d Christian
Epicureanism showed itself in the many brotherhoods and sisterhoods
which labored for the betterment of humanity in the care of the sick and
the unfortunate.

One of the effects of the Stoical idea combined with the new conception
of the mission of woman was the prevalence of celibacy. Many women chose
to devote their time to good works rather than to the cares of family
life. Furthermore, "the horror of unchastity--the desecration of the
body, the temple of the soul--which had taken possession of the age with
a sort of morbid excess led to vows of perpetual virginity."

This emphasis on the unmarried life was unfortunate for the race, as it
conduced to degeneracy and depopulation; but it produced many examples
of consecrated and devoted women, who have merited the homage bestowed
on them by later ages.

As regards the relation of the sexes, the greatest contrast lay in the
Christian conception of a purified spiritual love, as compared with the
carnal and sensual love of the pagan peoples. This is illustrated by the
popularity of the celebrated legend of Cyprian and Justina, which was
later versified by the Empress Eudoxia.

Justina was a young and beautiful maiden of Corinth, who was
passionately loved by a handsome pagan youth, Aglaides. Every effort to
win the maiden's affections, which were given to Christ, proving of no
avail, Aglaides determined to enlist in his cause the powers of
darkness. To this end he engaged the services of a powerful magician,
Cyprian by name, who was versed in all the magic lore of the Chaldeans
and the Egyptians. The wizard's art devised every form of temptation,
but the demons who were called up to accomplish the maiden's ruin fled
at the sign of the Cross which she made; and Justina emerged from the
ordeal pure and spotless, untainted by all the arts of the Evil One.
Cyprian, overcome by the beauty and innocence and unbounded faith of the
maiden, was himself inspired with the purest and most intense love for
Justina, and, renouncing all his arts, was converted to Christianity.
The devoted pair suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of Diocletian.

Such Christian ideals, opposing all that was basest in paganism,
naturally developed a new and an exceedingly high type of womanhood. Of
the women of the provinces we know almost nothing, for the records of
the Eastern Empire centre about the capital city. We may be sure,
however, that throughout the Orient Christian womanhood