Time, like some lens which clears our vision, makes it an easy task to criticise and condemn a phase of religious life which, having essayed to tranquillise and sweeten existence, was, under altered conditions of civilisation, bound to pass away. We of to-day pride ourselves on a wider view of life, on a higher conception of duty, expressed in lives dedicated to public work as a necessary complement to private virtue. Still, if we would judge fairly this age of contemplation and faith within the convent walls, and all that, even if done mistakenly and imperfectly, it aspired to do, we must realise, as best we can, the world without those walls. One of our poets has vividly reflected it for us when he speaks of man’s life as made up of “whole centuries of folly, noise, and sin.” So bitter was life then and even later, that by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when mysticism had claimed many votaries, eternal rest, even at the cost of personal annihilation, was the whispered desire of many devout souls.
“A Simple Stillness.” “An Eternal Silence.” These are the words that float across the centuries to us, like echoes from troubled, longing hearts. These are the words that give us the key to the understanding of the choice of vocation of the mediæval woman. The spiritual need for harmony and peace may have been great; the practical need was perhaps even greater; for in its accomplishment the spiritual found its consummation.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] The authenticity of these has been called in question by some critics, but apparently upon insufficient data.
[4] The first foundation, afterwards removed to Gandersheim.
[5] For other instances of churches laid out on lines said to have been revealed in dreams or visions, see Didron, Christian Iconography, vol. i. (1886) pp. 381, 382, 460, and Sta. Maria Maggiore, Rome.
[6] The intervention of a bird to aid in discovery was a favourite tradition derived from antiquity. We may recall, amongst many variants of the theme, the story of the celebrated expedition of the Athenians to the Island of Scyros to find and recover the body of Theseus. Theseus, being a hero, the agent employed in the quest must likewise be distinguished, and so the eagle, Zeus’s bird, is alone thought worthy to peck the earth and indicate the resting-place of the demi-god.
[7] Thangmarus, “Vita Sti. Bernwardi,” Migne, Patrol. Lat. 140, col. 397. 6.
[8] Michel, Histoire de l’Art, 1905, Tome I. i. p. 258.
[9] Journal of Studies, vol. i. part i., 1911, article by E. Strong, p. 24.