WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE 39 



woman as Hilda than under the superiors of the other 

 sex." 1 



Space precludes my telling of other convents which were 

 centers of literary activity, and of nuns who distinguished 

 themselves by their learning and by the benign influence 

 which they exerted far beyond the walls of the cloister. 

 I cannot, however, refrain from referring to that group 

 of learned English nuns who are chiefly known by their 

 Latin correspondence with St. Boniface, the Apostle of 

 Germany, and by the assistance which they gave him in 

 his arduous labors. Conspicuous among these was St. 

 Lioba, who, at the request of Boniface, left her home in 

 England to found a convent at Bischopsheim in Germany, 

 which, under the direction of its learned and zealous ab- 

 bess, soon became the most important educational center 

 in that part of Europe. Teachers were formed here for 

 other schools in Germany and Lioba 's biographer tells us 

 that there were few monasteries feminarum monasteries 

 of women within the sphere of Boniface's missionary ac- 

 tivities for which Lioba 's pupils were not sought as in- 

 structresses. 



Like her illustrious countrywoman, St. Hilda, the abbess 

 of Bischopsheim was the friend and counselor of spiritual 

 and temporal rulers. Charlemagne, that eminent patron 

 of scholars, had a great admiration for her and gave her 

 many substantial proofs of his esteem and veneration. 

 "Princes," writes her biographer, "loved her, noblemen 

 received her, and bishops gladly entertained her and con- 

 versed with her on the Scriptures and on the institutions 

 of religion, for she was familiar with many writings and 

 careful in giving advice. She was so bent on reading that 



iQp. cit., Book XI, Chap. II. 



It will interest the reader to know that Csedmon has a place 

 among the saints in the Ada Sanctorum of the Bollandists. See the 

 special article on him in Vol. II, p. 552, under the caption of "De 

 S. Cedmono, cantore theodidacto." 



