain stipulated privileges had been granted to the conquered, one of which provided for free exercise of their religion, this liberty of worship was treacherously withdrawn in 1499 and the Moors either killed, expelled, or made Christians by forcible baptism. Those who survived by intermingling with the Spaniards produced a new race, the Andalusians, famous for their graceful women. The Spaniards adopted many of the Moorish manners and institutions, among them certain restrictions in the intercourse of the two sexes. Writers of the 15th Century state, that in these times the Spanish women used to sit in Oriental fashion, with legs crossed, on carpets and cushions, spending their time with embroideries and gossip, or telling the beads of the rosary. The husbands seldom sought their company, and even preferred to take their meals alone. Married ladies were not allowed to receive male visitors, and if their husbands brought friends along, they hardly dared to lift their eyes. The only breaks in this monotonous life were occasional calls by women friends, who were received with the greatest possible display of dress and jewelry. This unnatural segregation of the sexes still prevails in Spain to some extent and is chiefly due to the jealousy of men. Well aware of their own unfaithfulness and great inclination for love-adventures, they have no confidence in their wives either, but always watch them with suspicion.
We find similar conditions in many other parts of Southern Europe. But as restrictions are always apt to breed intrigues we hear everywhere of plots and love-affairs, such as Boccaccio has related in his “Decamerone.” The stories of this famous book, which was written between 1344 and 1350, without question are based on actual events, frequently among the fashionable ladies and gentlemen of the age.
Far higher than in Southern Europe was the status of women in those countries occupied by nations of Germanic stock.