Mistresses, Concubines Quotes
This was a fairly radical constraint on what had been a traditional priestly prerogative throughout the ages. However, the penalty for such a sin and infraction was rather modest—a warning for the first offence, followed by reducing the cleric’s income. There were more serious punishments proscribed for repeated offenses, but typical of most reform efforts a newly prohibited activity carries a very light penalty. For example $20 fines for providing alcohol to a minor was the initial penalty in some states. A then current comparison can be made since elsewhere in this council dueling between Christians was also prohibited. But the penalty for even the first offence was excommunication.
The Greek culture was quite sexist. However, all cultures had observed strong women, some who ruled and others where wives or mistresses of rulers were very influential if not powerful.
Dwight and many other leading clergy and intellectuals of the day were horrified by the French Revolution, enlightenment liberalism and were paranoid about the "Illumnati" a secret society who were–according to the conspiracy theory–responsible for most wars and depressions in the world who would debauch American daughters. The Illuminati were secretly trying to take over the world's economic and political power structure. To this day, there are some who believe that the Illumnati today control the UN and major multinational corporations and are the New World Order. He believed that Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans were already instruments of the Illumnati. He repeated this theme in his election sermon 2 years later in 1798. See {18125}.
Strachey brought a critical judgment toward his historical material and combined it with an eloquent, acidic pen. In this case he was describing Pinyin Hong Xiuquan, 1814-1864, a radical revolutionist who claimed to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus whose movement caused over 20 million deaths. See {38318}.
Even though a strong feminist, note the Victorian concept of sex—namely that it is the man who does the seduction and the woman who is the passive victim. Also that the act of sex has somehow damaged a woman so that she needs “maintenance”. Modern feminists and non feminists, and our laws and culture, no longer look at sex as damage to a woman so the seduction, regardless of whether the male or the female is the seducer, is not a problem that needs compensation. It is only if children result, that there is male responsibility—not for the seduction but for taking his share of the responsibility for creating another human being that needs support. Also, most modern cultures do not see all sex as a seduction of one party be another—sex can be and often is the joint decision of consenting adults. In some cases females seduce males.
This was the first public outing of Thomas Jefferson’s sexual relationship with his slave Sally Hemmings.
