The Catholic Doctrine of the Incarnation
and consecrated Womanhood,

Bishop Christopher Wordworth (1807-85).

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence."

St Paul, I Timothy 2:12.

Bishop Christopher Wordworth comments on how a wrong view of the Incarnation prevailing at the time of the Arian heresy led to two associated evils: the low view of women(1) and the desire of women meddle in Church affairs.(2).

"In nothing were the blessings of the doctrine of the Incarnation, as exhibited in the ministration of the Church, more visible in social respects, than in the elevation of Womanhood ..."(3). Against this "wherever the blessings of the Incarnation were not realized in its relation to Womanhood - as was the unhappily the case with Arianism - there we see Women in high places taking the lead in patronizing error, and in persecuting the truth." (4).

"But, secondly, there is a brighter side of the picture, on which the eye loves to dwell. There was scarcely any great Saint and Teacher of the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries, especially among those who contended valiantly for the mystery of the God Incarnate, in good report and in evil report, and against the heresy of Arianism in its various phases of error, who was not cheered and strengthened by the love of Christian Womanhood."(5).

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Notes.

Quotatins from of A Church History to the Council of Chalcedon (4 vols), Bishop Christopher Wordsworth.

[Back](1) Vol 2 1882 p. 289-295;
[Back](2) Vol 2 1882 p. 5, 6, esp. 292.
[Back](3) Vol 2 1882 p. 289.
[Back](4) Vol 2 1882 p. 292.
[Back](5) Vol 2 1882 p. 292.