16Pope Gelasius I (c. 492–496 CE)
“Women should not serve at the altar, nor take upon themselves any masculine function.” 17Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636 CE)
“Woman is feeble in both mind and body, prone to evil, and easily led astray by Satan.”
(Etymologiae) 18Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735 CE)
“The woman is subjected to man, and rightly so, because she was first in bringing ruin upon man.”
(Commentary on Genesis) 19Rabanus Maurus (c. 780–856 CE)
“The synagogue is a house of darkness, and its people are lost. The same can be said of women, who are prone to deception.” 20Hincmar of Reims (c. 806–882 CE)
“Women are by nature more easily deceived than men and therefore must be kept under control.” 21Canon Episcopi (c. 10th Century)
“Some wicked women, perverted by the devil, believe and profess that they ride through the air on beasts with Diana, the pagan goddess.” 22Pope Urban II (c. 1035–1099 CE)
“Woman, by her nature, is the instrument of the devil. A woman’s voice is the hissing of the serpent.” 23Peter Damian (1007–1072 CE)
“A woman is not made in the image of God. She is made only in the image of man, and therefore she is inferior to him.” 24Gratian (c. 12th Century)
“A woman is to be silent in church and to submit to the rule of men, as her inferiority in nature requires.” 25Honorius of Autun (12th Century)
“The Jews, having killed Christ, have forfeited their right to exist as a people. Women, having deceived man, have forfeited their right to authority.” 26Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153 CE)
“The woman is the gate of the devil, the road of iniquity, the sting of the scorpion.” 27Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 CE)
“As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect male specimen.”
(Summa Theologica, I, q. 92, a. 1)
“Jews, by their sin, are the slaves of those who serve Christ. Women, by their sin, are the slaves of men.” 28Alfonso de Spina (15th Century)
“The Jews practice sorcery and conspire against Christian kings. Women are their most devoted followers.” 29Malleus Maleficarum (1487 CE)
“All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.” (Part I, Question 6)
“Witchcraft is chiefly found among women, because they are more credulous and prone to superstition.” (Part I, Question 6) 30Martin Luther (1483–1546 CE)
“If they [women] become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth—that is why they are there.”
“The greatest honor for a woman is to bear children; but if she dies, it does not matter.” 31John Knox (1514–1572 CE)
“Women have no place in the governance of men. The monstrous regiment of women is against nature and against God.”
(The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, 1558) 32John Calvin (1509–1564 CE)
“On this account, all women are born that they may acknowledge themselves as inferior in consequence of the superiority of the male sex.”
— Commentary on 1 Cor 11:10
“If the woman is under subjection, she is, consequently, prohibited from authority to teach in public. … female government is improper and unseemly.” Commentary on 1 Cor 14:34 33Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560 CE)
“Scripture shows that woman was created for man’s help and subordination. … public rule or teaching belongs not to her.”
— Loci Communes (1535) 34Matthew Henry (1662–1714 CE)
“Paul’s prohibition shows that women are by nature less capable than men of teaching in the congregation; their business is to learn quietly at home.”
— Exposition on 1 Timothy 2:12 35John Wesley (1703–1791 CE)
“Let not women assume authority over men in the church, but quietly learn; for the order of nature and the law of God require that the weaker vessel shall be subject.”
— Explanatory Notes on 1 Timothy 2:12