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 great increase of ecclesiastical power, which was not the least consequence of that downfall, a new chapter may be said to open in the history of Christian marriage.

III.—Without pressing unduly the statements of Tacitus, we may allow that the German tribes which assaulted the frontiers, and finally conquered the territories, of the Roman Empire, brought with them a respect for the female sex, which had no counterpart in the corrupt society which they entered. This natural sentiment allied itself with the theological tendency to exalt the position of the Virgin Mary in the system of Christian thought and worship.

It is agreed by all students that the cultus of the Virgin in its turn affected the position of women. Female chastity was invested with an almost superhuman majesty in the eyes of the Teutonic converts, and the extraordinary fervour for monastic life which they manifested was the direct consequence. Guizot is probably right in ascribing much