OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



the connecting link with Dante 1 that between 

 this world and it, she came to a spot the Earthly 

 Paradise where she saw trees and fresh grass 

 and no weeds. Some of the trees bore apples, 

 but most of them sweetly scented leaves. Swift 

 streams flowed through it, and warm winds were 

 wafted from the north. The air was sweeter 

 than words can tell. Here, she adds, there were 

 no animals or birds, for God has reserved it for 

 mankind alone, so that he may dwell there un- 

 disturbed. This seems to strike a strange note 

 coming from the poetess Mechthild. How 

 different is her sentiment from that of her 

 brother-mystic, St. Francis, to whom the birds 

 were his " little sisters," and who " loved above 

 all other birds a certain little bird which is called 

 the lark." But though, with apparent satisfaction, 

 Mechthild saw no birds, she did see Enoch and 

 Elias, and greeted the former by questioning him 

 as to how he came there. Holy Writ has sup- 

 plied the only answer, " He walked with God, 

 and he was not,, for God took him." Having 

 spoken thus of the Earthly Paradise, Mechthild 

 goes on to tell of the Heavenly, where she sees, 

 " floating in rapture, as the air floats in the 

 sunshine," the souls which, though not deserving 

 of Purgatory, are not yet come into God's 

 kingdom, and to whom rewards and crowns 

 come not until they enter that kingdom. She 



1 The tendency of present-day Italian scholarship seems in 

 favour of identifying Mechthild of Hackeborn, rather than 

 Mechthild of Magdeburg, with Dante's Matelda. 



72 



