This rule, indeed, was almost universal in the ancient monasteries. The great abbey of St. Martin of Tours preserved it inviolate until the incursions of the Northmen rendered the house an asylum for the inhabitants of the surrounding territory, and the prohibition was subsequently revived and formally approved by Leo VII. in 938, (Leonis PP. VII. Epist. vi.). In that of Sithieu, from the time of its foundation early in the seventh century, it was preserved without infraction for more than three centuries. Even the license of the Carlovingian revolution did not cause its inobservance; and when, amid the disorders of the tenth century, the Counts of Flanders became lay abbots of the convent, and discipline was almost forgotten, the mediation of two bishops was required to obtain permission, about the year 940, for Adela, Countess of Flanders, prostrated with mortal sickness, to be carried in and laid before the altar, where she miraculously recovered.—(De Mirac. S. Bertin. Lib. II. c. 12—Chron. S. Bertin. c. 23, 24.)
So when Boniface founded the abbey of Fulda, he prohibited the entrance of women in any of the buildings, even including the church. The rule was preserved uninfringed through all the license of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and when, in 1132, the Emperor Lothair came to Fulda to celebrate Pentecost, his empress was not allowed to witness the ceremonies. So when Frederic Barbarossa, in 1135, spent his Easter there, he was not permitted to enter the town, because his wife was with him. In 1398 Boniface IX., at the request of the Abbot John Merlaw, relaxed the rule and permitted women to attend at the services of the church—shortly after which it was destroyed by lightning, as a warning for the future.—(Paullini Chron. Badeslebiens. $ viii.)—An equally convincing indication of the favor with which this regulation was regarded by Heaven was afforded when Abbot Helisacar, about the year 830, introduced it in the celebrated monastery of St. Riquier, and immediately the number of miracles worked by the relics of the Saint increased in a notable degree (Chron. Centulensis Lib. III. cap. iv).—At the Grande Chartreuse, founded by St. Bruno towards the end of the eleventh century, women were not even allowed to enter on the lands of the community.—Chart. S. Hugon. Gratianopolit. (Patrolog. T. 166, p. 1571).
[1017] Anon. Carthus. de Relig. Orig. cap. XL. (Martene Ampliss. Coll. VI. 93).
[1018] Johan. de Trittenheim Lib. Lugubris de Statu et Ruina Monast. Ordinis cap. iii.
[1019] Annuntia populo fideli meo, et dic quod Filius meus avaritiam, superbiam et luxuriam clericorum et sacerdotum amplius sustinere nec possit nec velit. Unde nisi se quantocius emendaverint, totus mundus propter eorum scelera periclitabitur.—Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1476.
[1020] Quum pene in omnibus conciliis et a plerisque Romanis pontificibus super cohibenda et punienda clericorum incontinentia, et eorum honestate servanda multa hactenus emanaverint constituta; et nullatenus ipsorum reformari quiverit correctio morum: ... videretur pensandum an expediret et posset provideri quod in ecclesia Occidentali, quantum ad votum continentiæ, servaretur consuetudo ecclesiæ Orientalis, quantum ad promovendos, potissime quum tempore Apostolorum consuetudo ecclesiæ Orientalis servaretur.—Durand. de Modo General. Concil. P. II. rubr. 46 (Calixtus, p. 537).
[1021] Card. Zabarellæ Capit. Agend. in Concil. Constant. cap. xii. (Von der Hardt T. I. P. ix. p. 525).
[1022] Zaccaria, Nuova Giustificaz. pp. 121-2.—Milman, Latin Christ. Book XIII. chap. 12.
[1023] Not having the works of Tudeschi to refer to, I give his remarks as quoted by Villadiego (Fuero Juzgo, p. 177, No. 85) from Gloss. in cap. olim, de cleric. conjug.—“Quod deberet ecclesia facere sicut bonus medicus, ut si medicina, experientia docente, potius officit quam prodit, cam tollat; sic corum voluntati relinqueretur, ita ut sacerdos qui abstinere noluisset, posset uxorem ducere, cum quotidie illicito coitu maculentur.”
[1024] Sacerdotibus magna ratione sublatas nuptias, majori restituendas videri.—Platina in Vit. Pii II.