48 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



The nuns as The nuns were required to be good gardeners. 



gardeners . 



Many years later, Heloi'se, abbess of Paraclet, addressed 

 a long complaint to Abelard, stating that it was un- 

 reasonable to expect nuns to conform to the same 

 rules as monks in regard to agriculture and horticul- 

 ture. Physically, she contended, women were unfit 

 for much rough manual labour. 

 The decline In the tenth century, the darkest of the Dark Ages, 



of mona.sti- 



cism. another period of great industrial depression reached its 



lowest ebb. Again civilization suffered from foreign 

 invasions. Monasticism, for the previous two centuries 

 on the decline, almost ceased the struggle to subsist ; 

 and horticulture, as before early in the Christian era, 

 practically became a lost art. 



Religious In the eleventh century, however, a revival of reli- 



revival. 



gious zeal, in England as elsewhere, brought about an 

 improvement in the condition of affairs. This develop- 

 ment preceding the Norman Conquest is well described 

 by Viollet le Due: 



"All Europe was under either religious or military 

 rule, and as in this world moral force always finishes by 

 overcoming material force, when there is a conflict be- 

 tween the two, the monasteries acquired more influence 

 and more riches than the castles. They had on their 

 side the voice of the common people, who, in the shadow 

 of the convents, devoted themselves to industry and cul- 

 tivated their fields in greater security than under the 



