ISLAM

DAUGHTERS OF EVE 83
Fathers and the real builders of the Church adopted
towards Woman, following- as they did, in the footsteps
of St. Paul. In fact, her disgrace at the hands
of these Fathers was the true and logical sequel to
the Christian beliefs, of which the following is an
illustration : "Do you know," says Tertullian, when
addressing Women, "that you are each Eve? The
sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this
age ;
the guilt, of necessity, must live too. You are
the devil's gateway ; you are the unsealer of that
tree ; you are the first Deserter of the Divine Law
;
you destroyed as easily God's image."
The Christian apologist of modern culture, while
he sees in it mediaeval savagery and wantonness,
cannot rationally deny that "the pious aspersions"
of the Father were not without justification. The
logic was simple and true. If it was believed that
sin was a heritage and eternal condemnation its
price and so it is believed till to-day -then eternal
condemnation has come through Woman ;
she opened
the door of all human sufferings. She is the "organ
of the devil ;" "a scorpion ever ready to sting," "the
poisonous asp", "the malice of the dragon." These
are some of the blessings that Woman received from
persons of exalted position in the Church such as St.
Bernard, St. Anthony, St. Jerome, St. Cyprian, and
St. Paul, who appears to be at the bottom of it. His
personal grudge against the sex, in consequence of
his suit being rejected by a Jewish young woman,
the high priest's daughter, perhaps was responsible