In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. But
not even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her was
still regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to be
unwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh.
Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that they
shared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of a
saint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest[36] we
read that she adopted the costume of a monk,--"Being a woman by nature
in order that I might gain everlasting life." The same account tells of
another holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warned
that it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collection
of lives of saints is the story[37] of a holy woman who never allowed
herself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lest
through her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herself
up in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall of
a young man who loved her.
This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman included
the Crusades, the Age of Chivalry,[38] and lasted well into the
Renaissance.[39] Students of the first thousand years of the Christian
era like Donaldson,[22] McCabe,[40] and Benecke argue that the social
and intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any time
since the creation of the world.
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