OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



But what bearing, it may be asked, had 

 Court life on the life of the nun Roswitha in 

 the convent of Gandersheim ? To answer this 

 question we must recall briefly the position of 

 the early religious houses, and especially those 

 of Saxony. Many of the foundations were royal, 

 and, in return for certain privileges, were obliged 

 to entertain the king and his retinue whenever 

 he journeyed. Such sojourns naturally brought 

 a store of political, intellectual, and other in- 

 formation to the favoured house. Added to 

 this, the abbess of such a house, generally a 

 highborn and influential woman, was, in her 

 position as a ruler of lands as well as of com- 

 munities, brought into direct contact with the 

 Court and with politics. To her rights of over- 

 lordship were attached the same privileges and 

 duties as in the case of any feudal baron. She 

 issued summonses for attendance at her Courts, 

 at which she was represented by a proctor, and, 

 when war was declared, she had to provide the 

 prescribed number of knights. In some cases 

 her influence was supreme, even in imperial 

 affairs, extending also to matters social and 

 literary. Roswitha tells us how much she 

 herself owed to the two successive abbesses 

 under whose rule she lived, for suggestion, 

 information, and encouragement in her literary 

 work. 



The convents of Saxony, as many elsewhere 

 in the tenth and eleventh centuries, were centres 

 of culture in the nature of endowed colleges. 



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