Excerpt from Deaconesses in Europe and Their Lessons for America How far, and in what form, ought woman's work in the Church to be organized? What was the deaconess of St. Paul's epistles? What light on this subject do the primitive and the mediaeval Churches yield us? Can sisterhoods be estab lished without weakening the sense of personal re sponsibility in those Christian women who are not thus wholly set apart to Charitable and spiritual work? Can they be multiplied without danger of introducing into Protestant communions the evils of the conventual life? Are there modern in stances Of safe and successful organizations? What good have they achieved, and what further good do they promise? In what relation should such organizations stand to the authority and fostering care Of the Church? What should be their scope. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"[...]for them is a question not here to be decided. If not genuine, they must have been written at a very early time, and from that fact possess a historical value of their own. ?They prove beyond a doubt that there was a time in the history of the Church when a clear idea was held by some writer of the office of the female deacon as essential to the discipline of the Church.?1 From them we learn of three distinct types of women connected with the administration of the Church—deaconesses, widows, and virgins. Deaconesses and widows date from apostolic times, the Church virgins from a somewhat later period. The distinction between widows and deaconesses was not at first clearly maintained. By some Church fathers widows were called deaconesses, and deaconesses widows. It was only after the lapse of time that we find the classes[...]".

Jane Marie nee Bancroft Robinson (1847-1932) was an American author. She was dean of women and professor of French at Northwestern University from 1877 to 1886. In 1887-1888 she became the first woman to be admitted to the Ecole des Hautes Etudes at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She married George Orville Robinson on May 7, 1891. Her works include: The Parliament of Paris and the Other Parliaments of France (1885), Deaconesses in Europe and Their Lessons for America (1888), The Early History of Deaconess Work in American Methodism (1888) and Ebenezer Robinson, a Soldier of the Revolution (1898).

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