ne between angels and man. But in the capitularies generally it was as
_Vas infirmius_ that she was defined. Yet already Chrysostom, with a
better appreciation of the value of words, with a better appreciation of
the value of woman as well, had defined her as danger in its most
delectable form. Chrysostom means golden mouth. His views are of interest.
Those of the mediaeval lord are not recorded, and would not be citable, if
they were.

From manners such as his and from times such as those, there was but one
refuge--the cloister, though there was also the tomb. They were not always
dissimilar. In the monasteries, there was a thick vapor of crapulence and
bad dreams. They were vestibules of hell. The bishops, frankly barbarian,
coarse, gluttonous, and worse, went about armed, pillaging as freely as
the barons. Monks less adventurous, but not on that account any better,
saw Satan calling gayly at them, "Thou art damned." Yet, however drear
their life, it was a surcease from the apoplexy of the epoch. Kings
descended from their thrones to join them. To the abbeys and priories came
women of rank.

In these latter retreats there was some suavity, but chiefly there was
security from predatory incursions, from husbands quite as unwelcome,
from the passions and violence of the turbulent world without. But the
security was not over-secure. Women that escaped behind the bars, saw
those bars shaken by the men from whom they had fled, saw the bars sunder,
and themselves torn away. That, though, was exceptional. In the cloister
generally there was safety, but there were also regrets, and, with them, a
leisure not always very adequately filled. To some, the cloister was but
another form of captivity in which they were put not of their own
volition, but by way of precaution, to insure a security which may not
have been entirely to their wish. Yet, from whatever cause existence in
these retreats was induced, very rapidly it became the fashion.

There had been epochs in which women wore garments that were brief, there
were others in which their robes were long. It was a question of mode.
Then haircloth came in fashion. In Greece, women were nominally free. In
Rome, they were unrestrained. In Europe at this period, they were
cloistered. It was the proper thing, a distinction that lifted them above
the vulgar. Bertheflede, a lady of very exalted position, who, Gregoire de
Tours has related, cared much for the pleasures of the table and n