out criminals.  “Why did the Lord cry woe unto those that are pregnant and give suck, unless it was to call attention to the fact that children will be a hindrance on the day of judgment?"[241] When such views were entertained of marriage, it need not seem remarkable that Tertullian and St. Paul of Nolan, like Tolstoy to-day, discovered the blessings of a celibate life after they were married and ran away from their wives.[242] Jerome finds marriage useful chiefly because it produces virgins.[243]

As for second marriages, the Montanist and the Novatian sects condemned them absolutely, on the ground that if God has removed a wife or husband he has thereby signified his will to end the marrying of the parties; Tertullian calls second marriage a species of prostitution.[244]Jerome expresses the more tolerant and orthodox view:  “What then?  Do we condemn second marriages?  Not at all; but we praise single ones.  Do we cast the twice-married from the Church?  Far from it; but we exhort the once-married to continence.  In Noah’s ark there were not only clean, but also unclean animals."[245]

As the Fathers were very well aware of the subtle influence of dress on the sexual passions, we have a vast number of minute regulations directing virgins, matrons, and widows to be clothed simply and without ornament; virgins were to be veiled.[246] Tertullian, with that keen logic of which the Church has always been proud in her sons, argues that inasmuch as God has not made crimson or green sheep it does not behoove women to wear colours that He has not produced in animals naturally.[247] St. Augustine forbids nuns to bathe more than once a month, unless under extreme necessity.[248]

As soon as the Church begins to exercise an influence upon law, we shall expect to see the legal position of women changed in accordance with certain general principles outlined above, viz:  I. That inasmuch as Adam was formed before Eve and as women are the weaker vessels, they should confine themselves to those duties only which society has, from time immemorial, assigned them as their peculiar sphere.  II.  They should be meek, and not oppose father or husband; and to these they should go for advice on all matters.  III.  All license, such as the Roman woman’s right of taking the initiative in a divorce, must never be tolerated.  IV.  They should never transgress the bounds of strictest decorum in conduct and dress, lest they seduce men; and they must never be conspicuous in public or attempt to perform public functions.  V. They are to be given due honour and are to be cared for properly.