the abomination of desolation had come to the holy place, as predicted by the prophet Daniel. Although such threats came and went, eschatological notions persisted. Even when Byzantium was at its apogee in the tenth century the end of the world was widely anticipated. Such deep-seated pessimism regarding the prospects for the earthly world could only act as a brake on development, and it is significant that this negative apocalypticism did not extend to millenarianism, with its prediction of a thousand years of peace and plenty, as happened later in the Middle Ages. A hierarchical system of social relations, with each man allotted his place, was the God-given norm, and obedience to authority was a duty imposed by the Bible.
The ecclesiastical writers, who were the main opinionformers and our only source for contemporary values, regarded the material world with repugnance and upheld an ideal of monastic self-denial. Biblical and patristic texts were employed to justify a view of women as a source of temptation and conflict, thus reinforcing the anti-feminism deeply entrenched in both Roman and Germanic society. The ninth-century historian Agnellus denounced clerical marriage on the grounds that wives became quarrelsome and domineering and resembled ' Jezebel in their falseness and Delilah in their disloyalty'. In practice it was only a few strong-minded noblewomen, queens, and abbesses, who could exert real power, although women enjoyed greater personal and property rights in Roman societies than among the Germans, who regarded them as legally subject to their menfolk from birth to the grave. More beneficial was the Church's impact on family law, as concubinage and divorce were discouraged and marriage elevated into a more formal institution.
Like all traditional societies, the early medieval world placed great emphasis on family solidarity. In societies which had undergone Germanic influence such as Lombard Italy, kin ties extended to quite remote relatives because of practical need for support in war, judicial cases (including feud), and economic activity. As society became more stable and complex new ties
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