ve dominion over her husband.'" Bishop Marbodius calls
woman a "pleasant evil, at once a honeycomb and a poison" and indicts
the sex,[232] something on the order of Juvenal or Jonathan Swift, by
citing the cases of Eve, the daughters of Lot, Delilah, Herodias,
Clytemnestra, and Progne. The way in which women were regarded as at
once a blessing and a curse is well illustrated also in a distich of
Sedulius: "A woman alone has been responsible for opening the gates of
death; a woman alone has been the cause of a return to life."[233]

That women should be in subjection, in accordance with the dictum of
Paul, the Church Fathers assert emphatically. "How can it be said of a
woman that she is the image of God," exclaims St. Augustine,[234] "when
it is evident that she is subject to the rule of her husband and has no
authority! Why, she can not teach, nor be a witness, nor give security,
nor act in court; how much the more can she not govern!" Women are
commanded again and again not to perform any of the functions of men and
to yield a ready and unquestioning obedience to their husbands.[235]
The Fathers also insist that marriage without a paternal parent's
consent is fornication.[236]

Marriage was looked upon as a necessary evil, permitted, indeed, as a
concession to the weakness of mankind, but to be avoided if possible.
"Celibacy is to be preferred to marriage," says St. Augustine.[237]
"Celibacy is the life of the angels," remarks St. Ambrose.[238]
"Celibacy is a spiritual kind of marriage," according to St.
Optatus.[239] "Happy he," says Tertullia[240] "who lives like Paul!"
The same saint paints a lugubrious picture of marriage and the "bitter
pleasure of children" (_liberorum amarissima voluptate_) who are burdens
and just as likely as not will turn 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 wil