his advice to youthful
husbands sometimes shows. To one, for example, who had written to
announce that before long he hoped to become a father, he replies with
congratulations, and then says: 'Now that your wife no longer needs
your care, you will be able to betake yourself to a university and
finish your studies'--advice which we may surely suppose was not
taken.

During the insecurity of the Middle Ages, the seclusion of women for
their own protection had been severely necessary. In the East the
'purdah-system' reached the length of excluding women of the better
classes from the society of all men but those of their own family. Of
such rigidity in Europe I cannot find any traces except under Oriental
influence;[28] but there is no doubt that women's life at the
beginning of the Renaissance in the North was circumscribed. Such
higher education as they received was given at home, by father or
brothers or husband, or by private tutors. But there are not a few
examples of educated women. In the well-known Frisian family, the
Canters of Groningen, parents and children and even the maidservant
are said to have spoken regularly in Latin. Antony Vrye of Soest, one
of the Adwert circle, wrote to his wife in Latin; and his daughter
helped him with the teaching of Latin in the various schools over
which he presided, at Campen and Amsterdam and Alcmar. Pirckheimer's
sisters and daughters, Peutinger's wife, are famous for their
learning. In England throughout the Renaissance period the position of
women and their education steadily improved. Alice, Duchess of
Suffolk, the foundress of Ewelme, had an interest in literature; and
the great Lady Margaret, besides the endowments which are her memorial
at the universities, constantly fostered the efforts of Wynkyn de
Worde, and herself translated part of the _Imitatio_ from the French.
The Princess Mary, as the result of the liberal training of Vives and
other masters, could translate from Aquinas, take part in acting a
play of Terence, and read the letters of Jerome; and before she was
30, made a translation of Erasmus' Paraphrase of St. John's Gospel,
which formed part of the English version of those Paraphrases ordered
by Injunctions of Edward VI to be placed beside the Bible in every
parish church throughout the realm.

[28] In 1729 the Abbe Fourmont found the seclusion of women
extensively practised in Athens for fear of the Turks; see
R.C. Christie, _Es