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2006-02-19 17:49:34 UTC
http://www.christiancadre.org/member_contrib/cp_infanticide.html
Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide
By Christopher Price
"Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient
civilization."
Introduction
The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine
today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed
practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments
outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So
how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that
condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that
condemns and discourages infanticide?
The short answer: Christianity.
Paganism and Infanticide
Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of
human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in
ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the
Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious
sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians
"offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy
little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so
many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a
tear or moan." Moralia 2.17. Indeed, according to Wikipedia,
"Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including
those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan."
Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child,
usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was
dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries.
In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the
city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both
approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were
the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak
both of infanticide and abandonment as one.
"Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome.
Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71. As Will
Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth
itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56. Indeed, so common
was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed
the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating
pagan society," Durant, op. cit., 698, and was the leading cause of the
tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney
Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were
particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even
wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient
Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite
well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had
raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human
Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide:
Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and
Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and
informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the
ancient pagan world.
But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced. Pagan
society approved of the practice and encouraged it. "Not only was the
exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and
advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity,
page 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient
Rome a child was virtually its father's chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the
Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his
offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public
official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall
be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed
and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve
Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant.
Stark, op. cit., page 118.
Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice.
Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato
and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy.
Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their
opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was
a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many
"sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even
Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards,
stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De
Ira 1.15.
A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual
nature of this practice among the pagans:
"Know that I am still in Alexandria.... I ask and beg you to take good
care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it
up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy
keep it, if a girl, discard it."
Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, page 54.
According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these
patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op.
cit., page 97-98.
In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be
said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the
whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor, Romans and
Greeks, citizens and slaves.
Christianity and Infanticide
Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and
with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread
throughout the Roman Empire. But rather than being restricted to one
racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman
Empire's diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans.
Beginning in about 30-33 CE, Christianity reached some level of primacy
when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth
Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the
Roman Empire had converted to Christianity.
A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide
infant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life,
Christians treated them as human beings. They viewed infanticide as the
murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess
females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female,
perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore
had value.
Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as
Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas
Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting
pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder.
The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts,
commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian
document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned
infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way
of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were
not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and infanticide, but
had begun direct attacks on pagans, and especially pagan religions for
sustaining such crimes." Stark, op. cit., page 125. Robin L. Fox also
notes this activity: "Christians opposed much in the accepted practice
of the pagan world. They vigorously attacked infanticide and the
exposure of children." Fox, op. cit., page 350.
Callistus, the Bishop of Rome -- a onetime slave -- in 222 CE strongly
voiced his condemnation of infanticide to the pagan public. Justin
Martyr's First Apology (250 CE) stated, "We have been taught that it is
wicked to expose even newly-born children." Also in the second century,
Athengoras, a Christian leader, wrote in his Plea to the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius, that "[we do not expose] an infant, because those who expose
them are chargeable with child murder." Another Christian writer,
Minucius Felix, wrote to Emperor Claudius, "And I see that you at one
time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to the birds; at
another that you crush when strangled with a miserable kind of death. .
. . And these things assuredly come down from your gods. For Saturn did
not expose his children but devoured them."
But so long as Christianity remained a disfavored--and sometimes
persecuted--religion, their appeals to the pagan government to act
against infanticide were ineffectual in changing government policy.
Even so, Christians worked against infanticide by prohibiting its
members from practicing it, voicing their moral view on infanticide to
the pagan world, and by providing for the relief of the poor and
actually taking in and supporting babies which had been left to die by
exposure by their pagan parents. As Fox explains, "to the poor, the
widows and orphans, Christians gave alms and support, like the
synagogue communities, their forerunners. This 'brotherly love' has
been minimized as a reason for turning to the Church, as if only those
who were members could know of it. In fact, it was widely recognized."
Fox, op. cit., page 324. According to Durant, "in many instances
Christians rescued exposed infant, baptized them, and brought them up
with the aid of community funds." Durant, op. cit., page 598. Through
these efforts, Christians worked to diminish some of the causes of
infanticide.
B. Christianity's Rise to Preeminence
Yet so long as Christianity was an illegal religion, persecuted by the
same culture that murdered their own babies, it had little chance of
enacting policies against infanticide. Finally, however, with the Edict
of Milan--which legalized the practice of Christianity--Christian
leaders began to exert their influence on the Roman emperors regarding
infanticide. Immediately after his conversion, Constantine--the first
Christian Emperor--enacted two measures targeting the problem of
infanticide: 1) Constantine provided funds out of the imperial treasury
for parents over burdened with children; and 2) Constantine gave all
the rights of property of exposed infants to those who saved and
supported them. But more generally, Constantine broadened the scope of
imperial charity and provided assistance for the poor and needy. "He
also acknowledged the new ideal of charity. Previous emperors had
encouraged schemes to support small numbers of children in less favored
families, the future recruits for their armies. Constantine gave funds
to the churches to support the poor, the widow and orphans." And
according to Robin L. Fox, the church used those funds for charity.
"Swollen by the Emperor's gifts, it helped the old, the infirm, and the
destitute." Fox, op. cit., page 668.
Although the church, with the assistance of the government, was working
to address many of the causes of infanticide, it continued to pressure
Rome for a ban on infanticide. Bishop Basil of Caesarea argued
persistently and persuasively for such a ban. Finally, he convinced
Emperor Valentinian (364-375 CE)--a Christian--to outlaw the practice
of infanticide in the Roman Empire. Finally, infanticide was banned.
Conclusion
Although ancient and pagan Greek and Rome had practiced and encouraged
infanticide for hundreds and hundreds of years, Christianity
fundamentally altered those societies. Christianity eliminated the
promotion and encouragement of infanticide by government and leading
societal institutions in Western Civilization. Clearly, one unique and
valuable contribution of Christianity to Western Civilization was its
opposition to infanticide.
Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide
By Christopher Price
"Infanticide was one of the deepest stains of the ancient
civilization."
Introduction
The history of infanticide is gruesome. As hard as it may be to imagine
today, throughout history infanticide was a common and endorsed
practice. While it undoubtedly still occurs today, all governments
outlaw it. And in the West at least, society and culture condemn it. So
how did we get from there to here? From having Western societies that
condoned and encouraged infanticide to having a Western society that
condemns and discourages infanticide?
The short answer: Christianity.
Paganism and Infanticide
Pagans in the Roman Empire had a very different view about the value of
human life than we do today. Infanticide was legal and encouraged in
ancient Greece and Rome. Other pagan societies, such as the
Carthaginians, went so far as to kill their children as religious
sacrifices to their gods. According to Plutarch, the Carthaginians
"offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy
little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so
many lambs of young birds; meanwhile the mothers stood by without a
tear or moan." Moralia 2.17. Indeed, according to Wikipedia,
"Infanticide was common in all well studied ancient cultures, including
those of ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, and Japan."
Some forms of infanticide involved a parent directly killing the child,
usually by drowning. The infant was simply held underwater until it was
dead. Relatively quick, inexpensive, and the water muffled the cries.
In other cases, the family would simply take the child out beyond the
city and abandon it to die from exposure to the elements. In both
approaches, those that should have been protecting the helpless, were
the ones who were killing them. Hence, in this discussion I will speak
both of infanticide and abandonment as one.
"Infanticide was infamously universal" in ancient Greece and Rome.
Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, page 71. As Will
Durant stated, infanticide was so common in ancient Rome that "birth
itself was an adventure." Caesar and Christ, page 56. Indeed, so common
was infanticide in ancient Greece that Polybius (205-118 BCE) blamed
the decline of ancient Greece on it. (Histories, 6). It was "decimating
pagan society," Durant, op. cit., 698, and was the leading cause of the
tremendous gender gap of men to women in the ancient world. Rodney
Stark, The Rise of Christianity, pages 97-98. Female infants were
particularly vulnerable to infanticide. It was very uncommon for even
wealthy, upper-class families to have more than one daughter in ancient
Greece and Rome. An inscription found in Delphi illustrates this quite
well. Of more than 600 second-century families, only one percent had
raised two daughters. Susan Scrimshaw, "Infanticide in Human
Populations: Societal and Individual Concerns," in Infanticide:
Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives, eds. Glenn Hausfater and
Sarah Hardy, page 439. In sum, there is no dispute among historians and
informed laypersons: Infanticide was incredibly widespread in the
ancient pagan world.
But what is most chilling is that it was openly practiced. Pagan
society approved of the practice and encouraged it. "Not only was the
exposure of infants a very common practice, it was justified by law and
advocated by philosophers." Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity,
page 118. See also Durant, op. cit., page 56. In Greece and ancient
Rome a child was virtually its father's chattel-e.g., in Roman law, the
Patria Protestas granted the father the right to dispose of his
offspring as he saw fit. In Sparta, the decision was made by a public
official. The Twelve Tables of Roman Law held: "Deformed infants shall
be killed" De Legibus, 3.8. Of course, deformed was broadly construed
and often meant no more than the baby appeared "weakly." The Twelve
Tables also explicitly permitted a father to expose any female infant.
Stark, op. cit., page 118.
Leading pagan leaders and philosophers also encouraged the practice.
Cicero defended infanticide by referring to the Twelve Tables. Plato
and Aristotle recommended infanticide as legitimate state policy.
Cornelius Tacitus went so far as to condemn the Jews for their
opposition to infanticide. He stated that the Jewish view that "it was
a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child" was just another of the many
"sinister and revolting practices" of the Jews. Histories 5.5. Even
Seneca, otherwise known for his relatively high moral standards,
stated, "we drown children at birth who are weakly and abnormal." De
Ira 1.15.
A chilling letter from a pagan husband to his wife captures the casual
nature of this practice among the pagans:
"Know that I am still in Alexandria.... I ask and beg you to take good
care of our baby son, and as soon as I received payment I shall send it
up to you. If you are delivered (before I come home), if it is a boy
keep it, if a girl, discard it."
Naphtali Lewis, Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule, page 54.
According to Stark, "this letter dates from the year 1 BCE, but these
patterns persisted among pagans far into the Christian era." Stark, op.
cit., page 97-98.
In sum, pagans practiced infanticide almost universally. Nor can it be
said to be simply a practice to preserve few resources to save the
whole culture. Infanticide was practiced by rich and poor, Romans and
Greeks, citizens and slaves.
Christianity and Infanticide
Into this pagan world stepped Christianity. Starting in Jerusalem, and
with an undisputed Jewish influence, Christianity quickly spread
throughout the Roman Empire. But rather than being restricted to one
racial or cultural group, Christianity spread throughout the Roman
Empire's diverse ethnicities, including the Greeks and Romans.
Beginning in about 30-33 CE, Christianity reached some level of primacy
when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the Fourth
Century. By 350 CE, Rodney Stark estimates that 56.5 percent of the
Roman Empire had converted to Christianity.
A. Early Christian Opposition to Infanticide
From its earliest creeds, Christians "absolutely prohibited"
infanticide as "murder." Stark, op. cit., page 124. To Christians, theinfant had value. Whereas pagans placed no value on infant life,
Christians treated them as human beings. They viewed infanticide as the
murder of a human being, not a convenient tool to rid society of excess
females and perceived weaklings. The baby, whether male, female,
perfect, or imperfect, was created in the image of God and therefore
had value.
Early Christian documents reveal that there was a clash of cultures as
Christianity converted previously pagan Romans and Greeks. Whereas
Judaism prohibited infanticide by Jews, Christianity was converting
pagans and instructing them that infanticide was immoral and murder.
The Didache (90 -110 CE), an instruction manual for Christian converts,
commanded "You shall not commit infanticide." Another early Christian
document, the Epistle of Barnabas (130 CE), also explicitly condemned
infanticide and prohibited its practices as necessary parts of the "way
of light." Moreover, by the end of the second century, "Christians were
not only proclaiming their rejection of abortion and infanticide, but
had begun direct attacks on pagans, and especially pagan religions for
sustaining such crimes." Stark, op. cit., page 125. Robin L. Fox also
notes this activity: "Christians opposed much in the accepted practice
of the pagan world. They vigorously attacked infanticide and the
exposure of children." Fox, op. cit., page 350.
Callistus, the Bishop of Rome -- a onetime slave -- in 222 CE strongly
voiced his condemnation of infanticide to the pagan public. Justin
Martyr's First Apology (250 CE) stated, "We have been taught that it is
wicked to expose even newly-born children." Also in the second century,
Athengoras, a Christian leader, wrote in his Plea to the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius, that "[we do not expose] an infant, because those who expose
them are chargeable with child murder." Another Christian writer,
Minucius Felix, wrote to Emperor Claudius, "And I see that you at one
time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to the birds; at
another that you crush when strangled with a miserable kind of death. .
. . And these things assuredly come down from your gods. For Saturn did
not expose his children but devoured them."
But so long as Christianity remained a disfavored--and sometimes
persecuted--religion, their appeals to the pagan government to act
against infanticide were ineffectual in changing government policy.
Even so, Christians worked against infanticide by prohibiting its
members from practicing it, voicing their moral view on infanticide to
the pagan world, and by providing for the relief of the poor and
actually taking in and supporting babies which had been left to die by
exposure by their pagan parents. As Fox explains, "to the poor, the
widows and orphans, Christians gave alms and support, like the
synagogue communities, their forerunners. This 'brotherly love' has
been minimized as a reason for turning to the Church, as if only those
who were members could know of it. In fact, it was widely recognized."
Fox, op. cit., page 324. According to Durant, "in many instances
Christians rescued exposed infant, baptized them, and brought them up
with the aid of community funds." Durant, op. cit., page 598. Through
these efforts, Christians worked to diminish some of the causes of
infanticide.
B. Christianity's Rise to Preeminence
Yet so long as Christianity was an illegal religion, persecuted by the
same culture that murdered their own babies, it had little chance of
enacting policies against infanticide. Finally, however, with the Edict
of Milan--which legalized the practice of Christianity--Christian
leaders began to exert their influence on the Roman emperors regarding
infanticide. Immediately after his conversion, Constantine--the first
Christian Emperor--enacted two measures targeting the problem of
infanticide: 1) Constantine provided funds out of the imperial treasury
for parents over burdened with children; and 2) Constantine gave all
the rights of property of exposed infants to those who saved and
supported them. But more generally, Constantine broadened the scope of
imperial charity and provided assistance for the poor and needy. "He
also acknowledged the new ideal of charity. Previous emperors had
encouraged schemes to support small numbers of children in less favored
families, the future recruits for their armies. Constantine gave funds
to the churches to support the poor, the widow and orphans." And
according to Robin L. Fox, the church used those funds for charity.
"Swollen by the Emperor's gifts, it helped the old, the infirm, and the
destitute." Fox, op. cit., page 668.
Although the church, with the assistance of the government, was working
to address many of the causes of infanticide, it continued to pressure
Rome for a ban on infanticide. Bishop Basil of Caesarea argued
persistently and persuasively for such a ban. Finally, he convinced
Emperor Valentinian (364-375 CE)--a Christian--to outlaw the practice
of infanticide in the Roman Empire. Finally, infanticide was banned.
Conclusion
Although ancient and pagan Greek and Rome had practiced and encouraged
infanticide for hundreds and hundreds of years, Christianity
fundamentally altered those societies. Christianity eliminated the
promotion and encouragement of infanticide by government and leading
societal institutions in Western Civilization. Clearly, one unique and
valuable contribution of Christianity to Western Civilization was its
opposition to infanticide.