WOMAN
697
WOMAN
form a national federation of Catholic women's
associations.
Except occasional magazine articles, there ig not much written from a distinctively Catholic standpoint on modern questions affecting women. The Morith (London) has the following arti- cles: The Militant Suffragists {Apr., 1912); Woman at the Cross- ways (Sept., li)ll); Christianity and Woman's Rights (Aug,, 1911); The Catholic Women's League (Mav, 1909); Property oj Children and Married Women (Nov., 1S94); On the Secondary Education of Women (May, 1894). General works are: Blease, The Emancipation of Women (1910) : Van Vorst, Women in Indus- try (1908); Blackbdrn, Record of Women's Suffrage in the United Kingdom (1902); Anthony. History of Woman's Suffrage in the United Stales (1881-1902); Zimmern, Renaissance of Girls' Education in England (189,S); Oilman, Women and Economics (1899) ; Clevei^4ND, Women under English Law (189G) ; Everslet, Law of Domestic Relations (1885); Barrett-Lennard, Position in Law of Women (1883) ; Thicknesse. Digest of the Law of Hus- band and Wife (1884).
William H. W. Fanning.
In Canon L.\w.— I. ITlpian (Dig., I, 16, 195) gives a celebrated rule of law which most canon- ists have embodied in their works: "Women are ineligible to all civil and public offices, and therefore they cannot be judges, nor hold a magistracy, nor act as lawyers, judicial interces.sors, or procurators." Public offices are those in which public authority is exercised; civil offices, those connected otherwise with municipal affairs. The reason given by canonists for this prohibition is not the levity, weakness, or fragility of the female sex, but the preservation of the modesty and dignity peculiar to woman. For the preservation of this same modesty many regulations have been made concerning female apparel. Thus, women may not use male attire, a prohibition already found in the Old Testament (Deut., xxii, 15). The canons add, however, that the assumption of the dress of men would be excusable in a case of necessity (Can. Qunninm 1, qu. 7), which seems to apply to the well- known ca.se of Bles.sed Joan of Arc. Women must abstain from all ornament that is unbecoming in a moral sense (Can. Qui inderit, 13, c. 42, qu. 5). Some of the ancient Fathers are very severe on the practice of using pigments for the face. St. Cyprian (De habitu virg.) .says: " Not only virgins and widows, but married women also, should, I think, be admonished not to disfigure the work and creature of God by using a yellow cf)lnur or black powder or rouge, nor corrupt the natural lineaments with any lotion whatsoever." It is not held, however, to be a grave transgression when women ornament and paint themselves out of levity or vanity (St. Thos., II-II, Q. clxix, a. 2), and if it is done with an upright intention and according to the custom of one's country or one's station in life, it is entirely unblameworthy (ibid., a. 1). Authors are even so benevolent as to say that if the face is painted to hide some natural defect, it is entirely licit, owing to the words of St. Paul (I Cor., xii, 23, 24): "And such as we think to be the less honourable members of the body, about these we put more abun- dant honour; and those that are our uncomely parts have more abvmdant comeliness. Rut our comely parts have no need." Canonists strictly condemn female clothing that does not cover the person prop- erly (Pignatelii, III, consult. 35), and Innocent XI i.ssued an edict against this abuse in the city of Rome.
II. In religious and moral matters, the common obligations and responsibilities of men and women arc the same. There is not one law for a man and another for a woman, and in this, of course, the canons follow the teachings of Christ, Women, however, are not capable of certain functions pertaining to religion. Thus, a woman is not capable of receiving sacred orders fcap. Xovit, 10 de pcen.). Certain heretics of the early ages admitted females to the sacred minis- try, as the Cataphrygians, the Pepuzians, and the Gnostics, and the Fathers of the Church in arguing against them declare that this is entirely contrary- to the Apostolic doctrine. Later, the Lollards and, in our own time, some denominations of Protestants
have constituted women ministers. Wyclif and
Luther, who taught that all Christians are i)rie8ts,
would logically deny that the sacred ministry must be
restricted to the male sex. In the early Church,
women are sometimes found with the title bishopess,
priestess, deaconess, but they were so denominated
because their husbands had been called to the minis-
try of the altar. There was, it is true, an order of
deaconesses (q. v.), but these women were never
members of the sacred hierarchy nor considered such.
St. Paul (I Cor., xiv, 34) declares: "Let women keep
silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them
to speak, but to be subject, as also the law saith.
But if they would learn anything, let them ask their
husbands at home. For it is a shame for a woman to
speak in the church". The Apostle al.so says that in
the church "ought the woman to have a covering over
her head, because of the angels" (I Cor., xi, 10). It
is not allowed to women, however learned and hol.v, to
teach in monasteries (cap. Mulier, 20 de conscc).
Ministering at the altar, even in a subordinate capac-
ity, is hkewise forbidden, A decree says: "It is
prohibited to any woman to presume to approach the
altar or minister to the priest" (cap. Irihibcmlum, 1
de cohab.); for if a woman should keep silence in
church, much more should she abstain from tlie min-
istry of the alt.ar, conclude the canonists.
III. Although women are not capable of receiving the power of sacred orders, yet they are capable of some power of jurisdiction. If a female, therefore, succeeds to some office or dignity which has some jurisdiction annexed to it, although she cannot under- take the cure of souls, yet she becomes capabl(> of exercising the jurisdiction herself and of committing the care of souls to a cleric who can lawfully undertake it, and she can confer the benefice upon him (cap. Dilecta, de major, et obed,). Abbesses and prior- esses, consequently, who have acquired such juris- diction can exercise the rights of patronage in a paro- chial church and nominate and install as pari.sh priest the candidate whom the diocesan bishop has approved for the cure of souls (S. C. C, 17 Dec, 1701). Such female patron can also, in virtue of her juri.'idiction, deprive clerics subject to her of the benefices .^he had conferred upon them, by withdrawing the title and po.ssession. In such a case, as the benefice was con- ferred dependently on the patronage of a female and on the collation of the title and pos.session, it is con- cluded that the spiritual right of the clerical incum- bent was also dependent on the same, and when they are taken away, his spiritual right in them ceases, as it is presumed that the pope makes the ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the care of -souls al.so dependent on the possession of the benefice in accord.ance with its rights of patronage. (Cf. Ferraris, below.) The female patron cannot, however, susjjcnd such clerics nor lay them under interdict or excommunication, because a woman cannot inflict censures, as she is incapable of true spiritual jurisdiction (cap. DilccUi, de majorit, et obed.). A woman, even though an abbess or prioress having juri.idiction over her nuns, cannot bless publicly, since the office of benediction comes from the power of the keys, of which a woman is incapable. She can, however, bless her subjects in the same manner its parents are wont to give their blessing to their children, but not with any sacra- mental power even though she have the right to bear the crosier. (See Adbe.'^s.) Another species of apparent spiritual jurisdiction was forbidden to female religious superiors by Leo XIII, when by the Decree " Quemadmodum " (17 Dec, 1S90), he pro- hibited any enforced manifest at ion of conscience (q. v.). Pius X in his motu proprio on chtirch music (22 Nov., 1903) is moved by the fact that women are canoni- cally prohibited from taking part ministerially in the Divine worship when he declares: "On the same principle, it follows that singers in the church have a
