@blatham,
The concept of women (and slaves or serfs) as chattel is a distinctly christian idea. It certainly was not consonant with the cultures of either the Kelts or the Germans. Early in the 12th century, Matilda of Normandy, dowager Holy Roman Empress, and known as Maud the Empress, daughter of the first King Henry, went to war with Stephen of Blois, who had seized the English throne. She claimed that she was more closely related to William the Bastard of Normandy, which was true, and lead to a twelve year civil war called the Anarchy by the literate people of England. She was fighting on behalf of her son, Henry Plantagenet. During the war, Henry was married off to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her father, William X, the Duke of Aquitaine, had secured an agreement with King Louis VI that she would be duchess regnant upon his death. Louis promptly married her off to his son when William died. Theirs was not, apparently, a happy marriage. They had one child, and as both had children after they separated, the inference is that they didn't get along too well. The Pope given a dispensation for them to marry, based on consanguinity. When they became estranged, he annulled it on the same basis. Another such dispensation was required for Eleanor to marry Henry (Popes made good money in those days).
The upshot of that was more than three centuries of warfare between the English and the French--Eleanor and Henry claimed, between them, half of what is modern day France, which was about two-thirds of France as it then existed. A century earlier, Matilda of Tuscany had lead her troops into battle, literally (she was good with her sword) to fight the Holy Roman Emperor both to secure her patrimony and to protect the Pope. They called her the daughter of the Pope--figuratively, not literally as was the case with the Borgias. Margaret of Denmark in the late 14th century, attempted to unite Scandinavia, which she could claim based on birth and various marriages--but they couldn't agree on terms.
Maria Teresa's father, Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire, tried to secure his estates on her behalf. That lead to the War of the Austrian succession in the middle of the 18th century. Yes, the blessings of christianity are manifold, as history shows us.
This whole bizarre episode with Roy Moore is made even more bizarre, in the context of this thread, in that President Plump supported Luther Strange against Moore. One wonders how that was seen by his ever dwindling base. I haven't heard anything about Plump's reaction to the accusations against Moore. It's not as though Plump were renowned as an upright christian.
