Website Time Line

Tradition Time Line

A path through history via key documents on www.womenpriests.org

Tradition through Time		Tradition by Topic
Men’s domination in most cultures Women’s status in Old Testament reality The psychological impact of the myth of the Fall	2000 BC - 30 AD	the creation stories Sirach Eve: the Mother of All Living
He was open to women He gave women a radically new position He left decisions about ministry to the later Church	30 - 33 AD	Overview texts on Sacred Scripture
Traces of early ministry? the principle of equality (St Paul) women’s ministries foreshadowed (St Luke) Mary as role model for ministry (St Luke) Women as partners in the ministry (St Clement)	33 - 100	Restrictions on women? * the wearing of the veil? (1 Cor 11) * forbidden to teach? (1 Timothy) * forbidden to speak? (1 Cor 14)
The Fathers and the question of ‘Women Priests’ Fathers of the Church who wrote on women: St. Ignatius St. Irenaeus St. Clement Tertullian Firmilian Ambrosiaster Epiphanes St. John Chrystostom St. Jerome St. Augustine Pseudo-Augustine St. Isidore Fathers who wrote on Mary’s priestly dignity: St. Germanus St. Andrew of Crete John of Damascus Epiphanius II Theodore the Studite	100 - 800	Theological prejudice against women: * ‘women are inferior’ * ‘women are sinful’ * ‘women are unclean’
Early Church councils and local synods (200-1000) General Church Councils: Council of Nicea I Council of Chalcedon Council of Trullo Council of Nicaea II Local Synods: Didascalia Apostolorum Canons of Dionysius Local Council of Gangra Synod of Laodicea Canons of St. Basil Apostolic Constitutions Apost. Constit. Book VIII Council of Carthage Synod of Orange Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua Synod of Epaon Synod of Auxerre Synod of Rouen Canons of Bishop Timothy Penitentiary of Theodore Capitulary of Theodulf	200 - 1000	The ministry of women as fully ordained deacons! * their history * records of women deacons * lists of women deacon saints Women active in priestly ministries? * in the South of Italy * Leta presbytera * in France * testimony by Atto
medieval theology and ‘women priests’ medieval theologians who wrote on ‘women priests’: Paucapalea Rolandus Bandinelli Rufinus Sicardus of Cremona Hugucchio Johannes Teutonicus St. Albert the Great St. Thomas Aquinas St. Bonaventure Henricus de Sergusio Richard of Middleton John Duns Scotus Durandus a Saint-Pourçain Guido de Baysio Joannes Andreae Antonius de Butrio Medieval theologians who wrote on ‘Mary Priest’: St. Bernard of Clairvaux St. Albert the Great Ubertinus of Casalis Engelbert of Admont St. Antoninus of Florence Jan Mombaer	1000 - 1500	‘Eve in Christian Culture’ Church law list(1100 - now) * Decree of Gratian * Corpus Iuris Canonici * Codex 1917 * Codex 1983 Church Law and ‘women priests’ ancient Latin texts the treatment of wives of clergy in the Middle Ages devotion to St. Mary Magdalen
Post-medieval theologians (1500-1900) those who wrote on women: H.Kramer and J.Sprenger “Women’s Quarrel” John Knox Robert Bellarmine Cornelius a Lapide Anonymous Theologians who wrote on ‘Mary Priest’ Francis of Osuna St. Thomas of Villanova St. Ignatius of Loyola Jacques le Vasseur Juan de Cartagena Christopher of Avendaño Charles de Condren J. Duvergier de Hauranne Ferdinand Chirino de Salazar Jean-Jacques Olier F. Bourgoing Jacques Biroat Joseph Oudeau Ippolito Marracci Jean de Machaut Félix Ceuillens Lazare Dassier Nicolas de Dijon Antonio Vieira Julien Loriot Sébastien Dutreuil Francesco Pepe St. Alphonsus of Liguori C.L.Richard Jean Puy Pierre Claude Frey de Neuville Pope Pius VII M.J.Scheeben C.E.Berseaux F.Ambrosj J.M.Raynaud H.Oswald P. J. de Clorivière F. Coulin F.W.Faber Auguste Nicolas Joachim Ventura Philpin de Rivière Hubert Lebon F. Maupied Cardinal Wiseman J.B. Lemarchal St. Antonio María Claret Pope Pius IX Cardinal Pius H. Perreyve J.B. Petitalot Gaetano Guida J.B. Causette Sp. Marmien Cardinal C.L.Place J. de Ravignan P. Jeanjaquot Cardinal Maury Pope Leo XIII Cardinal C.Gennari Cardinal Vannutelli Cardinal Vivés y Tuto Bishop J. L. Morelle Pope Pius X Bishop J. Nazlian Pope Benedict XIV Cardinal Mercier Pope Pius XI Theologians who wrote on ‘women priests’ (1960 - 1980)	1500 - 2000	The persecution of women * the inquisition * witch hunts * ‘Are women human beings?’ mistaken teaching by Popes the devotion to Mary Priest
Rome’s documents against women priests contemporary theologians on ‘women priests’ research articles journalistic articles	1975 - now	Relevant texts of recent Church Councils Was the exclusion of women an ‘infallible’ decision?

For related online Libraries see:
The ORDINATION OF WOMEN in the Catholic Church	Catherine of Siena VIRTUAL COLLEGE
THE BODY IS SACRED	MYSTERY AND BEYOND

We hope that you have found this document helpful. It costs our small charity on average £10 / $20 / Euro15 to make such a document freely available to you. This is because we have to identify the best scholarship available, retrieve texts, obtain permissions, scan, edit, link and convert documents to html format and run a small office base to make this all possible. We can do this only because we are run almost entirely by volunteers. Please help us build our online library of resources so that more people can access the debate and make up their own minds about women priests. Having benefited from the online library, any donation, small or large, that you can make to support our work would be gratefully appreciated. Click here to learn how to make a donation now.

For related online Libraries see:
The ORDINATION OF WOMEN in the Catholic Church	Catherine of Siena VIRTUAL COLLEGE
THE BODY IS SACRED	MYSTERY AND BEYOND