it summed up in
itself all the knowledge and the culture of the times. In the midst
of the turmoil and dangers of war and strife, it afforded to women the
one haven to which they might flee for security. But its protection
was bought at the price of authority over the lives and consciences
of its adherents. The lives of women were spent in a round of narrow
experience and of duty, and the feasts of the Church, with their
processions and ceremonials, furnished to them merely an agreeable
break in the monotony of their existence. This was especially true of
the lower classes. In an age when belief in supernatural appearances
and interferences formed part of the common credence of the masses,
the emotional sensibilities of the women were easily appealed to by
the priests. By taking advantage of this ignorance, the Church was
enabled to hold in absolute control the lives of the simple and
credulous women. Women did not hesitate to yield to the Church their
freedom of thought and of action, their minds and consciences alike
being at the disposal of their ecclesiastical directors; but when
the Church taught men to respect their wives, and raised its voice
and exerted its influence against the tyranny which placed women in
subjection to their male relatives, it was indeed befriending them in
a way that hastened the acquirement by them of the real equality which
they now enjoy with the other sex.

The relation of women and the Church was not without its anomalies.
This is shown curiously in the contrast between the Mariolatry of
the age and the attitude of the Church toward the sex of which Mary
was the exalted type The women were not esteemed fit to receive the
Eucharist with uncovered hands; they were forbidden to approach the
altar; their married state was yet, in theory at least considered a
condition of sin, for, even among the women of the laity, virginity
and celibacy were regarded as almost a state of especial sanctity.
But the Church was entirely consistent in its attitude toward women in
that it made no distinctions as to class or condition. Queen Philippa,
wife of Edward III., while on a visit to Durham Cathedral, after
having supped with the king, retired to rest in the priory. The
scandalized monks sought an interview with the king and made vigorous
protests, so that the queen was obliged to rise, and, clad only in her
night apparel, sought accommodations in the castle, beseeching Saint
Cuthbert's pardon for havin