Of Six Mediaeval Women

who presided over the house from 1226 to 1257. Amongst her many good deeds, it is told of her that "with maternal piety and careful forethought, she built, for the use of both sick and sound, a new and large infirmary away from the main buildings," and that, besides caring thus for the bodily wants of her community, "she built there a place set apart for the refreshment of the soul, namely a chapel of the Blessed Virgin." The writer adds that "in numberless ways she provided for the worship of God and the welfare of the sisters," and that "she so conducted herself with regard to exterior affairs, that she seemed to have the spirit of a man rather than of a woman." The account is altogether delightful and informing, and should be read by any who would go in spirit to a mediæval convent. It is therefore not surprising that in the late Middle Ages a regard and reverence for womanhood gradually arose--a regard and reverence for woman not merely as the weaker vessel, but as the principle of all good and of m