ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women, if it is needed, is that they almost certainly constituted more than half the membership of the church during the third and fourth centuries and often played an important role in the spread of Christianity within families. Any sign of women usurping priestly prerogatives quickly resulted in condemnation by church authorities, though involvement in church life in certain strictly defined and subordinate capacities was allowed. The view that different, less stringent moral standards applied to men than women when it came to sexual behaviour was an ingrained feature of traditional Roman values and social practice. Although the need for writers and preachers to reiterate this point regularly shows that male behaviour was often resistant to change, the fact that the principle was championed remains a significant innovation from the point of view of women. Among the people, what women are not permitted to do applies equally to men both sexes serve on the same terms.
