Note 1044 — Chapter VIII · RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE: THE CHURCH DEVELOPS AND ADMINISTERS MATRIMONIAL LAW
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The doctrine that woman was the cause of the "original sin" arose among the early fathers of the church, and it was well established by the time of Augustine. At the Council of Macon (585) the question, "Does woman possess a soul?" was seriously discussed. "Upon one side it was argued that woman should not be called 'homo;' upon the opposite side that she should, because, first, the Scriptures declared that God created man, male and female; second, that Jesus Christ, son of a woman, is called the son of man. Christian women were therefore allowed to remain human beings in the eyes of the clergy, even though considered very weak and bad ones."—Gage, Woman, Church, and State, 56.
Nevertheless for many this problem remained for centuries a topic for theological debate. In 1595 appeared Acidalius's Disputatio nova contra mulieres, qua probatur eas homines non esse. In the same year it was republished, with an answer, by Simon Geddicus under the common title, Disputatio perjucunda, qua anonymus probare nititur mulieres homines non esse: cui opposita est Simonis Geddici sacros. theologiae doctoris defensio sexus muliebris (editio novissima, Hagae-Comitis, 1644). At the end Simon writes: "Scriptum Halae Saxonum, 10. Februarii, Anno Filii Dei nati, Hominis veri, ex Maria Virgine, homine vera, 1595."
Still later (1667) Feyerabend, De privilegiis mulierum (3d ed., Jena, 1672), 2-5, starts with the inquiry, "an mulieres sint homines?"