CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE CORNELL UNrVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 063 523 595 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924063523595 WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM. Hontion: C. J. CLAY and SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE AVE MARIA LANE. 263, ARGYLE STREET. EeipjiD: F. A. BROCKHAUS. (fttto^orli: MACMILLAN AND CO. WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM CHAPTERS ON SAINT-LORE AND CONVENT LIFE BETWEEN A.D. 500 AND A.D. 1500 BY LINA ECKENSTEIN. ' Quia vita omnium spiritualium hominum sine litteris mors est.' Acta Murenses. CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. i< [All Rights reserved.] dambtitigc : PRINTED BY J. & C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. v"^ TO MY FRIENDS KARL AND MARIA SHARPE PEARSON. PREFACE. THE restlessness, peculiar to periods of transition, is a charac- teristic of the present age. Long-accepted standards are being questioned and hitherto unchallenged rules of conduct submitted to searching criticism. History shows us that our present social system is only a phase in human development, and we turn to a study of the past, confident that a clearer insight into the social standards and habits of life prevalent in past ages will aid us in a better estimation of the relative importance of those factors of change we find around us to-day. Monasticism during the ten centuries between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500 exhibits phases of vital significance for the mental and moral growth of Western Europe. However much both the aims and the tone of life of the members of the different religious orders varied, monasticism generally favoured tendencies which were among the most peaceful and progressive of the Middle Ages. For women especially the convent fostered some of the best sides of intellectual, moral and emotional life. Besides this it was for several centuries a determining factor in regard to women's economic status. The woman-saint and the nun are however figures the import- ance of which has hitherto been little regarded. The woman-saint has met with scant treatment beyond that of the eulogistic but too often uncritical writer of devotional works ; the lady abbess and the literary nun have engrossed the attention of few biographers. The partisan recriminations of the Reformation period are still widely prevalent. The saint is thrust aside as a representative of viii Preface. gross superstition, and the nun is looked upon as a slothful and hysterical, if not as a dissolute character. She is still thought of as those who broke with the Catholic Church chose to depict her. The fact that these women appeared in a totally different light to their contemporaries is generally overlooked ; that the monk and the nun enjoyed the esteem and regard of the general public throughout a term bordering on a thousand years is frequently forgotten. Even at the time of the Reformation, when religious contentions were at their height, the nun who was expelled from her home appeared deserving of pity rather than of reproach to her more enlightened contemporaries. As part of an institution that had outlived its purpose she was perhaps bound to pass away. But the work she had done and the aims for which she had striven contributed their share in formulating the new standards of life. The attitude of mind which had been harboured and cultivated in the cloister, must be reckoned among the most civilizing influences which have helped to develop mental and moral strength in Western Europe. The social value of cloistered life in itself may be disputed. To the Protestant of the i6th century a profession which involved estrangement from family ties appeared altogether harmful. More- over monasteries and religious houses were bound up in the reformer's mind with the supremacy of Rome from which he was striving hard to shake himself free. Wherever the breach with Rome was effected the old settlements were dissolved and their inmates were thrust back into civic life. To men this meant much, but it meant less to them than to women. In losing the possibility of religious profession at the beginning of the i6th century, women lost the last chance that remained to them of an activity outside the home circle. The subjection of women to a round of domestic duties became more complete when nunneries were dissolved, and marriage for generations afterwards was women's only recognised vocation. But even in some of these same Protestant countries where nunneries were summarily dissolved, the resulting complete sub- jection of women has in modern times been felt to have outlived its purpose. How far this subjection was a needful stage of growth which has helped to develop a higher standard of willing purity and faithfulness need not now be discussed. In certain countries, however, where the monastic system with all the privileges it conferred on women was swept away, we now find a strong public Preface. ix opinion against the restriction of women's activity to the domestic circle, and these countries were among the first to break down the artificial barriers imposed on woman's influence and grant her some share in the intellectual and political life of the community. The right to self-development and social responsibility which the woman of to-day so persistently asks for, is in many ways analogous to the right which the convent secured to womankind a thousand years ago. The woman of to-day, who realises that the home circle as at present constituted affords insufficient scope for her energies, had a precursor in the nun who sought a field of activity in the convent. For the nun also hesitated, it may be from motives which fail to appeal to us, to undertake the customary duties and accept the ordinary joys of life. This hesitation maybe attributed to perversion of instinct, it can hardly in the case of the nun be attributed to weakness of character, for she chose a path in life which was neither smooth nor easy, and in this path she accomplished great things, many of which have still living value. It is with a view to the better appreciation of the influence and activity of women connected with the Christian religion that the following chapters have been written. They contain an enquiry into the cult of women-saints, and some account of the general position of woman under monasticism. These subjects however are so wide and the material at the disposal of the student is so abundant that the analysis is confined to English and German women. At the outset an enquiry into the position of women among the Germans of pre-Christian times appeared necessary, for early hagiology and the lives of women who embraced the religious profession after Christianity was first introduced, recall in various particulars the influence of woman and her association with the supernatural during heathen times. The legends of many saints contain a large element of heathen folk-tradition, together in some cases with a small, scarcely perceptible element of historical fact In order therefore to establish the true importance of the Christian women, whose labour benefited their contemporaries, and who in recognition of their services were raised to saintship, the nature of early women-saints in general had to be carefully considered. In the chapters that follow, the spread of monasticism is dealt with in so far as it was due to the influence of women, and some of the more representative phases of convent life are described. Our enquiry dealing with monasticism only as affecting women, the X Preface. larger side of a great subject has necessarily been ignored. There is a growing consciousness now-a-days of the debt of gratitude which mankind as a whole owes to the monastic and religious orders, but the history of these orders remains for the most part unwritten. At some periods of monasticism the life of men and that of women flow evenly side by side and can be dealt with separately, at others their work so unites and intermingles that it seems impossible to discuss the one apart from the other. Re- garding some developments the share taken by women, important enough in itself, seemed to me hardly capable of being rated at its just value unless taken in conjunction with that of men. These developments are therefore touched upon briefly or passed over altogether, especially those in which the devotional needs of the women are interesting chiefly in the effect which they had in stimulating the literary productiveness of men. Other phases are passed over because they were the outcome of a course of develop- ment, the analysis of which lies beyond the scope of this work. This applies generally to various continental movements which are throughout treated briefly, and especially to convent life in the Netherlands, and to the later history of mysticism. The history of the beguines in the North of France and the Netherlands is full of interesting particulars, marked by the inclusion in the Acta Sanctorum of women like Marie of Oignies (f c. 121 3), Lutgardis of Tongern (f 1246) and Christine of Truyen (f 1224), whose fame rests on states of spiritual ecstasy, favoured and encouraged by the Dominican friars. So again the women in Southern Germany, who cultivated like religious moods and expressed their feelings in writing, were largely influenced by the Dominicans, apart from whom it seemed impossible to treat them. In England the analysis of writings such as the ' Revelations ' of Juliana of Norwich and of Margery Kempe necessitates a full enquiry into the influence and popularity of Richard Rolle (f 1349) and Walter Hylton (t 139s). During the later Middle Ages the study of the influences at work in the convent is further complicated by the development of religious associations outside it. Pre-eminent among these stands the school of Deventer which gave the impulse to the production of a devotional literature, the purity and refinement of which has given it world-wide reputation. These associations were founded by men not by women, and though the desire to influence nuns largely moulded the men who wrote for and preached to them, Preface. xi still the share taken by women in such movements is entirely sub- ordinate. It is needless to multiply instances of the chapters on convent life which are here omitted ; in those which I place before the reader it has been my aim not so much to give a consecutive history of monasticism as it affected women, as to show how numerous are the directions in which this history can be pursued. Having regard to the nature of the subject I have addressed myself in the first place to the student, who in the references given will, I trust, find corroboration of my views. In quoting from early writings I have referred to the accounts printed in the Acta Sanctorum Bollandorum and to the edition of Latin writings published under the auspices of Migne in the ' Patrologiae Cursus Completus,' except in those few cases where a more recent edition of the work referred to offered special advantages, and regarding the date of these writings I have been chiefly guided by A. Potthast, Weg- ■weiser durch die Geschichtswerke des europdischen Mittelalters, 1 862. In accordance with a division which has been adopted by some histories of art and seems to me to have much in its favour, I have taken Early Christian times to extend to the close of the loth century; I have spoken of the period between 1000 and 1250 as the Earlier, and of that between 1250 and 1500 as the Later Middle Ages. The spelhng of proper names in a work which extends over many centuries has difficulties of its own. While observing a certain uniformity during each period, I have as far as possible adhered to the contemporary local form of each name. While addressing myself largely to the student, I have kept along lines which I trust may make the subject attractive to the general reader, in whose interest I have translated all the passages quoted. There is a growing consciousness now-a-days that for stability in social progress we need among other things a wider scope for women's activity. This scope as I hope to show was to some extent formerly secured to women by the monastic system. Perhaps some of those who are interested in the educational movements of to-day may care to recall the history and arrange- ments of institutions, which favoured the intellectual development of women in the past. I cannot conclude the.se prefatory remarks without a word of thanks to those who have aided me by criticism and revision. Besides the two friends to whom I have dedicated this book, I have to cordially thank Mrs R. W. Cracroft for the labour she has xii Pi^eface. spent on the literary revision of my work in manuscript. To Dr H. F. Heath of Bedford College I am indebted for many suggestions on points of philology, and to Robert J. Parker, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn for advice on some points of law and of general arrangement. Conscious as I am of the many defects in my work, I cannot but be grateful to the Syndics of the University Press, for the assistance they have rendered me in its publication, and I trust that these defects may not deter readers from following me into somewhat unfrequented paths, wherein at any rate I have not stinted such powers of labour as are mine. LINA ECKENSTEIN. December, 1895. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. § I. The Borderland of Heathendom and Christianity . . i § 2. The Tribal Goddess as a Christian Saint . . 15 § 3. Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint . . 28 CHAPTER II. CONVENTS AMONG THE FRANKS, A.D. 550—650. 1. At the Prankish Invasion 45 2. St Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers 51 3. The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. Convent Life in the North 65 CHAPTER III. CONVENTS AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS, A.D. 630 — 730. § I. Early Houses in Kent 79 § 2. The Monastery at Whitby 88 § 3. Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith 95 § 4. Houses in Mercia and in the South 106 xiv Contents. CHAPTER IV. ANGLO-SAXON NUNS IN CONNECTION WITH BONIFACE. § I. The Women corresponding with Boniface . . . ii8 § 2. Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad ... . . -134 CHAPTER V. CONVENTS IN SAXON LANDS BETWEEN A.D. 8oo lOOO. § I. Women's Convents in Saxony 143 § 2. Early History of Gandersheim ... . -154 § 3. The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings 160 CHAPTER VI. THE MONASTIC REVIVAL OF THE MIDDLE AGES. § I. The new Monastic Orders .... ... 184 § 2. Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century . . . 201 § 3. The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham . . . .213 CHAPTER VII. ART INDUSTRIES IN THE NUNNERY. § I. Art Industries generally ...... . . 222 § 2. Herrad and the 'Garden of Dehghts' . . . 238 CHAPTER VIII. PROPHECY AND PHILANTHROPY. § I. St Hildegard of Bingen and St Ehsabeth of Schonau . . . 256 § 2. Women-Saints connected with Charity and Philanthropy . 285 CHAPTER IX. EARLY MYSTIC LITERATURE. § I. Mystic Writings for Women in England 305 § 2. The Convent of Helfta and its Literary Nuns , , . . 328 Contents. xv CHAPTER X. SOME ASPECTS OF THE CONVENT IN ENGLAND DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES. § I. The external Relations of the Convent 354 § 2. The internal Arrangements of the Convent . ... 365 § 3. The Foundation and internal Arrangements of Sion . . 383 CHAPTER XI. MONASTIC REFORM PREVIOUS TO THE REFORMATION. § I. Visitations of Nunneries m England . . . 398 § 2. Reforms in Germany ... ... 414 CHAPTER XH. THE DISSOLUTION. § I. The Dissolution of Nunneries in England ... -432 § 2. The Memoir of Charitas Pirckheimer 45^ Conclusion 477 Appendix. The Rhyme of Herrad . . - 485 INDEX ... ■ . . 488 ERRATA. Page 23, note 1, date of St Ida in A. SS. Boll, should be Sept. 4 instead oiyune 20. ,, 26, line 7, read rt/if/j instead of «7/C'. ,, 162, „ ii,x&zAMartianusw&'i.e.&&aiMarianus. ,, 190, „ 32, read 1240 as the date of Jacobus di Vitriaco's death. ,, 241, „ 8, read .S«-^«« instead of 5«-^. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. 'Die mit dem goldenen Schuh und dem Geiger ist auch eine Muttergottes. ' Bavarian Saying. § I. The Borderland of Heathendom and Christianity. In order to gain an insight into the causes of the rapid development of monasticism among the German races, it is necessary to enquire into the social arrangements of the period which witnessed the introduction of Christianity, and into those sur- vivals of the previous period of social development which German Christianity absorbed. Among peoples of German race monastic life generally, and especially monastic life which gave scope for independent activity among women, had a development of its own. Women of the newly-converted yet still barbarian race readily gathered together and dwelt in religious settlements founded on their own initiative and ruled independently of men. A reason for this must be sought in the drift of contemporary life, which we shall thus have to discuss at some length. During the period of declining heathendom — for how long, measuring time by centuries, it is not yet possible to say — the drift of society had been towards curtailing woman's liberty of movement and interfering with her freedom of action. When the Germans crossed the threshold of history the characteristics of the father-age were already in the ascendant ; the social era, when the growing desire for certainty of fatherhood caused individual women and their offspring to be brought into the possession of individual men, had already begun. The influence of women was more and more restricted owing to their domestic subjection. But traditions of a time when it had been otherwise still lingered. Students of primitive history are recognising, for peoples of German race among others, the existence of an early period of development, when women played a greater part in both social E. 1 The Borderland of [chap. and tribal life. Folk-lore, philology, and surviving customs yield overwhelming evidence in support of the few historic data which point to the period, conveniently called the mother-age, when women held positions of authority inside the tribal group and directly exercised influence on the doings of the tribe'. This period, the mother-age, is generally looked upon as an advance from an earlier stage of savagery, and considered to be con- temporaneous with the beginnings of settled tribal life. It brought with it the practice of tilth and agriculture, and led to the domesti- cation of some of the smaller animals and the invention of weaving and spinning, achievements with which it is recognised that women must be credited. In matters of polity and sex it established the paramount importance of the woman ; it is she who regulates the home, who notes the changes of the seasons, who stores the results of ex- perience, and treasures up the intellectual wealth of the community in sayings which have come down to us in the form of quaint maxims and old-world saws. As for family arrangements, it was inside the tribal group and at the tribal festival that sex unions were contracted ; and this festival, traditions of which survive in many parts of Europe to this day, and which was in its earliest forms a period of unrestrained license for the women as well as the men, was presided over by the tribal mothers, an arrangement which in various particulars affords an explanation of many ideas associated with women in later times. The father-age succeeding to the mother-age in time altogether revolutionised the relations of the sexes ; transient sex unions, formerly the rule, were gradually eliminated by capture and re- tention of wives from outside the tribal group. The change marks a distinct step in social advance. When men as heads of families succeeded to much of the influence women had held in the tribe, barbarous tendencies, such as blood sacrifice, were checked and a higher moral standard was attained. But this was done at the cost of her prerogative to the woman ; and her social influence to some extent passed from her. It must be granted that the character of the mother-age in some of its bearings is hypothetical, but we can infer many of the social arrangements of the period from surviving customs and ' The literature on this subject is daily accumulating. Among older authorities are Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht, 1861; Zmigrodski, Die Mutter bet den Volkem des arischen Stammes, 1886; Pearson, K., Ethic of Free Thought, 1888. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. usages, and its organisation from the part woman played in tradition and saga, and, as we shall see later, from folk-traditions preserved m the legends of the saints. And further, unless we admit that the social arrangements of the earlier period differed from those of the later, we are at a loss to account for the veneration in which woman was held and for the influence exerted by her as we confront her on the threshold of written history. When once we grasp the essentials of these earlier arrangements, we hold the clue to the existence of types of character and tendencies which otherwise appear anomalous. For at the time when contact with Christianity brought with it the possibility of monastic settlements, the love of domestic life had not penetrated so deeply, nor were its conditions so uniformly favourable, but that many women were ready to break away from it. Reminiscences of an independence belonging to them in the past, coupled with the desire for leadership, made many women loth to conform to life inside the family as wives and mothers under conditions formulated by men. Tendencies surviving from the earlier period, and still unsubdued, made the advantages of married life weigh light in the balance against a loss of liberty. To con- ceive the force of these tendencies is to gain an insight into the elements which the convent forthwith absorbs. In the world outside the convent commanding figures of woman- kind become fewer with outgoing heathendom, and the part played by women becomes of less and less importance. There is less room left for the Gannas of history or for the Kriemhilds of saga, for powerful natures such as the Visigoth princess Brunihild, queen of the Franks, or Drahomir of Brandenburg, queen in Bohemia, who gratify their passion for influence with a recklessness which strikes terror into the breasts of their contemporaries. As the old chronicler of St Denis remarks, women who are bent on evil do worse evil than men. But in the convent the influence of womankind lasted longer. Spirited nuns and independent-minded abbesses turn to account the possibilities open to them in a way which commands respect and repeatedly secures superstitious reverence in the outside world. The influence and the powers exerted by these women, as we shall see further on, are altogether remarkable, especially during early Christian times. But we also come across frequent instances of lawlessness among the women who band together in the convent, — a lawlessness to which the arrangements of the earlier age likewise supply a clue. For that The Borderland of [chap. very love of independence, which led to beneficial results where it was coupled with self-control and consciousness of greater responsi- bility, tended in the direction of vagrancy and dissoluteness when it was accompanied by distaste for every kind of restraint. In this connection we must say a few words on the varying status of loose women, since the estimation in which these women were held and the attitude assumed towards them affected monasticism in various particulars. It is true that during early Christian times little heed was taken of them and few objections were raised to their influence, but later distinct efforts were made by various religious orders to prevent women from drifting into a class which, whatever may have been its condition in past times, was felt to be steadily and surely deteriorating. The distinction of women into so-called respectable and dis- reputable classes dates from before the introduction of Christianity. It arose as the father-age gained on the mother-age, when appro- priated women were more and more absorbed into domesticity, while those women outside, who either resented or escaped subjection, found their position surrounded by increasing difficulties, and as- persion more and more cast on their independence. By accepting the distinction, the teachers of Christianity certainly helped to make it more definite ; but for centuries the existence of loose women, so far from being condemned, was hardly discountenanced by them. The revenues which ecclesiastical courts and royal households derived from taxes levied on these women as a class yield proof of this\ Certainly efforts were made to set limits to their practices and the disorderly tendencies which in the nature of things became connected with them and with those with whom they habitually consorted. But this was done not so much to restrain them as to protect women of the other class from being confounded with them. Down to the time of the Reformation, the idea that the existence of loose women as a class should be discountenanced does not present itself, for they were a recognised feature of court life and of town life everywhere. Marshalled into bands, they accompanied the king and the army on their most distant expeditions, and stepped to the fore wherever there was question of merrymaking or enter- tainment. Indeed there is reason to believe, improbable though it may seem at first sight, that women of loose life, as we come across them in the Middle Ages, are successors to a class which had been powerful in the past. They are not altogether depraved and 1 Kriegk, G. L., Deutsche! Biirgerthum im Mzttelalter, 1868, ch. ii-i^. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. despised characters such as legislation founded on tenets of Roman Law chose to stamp them. For law and custom are often at variance regarding- the rights and privileges belonging to them. These rights and privileges they retained in various particulars till the time of the Reformation, which indeed marks a turning point in the attitude taken by society towards women generally. Different ages have different standards of purity and faithfulness. The loose or unattached women of the past are of many kinds and many types ; to apply the term prostitute to them raises a false idea of their position as compared with that of women in other walks of life. If we would deal with them as a class at all, it is only this they have in common, — that they are indifferent to the ties of family, and that the men who associate with them are not by so doing held to incur any responsibility towards them or towards their offspring. If we bear in mind the part these women have played and the modifications which their status has undergone, it will be seen that the subject is one which nearly affects monasticism. For the convent accepted the dislike women felt to domestic subjection and countenanced them in their refusal to undertake the duties of married life. It offered an escape from the tyranny of the family, but it did so on condition of such a sacrifice of personal independence, as in the outside world more and more involved the loss of good repute. On the face of it, a greater contrast than that between the loose woman and the nun is hard to conceive ; and yet they have this in common, that they are both the outcome of the refusal among womankind to accept married relations on the basis of the sub- jection imposed by the father-age. In other respects too the earlier heathen period was not without influence on the incoming Christian faith, and helped to determine its conceptions with regard to women. In actual life the sacerdotal privileges, which tribal mothers had appropriated to themselves at the time of the introduction of Christianity, were retained by the priestess ; while in the realm of the ideal the reverence in which tribal mothers had been held still lived on in the worship of the tribal mother-divinity. It is under this twofold aspect, as priestess and as tribal mother-goddess, that the power of women was brought face to face with Christianity; the priestess and the mother-goddess were the well-defined types of heathen womanhood with which the early Church was called upon to deal. 6 The Borderland of [chap, i We will show later on how the ideal conception prevailed, and how the heathen mother-goddess often assumed the garb of a Christian woman-saint, and as a Christian woman-saint was left to exist unmolested. Not so the heathen priestess and prophet- ess. From the first introduction of Christianity the holding of sacerdotal powers by women was resented both within and without the Church, and opprobrium was cast on the women who claimed to mediate between the human and the divine. At the time of the advent of Christianity the Gannas and Veledas of the Roman period are still a living reality ; they are the ' wise women' who every now and then leave their retreat and appear on the stage of history. A prophetess in gorgeous apparel makes her entry into Verdun in the year 547, drawing crowds about her and foretelling the future. She is in no way intimidated by the exorcisms of prelates, and presently leaves to betake herself to the court of the Prankish queen Fredegund. Again in 577 we find the Frankish king Guntchramm in consultation with a woman soothsayer, and other cases of the kind are on record'. In the ninth century the Church more effectually exercised her influence in the case of the woman Thiota, who coming from Switzerland inflamed the minds of the folk in Mainz ; for she was accused of profanity and publicly scourged^ But for all the attacks of the Church, the folk persisted in clinging to its priestesses and in believing them gifted with special powers. Grimm shows how the Christian accusers of soothsaying women made them into odious witches'; Wuttke and Weinhold, both well-known students of folk-lore, consider that witches were originally heathen priestesses^ The intrinsic meaning of the word hexe, the German designation for witch, points to some one who originally belonged to a group living in a particular manner, but whose practices made her obnoxious to those who had apprehended the higher moral standard of a later social period. But the Church failed to stamp even the witch as wholly despicable ; for in popular estimation she always retained some of the attributes of the priestess, the wise woman, the bona domina, the ' white witch ' of tradition ; so that the doctrine that the soothsaying woman is necessarily the associate of evil was never altogether accepted. ' Gregorius Tur., Hist. Eccles. 5, ch. 14, t6, 19. " Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 78. " Ibid. p. 881 flf. » Wuttke, Deutscher Volksaberglaube, 1869, p. 141 ; Weinhold, K., Deutsche Frauen, 1882, vol. 1, p. 73. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. Even now-a-days incidents happen occasionally in remote districts which show how the people still readily seek the help of women in matters of wisdom, of leechcraft, and of prescience. It was only under the influence of a scare that people, who were ac- customed to consult the wise woman in good faith, could be brought to abhor her as a witch. It was only during the later Middle Ages that the undisputed and indisputable connection of some ' wise women' with licentious customs gave their traducers a weapon of which they were not slow to avail themselves, and which enabled them to rouse fanaticism of the worst kind against these women. The practices and popularity of witchcraft were in truth the latest survivals of the mother-age. The woman, who devised love- charms and brewed manifold remedies for impotence and for allaying the pangs of childbirth, who pretended to control the weather and claimed the power to turn the milk of a whole village blue, carried on traditions of a very primitive period. And her powers, as we shall see, always had a close parallel in those attributed to women-saints. For example St Gertrud of Nivelles has left a highly prized relic to womankind in the form of a cloak which is still hung about those who are desirous of becoming mothers' ; and the hair of a saint, Mechthild, is still hung outside the church at Toss in Switzerland to avert the thunderstorm''; and again St Gunt- hild of Biberbach and others are still appealed to that they may avert the cattle plague'. What difference, it may be asked, is there between the powers attributed to these saints and the powers with which witches are usually credited } They are the obverse and reverse of woman's connection with the supernatural, which in the one case is interpreted by the sober mind of reverence, and in the other is dreaded under the perturbing influence of a fear en- couraged, if not originated, by Christian fanatics. In the Christian Church the profession of the nun was accepted as holy, but an impassable gulf separated her from the priestess. During early Christian times we come across the injunction that women shall not serve at the altar^, and that lady abbesses shall not take upon themselves religious duties reserved to men by the Church. When we think of women gathered together in a religious ' Rochhok, E. L., Drei Gaugottinnen, 1870, p. 191. * Menzel, Christliche Symbolik, 1854, article 'Haar.' ' A. SS. Boll., St Gunthildis, Sept. 12. " Bouquet, Recueil Hist., vol. 5, p. 690. Capitulare incerti anni, nr 6, ' ut mulieres ad altare non ingrediantur.' 8 The Borderland of [chap. establishment and dependent on the priest outside for the performing of divine worship, their desire to manage things for themselves does not appear unnatural, encouraged as it would be by traditions of sacerdotal rights belonging to them in the past. And it is worthy of notice that as late as the 13th century, Brother Berthold, an influential preacher of south Germany, speaks ardently against women who would officiate at divine service and urges the mischief that may result from such a course. Turning to the question of how far these obvious survivals from a heathen age are determined by time and place, we find broad lines of difference between the heathen survivals of the various branches of the German race, and considerable diversity in the character of their early Christianity and their early women- saints. This diversity is attributable to the fact that the heathen beliefs of these various peoples were not the same at the time of their first contact with Christianity, and that they did not accept it under like circumstances. For while those branches of the race who moved in the vanguard of the great migration, the Vandals, the Burgundians and the Goths, readily embraced Christianity, it was Christianity in its Arian form. Arianism, which elsewhere had been branded as heresy and well-nigh stamped out, suddenly revived among the Germans ; all the branches of the race who came into direct contact with peoples of civilized Latinity readily embraced it. Now one of the distinguishing features of Arian belief was its hatred of monasticism'. The Arian convert hunted the monk from his seclusion and thrust him back to the duties of civic life. It is not then among Germans who adopted Arian Christianity that the beginnings of convent life must be sought. Indeed as Germans these peoples soon passed away from the theatre of history ; they intermarried and fell in with the habits of the people among whom they settled, and forfeited their German language and their German traditions. It was otherwise with the Franks who entered Gaul at the close of the fourth century, and with the Anglo-Saxons who took posses- sion of Britain. The essentially warlike character of these peoples was marked by their worship of deities such as Wodan, a worship before which the earlier worship of mother-divinities was giving way. Women had already been brought into subjection, but they had a latent desire for independence, and among the Franks and Anglo- ' Montalembert, Monks of the West, i, p. 359. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. 9 Saxons women of the newly converted race eagerly snatched at the possibilities opened out by convent life, and in their ranks history chronicles some of the earliest and most remarkable developments of monasticism. But the Franks and the Anglo- Saxons, in leaving behind the land of their origin, had left behind those hallowed sites on which primitive worship so essentially depends. It is in vain that we seek among them for a direct connection between heathen mother-divinity and Christian woman- saint ; their mother-divinities did not live on in connection with the Church. It is true that the inclination to hold women in reverence remained, and found expression in the readiness with which they revered women as saints. The women-saints of the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks are numerous, and are nearly all known to have been interested in convent foundations. But the legends, which in course of time have crystallised round them, and the miracles attributed to them, though containing certain elements of heathen folk-tradition, are colourless and pale compared with the traditions which have been preserved by saint legend abroad. It is in Germany proper, where the same race has been in possession of the same sites for countless generations, that the primitive character of heathen traditions is most pronounced and has most directly determined and influenced the cult and the legends of women-saints. Besides the reminiscences of the early period which have survived in saint legend, traditions and customs of the same period have lived on in the worship of the Virgin Mary. The worship of the Virgin Mary was but slightly developed in Romanised Gaul and Keltic Britain, but from the beginning of the sixth century it is a marked feature in the popular creed in those countries where the German element prevailed. As Mrs Jameson says in her book on the legends of the Madonna : ' It is curious to observe, as the worship of the Virgin mother expanded and gathered in itself the relics of many an ancient faith, how the new and the old elements, some of them apparently most heterogeneous, became amalgamated and were combined into the earlier forms of art...'.' Indeed the prominence given to the Virgin is out of all propor- tion to the meagre mention of her in the gospels. During the early Christian period she was largely worshipped as a patron saint in France, England and Germany, and her fame continued steadily increasing with the centuries till its climax was reached in the ' Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, 1857, Introd. xix. lo The Borderland of [chap, i Middle Ages, which witnessed the greatest concessions made by the Church to the demands of popular faith. According to Rhys' many churches dedicated to Mary were built on spots where tradition speaks of the discovery of a wooden image, probably a heathen statue which was connected with her. In the seventh century Pope Sergius (687-701) expressly ordered that the festivals of the Virgin Mary were to take place on heathen holy days in order that heathen celebrations might become associated with her^ The festivals of the Virgin to this day are associated with pilgrimages, the taste for which to the Frenchman of the Middle Ages appeared peculiarly German. The chronicler Froissart, writing about 1390, remarks 'for the Germans are fond of performing pilgrimages and it is one of their customs'.' Mary then, under her own name, or under the vaguer appellation of Our Lady (Unser liebe frau, Notre Dame, de heilige maagd), assimilated surviving traditions of the heathen faith which were largely reminiscences of the mother-age ; so that Mary became the heiress of mother-divinities, and her worship was associated with cave, and tree, and fountain, and hill-top, all sites of the primitive cult. 'Often,' says Menzel^ 'a wonder-working picture of the Madonna is found hung on a tree or inside a tree ; hence numerous appella- tions like " Our dear Lady of the Oak," " Our dear Lady of the Linden-tree," etc. Often at the foot of the tree, upon which such a picture is hung, a fountain flows to which miraculous power is ascribed.' In the Tyrol we hear of pictures which have been discovered floating in a fountain or which were borne to the bank by a river^ As proof of the Virgin Mary's connection with festivals, we find her name associated in Belgium with many pageants held on the first of May. Throughout German lands the Assumption of the Virgin comes at the harvest festival, and furnishes an occasion for some pilgrimage or fair which preserves many peculiar and per- plexing traits of an earlier civilization. The harvest festival is coupled in some parts of Germany with 1 Rhys, J., Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, 1888, p. 102. ' Frantz, C, Versuch einer Geschiehte des Marien iind Annenailtus, 1854, p. 54 ff. '" Froissart, Chronicle, u. 162, in English translation; also Oberle, K. A., Ueberreste germ. Heidentiitns im Christentum, 1883, p. 153. ■• Menzel, Christ. Symbolik, 1854, article ' Baum.' '^ Oberle, K. A., Ueberreste germ. Heidentums im Christentum, 1883, p. 144. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. 1 1 customs that are of extreme antiquity. In Bavaria the festival sometimes goes by the name of the 'day of sacred herbs,' krduter- weihtag ; near Wiirzburg it is called the ' day of sacred roots,' wiirzelweihtag, or ' day of bunch-gathering,' bilschelfrauentag^. In the Tyrol the 15 th of August is the great day of the Virgin, grosse fratientag, when a collection of herbs for medicinal purposes is made. A number of days, frauentage, come in July ahd August and are now connected with the Virgin, on which herbs are col- lected and offered as sacred bunches either on the altar of Our Lady in church and chapel, or on hill-tops which throughout Germany are the sites of ancient woman-worship ^ This collecting and offering of herbs points to a stage even more primitive than that represented by offerings of grain at the harvest festival. In a few instances the worship of Mary is directly coupled with that of some heathen divinity. In Antwerp to this day an ancient idol of peculiar appearance is preserved, which women, who are desirous of becoming mothers, decorate with flowers at certain times of the year. Its heathen appellation is lost, but above it now stands a figure of the Virgin'. Again we find the name of Mary joined to that of the heathen goddess Sif In the Eiffel district, extending between the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Mosel, a church stands dedicated to Mariasif, the name of Mary being coupled with that of Sif, a woman-divinity of the German heathen pantheon, whom Grimm characterizes as a giver of rain*. The name Mariahilf, a similar combination, is frequently found in south Germany, the name of Mary as we hope to show further down being joined to that of a goddess who has survived in the Christian saint Hilp^ These examples will suffice to show the close connection between the conceptions of heathendom and popular Christianity, and how the cloak of heathen association has fallen on the shoulders of the saints of the Christian Church. The authorities at Rome saw no occasion to take exception to its doing so. Pope Gregorius II. (590-604) in a letter addressed to Mehtus of Canterbury expressly 1 Menzel, Christl. Symbolik, 1854, article ' Himmelfahrt.' 2 Ibid., article ' Frauenberg ' ; also Oberle, K. A., Uebemste germ. Heidentums im Christentum, 1883, p. 38. 3 Rochholz, Drei Gaugottinnen, 1870, p. 81, calls it Vl^alburg; Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, Traditions et Ugendes de la Belgique, 1870, p. 286, calls it Fro or Frigg. * Simrock, K., Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, 1887, p. 379; also Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 257. ^ Comp. below, p. 35. 12 The Borderland of [chap, i urged that the days of heathen festival should receive solemnity through dedication to some holy martyr^ The Christian saint whose name was substituted for that of some heathen divinity readily assimilated associations of the early period. Scriptural characters and Christian teachers were given the emblems of older divinities and assumed their characteristics. But the varying nature of the same saint in different countries has hardly received due attention. St Peter of the early British Church was very different from St Peter who in Bavaria walked the earth like clumsy good- natured Thor, or from St Peter who in Rome took the place of Mars as protector of the city. Similarly the legends currently told of the same saint in different countries exhibit markedly different traits. For the transition from heathendom to Christianity was the work not of years but of centuries ; the claims made by religion changed, but the underlying conceptions for a long time remained unaltered. Customs which had once taken a divine sanction continued to be viewed under a religious aspect, though they were often at variance with the newly-introduced faith. The craving for local divinities in itself was heathen ; in course of time the cult of the saints altogether re-moulded the Christianity of Christ. But the Church of Rome, far from opposing the multitude of those through whom the folk sought intercession with the Godhead, opened her arms wide to all. At the outset it lay with the local dignitary to recognise or reject the names which the folk held in veneration. Religious settlements and Church centres regulated days and seasons according to the calendar of the chief festivals of the year, as accepted by the Church at Rome ; but the local dignitary was at liberty to add further names to the list at his discretion. For centuries there was no need of canonisation to elevate an individual to the rank of saint; the inscribing of his name on a local calendar was sufficient. Local calendars went on indefinitely swelling the list of saintly names till the Papal See felt called upon to interfere^. Since the year 1153 the right to declare a person a saint has lain altogether with the authorities at Rome^ Considering the circumstances under which the peoples of ' Bede, Ecclesiastical History, i , ch. 30. ° On English calendars, Piper, F., Kalendarien und Martyrologien der Angelsachsen, 1862 ; Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887. ' Stadler und Heim, Vollsldndiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858-62, vol. 2, Einleitung. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. 13 German race first came into contact with Christianity, it is well to recall the fact that a busy Church life had grown up in many of the cities north of the Alps, which were centres of the Roman system of administration previous to the upheaval and migration of German heathen tribes, which began in the fourth century. Legend has preserved stories of the apostles and their disciples wandering northwards and founding early bishoprics along the Rhine, in Gaul and in Britain ^ The massacres of Christians in the reign of Diocletian cannot be altogether fabulous; but after the year 313, when Constantine at Rome officially accepted the new faith, until the German invasion, the position of Christianity was well secured. A certain development of monastic life had accompanied its spread. In western Gaul we hear of Martin of Tours (t400) who, after years of military service and religious persecution, settled near Poitiers and drew about him many who joined him in a round of devotion and work. The monastic, or rather ccenobite, settlement of his time consisted of a number of wattled cells or huts, surrounded by a trench or a wall of earth. The distinction between the earlier word, coenobiiim, and the later word, tnona- steriu7n, as used in western Europe, lies in this, that the coenobium designates the assembled worshippers alone, while the monastery presupposes the possession of a definite site of landl In this sense the word monastery is as fitly applied to settlements ruled by women as to those ruled by men, especially during the early period when these settlements frequently include members of both sexes. St Martin of Tours is also credited with having founded congregations of religious women ^ but I have found nothing definite concerning them. Our knowledge of the Christian life of the British is very limited ; presumably the religious settlement was a school both of theology and of learning, and no line of distinction divided the settlements of priests from those of monks. From Gildas, a British writer, who at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion (c. 560) wrote a stern invective against the irreligious ways of his country- men, we gather that women lived under the direction of priests, but it is not clear whether they were vowed to continence^. But as far ' For France, Guettee, Histoire de r&glise de France, 1847-55, vol. i, p. i; for England, Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, pp. i ff. ; for Germany, Friedrich, Kirchmgeschichte, 1867, vol. i, pp. 86 ff. * Ducange, Glossarium : ' coenobium.' 5 Dupuy, A., Histoire de S. Martin, 1852, p. 176. ■* Gildas, Epistle, c. 66. 14 The Borderland of [chap, i as I am aware, there is no evidence forthcoming that before the Saxon invasion women lived in separate religious establishments, the rule of which was in the hands of one of their own sex\ The convent is of later date. During the early centuries of established Christianity the woman who takes the vow of conti- nence secures the protection of the Church but does not necessarily leave her home-surroundings. Thus Ambrosius, archbishop of Milan (f 397), one of the most influential supporters of early Christianity, greatly inflamed women's zeal for a celibate life. But in the writings of Ambrosius, which treat of virginity, there is no suggestion that the widow or the maiden who vows continence shall seek seclusion or solitude''- Women vowed to continence moved about freely, secure through their connection with the Church from distasteful unions which their relatives might otherwise force upon them. Their only dis- tinctive mark was the use of a veil. Similarly we find Hilarius (^369), bishop of Poitiers, addressing a letter to his daughter Abra on the beauties of the unmarried state. In this he assures her, that if she be strong enough to renounce an earthly bridegroom, together with gay and splendid apparel, a priceless pearl shall fall to her shared But in this letter also there is no suggestion that the woman who embraces religion should dwell apart from her family. It is well to bear this in mind, for after the acceptance of Christianity by the peoples of German race, we occasionally hear of women who, though vowed to religion, move about freely among their fellows ; but Church councils and synods began to urge more and more emphatically that this was productive of evil, and that a woman who had taken the religious vow must be a member of a convent. To sum up ; — the peoples of German race, at the time of their contact with Christianity, were in a state of social development which directly affected the form in which they accepted the new faith and the institutions to which such acceptance gave rise. Some branches of the race, deserting the land of their birth, ' In Ireland we hear of nunneries founded by St Bridget in the fifth century, the chief of which was at Kildare ; also that this saint crossed the Irish Sea and founded nunneries at Glastonbury in England and at Abemethy in Scotland. The accounts of the work of Bridget are numerous, but have not been subjected to criticism. Comp. A. SS. Boll. St Brigida, Feb. i, and Lanigan, Eccles. History of Ireland, 1829, 1, pp. 377 ff. ^ Ambrosius, Opera (edit. Migne, Patrol. Cursus Comp. vol. 16), De virginibus, p. 187 ■ (vol. 17) Ad virginem devoiam, p. 579. ^ Hilarius, Opera (edit. Migne, vol. 10), Ad Abram, p. 547. SECT, i] Heathendom and Christianity. 15 came into contact with peoples of Latin origin, and embraced Christianity under a form which excluded monasticism, and soon lost their identity as Germans. Others, as the Franks and Anglo- Saxons, giving up the worship of their heathen gods, accepted orthodox Christianity, and favoured the mode of life of those who followed peaceful pursuits in the monastery, pursuits which their wives especially were eager to embrace. Again, those peoples who remained in possession of their earlier homes largely preserved usages dating from a primitive period of tribal organization, usages which affected the position of their women and determined the character of their women-saints. It is to Germany proper that we must go for the woman-priestess who lives on longest as the witch, and for the loose women who most markedly retain special rights and privileges. And it is also in Germany proper that we find the woman-saint who is direct successor to the tribal mother- goddess. § 2. The Tribal Goddess as a Christian Saint. Before considering the beginnings of convent life as the work of women whose existence rests on a firm historic basis, we must enquire into the nature of women-saints. From the earliest times of established Christianity the lives of men and women who were credited with special holiness have formed a favourite theme of religious narratives, which were intended to keep their memory green and to impress the devout with thoughts of their saintliness. The Acts of the Saints, the comprehensive collection of which is now in course of publication under the auspices of the Bollandists, form a most important branch of literature. They include some of the most valuable material for a history of the first ten centuries of our era, and give a most instructive insight into the drift of Christianity in different epochs. The aims, experiences and suffer- ings of Christian heroes and heroines inspired the student and fired the imagination of the poet. Prose narrative told of their lives, poems were written in their praise, and hymns were composed to be sung at the celebration of their ofifice. The godly gained confidence from the perusal of such compositions, and the people hearing them read or sung were impressed in favour of Christian doctrine. The number of men and women whom posterity has glorified as saints is legion. Besides the characters of the accepted and the apocryphal gospels, there are the numerous early converts to 1 6 The Tribal Goddess as [chap, i Christianity who suffered for their faith, and all those who during early Christian times turned their energies to practising and preach- ing the tenets of the new religion, and to whose memory a loving recollection paid the tribute of superstitious reverence. Their successors in the work of Christianity accepted them as patron saints and added their names to the list of those to whose memory special days were dedicated. Many of them are individuals whose activity in the cause of Christianity is well authenticated. Friends have enlarged on their work, contemporary history refers to their existence, and often they have themselves left writings, which give an insight into their lives. They are the early and true saints of history, on whose shoulders in some cases the cloak of heathen association has fallen, but without interfering with their great and lasting worth. But besides those who were canonised for their enthusiasm in the cause of early Christianity, the Acts of the Saints mention a number of men and women who enjoy local reverence, but of whose actual existence during Christian times evidence is wanting. Among them are a certain number of women with whom the present chapter purposes to deal, women who are locally wor- shipped as saints, and whose claims to holiness are generally recognised, but whose existence during Christian times is hypo- thetical. Their legends contain a small, in some cases a scarcely sensible, basis of historic fact, and their cult preserves traits which are pre-Christian, often anti-Christian, in character. The traveller Blunt, during a stay in Italy in the beginning of this century, was struck with the many points which modern saints and ancient gods have in common. He gives a description of the festival of St Agatha at Catania, of which he was an eye-witness, and which to this day, as I have been told, continues little changed. The festival, as Blunt describes it, opened with a horse-race, which he knew from Ovid was one of the spectacles of the festival of the goddess Ceres ; and further he witnessed a mummery and the carrying about of huge torches, both of which he also knew formed part of the old pagan festival. But more remarkable than this was a great procession which began in the evening and lasted into the night; hundreds of citizens crowded to draw through the town a ponderous car, on which were placed the image of the saint and her relics, which the priests exhibited to the ringing of bells. Among these relics were the veil of Agatha, to which is ascribed the power of staying the eruption of Mount Aetna, and the breasts SECT, ii] a Christian Saint. 17 of the saint, which were torn off during her martyrdom^. Catania, Blunt knew, had always been famous for the worship of Ceres, and the ringing of bells and a veil were marked features of her festivals, the greater and the lesser Eleusinia. Menzel tells us that huge breasts were carried about on the occasion =. Further, Blunt heard that two festivals took place yearly in Catania in honour of Agatha ; one early in the spring, the other in the autumn, exactly corresponding to the time when the greater and lesser Eleusinia were celebrated. Even the name Agatha seemed but a taking over into the new religion of a name sacred to the old. Ceres was popularly addressed as Bo?ia Dea, and the name Agatha, which does not occur as a proper name during ancient times, seemed but a translation of the Latin epithet into Greek. The legend of Agatha as contained in the Acta Sanctorum places her existence in the third century and gives full details concerning her parentage, her trials and her martyrdom ; but I have not been able to ascertain when it was written. Agatha is the chief saint of the district all about Catania, and we are told that her fame penetrated at an early date into Italy and Greece^ It is of course impossible actually to disprove the existence of a Christian maiden Agatha in Catania in the third century. Some may incline to the view that such a maiden did exist, and that a strange likeness between her experiences and name on the one hand, and the cult of and epithet applied to Ceres on the other, led to the popular worship of her instead of the ancient goddess. The question of her existence as a Christian maiden during Christian times can only be answered by a balance of probabilities. Our opinion of the truth or falsehood of the traditions concerning her rests on inference, and the conclusion at which we arrive upon the evidence must largely depend on the attitude of mind in which we approach the subject. The late Professor Robertson Smith has insisted that myths are latter-day inventions which profess to explain surviving peculiarities of ritual. If this be so, we hold in the Eleusinia a clue to the incidents of the Agatha legend. The story for example of her veil, which remained untouched by the flames when she was burnt, may be a popular myth which tries to account for the presence of the veil at 1 Blunt, J. J., Vestiges of Ancient Manners in Italy and Sicily, 1823, pp. 56 ff. 2 Menzel, W., Christl. Symbolik, 1854, article 'Brust,' makes this statement. I do not see where he takes it from. 3 A. SS. Boll., St Agatha, Feb. 5. E. 3 1 8 The Tribal Goddess as [chap, i the festival. The incident of the breasts torn off during martyrdom was invented to account for the presence of these strange symbols. Instances of this kind could be indefinitely multiplied. Let the reader, who wishes to pursue the subject on classic soil, examine the name, the legend and the emblem of St Agnes, virgin martyr of Rome, who is reputed to have lived in the third century and whose cult is well established in the fourth; let him enquire into the name, legend and associations of St Rosalia of Palermo, invoked as a protectress from the plague, of whom no mention occurs till four centuries after her reputed existence*. I have chosen Agatha as a starting point for the present enquiry, because there is much evidence to hand of the prevalence of mother-deities in pre-Christian Sicily, and because the exami- nation of German saint-legend and saint-worship leads to analogous results. In Germany too the mother divinity of heathendom seems to survive in the virgin saint ; and in Germany virgin saints, in attributes, cult and name, exhibit peculiarities which it seems impossible to explain save on the hypothesis that traditions of the heathen past survive in them. So much is associated with them which is pre-Christian, even anti-Christian in character, that it seems legitimate to speak of them as pseudo-saints. I own it is not always possible to distinguish between the historical saint and the pseudo-saint. Sometimes data are wanting to disprove the statements made by the legend-writer about time and place ; sometimes information is not forthcoming about local traditions and customs, which might make a suggestive trait in saint-legend stand out in its full meaning. In some cases also, owing to a coincidence of name, fictitious associations have become attached to a real personage. But these cases I believe are com- paratively few. As a general rule it holds good that a historical saint will be readily associated with miraculous powers, but not with profane and anti-Christian usages. Where the latter occur it is probable that no evidence will be forthcoming of the saint's actual existence during Christian times. If she represents a person who ever existed at all, such a person must have lived in a far-distant heathen past, at a time which had nothing in common with Christian teaching and with Christian tenets. There is this further peculiarity about the woman pseudo-saint of Germany, that she is especially the saint of the peasantry ; so that we rarely hear more of her than perhaps her name till centuries 1 A. SS. Boll., St Agnes, Jan. 21 ; St Rosalia, Sept. 4. SECT, n] a Christian Saint. 19 after her reputed existence. Early writers of history and biography have failed to chronicle her doings. Indeed we do not hear of her at all till we hear of her cult as one of long standing or of great importance. It is only when the worship of such saints, who in the eyes of the common folk are the chief glory of their respective districts, attracts the attention of the Church, that the legend-writer sets to work to write their legends. He begins by ascribing to the holder of a venerated name human parentage and human experiences, he collects and he blends the local traditions associated with the saint on a would-be historical background, and makes a story which frequently offers a curious mixture of the Christian and the profane. Usually he places the saint's existence in the earliest period of Christianity ; sometimes at a time when Christianity was unknown in the neighbourhood where she is the object of reverence. Moreover all these saints are patronesses of women in their times of special trial. Their cult generally centres round a cave, a fountain of peculiar power, a tree, or some other site of primitive woman-worship. Frequently they are connected with some peculiar local custom which supplies the clue to incidents introduced by the legend-writer. And even when the clue is wanting, it is sometimes possible to understand one legend by reading it in the light of another. Obscure as the parallels are in some cases, in others they are strikingly clear. The recognised holiness of the woman pseudo-saint is in no way determined by the limit of bishopric and diocese ; she is worshipped within geographical limits, but within limits which have not been marked out by the Church. It was mentioned above that separate districts of Germany, or rather tribes occupying such dis- tricts, clung to a belief in protective mother-goddesses (Gaumiitter). Possibly, where the name of a pseudo-saint is found localised in contiguous districts, this may afford a clue to the migration of tribes. The Acta Sanctorzim give information concerning a large number of pseudo-saints, but this information to be read in its true light needs to be supplemented by further details of local veneration and cult. Such details are found in older books of devotion, and in modern books on mythology and folk-lore. Modern religious writers, who treat of these saints, are in the habit of leaving out or of slurring over all details which suggest profanity. Compared with older legends, modern accounts of the saints are limp and colourless, and share the weak sentimentality, which during the 2 — 2 20 The Tribal Goddess as [chap, i last few centuries has come to pervade the conceptions of Catholic Christianity as represented in pictorial art. The names of a number of women whom the people hold in veneration have escaped the attention of the compilers of the Acta Sanctorum, or else they have been purposely passed over because their possessors were held unworthy of the rank of saint. But the stories locally told of them are worth attention, and the more so because they throw an additional light on the stories of recognised saints. The larger number of recognised pseudo-saints are found in the districts into which Christianity spread as a religion of peace, or in remoter districts where the power of the Church was less immediately felt. They are found most often north of the Danube and east of the Rhine, especially in the lake districts of Bavaria and Switzerland, in the marshy wilds of the Low Countries, and in the remote forest regions of the Ardennes, the Black Forest, the Spessart or the Vosges. Where Christianity was established as the result of political subjection, as for example among the Saxons, the woman pseudo- saint is hardly found at all. Perhaps the heathenism of the Saxons differed from the heathenism of other German folk ; perhaps, like the Anglo-Saxons in England, the Saxons were conquerors of the land they inhabited and by moving out of their old homes had lost their local associations and their primitive cult. But, however this may be, it is not where Christianity advanced at the point of the lance, but in the districts where its spread was due to detached efforts of missionaries, that the woman pseudo-saint is most fre- quently met with. Wandering away into forest wilds, where scattered clearings lay like islets in an ocean, the missionary sought a retreat remote from the interference of government, remote also from the interference of the episcopate, where he could realise his hope of living a worthier life. Naturally his success largely depended on his securing the goodwill of the people in whose neighbourhood he settled. He was obliged to adapt himself to their mode of thought if he would win favour for his faith, and to realise their views if he wished to modify them in the direction of his own. To bridge over the abyss which separated his standard of life from theirs, he was bound to defer whenever he could to their sentiments and to their conceptions of holiness. How far these holy men ignored, how far they countenanced, the worship of local divinities, necessarily remains an open question. SECT, ii] a Christian Saint. 21 Rightly or wrongly popular tradition readily coupled the names of these early Christians with those of its favourite women-saints. Thus Willibrord, the Anglo-Saxon missionary who settled abroad in the eighth century, is said to have taken up and translated relics of the woman-saint Cunera and to have recognised her claim to veneration ; her cult is localised in various places near Utrecht. The life of Willibrord (f 739), written by Alcuin (t 804), contains no mention of Cunera, for the information we have concerning Willibrord's interest in her is to be found in the account of her life written centuries latere This account offers such a picturesque medley of chronological impossibilities that the commentators of the Acta Sanctorum have entirely recast it. The gist of the legend as told in the beginning of the 14th century is as follows". Cunera was among the virgin companions of St Ursula, and the date of her murder, near Coin, is given as 387, or as 449. Before the murder Cunera was borne away from Coin by King Radbod of Friesland, who covered her with his cloak, an ancient symbolic form of appropriation. Arrived at Renen he entrusted her with the keys of his kingdom, which incensed his wedded wife to such an extent that she caused Cunera to be strangled and the body hidden away. But the site where the saint lay was miraculously pointed out, and the wicked queen went mad and destroyed herself In vain we ask why a king of the Frisians, who persistently clung to their heathendom, should be interested in a Christian virgin and carry her off to preside over his household, and in vain we look for the assertion or for the proof that Cunera was a Christian at all. The Acta Sanctorum reject the connection between Cunera and St Ursula of Coin, but the writer Kist, who considers her to have been a real Christian individual, argues in favour of it. In the 12th century we find a certain Adelheid swearing to the rightfulness of her cause on the relics of St Cunera at Renen '. Similarly the story goes that Agilfrid, abbot of the monastery of St Bavon in Flanders, afterwards bishop of Li^ge (765—787), about the year 754 acquired the relics of the woman-saint Pharaildis and brought them to Ghent*. When the Northmen ravaged Flanders in 846 the bones of Pharaildis were among those carried 1 A. SS. Boll., St Cunera, June 12. 2 Kist, N. C, in Kerkhistorisch Archiv, Amsterdam, 1858, vol. i, p. 20. ■i Vita St Meinwerci, bishop of Paderborn (1009-39), written about 1155 (Potthast), ^•Vl- ■* Hautcceur, Actes de Ste Pharailde, 1882, Introduction, p. xc. 2 2 The Tribal Goddess as [chap, i away to St Omer by the Christians as their most valued possession, and in 939 they were brought back to Ghent \ The legend of Pharaildis gives no clue to the Christian interest in her, nor to the veneration of her, which is localised at Ghent, Hamm, Steenockerzeel, and Loo. We hear that she was married against her inclination, that she cured her husband who was a huntsman of a wound, and that after his death she dwelt in solitude to an advanced age, and that occasionally she wrought miracles. Further, in popular belief, she crossed the water dryshod, she chased away geese from the corn, and she struck the ground and the holy fountain at Bruay welled up for the benefit of the harvesters — incidents which are not peculiar to her legend. The festival of Pharaildis is kept on different dates at Ghent, Cambray, Maastricht and Breda. At Ghent it is associated with a celebrated fair, the occasion for great rejoicings among the populace. At the church of Steenockerzeel stones of conical shape are kept which are carried round the altar on her festival ^ in the same way as stones are kept elsewhere and considered by some writers to be symbols of an ancient phallic cult. The legend explains the presence of these stones by telling how the saint one day was surreptitiously giving loaves to the poor, when her act would have been discovered but that by intercession the loaves were transformed into stones. This incident, the transformation of gifts secretly given to the poor, is introduced into the legends of other women-saints, but only in this case have I found it mentioned that the transformed food was preserved. We shall have occasion to return to Pharaildis, whose legend and cult offer nothing to support the view that she was an early Christian. There are numerous instances of a like connection between holy missionary and woman pseudo-saint. A fair example is yielded by Leodgar (St Leger) bishop of Autun (f 678), a well-defined historical personality ^, whom tradition makes into a near relative of Odilia, a saint widely venerated, but whose reputed foundation of the monastery on the Hohenburg modern criticism utterly discards*. But it is not only Christian missionaries who are associated with these women-saints. Quite a number of saints have been brought into connection with the house of the Karlings, and ^ A. SS. Boll., Gloria posthuma St Bavonis, Oct. 1, p. 261. " Wauters, A., Histoiredes environs de Bruxelles, 1852, vol. 3, pp. m, 123 ff. 3 A. SS. Boll; Vita St Leodgarii, Oct. 2. * Roth, K. L., 'St Odilienberg ' in Alsalia, 1856, pp. 91 fF. SECT, ii] a Christian Saint. 23 frequently Karl the Great himself figures in the stories told of them. I do not presume to decide whether the legendary accounts of these women are pure invention ; some historic truth may be embodied in the stories told of them. But judging by the material at hand we are justified in disputing the existence of St Ida, who is said to have been the wife of Pippin of Landen and ancestress of the Karlings on the sole authority of the life of St Gertrud, her daughter. This work was long held to be contemporary, but its earliest date is now admitted to be the nth century'. It is less easy to cast discredit on the existence of the saints Amalberga, the one a virgin saint, the other a widow, whom hagiologists find great difficulty in distin- guishing. Pharaildis, mentioned above, and the saints Ermelindis, Reinildis and Gudila, are said to be Amalberga's daughters, but together with other saints of Hainault and Brabant they are very obviously pseudo-saints. The idea of bringing Karl the Great into some relation with them may have arisen from a twofold desire to justify traditions concerning them and to magnify the Emperor's importance. In this connection it seems worth while to quote the passage in which Grimm 2 describes the characteristic traits of the German god- dess in his German Mythology, and to consider how these traits are more or less pronounced in the women we have called pseudo-saints. ' It seems well,' he says, in the opening of his chapter on goddesses, ' to treat of goddesses collectively as well as individually, since a common conception underlies them all, which will thus stand out the more clearly. They are conceived essentially as divine mothers, travelling about and visiting mortals, from whom mankind learn the ways and arts of housekeeping and tilth: spinning, weaving, guarding the Jwarth, sowiftg and reaping (the italics are his). The tendency of the goddess to wander from place to place is reflected in many women pseudo-saints who are represented in their legends as inhabiting at various periods of their lives different parts of the district in which they are the object of veneration. Verena of northern Switzerland dwelt first at Solothurn, where a cave, which was her dwelling-place, is now 1 Bonnell, H. E., Anfdnge des karolingische,i Hauses, 1866, pp. 51. HP etc It is noticeable that another woman-saint Ida (A. SS. Boll., St Ida, J««^^) figures as ancestral mother of the Liudolfings, who became kings in Saxony and emperors of Germany, comp. ViB:nz,/ahrbiicher des deutschen Rdchs unter Heinnch I. 1863, Nachtrag i. 2 Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologic, 1875, p. 207. 24 The Tribal Goddess as [chap, i transformed into a chapel. Later she took boat to the place where the Aar, Reuss and Limmat meet, where she dwelt in solitude, and her memory is preserved at a spot called the cell of Verena (Verenazell). Later still she went to dwell at Zurzach, a place which was celebrated for a fair, called Verena's fair, of which more anon. All these places are on or near the river Aar, at no in- considerable distance from each other. The legend, as told by Stadler, takes them all into account, explaining how Verena came to be connected with each ^. Similarly the legend of the saint Odilia^ referred to above in connection with the Hohenburg, explains how the saint comes to be worshipped on both sides of the Rhine, a cruel father having driven her away from home. On the eastern side of the river there is a hill of St Odilia, Odilienberg, where there is a fountain which for its healing powers is visited twice a year and the site of which is guarded by a hermit. At Scherweiler there is also a site hallowed to her worship, and local tradition explains that she stayed there as a child ; according to another version she was discovered floating in a wooden chest on the water". Finally she is said to have settled on the Hohenburg west of the Rhine and to have founded a monastery. The critic Roth has written an admirable article on Odilia and the monastery of Hohen- burg. He shows that the monastery was ancient and that at first it was dedicated to Christ and St Peter, though afterwards their names were supplanted by that of St Odilia*. Here, as on the other side of the Rhine, the folk celebrate her festival by pilgrimages to a fountain which has miraculous healing power, and by giving reverence to a sacred stone, on which Odilia is said to have knelt so long in prayer for the soul of her wicked father, that her knees wore holes in it^ We hear that other saints travelled about and stayed now at one place, now at another. St Notburg visited different parts of the Neckar district^ Godeleva of Ghistelles' passed some time of her life in the marshy district between Ostend and Bruges. ^ Stadler und Heim, VoUstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858-82. ^ Lebensgeschichte der heil. Olhilia. Freiburg, 1852. * Alsatia, 1858-60, p. 268, contains local stories. * Roth, K. L., ' St Odilienberg ' in Alsatia, 1856, p. 95. '' Menzel, Christliche SymboHk, article 'Knieen.' ^ Du Bois de Beauchesne, Madame Ste Notburg, 1888, pp. 85, 197 etc. Stadler und Heim, VoUstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, and A. SS. Boll, so far, omit her. ' Lefebure, F. h..,Ste Godeleine et son culte, 1888. A. SS. Boll., St Godelewa, July 6. SECT, ii] a Christian Saint. 25 This Godeleva is addressed in her litany as the saint of marriage ; she was buried, we are told, in a cave, which was held holy as late as the present century. The pond, into which she was thrown after death, for which act no reason is given, obtained, and still retains, miraculous healing powers'. Her legend in other respects offers the usual traits. She is Godeleva in some parts of the country; in others she is Godeleina, and her life according to Potthast was written in the i ith century by Drago, a monk of Ghistelles. It is a curious trait in German saint-legend that the saint is often spoken of as coming from afar — from across the sea, from Britain, from Ireland, even from the Orkney Isles. It is thus with Ursula of Coin, Christiane of Dendermonde (Termonde), Lucie of Sampigny and many others. The idea had taken root at a very early date that St Walburg, whose cult is widespread, was identical with a sister of the missionaries, Wilibald and Wunebald, who went from England to Germany under the auspices of the prelate Boniface in the eighth century. We shall return to her further on^ It is sufficient here to point out that there is little likeness between the sober-minded women-mis- sionaries of Boniface's circle and the woman-saint who is localised under such different aspects, sometimes as a saint whose bones exude oil of miraculous power, sometimes as a valkyrie who anoints warriors for battle, sometimes as a witch who on the first of May leads forth her train to nightly riot on hill tops'. Again the love of home industry, which Grimm claims for mother goddesses, is reflected in the legends of many saints, to whose real existence every clue is wanting. This holds good especially of spinning and of weaving. Lufthildis, whose date and whose very name are uncertain, is represented as dwelling on a hill-top near a village and marking the limits of her district by means of her spindle, which is preserved and can be seen to this day in the chapel of Luftelberg, the hill which is connected with her*. Lucie of Sampigny, to whose shrine women who are sterile make a pilgrimage in order to sit on the stone consecrated to her° ; Walburg, referred to above ; Germana, whose cult appears at Bar-sur-Aube'; and one of the numerous localised saints ^ Wonderlyk Leven. Cortryk 1800, anon., pp. 42, 45 etc. '^ Comp. below, ch. 4, § 2. ' Rochholz, L., Drei Gaugottinnen, 1870, pp. 26, 80 etc. * Simrock, K. , Handbuch der deutschen Myihologie, p. 389. ^ Clouet, Histoire de Verdun, p. 180; A. SS. Boll., St Lucie, Sept. 9. ' A. SS. Boll., St Germana, Oct. i ; Husenbeth, F. C., Emblems of the Saints, 1882. 26 The Tribal Goddess as [chap, i Gertrud', are all connected with the distaff. In the church of Frauenkirchen, which stands near the site of the celebrated old abbey of Lach, St Genovefa of Brabant, whose legend is most picturesque and who is in some degree akin to Genevieve of Paris, is believed to be sitting behind the altar from which the buzz of her spinning-wheel is audible^ Again the protective interest in silk and agriculture, which Grimm claims for the German goddess, comes out in connection with the pseudo-saint. The harvest festival, so often associated with the Virgin Mary, is frequently also associated with the name of a pseudo-saint. Thus we find these saints represented with ears of corn, as Mary too has been represented''. The emblem of the three ears of corn was probably accepted owing to Roman influence. Verena of Zurzach, Notburg of Rottenburg, and Walburg, are all pictured holding a bunch of corn in one hand. Through the intercession of Walburg full barns are secured, while Notburg or Nuppurg of Rottenburg, one of the chief saints of Bavaria, to whose shrine many pilgrimages are made, holds a reaping hook as well as a bunch of corn, and throughout the Tyrol is looked upon as patron saint of the peasantry*. At Meerbeck in Brabant corn is blessed before it is sown under the auspices of the saint Berlindis, who protects tree planting. She is a saint of many associations and we shall hear more of her latere In some parts of Brabant seed sown at the time of the new moon in the month of June is protected by the saint Alena. We know little of Alena except that her arm was torn off in expiation of an unknown trespass and is kept as a relic in the church of Voorst, and that the archduchess Maria Anna of Spain sent for this relic in 1685 in the hope of securing a son by means of the saint's intercession^. To the shrine of Lufthildis corn is also brought as an offering to be distributed among the poor, while St Gertrud in Belgium protects bean and pea sowing'. ^ Rochholz, L. , Drei Gaugottimun, p. 164. ^ Zacher, J., St Genovefa F/alzgrafin, i860, p. 55. ' Menzel, Christliche Symbolik, article ' Aehre,' refers to Notre Dame de trois epis in Elsass. ■* Stadler und Heim, VoUstiindiges Heiligenlexicon, St Nothburga, nr 2. ■^ Wauters, A., Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, 1, p. 302; Coremans, VannSe de Fancienne Belgique, 1844, p. 76. * A. SS. Boll., St Alena, June 19; Menzel, W., Christliche Symbolik, 1854, article 'Arm.' Coi&!aix&, VanniedcVancienne Belgique, 1844, June 19. ' Coremans, Vannk etc., p. 77. SECT, ii] a Christian Saint. 27 Further traits in saint worship, which suggest woman's con- nection with the beginnings of settled civilization, are found in the pseudo-saint's frequent association with cattle and dairy produce. Peasants, men and women, may be seen to this day touching in reverence the udder of the cow which a rudely cut relief in wood represents by the side of the saint Berlindis at Meerbeck\ Gunthild, the patron saint of Biberbach in Wiirtemburg^ is represented holding in her hand a milk-jug, the contents of which were inexhaustible during her lifetime. The connection of saints with butter-making is frequent. St Radiane, otherwise called Radegund, is chiefly worshipped at Wellenburg near Augsburg, and her intercession secures milk and butter in plenty to her worshippers. She was torn in pieces by wolves'. Judging by her cult and her legends the pseudo-saint practises and protects in endless ways the early arts of settled agriculture and civilization. She herds cattle, she guards flocks of sheep, she weaves and she spins, and she is careful of the dairy. In her representations she is associated with 'emblems' which point to these various interests, and we find her holding corn, a reaping- hook, or a spindle. Domestic animals are pictured by her side, most frequently sheep, geese, cows and dogs. The cat appears rarelyS perhaps because it was associated with the evil side of woman's power. The besom too, the ancient symbol of woman's authority, is rarely, if ever^ put into the saint's hands, perhaps for a similar reason. One other peculiarity remains to be mentioned, which also has its counterpart in the witches' medicinal and curative power. The pseudo-saint's relics (after death) exude oil which is used for medicinal purposes. This peculiarity is noticed of the bones of the saints Walburg^ Rolendis', and Edigna«, but it is also noticed in connection with the relics of historical saints. But over and above these traits in the character of the pseudo- saint, legend often points to a heathen custom in connection with 1 Reinsberg-Duringsfeld, Traditions et ligendes de la Belgique, 1870, vol. ., p. 99. 3 A. SS. Boll., St Gunthildis, Sept. 22. 3 Imagines SS. Augustanorum, 1601 ; also Stadler and Heim, Vollslandiges Hnhgen- /«jrjVo«, St Radegundis, nr 3. ., ,. t , * Pharaildis has been depicted with one, A. SS Boll., St Pharaild.s, Jan. 4 ; also Verena, comp. below. 5 Husenbeth, F. C, Emblems of the Saints, 1870, mentions one instance. « Rochholz, Drei Gau^itinnen, 1870, p. 7. 7 Stadler und Heim, Vollstdndiges Heiligenlexicon ; A. SS. Boll., St Rolendis, May 13. 8 A. SS. Boll., St Edigna, Feb. 26. 28 The Tribal Goddess as a Christian Saint, [chap, i her of which we have definite information. Tacitus tells how the image of the German goddess Nerthus was carried about on festive occasions in a chariot drawn by cows. The pseudo-saint either during her lifetime or after her death was often similarly conveyed. Sometimes the animals put themselves to her chariot of their own accord, frequently they stopped of their own accord at the particular spot which the saint wished to be her last resting- place. Legend tells us of such incidents in connection also with historical saints, both men and women, and we hear further that the relics of saints sometimes and quite suddenly became so heavy that it was impossible to move them, a sure sign that it was safest not to try. So far the parallels between mother-goddess and woman pseudo- saint recall the practices of the heathen past, without actually offending against the tenor of Christianity. But the pseudo-saint has other associations of which this cannot be said, associations which are utterly perplexing, unless we go back for their explana- tion to the ancient tribal usages when the meeting of the tribe was the occasion for settling matters social and sexual. These asso- ciations introduce us to an aspect of the cult of the saints which brings primitive usages into an even clearer light, and shows how religious associations continued independently of a change of religion. § 3. Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. The Church, as mentioned above, had put every facility in the way of transforming heathen festivals into its own festal days. The heathen festival in many ways carried on the traditions of the tribal festival ; the tribal festival was connected with the cult of tribal goddesses. If we bear in mind the many points mother-goddess, witch, and woman pseudo-saint have in common, the association of the pseudo-saint with practices of a profane character no longer appears wonderful. Both in the turn saint legend takes, and in the character of festivities associated with the saint's name, we discern the survival of ideas which properly belong to differently constituted family and social arrangements, the true meaning of which is all but lost. On looking through the legends of many women-saints, it is surprising how often we find evil practices and heathen traditions associated with them, practices and traditions which the legend writer naturally is often at a loss to explain in a manner acceptable SECT. Ill] Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. 29 to Christianity. Thus the father of St Christiane of Dender- monde is said to have set up a temple where girls did service to Venus'; doing service to Venus being the usual way of describing licentious pursuits. In the metrical life of Bilihild, patron saint of Wiirzburg and Mainz, a description is introduced of the marriage festival as it was celebrated by the Franks in the Main district about the year 600, as this account would have it. Dances took place and unions were contracted for the commencing year. The Christian woman Bilihild was present at the festival, though we are of course told that she found it little to her taste and determined to abolish it". The legend of Bilihild has very primitive traits and is wanting in historical foundation and probability ; and it is at least curious that her name should be coupled with a festival which Christian religion and morality must have condemned. Again it is curious to find how often these women-saints die a violent death, not for conscience sake, nor indeed for any obvious reason at all. Radiane of Wellenburg, as mentioned above, was torn to pieces by wolves'; Wolfsindis of Reisbach, according to one account, was tied to wild oxen who tore her to pieces, according to another version of her story she was tied to a horse's tail*. St Regina of Alise, in the bishopric of Autun, is sometimes repre- sented surrounded by flames, sometimes in a steaming caldron" which recalls the caldron of regeneration of Keltic mythology. Frequently the saints are said to have been murdered like Cunera of Renen*, and St Sura otherwise Soteris or Zuwarda of Dordrecht'; sometimes their heads are cut off as in the case of Germana worshipped at Beaufort in Champagne'; sometimes like Godeleva they are strangled, and sometimes burnt; but Christianity is not the reason assigned for their painful deaths. For even the legend writer does not go so far as to bring in martyrdom at a period and in districts where suffering for the Christian faith is altogether out of the question. 1 A. SS. Boll, St Christiane, July 26. 2 Rochholz, L., Drei Gaugottinnen, p. 37. 3 Stadler und Heim, VoUstdndiges ffeiligenlexicon, 1858-82, St Radegundis, nr 3. ' Ibid., Appendix, p. 998, footnote. 5 Stadler und Heim, VoUstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Regina, nr 4. 8 Kist, N. C, 'Reenensche Kuneralegende ' in Kerkhistm-isch Archiv, Amsterdam, 1858, vol. 2, p. 5- 7 Stadler und Heim, VoUstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Sura. 8 A. SS. BoU; St Germana, Oct. r. 30 Ftirther Pectdiarities of this Type of Saint, .[chap. i. Panzer tells us about a group of three women-saints, to whom we shall presently return. He says in some churches masses are read for their souls and prayers offered for their salvation. Though reverenced by the people in many districts of Germany, they are as often said to have been hostile to Christianity as favourably disposed towards it'. We find immoral practices and violence ascribed to some of the English women-saints by Capgrave in the iSth century. He says of Inthware or luthware, who perhaps belongs to Brittany, that she was accused of being a harlot and put to death. Similarly he says of Osman or Oswen that she was accused of being a witch, but when brought before a bishop she consented to be baptized^. Stanton notifies of luthware that her translation was celebrated at Shirbourne'. Winifred too, who is worshipped in Shropshire, had her head cut off and it rolled right down the hill to a spot where a fountain sprang up, near St Winifred's well. The head however was miraculously replaced, Winifred revived and lived to the end of her days as a nun*. The want of information about these women makes it impossible to judge how far their existence is purely legendary ; certainly their stories are largely coloured by heathen traditions. The names luthware and Oswen are probably not Germanic ; and the fact of Winifred's living on the confines of Wales makes it probable that she is a Keltic rather than a Germanic saint. In connection with the festivals of some women pseudo-saints we find celebrations of a decidedly uproarious character taking place at a comparatively recent time. The feast of St Pharaildis, called locally Fru Verelde, used to be the chief holiday at Ghent, and was the occasion for much festivity and merrymaking^ At Liittich (Liege) stood a chapel dedicated to St Balbine, who is said to have been venerated far and wide in the 14th century. On her day, the first of May, there was a festival called Babilone at which dancing was kept up till late at night". The festival of St Godeleva kept at Longuefort maintained even in the i8th century a character which led to a violent dispute between the ' Panzer, F., Beitrag zur daUschen Myihologie, 1848, pp. 5 ff., 272 ff. '' Capgrave, Calalogiis SS. Angliae, 1516. ^ Stanton, R., Mmology of England and Wales, 1887. * Capgrave, Catahgus SS. Angliae, 1516. Comp. Surius, Vitae SS. 1617. ° Hautcceur, Acies de Ste Pharailde, 1882, Introd. cxxviiii. " Reinsberg-DUringsfeld, Tiadilions et Ugendes de la Belgique, 1870, vol. 1, p. 288. SECT. Ill] Further Pectdiarities of this Type of Saint. 3 1 populace and the Church dignitaries, who were determined to put it down'. Coincident with the festival known as the day of St Ber- lindis, a saint frequently referred to as a protectress of the peasantry, there is a festival called the Drunken Vespers, in which as early as the i6th century the archbishop forbade his clergy to take part". But by far the most striking and the most conclusive instances of the pseudo-saint's association with heathen survivals are afforded by St Verena of Switzerland and St Afra of Augsburg, whose worship and history we must examine more closely. Verena's association with various rites has already been referred to ; she is represented sometimes with ears of corn, sometimes ac- companied by a cat, and sometimes, which is even more suggestive, she is brought into connection with a brothel. The procession of St Verena's day from Zurzach to a chapel dedicated to St Maurice passed an old linden tree which, so the legend goes, marked the spot where the saint used to dwell. Hard by was a house for lepers and a house of ill fame, where on the same day the district bailiff (landvogt) opened the fair. He was obliged by old custom to pass this tree, at which a loose woman stood awaiting him, and to dance round the tree with her and give her moneys The legend of St Verena written between 1005 and 1032' does not explain these associations. We are told of a woman who came from the east with the Theban legion, which is generally supposed to have been massacred in 287. She is said to have made her home now in one district now in another, and one modern writer goes so far as to suggest that she was zealous in converting the AUemans to Christianity before the coming of Irish missionaries. According to folk-custom in districts between the Aar and the Rhine, girls who have secured husbands sacrifice their little maiden caps to Verena. At Zurzach married couples make pilgrimages to the Verenastift in order to secure ofTspring. Several dukes of the AUemans and their wives made such pilgrimages in the 9th and lOth centuries. It would lead too far to enumerate the many directions in which Verena is associated with heathendom. Her day, which comes at the harvest festival, was a time of un- ' Lefebure, Ste Godeleine et son culte, p. 209. ^ Wauters, A., Histaire des environs de Bruxelles, 1852, vol. i, p. 304. ^ Rochholz, Drei Gaugottinnen, 1870, p. 154. * Eotthast, Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des etirop. Mittelalters, 1862 ; Roch- holz, loc. cit., p. 108, prints an early poetic version of the story in the vernacular. 32 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint, [chap, i restrained license in Zurzach, a fact on which the Acta Sanctorum cast no doubt. Rochholz considers Verena to be a tribal mother of heathen- dom ; Simrock in his mythology considers her to be identical with the goddess Fru Frene, in whom he sees a kind of German Venus^ Grinim tells how the version of the Tannhauser saga, current in Switzerland, substitutes the name Frau Frene for that of Frau Venus^ The hero Tannhauser, according to medizeval legend, wavers between a baser and a higher interpretation of love ; the acceptance of the name Frene as representative of sensuousness shows the associations currently preserved in connection with this so-called saint. A similar association occurs in Belgium, where a saint Vreken {Sint Vreke), otherwise Vrouw Vreke, in mediaeval legend is the representative of sensual as opposed to spiritual love. Coremans describes how in the version of the saga of the faithful Eckhardt ( Van het trouwen Ecklioui) current in Belgium, the hero wavers between spiritual love of Our Lady and sensual love of Vreke. Among the folk Vrouw Vreke is a powerful personage, for the story goes that the Kabauters, evil spirits who dwell on the Kabauterberg, are in her service. In the book Reta de Limbonrg, which was re-written in the 17th century, the Kabauterberg becomes a Venusberg, and Vreke is no longer a great witch (eene grote heks) but a goddess with all the alluring charms of Venus'. Grimm in- cludes a Fru Freke among his German goddesses'*. She retains her old importance among the folk as a protective saint and presides over tree-planting^ Like the saints Verena and Vreke, St Afra of Augsburg is associated with licentiousness ; Wessely expressly calls her the patron saint of hetairism". Her legend explains the connection in a peculiar manner; as told by Berno, abbot of Reichenau (f 1048), it is most picturesque. We hear how Afra and her mother came from Cyprus, an island which mediaeval, following the classical writers, associated with the cult of Venus, and how she settled at Augsburg and kept a house of ill fame with ' Simrock, K., Handbuch der deutschen Mythologies 1887, p. 393. " Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 254, footnote. ^ QQi\k.x^2iXi%s Vannie de Vaiuienne Belgique, pp. 6r, 113, 158. ■• Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 252. ° Coremans, L'annkde rancienne Belgique, p. 76; Stadler und Heim, Vollstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, and the A. SS. Boll, pass her over. " Wessely, J. G., Iconographie Gottes und der Heiligen, 1874. SECT. Ill] Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. 33 three companions. Here they entertained certain Church dignitaries (otherwise unknown to history) who persuaded the women to embrace Christianity and give up their evil practices. They became virtuous, and when persecutions against Christians were instituted they all suffered martyrdom ; Afra was placed on a small island and burnt at the stake'. The legend writer on the basis of the previous statement places the existence of these women in the early part of the fourth century during the reign of Diocletian. Curiously enough the legend of Afra is led up to by a description of the worship of the heathen goddess Zisa, a description to which Grimm attaches great importance^ This goddess was worshipped at or near Augsburg. Velserus', who in the i6th century compiled a chronicle of Augsburg, gives us a mass of information about traditions connected with her and her worship, as he also does about St Afra. There is in his mind of course no shadow of a suspicion of any connection between them. But he informs us that the Zizenberg, or hill of Zisa, and the Affen- wald which he interprets as Afrawald or wood of Afra, are one and the same place. Berno also wrote a life of Ulrich (St Udalricus), bishop of Augsburg (t973), who boldly defended the town at the time of the invasion of the Hungarians. In this life the bishop has a miraculous vision of St Afra, who takes him on a pilgrimage by night and points out the site where he afterwards founded a monastery, known to later ages as the monastery of St Ulrich and St Afra. The worship of Afra is referred to by the poet For- tunatus as early as the sixth century; the story of the saint's martyrdom is older than that of her conversion. The historian Rettberg is puzzled why so much stress should be laid on her evil ways* ; but the historian Friedrich, regardless of perplexing associations, sees the beginnings of convent life for women in Augsburg in the fact of Afra and her companions dwelling to- gether between their conversion and martyrdom =. There are other traits in saint legend which point to the customs and arrangements of a more primitive period, and tempt 1 A. SS. Boll, St Afra, Aug. 5. ■'■ Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 242. 3 Velsenis, Antiqua monumenta. Chronica der Stadt Augsp. 1595 ; pp. 4, 14, 17, 32,88. " Rettberg, F. W., Kirchengeschichie, 1846, vol. i, p. 147. » Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte, 1867, vol. i, p. 413. E. 3 34 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. [chap, i the student to fit together pieces of the past and the present which appear meaningless if taken separately. It seems probable that in early times the term mother was applied to a number of women of a definite group by all the children of the group, and that the word had not the specialized meaning of one who had actually borne the children who termed her mother. The story of a number of children all being born at once by one woman is possibly due to a confused tradition dating from this period. In local saga, both in Germany and elsewhere, there are stories in which a woman suddenly finds herself in the possession of a number of offspring, and often with direful consequences to herself, because of the anger of her husband. The same incident has found its way into saint legend. Thus Notburg, patron saint of Sulz, had at a birth a number of* children, variously quoted as nine, twelve and thirty-six. Stadler says that she is represented at Sulz holding eight children in her arms, a ninth one lying dead at her feet\ Lacking water to christen these children, she pro- duced from the hard rock a fountain which even to the present day is believed to retain the power to cure disease. A similar story is told of Achachildis, popularly known as Atzin, who is held in veneration at Wendelstein near Schwabach. She bore her husband five children at once and then took a vow of continence. Her legend has never been written, but she enjoys a great reputation for holiness, and a series of pictures represent various incidents in her life''. Images of women sheltering children, usually beneath their cloaks, are frequently found abroad built into the outer wall of the church, the place where Christian teachers felt justified in placing heathen images^ Students of pictorial art will here recall the image of St Ursula at Coin sheltering ii,ooo virgins under her cloak. Again there are other emblems in saint worship which cannot be easily accounted for, such for instance as the holy combs of Verena and Pharaildis, which remind one of the comb with which the witch Lorelei sat combing her hair, or, on classic soil, of the comb of the Venus Calvata ; or the holy slippers of St Radiane, which ' Stadler und Heim, Vollstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Notburg, nr i. A. SS. Boll., St Notburga, Jan. 26. ' Stadler und Heim, Vollstandiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, Appendix, St Achachildis. ' Birlinger, A., Sckwdbische Sagen, vol. -i, p. 34I. SECT. Ill] Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. 35 are preserved to this day in the church of Wellenburg and which, as Stadler informs us, had been re-soled within his time\ SHppers and shoes are ancient symbols of appropriation, and as such figure in folk-lore and at weddings in many countries to this day. The golden slipper was likewise a feature at the witches' festival, in which the youthful fiddler also figured I Both the golden slipper and the youthful fiddler form important features in the legend of the saint Ontkommer or Wilgefortis. The images and legend of this saint are so peculiar that they claim a detailed account. It is evident from what has been said that the legends and cult of many women pseudo-saints have traits in common ; indeed the acts ascribed to different saints are often exactly similar. The stories of Notburg of Rottenburg, of Radiane of Wellenburg, and of Gunthild of Biberbach, as Stadler remarks, are precisely alike ; yet it is never suggested that these saints should be treated as one ; each of them has her place in the Acta Sanctorum and is looked upon as distinct from the others. There is, however, a set of women-saints whose images and legends have features so distinctive that hagiologists treat of them collectively as one, though they are held in veneration in districts widely remote from each other, and under very dissimilar names. The saint, who is venerated in the Low Countries as Ont- kommer or Wilgefortis, is usually considered identical with the saint Kiimmerniss of Bavaria and the Tyrol ; with the saint Livrade, Liberata or Liberatrix venerated in some districts of France as early as the 9th century when Usuard, writing in the monastery of St Germain-des-Pres, mentions her ; with Gehulff of Mainz ; with Hilp of the Hiilfensberg at Eichsfelde ; and with others called variously Regenfled, Regenfrith, Eutropia, etc' The name Maria- hilf, which is very common in south Germany, is probably a com- bination of the name of the Virgin Mother with that of St Hilp or St Gehulff. The legends of this saint, or rather of this assembly of saints, are characterized by Cuper in the Acta Sanctorum as an endless labyrinth*. Whatever origin be ascribed to them, when once we ex- amine them closely we find explanation impossible on the hypothesis 1 Stadler und Heim, Vollstandiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Radegundis, nr 3. 2 Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 896. ^ Stadler und Heim, Vollstandiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Kumernissa. * A. SS. Boll., St Liberata, July 20. 3—2 36 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. [chap, i that they relate to a single Christian woman living during Christian times. A considerable amount of information on this group of saints has lately been collected by Sloet, who deals also with their icono- graphy^ The peculiarity of the images of Ontkommer or Kiim- merniss consists in this, that she is represented as crucified, and that the lower part of her face is covered by a beard, and her body in some instances by long shaggy fur. Her legend explains the presence of the beard and fur by telling us that it grew to protect the maiden from the persecutions of a lover or the incestuous love of her father ; such love is frequently mentioned in the legends of women pseudo-saints. The fact that Ontkommer or Kiimmerniss is represented as crucified might be explained on the hypothesis that the common folk could not at first grasp the idea of a god and looked upon Christ as a woman, inventing the legend of the woman's persecution and miraculous protection in order to account for the presence of the beard. But other accessories of the representations of Ontkommer or Kiimmerniss lead us to suppose that her martyrdom, like that of other saints, has a different origin and that she is heiress to a tribal goddess of the past''. In many of her representations Ontkommer or Kiimmerniss is seen hanging on the cross with only one golden slipper on, but sometimes she wears two slippers, and a young man is sitting below the cross playing the fiddle. Legend accounts for the presence of this young man in the following manner. He came and sat at the foot of the image and was playing on his fiddle, when the crucified saint suddenly awoke to life, drew off a slipper and flung it to him. He took it away with him, but he was accused of having stolen it and condemned to death. His accusers however agreed to his request to come with him into the presence of the holy image, to which he appealed. Again the crucified saint awoke to life and drew off her second slipper and flung it to the fiddler, whose innocence was thereby vindicated and he was set free. Where shall we go for a clue to this curious and complicated legend .? Grimm tells us that a young fiddler was present at a festival ' ^\o^U De heilige Ontkommer of Wilgeforthis, 1884. ^ I cannot account for the presence of the beard ; St Paula, venerated at Avila in Spain, is also represented with one (Stadler und Heim). Macrobius {Sat. bk 3, t. 8) tells us that the Venus Barbata was represented in Cyprus in the form of a man with a beard and wearing female clothing, which shows that goddesses of this type were venerated during heathen times. SECT. Ill] Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. 37 of the witches, and that he played at the dance in which he was not allowed to take part. Grimm also tells us that one of the witches on this occasion wore only one golden slipper'- The association of Kiimmerniss with a golden slipper is deep-rooted, especially in Bavaria, for the saying goes there that ' She with the golden slipper and with the youthful fiddler is also a mother of God I' Many years ago Menzel wrote': 'Much I believe concerning this saint is derived from heathen conceptions.' Stories embody- ing heathen traditions are preserved in connection with this saint in districts abroad that lie far apart. Thus the image of her which is preserved in North Holland is said to have come floating down the river, like the images of the Virgin referred to above. At Regensburg in Bavaria an image is preserved which is said to have been cast into the water at Neufarn. It was carried down by the river and thrown on the bank, and the bishop fetched it to Regensburg on a car drawn by oxen. In the Tyrol the image of the saint is sometimes hung in the chief bed-room of the house in order to secure a fruitful marriage, but often too it is hung in chapel and cloister in order to protect the dead. Images of the saint are preserved and venerated in a great number of churches in Bavaria and the Tyrol, but the ideas popularly associated with them have raised feelings in the Church against their cult. We hear that a Franciscan friar in the begin- ning of this century destroyed one of the images, and that the bishop of Augsburg in 1833 attempted in one instance to do away with the image and the veneration of the saint, but refrained from carrying out his intention, being afraid of the anger of the people*. It has been mentioned above that associations of a twofold character survive in connection with Verena and Vreke, who are to this day popularly reckoned as saints, but who are introduced in medieval romance as representatives of earthly love as contrasted with spiritual. Associations of a twofold character have also been attached to the term Kiimmerniss. For in the Tyrol Kiimmerniss is venerated as a saint, but the word Kummerniss in ordinary parlance is appHed to immoral women^ 1 Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythol. 1875, p. 896. '■i Sloet, De heilige Ontkommer of Wilgeforthis, 1884, p. 36. ' Menzel, W., Christl. Symbolik, 1854, article ' Bart.' * Sloet, De heilige Ontkommer of Wilgeforthis, 1884, pp. 31, 33. 36, 4^ etc. * Ibid. p. 32. 38 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. [chap, i Other heathen survivals are found attached to the Ontkommer- Kiimmerniss group of saints. At Luzern the festival of the saint was connected with so much riotous merrymaking and licentious- ness that it was forbidden in 1799 and again in 1801. The story is told of the saint under the name Liberata that she was one of a number of children whom her mother had at a births Sloet, on the authority of the philologist Kern, considers that the various names by which the saint is known in different districts are appellatives and have the same underlying meaning of one who is helpful in trouble. According to him this forms the connecting link between the names Ontkommer, Kiimmerniss, Wilgefortis, Gehulff", Eutropia, etc., of which the form Ontkommer, philologically speaking, most clearly connotes the saint's character, and on this ground is declared to be the original form. The saint is worshipped at Steenberg in Holland under the name Ont- kommer, and Sloet is of opinion that Holland is the cradle of the worship of the whole group of saints^. But considering what we know of other women-saints it seems more probable that the saints who have been collected into this group are the outcome of a period of social evolution, which in various districts led to the establishment of tribal goddesses, who by a later development assumed the garb of Christian women-saints. The cult of women-saints under one more aspect remains to be chronicled. Numerous traditions are preserved concerning the cult of holy women in triads, who are locally held in great veneration and variously spoken of as three sisters, three ladies, three Marys, three nuns, or three women-saints. The three holy women have a parallel in the three Fates of classic mythology and in the three Norns of Norse saga, and like them they probably date from a heathen period. Throughout Germany they frequently appear in folk-lore and saga, besides being venerated in many instances as three women-saints of the Church. In stories now current these three women are conceived some- times as sisters protecting the people, sometimes as ladies guarding treasures, and sometimes as a group of three nuns living together ' Stadler und Heim, Volhtandiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Liberata, footnote, p. 807. ^ Sloet, De heilige Ontkommer of Wilgeforthis, 1884, pp. 5, 50 etc. Ellis, H., Original Letters, series III, vol. 3, p. 194, quotes the following sentence from Michael Woddes, Dialogues, 1554 ; '...if a wife were weary of her husband she offered Otes at Poules (St Paul's) at London to St Uncumber,' a proof that the veneration of Ontkom- mer had found its way into England. SECT. Ill] Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. 39 and founding chapels and oratories, and this too in places where history knows nothing of the existence of any religious settlement of women. Panzer has collected a mass of information on the cult of the triad as saints in southern Germany' ; Cordmans says that the veneration of the Three Sisters idry-susters) is widespread in Belgium'', but the Church has sanctioned this popular cult in com- paratively few instances. The story is locally current that these three women were favourably disposed to the people and bequeathed to them what is now communal property. Simrock considers that this property included sites which were held sacred through association with a heathen cult'. ' In heathen times,' he says, ' a sacred grove was hallowed to the sister fates which after the establishment of Christianity continued to be the property of the commune. The remembrance of these helpful women who were the old bene- factresses of the place remained, even their association with holiness continued.' By these means in course of time the cult of the three goddesses was transformed into that of Christian saints. Besides bequeathing their property to the people it was thought that these three women-saints protected their agricultural and domestic interests, especially as affecting women. In Schlehdorf in Lower Bavaria pilgrimages by night were made to the shrine of the triad to avert the cattle plague ; the shrine stood on a hill which used to be surrounded by water, and at one time was the site of a celebrated fair and the place chosen for keeping the harvest festival! At Brusthem in Belgium there were three wells into which women who sought the aid of these holy women cast three things, linen-thread, a needle and some corn^ Again in Schildturn in Upper Bavaria an image of the three women-saints is preserved in the church which bears an inscription to the effect that through the intercession of these saints offspring are secured and that they are helpful at childbirth^. In the same church a wooden cradle is kept which women who wished to become mothers used to set 1 Panzer, F., Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, 1848, pp. sff., 272 ff. ^ Coremans, L' annee de t ancienne Belgique, 1844, p. 149- ' Simrock, K., Handbuch der deutschen Myth., 1887, p. 344- ■* Panzer, F., Beitrag zur deutschen Myth., 1848, p. 23. ^ Coremans, Vannee de tancienne Belgique, 1844, p. 148. " Panzer, F., Beitrag zur deutschen Myth., 1848, pp. 69 ff. 40 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. [chap, i rocking. A second cradle which is plated is kept in the sacristy, and has been substituted for one of real silver'. In some districts one of these three saints is credited with special power over the others either for good or for evil. The story goes that one of the sisters was coloured black or else black and white ^. In many places where the triad is worshipped the names of the individual sisters are lost, while in districts far apart from one another, as the Tyrol, Elsass, Bavaria, their names have consider- able likeness. The forms generally accepted, but liable to fluctuation, are St Einbeth, St Warbeth and St Wilbeth'*. The Church in some instances seems to have hesitated about accepting these names, it may be from the underlying meaning of the suffix beth which Grimm interprets as holy site, ara, fanuin, but Mannhardt connects it with the word to pray (beten)*. Certainly the heathen element is strong when we get traditions of the presence of these women at weddings and at burials, and stories of how they went to war, riding on horses, and achieved even more than the men^ Where their claim to Christian reverence is admitted by the Church, the stories told about them have a very different ring. According to the legend which has been incorporated into the Acta Sanctorum, St Einbetta, St Verbetta, and St Villbetta were Christian maidens who undertook the pilgrimage to Rome with St Ursula, with whose legend they are thus brought into connection. The three sisters stayed behind at Strasburg and so escaped the massacre of the iiooo virgins'. The tendency to group women-saints into triads is very general. Kunigund, Mechtund and Wibrandis are women-saints who belong to the portion of Baden in the diocese of Constance'. The locus of their cult is in separate villages, but they are venerated as a triad in connection with a holy well and lie buried together under an ancient oak*. We hear also of pilgrimages being made to the image of three holy sisters preserved at Auw on the Kyll in the valley of the Mosel. They are represented as sitting side by side on the back ' Cradles are frequently kept in churches in Bavaria, and form, I am told, part of the furniture which was formerly used at the celebration of the Nativity play at Christmas (Weihnachtskrippenspiel). ^ Panzer, F., Beilrag zur deutschett Myth., 1848, p. 273. ^ Simrock, K.,.S2Ka'toir/^Ar rf«(/'jc/««ylf|/M., 1887, pp. 344,349, gives lists of theirnames. • Grimm, Wdrterbuch, 'Bett'; Mannhardt, W., Germanischc Mythen, 18.58, p. 644. ' Panzer, F., Beitrag zur deutschen Mythol., 1848, p. 180. « A. SS. Boll., St Einbetta, Sept. 16. ' A. SS. Boll., St Kunegundis, June 16. 8 V&raa, Beitrag zur deutschen Myth., 1848, p. 379. SECT, in] Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. 41 of an ass(?), one of them having a cloth tied over her eyes. The three sisters in this case are known as Irmina, Adela and Chlotildis, and it is said they were the daughters or sisters of King Dagobert'.' Irmina and Adela are historical ; they founded nunneries in the diocese of Trier. In another instance the sisters are called Pellmerge, Schwell- merge and Krischmerge, merg being a popular form of the name Mary which is preserved in many place-names ^ I have been able to discover little reference to local veneration of saints in a triad in England. But there is a story that a swine- herd in Mercia had a vision in a wood of three women who, as he believed, were the three Marys, and who pointed out to him the spot where he was to found a religious settlement, which was afterwards known as Evesham. A curious side-light is thrown on the veneration of the three women-saints abroad by recalling the images and inscriptions about Mothers and Matrons, which are preserved on altars fashioned long before the introduction of Christianity under heathen influence. These altars have been found in outlying parts of the Roman Empire, especially in the districts contiguous to the ancient boundary line which divided Roman territory from Germania Magna. They bear inscriptions in Latin to the effect that they are dedicated to Mothers and Matrons, and sometimes it is added that they have been set up at the command of these divine Mothers themselves. The words imperio ipsariim, ' by their own command,' are added to the formula of dedication, and as it seems that they never occur on altars set up and dedicated to specified Roman or Gallo-Roman divinities, they yield an interesting proof of the wide-spread character of the worship of tribal goddesses"- At one time it was supposed that these altars were of Keltic origin, but some of the tribes mentioned in their inscriptions have been identified with place-names in Germany. Altars found in outlying parts of the Empire primarily served for the use of the soldiery, for sacrifice at the altar of the gods was a needful pre- liminary to Roman military undertakings. The view has been 1 Menck-Dittmarsch, Des Moselthals Sagen, 1840, pp. 178, 258. ' Grimm, Worterbuch, ' Marge.' 2 Lersch, Centralmuseuvi rheinl. Inschriften, vol. i, p. 23 ; also Jahrbiicher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande, Bonn : J. 1852, Freudenberg, ' Darstellun- gen der Matres oder Matronae'; J. 1853, 'Neue Matronensteine ' ; J. 1857, Eick, 'Matro- nensteine' ; J. 1858, Becker, 'Beitriige' etc. 42 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint, [chap, i advanced that, as the altars dedicated to pagan divinities served for the devotions of the Roman and Gallo-Roman troops, it is possible that these other altars dedicated to Mothers served for the devotions of the German heathen soldiery, who were drafted from districts beyond the Rhine, and at an early date made part of the Roman legions. The parallels between the mothers of the stones and the three women-saints are certainly remarkable. Where a representation, generally in rude relief, occurs on the altar stones, the Mothers are represented in a group of three, holding as emblems of their power fruit, flowers, and the spindle. These recall the emblems both of the heathen goddess of mythology and of the pseudo-saint. Moreover one of the Mothers of the altars is invariably distinguished by some peculiarity, generally by a want of the head-dress or head-gear worn by the two others, perhaps indicative of her greater importance. This has its parallel in the peculiar power with which one member of the saint triad is popu- larly credited. The erection of the altars belongs to a time before the intro- duction of Christianity ; our information about the three women- saints dates back earlier than the I2th century in a few cases only ; it chiefly depends on stories locally current which have been gleaned within the last hundred years. If the hypothesis of the mother-age preceding the father-age holds good, if the divine Mothers imaged on the stones are witnesses to a wide-spread worship of female deities during the period of established Roman rule, these tales told of the triad carry us back nearly twenty centuries. The power ascribed to tribal goddesses in a distant heathen past survived in the power ascribed to Christian women-saints ; the deep-rooted belief in protective women-divinities enduring with undying persistence in spite of changes of religion. In conclusion, a few words may be acceptable on the names of pseudo-saints, which I believe to be largely epithetic or appellative. Grimm holds that the names of the German goddesses were origin- ally appellatives. In a few cases the name of the goddess actually becomes the name of a saint. Mythology and hagiology both lay claim to a Vrene and a Vreke; but from the nature of things these cases are rare. The conception of the protective divinity is ancient ; her name in a philological sense is comparatively new. With few exceptions the names are German ; sometimes in con- tiguous districts variations of the same name are preserved. The SECT. Ill] Further Peniliarities of this Type of Saint. 43 saint Lufthildis is sometimes Linthildis'; Rolendis is sometimes DoUendis' ; Ida, Itta, Iduberga, Gisleberga are saints of Brabant and Flanders, whom hagiologists have taken great trouble to keep separate. In some cases the name of a real and that of a fictitious person may have become confounded. The names are all cognate with the word itis, an ancient term applied to the woman who ex- ercised sacred functions. The attempt to connect the group Ontkommer-Wilgefortis by the underlying meaning of the several names has been mentioned. It has also been mentioned that this saint is sometimes spoken of as a mother of God. Similarly St Genevieve of Paris is worshipped as Notre-Dame-la-petite, and again the saint Cunera of Reenen is popularly known as Knertje, which signifies little lady*. On every side the student is tempted to stray from the straight- forward road of fact into the winding paths of speculation. The frequent association abroad of female deities with hill tops suggests a possible explanation why the word berg, which means remoteness and height, so often forms part of the name of the woman pseudo- saint, and of women's names generally. For the beginnings of tilth and agriculture are now sought not in the swampy lowlands, but on the heights where a clearance brought sunlight and fruitfulness. Hill tops to this day are connected with holy rites. Is it possible that the word berg, designating hill top, should have become an appellative for woman because the settlements on the hills were specially connected with her .' Philology hitherto has been content to trace to a common origin words cognate in different languages, and on the conceptions attaching to these words, to build up theories about the state of civilization of various peoples at a period previous to their dis- persion from a common home. But the study of local beliefs and superstitions in western Europe tends more and more to prove that usages pointing to a very primitive mode of life and to a very primitive state of civilization are indissolubly connected with certain sites ; and that the beginnings of what we usually term civilization, far from being imported, have largely developed on native soil. Thus, at the very outset of our enquiry into saint-worship and the convent life of the past, we have found ourselves confronted by a class of women-saints who must be looked upon as survivals from 1 Stadler und Heim, Vollstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Lufthildis. ••' Ibid. St Rolendis. 3 A. SS. Boll., St Cunera, June u. 44 Further Peculiarities of this Type of Saint. [chap, i heathen times, and who are in no way connected with the begin- nings of Christianity and of convent life ; their reputation rests on their connection with some hallowed site of the heathen period and the persistence of popular faith in them. But the feeling underlying the attribution of holiness to them, the desire for localized saints, yields the clue to the ready raising to saintship of those women who in England, in France, and in Germany, showed appreciation of the possibilities offered to them by Christianity, and founded religious settlements. In some cases superstitions of a heathen nature which are of value to the hagiologist, if not to the historian, cling to these women also, but fortunately a considerable amount of trustworthy material is extant about their lives. These women during the earliest period were zealous in the cause of Christianity, and it is to them that our enquiry now turns. CHAPTER II. CONVENTS AMONG THE FRANKS, A.D. 550—650. ' Sicut enim apis diversa genera florum congregabat, unde mella conficiat, sic ilia ab his quos invitabat spirituales studebat carpere flosculos, unde boni operis fructum tam sibi quara suis sequacibus exhiberet.' The nun Baudonivia on St Radegund (Vita, c. 13). § I. At the Prankish Invasion'. The great interest of early monastic life among the Franks lies in the conversion of this hardy and ferocious people to Christianity just at the moment of their emergence from a state of barbarism. Fierce, warlike and progressive, the Franks were brought face to face with cultured Latinity. The clerical student who claimed direct descent from the Gallo-Roman rhetorician, and the bishop who was in possession of the municipal government of the town, found themselves confronted by shaggy-haired, impetuous men from forest wilds. At the outset an all but immeasurable distance separated the social and intellectual development of the Gallo- Roman from that of these strangers. Compared with the cultivated man of letters and with the veteran, grown grey in imperial service, the German invader was little more than a savage ; nevertheless he succeeded in holding his own. At first his standards of life and conduct gave way before those of the Gallo-Romans. The lives of early Frankish princes, as their contemporary, the historian Gregory of Tours, depicts them, are marked by ceaseless quarrels and feuds, by numberless instances of murder, perjury and violence. The bonds of union among them were forcibly relaxed, as often happens in those periods of history when restraint and responsibility are broken through by a sudden and overwhelming inrush of new ideas. A prey to intemperance and greed, the descendants of the 1 Fustel de Coulanges, nvasion germanique, 1891 ; Gerard, P. A. F., Histoire des Francs d'Austrasie, 1864; Ozanam, Cwilisation chrHienne chezles Francs, 1855. 46 At the Frankish Invasion. [chap, ii great Merovech dwindled away. But other men of the same race, stronger than they in mind and less prone to enervating luxury, pressed in from behind. And after the temporary mental and moral collapse which followed upon the occupation of Gaul by the Franks, the race rose to new and increased vigour. New standards of conduct were evolved and new conceptions of excellence arose, through the mingling of Latin and German elements. For the great Roman civilization, a subject of wonder and admiration to all ages, was in many of its developments realized, appropriated, and assimilated by the converted Germans. Three hundred years after their appearance in Gaul, the Franks were masters of the cultivated western world ; they had grasped the essentials of a common nation- ality and had spread abroad a system of uniform government. The Franks at first showed a marked deficiency in the virtues which pagan Rome had established, and to which Christianity had given a widened and spiritualized meaning. Temperance, habitual self-control and the absorption of self in the consciousness of a greater, formed no part of this people's character. These virtues, together with peaceableness and a certain simplicity of taste, laid the groundwork of the monasticism which preceded the invasion. Persons who were vowed to religion were averse to war, because it disturbed study and industry, and they shrank from luxury of life, because it interrupted routine by exciting their appetites. An even tenor of life was the golden mean they set before themselves, and in some degree they had realized it in Roman Gaul before the barbarian invasion. The Frank at first felt little tempted in the direction of monastic life. His fierce and warlike tendencies, love of personal predomi- nance and glory, and impatience of every kind of restraint, were directly opposed to the uniform round of devotion and work to which the religious devotee conformed. The attitude of Frankish men towards monasticism was at best passive ; on the other hand convent life from the first found sym- pathy among Frankish women. Princesses of pure German blood and of undisputed German origin left the royal farms, which were the court residences of the period, and repaired to the religious houses, to devote themselves to religion and to the learning of cultured Latinity. Not one of the princes of the royal Frankish race entered a convent of his own accord, but their wives, widows, and daughters readily joined houses of religion. Meekness and devotion, self-denial and subservience are not the SECT, i] At the Frankish Invasion. 47 .most prominent features in the character of these women. The wives and daughters of men to whom Macaulay attributes all vices and no virtues, are of a temper which largely savours of the world. What distinguishes them is quick determination and clear-sighted appreciation of the possibilities opened out to them by the religious life. Fortunately the information which we have concerning them is not confined to the works of interested eulogists. Accounts of women whom posterity estimated as saints lay stress on those sides of their character which are in accord with virtues inculcated by the Church. But we have other accounts besides these about women who had taken the vows of religion, but whose behaviour called forth violent denunciations from their contemporaries. And over and above these, passages in profane literature are extant which curiously illustrate the worldly tone and temper of many women who had adopted religion as a profession. These women were driven to resort to convents chiefly as the result of their contact with a great civilization, which threw open unknown and tempting possibilities to men, but raised many difficulties in the way of women. The resources of the districts acquired by the Franks were immeasurably greater than those of the lands they had left. Wealth and intemperance readily join hands. The plurality of recognised and unrecognised wives in which the Frankish princes indulged resulted in great family difficulties. The royal farms and the ancient cities, where these petty kings resided, were the scenes of continual broils and squabbles in which royal wives and widows took the leading parts. From the chequered existence which this state of things implies, convent life alone afforded a permanent refuge. Sometimes a princess left home from a sense of the indignities she was made to suffer ; sometimes a reverse of fortune caused her to accept, willingly or unwillingly, the dignified retirement of the cloister. During the centuries preceding the Frankish conquest the development of religious and monastic life in Gaul had been considerable, for the Church had practically appropriated what was left of the Roman system of organization, and since this system had been chiefly municipal, the municipal bodies were largely composed of bishops and clerks. The monastic life of jnen in Gaul had a number of independent centres in the western provinces, due to the enthusiastic zeal of St Martin of Tours (t 400), to whom reference has been made. 48 At the Frankish Invasion. [chap, ii In the beginning of the 6th century a settlement of nuns was founded in the south, where monasteries already existed, perhaps as the result of direct contact with the east. A rule of life was drafted for this convent shortly after its foundation. Caesarius, bishop of Aries (SOi-573), had persuaded his sister Caesaria to leave Marseilles, where she dwelt in a convent associated with the name of Cassian. His plan was that she should join him at Aries, and preside over the women who had gathered there to live and work under his guidance. Caesarius now marked out a scheme of life for his sister and those women whom she was prepared to direct. He arranged it, as he says himself according to the teachings of the fathers of the Church and, after repeated modifications, he embodied it in a set of rules, which have come down to us '. Great clearness and directness, a high moral tone, and much sensible advice are contained in these precepts of Caesarius. ' Since the Lord,' he says, addressing himself to the women, 'has willed to inspire us and help us to found a monastery for you, in order that you may abide in this monastery, we have culled spiritual and holy injunc- tions for you from the ancient fathers; with God's help may you be sheltered, and dwelling in the cells of your monastery, seeking in earnest prayer the presence of the Son of God, may you say in faith, " we have found him whom we sought." Thus may you be of the number of holy virgins devoted to God, who wait with tapers alight and a calm conscience, calling upon the Lord. — Since you are aware that I have worked towards establishing this monas- tery for you, let me be one of you through the intercession of your prayer.' Caesarius goes on to stipulate that those who join the com- munity, whether they be maidens or widows, shall enter the house once for all and renounce all claims to outside property. Several paragraphs of the rule are devoted to settling questions of property, a proof of its importance in the mind of Caesarius. There were to be in the house only those who of their own accord accepted the routine and were prepared to live on terms of strictest equality without property or servants of their own. Children under the age of six or seven were not to be received ' A. SS. Boll, St Caesaria, Jan. 12, Regula, pp. 730-737 ; also A. SS. Boll., St Caesarius episcopus, Aug. ■27. SECT, i] At the Prankish Invasion. 49 at all, ' nor shall daughters of noble parentage or lowly-born girls be taken in readily to be brought up and educated.' This latter injunction shows how the religious at this period wished to keep the advantages to be derived from artistic and intellectual training in their own community. They had no desire for the spread of education, which forms so characteristic a feature of the religious establishments of a later date. After their safe housing the instruction of the nuns at Aries was the most important matter dealt with in the ' rule.' Consider- able time and thought were devoted to the practice of chants and to choir-singing, for the art of music was considered especially fitted to celebrate God. In an appendix to the rule of Caesarius the system of singing is described as similar to that adopted in the ccenobite settlement at Lerins\ Apparently following Keltic usage, the chant was taken up in turn by relays of the professed, who kept it up night and day all the year round in perpetual praise of the Divinity. At this period melody and pitch were the subjects of close study and much discussion. The great debt owed by the art of music to the enthusiasm of these early singers is often overlooked. The women who joined the community at Aries also learned reading and writing (' omnes litteras discant'). These arts were practised in classes, while domestic occupations, such as cook- ing, were performed in turns. Weaving, probably that of church hangings, was among the arts practised, and the women also spun wool and wove it into material with which they made garments for their own use. There are further injunctions about tending the infirm, and stern advice about the hatefulness of quarrels. Intercourse with the outside world is restricted, but is not altogether cut off. ' Dinners and entertainments,' says the rule, ' shall not be pro- vided for churchmen, laymen and friends, but women from othei religious houses may be received and entertained.' In the year 506 Caesarius, the author of this rule, was present at the synod of Agde at which it was decreed that no nun however good in character should receive the veil, that is be permanently bound by a vow, before her fortieth year^ This decree, taken together with the rule, proves the sober and serious spirit of 1 A. SS. Boll., St Caesaria, Jan. xi, Regula, c. 66. 2 Guett^e, Histoire de V &glise de France, 1847, vol. 1, 46; Labbe, Sac: Com. Collec- tio. Cone. Agathense, canon nr 19. 4 50 At the Prankish Invasion. [chap, ii these early settlements and the purpose which their founder set before him. The teaching of Caesarius generally reflects the spirit of cautious reserve characteristic of the rule instituted by the great St Benedict of Nursia for the monks he had assembled together on Monte Casino in Central Italy. His efforts like those of Caesarius were directed to the creation of conditions favourable to the devoutly disposed, not to the leavening of the outside world by the spread of Christian doctrine. It was part of the plan of Caesarius to secure independence to the communities he had founded ; for in his capacity as bishop he addressed a letter to Pope Hormisda (f 523) '" which he asked the Pope's protection for his monasteries, one of which was for men and one for women, against possible interference from outside. He also begged that the Pope would confirm the grants of pro- perty which had already been made to these establishments. In his reply to this letter the Pope declared that the power of the bishop in regard to these settlements should be limited to visi- tation \ It must be borne in mind that Aries and the southern parts of Gaul were overrun by the Goths, who inclined to Arianism and opposed the Church of Rome. Fear of this heresy induced the prelates of the Church to favour Prankish rule. After the alliance of the Prankish kings with the Church the religious establishments in the land remained undisturbed, and numerous new monasteries were founded. It is evident from what we know of the nuns at Aries, and of other bands of women whom the Church took under her protection, that they readily accepted life on the conditions proffered and were content to be controlled and protected by men. It is only when the untamed German element with its craving for self-asser- tion came in, that difficulties between the bishops and heads of nunneries arose, that women of barbarian origin like Radegund, Chrodield, and others, appealed to the authority of ruling princes against the bishop, and asserted an independence not always in accordance with the usual conceptions of Christian virtue and tolerance. ^ Guettee, Histoire de VAglise di France, 1847, vol. 2, p. 109. SECT, ii] 5/ Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers. 51 § 2. St Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers. Certain settlements for women in northern France claim to have existed from a very early period, chiefly on the ground of their association with Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, and with Chrothild (Clothilde, f 545), wife of the first Christian king of the Franks. The legend of St Genevieve must be received with caution'; while bands of women certainly dwelt at Paris and elsewhere previously to the Prankish invasion, under the protection of the Church, it is doubtful whether they owed their existence to Gene- vieve. A fictitious glamour of sanctity has been cast by legendary lore around the name and the doings of Queen Chrothild, because her union with King Clovis, advocated by the Gallo-Roman Church party, led to his conversion to Christianity". In the pages of Gregory's history the real Chrothild stands out imperious, revengeful and unscrupulous. It is quite credible that she did service for a time as deaconess (diacona) at the church of Tours, and that she founded a religious house for women at the royal farm Les Andelys near Rouen, but we can hardly believe that the life she lived there was_that of a devout nun. Radegund of Poitiers and Ingetrud of Tours are the first Prankish women who are known to have founded and ruled over nunneries in France. Their activity belongs to the latter half of the 6th century, which is a date somewhat later than that of the oflficial acceptance of Christianity, and one at which the over- lordship of the Franks was already well established throughout France. The settlements they founded lay in close proximity to cities which were strongholds of Church government. Poitiers had become an important religious centre through the influence of St Hilary, and Tours, to which the shrine of St Martin attracted many travellers, was of such importance that it has been called the centre of religion and culture in France at this period. The historian Gregory, afterwards bishop of Tours, to whom we are largely indebted for our knowledge of this period, was personally acquainted with the women at Tours and at Poitiers. He probably owed his appointment to the bishopric of Tours in 573 to the favour he had found with Radegund^ He has treated ^ Keller, Ch., £,tude critique sur le texte de la vie de Ste Genevihie, i88i ; also A. SS. Boll., St Genovefa, Jan. 3. 2 Darboy, Mgr, Sainte Clothilde, 1865 ; also A. SS. Boll., St Chrothildis, June 3. ^ Giesebrecht, W., Fi-ankische Geschichte des Gregorius, 185 1, Einleitung xviii. 4—2 52 6"/ Radegund and the Ntmnery at Poitiers, [chap, ii of her in his history and has written an account of her burial at which he officiated', whilst a chapter of his book on the Gloty of Martyrs praises the fragment of the Holy Cross^ which had been sent to Radegund from Constantinople and from which the nunnery at Poitiers took its name. Besides this information two drafts of the life of Radegund are extant, the one written by her devoted friend and admirer the Latin poet Fortunatus, afterwards bishop of Poitiers, the other by the nun Baudonivia, Radegund's pupil and an inmate of her nunnery'. Fortunatus has moreover celebrated his inter- course with Radegund in a number of verses, which throw great light on their interesting personal relations*. A letter is also extant written by Radegund herself and pre- served by Gregory in which she addresses a number of bishops on the objects of her nunnery. She begs the prelates of the Church to protect her institution after her death and, if need be, assist those who are carrying on life there in her spirit against hin- drance from without and opposition from within. The letter is in the usual wordy style of the Latin of that day. ' Freed from the claims of a worldly life, with divine help and holy grace, I,' she says, ' have willingly chosen the life of religion at the direction of Christ; turning my thoughts and powers towards helping others, the Lord assisting me that my good intentions towards them may be turned to their weal. With the assistance of gifts granted me by the noble lord and king Clothacar, I have founded a monastery (monasterium) for maidens (puellae) ; after founding it I made it a grant of all that royal liberality had bestowed on me ; moreover to the band assembled by me with Christ's help, I have given the rule according to which the holy Caesaria lived, and which the holy president (antistes) Caesarius of Aries wisely compiled from the teachings of the holy fathers. With the consent of the noble bishop of this district and others, and at the desire of our congregation, I have accepted as abbess my sister, dame Agnes, whom from youth upwards I have loved and educated as a daughter ; and next to God's will I have conformed 1 Gregorius Tur., De Gloria Con/essorum, ch. io6 (in Migne, Patrol. Cursus Comple- tus, vol. 71). 2 Gregorius Tur., De Gloria Martyrum, ch. 5 (in Migne, Patrol. Cursus Compl., vol. 71). 3 A. SS. Boll., St Radegundis, Aug. 13 (contains both these accounts). '' Fortunatus, Opera poetica, edit. Nisard, 1887. SECT, ii] S^ Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers. 53 to her authority. I myself, together with my sisters, have followed the apostolic example and have granted away by charter all our worldly possessions, in fearful remembrance of Ananias and Sapphira, retaining nought of our own. But since the events and duration of human life are uncertain, since also the world is drawing to its close (mundo in finem currente), many serving their own rather than the divine will, I myself, impelled by the love of God, submit to you this letter, which contains my request, begging you to carry it out in the name of Christ\' Radegund was one of an unconquered German race. Her father was Hermafried, leader of the Thuringians, her mother a grandniece of the great Gothic king, Theodoric. She was captured as a child together with her brother in the forest wilds of Thiiringen during one of the raids made into that district by the Prankish kings Theuderic (Thierry) of Metz, and Clothacar (Clothair) of Soissons. Clothacar appropriated the children as part of his share of the booty and sent Radegund to a ' villa ' in the neigh- bourhood of Aties, in what became later the province of Picardie, where she was brought up and educated. ' Besides occupations usual to those of her sex,' her biographer says, ' she had a know- ledge of letters ' (litteris est erudita). From Aties she vainly tried to make her escape, and at the age of about twelve was taken to the royal farm near Soissons and there married to Clothacar^- In the list of King Clothacar's seven recognised wives Radegund stands fifth'. From the first Radegund was averse to this union. She was wedded to an earthly bridegroom but not therefore divided from the heavenly one*. Her behaviour towards her husband as de- scribed by her biographers can hardly be called becoming to her station as queen. She was so devoted to charitable work, we are told, that she often kept the king waiting at meals, a source of great annoyance to him, and under some pretext she frequently left him at night. If a man of learning came to the court she would devote herself to him, entirely neglecting her duty to the king^ Quarrels between the couple were frequent, and the king declared that he was married to a nun rather than to a queen^ The murder of her younger brother finally turned the 1 Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk 9, ch. 42. 2 Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk 3, ch. 7; Fortunatus, Vita, ch. 2-4. ^ Giesebrecht, W., Frdnkische Geschichle des Gregorius, 185 1, appendix. * Fortunatus, Vita, ch. 3. ■' Ibid., ch. 10. " Ibid., ch. 5. 54 S^ Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers, [chap, ii balance of the queen's feelings against the king. With fearless determination she broke down all barriers. She was not lacking in personal courage, and had once calmly confronted a popular uproar caused by her having set fire to a sacred grovel Now, regardless of consequences, she left the court and went to Noyon, where she sought the protection of Bishop Medardus (t 545), who was in- fluential among the many powerful prelates of his day^ But the bishop hesitated, his position was evidently not so assured that he could, by acceding to the queen's request, risk drawing on himself the king's anger^. However Radegund's stern admonition pre- vailed : ' If you refuse to consecrate me,' she cried, ' a lamb will be lost to the flock^' Medardus so far consented as to consecrate her a deaconess, a term applied at the time to those who, without be- longing to any special order, were under the protection of the Church. In the oratory of St Jumer Radegund now offered up the embroidered clothes and jewelry she was wearing, her robe (indu- mentum), her precious stones (gemma), and her girdle weighty with gold. Both her biographers^ lay stress on this act of self- denial, which was the more noteworthy as love of gorgeous apparel and jewelry was characteristic of early Prankish royalty. Kings and queens were content to live in rural dwellings which were little more than barns ; life in cities was altogether uncongenial to them, but they made up for this by a display of sumptuous clothes as a mark of their rank. Already during her life with the king Rade- gund is described as longing for a hair-cloth garment as a sign of unworldliness. She now definitely adopted the raiment of a nun, a dress made of undyed wool. She subsequently wandered westwards from Noyon and came into the district between Tours and Poitiers, where she settled for some time at a ' villa ' her husband had given her called Sais". She entered into friendly relations with the recluse Jean of Chinon (Johannes Monasteriensis'), a native of Brittany, who with many ^ Baudonivia, Vita^ ch. i. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Medardus, June 8. » Commentators are much exercised by this summary breaking of the marriage tie ; some urge that Radegund's union had not been blessed by the Church. In the A. SS. it is argued that the Gallic bishop Medardus in pronouncing her divorce acted in ignorance of certain canons of the Church. * Fortunatus, Vita, u. 10. * Ibid., ch. 1 1 ; Baudonivia, Vita, ch. 6. ^ Ibid., Vita, ch. ii. ' Stadler und Heim, Vollstdndiges Heiligenlexicon, Johannes, nr 53; Gregorius Tur. De Gloria Cou/essortim , eh. ■23. SECT, ii] S^ Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers. 55 other recluses like himself enjoyed the reputation of great holiness. Jean of Chinon is represented as strengthening Radegund in her resolution to devote herself to religion, and it is probable that he helped her with practical advice. Radegund now devoted herself to the relief of distress of every kind, her practical turn of mind leading her to offer help in physical as well as in mental cases. Her biographer tells us how — like a new Martha, with a love of active life — she shrank from no disease, not even from leprosy '- When she saw how many men and women sought her relief the wish to provide permanently for them arose. She owned property outside Poitiers which she devoted to founding a settle- ment for women ; in all probability she also had a house for men near it'. Various references to the settlement show that it extended over a considerable area. Like other country residences or ' villae,' it was surrounded by walls and had the look of a fortress, although situated in a peaceful district. As many as two hundred nuns lived here at the time of Radegund's death'. When the house was ready to receive its inmates, they entered it in a procession starting from Poitiers. We hear that by this time the doings of Radegund ' had so far increased her reputation that crowds collected on the roofs to see them pass.' King Clothacar, however, did not calmly submit to being deserted by his wife ; he determined to go to Poitiers with his son to find her and to take her back. But the queen, firm in her resolve, declared she would sooner die than return to her husband. She notified this resolution to Bishop Germanus of Paris, who besought the king not to go to Poitiers. His entreaties were successful. Clothacar left his wife unmolested, and seems to have come to some kind of agreement with her. In her letter to the bishops, Radegund speaks of him as the noble lord. King Clothacar, not as her husband. Radegund did not herself preside over the women in her nunnery. With their consent the youthful Agnes, the pupil of Radegund, but by no means her intellectual equal, was appointed abbess. Difficulties very soon occurred between Radegund and the bishop of Poitiers, who was probably jealous of her attracting ' Fortunatus, Vita, ch. i(s. ^ Lucchi, Fie de Venantius Fortunatus, ch. 85 (in Fortunatus, Opera poetica, edit. Nisard, 1887). ' Gregorius Tur., De Gloria Confessorum, ch. 106. 56 S/ Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers, [chap, n religious women from himself. Radegund is said to have gone to Aries in order to learn about the life of the women gathered to- gether there. Against the accuracy of this statement it is urged' that a written copy of the rule, together with an eloquent ex- hortation to religious perfection and virtue, was forwarded from Aries by the Abbess Caesaria (t c. 560), the second of that name. The rule was established in Poitiers in 559. In the previous year King Clothacar, Radegund's husband, through the death of his brothers and their sons, had become sole king of France''. His monarchy thus included the whole of what is now called France, the contiguous districts of Burgundy and Thiiringen, and the lands which had been taken from the Goths in Italy and Spain. This great kingdom remained united for a few years only. In 561 Clotha- car died and his realm was divided by his four sons, with whose reigns a tempestuous period begins in the history of the Franks. During more than forty years the rivalry and jealousy of the monarchs, aggravated by the mutual hatred of the queens Brunihild and Fredegund, overwhelmed the country with plots, counterplots, and unceasing warfare. An eloquent appeal to the kings was called forth from the historian Gregory by the contemplation of this state of things. It is contained in the preface to the fifth book of his history. Calling upon them to desist from the complications of civil war, he thus addresses them : ' What are you bent on '>. What do you ask for ? Have you not all in plenty } There is luxury in your homes ; in your store- houses wine, corn, and oil abound ; gold and silver are heaped up in your treasuries. One thing only you lack ; while you have not peace, you have not the grace of God. Why must the one snatch things from the other ? Why must the one covet the other's goods t ' Living at Poitiers Radegund was close to the scene of these turmoils. The cities of Tours and Poitiers had fallen to the share of Charibert. When he died in 562 his kingdom was divided between his three brothers by cities rather than by districts. Tours and Poitiers fell to Sigebert of Rheims, who was comparatively peace-loving among these brothers. But his brother Chilperic of Soissons, dissatisfied with his own share, invaded Touraine and Poitou and forced Poitiers to submit to him. He was .subsequently 1 Fortunatus, Opera poetica, edit. Nisard, 1887, note iii, 3, p. 214. ■■= Gerard, P. A. F., Histoire des Francs cTAustrasie, 1864, vol. 1, p. 272. SECT. II J Si Radegtmd and the Nimnery at Poitiers. 57 made to give way to Sigebert, but this did not bring their feuds to an end. In 575 Sigebert was raised on the shield and proclaimed king of Neustria (the western part of France), but on being lifted down from the shield he was forthwith assassinated. New com- plications resulted and new factions were formed. In the interest of her son, Brunihild, the powerful widow of Sigebert, pursued with inveterate hatred Chilperic and his wife, the renowned Fredegund, for she looked upon Fredegund as the assassin of Sigebert her husband and of Galesuith her sister. Radegund had close relations with these impetuous, head- strong and combative persons. King Sigebert was throughout well disposed towards her. ' In order to show his love and affection for her,' says Gregory', 'he sent a deputation of ecclesiastics to the Emperor Justinus II and his wife Sophia at Constantinople.' The Franks entertained friendly relations with the imperial court, and the surviving members of Radegund's family had found a refuge there. In due course gifts were sent to Radegund, — a fragment of the Holy Cross set in gold and jewels, together with other relics of apostles and martyrs. These relics arrived at Tours some time between 566 and 573- It was Radegund's wish that they should be fetched from Tours to her nunnery by a procession headed by the bishop of Poitiers. But Bishop Maroveus, who was always ready to thwart the queen, forthwith left for his country seat when he heard of her request". Radegund, much incensed, applied in her difficulty to King Sige- bert, and Eufronius, bishop of Tours, was ordered to conduct the translation. Radegund's adoption of the religious profession in no way diminished her intercourse with the outside world or the influence she had had as queen. We find her described as living on terms of friendship with Queen Brunihild ' whom she loved dearly.' Even Queen Fredegund, Brunihild's rival and enemy, seems to have had some kind of intimacy with her. Fortunatus in one of his poems suggests that Fredegund had begged Radegund to offer prayers for the prosperity of her husband Chilperic. It seems that Radegund's word was generally esteemed, for in a family feud when a certain Gundovald claimed to be the son of Clothacar and aspired to the succession, we find him coupling ' Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk 9, ch. 40. - Fortunatus, Opera poetica, edit. Nisard, 1887, note II, i, p. 76. ' Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk 8, ch. 40. 58 Si Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers, [chap, ii the name of Radegund with that of Ingetrud in asseveration of his statements. ' If you would have the truth of what I declare proven,' Gundo- vald exclaimed, 'go and enquire of Radegund of Poitiers and of Ingetrud of Tours; they will tell you that what I maintain is the truths' In an age of endless entanglements, Radegund evidently did her best to mediate between contending parties. ' She was always favourable to peace and interested in the weal of the realm what- ever changes befell,' writes the nun Baudonivia'. ' She esteemed the kings and prayed for their welfare, and taught us nuns always to pray for their safety. If she heard that they had fallen out she felt troubled: and she appealed in writing, sometimes to one, some- times to another, in order that they should not fight and war together, but keep peaceful, so that the country might rest securely. Similarly she exhorted the leaders to help the great princes with sensible advice, in order that the common people and the lands under their rule might prosper.' What is here said of her peace-loving disposition is corroborated by traits in her character mentioned by Gregory and Fortunatus. The friendly intercourse between Radegund and Fortunatus ne- cessitates a few remarks on the life and doings of this latter-day Roman poet before he came to Poitiers and entered the Church. For years Fortunatus had lived the life of a fashionable man of letters at Ravenna, but about the year 568 the occupation of that city by the Langobards forced him to leave Italy. He wandered north from court to court, from city to city, staying sometimes with a barbarian prince, sometimes with a Church- prelate, who, one and the other, were equally ready to entertain the cultivated southerner. In return for the hospitality so liberally bestowed on him he celebrated his personal relations to his bene- factors in complimentary verses. He has good wishes for prelates on the occasion of their appointment, flattering words for kings, and pleasant greetings for friends. In some of his poems he gives interesting descriptions of the districts through which he has travelled, his account of a part of the Rhine valley being specially graphic^ He glorifies the saints of the Church in terms formerly used for celebrating classic divinities, and addresses Bishop Me- ' Gregorius Tur. , Hist. Franc, bk 7, ch. 36. "- Baudonivia, Vita, i.. it. * Fortunatus, Opera poetica, edit. Nisard, 1887, bk 10, nr 9. SECT, ii] Si Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers. 59 dardus of Noyon as the possessor of Olympus'. He even brings in Venus to celebrate a royal wedding, and lets her utter praises of the queen Brunihild^ Besides these poetical writings Fortunatus has left prose ac- counts of several of his contemporaries. An easy-going man of pleasant disposition, he combined in a curious way the traditions of cultured Latinity with the theological bent peculiar to the Christian literature of the day. His poems, though somewhat wanting in ideas, show a ready power of versification and a great facility in putting things politely and pleasantly. He wrote some hymns for church celebration which became widely known. The one beginning ' Pange, lingua, gloriosi ' was adopted into the Roman Liturgy for the adoration of the Cross on Good Friday, and it was repeatedly modified and re-written during the Middle Ages. Another hymn written by him is the celebrated ' Vexilla regis prodeunt,' the words of which are comparatively poor, but the tune, the authorship of which is unknown, has secured it world-wide fame'. The relic of the Holy Cross kept at Poitiers may have in- spired Fortunatus with the idea of composing these hymns ; in a flattering epistle, written obviously at Radegund's request, he thanks Justinus and Sophia of Constantinople for the splendour of their gift to her*. Fortunatus had come to Tours on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Martin, to whose intercession he attributed the restoration of his eyesight. Passing through Poitiers he made the acquaintance of Radegund, who at once acquired a great influence over him. ' Radegund wished me to stay, so I stayed,' he writes from Poitiers to some friends^ and he enlarges on the superiority, intel- lectual and otherwise, of the queen, whose plain clothing and simple mode of life greatly impressed him. Naming Eustachia, Fabiola, Melania, and all the other holy women he can think of, he describes how she surpasses them all. ' She exemplifies whatever is praise- worthy in them,' he says ; ' I come across deeds in her such as I only read about before. Her spirit is clothed with flesh that has been overcome, and which while yet abiding in her body holds all things cheap as dross. Dwelling on earth, she has entered heaven, and freed from the shackles of sense, seeks companionship in the 1 Fortunatus, Opera poetka, edit. Nisard, bk 2, nr i6. 2 Ibid., bk 6, nr i. = Mone, F. J., Lateinische Hymneii des Mittelalters , 1853-5, ■*'°'- ■> '°' ! Fortu- natus, Opera posticci, edit. Nisard, note, p. 76. ^ Fortunatus, Opera poetica. Appendix, nr t. ' Ibid., bk 8, nr i. 6o Si Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers, [chap, ii realms above. All pious teaching is food to her ; whether taught by Gregory or Basil, by bold Athanasius or gentle Hilary (two who were companions in the light of one cause); whether thundered by Ambrose or flashed forth by Jerome ; whether poured forth by Augustine in unceasing flow, by gentle Sedulius or subtle Orosius. It is as though the rule of Caesarius had been written for her. She feeds herself with food such as this and refuses to take meat unless her mind be first satisfied. I will not say more of what by God's witness is manifest. Let everyone who can send her poems by religious writers ; they will be esteemed as great gifts though the books be small. For he who gives holy writings to her may hold himself as giving to the accepted temples (templa) of God.' Judging from this passage, Nisard, the modern editor of Fortunatus, thinks it probable that Radegund was acquainted with Greek as well as with Latin', a statement which one cannot endorse. The queen was much interested in the poet's writings. ' For many years,' he writes in one poem, ' I have been here composing verses at your order ; accept these in which I address you in the terms you meritl' Radegund too wrote verses under Fortunatus' guidance. ' You have sent me great verses on small tablets,' he writes. ' You succeed in giving back honey to dead wax ; on festal days you prepare grand entertainments, but I hunger more for your words than for your food. The little poems you send are full of pleasing earnestness ; you charm our thoughts by these words'.' Among the poems of Fortunatus are found two which modern criticism no longer hesitates in attributing to Radegund. They are epistles in verse written in the form of elegies, and were sent by the queen to some of her relatives at Constantinople. Judging by internal evidence a third poem, telling the story of Galesuith, Queen Brunihild's sister, who was murdered shortly after her marriage to King Chilperic, was composed by her also ; though Nisard claims for her not the form of the poem but only its inspira- tion*. ' The cry,' he says, ' which sounds through these lines, is the cry of a woman. Not of a German woman only, who has in her the expression of tender and fiery passion, but a suggestion of the strength of a woman of all countries and for all time.' The lament in this poem is intoned by several women in turn. Whoever may 1 Fortunatus, Opera poetica, note g, p. 213. ^ Ibid., Appendix, nr 16. ' Ibid., nr 3c. ■* Nisard, Ch., Des poesies de Kiulegonde attribuies jusqiCici h Fortuiiat, i8Sg, p. 5. SKCT. ii] S/ Radeg7ind and the Nunnery at Poitiers. 6i have composed it, the depth of feehng which it displays is certainly- most remarkable. One of these poems written by Radegund is addressed to her cousin Hermalafred, who had fled from Thiiringen when Radegund was captured, and who had afterwards taken service in the imperial army of Justinian'. Hermalafred was endeared to Radegund by the recollections of her childhood, and in vivid remembrance of events which had made her a captive she begins her letter"'' in the following strain : ' Sad is condition of war ! Jealous is fate of human things ! How proud kingdoms are shattered by a sudden fall ! Those long- prosperous heights (culmina) lie fallen, destroyed by fire in the great onset. Flickering tongues of flame lapped round the dwelling which before rose in royal splendour. Grey ashes cover the glittering roof which rose on high shining with burnished metal. Its rulers are captive in the enemy's power, its chosen bands have fallen to lowly estate. The crowd of comely servants all dwelling together were smitten to the dust in one day ; the brilliant circle, the multitude of powerful dependents, no grave contains them, they lack the honours of death. More brilliant than the fire shone the gold of her hair, that of my father's sister, who lay felled to the ground, white as milk. Alas, for the corpses unburied that cover the battle-field, a whole people collected together in one burial place. Not Troy alone bewails her destruction, the land of Thiiringen has experienced a like carnage. Here a matron in fetters is dragged away by her streaming hair, unable to bid a sad farewell to her household gods. The captive is not allowed to press his lips to the threshold, nor turn his face towards what he will never more behold. Bare feet in their tread trample in the blood of a husband, the loving sister passes over her brother's corpse. The child still hangs on its mother's lips though snatched from her embrace; in funeral wail no tear is shed. Less sad is the fate of the child who loses its life, the gasping mother has lost even the power of tears. Barbarian though I am, I could not surpass the weeping though my tears flowed for ever. Each had his sorrow, I had it all, my private grief was also the public grief Fate was kind to those whom the enemy cut down ; I alone survive to weep over the many. But not only do I sorrow for my dead relatives, those too I deplore whom life has preserved. Often my 1 Fortunatus, Opera poetica, edit. Nisard, 1887, note in, 1, 3, etc., p. 284. 2 Ibid., 'De Excidio Thoringiae,' Appendix, nr i. 62 Si Radegund and the Nunnery at Poitiers, [chap, ii tear-stained face is at variance with my eyes ; my murmurs are silenced, but my grief is astir. I look and long for the winds to bring me a message, from none of them comes there a sign. Hard fate has snatched from my embrace the kinsman by whose loving presence I once was cheered. Ah, though so far away, does not my solicitude pursue thee > has the bitterness of misfortune taken away thy sweet love .' Recall what from thy earliest age upwards, O Hermalafred, I, Radegund, was ever to thee. How much thou didst love me when I was but an infant ; O son of my father's brother, O most beloved among those of my kin ! Thou didst supply for me the place of my dead father, of my esteemed mother, of a sister and of a brother. Held by thy gentle hand, hanging on thy sweet kisses, as a child I was soothed by thy tender speech. Scarce a time there was when the hour did not bring thee, now ages go by and I hear not a word from thee ! I wrestle with the wild anguish that is hidden in my bosom ; oh, that I could call thee back, friend, whenever or wherever it might be. If father, or mother, or royal ofifice has hitherto held thee, though thou didst hasten now to me, thy coming is late. Perhaps 'tis a sign of fate that I shall soon miss thee altogether, dearest, for unrequited affection cannot long continue. I used to be anxious when one house did not shelter us ; when thou wast absent, I thought thee gone for ever. Now the east holds thee as the west holds me ; the ocean's waters restrain me, and thou art kept away from me by the sea reddened by the beams of the sun (unda rubri). The earth's expanse stretches between those who are dear to each other, a world divides those whom no distance separated before.' She goes on to speculate where her cousin may be, and she says if she were not held by her monastery she would go to him ; storm and wind and the thought of shipwreck would be nothing to her. The fear of incriminating her, she says, was the cause of the death of her murdered brother. Would that she had died instead of him ! She beseeches Hermalafred to send news of himself and of his sisters, and ends her letter with these words : ' May Christ grant my prayer, may this letter reach those beloved ones, so that a letter indited with sweet messages may come to me in return ! May the sufferings wrought by languishing hope be alleviated by the swift advent of sure tidings ! ' This poem expresses great and lasting affection for her race. But her relatives were a source of continued grief to the queen. She received no reply to her letter to Hermalafred, and later she SECT, ii] 5"/ Radegimd and the Nunnery at Poitiers. 63 heard of his death. She received this news from his nephew Artachis, who sent her at the same time a present of silk, and Radegund then wrote another letter' which is addressed to Artachis and is even sadder in tone. In it she deplores the death of Hermalafred, and asks the boy Artachis to let her have frequent news of himself sent to her monastery. It is pleasant to turn from the sad side of Radegund's life which these poems exhibit to her friendly intercourse with For- tunatus, which was no doubt a source of great comfort to her during the last years of her life. With the exception of short intervals for journeys, the Latin poet lived entirely at Poitiers, where he adopted the religious profession, and dwelt in constant communication with Radegund and the abbess Agnes, in whose society he learned to forget the land of his birth. The numerous poems and verses which he has addressed to these ladies throw a strong light on his attitude towards them and their great affection for him. Radegund was wont to decorate the altar of her church with a profusion of flowers''. Again and again the poet sends her flowers, accompanying his gift with a few lines. With a basket of violets he sends the following" : ' If the time of year had given me white lilies, or had offered me roses laden with perfume, I had culled them as usual in the open or in the ground of my small garden, and had sent them, small gifts to great ladies. But since I am short of the first and wanting in the second, he who offers violets must in love be held to bring roses. Among the odorous herbs which I send, these purple violets have a nobleness of their own. They shine tinted with purple which is regal, and unite in their petals both perfume and beauty. What they represent may you both exemplify, that by association a transient gift may gain lasting worth.' The interchange of gifts between the poet and the ladies was mutual, the nuns of Ste Croix lacked not the good things of this world and were generous in giving. Fortunatus thanks them for gifts of milk, prunes, eggs, and tempting dishes*. On one occasion they send him a meal of several courses, vegetables and meat, almost too much for one servant to carry, and he describes his greedy (gulosus) enjoyment of it in graphic terms'. 1 Fortunatus, Opera poetica. Appendix, nr 3. " Ibid., bk 8, nr 8. * Ibid., bk 8, nr 6. ■* Ibid., l^k 1 1, nr 10. ' Ibid., bk II, nr 9. 64 St Radegimd and the Nunnery at Poitiers, [chap, ii Are we to take the lines literally which tell us that when they en- tertained him at dinner the table was scarcely visible for the roses with which it was strewn, and that the foliage and flowers spread about made the room into a bower of greenery' ? Sometimes a fit of indigestion was the result of the too liberal enjoyment of what his friends so freely provided^ The poet was evidently fond of the pleasures of the table, and accentuates the material rather than the spiritual side of things. Once addressing Agnes he tells her that she shines in the blending of two things, she provides refreshment for the poet's mind and excellent food for his body^ But the 6th century poet is generally somewhat plain-spoken on delicate topics. In a poem addressed to Radegund and Agnes he openly defends himself against the imputation that the tone of his relations to them is other than is signified by the terms mother and sister by which he is wont to address them^. Still these platonic relations do not preclude the use of expressions which border on the amorous, for he tells them that they each possess one half of him^ and he calls Radegund the light of his eyes". ' My dear mother, my sweet sister,' he writes, ' what shall I say, left alone in the absence of the love of my heart'.'...' And again^ 'May a good night enfold my mother and my sister; this brings them the good wishes of a son and a brother. May the choir of angels visit your hearts and hold sweet converse with your thoughts. The time of night forces me to be brief in my greetings; I am sending only six lines of verse for you both !' The vocabulary used to denote the different kinds of human affection contains, no doubt, many terms common to all, and if the poems of Fortunatus sometimes suggest the lover, it must be remembered that as poems of friendship they are among the earliest of their kind. They are throughout elegant, graceful, and characterized by a playful tenderness which a translator must despair of rendering. Radegund died in the year 587, and her death was a terrible loss to the inmates of her settlement. Gregory, bishop of Tours, who officiated at the burial, gives a detailed description of it, telling ' Fortunatus, Oferapoetica, bk 11, nr 11. ^ Ibid., bk n, nr 22. 3 Ibid., bk II, ni- 8. ■• Ibid., bk 1 1, nr 6. '' Ibid., Appendix, nr 21. " Ibid., bk 11, nr 2. ' Ibid., bk II, nr 7. « Ibid., Appendix, nr 15. SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. 65 how some two hundred women crowded round the bier, bewaihng her death in such words as these' : ' To whom, mother, hast thou left us orphans ? To whom then shall we turn in our distress ? We left our parents, our relatives and our homes, and we followed thee. What have we before us now, but tears unceasing, and grief that never can end .' Verily, this monastery is to us more than the greatness of village and city.... The earth is now darkened to us, this place has been straitened since we no longer behold thy countenance. Woe unto us who are left by our holy mother! Happy those who left this world whilst thou wast still alive...!' The nun Baudonivia says that she cannot speak of the death of Radegund without sobs choking her. Her account was written some time after Radegund's death during the rule of the abbess Didimia to whom it is dedicated ; Didimia probably succeeded Leubover, who witnessed the serious outbreak of the nuns at Poitiers. This outbreak throws an interesting light on the temper of professed religious women at this period, and illustrates how needful it was that a religious establishment should be ruled by a woman of character and determination at a time when the monastic system was only in its infancy. § 3. The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers^ Convent Life in the North. The revolt of the nuns at Poitiers, which happened within a few years of the death of Radegund, shows more than anything else the imperious and the unbridled passions that were to be found at this period in a nunnery. Evidently the adoption of the religious profession did not deter women from openly rebelling against the authority of the ministers of the Church, and from carrying out their purpose by force of arms. The outbreak at Poitiers, of which Gregory has given a description, shows what proud, vindictive, and unrelenting characters the Prankish convent of the 6th century harboured. Already during Radegund's lifetime difficulties had arisen. King Chilperic had placed his daughter Basina in the nunnery, and after a time he asked that she should leave to be married. Radegund refused and her authority prevailed, but we shall find ' Gregorius Tur., De Gloria Confessorum, ch. io6. ■i Gregorius Tur., Hisl. Franc, bk 9, chs. 39—44; bk 10, chs. 15—17, 20. E. S 66 The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, ii this Basina taking an active part in the rebellion. Other incidents show how difficult it was for Radegund even to uphold discipline. A nun escaped through a window by aid of a rope and, taking refuge in the basilica of St Hilary, made accusations which Gregory, who was summoned to enquire into the matter, declared to be unfounded. The fugitive repented and was permitted to return to the nunnery; .she was hoisted up by means of ropes so that she might enter by the way she had gone out. She asked to be confined in a cell apart from the community, and there she remained in seclusion till the news of the rebellion encouraged her to again break loose. Agnes the abbess appointed by Radegund died in 589. The convent chose a certain Leubover to succeed her, but this appoint- ment roused the ire of Chrodield, another inmate of the nunnery. Chrodield held herself to be the daughter of King Charibert, and relying on her near connection with royalty persuaded forty nuns to take an oath that they would help her to remove the hated Leubover and would appoint her, Chrodield, as abbess in her stead. Led by Chrodield who had been joined by her cousin Basina, the daughter of Chilperic mentioned above, the whole party left the nunnery. ' I am going to my royal relatives,' Chrodield said, ' to inform them of the contumely we have experienced. Not as daughters of kings are we treated but as though we were lowly born'.' Leaving Poitiers the women came to Tours where Chrodield applied for assistance to the bishop and historian Gregory. In vain he admonished her, promising to speak to Bishop Maroveus of Poitiers in her behalf, and urging her to abide by his decision, as the penalty might be excommunication. The feeling of indignation in the women must have been strong, since nothing he could say dissuaded them from their purpose. ' Nothing shall prevent us from appealing to the kings,' said Chrodield, ' to them we are nearly related.' The women had come on foot from Poitiers to Tours, regardless of hardships. They had had no food and arrived at a time of year when the roads were deep in mud. Gregory at last persuaded them to postpone their departure for the court till the summer. Then Chrodield, leaving the nuns under the care of Basina, continued her journey to her uncle. King Guntchram of Orleans, ' Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk g, cli. 39. SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. 67 who at the time was residing at Chal6ns-sur-Sa6ne. She was well received by him and came back to Tours there to await the convocation of bishops who were to enquire into the rights of her case. But she found on her return that many of her followers had disbanded, and some had married. The arrival too of the bishops was delayed, so that she felt it expedient to return with her followers to Poitiers where they took possession of the basilica of St Hilary. They now prepared for open hostility. ' We are queens,' they said, ' and we shall not return to the monastery unless the abbess is deposed.' At this juncture they were joined by other dissatisfied spirits, 'murderers, adulterers, law-breakers and other wrong-doers,' as Gregory puts it*. The nun too who had previously escaped and been taken back, now broke loose from her cell and returned to the basilica of Hilary. The bishop of Bordeaux and his suffragan bishops of Angou- leme, Perigueux, and Poitiers, now assembled by order of the king (Guntchram), and called upon the women to come into the monas- tery, and on their refusal the prelates entered the basilica of St Hilary in a body urging them to obey. The women refused, and the ban of excommunication was pronounced, upon which they and their followers attacked the prelates. In great fear the bishops and clergy made off helter-skelter, not even pausing to bid each other farewell. One deacon was so terrified that in his eagerness to get away he did not even ride down to the ford, but plunged with his horse straight into the river. King Childebert (f 596), the son and successor of King Sigebert, now ordered Count Macco to put an end to the rebellion by force of arms, while Gondegisel, bishop of Bordeaux, sent a circular letter to his brethren, describing the indignity to which he had been exposed. Chrodield's chance of success was evidently dwindling, when she determined to carry her point by a bold assault, the account of which may fitly stand in the words of Gregory'. ' The vexations,' he says, ' which sown by the devil had sprung up in the monastery at Poitiers, daily increased in troublesomeness. For Chrodield, having collected about her, as mentioned above, a band of murderers, wrong-doers, law-breakers, and vagrants of all kinds, dwelt in open revolt and ordered her followers to break into the nunnery at night and forcibly to bear off the abbess. But 1 Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk 9, ch. 41. = Ibid., bk 10, ch. 15. S— 2 68 The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, ii the abbess, on hearing the noise of their approach, asked to be carried in front of the shrine of the Holy Cross, for she was suffering from a gouty foot, and thought that the Holy Cross would serve her as a protection in danger. The armed bands rushed in, ran about the monastery by the light of a torch in search of the abbess, and entering the oratory found her extended on the ground in front of the shrine of the Holy Cross. Then one of them, more audacious than the rest, while about to commit the impious deed of cutting her down with his sword, was stabbed by another, through the intercession I believe of Divine Providence. He fell in his own blood and did not carry out the intention he had impiously formed. Meanwhile the prioress Justina, together with other sisters, spread the altar-cover, which lay before the cross, over the abbess, and extinguished the altar candles. But those who rushed in with bared swords and lances tore her clothes, almost lacerated the hands of the nuns, and carried off the prioress whom they mistook for the abbess in the darkness, and, with her cloak dragged off and her hair coming down, they would have given her into custody at the basilica of St Hilary. But as they drew near the church, and the sky grew somewhat lighter, they saw she was not the abbess and told her to go back to the monastery. Coming back themselves they secured the real abbess, dragged her away, and placed her in custody near the basilica of St Hilary in a place where Basina was living, and placed a watch over her by the door that no one should come to her rescue. Then in the dark of night they returned to the monastery and not being able to find a light, set fire to a barrel which they took from the larder and which had been painted with tar and was now dry. By the light of the bonfire they kindled, they plundered the monastery of all its contents, leaving nothing but what they could not carry off. This happened seven days before Easter.' The bishop of Poitiers made one more attempt to interfere. He sent to Chrodield and asked her to set the abbess free on pain of his refusing to celebrate the Easter festival. ' If you do not release her,' he said, ' I shall bring her help with the assembled citizens.' But Chrodield emboldened by her success said to her followers : ' If anyone dare come to her rescue, slay her.' She seems now to have been in possession of the monastery; still we find defection among her party. Basina, who throughout had shown a changeable disposition, repented and went to the im- prisoned Leubover, who received her with open arms. The SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. 69 bishops, mindful of the treatment they had received, still refused to assemble in Poitiers while the state of affairs continued. But Count Macco with his armed bands made an attack on the women and their followers, causing 'some to be beaten down, others struck down by spears, and those who made most strenuous opposition to be cut down by the sword.' Chrodield came forth from the nunnery holding on high the relic of the Cross ; ' Do not, I charge you, use force of arms against me,' she cried, ' I am a queen, daughter to one king and cousin to another. Do not attack me, a time may come when I will take my revenge.' But no one took any notice of her. Her followers were dragged from the monastery and severely chastised. The bishops assembled and instituted a long enquiry into the grievances of Chrodield, and the accusations brought against Leubover by her. They seem to have been unfounded or insignificant. Leubover justified herself and returned to the monastery. Chro- dield and Basina left Poitiers and went to the court of King Childebert. At the next Church convocation the king tendered a request that these women should be freed from the ban of excommuni- cation. Basina asked forgiveness and was allowed to return to the monastery. But the proud Chrodield declared that she would not set foot there while the abbess Leubover remained in authority. She maintained her independence and went to live in a 'villa' which the king had granted her, and from that time she passes from the stage of history. The revolt of the nuns at Poitiers, which for two years defied the efforts of churchmen and laymen, is the more noteworthy in that it does not stand alone. Within a year we find a similar outbreak threatening the nunnery at Tours where a certain Berthegund, similarly disappointed of becoming abbess, collected malefactors and others about her and resorted to violent measures. The circumstances, which are also described by Gregory, differ in some respects from those of the insurrection at Ste Croix^. Ingetrud, the mother of Berthegund, had founded a nunnery at Tours close to the church of St Martin, and she urged her daughter, who was married, to come and live with her. When Berthegund did so, her husband appealed to Gregory, who threatened her with excommunication if she persisted in her resolve. She returned to her husband, but subsequently left him 1 Gregorius Tur., Hist. Franc, bk 9, ch. 33 ; bk 10, ch. 12. 70 The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, ii again and sent for advice to her brother who was bishop of Bordeaux. He decreed that she need not live with her husband if she preferred convent h'fe. But when this bishop of Bordeaux died, his sister Berthegund and her mother Ingetrud quarrelled as to the inheritance of his property, and Ingetrud, much incensed against her daughter, determined at least to keep from Berthegund her own possessions at the nunnery and succession to her position there. She therefore appointed a niece of hers to succeed her as abbess after her death. When she died the convent of nuns looked upon this appointment as an infringement of their rights, but Gregory persuaded them to keep quiet and abide by the decision of their late abbess. Berthegund however would not agree to it. Against the advice of the bishop she appealed to the authority of King Childebert, who admitted her claim to the property. ' Furnished with his letter she came to the monastery and carried off all the moveable property, * leaving nothing but its bare walls,' Gregory says. Afterwards she settled at Poitiers, where she spoke evil of her cousin the abbess of Tours, and altogether ' she did so much evil it were difficult to tell of it all.' From the consideration of these events in central France we turn to the religious foundations for women in the northern districts. With the beginning of the 7th century a change which directly influenced convent life becomes apparent in the relations between the Frankish rulers and the representatives of Christianity. In- fluential posts at court were more and more frequently occupied by prelates of the Church, and kings and queens acted more directly as patrons of churches and monasteries. Hitherto the centres of religious influence had been in southern and central France, where the Gallo-Frankish population and influence predominated, and where monasteries flourished close to cities which had been strong- holds of the Roman system of administration. New religious settlements now grew up north of the rivers Seine and Marne, where the pure Frankish element prevailed and where Chris- tianity regained its foothold owing to the patronage of ruling princes. Whatever had survived of Latin culture and civilisation in these districts had disappeared before the influence of the heathen invaders; the men whose work it was to re-evangelise these districts found few traces of Christianity. Vedast (St Vaast, \ S40), who was sent by bishop Remigius (St Remy) of Rheims (i* 532) into the marshy dis- tricts of Flanders, found no Christians at Arras about the year 500, SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. 71 and only the ruins of one ancient church, which he rebuilt*. The author of the life of Vedast gives the ravages made in these districts by the Huns as the reason for the disappearance of Latin culture and of Christianity. But the author of the life of Eleutherius, bishop of Tournai (f 531), holds that the Christians had fled from these districts to escape from the inroads of the heathen Franksl It was chiefly by the foundation of monasteries in these districts that Christianity gained ground during the 7th century. ' Through the establishment of monasteries,' says Gerard'', 'the new social order gained a foothold in the old Salic lands.' Among the names of those who took an active part in this movement stand the following : Wandregisil (St Vandrille, f 665) founder of the abbey of Fontenelle ; Waneng (-f c. 688) founder of Fecamp ; Filibert ("f 684) founder of Jumieges; Eligius bishop of Noyon (-1-658) and Audoenus (St Ouen, -f- 683) archbishop of Rouen. These men were in direct contact with the court and were much patronised by the ruling princes, especially by the holy queen Balthild. Early and reliable accounts concerning most of them are extant*. With regard to political events the 7th century is the most obscure period of Frankish -history, for the history of Gregory of Tours comes to an end in 591. Feuds and quarrels as violent as those he depicts continued, and important constitutional changes took place as their result. The vast dominions brought under Frankish rule showed signs of definitely crystallising into Austrasia which included the purely Frankish districts of the north, and Burgundy and Neustria where Gallo-Frankish elements were prevalent. The latter half of the life of the famous Queen Brunihild^ takes its colouring from the rivalry between these kingdoms ; during fifty years she was one of the chief actors in the drama of Frankish history. At one time she ruled conjointly with her son Childebert, and then as regent for her grandsons, over whom she domineered greatly. In the year 613, when she was over eighty years old, she was put to a cruel death by the nobles of Austrasia. The judgments passed on this queen are curiously contradictory. Pope Gregory (t 604) writes to her praising her great zeal in 1 A. SS. Boll., St Vedastus, Feb. 6. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Eleutherius, Feb. 20, Vita I, ch. 3 (Potthast, Wegweiser: 'Vita aiutore anonymo sed antifuo'). 2 Gerard, P. A. F., Histoire des Francs d'Austrasie, 1864, vol. 1, p. 384. 4 Comp. throughout A. SS. Boll. , St Wandregisilus, July I'Z ; St Waningus, Jan. 9, etc. ' Drapeyron, L., La reine Brunehilde, 1867. 72 The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, ii the cause of religion, and thanks her for the protection she has afforded to Augustine on his passage through France, which he considers a means to the conversion of England'. On the other hand the author of the life of St Columban^ whom she expelled from Burgundy, calls her a very JezebeP; and the author of the life of Desiderius, who was murdered in 608, goes so far as to accuse her of incestuous practices because of her marriage with her husband's nephew*. Indirect evidence is in favour of the conclusion that Queen Brunihild disliked monasticism ; she was by birth of course a princess of the Gothic dynasty of Spain who had accepted Christianity in its Arian form. During the reign of Brunihild's nephew Clothacar II (t ^2Z''}, under whose rule the different provinces were for a time united, a comprehensive and most interesting edict was issued, which affords an insight into the efforts made to give stability to the relations between princes and the representatives of religion. In this edict, under heading 18, we are told that 'no maidens, holy widows or religious persons who are vowed to God, whether they stay at home or live in monasteries, shall be enticed away, or appropriated, or taken in marriage by making use of a special royal permit (prae- ceptum). And if anyone surreptitiously gets hold of a permit, it shall have no force. And should anyone by violent or other means carry off any such woman and take her to wife, let him be put to death. And if he be married in church and the woman who is appropriated, or who is on the point of being appropriated, seems to be a consenting party, they shall be separated, sent into exile, and their possessions given to their natural heirs^' From these injunctions it can be gathered that the re-adjust- ment of social and moral relations was still in progress ; women who were vowed to a religious life did not necessarily dwell in a religious settlement, and even if they did so they were not neces- sarily safe from being captured and thrown into subjection. Clo- thacar II had three wives at the same time and concubines innumerable ; plurality of wives was indeed a prerogative of these Frankish kings. ' Gregorius, Papa, Epistolae, liber 9, epist. 109 (in Migne, Patrol. Cursus Compl. vol. 77). 2 St Columban who went abroad and died in 615 should be kept distinct from St Columba who died in 597, sometimes also called Columban. Both of them wrote rules for monks (cf. Didimmry of Nat. Biography). ^ Bouquet, Recueil Hist., vol. 3, p. 478. "^ A. SS. Boll., St Desiderius, May 23. ^ OntViie, Histoire de I' £g!ise de France, vol. i, p. 317. SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. 73 Monastic life in northern France at tliis period was also in process of development. It has been mentioned how Radegund adopted the rule of life framed and put into writing by Caesarius at Aries. The rule contemporaneously instituted by Benedict at Nursia in central Italy spread further and further northwards, and was advocated by prelates of the Romish Church. It served as the model on which to reform the life of existing settlements^ During the first few centuries religious houses and communities had been founded here and there independently of each other, the mode of life and the routine observed depending in each case directly on the founder. Many and great were the attempts made by the advocates of convent life to formulate the type of an ideal existence outside the pale of social duties and family relations, in which piety, work and benevolence should be blended in just proportions. The questions how far the prelates of the Church should claim authority over the monastery, and what the respective positions of abbot or abbess and bishop should be, led to much discussion. During the period under consideration the rules drafted by different leaders of monastic thought were not looked upon as mutually exclusive. We are told in the life of Filibert (t 684), written by a contemporary-', that he made selections from 'the graces of St Basil, the rule of Macarius, the decrees of Benedict and the holy institutions of Columban.' Eligius, bishop of Noyon, says in a charter which he drafted for the monastery founded by him at Solemny that the inmates of the settlement shall follow the rules of St Benedict and of St Columban'. Towards the close of the 6th century Columban came from Ireland into France and northern Italy and founded a number of religious settlements. What rule of life the inmates of these houses followed is not quite clear, probably that drafted by Columban. The convents in Elsass, Switzerland and Germany, which considered that they owed their foundation to Irish monks, were numerous and later became obnoxious to the Church in many ways. For in after years, when the feud arose between the Romish and the Irish Churches and the latter insisted on her in- dependence, the houses founded by Irishmen also claimed freedom 1 Opinions differ as to the original form of the rule of St Benedict. Comp. Benedic- tus. Opera, pp. 204 ff. (in Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Complet., vol. 66). « A. SS. Boll., St Filibertus, Aug. 20. 2 Roth, P., Geschichte des Beneficialwesms, 1850 Appendix, gives the Charter. 74 TJu Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, it and remained separate from those which accepted the rule of St Benedict. The property granted to reHgious foundations in northern France went on increasing, throughout the 7th century. The amount of land settled on churches and monasteries by princes of the Merovech dynasty was so great that on Roth's computation two-thirds of the soil of France was at one time in the hands of the representatives of religion'. Under the will of Dagobert, who first became king of Austrasia in 628 and afterwards of the whole of France, large tracts were given away. Through the gifts of this king the abbey of St Denis became the richest in France, and his great liberality on the one hand towards the Church, on the other towards the poor and pilgrims, is emphasized by his biographer. His son Chlodwig II, king of Neustria and Burgundy, followed in his footsteps. He was a prince of feeble intellect and his reign is remarkable for the power increasingly usurped by the house-mayor, who grasped more and more at the substance of royal authority while dispensing with its show. Chlodwig II was married to Balthild, who is esteemed a saint on the strength of the monastery she founded and of the gifts she made to the Church. There are two accounts of her works ; the second is probably a re-written amplification of the first, which was drafted within a short period of her deaths As these accounts were written from the religious standpoint, they give scant infor- mation on the political activity and influence of the queen, which were considerable. They dwell chiefly on her gifts, and concern the latter part of her life when she was in constant communication with her nunnery. Balthild was of Anglo-Saxon origin, and her personality and activity form the connecting link between the women of France and England. It is supposed that she was descended from one of the noble families of Wessex, and she favoured all those re- ligious settlements which were in direct connection with princesses of the Anglo-Saxon race. She had been captured on the north coast of France and had been brought to Paris as a slave by the house-mayor Erchinoald, who would have married her, but she escaped and hid herself. Her beauty and attractions are described as remarkable, and she found favour in the eyes of King Chlodwig II who made her his ^ Roth, P., Geschichte des Beneficialwesens, 1850, p. 249. ^ A. SS. Boll., St Bathildis, Jan. 26 (contains both accounts). SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. 75 wife. The excesses of this king were so great that he became imbecile. Balthild with Erchinoald's help governed the kingdom during the remainder of her husband's life and after his death in the interest of her little sons. From a political point of view she is described as ' administering the affairs of the kingdom masculine wise and with great strength of mind.' She was es- pecially energetic in opposing slavery and forbade the sale of Christians in any part of France. No doubt this was due to her own sad experience. She also abolished the poll-tax, which had been instituted by the Romans. The Frankish kings had carried it on and depended on it for part of their income. Its abolition is referred to as a most important and beneficial change'. During the lifetime of Chlodwig and for some years after his death the rule of Balthild seems to have been comparatively peace- ful. The house-mayor Erchinoald died in 658 and was succeeded by Ebruin, a man whose unbounded personal ambition again plunged the realm into endless quarrels. In his own interest Ebruin advocated the appointment of a separate king to the province Austrasia, and the second of Balthild's little sons was sent there with the house-mayor Wulfoald. But the rivalry be- tween the two kingdoms soon added another dramatic chapter to the pages of Frankish history. At one time we find Ebruin ruling supreme and condemning his rival Leodgar, bishop of Autun, to seclusion in the monastery of Luxeuil. An insurrection broke out and Ebruin himself was tonsured and cast into Luxeuil. But his chief antagonist Leodgar was murdered. Ebruin was then set free and again became house-mayor to one of the shadow kings, rois faineants, the unworthy successors of the great Merovech. His career throughout reflected the tumultuous temper of the age ; he was finally assassinated in the year 680. Queen Balthild had retired from political life long before this. She left the court in consequence of an insurrection in Paris which led to the assassination of Bishop Sigoberrand, and went to live at a palace near the convent of Chelles, which she had founded and which she frequently visited. In the account of her life we read of her doing many pious deeds'*. 'A fond mother, she loved the nuns like her own daughters and obeyed as her mother the holy abbess whom she had herself appointed ; and in every respect she did her duty not like a mistress but like a faithful servant. Also 1 Roth, P., Geschichte des Beneficialwesens, 1850, p. 86. » A. SS. Boll., St Bathildis, Jan. 26; Vila 11., ch. 14. ^d The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, ii with the humility of a strong mind she served as an example ; she did service herself as cook to the nuns, she looked after cleanliness, — and, what can I say more, — the purest of pearls, with her own hands she removed filth's impurities....' At various times of her life Balthild had been in friendly intercourse with many of the chief prelates and religious dignitaries of the day. She had taken a special interest in Eligius, bishop of Noyon, who was a Frank by birth and the friend and adviser of King Dagobert. We hear how Eligius took a special interest in monastic life ; how at Paris he collected together three hundred women, some of whom were slaves, others of noble origin; how he placed them under the guidance of one Aurea ; and how at Noyon also he gathered together many women'. On receiving the news that Eligius was dying, Balthild hurried with her sons to Noyon, but they came too late to see him. So great was her love for him, that she would have borne away his body to Chelles, her favourite settlement, but her wish was miraculously frustrated. The writer of the life of Eligius tells that the holy man's body became so heavy that it was impossible to move it. When Eligius appointed Aurea as president of his convent at Paris she was living in a settlement at Pavilly which had been founded by Filibert, an ecclesiastic also associated with Queen Balthild. On one occasion she sent him as an offering her royal girdle, which is described as a mass of gold and jewels^ It was on land granted to him by Balthild and her sons that Filibert founded Jumieges, where he collected together as many as nine hundred monks. At his foundation at Pavilly over three hundred women lived together under the abbess Ansterbert'. It is recorded that Ansterbert and her mother Framehild were among the women of northern France who came under the influence of Irish teachers. The same is said of Fara (f 657)^, the reputed founder of a house at Brie, which was known as Faremou- tiers, another settlement indebted to Queen Balthild's munificence. Similarly Agilbert and Theodohild' (f c. 660) are supposed to have been taught by Irish teachers who had collected women about them at Jouarre on the Marne. This house at Jouarre 1 A. SS. Boll., ibid., St Aurea, Oct. 4. 2 Ibid., St Filibertus, Aug. 20, Vita, ch. 5. 3 \\;^^_^ St Austreberta, Feb. 10. ■> Regnault, Vie de Sie Fare, 1626. = A. SS. Boll., St Teclechildis, Oct. 10. SECT. Ill] Convent Life in the North. ']'] attained a high standard of excellence in regard to education, for we are informed that Balthild summoned Berthild' from here, a woman renowned for her learning, and appointed her abbess over the house at Chelles. Yet another ecclesiastic must be mentioned in connection with Balthild, viz. Waneng, a Frank by birth. He was counsellor for some time to the queen who gave the cantle of Normandy, the so-called Pays de Caux, into his charge. He again founded a settlement for religious women at Fecamp which was presided over by Hildemarque. The foundation and growth of so many religious settlements within so short a period and situated in a comparatively small district shows that the taste for monastic life was rapidly develop- ing among the Franks. ' At this period in the provinces of Gaul,' says a contemporary writer, ' large communities of monks and of virgins were formed, not only in cultivated districts, in villages, cities and strongholds, but also in uncultivated solitudes, for the purpose of living together according to the rule of the holy fathers Benedict and Columban".' This statement is taken from the life of Salaberg, a well written composition which conveys the impression of truthfulness. Sala- berg had brought up her daughter Anstrud for the religious life. Her husband had joined the monastery at Luxeuil and she and other women were about to settle near it when the rumour of impending warfare drove them north towards Laon where they dwelt on the Mons Clavatus. This event belongs to the period of Queen Balthild's regency. It was while Anstrud was abbess at Laon that the settlement was attacked and barely escaped destruction in one of the wars waged by the house-mayor Ebruin. This event is described in a contemporary life of Anstrud^ It is interesting to find a connection growing up at this period between the religious houses of northern France and the women of Anglo-Saxon England. We learn from the reliable information supplied by Bede that Englishwomen frequently went abroad and sometimes settled entirely in Frankish convents. We shall return to this subject later in connection with the princesses of Kent and East Anglia, some of whom went to France and there became abbesses. The house at Brie was ruled successively by Saethrith ' A. SS. Boll., St Bertilia, Jan. 3. =" Ibid., St .Salaberga, Sept. 22, Vita, ch. 8. ■* Ibid., St Austrudis, Oct. 17. 78 The Revolt of the Nuns at Poitiers. [chap, ii (St Syre), and Aethelburg (St Aubierge), daughters of kings of East Anglia, and Earcongotha, a daughter of the king of Kent. About the same time Hereswith, a princess of Northumbria, came to reside at Chelles'. We do not know how far the immigration of these women was due to Balthild's connection with the land of her origin, nor do we hear whether she found solace in the society of her countrywomen during the last years of her life. Her death is conjectured to have taken place in 680. With it closes the period which has given the relatively largest number of women-saints to France, for all the women who by founding nunneries worked in the interests of religion have a place in the assembly of the saints. They were held as bene- factors in the districts which witnessed their efforts, and the day of their death was inscribed in the local calendar. They have never been officially canonised, but they all figure in the Roman Martyrology, and the accounts which tell of their doings have been incorporated in the Acts of the Saints. ^ Bede, Hist. Eccks., bk 3, ch. 8 ; bk 4, ch. 23. Comp. below, ch. 3, § i. CHAPTER III. CONVENTS AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS, A.D. 63O-73O. ' Ecce catervim glomerant ad bella phalanges Justitiae comites et virtutum agmina sancta.' Ealdhelm, De laude Virginum, § I. Early Houses in Kent. The early history of the convent Hfe of women in Anglo-Saxon England is chiefly an account of foundations. Information on the establishment of religious settlements founded and presided over by women is plentiful, but well-nigh a century went by before women who had adopted religion as a profession gave any insight into their lives and characters through writings of their own. The women who founded monasteries in Anglo-Saxon England have generally been raised to the rank of saint. ' In the large number of convents as well as in the names of female saints among the Anglo-Saxons,' says Lappenberg\ ' we may recognise the same spirit which attracted the notice of the Roman army among the ancient Germans, and was manifested in the esteem and honour of women generally, and in the special influence exercised by the priestess.' A great proportion of the women who founded religious houses were members of ruling families. From the first it was usual for a princess to receive a grant of land from her husband on the occasion of her marriage, and this land together with what she inherited from her father she could dispose of at will. She often devoted this property to founding a religious house where she established her daughters, and to which she retired either during her husband's lifetime or after his death. The great honour paid by Christianity to the celibate life and the wide field ^ History of the Anglo-Saxons, transl. Thorpe, 1845, vol. 1, p. 247. 8o Early Houses in Kent. [chap, hi of action opened to a princess in a religious house were strong inducements to the sisters and daughters of kings to take the veil. We have trustworthy information about many of the Anglo- Saxon women who founded and presided over religious settle- ments and whom posterity reverenced as saints ; for their work has been described by writers who either knew them, or gained their information from those who did. But there are other women whose names only are mentioned in charters, or correspondence, or in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Historians however welcome such references as chronological evidence and as proofs of these women's real existence ; without them they would have nothing to rely upon but accounts dating from a later period and often consisting of little more than a series of incidents strung together in order to explain the miracles with which the saints' relics were locally credited. There is a certain similarity between these later accounts and those we have of pseudo-saints, but they differ from those of an earlier date, for the writers of the 8th and 9th centuries were not actuated like those of a later period by the desire to give a miraculous rendering of fact. Bede (-f- 735) stands pre-eminent among the earlier writers, and our admiration for him increases as we discover his immense superiority to other early historians. Most of the women who were honoured as saints in England belong to the first hundred years after the acceptance of Christianity in these islands. A few other women have been revered as saints who lived in the loth century and came under the influence of the monastic revival which is associated with the name of Dunstan (f 988). But no woman living during Anglo- Norman times has been thus honoured, for the desire to raise women to saintship was essentially Anglo-Saxon and was strongest in the times which immediately followed the acceptance of Chris- tianity. It was more than two hundred years after the Anglo-Saxons first set foot on British shores that they accepted Christianity. The struggles between them and the inhabitants of the island had ended in the recognised supremacy of the invaders, and bands of heathen Germans, settling at first near the shore, for the sake of the open country, had gradually made their way up the fruitful valleys and into adjoining districts till they covered the land with a network of settlements. After the restlessness of invasion and warfare the Anglo-Saxons settled down to domestic life and SECT, i] Early Houses in Kent. 8i ■ agriculture, for compared with the British they were eminently tillers of the soil. Under their regime the cities built by the Romans and the British fastnesses alike fell into decay. The Anglo-Saxons dwelt in villages, and the British either lived there in subservience to them or else retired into districts of their own which were difficult of access. The re-introduction of Christianity into these islands is associated with the name of Pope Gregory. Zealous and resolute in his efforts to strengthen the papal power by sending forth missionaries who were devoted to him, he watched his opportunity to gain a foothold for the faith in Kent. Tradition connects the iirst step in this direction with the name of a Prankish princess, and Bede in his Church History tells how the marriage of Berhta, daughter of King Charibert of Paris (561-567), to King Aethelberht of Kent (586-616) brought an ecclesiastic to Canterbury who took possession of the ancient British church of St Martin : this event was speedily followed by the arrival of other ecclesiastics from Rome, who travelled across France under the leadership of Augustine. At the time of Augustine's arrival the position of Kent was threatened by the growing supremacy of Northumbria. Through the activity both of Aethelfrith (t6i7) and of Eadwin his successor, the land extending from the Humber to the Firth of Forth had been united under one rule ; Northumbria was taking the lead among the petty kingdoms which had been formed in different parts of the island. The king of Kent strengthened his independent position by accepting the faith which had proved propitious to the Franks and by entering into alliance with his neighbours across the Channel ; and it was no doubt with a view to encouraging peaceful relations with the north that Aethelburg the daughter of Aethelberht and Berhta was given in marriage to King Eadwin of Northumbria during the reign of her brother Eadbald (616-640). Again the marriage of a Christian princess was made an occasion for extending the faith ; an ecclesiastic as usual followed in her train. Paulinus, the Roman chaplain who came north with Aethelburg, after various incidents picturesquely set forth by Bede, overcame King Eadwin's reluctance to embrace Chris- tianity and prevailed upon him to be baptized at York with other members of his household on Easter day in the year 627. The event was followed by an influx of Christians into that city, 82 Early Hotises in Kent. [chap, in for British Christianity had receded before the heathen Angles, but it still had strongholds in the north and was on the alert to regain lost ground. The city of York, during Roman rule, had been of great importance in affairs of administration. The Roman Eboracum nearly died out to arise anew as Anglian Eoforwic. King Eadwin recognised Paulinus as bishop and a stone church was begun on part of the ground now occupied by the Minster'. Bede loves to dwell on the story of this conversion, which was endeared to all devout churchmen by many associations. Eanflaed, the child of Eadwin and Aethelburg, whose baptism was its immediate cause, was afterwards a staunch supporter of Roman versus British Church tendencies. She was the patron of Wilfrith, in his time the most zealous advocate of the supremacy of Rome. Among the members of Eadwin's household who were baptized on the same Easter day in 627 was Hild, a girl of fourteen, who afterwards became abbess of Whitby. She was grand-niece to Eadwin through her father Hereric, who had been treacherously made away with ; her mother Beorhtswith and her sister Hereswith were among the early converts to Christianity. Hereswith afterwards married a king of the Angles, and at a later period was living in the Prankish settlement of Chelles (Cala), where her sister Hild at one time thought of joining her. Nothing is known of the life of Hild between the ages of fourteen and thirty- four, but evidently she had not dwelt in obscure retirement, for the Scottish prelate Aidan in 647, knowing that she was living in the midlands, begged her to return to the north. It is a noteworthy circumstance if, in an age when marriage was the rule, she remained single without taking the veil, but she may have been associated with some religious settlement^ It was only a few years after the acceptance of Christianity at York that the days of King Eadwin's reign, ' when a woman with her babe might walk scatheless from sea to sea,' came to an abrupt close. Eadwin was slain in 633 at the battle of Hatfield, a victim to the jealousy of the British king Caedwalla, who combined with the heathen king Penda of Mercia against him. ^ Raine, Historians of the Church of York. Rolls series, vol. i. Preface, p. xxiii. ^ It is probable such settlements existed. Dugdale, Monasticon, vol. 3, p. 302, holds a religious foundation to have existed in Tinmouth founded 617-33, but in Bede, Life of Culhbert, transl. Stevenson, T., 1887, ch. 3, it is referred to as a monastery formerly of men, now of ' virgins.' SECT, i] Early Houses in Kent. 83 Queen Aethelburg with her children and Paulinus fled from York to the coast and went by sea to Kent, where they were welcomed by her brother King Eadbald and by Archbishop Honorius. At the beginning of his reign Eadbald of Kent had been in conflict with the Church owing to his marriage with his father's relict, a heathen wife whom Aethelberht had taken to himself after the death of Berhta. It is characteristic of the position held at first by Christian prelates in England that they depended entirely on the ruling prince for their position. Paulinus fled from York at the death of Eadwin, and Eadbald's adherence to heathen customs temporarily drove the Kentish prelate abroad. The king of Kent had, however, found it well to repudiate his heathen wife and to take a Christian princess of the Franks in her stead. This act restored him to the goodwill of his prelate, who returned to English shores. Eadbald had settled a piece of land at Folkestone on his daughter Eanswith, and there about the year 630 she founded what is held to be the first religious settlement for women in Anglo-Saxon England'. The fact of this foundation is un- disputed, but all we know of Eanswith's life is in the account given of her by Capgrave, an Augustinian monk who lived in the 15th centuryl He tells us how she went to live at Folkestone and how a king of Northumbria wished to marry her, but as the king was a heathen, she made their union conditional on his prevailing upon his gods to manifest their power by miraculously lengthening a beam. In this he failed and consequently departed. There follows a description how Eanswith made a stream to flow 'againste the hylle,' from Smelton, a mile distant from Folkestone, possibly by means of a well-levelled water conduit. Capgrave also describes how she enforced the payment of tithes. Eanswith's settlement was in existence at the close of the century, when it was destroyed or deserted during the viking invasion. A charter of King Athelstane dated 927 gives the land where ' stood the monastery and abbey of holy virgins and where also St Eanswith lies buried' to Christ Church, Canterbury, the 1 Dugdale, Monaslicon, 'Folkestone,' vol. i, p. 451. 2 Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, 1862, vol. i, p. 226 : ' the life of Eanswith cannot be traced to any earlier authority than John of Tinmouth (tc. 1380) whose account Capgrave (ti484) embodied in his collection of saints' lives.' The work of Capgrave, Catalogas SS. Angliae, was printed in 1516; the Kalendre of the Jieive Legende of Englande, printed r5i6 (Pynson), from which expressions are quoted in the ext, is an abridged translation of it into English. 6—2 84 Early Houses in Kent. [chap, hi house having been destroyed by the 'Pagans'.' Capgrave says that its site was swallowed by the sea, perhaps in one of the landslips common to the coast ; the holy woman's relics were then transferred to the church of St Peter. A church at Folke- stone is dedicated conjointly to St Mary and St Eanswith, and a church at Brensett in Kent is dedicated solely to her". Queen Aethelburg coming from the north also settled in Kent at a place called Liming'. Bede knows nothing of her after her departure from the north, and we have to depend on Canterbury traditions for information concerning her and the religious house she founded. Gocelin, a monk of Flanders who came into Kent in the nth century, describes Queen Aethelburg as 'building and up- raising this temple at Liming, and obtaining the first name there and a remarkable burial-place in the north porch against the south wall of the church covered with an arch^' Modern research has shown that the buildings at Liming were so arranged as to contain a convent of monks as well as of nuns. The church is of Roman masonry and may have been built out of the fragments of a villa, such as the Anglo-Saxons frequently adapted to purposes of their own, or it may have been a Roman basilica restored. Queen Aethelburg, foundress of Liming, is not usually reckoned a saint; she has no day* and collections of saints' lives generally omit her. The identity of name between her and Aethelburg (■f c. 676), abbess of Barking at a somewhat later date, has caused some confusion between them". Gocelin mentions that both Queen Aethelburg and 'St Eadburga' were buried at Liming'. A well lying to the east of the church at Liming is to this day called St Ethelburga's well, and she is commonly held to be identical with Queen Aethelburg^ At a somewhat later date another religious settlement for women was founded at Sheppey in Kent by Queen Sexburg, the wife of Earconberht of Kent (640-664), the successor of Eadbald. ' Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Folkestone,' vol. i, p. 451, nr 2. 2 Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, 1880, 'Eanswitha'; also A. SS. Boll., St Eanswida, Aug. 31. ^ Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Liming,' vol. i, p. 452. ^ Jenkins, R. C, in Gentleman's Magazine, i86'3, August, p. 196 quotes this state- ment ; I do not see where he takes it from. ^ Stanton, R. , Menology of England and Wales, 1887, p. 144. * Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, 1862, vol. i, p. 475. ' Gocelinus, Vita St Wereburgae, \.. i (in Migne, Patrol. Cursus Compl., vol. 155). * Bright, W., Early EjiglisJi Church History, 1878, p. 130 footnote. SECT, i] Early Houses in Kent. 85 We know little of the circumstances of the foundation'. Sexburg was a princess of East Anglia, where Christianity had been accepted owing to the influence of King Eadwin of North- umbria ° and where direct relations with France had been established. ' For at that time,' says Bede, writing of these districts ^ 'there being not yet many monasteries built in the region of the Angles, many were wont, for the sake of the monastic mode of life, to go from Britain to the monasteries of the Franks and of Gaul ; they also sent their daughters to the same to be instructed and to be wedded to the heavenly spouse, chiefly in the monasteries of Brie (Faremoutiers), Chelles, and Andelys.' Two princesses of Anglia, Saethrith and Aethelburg, who were sisters or half-sisters to Sexburg, remained abroad and became in succession abbesses of Brie as mentioned above. Sexburg's daughter Earcongotha also went there, and was promoted to the rank of abbess. Both Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle speak in praise of her. For her other daughter Eormenhild, who was married to Wulfhere, king of Mercia, Queen Sexburg of Kent founded the house at Sheppey; she herself went to live at Ely in her sister Aethelthrith's convent. The statement of Bede that women at this time went abroad for their education is borne out by the traditional records of Mildthrith, first abbess of a religious settlement in Thanet which rose to considerable importance^ A huge mass of legend supple- ments the few historical facts we know of Mildthrith, whose in- fluence, judging from the numerous references to her and her wide- spread cult, was greater than that of any other English woman-saint. Several days in the Calendar are consecrated to her, and the site where her relics had been deposited was made a subject of con- troversy in the nth century. As late as 1882 we find that some of her relics were brought from Deventer in Holland to. Thanet, and that Pope Leo XIII granted a plenary indulgence on the occasion^ Churches in London, Oxford, Canterbury and other 1 Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Sheppey,' vol, i, p. 49. " Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, p. i^i- = Bede, Hist. Eccles., bk 3, ch. 8, transl. Gidley, 1870. < Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Thanet,' vol. i, p. 447; Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, 1862, on lives of St Mildred, vol. 1, p. 376; A. SS. Boll., Si Mildreda, July 13. 5 Stanton, R., M etiology of England and Wales, 1887, July 13. 86 Early Houses in Kent. [chap, hi places are dedicated to St Mildred', and Capgrave, William of Malmesbury and others give details of her story, which runs as follows : Her mother Eormenburg, sometimes called Domneva, was married to Merewald, prince of Hacanos, a district in Hereford- shire. King Ecgberht (664-673) of Kent gave her some land in Thanet as a blood-fine for the murder of her two young brothers, and on it she founded a monastery. She asked for as much land as her tame deer could run over in one course, and received over ten thousand acres of the best land in Kent^ Besides Mildthrith Eormenburg had two daughters, Mildburg and Mildgith, and a boy, the holy child Merwin, who was translated to heaven in his youth. Mildburg presided over a religious house at Wenlock in Shropshire, and her legend contains picturesque traits but little trustworthy information'. We know even less of the other daughter Mildgith. It is doubtful whether she lived in Kent or in the north, but she is considered a sainf. An ancient record says that ' St Mildgith lies in Northumbria where her miraculous powers were often exhibited and still are,' but it does not point out at what place^ According to her legend, Mildthrith, by far the best known of the sisters, was sent abroad to Chelles for her education, where the abbess Wilcoma wished her to marry her kinsman, and on the girl's refusal cast her into a burning furnace from which she came forth unharmed. The girl sent her mother a psalter she had written together with a lock of her hair. She made her escape and arrived in England, landing at Ebbsfleet. 'As she descended from the ship to the land and set her feet on a certain square stone the print of her feet remained on it, most life-like, she not thinking anything ; God so accomplishing the glory of his handmaid. And more than that; the dust that was scrapen off thence being drunk did cure sundry diseases^' It appears that a stone to which a superstitious reverence was attached was walled into the Church of St Mildred in Thanet. ' Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, article ' Mildred ' by Bishop Stubbs. '■* Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Thanet,' vol. i, p. 447. ' A. SS. Boll., St Milburga, Feb. 23. * Ibid., St Mildwida, Jan. 17. ' Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, ^^-a. 17. " 'Lives of Women Saints' (written about 1610) p. 64, edited by Horstman for the Karly Engl. Text Soc., London, 1887. SECT, i] Early Houses in Kent. 87 Other incidents told of her influence are not without their humorous side. One day a bell-ringer, forgetful of his duties, had dropped asleep, when Mildthrith appeared to him and gave him a blow on the ear, saying, ' Understand, fellow, that this is an oratory to pray in, not a dormitory to sleep in,' and so vanished. Thus writes the author of her legend. The fact remains that Mildthrith was presiding over a settlement in Kent towards the close of the 7th century. For in a charter of privileges granted between 696 and 716 by King Wihtred and Queen Werburg to the churches and monasteries of Kent granting them security against interference, her name is among those of the five lady abbesses who place their signatures to the document'. These names stand after those of the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Rochester and are as follows ; ' Mildritha, Aetheldritha, Aette, Wilnotha and Hereswytha.' The settlements mentioned in the body of the charter' as being subject to them are Upminstre (or Minstre) in Thanet, afterwards known as St Mildred's, Southminstre, a colony of Minstre, Folkestone, Liming and Sheppey, the foundation of which has been described. Thus at the close of the 7th century there existed in the province of Kent alone five religious settlements governed by abbesses who added this title to their signatures, or who, judging from the place given to them, ranked in dignity below the bishops but above the presbyters (presbyteri), whose names follow theirs in the list. From the wording of the charter we see that men who accepted the tonsure and women who received the veil were at this time classed together. Those who set their signatures to the charter agreed that neither abbot nor abbess should be appointed without the consent of a prelate. The charter is the more valuable as it establishes the existence of the Kentish convents and their connection with each other at a period when we have only fragmentary information about the religious houses in the south. We must turn to the north for fuller information as to the foundation and growth of religious settle- ments presided over by women during the early Christian period. 1 Haddon and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, 1869, vol. 3, p. 240. * ' Upmynstre, Suthmynstre, Folcanstan, Limming, Sceppeis.' The Monastery at Whitby. [chap, hi § 2. The Monastery at Whitby'. A temporary collapse of the Christian faith had followed the death of King Eadwin of Northumbria, but the restoration of King Oswald, who was not so strong as his predecessor in adminis- trative power but whose religious fervour was greater, had given it a new impulse and a new direction. Oswald had passed some time of his life in lona or Hii, the great Scottish religious settlement and the stronghold of British Christianity in the Hebrides. Here he had made friends with the ecclesiastic Aidan, who became his staunch supporter. Soon after his accession Oswald summoned a monk from lona ' to minister the word of the faith to himself and to his people,' and when it was found that the monk made no progress, Aidan was moved to go among the Angles himself In preference to York he chose the island Lindisfarne for his headquarters, but he spent much of his time with Oswald, helping him to set the practice and teaching of religion on a firmer footing. It was during this part of Aidan's career that he consecrated Heiu°, according to Bede 'the first woman who took the vow and the habit of a nun in the province of Northumbria.' Heiu pre- sided over a congregation of women at Hartlepool in Durham, from which she removed to Calcaria of the Romans, which is perhaps identical with Healaugh near Tadcaster, where apparently Heiu's name is retained. Further details of her career are wanting. Aidan's labours were interrupted for a time. Again the fierce and impetuous King Penda of Mercia invaded Northumbria, and again the Christian Angles fled before the midland heathens. King Oswald fell in battle (642) and Aidan retired to his rocky island, from which he watched the fires kindled all over the country first by the raids of Penda, and afterwards by civil strife between the two provinces of Northumbria, Deira and Bernicia. This arose through the rival claims to the throne of Oswiu, Oswald's brother, and Oswin, who was King Eadwin's relative. An understanding was at length effected between them by which Oswiu accepted Bernicia, while Oswin took possession of Deira, and Aidan, who found a patron in Oswin, returned to his work. ' Dugdale, Monastkoii, 'Whitby,' vol. i, p. 405. ' Bede, Eccl. Hist., bk 4, ch. 23 transl. Gidley, 1870. Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Hartlepool,' vol. 6, p. 1618, places the foundation about the year 640. SECT, ii] The Monastery at Whitby. 89 He now persuaded Hild\ who was waiting in Anglia for an opportunity to cross over to France, where she purposed joining her sister, to give up this plan and to return to the north to share in the work in which he was engaged. Hild came and settled down to a monastic life with a few companions on the river Wear. A year later, when Heiu retired to Calcaria, Hild became abbess at Hartlepool. She settled there only a few years before the close of Aidan's career. He died in 65 1 shortly after his patron Oswin, whose murder remains the great stain on the life of his rival Oswiu. A 1 2th century monk, an inmate of the monastery of St Beeves in Cumberland, has written a life of St Bega, the patron saint of his monastery, whom he identifies on the one hand with the abbess Heiu, consecrated by Aidan, and on the other with Begu, a nun who had a vision of Hild's death at the monastery of Hackness in the year 680. His narrative is further embellished with local traditions about a woman Bega, who came from Ireland and received as a gift from the Lady Egermont the extensive parish and promontory of St Beeves, which to this day bear her name^ There has been much speculation concerning this holy woman Bega, but it is probable that the writer of her life combined myths which seem to be Keltic with accounts of two historical persons whom Bede keeps quite distinct. There is no reason to doubt Bede's statements in this matter or in others concerning affairs in the north, for he expressly affirms that he 'was able to gain information not from one author only but from the faithful asser- tion of innumerable witnesses who were in a position to know and remember these things; besides those things,' he adds, 'which I could ascertain myself.' He passed his whole life studying and writing in the monasteries of SS. Peter and Paul, two settlements spoken of as one, near the mouth of the river Wear, close to where Hild had first settled. He went there during the lifetime of Bennet Biscop (t 690), the contemporary of Hild and a shining represen- tative of the culture the Anglo-Saxons attained in the 7th century. Hild settled at Hartlepool about the year 647. Eight years later Oswiu finally routed the army of Penda, whose attacks had been for so many years like a battering ram to the greatness of Northumbria. And in fulfilment of a vow he had made that the ' Bede, Eccl. Hist, bk 3, chs. ^^-^i ; bk 4, chs. 33-24. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Bega, Sept. 6 ; Tomlinson, G. C, Life and Miracles of St Bega, 1839. 90 The Monastery at Whitby. [chap, hi Christian religion should profit if God granted him victory, he gave Hild the charge of his daughter Aelflaed ' who had scarcely com- pleted the age of one year, to be consecrated to God in perpetual virginity, besides bestowing on the Church twelve estates.' Ex- tensive property came with the child into the care of Hild, perhaps including the site of Streaneshalch', which is better known as Whitby, a name given to it at a later date by the Danes. Bede says that Hild here undertook to construct and arrange a monastery. Bede thus expresses himself on the subject of Hild's life and influence during the term of over thirty years which she spent first as abbess of Hartlepool and then as abbess of Whitby' : ' Moreover, Hild, the handmaid of Christ, having been ap- pointed to govern that monastery (at Hartlepool), presently took care to order it in the regular way of life, in all respects, according as she could gain information from learned men. For Bishop Aidan, also, and all the religious men who knew her, were wont to visit her constantly, to love her devotedly, and to instruct her dili- gently, on account of her innate wisdom, and her delight in the service of God. ' When, then, she had presided over this monastery for some years, being very intent on establishing the regular discipline, according as she could learn it from learned men, it happened that she undertook also to construct and arrange a monastery in the place which is called Streanshalch ; and this work being enjoined on her, she was not remiss in accomplishing it. For she established this also in the same discipline of regular life in which she established the former monastery ; and, indeed, taught there also the strict observance of justice, piety, and chastity, and of the other virtues, but mostly of peace and charity, so that, after the example of the primitive Church, there was therein no one rich, no one poor ; all things were common to all, since nothing seemed to be the private property of any one. More- over, her prudence was so great that not only did ordinary persons, but even sometimes kings and princes, seek and receive counsel of her in their necessities. She made those who were under her direction give so much time to the reading of the Divine Scriptures, and exercise themselves so much in works of righteous- ness, that very many, it appeared, could readily be found there, ' Carthularium abhalhiae de Whiteby, publ. Surtees Soc, 1879. - Bede, Ecdes. Hislory, bk 4, ch. 23, translat. Gidley, 1870, with additions and alterations. SECT, ii] The Monastery at Whitby. 91 who could worthily enter upon the ecclesiastical grade, that is the service of the altar.' In point of fact five men who had studied in Hild's monastery were promoted to the episcopate. Foremost among them is John, bishop of Hexham (687-705) and afterwards of York (t 721), the famous St John of Beverley, a canonised saint of the Church, of whose doings Bede has left an account. In this' we hear of the existence of another monastery for women at Watton (Vetadun) not far from Whitby, where Bishop John went to visit the abbess Heriburg, who was living there with her ' daughter in the flesh,' Cwenburg, whom she designed to make abbess in her stead. We hear no more about Watton till centuries later, but Bede's remark is interesting as showing how natural he felt it to be that the rule of a settlement should pass from mother to daughter. Cwenburg was suffering from a swollen arm which John tells us was very serious, ' since she had been bled on the fourth day of the moon,' ' when both the light of the moon and the tide of the ocean were on their increase. And what can I do for the girl if she is at death's door ? ' he exclaims. However his combined prayers and remedies, which were so often efficacious, helped to restore her. Aetla, another of Hild's scholarly disciples, held the see of Dorchester, though perhaps only temporarily during the absence of Aegilberht. A third, Bosa, was archbishop of York between 678 and 686 ; Bede speaks of him as a monk of Whitby, a man of great holiness and humility. Oftfor, another of Hild's monks, went from Whitby to Canterbury, to study ' a more perfect ' system of discipline under Archbishop Theodore (f 690), and subsequently became bishop of Worcester. The career of these men shows that the system of discipline and education under Hild at Whitby compared favourably with that of other settlements. At the outset she had followed the usages of the Scottish Church, with which she was familiar through her intercourse with Aidan, but when the claims for an independent British Church were defeated at Whitby, she accepted the change and adopted the Roman usage. The antagonism which had existed from the first appearance of Augustine in England between Roman Christianity and British Christianity as upheld by the Scottish and Welsh clergy took the form of open disagreement in Northumbria. On one side was the craving for ritual, for refinement and for union with Rome; 1 Bede, Eccles. History, bk 5, ch. 3. 92 The Monastery at Whitby. [chap, in on the other insistence by the Scottish clergy on their right to independence. Aidan had been succeeded at Lindisfarne by Finnan, owing to whose influence discussion was checked for the time being. But after his death (66 1) the latent antagonism came to a head over the practical difficulty due to the different dates at which King Oswiu and Queen Eanflaed kept Easter. Thus the way was cleared for the Whitby synod (664), a ' gathering of all orders of the Church system,' at which the respective claims of Roman and of British Christianity were discussed. The British interest was represented among others by Colman, Finnan's successor at Lindisfarne, who temporarily held the see at York, and by Aegilberht, bishop of Dorchester. The opposite side was taken by the protege of Queen Eanflaed, Wilfrith, abbot of Ripon, whose ardour in the cause of Rome had been greatly augmented by going abroad with Bennet Biscop about the year 653. Besides these and other prelates. King Oswiu and his son and co-regent Ealhfrith were present at the synod. The abbess Hild was also there, but she took no part in the discussion. The questions raised were not of doctrine but of practice. The computation of Easter, the form of the tonsure, matters not of belief but of apparently trivial externals, were the points round which the discussion turned. Owing chiefly to Wilfrith's influence the decision was in favour of Rome, and a strong rebuff was given for a time to the claim for an independent British Church in the north. The choice of Whitby as the site of the synod marks the importance which this settlement had attained within ten years of its foundation. Those who have stood on the height of the cliff overlooking the North Sea and have let their gaze wander over the winding river course and the strand below can realize the lordly situation of the settlement which occupies such a dis- tinguished place among the great houses and nurseries of culture at Hexham, Wearmouth, Jarrow, Ripon and York. The property which the monastery held in overlordship ex- tended along the coast for many miles, and the settlement itself consisted of a large group of buildings ; for there are references to the dwellings for the men, for the women, and to an outlying house for the sick. These dwellings were gathered round the ancient British Church of St Peter, which was situated under the shelter of the brow of the cliff where King Eadwin lay buried, and which continued to be the burial-place of the Northumbrian kings. Isolated chapels SECT, ii] The Monastery at Whitby. and churches with separate bands of religious votaries belonging to them lay in other parts of the monastic property, and were subject to the abbess of Whitby. We hear of a minor monastery at Easington (Osingadun)' during the rule of Aelflaed, Hild's successor, and at Hackness (Hacanos) on the limit of the monastic property, thirteen miles south of Whitby, a monastery of some importance had been founded by Hild'. Bands of men and of women dwelt here under the government of Frigith, and it was here that the nun Begu had a vision of Hild on the night of her death, when she saw her borne aloft by attendant angels''. The name of Hild and the monastery at Whitby are further endeared to posterity through their connection with Caedmon, the most celebrated of the vernacular poets of Northumbria and the reputed author of the Anglo-Saxon metrical paraphrases of the Old Testament*. It was his great reputation as a singer that made Hild seek Caedmon and persuade him to join her commu- nity. Here the practice of reading Holy Scripture made him familiar with the stories of Hebrew literature in their grand and simple setting, and he drank of the waters of that well to which so many centuries of creative and representative art have gone for inspiration. Caedmon's power of song had been noticed outside the monastery. 'And all concluded that a celestial gift had been granted him by the Lord. And they interpreted to him a certain passage of sacred history or doctrine, and ordered him to turn it if he could into poetical rhythm. And he, having undertaken it, departed, and returning in the morning brought back what he was ordered to do, composed in most excellent verse. Whereupon presently the abbess, embracing heartily the grace of God in the man, directed him to leave the secular habit, and to take the monastic vow ; and having together with all her people received him into the monastery associated him with the company of the brethren, and ordered him to be instructed in the whole course of sacred history. And he converted into most sweet song whatever he could learn from hearing, by thinking it over by himself, and, 1 Bede, Life of St Culhbert, ch. lo; Dugdale, Monasticon, vol. i, p. 233, mentions Easington only as a manor of Durham. * Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Hackness,' vol. 3, p. 633. ^ Bede, Ecdes. History, blc 4, ch. 23. * Dictionary of Nat. Biography, article ' Caedmon ' by Henry Bradley. 94 The Monastery at Whitby. [chap, hi as though a clean animal, by ruminating ; and by making it resound more sweetly, made his teachers in turn his hearers\' These passages are curious as showing that a singer of national strains was persuaded to adapt his art to the purposes of religion. The development of Church music is usually held to have been distinct from that of folk-music, but in exceptional cases such as this, there seems to have been a relation between the two. Excavations recently made on several of the sites of ancient northern monasteries have laid bare curious and interesting re- mains which add touches of reality to what is known about the houses of the north during this early period'. In a field called Cross Close at Hartlepool near Durham skeletons of men and women were found, and a number of monumental stones of peculiar shape, some with runic inscriptions of women's names. Some of these names are among those of the abbesses inscribed in the so- called ' Book of Life of Durham,' a manuscript written in gold and silver lettering in the early part of the gth century^ Again, an ancient tombstone of peculiar design was found at Healaugh ; and at Hackness several memorial crosses are preserved, one of which bears the inscription of the name Aethelburg, who no doubt is the abbess of that name with whom Aelflaed, Hild's successor at Whitby, in 705 travelled to the death-bed of King Ealdfrithl Finally on the Whitby coast on the south side of the abbey a huge kitchen-midden was discovered. A short slope here leads to the edge of the cliff, and excavations on this slope and at its foot, which was once washed by the tide, have revealed the facts that the denizens of the original monastery were wont to throw the refuse of their kitchen over the cliff, and that the lighter material remained on the upper ledges, the heavier rolling to the bottom. Among the lighter deposits were found bones of birds, oyster, whelk and periwinkle shells, and two combs, one of which bears a runic inscription. Among the heavier deposits were bones of oxen, a few of sheep, and a large number of the bones and tusks of wild swine, besides several iron pot-hooks and other imple- ments ; a bone spindle and a divided ink-horn are among the objects specified. An inscribed leaden bulla found among the ' Bede, Eccles. History, bk 4, ch. 24, transl. Gidley, 1870. 2 Haigh, D. H., 'On the monasteries of St Heiu and St Hild,' Yorksh. A rchaeoioo-. Journal, vol. 3, p. 370. I do not know on what authority Haigh designates Heiu as saint. ^ Gray, de Birch, Fasti Monastici Ami Saxonici, 1872, p. 15. * Comp. below, p. 106. SECT, ii] The Monastery at Whitby. 95 refuse is declared by experts to be earlier than the 8th century ; it is therefore proof that these remains were deposited during the earlier period of the existence of Hild's monastery, possibly during her lifetime. Hild died after an illness of several years on November 17, 680. Would that there were more data whereby to estimate her personality ! The few traits of her character that have been pre- served, her eagerness to acquire knowledge, her success in impart- ing it to others, her recognition of the need of unity in the Church, the interest she took in one who could repeat the stories of the new faith in strains which made them intelligible to the people, are indicative of a strong personality and of an understanding which appreciated the needs of her time. Various myths, of which Bede knows nothing, have been attached to her name in course of time. According to a popular legend she transformed the snakes of the district into the am- monites familiar to visitors to those parts. And it is said that at certain times of the day her form can be seen flitting across the abbey ruins^ At her death the rule of the settlement passed to Aelflaed, the princess who had been given into her care as a child. After King Oswiu's death in 670 Queen Eanflaed joined her daughter in the monastery. The princess and abbess Aelflaed proved herself worthy of the influence under which she had grown up, and we shall find her among the persons of importance who took up a decided attitude in regard to the disturbances which broke out through the action of Bishop Wilfrith. The beginnings of these difficulties belong to the lifetime of Hild : we do not know that she took any interest in the matter, but judging from indirect evidence we should say that she shared in the feeling which condemned the prelate's anti-national and ultra-Roman tendencies. § 3. Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. The further history of the monastery of Whitby and the history of the foundation of Ely are closely connected with the prelate Wilfrith, and for this reason his actions and attitude claim our attention. In him we recognise a direct advocate of the principle that a queen could if she chose leave her husband and retire to a religious settlement, and that such a course would secure her the favour of the Church. ' Charlton, L., History of Whitby, 1779, p. 33. 96 Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. [chap, hi It has been said of him that he was the most important man in Northumbria for forty years after the Whitby synods He owed his education to Queen Eanflaed, whose attention he had attracted when quite a youth, and who had sent him into Kent to complete his education ; there he imbibed strong Roman sym- pathies. He hved for some years in France and Italy in the society of Bennet Biscop, and he was already held in high esteem at the time of the Whitby synod, which he attended in the character of abbot of the monastery at Ripon, a house he had founded with the help of Ealhfrith. When Colman and his adherents beat a rapid retreat to the north in consequence of the decision of the synod, Wilfrith be- came bishop of York, an appointment which meant ecclesiastical supremacy over the whole vast province of Northumbria. His intellectual brilliancy gained him many admirers, but an innate restlessness of disposition and a wilful determination to support the power of Rome to the national detriment launched him into repeated difficulties with temporal and spiritual rulers. He was at the height of prosperity and popularity when Ecgfrith succeeded Oswiu in 670 after the death of Ealhfrith. Wilfrith had hitherto been on good terms with Ecgfrith, but a breach in their relations soon occurred, partly owing to the conduct of Ecgfrith's wife, Aethelthrith, whom Wilfrith supported against the king. Aethelthrith, known to a later age as Etheldred or Awdrey, was the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles (635-645), whose province, including the present shires of Norfolk and Suffolk, was removed from direct intercourse with others by the almost im- passable reaches of the fens. Anglia has not left any annals of her own, and we have to depend for the names and dates of her kings on the slight information which other provinces have preserved. Written legends generally consider Anna as the father also of Sexburg, the foundress of Sheppey, and of Aethelburg and Saeth- rith, two princesses who had settled in France, as well as of Wihtburg, a woman-saint of whom very little is known, and who was associated with a religious foundation at East Dereham in Norfolk =. We further learn from legend that King Anna was married to Hereswith, sister of Hild of Whitby, and Aethelthrith is spoken of as niece ^ Raine, Historians oftJie Churc/i of York, Rolls series, vol. i. Preface p. xxvii. This volume contains reprints of several accounts of the life of Wilfrith, including the one by Eddi. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Withburga, March 17 ; Dugdale, Monasticon, ' East Dereham,' vol. t, p. 176. SECT. Ill] Ely and the infiuence of Bishop Wilfrith. 97 to the great abbess Hild. But this connection is discredited by a statement in Bede which suggests that Hild's sister Hereswith was married not to King Anna but to his successor King Aethel- here (654-664). It is difficult to decide to which of the kings of the East Angles Hereswith was married, but Anna was certainly not her husband^- The princess Aethelthrith at the time of her marriage with the king of Northumbria was the widow of Tunberht prince of the South-Gyrvi, or fen-country men. Anglia stood at this time in a relation of dependence to Northumbria, and in 664, four years before the Whitby synod, Aethelthrith a woman of over thirty was married to Ecgfrith a boy of fifteen, the heir-apparent to the throne of Northumbria. The marriage was no doubt arranged for political reasons. The consequences which followed render these facts worthy of notice. For Aethelthrith on her arrival in the north at once con- ceived a great admiration for the prelate Wilfrith, while she treated her husband with contumely. She bestowed on Wilfrith the ex- tensive property at Hexham which she had received from her husband, and on which Wilfrith built the church which was spoken of in his days as the most wonderful building on this side of the Alps^ Judging from what Wilfrith himself told him about the queen's attitude Bede says ' the king knew that she loved no man more than Wilfrith.' The events that followed bear out this statement, for after living about ten years with the king, Aethelthrith left him and repaired to the monastery of Coldingham (Coludesburg) in Berwickshire, which had been founded and was ruled over by Aebbe, sister, or perhaps half-sister, of the kings Oswald and Oswiu'. King Ecgfrith may or may not have agreed to this step. Eddi, the friend and biographer of Wilfrith, maintains a judicious silence on the re- lations of the king and queen, while Bede represents* that Aethel- thrith had always had an aversion to the married state and describes how he had been told by Wilfrith himself that Ecgfrith 1 Haigh, D. H., ' On the monasteries of St Heiu and St Hild,' Yorkshire Archaeol. Journal, vol. 3, p. 352, decides in favour of Aethelric. 2 Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, p. 235. 2 Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Coldingham,' vol. 6, p. I49- The promontory of St Abb's Head retains her name. She is believed to have founded another religious settlement at a place in Durham on the river Derwent called Ebbchester, and the village church there is dedicated to her {Diet, of Nat. Biog.). * Bede, Eirdes. History, bk 4, ch. 19. E. 7 98 Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. [chap, hi promised much land and money to the prelate if he persuaded the queen to allow him conjugal rights. At Coldingham Wilfrith gave Aethelthrith the veil ; this act in- volved her breaking all marital ties. But she cannot have deemed her position secure, for she presently left Coldingham, which was within her husband's territory, and went to Ely, the island in the fens which her first husband Tunberht had bestowed on her. Under the date 673 stand in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle these words: 'And Aetheldryth began the monastery at Ely.' It was situated on a hill prominent above the flatness of the surrounding fen-land, which at that time consisted of a wilderness of marsh and water. Men and women readily flocked thither to live under the guidance of the queen. We hear that she received material aid from her cousin King Ealdwulf of Anglia, that Hunna acted as her chaplain, and that Bishop Wilfrith stayed with her on his passage from Northumbria to Rome. Thomas of Ely (fl. c. 1174) has embellished the account of Aethelthrith's flight and journey south by introducing into the story various picturesque incidents, which Bede does not mention. She, with her companions Sewenna and Sewara', was saved from her pursuers by water rising round a rock on which they had taken refuge, and she was sheltered by an ash-tree which grew in one night out of her pilgrim's staff and which can still be seen at a place called Etheldredstowe^ As Aethelthrith of Ely is a favourite saint of English legend it is in- teresting to find water and the tree miraculously associated with her. Shortly after Aethelthrith's departure Ecgfrith summoned The- odore, archbishop of Canterbury, to the north to divide the diocese of York into three separate districts. Wilfrith resented these pro- ceedings as an infringement of his rights, but as he was unable to influence the king he determined to seek the intervention of the Pope and set out for Rome. His absence extended over several years. It was at this time, Bede tells us, that Aethelthrith 'having built a monastery at Ely began both by example and by admoni- tion of heavenly life to be a virgin mother of very many virgins'.' The particulars he gives of her life show that she had renounced the splendours which constituted so essential a feature of royalty and had willingly devoted herself to humility and self-denial. She wore no linen, only wool, rarely used a warm bath, save on the 1 A. SS. Boll., St Etheldreda June 23, Thomas of Ely, Vita ch. 41. * Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, p. 252 footnote. ^ Bede, Eccles. History, bk 4, ch. 19. SECT. Ill] Ely and the infiuence of Bishop Wilfrith. 99 eve of great festivals, and assisted at the washing of others. When she fell ill of a tumour in her throat, she told the physician Cynefrith, who lanced it, that she looked upon it as a chastisement for her love of wearing necklaces in her youth. And on her death-bed she desired to be buried in a wooden coffin in the nun's ordinary cemetery. The fame of Aethelthrith spread rapidly. She was looked upon as a virgin, and her name with the epithet virgin was in- scribed at an early date in both the Anglo-Saxon and Roman Calendars, and to this day it is to be found in the Book of Common Prayer. Later writers of her legend say that she lived with Ecg- frith • not as a wyfe but as a lady,' and add as a fitting pendant to this story that she maintained similar relations with her first husband Tunberht'. She died in the year 679, having presided over her monastery only six or seven years, but during that time it had gained marked importance. Many women had come to live there with her, and among them her sister Sexburg, widow of the king of Kent, who had founded the monastery at Sheppey and now succeeded Aethelthrith as abbess of Ely. The chief event of Sexburg's rule at Ely was the exhumation of the bones of Aethelthrith in 695, which were transferred to a stone coffin of antique workmanship which had been opportunely, or miraculously as contemporaries thought, discovered at the old Roman colony of Grantchester near Cambridge''. This translation took place on the 17th of October, a day on which the relics were again transferred in 1106, and which is the date of the important fair of Ely^ In a supplement to the History of Ely by Bentham, Essex gives an account of the ruins of the conventual church begun by Aethelthrith^ Judging from his investigations the church con- sisted of two parts, the nave and the choir, the windows of the nave outside being ornamented with pillars and arches, and the choir being arched with stone. Traces were still left of the apart- ments of the abbess from which she could enter the church in a private manner, and of a building opposite of equal dimensions which served as a dormitory for the nuns. At a little distance the remains of another large building were discovered, one room • Kalendre of the newe Legende of Englande, printed 1516 (Pynson) fol. 39 b. 2 Bede, Eccles. History, bk 4, ch. 19. 3 Dictionary of National Biography, ' Etheldreda, Saint.' * Bentham, History of Ely, 1817, p. 9. 7—2 loo Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. [chap, hi of which, near the entrance to the settlement, was a parlour for the reception of strangers, and the apartment over it a dormitory for the men. We know little more than the name of the next abbess of Ely. She was Sexburg's daughter Eormenhild, wife of King Wulfhere of Mercia, who had hitherto dwelt in the monastery of Sheppey. Eormenhild in her turn was succeeded by her daughter, the cele- brated St Werburg of Chester, who was never married. Various stories are preserved about Warburg's influence, but without re- ference to her work at Ely. We are indebted to Gocelin for the oldest account of her'. He tells us that her uncle King Aethelraed of Mercia entrusted her with the care of all the monasteries in his kingdom, that she had founded religious houses at Trentham and at Hanbury, besides turning a palace at Wedon-le-Street into a monastery*- He speaks of her as a person of great cheerfulness and benevolence, and of a peaceful and happy disposition. Several accounts of her are extant in manuscripts of different dates, and as late as the 15th century her life was made the subject of a most graceful metrical epic by the poet Henri Bradshaw (t 1513)'- We are told that Werburg died at Trentham and that the society of that place wished to keep her body, but the nuns of Hanbury carried it off by force and enshrined it at Hanbury where the day of her deposition was kept^ During the viking invasion in 875 the body for the sake of safety was conveyed to Chester, of which town St Werburg then became patron saint. This incident gave rise at a later date to the story that the saint had founded the monastery and the chief church at Chester on land given to her by her father. Livien mentions that nine churches in England are dedicated to St Werburg, who appears to have been a person of considerable importance^ Once more we must return to the north and to the work of Bishop Wilfrith, as he came into contact with various other religious women. When he returned to England after an absence of several ' Gocelinus, Vita St Werehurgae (in Migne, Patrol. Carsus Co?npl. vol. 155). 2 Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887, p. 49, calls it Weedon in Northamptonshire; Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Wedon,' vol. 6, p. 1051, doubts its existence. ^ Life of St Werburgh, isji, reprinted for the Early Engl. Text Soc, 1887. •* Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887, p. 49. "^ Livien, E., 'On early religious houses in Staffordshire,' /ok^ko/ of the British Archaeolog. Assoc., vol. 29, p. 329. (The vv-idespread cult of St Werburg may be due to there having been several saints of this name ; comp. Stanton, R., Menology.) SECT. Ill] Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. loi years Aethelthrith was dead, but King Ecgfrith's hatred of him had not abated. Insulted in his person and nation he caused Wilfrith to be thrown into prison, offering to give him back part of his bishopric and other gifts if he would submit to royal authority and disclaim the genuineness of the document brought from Rome'. Queen Eormenburg, whom Ecgfrith had taken to wife in place of Aethelthrith, further embittered the king against the unlucky prelate. She appropriated the reliquary Wilfrith had brought from Rome and wore it as an ornament. For nine months the prelate was kept imprisoned, and the story how he regained his liberty brings us back to Aebbe, abbess at Coldingham, who had formerly sheltered Aethelthrith ^ According to the account of Eddi, Wilfrith's biographer, the king and queen of Northumbria were staying at Coldingham when the queen was suddenly taken ill. 'At night she was seized like the wife of Pilate by a devil, and worn out by many ills, hardly expected to see the day alive.' The abbess Aebbe went to King Ecgfrith and represented to him that the reason of this seizure was their treatment of Wilfrith. 'And now, my son,' she said, 'do according to the bidding of your mother ; loosen his bonds and send back to him by a trusty messenger the holy relics which the queen took from him and like the ark of God carried about with her to her harm. It were best you should have him as your bishop, but if you refuse, set him free and let him go with his followers from your kingdom wherever he list. Then by my faith you will live and your queen will not die ; but if you refuse by God's witness you will not remain unpunished.' Aebbe carried her point and Wilfrith was set free. He went into Mercia which was at war with Northumbria, but he was not suffered to stay there, for Queen Ostrith, the sister of King Ecgfrith, shared her brother's hatred of him. Forced to fly from Mercia he went into Wessex, but King Centwin's wife prevented him from staying there. It is curious to note the hatred with which these married women pursued him while lady abbesses were his friends. At last he found protection among the south Saxons, who fifteen years before had nearly killed him, but their king Aethelwalch (t 686) had lately been converted to Christianity and gave him a friendly reception. Wilfrith is represented as joining 1 Eddi, Vita, c. 34 (in Raine, Historians of the Church of York, Rolls series). '^ Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, p. 300, casts discredit on this story, which is told by Eddi, Vita, c. 38. I02 Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. [chap, hi his civilizing influences to those of the Irish monks who had settled on the coast. An interesting episode of his sojourn here was his intercourse with Caedwalla, afterwards king of Wessex (685-688), who at the time was living as an outlaw in the forests of Sussex'. We get further glimpses of Aebbe and the settlement at Cold- ingham. She entertained a great admiration for the holy man Cuthberht (t 687), one of the most attractive figures among the evangelizing prelates of the north, of whom Bede has left an account. Cuthberht was brought both by birth and education under Scottish influences. He was prior at Melrose before the Whitby synod, but after it came to Lindisfarne where his gentleness of temper and sweetness of disposition won over many to accept Roman usages. Overcome by the longing for solitude and contemplation which was so characteristic of many early Christian prelates, he dwelt as a recluse on the desert island of Fame from 6']6 to 685. There are many accounts of his life and of his wanderings". At the time when Cuthberht's fame was spreading, Aebbe of Coldingham ' sent to this man of God, begging him to come and condescend to edify both herself and the inmates of her monastery by the grace of his exhortation. Cuthberht accordingly went thither and tarrying for some days he expounded the ways of justice to all ; these he not only preached, but to the same extent he practised ^' It is recorded that during his stay at Coldingham Cuthberht went at night to pray on the deserted beach, and the seals came out of the water and clustered around him. The first instance mentioned by Bede of a lapse of monastic discipline was at Coldingham where disorders occurred during Aebbe's rule^ An Irish monk who was on a visit to the monastery had a vision of its destruction by fire, and when questioned about it by the abbess interpreted it as an impending retribution for the tenor of life of those assembled there. ' For even the dwellings,' he said, ' which were built for praying and reading are now converted into places of revelling, drinking, conversation and other forbidden doings ; the virgins who are vowed to God, laying aside all respect for their profession, whenever ^ Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, pp. 301 ff. 2 Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue 0/ Materials, 1862, vol. i, pp. 297 ff. * Bede, Life of St Cuthbert, cli. ro. * Bede, Eccles. History, bk 4, ch. ■zj. SECT. Ill] Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. 103 they have leisure spend all their time in weaving fine garments with w^hich they adorn themselves like brides, to the detriment of their condition, and to secure the friendship of men outside.' Through Aebbe's efforts things somewhat improved, but after her death, the date of which is uncertain, the monastery really was destroyed by fire\ The story is told that Cuthberht at Lindisfarne forbade women to cross the threshold of his conventual church on account of the hfe of the nuns at Coldingham=, but another version of his doings considers that his attitude was due to an episode with a Scottish king's daughter which turned him against the sex^. Cuthberht was also the friend of Aelflaed, abbess of Whitby, who entertained unbounded reverence for him. On one occasion' she had fallen ill and, as she herself told the monk Herefrid, suffered so from cramp that she could hardly creep along. ' I would,' she said, ' I had something belonging to my dear Cuth- berht, for I believe and trust in the Lord that I should soon be restored to health.' In compliance with her wish the holy man sent her a linen girdle, which she wore for a time and which entirely cured her. Later a nun by the help of the same girdle was relieved of a head- ache, but after that the girdle of miraculous power miraculously disappeared. The reason given for this disappearance illustrates naively enough how divine power was considered to be justified in making itself manifest with a reservation. ' If this girdle had re- mained present,' Bede argues, 'the sick would always flock to it ; and whilst some one of these might not be worthy to be healed, its efficacy to cure might have been denied, whereas their own un- worthiness was perhaps to blame. Therefore, as was said above. Heaven so dealt its benevolence, that, after the faith of believers had been confirmed, then immediately the opportunity for de- traction was entirely withdrawn from the malice of the un- righteous.' Contemporary witnesses bear testimony to the wisdom and prudence of the abbess Aelflaed of Whitby, for Bede says in the life of Cuthberht that ' she increased the lustre of her royal lineage ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives 679 as the date of the fire; Eddi's account represents Aebbe as alive in 681. Perhaps she died in 680; comp. Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, 1877, Ebba, nr r ; also Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, p. 300, footnote. ^ Bright, W., ibid., p. 255, footnote. ' Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, 1862, vol. i, p. 31-2. * Bede, Life of St Cuthbert, ch. 23. I04 Ely and the infitience of Bishop Wilfrith. [chap, hi with the higher nobility of a more exalted virginity ' ; whilst Eddi speaks of her as ' the most virtuous virgin who is actually a king's daughter,' and in another passage characterizes her as 'ever the comforter and best counsellor of the whole province.' We find her in Cuthberht's society on more than one occasion. Once he met her at the monastery of ' Osingadune ' (Easington) where he went to dedicate the church, and while sitting by her at table he had a prophetic vision of the death of one of her servants'. The abbess Aelflaed directly appealed to this prophetic insight of Cuthberht's when troubled in her mind about her brother King Ecgfrith, whose expedition against the Picts filled her with appre- hension ^ In the words of Bede: 'At another time, the same most reverend virgin and mother of Christ's virgins, Aelflaed, sent to the man of God, adjuring him in the name of the Lord that she might be allowed to see him, to converse on some pressing affairs. Cuthberht accordingly went on board ship, ac- companied by some of the brethren, and came to the island which from its situation opposite to the river Coquet receives its name, and is celebrated for its community of monks ; there it was that the aforesaid abbess had requested him to meet her. When she was satisfied with his replies to her many enquiries, on a sudden, while he was yet speaking, she fell at his feet and adjured him by the sacred and venerable Name of the Heavenly King and His angels, to tell her how long Ecgfrith, her brother, should live and rule over the kingdom of the Angles ; "For I know," she said, "that you abound in the spirit of prophecy, and that you can tell me this, if you will." But he, trembling at her adjuration, and yet not wishing openly to reveal the secret which she asked for, replied, " It is marvellous that you, a woman wise and well-instructed in the Holy Scriptures, should speak of the term of human life as if it were long, seeing that the Psalmist says, ' Our years shall be considered as a spiderV and that Solomon warns us that, 'If a man live many years and have rejoiced in them all, he must remember the darksome time and the many days, which, when they shall come, the things passed shall be accused of vanity*.' How much more then ought he, to whom only one year of life remains, to be considered as having lived a short time, when death shall stand at his gates t " 1 Bede, Life of Si Cuthbert, ch. 34. = Ibid., ch. 24. ■5 Psalm Ixxxix. 10 (The Vulgate here follows the Lxx. ; it would be interesting to know what sense they or indeed Bede gave to the passage). * Eccles. xi. 8. SECT. Ill] Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. 105 'The abbess, on hearing this, lamented the dreadful prophecy with floods of tears, and having wiped her face, with feminine bold- ness she adjured him by the majesty of the sovereignty of God to tell her who would be the heir of the kingdom, since Ecgfrith had neither sons nor brothers. Cuthberht was silent for a short time, then he replied, " Say not that he is without heirs, for he shall have a successor whom you may embrace with sisterly affection as you do Ecgfrith himself" But she continued : " Tell me, I beseech you, where he is now." And he said, " You see this mighty and wide ocean, how it abounds with many islands. It is easy for God from one of these to provide a ruler for the kingdom of the Angles." Then she understood that he spoke of Ealdfrith (Aldfrid) who was said to be the son of Ecgfrith's father, and who at that time lived in exile, in the islands of the Scots, for the sake of studying letters.' This meeting, if we credit the historian, took place in 684, and Aelflaed's forebodings were realized. Ecgfrith lost his life, and part of his kingdom was taken by the Picts. In consequence of his defeat the settlement Whithern, set up as a religious outpost in the territory south of the Firth of Forth, was destroyed. Trumwin who had been entrusted with it was forced to fly. He and his friends sought refuge at Whitby where he remained and had much intercourse with Cuthberht and Aelflaed. Bede says that the abbess found ' great assistance in governing and also comfort for her own life' in Trumwin". Northumbria had now passed the zenith of her greatness as a political power, for the territory in the north which was lost through Ecgfrith's defeat was not regained, while in the south the province of Mercia began to shake off the Northumbrian yoke. King Ecgfrith had been succeeded by his half-brother Ealdfrith (t 705) and owing to his attitude Wilfrith's exile came to an end. Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a letter in his behalf to Ealdfrith and also one to Aelflaed of Whitby begging her to be at peace with himl The prelate left Sussex for the north, where he remained for five years in undisturbed possession of his see'. But again the old quarrels revived, and Wilfrith in con- sequence of a council assembled by order of Ealdfrith at Eastre- field was robbed of his episcopal dignity and reduced to his abbacy at Ripon. He again insisted that the king and bishops should submit to the Pope, and at the age of well-nigh seventy he under- 1 Bede, Eccles. Hist., bk 4, ch. -26. ^ Eddi, Vita, u. 43. » Bright, W., Early English History, 1878, p. 448, from 686-691. io6 Ely and the influence of Bishop Wilfrith. [chap, hi took another journey to Rome. But it was in vain he sent envoys to the king on his return. Ealdfrith was determined not to relent, but afterwards approaching death intimidated him. Feeling his end draw nigh he sent for Aelflaed of Whitby, who with the abbess Aethelburg (probably of Hackness) came to where he lay ill at Driffield in the East Riding. Aelflaed received the king's dying words, and at a council of prelates subsequently assembled on the river Nidd bore testimony that he had spoken in favour of making peace. Wilfrith regained part of his influence but remained in retirement at his monastery. Aelflaed outlived him and her friend Cuthberht who died in 687. It is probable that she assisted at the translation of Cuth- berht's body in 698, for in the inventory of the church at Durham one of the linen cloths or outer envelopes of his body, which was taken from it in 1104, is described as 'a linen cloth of double texture which had enveloped the body of St Cuthbert in his grave ; Elfled the abbess had wrapped him up in it'.' Aelflaed is the last abbess of Whitby known by name. Her death is supposed to have taken place in 713. Her monastery, like so many houses in the north, which had grown to prosperity with the rising power of Northumbria, sank into insignificance with the decadence of that power. This decline was partly due to political reasons, but the dislike which the later kings of Northumbria felt towards monasteries may have had something to do with it. For as we shall see later on the example Queen Aethelthrith had set was probably followed by two other Northum- brian queens, Cyneburg, the wife of Ealhfrith, and Cuthburg, wife of Ealdfrith (t 705), who returned to their own countries and there founded monasteries. § 4. Houses in Mercia and in the South. From the north we turn to Mercia and Wessex, the central and south-western provinces of England. Mercia had clung longest to her heathen beliefs, for Christianity was not accepted there till after the defeat of Fenda in 655 when Northumbria gained supre- macy. Penda, king of Mercia, remained faithful to his gods to the end himself, but his children adopted the new faith. His son Peada had already been baptized in Northumbria by Finnan who 1 Haigh, D. H., 'On the monasteries of St Heia and St Hild,' Yorksh. Archaeol. Journal, vol. 3, p. 375. SECT, iv] Houses in Mercia and in the South. 107 sent four ecclesiastics back with him to evangeHse the Midlands, and Wulfhere (c. 658-675) Peada's brother and successor was married to the Christian princess Eormenhild of Kent, for whom Queen Sexburg had made the religious foundation at Sheppey. Peada had founded a religious settlement at Burh or Medehampstead which is better known as Peterborough, a name bestowed on it after its restoration in 970. The charter of the foundation of Burh is dated 664, and besides the signatures of Wulfhere and other princes and thanes it bears those of Wulfhere's sisters Cyneburg and Cyneswith\ Cyneburg and Cyneswith were esteemed as saints on the strength of their religious foundations at Castor, a village some miles distant from Peterborough ; the name Cyneburg is held by the local his- torian to survive in the appellations of Lady Connyburrow Walk and Coneygreve Close^ Cyneburg had been married to Ealhfrith, who was for some time co-regent of Northumbria, but little is known of him after his presence at the synod of Whitby in 664. The charter of the Medehampstead foundation above referred to establishes beyond a doubt that Cyneburg had left her husband to found and preside over her monastery ; for she is designated as ' formerly a queen who had resigned her sway to preside over a monastery of maidens^' Her legend, which is not older than John of Tinmouth', enlarges on this fact, and like Aethelthrith of Ely, Cyneburg together with her sister Cyneswith has found a place in the Calendar as a virgin saints The legend which tells of Cyneburh and Cyneswith also refers to St Tibba or Tilba, their kinswoman, who dwelt at Ryhall not far from Castor. The same day was kept in commemoration of all these three saints at Peterborough, to which place their bodies were transferred at an early date. For the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (972) says of Aelfsi, abbot of Peterborough : ' And he took up St Kyne- burg and St Kyneswith who lay at Castor, and St Tibba who lay at Ryhall, and brought them to Burh, and offered them all to St Peter in one day.' Camden* speaks of Tibba as a ' saint of inferior ' Dugdale, Monastkon, ' Peterborough,' vol. i, p. 377, nr 1, prints the charter. 2 Gough, R., Parochial History of Castor, 18 19, p. 99. 2 ' Cum beatissimis sororibus meis Kyneburga et Kyneswida, quarum prior regina mutavit imperium in Christi ancillarum praesidens monasterio...etc.' ^ Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, 1862, vol. i, p. 370. ' A. SS. Boll., St Kineburga et St Kineswitha, virgines, March 6, argue the existence of a third sister. 6 Camden, Britannia, edit. 1789, vol. 1, pp. 219, 223. io8 Houses in Mercia and in the South. [chap, hi order, who was worshipped as another Diana by fowlers, a patroness of hawking,' and adds information which shows that she was popu- larly connected with heathen survivals. Mercia was the birthplace of many picturesque legends about the conversion of members of the ruling family and about their religious foundations. When once Christianity was accepted the activity which kings, queens and prelates displayed in its favour was great, but the historical information we have about them is meagre. Thus Repton (Repandune) in Derbyshire, a monastery for women, had gained considerable importance when the noble youth Guthlac repaired thither in 694 to devote himself to learning under the abbess Aelfthrithl Nothing is known about the beginnings of the house, and if the abbess Aelfthrith founded it she has not on this account been accepted as a saint like the founders of other houses. This omission may however be due to the difficulties which arose between Aelfthrith and the prelates of Mercia. We do not know their nature, but in 705 a council of Mercian clergy as- sembled to consider the re-admission of Aelfthrith to Church privi- leges^ A letter is also extant from Bishop Waldhere of London to Archbishop Brihtwald of Canterbury in which he mentions that a reconciliation has taken place^- The noble youth Guthlac who came to study at Repton after- wards became famous, and many accounts of his life have been written*. The earliest version, drafted by his friend Felix, supplies some interesting details of the life at Repton and the studies there^ We are told that Guthlac's progress was wonderful. ' When he had been there two years he had learnt the psalms, the canticles, the hymns and prayers after the ecclesiastical order,' but he met with disapproval in the monastery by refusing to drink wine. The accounts which he read of the solitary life of the older monks filled him with a longing for solitude, and he left Repton and Wandered about till he found the place of his heart's desire at Crowland in the fen country, where he determined to settle. He had received the tonsure at Repton and returned there on a visit before finally settling at Crowland. He did not break his connection with Repton, 1 Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Repton,' vol. 6, p. 429 ; the abbesses he mentions should stand in this order : Alfritha, Edburga. ^ Haddon and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Documents, 1869, vol. 3, p. 273. ' Ibid., vol. 3, p. 5174. ' Birch, W. de Gray, Memorials of St Guthlac of Crowland, t88i. 5 A. SS. Boll., St Guthlac, April it ; Felix, Vita, c. 12. SECT. IV ] Houses in Mercia and in the South. 109 for we hear that the abbess Ecgburh who succeeded Aelfthrith sent him as a gift a coffin made of wood and lead, together with a hnen winding-sheet, and asked who should be warden of the place after him, as though she regarded Crowland as a dependency of Repton\ The abbess Ecgburg was the daughter of King Ealdwulf of East Anglia (t 7I4)S and an eloquent letter which is quoted later in my account of Boniface's correspondents was probably written by her^ In connection with Guthlac's solitary life we hear of a woman Pega, who had also chosen a retreat in the fen country, at a place afterwards known as Peykirk, which is now situated on a peninsula formed by the uplands of Northamptonshire and connected with the mound on which Guthlac dwelt by a ridge of gravel, but which at that time formed an islands One version of Guthlac's life tells how 'he had a sister called Pega whom he would not see in this life, to the intent that they might the rather meet in the life to come ' ; and another manuscript life says that the Evil One ap- peared to the saint in the form of Pega. Mr W. de Birch Gray who has reprinted these accounts notices that the tone in which Florence of Worcester speaks of Pega suggests that to him at least she appeared more famous than Guthlac^ Different accounts of Guthlac agree that at his death his com- panions at once departed to fetch Pega. In the celebrated series of drawings of the 12th century, which set forth the story of St Guthlac, the holy woman Pega is depicted twice^ In one picture she steps into the boat, in which the companion of Guthlac has come to fetch her, and in the other she is represented as supporting the saint, who is enveloped in his shroud. The connection between Guthlac and Pega is at least curious, and the authority she at once assumed is noteworthy. ' For three days' space with sacred hymns of praise she commended the holy 1 Felix, Vita, c. 33. " Ibid., 'Egburgh abbatissa, Aldulfi regis filia'; Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, 1877, call her 'Eadburga (nr 3)'; two abbesses Ecgburh occur in the Durham list of abbesses, comp. Gray, W. de Birch, Fasti Monastici Ami Saxonici, 1872, p. 70. ^ Comp. below, ch. 4, § 1. * Holdich, B., History of Crowland Abbey, 1816, p. 1.. ^ Gray, W. de Birch, Memorials of St Guthlac of Crowland, 188 1, Introd. p. 1, footnote. " Brit. Mus. MS. Harleian Roll, Y 6, reproduced Gray, W. de Birch, Memorials of St Guthlac of Crowland, 1881, pp. 14, 16 etc. no Houses in Mercia and in the South. [chap, hi man to God,' says the Anglo-Saxon prose version of his life\ And further, 'After his death when he had been buried twelve months God put it into the heart of the servant of the Lord that she should remove the brother's body to another tomb. She assembled thither many of the servants of God and mass-priests, and others of the ecclesiastical order.... She wound the holy corpse, with praises of Christ's honour, in the other sheet which Ecgbriht the anchoress formerly sent him when alive for that same service.' The Acts of the Saints give an account of St Pega or Pegia and tell us that she went to Rome where she died^ Her repu- tation for holiness, as far as it is preserved, is based chiefly on her connection with Guthlac, but these accounts leave room for much that must necessarily remain conjecture. Other women-saints who were reputed to have lived about this period, and who were brought into connection with the rulers of Mercia, claim a passing attention, although their legends written at a much later date supply the only information we have about them. Thus there is St Osith^ of Colchester, whose legend written in the 13th century is full of hopeless anachronisms. The house of Augustinian canons at Chich^ in the 12th century was dedicated conjointly to the saints Peter and Paul and to the woman-saint Osith ; a canon of this house, Albericus Veerus, probably wrote her legend. Perhaps St Osith of Aylesbury is identical with her^ Our information is equally untrustworthy concerning St Frides- with, patron saint of Oxford, for it dates no further back than the 1 2th century ^ The chief interest in her legend is that its author establishes a connection between incidents in the life of Frideswith, and the dread which the kings of England had of entering Oxford; a dread which as early as 1264 is referred to as an 'old superstition'.' All these women are credited in their legends with founding monasteries and gaining local influence, and excepting in the case of St Tibba, I have come across no coupling of their names with pro- fane cults. Other women-saints who may perhaps be classed with ' Goodwin, C. W., The Anglo-Saxon version of the life of St Guthlac, 1848, p. 93. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Pega sive Pegia, Jan. 8. ^ ^ ^S. Boll., St Ositha, Oct. 7. * Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Chich Priory, ' vol. 6, p. 308. " Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials, vol. i, pp. 524 fF. 8 A. SS. Boll., St Frideswida, Oct. 19; Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Christ Church,' vol. 1, p. 134- ' Dictionary of Natiotial Biography, Frideswide. SECT, iv] Houses in Mercia and in the South. 1 1 1 them, though little survives except their names, are St Osburg of Coventry^ St Modwen of Strenhall in Staffordshire and Burton-on- Trent^ and St Everhild of Everingham in Yorkshire'. Other names which occur in local calendars will be found in the Menology of Stanton, who has compiled a very complete list of men- and women-saints in England and Wales from a number of local calendars. In contrast to the uncertainty which hangs about the settle- ments under woman's rule in the Midlands and around their founders, two houses founded in the south of England during the 7th century stand out in clear prominence. Barking in Essex, and Wimbourne in Dorsetshire, attained a considerable degree of culture, and the information which has been preserved concerning them is ample and trustworthy. Bede has devoted several chapters of his history to stories connected with Barking*. It owed its foundation to Earconwald sometime bishop of London (675-693) who, after founding a settle- ment at Chertsey in Surrey under the rule of an abbot, in 666 made a home for his sister Aethelburg at Barking" where 'he established her excellently in the regular discipline.' Aethelburg appears to have been an energetic person, and has been raised to the rank of saint". Her settlement included men as well as women, and young children seem to have been entrusted to her care for their education. Bede says that 'having taken the rule of the monastery she showed herself worthy of her brother the bishop in all respects, both by living rightly herself, and by the pious and prudent course she took to rule those who were subject to her; this was proved by celestial miracles.' A number of these miracles are described by him with con- siderable power. Between 664 and 684, a great pestilence, the 1 Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887, p. 137 : "we have no records of Osburg till 1410.' 2 Ibid., p. 310 : 'there is much obscurity in the history of St Modwenna. It seems that she must be distinguished from one or perhaps two other Irish saints...' Also Livien, E., 'On early religious houses in Staffordshire' in Journal of the British Archaeol. Association, vol. 29, p. 333; Hardy, Th. D., Descriptive Catalogue of Mate- rials, pp. 94 ff. 3 Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887, p. 328. ■* Bede, Eccles. Hist., bk 4, chs. 7-10. ^ Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Barking,' vol. i, p. 436. « A. SS. Boll., St Ethelburga, Oct. 11; Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, p. 485. 1 1 2 Hotises in Mercia and in the South. [chap, hi earliest on record in Christian times, visited England and carried off many of the inmates of Barking. First a boy of three years fell ill and in dying called by name the nun Eadgith, who presently died. Another nun called Torctgith^ also had a vision of im- pending death. ' One night at the beginning of dawn, having gone forth from the chamber in which she abode, she saw plainly as it were a human body, which was brighter than the sun, carried up on high, wrapped in fine linen, and lifted apparently from the house in which the sisters were usually placed to die. And when she looked more intently to see by what means the apparition of a glorious body which she beheld was raised on high, she saw that it was lifted up into the upper regions as it were by cords brighter than gold, until being introduced into the opening heavens it could no longer be seen by her.' This imagery foretold the death of Abbess Aethelburg, who was carried off by the pestilence. She was succeeded at Barking by Hildelith, whom Boniface refers to as a very estimable person and who has also found a place among the saintsl Capgrave speaks of her having been educated in France, whence she came to Barking at the desire of Bishop Earconwald to help in establish- ing the foreign system of discipline. It was for the abbess Hildelith and her companions at Barking that the scholar Ealdhelm (f 709) wrote his great treatise on Virginity, a long and elaborate composition which sets before these women the beauties of the virgin life with a mass of illustra- tion taken from religious and classical literature. From the point of view of women's religious life, it is worth while to describe this treatise at some length, for it shows what a high degree of culture had been attained at Barking towards the close of the seventh century. Ealdhelm, born of noble parentage about the year 640, is the representative in southern England of the classical revival which was about this time engrafted on Christian teaching. He studied first at Malmesbury under the learned Scot Maidulf and then at Canterbury where Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian were attracting many students, and where he perfected his Latin and musical studies and acquired in some measure the rare and much esteemed knowledge of Greek. 'A wonder of erudition in liberal as well as in ecclesiastical writings,' Bede calls him'. From ' Stanton, R., Mmology, calls her Theorigitha but says, p. 36, that she has no day. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Hildelitha, March 24. ^ ggjg^ Eccles. Hist., hl< 5, ch. 18, SECT, iv] Houses in Mercia and in the South. 1 1 3 Canterbury he returned to Malmesbury, which owing to his in- fluence attained a fame which it kept till the Middle Ages. In 705 when Wessex was divided into two bishoprics, Ealdhelm was made bishop of the see of Sherbourne. The interest Ealdhelm took in women was so great that posterity pictured him as continually in their society*. Besides his great treatise, passages in his other works bear witness to this interest. In a letter addressed to Sigegith^, he gave advice about the baptism of a nun who had been received into her community while still a heathen ; to another nun whose name is not mentioned he sent a letter together with several poems ^ He composed verses in praise of a church which Bugga, a daughter of King Centwin (670-685), had builf. And besides the prose treatise on virginity addressed to the sisterhood of Barking, he wrote a long poem in heroic hexameters on the same subject called the 'Praise of Virgins' ; it has a preface addressed to the abbess Maxima, and is followed by a poem on the ' Eight chief Sins,' likewise intended for the perusal of nuns^ Ealdhelm opens his prose work on virginity" with thanks to the women of Barking for the writings they have sent to him. Hildelith, Justina, Cuthburg, Osburg, Ealdgith, Scholastica, Hid- burg, Burngith, Eulalia and Tecla are addressed by name. He praises them as gymnosophists, as scholars and as fighters in the arena of discipline (c. 2). Like unto bees, he says (c. 4), they collect everywhere material for study. Sometimes, he says, you study the Prophets, sometimes the Books of the Law, ' now skilfully tracking the fourfold wording of the gospel story, expounded in the mystic commentaries of the Catholic fathers, and spiritually bared to the kernel, and disposed fitly according to the four-square pattern of ecclesiastical usage, namely according to the letter, allegory, tropology and anagogy'; now carefully searching into the writers of history and into the ^ Capgrave, T., Catalogus SS. Angliae, 1516, fol. 10, b. ^ Monumenta Moguntina., edit. Jafife, Epist. nr 1, written between 675 and 705 ; Giles (Aldhelm, Opera Omnia, 1844, p. 90) calls her Osgith, a name which occurs several times in the Durham ' Liber Vitae.' * Aldhelm, Opera, edit. Giles, 1844, P- i°3' ^ Ibid., p. 115, De Basilica, etc. ' Ibid., p. 135, De Laudibus Virginum (it is not known over which house Maxima presided) ; p. 203, De octo Principalibus Vitiis. ' Ibid., p. I, De Laudibus Viiginitatis (chapter references in the text are to this edition). ' Mediaeval exegesis interpreted in these four ways, comp. Cassian Erem., De Spiriiu Sc, t. 8. E. 8 1 14 Houses in Mercia and in the South. [chap, hi collections of chronographers.who have handed down the changing events of the past in wording that impresses the mind. Some- times you carefully examine the rules of grammarians, the laws of accentuation measured by tone and time, fixed in poetic feet by marks of punctuation, that is divided into parts of verse con- sisting of two and a half and three and a half feet, and changed in endless varieties of metre.' Ealdhelm then enlarges on the beauties of the virgin's life, and dwells especially on the charms of peaceful companionship which it secures. Again in their dwelling and working together the women are likened to bees. The charms of the virgin's life are then set forth in language redundant of imagery, verbose and grandiloquent in the extreme. We are told of the temptations which those who have adopted a religious life must guard against (c. 11). There are eight sins as to which they are especially warned ; the chief of these is pride. Women are then directed as to the books they should make a special subject of study, and are recommended to peruse the works of Cassian (who in the 5th century wrote the ' Duties of Monastic Life') and the 'Moralities' of Gregory the Great (which contain reflections suggested by the book of Job), and they are advised to study the Psalms to avoid unhappiness (c. 14). With the love of contrast peculiar to early writers, Ealdhelm shows how the women who serve God and those who do not are different in their bearing and outward appearance, and enlarges on the relative value of different estates (c. 17): virginity is of gold, chastity is of silver; marriage (jugalitas) is of brass ; and again: virginity is wealth, chastity is sufficiency, marriage is poverty, etc. He then displays the wide range of his learning by adducing many writers in support of his views (c. 20-40), in passages which are elaborate and instructive but wearisome through their re- iterations. He enumerates all the women famous for their re- ligious lives. The Virgin Mary comes first and she is followed by many women-saints of Italy and the East, on whom there is in some cases much, in others little, comment. In this list we in vain look for the names of religious women living on this side of the Alps. Helen the mother of Constantine (c. 48) is referred to, but her British origin is not mentioned and the idea of it had probably not arisen in Ealdhelm's time. The writer again turns to those who are devoted to religion, and in passages which are full of interest as a study of the times SECT, iv] Houses in Mercia and in the South. 1 1 5 complains of the personal appearance of the clergy and of those women who have chosen religion as a profession. These passages are among the most instructive in regard to women and clearly show how completely life in a nunnery at the beginning of the 8th century differed from what it was later on. ' It shames me,' he says, ' to speak of the bold impudence of conceit and the fine insolence of stupidity which are found both among nuns (sanctimoniales) who abide under the rule of a settlement, and among the men of the Church who live as clergy under the rule of the Pontiff. These act contrary to canonical decrees and to the rule of regular life, for with many- coloured vestments* and with elegant adornments the body is set off and the external form decked out limb by limb. The appearance of the other sex agrees with it ; a vest of fine linen of a violet colour is worn, above it a scarlet tunic with a hood, sleeves striped with silk and trimmed with red fur; the locks on the forehead and the temples are curled with a crisping iron, the dark head-veil is given up for white and coloured head-dresses which, with bows of ribbon sewn on, reach down to the ground ; the nails, like those of a falcon or sparrow-hawk, are pared to resemble talons'.... This state of things Ealdhelm strongly con- demns. But he adds the remark that he is addressing no one in particular, evidently to avoid any umbrage his women friends might take at these remarks. His reference to luxurious clothing does not stand alone. The description Bede gives of the women at Coldingham has been quoted, and Boniface in a letter^ to Cuth- berht of Canterbury speaks of ' the adornment of clothes, trimmed with wide edging of purple,' which, he says, is deteriorating the young men in the monasteries, and foretells the coming of Anti- christ. Sumptuous clothes as vestments during religious service remained in use, but in all other respects they were condemned as prejudicial to the welfare of those who were vowed to religion. Ealdhelm's work on virginity closes with an affectionate greet- ing to his women friends in which he addresses them finally as ' Flowers of the Church, sisters of monastic life, scholarly pupils, pearls of Christ, jewels of Paradise, and sharers of the eternal home.' His work was greatly prized and widely read both by his own 1 I take ■ crastu ' to go with ' crusta,' comp. Ducange. 2 Mommienta Mogmitina, edit. Jaffe, Epist. nr 70. 8—2 ii6 Houses in Mercia and in the South. [chap, hi and by later generations. It is extant in several copies of the 8th century^ and maintained its reputation throughout the Middle Ages. William of Malmesbury (t 1 141) in his account of Ealdhelm specifies the work on virginity as one 'than which nothing can be more pleasing^' It still held its own when printing was intro- duced, for it was published at Deventer in Holland in 15 12, and has since been reprinted for devotional purposes'. Among those on whom the book made a profound impression was Cuthburg, sister of King Ina of Wessex (688-725). She was at one time an inmate of the Barking settlement and was probably one of those to whom the work was addressed. Cuthburg was held as a saint for founding a settlement at Wimbourne in Dorset^ where the cult of her sister Cwenburg was associated with hers. Cuthburg as mentioned above was said to have left her husband Ealdfrith of Northumbria (t 705) from religious motives. Her being held in veneration as a virgin saint may be due to her name being coupled with that of a virgin sister^ Missals printed at Rouen in 1515, and at Paris in 1519 and 1529, have an office prescribed for Cuthburg as a virgin". The state- ment that she was the mother of Osred, afterwards king of Northumbria (706-717), is perhaps unfounded. There is no doubt as to Ealdhelm's friendly relations both with Cuthburg and her husband. He dedicated his enigmas to Eald- frith under the title 'Adcircius',' and in a letter dated 705 he declares that liberty of election is granted to all congregations under his government including that called ' Wimburnia,' over which Cuthburg, the king's sister, presides^ A manuscript of the 14th century, preserved in the nunnery of Romsey, contains a collection of saints' lives, and gives a full account of a conversation Cuthburg had with her husband previous to their separation^ It further relates how she placed the basilica of her settlement under the protection of the Mother of God, and was herself buried in it. She died some time between 720 and 730, probably nearer the earlier ^ Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Sherboume,' vol. i, p. 331, footnote K. 2 Will, of Malmesbury, History, c. 31. ' ^;^;_ of Nat. Biography, 'Aldhelm.' ^ Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Wimbourne,' vol. ■.:, p. 88. « A. SS. Boll, St Cuthberga, Aug. 31. " Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Wimbourne,' vol. ■2, p. 88. ' Opera edit. Giles, 1844, p. ■216; Diet, of Nat. Biog., ' Aklfrith,' he is sometimes called Alfred. * Dugdale, Monasticon, ' Wimbourne,' vol. 2, p. 89, nr n.. 9 Brit. Mils. MSS. Lansdowrie, 436 f., 38 b. SECT, iv] Houses in Mercia arid in the SoiUh. 1 1 7 date, for several abbesses are said to have ruled between her and Tetta. The name of Tetta has been brought into connection with a place named Tetbury, but we know nothing definite concerning a monastery there'. As abbess of Wimbourne she was the teacher of Lioba, called also Leobgith, who went abroad at the desire of Boniface as we shall see further on. In the life of Lioba we get a description of the settlement of Wimbourne^ which may be somewhat coloured to show the result of Tetta 's strict and beneficent rule, but which deserves attention as yielding a fair example of the arrangements which in the eyes of its author appeared desirable for a monastery of women. The author, Rudolf of Fulda, was a monk who wrote between 800 and 850, and who compiled his work from notices which Magno (■f-c. 838) had collected from women pupils of Lioba^ 'There were two settlements at Wimbourne, formerly erected by the kings of the country, surrounded by strong and lofty walls and endowed with ample revenues. Of these one was designed for men, the other for women ; but neither, for such was the rule of their foundation, was ever entered by any member of the other sex. No woman had permission to come among the congregation of the men, no man to enter into the dwellings of the women, with the exception of the priests who entered to cele- brate mass and withdrew at once when service was over. If a woman, desirous of quitting the world, asked to be admitted to the sisterhood (collegium), she joined it on condition that she should not leave it unless a reasonable cause or a special occasion took her out with the leave of the abbess. The abbess herself, when she gave orders in affairs of the settlement or tendered advice, spoke through a window and there gave her decision....' Wimbourne stands last in the list of well authenticated monastic foundations made by women during the early Anglo-Saxon period; of such foundations more than twenty have been mentioned in the course of this chapter. Others no doubt existed at this time, but we only hear of them at a later date. We find among them some of the centres most influential in enabling the Anglo-Saxons to attain a high degree of culture within a hundred years of their conversion to Christianity. ' Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Tetbury,' vol. 6, p. 1619. 2 A. SS. Boll., St Lioba, Sept. 28, c. 2. ' Arndt, W., Introd. to translation into German (in Pertz, Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, Jahrhundert 8, Band 2), p. xix. CHAPTER IV. ANGLO-SAXON NUNS IN CONNECTION WITH BONIFACE. 'Et ut dicitur, quid dulcius est, quam habeas ilium, cum quo omnia possis loqui ut tecum?' Eatigith to Boniface. § I. The Women corresponding with Boniface. In the course of the 6th and 7th centuries a number of men left England and settled abroad among the heathen Germans, partly from a wish to gain new converts to the faith, partly because a change of affairs at home made them long for a dif- ferent field of labour. Through the influx of the heathen Anglo- Saxons, the British Christians had been deprived of their influence, and when Christianity was restored it was under the auspices of princes who were favourably inclined towards Rome. Men who objected to the Roman sway sought independence among the heathens abroad in preference to dependence on strangers at home, and it is owing to their efforts that Christianity was introduced into the valleys leading up from the Rhine, into the lake districts of Bavaria, and into Switzerland. A century later the Church had so far extended the limits of her power that it was felt desirable at Rome that these Christian settlers should be brought into subjection. For the tenets which they held and the traditions which had been handed down to them differed in many ways from what Rome could countenance. They were liberal in tolerating heathen practices, and ignorant of matters of ritual and creed which were insisted on in the Church of Rome. The bishops, who were self-appointed, were won over by the promise of recognising the title to which they laid claim, but the difficulty remained of weaning them from their objection- able practices. Efforts were accordingly made to reconvert the SECT, i] The Women corresponding with Boniface. 119 converted districts and to bring some amount of pressure to bear on the clergy. The representative of this movement in South Germany was Boniface, otherwise called Wynfred, on whom posterity has be- stowed the title Apostle of Germany, in recognition of his services in the twofold character of missionary and reformer. He was a native of Wessex, and his mission abroad has an interest in con- nection with our subject because of the friendly relations he enter- tained with many inmates of women's houses in England, and because he invited women as well as men to leave England and assist him in the work which he had undertaken. Boniface had grown up as an inmate of the settlement of Nutshal- ling near Winchester and first went abroad in 716, but proceeded no further than Utrecht. Conjecture has been busy over the difficulties which took him away, and the disappointments which brought him back. Utrecht was an old Roman colony which had been captured from the Franks by Adgisl, king of the Frisians, who gave a friendly reception there to Bishop Wilfrith in 678. But King Radbod, his successor, was hostile to the Franks and to Christianity, and it was only in deference to the powerful Frankish house-mayor Pippin that he countenanced the settling of Willibrord, a pupil of Wilfrith, with eleven companions in 692. However, owing to Radbod's enmity the position of these monks was such that they were obliged to leave, and it is possible that Boniface when he went to Utrecht was disappointed in not finding them there. Two years later Boniface went on a pilgrimage to Rome, where the idea of bringing his energies to assist in the extension of Papal influence originated. The Pope furnished him with a letter' in which he is directed to reclaim the faithless, and armed with this he travelled in the districts of the Main. But as soon as the news of the death of Radbod the Frisian (t 719) reached him he went to Utrecht, where Willibrord had returned. We do not know what afterwards prompted him to resume his work in Germany, but perhaps the proposal of Willibrord that he should settle with him altogether awakened Boniface to the fact that he was not work- ing for the Pope as he proposed. His reception at Rome, where he again went in 722, and the declaration of faith he handed in, are 1 Epist. nr 12. The only edition of the letters of Boniface which attempts chrono- logical order is that of Jaff^, Ph., Monumenta Moguntina, 1866, the numeration of which I have followed. Additional remarks on the dates of some of the letters are contamed m Hahn, H., Botiifaz und Lull, Hire angelsdchsischen Cornspondenlen, 1883. I20 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv in favour of this view. But Gregory II who was aware of the abilities of Boniface forgave him, and on the strength of his declara- tion provided him with further letters. One of these was ad- dressed to the Christians of Germany, to the representative clergy and to the Thuringians, and another to the house-mayor, Karl Martel, who had succeeded Pippin ; both letters commanded that the authority of Boniface was to be everywhere recognised. From this time for a period of over thirty years Boniface devoted his energies to extending, organizing and systematizing the power of Rome in Germany. His character appears in different lights varying with the standpoint from which he is regarded. Judging from his letters he is alternately swayed by doggedness of purpose, want of confidence in himself, dependence on friends, and jealous insistence on his own authority. He has a curious way of represent- ing himself as persecuted when in fact he is the persecutor, but his power of rousing enthusiasm for his work and for his personality is enormous. His biographer Wilibald describes this power as already peculiar to him during his stay at Nutshalling, where many men sought him to profit by his knowledge, ' while those who on account of their fragile sex could not do so, and those who were not allowed to stay away from their settlements, moved by the spirit of divine love, sought eagerly for an account of him ^ — ' The interest Boniface had aroused at home accompanied him on his travels. He remained in friendly communication with many persons in England, to whom he wrote and who wrote to him. Among the friends and correspondents whose letters are preserved are churchmen, princes, abbesses, clerics of various degrees, and nuns. From the point of view of this book the letters addressed to women are of special interest, since they bring us into personal contact so to speak with the abbesses and inmates of English convents, and we hear for the first time what they per- sonally have to tell us of themselves. Among Boniface's early friends and correspondents was Ead- burg^ abbess of the monastery in Thanet. She was a woman of great abilities, zealous in the pursuit of knowledge, and her influence secured several royal charters for her settlement. She had probably 1 Willibaldus presb., Vita Bonifacii, edit. Jaffe, Ph., Monumenta Moguntina, 1866, pp. 422-506, c. 2. ^ Whether Eadburg of Thanet is identical with St Eadburga buried at Liming (comp. p. 84), is uncertain. SECT, i] The Women corresponding tvith Boniface. 121 succeeded Mildthrlth, but at what date is not known. Her letters to Boniface unfortunately have not been preserved, but the letters he wrote to her are full of interesting matter. The earliest of these was written between 718 and 719; in it Boniface does not yet address her as abbess'. In this letter Boniface in compliance with a wish Eadburg had expressed, describes a vision of the future life which a monk living at Mildburg's monastery at Wenlock had seen during a state of suspended animation. Boniface had first heard of this vision from the abbess Hildelith of Barking, and he writes a graphic and elo- quent account of it, parts of which are put into the mouth of the monk himself The account gives curious glimpses of that imagery of the future life which early Christians dwelt upon and elaborated more and more. Nuns at this time as well as later took a special interest in the subject. First the monk is carried aloft through flames which enwrap the world. He sees many souls for the possession of which angels and devils are fighting. Impersonations of his sins confront and accost him, but his virtues arise also and enter into conflict .with the sins. The virtues are supported by angels and the fight ends to the monk's advantage. He also sees fiery waters flowing towards hell: and souls like black birds which hover over waters from whence proceed the wails of the damned. He sees Paradise, and a river of pitch over which a bridge leads to Jerusalem, and souls are trying to cross it. Among others suffering torments he catches sight of King Ceolred of Mercia. At last the angels cast the monk down from the height and he re-awakens to life. Such descriptions of a future life multiply as one nears the Middle Ages. By the side of the one which Boniface sent to Eadburg should be read another by him, a fragmentary one, which supplements itl The sufferers in hell mentioned in this are Cuth- burg, CeoUa and Wiala (of whom nothing is known), an unnamed abbot and Aethelbald, king of Mercia (t 7S6). The description of the after life given by Boniface agrees in various ways with one contained in the works of Bede. According to this account there was a man in Northumbria named Drycthelm, who died, came to life again, and described what he had seen of the world to come. The other letters which Boniface addressed to Eadburg are of 1 Epist. nr lo. " Epist. nr in. 122 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv later date and were written when he had settled abroad and was devoting his energies to converting the Hessians and Thiiringians. At this time he asked her to send him through the priest Eoban the letters of the apostle Peter, which she was to write for him in gold characters. 'Often,' he says, 'gifts of books and vestments, the proofs of your affection, have been to me a consolation in misfortune. So I pray that you will continue as you have begun, and write for me in gold characters the epistles of my master, the holy apostle Peter, to the honour and reverence of holy writ before mortal eyes while I am preaching, and because I desire always to have before me the words of him who led me on my mission....' He ends his letter by again hoping that she will accede to his re- quest so ' that her words may shine in gold to the glory of the Father in heaven'.' The art of writing in gold on parchment was unknown to Scottish artists and had been introduced into England from Italy. Bishop Wilfrith owned the four gospels ' written in purest gold on purple-coloured parchment,' and a few of the purple gospels with gold writing of this period have been preserved. The fact that women practised the art is evident from the letter of Boniface. Eadburg must have had a reputation for writing, for Lul, one of Boniface's companions, sent her among other gifts a silver style {graphium argenteum) such as was used at the time for writing on wax tablets'. Boniface received frequent gifts from friends in England. Eoban, who carried his letter asking Eadburg for the Epistles of St Peter, was the bearer of a letter to an Abbot Duddo in which Boniface reminding him of their old friendship asked for a copy of the Epistles of St PauP. Again Boniface wrote asking Abbot Huetberht of Wearmouth for the minor works {ppnscula) of Bede*, and Lul, who was with him, wrote to Dealwin to forward the minor works of Ealdhelm, bishop of Sherbourne, those in verse and those in prosed Judging from the correspondence the effective work of Boniface resulted in the execution of only a small part of his great schemes. His original plan was repeatedly modified. There is extant a letter from the Pope which shows that he hoped for the conversion of the heathen Saxons and Thiiringians^ and the idea was so far 1 Epist. nr 32, written 735 (Jaffe) ; after 732 (Hahn). '^ Epist. nr 75. ' Epist. nr 31. ^ Epist. nr 62. ^ Epist. nr 76. ^ Epist. nr 22, written 722 (Jafife). SECT, i] The Women corresponding with Boniface. 123 embraced by Boniface that he wrote a letter to the bishops, priests, abbots and abbesses in England asking them to pray that the Saxons might accept the faith of Christ'. But the plan for their conversion was eventually abandoned. At this period belief in the efficacy of prayer was unbounded, and praying for the living was as much part of the work of the professed as praying for the dead. Settlements apparently com- bined for the purpose of mutually supporting each other by prayer. A letter is extant in the correspondence of Boniface in which the abbot of Glastonbury, several abbesses and other abbots agree to pray at certain hours for each other's settlements'. In his times of trouble and tribulation Boniface wrote to all his friends asking for prayers. ' We were troubled on every side,' he wrote to the abbess Eadburg, quoting Scripture^ • without were fightings, within were fears.' She was to pray for him that the pagans might be snatched from their idolatrous customs and un- believers brought back to the Catholic mother Church. Eadburg had liberally responded to his request for gifts. ' Be- loved sister,' he wrote^ 'with gifts of holy books you have comforted the exile in Germany with spiritual light ! For in this dark remoteness among German peoples man must come to the distress of death had he not the word of God as a lamp unto his feet and as a light unto his paths^ Fully trusting in your love I beseech that you pray for me, for I am shaken by my short- comings, that take hold of me as though I were tossed by a tempest on a dangerous sea.' This consciousness of his short- comings was not wholly due to the failure of his plans, for Boniface at one period of his life was much troubled by questions of theo- logy. The simile of being tempest-tossed is often used by him. In a letter addressed to an unnamed nun he describes his position in language similar to that in which he addresses Eadburg. This nun also is urged to pray for him in a letter full of biblical quotations". Among the letters to Boniface there are several from nuns and abbesses asking for his advice. Political difficulties and the changed attitude of the ruling princes of Northumbria and Mercia towards convents brought such hardships to those who had adopted the religious profession that many of them wished to leave their homes, and availed themselves of the possibility of doing so which was afforded by the plan of going on pilgrimage to Rome. ' Epist. nr 39. ^ Epist. nr 46. ■* Epist. nr 72, 1 Cor. vii. 5. ■• Epist. nr 73. •'' Comp. Ps. cxix. 105. ^ Epist. nr 87. 124 '^h.e Wo7nen corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv The wish to behold the Eternal City had given a new direction to the love of wandering, so strong a trait in human nature. The motives for visiting Rome have been different in different periods of history. To the convert in the 8th and 9th centuries Rome appeared as the fountain-head of Christianity, the residence of Christ's representa- tive on earth, and the storehouse of famous deeds and priceless relics. Architectural remains dating from the period of Roman rule were numerous throughout Europe and helped to fill the imagination of those dwelling north of the Alps with wonder at the possible sights and treasures which a visit to Rome itself might disclose. Prelates and monks undertook the journey to establish personal relations with the Pope and to acquire books and relics for their settlements, but the taste for travelling spread, and laymen and wayfarers of all kinds joined the bands of religious pilgrims. Even kings and queens, with a sudden change of feeling which the Church magnified into a portentous conversion, renounced the splendour of their sur- roundings and donned the pilgrim's garb in the hope of beholding the Eternal City in its glory. Among the letters which are preserved in the correspondence of Boniface there is one from Aelflaed, abbess of Whitby, in which she writes to the abbess Adolana (probably Adela) of Pfalzel (Palatiolum) on the Mosel near Trier, recommending to her care a young abbess who is on her way to Rome. This letter shows that Aelflaed was well versed in writing Latin. The name of the abbess in whose behalf the letter was penned is not known, but she may be identical with Wethburg, who lived and died at Rome'. ' To the holy and worshipful abbess Adolana, a greeting in the Lord of eternal salvation. ' Since we have heard of your holiness from those who have come from your parts, and from widespread report, in the first place I pray for your warm affection, for the Lord has said : This is my command, that ye love one another". ' Further we make humble request that your holy and fervent words may commend us worthily to God Almighty, should it not be irksome to you to offer devotion in return for ours ; for James the Apostle has taught and said : Pray for one another, that ye may be saved. 1 Epist. m- 8; written between 709 and 712 (Hahn). Boniface is known to have travelled in the district of the Mosel ; there is no other reason why this letter should be included in the correspondence. - John XV. 12. SECT, i] The Women corresponding with Boniface. 125 ' Further to your great holiness and usual charity we humbly and earnestly commend this maiden vowed to God, a pious abbess, our dear and faithful daughter, who since the days of her youth, from love of Christ and for the honour of the apostles Peter and Paul, has been desirous of going to their holy threshold, but who has been kept back by us until now because we needed her and in order that the souls entrusted to her might profit. And we pray that with charity and true kindness she may be received into your goodwill, as well as those who are travelling with her, in order that the desired journey with God's help and your willing charity may at last be accomplished. Therefore again and again we beseech that she may be helped on her way with recommendations from you to the holy city Rome, by the help of the holy and signbearing leader (signifer) of the apostles Peter ; and if you are present we hope and trust she may find with you whatever advice she requires for the journey. May divine grace watch over your holiness when you pray for us.' The desire to go southward was strengthened among religious women by the increasing difficulties of their position at home. Monastic privileges were no longer respected by the kings of Mercia and Northumbria, and the Church lacked the power of directly interfering in behalf of monks and nuns. There is in the correspondence a letter which Boniface wrote in his own name and in that of his foreign bishops to Aethelbald, king of Mercia (716- 756) ; he sharply rebukes him for his immoral practices and urges on him the desirability of taking a lawful wife. He accuses the king of indulging his wicked propensities even in monasteries and with nuns and maidens who were vowed to God ; following the example of Tacitus, he praises the pure morals of the heathen Germans. The passages which bear on the subject are worthy of perusal, for they show how uncertain was the position of monas- teries and how keenly Boniface realized the difficulties of nuns. He tells the king ' that loose women, whether they be vowed to religion or not, conceive inferior children through their wickedness and frequently do away with them.' The privileges of religious houses, he says, were respected till the reign of King Osred (706-17) of Northumbria, and of King Ceolred (709-16) of Mercia, but 'these two kings have shown their evil disposition and have sinned in a criminal way against the teaching of the gospels and the doings of our Saviour. They persisted in vice, in the seduction of nuns and the contemptuous treatment of monastic rights. Con- 126 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv demned by the judgment of God, and hurled from the heights of royal authority, they were overtaken by a speedy and awful death, and are now cut off from eternal light, and buried in the depths of hell and in the abyss of the infernal regions'.' We have seen that in the letter written by Boniface to Eadburg, Ceolred is de- scribed as suffering torments in hell, and that King Aethelbald at a later date is depicted in the same predicament. With his letter to Aethelbald Boniface forwarded two others to the priest Herefrith, probably of Lindisfarne^ and to Ecgberht (archbishop of York, 732-66), requesting them to support him against Aethelbald. ' It is the duty of your office to see that the devil does not establish his kingdom in places consecrated to God,' he wrote to Ecgberht, ' that there be not discord instead of peace, strife instead of piety, drunkenness instead of sobriety, slaughter and fornication instead of charity and chastity^' Shortly afterwards he wrote to Cuthberht, archbishop of Canterbury (740-62), telling him of the statutes passed at the Synod of Soissons*, and severely censuring the conduct of the layman, ' be he emperor, king or count, who snatches a monastery from bishop, abbot, or abbess.' These admonitions show that the position of the religious houses and that of their rulers depended directly on the temper of the reigning prince. In the correspondence there are several letters from abbesses addressed to Boniface bearing on this point, which give us a direct insight into the tone of mind of these women. Their Latin is cumbersome and faulty, and biblical quotations are introduced which do not seem always quite to the point. The writers ramble on without much regard to con- struction and style, and yet there is a genuine ring about their letters which makes the distress described seem very real. One of these letters was written by an abbess named Ecgburg, probably at an early period of Boniface's career^ Her reference to the remoteness of her settlement suggests the idea that it was Repton, and that she herself was identical with Ecgburg, daughter of Ealdwulf king of the East Angles, the abbess whom we have noticed in connection with Guthlac. If that be so her sister Wethburg, to whom she refers, may be identical with the young unnamed abbess whom Aelflaed sped on her journey to Rome. ' Epist. nr 59 ; written 745 (Hahn). ^ Epist. nr 60. ^ Epist. nr 61. ■* Epist. nr 70; written after 748 (Hahn). '' Epist. nr 13, written 717-19 (Hahn). SECT, i] The Women cori'esponding with Boniface. 127 'Since a cruel and bitter deatli,' she writes, 'has robbed me of him, my brother Osher, whom I loved beyond all others, you I hold dearer than all other men. Not to multiply words, no day, no night passes, but I think of your teaching. Believe me it is on account of this that I love you, God is my witness. In you I confide, because you were never forgetful of the affection which assuredly bound you to my brother. Though inferior to him in knowledge and in merit, I am not unlike him in recognizing your goodness. Time goes by with increasing swiftness and yet the dark gloom of sadness leaves me not. For time as it comes brings me increase of indignities, as it is written " Love of man brings sorrow, but love of Christ gladdens the heart." More recently my equally beloved sister Wethburg, as though to inflict a wound and renew a pang, suddenly passed out of my sight, she with whom I had grown up and with whom I was nursed at the same breast; one mother she and I had in the Lord, and my sister has left me. Jesus is my witness that on all sides there is sorrow, fear, and the image of death*. I would gladly die if it so pleased God, to whom the unknown is manifest, for this slow death is no trifle. What was it I was saying .' From my sister not a sudden and bitter death, but a bitterer sepa- ration, divides me ; I believe it was for her happiness, but it left me unhappy, as a corpse laid low, when adopting the fashion of the age she went on a pilgrimage, even though she knew how much I loved and cherished her, whom now as I hear a prison confines at Rome. But the love of Christ, which is strong and powerful in her, is stronger and more binding than all fetters, and perfect love casteth out fear. Indeed, I say, he who holds the power of divination, the Ruler of high Olympus, has endowed you with divine wisdom, and in his law do you meditate night and day^. For it is written : " How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring tidings of good things".") She has mounted by a steep and narrow path, while I remain below, held by mortal flesh as by irons upon my feet. In the coming judgment full of joy she, like unto the Lord, will sing : " I was in prison and ye came unto me*." You also in the future life, when the twelve apostles sit on their twelve seats ^ will be there, and in proportion to the. number of those whom you have won by your work, will rejoice before the ' Jaffe, Ph., loc. cit., footnote, p. 64, quotes the lines Virg. Aen., 11. 369-70, of which this sentence seems an adaptation. 2 Comp. Psalm i. 2. ^ Romans x. 15. * Matth. xxv. 36. s Comp. Matth. xix. 28. 128 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv tribunal of the eternal King, like unto a leader who is about to be crowned. But I living in the vale of tears as I deserve, shall be weeping for my offences, on account of which God holds me unfit to join the heavenly hosts. Therefore, believe me, the tempest- tossed mariner does not so much long for the haven, the thirsty fields do not long so much for rain, the mother on the winding shore does not so anxiously wait for her son, as I long to rejoice in your sight. But oppressed by sins and innumerable offences, I so long to be freed from imminent danger, that I am made desperate; adoring the footsteps of your holiness and praying to you from the depths of my heart as a sinner, I call to you from the ends of the earth, O beloved master; as my anxious heart prompts, raise me to the corner-stone of your prayer, for you are my hope and a strong tower invisible to the enemy. And I beg as consolation to my grief and as limit to the wave of my sorrow, that my weakness may be supported by your intercession as by a prop. I entreat that you will condescend to give me some comfort either in the form of a relic or of a few words of blessing, written by you, in order that through them I may hold your presence secure.' By the side of this letter must be quoted another written by an Abbess Eangith, describing similar difficulties in a similar strain ^ We do not know over which settlement Eangith presided, but her name and that of her daughter Heaburg of whom she speaks are inscribed in the Durham 'Liber Vitae^' ' Beloved brother in the spirit rather than in the flesh,' she writes, 'you are magnified by the abundance of spiritual graces, and to you alone, with God as our sole witness, we wish to make known what you see here spread out before you and blotted by our tears : we are borne down by an accumulation of miseries as by a weight and a pressing burden, and also by the tumult of political affairs. As the foaming masses of the ocean when the force of the winds and the raging fury of the tempest lash up the great sea, carry in and carry out again the heaving billows dashing over rocks, so that the keels of the boats are turned upwards and the mast of the. ship is pressed downwards, so do the ships of our souls groan under the great press of our miseries and the great mass ' Epist. nr 14, written 719-22 (Jaffe). Haigh, D. H., 'On the monasteries of .St Heiu and St Hild,' in Yorkshire Archaeol. Journal, vol. 3, p. 377, speaks of her as Cangith and holds her to have been abbess of Hackness. 2 Birch, W. de Gray, Fasti Monastui Aevi Saxonici, 1872, p. 68. SECT, i] The Women corresponding with Boniface. 129 of our misfortunes. By the voice of truth has it been said of the heavenly house : " The rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that houseV' etc. ' First and before all noteworthy of the things that affect us from without, must be mentioned the multitude of our offences and our want of full and complete faith, due not so much to care for our own souls but, what is worse and more oppressive, to care for the souls of those of either sex and of every age which have been entrusted to us. For this care involves ministering to many minds and to various dispositions, and afterwards giving account before the supreme tribunal of Christ both for obvious sins in deeds and words, and for secret thoughts which men ignore and God alone witnesseth ; with a simple sword against a double-edged one, with ten thousand to meet twenty thousand warriors^ In addition to this care of souls we have difificulties in our domestic affairs, and various disagreements which the jealous enemy of all good has sown, namely, he who fills the impure hearts of men with malice and scatters it everywhere, but chiefly in the settlements of monks and nuns ; but it is said " the mighty shall be mightily tormented'." Moreover the poverty and scantiness of our temporal possessions oppress us, and the smallness of the cultivated part of our estate; and the hostility of the king, for we are accused before him by those who envy us, as a wise man has said : " the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things*." Similarly we are oppressed by service due to the king and the queen, to bishop and prefect, officers and attendants. It would take long to enumerate those things which can be more easily imagined than described. ' To all these evils is added the loss of friends, connections, and relatives by alliance and by blood. I' have neither son nor brother, neither father nor father's brother, none but an only daughter who is bereft of all that was dear to her ; and a sister who is old, and the son of our brother, who too is unhappy in his mind, for our king holds his family connections in great contempt. There is no one else for us to rely on ; God has removed them all by one chance or another. Some have died in their native land, and their bodies lie in the grimy dust of the earth to rise again on the day of doom, when the Master's trumpet shall sound, and the whole race of man shall come forth from dark tombs to 1 Matth. vii. 25. ^ Comp. Luc. xiv. 31. » Wisdom vi. 7 (Vulgate). ■* Wisdom iv. 12 (Vulgate). " There are some difficulties in this passage. E. 9 130 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv give account of themselves ; when their spirits, borne upwards in angels' arms, shall abide with Christ ; when all sorrow shall end, and envy be worn out, and grief and mourning shall vanish in sight of the saints. Again others have left their native shores, and trusted themselves to the wide seas, and have sought the threshold of the holy apostles Peter and Paul and of all those martyrs, virgins and confessors, whose number God alone knows. ' For these and other like causes, hardly to be enumerated in one day though July and August lengthen the days of summer, we are weary of our present life and hardly care to continue it. Every man uncertain of his purpose and distrustful of his own counsel, seeks a faithful friend whose advice he follows since he distrusts his own ; and such faith has he in him that he lays before him and reveals to him every secret of his heart. As has been said, what is sweeter than having someone with whom one can converse as with oneself? Therefore on account of the pressing miseries we have now insisted on to the full, we needs must find a true friend, one whom we can trust more than ourselves ; who will treat our grief, our miseries and our poverty as his own, who will sympathize with us, comfort us, support us by his words, and raise us up by wise counsel. Long have we sought him. And we believe that in you we have found the friend whom we longed for, whom we wished for, whom we desired. ' Would that God had granted to us that, as Habakkuk the prophet was sped with food into the lion's den to the seer Daniel', or that as Philip one of the seven deacons was sped to the eunuch^, we also were sped and could come to the land and to the district where you dwell ; or that it were possible for us to hear living words from your lips. ' How sweet are thy words unto my palate, O Lord, sweeter than honey to my mouth".' ' Rut since this is not vouchsafed to us and we are divided from you by a wide expanse of land and of sea and by the boundaries of many provinces, because of our faith in you referred to above we will tell you, brother Boniface, that for a long time we have entertained the design like so many of our friends, relatives and others, of visiting Rome, the mistress of the world, there to seek forgiveness of our sins as many others have done and are now doing ; so especially I (wish to do) since I am advanced in age, and have erred more than others. Wala, at one time my abbess and spiritual mother, was acquainted with my wish and my ' Daniel xiv. 33 (Vulgate). ^ Acts viii. 26. ' Ps. cxix. 103. SECT, i] The Women corresponding with Boniface. 131 intention. My only daughter at present is young, and cannot share my desire. But because we know how many there are who scoff at this wish and deprecate this desire, and support their view by adducing what the canons of the synods enjoin, that wherever anyone has settled and taken his vow, there shall he remain and there serve God ; for we all live in different ways and God's purposes are unknown, as the prophet says : ' Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, thy judgments are a great deep, O Lord"; and because His sacred will and desire in these things is hidden, — therefore we two, both of us in our diffi- culty, call on you earnestly and reverently: be you to us as Aaron, a mountain of strength, let your prayer be our help, swing the censer of prayer with incense in sight of the Divine, and let the lifting up of your hands be as the evening sacrificed Indeed we trust in God and beg of your goodness that by supplication of mouth and inward prayer it may be revealed to you what seems for us wise and useful : whether we are to live at home or go forth on pilgrimage. Also we beg of your goodness to send back your answer across the sea, and reply to what we have scratched on these leaves in rustic style and with unpolished wording. We have scant faith in those who glory in appearance and not in heart', but faith in your love, your charity in God and your goodness.' It is not known whether Eangith carried out her intention and went to Rome. Boniface had another correspondence with an abbess named Bugga, but though Eangith states that her daughter Heaburg was sometimes called by that name, it is not probable that they were the same, for Boniface writing to Bugga makes no mention of Eangith's plan, which he would hardly have omitted to do if Heaburg had been his correspond en t^ Bugga was afterwards abbess of a monaster>' in Kent. She too sent gifts to Boniface, and later entertained the idea of going to Rome. In early days the prelate wrote to her telling her how he had been mercifully led through unknown countries, how 'the Pontiff of the glorious see' Gregory II had inclined to him, and how he had cast down ' the enemy of the Catholic Church, Radbod,' the Frisian. In reply she assures him of her continued affection and makes some remarks on books they have exchanged. The Passions of ' Ps. xxxvi. 6. '■' Cp. Ps. cxli. 2. ' Cp. 2 Cor. v. 12. * The name Bugga occurs frequently during this period. 132 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv the Martyrs which he has asked for she has not yet procured, but she will forward them as soon as she can. ' But you, my friend,' she writes, ' send me as a consolation what you promised in your kind letter, your extracts from the holy writings. And I beseech you to offer the oblation of the holy mass for one of my relatives whom I loved beyond all others. I send you by the bearer of this letter fifty gold coins (solidi) and an altar cloth, better gifts I cannot procure. They are truly signs of a great affection though of insignificant appearance'.' Bugga does not style herself abbess, but Boniface addresses her as such in acknowledging the receipt of her gifts and advising her about going to Rome. On another occasion he wrote to ex- press concern at her troubles, which he heard from many people had not diminished since she retired from rule for the sake of quiet^ The letter in which he advises her about going to Rome is worth quoting'. ' Be it made known to you, dearest sister,' he writes, ' regarding the advice which you asked for in your letter, that I do not presume to forbid you the pilgrim's journey, neither would I directly advise it. I will explain why. If you gave up the charge you had of the servants of God, of his virgins (ancillae), and your own monastic life, for the purpose of securing quiet and the thought of God, in what way are you now bound to obey the words and the will of seculars with toil and wearing anxiety .' Still if you cannot find peace of mind in your home in secular life among seculars it seems right that you should seek in a pilgrimage freedom for contempla- tion, especially since you wish it and can arrange it ; just in the way our sister Wethburg did. She told me in her letter that she had found the quiet she longed for near the threshold of St Peter. In reference to your wish she sent me a message, for I had written to her about you, saying that you must wait till the attacks, hostility and menaces of the Saracens who have lately reached the Roman States have subsided, and that God willing she would then send you a letter of invitation. I too think this best. Prepare your- self for the journey, but wait for word from her, and then do as God in his grace commands. As to the collection of extracts for which you ask, be considerate to my shortcomings. Pressing work and continuous travelling prevent my furnishing you with what you desire. As soon as I can I will forward them to please you. ' Epist. nr 16, written 720-22 (Jaffe) ; I think somewhat later. ' Epist. nr 86. = Epist. nr 88. SECT. I J The Women corresponding with Boniface. 133 ' We thank you for the gifts and vestments which you have sent, and pray to God Almighty, to put aside a gift for you in return with the angels and archangels in the heights of heaven. And I beseech you in the name of God, dear sister, yea mother and sweet lady, that you diligently pray for me. For many troubles beset me through my shortcomings, and I am more distressed by un- certainty of mind than by bodily work. Rest assured that our old trust in each other will never fail us.' Bugga carried out her intention and went to Rome, where she met Boniface, who was the Pope's guest about the year 737. He had achieved a signal success in reconverting the Hessians, and was now appointed to constitute bishoprics in Bavaria and to hold councils of Church dignitaries at regular intervals^ At Rome Bugga and Boniface walked and talked together, and visited the churches of the holy apostles. A letter from Aethelberht H, king of Kent, to Boniface refers to their meeting I Bugga had come back to her old monastery and had given the king a description of her visit. She attained a considerable age, for she was ad- vanced in years before her pilgrimage, and about twenty years later Bregwin, archbishop of Canterbury (759-765), wrote to Lul informing him of her death'. Boniface made provision at Rome for the women in whom he was interested. A certain deacon Gemmulus writes to him from Rome to inform him* that 'the sisters and maidens of God who have reached the threshold of the apostles ' are there being cared for by himself and others as Boniface has desired. The readiness with which Anglo-Saxon nuns went abroad eventually led to a state of things which cast discredit on religion. Boniface addressed the following remarks on these pilgrimages to Cuthberht of Canterbury in the letter written after the synod of Soissons'. ' I will not withhold from your holiness,' he says, ' . . . that it were a good thing and besides honour and a credit to your Church and a palliation of evils, if the synod and your princes forbade women, and those who have taken the veil, to travel and stay abroad as they do, coming and going in the Roman states. They come in great numbers and few return undefiled. For there are very few districts of Lombardy in which there is not some ' Epist. nrs 37, 3S, 39. ■' Epist. nr 103, written shortly after 740 (Hahn). ■* Epist. nr 113. * Epist. nr 53. ' Epist. nr 70. 134 The Women corresponding with Boniface, [chap, iv woman of Anglian origin living a loose life among the Franks and the Gauls. This is a scandal and disgrace to your whole Church....' The difficulty of exercising more control over those who chose to leave their settlements was only partly met by stricter rules of supervision. For there were no means of keeping back monk or nun who was tired of living the monastic life. In the 9th century Hatto bishop of Basel (t 836) wrote to the bishop of Toul enjoining that no one should be suffered to undertake a pilgrimage to Rome without leave, and provisions of a much later date order that houses shall not take in and harbour inmates from other settle- ments. In this connection it is interesting to find Lul, who had settled abroad with Boniface, excommunicating an abbess Suitha because she had allowed two nuns to go into a distant district for some secular purpose without previously asking permission from her bishop^ The women who settled in Germany under Boniface were brought under much stricter control than had till then been customary in either France or England. § 2. Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. Among the women who came to Germany and settled there at the request of Boniface was Lioba, otherwise Leobgith, who had been educated at Wimbourne in Dorset, at no very great distance from Nutshalling where Boniface dwelt, and who left England between 739 and 748. She was related to him through her mother Aebbe, and a simple and modest little letter is extant in which she writes to Boniface and refers to her father's death six years ago ; she is her parents' only child, she says, and would recall her mother and herself to the prelate's memory. ' This too I ask for,' she writes in this letter, ' correct the rusti- city of my style and do not neglect to send me a few words in proof of your goodwill. I have composed the few verses which I enclose according to the rules of poetic versification, not from pride but from a desire to cultivate the beginnings of learning, and now I am longing for your help. I was taught by Eadburg who unceasingly devotes herself to this divine art.' And she adds four ' Epist. nr 126. SECT, ii] Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. 135 lines of verse addressed to God Almighty as an example of what she can do\ As mentioned above we are indebted for an account of Lioba's life to the monk Rudolf of Fulda (t 865). From this we learn that Lioba at a tender age had been given into the care of the abbess Tetta at Wimbourne^ ' She grew up, so carefully tended by the abbess and the sisters, that she cared for naught but the monastery and the study of holy writ. She was never pleased by irreverent jokes, nor did she care for the other maidens' senseless amuse- ments ; her mind was fixed on the love of Christ, and she was ever ready to listen to the word of God, or to read it, and to commit to memory what she heard and read to her own practical ad- vantage. In eating and drinking she was so moderate that she despised the allurements of a great entertainment and felt content with what was put before her, never asking for more. When she was not reading, she was working with her hands, for she had learnt that those who do not work have no right to eat.' She was moreover of prepossessing appearance and of engaging manners, and secured the goodwill of the abbess and the affection of the inmates of the settlement. A dream of hers is described by her biographer in which she saw a purple thread of indefinite length issuing from her mouth. An aged sister whom she con- sulted about it, interpreted the dream as a sign of coming influence. To I.ioba, Tecla and Cynehild, Boniface addressed a letter from abroad, asking in the usual way for the support of their praye^s^ Lioba's biographer tells us that when Boniface thought of establishing religious settlements, ' wishing that the order of either sex should exist according to rule,' he arranged that Sturmi, who had settled at Fulda, should go to Italy and there visit St Benedict's monastery at Monte Casino, and he 'sent envoys with letters to the abbess Tetta (of Wimbourne) begging her as a comfort in his labour, and as a help in his mission, to send over the virgin Lioba, whose reputation for holiness and virtuous teaching had penetrated across wide lands and filled the hearts of many with praise of her^' ^ Epist. nr 23 ; the verse runs as follows : • Arbiter omnipotens, solus qui cuncta creavit, In regno Patris semper qui lumine fulget, Qua jugiter flagrans sic regnat gloria Christi, Inlaesum servet semper te jure perenni.' = A. SS. Boll., St Lioba, Sept. 28, Vita, ch. 9. ' Epist. nrgi, written between 737-41 (Hahn). ■■ Vita, ch. 13. 136 Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. [chap, iv This request shows that Boniface thought highly of the course of life and occupations practised in English nunneries and that he considered English women especially suited to manage the settle- ments under his care. In a letter written from Rome about 738 Boniface refers to the sisters and brothers who are living under him in Germany' Parties of English men and women joined him at different times. One travelled under the priest Wiehtberht, who sent a letter to the monks of Glastonbury to inform them of his safe arrival and honourable reception by Boniface, and he requests that Tetta of Wimbourne may be told of this". Perhaps Lioba, who was Tetta's pupil, was one of the party who travelled to Germany with Wiehtberht. ' In pursuance of his plan,' says Lioba's life^ ' Boniface now arranged monastic routine and life according to accepted rule, and set Sturmi as abbot over the monks and the virgin Lioba as spiritual mother over the nuns, and gave into her care a monastery at the place called Bischofsheim, where a considerable number of servants of God were collected together, who now followed the example of their blessed teacher, were instructed in divine know- ledge and so profited by her teaching that several of them in their turn became teachers elsewhere ; for few monasteries of women (monasteria fceminarum) existed in those districts where Lioba's pupils were not sought as teachers. She (Lioba) was a woman of great power and of such strength of purpose that she thought no more of her fatherland and of her relations but devoted all her energies to what she had undertaken, that she might be blameless before God, and a model in behaviour and discipline to all those who were under her. She never taught what she did not practise. And there was neither conceit nor domineering in her attitude ; she was afifable and kindly without exception towards everyone. She was as beautiful as an angel ; her talk was agreeable, her intellect was clear ; her abilities were great ; she was a Catholic in faith ; she was moderate in her expectations and wide in her affections. She always showed a cheerful face but she was never drawn into hilarity. No one ever heard a word of abuse (maledictionem) pass her lips, and the sun never went down on her anger. In eating and drinking she was liberal to others but moderate herself, and the cup out of which she usually drank was called by the sisters ' the little one of our beloved ' (dilectae parvus) on account of its smallness. She ' Epist. nr 34. * Epist. nr 98, written 732-747 (Hahn). ' Vita, ch. 14. SECT, ii] Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. 137 was so bent on reading that she never laid aside her book except to pray or to strengthen her slight frame with food and sleep. From childhood upwards she had studied grammar and the other liberal arts, and hoped by perseverance to attain a perfect know- ledge of religion, for she was well aware that the gifts of nature are doubled by study. She zealously read the books of the Old and New Testaments, and committed their divine precepts to memory ; but she further added to the rich store of her knowledge by reading the writings of the holy Fathers, the canonical decrees, and the laws of the Church (totiusque ecclesiastici ordinis jura). In all her actions she showed great discretion, and thought over the outcome of an undertaking beforehand so that she might not afterwards repent of it. She was aware that inclination is neces- sary for prayer and for study, and she was therefore moderate in holding vigils. She always took a rest after dinner, and so did the sisters under her, especially in summer time, and she would not suffer others to stay up too long, for she maintained that the mind is keener for study after sleep.' Boniface, writing to Lioba while she was abbess at Bischofs- heim, sanctions her taking a girl into the settlement for purposes of instruction. Bischofsheim was on the Tauber a tributary of the river Main, and Boniface, who dwelt at Mainz, frequently conferred with her there. Lioba went to stay with Boniface at Mainz in 757 before he went among the Frisians^; he presented her with his cloak and begged her to remain true to her work whatever might befall him. Shortly after he set out on his ex- pedition he was attacked and killed by heathens. His corpse was brought back and buried at Fulda, and Lioba went to pray at his grave, a privilege granted to no other woman. Lioba was also in contact with temporal rulers. Karl the Great gave her presents and Queen Hildegard (f 783) was so captivated with her that she tried to persuade her to come and live with her. ' Princes loved her,' her biographer tells us, ' noblemen received her, and bishops gladly entertained her and conversed with her on the scriptures and on the institutions of religion, for she was familiar with many writings and careful in giving advice.' She had the supervision of other settlements be- sides her own and travelled about a good deal. After Boniface's death she kept on friendly terms with Lul who had succeeded him as bishop of Mainz (757-786), and it was with his consent 1 Epist. nr 93. 138 Anglo-Saxon Ntms abroad. [chap, iv that she finally resigned her responsibilities and her post as abbess at Bischofsheim and went to dwell at Schornsheim near Mainz with a few companions. At the request of Queen Hildegard she once more travelled to Aachen where Karl the Great was keeping court. But she was old, the fatigues of the journey were too much for her, and she died shortly after her return in 780. Boniface had expressed a wish that they should share the same resting-place and her body was accordingly taken to Fulda, but the monks there, for some unknown reason, preferred burying her in another part of their church. It is noteworthy that the women who by the appointment of Boniface directed convent life in Germany, remained throughout in a state of dependence^ while the men, noticeably Sturmi (t 779) whom he had made abbot at Fulda, cast off their connection with the bishop, and maintained the independence of their monasteries. Throughout his life Sturmi showed a bold and determined spirit, but he was not therefore less interesting to the nuns of Boniface's circle. His pupil and successor Eigil wrote an account of his life at the request of the nun Angiltrud, who is also supposed to have come from England to Germany' We know little concerning the other Anglo-Saxon women who settled abroad, for there are no contemporary accounts of them. The ' Passion of Boniface,' written at Mainz between 1000 and 1050, tells us that as Lioba settled at Bischofsheim so Tecla settled at Kizzingen, where 'she shone like a light in a dark place^.' No doubt this Tecla is identical with the nun of that name whom Boniface speaks of in his letter to Lioba^ She has a place among the saints", but it seems doubtful whether she founded the monas- tery at Kizzingen or the one at Oxenfurt. The names of several other women are given by Othlon, a monk of St Emmeran in Bavaria, who in consequence of a quarrel fled from his monastery and sought refuge at Fulda. While there, between 1062 and 1066, he re-wrote and amplified Wilibald's life of Boniface. In this account he gives a list of the men who came 1 Epist. nr i-iS; also Epist. nr 68, written 74S (from the Pope on the consecration of abbot and abbess). " Viia St Sturmi in Pertz, Man. Germ. Script., vol. ■.:, p. 365. " In Jaffe, Ph., Monumetita Moguntina, i866, p. 475. * Comp. above, p. 135. = A. SS. Boll., St Tecla, Oct. 15, casts discredit on Tecla's settling at Kizzingen and argues in favour of Oxenfurt. Kizzingen existed in the 15 c; nothing is known concerning the later history of Oxenfurt. SECT, ii] Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. 139 into Germany from England, the correctness of which has been called in question. He then enumerates the women who came abroad and mentions 'an aunt of Lul called Chunihilt' and her daughter Berthgit', Chunitrud and Tecla, Lioba, and Waltpurgis the sister of Wilibald and Wunebald'.' The only mention of Waltpurgis is her name, but he describes where the other women settled, some in the district of the Main, others in Bavaria. This woman Waltpurgis has been the subject of many con- jectures ; writers generally do not hesitate to affirm that the sister of Wunebald and Wilibald is identical with the saint who was so widely reverenced. But St Waltpurgis, popularly called Walburg, is associated with customs and traditions which so clearly bear a heathen and profane character in the Netherlands and in North Germany, that it seems improbable that these associations should have clustered round the name of a Christian woman and a nun*. In face of the existing evidence one of two conclusions must be adopted. Either the sister of Wunebald and Wilibald really bore the name Waltpurgis, and the monk Wolfhard who wrote an ac- count of a saint of that name whose relics were venerated at Eichstatt (between 882 and 912) took advantage of the coincidence of name and claimed that the Walburg, who bears the character of a pseudo-saint, and the sister of Wunebald and Wilibald were identical ; or else, desirous to account for the veneration of relics which were commonly connected with the name Walburg, he found it natural and reasonable to hold that Walburg had belonged to the circle of Boniface, and identified her with the sister of Wune- bald and Wilibald ^ Nothing is preserved concerning this sister except a reference to her existence, which is contained in the accounts of the acts of Wilibald and Wunebald written by a nun at Heidenheim, whose name also is not recorded^ These accounts offer many points of ^ Hahn, H., Bonifaz und Lull, Hire angehdchsischen Correspoiulenten, 1883, p. 138, footnote 4, considers her identical with the Cynehild of the correspondence. - Two letters, nrs 148, 149, in the correspondence are written by ' Berthgyth,' ap- parently a nun in England who wished to go abroad, to her brother Baldhard, but judging by their contents ('I have been deserted by my parents,' etc.) it is improbable that she is identical with the nun referred to above. ' Jaffe, Ph., Monumenta Mogimtina, 1866, p. 490. '' Comp. above, p. 25. ■' Comp. the attempt to identify Chunihilt with St Gunthildis, A. SS. Boll., Sept. 22. ^ Edit. Canisius, H., Thesaurus, I'jT.i, vol. 2 ; this anonymous nun is sometimes con- sidered identical with the sister of Wilibald and Wunebald, and therefore with St AValburg. 140 Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. [chap, iv interest. The nun who wrote them was of Anglo-Saxon origin ; her style is highly involved and often falls short of the rules of grammar, but she had possession of interesting information, and she was determined to impart it. It has been noticed that her writing varies according to whether she is setting down facts or dilating on them ; for she is concise enough when it is a question of facts only, but when it comes to description she falls into the spirit of Anglo-Saxon literature and introduces alliteration into her Latin and launches forth into panegyric. She came from England to Germany, as she tells us, shortly before the death of Wunebald (c. 765), and experiences of an unpleasant nature led her to expect that her writings would not pass without criticism. ' I am but a woman,' she says', ' weak on account of the frailty of my sex, neither supported by the prerogative of wisdom nor sustained by the consciousness of great power, yet impelled by earnestness of purpose,' and she sets to work to give a description of the life of Wilibald and the journey which he made to Palestine, parts of which she took down from his dictation, for at the close of her account she says that she wrote it from Wilibald's narrative in the monastery of Heidenheim in the presence of deacons and of some of Wilibald's pupils who were witnesses to the fact. ' This I say,' she adds, ' that no one may again declare this to be nonsense.' The account she gives of Wilibald's experiences contains one of the earliest descriptions written in northern Europe of a journey to Palestine, and modern writers have commented on it as a curious literary monument of the time. Interest in descriptions of the Holy Land was increasing. Besides early references to such journeys in the letters of St Jerome who described how Paula went from Rome to Jerusalem and settled there in the 4th century, we hear how Adamnan came to the court of King Ealdfrith of Northumbria about the year 701 and laid before him his book on Holy Places" which he had taken down from the narrative of bishop Arculf who had made the pilgrimage, but of whom we know nothing more. But Adamnan's account is bald and its interest is poor compared to this description of the adventures of Wilibald and of what he saw on his travels. The nun prefaces her account of the journey by telling us of Wilibald's origin. She describes how he fell ill as a child, how 1 Vita St Willibaldi (also called Hodoeporicoii), edit. Canisius, H., Thtsaurus, 1755, vol. t, ch. i. ^ Bede, Hist. Eccles., bk 5, ch. 15. SECT, ii] Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. 141 his parents vowed him to a religious life if he were spared, and how in conformity with their promise they took him to the abbey of Waltham at the age of five, where Wilibald continued studying till manhood. We are not told to what his love of travel was due. He determined to go south and persuaded his father and his brother Wunebald to accompany him. We hear how they and their companions took boat and arrived at Rouen, how they travelled on till they reached Lucca where the father fell ill and died, and how the brothers pursued their journey to Rome where they spent the winter. We hear how the heat and bad air of summer drove them away from Rome and how, while Wunebald remained in Italy, Wilibald with a few companions pushed on by way of Naples and Reggio and reached Catania in Sicily, where he took boat for Ephesus and Syria. We get a good deal of information by the way on saints and on relics, and hear of the veil of St Agatha which stayed the eruptions of Mount Aetna, and of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. The travellers experienced all kinds of hardships; thrice they were cast into prison and liberated before their feet trod on holy ground. Then they visited Nazareth and Ghana ; they gazed upon Lake Tiberias, they bathed in the river Jordan, and finally they reached Jerusalem where they made a long stay, broken however by several long ex- peditions. Each site is described in turn, and its connection with scriptural history is pointed out. We hear a good deal about Jerusalem, about Mount Sion, the site of the Ascension of the Virgin, and about the site of the Nativity at Bethlehem. It was ■ once a cave, now it is a square house cut into the rock,' over which a little chapel is built. We also hear of various monasteries where the travellers stayed in coming and going. Finally they travelled to Tyre, where they took boat to Constantinople. There they made a lengthy stay and then journeyed on to Italy and visited the Isle of Lipari, where Wilibald desired to get a glimpse of the crater, which is designated as hell, the thought of which called forth a fine piece of description from the nun. ' And when they arrived there they left the boat to see what sort of a hell it was. Wilibald especially was curious about what was inside the crater, and would have climbed the summit of the mountain to the opening ; but he was prevented by cinders which rose from the black gulf and had sunk again ; as snow settles falling from the sky and the heavenly heights in white thick masses, so these cinders lay heaped on the summit of the mountain and 142 Anglo-Saxon Nuns abroad. [chap, iv prevented Wilibald's ascent. But he saw a blackness and a terrible column of flame projected upwards with a noise like thunder from the pit, and he saw the flame and the smoky vapour rising to an immeasurable height. He also beheld pumice-stone which writers use' thrown up from the crater with the flame, and it fell into the sea and was again cast up on the shore; men there gathered it up to bring it away.' When Wilibald and his companion Tidberht reached Rome they had been absent seven years, and their travels had made them personages of such interest that the Pope interviewed them. Wilibald at the Pope's suggestion agreed to join Boniface in Germany. Wunebald, the brother whom he had left in Italy, had met Boniface in Rome in 738 and had travelled back with him. Wilibald also settled in Germany and was made bishop of the new see of Eichstatt. Here he came across the nun, who was so fired by his account of his travels that she undertook to record them. After she had finished this work she was moved to write a short account of the life of Wunebaldl It is written in a similar style and contains valuable historical information, but it has not the special interest of the other account. Wunebald on coming into Germany had first stayed at Mainz, then he travelled about with Boniface, and finally he settled at Heidenheim where he made a clearance in the midst of a wooded wilderness and dwelt there with a few younger men. He was active in opposing idolatrous customs, but does not appear to have been satisfied with his work. He died about the year 765, and his brother Wilibald, bishop of Eichstatt, and his sister, of whom mention is now made for the first time, came to his monastery to assist at the translation of his corpse. The sister took charge of his settlement, apparently for a time only, for the monastery at Heidenheim continued to be under the rule of an abbot and there is no evidence that women belonged to it. It was from this sister that the nun received her information about Wunebald. The theory has been put forward that she was the same person as a nun who came to Heidenheim and was there miraculously cured. However that may be, this literary nun is the last Anglo-Saxon woman of whom we have definite information who came abroad in connection with Boniface. Her name is lost, it is as the anonymous nun of Heidenheim that she has come down to posterity. ' For erasing writing from parchment. - Vita St Wunebaldi, edit. Canisins, H., Thesaurus, 1725, vol. z. - CHAPTER V. CONVENTS IN SAXON LANDS BETWEEN A.D. 8oO— lOOO. ' Nee scientia scibilis Deum ofFendit, sed injustitia scientis.' Hrotsvith. § I. Women's Convents in Saxony. Some account has been given in the preceding chapters of the form which monastic settlements of women took among the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons during the first centuries after the accept- ance of Christianity. Features similar to those which appear in France and England characterised the first period of monastic development among the continental Saxons, the last branch of the German race to accept Christianity as a nation. Here also we find highborn and influential women as abbesses at the head of establishments which were important centres of contemporary culture. The convent in Saxon lands, as elsewhere, was a place of resi- dence and a training school for women of the ruling classes. Girls came there to be educated, and either considered the convent as their permanent home or left it to be married ; the widow frequently returned to it later in life. But some of the Saxon settlements of women gained an additional importance in the lOth and nth centuries owing to their close connection with the political affairs and interests of the time. The abbess was frequently a member of the royal or imperial family. In one case she was appointed as the guardian of the Emperor, in another she became representative of the Emperor during his absence in Italy. The story of the spread of monastic life into Saxony is closely connected with the history of the conquest of the country and the subsequent growth of national independence. The Saxons occupied 144 Women's Convents in Saxony. [chap, v the districts of northern Germany, Westphalia, Eastphalia and Engern, of which Westphalia bordered on lands occupied by the Franks. Between the 6th and the 9th centuries the Franks had sometimes fought against the Saxons and had sometimes made common cause with them against their mutual enemies the people of Thiiringen. But the Saxons were warlike and ferocious, insen- sible to the influence of Christianity, and ready at any moment to begin hostilities. They became more and more dreaded by the Franks, who looked upon them as dangerous neighbours, and who attacked them whenever opportunity offered. Karl the Great (1814), king of the Franks, and Roman Emperor of the German nation, received the war against the Saxons as part of his heritage, but repeated inroads into Saxony and a cruelty bordering on vindictiveness were needed before he could speak of the conquest of the Saxons as an accomplished fact. In 785, after a prolonged struggle, Widukind, the Saxon leader in whom the spirit of Arminius lived, was finally defeated ; and he and his followers accepted Christianity as part of their subjection. The Frankish Emperor and the Church now united in extending a uniform system of government over the lands of the Saxons. The count {graf or comes) was made responsible for the mainten- ance of peace in the separate district {gau or pagus) entrusted to him, and bishoprics were founded as dependencies of the ancient archiepiscopal sees of Coin and Mainz. At the same time colonies of monks migrated into the conquered districts from the west and south. Their settlements developed rapidly, owing to the favour which monastic life found with the newly converted Saxons. The subjection of the Saxons was not however of long duration. The supremacy of the Western Empire culminated under the rule of Karl the Great ; the union under one rule of many peoples who were in different stages of civilization was only possible at all through the rare combination of commanding qualities in this emperor ; at his death the empire at once began to crumble away. This brought a returning sense of self-confidence to those peoples on whom the yoke of subjection had been forcibly thrust. Fifty years after Karl's death a warlike chief of the old type was established among the Saxons as duke {herzog or dtix) ; a hundred years later and a Saxon duke was chosen king of the Germans by the united votes of Frankish and Saxon nobles. The supreme authority now passed from the Franks to the Saxons ; a change which the Saxon historian of the loth century associated with the SECT, i] Women's Convents in Saxony. 145 transference of the relics of St Vitus from France to Saxon soil'. The present age seeks the explanation of the removal of the centre of authority in less romantic causes, and finds it in the altogether extraordinary aptitude which the Saxons showed for assimilating new elements of civilization, and for appropriating or remodelling to their own use institutions of rule and government into which they breathed a spirit peculiarly their own. The history of the attainment to political supremacy by the Saxons helps us to understand the spirit which animated the Church and monastic institutions of the time. The bishoprics which Prankish overlordship had established were soon in the hands of men who were Saxons by birth, and a similar appropria- tion took place in regard to monastic settlements. Corvei, a religious colony founded on Saxon soil by monks from La Corbie in northern France, a lifetime after the conversion numbered Saxon nobles among its inmates. Settlements of women were also founded and rapidly gained importance, especially in the eastern districts where they rivalled the episcopal sees in wealth and influence. A reason for the favour with which monastic life was regarded during the period of political subjection lay in the practical advantages which these settlements offered. The nobleman who turned monk was freed from the obligations thrust upon him by the new regime ; he was exempt from fighting under the standard of his conqueror, and the property which he bestowed on the religious settlement was in a way withdrawn from the enemy. But when the people regained their independence the popularity of the convent still remained. For the Saxons were quick in realizing the advantages of a close union between religion and the state, and the most powerful and progressive families of the land vied with each other in founding and endowing religious settlements. The political interest of the period centres in the career of Liudolf, who was styled duke by his people, but count by the Emperor. Liudolf rapidly rose to greatness and became the progenitor of a family which has given Germany many remarkable men and her first line of kings. His son Otto (t9i2) was renowned like his father for personal valour, and success in every way favoured the undertakings of his grandson Heinrich the Fowler (1936), first king of the Saxon line. Heinrich became the favourite hero of the national poet on account of the triumphs he gained over the Slavs ' Widukind, Annalium libri tres, year 924. E. 10 146 Women's Convents in Saxony. [chap, v and Magyars, who at this time threatened the lands occupied by Germans at every point between the Baltic and the Adriatic. Again Heinrich's successes were reflected in those of his son Otto I (t 973), surnamed the Great, who added the lustre of imperial dignity to his father's firmly established kingship. Emu- lating the fame of Karl the Great, Otto was crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome. During the reign of his son, Otto II (t 982), and of his grandson. Otto III (t 1002), the Saxon court remained the meeting-place of representatives of the civilized world. It was there that envoys were received from England and Italy, and it was from thence that messengers were sent out to Constantinople and Cordova. The elective crown of the German Empire remained hereditary in the Saxon dynasty for over a hundred years, and it is with this period that the Germans associate the first development of their national life on national soil\ At this time the kingdoms founded in other parts of Europe by peoples of the German race were much enfeebled. During the 9th and loth centuries the Frankish princes were wanting in that unity of purpose which alone could prevent the appropriation of fruitful tracts of their territory by the vikings. In England a period of returning difficulties had followed the reign of King Aelfraed, so brilliant in many ways. The personal valour of his children, the intrepid Lady Aethelflaed (t9i8) and King Eadward (1925) her brother, had not stayed the social changes which prepared the way for the rule of the Dane. It is in Saxony only that we find the concentration and consolidation of power which make the advance and attitude of a nation conspicuous in history. The sword was here wielded to good purpose and likewise the pen. The bishoprics of Hildesheim, Halberstadt, and Magdeburg had become centres of artistic activity, and the monastery of Corvei rivalled the time- honoured settlements of St Gallen and Fulda in intellectual im- portance. The Saxon historian Widukind (t after 973) was at work in Corvei in the roth century ; this author is for Saxon history what Gregory is for Frankish and Bede for Anglo-Saxon history. Monasteries for women, especially those of Herford, Gandersheim, and Quedlinburg, had rapidly developed and exerted a social and intellectual influence such as has rarely fallen to the lot of women's religious settlements in the course of history. The first religious house for women of which we have definite ' Giesebrecht, W. , Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, 4 ed. 1873, '^°1- i- SECT, i] Women s Convents in Saxony. i^.'/ information is Herford, which was situated close to Corvei in Westphalia and had originally been founded as a dependency of it. Two small settlements for women existed at an early period in Eastphalia, but our knowledge of them is slight. The story is told that the heathen Saxon Hessi, having been defeated by Karl the Great in 775, went to live in the monastery of Fulda, and left his daughter Gisela in possession of his property, which she devoted to founding two little monasteries (monasteriola) for her daughters. This information is preserved in an account of Liutberg, a Saxon girl of noble parentage who was brought up in one of these little monasteries, but afterwards left it, as she preferred to dwell as a recluse in a neighbouring cell. Here she was visited by Theotgrim, bishop of Halberstadt (t 840), and by the writer to whom we owe our account of her'. Wendhausen, one of the little monasteries spoken of in this account, was in existence a century later, for an attempt was then made to transfer its inmates to Quedlinburg. The fame of Liutberg's virtues was great during her lifetime but appa- rently did not secure her recognition as a saint. The cell in which she had lived was afterwards granted to Quedlinburg by charter (958). We have abundant information about Herford, the dependency of Corvei. In 838 a certain Tetta was abbess, who came from Soissons and regulated the settlement at Herford on the plan of the house she had left^. The Saxon element asserted itself here also. In 854 the abbess was Addila, who was of Saxon parentage and probably the widow of a Saxon nobleman. Again in 858 we hear of another abbess, Hadewy, probably the niece of Warin, who was abbot of Corvei and a relation of Duke Liudolf. During her rule the relics of the woman-saint Pusinna were sent to Herford by the Saxon nobleman Kobbo as a gift to his sister the abbess Hadewy. The Saxons had no traditions or relics of early Christians who had lived among them, and so they were obliged to import relics to form a centre for their worship. King and bishop alike set an extra- ordinary value on relics and paid exorbitant prices for them. So great an importance was attached to the arrival of the relics of Pusinna at Herford that a contemporary monk wrote a detailed account of the event^ But it is characteristic of the author's dispo- 1 Ex Vita Liutbergae in Pertz, Man. Germ. Script., vol. 4, p. 158 (Potthast, Wegweiser, written about 870). " Diimmler, E., Geschichle des ostfrdnkischen Reichs, 1865, vol. i, p. 348. 3 Translatio St Pusinnae in A. SS. Boll, April 23 (Potthast, Wegweiser, written probably by a monk of Corvei between 860-877). 10 — 2 148 Women's Convents in Saxony. [chap, v sition that he tells us nothing of the life and the works of Pusinna, who but for this account is unknown to history. A side-light is thrown on the material prosperity and the national sympathies of the settlements of Corvei and Herford in 889. Egilmar, bishop of Osnabriick (885-906), lodged a complaint with the Pope, contending that these settlements, besides appropriating other rights, drew so many tithes from his diocese that his income was reduced to a quarter of what it should be. But Egilmar got scant reward for his pains, no doubt because those in authority at Corvei and Herford were family connections of Duke Liudolf, whom it was felt dangerous to cross. For the Saxon duke had gained in influence as the Franks relaxed their hold on Saxon affairs, and while he nominally remained a dependent, pressure from outside was not brought to bear on him. In refusing to interfere in Egilmar's behalf, which would have involved his coming into conflict with Liudolf, the Pope was acting in ac- cordance with the policy which the Franks pursued in Saxon lands^ At an early date the abbey of Herford was renowned as an educational centre, and it long maintained its reputation. Ha- thumod, a daughter of Duke Liudolf, was educated there previous to becoming abbess at Gandersheim, as we shall see later on. A hundred years later Queen Mathilde (1968) of the race of the warrior Widukind, and wife of Heinrich the Fowler, was brought up at Herford, her grandmother being abbess at the time. The foundation of Gandersheim in Eastphalia followed upon that of Herford. Gandersheim was founded by Duke Liudolf and remained the favourite settlement of the women of his family ; we shall return to it later on. Two other important abbeys ruled by women in connection with royalty were Essen and Quedlinburg. Essen was founded by Altfrid, bishop of Hildesheim (847-874), a Saxon by birth^, and Quedlinburg at the instigation of Queen Mathilde, who as mentioned above had been educated at Herford. For centuries the abbess of Quedlinburg remained a person of marked importance, in her influence both on politics and on matters social and literary. Essen and Quedlinburg afterwards became centres of art industry ; all these early monastic foundations main- tained their importance down to the time of the Reformation. The favour found by these institutions is explained when we ' Diimmler, E., Geschichte des ostfrdnkischen Reichs, 1865, vol. 2, p. 336. ^ Luentzel, Geschichte der Diocese und Stadt Hildesheim, 1858, vol. i, p. 11. SECT, i] Women's Convents in Saxony. 149 come to consider the uncertainty of the times and the changeful political events which accompanied the growth of Saxon independ- ence. The age, judged by a later standard, may well be called an age of violence. For the country was in the hands of a number of overlords who were frequently at war together, and who dwelt in isolated castles in a thickly wooded district in which only a patch here and there had been brought under cultivation. The monotony of life in the castles or burghs of this period can hardly be exaggerated. Means of communication were few and occasions for it were rare. When the master and his men were absent, engaged in some private broil, or else summoned by the arriere-ban to attend the duke or the king, weeks and months would go by without a reminder of the existence of the world outside ; weeks and months when the arrival of a traveller offered the one welcome diversion. The young nobleman followed his father to camp and to court, where he tasted of the experiences of life ; the young noblewoman stayed at home, cut off from inter- course with those of her age and standing, and from every possi- bility of widening her mental horizon. It is with the daughters of these families that the religious house first found favour. Settlements such as Herford, Ganders- heira, Essen, and Quedlinburg offered the companionship of equals, and gave a domestic and intellectual training which was the best of its kind. Later ages were wont to look upon the standard of education attained at Gandersheim and Quedlinburg as exem- plary. The word college (collegium), which early writers often apply to these settlements in its modern sense of a learning and a teaching body, aptly designates their character. For the re- ligious settlement was an endowed college where girls were re- ceived to be trained, and where women who wished to devote themselves to learning and the arts permanently resided. The age at which girls were received in these settlements can be determined by inference only ; some were given into their care as children, others joined them later in life. Probably here as elsewhere girls came at about the age of seven, and remained till the age of fourteen, when they left if marriage was to be their destiny. The responsibilities of married and of unmarried life were undertaken at this period by persons of extreme youth. Hathumod was made abbess of Gandersheim when she was between twelve and thirteen years of age ; and Mathilde, as abbess of Quedlinburg, at the age of twelve received her dying grandmother's injunctions 150 Women s Convents in Saxony. [chap, v together with valuable documents^ but in her case the chronicler notes that she had developed early''. It remains an open question at what period in history the inmates of these settlements took vows. Fritsch, who has written a detailed history of the abbey of Quedlinburg, holds that its in- mates never took a permanent vow, since not a single case of the defection of a nun is on record', but this view is disproved by accounts of consecrations during the early period in other houses. Luther at the time of the Reformation noted that the nuns of Quedlinburg were bound by no vow* Probably the inmates took vows at first, and the custom afterwards lapsed. Harenberg, to whom we owe many learned dissertations on Gandersheim, says that the women there lived at first according to the rule of St Benedict; but after the 12th century became Austin canonesses'. Engelhausen, a writer of the 15th century, speaking of the inmates of Saxon houses generally, says that they lived as Austin canon- esses^. Early writers in speaking of the inmates of Saxon convents use the familiar terms nuns (sanctimoniales) and virgins (virgines) ; the term canoness (canonissa), which designates a woman who took residence without a permanent vow, came into general use only at a later date'. It seems simplest therefore throughout to retain the familiar term nun when speaking of the inmates of Saxon settlements, though it must be understood with a reservation, for we are not certain of the exact meaning of the word at different periods. Engelhausen, the writer referred to above, adds that abbeys for women in Saxony were founded ' in order to help the noblemen who fought for the faith of Christ and were killed by the heathens ; so that their daughters might not be reduced to begging (men- dicare) but might live in these monasteries (monasteria), and when they had attained a marriageable age, might leave to be married.' The range of subjects taught in the Saxon nunnery was wide. It included the study of religious as well as of classical writers. Spinning, weaving, and embroidery were also taught and practised. We shall see later on that the nuns assembled at Quedlinburg 1 Vita Mathildis Reg. (in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Script., vol. 4, p. 283 ff.), u. 26. ^ Annales Quedliburgenses , year 999. ' Fritsch, Geschichte des Rdchstifts Quedlinburg, 1826, vol. i, p. 45. "^ Luther, An dm Adel christl. Nation, rjao, edit. Knaake, vol. 6, p. 440. ^ Harenberg, Historia Eccksiae Gandersh., 1734, vol. 1, p. 529. " Engelhausen, Chronicon (in Leibnitz, Scriptores rer. Brunsv. 1707, vol. 2), p. 978. !■ Comp. below, ch. 6, § t. SECT, i] Women's Convents in Saxony. 151 wove large and elaborate hangings. Reference is also made to the study of law, and it is said that Gerberg II, abbess at Gan- dersheim (f looi), instructed her niece Sophie in convent discipline and in common law. An early chronicle in the vernacular says that the princess Sophie, a woman of determined character, so mastered these subjects that she was able to enter into disputation with learned men and successfully opposed them'. Where the inmate of a convent was consecrated to the office of nun, this was done by the bishop of the diocese ; but a curious story is told in connection with the consecration of the above- named princess Sophie^ Sophie was the daughter of the emperor Otto II, and had been educated at Gandersheim, but she refused to be consecrated by the bishop of Hildesheim, who usually per- formed this office at the convent, and declared that she must have the archbishop of Mainz, whose dignity was more in keeping with her station. The compromise that both prelates should assist at the consecration was at last agreed upon. But Sophie was not satisfied. She left Gandersheim for the court of her brother, and only returned at the death of the abbess, whom she succeeded. Endless quarrels occurred during the term of her rule. On one occasion she allowed her nieces, Sophie and Ida, who were con- secrated nuns, to depart on a visit to her friend the archbishop of Mainz, but when they sent word from Mainz that they did not intend to return to Gandersheim, she applied to her old enemy the bishop of Hildesheim, and forced him to interfere with the arch- bishop and bring back her nuns. They returned, but only for a time, for they were appointed abbesses at other convents. It is interesting to note how large a number of princesses of the ruling dynasty were unmarried, and remained in convents. Five daughters of Duke Liudolf spent their lives at Gandersheim, of whom only one as far as we know had been betrothed. At a later period Mathilde, the only daughter of Otto I, was from her cradle upwards appointed to become abbess of Quedlinburg ; and her cousin Gerberg, daughter of Heinrich, duke of the Bavarians (t 955), was abbess of Gandersheim. In the next generation Mathilde, daughter of Prince Liudolf (t 957), was abbess at Essen (t loii), and her two cousins, Adelheid and Sophie, the ' Luentzel, Geschichte der Diocese und Stadt Hildesheim, 1858, vol. 1, p. 67, quoting ' Reimchronik,' ' Dat Bog segt, dat se so vele Wisheit konde, ' Dat se ok wol gelerden Meistern wedderstunde. ' ^ Harenberg, Historia EccUsiae Gandersh., 1734, vol. i, p. 626 ff. 152 Women's Convents in Saxony. [chap, v daughters of Otto II, embraced the religious profession at the wish, it is said, of their mother. Adelheid was abbess at Qued- linburg (999-1040), and Sophie, the princess alluded to above, was abbess at Gandersheim (1001-1039). When Sophie died her sister Adelheid planned to unite in herself the rule of both houses, but death put a stop to her ambition \ The princess Mathilde, another daughter of Otto II, had married Ezo, son of the Palgrave of Lothringen, to whom she bore seven daughters ; six of these embraced convent life and in course of time attained to the rank of abbess''. These details are not without significance. They suggest that it was probably for the interest of the royal family that its prin- cesses should remain in the convent in preference to contracting matrimonial alliances which might involve their relatives in political difficulties. On the other hand they suggest that life in these settlements must have been congenial in more ways than one. As abbess of one of the royal houses the princess certainly held a place of authority second to that of no woman in the land. To gather together a few items of this power : she held the abbey of the king and from the king, which precluded a dependent relation on lords spiritual or temporal, and made her abbey what is termed a free abbey {freies reichstift). Her rights of overlord- ship sometimes extended over many miles, and the property of Gandersheim is described as enormous^ As holding the place of a feudal lord the abbess had the right of ban ; she issued the summons when war had been declared and sent her contingent of armed knights into the field ; and she also issued the summons to attend in her courts, where judgment was given by her proctor {vogt). In short she had the duties and privileges of a baron who held his property of the king, and as such she was summoned to the Imperial Diet {reichstag). She may have attended in person during early times, the fact ap- ^ Luentzel, Geschichte der Diocese und Stadt Hildesheim, vol. i, p. 319. "^ 'De fundatione Brunswilarensis ' (in Pertz, Man. Germ. Scriptores, vol. 11, p. 394 footnote); Adelheid was abbess of Nivelles, Mathilde of Villich and Diedenkircheu, Theofanii of Essen, Hedwig of Neuss ; Sophie and Ida, to whom reference has been made in the text, are said by Pertz to have presided over Gandersheim and St Maria at Coin ; Sophie certainly did not become abbess at Gandersheim, perhaps she went to Mainz ; Ida probably presided over the convent of St Maria on the Miinzenberg, a dependency of Gandersheim. •* Waitz, G., Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichtc, 1868, vol. 7, p. 258. SECT, r] Women s Convents in Saxony. 153 pears doubtful; but in the i6th century she was only represented there'. Similar rights and privileges devolved on those abbesses in England who were baronesses in title of the land they held. But these abbesses never secured some of the rights enjoyed by their sisters in Saxony, for example the right of striking coin which the abbess of Quedlinburg secured under Otto P. Coins also are extant which were struck by abbesses of Gandersheim, whose portraits they bear". In addition to these advantages of position, the abbesses of the chief Saxon houses in the loth and nth centuries were in direct contact with the court and with politics. During the minority of Otto III, who was three years old when his father died in Italy (983), his mother Adelheid together with his aunt Mathilde, abbess of Quedlinburg, practically ruled the empire. Later when this emperor went to Italy for a prolonged stay in 997 the manage- ment of affairs was given to the abbess Mathilde, who is praised for the determined measures she took to oppose the invading Wends. In 999 she summoned a diet at Dornberg on her own authority ■•- The so-called free abbeys were under the obligation of enter- taining the king and his retinue in return for privileges granted to them, and as the king had no fixed place of residence he stayed at his various palaces (palatia) in turn, and usually spent holiday time at one of the religious centres. Frequent royal visits to Qued- linburg are on record ; the court was also entertained at Ganders- heim. These visits brought a store of political information to the abbess of which she made use in her own way. Thus Mathilde, abbess of Quedlinburg, is thought to have supplied the annalist of Quedlinburg with the information which gives his chronicle its special value, and she was so far interested in the history of her own time that Widukind forwarded his history of the Saxons to her book by book for approval^. The abbess Gerberg of Gan- dersheim was similarly in contact with politics. As we shall see she supplied the nun Hrotsvith with the materials for writing the history of Otto the Great. 1 Reichstage, 1 548-1 594. ^ Fritsch, Geschichte des Reichstifts Quedlinburg, iSiS, vol. 1, p. 259. ' Luentzel, Geschichte der Diocese und Stadt Hildesheivi, 1858,70!. x, p. 67. ■• Fritsch, Geschichte des Reichstifts Quedlinburg, 1828, vol. 1, p. 84. "i Ebert, Ad., Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters, 1887, vol. 3, p. 429 footnote. 154 Early History of Gandersheim. [chap, v § 2. Early History of Gandersheim^. From these general remarks we turn to the foundation and early history of Gandersheim, one of the earliest and wealthiest of Saxon houses, which claims our attention as the home of the nun Hrotsvith. It was situated on low-lying ground near the river Ganda in Eastphalia and was surrounded by the wooded heights of the Harz mountains. It owed its foundation to Liudolf himself, the great Saxon duke and the progenitor of the royal house of Saxony. At the close of a successful political career, Liudolf was persuaded by his wife Oda to devote some of his wealth and his influence to founding a settlement for women in Eastphalia, where his property chiefly lay. Oda was partly of Prankish origin, which may account for her seeking the aggrandisement of her family in a religious foundation at a time when there were very few in Saxon lands. It is note- worthy that this foundation was to be for women and that all the daughters of Liudolf and Oda went to live there. Information about the early history of Gandersheim is abundant. There are extant a life of Hathumod, its first abbess, which was written by her friend the monk Agius (-f- 874), and an elegy on her death in which Agius tries to comfort her nuns for the loss they have sustained ; both these compositions are written in a very attractive style". A century later the nun Hrotsvith was busy at Gandersheim describing the early history of the settlement in a poem in which she celebrates both it and the family of its founder^ In many ways this is the most beautiful and finished of the nun's com- positions ; a work which reflects credit alike on her powers as a poetess, and on the settlement with which her name and fame are indissolubly linked. From these accounts we gather that Oda's mother, Ada, had already had a vision of the future greatness of her family. Hrots- vith tells how St John the Baptist appeared to her clad in a gar- ment made of camel's hair of bright yellow, his lovely face of shining whiteness, with a small beard and black hair. In giving ' Harenberg, Historia Ecclesiae Ganders., 1734; also Luentzel, Geschichte der Dio- cese und Stadt Hildesheim, 1858, vol. I, pp. 33 ff., 63 ff. ^ Agius, Vita et Obitus Hathumodae (in Pertz, Man. Germ. Scriptores, vol. 4, pp. 166-189). ^ Hrotsvith, 'Carmen de Primordiis Coenobii Gandersh.,' in Opera, edit. Barack 1858. P- 339 ff- SECT, ii] Early History of Gandersheim. 155 these details of the saint's appearance the nun was doubtless de- scribing a picture she had before her at Gandersheim. It was in 852 that a plan was formed for transferring a small congregation of women, who had been living at Brunshausen, to some property on the river Ganda. A suitable site had to be sought and a fitting centre of worship provided. Liudolf and Oda undertook a journey to Rome and submitted their scheme to Pope Sergius II (844-847), begging him for a gift of relics. They received from him the bodies of the saints Anastasius and Innocentius, which they carried back with them to Saxony. On the night before All Saints' Day a swineherd in Liudolfs employ had a vision of lights falling from heaven and hanging in the air, which was interpreted as a heavenly indication of the site of the settlement. A clearance was accordingly made in the densely wooded district and a chapel was built. It was at this time that Hathumod, the eldest daughter of Liudolf, was living in Herford. From childhood her bent had been serious, and her friend Agius tells us that ' of her own free will she desired to be admitted to serious studies to which others are driven even by forced' She left her father's residence for Herford, where she was so happy that in after years she often longed to be back there. In 852 at the age of twelve she was taken away to Gandersheim to preside over the new settlement. This settlement was to be an improvement on existing institutions of the kind, for Agius tells us that its members were not allowed to have separate cells or to keep servants. They slept in tene- ments (villula) in the neighbourhood till their 'spiritual mother' was able to provide them with a suitable dwelling. Curious side- lights are thrown on other religious institutions by the following re- marks of Agius on the nuns of Hathumod's convent : ' They shared everything,' he says''; 'their clothes were alike, neither too rich nor too poor, nor entirely of wool. The sisters were not allowed to dine out with relatives and friends, or to converse with them without leave. They were not allowed like other nuns (sancti- moniales) to leave the monastery to stay with relatives or visit dependent estates (possessiones subjectae). And they were forbidden to eat except at the common table at the appointed times except in cases of sickness. At the same hour and in the same place they partook of the same kind of food. They slept together and came together to celebrate the canonical hours (ad ' Agius, Vita et Obitus Hathumodae, ch. 3. ' Ibid. ch. 5. 156 Early History of Gandersheim. [chap, v canonicos cursus orandi). And they set to work together when- ever work had to be done.' Agius draws a beautiful picture of the gentleness and dignified bearing of Hathumod, who was at once strong and sensitive. She was always greatly cheered by signs of goodness in others, and she was as much grieved by an offence of a member of the community as if she had committed it herself Agius tells us that she was slow in making friends but that she clung faithfully through life to those she had made. Her literary acquirements were considerable. 'No one could have shown greater quickness of perception, or a stronger power of understanding in listening to or in expounding the scriptures,' he says', and the scriptures always remained her favourite reading. It is difficult to form an idea of the standard of life in these religious settlements. The age was rough and barbarous in many ways, but the surroundings of the Saxon dukes did not lack a certain splendour, and traces of it would no doubt be found in the homes they made for their daughters. In these early accounts nothing transpires about their possessions in books and furniture, but it is incidentally mentioned that the abbess Hathumod owned a crystal vessel in the form of a dove, which contained relics and hung suspended by her bedside^. The plan was formed to build a stone church for Gandersheim an unusual and difficult undertaking. No suitable stone, however, could be found till one day, as Hathumod was praying in the chapel, she was divinely moved to walk forth and follow a dove which was awaiting her outside. The bird led the way to a spot where the underwood was removed and masses of stone which could be successfully dealt with were laid bare. ' It is the spot barren through its huge masses of stone, as we know it now- a-days,' Hrotsvith the nun wrote a hundred years later'. The densely-wooded character of the neighbourhood is fre- quently referred to by early and later writers. Lingering super- stitions peopled the forest with heathen fantasies, with 'fauns and spirits,' as Hrotsvith designates them. The settlement lay in the midst of the forest and was at all times difficult of access, but especially so in winter when the ground was covered with snow. In the introduction to her history of Otto the Great Hrotsvith likens her perplexity and fear in entering on so vast ' Agius, Vita et Obitus Hathumodae, ch. 9. 2 Ibid. cli. le. ' ' Carmen de Primordiis Coenobii Gandersh.,' line 273. SECT, ii] Early History of Gandersheim. 157 a subject to the state of mind of one who has to cross the forest in mid winter, a simile doubtless suggested by the surroundings of the convent'. Her feelings, she says, were those of ' someone who is ignorant of the vast expanse of the forest which lies before him, all the paths of which are hidden by a thick covering of snow ; he is guided by no one and keeps true to his direction only by noticing the marks pointed out to him ; sometimes he goes astray, unexpectedly he again strikes the right path, and having penetrated half way through the dense interlacing trees and brush- wood he longs for rest and stops and would proceed no farther, were he not overtaken by some one, or unexpectedly guided by the footprints of those who have gone before.' Neither Liudolf the founder of Gandersheim nor his daughter Hathumod lived to see the stone church completed. He died in 866, and the abbess in 874 at the age of thirty-two. She was surrounded by her nuns, among whom were several of her sisters, and her mother Oda, who had also come to live at Gandersheim. The monk Agius, who was a frequent visitor at the home, was often with her during her last illness, and after her death he com- posed an elegy in dialogue to comfort the nuns under the loss they had sustained. This poem is full of sweetness and delicacy of feeling, and is said to have been written on the model of the eclogues of Virgil. Alternate verses are put into the mouths of the nuns and of Agius ; they describe their sorrow, and he dwells on the thoughts which might be a consolation to them. It opens in this strain : ' Sad were the words we exchanged, I and those holy and worthy sisters who watched the dying moments of the sainted abbess Hathumod. I had been asked to address them, but somehow their recent grief made it impossible for them to listen to me, for they were bowed down by sorrow. The thoughts which I then ex- pressed I have now put into verse and have added somewhat to them. For they (the sisters) asked me to address them in writing, since it would comfort them to have before their eyes, and to dwell upon, the words which I then spoke in sadness. Yielding to their wish and entreaties, I have attempted to express the thoughts which follow. Thou, O reader, understand that I am conversing with them, and follow us if thou wilt in our lament' He then directly addresses the nuns and continues : ' Certainly we should weep for one who died before her time in the bloom 1 'Carmen de Gestis Oddonis I,' in Opera, edit. Barack, 1858, p. 30^. 158 Early History of Gandersheim. [chap, v of youth. Yet grief also has its limits ; your sorrowful weeping should be within bounds. 'Tis natural you should be unhappy, still reason commands moderation in all things, and I therefore entreat you, O beloved and holy sisters, to stay your weeping and your tears. Spare your energies, spare your eyesight which you are wearing out by excess of grief. " Moderation in all things " has been said wisely and has been said well, and God Himself com- mands that it should be so.' The nuns make reply in the following words : ' What you put before us is certainly true. We know full well that God forbids excess, but our grief seems not ex- cessive, for it falls so far short of what her merit claims. We can never put into words the wealth of goodness which we have lost in her. She was as a sister to us, as a mother, as a teacher, this our abbess under whose guidance we lived. We who were her handmaids and so far beneath her shared her life as her equals ; for one will guided us, our wishes were the same, our pursuits alike. Shall we not grieve and weep and lament from our hearts for her who made our joy and was our glory, and in whom we have lost our happiness .? There can be no excess of tears, of weeping and of grief, for in them only we find solace now that we shall never more behold her sweet face.' Agius replies : ' I doubt not that your grief is well founded, or that your tears rightly flow. But weeping will not undo you altogether, for the body has powers of endurance ; you must bear this great anguish, for it has come to you through the will of God. Believe me, you are not alone in this grief, I too am oppressed by it, I too am suffering, and I cannot sufficiently express to you how much I also have lost in her. You know full well how great was her love for me, and how she cherished me while she lived. You know how anxious she was to see me when she fell ill, with what gladness she received me, and how she spoke to me on her deathbed. The words she spoke at the last were truly elevating, and ever and anon she uttered my name.' Agius tries to comfort himself with dwelling on Hathumod's gentle- ness and sweetness, and urges the nuns as they loved their abbess in the flesh now to continue loving her in the spirit. This alone, he says, will help the work to grow and increase which she began and loved. 'To dwell on grief/ he says, 'brings weeping and weakness; to dwell on love cheers and brings strength. The spirit of your abbess is still among you, it was that which you most loved in her, and it is that which you have not lost' There is a curiously modern ring in much that the monk SECT, ii] Early History of Gandersheim. 159 urges. His poem sets forth how the nuns at last took heart, and requested Agius to visit them again and help them with his advice, which he promised to do. On her deathbed Hathumod in talking to Agius compared her monastery to a plant of delicate growth and deplored that no royal charter sanctioning its privileges had as yet been obtained^ This charter and further privileges were secured to the settlement during the abbacy of Gerberg I (874-897), sister and successor of Hathumod, a woman of determined character and full of en- thusiasm for the settlement. She was betrothed at one time to a certain Bernhard, against whose will she came to live at Gan- dersheim, and refused to leave it. He had been summoned to war, and departed declaring that she should not remain in the convent after his return. But opportunely for her wishes he was killed and she remained at Gandersheim. She ruled as abbess more than twenty years and advanced the interests of the settlement in many ways. The stone church which had been begun during Hathumod's rule was completed during that of Gerberg and was consecrated in 881, on All Saints' Day. The bishop of Hildesheim officiated at the ceremony of consecration, many visitors came to assist, and the assembled nuns for the first time took part in the singing of divine service. The abbess Gerberg was succeeded by her sister Christine, who ruled from 897 to 919. Kopke, one of the chief modern historians of this period, considers that these three sisters, Hathumod, Gerberg and Christine, abbesses of Gandersheim, were among the most zealous advocates of culture and civilizing influences in Saxony during the 9th century''. The settlement became a centre of interest to the whole ducal family. After the death of Liudolf his widow Oda, who is said to have attained the age of one hundred and seven years, dwelt there altogether. She outlived her son, Duke Otto, who died in 912 and was buried at Gandersheim, and it is said that she lived to hear of the birth of her great-grandson Otto (913), who was destined to become king and emperor. After the death of the abbess Christine the settlement of Gandersheim drifts for a time into the background ; Quedlinburg, founded by Heinrich I at the instigation of his wife Mathilde, takes its place in ducal and royal favour. Scant notices are pre- 1 Agius, Vita a Obitus Hathumodae, ch. ii. 2 Kopke, R., Deutschlands dlteste Dichlerin, 1869, p. 17. i6o Early History of Gandersheim. [chap, v served of the abbesses who ruled during the first half of the lOth century. We hear of the abbess Hrotsvith (f 927) that she was distinguished like her namesake of later date for literary acquire- mentsS and that she wrote treatises on logic and rhetoric which are lost. And ' what is more,' says an early writer^ ' she forced the devil to return a bond signed with blood by which a youth had pledged away his soul.' Her writings may have perished in the fire which ravaged the settlement without permanently interfering with its prosperity during the rule of Gerberg II (959-1 001). Contemporary writers concur in praise of the learning, the powers of management and the educational influence of this princess, who was the daughter of Heinrich, duke of the Bavarians (t 955)- Heinrich for many years was the enemy and rival of his brother Otto I ; and the final recon- ciliation and lasting friendship between these princes formed an important episode in the history of the time. We do not know what prompted Gerberg to embrace convent life ; perhaps she became a nun at the wish of her father. She was appointed abbess at the age of nineteen when her father was dead and her mother Judith was ruling in Bavaria in the interests of her young son. Gerberg ruled at Gandersheim for forty-two years ; she has a special claim on our interest because she was the friend, teacher, and patron of the nun Hrotsvith. g 3. The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings^, The nun Hrotsvith occupies a unique position in monastic life and among unmarried women generally. ' This fruitful poetic talent,' says the writer Ebert, ' which lacks not the inspiration and the courage of genius to enter upon new ground, evinces how the Saxon element was chosen to guide the German nation in the domain of art.' The literary work of Hrotsvith can be grouped under three headings. To the first belongs the writing of metrical legends which were intended for the perusal and the edification of inmates of convents ; to the second, the composition of seven dramas written in the style of Terence ; and to the third, the ' Harenberg, Historia Ecclesiae Gandersh., 1734, p. 589. '^ Meibom, H., Rerum German. Script., 1688, vol. 1, p. 706, quoting Selneccer. ' Hrotsvith, Opera, edit. Barack, 1858; Ebert, h.&., Allgemeine Geschuhte der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 285 ff. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. i6i writing of contemporary history in metrical form. Each kind of work has merits of its own and deserves attention. But while Hrotsvith as a legend writer ranks with other writers of the age, and as a historical writer is classed by the modern historian Giese- brecht with Widukind and Ruotger, as a writer of Latin drama she stands entirely alone. We have no other dramatic com- positions except hers between the comedies of classic times and the miracle plays, which at first consisted only of a few scenes with bald dialogue. It can be gathered from Hrotsvith's writings that she was born about the year 932 ; and the fact of her entering a nunnery is proof of her gentle birth. It is uncertain when she came to Gandersheim, probably at a very early age. She owed her edu- cation there partly to Rikkardis, to whom she refers in her writings, but chiefly to the abbess Gerberg, who, she says, was somewhat younger than herself Judging from Hrotsvith's writings she worked diligently and soon attracted attention beyond the limits of her convent. The following facts in regard to time are of importance. The first of her two sets of legends was put together and dedicated to Gerberg as abbess, that is after the year 959 ; she wrote and submitted part if not the whole of her history of Otto the Great to Wilhelm, archbishop of Mainz, before the year 968, in which the prelate died. How the composition of her dramas is related in point of time to that of the legends and the historical poems cannot be definitely decided ; probably the dramas were written in the middle period of Hrotsvith's life. For the legends bear marks of being the outcome of early effort, while the historical poems, especially the one which tells of the early history of Ganders- heim, were written in the full consciousness of power. We do not know the date of Hrotsvith's death; an early chronicle says that she wrote a history of the three Emperors Otto, in which case she must have lived till 1002, that being the year of Otto Ill's death. But the annalist to whom we owe this remark may have been misinformed ; only a part of the history of the first emperor is extant, and we cannot argue from any references in her other works that she wrote a continuation of it*. The nun and her writings soon ceased to attract attention, and there are few re- ferences to her in any writings for nearly five hundred years. At the beginning of the i6th century, however, the humanist Conrad ' Opera, edit. Barack, Einleitung, p. 6. E. II 1 62 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v Celtes came across a copy of her dramas, which seemed to him so remarkable that he had them printed. And since then they have repeatedly been published, and excellent translations have been made of them into German and French'. In the introduction to her plays Hrotsvith appeals to the judgment of powerful patrons, but she does not give their names ; in her history, as mentioned above, she asks for criticism from Wilhelm, archbishop of Mainz, who was the illegitimate son of Otto I, and a leading prelate of the time. This exhausts what we know of friends outside the convent ; probably the abbess Gerberg was the chief critic throughout and had more influence on her than any other. It was she who introduced Hrotsvith to the works, classical and other, which she had herself studied under learned men, and she was always ready to encourage her able pupil and supply her with materials to work upon. The library at Gandersheim, to which Hrotsvith had access, contained the writings of a number of classical and theological authors. Among the classical writers with whom the nun is thought to have been directly acquainted were Virgil, Lucan, Horace, Ovid, Terence, and perhaps Plautus ; among the Christian writers Prudentius, Sedulius, Fortunatus, MaSanus Capella, and Boethius^. Ebert, who has analysed the sources from which Hrotsvith drew the subject matter of her legends and dramas, considers that at this time Greek authors were read at Ganders- heim in Latin translations only. Another writer, arguing from the fact that the nun frequently uses words of Greek origin, con- siders that she had some knowledge of Greek'. This latter opinion has little in its favour. However we know that Greek teachers were summoned from Constantinople to instruct Hedwig, Gerberg's sister, who was to have married the Emperor Constantine. The match fell through, but the Saxon royal family aimed steadily at securing an alliance with the court of Constantinople, and ultimately attained this object by the marriage of Otto II to the Greek princess Theofanu (971). After Hrotsvith had mastered the contents of the library at Gandersheim she was moved to try her hand at writing Latin verse ; she cast into metrical form the account of the birth and life of the Virgin Mary contained in a gospel which in some 1 Piltz, O., Die Dravien der Roswitha, no date; Magnin, Thidtre de Hrotsvitha, 1845. ^ Kbpke, R., Dmtschlands alteste Dichterin, 1869, p. ■28. 2 Hrotsvith, Opera, edit. Barack, Einleitung, p. 54. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 163 manuscripts is ascribed to St James, the brother of Christ'. The story is well told, and the incidents described follow each other naturally ; the poem exceeds nine hundred lines in length. She supplements the original text with some amplifications of a de- scriptive nature and a panegyric on Christ, with which she closes the poem. The diffidence Hrotsvith felt at first in writing is described in the introduction which she prefixed to the complete collection of her legendary poems and addressed to a wider public'^ ' Unknown to others and secretly, so to speak, I worked by myself; she says, 'sometimes I composed, sometimes I destroyed what I had written to the best of my abilities and yet badly ; I dealt with material taken from writings with which I became acquainted within the precincts of our monastery of Gandersheim through the help of our learned and kindly teacher Rikkardis, afterwards through that of others who taught in her place, and finally through that of the high-born abbess Gerberg, under whom I am living at present, who is younger than I am in years but more advanced in learning as befits one of royal lineage, and who has introduced me to various authors whom she has herself studied with the help of learned men. Writing verse appears a difficult and arduous task especially for one of my sex, but trusting to the help of divine grace more than to my own powers, I have fitted the stories of this book to dactylic measures as best I could, for fear that the abilities that have been implanted in me should be dulled and wasted by neglect ; for I prefer that these abilities should in some way ring the divine praises in support of devotion ; the result may not be in proportion to the trouble taken and yet it may be to the profit of some.' The nun is filled with the consciousness that her undertaking is no mean one. ' Full well I know,' she says, addressing the Virgin, ' that the task of proclaiming thy merits exceeds my feeble strength, for the whole world could not celebrate worthily that which is a theme of praise among the angels.' The poem on the life of the Virgin is written in leonine hexameters, that is with rhymes at the middle and the end of the line. This form of verse was sometimes used at that period, and Hrotsvith especially in her later historical poems handled it with considerable skill. Hrotsvith afterwards added to the account of the Virgin a ' ' Maria,' Opera, p. 7. "^ Opera, edit. Barack, p. i. II — 2 1 64 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v poem of a hundred and fifty lines on the Ascension of Christ*. In this, as she tells us, she adapted an account written by John the Bishop, which had been translated from Greek into Latin. This poem also is simple and dignified, and gives proof of considerable power of expression on the part of the nun. Her vocabulary however has certain peculiarities, for she is fond of di- minutives, a tendency which in the eyes of her editor is peculiarly feminine^ The poem on the Ascension closes with the following character- istic lines : ' Whoever reads this let him exclaim in a forbearing spirit: Holy King, spare and have mercy on the suppliant Hrots- vith and suffer that she who here has been celebrating thy glorious deeds may persevere further in holy song on things divine ! ' The next subject which engrossed the nun's attention was the history of Gongolf, a huntsman and warrior of Burgundy, who lived in the time of King Pipin. He was credited with performing wonders such as calling up a fountain ; he was a pious Christian and was put to a cruel death by his faithless wife and her lover. This poem is over five hundred lines in length and contains some fine descriptive passages. The version of the story Hrotsvith made use of being lost, we cannot tell how far she drew upon her own powers of narrative^ But the next legend she wrote left full scope for originality of treatment. It describes the experiences and martyrdom of Pelagius, a youth who had been recently (925) put to death by the Saracens at Cordova in Spain; the event, as she herself informs us, had been described to Hrotsvith by an eye-witness. The story opens with an enthusiastic description of the beauties of Cordova. Pelagius, the son of a king of Galicia, persuaded his father to leave him as hostage with the Caliph. But the Caliph, enamoured by the youth's physical beauty, persecuted him with attentions, and meeting with contempt ordered him to be cast down from the city walls. The young man remained unharmed, and was then beheaded and his head and body thrown into the river. Fishermen picked them up and carried them to a monastery, where their identity was ascertained by casting the head in the ^ 'Ascensio Domini,' Opera, p. 37. ^ Opera, edit. Barack, Einleitung, p. 48. 3 i Gongolf,' Opera, p. 43. * Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Liiterahir des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 290. '' ' Pelagius,' Opera, p. 63. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 165 fire, which left it untouched. The head and body were then given solemn burial. The next legend has repeatedly been commented on as the earliest account in verse of a pact with the devil and as a precursor of the many versions of the legend of Faust\ The ' Lapse and conversion of Theophilus"' may have had special attractions for Hrotsvith since the incident of the devil forced to return his bond was connected, as mentioned above, with her namesake Hrotsvith, abbess of Gandersheim. The story of Theophilus which Hrotsvith expanded and put into verse had recently been translated from Greek into Latin, as Ebert has shown. The story runs as follows. Theophilus, nephew of a bishop of Cilesia (of uncertain date), had been educated in the seven liberal arts, but he held himself unworthy of succeeding his uncle, and considered the office of ' vice-domus ' more suited to his powers. His popularity however drew on him the hatred of the newly appointed bishop, who robbed him of his post. Thirsting for revenge the young man went for advice to a certain Hebrew, ' who by magic art turned away many of the faithful,' and who led him at night through the town to a dark place ' full of phantasms that stood in white clothes holding torches in their hands' (line 99). Their demon king was at first indignant that a Christian claimed his assistance and jeered at the Christians' ways, but at last he promised to help Theophilus on condition that he should sign an agreement by which he pledged himself to be one of the ghastly crew to all eternity. The young man agreed to the condition, and on his return home was favourably received by the bishop and reinstated in his dignity. But his peace of mind had deserted him ; again and again he was seized by qualms of conscience and affrighted by agonising visions of eternal sufiering which he forcibly describes in a monologue. At last he sought to escape from his contract by praying to the Virgin Queen of heaven in her temple, and for forty days consecutively prayed to her to intercede in his favour with God. The Virgin at last appeared to him, told him that he was free and handed him the fatal document. On a festal day he confessed his wrong-doing before all the people and burnt the parchment in their presence. In the very act of doing so he 1 Ebert,. Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 295. "^ 'Theophilus,' Opera, p. 79. 1 66 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v appeared as a changed man before their eyes and was instantly- overtaken by death. To this legend Hrotsvith attached a little prayer of eight lines which is a grace for use at meals. This prayer is in no way connected with the legend, and its presence here indicates that the legends were originally intended to be read aloud during meals in the refectory, and the reading to be closed with a prayer. Having written so far Hrotsvith collected her legendary poems together with the poem on the Virgin and dedicated them in the form of a little book to her teacher, the abbess Gerberg. Evidently the stories attracted attention beyond the limits of the convent, and Hrotsvith was encouraged to continue in the path she had chosen. Accordingly she wrote a second set of legends, in com- posing which she was mindful of a wider public and that not ex- clusively of her own sex. For in the opening lines of the first of these legends which treats of the conversion of Proterius by Basilius, bishop of Caesarea, she begs that those who peruse this story ' will not on account of her sex despise the woman who draws these strains from a fragile reed\' The story of this conversion, like that of Theophilus, treats of a pact with the evil one, but with a difference. For in the one story the man signs away his soul to regain his position, in the other he subscribes the fatal bond for the purpose of securing the hand of the bishop's daughter. The bishop however intercedes with God in his behalf and regains his liberty for him. The poem is neither so complete nor so striking as that of Theophilus. Two more legends are grouped with it. One of them describes the Passion of Dionysius'', who suffered martyrdom at Paris, and who at an early date was held identical with Dionysius the Areopagite. The hand of this saint had been given as a relic to King Heinrich the Fowler, and had been deposited by him at Quedlinburg — an incident which made the saint's name familiar in Saxon lands. The passion of Dionysius is described according to a prose account written by Hilduin (-f- 814), but Hrotsvith abbreviated and altered it^ She describes how Dionysius witnessed an eclipse of the sun at Memphis at the time when Christ was put to death, how he returned to Athens and there waited to hear some- thing of the new god. The apostle Paul arrived and preached, 1 ■ Proterius,' Opira, p. 97. 2 'Dionysius,' Opera,-p. 107. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1S87, vol. 3, p. 300. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 167 and Dionysius followed him to Rome. From Rome he was despatched into Gaul to preach the new faith, and while there he was first cast into the flames which did not burn him, and then thrown before wild beasts which refused to touch him. He was finally beheaded during the persecutions under Diocletian. In this poem there is an especially fine passage in which we hear how Dionysius after being beheaded rose to life and took up his head, which he carried away down the hill to the spot where he wished to be buried, — a story similar to that told of many saints. The last legend which Hrotsvith wrote treats of the Passion of St Agnes, a virgin saint of Rome, whose fortitude in tribulation and stedfast adherence to Christianity and to the vow she had taken made her story especially suitable for a convent of nuns'. The story has often been put into writing from the 4th century downwards ; Hrotsvith took her account from that ascribed to Ambrosius (-f- 397), which she followed closely. She prefaces it with an address to maidens vowed to God, who are exhorted to remain steadfast in their purpose. Like most of these legendary tales it is between four and five hundred lines in length. Throughout her legends Hrotsvith, as she herself says in a few remarks which stand at the conclusion of the legends, was bent on keeping close to the original accounts from which she worked. ' I have taken the material for this book, like that for the one pre- ceding it, from ancient books compiled by authentic authors (certis nominibus), the story of Pelagius alone is excepted.... If mistakes have crept into my accounts, it is not because I have intentionally erred but because I have unwittingly copied mistakes made by others'.' Ebert, commenting on the spirit of the legends generally, re- marks on the masterly way in which the nun has dealt with her material, on her skill in supplying gaps left by earlier writers, on her deft handling of rhyme and rhythm, on the right feeling which guides her throughout her work, and on the completeness of each of her legends as a whole*. The lines in which the second set of legends are dedicated to Gerberg bear witness to the pleasure Hrotsvith derived from her work. ' To thee, lady Gerberg,' she says, ' I dedicate these stories, adding new to earlier ones, as a sinner who deserves benevolent indulgence. Rejoicing I sing to the accompaniment with dactylic ' 'Agnes,' Opera, p. 117. ^ Opera, p. 133. ' Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 301. 1 68 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v measures ; do not despise them because they are bad, but praise in your gentle heart the workings of God\' Having so far worked along accepted lines and achieved success therein, the nun of Gandersheim was moved to strike out a new path. Conscious of her powers and conscious of a need of her time, filled with admiration for the dramatic powers of classical writers while disapproving of their tendencies, she set to work to compose a series of plays on the model of Terence, in which she dramatised incidents and experiences calculated to have an elevating influence on her fellow-nuns. How she came to write plays at all and what determined her in the choice of her subject, she has described in passages which are worth quoting in full. They show that she was not wanting either in spirit or in determination, and that her conviction that the classical form of drama was without equal strengthened her in her resolve to make use of that form as the vehicle for stories of an altogether different tenor. The interest of the plays of Terence invariably turns on the seduction of women and exposure of the frailty of the sex ; the nun of Gandersheim determined to set forth woman's stedfast adherence to a vow once taken and her firm resistance to temptation. Whatever may be thought of these compositions, the merit of originality can hardly be denied to them. They were intended for perusal only, but there is nothing in the dialogue or mechanism that makes a dramatic representation of them impossible. 'There are many Christians,' says the nun", 'from whom we cannot claim to be excepted, who because of the charm of finished diction prefer heathen literature with its hollowness to our religious books ; there are others who hold by the scripture and despise what is heathen, and yet eagerly peruse the poetic creations of Terence ; while delighting in his flow of language, they are all polluted by the godless contents of his works. Therefore I " the well known mouthpiece of Gandersheim" have not hesitated in taking this poet's style as a model, and while others honour him by perusing his dramas, I have attempted, in the very way in which he treats of unchaste love among evil women, to celebrate according to my ability the praiseworthy chasteness of godlike maidens. ' In doing so, I have often hesitated with a blush on my cheeks through modesty, because the nature of the work obliged me to 1 opera, p. 95. 2 Opera, p. 137. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 169 concentrate my attention on and apply my mind to the wicked passion of illicit love and to the tempting talk of the amorous, against which we at other times close our ears. But if I had hesitated on account of my blushes I could not have carried out my purpose, or have set forth the praise of innocence to the ful- ness of my ability. For in proportion as the blandishments of lovers are enticing, so much greater is the glory of our helper in heaven, so much more glorious the triumph of those who prevail, especially where woman's weakness triumphs and man's shameless strength is made to succumb. Certainly some will allege that my language is much inferior, much poorer, and very unlike that of him whom I try to imitate. It is so, I agree with them. And yet I refuse to be reproached on this account as though I had meant to class myself with those who in their knowledge are so far above my insufficiency. I am not even so boastful as to class myself with the least of their pupils ; all I am bent on is, however insufficiently, to turn the power of mind given to me to the use of Him who gave it. I am not so far enamoured of myself that I should cease from fear of criticism to proclaim the power of Christ which works in the saints in whatever way He grants it. If anyone is pleased with my work I shall rejoice, but if on account of my unpolished language it pleases no one, what I have done yet remains a satisfaction to myself, for while in other writings I have worked, however insufficiently, only in heroic strophe (heroico strophio), here I have combined this with dramatic form, while avoiding the dangerous allurements of the heathen.' Those passages in which Hrotsvith speaks of her modest hesitation are especially worthy of notice and will not fail to appeal to those women now-a-days, who, hoping to gain a clearer insight into the difficulties with which their sex has to contend, feel it needful to face facts from which their sensibilities naturally shrink. They will appreciate the conflicting feelings with which the nun of Gandersheim, well-nigh a thousand years ago, entered upon her task, and admire the spirit in which she met her diffi- culties and the courage with which she carried out her purpose, in spite of her consciousness of shortcomings and derogatory criticism. As she points out, the keynote of her dramas one and all is to insist on the beauties of a steadfast adherence to chastity as opposed to the frenzy and the vagaries of passion. In doing so she is giving expression to the ideas of contemporary Christian teaching, which saw in passion, not the inborn force that can be I "JO The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v applied to good or evil purpose, not the storage of strength which works for social advantage or disadvantage, but simply a tendency in human nature which manifests itself in lack of self-restraint, and the disturbing element which interferes with the attainment of calmness and candour. As Hudson, one of the few English writers who has treated of this nun and her writings^ remarks : ' It is on the literary side alone that Hrotsvitha belongs to the classic school. The spirit and essence of her work belong entirely to the middle ages ; for beneath the rigid garb of a dead language beats the warm heart of a new era. Everything in her plays that is not formal but essential, everything that is original and individual, belongs wholly to the christianised Germany of the lOth century. Everywhere we can trace the influence of the atmosphere in which she lived ; every thought and every motive is coloured by the spiritual con- ditions of her time. The keynote of all her works is the conflict of Christianity with paganism ; and it is worthy of remark that in Hrotsvitha's hands Christianity is throughout represented by the purity and gentleness of woman while paganism is embodied in what she describes as ' the vigour of men (virile robur).' For the nun does not disparage marriage, far from it ; nor does she inculcate a doctrine of general celibacy. It is not a question with her of giving up a lesser joy for a greater, but simply of the way to remain true to the higher standard, which in ac- cordance with the teaching of her age she identified with a life of chastity. Her position may appear untenable ; confusion of thought is a reproach which a later age readily casts on an earlier. But underneath what may seem unreasonable there is the aspira- tion for self-control. It is this aspiration which gives a wide and an abiding interest to her plays. For she is not hampered by narrowness of thought or by pettiness of spirit. Her horizon is limited, we grant ; but she fills it entirely and she fills it well. Passing from these generalities to the plays themselves, we find ourselves in a variety of surroundings and in contact with a wide range of personalities. The transition period from heathendom to Christianity supplies in most cases the mental and moral con- flicts round which centres the interest of these plays. The plays are six in number, and the one that stands first is divided into two separate parts. Their character varies consider- ably. There is the heroic, the romantic, the comic and the un- 1 Hudson, W. H., ' Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim,' English Historical Review, 1888. SECT, iiij The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 171 relieved tragic element, and the two plays that stand last contain long disquisitions on scholastic learning. A short analysis of their contents will give the reader an idea of the manner in which Hrotsvith makes her conceptions and her purpose evident. ' Gallicanus,' the play that stands first', is in some ways the most striking of all. A complex theme is ably dealt with and the incidents follow each other rapidly ; the scene lies alternately in Rome and on the battle-field. The Emperor Constantine is bent on opposing the incursions of the Scythians, and his general Gallicanus claims the hand of the emperor's daughter Constantia as a reward for undertaking so dangerous an expedition. Con- stantia is a convert to Christianity, Gallicanus is a heathen. In an interview with her father the girl declares she will sooner die than be united to a heathen, but with a mixture of shrewdness and confidence in her faith she agrees to marry him on his return on condition that the Christians John and Paul shall accompany him on his expedition, and that his daughters shall meanwhile be given into her keeping. The manner in which she receives the girls is at once proud and dignified. ' Welcome my sisters, Attica and Artemia,' she exclaims ; ' stand, do not kneel, rather greet me with a kiss of aiifection.' There is no development of character in the course of the play, for Hrotsvith is chiefly bent on depicting states of mind under given conditions. The characters in them- selves are forcibly drawn : witness the emperor's affection for his daughter, the general's strength and determination, Constantia's dignified bearing and the gentleness of the Christian teachers. The sequel of events bears out Constantia's anticipations. The daughters of Gallicanus are easily swayed in favour of Christianity and their father is converted. For Gallicanus is hard pressed by the Scythians on the battle-field and despairs of success, when the Christian teachers urge him to call upon their God for help. He does so, overcomes the Scythians and takes their leader Bradan prisoner. In recognition of his victory he is rewarded by a triumphal entry into Rome. But he is now a convert to Christianity ; he describes to the emperor how Christ Himself and the heavenly host fought on his side, and he approaches Constantia and his daughters and thus addresses them : ' I greet you, holy maidens ; abide in the fear of God and keep inviolate your virgin crown that the eternal King may receive you in His embrace.' Constantia replies : ' We serve Him the more readily if thou dost not oppose us.' Gallicanus : ' 'Gallicanus,' Opera, p. 143. 172 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v ' I would not discourage, prevent or thwart your wishes, I respect them, so far that I would not now constrain thee, beloved Con- stantia, whom I have secured at the risk of my life.' But he admits that his resolve costs him much, and he decides to seek solace in solitude for his grief at having lost so great a prize. The sequel to this play is short, and describes the martyrdom of the Christian teachers, John and Paul, who had accompanied Gallicanus on his expedition. Gallicanus is no more, the Emperor Constantius is dead, and Julian the Apostate reigns in his stead and cruelly persecutes the Christians. No woman appears in this part of the play. We first witness the martyrdom of the Christians who are put to death by Terentian, one of the emperor's generals. Terentian's son is then seized by a terrible illness, and his unhappy father goes to the grave of the martyrs, where he becomes a convert to Christianity and prays for their intercession with God in behalf of his son. His prayer finds fulfilment and the boy is restored to health. Hrotsvith took this story from the Acts and the Passion of the saints John and Paul, but, as Ebert has shown, the development is entirely her own^ Though work- ing on the model of Terence the nun is quite indifferent to unities of time and place, and sacrifices everything to the exigencies of the plot, so that the transition from scene to scene is often sudden and abrupt. The next play is ' Dulcetius, or the sufferings of the maidens Agape, Chionia and IreneV It dramatises a story which was familiar in western Europe from an early date ; Ealdhelm mentions it in his poem on Virginity. Its popularity is no doubt due to the juxtaposition of entirely divergent elements, the pathos of martyrdom being in close company with scenes of broad humour. During the persecutions under Diocletian three youthful sisters are brought before the emperor, who thus addresses the eldest : ' Diocletian. The noble stock from which you spring and your extreme beauty demand that you should be connected with our court through marriage with high officials. This we incline to vouchsafe you if you agree to disown Christ and offer sacrifice to our most ancient gods. Agape. O spare yourself this trouble, do not think of giving us in marriage. Nought can compel us to disown the name of Christ, or to debase our purity of heart. ' Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 316. " 'Dulcetius,' Opera, p. 174. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 173 Diocletian. What is the object of this madness ? Agape. What sign of madness do you see in us ? Diocletian. A great and obvious one. Agape. In what? Diocletian. In this, that casting from yourselves the observance of the ancient faith, you follow this new foolish Christian teaching. Agape. Blasphemer, fear the power of God Almighty, threaten- ing danger.... Diocletian. To whom ? Agape. To you and to the realm you govern. Diocletian. The girl is crazy, let her be removed.' He then interviews the other two, but with similar results ; threats are of no avail and the girls are handed over to the general Dulcetius to be summarily dealt with. Dulcetius, however, is so powerfully impressed by their beauty, that he orders them to be placed in a chamber beyond the kitchen, hoping to take advantage of their helplessness and induce them to gratify his passion. He repairs at night to the chamber in spite of the warning of his soldiers, when a spell falls on him, he misses the room, and his reason so utterly forsakes him that he proceeds to fondle and caress the pots and pans which he seizes upon in his excitement. The girls are watching him from the next room through a chink in the wall and make merry over his madness. ' Agape. What is he about .■' Hirena. Why, the fool is out of his mind, he fancies he has got hold of us. Agape. What is he doing.' Hirena. Now he presses the kettle to his heart, now he clasps the pots and pans and presses his lips to them. Chionia. How ludicrous ! Hirena. His face, his hands, his clothes are all black and sooty ; the soot which clings to him makes him look like an Ethiopian. Agape. Very fitting that he should be so in body, since the devil has possession of his mind. Hirena. Look, he is going. Let us wait to see what the soldiers who are waiting outside will do when they see him.' The soldiers fail to recognise their leader, they take to their heels. Dulcetius repairs to the palace, where the gatekeeper scoffs at his appearance and refuses him admittance, in spite of his insisting on his identity and speaking of himself as dressed in 174 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v splendid attire. At last his wife who has heard of his madness comes forth to meet him. The spell is broken and he discovers that he has been the laughing-stock of the maidens. He then orders them to be exposed naked in the market-place as a punish- ment. But a divine power causes their garments to cling to them, while Dulcetius falls so fast asleep that it is impossible to rouse him. The Emperor Diocletian therefore entrusts the accomplish- ment of the maidens' martyrdom to Sisinnius. Two of the girls are cast into the flames, but their souls pass away to heaven while their bodies remain without apparent hurt. The third sister is threatened with shameful treatment, but before it is carried out she is miraculously borne away to a hill-top. At first the soldiers attempt in vain to approach her, but at last they succeed in killing her with arrows. The youthful, girlish traits which appear in both the mirth and the sorrow of the three sisters are well developed, and form a vivid contrast to the unrelieved brutality of Dulcetius and Sisinnius. Quite a different range of ideas is brought before the reader in the next play, ' Calimachus,' which is Hrotsvith's nearest ap- proach to a love tragedy'. She took its subject from an apocryphal account of the apostles, but as Ebert remarks she handles her material with considerable freedom^ The opening scene shows her power of immediately presenting a situation. The scene is laid in the house of Andronicus, a wealthy Ephesian. The youth Calimachus and his friends enter. ' Calimachus. A few words with you, friends ! Friends. We will converse with thee as long as thou pleasest. Calimachus. If you do not mind, we will converse apart. Friends. Thou biddest, we comply. Calimachus. Let us repair to a secluded spot, that we may not be interrupted in our converse.' They go and Calimachus explains how a heavy misfortune has befallen him ; they urge him to unbosom himself He confesses he is in love with a most beauteous, most adorable being, it is a woman, the wife of Andronicus ; what shall he do to secure her favour.'' His friends declare his passion hopeless, Drusiana is a Christian and has moreover taken the vow of chastity ; ' I ask for help, you give me despair,' Calimachus exclaims. In the next scene he confronts Drusiana and declares his passion. Drusiana ' 'Calimachus,' Opera, p. 191. '•^ Ehert, A l/gemeine Geschichte da- Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 321. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 175 repudiates his advances but she is intimidated by his threats, and gives ■ utterance to her fears in a monologue in which she declares that she would rather die than yield to him. Sudden death cuts her down ; and the apostle John is called in by her husband and undertakes to give her Christian burial. But the youth Calimachus is not cured of his passion. At the instigation of his companion, Fortunatus, he goes with him by night to the vault where she lies and would embrace the corpse, but a serpent of terrible aspect surprises the two young men and kills them. In the following scene the apostle is leading Andronicus to the vault : when they enter they come upon the serpent lying by the side of the youths. The apostle then explains to Andronicus what has happened and gives proof of his great power by awakening Calimachus from the dead. The young man confesses his evil intentions and explains how he came there at the suggestion of his companion. The apostle then recalls Drusiana to life, and she begs that Fortunatus also may be restored, but the apostle refuses on account of the man's wickedness. Drusiana herself then intercedes in his behalf and prays to God for his restoration. Her wish is fulfilled, Fortunatus comes back to life, but he declares he would sooner have died than have seen Drusiana happy and his friend a convert to Christianity. The wounds which the, serpent had inflicted at once begin to swell, and he expires before their eyes, and the apostle explains that his jealousy has sent him to hell. A great deal of action is crowded into this play and we are abruptly carried on from scene to scene. It closes with some pious reflections on the part of the apostle. There is considerable diversity of opinion among modern writers on the merits of the dramas we have discussed hitherto, but all concur in praise of the play called 'Abraham,' which dramatises the oft repeated story of a woman who yields to temptation and is reclaimed from her wicked ways. The interest, in this play never flags and the scenes are worked out with a breadth of con- ception which gives the impression of assured strength'. Hrotsvith took the subject of this drama from an account, written in the 6th century by Ephrem, of the life of his friend, the hermit Abraham. The story was written originally in Greek and is preserved in that language ; the translation into Latin used by Hrotsvith is lost I The plot of the drama is as follows : 1 'Abraham,' Opera, p. ■213. ^ Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 323. 1 76 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v The devout hermit Abraham consults his friend the hermit Ephrem as to what he shall do with his niece, Maria, who is left to his care, and together they decide that she shall come and live in a cell near her uncle. Abraham throughout speaks directly and to the point, while Ephrem's talk is full of mystic allusions. He talks to the maiden of the beauties of the religious vocation and assures her that her name, Maria, signifies ' star of the sea,' and that she is therefore intended for great things. The maiden is surprised at his words and naively remarks that it would be a great thing ' to equal the lustre of the stars.' She comes to dwell in a cell close to that of the two hermits, but after a time she is enticed away and disappears from the sight of her uncle, who is deeply grieved at her loss. For several years he hears nothing from her; at last a friend comes and tells him that the girl has been seen in the city, and is there living in a house of ill fame. The old man at once decides to go forth to seek his niece and to reclaim her. He dons shoes, a traveller's dress and a large hat, and takes with him money, since that only can give him access to her. The scene then shifts from the sylvan solitude to the house where Maria is living. Abraham arrives and is received by the tavern-keeper, whom he asks for a night's lodging, offering him his 'solidus' and requesting to see the woman the fame of whose beauty has spread. This scene and the one that follows bring the situation before the reader admirably. Abraham is served with a meal and Maria enters, at sight of whose levity he scarce represses his tears. She entertains him, and he feigns a gaiety corresponding to hers, the tavern-keeper being present. Of a sudden she is overcome by the thought of the past, but he keeps up his assumed character. At last supper is over, and they retire into the adjoining chamber. The moment for disclosure has come, and Hrotsvith is seen at her best. 'Abra/iam. Close fast the door, that no one enter and dis- turb us. Maria. Be not concerned, I have done so; no one will find it easy to get in. Abraham. The time has come; away, deceitful clothes, that I may be recognised. Oh, my adopted daughter, joy of my soul, Maria, dost thou not know the aged man who was to thee a parent, who vowed thee to the heavenly king ? Maria. Oh woe is me ! it is my father, my teacher Abraham, who speaks. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 177 Abraham. What then has come to thee, my daughter ? Maria. Ah, wretchedness ! Abraham. Who was it that deceived thee ? Who allured thee ? Maria. He who was the undoing of our first parents. Abraham. Where is the noble life thou once wast wont to lead ? Maria. Lost, lost for ever ! Abraham. Where is thy virgin modesty, thy wondrous self- restraint ? Maria. Gone from me altogether. Abraham. If thou dost not return to thine own self, what reward in the life to come canst thou expect for fasting, prayer, and watch- ing, since fallen as from heaven's heights thou now art sunk in hellish depths } Maria. Woe, woe is me ! Abraham. Why didst thou thus deceive me? why turn from me ? Why didst thou not make known to me thy wretchedness, that I and my beloved Ephrem might work for thy repentance ? Maria. Once fallen into sinfulness, I dared not face you who are holy. Abraham. But is there any one entirely faultless, except the Virgin's Son .■' Maria. Nay, no one. Abraham. 'Tis human to be frail, but to persist in wickedness is of the devil. Not he who falls of a sudden is condemned, but he who, having fallen, does not strive forthwith to rise again. Maria. Woe unto me, wretch that I am ! (yShe sinks to the ground.) A braham. Why dost thou sink } why lie upon the ground .? Arise and ponder what I am saying. MatHa. Fear casts me down, I cannot bear the weight of thy paternal admonition. Abraham. Dwell only on my love and thrust aside thy fear. Maria. I cannot. Abraham. Think, was it not for thee I left my little hermitage, and so far set aside the rule by which I lived that 1, an aged hermit, became a visitor to wantonness, and keeping silence as to my intent spoke words in jest that I might not be recognised 1 Why then with head bent low gaze on the ground .? Why hesitate to give answer to my questions 1 Maria. The accusations of my conscience bear me down, I dare not raise my eyes to heaven, nor enter into converse with thee. E. 12 1 78 The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v AbraJiani. Be not afraid, my daughter, do not despair; rise from this depth of misery and fix thy mind on trust in God. Maria. My sins in their excess have brought me to depths of desperation. Abraham. I know thy sins are great, but greater than aught else is Heaven's power of grace. Put by thy grief and do not hesitate to spend the time vouchsafed to thee in living in re- pentance ; divine grace overflows, and overflowing washes out the horrors of wrong-doing. Maria. If I could entertain the hope of grace I should not be found wanting in repentance. Abraham. Think of the weariness that I have suffered for thee ; leave this unprofitable despair, nought in this world is so misleading. He who despairs of God's willingness to have com- passion, 'tis he who sins hopelessly ; for as a spark struck from a stone can never set aflame the ocean, so the bitterness of sin must ever fail to rouse sweet and divine compassion. Maria. I know the power of grace divine, and yet the thought of how I have failed fills me with dread ; I never can sufficiently atone. Abraham. Thy feeble trust in Him is a reproach to me ! But come, return with me to where we lived, and there resume the life which thou didst leave. Maria. I would not disobey thee ; if it be thy bidding, readily I yield. Abraham. Now I see my daughter such as I would have her ; I hope still to hold thee dearest among all. Maria. I own a little wealth in gold and clothing ; I abide by thy decision what shall be done with it. Abraham. What came to thee in evil, with evil cast it from thee. Maria. I think it might be given to the poor ; or offered at the holy altars. Abraham. I doubt if wealth acquired in wickedness is accept- able to God. Maria. Besides this there is nothing of which the thought need trouble us. Abraham. The dawn is breaking, the daylight shining, let us now depart. Maria. Lead thou the way, dear father, a good shepherd to the sheep that went astray. As thou leadest, so I follow, guided by thy footsteps ! SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 1 79 Abrakatn. Nay, I shall walk, my horse shall bear thee, for this stony road might cut thy tender feet. Maria. Oh, that I ever left thee ! Can I ever thank thee enough that, not by intimidation and fear, but by gentle per- suasion alone, unworthy though I am, thou hast led me to repentance } Abraham. Nought do I ask of thee but this, be now devoted to God for the remainder of thy life. Maria. Readily I promise, earnestly will I persevere, and though the power fail me, my will shall never fail. AbraJiain. It is agreed then — as ardently as before to vanity, be thou now devoted to the will divine. Maria. Thy merits be my surety that the divine will shall be accomplished. Abraham. Now let us hasten our departure. Maria. Yea, hasten ; for I loathe to tarry here.' They return to the hermitage together, and Maria resumes her former mode of life in hope of redeeming the past. The drama closes with a scene between Abraham and Ephrem, who discourse on the beneficent change which familiar surroundings are already work- ing in Maria ; the angels sing rejoicing at the conversion of the sinner, says Abraham ; and Ephrem adds that the repentance of the iniquitous causes greater joy in heaven than the perseverance of the just. This play, currently known as 'Abraham,' but which would be more fitly named ' Maria,' marks the climax of Hrotsvith's power. In form it preserves the simple directness of the classic model, in conception it embodies the moral ideals of Christian teaching. The last two plays of Hrotsvith are chiefly of historical interest for the learned disquisitions they contain ; their dramatic value is comparatively small, and many of the scenes are in a way re- petitions of scenes in other plays. In ' Paphnutius' we again have the story of a penitent woman, the hetaira Thais, who lived in the 6th century, but whose conversion has little of the interest which attaches to that of Maria. In 'Sapientia' we have a succession of scenes of martyrdom which recall those of the play ' Dulcetius.' The Lady Sapientia and her three daughters Fides, Spes and Caritas are put to death by order of the Emperor Hadrian, but the horrors of the situation are relieved by no minor incidents. The learned disquisitions in these plays are however extremely curious because they show on the one hand what store Hrotsvith i8o The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v set on learning, and on the other they give an idea of the method of study pursued at Gandersheim in those days. The play 'Paphnutius" opens with passages which Hrotsvith probably adapted from two works of Boethius : ' On the teaching of Aristotle,' and ' On the study of music^' The philosopher Paph- nutius dilates to his assembled pupils on man as the microcosm (minor mundus) who reflects in himself the world, which is the macro- cosm (major mundus), and then explains that there is antagonism in the world, which is striving for concord in accordance with the rules of harmony. He explains how a similar antagonism exists in man and is represented by body and soul, which can also be brought into agreement. These thoughts, he says, have been suggested to him by the life of the hetaira Thais whose body and soul are ever at variance. Paphnutius further enlarges on the higher course of study known as the ' quadrivium ' which includes arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy', and discourses about music and the influence of harmony. His pupils, however, object to being taken along such devious paths and having such knotty questions propounded to them, and at last they quote Scripture in defence of their ignorance, saying that God has chosen the foolish that he may confound the wise. This rouses indignation in Paphnutius, who declares that 'he who advocates falsehood, be he a fool or a learned man, deserves to be confounded by God.' And he further utters words which are not devoid of a deeper significance: ' It is not the knowledge that man can grasp which is offensive to God, but the conceit of the learned.' The learned disquisitions of the play ' Sapientia ' are presented in a form still less attractive"*. The Lady Sapientia, who speaks of herself as one of noble stock, and as the descendant of Greek princes, dilates on the relative value of numbers' to the emperor Hadrian till he tires of it and commands her to be gone. It is sometimes alleged that these two later plays were the productions of earlier years, and that the nun added them to ^ 'Paphnutius,' Opera, p. 237. 2 Piltz, O., Dramen der Roswitha (no date), p. 178, refers to Boethius In Categorias Aristotelis, hber 1, 'de substantia'; and to De mtisicn liber 1. 2 The ancient course of university study included the seven ' liberal arts ' and was divided into the Trivitun including grammar, dialectic and rhetoric, and the Quadrivium including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. The Triviiim vs'as sometimes designated as logic and the Quadj-ivium as physic. " ' Sapientia,' Opera, p. ^'j. '^ Piltz, Die Dramen der Roswitha, p. 181, refers to Boethius, De Arithmetica, liber i, cc. 9-22. SECT. Ill] The Nii,n Hrotsvith and her Writings. i8i her other more finished productions in order to equal the number of the plays of Terence. However this may be, they were pro- bably the two plays which she submitted to the criticism of three outside but now unknown patrons with a letter in which she states that she has taken threads and pieces from the garment of philo- sophy to add to the worth of her work. We render this letter in full, since it throws an interesting light on what Hrotsvith thought of her own powers. If it brought advice which led to the com- position of the other plays, we must commend the judgment of those who counselled her. But it is just possible that the ap- proval which was accorded to the legends was denied to the plays, — the absence of the name of the abbess Gerberg in connection with them is remarkable, — and that, after writing a number of dramas which found no appreciation, Hrotsvith was moved to compose ' Paphnutius ' and ' Sapientia,' introducing learned dis- quisitions in hope of giving them a more solid value. The letter runs as follows : ' To you, learned men\ who abide in wisdom and are unenvious of another's progress and well-disposed towards him as befits the truly learned, I, Hrotsvith, though I am unlearned and lacking in thoroughness, address myself; I wish you health and unbroken prosperity. I cannot sufficiently admire your great condescension, and sufficiently thank you for the help of your liberal generosity and for your kindness towards me ; you, who have been trained in the study of philosophy and have perfected yourselves in the pursuit of knowledge, have held my writings, those of a lowly woman, worthy of admiration, and have praised with brotherly affection the power which works in me. You have declared that there is in me a certain knowledge of that learning (scientiam artium) the essence of which is beyond my woman's understanding. Till now I have dared to show my rude productions only to a few of my nearest friends, and my work along these lines would probably have ceased, for there were few who understood my intentions, and fewer who could point out to me in what I had failed, and who urged me to persevere. But now that threefold approval comes to me from you I take confidence and feel strengthened by your encouragement to devote my energies to work where God permits, and to submit this work to the criticism of those who are learned. And yet I am divided between joy and fear, which 1 ' who favoured and improved these works before they were sent forth,' additional words of some manuscripts; Opera, edit. Barak, p. 140 footnote. i82 The Nim Hrotsvith and her Writings, [chap, v contend within me ; for in my heart I rejoice, praising God through whose grace alone I have become what I am ; and yet I am fearful of appearing greater than I am, being perplexed by two things both of which are wrong, namely the neglect of talents vouchsafed to one by God, and the pretence to talents one has not. I cannot deny that through the help of the Creator I have acquired some amount of knowledge, for I am a creature capable of learning, but I acknowledge there is ignorance in me. For I am divinely gifted with abilities, but were it not for the untiring zeal of my teachers, they would have remained undeveloped and unused through my want of energy (pigritia). Lest this gift of God in me should be wasted through neglect I have sought to pluck threads and pieces from the garments of philosophy, and have introduced them into my afore-mentioned work (praefato opusculo), so that my own moderate knowledge may be enhanced by the addition of their greater worth, and God, who grants power, may be praised by so much the more as a woman's power is held to be in- ferior. This is the object of my writing, this alone the purpose of my exertions, for I do not conceal from myself that I am ignorant, and had it depended on myself alone, I should know nothing. But as you urge me on by the possibility of your approval and by your request proffered to me in writing, I now submit to your criticism this little work which I wrote with the intention of send- ing it to you but which I have hitherto kept concealed on account of its demerits, hoping you will study it with the intention of im- proving it as though it were your own work. And when you have altered it to a correct standard, send it back to me so that I may profit by your teaching in those points in which I may have largely failed.' The productions of Hrotsvith in the domain of contemporary history consist of a poem on the emperor Otto the Great, and a history of the monastery of Gandersheim. The history of Otto is thought to have been over sixteen hundred lines in length', but only a fragment of about nine hundred Hues is preserved. The nun received the materials for this history chiefly if not exclu- sively by word of mouth from the abbess Gerberg, whose family feeling it seems to reflect in various particulars, for among other distinctive traits, the quarrel between the father of Gerberg and his brother the emperor is passed over; it is rather a history of the members of the ruling family than a description of contemporary ' Ebert, AUgenieine Geschichte tier Litteratur dcs Abendlandes , 1887, vol. 3, p. 305. SECT. Ill] The Nun Hrotsvith and her Writings. 183 events'. This detracts from its historic, though hardly from its poetical value, which is considerable. Some of the episodes, such as that of the imprisonment and flight of Queen Adelheid in Italy, are admirably told. Adelheid was the widow of the king of the Langobards, and was afterwards married to Otto I. Her flight and imprisonment in Italy previous to her second marriage are unrecorded except by Hrotsvith. The last work of the nun was probably that on the foundation and early history of Gandersheim, in which, as in the history of Otto, Hrotsvith enlarges more on persons than on events, and gives a detailed account of Duke Liudolf, his wife and daughters. Many details referred to above, in our chapter on the early history of the settlement, are taken from this account, which is in many ways the most finished and beautiful of Hrotsvith's compositions. The interest in Hrotsvith's writings lay dormant for several centuries. It was revived at the close of the 15th century when the learned abbot Tritheim wrote of her, and the poet Celtes caused her dramas to appear in print. During the last thirty years many writers have treated of her, an appreciative and attractive account of her was written by Kopke^ and different views have been ex- pressed as to her merits as a poet, a dramatist and a historian^ Whatever place be ultimately assigned to Hrotsvith, the reader of her writings cannot fail to be attracted by her modesty, her perse- verance, her loftiness of thought, and the directness of purpose which underlies all her work. She stands nearly alone in Saxony, and by her very solitariness increases our respect for her powers, and for the system of education which made the development of these powers possible. ' Ebert, AUgemeine Gesckichie der Litteratur des Abendlandes, 1887, vol. 3, p. 311. '^ Kopke, Die dlleste deutsche Duhterin, 1869. ' Comp. AUgemeine Deutsche Biographic, article ' Roswitha.' CHAPTER VI. THE MONASTIC REVIVAL OF THE MIDDLE AGES. ' Pulchritudo certe mentis et nutrimentum virtutum est cordis raunditia, cui visio Dei spiritualiter promittitur ; ad quam munditiam nuUus nisi per magnam cordis custodiam perducitur.' Anselm to the Abbess of St Mary's. § I. The new Monastic Orders. In this chapter I intend to give a description of the different monastic orders which were founded between the lOth and the 1 2th centuries, and to enter at some length into the reasons for their progress. A mass of heterogeneous information must be passed in rapid review with occasional digressions on outside matters, for it is only possible to understand the rapid progress of monasticism by recalling the relation in which it stood to other social developments. As we cross the borderland which divides the centuries before the year looo from the period that follows, we become aware of great changes which about this time take definite shape throughout all social institutions. In the various strata of society occupations were becoming more clearly differentiated than they had ever been before, while those who were devoted to peaceful pursuits, whether in lay or religious circles, were now combined together for mutual support and encouragement. In connection with religion we find the representatives of the Church and of monasticism becoming more and more conscious of differences that were growing up between them. Monasticism from its very beginning practically lay outside the established order of the Church, but this had not prevented bishop and abbot from working side by side and mutually supporting each other ; nay, it even happened sometimes that one person combined in himself the two offices of abbot and bishop. But as early Christian times passed into the Middle Ages, prelates ceased to agree with headquarters SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 185 at Rome in accepting monasticism as the means of securing a foot- hold for rehgion. The Church was now well established through- out western Europe, and her ministers were by no means pre- pared to side unconditionally with the Pope when he fell out with temporal rulers. The monastic orders on the contrary generally did side with him, and by locally furthering his interests, they became strongholds of his power. The 1 2th century has been called the golden age of monasticism, because it witnessed the increased prosperity of existing mona,gteries and the foundation of a number of new monastic and religious orders. A wave of enthusiasm for the life of the religious settlement, and for the manifold occupations which this life now embraced, passed over western Europe, emanating chiefly from France, the country which took the lead in culture and in civilizing influences. The 1 2th century, as it was the golden age of monasticism, was also the golden age of chivalry; the cloister and the court were the representative centres of civilized life. Under the influence of the system of mutual responsibility called feudalism, the knight by doughty deed and unwavering allegiance to his lord, his lady and his cause, gave a new meaning to service ; while the monk, devoted to less hazardous pursuits, gave a hitherto unknown sancti- fication to toil. The knight, the lady, the court-chaplain and the court-poet cultivated the bearings and the formalities of polite intercourse which formed the background of the age of romance, while in the cloister the monk and the nun gave a new meaning to religious devotion and enthusiasm by turning their activity into channels which first made possible the approximation of class to class. This period knew little of townships as centres of intellectual activity, and their social importance remained far below that of cloister and court. The townsnien, whose possession of town land constituted them burghers, had won for themselves recognition as an independent body by buying immunities and privileges from bishop and king. But the struggle between them and the newer gilds, into which those who were below them in rank and wealth, formed themselves, was only beginning ; the success of these newer gilds in securing a share in the government marks the rise of the township. The diversity of occupation in the different kinds of gilds was anticipated by a similar diversity of occupation in the different monastic orders. The great characteristic of the monastic revival of the Middle Ages lay in the manifold and distinct spheres of 1 86 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi activity which life offered inside the religious community. The studious, the educational, the philanthropic, and the agricultural element, all to some extent made part of the old monastic system. But through the foundation of a number of different orders which from the outset had separate aims, tastes which were widely dis- similar, and temperaments that were markedly diverse, met with encouragement in the religious settlement. The scholar, the artist, the recluse, the farmer, each found a career open to him ; while men and women were prompted to undertake duties within and without the religious settlement which make their activity com- parable to that of the relieving officer, the poor-law guardian and the district nurse of a later age. To gain a clear idea of the purposes which the new monastic and religious orders set before them, it will be best to treat of them severally in the chronological order of their foundation. Two lines of development are to be observed. There are the strictly monastic orders which sprang from the order of St Benedict, which they developed and amplified. These included the orders of Clugni, Citeaux, Chartreuse, and Grandmont, of which the last two took no account of women. On the other side stand the religious orders which are the outcome of distinctions drawn between different kinds of canons, when the settlements of regular canons take a distinctly monastic colouring. Among these the Premonstrant and the Austin orders are the most important, the members of which, from the clothes they wore, were in England called respectively White and Black Canons. The importance of canonical orders, so far as women are con- cerned, lies in the fact that the I2th century witnessed the founda- tion of a number of religious settlements for both sexes, in which the men lived as canons and the women as nuns. The Pre- monstrant began as a combined order ; the orders of Fontevraud and of St Gilbert of Sempringham were of a similar kind. Bearing these distinctions in mind, we begin our enquiry with an analysis of the Cluniac and the Cistercian orders, which have their root directly in the monasticism of St Benedict. As remarks in the previous chapters of this work will have shown, monasteries had sprung up during early Christian times independently of each other following a diversity of rules promulgated by various teachers, which had gradually been given up in favour of the rule of St Benedict. At the beginning of the 9th century this rule was largely prevalent in monasteries SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 187 abroad, owing to councils held under the auspices of Karl the Great (f 814)*, and in England it gained ground through the efforts of Aethelwold, abbot of Abingdon and bishop of Win- chester (-f- 984). Some obscurity hangs about the subject, for a certain number of houses abroad, and among them some of the oldest and wealthiest, clung to the prerogative of independence and refused to accept St Benedict's rule, while in England, where this rule was certainly accepted in the i ith century, great diversity of routine either remained or else developed inside the different houses. This is evident from the account which Matthew Paris ("f" 1259), a monk of St Albans, gives of the visitation of houses in the year 1232^ The order of Clugni' owes its origin to the desire of obviating a difficulty. As time wore on the rule of St Benedict had betrayed a weakness in failing to maintain any connection between separate monasteries. As there was no reciprocal responsibility between Benedictine settlements, a lay nobleman had frequently been appointed abbot through princely interference, and had installed himself in the monastery with his family, his servants and his retinue, to the detriment of the monastic property, and to the relaxation of discipline among the monks. The evil was most conspicuous abroad in the eastern districts of France and the western districts of Germany, and in 910 the order of Clugni was founded in Burgundy as a means of remedying it. At first the order of Clugni was the object of great enthusiasm, and it was raised to eminence by a series of remarkable and energetic men. Powerful patrons were secured to it, master-minds found protection in its shelter. The peculiarities of its organisation consisted in the two rules that the abbot of the Cluniac house should be chosen during the lifetime of his predecessor, and that the abbots of different houses should meet periodically at a synod at which the abbot of Clugni should preside. The Pope's sanction having been obtained, the order remained throughout in close contact with Rome. In Germany especially this connection was prominent, and became an important political factor in the nth century when the Cluniac houses directly supported the claim of Rome in the struggle between Pope and Emperor. The order of Clugni took slight cognizance of women, and the 1 Labbe, Sacror. Concil. CoUectio, 1763, years 789, 804, 811; Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 17 14, vol. 5, p. 146 ff. 2 Matth. Paris, Historia Major Augliae, sulj anno. ■' Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 1714, vol. 5, pp. 184 ff. ; Ladewig, Poppo von Stablo und die Klosterreform unter den Salient, 1883. i88 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi nunneries of the order were few and comparatively unimportant. A reason for this may be found in the nature of the order's origin, for the settlements of nuns had not been interfered with like the settlements of monks during the 9th and loth centuries by the appointment of lay superiors, and were untouched by the conse- quent evils. If this be so the falling away from discipline, which called for correction in many houses of men, may justly be referred to a change thrust on them from without, not born from within. In England the order of Clugni was not officially introduced till after the Norman Conquest, and then under circumstances which set a peculiar stamp on it. The seed which each order scattered broadcast over the different countries was the same, but the nature of the soil in which it took root, and the climate under which it developed, modified the direction of its growth. During the 9th and loth centuries England had been the scene of great social and political changes. The powerful kings who arose in Wessex and eventually claimed supremacy over all the provinces were unable to assert their authority to the extent of making the eastern provinces sink all provincial differences and jealousies, and join in organised resistance to the Danes. From the 9th century onwards, the entire seaboard of England, from Northumberland to the mouth of the Severn, had been exposed to the depredations of this people. Having once gained a foothold on the eastern coasts they quickly contracted alliances and adapted themselves to English customs, thus making their ultimate success secure. The heathen invaders were naturally indifferent to the teachings of the Christian Church, and to the privileges of monasteries, and the scant annals of the period written before Knut of Den- mark became king of England in 1016, give accounts of the destruction of many settlements. Some were attacked and laid waste, and others were deserted by their inmates. To realise the collapse of Christian institutions about this time, one must read the address which Wulfstan, archbishop of York (1002-1023), wrote to rouse the English to consciousness of the indignities to which their religion was exposed'. But the collapse was only temporary, bishoprics and abbacies stood firm enough to command the atten- tion of the invader, and as the heathenism of the Dane yielded without a blow to the teaching of Christ, the settlements that were in the hands of abbot and monk rose anew. ' Wulfstan, edit. Napier, Arthur, Berlin 1883, p. 156. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 189 However, it was only after the establishment of William of Normandy in England (1066) that the conditions of life became settled, and that the tide turned in favour of monasticism ; that is to say in favour of the monastic life of men, but not of women. Various reasons have been alleged for this difference : that the better position of the wife under Danish rule made women loth to remain in the convent, or that the spread of the system of feudal tenure excluded women from holding property which they could devote to the advantage of their sex. So much is certain, that during the reign of William many Benedictine houses for monks were founded or restored, but we do not hear of one for nuns. In the wake of the Norman baron, the Norman prelate had entered this country, bringing with him an interest in the order of Clugni. It was William of Warren, son-in-law of the Conqueror, and earl of Surrey, who first brought over Cluniac monks, whom he settled at Lewes in Sussex. He did so at the suggestion of Lanfranc, a Norman monk of Italian origin, who had become arch- bishop of Canterbury (107 0-1089). Before the close of William's reign Cluniac monks had met with patrons to build them four monasteries on English soil besides the house at Lewes. The Norman barons continued to make liberal endowments to the order, but its popularity remained comparatively small, partly owing to the distinctly foreign character which it continued to bear' -Thus we find that after the accession of Henry II (i 154), whose reign was marked by a rise in English national feeling, only one Cluniac house was added to those already in existence. From the order of Clugni we pass to that of Citeaux^, the foundation of which comes next in point of time, but which owed its existence to a different cause, and was characterised by widely dissimilar developments. The story of the foundation of the order has been fully told by men who were under the influence of the movement ; the facts only of the foundation need be mentioned here. It originated in France when Robert, abbot of Molemes, roused by the remonstrances of one Stephen Harding, an English monk living in his convent, left his home with a band of followers in 1098, in search of a retreat where they might carry out the rule of St Benedict in a worthier spirit. They found this retreat at Citeaux. From Citeaux and 1 Tanner, T., Notitia monastica, edit. Nasmith, 1787, Introduction, p. ix. ^ Helyot, Histoire des ordres vionastiquts, 1714, vol. 5, pp. 341 ff. ; A. SS. Boll., St Stephanus abbas, April 17. 190 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi its daughter-house Clairvaux, founded in 11 13 by the energetic Bernard, those influences went forth which made the Cistercian order representative of the most strenuous devotion to toil and the most exalted religious aspirations. While the order of Clugni in the loth century secured the outward conditions favourable to a life of routine, devoting this routine chiefly to literary and artistic pursuits, the reform of Citeaux exerted a much wider influence. It at once gained extensive local and national sympathy, by cultivating land and by favouring every kind of outdoor pursuit. The agricultural activity of the Cistercian has called forth much enthusiastic comment. Janauschek, a modern student of the order, describes in eloquent terms how they turned woods into fields, how they constructed water-conduits and water-mills, how they culti- vated gardens, orchards, and vineyards, how successful they were in rearing cattle, in breeding horses, in keeping bees, in regulating fishing, and how they made glass and procured the precious metals'- A comparison of their temper and that of the Cluniacs offers many interesting points ; a comparison which is facilitated by a dialogue written by a Cistercian monk between 1154 and 1174 to exalt the merits of his order compared with those of the order of Clugni^- For while the Cluniac delighted in luxurious surround- ings, the Cistercian affected a simple mode of life which added to the wealth placed at his disposal by his untiring industry. While the Cluniac delighted in costly church decorations, in sumptuous vestments and in richly illuminated books of service, the Cistercian declared such pomp prejudicial to devotion, and sought to elevate the soul not so much by copying and ornamenting old books as by writing new ones ; not so much by decorating a time- honoured edifice as by rearing a new and beautiful building. Perhaps the nature of these occupations yields a reason why the Cistercian order at first found no place for women. At an early date Cardinal de Vitry (Jacobus di Vitriaco, f 1-144), writing about the Cistercian movement, says that ' the weaker sex at the rise of the order could not aspire to conform to such severe rules, nor to rise to such a pitch of excellence^.' In the dialogue referred to above, the Cluniac expresses wonder that women should enter the Cistercian order at all. ^ Janauschek, L., Origines Cisterciensitun^ '877. ^ Dialogus inter Clun. et Cist, in Martene and Durand's Thesaurus nov. Anecdot. Paris, lyry, vol. 5, p. 1568. ' Jacopo di Vitriaco, Historia Occidentalis, 1597, c. 15. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 191 The first Cistercian nunneries were founded at Tart in Langres and at Montreuil-les-Dames near Laon^ Hermann of Laon (c. 11 50) describes 'how the religious of Montreuil sewed and span, and went into the woods where they grubbed up briars and thorns,' — an occupation which goes far to equalise their activity with that of the monks''- In Switzerland and Germany there is said to have been a pronounced difference in the character of Cistercian nunneries, due to the various conditions of their foundation. Some were aristocratic in tone, while others consisted of women of the middle class, who banded together and placed themselves under the bishop of the diocese, following of their own accord the rules accepted by the monks of Citeaux'. In Spain a curious development of the order of Citeaux is recorded, fraught with peculiarities which recall earlier develop- ments. In 1 187 Alfonso VIII, king of Leon and Castille, founded an abbacy for nuns of the order of Citeaux at Las Huelgas near Burgos, the abbess of which was declared head over twelve other nunneries. In the following year the king sent the bishop of Siguenza to the general chapter at Citeaux to obtain leave for the abbesses of his kingdom to hold a general chapter among them- selves. This was granted. At the first chapter at Burgos the bishops of Burgos, Siguenza and Placenza were assembled together with six abbots and seven abbesses, each abbess being entitled to bring with her six servants and five horses. The power of the abbess of Las Huelgas continued to increase. In the year 1210 she had taken upon herself the discharge of sacerdotal functions. In the year 1260 she refused to receive the abbot of Citeaux, whereupon she was excommunicated. After the year 1507 the abbess was no longer appointed for life, but for a term of three years only. Chapters continued to be held under her auspices at Burgos till the Council of Trent in 1545, which forbade women to leave their enclosures ^ The date of the first arrival of monks of Citeaux in England was 1 128, when William Giffard, bishop of Winchester (■^1129), in early days a partisan of Anselm against Henry I, founded 1 Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 1714, vol. 5, pp. 375, 468 ff. ^ Hermannus, De Mirac. St Mariae Latidun. (in Migne, Patrol. Ciirsus complelus, vol. 156), p. 1002. ^ Brunner, S., Ein Ciiterzienserbuch, 1881, p. 612. *• Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 17 14, vol. 5, p. 376. 192 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi Waverley in Surrey for them'. Shortly afterwards Walter Espec, the most powerful baron in northern England, granted them land at Rievaulx in Yorkshire^ About the same time the foundation at Fountains repeated the story of Citeaux. A small band of monks, burning with the desire to simplify conventual life, left York and retired into the wooded solitude of Fountains, whence they sent to Bernard at Clairvaux asking for his advice^ These events fall within the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), the peacefulness of which greatly furthered the development of monastic life. The pursuits to which the Cistercians were devoted in England were similar to those they carried on abroad. Here also their agricultural successes were great, for they ditched, ridged and drained, wet land, they marled stiff soils and clayed poor ones. The land granted to them, especially in the northern counties, was none of the best, but they succeeded in turning wildernesses into fruitful land, and by so doing won great admiration. Similarly the churches built in this country under the auspices of these monks bear witness to great purity of taste and ardent imagination. The churches built by them were all dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who was the patron saint of the order. All these early settlements of the Cistercian order were for monks, not for nuns, for Cistercian nunneries in England were founded comparatively late and remained poor and unimportant. If we look upon the Cistercians as farmers, builders and writers, this fact is partly explained. But there are other reasons which suggest why the number of Cistercian nunneries was at first small, and why the Cistercian synod shrank from accepting control over them. Convents of women had hitherto been recruited by the daughters of the landed gentry, and their tone was aristocratic ; but a desire for the religious life had now penetrated into the lower strata of society. Orders of combined canons and nuns were founded which paid special attention to women of the lower classes, but they en- countered certain difficulties in dealing with them. It is just possible on the one hand that the combined orders forestalled the Cistercians in the inducements they held out; on the other, that the experience of the combined orders made the Cistercians cautious about admitting women. 1 Birch, W. de Gray, On the Date of Foundation ascribed to the Cistercian Abbeys of Great Britain^ 1870. 2 Dugdale, Monaslicon, ' Rivaulx,' vol. 5, p. 274. 3 Ihid. ' Foxmtains,' vol. 5, p. 291, nrs I — xi. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 193 Consideration of these facts brings us back to a whole group of phenomena to which reference was made in a previous chapter, viz. the disorderly tendencies which had become apparent in connection with loose women, the greater opprobrium cast on these women as time went on, and the increasing difficulties they had to contend with. The founders of the orders of combined canons and nuns tried to save women from drifting into and swelling a class, the existence of which was felt to be injurious to social life, by preaching against a dissolute life and by receiving all persons into their settlements regardless of their antecedents. The earliest and in many ways the most interesting of these combined orders is that founded by Robert (f 1 117) of Arbrissel, a village in Brittany. Robert had begun life in the Church, but he left the clerical calling on account of his great desire to minister to the needs of the lower classes, and as a wandering preacher he gained considerable renown'. Men and women alike were roused by his words to reform their course of life, and they followed him about till he determined to secure for them a permanent abode. This he found in an outlying district at Fontevraud. He organised his followers into bands and apportioned to each its task. The men were divided into clerics, who performed religious service, and lay brothers, who did outdoor work. ' They were to use gentle talk, not to swear, and all to be joined in brotherly affection.' It appears that the women were all professed nuns^; unceasing toil was to be their portion, for they were to hold the industrious and hardworking Martha as their model and take small account of such virtues as belonged to Mary. From every side workers flocked to the settlements, for Robert opened his arms to all. We are told that ' men of all conditions came, women arrived, such as were poor as well as those of gentle birth ; widows and virgins, aged men and youths, women of loose life as well as those who held aloof from men.' At first there was a difficulty in providing for the numerous settlers, but their labours brought profit, and gifts in kind poured in from outsiders, a proof that in the eyes of the world the settlements supplied an obvious need. Branch establishments were founded and prospered, so that in one cloister there were as many as three hundred women, in 1 A.SS. Boll. , St Robertus, Feb. 25, contains two accounts of his life, the one by Baldric (tii3o), the other by Andrea. Comp. also Helyot, //ist. des ordres man., 1714, vol. 6, pp. 83 ff. 2 Differing from settlements of the Gilbertine order, in which there were lay sisters also. E. 13 194 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi another one hundred, and in another sixty. Robert returned to his missionary work, after having appointed Hersende of Champagne as lady superior of the whole vast settlement. Her appointment was decisive for the system of government, — Fontevraud remained under the rule of an abbess. It was for her successor, Petronille, that the life of the founder Robert was written soon after his death, by Baldric, bishop of Dol (f I130). Baldric repeatedly insists on the fact that no one was refused admission to these settlements. ' The poor were received, the feeble were not refused, nor women of evil life, nor sinners, neither lepers nor the helpless.' We are told that Robert attracted nearly three thousand men and women to the settlements; the nuns (ancillae Christi) in particular wept at his death. The fact that Robert had the welfare of women especially at heart is further borne out by a separate account of the last years of his life, written by one Andrea, probably his pupil. Andrea tells how Robert at the approach of death assembled the canons or clerics of the settlement around him and addressed them saying : ' Know that whatever I have wrought in this world I have wrought as a help to nuns.' Fontevraud occupied a high standing, and we shall find that nuns were brought thence into England when the nunnery of Amesbury was reformed in the reign of King John. The order of Fontevraud made great progress in the course of the 12th century, and next to it in point of time stands the foundation of the order of Pr6montr6\ Fontevraud lies in the north-west of France, Premontr^ in the east, and the efforts of Robert have here a counterpart in those of Norbert (f 11 34), who worked on similar lines. Norbert also left the clerical calling to work as a missionary in north-western Germany, especially in Westphalia, and he also succeeded in rousing his listeners to a consciousness of their un- godly mode of life. With a view to reform he sought to give a changed tone to canonical life and founded a religious settlement in the forest of Coucy, which he afterwards called Pr^montr^ from the belief that the Virgin had pointed it out to him. His efforts were likewise crowned with success, for many settlements were forthwith founded on the plan of that of Prdmontr^. Hermann of Laon, the contemporary of Norbert, praises him warmly and remarks that women of all classes flocked to his settlements, and were admitted into the communities by adopting the cloistered life. ' Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiqiies , 1714, vol. 2, pp. 156 ff. 'Leben des heil. Norbert' (written before 1155) transl. by Hertel in Pertz, Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 195 The statement is made, but may be exaggerated, that ten thousand women joined the order during Norbert's Hfetime. Norbert differed greatly in character from Robert; his personal ambition was greater, and his restless temperament eventually drew him into political life. He died in 11 34, and in 1137 the chapter at Pr^montr^ decided that the women should be expelled from all the settlements that had inmates of both sexes, and that no nuns should henceforth be admitted to settlements ruled by men. The reasons which led to this resolution are not recorded. The nuns thus rendered homeless are said to have banded together and dwelt in settlements which were afterwards numbered among Cistercian houses, thus causing a sudden increase of nunneries of this order. However a certain number of Premonstrant houses, occupied solely by nuns and ruled by a lady superior, existed previous to the decree of 11 37. These remained unmolested, and others were added to them in course of time*. It can be gathered from a bull of 1344 that there were at that time over thirteen hundred settlements of Premonstrant or White Canons in exist- ence in Europe, besides the outlying settlements of lay brothers, and about four hundred settlements of nuns". The settlements of White Canons in England amounted to about thirty-five and were founded after the sexes had been separated. There were also two settlements of Premonstrant nuns in England'. A third order of canons and nuns, which in various ways is akin to the orders of Fontevraud and Pr^montrd previously founded abroad, was founded at the beginning of the 12th century in England by Gilbert of Sempringham. But as the material for study of this order is copious, and as it marks a distinct develop- ment in the history of women's convent life in England, it will be discussed in detail later^. The canons who belonged to the combined orders were regular canons, that is they owned no individual property, and further differed from secular canons in holding themselves exempt from performing spiritual functions for the laity. Erasmus at a later date remarked that 'their life is half way between that of monks and that of those who are called secular canons ^' ^ Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiqiies, 1714, vol. i, p. 175; Jacopo cli Vitriaco, Historia occidentalis, 1597, ch. 15. '' Gonzague, Monastire de Storrington, 1884, p. 8. ^ They were Brodholm and Irford. ■* § 3 of this chapter. ^ ' Peregrinatio Relig. ergo.' 13—2 196 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi As to the distinction between the two kinds, it appears that bands of canons who may fitly be termed regular had existed from an early period ; but the subject is shrouded in some obscurity*. In the nth century mention of them becomes frequent, especially in France, and at the beginning of the 12th century their position was defined by a decree published by Pope Innocent II at the Lateran Council (II39)^ By this decree all those canons who did not perform spiritual functions for the laity were designated as regular and were called upon to live accord- ing to the rule of life laid down by St Augustine in his Epistle, number 109. The terms Austin canon and regular canon were henceforth applied indiscriminately, but many independent settle- ments of unrecognised canons of an earlier date have since been included under this term. A few words are here needed in explanation of the term canoness or Austin canoness, which is used in diverse ways, but is generally applied to women of some substance, who entered a religious com- munity and lived under a rule, but who were under no perpetual vow, that is, they observed obedience and celibacy as long as they remained in the house but were at liberty to return to the world. These stipulations do not imply that a woman on entering a convent renounced all rights of property, an assumption on the strength of which the Church historian Rohrbacher interprets as applying to canonesses the entire chapter of directions promulgated at Aachen in 816, in the interest of women living the religious life'. But the terms used in these provisions are the ordinary ones applied to abbess and nun^ Helyot, who has a wider outlook, and who speaking of the canon explains how this term was at first applied to all living in canone, points out that uncertainty hangs about many early settle- ments of women abroad, the members of which were in the true sense professed ° It seems probable that they at first observed the rule of St Benedict, and afterwards departed from it, as has been pointed out above in connection with Saxon convents. The tenor of the provisions made at Aachen shows that the monastic life of women in a number of early settlements abroad rested on a peculiar basis, and points to the fact that the inmates 1 Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 1714, vol. -z, pp. 11 ff. = Tanner, J., Notitia Monastica edit. Nasmith, 1787, Introd. XI. 3 Rohrbacher, Histoire universdle de Viglise catholique, 1868, vol. 6, p. 252. ■• Labbcf, C, Sacror. Cone. Collectio, 1763, year 816, part 2. ^ Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 1714, vol. 1, p. 55. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 197 of settlements founded at an early date were in some measure justified when they declared later that they had always held certain liberties, and insisted on a distinction between themselves and other nuns. The position of the inmates of some of these houses continued different from that of the members of other nunneries till the time of the Reformation. In England, however, this difference does not seem to have existed. The inmates of the few Austin nunneries, of which there were fifteen at the dissolution, though they are frequently spoken of as canonesses in the charters that are secured by them, appear to have lived a life in no way different from that of other nuns, while they were in residence, but it may be they absented themselves more frequently. When once their position was defined the spread of the Austin Canons was rapid ; they combined the learning of the Benedictine with the devotional zeal of the Cistercian, and ingratiated themselves with high and low. Of all the settlements of the Austin Canons abroad that of St Victor in Paris stands first in importance. It became a retreat for 'some of the master minds of the age^ and its influence on English thinkers was especially great ^. Austin Canons came from France into England as early as 1 108. At first their activity here was chiefly philanthropic, they founded hospitals and served in them; but they soon embraced a variety of interests. In the words of Kate Norgate speaking with reference to England': 'The scheme of Austin Canons was a compromise between the old- fashioned system of canons and that of monkish confraternities ; but a compromise leaning strongly towards the monastic side, tending more and more towards it with every fresh development, and distin- guished chiefly by a certain elasticity of organisation which gave scope to an almost unlimited variety in the adjustment of the relations between the active and the contemplative life of the members of the order, thus enabling it to adapt itself to the most dissimilar temperaments and to the most diverse spheres of activity.' Their educational system also met with such success that before the close of the reign of Henry I two members of the fraternity had been promoted to the episcopate and one to the primacy. In the remarks of contemporary writers on religious settlements, it is curious to note in what a different estimation regular canons and 1 Hugonin, 'Essai sur la fondation de I'ecole St Victor \ Paris,' printed as an introduction to Hugo de StVictore, Opera (in Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Compl. vol. 175). ''■ Comp. below, ch. 9, § 1 • 3 Norgate, Kate, History of the Angevin Kings, 1887, vol. 1, p. 66. 198 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi monks are held by those who shared the interests of court circles. For the courtier, as we shall presently see, sympathised with the canon but abused and ridiculed the monk. Throughout the early Christian ages the idea had been steadily gaining ground that the professed religious should eschew contact with the outside world, and it was more and more urged that the moral and mental welfare of monk and nun was furthered by their con- fining their activity within the convent precincts. Greater seclusion was first enforced among women ; for in the combined orders the nuns remained inside the monastery, and were removed from contact with the world, while the canons were but little restricted in their movements. How soon habitual seclusion from the world became obligatory it is of course very difficult to determine, but there is extant a highly interesting pamphlet, written about the year 1190 by the monk Idung of the Benedictine monastery of St Emmeran in Bavaria, which shows that professed religious women in the district he was acquainted with went about as freely as the monks, and did not even wear a distinctive dress. The pamphlet' is the more interesting as Idung was evidently dis- tressed by the behaviour of the nuns, but failed to find an authority on which to oppose their actions. He admits that the rule as drafted by St Benedict is intended alike for men and women, and that there are no directions to be found in it about confining nuns in particular, and in fact the rule allowed monks and nuns to go abroad freely as long as their superior approved. Idung then sets forth with many arguments that nuns are the frailer vessel ; and he illustrates this point by a mass of examples adduced from classical and Biblical literature. He proves to himself the advisability of nuns being confined, but he is at a loss where to go for the means of confining them. And he ends his pamphlet with the advice that as it is impossible to interfere with the liberty of nuns, it should at least be obligatory for them when away from home to wear clothes which would make their vocation obvious. No doubt the view held by this monk was shared by others, and public opinion fell in with it, and insisted on the advantages of seclusion. Many Benedictine houses owned outlying manors which were often at a considerable distance, and the management of which required a good deal of moving about on the part of the monks and nuns who were told off for the purpose. We shall see later that those who had taken the religious vow had pleasure as their object ' Idling, De quatitor questionibiis in Pez, B., Thesaurus anecdol. nov. 1721, vol. i. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 199 as much as business in going about; but complaints about the Benedictines of either sex are few compared with those raised against the Cistercian monks. For the Cistercians in their capacity of producers visited fairs and markets and, where occasion offered, were ready to drive a bargain, which was especially objected to by the ministers of the Church, who declared that the Cistercians low- ered the religious profession in general estimation. Consequently orders which worked on opposite lines enjoyed greater favour with the priesthood ; such as the monastic order of Grandmont, which originally demanded of its members that they should not quit their settlement and forbade their owning any animals except bees ; and the order of Chartreuse, which confined each monk to his cell, that is, to a set of rooms with a garden adjoining^ But these orders did not secure many votaries owing to their severity and narrowness. Thus at the close of the 12th century a number of new religious orders had been founded which spread from one country to another by means of an effective system of organization, raising enthusiasm for the peaceful pursuits of convent life among all classes of society. The reason of their success lay partly in their identifying themselves with the ideal aspirations of the age, partly in the political unrest of the time which favoured the development of independent institu- tions, but chiefly in the diversity of occupation which the professed religious life now offered. The success obtained by the monastic orders however did not fail to rouse apprehension among the repre- sentatives of the established Church, and it seems well in conclusion to turn and recall some of the remarks passed on the new orders by contemporary writers who moved in the court of Henry II (i 154-89). It has been pointed out how the sympathies of court circles at this period in England were with the Church as represented by the priesthood ; courtier and priest were at one in their antagonism against monks, but in sympathy with the canons. Conspicuous among these men stands Gerald Barri (c. 1147-c. 1220), a Welshman of high abilities and at one time court chaplain to the king. He hated all monkish orders equally, and for the delectation of some friends whom he entertained at Oxford he compiled a collection of monkish scandals known as ' The Mirror of the ChurchV in which he represents the Cluniac monk as married to Luxury, and the Cistercian monk to Avarice ; but, in spite of this, incidental remarks in the stories he ' Helyot, Histoire des ordres monastiques, 1714, vol. 7, pp. 366, 406. Jacopo di Vitriaco, Historia Ocddentalis, 1597, c. 15. 2 Giraldus Cambrensis, Speculum Ecdestae, edit. Brewer, 1873. 200 The new Monastic Orders. [chap, vi tells give a high opinion of the Cistercian's industry, hospitality and unbounded charity. Gerald mentions as a subject for ridicule that the Cistercian monk lived not on rent, but on the produce of his labour, an unaristocratic proceeding which was characteristic of the order. Gerald's attitude is reflected in that of Ralph de Glanvil (f 1 190), justiciar of England during the reign of Henry II, a clever and versatile man of whom we know, through his friend Map, that he disliked all the monkish orders. But his enthusiasm for religious settlements was not inconsiderable, and several settlements of the Premonstrant or White Canons were founded by him. The student of the period is familiar with the likes and dislikes of Walter Map (t c. 12 10), great among poets and writers of the age, who disliked all monks, but especially the Cistercians'. His friend Gerald tells how this hatred had originated in the encroachments made by the monks of Newenham on the rights and property of the church he held at Westbury. For the perseverance with which Cistercian monks appropriated all available territory and interfered with the rights of church and chapel, made them generally odious to the ministers of the Church ; their encroachments were an in- creasing grievance. John of Salisbury, afterwards bishop of Chartres (t after 1 180), directly censured as pernicious the means taken by the monks to extend their power. He tells us they procured from Rome exemption from diocesan jurisdiction, they appropriated the right of confession, they performed burial rites ; in short they usurped the keys of the Church^ By the side of these remarks it is in- teresting to recall the opinion of the monkish historian, William of Malmesbury, who a generation earlier had declared that the Cis- tercian monks had found the surest road to heaven. All these writers, though lavish in their criticisms on monks, tell us hardly anything against nuns. The order of St Gilbert for canons and nuns alone calls forth some remarks derogatory to the women. Nigel Wirecker, himself a monk, giving vent to his embittered spirit against Church and monkish institutions generally in the satire of Brunellus, launches into a fierce attack against the tone which then prevailed in women's settlements^ He does not think it right that women whose antecedents are of the worst kind should adopt the religious profession and that as a means of pre- serving chastity they should systematically enjoin hatred of men. 1 Map, W. , De Nugis Curialium (written 1182-89), 1850, p. 38. ^ John of Salisbury, Polycraticus, edit. Giles, bk. vn. chs. 21-23. ' Wirecker, N., Brunellus, 1662, p. S3. SECT, i] The new Monastic Orders. 201 A similar reference is contained in the poem in Norman French called the 'Order of Fair Ease,' which is a production of the 13th century, and which caricatures the different religious orders by feigning an order that unites the characteristic vices of all*. It is chiefly curious in the emphasis it lays on the exclusiveness of monasteries generally, representing them as reserved for the aris- tocracy. It contains little on nunneries and only a few remarks which are derogatory to the combined order of Sempringham. These remarks were obviously called forth by the fact that the combined orders in particular admitted women from different ranks of life. For generally nunneries and their inmates enjoyed favour with churchman and courtier, whose contempt for the monk does not extend to the nun. In the correspondence of Thomas Beket, John of Salisbury, Peter of Blois and others there are letters to nuns of various houses which show that these men had friends and relatives among the inmates of nunneries. Indeed where members of the same family adopted the religious profession, the son habitu- ally entered the Church while the daughter entered a nunnery. A sister of Thomas Beket was abbess at Barking, and various princesses of the royal house were abbesses of nunneries, as we shall presently see. They included Mary, daughter of Stephen (Romsey); a natural daughter of Henry II (Barking), and Matilda, daughter of Edward I (Amesbury) ; Queen Eleanor wife of Henry III also took the veil at Amesbury. § 2. Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. From this general review of the different orders we pass on to the state of nunneries in England during the 12th century, and to those incidents in their history which give some insight into their constitution. Attention is first claimed by the old Benedictine settlements which still continued in prosperity and independence. Of these houses only those which were in connection with the royal house of Wessex remained at the close of the loth century; those of the northern and midland districts had disappeared. Some were deserted, others had been laid waste during the Danish invasions ; it has been observed that with the return of tran- quillity under Danish rule, not one of the houses for women was restored. Secular monks or laymen took possession of them, and ' Goldsmid, Political Songs, vol. 2, p. 64. 202 Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century, [chap, vi when they were expelled, the Church claimed the land, or the settlement was restored to the use of monks. Some of the great houses founded and ruled by women in the past were thus appro- priated to men. Whitby and Ely rose in renewed splendour under the rule of abbots ; Repton, Wimbourne and numerous other nunneries became the property of monks. Various reasons have been given for the comparatively low ebb at which women's professed religious life remained for a time. In- security during times of warfare, and displacement of the centres of authority, supply obvious reasons for desertion and decay. A story is preserved showing how interference from without led to the disbanding of a nunnery. The Danish earl Swegen (f 1052), son of Earl Godwin, took away (vi abstractam) the abbess Eadgifu of Leominster in Herefordshire in 1048, and kept her with him for a y/hole year as his wife. The archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Worcester threatened him with excommunication, where- upon he sent her home, avenging himself by seizing lands of the monastery of Worcester. He then fled from England and was outlawed, but at a later period he is said to have wanted the abbess back. The result is not recorded, for Leominster as a women's settlement ceased to exist about this time^ There is no need to imagine a formal dissolution of the settlement. The voluntary or involuntary absence of the abbess in times of warfare supplies quite a sufficient reason for the disbanding of the nuns. About the same time a similar fate befell the monastery of Berkley-on-Severn, in spite of the heroic behaviour of its abbess. The story is told by Walter Map how it was attacked and plundered at the instigation of Earl Godwin (f 1053) and how in spite of the stand made by the abbess, a ' strong and determined ' woman, the men who took possession of it turned it into a ' pan- theon, a very temple of harlotry^.' Berkley also ceased to exists The monasteries ruled by women, which survived the political changes due to the Danish invasion and the Norman Conquest, had been in connection with women of the house of Cerdic ; with hardly an exception they were situated in the province of Wessex ^ Freeman, Norman Conquest, 3rd edit. 1877, vol. -i, p. 6og. ''■ Ibid. p. 554; Map, De Nugis Curialium, 1850, p. 201 (Freeman: Map like other Norman writers speaks very ill of Godwin). ' Dugdale, Monasticon, vol. 6, p. 1618 (p. 1619 he says in connection with the destroyed nunnery Woodchester that the wife of Earl Godwin built it to make amends for her husband's fraud at Berkley). SECT, ii] Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. 203 within the comparatively small area of Dorset, Wilts, and Hamp- shire. Chief among them were Shaftesbury, Amesbury, Wilton (or Ellandune), Romsey, and St Mary Winchester (or Nunna- minster). With these must be classed Barking in Essex, one of the oldest settlements in the land, which had been deserted at one time but was refounded by King Edgar, and which together with the Wessex nunneries, carried on a line of uninterrupted traditions from the 9th century to the time of the dissolution. The manors owned by these settlements at the time of the Conquest lay in different shires, often at a considerable distance from the monastery itself From the account of survey in the Domesday book we gather that Shaftesbury had possessions in Sussex, Wiltshire, Dorset, and Hampshire', and that Nunnaminster owned manors in Hampshire, Berkshire, and Wiltshire^ Barking, the chief property of which lay in Essex, also held manors in Surrey, Middlesex, Berkshire, and Bedfordshire'. These monasteries were abbacies, as indeed were all houses for nuns founded before the Conquest. The abbess, like the abbot, had the power of a bishop within the limits of her own house and bore a crozier as a sign of her rank. Moreover the abbesses of Shaftesbury, Wilton, Barking, and Nunnaminster ' were of such quality that they held of the king by an entire barony,' and by right of tenure had the privilege at a later date of being summoned to parliament, though this lapsed on account of their sex''. The abbess as well as the abbot had a twofold income ; she drew spiritualities from the churches which were in her keeping, and temporalities by means of her position as landlord and land- owner. The abbess of Shaftesbury, who went by the title of abbess of St Edward, had in her gift several prebends, or portions of the appropriated tithes or lands for secular priests. In the reign of Henry I she found seven knights for the king's service, and had writs regularly directed to her to send her quota of soldiers into the field in proportion to her knights' fees ; she held her own courts for pleas of debts, etc., the perquisites of which belonged to her°- To look through the cartularies of some of the old monasteries, 1 Dugdale, Monaslicon, 'Shaftesbury,' vol. 2, p. 470. 2 Ibid. 'Nunnaminster,' vol. 2, p. 451. ' Ibid. 'Barking,' vol. 1, p. 436. •* Ibid. 'Shaftesbury,' vol. 2, p. 472. The abbess does not even seem to have been represented (as she was at the Diet abroad). * Ibid. p. 472; and p. 473 footnote. 204 Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century, [chap, vi is to realise how complex were the duties which devolved on the ruler of one of these settlements, and they corroborate the truth of the remark that the first requirement for a good abbot was that he should have a head for business. Outlying manors were in the hands of bailiffs who managed them, and the house kept a clerk who looked after its affairs in the spiritual courts ; for the management and protection of the rights and privileges of the property claimed unceasing care. The Benedictine abbesses do not seem to have been wanting in business and managing capacity. At the time of the dissolution the oldest nunneries in the land with few exceptions were also the wealthiest. The wealth of some was notorious. A saying was current in the western provinces that if the abbot of Glastonbury were to marry the abbess of Shaftesbury, their heir would have more land than the king of Englandl The reason of this wealth lies partly in the fact that property had been settled on them at a time when land was held as a comparatively cheap commodity ; but it speaks well for the managing capacities of those in authority that the high standing was maintained. The rulers prevented their property from being wasted or alienated during the I2th and 13th centuries, when the vigour or decline of an institution so largely depended on the capacity of the individual repre- senting it, and they continued faithful to their traditions by effecting a compromise during the 14th and 15th centuries, when the increased powers of the Church and the consolidation of the monarchical power threatened destruction to institutions of the kind. It is worthy of attention that while all nunneries founded during Anglo-Saxon times were abbacies, those founded after the Conquest were generally priories. Sixty-four Benedictine nunneries date their foundation from after the Conquest, only three of which were abbacies^ The Benedictine prioress was in many cases subject to an abbot; her authority varied with the conditions of her appointment, but in all cases she was below the abbess in rank. The explanation is to be sought in the system of feudal tenure. Women no longer held property, nunneries were founded and endowed by local barons or by abbots. Where power from the preceding period devolved on the woman in authority, she retained it ; but where new appointments were made the current tendency was in favour of curtailing her power. ■ Dugdale, Monasticoii, vol. i, p. 472. 2 xj,gy ^yg^g Godstow, Elstow, Mailing. SECT, ii] Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. 205 Similarly all the Cistercian nunneries in England, which numbered thirty-six at the dissolution, were without exception priories. The power of women professing the order abroad and the influence of the Cistercian abbesses in Spain and France have been mentioned — facts which preclude the idea of there being anything in the intrinsic nature of the order contrary to the holding of power by women. The form the settlement took in each country was determined by the prevailing drift of the time, and in England during the nth and 12th centuries it was in favour of less independence for women. Various incidents in the history of nunneries illustrate the comparatively dependent position of these settlements after the Conquest. At first Sheppey had been an abbacy. It had been deserted during the viking period ; and at the instigation of the archbishop of Canterbury about the year 11 30 nuns were brought there from Sittingbourne and the house was restored as a priory. Amesbury again, one of the oldest and wealthiest abbeys in the land for women, was dissolved and restored as a priory, de- pendent on the abbess of Fontevraud. This change of constitu- tion presents some interesting features. The lives of the women assembled there in the I2th century were of a highly reprehensible character ; the abbess was accused of incontinence and her evil ways were followed by the nuns. There was no way out of the difficulty short of removing the women in a body, and to accomplish this was evidently no easy undertaking. Several charters of the time of King John and bearing his signature are in existence. The abbess, whose name is not on record, retired into private life on a pension of ten marks, and the thirty nuns of her convent were placed in other nunneries. A prioress and twenty-four nuns were then brought over from Fontevraud and established at Amesbury, which became for a time a cell to the foreign housed This connection with France, at a time when familiarity with French formed part of a polite education, caused Amesbury to become the chosen retreat of royal princesses. During the wars with France under the Edwards, when many priories and cells were cut off from their foreign con- nection, Amesbury regained its old standing as an abbacy. Several of the Benedictine nunneries founded after the Conquest > Dugdale, Monastico7u 'Amesbury,' vol. i, p. 333; Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest (3rd edit. 1877), vol. 2, p. 610 ; the event is dated 1177; perhaps the letters from John of Salisbury, Epist. edit. Giles, nrs 72, 74, are addressed to the abbess of Amesbury, who was deposed. 2o6 Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century, [chap, vi owed their foundation to abbacies of men. Some were directly dependent cells, like Sopwell in Hertfordshire, a nunnery founded by the abbot of St Albans, who held the privilege of appointing its prioress. So absolute was this power that when the nuns appointed a prioress of their own choice in 1330, she was deposed by the abbot of St Albans, who appointed another person in her stead'. Similarly the nunnery at Kilburn was a cell to West- minster, its prioress being appointed by the abbot of Westminster^ But as a general rule the priories were so constituted that the nuns might appoint a prioress subject to the approval of the patron of their house, and she was then consecrated to her office by the bishop. Various incidents show how jealously each house guarded its privileges and how needful this was, considering the changes that were apt to occur, for the charters of each religious house were the sole guarantee of its continued existence. From time to time they were renewed and confirmed, and if the representative of the house was not on the alert, he might awake to find his privileges en- croached upon. In regard to the changes which were liable to occur the following incident deserves mention. In the year 1 192 the archbishop of York formed the plan of subjecting the nunnery of St Clement's at York', a priory founded by his predecessor Thurstan, to the newly-founded abbacy for women at Godstow. Godstow was one of the few women's abbacies founded after the Conquest, and owed its wealth and influence chiefly to its con- nection with the family of Fair Rosamond, at one time the mistress of Henry II, who spent the latter part of her life there. But the nuns of St Clement's, who had always been free, would not obey the abbess of Godstow, and they saved themselves from the arch- bishop's interference by appealing directly to the Court of Rome. A curious incident occurred during the reign of Henry III in connection with Stanford, a nunnery in Northamptonshire. Stanford was a priory dependent on the abbot of Peterborough who had founded it. It appears that the prioress and her convent, in soliciting confirmation of their privileges from Rome, employed a certain proctor, who, besides the desired confirmation, procured the insertion of several additional articles into the document, one of which was permission for the nuns to choose their own prioress, and another a release from certain payments. When the abbot of ' Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Sopwell,' vol. 3, p. 362. ^ Ibid. 'Kilburn,' vol. 3, p. 422. ^ Ibid. 'St Clement's,' vol. 4, p. 323. SECT, ii] Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. 207 Peterborough became aware of these facts he threatened to com- plain to the Pope, whereupon the prioress with the nuns' approval carried all their charters and records of privileges to the archbishop of Canterbury, alleging that the proctor had acted against their order. They renounced all claim to privileges secretly obtained, and besought the primate to represent their conduct favourably to the Pope and to make peace between them and their patrons'. Both these incidents occurred in connection with Benedictine nunneries. The difficulties which occurred in Cistercian nunneries are less easy to estimate, as they were not daughter-houses to men's Cistercian abbacies, but in many cases held their privileges by a bull obtained directly from the Pope. Thus Sinningthwaite in Yorkshire^ founded in 1160, held a bull from Alexander III which exempted the nuns from paying tithes on the lands they farmed, such exemption being the peculiar privilege of many Cister- cian settlements. Other bulls secured by Cistercian nunneries in England are printed by Dugdale^ A few incidents are recorded in connection with some of the royal princesses, which illustrate the attitude commonly assumed towards professed nuns, and give us an idea of the estimation in which convents were held. Queen Margaret of Scotland we are told desired to become a nun ; her mother and her sister Christina both took the veil, and her daughters, the princesses Matilda and Mary, lived at Romsey for some years with their aunt Christina. As Pope Innocent IV canonised (1250) Queen Margaret of Scotland a few words must be devoted to her. Her father Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside (f 1016), had found refuge at the Scottish court when he came from abroad with his wife Agatha and their children, a son and two daughters. Of these daughters, Christina became a nun; but Margaret was either persuaded or constrained to marry King Malcolm in 1070, and having undertaken the duties of so august a station as that of queen, she devoted her energies to introducing reforms into Scotland and to raising the standard of industrial art. We possess a beautiful description of her life, probably written by her chaplain Turgot^ and her zeal and high principles are further ^ Dugdale, Monasticon, 'Stanford,' vol. 4, p. 257. ' Ibid. ' Sinningthwaite,' vol. 5, p. 463. " Ibid. 'Swine,' vol. 5, p. 494, nr 2 ; ' Nun-Cotham,' vol. 5, p. 676, nr ^. * A. SS. Boll., St Margaret, June 10. 2o8 Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century, [chap, vi evidenced by her letters, some of which are addressed to the primate Lanfranc. Margaret's two daughters, Matilda and Mary, were brought up in the convent, but it is not known when they came to Romsey in Wessex ; indeed their connection with Wessex offers some chrono- logical difficulties. Their mother's sister Christina became a pro- fessed nun at Romsey in 1086^ ; she may have lived before in a nunnery in the north of England ^ and there advocated her niece Matilda's acceptance of the religious profession as a protection against the Normans. If this is not the case it is difficult to fix the date of King Malcolm's scorn for her proposal that Matilda should become a nun^ King Malcolm was killed fighting against William Rufus in 1093, Queen Margaret died a few days after- wards, and the princesses Matilda and Mary, of whom the former was about thirteen, from that time till iioo dwelt at Romsey in the south of England. In the year iioo, after the violent death of Rufus, Henry, the younger of his brothers, laid claim to the English crown. A union with a princess, who on the mother's side was of the house of Cerdic, appeared in every way desirable. According to the statement of William of Malmesbury (f c. 1142) Henry was persuaded,, by his friends, and especially by his prelates, to marry Matilda. ' She had worn the veil to avoid ignoble marriages,' says William, who lived close to the locality and was nearly a contemporary, ' and when the king wished to marry her, witnesses were brought to say she had worn it without profession''.' This is borne out by the historian Orderic Vitalis ("f* 1 142), whose information however is derived at second hand, for he enlarges on the princesses' stay with the nuns at Romsey, and on the instruction they received in letters and good manners, but he does not say that they were actually professed'*. The fullest account of the event is given by Eadmer ("f- 11 24), who was nearly connected with the primate Anselm, and he naturally puts the most favourable construction on Matilda's conduct. According to him she wished to leave the convent and went before Anselm to plead her cause. ' I do not deny having worn the veil,' the princess said. ' When I was a cjiild my aunt Christina, whom you know to be a deter- ' Diet, of Nat. Biography, Christina. ^ Brand, History of Newcastle, vol. 1, p. 204. ^ Freeman, History of William Rufus, vol. i,, pp. 596, 682. '' Will, of Malmesbury, Gesta Reg. (Rolls Series), pp. 279, 470, 493. ' Orderic Vitalis, Eccles. Hist., transl. by Forester, 1847, vol. 3, p. li. SECT, ii] Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. 209 mined woman, in order to protect me against the violence of the Normans, put a piece of black cloth on my head, and when I removed it gave me blows and bad language. So I trembling and indignant wore the veil in her presence. But as soon as I could get out of her sight I snatched it oiT and trampled it under- foot\' In a lively way she goes on to describe how her father seeing the veil on her head became angry and tore it off, saying he had no intention other than that she should be married. Anselm, before complying with the wish of the princess, convened a chapter at Lambeth, but after hearing their decision, he declared Matilda free and united her in marriage to the king. Anselm's behaviour is doubtless faithfully represented by Eadmer. Curiously enough later historians, Robert of Gloucester, Matthew Paris and Rudbone (t c. 1234), represent Matilda as unwilling to leave the cloister to be married ; and in one of these accounts she is described as growing angry, and pronouncing a curse on the possible offspring of the union. Walter Map goes so far as to say that the king took to wife a veiled and professed nun, Rome neither assenting nor dissenting, but remaining passive. Perhaps the validity of the union was afterwards for political reasons called in question. At any rate Mary, Matilda's sister, also left the convent to be married to Eustace, Count of Boulogne, without objection being raised. That Matilda did not object to leaving the cloister, we have conclusive proof in her great and continued affection for Anselm as shown in her letters to him. These letters and the charitable deeds of the queen, throw light on the Latinity of the Romsey pupil and on the tastes she had imbibed there. We shall have occasion to return to Matilda again in connection with the philanthropic movement of the age, and we shall find her founding the hospital of St Giles in the soke of Aldgate, and bringing the first Austin Canons from France into England^. All her life she retained a taste for scholarly pursuits, and patronised scholars and men of letters. Her correspondence with the primate Anselm' yields proof of her own studies and the freedom with which she wrote Latin. In one of these letters, written shortly after her marriage 1 Eadmer, Historia (Rolls Series), p. 122. 2 Comp. below, ch. 8, § 2. 3 Anselm of Canterbury, Epistolae (in Migne, Patrol. Cursiis computus, vol. 159), the numeration of which is followed in the text. E. 14 2IO Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century, [chap, vi (bk 3. 55), Matilda urges the primate in strong terms to abstain from the severe fasting he practises, quoting from Cicero ' on Old Age,' and arguing that as the mind needs food and drink, so does the body ; she at the same time admits the Scriptures enjoin the duty of fasting, and Pythagoras, Socrates and others urge the need of frugality. Anselm in his answer incidentally mentions having joined her to the king in lawful wedlock. Matilda's next letters are less fraught with learning, and in unaffected terms express grief at Anselm's voluntary exile, which was the outcome of his quarrel with the king. She is saddened by his absence and longs for his return (3. 93) ; she would act as intercessor between him and her husband (3. 96), and she writes to the Pope on Anselm's behalf (3. 99). The queen both read and admired Anselm's writings, and compares his style to that of Cicero, Quintilian, Jerome, Gregory and others (3. 119) with whom her reading at Romsey may have made her acquainted. Anselm is not slow in answering that the king's continued bitterness is to him a source of grief, and in expressing the desire that the queen may turn his heart. It is good of her to wish for his return, which, however, does not depend on himself; besides 'surely she wishes him to act in accordance with his conscience.' In one of these letters he accuses the queen of disposing otherwise than she ought of the churches which are in her keeping (3. 57, 81, 97, 107, 120, 128). Anselm's continued absence from Canterbury, which was due to the quarrel about investiture, was felt to be a national calamity, and many letters passed between him and those among the Church dignitaries who sided with him against the king. Among Anselm's correspondentswere several abbesses of Wessex settlements, who seem to have been in no way prejudiced against him on account of the approval he gave to Matilda's leaving the cloister. He writes in a friendly strain to another Matilda, abbess of St Mary's, Winchester (Winton), thanking her for her prayers, urging her to cultivate purity of heart and beauty of mind as an encouragement to virtue, and begging her to show obedience to Osmund (bishop of Winchester) in affairs temporal and spiritual (3. 30). To Adeliz, also abbess at St Mary's (3. 70), he writes to say she must not be sorry that William Giffard has left his appointment as bishop of Winchester, for his going is a reason for rejoicing among his friends, as it proves his steadfastness in reli- gious matters. He also writes to Eulalia, abbess (of Shaftesbury), SECT, ii] Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. 2 1 1 who was anxious for him to come back, and begs her to pray that his return may prosper (3. 125). The references to the Benedictine nunneries of Wessex con- tained in this correspondence are supplemented by information from other sources. In the early part of the 12th century a girl named Eva was brought up at a convent, but which she left to go to Anjou, since she preferred the life of a recluse there to the career which was open to her in the English nunnery. Her life abroad has been described in verse by Hilarius (t c. 11 24) who is the earliest known Englishman who wrote religious plays. After studying under Abelard Hilarius had taken up his abode at Angers, near the place where Eva dwelt, and was much impressed by her piety and devotions^ From his poem we gather that Eva had been given into the care of the nuns at St Mary's, Winchester (Winton), a place which he designates as ' good and renowned.' The girl's progress in learn- ing was the subject of wonder to the abbess and her companions, but when Eva reached the age at which her enrolment as a member of the community was close at hand, ' she turned ' in the words of the poet, ' from success as though it had been a sinful trespass,' and left the nunnery to go abroad. Her admirer Hilarius has celebrated other women who were devoted to religious pursuits. He addresses one of them as ' Bona,' and praises her for caring little for the religious garb unless good works accompany it. The meaning of her name and that of other religious women whom Hilarius also addresses, such as 'Superba,' and 'Rosa,' gives him an opportunity for compliments on the virtues these names suggest. His poems, though insigni- ficant in themselves, add touches to our knowledge of women who adopted the religious profession. In the wars which ensued after the death of Henry I (1134) the nunneries of Wessex witnessed the climax and the end of the struggle. The Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I and Queen Matilda, who claimed the crown on the strength of her descent, finding the sympathies of London divided, approached Winchester, and was received by two convents of monks and the convent of nuns who came forth to meet her. The Empress for a time resided at St Mary's Abbey, and there received a visit from Theobald, ' Hilarius, Versus et ludi, edit. Champollion-Figeac, 1838, p. i. (ChampoUion prints Clinton, which he no doubt misread for Winton.) 14 — 2 2 1 2 Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century, [chap, vi archbishop of Canterbury'. During the fighting which followed the nunnery of Wherwell was burnt^ and perhaps St Mary's Abbey at Winchester was destroyed'. Matilda finally yielded to Stephen, and left England on condition that her son Henry should succeed to the crown. The nunnery of Romsey continued its connection with royalty, and we find the daughter of Stephen, Mary of Blois, established there as abbess previous to her marriage. Her case again throws curious side-lights on the foundation of convents and the possi- bilities open to women who adopted the religious profession. The princess Mary had come over from St Sulpice in France with seven nuns to Stratford at Bow (otherwise St Leonard's, Bromley in Middlesex), when the manor of Lillechurch in Kent was granted to the nunnery there by King Stephen for her own and her companions' maintenance*. But these women, as the charter has it, because of the ' harshness of the rule and their different habits ' could not and would not stay at Stratford, and with the convent's approval they left it and removed to Lille- church, which was constituted by charter a priory for them. Mary removed later to Romsey where she became abbess some time before IIS9^ for in that year her brother William, the sole sur- viving heir of Stephen, died, so that she was left heiress to the county of Boulogne. She was thereupon brought out of the convent at the instigation of Henry H, and married to Matthew, son of the Count of Flanders, who through her became Count of Boulogne. Thomas Beket, who was then chancellor, not primate, was incensed at this unlawful proceeding, and intervened as a protector of monastic rule, but the only result of his interference was to draw on himself the hatred of Count Matthew" It is said that Mary returned to Romsey twelve years later. Her daughters were, however, legitimised in 1189 and both of them married. Various letters found here and there in the correspondence of this period show how women vowed to religion retained their connection with the outer world. Among the letters of Thomas Beket there is one in which he tells his 'daughter' Idonea to transcribe the letter he is forwarding, and lay it before the ' Milner, J., History of Winchester, 1823, vol. i, p. iti. ^ Dugdale, Monasiicon, 'Wherwell,' vol. 2, p. 634. * Ibid. 'St Mary's Abbey,' vol. 2, p. 452. ■i Ibid. ' Lillechurch,' vol. 4, p. 378, charter nr 2. '' Ibid. 'Rumsey,' vol. 2, p. 506. ^ Norgate, Kate, History of the Angevin Kings, 1887, vol. r, p. 469. SECT, ii] Benedictine Convents in the Twelfth Century. 2 1 3 archbishop of York in the presence of witnesses'. It has been mentioned that a sister of Thomas Beket was in 1173 abbess at Barking. Again, among the letters of Peter of Blois (t c 1200), chaplain to Henry II, are several addressed to women who had adopted the religious profession. Anselma 'a virgin' is urged to remain true to her calling ; Christina, his ' sister,' is exhorted to virtue, and Adelitia ' a nun ' is sent a discourse on the beauties of the unmarried life^ § 3. The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham". The study of the order of St Gilbert, which is of English origin, shows how in this country also sympathy with convent life was spreading during the 12th century, and how, owing to the protec- tion afforded to peaceful and domestic pursuits by the religious houses, many girls and women of the middle classes became nuns. From an intellectual point of view the order of St Gilbert has little to recommend it, for we know of no men or women belonging to the order who distinguished themselves in learning, literature or art. As a previous chapter has indicated, its purpose was chiefly to prevent women from drifting into the unattached and homeless class, the existence of which was beginning to be recognised as prejudicial to society. The material for the study of the order is abundant. We have several accounts of the life and work of Gilbert, besides minute injunctions he drafted to regulate the life of his communities, and there are references to him in contemporary literature. The success of his efforts, like that of the men who founded combined orders of canons and nuns abroad, was due to the admission of women into his settlements regardless of their class and antecedents. Like Robert of Arbrissel his interest centred in women, but he differed from him in giving the supreme authority of his settlements into the hands of men. For the settlements which afterwards became double originated in Gilbert's wish to provide for women who ' Beket, Epistolae (in Migne, Patrol. Cursus compl., vol. 190), nr ig6. '^ Petrus Blesiensis, Epistolae, edit. Giles, letters nrs 35, 36, 55, 239. " A. SS. Boll., St Gilbert, Feb. 4, contain two short lives ; Dugdale, Monasticon, vol. 6 inserted between pp. 946, 947, contains a longer account, the ' Institutiones,' and various references to Gilbert; Diet, of Nat. Biography refers to a MS. account at Oxford, Digby, 36, Bodleian. 2 14 The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. [chap, vi sought him as their spiritual adviser. It was only in consequence of the difficulties he encountered that canons were added to the settlements. Helyot likens the order of St Gilbert to that of Norbert, the founder of the order of Premontre', but here too there are marked points of difference, for in disposition and character Gilbert was as unlike Norbert as he was to Robert ; he had neither the masterful- ness of the one nor the clear-sighted determination of the other- The reason of his popularity lies more in his gentleness and per- suasiveness, and these qualities made him especially attractive to women. Gilbert was a native of Lincolnshire, born about 1083, the son of a wealthy Norman baron and an English woman of low rank. His ungainly appearance and want of courtly bearing rendered him unfit for knightly service. He was sent to France for his education and there attained some reputation as a teacher. After his return home he devoted his energies to teaching boys and girls in the neighbourhood. His father bestowed on him two livings, one of which was at Sempringham. His chief characteristic was pity for the lowly and humble, and this attracted the attention among others of Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln (t 1123). For a time Gilbert acted as a clerk in Bloet's house, and after his death remained with his successor Alexander (f 1 148) in a like capacity. With Alexander he consulted about permanently providing for those of the lower classes whom his liberality was attracting to Sem- pringham. The first step taken by Gilbert was to erect suitable dwellings round the church of St Andrew at Sempringham for seven women whom he had taught and who had devoted themselves to religion under his guidance, and as they were not to leave their dwelling place, lay sisters were appointed to wait on them. He also provided dwellings at Sempringham for the poor, the infirm, for lepers, and orphans. The order of Gilbert is held to have been established before "35. the year of King Henry I's death'. The author of his life in Dugdale likens Gilbert's progress at this time to the chariot of Aminadab ; to it clung clerics and laymen, literate and illiterate women, and it was drawn by Master Gilbert himself Gilbert had entered into friendly relations with the Cistercian 1 Helyot, Histoire des ordres mon., 1714, vol. i, p. 190. ^ Diet, of Nat. Biography. SECT. Ill] The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. 2 1 5 monks who were then gaining ground in Yorkshire, and William, first abbot of Rievaulx (t 114S-6), was among them. He had a good deal to do with Ailred (t 1166), a notable north-country man who came from Scotland to live at Rievaulx, and afterwards became abbot successively of Revesby and Rievaulx. At this time there were no nunneries in the north of England, for the great settlements of the early English period had passed away and no new houses for women had been founded. The numbers of those who flocked to Gilbert were so great that he felt called upon to give them a more definite organisation. His friendship with Cistercian monks no doubt turned his eyes to Citeaux, and the wish arose in him to affiliate his convents to the Cistercian order. Having placed his congregations under the care of the Cistercians, he set out for Citeaux about 1 146. But his hopes were not fulfilled. At Citeaux he met Pope Eugenius HI (f 1153) and other leading men. He cemented his friendship with Bernard of Clairvaux and entered into friendly relations with Malachy, bishop of Armagh (t 1 148), who had intro- duced the Cistercian order into Ireland. But the assembly at Citeaux came to the conclusion that they would not preside over another religious order, especially not over one for women', and Gilbert was urged to remain at the head of his communities and Bernard and Malachy presented him with an abbot's staff. He returned to England, burdened with a responsibility from which he would gladly have been free, and obliged to frame a definite rule of life for his followers. As one account puts it, ' he now studied the rules of all religious orders and culled from each its flowers.' The outcome of his efforts was the elaborate set of injunctions which now lie before us. From these injunctions we can see how Gilbert's original plan had expanded, for his settlements consisted of bands of canons, lay-brethren, nuns, and lay-sisters. One set of rules is drafted for the canons who observed the rule of St Augustine and performed reli- gious service for the double community, and a separate set for the laymen who acted as servants. And similarly there is one set of rules for the nuns who lived by the rule of St Benedict, and another for their servants the lay-sisters. These rules suggest many points of similarity to the combined settlements of canons and nuns previously founded abroad, but there are also some differences. 1 A. SS. Boll., St Gilbert, Feb. 4, Vita, nr 2, ch. 3 ; Dugdale, Vita, p. xi. 2i6 The Order of St Gilbe7't of Sempringham. [chap, vi In the Gilbertine settlements the dwelHngs of the men and women were contiguous, and the convent precincts and the church were divided between them. The men's dwelling was under the rule of a prior, but three prioresses ruled conjointly in the women's house. The arrangements in both convents were alike, and the duties of prior and prioress similar, but in all matters of impor- tance the chief authority belonged to the prior who was at the head of the whole settlement. The property owned by Gilbertine settle- ments apparently consisted largely of sheep, and among the men we note a number of shepherds and a ' procurator' who bought and sold the animals. The ewes were regularly milked and the wool was either used in the house for making clothes, or sold. The lay- sisters were appointed to spin and weave and the nuns to cut out and make the garments. There was one cellar and one kitchen for the whole settlement, for the cellaress in the women's house acted as caterer both for the canons and the nuns. Domestic duties fell to the share of the women. They cooked the canons' food as well as their own and handed the meals into the men's quarters through a hole in the wall with a turn-table, through which the plates and dishes were returned to them. They also made clothes for the whole establishment. At the daily chapter held in the women's house the prioresses presided in turn, with a companion on either side. The cellaress reported to the prioress, who settled the allowances and gave out the food. She received information also from the 'scrutatrices,' the nuns whose duty it was to go the round of the house and report disorders, and according to whose reports she imposed the various penances. We also hear in the women's house of a librarian (' precentrix"), who had the keys of the book-case (' armarium '), which was kept locked except during reading time when the nuns were allowed the use of the books. There was to be no quarrelling over the books ; the nun like the canon was directed to take the one allotted to her and not to appropriate that given to another. Simplicity of life was studied. Pictures and sculpture were declared superfluous and the crosses used were to be of painted wood. Only books for choir use were to be written in the convent, but while this holds good alike for the women and for the men, there is this further prohibi- tion with regard to the nuns, that talking in Latin was to be avoided. 1 The ' precentrix ' is strictly speaking the leader of the choir. Cf. below ch. lo § i. SECT. Ill] The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. 2 1 7 ' Altogether,' says the rule^ ' we forbid the use of the Latin tongue unless under special circumstances.' The cooking was done by the nuns in turn for a week at a time in compliance with a regulation contained in the rule of St Bene- dict. The librarian also had her week of cooking, and when she was on duty in the kitchen, gave up her keys to another nun. We hear also of the mistress appointed to teach the novices, and of the portress who guarded the approaches to the house. The injunctions drafted for the canons and the lay members of the settlement are equally explicit. Directions are also given about tending the sick, who were to be treated with tenderness and care. Girls were admitted into the company of the nuns at the age of twelve, but several years passed before they could be enrolled among the novices. At the age of twenty the alternative was put before the novice of joining the nuns or the lay-sisters. If she decided in favour of the latter she could not afterwards be pro- moted to the rank of nun ; she was bound to observe chastity and obedience while she remained in the house, but she was not conse- crated. A certain amount of knowledge of the hymns, psalms and books of service was required from the novice before she could make profession. The scheme of life worked out by Gilbert met with success and numerous patrons were found to endow settlements on the plan of that at Sempringham. As the chronicler says, ' many wealthy and highborn Englishmen, counts and barons, seeing and approving of the undertaking the Lord had initiated and holding that good would come of it, bestowed many properties (" fundos et praedia ' ) on the holy father (Gilbert) and began to construct on their own account numerous monasteries in various districts.' The greater number of these settlements were situated in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, but judging by the extant charters the conditions and purposes of their foundations were not always the same. Sometimes the grant is made conjointly to men and women, sometimes reference is made to the prior only. In the earlier charters the women are especially noticed, in the later ones more account is taken of the men. As time went on the order gradually ceased to have any attraction for women, and at the time of the dissolution several foundations originally made for men and women were occupied only by canons. ' Dugdale, Institiitiones, p. Ixxxii. 2i8 The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. [chap, vi Gilbert himself did not accept a position of authority in his order but became a canon at Bullington, one of its settlements. He appears to have been influential in wider circles and we find him several times at court. King Henry H visited him, and both the king and Queen Eleanor made grants of land to the order. Henry regarded Gilbert with so much favour that when he was summoned before the King's Court in London on the charge of having supported Beket in his exile, the king sent a message from abroad ordering his case to be reserved for royal judgment, which practi- cally meant his acquittal \ Rapidly as the number of Gilbertine houses increased, the order did not remain entirely free from trouble, for even in Gilbert's lifetime distressing incidents happened which justified to some extent the scornful remarks of contemporary writers. One of these difficulties arose sometime between 1153 and 11 66 in connection with a girl at Watton. A full account of the affair was written and forwarded to Gilbert by Ailred, abbot of Rievaulx'- This account illustrates pointedly the readiness of the age to accept a miraculous rendering of fact, and gives a curious insight into the temper of a community of nuns. Indeed such violence of conduct, and details of such behaviour as are here described show that the barbarity of the age, which so often strikes us in connection with camp and court, was reflected in the monastery. Watton was among the older Gilbertine houses and had been founded before 1148 by a nobleman Eustace Fitz-John on property which had belonged to a nunnery during the early English period I The settlement was among the larger Gilbertine houses ; it owned property to the extent of twenty acres. The girl had been placed under the care of the nuns of Watton at the suggestion of Murdach, abbot of Fountains (t 1153), and had given endless trouble by her unbecoming levity and hopeless laziness. ' She is corrected by word of mouth but without result, she is urged by blows but there is no improvement,' writes Ailred, who speaks of her as a nun without telling us that she had actually made profession. She made the acquaintance of one of the lay-brothers who were engaged in repairing the women's dwelling. The two contrived to ' Diet, of Nat, Biography. ^ Ailred, Opera (in Migne, Patrol. Cursits eoinp., vol. 195), p. 789. 'De sancti- moniali de Wattiin.' '■> Oliver, G., History 0/ Beverley and Watton, 1829, p. .S2off.; cf. above, p. 91. SECT, iiij The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. 219 meet frequently out of doors until at last the nun's condition became obvious. Her fellow-nuns were so incensed at this discovery that they treated her with barbarous cruelty and would have put her to death had not the prioress intervened and had her chained and imprisoned. The anger of the nuns now turned against the lay- brother who had brought disgrace on their convent, and with a mixture of cunning and deceit they managed to discover him and have him terribly mutilated. ' I do not praise the deed, but the zeal,' says Ailred ; ' I do not approve of bloodshed, but for all that I praise the virgins' hatred of such wickedness.' The esprit de corps among the nuns and their indignation evidently went far in his eyes to excuse behaviour which he would not describe as he did if he had not felt it altogether reprehensible. Meanwhile the nun overcome by contrition was awaiting her delivery in prison ; there she had visions of abbot Murdach who had died some years before. He first rebuked her, but then miraculously relieved her of her burden and restored her to her normal condition. The nuns though greatly surprised were convinced of the truth of the statement concerning the miraculous doings of Murdach because they found the nun's chains loosened. The prior of Watton sent for Ailred to enquire more closely into the matter. Ailred came, collected all possible evidence, and was convinced that there had been divine intervention on the girl's behalf He wrote an account of what had happened to Gilbert, with these words as preface : ' to know of the Lord's miracles and of his proofs of divine love and to be silent about them were sacrilege.' What became of the girl we are not told. For trespasses such as hers the rule of Gilbert decreed life-long incar- ceration, but the canon for a like trespass suffered no punishment beyond being expelled from the settlement. The old age of Gilbert was further troubled by the evil conduct of two men, Gerard a smith, and Ogger a carpenter. He had taken them into the order out of charity, but they greatly abused his kindness, appropriated the revenues of the order, and encouraged dishonesty and sexual irregularities. Their behaviour was produc- tive of such results that it called forth a letter from Beket to Gilbert in which he says ' the greater our love, the more we are troubled and perturbed by hearing of things happening in your order, which are a grievance not only before the eyes of men but before the eyes of God.' However letters in defence of Gilbert were written by Roger 2 20 The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. [chap, vi archbishop of York (f 1181), Henry bishop of Winchester (f 1171) and William bishop of Norwich (f 1 174), who treat the occurrence as a misfortune and praise the order generally in the warmest terms. Praise from other quarters is not wanting, which shows that Gilbert's work was considered remarkable, especially with regard to the influence he had over women. William of Newburgh wrote of him : ' As far as this is concerned, in my opinion he holds the palm above all others whom we know to have devoted their energies to the control and government of religious women'.' Gilbert lived to an advanced age. Walter Map, writing between 1 182 and 1 189, speaks of him as over a hundred and well-nigh blind. He was buried at Sempringham, where his tomb became the goal of many pilgrimages and the scene of many miracles. He was canonised a saint of the Church by Pope Innocent H in 1202. One of the accounts of his life, written shortly after his death, says that the order at that time numbered thirteen conventual churches and contained seven hundred men and fifteen hundred women. The East Riding Antiquarian Society has recently begun excavating on the site of Watton Priory, one of the oldest Gilber- tine settlements, and has ascertained many particulars about the inner arrangements of this house ^. It has found that the church, built on the foundations of a Norman church which had been destroyed by fire in 1167, was divided throughout its entire length by a substantial partition wall nearly five feet thick. The church served for both sexes of the community, which were kept separate by this partition. In some places remains of this wall were found up to the height of four feet; this was part of the solid foundation upon which, above the height of the eye, was erected an open arcade which made it possible for the whole community to hear the sermon preached on festal days from the pulpit. The parts into which the church was divided were of unequal size. Dr Cox, the president of the Society, who read a paper on the Gilbertine statutes, said that the full complement of the double house at Watton consisted of a hundred and forty women and seventy men, and that the larger part of the church, was appropriated to the women and the smaller to the men. It was further shown by the excavations that the dividing wall had in one place an archway, covering the door which was opened for the great processions of both sexes which took place on the four- ' Dugdale, Monastkon, vol. 6, p. xcviii. ^ Report in Athenaeum, Oct. 7, 1893. SECT. Ill] The Order of St Gilbert of Sempringham. 221 teen great festivals of the year and at funerals. Remains were also found of an opening in the wall with a turn-table, so arranged that articles could be passed through without either sex seeing the other. Through this the chalice, when the canons' mass was over, would be passed back and restored to the custody of the nuns ; no doubt this was constructed on the same plan as the opening through which the food was passed. The cloister of the nuns lay on the north side of the transept and must have been about a hundred feet square, an alley of ten feet wide surrounding it. It is thought that the stone of which the house was built must have been brought up the Humber from Whitby. An early writer tells us that the nuns' dwelling at Watton was connected by an underground passage with the holy well at Kilnwick, and that the nuns by means of these waters performed wonderful cures'. ' Oliver, G., History of Beverley and Watton, 1829, p. 531. CHAPTER VII. ART INDUSTRIES IN THE NUNNERY. ' Spernere mundum, spernere nullum, spernere sese, Spernere sperni se, quatuor haec bona sunt.' Herrad. § I. Art Industries generally. From consideration of the nuns of different orders we turn to enquire more closely into the general occupations and productive capacities of nuns during early Christian times and the Middle Ages. It seems worth while collecting the information scattered here and there on the work done by these women, since the group- ing together of various notices gives some, though necessarily an incomplete, idea of the pursuits to which nuns were devoted when not engaged in religious service. The work done, as we shall see, includes art productions of every kind, weaving, embroidery, painting and illuminating as well as writing, which during the period under consideration must be looked upon as an art. From the first monastic life had been dominated by the idea that idleness is at the root of all evil. In a well ordered religious house the times for work and for leisure, for eating, sleeping and for attend- ance at divine service were fixed by custom and were enforced by routine ; we shall treat later of the way in which the day was divided by the canonical hours. The purpose of the ordinary settlement, beyond observing the hours, was to educate girls, to train novices and to provide suitable occupation for the nuns of the convent. In all houses reading and copying books of devotion was included among the occupations, and in some, the cultivation of art in one or more of its branches. Between the 8th and the 14th century religious settlements were the centres of production in handicrafts and in art industry ; to study the art of this period, it is necessary to study the productions of the monasteries. SECT, i] Art Industries generally. 223 A sense of joint ownership united the members of each of the religious settlements, and this was especially true of the older Bene- dictine houses which have fitly been likened to small republics. To the convent inmate the monastery was the centre of his interests and affections, and the house's possessions were in a sense his own. He was proud of them and proud if he could add to their store. Increased communication with the south and the east brought books, materials and other beautiful objects which the inmates of the religious settlement zealously copied and multiplied. During times of political and social unrest, while states were in their making, the goldsmith, the scribe, the illuminator, and the em- broiderer, all found protection and leisure in the religious house. The so-called dark ages, the centuries between 800 and 1200, cease to be dark as soon as one enquires into the contents of monastic libraries, and the monotony of convent routine ceases to appear monotonous on entering one of the old treasuries and reflecting on the aims and aspirations which were devoted to producing this wealth in design and ornamentation, the bare fragmentary remains of which are to us of to-day a source of unending delight and wonder. Some of the houses ruled by women like so many of those ruled by men became important centres of culture, where the industrial arts were cultivated, and where books were prized, stored and multiplied. Nuns as well as monks were busy transcribing manuscripts, a task as absorbing as it was laborious, for the difficulties in the way of learning to write can hardly be over- estimated considering the awkwardness of writing materials and the labour involved in fabricating parchment, ink and pigment. But as the old writer with a play on the words armarium, book- case, and armatorium, armoury, remarks, ' a monastery without its book-case is what a castle is without its armoury.' And all houses, whether for monks or nuns, took rank as centres of culture in proportion to their wealth in books. Of the books over which the early scribe spent so much time and trouble, comparatively speaking only a few survive. All books are worn out by use, especially books of devotion ; many were destroyed when printing came in and parchment was handy to the book-binder ; many when the Reformation destroyed convents. The early scribe usually omitted to add his name to the book he was copying. In the books which are preserved the names of men scribes are few, and the names of women scribes fewer still, though they do occasionally occur. Wattenbach, a student of manuscripts 2 24 Art Industries generally. [chap, vir and of the mediaeval art of writing, has collected a number of names of women whom he has found mentioned as scribes. He gives them, adding the remark that other books no doubt were written by nuns where mention of the fact is omitted^ It will be profitable to recall these names and examine the references to work done by nuns as calligraphists and miniature painters, for here and there women attained great proficiency in these arts. The amount of writing done in women's houses compared with that done by men was no doubt small, for it was not in this direction that the industry of the nun lay. But what remains shows that where scope to activity was given talents of no mean kind were developed. In some departments of art industry, especially in weaving church hangings, and embroidering altar cloths and church vestments, nuns greatly distinguished themselves. In his comprehensive work on church furniture Bock is eloquent on the industry of nuns. He first praises their early proficiency in the art of weaving and passes on to the art of embroidery. ' This art also,' he says, ' was chiefly cultivated in religious houses by pious nuns up to the I2th century. The inmates of women's establishments were especially devoted to working decorations for the altar. Their peaceful seclusion was spent in prayer and in doing embroidery. What work could seem worthier and nobler than artistic work intended for the decoration of the altar? It is in the nunnery that the art of design as well as the technique of weaving were brought to their highest perfection^' Owing to the perishable material of this work the amount which was done of course far exceeded what has been preserved. We often come across remarks on such work, rarely across remains of it, and we are obliged to take on trust the praise bestowed by early writers as so little exists by which we can judge for ourselves. But enough remains to bear out the praise which contemporaries bestow on the beauties of hangings and vestments manufactured by nuns, and to give us the highest opinion of their industry and their artistic skill. Among women generally embroidery has always had votaries, and in the nunnery it found a new development. During early Christian ages nuns worked large hangings for decorating the basilica walls, and short hangings for the square altar ; and when the Gothic style took the place of the earlier Byzantine in architecture, ' Wattenbach, W., Schriftiuesen im Mittelalter, 2nd edit. 1875, p. 374. ^ Bock, F., Geschichte der liturg. Gewdnder, 3 vols. 1866-71, vol. i, p. ■214. SECT, i] Art Industries generally. 225 rendering such hangings superfluous, they devoted their energies to working church vestments and furniture. The proficiency acquired by the girl in the convent was not lost if she returned to the world. We hear a good deal of badges and standards worked by ladies at baronial courts during the age of romance, and their work was no doubt influenced by what had been evolved in church decoration. In studying the art industry of the convent, we needs must treat of work produced with the brush and the pen side by side with work produced with the needle. At two periods in history, the 8th and 13th centuries, England takes the lead in art industry, and at both periods there is reference to excellent work done by nuns. A former chapter has mentioned how Eadburg, the friend of Boniface, was at work in her monastery in Thanet in the 8th century, transcribing scriptural writings on parchment in gold lettering, an art in which she excelled'. Among the gifts sent to Boniface by lady abbesses in England vestments and altar-cloths are mentioned which had without a doubt been worked in the houses over which these ladies presided if not actually made by themselves". The importance and the symbolical meaning which early Christians attached to death supplies the reason why the abbess of Repton in Mercia sent a winding-sheet to St Guthlac during his lifetime'. Cuthberht of Lindisfarne was wrapped in a shroud which his friend Aelflaed, abbess of Whitby, had senf. Both were of linen, for early Christians, who were content to wear rough woollen clothes during their lifetime, thought it permissible to be buried in linen and silk. Thus we read that Aethelthrith the abbess of Ely sent to Cuthberht a present of silk stuffs which she decorated with gold and jewels and which were shown at his resting-place at Durham till the 12th century*. The silk robe on which the body of Wilfrith (f 709) had been laid was sent as a present to an abbess Cynethrith^ About this time silk, which had been rarely seen north of the Alps, was frequently sent from the east and was greatly prized. It has been mentioned in a previous chapter how Radegund at Poitiers received a gift of silk from a relation in Constantinople', and > Cf. above, p. 122. ^ Cf. above, pp. iii, 132. " Cf. above, p. 109. * Cf. above, p. 106. = Michel, F., Atoffes de sole au moyen Age, 185-2, vol. ^, p. 339, contains this and other references. 8 Eddi, VUa Wilfredi, c. 65 (it is unl