The Béguines were finally absolved from censure by the Council of Constance, 1414 (pp. 139, 140). The mind which does not see in this account that one set of Béguines were suppressed on account of disorder and that the others were retained from the desire of promoting virtue, is singularly blinded by prejudice, notwithstanding that he walks, as he says himself (p. 139), "in the brightness of Luther's most blessed name."
The Béguines, according to our author, were eventually merged into [{421}] Tertiaries, or more regularly organized religious bodies, of whom he gives so interesting an account that we can but wonder and admire the more that the account comes, from such a source. There is, however, in the author's mind, a notable ignorance of the "purity of intention" enforced by the church as necessary to the sanctification of good works, and this accounts for much misconception on his part. He says that when Madame de Miramon, a young widow, began her religious life in works of active charity, "her director exhorted her to make a 'retreat' for a year, in order to devote herself to her own perfection, without exercising her charity toward her neighbor." This Mr. Ludlow styles "a trait characteristically Romish," in which we must presume he is right, for if he represents the anti-Romish party, we must say, judging by his book, there is little apprehension shown by that party that "good good works," to be acceptable, to be sanctifying to the agent, must be wrought in God, and therefore that a year spent in the repression of self-seeking, in acts of humiliation and self-abasement, might be and probably was necessary to insure that the future acts of the pious lady should be performed in that "pure intention" which would draw down upon them the fructifying blessing of divine grace. We are fain to confess that this is, as "the gentleman says, characteristically Romish;" and much we rejoice at so beautiful a characteristic of our faith.
We cannot follow Mr. Ludlow through all his accounts, which we regret the more as he gives important evidence to the fact, that in every age of the church pious women have been found to comprehend the needs of the age in which they live, and to associate with the special purpose of providing the assistance necessary. In a barbarous age, when vandalism overturned human learning, "nunneries, like monasteries for men, became schools or store houses of learning, sometimes even centres of intellectual activity. At the beginning of the sixth century, the nunnery founded by St. Cesarius at Arles contained two hundred nuns, mostly employed in copying books. Their rule bound them to learn 'human letters' for two hours a day, and to work in common, either in transcribing or in female labor" (p. 106). The convents of Tours, founded in the sixth century by Queen Radegund, and the Swabian nunnery of Gaudesheim, in the latter half of the tenth century, the glory of female monachism, were specially centres of intellectual activity. In the latter dwelt the poetess Hrotsvitha, herself not the first authoress of her convent, whose Latin plays seem to have especial attraction for Mr. Ludlow, for his panegyric is couched in these words, "Hrotsvitha, at least, was no hooded Pharisee" (pp. 119, 111).
During the Crusades and European wars, the communities of the Tertiarian hospitaller nuns, under various names, excite his admiration, though he thinks "the worship of these nuns may not be the highest and best, but it is surely genuine" (p. 142). Thanks even for that admission, Mr. Ludlow. The Béguines, of whom we have already spoken, and the educational nuns spring up at the hour of need, and for the present day "the institute of 'Rosines' of Turin presents an interesting feature." These latter have no vows, no seclusion. They are a genuine working association of women, only with a strong religious element infused in their work. They were founded by Rosa Governo, who had been a servant. There Mrs. Jameson found (see Communion of Labor) "nearly four hundred women, from fifteen years of age upwards, gathered together in an assemblage of buildings, where they carry on tailoring, embroidery, especially of military accoutrements for the army, weaving, spinning, shirt-making, lace-making, every trade, in short, in which female ingenuity is available. They have a well-kept garden, a school for the poor children of the neighborhood, an infirmary, including a ward for the aged, a capital dispensary, with a small medical library. [{422}] They are ruled by a superior, elected from among themselves; the work-rooms are divided into classes and groups, each under a monitress. The rules of admission and the interior regulations are strict; any inmate may leave at once, but cannot be readmitted. Finally, they are entirely self-supporting, and have a yearly income of between 70,000f. to 80,000f., that is, about from £2,800 to £3,200. No female organization is more pregnant with hope than this" (p. 181). With this we conclude our notice of Mr. Ludlow's book, although he has also accounts of some few Protestant associations, imitated and modified from the foregoing.
We cannot but rejoice at so much welcome testimony, from an outsider, to the benefits flowing from the female religious institutions of the church of Christ, and feel encouraged to believe that whatever may be the necessities of the times, bands of holy women will rise up to administer thereunto.
It is refreshing, too, as an evidence that the gratitude which woman owes to the church, she is willing to repay in self-devotedness to the wants of the members of that church. No woman who has ever reflected for one brief hour on the emancipation from slavery that has been wrought for her by the ministry of the church, can fail to recognize that in the Church alone is her real protection, her true safety. The pagan woman—what was she? You may see her type in the Eastern harem, the Hindoo suttee, the Indian burden-bearer. The few women of antiquity who broke their chains did so at a fearful cost. The Aspasias, the Diotemes, the Semiramises, the Zenobias, the Cleopatras—alas! a cloud obscures their greatness; and even heathenism condemns while it admires them. Respectable women were slaves; if not nominally so, yet slaves in intellect, slaves by inferior position, slaves through ignorance; slaves because their souls could find no scope for exertion. And now what are the tendencies of the age? I fear we must confess that they are purely materialistic, that they point rather to the reign of physical power than that of moral force; and if so, what must woman expect save a return in some shape, modified by existing machinery, to the old idea of enslavement under another name? The laws of the church are already annulled by society in respect of marriage. The power of easy divorce exists in the Eastern states, and polygamy flourishes in Utah. These are matters calculated to make Catholic women reflect ere they march too readily with the tendencies of the age. The church, and the church only, raised the standard of woman, and that incidentally, by proclaiming that she had a soul to save, and that the powers of the soul were will, memory, and understanding. Christian men were obliged to concede to her the exercise of these powers, by the same authority through which they claimed the right to exercise them for themselves. But now, the world is for the most part not Christian, and we must look well to the principles that it puts forth; its associations or co-operations, if founded on a merely selfish principle, must end in disorder. It requires the strong religious element spoken of by Mrs. Jameson as existing among the Rosines, and the "pure intention" which induced Madame de Miramon to obey her director and make the year's retreat he prescribed, in order that her future acts might be begun, continued, and ended in God, to insure that a community life or association shall produce good. That joint-stock companies may for a while flourish and contribute to the wealth of the shareholders is doubtless true; but if the wealth thus obtained is made merely to contribute to material enjoyment, it will rather injure than profit the possessor, whether that possessor be man or woman. Strong moral power is produced by exercise, by endurance, renunciation, rather than by gratification. [{423}] Strong intellectual power is produced by deep thought, head study, unremitting exertion, as strong physical power is produced by labor, continuous activity, hard fare, and unluxurious habits. We must not lose sight of these facts when we seek to improve the condition of either man or woman; and desirable as are associations for mutual benefit, we must not forget that if they are to be permanent, they most aim at something higher than improving in temporalities. The union of the natural law with the supernatural law should form the especial study of every thinking member of the church; and to women's associations it seems a study peculiarly desirable, as woman owes her present improved condition entirely to the effects produced by that supernatural action on her previous condition. If we might be allowed to suggest a subject of thought to such Catholic women as see the evils depicted by Misses Parkes and Davis, and wish to assist in their removal, it would be that they should meditate and study the practical bearing of the ancient associations of the church to mitigate the then existing evils, and having caught the spirit of devotedness from the many examples therein presented, should proceed to consider what form of devotedness is demanded by the present needs—and in the spirit of the church assemble to promote the needful work.
That there is much to be done, all must confess; but in what way it is to be done is not altogether so evident. Only tracing from all history "that woman's work in the church" is to see the difficulties of the times, to enter with warm sympathy into its distresses, and having purified the human tenderness with which she is gifted by casting it into the furnace of divine love, to direct that tenderness, enlightened by intellectual culture and strengthened by acetic practice, into the channels needing assistance. We can but feel confident that Catholic women will now as heretofore ponder over the position of their sex with regard to labor and intellectual culture, and that to meet its requirements such institutions will be formed as will push forward "progress" in the most approved system compatible with the solemn duties of Catholicity: that is, uniting the human privilege to the far higher and loftier privilege involved in being a member of the church of Christ.