INTRODUCTION 



her community, " she built there a place set 

 apart for the refreshment of the soul, namely a 

 chapel of the Blessed Virgin." The writer 

 adds that " in numberless ways she provided for 

 the worship of God and the welfare of the 

 sisters," and that " she so conducted herself with 

 regard to exterior affairs, that she seemed to have 

 the spirit of a man rather than of a woman." 

 The account is altogether delightful and inform- 

 ing, and should be read by any who would go in 

 spirit to a mediaeval convent. It is therefore 

 not surprising that in the late Middle Ages a 

 regard and reverence for womanhood gradually 

 arose a regard and reverence for woman not 

 merely as the weaker vessel, but as the principle" 

 of all good and of moral elevation. This attitude 

 was also in large measure due to the inevitable 

 fusion of the cult of the Virgin and the cult of 

 woman, which in the thirteenth century de- 

 veloped into a faith. Then was it that religion 

 and chivalry, in combination, formed the solvent! 

 that disintegrated the layer of selfishness the 

 outcome of the worship of brute force that had 

 settled over man's nobler instincts, and by their 

 appeal to his better nature decided the position 

 that woman, not only as an individual, but also 

 as a class, was thenceforth to take in the civilised 

 world. 



Let us now turn, first to the woman of the 



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