The misogyny of the early Christian church

Here's some quotes by the highly-reputed church fathers of the early christian church. Can you tell these guys had just a little problem with women? lol!

St. Clement of Alexandria (2nd Century, Greek Father of the Church) : "Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman...the consciousness of their own nature must evoke feelings of shame"

Tertullian (2nd Century, African Father of the Church) : Women are "the devil's gateway."

St. Jerome (4th and 5th Centuries, well known scholar) : "Woman is the root of all evil.

St. John Chrysostom (4th and 5th Centuries, Bishop of Constantinople) : "It does not profit a man to marry. For what is a woman but an enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a domestic danger, delectable mischief, a fault in nature, painted with beautiful colors?...The whole of her body is nothing less than phlegm, blood, bile, rheum and the fluid of digested food ... If you consider what is stored up behind those lovely eyes, the angle of the nose, the mouth and the cheeks you will agree that the well-proportioned body is only a whitened sepulchre."

St. Augustine (5th Century, Doctor of the Church and Bishop of Hippo) : "I don't see what sort of help woman was created to provide man with, if one excludes procreation. If woman is not given to man for help in bearing children, for what help could she be? To till the earth together? If help were needed for that, man would have been a better help for man. The same goes for comfort in solitude. How much more pleasure is it for life and conversation when two friends live together than when a man and a woman cohabitate?"

Boethius (6th Century Christian Philosopher) : "Woman is a temple built upon a sewer."

St. Thomas Aquinas (13th Century) : "Good order would have been wanting in the human family if some were not governed by others wiser than themselves. So by such a kind of subjection woman is naturally subject to man, because in men the discretion of reason predominates."

St. Albertus Magnus (13th Century, Doctor of the Church) : "Woman is less qualified [than man] for moral behavior. For the woman contains more liquid than man, and it is a property of liquid to take things up easily and to hold unto them poorly. Liquids are easily moved, hence women are inconstant and curious. When a woman has relations with a man, she would like, as much as possible, to be lying with another man at the same time. Woman knows nothing about fidelity. Believe me, if you give her your trust, you will be disappointed. Trust an experience teacher. For this reason prudent men share their plans and actions least of all with their wives. Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature in comparison to his. Therefore she is unsure in herself. What she cannot get, she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions. And so, to put it briefly, one must be on one's guard with every woman, as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil. If I could say what I know about women, the world would be astonished ... Woman is strictly speaking not cleverer but slyer (more cunning) than man. Cleverness sounds like something good, slyness sounds like something evil. Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer, that is, slyer, than man. Her feelings drive woman toward every evil, just as reason impels man toward all good."


Inquisitors (also wrote Malleus Maleficarum) : "They [women] are only 'imperfect animals' and 'crooked' whereas man belongs to a privileged sex from whose midst Christ emerged."

 

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The catholic church came after a time when pagan religions where rife, and the female side of religion was rife.

The idea also is that males create and use the creative force, while females twist this. Whether you like it or not pure males have something to them when untouched by females.

So can you judge where these are coming from.

Are you still a virgin and can you talk about males whom are pure all there lifes?

Can you talk from the viewpoint of a pure male?

By the way a pure virgin male, is where the idea of the unicorn came from. Its what a unicorn symbolises.

 

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I think the viewpoints of these celibate church fathers exposes the lie of anything "pure" existing in a sexless male. All I hear is bitterness and hatred and blame. A sort of squelched infantilism that never grew out of the "boy's only" attitude of childhood. Almost a psychotic paranoia when it comes to women. "The devil's gateway"? Gimme a break!

 

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Well you do not know what being a pure male is then.

You have no idea what they mean, and your just projecting what you think into there comments. There comments may be coming from something that is more pure than most humans ever will reach, as most humans are sex mad.

Remember the male in terms of humans is the creative force in sexual energy. If that energy is not used for sexual reproductive ventures with females, what does it do?

Like i said before if you do not understand these words, how can you comment. If you lived your life as a pure male virgin, maybe you would understand what they mean, lol

With respect anyone whom is a female, or is a sexually active male, will never understand these words, or the the catholic religion. Thats why people whom voice there opinion about the catholic church like this are wrong, if your coming from ignorance.

Not 1 single crime in my life, or any contact with females. But at 38, females absolutely destroyed my life, for no reason. I wonder whom was bitter. I never had one single contact with them totally ignored them all my life, have never talked to one, or looked at one in my life. But they absolutely set out to wreck my life and have done so.

So whom was bitter, not me. I stayed a virgin all my life, and never did nout to females, and committed not one single crime in my life. But people set out to absolutely destroy my life.

So i think op you got it the wrong way round.

So i know what its like to stay a virgin and be pure all my life, and see my life destroyed for no reason by sex obsessed sex minded females.

So are you gonna look at what you wrote about those people again? I think my life was a good example of a male being pure, but the hatred the female gender brought into my life. Not once i have spoke to females or spoke about them, but they set out to totally ruin my life.

So what that about again op, and you claiming people whom are pure hating females, when it was probably hatred from females that made them feel that way.

 

However,

BUT...

Absolutely hilarious. Andy dude, have you ever considered seeking psychiatric help?

I think we can safely conclude that extreme misogyny did not die out with the early Christian church...

 

I know exactly what these words mean. They are the pathetic and small-minded tirades of bitter men who hated and demonized women all of their lives. These are the types that discriminate against women, abuse them, rape them, and even serial kill them in obsessive rampages that can only end in their own imprisonment or execution. You appear to be of this very warped mentality. You should seek therapy. Living in hatred of people just because of their gender doesn't lead to a very happy life.

 

I am very concerned for you Andy, so maybe we can get a cup of java and talk about your hatred of women. Hmmm, maybe I can dig up a burka for our date and I promise not to speak unless spoken to.

 

The simple fact is, Greek and Roman cultures were misogynistic. Hebrew culture was misogynistic. Babylonian and Egyptian cultures were misogynistic. Almost every culture, society, civilisation, and empire in the Classical world was patriarchal. Christianity is merely an extension of this. It deserves no special blame for causing or creating this state of affairs.
Rather, it deserves blame for perpetuating and continuing the failures of Classical society. Especially when their dogma is, or ought to be, egalitarian. There is some evidence that very early Christianity was initially very receptive and egalitarian towards women; this changed pretty swiftly, however, as they adjusted their teachings to fit more in the main-stream of the Hellenistic Near East. Which just sorta stuck as they became more and more popular in the 3rd century onwards.

 

Hi Magical Realist,

What are your sources for the OP?

I looked but all i found were cut and pastes from various web sites. Did you read it from another site and not verify the sources? I google the quotes but they all turn up the same cut and pastes. I am not convinced either way. and remain suspicious of their veracity.

Also, many things written about historical figures come from their enemies or what we refer to today as gossip or propaganda. Would be interesting to see original writings or any evidence and since you made the thread you should provide it. Recently i have been investing various pieces of history and what we accept as fact is sometimes actually pretty sad so unless we get something solid I have to say i am on the fence here. Have to admit this thread introduced me to Boethius.

I found one alleged quote quite fascinating:

Boethius (6th Century Christian Philosopher) : "Woman is a temple built upon a sewer."

What do you suspect that to mean? It seems to me to be somewhat esoteric in nature if one were to examine it deeply or perhaps we should not attribute much thought to it if it turns out it never occurred. But i will leave that up to you to source these things out. You are a smart person, i will give you that much or perhaps we should attribute this to a young minds sharpness. In my 20s i could write up a blue streak.

Without further adieu, let us examine the words below:

Woman is the root of all evil.

Again i ask, what do you suspect that to mean?

Seems odd to me.

I will provide a link to this Wikipedia page on Boethius.

The more i read about these early figure the more intriguing i find their levels of intellect to be. They sure seemed to know their way around the use of words so please provide the original writings.

Thank You in advance, I place the ball in your court.

Stanley

 

andy1033 writes;
"With respect anyone whom is a female, or is a sexually active male, will never understand these words, or the the catholic religion. Thats why people whom voice there opinion about the catholic church like this are wrong, if your coming from ignorance."


"With respect"? With no respect, sir, I suggest you roll up your asinine misogyny and store it in a fundamental orifice. You prate ad nauseam about purity..........your words are pure poison and your attitude unbecoming a civilised male of the 21st century. Your very presence is an insult to a pluralistic society. If Justice is indeed blind you will suffer some dreadful brain disease that will enable the average compassionate citizen to pity you for your mental spasticity rather than do well-earned violence to your person.


But, not content with offending us with your malodorous presence, you commit an outrage on the English language by your abject ignorance of the usages of "who" and "whom". Even further, outrage compounded by even greater ignorance, we learn of your incapacity to distinguish between "your" and the abbreviation of "you are", spelled "you're". We are persuaded, by your pretense to pseudo-intellectualism, to view you as a self-opinionated twit with an obsessive narcissistic conceit, the purpose of which is to mask the utter absence of merit in everything you have written here.


I rejoice that human society will further its freedom from tyranny while you are an apologist for the roman catholic sect.


"So whom was bitter, not me. I stayed a virgin all my life, and never did nout to females, and committed not one single crime in my life. But people set out to absolutely destroy my life.........So i know what its like to stay a virgin and be pure all my life, and see my life destroyed for no reason by sex obsessed sex minded females."


To be expected as a corollary to monumental conceit is monumental self-aggrandisement. The paranoia about females is interesting though. Already, while writing this, I'm beginning to feel tinges of pity for your plight. But am restored to my usually good-humoured self by the assurance that you are at the extreme shallow end of the gene-pool and, by your dedication to celibacy, will be making no contribution to the human genome.

 

It's obvious why this is viewed as mysogony. I personally wouldn't look at women, as people, in those terms, and I get the feeling that at least some of these quotes weren't describing the ''person'' that is the woman, but the very form, and it's particular role, and purpose. So if you separate the person from the body, you can describe the body in ways that does not pertain to the person. The oldest religions teach that the person is separate from the body, but our downfall is that we accept the body to be the person, and as such act accordingly. A very subtle subject matter to undertake, and not too pretty, if emotions are at the ready.

jan.

 

I think you screwed the pooch here jan, OriginalBiggles wasn't referring to the OP but rather andy's rant:

Surely you're not saying andy was referring to "women's bodies" and not the women themselves? (Whatever that means)

Further, are you asserting that it is acceptable to refer to women's bodies as

Really? Why don't you try saying that to a woman's face and see how it goes over? (Anywhere besides some fundie church) Let me know how it works out for you...

 

I didn't think to track down the actual written sources for the comments because I didn't imagine anyone questioning their veracity. I have no reason to question it. You apparently do. Why? Do you really think people would lie about stuff like this? I'm not near that suspicious by nature. Feel free to doubt. My quotes will remain as posted.

 

So you do not verify your sources?

Reminds me of that commercial that asks "do you believe everything you read on the internet".

 

Why do you think they're lies? Are you Catholic? One thing I DID notice while scanning Google for sources: The procatholic websites offer no rebuttals to them saying they are misquotes. You'd think they woulda found that out by now it that was the case. Evidently not. You asked what is the meaning of saying "Woman is the root of all evil." What do you think it means? I think it is the age-old Judeo-Christian view that woman is to blame for the evil in the world. Hence the tale of Eve screwing it all up for man. Hence the tenth commandment listing the wife as one of the coveted possessions of your neighbor along with his ass. Hence Paul on remaining celibate and on women keeping silence and "covered." I think this sort of hatred for and oppression of women festers deeply in the patriarchal tradition of judeo-christian religiousity. That's what I think it means.

Here btw is one verified source:

"Do you not realize that Eve is you? You are the devil's gateway, you desecrated that fatal tree; you first betrayed the law of God, you who softened up with your cajolingwords the man against whom the devil could not prevail by force. The image of God, the man Adam, you broke him, it was child's play to you. You deserved death, and it was the son of God who had to die!"- Tertullian, (Tobin 23)

 

This bastards forgot that their mother was a woman . They must be Catholics, I am sure the Greek orthodox saint don't feel the same way, because the get married

 

I wanted to know if they are true and accurate, since you made the thread I assumed you had the information.

You dont think these things are important?

No

Seems normal to me to question unsourced material, I am surprised you find this out of the ordinary.

Can you verify one? Is that too much to ask? Do we take your word on everything? Did you blindly cut and paste?

Edit: You asked about ""Woman is the root of all evil."

I am not sure that i believe in "evil", the reason i mention that is to alleviate any misunderstandings or assumptions on your part. Although some non-religious people do believe in evil, i really cannot say for certain and guess it is a matter of interpretation.

The short version could be something along the lines that females reproduce and without humans would evil exist? Even then if one were a Catholic or many other religions they would consider another entity as being the root of all evil.

 

Here are a few sources:

"Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman...the consciousness of their own nature must evoke feelings of shame" Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: p127,130 attributed to St. Clement of Alexandria (2nd Century, Greek Father of the Church)

Women are "the devil's gateway." "And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age:83 the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway:" Tertullian (2nd Century, African Father of the Church), "On Women's Clothing", 1:1

"Woman is the root of all evil." Knight, Honest to Man: p120 attributed to St. Jerome (4th and 5th Centuries, well known scholar)

"It does not profit a man to marry. For what is a woman but an enemy of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a domestic danger, delectable mischief, a fault in nature, painted with beautiful colors?...The whole of her body is nothing less than phlegm, blood, bile, rheum and the fluid of digested food ... If you consider what is stored up behind those lovely eyes, the angle of the nose, the mouth and the cheeks you will agree that the well-proportioned body is only a whitened sepulchre." Knight, Honest to Man: p121, attributed to St. John Chrysostom (4th and 5th Centuries, Bishop of Constantinople)

"I don't see what sort of help woman was created to provide man with, if one excludes procreation. If woman is not given to man for help in bearing children, for what help could she be? To till the earth together? If help were needed for that, man would have been a better help for man. The same goes for comfort in solitude. How much more pleasure is it for life and conversation when two friends live together than when a man and a woman cohabitate?" Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine (5th Century, Doctor of the Church and Bishop of Hippo), De genesi ad literatum 9, 5-9

"Woman is a temple built upon a sewer." Anicius Boethius (6th Century Christian Philosopher), The Consolation of Philosophy

"Good order would have been wanting in the human family if some were not governed by others wiser than themselves. So by such a kind of subjection woman is naturally subject to man, because in men the discretion of reason predominates." St. Thomas Aquinas (13th Century), Summa Theologica I, qu. 92, art. 1, ad 2.​

 

GOOD JOB Randwolf! I couldn't find them. Obviously they're genuine quotes!

 

Randwolf, i dont have time right now to go through that list. Based on the first one, do you consider that a real source in that you are satisfied with that?

This is who you have used as a source - https://www.google.com/search?q=Ranke-Heinemann&rlz=1C1SFXN_enUS498US498&oq=Ranke-Heinemann&aqs=chrome.0.57j0l3j62.561j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

My question to you is where is the original source for this, that is what you need to post. I am assuming it exists, but as it stands right now we really dont know for sure. Surely you would know this as i have made that clear so why post something like that? I am assuming, without actually researching (strictly due to lack of time), that the others will yield further disappointment as you are setting a pattern.

Edit:

Magic Realist, i updated my other post to answer one of your questions. It is worthy of further analysis.