CHAPTER II

WOMEN AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Christ laid down ethical principles but not minute regulations--The Apostles affected by Jewish and Oriental or Greek conceptions of women--Examples of these--St. Paul and St. Peter on the position of women--The Church Fathers elaborated these teachings--Examples of their contempt for women--Mingled with admiration for particular types of women--Their views of marriage--Their strictures on unbecoming dress--Summary of their views and how the status of women was affected by them--Sources