n they claimed the privilege
of baptizing their own sex. The reason for this is evident. Before
baptism it was customary for the newly-made converts to strip and be
anointed with oil. After the establishment of Paul's doctrines, however,
"the bishops and presbyters did not care to be relieved from the
pleasant duty of baptizing the female converts."(144)

143) History of the Christian Religion, p. 405.

144) Ibid., p. 23.

Although the utmost care has been exercised to conceal the fact that
women equally with men, performed the offices connected with the early
church, yet by those who have paid attention to the true history of this
movement, there can be no doubt about the matter. Notwithstanding the
early tendencies of the "new religion" toward the recognition of women,
and toward the restoration of the female principle in the Deity, the
policy to be pursued by the church was soon apparent, for Paul, the real
founder of the system calling itself Christian, and a man imbued with
Asiatic prejudices concerning women, arrogantly declared that "man
is the head of woman as Christ is the head of the Church." Women were
commanded to be under obedience. Neither was the man created for the
woman, but the woman for the man; thus was re-established and emphasized
the absurd doctrine of the Lingaites, that the male is an independent
entity, that he is spirit and superior to the female which is matter.
After this indication of the policy to be pursued under the new regime,
it would scarcely be expected that theefforts put forth by the various
sects among the Gnostics toreinstate the female element either on the
earth or in heavenwould be successful, and as might be anticipated from
the factsalready adduced, as early as the year 325, at the council of
Nice, a male trinity was formally established, and soon thereafter, the
Collylidians, a sect which rigorously persisted in the adoration of the
female principle, were condemned. At the council of Laodicea, A.D. 365,
the 11th canon forbade the ordination of women for the ministry and the
44th canon prohibited them from entering the altar.

The devotees of female worship, although for a time silenced, were
evidently not convinced, and to force their understanding into
conformity with the newly established order, the Nestorians, in the year
430 A. D., reopened the old dispute, and formally denied to Mary the
title of Mother of God. Their efforts, however, were of little