CHAPTER I

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WOMAN IN SCIENCE

With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle

for Things of the Mind

by

H. J. MOZANS, A.M., PH.D.

Author of "Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena,"

"Along the Andes and Down the Amazon," etc.

[Illustration]

Que e piu bella in donna que savere?

DANTE, CONVITO.

New York and London

D. Appleton and Company

1913

Copyright, 1913, by

D. Appleton and Company

Printed in the United States of America

TO

MRS. CHARLES M. SCHWAB

AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE

TO HER CHARMING PERSONALITY

GOODNESS OF HEART AND NOBILITY OF SOUL

THIS VOLUME

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

WITH THE BEST WISHES OF

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

The following pages are the outcome of studies begun many years ago in

Greece and Italy. While wandering through the famed and picturesque land

of the Hellenes, rejoicing in the countless beauties of the islands of

the Ionian and Aegean seas or scaling the heights of Helicon and

Parnassus, all so redolent of the storied past, I saw on every side

tangible evidence of that marvelous race of men and women whose

matchless achievements have been the delight and inspiration of the

world for nearly three thousand years. But it was especially while

contemplating, from the portico of the Parthenon, the magnificent vista

which there meets the charmed vision, that I first fully experienced the

spell of the favored land of Hellas, so long the home of beauty and of

intellect. The scene before me was indeed enchanting beyond expression;

for, every ruin, every marble column, every rock had its history, and

evoked the most precious memories of men of godlike thoughts and of

"A thousand glorious actions that may claim

Triumphal laurels and immortal fame."

It was a tranquil and balmy night in midsummer. The sun, leaving a

gorgeous afterglow, had about an hour before disappeared behind the

azure-veiled mountains of Ithaca, where, in the long ago, lived and

loved the hero and the heroine of the incomparable Odyssey. The full

moon, just rising above the plain of Marathon, intensified the witchery

of that memorable spot consecrated by the valor of patriots battling

victoriously against the invading hordes of Asia. Hard by was the

Areopagus, where St. Paul preached to the "superstitious" Athenians on

"The Unknown God." Almost adjoining it was the Agora, where Socrates was

wont to hold converse with noble and simple on the sublimest questions

which can engage the human mind. Not distant was the site of the

celebrated "Painted Porch," where Zeno developed his famous system of

ethics. In another quarter were the shady walks of the Lyceum, where

Aristotle, "the master of those who know," lectured before an admiring

concourse of students from all parts of Hellas. Farther afield, on the

banks of the Cephissus, was the grove of Academus, where the divine

Plato expounded that admirable idealism which, with Aristotelianism, has

controlled the progress of speculative thought for more than twenty

centuries, and enunciated those admirable doctrines which have become

the common heritage of humanity.

But where, in this venerable city--"the eye of Greece, mother of arts

and eloquence"--was the abode of Aspasia, the wife of Pericles and the

inspirer of the noblest minds of the Golden Age of Grecian civilization?

Where was that salon, renowned these four and twenty centuries as the

most brilliant court of culture the world has ever known, wherein this

gifted and accomplished daughter of Miletus gathered about her the most

learned men and women of her time? Whatever the location, there it was

that the wit and talent of Attica found a congenial trysting-place, and

human genius burst into fairest blossom. There it was that poets,

sculptors, painters, orators, philosophers, statesmen were all equally

at home. There Socrates discoursed on philosophy; there Euripides and

Sophocles read their plays; there Anaxagoras dilated upon the nature and

constitution of the universe; there Phidias, the greatest sculptor of

all time, and Ictinus and Callicrates unfolded their plans for that

supreme creation of architecture, the temple of Athena Parthenos on the

Acropolis. Like Michaelangelo, long centuries afterwards, who "saw with

the eyes and acted by the inspiration" of Vittoria Colonna, these

masters of Greek architecture and sculpture saw with the eyes and acted

by the sublime promptings of Aspasia, who was the greatest patron and

inspirer of men of genius the world has ever known.

I felt then, as I feel now, that this superb monument to the virgin

goddess of wisdom and art and science was in great measure a monument to

the one who by her quick intelligence, her profound knowledge, her

inspiration, her patronage, her influence, had so much to do with its

erection--the wise, the cultured, the richly dowered Aspasia.

This thought it was that started the train of reflections on the

intellectual achievements of women which eventually gave rise to the

idea of writing a book on woman's work in things of the mind.

The following day, as I was entering the University of Athens, I noticed

above the stately portal a large and beautiful painting which, on

inspection, proved, to my great delight, to be nothing less than a

pictorial representation of my musings the night before on the portico

of the Parthenon. For there was Aspasia, just as I had fancied her in

her salon, seated beside Pericles, and surrounded by the greatest and

the wisest men of Greece. "This," I exclaimed, "shall be the

frontispiece of my book; it will tell more than many pages of text." Nor

did I rest till I had procured a copy of this excellent work of art.

Shortly after my journey through Greece I visited the chief cities and

towns of Italy. I traversed the whole of Magna Graecia and, to enjoy the

local color of things Grecian and breathe, as far as might be, the

atmosphere which once enveloped the world's greatest thinkers, I stood

on the spot in Syracuse where Plato discoursed on the true, the

beautiful and the good, before enthusiastic audiences of men and women,

and wandered through the land inhabited by the ancient Bruttii, where

Pythagoras has his famous school of science and philosophy--a school

which was continued after the founder's death by his celebrated wife,

Theano. For in Crotona, as well as in Athens, and in Alexandria in the

time of Hypatia, women were teachers as well as scholars, and attained

to marked distinction in every branch of intellectual activity.

As I visited, one after the other, what were once the great centers of

learning and culture in Magna Graecia, the idea of writing the book

aforementioned appealed to me more strongly from day to day, but it did

not assume definite form until after I had tarried for some weeks or

months in each of the great university towns of Italy. And as I wended

my way through the almost deserted streets of Salerno, which was for

centuries one of the noblest seats of learning in Christendom, and

recalled the achievements of its gifted daughters--those wonderful

_mulieres Salernitanae_, whose praises were once sounded throughout

Europe, but whose names have been almost forgotten--I began to realize,

as never before, that women of intellectual eminence have received too

little credit for their contributions to the progress of knowledge, and

should have a sympathetic historian of what they have achieved in the

domain of learning.

But it was not until after I had visited the great university towns of

Bologna, Padua and Pavia, had become more familiar with their

fascinating histories and traditions, and surveyed there the scenes of

the great scholastic triumphs of women as students and professors, that

I fully realized the importance, if not the necessity, of such a work as

I had in contemplation. For then, as when standing in silent meditation

on the pronaos of the Parthenon, the past seemed to become present, and

the graceful figures of those illustrious daughters of _Italia la

Bella_, who have conferred such honor on both their country and on

womankind throughout the world, seemed to flit before me as they

returned to and from their lecture halls and laboratories, where their

discourses, in flowing Latin periods, had commanded the admiration and

the applause of students from every European country, from the Rock of

Cashel to the Athenian Acropolis.

Only then did the magnitude and the difficulty of my self-imposed task

begin to dawn upon me. I saw that it would be impossible, if I were to

do justice to the subject, to compass in a single volume anything like

an adequate account of the contributions of women to the advancement of

general knowledge. I accordingly resolved to restrict my theme and

confine myself to an attempt to show what an important role women have

played in the development of those branches of knowledge in which they

are usually thought to have had but little part.

The subject of my book thus, by a process of elimination, narrowed its

scope to woman's achievements in science. Many works in various

languages had been written on what women had accomplished in art,

literature, and state-craft, and there was, therefore, no special call

for a new volume on any of these topics. But, with the exception of a

few brief monographs in German, French and Italian, and an occasional

magazine article here and there, practically nothing had been written

about woman in science. The time, then, seemed opportune for entering

upon a field that had thus far been almost completely neglected; and,

although I soon discovered that the labor involved would be far greater

than I had anticipated, I never lost sight of the work which had its

virtual inception in the peerless sanctuary of Pallas Athena in the

"City of the Violet Crown."

Duties and occupations innumerable have retarded the progress of the

work. But not the least cause of delay has been the difficulty of

locating the material essential to the production of a volume that would

do even partial justice to the numerous topics requiring treatment. My

experience, _parva componere magnis_, was not unlike that of Dr.

Johnson, who tells us in the preface to his _Dictionary of the English

Language_, "I saw that one inquiry only gave occasion to another, that

book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and that

thus to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to

chase the sun, which, when they reached the hill where he seemed to

rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them."

Although I have endeavored to give a place in this work to all women who

have achieved special distinction in science, it is not unlikely that I

may have inadvertently overlooked some, particularly among those of

recent years, who were deserving of mention. Should this be the case, I

shall be grateful for information which will enable me to correct such

oversights and render the volume, should there be a demand for more than

one edition, more complete and serviceable. And, although I have striven

to be as accurate as possible in all my statements, I can scarcely hope,

in traversing so broad a field, to have been wholly successful. For all

shortcomings, whether through omission or commission,

"Quas aut incuria fudit,

Aut humana parum cavit natura,"

I crave the reader's indulgence, and trust that the present volume will

have at least the merit of stimulating some ambitious young Whewell to

explore more thoroughly the interesting field that I have but partially

reconnoitred, and give us ere long an adequate and comprehensive history

of the achievements of woman, not only in the inductive but in all the

sciences.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND 1

II. WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS 106

III. WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS 136

IV. WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 167

V. WOMEN IN PHYSICS 197

VI. WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY 214

VII. WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 233

VIII. WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 266

IX. WOMEN IN ARCHAEOLOGY 309

X. WOMEN AS INVENTORS 334

XI. WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE 356

XII. THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE 390

BIBLIOGRAPHY 419

INDEX 427

_Le donne son venute in excellenza

Di ciascun'arte, ove hanno posta cura;

E qualunque all'istorie abbia avvertenza,

Ne sente ancor la fama non oscura._

_What art so deep, what science so high,

But worthy women have thereto attained?

Who list in stories old to look may try,

And find my speech herein not false nor fain'd._

ARIOSTO, ORLANDO FURIOSO,

CANTO XX, STROPHE 2.

_Ad omnem igitur doctrinam ... muliebres

animos natura comparavit._

MARIA GAETANA AGNESI.

WOMAN IN SCIENCE

CHAPTER I

WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND

WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE

I purpose to review the progress and achievements of woman in science

from her earliest efforts in ancient Greece down to the present time. I

shall relate how, in every department of natural knowledge, when not

inhibited by her environment, she has been the colleague and the

emulatress, if not the peer, of the most illustrious men who have

contributed to the increase and diffusion of human learning. But a

proper understanding of this subject seems to require some preliminary

survey of the many and diverse obstacles which, in every age of the

world's history, have opposed woman's advancement in general knowledge.

Without such preliminary survey it is impossible to realize the

intensity of her age-long struggle for freedom and justice in things of

the mind or fully to appreciate the comparative liberty and advantages

she now enjoys in almost every department of intellectual activity.

Neither could one understand why woman's achievements in science,

compared with those of men, have been so few and of so small import,

especially in times past, or why it is that, as a student of nature or

as an investigator in the various realms of pure and applied science, we

hear so little of her before the second half of the nineteenth century.

To exhibit the nature of the difficulties woman has had to contend with

in every age and in every land, in order to secure what we now consider

her inalienable rights to things of the mind, it is not necessary to

review the history of female education, or to enter into the details of

her gradual progress forward and upward in the New and Old Worlds. But

it is necessary that we should know what was the attitude of mankind

toward woman's education during the leading epochs of the world's

history and what were, until almost our own day, the opinions of

men--scholars and rulers included--respecting the nature and the duties

of woman and what was considered, almost by all, her proper sphere of

action. Understanding the numerous and cruel handicaps which she had so

long to endure, the opposition to her aspirations which she had to

encounter, even during the most enlightened periods of the world's

history, and that, too, from those who should have been the first to

extend to her a helping hand, we can the better appreciate the extent of

her recent intellectual enfranchisement and of the value of the work she

has accomplished since she has been free to exercise those God-given

faculties which were so long held in restraint.

The first great bar to the mental development of woman was the assumed

superiority of the male sex, the opinion, so generally accepted, that,

in the scheme of creation, woman was but "an accident, an imperfection,

an error of nature"; that she was either a slave conducing to man's

comfort, or, at best, a companion ministering to his amusement and

pleasure.

From the earliest times she was regarded as man's inferior and relegated

to a subordinate position in society. She was, so it was averred, but a

diminutive man--a kind of mean between the lord of creation and the rest

of the animal kingdom. By some she was considered a kind of half man; by

others, as was cynically asserted, she was looked upon as a _mas

occasionatus_--a man marred in the making. She was, both mentally and

physically, what Spencer would call a man whose evolution had been

arrested, while man, as in the modern language of Darwin, was a woman,

whose evolution had been completed.

When such views prevailed, it was inevitable that, so long as physical

force was the _force majeure_, a woman should be relegated to the

position of a slave or to that of "a mere glorified toy." Every man then

said, in effect, if not in words, of the woman who happened to be in his

power what Petruchio said of Katherine:

"I will be master of what is mine own,

She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,

My household stuff, my field, my barn,

My horse, my ox, my ass, my everything."

Even after civilization had superseded savagery and barbarism, it was

still inevitable, so long as such views found acceptance, that woman

should continue to be held in vassalage and ignorance and to suffer all

the disabilities and privations of "the lesser man." She was studiously

excluded from civic and social functions and compelled to pass her life

in the restricted quarters of the harem or gyneceum. This was the case

among the Athenians, as well as among other peoples; for, during the

most brilliant period of their history, women, when not slaves or

hetaerae, were considered simply child-bearers or housekeepers.[1] A

girl's education, when she received any at all, was limited to reading,

writing and music, and for a knowledge of these subjects she was

dependent on her mother. From her earliest years the Athenian maiden was

made to realize that the great fountains of knowledge, which were

always available for her brothers, were closed to her. Her duty was to

become proficient in the use of the needle and the distaff, and, later

on, to learn how to embroider, to ply the loom and make garments for

herself and for the other members of her family.

Until she was seven years old, she was brought up with her brothers

under the eye of her mother. During this period of childhood she had a

certain amount of freedom, but, after her seventh year, she was kept in

the gyneconitis--women's quarters--"under the strictest restraint, in

order," as Xenophon informs us in his _Oeconomicus_, "that she might

see as little, hear as little and ask as few questions as possible." On

rare occasions she was permitted to be a spectator at a religious

procession, or to take part in certain of the choral dances that

constituted so important a part in the religious ceremonies of ancient

Greece. Whether in public or in private, silence was always considered

an imperative duty for a woman.

But more than this. Not only was she expected to observe silence

herself, but she was also expected so to conduct herself that no one

would have occasion to speak about her. Pericles, in a celebrated

discourse, gave expression to the prevailing opinion regarding this

phase of female excellence when, on a notable occasion, he addressed to

a certain number of women the following words: "Great will be your glory

in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be

hers who is least talked of among men whether for good or for evil."[2]

From the foregoing observations it will be seen that the general

attitude of the Athenians toward woman was anything but favorable to her

intellectual development, or to her exerting any influence beyond the

limits of her own household. And what is said of the Greeks can be

affirmed, with still greater emphasis, of the other nations of

antiquity. Indeed, it can be safely asserted that, had they all entered

into a solemn compact systematically to discredit woman's mental

capacity and to repress all her noblest aspirations, they could not have

succeeded more effectually than by the methods they severally adopted.

In ancient Greece the condition of woman was little better than it is in

India to-day under the law of Manu, where the husband, no matter how

unworthy he may be, must be regarded by the wife as a god.

And yet, notwithstanding the dominant force of public opinion and the

strange traditional prejudices that possessed for the majority of people

all the semblance and commanding power of truth, woman was here and

there able to break through the barriers that impeded her progress in

her quest of knowledge and to defy the social conventions that precluded

her from being seen or heard in the intellectual arena.

One of the first and most notable of Greek women to assert her

independence and to emerge from the intellectual eclipse which had so

long kept her sex in obscurity, was the Lesbian Sappho, who, as a lyric

poet, stands, even to-day, without a superior. So great was her renown

among the ancients that she was called "The Poetess," as Homer was

called "The Poet." Solon, on hearing one of her songs sung at a banquet,

begged the singer to teach it to him at once that he might learn it and

die. Aristotle did not hesitate to endorse a judgment that ranked her

with Homer and Archilochus, while Plato, in his Phaedrus, exalts her

still higher by proclaiming her "the tenth Muse." Horace and Ovid and

Catullus strove to reproduce her passionate strains and rhythmic beauty;

but their efforts were little better than paraphrase and feeble

imitation. Her features were stamped on coins, "though she was but a

woman," and, after her death, altars were raised and temples erected in

honor of this "flower of the Graces," of

"That mighty songstress, whose unrivaled powers

Weave for the Muse a crown of deathless flowers."

Second only to the "violet-crowned, pure, sweetly-smiling Sappho," as

her rival, Alcaeus, calls her, were Gorgo, Andromeda and Corinna. The

last of these was the teacher of Pindar, the celebrated lyric poet, whom

she defeated five times in poetic contests in Thebes.[3] She was one of

the nine lyrical muses, corresponding to "the celestial nine," who dwelt

on the sacred slopes of Helicon.[4] Telesilla and Praxilla were two

others. The last named was by her countrymen ranked with Anacreon.

Scarcely inferior to Corinna were those ardent pupils of Sappho, who had

flocked from the sunny isles of the Aegean and the laurel-crowned hills

of Greece around "the fair-haired Lesbian" in her island home, which

was, at the same time, a school of poetry and music. The most gifted of

these were Danophila, the Pamphylian, and Erinna, whose hexameters were

said by the ancients to reveal a genius equal to that of Homer. She died

at the early age of nineteen and has always excited a pathetic interest

because, like so many others of her sex since her time--women and

maidens of the loftiest spiritual aspirations,--she was condemned to the

spindle and the distaff when she wished to devote her life to the

service of the Muses. The following is her own epitaph:

"These are Erinna's songs, how sweet, though slight!

For she was but a girl of nineteen years.

Yet stronger far than what most men can write;

Had death delayed, whose fame had equaled hers?"

Never before nor since did such a wave of feminine genius pass over the

fragrant valleys and vine-clad plains of Greece. Never in any other

place or time shone so brilliant a galaxy of women of talent and

imagination; never was there a more perfect flowering of female

intelligence of the highest order. According to tradition, there

appeared in the favored land of Hellas, when the entire population of

the country was not equal to that of a fair-sized modern city, within

the brief space of a century, no fewer than seventy-six women poets.

When we remember that the Renaissance produced only about sixty female

poets, though in a more extended territory and with a much larger

population, and that none of them could approach the incomparable

Sappho, or even many of her pupils, in the perfection of their work, we

can realize the splendor of the achievements of the female intellect in

the Hellenic world during the golden age of feminine poetic art.[5]

One would think that this phenomenal outburst of mental vigor, and

especially the marvelous achievements of Sappho, Corinna and those of

their pupils and followers, would have compelled the world for all

subsequent time to recognize the innate power of the female mind, and

perceive the wisdom--not to say justice--of according to women the same

advantages for the development of their inborn gifts as were afforded to

men. They had proved that, under favorable conditions, there was

essentially no difference between the male and the female intellect, and

that genius knows no sex. And this they demonstrated not only in poetry,

but also in philosophy and in other branches of human knowledge as well.

Among those who had especially distinguished themselves were Hipparchia,

the wife of the philosopher Crates; Themista, the wife of Leon and a

correspondent of Epicurus, who was pronounced "a sort of female Solon";

Perictione, a disciple of Pythagoras, who distinguished herself by her

writings on _Wisdom_ and _The Harmony of Woman_, and Leontium, a

disciple and companion of Epicurus, who wrote a work against

Theophrastus, which was pronounced by Cicero a model of style.

And was not the school of Pythagoras at Crotona continued after his

death by his daughter and his wife, Theano? And did not this fact alone

manifest woman's capacity for abstract thought, as effectively as the

Lesbian school had demonstrated her talent for consummate verse?[6]

But it was all to no purpose. The comparative freedom and advantages

which Sappho, Corinna and their friends had enjoyed was soon--for some

reason scarcely comprehensible by us--taken from all the women of Greece

except the peculiar class known in history as _hetaerae_--companions.

These we should now rank among the _demimonde_, but the Greek point of

view was different from ours. The hetaerae were the friends and companions

of the men who spent most of their time in public resorts, and they

accompanied them to the gymnasium, to banquets, the games, to the

theater and other similar assemblies from which the wives and daughters

of the Athenians, during the golden age of Greece, were rigorously

excluded. For so great was the seclusion in which the wives of the

Greeks then lived that they never attended public spectacles and never

left the house, unless accompanied by a female slave. They were not

permitted to see men except in the presence of their husbands, nor could

they have a seat even at their own tables, if their husbands happened to

have male guests.

It was by reason of this strict seclusion and the enforced ignorance to

which they were subjected that we hear very little of the virtuous women

of this period of Greek history. We have records of a few instances of

filial and conjugal affection, but, outside of this, the names of the

wives and daughters of even the most distinguished citizens have long

since passed into oblivion. Only the hetaerae attracted public notice, and

only among them, during the period to which reference is now made, do we

find any women who achieved distinction by their intellectual

attainments, or by the influence which they exerted over those with whom

they were associated.

But strange as it may appear, these extra-matrimonial connections, far

from incurring the censure which they would now provoke, received the

cordial recognition of both legislators and moralists, and even those

who were considered the most virtuous among men openly entered into

these relations without exposing themselves to the slightest stigma or

reproach. Many of the hetaerae, contrary to what is sometimes thought,

were "of highly moral character, temperate, thoughtful and earnest, and

were either unattached or attached to one man, and to all intents and

purposes married. Even if they had two or three attachments but behaved

in other respects with temperance and sobriety, such was the Greek

feeling in regard to their peculiar position that they did not bring

down upon themselves any censure from even the sternest of the Greek

moralists."[7]

The most famous men of Greece, married as well as unmarried, had their

"companions," many of whom were as distinguished for their

accomplishments as for their wit and beauty. Thus Epicurus had Leontium,

Menander Glycera, Isocrates Metaneira, Aristotle Herpyllis, and Plato

Archlanassa, while Aristippus, the philosopher, Diogenes, the cynic, and

Demosthenes, the great orator, each had a companion bearing the name of

Lais.[8] More than this. So strongly had many of the hetaerae impressed

themselves on the esthetic sense of the beauty-loving Greeks that not a

few of them had statues erected in their honor, especially in Athens and

Corinth, and thus shared in the honor that hitherto had been reserved

exclusively for the goddess of beauty and love, fair Aphrodite.

The hetaerae from Ionia and Aetolia were particularly conspicuous for their

intelligence and culture. And all of them, whencesoever they came,

enjoyed unrestricted liberty and, unlike the wives of the citizens of

Athens, had free access to the Portico and the Academy and the Lyceum,

and were permitted to attend the lectures of the philosophers on the

same footing as the men. Thus, to mention only a few, Thais was a pupil

of Alciphron, Nicarete of Stilpo, and Lasthenia of Plato.

And so keen were their intellects and so marked was their progress in

the most abstract studies, that many of them were recognized as the most

distinguished pupils of their masters. This accounts, in part, for the

popularity of their salons, at which were gathered the most eminent

statesmen, poets, artists, philosophers and orators of the day. The

nearest approach in modern times to such trysting-places, where beauty,

wit and talent found a congenial atmosphere, were the celebrated salons

of Ninon de Lenclos, Mlle. de l'Espinasse and Mme. du Deffand. At these

reunions were discussed, not only the news of the day, but also, and

especially, art, science, literature and politics, and always to the

advantage of both guests and hostesses.

Possessing such freedom and enjoying such splendid opportunities for

culture and intellectual advancement, it is not surprising that the

hetaerae played so remarkable a role in the social and civic life of

Greece, and that they were able to wield such influence over their

associates, and that they often attained even the highest royal honors.

Nor is it surprising to read in Plato's _Symposium_ the splendid tribute

which Socrates renders to Diotima of Mantinea, when, in discussing the

true nature of divine and eternal beauty, he speaks of her as his

teacher.

Many of the hetaerae were not only the models but also the inspirers of

the most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity. Thus, Lais was the

companion and inspirer of Apelles, the most noted painter of Greece,

while Phryne, said to have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived,

was the inspirer of the peerless Praxitiles, who, in reproducing her

form, succeeded in bequeathing to the world what was undoubtedly the

most lovely representation of "the human form divine" that ever came

from a sculptor's chisel.[9]

On account of the relations of the hetaerae, especially those of the

fourth and fifth centuries B.C., with the greatest men of their time,

the writers of antiquity thought them of sufficient importance to

preserve their history. One author has left us an account of no fewer

than one hundred and thirty-five of them. But, of all those whose names

have come down to us, by far the most noted, accomplished and

influential was the famous Aspasia of Miletus. In many respects she was

the most remarkable woman Greece ever produced. Of rare talent and

culture, of extraordinary tact and finesse, of a fascinating personality

combined with the grace and sensibility of her sex, together with a

masculine power of intellect, "this gracious Ionian," as has well been

said, "stands with Sappho on the pinnacle of Hellenic culture, each in

her own field the highest feminine representative of an esthetic race."

At an early age she won the passionate love of the great statesman

Pericles, after which she entered upon that marvelous career which

secured for her a place in the front rank of the most eminent women of

all time. "Her house became the resort of all the great men of Athens.

Socrates was often there. Phidias and Anaxagoras were intimate

acquaintances, and probably Sophocles and Euripides were in constant

attendance. Indeed, never had any woman such a salon in the whole

history of man. The greatest sculptor that ever lived, the grandest man

of all antiquity, philosophers and poets, sculptors and painters,

statesmen and historians, met each other and discussed congenial

subjects in her rooms. And probably hence has arisen the tradition that

she was the teacher of Socrates in philosophy and politics, and Pericles

in rhetoric. Her influence was such as to stimulate men to their best,

and they attributed to her all that was best in themselves. Aspasia

seems especially to have thought earnestly on the duties and destiny of

women. The cultivated men who thronged her assemblies had no hesitation

in breaking through the conventionalities of Athenian society, and

brought their wives to the parties of Aspasia; and she discussed with

them the duties of wives. She thought they should be something more than

mere mothers and housewives. She urged them to cultivate their minds,

and be in all respects fit companions for their husbands."[10]

She is said to have written some of the best speeches of Pericles--among

them his noted funeral oration over those who had died in battle before

the walls of Potidaea. As to Socrates, he himself explicitly refers to

her, in the _Memorabilia_, as his teacher. She is a notable character in

the Socratic dialogues and appears several times in those of Aeschines,

while there is every reason to believe that she strongly influenced the

views of Plato, as expressed by him in the _Republic_ respecting the

equality of woman with man.

She was continually consulted regarding affairs of state, and her

influence in social and political matters was profound and far-reaching.

This is evidenced by the abuse heaped upon her by the comic dramatists

of the time. Referring to the ascendancy which she had over Pericles,

she was called Dejanira, the wife of Hercules; Hera, the queen of the

gods and wife of the Olympian Jove. It was asserted by her enemies that

the Samian war had been brought about at her instigation and that the

Peloponnesian war had been undertaken to avenge an insult which had been

offered her. These and similar statements which, when not absurd, were

greatly exaggerated, show the boundless influence she wielded over

Pericles, and what an important part she took in the government of

Greece in the zenith of its glory.

But, however great her influence, we are warranted in asserting that it

was never exercised in an illegitimate manner. She was ever, as history

informs us, the good, the wise, the learned, the eloquent Aspasia. It

was her goodness, her wisdom, her rare and varied accomplishments, her

clear insight and noble purposes that gave her the wonderful power she

possessed and which enabled her, probably more than any one person, to

make the age of Pericles not only the most brilliant age of Greek

history, but also the most brilliant age of all time.[11]

But, notwithstanding the beneficent influence which Aspasia ever exerted

on those about her, notwithstanding the heroic efforts she had made to

liberate her own sex from the restrictions that had so long harassed and

degraded it, the wives and daughters of the citizens of Athens were

still kept in almost absolute seclusion and denied the opportunities of

mental culture which were so generously accorded the free-born hetaerae

from Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean. Socrates, as we learn from

Xenophon, asserted woman's equality with man, while Plato taught that

mentally there was no essential difference between man and woman. He

concluded, accordingly, that women of talent should have the same

educational advantages as men. In _The Republic_ as well as in the

_Laws_, when he refers to education--which he would make compulsory for

"all and sundry, as far as possible"--his views are far in advance of

those which have been entertained until the last half century. He would

have girls as well as boys thoroughly instructed in music and

gymnastic--"music for the mind and gymnastic for the body."[12]

In the _Laws_ he contends that "women ought to share, as far as

possible, in education and in other ways with men. For consider:--if

women do not share in their whole life with men, then they must have

some other order of life."

Again he asserts "Nothing can be more absurd than the practice which

prevails in our own country of men and women not following the same

pursuits with all their strength and with one mind, for thus the state,

instead of being a whole, is reduced to a half."[13]

In _The Republic_ he expresses the same idea when he affirms that "the

gifts of nature are alike diffused in both"--men and women--"all the

pursuits of men are the pursuits of women."[14]

These opinions of Socrates and Plato are so at variance with those of

their contemporaries, and so contrary to the custom that then obtained

of excluding all but free-born hetaerae from the advantages of education

and culture, that we cannot but think that they were due to the profound

influence which had been exercised directly or indirectly by Aspasia on

both of these great philosophers. Be this as it may, neither the efforts

of Aspasia nor the teachings of Socrates and Plato were able to remove

the bars to intellectual development from which the women of Greece had

so long suffered. A change in customs and laws concerning the rigid,

oriental seclusion of women did not come until much later, and then it

was under a new regime--that of the Caesars--while complete equality of

men and women in school and college was not recognized until long

centuries afterward.

It is interesting to speculate regarding what Greece would have become

had she developed her women as she developed her men. Never in the

history of the world were there in any one city so many eminent

men--poets, orators, statesmen, painters, sculptors, architects,

philosophers--as in Athens, and yet not a single native-born Athenian

woman ever attained the least distinction in any department of art or

science or literature. We cannot conceive for a moment that Greece's

fertility in great men and barrenness in great women was due to the fact

that the mothers of such illustrious men were ordinary housewives and

entirely devoid of the talent and genius which gave immortality to their

distinguished sons. The careers of Aspasia and the achievements of

Sappho, Corinna, Myrtides, Erinna, Praxilla, Telesilla, Myrus, Anytae and

Nossidis, Theano and her daughter, to mention no others, absolutely

preclude such an assumption.

The women in Greece, there can be no doubt about it, were as richly

endowed by nature as were the men, and only lacked the opportunities

that men enjoyed to achieve, in every sphere of intellectual activity, a

corresponding measure of success. They were extraordinary types, these

women of ancient Greece; for among them we find the dignified Roman

matron, the chatelaine of the Middle Ages, the brilliant woman of the

Renaissance and the cultured mistress of the French _salon_. But all

their talent, power and genius counted for naught.

Had the civilization of Greece been a woman's civilization, as well as a

man's civilization, had there been a federation of all the Greek states,

as Aspasia seems to have striven for, instead of a number of small and

independent city-states; had the women of Hellas been allowed the same

liberty of action in intellectual work as was granted to the Italian

women during and after the revival of letters, and had they been

encouraged to develop all their latent powers that were so

systematically suppressed, and to work in unison with the men for the

welfare and advancement of a united nation, it is difficult to imagine

what a dazzling intellectual zenith a supremely gifted people, "full

summ'd in all their powers," would have attained. Their capacity for

work and for achieving great things would have been doubled and their

power as a political organization would have been practically

irresistible.

"We are the only women that bring forth men," said Gorgo, the wife of

Leonidas. The Spartan mothers, who had more of liberty than their

Athenian sisters, did, indeed, bring forth warriors of undying renown;

but it was the mothers of Athens who, notwithstanding all their

grievous disabilities, gave to the world all the greatest masters in

art, literature, and philosophy--the men who through the ages have been

the leaders and the teachers of humanity, and who seem destined to hold

their exalted position until the end of time.

The failure of the men of Greece to avail themselves of the immense

potential power, which they always kept latent in their women, was the

occasion of a terrible nemesis in the end. For this failure, coupled

with the frightful license introduced by a class of educated women, like

the hetaerae, without legal status or domestic ties, and the wave of

corruption that subsequently followed the advent of the countless

dissolute women who flocked to the Hellenic cities from every part of

the East, paved the way for the nation's downfall and for its ultimate

conquest by the resistless Roman legions that swept the once glorious

but ill-fated country of Pericles and Aspasia.

WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME

The condition of women in Rome, especially from 150 B.C. to 150 A.D.,

was quite different from what it was in Athens, even during her palmiest

days. Owing to the lack of authentic documents we know but little of the

history of the Roman people during the first five hundred years of their

existence, but we do know that during this period many and important

changes were effected regarding the social and civil status of women.

In the first place the Roman matron had much more freedom than was

accorded the Greek wife during the age of Pericles. Far from being kept

in oriental seclusion, like her Athenian sister, she was at liberty to

receive and dine with the friends of her husband, and to appear in

public whenever she desired. She went to the theater and the Forum; she

took part in all reputable entertainment, whether public or private.

Besides this, she had more and greater legal rights than Greek women

had ever known, and was treated rather as the peer and companion of man

than as his toy or his slave.

Besides this, foreign women were never so conspicuous in Rome as in

Athens. Even after Greece had become a Roman province, and after _Graecia

capta Romam cepit_--when Greek ideas and Greek customs were introduced

into the capital of the Roman world--it was still the Roman matron that

was supreme. And, although many Greek women, some of them of rare beauty

and culture, found their way to Rome, especially under the empire, they

were always kept in the background and never succeeded in achieving

anything approaching the ascendancy which distinguished them during the

time of Aspasia. Their influence in literature and politics was almost

_nil_.

In the case of the women of Rome, on the contrary, it may well be

questioned whether woman has ever wielded a greater influence than she

did during the three centuries that followed the reign of Augustus. But

she did not attain to this position of preeminence without a long and

bitter struggle. Every advance toward the goal of social and

intellectual equality was strenuously contested by the men, who wished

to limit the activities of their wives to the spindle, the distaff and

the loom and the other occupations of the household. For, as in Greece,

the generally accepted view was that woman, in the language of Gibbon,

"was created to please and obey. She was never supposed to have reached

the age of reason or experience." And her noblest epitaph, it was

averred, was couched in the following words:

"She was gentle, pious, loved her husband, was skillful at

the loom and a good housekeeper."[15]

As to her mental work, far from being considered on its own merits or as

a factor in the world's growth, it was flouted as

"Mere woman's work

Expressing the comparative respect

Which means the absolute scorn."

As early as 450 B.C., when the laws of the Twelve Tables were

promulgated, the girls of Rome received instruction in reading, writing

and arithmetic. "Up before dawn, with a lamp to light the way, and an

attendant to carry her satchel, the little Roman maiden of seven years,

or over, would trudge off to the portico where the schoolmaster wielded

his rod.[16] For some years this life continued, with but few holidays,

and those far between, until she attained some proficiency in the

rudiments. Then, most probably, her education in the scholastic sense

came to an end. Her brothers and boy schoolmates, if their parents

wished it, could proceed from the primary school to the secondary, where

geography, history and ethics were taught; where the art of elocution

was assiduously practiced and the works of the great Greek and Roman

poets were carefully read and expounded; but it was enough for the girl

to have learned how to read, write and cipher; she had then to learn her

domestic duties."[17]

With the extension of the empire and the consequent enormous increase in

wealth and the rapid progress in social and intellectual freedom, there

was a notable change in the character of the education given to women,

at least to those of the wealthier and patrician families. This was, in

great measure, due to the wave of Hellenism which, shortly after the

conquest of Greece, broke upon the Roman capital with such irresistible

force. To the large and rapidly increasing number of women of keen

intellect and lofty aspirations, whose minds had hitherto been confined

to the comparatively barren field of Roman letters, the splendid

creations of Greek genius came as a revelation. To become thoroughly

versed in Greek poetry and proficient in the teachings of Greek

philosophy was the ambition of scores of Roman women, who soon became

noted for the extent and variety of their attainments, as well as for

their rare culture and charming personality.

Among the pioneers of the intellectual movement in Rome, and one of the

most beautiful types of the learned women of her time, was the

celebrated daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus--Cornelia, mother of

the Gracchi. She is famous on account of her devotion to her two sons,

Tiberius and Caius. She was their teacher; and it was her educated and

refined mind that, more than anything else, contributed to the formation

of those splendid characters for which they were so highly esteemed by

their countrymen. Plutarch informs us that these noble sons of a noble

mother "were brought up by her so carefully that they became beyond

dispute the most accomplished of Roman youth; and, thus, they owed

perhaps more to their excellent upbringing than to their natural

parts."[18] One is not surprised to learn that this noble lady was

almost idolized by the Romans, and that they erected a statue to her

with the inscription, "Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi."

Scarcely less distinguished and accomplished was another Cornelia, the

wife of Pompey, the Great. "Besides her youthful beauty," writes

Plutarch, in his _Life of Pompey_, "she possessed other charms, for she

was well versed in literature, in playing on the lyre, and in geometry,

and she had been used to listen to philosophical discourses with profit.

Besides this, she had a disposition free from all affectation and

display of pedantry--blemishes which such acquirements usually breed in

women."[19]

Then there was the cultured and devoted Aurelia, the mother of Julius

Caesar. It is safe to say that this eminent man was as much indebted to

his mother for his success and greatness as were Tiberius and Caius

Gracchus to the benign influence and careful teachings of the gentle and

virtuous Cornelia. Highly educated and of commanding personalities, both

these women, like many others of their time, contributed much to the

making of Roman history by the success they achieved in molding the

characters of some of the greatest men of their own or of any age.

It is a splendid tribute that Cicero, in his _Orator_, pays to Laelia

when he tells of the purity of her language and the charm of her

conversation. "When I listen," he declares, "to my mother-in-law,

Laelia--for women preserve the traditional purity of accent the best

because, being limited in their intercourse with the multitude, they

retain their early impressions--I could imagine that I hear Plautus or

Naevius speaking, the pronunciation is so plain and simple, so perfectly

free from all affectation and display; from which I infer that such was

the accent of her father and his ancestors--not harsh like the

pronunciation to which I have just referred, not broad nor rustic nor

rugged, but terse, smooth and flowing."[20]

These are a few of the cultured and learned women who shed glory on

their country by the refining influence which they exerted in the quiet

and unostentatious precincts of the family circle. But there were others

who chose a wider field for their activities, and who, by reason of

their unerring judgment, well-poised and highly cultivated minds, had so

won the confidence of the nation's greatest leaders that they were

frequently consulted on important affairs of state. Thus, Cicero tells

us of an interview which he had at Antium with Brutus and Cassius.

Besides the men, there were present on this occasion three women, who

took an active part in the discussion. These were Servilia, the mother

of Brutus, Porcia, the wife of Brutus and the daughter of Cato, and

Tertulla, the wife of Cassius and sister of Brutus. The views of the

women were not without effect, and so confident was Servilia of her

power that she engaged to have a certain clause in one of the decrees of

the Senate expunged. This is but one of many similar instances which

might be adduced from the lives of the women of Rome who took an active

part in politics. As we learn from Tacitus, their counsels and

assistance were considered of peculiar value by the Commonwealth. For,

when some of the sterner old moralists wished to exclude women from all

participation in public affairs, the Senate, after a heated debate,

decided by a large majority that the cooperation of women in questions

of administration, far from being a menace, as some contended, was so

beneficial to the state that it should be continued.

Among other noteworthy makers of Roman history, besides those just

mentioned, is Livia, the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius. So

great was her influence and so persistent was her activity in government

affairs, that it is sometimes asserted that she was the prime mover of

most of the public acts of both these rulers. This woman, whom Ovid

describes as having the features of Venus and the manner of Juno, and

who, he declares, "held her head above all vices," was credited with

having the benevolence of Ceres, the purity of Diana and the wisdom and

craft of Minerva--"a woman," as was said by one of her contemporaries,

"in all things more comparable to the gods than to men, who knew how to

use her power so as to turn away peril and advance the most deserving."

Then there was the gracious, the virtuous, the self-sacrificing Octavia,

sister of the Emperor Augustus, who was so successful in composing grave

differences between her brother and her husband, and who so exerted her

influence for peace during the troublous times in which she lived that

she lives in history as a peacemaker. In marked contrast to this gentle

and sympathetic woman was the energetic and heroic Agrippina, the wife

of Germanicus. In many respects she was the most commanding personality

of her age, and exhibited in an eminent degree those sterling qualities

which we are wont to associate with the strong, dignified, courageous

women of ancient Rome, who gave to the world so many and so great men in

every sphere of human endeavor. "She was," as Tacitus informs us, "a

greater power in the army than legates and commanders, and she, a woman,

had quelled a mutiny which the emperor's authority could not check."[21]

She was, indeed, as has well been said, "a woman to whom one might

address an epic but never a sonnet."

I have referred to these distinguished women because they are

embodiments of the best types of the noble, patrician families who made

the great Roman empire the admiration of all time, and because they

exhibit the wonderful advance that had been made in the general status

of women since the days of Pericles and Aspasia. I have referred to

them, also, to show what women are capable of achieving in the difficult

and complicated affairs of public life, when they are accorded the

necessary freedom of action and when they are properly equipped for work

by education and by association with men of learning and experience.

Comparing the secluded and illiterate Greek wife with the free and

highly accomplished Roman matron, we find almost as much difference

between the two as there is between a child and a fully developed

woman--all the difference there was between the unsophisticated young

wife, not quite fifteen, of whom Xenophon gives us such a charming

picture,[22] and the highly educated and competent mother of the

Gracchi.

Of the Greek maiden we are told that, before her marriage she "had been

most carefully brought up to see and hear as little as possible and to

ask the fewest questions"; that her whole experience before her marriage

"consisted in knowing how to take the wool and make a dress, and in

seeing how her mother's handmaidens had their daily spinning tasks

assigned to them." Cornelia, on the contrary, was not only, as we have

seen, highly accomplished, but also one who, after her husband's death,

was quite prepared, as Plutarch assures us, to undertake the management

of the extensive property which he left his family, and who, we may well

believe, would also have been qualified, had the occasion demanded it,

to perform with distinction the same duties that fell to the lot of the

gifted wives of Germanicus and Augustus.

Nothing in the history of Greek and Roman womanhood more strikingly

illustrates than the two instances given the vast difference in the

status of the wives of Greece and Rome, or exhibits more clearly the

advantages accruing to early training and thorough mental development.

If there was any difference in talent or intellect between the Greek and

the Roman woman it was, so far as we can determine, in favor of the

Greek. The sole reason, then, for such a marked difference in their

capacity for work and for achieving distinction in intellectual and

administrative fields of action arose from the lack of education in the

Athenian wife and the fullest measure of educational freedom enjoyed by

the Roman. That Aspasia, in spite of all the odds against her, was able

to rise to such a pinnacle of glory does not prove that she was the

superior of her countrywomen--the mothers of the greatest poets, artists

and philosophers of all time--but it exhibits rather her good fortune in

being able to effect a partnership with the greatest statesman of

Greece, and one who was at the same time fully able to appreciate all

her rare mental attainments and give her marvelous genius free scope for

development by cooperating with him in making the period during which he

held the reign of power the most brilliant one in the annals of human

progress.

Plato, referring to the oriental seclusion to which Athenian wives were

condemned, speaks of them as "a race used to living out of the

sunshine," and that, too, among a people that habitually lived out of

doors. We have already seen how much greater freedom Roman women enjoyed

and how much more important was the role they played in public as well

as private life; but we have not told all. They not only went to, but

presided over, public games and religious ceremonies. They were admitted

to aristocratic clubs and had, under the empire, a regular assembly or

senate of their own, known as the _Conventus Matronarum_. Hortensia, the

daughter of the great orator Hortensius, pleaded the cause of her sex

before the tribunal of the triumvirs, and so eloquent and effective was

her speech that she not only won her case, but also won the praise of

the critic, Quintilian, for her splendid oratorical effort.

Yet more. A certain woman in the Roman possessions in Africa had so

impressed her fellow citizens by her intellectual capacity and

administrative ability that she was chosen as one of the two chief

magistrates of the place. She is known in history as Messia Castula,

_duumvira_. It is true that the men of the older school, who would limit

woman's activities to the distaff and the loom, strongly objected to the

increasing freedom and power of women, and endeavored to counteract

their influence; but all to no purpose. And it was the crabbed old Cato,

the Censor, who growled in undisguised disgust:--"We Romans rule over

all men and our wives rule over us."

But great as were the freedom and educational advantages of the Roman

women, the startling fact remains that, with the exception of a few

fragmentary verses of slight merit and of questionable authenticity, we

have absolutely no tangible evidence of the Roman woman's literary

ability while under pagan influence. We have seen, in considering her

intellectual attainments--especially after the introduction of Greek art

and letters into the City of the Seven Hills--that every woman who

pretended to culture was obliged to be familiar with the Greek as well

as with the Latin authors, that her education was deemed incomplete

without a knowledge of Greek poetry, oratory, history and philosophy,

but the fact is indisputable that Roman women were not producers like

their Greek sisters, and that in no instance did their productions reach

anything like the supreme excellence of the creations of a Corinna or a

Sappho. There was, it is true, Sulpicia, of whom Martial writes: "Let

every girl, whose wish it is to please a single man, read Sulpicia; let

every man, whose wish it is to please a single maid, read Sulpicia;"

but, if the few amatory verses that are credited to her represent the

highest flights of the Roman women in the domain of poetry, then,

indeed, were they far behind not only Sappho and Corinna, but also far

behind scores of their pupils. Martial does indeed speak of a young

maiden in whom were combined the eloquence of Plato with the austere

philosophy of the Porch, and who wrote verses worthy of a chaste Sappho;

but this was evidently a great exaggeration, for we have no other

evidence of her existence.

The creative work of Roman women was, so far as we are able to judge,

quite as limited in prose as it was in poetry. Agrippina, the mother of

Nero, was one of the few prose writers whose name has come down to us.

From her memoirs it was that Tacitus received much of the material

incorporated in his _Annals_.

That some of the women had literary ability of a high order is indicated

by a letter of Pliny to one of his correspondents, in which occurs the

following passage:

"Pomponius Saturninus recently read me some letters which he averred had

been written by his wife. I believed that Plautus or Terence was being

read in prose. Whether they were really his wife's, as he maintains, or

his own, which he denies, he deserves equal honor, either because he

composes them or because he has made his wife, whom he married when a

mere girl, so learned and so polished."[23]

Scarcely less distinguished for her taste in literature, and for her

talent as a letter writer, was Pliny's wife, Calphurnia, who, at his

request, wrote to him in his absence every day and sometimes even twice

a day. According to Cicero, his daughter Tulia was "the best and most

learned of women"; but her literary work, it is probable, did not extend

much beyond her letters to her illustrious father. Nevertheless, what

would we not give to possess these letters--to have as complete a

collection of them as we have of those of the great orator and

philosopher. They would be of inestimable value and would be absolutely

beyond compare, except, possibly, with the letters of Mme. du Deffand or

of Elizabeth Barrett Browning of a much later age.

Considering the number of educated women that lived in the latter days

of the Republic and during the earlier part of the Empire, and their

well known culture and love of letters, it is reasonable to suppose that

they may have written much in both prose and verse of which we have no

record. Literary productions must have more than ordinary value to

survive two thousand years, and especially two thousand years of such

revolutions and upheavals as have convulsed the world since the time of

the _Pax Romana_, when all the world was at peace under Augustus.

How much of the literary work of the women of to-day will receive

recognition twenty centuries hence? Some of it may, it is true, find a

place in the fireproof libraries of the time; but who, outside of a few

antiquarians, will take the trouble to read it or estimate its value? A

few anthologies containing our gems of prose and poetry will probably be

all that our fortieth century readers will deem worthy of notice. In

view of the chaotic condition of Europe for so many centuries, the

wonder is not that we have so little of the literary remains of Greece

and Rome, but rather that we have anything at all.

As one might expect, the literary women of Rome, as well as those who

ventured to take part in public affairs, had their critics. The

satirists of the time were as unsparing of their ridicule as they were

long afterward when Moliere wrote his _Femmes Savantes_ and his

_Precieuses Ridicules_. And as for men of the old conservative type, a

learned woman was as much an object of horror as is a militant

suffragette in conservative England to-day. "No learned wife for me,"

exclaims Martial, "but rather a well-fed slave."[24]

And Juvenal had no more love for educated women than have some of our

contemporaries for a blue-stocking housekeeper. He gives his opinion of

them in the following characteristic fashion:

"That woman is a worse nuisance than usual who, as soon as she reclines

on her couch, praises Virgil; makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits bards

against one another and compares them, and weighs Homer and Mars in the

balance. Teachers of literature give way, professors are vanquished, the

whole mob is hushed, and so great is the torrent of words that no lawyer

or auctioneer may speak, nor any other woman."[25]

But if learned women had their enemies and detractors they also had

friends and defenders. Among these was the Stoic philosopher, C.

Musonius Rufus, who lived in the time of Nero. Like Plato, he contended

that women should have the same training as men and that the faculties

of both should be equally developed. The gist of his teaching is

contained in the statement that:

"If the same virtues must pertain to men and women, it follows,

necessarily, that the same training and education must be suitable for

both."[26]

Our brief sketch of women's work in ancient Rome would be incomplete

without some reference to the famous _Ecclesia Domestica_--Church of the

Household--on the Aventine, and the distinguished women who were its

chief ornaments. During the time of Pope Damasus, and not long before

the sacking of Rome by Alaric, the _Ecclesia Domestica_ was a kind of

conventual home to which had retired, or in which were frequently

gathered, some of the most noble and learned women of the city. Among

the most notable of these were Marcella and her friends, Paula and

Eustochium.

For beauty of character and nobility of purpose and rare mental

endowments they recall the best traditions of a Cornelia or a

Calphurnia, while so great was their purity of life and so unbounded was

their charity to the poor and suffering that they were honored by being

numbered among the saints of the early church. But what specially

distinguished them among all the great women of the Roman world was

their great and varied learning. In this respect they probably were far

in advance of all their predecessors. For, in addition to a thorough

knowledge of Latin and Greek literature, history and philosophy, they

had, under the great theologian and orientalist, St. Jerome, become

proficient in Hebrew and deeply versed in Scripture.

Special mention should be made of Paula and her daughter Eustochium; for

it is probable that, had it not been for their influence on Jerome, and

their active cooperation in his great life work, we should not have the

Latin version of the Scriptures that is to-day known as the Vulgate.

This is evinced from the letters of the saint himself and from what we

know of the lives of these two remarkable women, who, as St. Jerome

informs us in the epitaph which he had engraved on Paula's tomb in the

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, were descended from the Scipios,

the Gracchi and the Pauli on the mother's side, and on the father's side

from the half-mythical kings of Sparta and Mycenae.[27]

They aided him not only by their sympathy and by purchasing for him,

often at a great price, the manuscripts he needed for his colossal

undertaking, but also assisted him by their thorough knowledge of Latin,

Greek and Hebrew in translating the Sacred Books from the original

Hebrew into Latin. So great was Jerome's confidence in their scholarship

and so high was his appreciation of their ability and judgment that he

did not hesitate to submit his translations to them for their criticism

and approval. After he had completed his version of the first Book of

Kings, he turned it over to them, saying: "Read my Book of Kings--read

also the Latin and Greek translations and compare them with my version."

And they did read and compare and criticise. And more than this, they

frequently suggested modifications and corrections which the great man

accepted with touching humility and incorporated in a revised copy.

More wonderful still, the Latin Psalter, as it has come down to us, is

not, as is generally supposed, the translation from the Hebrew of

Jerome, but rather a corrected version made from the Septuagint by his

illustrious collaborators--Paula and Eustochium.

It is safe to say that no two women were ever engaged in a more

important or more difficult literary undertaking--one requiring keener

critical sense or more profound learning--than were Paula and

Eustochium, or one in which their efforts were crowned with more

brilliant success than were those of these two supreme exemplars of the

grace, the knowledge, the culture, the refinement of Roman

womanhood--the crowning glories of womanhood throughout the ages.

St. Jerome showed his grateful recognition of the invaluable assistance

received from his devoted and talented co-workers by dedicating to them

a great number of his most important books. This scandalized the

pharisaical men of the time, who looked askance at all learned women and

resented particularly the preeminence given to Paula and her

accomplished daughter. But their reproaches provoked a reply from the

saint that was worthy of the most chivalrous champion of woman, and

revealed, at the same time, all the nobility of soul of the roused "Lion

of Bethlehem." It is not only a defence of his course, but also a

splendid tribute to his two illustrious friends, and a tribute also to

the great and good women of all time.

"There are people, O Paula and Eustochium," exclaims the Christian

Cicero, vibrant with emotion and in a burst of eloquence that recalls

one of the burning philippics of Marcus Tullius, "who take offence at

seeing your names at the beginning of my works. These people do not know

that Olda prophesied when the men were mute; that while Barach was

atremble, Deborah saved Israel; that Judith and Esther delivered from

supreme peril the children of God. I pass over in silence Anna and

Elizabeth and the other holy women of the Gospel, but humble stars when

compared with the great luminary, Mary. Shall I speak now of the

illustrious women among the heathen? Does not Plato have Aspasia speak

in his dialogues? Does not Sappho hold the lyre at the same time as

Alcaeus and Pindar? Did not Themista philosophize with the sages of

Greece? And the mother of the Gracchi, your Cornelia, and the daughter

of Cato, wife of Brutus, before whom pale the austere virtue of the

father and the courage of the husband--are they not the pride of the

whole of Rome? I shall add but one word more. Was not it women to whom

our Lord first appeared after His resurrection? Yes, men could then

blush for not having sought what the women had found."[28]

Time has spared a joint letter of Paula and Eustochium to their friend

Marcella--a letter which exhibits so well the rare culture and literary

ability of the writers that we cannot but lament that we have not more

of the correspondence which was carried on between the learned inmates

of the Church of the Household on the Aventine and Paula's convent home

near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Such a collection would be

beyond price, as it would complete the picture of the age so well

sketched by St. Jerome; and, as a contribution to the literary world, it

would have a value not inferior to that of those exquisite classics of a

later age--the letters of Madame Sevigne to her daughter.[29]

WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

The period of nearly a thousand years intervening between the downfall

of Rome in A.D. 476 and the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in

1453 is usually known in history as the Middle Ages. By some it is

considered as synonymous with the Dark Ages, because of the decline of

learning and civilization during this long interval of time. The former

designation seems preferable, for, as we shall see, the latter is more

or less misleading. During the "wandering of the nations" in the fourth

and fifth centuries, and the long and fierce struggles between the

barbarian hordes from the north with the decadent peoples of the once

great Roman empire, there was, no doubt, a partial eclipse of the sun of

civilization; but the consequent darkness was not so dense nor so

general and long-continued as is sometimes imagined. The progress of

intellectual culture was, indeed, greatly retarded, but there was no

time when the light of learning was entirely extinguished. For even

during the most troublous times there were centers of culture in one

part of Europe or another. At one time the center was in Italy, at

another in Gaul, and, at still another, it was in Britain or Ireland or

Germany.

But whether it was in the south, or the west or the north of Europe that

letters flourished, it was always the convent or the monastery that was

the home of learning and culture. Within these holy precincts the

literary treasures of antiquity were preserved and multiplied. Here

monks and nuns labored and studied, always keeping lighted the sacred

torch of knowledge--_Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt_--and

passing it on to the generations that succeeded them. That any of the

great literary masterpieces of Greece and Rome have come to us, in spite

of the destructive agencies of time and the wreck of empires, is due

wholly to the unremitting toil through long ages of the zealous and

intelligent inmates of the cloister.

Of the monastic institutions for men there is no occasion to speak,

except in so far as they contributed to the intellectual advancement of

woman. In some cases the women of the cloister owed much to

ecclesiastics for their literary training; but there are not wanting

instances in which the nuns took the lead in education and had the

direction of schools which gave to the church priests and bishops of

recognized scholarship.

Practically the only schools for girls during the Middle Ages were the

convents. Here were educated rich and poor, gentle and simple. And in

these homes of piety and learning the inmates enjoyed a peace and a

security that it was impossible to find elsewhere. They were free from

the dangers and annoyances that so often menaced them in their own homes

and were able to pursue their studies under the most favorable auspices.

Among the first convent schools to achieve distinction were those of

Arles and Poitiers in Gaul, in the latter part of the sixth century. The

Abbess of Poitiers is known to us as St. Radegund. She not only had a

knowledge of letters rare for her age, but wrote poems of such merit

that they were until recently accepted as the productions of her master,

the poet Fortunatus,[30] who subsequently became bishop of Poitiers.

Far more notable, however, than the convents of Arles and Poitiers was

the celebrated convent of St. Hilda at Whitby. Hilda, the foundress and

first abbess of Whitby, was a princess of the blood-royal and a

grand-niece of Edwin, the first Christian king of Northumbria. Her

convent and adjoining monastery for monks soon became the most noted

center of learning and culture in Britain. And so great was her

reputation for knowledge and wisdom that not only priests and bishops,

but also princes and kings sought her counsel in important matters of

church and state.

As to the monks subject to her authority, she inspired them with so

great a love of knowledge, and urged them to so thorough a study of the

Scriptures, that her monastery became, as Venerable Bede informs us, a

school not only for missionaries but for bishops as well. He speaks in

particular of six ecclesiastical dignitaries who were sent forth from

this noble institution--all of whom were bishops. Five of them he

describes as men of singular merit and sanctity--"_singularis meriti et

sanctitatis viros_," while the sixth, he declared, was a man of rare

ability and learning--"_doctissimus et excellentis ingenii_." Of this

number was St. John of Beverly, who, we are told, "attained a degree of

popularity rare even in England, where the saints of old were so

universally and so readily popular."[31] Hilda governed her double

monastery with singular wisdom and success; and, so great was the love

and veneration she inspired among all classes that she merited the

epithet of "Mother of her Country."

Celebrated, however, as Hilda was for her great educational work at

Whitby, she is probably better known to the world as the one who first

recognized and fostered the rare gifts of the poet Caedmon. "It is on the

lips of this cowherd," as Montalembert beautifully expresses it, "that

the Anglo-Saxon speech first bursts into poetry. Indeed, nothing in the

whole history of European literature is more original or more religious

than this first utterance of the English muse."[32]

As soon as Hilda discovered the extraordinary poetic faculty of Caedmon,

she did not hesitate to regard it "as a special gift of God, worthy of

all respect and of the most tender care." And, in order that she might

the more readily develop the splendid talents of this literary prodigy,

the keen discerning abbess received Caedmon into the monastery of monks,

and had him translate the entire Bible into Anglo-Saxon. "As soon as the

Sacred Text was read for him he forthwith," as Bede declares, "ruminated

it as a clean animal ruminates its food, and transformed it into songs

so beautiful that all who heard were delighted."

As his poetical faculty became more developed, his profoundly original

genius became more marked, and his inspiration more earnest and

impassioned. It was this Northumbrian cowherd, transformed into a monk

of Whitby, who sang before the abbess Hilda the revolt of Satan and

Paradise Lost, a thousand years earlier than Milton, in verses which may

still be admired even beside the immortal poem of the British Homer. So

remarkable, indeed, in some instances is the similarity in the

productions of the two poets that F. Palgrave, one of the most competent

of English critics, does not hesitate to declare that certain of

Caedmon's verses resembled so closely certain passages of the Paradise

Lost that some of Milton's lines seem almost like a translation from the

work of his distinguished predecessor. And M. Taine, in his _History of

English Literature_, referring to the "string of short, accumulated,

passionate images, like a succession of lightning flashes," of the old

Anglo-Saxon poet, asserts that "Milton's Satan exists in Caedmon's as the

picture exists in the sketch."[33]

Well could Caedmon's first biographer, the Venerable Bede, say of him,

"Many Englishmen after him have tried to compose religious poems, but no

one has ever equaled the man who had only God for a master." And not

without warrant does the eloquent Montalembert, in the masterly work

just quoted, pen the following statement: "Apart from the interest which

attaches to Caedmon from a historical and literary point of view, his

life discloses to us essential peculiarities in the outward organization

and intellectual life of those great communities which in the seventh

century studded the coast of Northumbria, and which, with all their

numerous dependents, found often a more complete development under the

crozier of such a woman as Hilda than under the superiors of the other

sex."[34]

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 abbess, 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 _monasteria feminarum_--monasteries of women--within

the sphere of Boniface's missionary activities for which Lioba's pupils

were not sought as instructresses.

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 conversed 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

she never laid aside her book except to pray or to strengthen her slight

frame with food or sleep."[35] She was thoroughly 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 flocked 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.[36] Many of them, in addition

to having a wide acquaintance with literature, sacred and profane, were

also mistresses of several languages. A woman's education, at this time,

was not complete unless she could write Latin and speak it fluently. The

author of that most interesting early English work, _Ancren Riwle_--Rule

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

communication,--to such an extent, indeed, that a special rule was made

prohibiting "the use of the Latin tongue except under special

circumstances."

"As long as the conventual system lasted the only schools for girls in

England were the convent schools where, says Robert Aske, 'the daughters

of gentlemen were brought up in virtue.' From an educational point of

view, the suppression of the convents was decidedly a blunder." Thus

writes Georgiana Hill in her instructive work on _Women in English

Life_, and there are, we fancy, but few readers of her instructive pages

who will not be inclined to agree with her conclusions.[37] Lecky speaks

of the dissolution of convents at the time of the Reformation as "far

from a benefit to women or the world."[38] And Dom Gasquet declares

"that destruction by Henry VIII of the conventual schools where the

female population, the rich as well as the poor, found their only

teachers, was the absolute extinction of any systematic education of

women for a long period."[39]

But this is not all. The strangest and saddest result, consequent on the

suppression of the convents, was that men were made to profit by the

loss which women had sustained. The revenues of the houses that were

suppressed had been intended for the sole use and behoof of women, and

had been administered by them in this sense for centuries. When they

were appropriated by Henry VIII, it never occurred to him or his

ministers to make any provision for the education of women in lieu of

that which had so ruthlessly been wrested from them. Thus the nunnery of

St. Radegund, together with its revenues and possessions, was

transformed into Jesus College, Cambridge, while from the suppressed

convents of Bromhall in Berkshire and Lillechurch in Kent funds were

secured for the foundation and endowment of St. John's College, also at

Cambridge. Similarly, the properties of other nunneries, large and

small, were appropriated for the foundation of collegiate institutions

at Oxford, all of which were for the benefit of men.

And so it was that, in a few short years, the great work of centuries

was undone and women were left little better educational facilities than

when the Anglo-Saxon nuns began their noble work in a land that was

enveloped in "one dark night of unillumined barbarism."

One would have thought that Elizabeth, who was so highly educated, and

who did so much for the supremacy of her country on land and sea, would

have bethought herself of the necessity of doing something for the

education of her female subjects. But no. She did nothing for them, and

the founders of the endowed grammar schools, during her reign, gave

never a thought to the educational necessities of the girls. They made

provision only for the boys. In this respect, however, the "Virgin

Queen" was but following in the footsteps of the male sovereigns and

legislators who had preceded her, and who, although affecting an

interest in having women "sensible and virtuous, seem by their conduct

toward the sex to have entered into a general conspiracy to order it

otherwise."

The truth is, when anything was achieved for the intellectual

advancement of women it was due either to private instruction or to the

result of a protracted struggle on the part of women themselves for what

they deemed their indefeasible rights. Had they relied on the

spontaneous action of men and on legislation in favor of female

education to which men had given the initiative, they would to-day be in

the same condition of ignorance and seclusion and servitude as was the

Athenian woman twenty-five centuries ago, and would occupy a status but

little above that of the inmates of oriental harems and zenanas.

The Anglo-Saxon nuns were, as we have seen, specially distinguished for

their learning and for the splendid work they performed for the

education of their sex during the long period of the Middle Ages. But

however great their preeminence in these respects, they were not without

rivals. There were, besides the schools, already named, conducted by St.

Lioba and her companions, also flourishing schools in Germany under the

direction of native nuns, whose success as educators was as marked as

that of Lioba or Hilda, and who, in addition to their labors in the

class-room, achieved distinction by their productive work. The

Anglo-Saxon convents developed few writers, whereas those of Germany

produced several who not only shed luster on their sex but who also

showed what woman is capable of accomplishing when accorded some measure

of encouragement and full liberty of action.

One of the most noted writers of her age was the famous nun of

Gandersheim, Hroswitha, who was born in the early part of the tenth

century. She was the pupil of the abbess Gerberg, who was of royal

lineage, and one of the most zealous promoters of learning and culture

in Saxony during the forty-two years of her rule in the convent to which

she and her favorite pupil gave undying renown.

Hroswitha's literary work consists of legends and contemporary history

in metrical form and of her dramas written in the style of Terence. As a

writer of history and legends she ranks with the best authors of her

time, while as a writer of dramas she stands absolutely alone. Hers,

indeed, were the first dramatic compositions given to the world during

the long interval that elapsed between the last comedies of classic

antiquity and the first of the miracle plays which had such a vogue

between the twelfth and the sixteenth century.

Her dramas, which, of all her works, have attracted the most attention,

are seven in number. They deal with the moral and mental conflicts which

characterized the period of transition from heathendom to Christianity.

Some of them exhibit poetic talent of a high order as well as the

inspiration and courage of genius. They reveal also a wide acquaintance

with the classic authors of Rome and Greece, besides a knowledge of many

of the Christian writers. They are, likewise, distinguished by

originality of treatment, complete mastery of the material used, as well

as by genuine beauty of rhyme and rhythm. In form, all the plays

preserve the simple directness of their model, Terence, while, in

conception, they embody the noblest ideals of Christian teaching. In

marked contrast to her model, who invariably exhibits the frailties and

lapses of woman, Hroswitha's plays turn on the resistance of her sex to

temptation, and on their steadfast adherence to duty and to vows

voluntarily assumed. A recent English writer, W. H. Hudson, in an

appreciative estimate of the work of this learned Benedictine nun

expresses himself as follows:

"It is on the literary side alone that Hroswitha belongs to the classic

school. The spirit and essence of her work belong entirely to the Middle

Ages; for beneath the rigid garb of a dead language"--she wrote in

Latin--"beats the warm heart of a new era. Everything in her plays that

is not formal but essential, everything that is original and individual,

belongs wholly to the Christianized Germany of the tenth century.

Everywhere we can trace the influence of the atmosphere in which she

lived; every thought and every motive is colored by the spiritual

conditions of her time. The keynote of all her works is the conflict of

Christianity with paganism; and it is worthy of remark that in

Hroswitha's hands Christianity is throughout represented by the purity

and gentleness of woman, while paganism is embodied in what she

describes as the vigor of men--_virile robur_."[40]

Among her legends the one entitled _The Lapse and Conversion of

Theophilus_ has a special interest as being the precursor of the

well-known legend of Faust.

In Hroswitha's time, as in our own, there were people who were strongly

opposed to the higher education of women. There were others who would

deny them even the elements of an education--who declared that they

should be taught anything rather than reading and writing, which were a

cause of temptation and sin--that their knowledge should be confined

solely to the duties of an ordinary housewife, that their books should

consist solely of thimble, thread and needles--"_Et leurs livres, un de,

du fil et des aguilles._" Some, it is true, were willing to make an

exception in favor of nuns; but, as to all others, the less they knew

the better it was for their spiritual, if not for their temporal,

welfare also.[41] To those who were thus minded, Hroswitha pithily

replied that it was not knowledge itself but the bad use of it that was

dangerous--"_Nec scientia scibilis Deum offendit, sed injustitia

scientis._"

Among other women who were Hroswitha's equals in knowledge, if not in

literary attainments, were several other nuns who illumined the closing

centuries of the Middle Ages. Chief among these were St. Hildegard, "the

sybil of the Rhine"; Herrad, the noted author of the _Hortus

Deliciarum--Garden of Delights_--and Matilda and Gertrude, those

remarkable mystical writers, whose descriptions of heaven and hell so

closely resemble those in the _Divina Commedia_ that many writers are of

the opinion that the great Florentine poet must have been familiar with

the accounts which they gave of their visions.

St. Hildegard was for a third of a century the abbess of the convent of

St. Rupert at Bingen. So great was her reputation for sanctity and for

the extent and variety of her attainments that she was called "the

marvel of Germany." She is without doubt one of the most beautiful and

imposing as well as one of the greatest figures of the Middle

Ages--great beside such eminent contemporaries as Abelard, Martin of

Tours and Bernard of Clairvaux. People from all parts of the Christian

world sought her counsel; and her convent at Bingen became a Mecca for

all classes and conditions of men and women. But nothing shows better

the immense influence which she wielded than her letters of which nearly

three hundred have been preserved.

Among her correspondents were people of the humble walks of life as well

as the highest representatives of Church and State. There were simple

monks and noble abbots; dukes, kings and queens; archbishops and

cardinals and no fewer than four Popes. Letters came to her from the

orient and the occident, from the patriarch of Jerusalem, from Queen

Bertha of Greece, from Frederick Barbarossa, Philip the Count of

Flanders, St. Bernard, the professors of the University of Paris; from

Henry II of England, and from his grand-daughter Eleonora, "The Damsel

of Brittany." It is safe to say that no woman during the Middle Ages

exercised a wider or more beneficent influence than did this humble

Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine and had unsought so large a

number of distinguished correspondents. And, if we accept the criterion

that influence is measured by the number and nature of one's relations,

it would be difficult to find in any age relations that were more select

or more cosmopolitan.

But her astonishing collection of letters is the slightest product of

her intellectual activity. She is without doubt the most voluminous

woman writer of the Middle Ages. Her works on theology, Scripture and

science make no less than six or eight large octavo volumes. The

Bollandists, than whom there is no more competent authority, express

their amazement at the amount and quality of Hildegard's work. Witness

the following language of one of their number: "Although we may not be

surprised that our saint was interrogated regarding secret things by so

many men eminent both by reason of their dignity and their learning, I

am nevertheless forced to recognize with stupefaction that a woman

without instruction, and who had not acquired knowledge by study, was

consulted concerning the most difficult questions of theology and the

most subtle of Holy Scriptures, and that she gave, without hesitation,

the answers that were demanded by theology and Scripture."[42]

Is it, then, surprising that the famous William of Auxerre, after a

critical examination of her works, should compare her with Peter

Lombard, the celebrated "Master of the Sentences,"[43] and one of the

most learned of the Schoolmen, and write that Hildegard is

_Sententiarum Magistra_--Mistress of the Sentences--and that "in her

works the words are not human but divine"? Has any woman writer ever

received higher praise, and from one so competent to express an opinion

as the scholarly divine of Auxerre?

Herrad, the gifted abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, was a contemporary of

Hildegard, and, like her, was noted for her culture and wide range of

knowledge. She is chiefly known for her _Hortus Deliciarum_, a

remarkable work, encyclopaedic in character, which she wrote for the nuns

of her convent and which was designed to embody in words and in pictures

the knowledge of her age.

Nothing that time has bequeathed to us gives us a clearer conception of

the manifold activities of a mediaeval nunnery, of the industry, talents

and enthusiastic love of learning of its inmates, than Herrad's

wonderful _Garden of Delights_. Nor is there any other work that gives

us a better knowledge of the manners, customs and ideals of the twelfth

century, or one that, in its particular sphere, is of more value to the

student of art, philology and archaeology. It exhibits Herrad's intense

interest in the intellectual advancement of her nuns and pupils as well

as her superior talent and acquirements. Unfortunately the manuscript

copy of this work was destroyed at the time of the bombardment of

Strasburg by the Germans in 1870, and our knowledge of it is limited to

portions of it which had previously been transcribed or to accounts left

of it by those who had examined it before its destruction. Of such

exceptional value was this unique work that the editor of the great

collection of pictures, which illustrates this remarkable book, does not

hesitate to declare that "Few illuminated manuscripts had acquired a

fame so well deserved as the _Hortus Deliciarum_ of Herrad."[44]

No sketch, however brief, of the literary nuns of mediaeval Germany would

be complete without some reference to the learned religious of the

convent of Helfta, near Eisleben in Saxony. Of the abbess Gertrude we

read that her enthusiasm for knowledge was so great that she not only

inspired others with the same enthusiasm, but that she was an incessant

collector of books, which she had her nuns transcribe. Among her most

distinguished subjects were two religious by the name of Matilda, one of

whom was her sister, and a third, who, to distinguish her from the

abbess, is known as "Gertrude the Great."

The writings of these nuns were inspired by that great mystic movement

which then prevailed in various parts of Europe and are among the most

impassioned productions of the age. For this reason they still have a

special claim on the attention of students of art and literature, as

well as those of theology and mysticism. Impressed by the similarity of

their ideas and descriptions as compared with 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.[45]

The writings of Hroswitha, Hildegard, Herrad, Gertrude and the Matildas,

to speak of no others, are the best evidence 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

training 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.[46] 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, playing upon

her lute and waiting patiently for the return of her triumphant

knight," and quite different, too, from that of the castle

lady-loves--whose sole attractions were often no more than youth and

beauty--who inspired the impassioned lyrics of troubadour and

minnesinger.

A recent writer sums up in a few words the status and the

accomplishments of the lady of the abbey in the following paragraph:

"No institution of Europe has ever won for the lady the freedom and

development that she enjoyed in the convent in early days. The modern

college for women only feebly reproduces it, since the college for women

has arisen at a time when colleges in general are under a cloud. The

lady-abbess, on the other hand, was part of the two great social forces

of her time, feudalism and the Church. Great spiritual rewards and great

worldly prizes were alike within her grasp. She was treated as an equal

by the men of her class, as is witnessed by letters we still have from

popes and emperors to abbesses. She had the stimulus of competition with

men in executive capacity, in scholarship, and in artistic production,

since her work was freely set before the general public; but she was

relieved by the circumstances of her environment from the ceaseless

competition in common life of woman with woman for the favor of the

individual man. In the cloister of the great days, as on a small scale

in the college for women to-day, women were judged by each other as men

are everywhere judged by each other, for sterling qualities of head and

heart and character."[47]

Nor is this all. Never was woman more highly honored, never was her

power and influence greater than during the period of conventual life

extending from Hilda of Whitby to Gertrude and the Matildas of Helfta,

and especially during that golden period of monasticism and chivalry

when cloister and court were the radiant centers of learning and

culture. Abbesses took part in ecclesiastical synods and councils and

assisted in the deliberations of national assemblies. In England, they

ranked with lords temporal and spiritual, and had the right to attend

the king's council or to send proxies to represent them, while in

Germany, where they held property directly from the king or emperor,

they enjoyed the rights and privileges of barons and, as such, took part

in the proceedings of the imperial diet either in person or through

their accredited representatives. In Saxony, the abbesses had the right

to strike coins bearing their own portraits, notably the abbesses of

Gandersheim and Quedlinburg. In England they were invested with

extraordinary powers, and in certain cases owed obedience to none save

the Pope. In Kent abbesses, as representatives of religion, came

immediately after bishops.

Possessing such power and prestige, it is not surprising to learn that

abbesses wielded great influence in temporal as well as spiritual

matters; that it pervaded politics and extended to the courts of kings

and emperors. Thus, Matilda, the abbess of Quedlinburg, together with

Adelheid, the mother of Otto III who was but three years old at the time

of his father's death, practically ruled the empire. At a later period

during the prolonged absence in Italy of Otto III, the control of

affairs was entrusted to the abbess alone; and so successful was her

administration, and so vigorous were the measures which she adopted

against the invading Wends, that she commanded the admiration of all. In

view of these facts, the learned authoress of _Woman Under Monasticism_

is fully warranted in declaring as she does "The career open to the

inmates of convents in England and on the Continent was greater than any

other ever thrown open to women in the course of modern European

history."[48]

"The educational influence of convents during centuries," continues the

same writer, "cannot be rated too highly. Not only did their inmates

attain considerable knowledge but education in a nunnery, as we see from

Chaucer and others, secured an improved standing for those who were not

professed."[49] It prepared the way for, if it did not train, those

highly educated women who appeared during the time of the transition

between the Middle Ages and what is now designated as the Modern Period.

Among these were Christine de Pisan, who was a prolific writer on many

subjects in both prose and verse, and who, it is said, was the first

woman to earn a livelihood by her pen.[50] There were also some of those

remarkable women who lectured on law in the University of Bologna, among

whom were Bettina Gozzadini,[51] who, some writers will have it,

occupied the chairs of law in her _alma mater_ as early as 1236, and the

celebrated Novella d'Andrea, of the following century, who frequently

acted as a substitute for her father, a professor of canon law in the

university, and who, by reason of her varied and profound knowledge,

held a prominent place among the most learned men of her time. Both of

these noted women were worthy prototypes of that long list of learned

Italian women who, during the Renaissance, won such honor for themselves

and such undying glory for their country. Not less remarkable were

several women of the school of Salerno, who, during its palmiest days,

distinguished themselves as teachers, writers and medical

practitioners,[52] and the still more remarkable daughters of one

Mangord, a professor of Paris, whose daughters taught Sacred

Scripture.[53] There were few in number, it is true, but they were the

worthy prototypes of those learned and brilliant women who achieved such

distinction and glory for their sex during that most interesting period

of history known as the Renaissance.

WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE RENAISSANCE

By the Renaissance we understand not only a phase in the development of

the nations of Europe but also that period of transition between the

mediaeval and the modern world during which the latent spiritual energies

of the Middle Ages developed into the intellectual forces and moral

habits of thought which now pervade the civilized world. Various dates

are assigned for its starting point. Among them is the fall of

Constantinople in 1453, when there was a great influx of scholars from

the famed metropolis on the Bosphorus to the Italian peninsula, who

brought with them those forgotten treasures of science and literature

which were so instrumental in producing that interesting phenomenon

known in history as the Revival of Learning. But whatever date be

assigned for the beginning of the Renaissance, whether it be the year

when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turk or the fateful

millennial year which was to witness the termination of all things,

there certainly was never at any period a distinct breach of historical

continuity between the old order and the new.

This is particularly true of Italy where the Renaissance had its origin.

For here, during the entire mediaeval period, there never was a time when

the study of antiquity was completely neglected; when the traditions of

the old Roman culture had died out, or when the art and the literature

of the classical ages of the past had ceased to exert an influence on

artists and scholars. Ozanam was, then, right when he declared that the

night of the Dark Age, which in Italy intervened between "the

intellectual daylight of antiquity and the dawn of the Renaissance,"

was, in reality, like "one of those luminous nights in which the fading

brightness of evening is prolonged into the first beaming of the

morning."[54]

So much, indeed, was this the case that those who have made the most

profound study of the Middle Ages recognize a first Renaissance in the

twelfth century, which was not less real than the Renaissance _par

excellence_ of the fifteenth century, a renaissance which counts such

masters of Latinity as Abelard, John of Salisbury and Hildebert of

Tours, and such schools as that of Chartres, where classical Latin was

taught with as much thoroughness as in the great universities of Europe

during the brilliant age of the humanists. It was then, as Rashdall

truly observes, that "a revival of architecture heralded, as it usually

does, a wider revival of Art. The schools of Christendom became thronged

as they were never thronged before. A passion for enquiry took the place

of the old routine. The Crusades brought different parts of Europe into

contact with one another and into contact with the new world of the

East--with a new religion and a new philosophy, with the Arabic

Aristotle, with the Arabic commentators on Aristotle, and eventually

even with Aristotle in the original Greek."[55]

Roughly speaking, the Renaissance attained its culmination during the

second half of the fifteenth century. It was during this period that

gunpowder and printing with movable types were invented--the first

completely revolutionizing the methods of warfare and the second

marvelously facilitating the diffusion of knowledge. And it was during

the same period also that Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope,

that Columbus crossed the Sea of Darkness and that Copernicus laid the

foundation of modern astronomy.

But this wonderful half-century constituted only a small portion of the

period embraced by the Renaissance. From the fall of Constantinople

until it attained the highest phase of development in England, the

Renaissance covers a period of nearly two centuries. The progress of the

intellectual and moral movement which it represented, from the land of

its birth, to the northern and western parts of Europe, was

comparatively slow. Thus, while Italy was exhibiting the full effulgence

of the re-birth, England was still in the feudal condition of the Middle

Ages. A striking illustration of this truth is seen in the fact that "a

brother of the Black Prince banqueted with Petrarch in the palace of

Galeazzo Visconti--that is to say, the founder of Italian humanism, the

representative of Italian despotic state-craft, and the companion of

Froissart's heroes met together at a marriage feast." "In Italy," as

Symonds has shown, "the keynote was struck by the _Novella_, as in

England by the drama."[56] The supreme exponents of the Renaissance as

manifested in literature were, without doubt, Ariosto in Italy, Rabelais

in France, Cervantes in Spain, Camoens in Portugal, Erasmus in the

Netherlands and Shakespeare in England.

Considering the splendid achievements of men during the Renaissance in

every department of intellectual activity, one would imagine that women

also would have attained to a somewhat proportionate distinction, at

least in literature and the arts. But, outside of Italy, this was far

from being the case. In France, Spain, Portugal and England there were,

it is true, a certain number of women who won distinction by their

talents and learning, but these were the exceptions which but served to

throw into greater relief the prevailing ignorance of the great mass of

their sex, which had few, if any, of the advantages of instruction, even

in the most elementary branches of knowledge.

The Italian women, as we have already seen, had commanded marked

recognition for their talents and learning even before the close of the

Middle Ages. The most famous of these were among those who, having

obtained the doctorate, became lecturers and professors in the great

university of Bologna. The existence and accomplishments of some of

these may, perhaps, be more or less legendary, but there can be no doubt

that many of them, some before the time of the Renaissance, had gained a

European reputation for the breadth and variety of their attainments.

But it was during the Renaissance that the remarkable flowering of the

intellect of the Italian woman was seen at its best. While the women in

the other parts of Europe, especially in England and Germany, were

suffering the ill effects consequent on the suppression of the convents,

which, for centuries, had been almost the only schools available for

girls, the women of Italy were taking an active part in the great

educational movement inaugurated by the revival of learning, and winning

the highest honors for their sex in every department of science, art and

literature. Not since the days of Sappho and Aspasia had woman attained

such prominence, and never were they, irrespective of class-condition,

accorded greater liberty, privileges or honor. The universities, which

had been opened to them at the close of the Middle Ages, gladly

conferred upon them the doctorate, and eagerly welcomed them to the

chairs of some of their most important faculties. The Renaissance was,

indeed, the heydey of the intellectual woman throughout the whole of the

Italian peninsula--a time when woman enjoyed the same scholastic freedom

as men, and when Mme. de Stael's dictum, _Le genie n'a pas de sexe_,

expressed a doctrine admitted in practice and not an academic theory.

It would require a large volume, or rather many volumes, to do justice

to the learned women of Italy who conferred such honor upon their sex

during the period we are considering. Suffice it to mention a few of

those who achieved special distinction and whose memories are still

green in the land which had been made so illustrious by their talent and

genius.

That which the modern reader finds the most surprising in the Italian

women of the Renaissance is their enthusiasm for the _literae

humaniores_--the Latin and Greek classics--and the proficiency which so

many of them, even at an early age, attained in the literature and

philosophy of antiquity. It was no uncommon thing for a girl in her

teens to write and speak Latin, while many of them were almost equally

familiar with Greek.[57] Thus Laura Brenzoni, of Verona, had such a

mastery of these two languages that she wrote and spoke them with ease,

while Alessandra Scala was so familiar with them that she employed them

in writing poetry. Lorenza Strozzi, who was educated in a convent and

eventually became a nun, was distinguished for her great versatility,

for her profound knowledge of science and art, as well as for her

proficiency in Latin and Greek. Her Latin poems were so highly valued

that they were translated into foreign languages. Livia Chiavello, of

Fabriano, was celebrated as one of the most brilliant representatives of

the Petrarchan school. Her style was so pure and noble that, had

Petrarch not lived, she alone would have upheld the honor of the vulgar

tongue. So successful was Isotta of Rimini in the cultivation of the

Muses that she was hailed as another Sappho. Cassandra Fedele, of

Venice, deserved, according to Polizian, the noted Florentine humanist,

to be ranked with that famous universal genius, Pico de la Mirandola. So

extensive were her attainments that in addition to being a thorough

mistress of Latin and Greek, she was likewise distinguished in music,

eloquence, philosophy and even theology. Leo X, Louis XII of France, and

Isabella of Spain were eager to have her as an ornament for their

courts, but the Venetian senate was so proud of its treasure that it was

unwilling to have her depart. Catarina Cibo, of Genoa, was another

prodigy of learning; for, besides a knowledge of Latin and Greek,

philosophy and theology, she was well acquainted with Hebrew. Donna

Felice Rasponi, of Ravenna, devoted herself to the study of Plato and

Aristotle, of Scripture and the Fathers. But, for the extent and variety

of her attainments, Tarquinia Molza seems to have eclipsed all her

contemporaries. She had as teachers the ablest scholars of an age of

distinguished scholars. Not only did she excel in poetry and the fine

arts, but she also had a rare knowledge of astronomy and mathematics,

Latin, Greek and Hebrew. And so great was the esteem in which she was

held that the senate of Rome conferred on her the singular honor of

Roman citizenship, transmissible in perpetuity to her descendants. The

Sovereign Pontiff and the flower of the Roman prelacy begged her to take

up her residence in the Eternal City, but she could not be prevailed

upon to leave the land of her birth.

In the arts of sculpture and painting the women of Italy, during the

Renaissance, were no less illustrious than they were in science,

literature and philosophy. Indeed, many of the treasures in the Italian

churches and art galleries that still delight all lovers of the

beautiful are from the chisel and the brush of women who achieved

distinction between three and four centuries ago.[58]

Probably the most famous sculptress was Properzia de Rossi, whose

ability was so remarkable that she excited the envy of the men who were

her competitors.[59] Among painters there was Suor Plantilla Nelli, who

was a nun and prioress in the convent of Santa Catarina in Florence.

Both Lanzi and Vasari bestow high praise on her work and declare some of

her productions to be of rare excellence. There were also Maria Angela

Crisculo, of whose splendid work many examples are still preserved in

the churches of Naples, and Lavinia Fontana of Bologna, who exhibited

such extraordinary ability as an artist that some of her pictures passed

for the work of her great contemporary, Guido Reni.[60] Still more

remarkable were the achievements of four sisters of the noted family

Anguisciola of Cremona. So admirable was the work of the eldest sister,

Sofonisba, that Philip II invited her to his court in Spain, where she

excited the amazement of every one by the splendid canvases which she

executed for her illustrious patron and for the members of the royal

family.

Of the fifty female poets who flourished in Italy during the Renaissance

the most eminent were Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Gambara, and Vittoria

Colonna. Of such merit and exquisite finish were the productions of

their Muse that they are still read with never failing pleasure. So

highly did Cardinal Bembo,--the famous "dictator of letters"--value the

scholarship and critical acumen of Veronica Gambara that he never

published anything without previously submitting it to her judgment. But

far more eminent as a poet was the noble and accomplished Marchesa of

Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, who, on account of her talents and virtues,

was named _La Divina_. The friend and adviser of scholars and the

confidante of princes, she represented, as has truly been said, "the

best phases of the Renaissance, its learning, its intelligence, its

enthusiasm, its subtle Platonism, combined with a profound religious

faith and the trace of the mysticism of a simpler age." The chorus of

universal praise which was sung by her contemporaries is well echoed by

Ariosto when he writes of her: "She has not only made herself immortal

by her beautiful style, of which I have heard not better, but she can

raise from the tomb those of whom she speaks or writes and make them

live forever." But it was as the friend and inspirer of Michaelangelo

that she is best known to us to-day. "Without wings," he writes to her,

"I fly with your wings; by your genius I am raised to the skies; in your

soul my thought is born."

Among those who specially distinguished themselves for their profound

scholarship, as exhibited in the halls of universities, were Dorotea

Bucca, who occupied a chair of medicine in the University of Bologna,

where, by reason of her rare eloquence and learning, she had students

from all parts of Europe; Laura Ceretta, of Brescia, who, during seven

years, gave public lectures on philosophy; Battista Malatesta, of

Urbino, who taught philosophy with such marked success that the most

distinguished professors of the day were forced to recognize themselves

as her inferiors; and Fulvia Olympia Morati, who "at the age of fourteen

wrote Latin letters and dialogues in Greek and Latin in the style of

Plato and Cicero," and who, when she was scarcely sixteen, "was invited

to give lectures in the University of Ferrara on the philosophical

problems of the _Paradoxes of Cicero_." So great, indeed, was her

knowledge of the ancient languages that she was offered the

professorship of Greek in the University of Heidelberg; but death cut

short her brilliant career before she could enter upon her duties in

this famed institution of learning. It was female professors of this

type--masters of Greek and Latin letters, who in the words of a recent

writer, "sent forth from Italy such students as Moritz von Spiegelberg

and Rudolph Agricola, to reform the instruction of Deventer and Zwoll

and prepare the way for Erasmus and Reuchlin."

In the preceding list of learned women--and but a few only have been

named of the many who in every city of importance conferred undying

glory on their sex--it is clear that the Renaissance in Italy was,

indeed, the golden age of women. Never in history had they greater

freedom of action in things of the mind; never were they, except

probably in the case of the English and German abbesses of the Middle

Ages, treated with more marked deference and consideration or fairness;

never were their efforts more highly appreciated or more generously

rewarded, and never was their success more highly and enthusiastically

applauded. Temporal and spiritual rulers, princes and cardinals, Popes

and emperors vied with one another in paying just tribute to woman's

genius as well as to woman's virtue. The nun in the cloister as well as

the lady in the palace shared in the general enthusiasm for learning,

and they enjoyed throughout the peninsula the same opportunities as men

and received the same recognition for their work. Everywhere the

intellectual arena was open to them on the same terms as to men.

Incapacity and not sex was the only bar to entrance.

But the men of those days, especially scholars of the type of Bembo,

Politian and Ariosto, were liberal and broad-minded men, who never for a

moment imagined that a woman was out of her sphere or unsexed because

she wore a doctor's cap or occupied a university chair. And far from

stigmatizing her as a singular or strong-minded woman, they recognized

her as one who had but enhanced the graces and virtues of her sex by the

added attractions of a cultivated mind and a developed intellect. Not

only did she escape the shafts of satire and ridicule, which are so

frequently aimed at the educated woman of to-day, but she was called

into the councils of temporal and spiritual rulers as well.

Woe betide the ill-advised misogynist who should venture to declaim

against the inferiority of the female sex, or to protest against the

honors which an appreciative and a chivalrous age bestowed upon it with

so lavish a hand. The women of Italy, unlike those of other nations,

knew how to defend themselves, and were not afraid to take, when

occasion demanded, the pen in self-defense. This is evidenced by

numerous works which were written in response to certain narrow-minded

pamphleteers--_miseri pedanti_, pitiful pedants,--who would have the

activities of women limited to the nursery or the kitchen.[61]

A striking characteristic of these learned women was the entire absence

of all priggism or pedantry. Whether lecturing on law or philosophy, or

discoursing in Latin before Popes and cardinals, or taking part in

discussions on art and literature with the eminent humanists of the day,

they ever retained that beautiful simplicity which gives such a charm to

true greatness of mind and is the best index of true scholarship and

noble, symmetrical womanhood.

Nor did the rare intellectual attainments of these daughters of Italy

destroy that harmony of creation which, some will have it, is sure to be

jeopardized by giving women the same educational advantages as men. So

far was this from being the case that there were never more loyal and

helpful wives nor more devoted and stimulating mothers than there were

among those women who wrote verses in the language of Sappho, or

delivered public addresses in the tongue of Cicero. Still less did their

serious and long-protracted studies entail any of the dangers we hear so

much of nowadays. The large and healthy families of many of them prove

that intellectual work, even of the highest order, is not incompatible

with motherhood; and still less that it, _per se_, conduces, as is so

often asserted, to race-suicide. These facts are commended to the

consideration of our modern opponents of the higher education of women

and to those militant conservatives and old-time reactionaries who are

still averse to opening the doors of some of our older universities to

women--even such universities as Oxford, several of whose colleges were

founded on the revenues derived from suppressed educational institutions

which had been built and used for generations for the sole behoof of

women.

But distinguished as were the women of Italy for their culture and

scholarship, they were yet more distinguished as patrons of learning, as

leaders and inspirers of the eminent men who were the chief

representatives of the Renaissance. Reference has already been made to

the influence of Vittoria Colonna on Michaelangelo--"who saw with her

eyes, acted by her inspiration, was lifted by her beyond the stars"--but

this is only one of many similar instances that might be adduced.

Indeed, to the student of the Italian Renaissance, the most interesting

feature of it was, not its women doctors and professors, but those noble

and accomplished ladies who made the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, Milan

and Urbino the most noted intellectual centers of Europe.

The most beautiful ornaments of the first three courts were Renee,

duchess of Ferrara; Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, and Beatrice

d'Este, duchess of Milan. They were all women of exceptional learning

and culture, and each was the center of a galaxy of talent such as is

rarely witnessed in any one place.

Among the men attracted to their courts were the most illustrious

scholars, artists, poets and musicians of the Renaissance. Here they

found congenial homes and breathed an atmosphere made fragrant by the

appreciation shown by their charming hostesses for their power and

genius. Here they found inspiration and a stimulus that spurred them on

to their greatest achievements. In Ferrara, where it was said that

"there were as many poets as there were frogs in the country round

about," were gathered the most gifted poets of the Renaissance who had

been attracted there to recite their latest masterpieces. Among them

were Clement Marot, the first poet of modern France, and Ariosto, the

immortal author of _Orlando Furioso_. There were the great painters,

Titian and Bellini, and the illustrious poet, Torquato Tasso, whose love

subsequently immortalized Renee's youngest daughter Leonora.