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WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM.




  London: C. J. CLAY AND SONS,
  CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
  AVE MARIA LANE.
  Glasgow: 263, ARGYLE STREET.

  Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
  New York: MACMILLAN AND CO.




  WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM


  CHAPTERS ON SAINT-LORE AND CONVENT LIFE
  BETWEEN A.D. 500 AND A.D. 1500


  BY LINA ECKENSTEIN.


  'Quia vita omnium spiritualium hominum sine litteris mors est.'
                                    ACTA MURENSIS MONASTERII.


  CAMBRIDGE:
  AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
  1896

  [_All Rights reserved._]




  Cambridge:
  PRINTED BY J. & C. F. CLAY,
  AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.




  TO MY FRIENDS
  KARL AND MARIA SHARPE PEARSON.




PREFACE.


The restlessness, peculiar to periods of transition, is a characteristic
of the present age. Long-accepted standards are being questioned and
hitherto unchallenged rules of conduct submitted to searching criticism.
History shows us that our present social system is only a phase in human
development, and we turn to a study of the past, confident that a clearer
insight into the social standards and habits of life prevalent in past
ages will aid us in a better estimation of the relative importance of
those factors of change we find around us to-day.

Monasticism during the ten centuries between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500
exhibits phases of vital significance for