Psychopathia sexualis : with especial reference to antipathic sexual instinct a medico-forensic study / by R. v. Krafft-Ebing ... The only authorised English translation of the tenth German edition.

  • Richard von Krafft-Ebing
Date:
1899
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Psychopathia sexualis : with especial reference to antipathic sexual instinct a medico-forensic study / by R. v. Krafft-Ebing ... The only authorised English translation of the tenth German edition. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    institution.1 Thence emanates the fact that the love of man, if considered from the standpoint of advanced civili- sation, can only be of a monogamic nature and must rest upon a staple basis. Even though nature should claim This assertion may be modified in so far that the symbolical and sacramental character of matrimony was clearly defined only by the Council of Trent, although the spirit of Christianity always tended to raise woman from the inferior position which she occupied in pre- vious centuries and in the Old Testament. The tradition that woman was created from the rib of the sleep- ing man (see Genesis) is one of the causes of delay in this direction, for after the fall she is told thy will shall be subject to man. Ac- cording to the Old Testament, woman in responsible for the fall of man, and this became the corner-stone of Christian teaching. Thus the social position of woman had to be neglected, as it were, until the spirit of Christianity had conquered tradition and scholastic tenets. It is a remarkable fact that the gospels (barring divorce, Matt, xix. 9) contain not a word in favour of woman. The clemency shown towards the adulteress and the penitent Magdalen do not affect the position of woman in general. The epistles of St. Paul definitely in- sist that no change can be permitted in the position of woman (2 Cor. xi. 3-12; Eph. v. 22, woman shall be subject to man, and 23, woman shall fear man ). How much the fathers of the Church are prejudiced against woman on account of Eve's part in the temptation may be easily learned from Tertulllan, Woman, thou shouldst ever go in mount- ing and sackcloth, thy eyes filled with tears. Thou has brought about the ruin of mankind. St. Jerome has aught but good to say about woman. Woman is the gate of the devil, the road of evil, th« sting of the scorpion (De Cultu Fcminarum, i. 1). Canon law declares: Man only is created to the image of God, not woman; therefore woman shall serve him and be his handmaid . The Provincial Council of Macon (sixth century) seriously dis- cussed the question whether woman had a soul at all. These opinions of the Church had a sympathetic influence upon the peoples who embraced Christianity. Among the converted Ger- manic races the doicer value of woman fell considerably (J. FaU-~e, Die rittcrliche Gesellschaft, Berlin, 18G2, p. 49. Re the valuation of the two sexes among the Jews, cf. 3 Moses, xxvii. 3-4). Even polygamy, which is distinctly recognised in the Old Testa- ment, (Dcut. xxi. l.j) is nowhere in the New Testament definitely prohibited. In fact many Christian princes (e.g. the Merovingian kings: Chlotar I., Charihort I., Pippin I. and other Prankish nobles) indulged in polygamy without a protest being raised by the Church at the time (Weinhold, Die deutschen Fraucn itn Mittelalter, ii., p. 15; cf. Unger, Marriage, etc., and Louis Bridel, La Femme et le Droit, Paris, 1884).
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