0:00:05 > 0:00:10From the dawn of time, men and women have felt the need to worship.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14To make sense of life and what lies beyond.
0:00:15 > 0:00:20To find a purpose and to bring a shape to human existence.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Women have always been at the heart of our relationship with the divine.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29But this part of our history is often hidden.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34If you leave out Jesus and the Apostle Paul,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38it's perfectly possible to tell the story of early Christianity
0:00:38 > 0:00:42without ever mentioning a man.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45I think the wives of the Prophet would be quite shocked
0:00:45 > 0:00:48if they saw many Muslim-majority countries today.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52For thousands of years, all over the world,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56religion has shaped the lives of billions.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59This is why I want to go back,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03to uncover the remarkable and neglected stories
0:01:03 > 0:01:05of women and religion.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Their stories can unlock a secret history of the world.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13It's not the male God who created this universe. It's the female.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18I've been back to a world where fearsome goddesses
0:01:18 > 0:01:20had power over life and death.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Now, I'm travelling to a time
0:01:23 > 0:01:27when real women spoke directly with the gods.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31If you take women out of Greek religion, it's basically empty.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35When the fate of an empire depended on a woman's virginity.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41And I discover the true history of the first Christians.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46She's wearing a vestment that could only be worn by ordained priests.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48I'm going in search of a world
0:01:48 > 0:01:52where priestesses walked hand in hand with the divine.
0:02:05 > 0:02:11In Ancient Greece, there was a goddess of extraordinary power.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Aphrodite.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21We're used to thinking of Aphrodite
0:02:21 > 0:02:24as a kind of benign patron of romantic love,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28but for the Greeks, she was far more dark and dangerous.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37The mother of the gods, Gaia,
0:02:37 > 0:02:41had grown tired of having sex with her husband, the god of the sky.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48So, in cahoots with her son, she cut off his testicles.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51These were flung into the sea.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00From the seething waters, the goddess Aphrodite emerged.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10She was sex incarnate, with more than a whiff of danger.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20"Shimmering-throned, immortal Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23"enchantress, I implore thee, O goddess,
0:03:23 > 0:03:29"fulfil me in what I yearn to do. Be my ally in all things."
0:03:31 > 0:03:35These words are around 2,700 years old,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38sung by a female poet called Sappho.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44One of the rare images we have of her is from the 5th Century BC,
0:03:44 > 0:03:45200 years after her death.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52She's an elusive figure, but she's one of my heroines,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55because to know Sappho is to enter the charged world
0:03:55 > 0:03:59of worshipping Aphrodite.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08My Sappho trail starts, not in Greece,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12but in a hidden corner of a city here in Britain.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Throughout the ancient world,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25she was celebrated as one of its greatest poets.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29For centuries, Sappho's poems were lost,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32known only through broken lines
0:04:32 > 0:04:35reproduced in the works of classical writers.
0:04:35 > 0:04:36But today in Oxford,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39scholars are transforming our understanding of Sappho.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48I'm just about to take you somewhere that I really love.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52And I have to say that I'm genuinely excited to be here.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55I don't want to overstate the case, but I think what's hidden up here
0:04:55 > 0:04:59qualifies as the eighth wonder of the ancient world.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Just over 100 years ago,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10two young classicists from Oxford, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13came across an ancient rubbish dump
0:05:13 > 0:05:15in an Egyptian city called Oxyrhynchus.
0:05:17 > 0:05:23The rubbish was being used as organic fertiliser by local farmers.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28But Grenfell and Hunt knew that they had struck gold.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32They grabbed what they could and shipped it back to Oxford.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Now, when you look more closely at what they brought back,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43you can see just why this rubbish is so special.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46There were hundreds and hundreds of these tin boxes,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49and you can see when this one was packed.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51It was March 3rd, 1900.
0:05:51 > 0:05:57Underneath the packing paper here, we have the fragments themselves.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59And these are covered in words.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Here you've got Egyptian hieroglyphs and Coptic and Arabic
0:06:03 > 0:06:08and Latin, and lines and lines of Ancient Greek.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16This room holds a library of writing that had been lost
0:06:16 > 0:06:21for close on 2,000 years from all over Asia Minor, North Africa
0:06:21 > 0:06:23and the eastern Mediterranean.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Among the finds being discovered here
0:06:27 > 0:06:31are fragments of Sappho's lost poetry.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Dirk Obbink is in charge of translating this vast archive.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Rumour has it, you think you might have come across
0:06:38 > 0:06:41a new fragment of the poet, Sappho.
0:06:41 > 0:06:48Er, yes. This is it, or possibly a new fragment of Sappho.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50It's actually very damaged, isn't it?
0:06:50 > 0:06:52Yes, it's the just the ends of the lines of a poem.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56You can see them here. They have uneven endings.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58And what makes you think this might be Sappho?
0:06:58 > 0:07:01What characteristics has it got?
0:07:01 > 0:07:03It's set out in the form of lyric poems
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and it contains some of the language that Sappho uses elsewhere.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08You can see them here.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14That means flourishing or delighting or revelling
0:07:14 > 0:07:17in beautiful, bright, shiny, nice things.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20And then the reference to dancing.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22I know that sounds a bit tentative,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25but that's how the other fragments were built up,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28out of jigsaw-like puzzle pieces.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30So it's a cumulative process.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35One of the reasons Sappho survives in fragmentary form
0:07:35 > 0:07:40is that across time her work was censored, destroyed,
0:07:40 > 0:07:42considered too hot to handle.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50Her sacred poetry opens up a sensuous, remarkable world.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57To experience this for myself,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01I'm tracing the journey that young girls across the Mediterranean
0:08:01 > 0:08:06made 2,700 years ago to study under Sappho on her island home.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26I should probably admit that I'm a bit of a Sappho addict.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29It's not just because her poems are fragmentary,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33and so it's genuinely exciting when any new lines are found.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37It's also because she writes so lusciously, so exquisitely,
0:08:37 > 0:08:42both about the Greek landscape and about what it is to be human.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45She describes winds caressing soft bodies...
0:08:49 > 0:08:53And, actually, she's the first ever to describe love as bittersweet,
0:08:53 > 0:08:57although she's more accurate, and she talks about it as being sweet
0:08:57 > 0:08:59and then bitter.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07"When I look at you even a moment, I can't speak.
0:09:07 > 0:09:13"My tongue snaps and subtle fire races under my skin."
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Thousands of years after these lines were composed,
0:09:16 > 0:09:18Sappho's legacy lives on.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25It's because of her that we have the words "Sapphic" and "lesbian",
0:09:25 > 0:09:28meaning women's love of women,
0:09:28 > 0:09:33because many of Sappho's poems are addressed to women and girls.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36But, for me, Sappho means so much more.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41She offers a window on to a mysterious world.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43What you have to remember about Ancient Greece
0:09:43 > 0:09:47is that there was no separate word for religion.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52There were gods and goddesses everywhere and in everything -
0:09:52 > 0:09:56in every breath of wind, around every corner -
0:09:56 > 0:10:00and so keeping that supernatural world on-side
0:10:00 > 0:10:02was an immensely important job.
0:10:10 > 0:10:16Sappho reveals how even falling in love was an act of the gods.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23The deity who presided over love was Aphrodite,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26along with her tricky consort, Eros.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34And this holds the key to understanding who Sappho really was.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39Women were believed to be primal creatures,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43closely connected to the elemental, life-giving forces of the earth,
0:10:43 > 0:10:49and so Sappho was well-placed to interpret the will of Aphrodite.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59It seems that through reciting her poetry with young girls,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Sappho was fulfilling the role of a priestess.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10'Edith Hall studies the lives of the women of Ancient Greece
0:11:10 > 0:11:14'and her research suggests that Sappho was more than simply a poet.'
0:11:14 > 0:11:18We don't know whether she actually ran something like a school
0:11:18 > 0:11:22or whether it was more that she was in charge of rituals at a temple,
0:11:22 > 0:11:26but almost all the poems we've got any substance of,
0:11:26 > 0:11:30any kind of length of, are actually hymns to Aphrodite
0:11:30 > 0:11:33and they're actually ones where they're asking Aphrodite
0:11:33 > 0:11:36to come into the presence of her and other young women.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40So we know that those are designed to be performed in temples,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43which makes it highly likely that she is some kind of priestess.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46Why is it important for people on earth
0:11:46 > 0:11:48to understand Aphrodite's power?
0:11:48 > 0:11:51Well, the Greeks were just a lot less hypocritical than we are
0:11:51 > 0:11:54and they divided up their female gods,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57so when you wanted to attract a lover
0:11:57 > 0:12:00and asked her to give you special allure, you went to Aphrodite.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Women do seem to have this kind of special relationship with the divine.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Why is that? What do you think is going on here?
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Women were certainly seen as being much more in touch with the physical self,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16with giving birth and life and with dying.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Women have a particularly close relationship with Aphrodite.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22In many temple cults, we know there were lots of women servants.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25But there's something about Aphrodite
0:12:25 > 0:12:29which means that women were absolutely regarded as symbolising sex.
0:12:36 > 0:12:42Through her sensuous poetry, Sappho was performing a vital role -
0:12:42 > 0:12:45educating young women about the world ahead of them
0:12:45 > 0:12:48and about the charged power of love.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57In Sappho's day, poetry wasn't written down, but recited,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00accompanied by a lyre and dancing.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05And today, in Sappho's birthplace, the ghosts of these rituals survive.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Local girls are taught the very steps
0:13:11 > 0:13:14their ancestors would have learnt, close on 3,000 years ago.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21Sappho's sacred poetry seemed to give women a sense of themselves,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25but Ancient Greece was no feminist paradise.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29Women knew their place,
0:13:29 > 0:13:34as was all too apparent 200 years after Sappho
0:13:34 > 0:13:40in the city that gave birth to one of the greatest political experiments of human civilisation.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16You could argue that what happened here in Greece
0:14:16 > 0:14:20gave us the building blocks for Western civilisation -
0:14:20 > 0:14:23a belief in democracy, a belief in freedom of speech
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and a fixed and firm notion
0:14:25 > 0:14:29that women were very definitely second-class citizens.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Women were often not allowed out during daylight hours.
0:14:39 > 0:14:45Some had their faces completely veiled, few were educated
0:14:45 > 0:14:48and a woman's most celebrated virtue was her silence.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56One popular saying by the poet Semonides described,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59"Her man couldn't stop his wife barking,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03"even after he'd knocked her teeth out with a stone."
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Most histories lionise the glorious achievements of Athens' men.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16But by focusing just on the obvious triumphs, conquests in war
0:15:16 > 0:15:21and monumental buildings, a truer, richer picture is missed.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Up on the sacred Acropolis rock,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29most tourists head straight for the Parthenon,
0:15:29 > 0:15:35ignoring an overgrown corner that was once home to a group of young girls,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38tasked to serve the Athenian state.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42I've come here with historian Judy Barringer.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46This was the location where the Arrephoroi lived.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50These are young girls who were between the ages of seven and 11,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54who lived here on the Acropolis for a period of time -
0:15:54 > 0:15:56about nine months -
0:15:56 > 0:15:59and there were two to four of these girls.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02And these were from elite, aristocratic families.
0:16:04 > 0:16:05On the brink of puberty,
0:16:05 > 0:16:11these young girls were here to enact a mysterious religious ceremony.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16They had to leave from the Acropolis with some baskets on their heads
0:16:16 > 0:16:19and in these baskets were unseen things,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21things they were forbidden to look at.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26And they had to take them down a staircase to a place near,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29or in, a shrine of Aphrodite in the gardens.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31These are the steps they'd have used?
0:16:31 > 0:16:34These are the very steps they'd walk down. They'd go down here.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Well, as a mum, my heart goes out to these little girls.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40because we're not going to dare go down those steps,
0:16:40 > 0:16:44- which are pretty steep, and they were doing it, on their own, at night...- Yes, it's at night.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Walking down here with their baskets of mysterious goods.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52Which they can't drop and they're not supposed to look into.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56What we hear from ancient sources is what was in the baskets
0:16:56 > 0:17:00were clay models of either fruits or snakes,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04or phalluses, genitalia, or all three.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08And so these were really sacred objects, important things.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13If you say they're walking down here to the shrine of Aphrodite,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17there must be something sexual going on here as well.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Because they're on the cusp of puberty, aren't they,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22if they're kind of up to age 11, 12?
0:17:22 > 0:17:24Girls married very young in antiquity.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27We think as soon as they had passed puberty,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31as soon as they were menstruating and ready to bear children,
0:17:31 > 0:17:32they would be married.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Many scholars have seen this as moving from the realm of Athena,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38here on the surface of the Acropolis, down the staircase
0:17:38 > 0:17:44to a shrine of Aphrodite, that is moving from virginity to sexual love
0:17:44 > 0:17:48or preparation for marriage and motherhood, eventually.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51And if it's a rite of passage to marriage,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55then it's extremely important in terms of symbolic fertility.
0:18:03 > 0:18:09These girls were enacting a ritual to safeguard the fertility of the whole society.
0:18:10 > 0:18:15What was at stake was nothing less than the survival of the Athenians themselves.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20Religion gave these young women a vital role.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25And they weren't alone.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30All over Athens, women served as priestesses.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35They were physically the keepers of the keys of huge temples,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39personally wealthy, and their voices, even in the male-only,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42democratic assembly, could be heard.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Religion made them matter.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51In a world which treated women as worthless,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54priestesses enjoyed high status.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Life's quite tough for women,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00so do you think this is kind of one moment
0:19:00 > 0:19:03where it becomes more bearable and more than that,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05where they really do have some kind of power and control?
0:19:05 > 0:19:09They certainly do have power and control in religion.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12If you take women out of Greek religion, it's basically empty.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15They are really central in virtually every aspect of Greek religion,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19from ritual to the goddesses themselves.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28My next destination is a place where a group of women
0:19:28 > 0:19:33were considered so sacred, the fate of a civilisation depended on them.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50The Romans aped Greek art, Greek ideas, Greek gods.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52Aphrodite became Venus.
0:19:54 > 0:19:55Zeus, Jupiter.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00Rome did everything Greece did to the power of X.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Mighty Rome also permitted the influence of women in the religious sphere
0:20:07 > 0:20:11and one story in particular reveals an intriguing insight
0:20:11 > 0:20:14into how Rome viewed its women.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27The Roman Forum was once the political and religious centre of the Eternal City.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33Here, right in the heart of ancient Rome,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35there was a religious institution
0:20:35 > 0:20:39that the Romans believed pre-dated even Romulus and Remus.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Its initiates were thought to be responsible
0:20:42 > 0:20:44for the security of the city itself.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48And each and every one of them was a woman.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55Their cult was said to have lasted for over 1,000 years.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01They were six priestesses, known as the Vestal Virgins.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10The criteria for becoming a Vestal was very strict.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13Only prime specimens would pass the test.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25The highest-ranking priest in Rome, the Pontifex Maximus,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28selected the girls between the ages of six and ten.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32They had to be of noble birth, both their parents had to be alive
0:21:32 > 0:21:37and they had to be free of any kind of mental or physical deformity.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41But the key condition that they had to agree to
0:21:41 > 0:21:46for at least the next 30 years was to remain virgins.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54And every day of their service,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57each of the girls was to wear a wedding dress.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01Free from any male guardianship,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04they became the brides of Rome itself.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09To find out about their extraordinary lives,
0:22:09 > 0:22:14I've come to the remains of the extremely grand villa where the Vestals once lived
0:22:14 > 0:22:18to meet Corey Brennan from the American Academy in Rome.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22In a weird way, the individual Vestals were the embodiment of the Roman state
0:22:22 > 0:22:25and they had no family. They were totally on their own.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28This was unique for women. No-one owned them.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31But, on the other hand, all eyes were on them, as well.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35And how far would these lives bear any relation
0:22:35 > 0:22:38to the lives of ordinary women in Rome?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41For ordinary women, there could not be more of a gulf.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45If you were going to a gladiatorial game at the Coliseum,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49where you would see the Vestal Virgins is in the front rows.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Where the other women would be would be at the top tier,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55in the nosebleed section with the slaves.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59So there's an enormous, enormous gap between the Vestal Virgins
0:22:59 > 0:23:01and ordinary women.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Right next to the house of the Vestals
0:23:09 > 0:23:11was the temple of the goddess they served.
0:23:11 > 0:23:12Her name was Vesta,
0:23:12 > 0:23:17and she was the deity in charge of the hearth and of fire.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21And the single most important duty of the Vestals
0:23:21 > 0:23:24was to keep her sacred fire alive.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33The Romans believed that if the sacred fire kept burning,
0:23:33 > 0:23:34then Rome would survive.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39And the fire of Rome holds the key
0:23:39 > 0:23:42to why the Vestals had to be virgins.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Why was this virginity so important?
0:23:46 > 0:23:50I mean, for the people of Rome, what did their virginity represent?
0:23:50 > 0:23:55The virginity goes part and parcel with a larger idea of perfection.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00Their purity resembled, or mirrored, the purity of the flame itself.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05They have to remain virgins, in a way,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08because they really had to keep the fire going at all times.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Any distraction whatsoever from this very important work
0:24:12 > 0:24:14was too great to risk.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17So the whole idea of having sexual liaisons
0:24:17 > 0:24:20or really any sort of non-prescribed activity,
0:24:20 > 0:24:24all of this was a danger to the flame that represented a continuity
0:24:24 > 0:24:26and safety of the Roman state.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The Vestals' virginity, their capacity to create life,
0:24:32 > 0:24:38stored and held back, was the potent force which fuelled Vesta's flame.
0:24:38 > 0:24:43The Vestals, arguably, had the most important job in Rome.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47But status came at a price.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50They lived on a knife-edge.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59For the crime of allowing the fire to go out,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02a Vestal would be taken to a dark room by the Pontifex Maximus,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05where she'd be stripped and beaten.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16But there is another crime that carried an even greater punishment.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18If the Vestals lost their virginity,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21then they were no longer able to protect Rome,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and that deserved more than just a beating.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Ancient historians Cicero and Asconius tell us
0:25:36 > 0:25:44that in 114 BC, not one, but three Vestals were accused of the crime of incestum -
0:25:44 > 0:25:46losing their precious virginity.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54Their names were Marcia, Aemelia and Licinia.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01A slave who worked for the Vestals
0:26:01 > 0:26:03let slip that the three were no longer virgins.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Marcia, he said, had taken just one lover.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08But the other two had slept with many men,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11including one another's brothers.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14There were even rumours of group sex.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21But it was only Marcia who was found guilty and condemned to death.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27And the way she was killed is the stuff of nightmares.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36To harm a Vestal was to threaten the very existence of Rome...
0:26:38 > 0:26:42..and so an elaborate, chilling method of disposal was devised
0:26:42 > 0:26:46to free the city and its occupants from blame.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Marcia was dressed in her funerary clothes
0:27:00 > 0:27:02and her hands and her feet were bound.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06She was put into a sedan chair and carried through the streets of Rome
0:27:06 > 0:27:11with family and priests either side, as if they were going to her burial.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14But, of course, at this point, Marcia was still alive.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21After being paraded before the citizens of Rome,
0:27:21 > 0:27:26the funeral procession arrived at the entrance to an underground tomb.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36With her hands still tied, the Pontifex Maximus himself led her in.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40When she reached the ladder at the entrance to the tomb,
0:27:40 > 0:27:42all the priests present turned their back on her.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Once she reached the bottom, the ladder was taken away
0:27:56 > 0:27:58and the entrance to the tomb was sealed.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09She was left on her own with a lighted lamp, her blankets,
0:28:09 > 0:28:13a little bit of water and some bread, milk and oil.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Marcia was left to face her fate alone.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29Some say the food was left as a gift for the goddess, Vesta,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32or as a final act of kindness.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34But, actually, it was just a pretence.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37It was a way the Romans could convince themselves
0:28:37 > 0:28:41that they didn't have the blood of a Vestal on their hands.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43Whereas, in fact, of course,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46they'd left her to a lonely, lingering death.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05One of the sad facts of life, or sad facts of death in this case,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08is that the execution of Vestals lines up pretty closely
0:29:08 > 0:29:10with Rome's great military disasters.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Roman forces lose in the field, something horrible must have happened
0:29:14 > 0:29:18in the relationship between the Roman Empire and the gods.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20And so who's to blame?
0:29:21 > 0:29:25Vestals were the first folks to get fingers pointed at them.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29They were scapegoating, for want of a better word.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47You could argue that the sacred nature of the Vestals' lives
0:29:47 > 0:29:50paid them the ultimate honour,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53but their story's also a gruesome example
0:29:53 > 0:29:59of how controlling and brutal ideas about a woman's sexuality could be.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02These women may have carried the fate of Rome in their hands,
0:30:02 > 0:30:06but men still held their lives by a thread.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18In Ancient Rome, religion gave a select group of women
0:30:18 > 0:30:21a key role as priestesses...
0:30:22 > 0:30:24..at the price of their freedom.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28But a new faith was about to appear,
0:30:28 > 0:30:34which would offer all female followers a radically new lifestyle.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47By the fourth century AD, Christianity would become
0:30:47 > 0:30:49the official religion of the Roman Empire.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57Unlike the religions of Ancient Greece and Rome,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01there was room for only one deity in this new faith,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04and He was very definitely male.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13There's long been an underlying assumption
0:31:13 > 0:31:16that to be a true representative of the Christian God,
0:31:16 > 0:31:18you really need to be a man.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23In the Church of England and across the world,
0:31:23 > 0:31:28the issue of whether women should be bishops has caused turmoil,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32and most Catholics believe that women shouldn't even be priests.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38Amongst them is Catholic writer and broadcaster Joanna Bogle.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42God became incarnate as a man. That's not an accident.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Christ was born and grew up in a world
0:31:45 > 0:31:47where every religion had priestesses.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49He knew what he was doing. He's Almighty God.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52This was the plan from the beginning, that men would be priests.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Priests are there to serve the Church,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58but it's not a question of allowing women to be priests.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01It's in the nature of woman that she has another task to do.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05So God loves you, He just doesn't want you to give the sacred Eucharist?
0:32:05 > 0:32:09I could if I needed to distribute Holy Communion, but no.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12A priest in the person of Christ, who was male,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15will preside saying, "This is my body".
0:32:15 > 0:32:17And I think that's very profound.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19So you think for the future of the Church,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22it's entirely appropriate that there are no female priests,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24there are no female bishops?
0:32:24 > 0:32:27It's not that we MAY not, we CANNOT have them.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30That's a bit like saying, "What a pity men can't give birth."
0:32:30 > 0:32:35There are not going to be, there cannot be women priests.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39It's not in the nature of womanhood. That's the deal.
0:32:39 > 0:32:40That's the deal.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50I have to admit that I find Joanna's position hard to accept.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54But she reflects the views of no lesser an authority
0:32:54 > 0:32:55than the Pope himself.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05In 2010, the Vatican declared that to ordain a woman was a serious crime.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Now that seems to me to be very shocking,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11but, also as a historian, it's just rather odd,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14because if you investigate the foundations of Christianity,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17they tell a very different story.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25I'm going to travel back to those crucial first few centuries.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30To the time when this new faith was merely a splinter group
0:33:30 > 0:33:33from the existing religion of Judaism.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43The new movement, the Christ cult,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47had a vigorous champion, the convert, Paul.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50It was Paul who took this fledgling Jewish movement
0:33:50 > 0:33:52and opened it up to non-Jews.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55He made it his mission to spread the new faith
0:33:55 > 0:33:59right across the Roman Empire and, as he did so,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02he carried with him one particular message
0:34:02 > 0:34:04that had huge impact in its time,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07but is often underplayed or forgotten today.
0:34:10 > 0:34:16I'm heading to one of the places where this message was first declared.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27The ancient Greek city of Corinth once had a bustling port
0:34:27 > 0:34:30and was one of the main hubs of the Roman Empire.
0:34:30 > 0:34:35It was to the people of Corinth that Paul directed his most famous teachings -
0:34:35 > 0:34:39what would become crucial passages in the New Testament.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45His first letter to the Corinthians contains some troubling lines.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49"What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that time is short.
0:34:49 > 0:34:54"For this world in its present form is passing away."
0:34:54 > 0:34:58Paul's message was stark and unforgettable.
0:34:58 > 0:35:04What he was saying was that soon, the world was going to end.
0:35:11 > 0:35:17The early followers of Christ were told that they were living in the end of days.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25And so for them, earthly matters were no longer a concern.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31What this meant for women was nothing short of remarkable.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42There's an early Christian text that you won't find anywhere in the Bible,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45but that is a vital bit of historical evidence.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49It's called the Acts of Paul and Thecla.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53Scholars believe this text was written in the second century AD.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59Later Church leaders decided that the contents
0:35:59 > 0:36:04of this Christian narrative were not suitable for the Bible.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06It describes how one day in the first century AD,
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Paul was preaching to a group of people in a town called Iconium,
0:36:11 > 0:36:13in what's now modern-day Turkey.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19The key character of our story wasn't allowed out onto the streets,
0:36:19 > 0:36:23so we find her eavesdropping at the window of a nearby house.
0:36:23 > 0:36:29She was a young girl, only around 13 or so, and her name was Thecla.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35Thecla was betrothed to a man called Thamyris,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38but she was about to do something radical.
0:36:38 > 0:36:43Thecla listened intently while Paul dropped his bombshell.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46"Forget the traditions of the past" he said.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51"Give up your ideas of marriage and children, because the end is nigh."
0:36:54 > 0:36:58For three days and nights, she sat transfixed at her window,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00absorbing everything she heard.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05And then she committed the ultimate act of rebellion.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08She hurried through the house to break the news to her mother.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10She wasn't going to marry.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Instead, she was going to stay a virgin.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18She would leave home and follow Paul and his incendiary words.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25Thecla's mother was, of course, horrified.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29This broke with centuries, if not millennia, of tradition.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33And you can gauge the scale of her outrage from her reaction.
0:37:33 > 0:37:38We're told that she cried out, "Burn the lawless one!
0:37:38 > 0:37:41"Burn her that is no bride,
0:37:41 > 0:37:46"so that all the women who've been taught by this man may be afraid."
0:37:53 > 0:37:55Thecla ran.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59She hit the road with Paul.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06With her hair cut short and wearing boys' clothes,
0:38:06 > 0:38:08she travelled with him everywhere.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15She abandoned everything she'd known for this new religion.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20What can the Acts of Paul and Thecla tell us
0:38:20 > 0:38:23about the role of women at the beginning of Christianity?
0:38:30 > 0:38:35To find out, I've come to one of the premiere cities in the ancient world
0:38:36 > 0:38:39A place visited by Paul.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47'I think Thecla was really an image
0:38:47 > 0:38:52'of what it was to really listen to the word of God.'
0:38:54 > 0:38:59Kate Cooper is a leading authority on the role of women in the early Church.
0:39:01 > 0:39:07The thing is, ancient people are burdened by the need
0:39:07 > 0:39:11to constantly be worrying about keeping the birth rate up,
0:39:11 > 0:39:15so every generation has got to reproduce itself,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18and in that sense, the idea that the world is ending,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22and that you don't HAVE to keep the population up,
0:39:22 > 0:39:27opens a whole horizon of liberated energy
0:39:27 > 0:39:30- for people to think about other things.- Amazing.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34So they don't have the pressure to bear children the whole time?
0:39:34 > 0:39:37Exactly! And think about how that influences women's positions.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41What does that mean for the ordinary Christian woman
0:39:41 > 0:39:44on the street in the first or second century AD?
0:39:44 > 0:39:47Well, one of the things that's really interesting
0:39:47 > 0:39:51is there's a lot of evidence that women played a different kind of role
0:39:51 > 0:39:53in the early Christian communities.
0:39:53 > 0:40:00That they were seen as equal sharers in the job of preaching and teaching.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03In a way, it offered them a kind of opportunity
0:40:03 > 0:40:06that may not have been available to them
0:40:06 > 0:40:08in other religious communities.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14Without the pressure to have sex, women's lives were transformed.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19Now they could be guardians, not just of sexual, but of divine love.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Of course, Paul was wrong about the Apocalypse.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25The world didn't end,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28and Christians quietly abandoned the belief that it would.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Women instead started to look to the future,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38hosting prayer meetings in their homes
0:40:38 > 0:40:41and financially supporting the new movement.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44In the first two centuries of Christianity,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48at least 50% of the churches in Rome were founded by women.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52And although we're now used to Christian worship
0:40:52 > 0:40:55being led by male priests and bishops,
0:40:55 > 0:40:59there's evidence to suggest the picture was once very different.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20Hidden beneath the streets of Rome lies an intricate labyrinth of tunnels,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22known as the Catacombs of St Priscilla.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30They date to between the second and fourth centuries AD,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34when to be a Christian in Rome was to be a criminal.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43Down here lies a neglected piece of early Christian history.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48This is where Christians were brought to be buried
0:41:48 > 0:41:51and where they came when they were being persecuted.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58The catacombs were carved out of the bare rock.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03You can still see all the pickaxe marks on the ceilings and the walls.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06It's almost as if you're being transported back
0:42:06 > 0:42:09to the very moment of Christianity's inception.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16This was only discovered a few years ago,
0:42:16 > 0:42:18and it dates from the second century AD,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22which makes it the oldest surviving image anywhere in the world
0:42:22 > 0:42:25of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27And that's what's so fantastic about coming down here,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30because you're absolutely up, face to face,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33with the very earliest days of Christianity.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41But what I find especially fascinating about these tunnels
0:42:41 > 0:42:44is what they tell us about the role of women.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49In one corner, we find an image detailing what appears to be
0:42:49 > 0:42:52women presiding over a religious ritual,
0:42:52 > 0:42:57what today we might recognise as the Eucharist or Holy Communion.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01In another alcove
0:43:01 > 0:43:05is an image which some people would consider incendiary.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10There are two things that strike you about this particular painting.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15The obvious one is that the scene is dominated by a figure of a woman.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19But then just have a look at this little group of three in the corner.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21There's a bishop,
0:43:21 > 0:43:24and he's got his hand on the shoulder of a woman.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Now, she's wearing a piece of white cloth called an alb
0:43:28 > 0:43:33and that was a vestment that could only be worn by ordained priests.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40All over this subterranean world there are images
0:43:40 > 0:43:44of not just men leading worship, but women.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49Being here, it appears to me
0:43:49 > 0:43:52that the early Christians had an inclusive, egalitarian take
0:43:52 > 0:43:55on who should lead their faith.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00A view at odds with that of many Christians today.
0:44:02 > 0:44:08Questo e il mio corpo offerto in sacrificio per voi.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15Father Scott Brodeur is a Catholic priest and respected theologian
0:44:15 > 0:44:19at the prestigious Gregorian University in Rome.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23He prepares men for the priesthood.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27He believes that key evidence
0:44:27 > 0:44:30about the role women should play in the Church
0:44:30 > 0:44:33can be found in the Bible itself,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37in a letter St Paul wrote to the citizens of Rome.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42And what he has to say may come as a surprise to some.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45St Paul in... May I read this verse?
0:44:45 > 0:44:49..in the Letter To The Romans, Chapter 16, Verse 1,
0:44:49 > 0:44:51St Paul is writing, of course, and he says,
0:44:51 > 0:44:56"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchrea."
0:44:56 > 0:45:01And Paul, by sending her to Rome, is saying,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05"Look at this extraordinary woman and I'm sending you one of our best
0:45:05 > 0:45:07"and because I trust her,
0:45:07 > 0:45:10"she's going to interpret this letter for you.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14"So if you have any questions, ask Phoebe."
0:45:14 > 0:45:17It is significant that, because that's pretty much
0:45:17 > 0:45:19the most important job that you can give someone -
0:45:19 > 0:45:22to ask Phoebe to take the teachings of Christ,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26the message of Jesus, to Rome, to the centre of the Roman world.
0:45:26 > 0:45:32Absolutely. Paul is so aware of the importance of this letter.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34So she has a crucial role.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38So do you think he's consciously making a point by choosing a woman?
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Absolutely. The entire Letter To The Romans is about
0:45:42 > 0:45:45that there is now this common equality among us,
0:45:45 > 0:45:47that we all share the same value and worth.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55It's interesting though, isn't it?
0:45:55 > 0:45:58It's not the commonly held opinion. When you talk to people, they say,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02"Oh, you know, Christianity just caused terrible problems for women."
0:46:02 > 0:46:06Precisely. Or that St Paul was very much anti-women or so forth,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08but nothing could be further from the truth.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Women were essential in the early Church.
0:46:14 > 0:46:15Even the Bible itself suggests
0:46:15 > 0:46:19that in the first few centuries of Christianity,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22women played similar roles to men.
0:46:23 > 0:46:29But there were clearly some who were troubled by this state of affairs.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Evidence of a centuries-old struggle
0:46:37 > 0:46:41can be found in the church of Santa Prassede.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53In a side chapel here, which is normally very dark,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56there's a tantalising bit of evidence.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02On this mosaic, you've got images of four women.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05There's the Virgin Mary, very obviously, in the middle there
0:47:05 > 0:47:07and on either side of her there are two saints.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10But then this woman on the left is really intriguing.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14She's been given this strange blue halo,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18which tells us she was actually alive when the mosaic was made.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22And her title is written above - Episcopa.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Now, Episcopa is the female version of Episcopus,
0:47:25 > 0:47:27the Latin for a bishop.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29Look at her name, though, down the side.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33She's obviously a woman, so she'd be called Theodora,
0:47:33 > 0:47:37but somebody's tampered with the mosaic.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39They've put some new gold mosaic at the end,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42so she's no longer "Theodora", but "Theodo",
0:47:42 > 0:47:44so she could almost be a man.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50It's almost as if somebody is trying to pretend
0:47:50 > 0:47:53there were no female bishops here in Rome.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59Time and time again, we find that women
0:47:59 > 0:48:02are not properly represented in Christianity's history.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06The story of Thecla isn't found in the Bible.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10The evidence from the catacombs
0:48:10 > 0:48:14of women leading worship is disregarded.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16And there are no churches or cathedrals
0:48:16 > 0:48:20dedicated to female priests or bishops.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24If women were once so crucial, when did it all go wrong?
0:48:44 > 0:48:47Christianity may have begun by championing women,
0:48:47 > 0:48:50but not everyone was happy with this situation.
0:48:50 > 0:48:55Many eminent theologians were deeply uncomfortable
0:48:55 > 0:48:58with women taking such a prominent position.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02How dare women presume they could play a leading role
0:49:02 > 0:49:06when their very essence was an affront to God?
0:49:06 > 0:49:08One Christian, Clement of Alexandria,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10wrote in the 3rd Century AD,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13"The very consciousness of their own nature
0:49:13 > 0:49:15"must evoke feelings of shame."
0:49:15 > 0:49:19And another said that women were not created in God's image,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24but instead they destroyed God's image.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29But there would be one man
0:49:29 > 0:49:32whose glittering intellect and powers of persuasion
0:49:32 > 0:49:36would make this hotchpotch of women-hating bile stick.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53I've come to the place where, for him, it all started.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15Beneath Milan's cathedral lie the ruins of a 4th-century baptistry.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20It's where people once came to be baptised into the Christian faith.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26What happened here was perhaps
0:50:26 > 0:50:29one of the most critical developments in Christian history.
0:50:30 > 0:50:36Here, in 387 AD, a man called Augustine became a Christian.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40And he'd go on to be one of the most brilliant
0:50:40 > 0:50:42Christian theologians of all time,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46but his attitudes would cause trouble for women
0:50:46 > 0:50:49for the next 1,700 years.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57We know an awful lot about Augustine's life,
0:50:57 > 0:51:01thanks to his detailed autobiography, his Confessions.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Augustine tells us that in his younger days,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21he was obsessed with sex and that, as a teenager,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25he spent every waking hour hungry with desire.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30"To love and to be loved was sweet to me,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33"particularly when I enjoyed the body of the one I desired.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36"And so I polluted the spring of friendship
0:51:36 > 0:51:40"with the filth of concupiscence and I dimmed its lustre
0:51:40 > 0:51:43"with the slime of lust."
0:51:47 > 0:51:49But after becoming a Christian,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53Augustine embraced a life of celibacy.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56His preoccupation with sex, however, was far from over.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00He'd go on to develop a theory
0:52:00 > 0:52:03which would shape how humanity viewed itself.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06It was a theory so powerful,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09we're still living with its consequences today.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Augustine developed the concept of original sin.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16He believed that the crimes committed by Adam and Eve
0:52:16 > 0:52:19in the Garden of Eden, when they ate the forbidden fruit,
0:52:19 > 0:52:22would be perpetuated down the generations,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25thanks to the act of sex.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27In other words, when any of us are born,
0:52:27 > 0:52:34we're already creatures infused with sin to the very core of our being.
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Women, in particular, come out of this very badly.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Carved into the wall of Milan's cathedral
0:52:46 > 0:52:48is the moment when Augustine believed
0:52:48 > 0:52:50it all went wrong for humanity.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55It was Eve who'd encouraged Adam to sin.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02Eve becomes an archetype for all women, weak and easily fooled,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05but also a temptress who leads men astray.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Rather than eroticism and sexual desire
0:53:10 > 0:53:13being considered a gift of the gods as they were in the classical world,
0:53:13 > 0:53:18now these things were thought of as unremittingly dark and sinful -
0:53:18 > 0:53:21a betrayal of God himself.
0:53:25 > 0:53:31Sex was the work of the devil and women were his agents.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34It fed into a growing notion
0:53:34 > 0:53:37that women weren't worthy representatives of God.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39And over the centuries, this belief
0:53:39 > 0:53:44became so pervasive that eventually history was rewritten.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50Today, there are many who believe that Christian women
0:53:50 > 0:53:54never did play an equal role to men.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59- Augustine is massively influential in the 4th Century AD.- Yes.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03Some would argue that up until the point that his ideas of original sin
0:54:03 > 0:54:06become part of the living tradition of the Church,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09actually women have a better deal before then
0:54:09 > 0:54:11and after that, there is a lot of trouble for women.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13Well, they're quite wrong to do so.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Augustine simply said what the Church taught.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19It's not a shift. His understanding of original sin was very, very much
0:54:19 > 0:54:21what the earlier Church fathers had been saying.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24But why did so many, then, in early Christianity,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27in the first, second, third, fourth centuries AD,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30manage to misinterpret Jesus' teachings so spectacularly?
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Because there definitely were female priests in the early Church.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36There weren't so many. They didn't misinterpret it. No.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39The Church has been run for 2,000 years and she does know her history.
0:54:43 > 0:54:44From all the evidence I've seen,
0:54:44 > 0:54:48I have to disagree with Joanna on Christian history,
0:54:48 > 0:54:50but, of course, she's right -
0:54:50 > 0:54:52men and women don't have equal roles today.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57You've spent your life studying the teachings of Jesus.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01Do you think he would have wanted to have seen a Church develop
0:55:01 > 0:55:04where women played a key role?
0:55:04 > 0:55:07The early disciples of Jesus were both men and women.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10There was a very special, important group of women
0:55:10 > 0:55:14who closely followed him all through his public ministry
0:55:14 > 0:55:19in an important role of service to him and I do think that's important
0:55:19 > 0:55:22for the Church in every age, including ours.
0:55:28 > 0:55:30I can imagine that for liberal Catholics like Father Scott,
0:55:30 > 0:55:34it must be difficult reconciling what they see
0:55:34 > 0:55:36as the correct interpretation of the Bible
0:55:36 > 0:55:39with the position that their Church now holds.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45As the Church grew,
0:55:45 > 0:55:49the freedoms initially open to women were crushed.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53At the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56the fate of priestesses was in the balance.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Because Christianity now had not just a faith,
0:56:05 > 0:56:08but a massive territory to call its own,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11there was a compulsion to tidy things up,
0:56:11 > 0:56:13to sort out the new Church
0:56:13 > 0:56:17and the Council made all kinds of key decisions.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19The council proposed that those women,
0:56:19 > 0:56:23who for centuries had played a vital role in the Church,
0:56:23 > 0:56:27should now be considered laity and not to be ordained.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35Women were being pushed to the margins
0:56:35 > 0:56:37right across the spiritual landscape.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Two generations after the Council Of Nicaea,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45they received the killer blow.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53In 394 AD, the Christian Emperor, Theodosius I,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57ordered the end of all pagan worship.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59Temples were closed or pulled down,
0:56:59 > 0:57:04the old gods and goddesses were declared officially extinct
0:57:04 > 0:57:06and the flames of the Vesta,
0:57:06 > 0:57:11which had been kept alive for over 1,000 years by the Vestal Virgins,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13were finally put out.
0:57:16 > 0:57:22For millennia, women had walked hand in hand with the divine.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24For some, this privilege had cost them their lives.
0:57:24 > 0:57:30For many more, it had brought status, authority and respect.
0:57:32 > 0:57:35But now, for better or for worse,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39the age of the priestess had come to an end.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48But the story of divine women wasn't over.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Drawing on the power of the written word,
0:57:51 > 0:57:56indomitable women would fight back to become Queen Of Heaven,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59Empress On Earth, to found a new faith
0:57:59 > 0:58:03and transform a great civilisation.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07For a free Open University booklet
0:58:07 > 0:58:10covering the issues and themes featured in this programme
0:58:10 > 0:58:13and to learn more about controversies surrounding
0:58:13 > 0:58:15women in religion, ring...
0:58:20 > 0:58:25..or got to the website and follow the links to the OU.
0:58:50 > 0:58:53Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd