To whatever part of the world you travel, to whatever page of history you turn, you find the endowed and established clergy using the word of God in defense of whatever form of slave-driving may then be popular and profitable.  Two or three hundred years ago it was the custom of Protestant divines in England and America to hang poor old women as witches; only a hundred and fifty years ago we find John Wesley, founder of Methodism, declaring that “the giving up of witchcraft is in effect the giving up of the Bible.”  And if you investigate this witch-burning, you will find that it is only one aspect of a blot upon civilization, the Christian Mysogyny.  You see, there were two Hebrew legends—­one that woman was made out of a man’s rib, and the other that she ate an apple; therefore in modern England a wife must be content with a legal status lower than a domestic servant.

Perhaps the most comical of the clerical claims is this—­that Christianity has promoted chivalry and respect for womanhood.  In ancient Greece and Rome the woman was the equal and helpmate of man; we read in Tacitus about the splendid women of the Germans, who took part in public councils, and even fought in battles.  Two thousand years before the Christian era we are told by Maspero that the Egyptian woman was the mistress of her house; she could inherit equally with her brothers, and had full control of her property.  We are told by Paturet that she was “juridically the equal of man, having the same rights and being treated in the same fashion.”  But in present-day England, under the common law, woman can hold no office of trust or power, and her husband has the sole custody of her person, and of her children while minors.  He can steal her children, rob her of her clothing, and beat her with a stick provided it is no thicker than his thumb.  While I was in London the highest court handed down a decision on the law which does not permit a woman to divorce her husband for infidelity, unless it has been accompanied by cruelty; a man had brought his mistress into his home and compelled his wife to work for and wait upon her, and the decision was that this was not cruelty in the meaning of the law!

And if you say that this enslavement of Woman has nothing to do with religion—­that ancient Hebrew fables do not control modern English customs—­then listen to the Vicar of Crantock, preaching at St. Crantock’s, London, Aug. 27th, 1905, and explaining why women must cover their heads in church: 

     (1) Man’s priority of creation.  Adam was first formed, then
     Eve.

     (2) The manner of creation.  The man is not of the woman, but
     the woman of the man.

     (3) The purport of creation.  The man was not created for the
     woman, but the woman for the man.

     (4) Results in creation.  The man is the image of the glory
     of God, but woman is the glory of man.

     (5) Woman’s priority in the fall.  Adam was not deceived; but
     the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression.