Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/59

43 Christianity and Care of the Sick 43 tianity cannot indeed be accepted unconditionally. The more we learn of ancient society the more we find a very great respect and con- ■ ■, ■ r The sideration for women m certam periods, altered and often a just legal status for them, position of worn CO while through the long Middle Ages canon law subjugated women in family life to an intense degree, and gave them an inferior status by ranking marriage below ceHbacy. But if it be said that Christ's precepts placed women and men on an equality this must be unconditionally agreed to. His answer to Martha, when Mary left the kitchen to hear His words, was most significant of His recognition of women's intellectual aspirations, and equally did He recognize their right to share in practical work. While His influence remained paramount in the early church, men and women worked together on an equality, and unmarried women had oppor- tunities for social service on a varied scale never before known. In the older societies there had been no career open to single women, save in special castes with restricted duties, such as the temple women or priestesses, and the Vestal Vir- gins. But now women, both married and sin- gle, threw themselves with the utmost devotion into all the works undertaken by the Christian