40 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



she never laid aside her book except to pray or to strength- 

 en her slight frame with food or sleep. ' ' 1 She was thor- 

 oughly conversant with the books of the Old and the New 

 Testaments and was, at the same time, familiar with the 

 writings of the Fathers. It is not surprising, then, that 

 she was regarded as an oracle, and that all classes nocked 

 to her as they did to the abbess of Whitby for guidance 

 and assistance. 



From what has been said of the accomplishments and 

 achievements of the Anglo-Saxon nuns just mentioned, it 

 is evident that they were, of a truth, women of exceptional 

 worth and of sterling character. And it is equally clear 

 that their pupils must have shared in the education and 

 culture of their distinguished teachers. 2 Many of them, 

 in addition to having a wide acquaintance with literature, 

 sacred and profane, were also mistresses of several lan- 

 guages. A woman's education, at this time, was not com- 

 plete unless she could write Latin and speak it fluently. 

 The author of that most interesting early English work, 

 Ancren Riwle Kule of Anchoresses presupposes in his 

 auditors, for whose benefit his instructions were given, a 

 knowledge of Latin and French, as well as of English. In 

 certain convents Latin was almost the sole medium of 



1 Woman Under Monasticfem. Chapter IV, 2, by Lina Eeken- 

 stein, Cambridge, 1896. In this chapter is an interesting account of 

 the Anglo-Saxon nuns who were among the correspondents of Boni- 

 face. 



2 The reader will recall Chaucer 's account in the Canterbury Tales 

 of the wife of the well-to-do miller of Trumpyngton: 



"A wyf he hadde y-comen of noble kyn; 



She was y-fostred in a nonnerye. 



There dorste no wight clepen hir but 'Dame;' 



What for hire kynnrede and hir nortelrie, 

 That she had lerned in the nonnerie." 



Reeve's Tale. 



