Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/57

Christianity and Care of the Sick 41 age was a callous, even a cruel one, yet there were tendencies alive which prepared a welcome for better things. Women belonging to the patrician families had been strengthening their position through a couple of hundred years of the Republic, and besides a notable dignity in home life they had gained a social Hberty which allowed them to go freely about in pubHc, dine out and receive their husbands' guests at home, in marked contrast to the seclusion in which Greek women lived. It will be remembered that Roman matrons once formed a deputation to the Forum to protest against sumptuary legislation. Such women had also quite exceptional advantages in educational matters. An alternative to the old pagan religious cere- mony of marriage had been evolved in the free marriage contract. This gave the wife entire control over her own property and made her the social equal of her husband, whereas the old law had made her his chattel, with her fortune, her children, and her own life and death at his disposal. The independent and dignified position thus held by women in Roman society was to prove of great importance to the development of nurs- ing, for Roman matrons were presently to turn their abilities and their money toward its organi- zation.