ROSWITHA THE NUN 



In some of them women resided permanently, 

 and besides their religious exercises, devoted 

 themselves to learning and the arts, for the 

 Church of the Middle Ages took thought for 

 the intellect as well as for the soul. In others, 

 no irrevocable vows were made, and if desire or 

 necessity arose, the student inmate was free to 

 return to the world. In others again, though 

 residence was permanent, short leave of absence 

 from time to time was granted by the abbess, 

 and the nun was able to sojourn with her friends, 

 or to visit some sister community. But at 

 Gandersheim the rule was strict, and a nun, her 

 vows once taken, had to remain within the 

 convent walls. Yet even so, life there was 

 perhaps far less circumscribed than in many a 

 castle, where the men gave themselves up to 

 war and the chase, and the women perforce spun 

 and embroidered and gossiped, since to venture 

 without the walls was fraught with difficulty 

 and sometimes with danger. Even if there 

 were some who cared to read, and who would 

 fain go in imagination to other scenes and times, 

 MSS. were difficult to come by, and costly 

 withal. Wholly different was it in the religious 

 houses. In these, women associated with their 

 equals, with whom they could interchange ideas, 

 and the library was well furnished with MSS. of 

 classical and Christian writers. One of the first 

 cares of St. Benedict, in the case of every newly 

 founded house, was the formation of the library. 

 So held in honour did this tradition become, and 



1 1 



