AGNES SOREL 



as paramount, was on the wane. Hence spirit, 

 which had so long been restrained, and which is 

 ever in conflict with form, again prevailed, and 

 mankind discovered that a loving Mother had 

 taken the place of a stately Queen in the Heavens. 

 This attitude towards the Virgin is revealed in 

 the miracles attributed to her agency. It is also 

 shown in one of the greatest works of piety of 

 the thirteenth century, the Meditations on the Life 

 of yesus Christ^ 1 which, through the medium of 

 the " Mysteries," introduced into sacred pictorial 

 art some of its most dramatic and appealing 

 scenes. Where is there to be found anything 

 more tenderly human than the incident of 

 " Christ taking leave of His Mother " before 

 His journey to Jerusalem to consummate His 

 mission ? 



This note of the womanly element in its 

 fairest form, gradually insinuating itself more 

 and more, and permeating life, art, and litera- 

 ture, is the key to the right understanding of 

 the position which woman had attained in the 

 civilised world. 



Before turning our special attention to Agnes 

 Sorel, let us recall the condition of France at the 

 beginning of the fifteenth century. 



When the lunatic King Charles the Sixth 

 died in 1422, and Charles, his son, at the age 

 of nineteen, succeeded under the title of "King 



1 These meditations, attributed in the past, and by some even 

 now, to St. Bonaventura, are considered by other scholars to be 

 of Cistercian inspiration. P. Perdrizet, La Vierge de Mistricorde, 

 1908, p. 15. 



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