"Donne e donzelle e giovanette accorte
rallegrando si vanno a le gran feste
d'amor si punte e deste

che par ciascuna che d'amar appaghi
e l'altre a punto in gonnellette corte
ginocano a l'ombra delle gran foreste,
tanto leggiadre e preste,

qual solean ninfe stare appresso i laghi
e in giovanetti vaghi

veggio seguire e donnear costoro

e talora danzare a mano a mano.”

Translated these rhymes mean: "I behold lovely women and maidens as they joyfully hurry to the great feast. Struck and awakened by love they flourish with sweet desire. I see them at play in the shadows of the forest, and running with flowing garments, agile and graceful like nymphs at the border of the lakes. Bright young men follow these sweet women to amorous play. Here and there some of these happy couples disappear, wandering hand in hand."

It is difficult for us, to realize the great changes brought about by this movement in social manners as well as in the position of women. "To be a gentleman," so J. A. Symonds says in his book "Renaissance in Italy," meant at this epoch to be a man acquainted with the rudiments at least of scholarship. refined in diction, capable of corresponding or of speaking in choice phrases, open to the beauty of the arts, intelligently interested in archæology, taking for his models of conduct the great men of antiquity rather than the saints of the church. He was also expected to prove himself an adept in physical exercises and in the courteous observances which survived from chivalry."

What was expected of a lady of rank we learn from a very interesting booklet, written in 1514 by Count Baldassare Castiglione, entitled "Libro del Cortegiano." According to this "Manual for Courtiers" a lady should not be inferior to her husband in intellectual accomplishment and be able to read and write Latin. In classic literature as well as in music and arts she should be versed to such an extent as to have a correct judgment of her own; while she should possess individuality, her behavior should be easy but graceful and blameless. It was also expected that she should cultivate her personal merits and beauty. "Beauty," so the manual says, "is of far greater importance to a lady than to a gentleman, because it is a divine gift which loses its charm when connected with an unworthy person. In her whole appearance, in her words, actions and attitude a lady must remain different from While virility should distinguish him, a lady should

man.

never try to copy him and be masculine. By nature woman is not inferior to man, therefore she should not imitate him. Both sexes are created to enjoy equal rights, but each sex has its own and individual right.'

From Italy the Revival of Learning with its new conceptions of philosophy and religion spread to France, Germany, the Netherlands, and England, stimulating everywhere great intellectual life and achievements.

In France it was ushered in by Christine de Pisan, the first French lady of the 14th Century who, at least in prose, gave evidence of a finished literary perception. In her works, which were often copied, she tried to rouse the self-respect of women by informing them about their sphere and duties. By her work "Cité des Dames" she made them acquainted with the character of famous women of the past, and endeavored to inspire their minds in order that they might join in the ethical efforts of the time.

Christine de Pisan was perhaps also the first woman, who opened a sharp protest against the narrow views many men of her time had in regard to woman's abilities and position. Defying the prejudice of woman's inferiority, she gained a complete victory in her literary skirmishes over several clergymen of high standing.

In Germany the cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg, Strassburg and Basel became the centers of learned societies, who gathered around scholars like Schedel, Pirckheimer, Agricola, Peutinger, Reuchlin and Brant. Here also Dürer, Holbein, Cranach, Schongauer and Vischer enriched the world with works of art that rank among the greatest of the Middle Ages. But most important of all, in Germany that great religious movement started which was in truth the Teutonic Renaissance: the Reformation, in which Luther, Melanchton, Hutten and Erasmus were the leading spirits.

Kindred movements were started in Switzerland by Zwingli, in France by Lefevre d'Estaples, Berquin and Calvin; in England by Wycliffe, Bilney, Cranmer and Cromwell.

While so numerous men and women strove for greater physical and intellectual liberty, ecclesiastic despotism, to prevent anybody from thinking independently, denounced all free thinkers as heretics who must be exterminated by fire and sword. The life of many brilliant men and women ended at the stake or on the scaffold. But far greater numbers perished through obscure superstition, for the spread of which the Church was in the first place responsible.

ages.

The belief in witchcraft, witches, evil spirits and devils is as old as humanity. It prevailed among all primeval people as well as among all nations of the classic past and the middle It still exists among many nations who call themselves civilized. Witches have been and are feared as persons, who maintain intercourse with evil spirits, demons or devils. They are believed to be able, through the assistance of these spirits, of inflicting injury on other people, who attract their dislike and hatred. In former times people were convinced, that such witches could transform themselves into animais, clouds, water, rocks, trees or anything else; that they could cause disastrous thunderstorms, hail, invasions of grasshoppers, whirlwinds and droughts; that they could steal the dew and the rain, hide the moon and the stars, and produce plagues in men and cattle.

From the Hebrews, who were firm believers in witchcraft and sorcery, this superstition was handed down to the early Christians, and with the extension of Christianity, it affected all other European nations. The earliest ecclesiastical decree

against witchcraft appears to have been that of Ancyra, 315 A. D., condemning soothsayers to five years' penance. In canon law the Decretum subjected them to excommunication as idolators and enemies of Christ. And in accordance with the command of Moses: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," all women suspected of witchcraft were killed.

Later on the Popes John XXII. and Eugene IV. issued bulls exhorting all Christians to greater diligence "against heretics as well as the human agents of the Prince of Darkness, and especially against those who have the power to produce bad weather." To exterminate these enemies of the Holy Faith all fighting forces of the church were set in motion, among them an institution, which had been founded in Spain during the 12th Century: the Inquisition.

As its name, derived from the Latin "inquirere," indicates, it was the office of this institution to inquire about, or spy into all sins committed against the Holy Faith and the authority of the church, and to deliver witches as well as heretics to the proper authorities for punishment.

Confirmed and sanctioned by the Popes, this Inquisition had already performed excellent work during the crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses. But the most vigorous crusade against witchcraft began when in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII. published his bull "Summis desiderantes affectibus," of which Andrew D. White in his "History of the Warfare of Science with Theology" has said that of all documents, ever issued, this has doubtless caused the greatest shedding of innocent blood."

By this bull several professors of theology were appointed as inquisitors for large parts of Germany, with full power to prevent the further spread of heresy and witchcraft. The clergy as well as all other authorities were warned that these inquisitors must not be hindered in any way nor by anyone. "All who try to do so, will be, whatever office they may hold, subdued by excommunication, suspension, interdict and other still more terrible punishments, without any appeal and if necessary, they shall be turned over to the civil authorities. It shall not be permitted to anyone to act wantonly contrary to our message. Whoever may try to do so, should know that he directs upon himself the wrath of Almighty God as well as of the Apostles Peter and Paul."

Under the authority of this bull the inquisitors opened in Germany not only a systematic crusade against witchcraft, but at the same time prepared a manual, the Malleus Maleficarum, or "the Witch-Hammer," which became the great text-book on procedure in all witchcraft cases. Never before had a volume been published that contained an equal amount of idiotic superstition. And never before nor after has any

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