Woman under Monasticism

The educational influence of convents during centuries cannot be rated too highly. Not only did their inmates attain considerable knowledge, but education in a nunnery, as we saw from the remarks of Chaucer and others, secured an improved standing to those who were not professed. The fact that a considerable number of women’s houses after the monastic revival of the 11th and 12th centuries were founded largely at the instigation of men, proves that the usefulness of these institutions was generally recognised.

While devoted to reading and study which pre-eminently constituted the religious vocation, nuns during their leisure hours cultivated art in several of its branches. Spinning and weaving were necessarily practised in all settlements during many centuries, for the inmates of these settlements made the clothes which they wore. But weaving and embroidery, always essentially woman’s work, found a new development in the convent, and works of marked excellence were produced both in England and abroad. The painstaking industry, which goes far in the production of such work, was reflected in the activity of women as scribes and illuminators, and the names of several nuns who were famous for their writing have been handed down to posterity. In the twofold domain of learning and art the climax of productiveness was reached in the person of Herrad, in whom a wide range of intellectual interests and a keen appreciation of study combined with considerable artistic skill and a certain amount of originality.

Side by side with literary and artistic pursuits nuns were active in the cause of philanthropy. Several women who had the sufferings of their fellows at heart are numbered among the saints; and under the auspices of Hildegard a book was compiled on the uses of natural products in health and disease, which forms a landmark in the history of mediæval medicine.

With the consciousness of the needs of others came too a keener power of self-realisation. The attention of nuns was turned to the inner life, and here again their productiveness did not fail them. The contributions to mystical literature by nuns are numerous, and their writings, which took the form of spiritual biography, legendary romance, or devotional exercise, were greatly appreciated and widely read by their contemporaries. Even now-a-days they are recommended as devotional works by the Catholic Church.

We have seen that the position of the convent was throughout influenced by the conditions of the world outside it; changes in outside political, intellectual and social life necessarily made themselves felt in the convent. Consequent upon the spread of the feudal system of land tenure, which in the interest of an improved military organisation reserved the holding of property for men, women forfeited their chance of founding and endowing independent monasteries, and the houses founded after the monastic revival never attained a position comparable with that of those dating from the earlier period. As monasteries were theoretically safe against infringement of their privileges by prince or bishop owing to their connection with Rome, the relation of the Pope to temporal rulers and to the greater ecclesiastics directly affected them, and when the power of the Pope was relaxed they were at the mercy of prince and bishop. We have seen how kings of England appropriated alien priories, and how wilfully princes abroad curtailed the privileges of nunneries, the support of their prelates giving countenance to these changes. At a later period a considerable number of women’s convents were interfered with by churchmen, who on the plea of instituting reforms took advantage of their position to appropriate the convent property.

A change of a different kind which affected the convent in its educational and intellectual standing was the growth of university centres, and the increased facilities afforded to the student of visiting different centres in succession. In the 9th century Bede who never stirred from his convent might attain intellectual excellence; such a course was impossible in the 13th and 14th centuries when the centre of education lay in the disputations which animated the lecture room. Some of the progressive monasteries of men lessened the loss they felt by securing a house at the university to which they sent their more promising pupils, but the tone at the mediæval university was such that one cannot wonder that no attempt was made in this direction by the convents of women. As a natural result their intellectual standard for a time remained stationary, and then, especially in the smaller and remoter settlements, it fell. This led to a want of interest in intellectual acquirements among nuns, and it was accompanied by a growing indifference in the outside world to the intellectual acquirements of women generally.

Not that the desire to maintain a high standard had passed away from women’s convents. The readiness with which many houses adopted the chance of betterment held out to them by the congregations of the 15th century, goes far to prove that nuns continued to identify the idea of salvation with a high moral tone and an application to study. But study now ran along a narrow groove, for the monastic reformers favoured devotional study only. The nuns, who were impressed by the excellence of the reformers’ motives, and prevented by circumstances from forming opinions of their own in the matter, showed an increasing readiness to adopt their views. The friars led the way in this direction by cutting off the nuns, given into their care, from the management of outside affairs; they were followed by the order of Sion, and by the congregations of Bursfeld and Windesheim, all of which alike urged that the primary duty of a nun was sanctification of self. The interest of this movement lies in the voluminous devotional literature it called forth, a literature full of spiritual beauty, but in the production of which nuns, so far as we know, took no share. By writing out oral sermons they helped, however, to preserve and spread them. The change which had come over the convent life of women cramped rather than stimulated their intellectual vitality, and the system of which they made part was apparently beyond their control. The author of ‘Holy Maidenhood’ in the 13th century called the nun the free woman, and contrasted her with the wife who in his eyes was the slave. But Erasmus at the beginning of the 16th century urged that the woman who joined the convent by doing so became a slave, while she who remained outside was truly free. Erasmus also insisted on the fact that there was no reason why a woman should enter a convent, as she might as well stay in the world and remain unmarried if she so preferred. In point of fact social conditions had so far changed that society no longer called to the Church for protection of its daughters. For a time the convent ranked high as an educational establishment; then this use began to pass away also, and it was largely on account of the provision religious houses made for unmarried women that they still continued in favour with a portion of the community.

Many historians have advocated the view that the Protestant reformers discovered the abuses of the monastic system, and finding these intolerable, swept the whole system away. The evidence adduced above in connection with the dissolution shows that matters were far otherwise, that the dissolution of convents was accompanied by many regrettable incidents, and that as far as England is concerned, it may confidently be called premature. For many years those who sought progress by peaceful educational means seemed to be confronted only by hopeless and sanguinary confusion; they passed away with the belief that the whole movement they had witnessed was opposed to real progress, holding the view that the Protestants were innovators of the worst and most dangerous kind.

However, as far as convents are concerned, it seems as though the Protestant reformers, far from acting as innovators, had done no more than give violent and extreme application to forces which had for some time been at work. The dissolution was led up to by a succession of conventual changes, and before the outbreak of the Lutheran agitation, at least one well-wisher of the system in Germany, Tritheim, had despaired of putting this system to new and effective uses. Not that monasticism can be said to have generally outlived its purposes at the time of the Reformation. In some countries, as in France and Spain, it subsequently chronicled important developments. But where German elements were prevalent, convents were either swept away, or put to altogether different uses by the Protestants, or else allowed to continue on a very much narrowed basis by the Catholics. Many convents fell utterly to decay in course of time and ceased to exist at the beginning of this century, others again still linger on but are mere shadows of their former brilliant selves.

The reason for these changes lay not altogether with those who professed religion in convents, they were part of a wider change which remoulded society on an altered basis. For the system of association, the groundwork of mediæval strength and achievement, was altogether giving way at the time of the Reformation. The socialistic temper was superseded by individualistic tendencies which were opposed to the prerogatives conferred on the older associations. These tendencies have continued to the present with slight abatements, and have throughout proved averse to the continuation of monasticism which attained greatness through the spirit of association.

Repelled through the violence and aggressiveness of the reformers, and provoked by the narrowness of Protestantism generally, some modern writers take the view that the Reformation was throughout opposed to real progress, and that mankind would have been richer had the reformers left undisturbed many of the institutions they destroyed. The revenues of these institutions would now have been at the disposal of those who would put them to public and not to personal uses. As far as convents, especially those of women, are concerned, I cannot but feel sceptical on both points. Granting even that these houses had been undisturbed, a possibility difficult to imagine, experience proves that it is hardly likely they could now be used to secure advantages such as they gave to women in the past. Certainly it is not in those districts where women’s convents have lived on, securing economic independence to unmarried women as in North Germany, nor where they have lingered on along old lines as in Bavaria, that the wish for an improved education has arisen among women in modern times, nor does it seem at all likely that their revenues will ever be granted for such an object. It is in those countries where the change in social conditions has been most complete, and where women for a time entirely forfeited all the advantages which a higher education brings, and which were secured in so great a measure to women by convents in the past, that the modern movement for women’s education has arisen.

APPENDIX

(to accompany p. 253)Rhythmus Herradis Abatissae per quem Hohenburgenses virgunculas amabilitersalutat et ad veri sponsi fidem dilectionemque salubriter invitatSalve cohors virginumHohenburgiensium,Albens quasi liliumAmans dei filium.Herrat devotissima,Tua fidelissima,Mater et ancillula,Cantat tibi cantica.Te salutat milliesEt exoptat indies,Ut laeta victoriaVincas transitoria.O multorum speculum,Sperne, sperne seculum,Virtutes accumula,Veri sponsi turmula.Insistas luctamine,Diros hostes sternere,Te rex regum adjuvat,Quia te desiderat.Ipse tuum animumFirmat contra Zabulum.Ipse post victoriamDabit regni gloriam.Te decent deliciae,Debentur divitiae,Tibi coeli curia,Servat bona plurima.Christus parat nuptiasMiras per delicias,Hunc expectes principemTe servando virginem.Interim moniliaCircum des nobilia,Et exornes faciemMentis purgans aciem.Christus odit maculas,Rugas spernit vetulas,Pulchras vult virgunculas,Turpes pellit feminas.Fide cum turtureaSponsum istum reclama,Ut tua formositasFiat perpes claritas.Vivens sine fraudibusEs monenda laudibus,Ut consummes optimaTua gradus opera.Ne vacilles dubiaInter mundi flumina,Verax deus praemiaSpondet post pericula.Patere nunc asperaMundi spernens prospera.Nunc sis crucis socia,Regni consors postea.Per hoc mare naviga,Sanctitate gravida,Dum de navi exeasSion sanctam teneas.Sion turris coelicaBella tenens atria,Tibi fiat statio,Acto vitae spatio.Ibi rex virgineusEt Mariae filiusAmplectens te reclametA moerore relevet.Parvi pendens omniaTentatoris jocula,Tunc gaudebis pleniterJubilando suaviter.Stella maris fulgida,Virgo mater unica,Te conjugat filioFoedere perpetuo.Et me tecum trahereNon cesses praecamine,Ad sponsum dulcissimumVirginalem filium.Ut tuae victoriae,Tuae magnae gloriae,Particeps inveniatDe terrenis eruat.Vale casta concio,Mea jubilatio,Vivas sine crimine,Christum semper dilige.Sit hic liber utilis,Tibi delectabilisEt non cesses volvereHunc in tuo pectore.Ne more struthineoSurrepat oblivio,Et ne viam deserasAntequam provenias.Amen Amen AmenAmen Amen AmenAmen Amen AmenAmen Amen Amen.

1

The literature on this subject is daily accumulating. Among older authorities are Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht, 1861; Zmigrodski, Die Mutter bei den Völkern des arischen Stammes, 1886; Pearson, K., Ethic of Free Thought, 1888.

2

Kriegk, G. L., Deutsches Bürgerthum im Mittelalter, 1868, ch. 12-15.

3

Gregorius Tur., Hist. Eccles. 5, ch. 14, 16, 19.

4

Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 78.

5

Ibid. p. 881 ff.

6

Wuttke, Deutscher Volksaberglaube, 1869, p. 141; Weinhold, K., Deutsche Frauen, 1882, vol. 1, p. 73.

7

Rochholz, E. L., Drei Gaugöttinnen, 1870, p. 191.

8

Menzel, Christliche Symbolik, 1854, article ‘Haar.’

9

A. SS. Boll., St Gunthildis, Sept. 12.

10

Bouquet, Recueil Hist., vol. 5, p. 690. Capitulare incerti anni, nr 6, ‘ut mulieres ad altare non ingrediantur.’

11

Montalembert, Monks of the West, 1, p. 359.

12

Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, 1857, Introd. xix.

13

Rhys, J., Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom, 1888, p. 102.

14

Frantz, C., Versuch einer Geschichte des Marien und Annencultus, 1854, p. 54 ff.

15

Froissart, Chronicle, c. 162, in English translation; also Oberle, K. A., Ueberreste germ. Heidentums im Christentum, 1883, p. 153.

16

Menzel, Christ. Symbolik, 1854, article ‘Baum.’

17

Oberle, K. A., Ueberreste germ. Heidentums im Christentum, 1883, p. 144.

18

Menzel, Christl. Symbolik, 1854, article ‘Himmelfahrt.’

19

Ibid., article ‘Frauenberg’; also Oberle, K. A., Ueberreste germ. Heidentums im Christentum, 1883, p. 38.

20

Rochholz, Drei Gaugöttinnen, 1870, p. 81, calls it Walburg; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Traditions et légendes de la Belgique, 1870, p. 286, calls it Fro or Frigg.

21

Simrock, K., Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, 1887, p. 379; also Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 257.

22

Comp. below, p. 35.

23

Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 1, ch. 30.

24

On English calendars, Piper, F., Kalendarien und Martyrologien der Angelsachsen, 1862; Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887.

25

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858-62, vol. 2, Einleitung.

26

For France, Guettée, Histoire de l’Église de France, 1847-55, vol. 1, p. 1; for England, Bright, W., Early English Church History, 1878, pp. 1 ff.; for Germany, Friedrich, Kirchengeschichte, 1867, vol. 1, pp. 86 ff.

27

Ducange, Glossarium: ‘coenobium.’

28

Dupuy, A., Histoire de S. Martin, 1852, p. 176.

29

Gildas, Epistle, c. 66.

30

In Ireland we hear of nunneries founded by St Bridget in the fifth century, the chief of which was at Kildare; also that this saint crossed the Irish Sea and founded nunneries at Glastonbury in England and at Abernethy in Scotland. The accounts of the work of Bridget are numerous, but have not been subjected to criticism. Comp. A. SS. Boll., St Brigida, Feb. 1, and Lanigan, Eccles. History of Ireland, 1829, 1, pp. 377 ff.

31

Ambrosius, Opera (edit. Migne, Patrol. Cursus Comp. vol. 16), De virginibus, p. 187; (vol. 17) Ad virginem devotam, p. 579.

32

Hilarius, Opera (edit. Migne, vol. 10), Ad Abram, p. 547.

33

Blunt, J. J., Vestiges of Ancient Manners in Italy and Sicily, 1823, pp. 56 ff.

34

Menzel, W., Christl. Symbolik, 1854, article ‘Brust,’ makes this statement. I do not see where he takes it from.

35

A. SS. Boll., St Agatha, Feb. 5.

36

A. SS. Boll., St Agnes, Jan. 21; St Rosalia, Sept. 4.

37

A. SS. Boll., St Cunera, June 12.

38

Kist, N. C., in Kerkhistorisch Archiv, Amsterdam, 1858, vol. 2, p. 20.

39

Vita St Meinwerci, bishop of Paderborn (1009-39), written about 1155 (Potthast), c. 37.

40

Hautcœur, Actes de Ste Pharailde, 1882, Introduction, p. xc.

41

A. SS. Boll., Gloria posthuma St Bavonis, Oct. 1, p. 261.

42

Wauters, A., Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, 1852, vol. 3, pp. 111, 123 ff.

43

A. SS. Boll., Vita St Leodgarii, Oct. 2.

44

Roth, K. L., ‘St Odilienberg’ in Alsatia, 1856, pp. 91 ff.

45

Bonnell, H. E., Anfänge des karolingischen Hauses, 1866, pp. 51, 149 etc. It is noticeable that another woman-saint Ida (A. SS. Boll., St Ida, June 20) figures as ancestral mother of the Liudolfings, who became kings in Saxony and emperors of Germany, comp. Waitz, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich I. 1863, Nachtrag I.

46

Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 207.

47

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858-82.

48

Lebensgeschichte der heil. Othilia. Freiburg, 1852.

49

Alsatia, 1858-60, p. 268, contains local stories.

50

Roth, K. L., ‘St Odilienberg’ in Alsatia, 1856, p. 95.

51

Menzel, Christliche Symbolik, article ‘Knieen.’

52

Du Bois de Beauchesne, Madame Ste Notburg, 1888, pp. 85, 197 etc. Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, and A. SS. Boll. so far, omit her.

53

Lefebure, F. A., Ste Godeleine et son culte, 1888. A. SS. Boll., St Godelewa, July 6.

54

Wonderlyk Leven. Cortryk 1800, anon., pp. 42, 45 etc.

55

Comp. below, ch. 4, § 2.

56

Rochholz, L., Drei Gaugöttinnen, 1870, pp. 26, 80 etc.

57

Simrock, K., Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, p. 389.

58

Clouet, Histoire de Verdun, p. 180; A. SS. Boll., St Lucie, Sept. 9.

59

A. SS. Boll., St Germana, Oct. 1; Husenbeth, F. C., Emblems of the Saints, 1882.

60

Rochholz, L., Drei Gaugöttinnen, p. 164.

61

Zacher, J., St Genovefa Pfalzgräfin, 1860, p. 55.

62

Menzel, Christliche Symbolik, article ‘Aehre,’ refers to Notre Dame de trois épis in Elsass.

63

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, St Nothburga, nr 2.

64

Wauters, A., Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, 1, p. 302; Corémans, L’année de l’ancienne Belgique, 1844, p. 76.

65

A. SS. Boll., St Alena, June 19; Menzel, W., Christliche Symbolik, 1854, article ‘Arm.’ Corémans, L’année de l’ancienne Belgique, 1844, June 19.

66

Corémans, L’année etc., p. 77.

67

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Traditions et légendes de la Belgique, 1870, vol. 1, p. 99.

68

A. SS. Boll., St Gunthildis, Sept. 22.

69

Imagines SS. Augustanorum, 1601; also Stadler and Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, St Radegundis, nr 3.

70

Pharaildis has been depicted with one, A. SS. Boll., St Pharaildis, Jan. 4; also Verena, comp. below.

71

Husenbeth, F. C., Emblems of the Saints, 1870, mentions one instance.

72

Rochholz, Drei Gaugöttinnen, 1870, p. 7.

73

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon; A. SS. Boll., St Rolendis, May 13.

74

A. SS. Boll., St Edigna, Feb. 26.

75

A. SS. Boll., St Christiane, July 26.

76

Rochholz, L., Drei Gaugöttinnen, p. 37.

77

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858-82, St Radegundis, nr 3.

78

Ibid., Appendix, p. 998, footnote.

79

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Regina, nr 4.

80

Kist, N. C., ‘Reenensche Kuneralegende’ in Kerkhistorisch Archiv, Amsterdam, 1858, vol. 2, p. 5.

81

Stadler und Heim, Vollständiges Heiligenlexicon, 1858, St Sura.

82

A. SS. Boll., St Germana, Oct. 1.

83

Panzer, F., Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, 1848, pp. 5 ff., 272 ff.

84

Capgrave, Catalogus SS. Angliae, 1516.

85

Stanton, R., Menology of England and Wales, 1887.

86

Capgrave, Catalogus SS. Angliae, 1516. Comp. Surius, Vitae SS. 1617.

87

Hautcœur, Actes de Ste Pharailde, 1882, Introd. cxxviiii.

88

Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Traditions et légendes de la Belgique, 1870, vol. 1, p. 288.

89

Lefebure, Ste Godeleine et son culte, p. 209.

90

Wauters, A., Histoire des environs de Bruxelles, 1852, vol. 1, p. 304.

91

Rochholz, Drei Gaugöttinnen, 1870, p. 154.

92

Potthast, Wegweiser durch die Geschichtszwerke des europ. Mittelalters, 1862; Rochholz, loc. cit., p. 108, prints an early poetic version of the story in the vernacular.

93

Simrock, K., Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, 1887, p. 393.

94

Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, p. 254, footnote.

95

Corémans, L’année de l’ancienne Belgique, pp. 61, 113, 158.