The abnormal character of the martyr periods makes them stand out from the general course of history. They are not evolutionary, except in the sense in which all events spring from causes, and all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, are part of a chain of circumstances. In the attitude of the Church towards women during religious persecutions, there are no features which are not characteristic of the attitude of the Church to the general body of the laity. During these periods differences of sex are obliterated. The perfervid zeal and fanaticism which inspired to persecution suspended all ordinary relations. It has also to be remembered that the martyr spirit was not the spirit of the general body of the people. The population was not divided into two parts, of which the larger were the persecuted and the smaller the persecutors. The mass held a neutral position, and displayed neither heroism nor bloodthirstiness. The martyrs and zealots were few compared with those who escaped notice altogether. The martyr periods certainly show what a much greater motive-power religion was than in more peaceful times, when other forces competed for mastery over the human mind; and they afford endless speculation to the student of mental and moral phenomena. As regards women, it is only in these times of religious upheaval that the Church recognized their perfect equality with men. There is nothing in the history of the persecutions that applies more particularly to women than to men. Both suffered alike, and displayed what seems to those who live in an age when all religions are tolerated, a fanatical devotion to forms of faith as well as the loftiest courage and fortitude. The persecutors made no distinction of sex. A woman, by reason of being a heretic or a Papist, as the case might be, was at once elevated to a position of unenviable distinction. In ordinary times neither the Roman nor the Protestant Church recognized an equality of rights between men and women. The Romanists kept women in subjection, and curtailed their liberty of action and thought; the Protestants checked their means of usefulness by neglect. But neither had power to damp religious zeal, and when the hour of peril came, women showed an unwavering spirit and a fearless independence.