How the Church Understands and Upholds the Rights of Women, Third Article [pp. 366-380]

the Rights of Woomen.
vided for during their academical
course. Education was certainly as
gravely thought of in those days as in
our later times, when we boast of its
benefits being so widely diffused.
Whether it is as deeply impressed on
its ordinary recipients, let the recent
" commemorations" at Oxford pro claim. Dlugossius says the college
(which exists to this day) was called
the Queen's House, "a name which
is in itself an undying monument to
the memory of this great woman,
whose worthy thought it embodied,
and charity it still expresses; remaining for ever a living testimony
to the world of the merits of its illustrous foundress." Boniface IX., who
reigned during the last decade of the
fourteenth century, corresponded with
Hedwige, upon whom he relied as the
principal support and auxiliary of religion in her realms. She was always
appealed to as miediatrix between the
king, and his subjects, as also by the
vassal nobles among themselves.
AVWhat the king could not do by threats,
she accomplished partly by her persuasive exhortations, partly by her
grave and majestic demeanor. Her
historian relates that she even quelled
a popular rising, and put down the
abuses which had given occasion to
it, before the king had time to march
an army into the disaffected district
and reduce it by force. Once, while
hlerhusband was fighting in Lithuania,
the Hungarians, her own countrymen, invaded Poland and captured
several towns. " She no sooner heard
of this," says Ventura, "than she assembled the nobles and barons, improvised an army on the spot, and,
without losing an instant, herself led
it on to the frontiers. There, to the
great astonishment of her generals,
she displayed the military talents and
bravery of an old warrior. It was
she who directed the sieges, organized
the sallies and attacks, and gave bat
tle on the open ground, while the
whole army obeyed her enthusiasti cally, proud to serve under a woman general. She conquered the enemy
at every encounter, wrested from them
the important stronghold of Leopol,
took other cities, and not only re possessed herself of the Russian ter ritories usurped by the Hungarians,
but also added to the kingdom of Po land a vast tract of country which
voluntarily surrended itself to her
rule."* Hedwige is perhaps less
known than other renowned women
of the middle ages, and therefore
we have been led to speak more at
length of her extraordinary powers.
It would be useless to remind the
reader that she was no less remarkable for the modesty of her private
life and the austerities and charities
of her secret life than famed for the
wonderful and versatile talents displayed in her public career. Chastity and devotion invariably accompany all greatness in Catholic womanhlood, but, as we shall have occasion
to illustrate this fact later on, we will
not now stop to consider it in its
evident bearings on the vexed question raised by certain indiscriminate
apostles of the rights of woman.
We cannot pass over, among the
prominent women of medieval times
the famous Countess Mathilda, of
Tuscany, the friend and ally of Gregory VIi., Hildebrand the Reformer.
Rohrbacher calls her the modern
Deborah, and adds that in Italy,
whose princes were mostly traitors to
the cause of truth and patriotism,
"one man only, during a long reign
of fifty years, showed himself ever
faithful, ever devoted to the church
and her head, ever ready to second
them in efforts for the reformation of
the clergy and the restoration of
ancient discipline, ever prompt to de
* Donna Cattolz,a, p. 174.
379