64 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



than a sentimental craze. The early Church did its 

 best to throw women back into a state of serfdom, and 

 succeeded only too well. It was in the Middle Ages 

 and under clerical influence that they were loaded 

 with the civil disabilities from which they still suffer 

 in most Christian countries with respect to property ; 

 and chivalry, while professing sentimental aims, was 

 in reality the first protest raised against this retro- 

 gressive policy. It was the beginning of the move- 

 ment which within recent years has resulted in 

 this country in the passing of the Married Women's 

 Property Act — a measure conferring upon the Chris- 

 tian woman for the first time a right enjoyed by her 

 pagan sister in Imperial Kome. 



Whether chivalry was imported into Germany and 

 England, or whether it arose spontaneously in thos< 

 countries, is a debatable point. The evidence rather 

 points to its indigenous growth. The German 

 Minnesingers, the troubadours of the North, flourished 

 a century later than those of Provence, but, on the 

 other hand, the Niebelungenlied, although dating from 

 the thirteenth century, was compiled by an anony- 

 mous Minnesinger from folklore of much earlier date. 

 The Edda, or book of Scandinavian mythology, which 

 vaunts prowess and love, and after a fashion inculcates 



