Women in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

1 Clement 21.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Wives should show purity, gentleness, and impartial love.
Sentences of Sextus 235Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Let chastity be counted the adornment of a faithful woman.
Sentences of Sextus 237Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A chaste woman is the glory of her husband.
Oration to the Greeks 32Tatian · ca. 165–172 · Christian teaching is free and open to rich and poor, old women and youths alike; the Greeks, who admire old Nestor and warrior women, mock Christian elders and virgins.
Oration to the Greeks 33Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The Greeks honor poetesses, courtesans, and scandalous women with statues, yet mock the chaste Christian women who study God's word.
The Instructor 1.4.10Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Men and women have the same virtue, the same Instructor, and the same salvation; in the age to come the distinction of sex no longer matters.
The Instructor 1.4.11Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · “Human being” and “child” are names shared by men and women; all are lambs of the one Shepherd.
Against Heresies 1.13.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Marcus seduces wealthy women by making them 'prophesy', and they reward him with money and their bodies.
Excerpts from Theodotus 44.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They see in Wisdom's veil the reason for Paul's command that women be veiled “because of the angels.”
Miscellanies 4.8.59Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Man and woman share one human nature and so the same virtue; women, like men, free and slave, must pursue self-restraint and justice; they differ only in what belongs to sex, such as childbearing.
Miscellanies 4.8.60Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Woman shares man's virtue in soul and differs in body; Paul teaches headship yet mutual dependence in the Lord; women, like men, must master pleasure by walking in the Spirit.
Miscellanies 4.8.62Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Women of some nations fight and labor like men, and even female dogs work as males do; so women must philosophize like men, though men hold the first place.
Miscellanies 4.8.67Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Wives and slaves may pursue true philosophy even against husbands' or masters' threats, and free men even under tyrants; to die for virtue is noble for women as for men, for it belongs to the good, not to one sex.
Miscellanies 4.19.118Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Perfection belongs equally to men and women: Moses offered to be blotted out for his people, and Judith, perfected among women, risked her life for her city and slew Holofernes.
Miscellanies 4.19.119Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Esther, by fasting and prayer, saved Israel from Haman; Miriam shared leadership with Moses; Susanna, condemned by the lustful elders, remained an unwavering witness to chastity even to death.
Miscellanies 4.19.120Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Pagan women too showed virtue: Lysidice and Philotera in modesty, Leaena who endured torture without betraying the tyrannicides, and the Argive women led by Telesilla who repelled the Spartans.
Miscellanies 4.19.121Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Greek poets praised heroic women, and many women philosophized: Theano's modest sayings, Themisto the Epicurean, Myia and Arignote the Pythagoreans, the five dialectician daughters of Diodorus, and Hipparchia the Cynic.
Miscellanies 4.19.122Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · More learned women: Arete who taught her son, Plato's women students, Aspasia who taught Socrates and Pericles, and women poets and painters.
Book of the Laws of Countries 34Anonymous · ca. 196–235
On the Dress of Women 1.1Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Tertullian tells Christian women that, as daughters of Eve bearing the guilt of the first sin, they should dress in penitence rather than finery.
On Baptism 17Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Bishops, and under them presbyters and deacons, administer baptism; laymen may do so in necessity, but women may not, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla, which suggests otherwise, is a forgery by a presbyter who was deposed.
Didascalia 1.8 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · A Christian woman walks modestly and does not bathe in the men's bath.
Didascalia 1.9Anonymous · first half of the third century · If a woman must use a mixed bath, she bathes rarely, briefly, modestly, and at the tenth hour.
Didascalia 1.10Anonymous · first half of the third century · A Christian wife avoids quarrelling, so that her husband, believer or not, is not driven to blaspheme, and wins outsiders by modesty and meekness.
Didascalia 3.6–7 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Letters to Virgins 2.5.1Anonymous · 3rd century · Avoid being alone with a woman as one would flee a serpent.
Letters to Virgins 2.8.2Anonymous · 3rd century · Keep away from women, as Joseph’s story shows.
Commentary on the Song of Songs, fragment 12 (Song 3:1)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · The bride seeking her beloved by night foreshadows the women at the tomb, who found the risen Christ, held his feet, and became apostles to the apostles, a new Eve undoing the first Eve's disobedience.
Commentary on Daniel 1.22Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Susanna as a teacher of the church: men are urged to imitate Joseph and women Susanna, resisting seducers and heretics and choosing a brief death rather than sin.
On the Pallium 4Tertullian · ca. 205–211 · Tertullian mocks the Romans for adopting Greek athletic fashions and for effeminate changes of dress, from Achilles and Hercules to Alexander and Roman matrons, and argues that the pallium, now worn by Christian wisdom, deserves respect rather than ridicule.
Against Marcion 4.19Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The women who served Jesus, his warnings about hearing, and his saying “Who is my mother?” all fit the Creator's prophecies, and the last shows that Jesus really had a mother and brothers.
On the Veiling of Virgins 4Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Paul's rule that “women” be veiled includes virgins: he distinguishes virgins from married women only where the subject requires it, and “woman” is the general term that covers every female, as “body” covers every limb.
On the Veiling of Virgins 5Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Eve was called “woman” while still a virgin in paradise, so the word denotes the female sex, not the married state; only the name “Eve”, mother of the living, looked forward to marriage.
On the Veiling of Virgins 9Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Women may not speak, teach, baptize, or offer in church, and virgins share this condition; so they have no special right to go unveiled, and Tertullian rebukes a bishop who enrolled a young virgin among the widows.
On the Veiling of Virgins 17Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Tertullian warns married women against token head-coverings, citing Arabian women, a sister's vision of an angel, and the ostrich, and closes with a blessing.
On the Crown 4Tertullian · 211 · Tradition, confirmed by custom and supported by reason, binds even without a written law, as the veiling of Jewish women shows; Paul himself gave counsel with the Spirit's authority where he had no command of the Lord.
On the Crown 14Tertullian · 211 · A man's head belongs to Christ and a woman's is veiled, so neither may be crowned; Christ wore thorns for us, and the Christian should not wear flowers where he wore thorns.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 33, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen explains that Paul answers the Corinthians' letter about spouses who were attempting continence by praising chastity while protecting the other spouse, and that the mutual debt and mutual authority of 1 Cor 7:3–4 show the equality of husband and wife.
Commentary on John 13.169Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus makes the woman an apostle to her city; the disciples marvel that he revealed himself to her.
Commentary on John 13.179Origen · ca. 230–248 · A woman proclaims Christ to the Samaritans, and a woman first announces his resurrection.
On Prayer 2.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes what we should pray for, such as heavenly things and laborers for the harvest, from the right disposition in prayer, such as reconciliation, purity, and self-control in marriage.
Homily on Isaiah 6Origen · ca. 235–250 · Comparing Isaiah's readiness with Moses' refusal, Origen teaches that church office is service, explains the spiritual meaning of the foot-washing, and expounds the fat heart, heavy ears, and closed eyes of Isa 6:9–10.
Homilies on Exodus 13.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each believer should offer for the tabernacle what he has conceived in his heart, guarding the word of God as carefully as the eucharistic body; the four colours of the offerings figure the four elements.
Homilies on Joshua 3.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The two and a half tribes settled by Moses, all first-born, figure the people of the law, whose righteous men, the prophets, still come to fight beside Christians, while the women and infants who stay behind figure those who leave no teaching.
Homilies on Joshua 9.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Jesus reads the law to those with inner ears; the “men, women, infants, and proselytes” of the assembly are the perfect, the weaker, the newly baptized, and the catechumens, and Scripture distinguishes “man” and “woman” by the soul, not by sex.
Homilies on Judges 5.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Deborah, the only judge called a prophet, shows that purity of mind, not sex, merits the grace of prophecy, and as "bee" she figures prophecy's honey.
Homilies on Judges 9.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Gideon's sending home the fearful shows that Christ's soldiers must cast out fear; even women and girls have conquered as martyrs, and flight is allowed, but never denial.
Homilies on Numbers 1.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen explains that only those who have grown to spiritual maturity and strength are counted in God's number, as only grown Israelite men were counted in Numbers.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 7Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 7: mourning, wisdom, and the fear of God are better than revelry; the speaker, having lost wisdom, was ensnared by desire.
On the Singleness of Clerics 4Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Living with a woman exposes a cleric to constant temptation, since death entered through a woman; many bishops, clergy, and confessors have been shipwrecked this way.
On the Singleness of Clerics 6Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · A cleric's living with a woman bound to him by no marriage is more dangerous than marriage itself, which Paul says divides the mind; such companionship breeds only conflict and temptation.
On the Singleness of Clerics 14Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · In the church's assembly, where the Spirit rules and all are equal in Christ, men and women may rightly worship together, unlike the private cares of a shared household.
On the Singleness of Clerics 25Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ and the apostles accepted women's service only briefly and for teaching, to forestall heretics who condemn marriage, not to license cohabitation.
Against Celsus 2.70Origen · ca. 248 · Origen denies that Jesus hid himself or appeared only to one woman after rising, citing Matthew's account of the two Marys, and points out the absurdity of Celsus's claim that the opposite should have happened.
Against Celsus 3.56Origen · ca. 248 · Christian teachers draw women away from licentiousness, the theater, and superstition, and train boys in chastity, rather than leading them into evil.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 140Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The centurion's confession may have come from Jesus' dying so quickly, by prayer or by his own will, since he had not been struck to hasten death, as Pilate's surprise shows; morally, those who see the mysteries of the passion confess him Son of God; the women who watched from afar, especially Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome, are blessed for following and ministering.
Commentary on Romans 10.17Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Phoebe shows that women are appointed to the ministry of the church, and that those chosen should be women who, like Lot and Abraham in hospitality, have served many; those who serve the church should be honored and helped in return.
Commentary on Romans 10.20Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Mary's labor shows that women too should labor for the churches, as in the duties set out in the Pastoral Letters.
Ep. Bas. 2Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 247-265 · Dionysius holds that menstruating women should not approach the holy table or receive the body and blood of Christ, though anyone may pray in any condition.
To Quirinus 3.46Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Following Paul, women are to keep silent in the church assembly and not teach.
Letter 6.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The women and boys among the confessors recall the three youths in the furnace, who confessed God whether or not he would deliver them.
On the Dress of Virgins 22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins escape the curse on Eve and already share the angelic life of the resurrection that Christ promised; they should persevere and seek the adornment of character.
Apostolic Church Order 24Anonymous · ca. 300 · Andrew proposes establishing a ministry for women.
Apostolic Church Order 26Anonymous · ca. 300 · John argues from the Last Supper that women did not stand with the apostles at the offering; Martha and Mary respond.
Apostolic Church Order 27Anonymous · ca. 300 · Women are to pray seated on the ground, not standing.
Apostolic Church Order 28Anonymous · ca. 300 · The ministry of women is limited to supporting women in need.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 17Anonymous · 4th century · Rules for women in church: head covering and plain hair, nursing their own children, submission and humility toward their husbands, silence in church, purification after childbirth, and separate places for women; with directions for catechumens.
Homilies 3.22Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Eve, created as Adam’s lesser partner, is the first prophetess and rules the present, female world; the male prophet rules the coming age.
Homilies 3.23Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Of the two kinds of prophecy, the female comes first and passes off the male prophet’s words as her own, promising earthly wealth.
Divine Institutes 3.22.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato's proposal that women fight and rule reverses nature.
Divine Institutes 3.25.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Women, slaves, the poor and labourers cannot acquire this learning.
Divine Institutes 3.25.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Philosophers taught only one woman, Themista, and one slave, Phaedo.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo describes the wife as beguiling the husband's mind.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: with children, the wife becomes bolder and demands what harms the community.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.32.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s Republic: men generally excel women.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.32.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Natural gifts are distributed in both sexes; women can share all pursuits.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.32.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Women differ in aptitude as men do.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.32.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Capable women should share guardianship with men.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.32.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Christian teaching admits all, men and women, slave and free, barbarian and Greek.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.19.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato (Republic): women would exercise naked with men.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.19.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato would train women equally with men in riding and gymnastics.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.19.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato would have girls and women trained for war.
Demonstration 6.3Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.6Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 14.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · God has made peace through wise people, including women such as the woman of Tekoa, the wise woman of Abel, Deborah, Jael, and Rebecca, and above all through Christ, who reconciled the world to the Father.
Demonstration 14.33Aphrahat · 337-345 · Throughout history God has raised the lowly and younger over the proud and elder, including women to whom he gave prophecy and judgment.
Homilies on the Psalms 1.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains that the opening beatitude sets the reward before the labor, that God alone is properly blessed, that women are included in “the man,” and why the verse speaks of past walking and of avoiding evil first.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 37Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's thirty-seventh rule, that eager service according to one's means is acceptable to God even from women, with Rule 38 on simple hospitality toward the brothers, whose heading the scan lost.
Moralia 73.73.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's rule that wives must be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ, from Ephesians 5 and Titus 2.
Moralia 73.73.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's rule that women should be silent in church and learn at home, from 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2.
Commentary on Philippians 4.3Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Victorinus identifies Paul’s “true yokefellow” with Epaphroditus, asked to help Euodia and Syntyche, who labored with Paul and, in their measure, preached the gospel; all who spread faith in Christ are helpers whose names are in the book of life.
Oration 8.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia surpassed even Solomon's capable wife, especially in modesty and restraint of eye, laughter, ear, and tongue.
Oration 8.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory apostrophizes Gorgonia's asceticism, her purity after baptism, and her victory over the legacy of Eve, and turns to the rewards God gave her in this life.
Oration 18.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory contrasts Eve with his mother Nonna, who led her husband to piety while managing the household and giving generously to the poor.
Homilies 5.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil introduces the feast of the martyr Julitta: when a powerful man seized her property, he had her lawsuit barred unless she sacrificed and denied Christ.
Homilies 5.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Julitta went joyfully to the fire, encouraging women to equal men in piety; Basil then explains unceasing prayer as a life directed to God and thanksgiving even in bereavement.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:5–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Man and woman share one substance, but man, as woman's source and the image of the one God, should be unveiled, and woman, as man's glory, veiled.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:8–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The 'power' on a woman's head is the veil, and the 'angels' are bishops; the woman is to be veiled and silent before the bishop as Christ's vicar because transgression began through her.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Corinthians had let women go unveiled against Paul's tradition, so he now argues from nature.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:14–15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Nature gives women long hair as a sign that they should be veiled.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:34Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Women are to be silent in church, subject by Gen 3:16 because woman came from man and sin entered through her.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:35Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Women should ask their husbands at home rather than speak about the law in church, which would shame them and their husbands.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Women should pray in humble dress, not displaying wealth, and should learn in silence, subject to men and not teaching or exercising authority.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:13–15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Because the man was created first and the woman was deceived, she is to be humble; she will be saved through the birth of children reborn in faith, since the resurrection waits until all the predestined believe.
Commentary on Colossians 3:8–11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers must put off lesser sins too and put on the new man, renewed in the image of the Creator by good conduct, in which all races are one in Christ; Ambrosiaster distinguishes this image, shared by women, from the image of God in the first man, and digresses on the Scythians.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:22–24Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Wives are to be subject to husbands by natural law as the church to Christ, though the wife, unlike the church, shares her husband's nature.
Commentary on Romans 16:1–2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul commends Phoebe, minister of the church at Cenchreae, and greets Aquila and Priscilla, who risked their lives for him and taught Apollos, along with their household church, Epaenetus and Mary.
Question 21, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Man is God’s image because all humanity comes from one man as all things from one God; woman, made from man, is not the image of God, and so is veiled and does not teach.
Question 23, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Adam’s body was formed before it received a soul, which shows the order God follows; deriving the soul from either parent leads to absurdities.
Question 24, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Man and woman share one substance; the man is greater only in rank, because woman was taken from him.
Question 45, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The image of God cannot consist in dominion, since that would make the Son’s co-creators mere angelic powers and would make woman God’s image, which Ambrosiaster rejects since she has no authority.
Question 106, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster defines the image of God as the man’s rule as God’s representative, from whom all others descend, and so holds that the woman, made from the man, is not in God’s image though she shows his likeness.
Question 127, section 29Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God could not have condemned intercourse and then imposed it as punishment; the sentence rather restored the woman’s original subjection to her husband, with added pain.
Letter 65.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends writing to women by the many holy women of Scripture who taught, prophesied, or served.
Letter 127.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Marcella was the first noble Roman woman to take up the monastic life, learning of it from Athanasius and Peter of Alexandria; Jerome defends praising women.
Letter 127.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · When Jerome was in Rome, Marcella questioned him constantly about Scripture and became the judge of scriptural disputes after he left, though she always presented her answers as others'.
Letter 133.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome lists heresiarchs who were aided by women and warns that the same is happening now.
Letter 148.26Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer tells Celantia to honour her husband's authority, as Paul and Peter teach.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcionites let women baptize and celebrate the mysteries before catechumens.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.1.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Women among them are called prophetesses.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sect appeals to Eve, Miriam, and Philip's daughters to justify women clergy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sect has women bishops and presbyters, citing Galatians.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius answers the appeal to Eve with Genesis 3:16.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's teaching is cited against women holding church office.
On Paradise 24Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God took the man into paradise to work and keep it; the man made outside paradise proved better than the woman made inside, which teaches that virtue, not place, wins grace, and that none should presume on himself.
On Paradise 46Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Scripture did not call Adam alone good; only after the woman was made did God see all that he had made as very good.
On Paradise 48Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The woman was made from Adam's rib to show the one nature of the human race; she is a good helper in generation, like the earth that nourishes seed.
On Paradise 56Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The serpent twisted God's command, and the woman added "nor touch it"; nothing may be added to or taken from God's commands, and Ambrose thinks the fault began with the woman.
On Paradise 72Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Because Eve confessed, her sentence, to turn to and serve her husband, was mild and beneficial; it prefigures the church's service to Christ, and service in charity is a blessing.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Proverbs on the capable wife is completed; wives must not adorn themselves to attract others, since that leads to sin, but should please their husbands, veil in public and not paint their faces.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.6.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Women are not permitted to teach in the church.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.6.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ sent no women to preach though many followed him, so women are not to teach.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.9.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Women must not baptize.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.9.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Since man is the head of woman in the order of creation, the priesthood belongs to men.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.9.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Since women may not teach, still less may they be priests, a pagan custom.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.9.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ was baptized by John, not his mother, and sent no women to baptize.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A menstruating woman keeps the Spirit and should pray and receive the Eucharist.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · A woman who stops praying during her period invites the unclean spirit.
On the Christian Faith 5.5Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains Christ’s answer to the mother of James and John (Matt 20:23) as a gentle refusal out of love for a devoted mother, not as a sign that the Son lacks the Father’s power to give.
On not marrying again, section 4John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom answers the objection that a widow cannot manage her husband's affairs by arguing that God gave women the management of the household, and that a widow who remarries draws more reproach than one who disciplines her servants.
Canon 1Anonymous · 380 · Women are not to attend the reading meetings of men not their own or hold their own teaching meetings, as the Apostle commands.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 59Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Christ is head of the man and the man of the woman; prayer must be without anger; women should be adorned by conduct, not jewellery.
Eleven Tractates 1.34Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Jesus' name means salvation; against those who call God male-female, the Spirit of God is in men and women alike, who are all one in Christ.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.13Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Judith, risking life and chastity for her people, followed the honourable and so found the useful.
Letter 262.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that a wife may not dispose of her goods as she pleases, since she belongs to her husband, citing 1 Pet 3:5–6.
On Order 1.31Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · When Monica asks whether women appear in such discussions, Augustine defends her presence, noting that learned books include humble philosophers and that women philosophized among the ancients.
Homilies on Matthew 8.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Hos 11:1 is truly fulfilled in Christ, the natural Son, not in idolatrous Israel; Christ's stay in Egypt sanctified it, and now the Egyptian desert, once the home of sorcery, shines with monks and virgins, women contending as bravely as men.
Homilies on Matthew 17.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ extends the commandment against adultery to the lustful look, which kindles desire and leads to the deed, while permitting a chaste looking and love for one’s own wife; the warning applies equally to women who make themselves objects of desire.
Homilies on Matthew 30.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers the Pharisees and John’s disciples on fasting with gentleness, calling himself the bridegroom and sparing the weak disciples heavy commands; so too a husband should correct a wife fond of cosmetics little by little and gently.
Homilies on Matthew 31.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The ruler of the synagogue asks Christ to come and lay his hand on his dead daughter; on the way the woman with the flow of blood, ashamed of her uncleanness, is healed by touching his garment, and Christ brings her into the open for her sake and for the ruler’s.
Homilies on Matthew 44.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · True kinship with Christ, open to men and women alike, is to do the Father’s will, which is more than to have borne him; Christ then goes out and sits by the sea to teach the crowds in parables.
Homilies on Matthew 73.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christians who are temples of God become tombs when they harbor evil desires; Chrysostom rebukes men who come to church to gaze at women and boys, recalls that the partitions between men and women were added only later, and contrasts the women of the apostolic age with those of his own day.
Homilies on Matthew 80.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The woman who anointed Christ at Bethany, emboldened by his staying with a healed leper, came not for bodily healing but to honor him; he accepted her offering against the disciples’ objection, linked it to his burial, and foretold that it would be told throughout the world.
Homilies on Matthew 88.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The raising of the saints, the split rocks and the torn veil showed Christ’s power and wrath, and that the way into the true sanctuary was opening, while the centurion and the crowd were moved; the women who stayed to the end, and Joseph who dared to bury him in his own new tomb, show a courage the disciples lacked.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom says that even an incorrigible wife must not be cast out, explains Paul's teaching on marriage as a great mystery of Christ and the church, warns against marrying for money, and begins the story of Abraham's servant seeking a wife for Isaac.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:22-23Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains the wife's subjection to her husband by the image of Christ and the church, warns that a union not made according to Christ's precepts is adultery rather than marriage, and gives an allegorical reading of body and mind.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.18Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The lamprey who answers the viper's call teaches wives to bear with difficult husbands and keep faith during absence.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Psalm-singing suits every age and both sexes, women included.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.14.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Saying "blessed is the man" does not exclude women from blessedness.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.14.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Genesis shows that "man" includes the woman.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.14.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Man and woman share one nature, so their work and reward are equal.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.14.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Since the contest is of the soul, which has no sex, the reward is the same for both.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.14.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The man is named first because Eve, who fell first, broke the order of nature.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Work in paradise was the effortless guarding of happiness; the woman, made as man's helper and subject to him, is a figure of the soul's appetite, which reason must rule, and the naming of the animals shows reason's superiority.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · The woman's pains in childbirth figure the pain of breaking a bad habit, from which a good habit is born, and her turning to her husband figures the lower soul's readier obedience to reason; the apparent curses are commandments.
On True Religion 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine argues that even punishments are beautifully ordered, praises the beauty of a worm, and urges men and women alike to rule their desire, figured as a woman, under Christ their head.
Sermon 9.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine dwells on adultery because it is widespread: custom lets husbands sin with slave women while wives are prosecuted, but before God the sin is equal and husband and wife owe each other the same fidelity.
Sermon 9.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine strikes the fifth string, adultery: husbands who go to their slave women sin as wives would; a chaste wife keeps faith for Christ's sake even when her husband does not.
Sermon 9.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Men who say chastity is impossible are shamed by their chaste wives; custom laughs off husbands' sins with slave women while condemning other crimes, as though the man conquered by lust were the real man.
Sermon 51.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ was born of a woman, though he could have become man otherwise, so that neither sex should despair: through a woman came death, through a woman the Savior, and women first announced the resurrection.
Sermon 184.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every kind of person, men and women, the continent and virgins, the righteous, the sick, captives, slaves and free, has reason to rejoice at Christ's birth.
Sermon 190.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ has two births, divine and human; by being born a man of a woman he honored both sexes, since the serpent had ruined both through the woman.
Sermon 232.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The disciples did not believe the women who announced the resurrection, though Adam had believed Eve; through a woman came death, and through women the news of life.
Sermon 244.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sharpens the difficulty of “Do not touch me”: the disciples handled the risen Lord, and the women held his feet, before he ascended.
Sermon 280.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On the feast of Perpetua and Felicity Augustine praises the women whose strength of mind overcame their sex, and whose ladder to God trod on the serpent’s head.
Sermon 281.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Perpetua and Felicity, cleaving to Christ the one husband of the Church, received from him the strength by which women overthrew the devil who had overthrown man through a woman.
Sermon 282.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Though they were wives, and one a mother, Perpetua and Felicity withstood all the devil’s assaults by the strength of the inner man.
Sermon 282.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The day bears the women’s names, not the men’s, because their victory was the greater miracle, though the men too fought for perpetual felicity.
Homily 20.1 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom opens his homily on marriage by praising the God-made bond of husband and wife and explaining that wives are to be subject to their husbands as the body to the head.
Against Jovinianus 1.27Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's use of 1 Tim 2:13–15: the mother is saved if her children remain in faith and chastity, which Jerome takes as virginity.
Against Jovinianus 1.28Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Solomon's Proverbs against marriage, arguing that even a good wife is a risk and the love of woman insatiable.
Against Jovinianus 1.47Jerome · 393 · Jerome quotes at length Theophrastus's lost book On Marriage, arguing that a wise man should not marry.
Against Jovinianus 1.49Jerome · 393 · Jerome quotes Seneca's lost On Marriage on excessive love and on chastity as woman's chief virtue, and ends with pagan honor for the once-married.
Confessions 9.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica won her hot-tempered, unfaithful husband Patricius by patience and never quarreled with him.
On the Trinity 12.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Interpreting 1 Cor 11:7 with Gen 1:27, Augustine holds that woman as well as man is the image of God in the rational mind, where there is no sex, and reads the veil as a figure of reason directed to temporal things.
On the Work of Monks 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · In 1 Cor 9:1–5 Paul claims the apostles' right to be supported and to take along a believing woman to minister to them, which Augustine insists means a woman helper, not a wife.
On the Work of Monks 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Christ's purse held by Judas and the women who ministered to him show that preachers may be supported by the faithful, while Paul, like the Good Samaritan's extra outlay, gave more by working for his food.
On the Work of Monks 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Augustine rejects the claim that celibate monks are no longer men and so may wear long hair, explaining that the unveiled head of the man and the veiled head of the woman figure the mind ruling desire, while in the renewed mind there is no male or female.
On the Good of Marriage 14Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Some married people also think of the things of the Lord, as Peter's instructions to wives and husbands show, but such marriages are rare.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 3.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine rejects the view that only the soul was made on the sixth day, and holds that the woman, having the same rational mind, was also made in the image of God, though Paul calls only the man the image of God in a figurative sense.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine argues that work and companionship cannot be why woman was made, since a male would serve better; only procreation explains it.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The pains of childbirth are a literal punishment; the husband's rule existed before sin, but the servile form of that rule, like slavery itself, arose from sin.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam, being spiritual in mind, was not deceived by the serpent as the woman was; like Solomon with his wives, he sinned out of affection, unwilling to grieve his companion.
Dialogues 2.6Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · The wife of the emperor Maximus served Martin at table with her own hands; Gallus compares her to the queen of Sheba.
Dialogues 2.7Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Gallus answers that the circumstances excused the queen’s service, which happened once only; any who cite it must keep to every condition.
Dialogues 2.11Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A soldier turned monk wants his wife, now a nun, to live with him; Martin answers that no woman stands in the battle line, and that a woman’s victory is not to be seen.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those born of God are not born 'of bloods' or the will of the flesh or of a man; Augustine defends the translator's plural 'bloods' and reads 'flesh' as wife and 'spirit' as husband.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who delight in the festival are like the delirious; Augustine laments especially that some women have gone to it instead of to church, and invites his hearers to the sweeter banquet of God's word.
City of God 18.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine relates Varro's account of how Athens was named after Minerva by the women's vote, and how the women were punished to appease Neptune.
City of God 22.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against the view that all will rise male, Augustine holds that both sexes will rise, without lust, marriage, or childbearing, since woman is God's creature and Christ denied marriage, not women, in the resurrection.
Questions on Deuteronomy 33 (on Deut 22:13ff.)Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · On Deut 22:13–21 Augustine notes that a husband who falsely accuses his wife of not being a virgin is only fined and forbidden ever to put her away, not punished as other false witnesses are, which shows how subject to their husbands the law wished wives to be.
Sermon on the Barbarian Time 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Perpetua and Felicity, whose feast had just been kept, show that grace made women braver than men and undid Eve’s fall; their names, perpetual felicity, are the reward of all martyrs.
Part 2, chapter 38Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Zerubbabel’s saying that women and truth are strongest, and the deeds of Esther and Judith, who risked their lives to save their people and overthrew their enemies, figure the Church, which saves her children through the cross and the martyrs.