OF SIX MEDIAEVAL WOMEN 



prioress ; and " Loving Kindness " is the sub- 

 prioress. " Hope " is the chantress, filled with 

 holy, humble devotion, that the heart's feebleness 

 may sound beautiful in song before God, so that 

 God may love the notes that sing in the heart ; 

 " Wisdom " is the schoolmistress, who with all 

 good -will teaches the ignorant, so that the 

 convent is held holy and honoured ; " Bounty >! 

 is the cellaress ; " Mercy " the stewardess ; and 

 " Pity " the sick-nurse. The provost, or priest, 

 is " Godly Obedience," to whom all these 

 virtues are subject. " Thus does the convent 

 abide in God, and happy are they who dwell 

 therein." 



From this spiritual abode of the virtues we 

 turn to one of Mechthild's earliest recorded 

 visions that of Hell, with its flame and flare. 

 Whilst Death was perhaps man's first mystery, 

 the Hereafter has been his endless pre-occupa- 

 tion. Whatever his country or his time, he has 

 ever sought to lift the veil which hides the 

 future, portraying his vain efforts in symbol. 

 In Mechthild's time her world was engrossed 

 with thoughts and speculations concerning the 

 Hereafter, for Death, which at the end of 

 the next century was to take dramatic and 

 pictorial form in the weird and all-embracing 

 " Dance of Death," although its earliest known 

 poetic form is of 1160, ever hovered near in 

 pestilence, war, and tumult. Whilst some ex- 

 pressed themselves in carved stone, or on painted 

 wall, others, as did Mechthild, realised their 



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