OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



Front Meadow." Heinrich addresses the gift 

 " To the Sisters in the Front Meadow." " You 

 shall know that the book that is sent by her 

 of the Golden Ring is called The Light of the 

 Godhead^ and to this you shall give good heed. 

 It shall also serve in all the houses of the wood, 

 and shall never leave the wood, and shall remain 

 a month in each house. Also it shall go from 

 one to another as required, and you shall take 

 special care of it. Pray for me who was your 

 Confessor, though, alas, unworthy." 



In 1235, at the age of twenty - three, 

 Mechthild not without many a heart-pang, and 

 prompted to this determination by a troubled 

 conscience, a determination doubtless brought 

 about by the preaching of the Dominican friars, 

 who were stirring all classes by their impassioned 

 zeal left her home and went to Magdeburg, 

 where she entered a settlement of beguines. 

 These settlements, semi-monastic in character, 

 were provided to afford some protection, by 

 living in community, for women who, whilst 

 devoting themselves to a religious life, did not 

 wish to separate themselves wholly from the 

 world. It was at the time of the Crusades, 

 when the land teemed with desolate women, 

 that their numbers increased so greatly, and the 

 first beguinage was founded about the beginning 

 of the thirteenth century. The beguine took no 

 vows, could return to the world and marry if 

 she so desired, and did not renounce her pro- 

 perty. If she was without means, she neither 



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