ar 591, the
first Synod of Toledo, over which Bishop Leander presided, enacted
various canons which give some interesting sidelights on the times. It
appears that ecclesiastics had already been forbidden to keep women
servants in their houses, but the rule was so often disregarded that it
was enacted that in the future, as a punishment for such intractable
churchmen, their servants should be sold as slaves and the proceeds
handed over to some charitable organization. In just what way this
punishment was to affect the clergy, beyond causing them temporary
annoyance, it is difficult to understand, but there is no doubt as to
the fact.

In all of the seven centuries preceding the Moorish conquest of Spain
there had been some little progress, so far as the position of women was
concerned, but it cannot be said that the advance had been great. The
original Gothic ideas on this subject had been far superior to those
held by the Romans, but the rigor of the old ideas lost force in time,
and, if the accounts of the Church historians be true, the last Goths to
wield the sceptre were so corrupt and led such abandoned lives that God,
in his vengeance, sent the Mohammedan horde upon them. In all these
shifting times the conditions of life were such that few women were able
to take any prominent part in public affairs; or if they did, the
imperfect records of the epoch fail to make mention of it. At intervals
there were queens, like Ingunda, possessed of a strong and decided
character and ready to take a part in the control of affairs, but they
were the exception and not the rule, as the education of women was so
very limited that few of them knew enough to see beyond a very narrow
horizon. Probably the most enlightened woman in all this period was the
nun Florentina, sister of Bishop Leander of Seville, who was far-famed
for her good works. At the time of her death in 603, she had risen to
such distinction on account of her character and her ability that she
was made the general director of a system of over forty convents, which
were under her continual inspection and control. Such, in brief, is her
story; further details are wanting, but even this is enough to impress
us with the fact that she must have been a great woman and
representative of all that was good and noble in her day.

Chapter XIII

Women among the Moors

The closing years of Gothic rule in Spain, and the various causes which
finally led to the Moorish