50 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



those found in Dante's great masterpiece, there are not 

 wanting scholars who contend that the prototype of the 

 Matelda in the earthly paradise of the Purgatorio was 

 none other than one of the Matildas of the famous convent 

 of Helfta. 1 



The writings of Hroswitha, Hildegard, Herrad, Gertrude 

 and the Matildas, to speak of no others, are the best evi- 

 dence of the studious character of the nuns of mediaeval 

 times, and of their devotion to the cause of education. They 

 command, likewise, our admiration for the system of train- 

 ing which made such development possible, and show that, 

 in certain departments, the schools as then conducted were 

 on as high a plane as any we have to-day. 2 They show us, 

 too, that nuns and convent-bred women of the age in 

 question were of quite different mental calibre from that 

 of the "gentle lady of chivalry living in her bower, play- 

 ing upon her lute and waiting patiently for the return of 



*See Bevelationes Mechtildiana ac Gertrudiance, edit, Oudin, for 

 the Benedictines at Solesmes, 1875. 



2 In her scholarly work on Woman Under Monasticism, p. 479, 

 Lina Eckenstein writes as follows regarding the studies pursued in 

 the convents of the Middle Ages: 



"The contributions of nuns to literature, as well as incidental 

 remarks, show that the curriculum of study in the nunnery was as 

 liberal as that accepted by the monks, and embraced all available 

 writing whether by Christian or profane authors. While Scripture 

 and the writing of the Fathers of the Church at all times formed 

 the groundwork of monastic studies, Cicero at this period was read 

 by the side of Boethus, Virgil by the side of Martianus Capella, 

 Terence by the side of Isidore of Seville. Prom remarks made by 

 Hroswitha we see that the coarseness of the Latin dramatists made 

 no reason for their being forbidden to nuns, though she would have 

 seen it otherwise; and, Herrad was so far impressed by the wisdom 

 of the heathen philosophers of antiquity that she pronounced this 

 wisdom to be the 'product of the Holy Spirit also/ Throughout 

 the literary world, as represented by convents, the use of Latin was 

 general, and made possible the even spread of culture in districts 

 that were widely remote from each other and practically without 

 intercourse. ' ' 



