CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE AND MORALITY 39 



pleaded that their honour might be respected. They 

 were given to understand that they must submit to 

 the ordinary conditions of slavery, and that night they 

 all perished by their own hands, preferring death to 

 dishonour. By the uncivilised German and Gaulish 

 warriors this honourable sentiment of their women- 

 kind was reciprocated in full. The Eomans discovered 

 that the barbarian wives were the safest hostages, 

 for at whatever sacrifice they were always redeemed. 

 When in turn the barbarians overran the Eoman 

 Empire they carried their high ideals of morality with 

 them, and thus the seed of the great doctrine of 

 Christianity that a man should have but one wife, and 

 should cleave unto her, fell upon fertile ground. 



Whatever may have been or may still be the effects 

 of the destructive criticism directed against the fabric 

 of Christianity as a whole, there is no gainsaying the 

 fact that Christian morality was promulgated at a 

 singularly opportune moment in the world's history. 

 The Jews had not previously distinguished themselves 

 by the purity of their social life. If a divine law 

 was laid down in the Old Testament for the regula- 

 tion of marriage, it was very liberally interpreted. 

 Polygamy was practised by the patriarchs and sanc- 

 tioned by Moses. Gideon had seventy sons — the off- 



