Finally people are acknowledging the historical fact that the Church raised women out of the degradations of paganism. Bishop Wenski of Orlando says:
"Pagan societies were hardly 'pro-women' and this was true of civilizations of high culture like that of the Greeks and Romans as well as the less 'cultured' barbarians."
"Where the Gospel took root, however, the status of women improved," the bishop added. "That the Middle Ages were considered the 'Age of Chivalry' shows how deeply the Gospel penetrated societies that had once treated women as chattel."
Yes, thank you. And in the Middle Ages, women had a higher degree of mobility and more rights than under paganism. Conversely, women's status and freedom declined in the Renaissance, because in Italy and other places, the Roman law was revived, which recognized no rights for women.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! And health care declined in the Renaissance, too.
ReplyDeleteI read a book written by a protestant missionary in the Hawaiian Islands who also made the same observation. The introduction of Christianity to the pagans who inhabited the islands in that area brought with it better treatment of and for women.
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