Arria and Agrippina, have arrested the notice of Ju venal, yet have their names been rescued from oblivion, and their virtues perpetuated in the immortal writings of Pliny and Tacitus.

The

In the commencement of the fourth century*, the introduction and establishment of the Christian religion into the Roman world, was the cause of another great revolution in the female character. pagan theology was but ill-suited to improve the manners of women; for it partook more of ceremonies, than of precepts. Lustrations and processions supplied the place of a clear conscience, and an uniform course of virtue. It is easy, therefore, to conceive the mighty. change which Christianity effected in them; since, among the severe laws which it imposed on women, it made marriage no longer a political, but a sacred tie; and did not confine its empire to their actions, but extended it even to their thoughts.

The legislation of the Greeks and Romans looked

founded upon it :-Sabine et Epponine Tragedie, par M. Richer.-Paris, Prault, 1735. Epponina, Tragedia di Giuseppe Bartoli in Torrino. Mairresse, 1767.

* In Anno Domini 324, circular letters were written by the orders of the Emperor to all his subjects, exhorting them to embrace the Christian religion, after his example.-See Eusebius, Vita Constantini Magni, Lib. ii. Cap. xxiv-xlii, Cap. xlviii-lx.

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only to the political interest of societies; but the Christian code, while it inculcated the practice of every public and private virtue, inspired its followers with a contempt for this world, and sought to fix their minds upon a future state of rewards and punishments. This contempt of the world rendered them ambitious of perfection in the virtues of self-mortification and chastity. The life of woman, then, was one perpetual struggle between her sensual and her spiritual desires. To love and to cherish our fellowcreatures, was justly reckoned among the first of evangelical virtues. Women, young, rich, and beautiful, were in that age seen to abandon the amusements of the theatre, in order to comfort and relieve the aged, the sick, and the poor. The works of that successful advocate for celibacy, St. Jerom, perpetually resound with the praises of Paula*, her daughter Eustochium, and other illustrious penitents, who, by his eloquent persuasions, devoted their whole days and nights to the study of the scriptural writings.

When the Roman empire was overturned by the warlike barbarians of Scythia and Germany, to soften

* St. Jerom wrote a particular treatise upon the unexampled piety of that celebrated widow. It is to be found in his works, under the title of Epitaph, Paula.

their savage manners, Christianity passed from the vanquished to the conquerors, and was almost uniformly introduced by the female sex. It has been often remarked, that women have in all times been more possessed than men with that ardent zeal for religion, which makes proselytism its chief aim; but to whatever cause this fact may be attributed, whether to their superior susceptibility of impression, or to their habits of quick and intelligent observation, it is indisputable, that most nations are indebted for their conversion to the charms of a believing queen. By such means, the evangelical light was gradually diffused through France, England, part of Germany, Bavaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia : and, likewise, through female influence, Lombardy and Spain were led to renounce the doctrines of Arius.

In contemplating the invasion of the barbarians of the north, we cannot fail to be struck with the important changes which they introduced in manners: whoever studies their history, will perceive the invariable respect which they testified towards the female sex: their ferocity, as hunters or warriors, was softened only by the enthusiasm of love: their forests might

be styled the cradles of chivalry*. To possess the object of his passion, the warrior was disposed to encounter every danger frequently, a battle then could be viewed only as a number of separate duels, between combatants animated by a strong personal animosity against each other, in consequence of their ambition to signalize themselves in the eyes of their respective mistresses. From this cause, their native forests were oftentimes stained with blood, and the sword decided marriages as inheritances.

But though the barbarians, who overwhelmed the Roman world, had established a new system of manners and government, in the kingdoms they erected upon the ruins of that mighty empire, which gradually prepared the way for the reign of chivalry, yet many ages elapsed before it was considered as a political and military institution by the nations of Europe. The true spirit of chivalry did not begin to manifest itself until the middle or close of the eleventh century; yet the universal anarchy and discord, which had prevailed from the seventh century to that æra among the different states of Europe, (with the sole exception of

* Some faint vestiges of the ceremony of knighthood may be discovered in the early history of the Germans.-Framea scutoque juvenem ornant, says Tacitus, Germania, Cap. xiii.

those short, but splendid periods, in which a Charlemagne* and an Alfred appeared,) were even then far from having subsided. An almost perpetual shock was occasioned in manners, by christianity being mixed with the ceremonies of the ancient heathens; in polity and laws, by the rights of the priesthood being mixed with those of the throne; in government, by the prerogatives of kings being mixed with those of the nobility; and in religion, by the Arabians and Christians being mixed in Europe. From such contrasts flowed the sources of disorder and confusion; pilgrimages and massacres then oftentimes succeeded each other.

At the expiration, however, of the eleventh century, Europe, for the first time, saw all the nobles, who were inspired with a sentiment of equity, religion, and heroism, forming themselves into associations, to check the spirit of ferocity and violence. Their chief object was to take up arms against the Moors in Spain, the Saracens in the east, the tyrants of castles in Germany and France,, to protect and avenge the innocent, the helpless, and the distressed; and,

* See the Reign of Charlemagne, considered chiefly with reference to Religion, Laws, Literature, and Manners.