WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE 31 



both should be equally developed. The gist of his teaching 

 is contained in the statement that : 



''If the same virtues must pertain to men and women, 

 it follows, necessarily, that the same training and educa- 

 tion must be suitable for both.' 7 1 



Our brief sketch of women 's work in ancient Rome would 

 be incomplete without some reference to the famous Ec- 

 clesia Domestica Church of the Household on the Aven- 

 tine, and the distinguished women who were its chief 

 ornaments. During the time of Pope Damasus, and not 

 long before the sacking of Rome by Alaric, the Ecclesia 

 Domestica was a kind of conventual home to which had 

 retired, or in which were frequently gathered, some of the 

 most noble and learned women of the city. Among the 

 most notable of these were Marcella and her friends, Paula 

 and Eustochium. 



For beauty of character and nobility of purpose and 

 rare mental endowments they recall the best traditions of 

 a Cornelia or a Calphurnia, while so great was their purity 

 of life and so unbounded was their charity to the poor 

 and suffering that they were honored by being numbered 

 among the saints of the early church. But what specially 

 distinguished them among all the great women of the 

 Roman world was their great and varied learning. In this 

 respect they probably were far in advance of all their 

 predecessors. For, in addition to a thorough knowledge 

 of Latin and Greek literature, history and philosophy, they 

 had, under the great theologian and orientalist, St. Jerome, 

 become proficient in Hebrew and deeply versed in Scrip- 

 ture. 



Special mention should be made of Paula and her 

 daughter Eustochium; for it is probable that, had it not 

 been for their influence on Jerome, and their active co- 

 operation in his great life work, we should not have the 



i Joannis Stobcei Florilegium, Vol. IV, p. 212, Teubner 's edi- 

 tion, 1857. 



