Boredalt wrote:
There are many examples of this. Many of these promoted the idea of multiple wives, particularly in warring societies that lose males disproportionately, because it only takes one bull to cover several cows, so to speak. Adoration and praise of women who birthed many children is also common. Also, men like the idea of it being okay to have sex with several women.
The real reason to have a large number of children is and always was to support local agricultural practices, though. Since most early civilizations (Sumerians, Egyptians, and the Xia come to mind) were based on agriculture, they needed a large population group that could tend to the crops that their ancestors had started planting.
I mean, there was
always a need for military forces, but the Xia are a really good example of why populations grew out of agricultural necessity. Aside from opposing regional clans, they rarely had to fight, but they still had large numbers of children due to their farming practices.
EDIT: And to get my point back to Catholicism...
Religion wasn't the deciding factor on whether or not you'd have a lot of children. Some stressed it after their formation, especially Catholicism, but they didn't necessarily invent the idea.