trained to consider the worst forms of heathendom could have existed in Christian Europe, _upheld by both Church and State_ for more than a thousand five hundred years, will strike most people with incredulity. Such, however, is the truth; we can but admit well-attested facts of history, how severe a blow soever they strike our preconceived beliefs. "Marquette was claimed by the Lords Spiritual,* as well as by the Lords Temporal. _The Church indeed, was the bulwark of this base feudal claim_. With the power of penance and excommunication in its grasp, this demand could neither have originated nor been sustained unless sanctioned by the Church.... These customs of feudalism were the customs of Christianity during many centuries. (One of the Earls of Crawford, known as the 'Earl Brant,' in the _sixteenth_ century, was probably among the last who openly claimed by right the literal translation of _droit de Jambage_.) These infamous outrages upon woman were enforced under Christian law by both Church and State. * "In days to come people will be slow to believe that the law among _Christian nations went beyond anything decreed_ concerning the olden slavery; that it wrote down as an actual right the most grievous outrage that could ever wound _man's_ heart. The Lords Spiritual (clergy) had this right no less than the Lords Temporal. The _parson_, being a lord, _expressly claimed the first fruits of the bride, but was willing to sell_ his right to the husband. The Courts of Berne openly maintain that this right grew up naturally."-- Michelet, "La Sorcerie," p.62 "The degradation of the _husband_ at this infringement of the lord spiritual and temporal upon his marital right, has been pictured by many writers, but history has been quite silent upon the despair and shame of the wife. No hope appeared for woman anywhere. The Church.... dragged her to the lowest depths, through the vileness of its priestly customs.... We who talk of the burning of wives upon the funeral pyres of husbands in India, may well turn our eyes to the records of Christian countries."--Matilda Joslyn Gage in "Woman, Church, and State."