he condition of the peasant women was not greatly
improved. They had more cows to milk, it is true; but, on the other
hand, they were furnished with fewer books from which to draw mental
nourishment. The public schools had gone to ruin. Even the boys were not
properly taught. "Our wenches learn nothing," an exceptionally
interested father complains.

The old manufacturing interests, like weaving by hand, in which women
formerly aided, had declined. Workingwomen in the cities found it hard
to earn a living. By losses resulting from the war, many of the genteel
poor, ladies born and bred, had been forced into the ranks of the
workers. These timid unfortunates became nursery governesses in families
of the impoverished nobility, day teachers, court ladies without salary,
and the like. The personal secrets of the children of labor are kept
only in the archives of solitary human hearts; else, many a story of
tragedy, love, and brave self-denial might be written from the bitter
experiences of these pioneer women workers. In considering the condition
of workingwomen during this unhappy period, the word "Vice," written
large, must be constantly kept in mind. It was not a question of
temptation to vice; the problem, instead, was how a respectable
workingwoman could possibly escape being driven into sin by man's
physical force.

The counter reformation, set in motion by the wonderful intellect of
Ignatius Loyola, had a mighty influence upon women in certain parts of
the empire. "In the year 1551," says Steinmetz, "the Jesuits had no
fixed position in Germany. In 1556 they had overspread Franconia,
Swabia, Rhineland, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Bavaria." This rapid
but quiet growth of the Society of Jesus was due largely to the
influence of a comparatively few rich, intelligent Catholic women, like
Maria of Bavaria.

The relation between women and early Jesuitism bears out the old
assertion that kicks and beatings increase both canine and feminine
affection. Ignatius Loyola himself compared woman to the devil. He
writes: "Our enemy imitates the nature and manner of a woman as to her
weakness and frowardness. For, as a woman, quarrelling with her husband,
if she sees him with erect, firm aspect, ready to resist her, instantly
loses courage and turns on her heel, but if she perceive he is timid and
inclined to slink off, her audacity knows no bounds, and she pounces
upon him, ferociously. Thus the devil," etc.

Ignatius Loyol