Women of the Romance Countries

Women of the Romance
Countries

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Title: Women of the Romance Countries
Author: John R. Effinger
Release Date: June 21, 2006 [EBook #18642]
Language: English
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[Illustration: MARIA DE PADILLA
After the painting by Paul Gervais.]

WOMAN
In all ages and in all countries
WOMEN OF THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES
by
JOHN R. EFFINGER, Ph.D. Of the University of Michigan
THE RITTENHOUSE PRESS PHILADELPHIA
Copyrighted at Washington and entered at Stationers' Hall, London
1907 1908
and printed by arrangement with George Barrie's Sons.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.

PREFACE
No one can deny the influence of woman, which has been a potent
factor in society, directly or indirectly, ever since the days of Mother
Eve. Whether living in Oriental seclusion, or enjoying the freer life of
the Western world, she has always played an important part in the
onward march of events, and exercised a subtle power in all things,
great and small. To appreciate this power properly, and give it a worthy
narrative, is ever a difficult and well-nigh impossible task, at least for
mortal man. Under the most favorable circumstances, the subject is
elusive and difficult of approach, lacking in sequence, and often
shrouded in mystery.
What, then, must have been the task of the author of the present volume,
in essaying to write of the women of Italy and Spain! In neither of these
countries are the people all of the same race, nor do they afford the
development of a constant type for observation or study. Italy, with its

mediæval chaos, its free cities, and its fast-and-loose allegiance to the
temporal power of the Eternal City, has ever been the despair of the
orderly historian; and Spain, overrun by Goth, by Roman, and by
Moslem host, presents strange contrasts and rare complexities.
Such being the case, this account of the women of the Romance
countries does not attempt to trace in detail their gradual evolution, but
rather to present, in the proper setting, the most conspicuous examples
of their good or evil influence, their bravery or their cowardice, their
loyalty or their infidelity, their learning or their illiteracy, their
intelligence or their ignorance, throughout the succeeding years.
Chroniclers and historians, poets and romancers, have all given
valuable aid in the undertaking, and to them grateful acknowledgment
is hereby made.
JOHN R. EFFINGER.
University of Michigan.

Part First
Italian Women
Chapter I
The Age of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany
The eleventh century, which culminated in the religious fervor of the
First Crusade, must not on that account be considered as an age of
unexampled piety and devotion. Good men there were and true, and
women of great intellectual and moral force, but it cannot be said that
the time was characterized by any deep and sincere religious feeling
which showed itself in the general conduct of society. Europe was just
emerging from that gloom which had settled down so closely upon the
older civilizations after the downfall of the glory that was Rome, and
the light of the new day sifted but fitfully through the dark curtains of

that restless time. Liberty had not as yet become the shibboleth of the
people, superstition was in the very air, the knowledge of the wisest
scholars was as naught, compared with what we know to-day;
everywhere, might made right.
In a time like this, in spite of the illustrious example of the Countess
Matilda, it cannot be supposed that women were in a very exalted
position. It is even recorded that in several instances, men, as superior
beings, debated as to whether or not women were possessed of souls.
While this momentous question was never settled in a conclusive
fashion, it may be remarked that in the heat of the discussion there were
some who called women angels of light, while there were others who
had no hesitation in declaring that they were devils incarnate, though in
neither case were they willing to grant them the same rights and
privileges which they themselves possessed. Though many other facts
of the same kind might be adduced, the mere existence of such
discussion is enough to prove to the most undiscerning that woman's
place in society was not clearly recognized, and that there were many
difficulties to be overcome before she could consider herself free