The Book of the City of Ladies

by Christine Pizan

  ‘The queen therefore undid her hair and took off her shoes, as did all the other ladies. Those who had babies picked them up in their arms and carried them with them. In addition, there was a whole host of children, as well as pregnant women. The queen walked at the head of this touching procession and they all headed straight for the battlefield just as the two armies were lining up. They took up their position in between the opposing sets of troops, making it impossible for the knights to attack each other without first running into the women. The queen and all the other ladies fell to their knees and shouted out, “Dear fathers and kinsmen, beloved husbands: for God’s sake, make peace! If not, we are prepared to die trampled underfoot by your horses.” Seeing their wives and children in tears, the knights were astonished and dismayed: there was certainly no way that they would run at them. The women’s fathers were similarly moved to compassion at the sight of their daughters in this terrible state. The two sides looked at each other and, out of pity for the women who were humbly begging them to desist, their hatred turned to proper filial love. Sabines and Romans alike were forced to throw down their weapons as they rushed to embrace each other and make peace. Romulus led his father-in-law, the king of the Sabines, into the city and received him and his whole army with great honour. Thus, thanks to the good sense and bravery of the queen and her ladies, the Romans and the Sabines were prevented from massacring each other.’

  34. About Veturia.

  ‘Veturia, a noblewoman of Rome, was the mother of a very illustrious Roman citizen called Marcius. He was a man of tremendous virtue and astuteness, as well as being quick-witted and intelligent, valiant and brave. This fine knight, Veturia’s son, was sent by the Romans at the head of a great army to attack the Coriolans. He defeated the enemy and seized from them the fortress of the Volscians. In recognition of this victory over the Coriolans, he was henceforth known as Coriolanus. He was held in such high esteem for this exploit that he ended up controlling the whole of Rome. However, since it is very dangerous to let one person be solely responsible for the government of an entire people, the Romans eventually rose up against him and sent him into exile, banishing him from the city. Yet he avenged himself perfectly on them by going over to those whom he had previously defeated and inciting them to rebel against the Romans. Making him their captain, the Coriolans marched in huge numbers on Rome, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Seeing the danger that they were in and fearing that they too would be destroyed, the Romans sent various messengers to the Coriolans to broker peace. However, Marcius refused to listen to them. Other delegations were sent, but still to no avail as Marcius continued to wreak havoc. The Romans then sent their bishops and priests, all decked in their robes of office, who humbly beseeched him to stop. Yet all their efforts too were in vain. In desperation, the Romans asked the noble ladies of the city to go and see the honourable lady Veturia, Marcius’s mother, and implore her to intercede with her son and make him cease his hostilities. The good lady Veturia left the city, accompanied by all these ladies, and the procession of women headed over towards Marcius. Like the dutiful and compassionate son he was, he dismounted from his horse as soon as he heard she was coming and went to greet her, receiving her with all due humility. Though she wished to plead with him to make peace, he replied that it was not proper that a mother should beg her son but should command him instead. The noble lady thus took him back with her to the city and, thanks to her, the Romans were saved from harm on this occasion. She alone was able to do what Rome’s most prominent citizens had been unable to achieve.’

  35. About Clotilde, Queen of France.

  ‘On the subject of the marvellous benefits that women have brought in the spiritual domain, which I was telling you about earlier, wasn’t it Clotilde, daughter of the king of Burgundy and wife of the mighty Clovis, King of France, who first brought Christianity to the French monarchy and disseminated this religion amongst its princes and kings? What greater good than this could anyone ever do? Being enlightened with the faith and like the good Christian she was, this holy lady did not stop begging and pleading with her lord to receive the word of God and be baptized. Though he persistently refused to do so, this lady never left off praying to God, with tears, fasts and acts of devotion, to shine the light of faith into her husband’s heart. She prayed to Him so fervently that eventually Our Lord took pity on her anguish. God chose to inspire Clovis at the moment when he was locked in battle against the king of the Alemanni and it seemed as though he was on the point of being defeated. The king looked up towards heaven and called out to God in his terrible distress: “Almighty God, whom my wife worships and adores, come to my aid in this struggle and I promise you that I will receive your holy faith.” No sooner had Clovis uttered these words than the tide of the battle went his way and he was totally victorious. He gave thanks to God and, on his return, he was baptized along with all his barons and the rest of his people, to the immense joy and relief of both himself and his wife. From that day onwards, thanks to the prayers of Queen Clotilde, that good and saintly lady, the grace of God became so widespread throughout the land that the faith of the French has never once faltered since. Nor has there ever been a French king who was a heretic, thank God, which is more than can be said for certain kings and emperors. This redounds greatly to their glory and it is for this reason that the kings of France are known as “most Christian”.

  ‘If I were to recount to you all the great gifts that women have brought, it would take up far too many pages. However, whilst we’re still talking about spiritual matters, there were many martyrs who were looked after, sheltered and hidden by lowly women, widows and honest townswomen, about whom I’ll tell you more later. If you read these martyrs’ legends, you will find that God was happy for them all, or at least the vast majority, to be comforted by women in their torments and sufferings. What am I saying? It’s not just them: the Apostles too, as well as Saint Paul and the others, even Jesus Christ himself, were fed and cared for by women.

  ‘As for the French, who quite rightly have great reverence for the body of my lord Saint Denis, who first brought Christianity to France, aren’t they beholden to a woman for the fact that they now possess this body, as well as those of his blessed companions Saints Rusticus and Eleutherius? The tyrant who had them beheaded ordered their bodies to be thrown in the Seine. Those who were entrusted with this mission put the bodies into a sack to carry them to the river. These men were staying at the house of an honest widow called Catulla who got them drunk and took the holy bodies out of the sacks, replacing them with the carcasses of dead pigs. She then buried the blessed martyrs with as much dignity as she could in her house, leaving an inscription over them so that they could be identified at a future date. Many years later, it was again a woman, my lady Saint Genevieve, who erected a chapel in their honour on this site until Dagobert, the good king of France, founded the church which still stands there today.’

  36. Against those who claim that it is not good for women to be educated.

  After hearing these words I, Christine, said, ‘My lady, I can clearly see that much good has been brought into the world by women. Even if some wicked women have done evil things, it still seems to me that this is far outweighed by all the good that other women have done and continue to do. This is particularly true of those who are wise and well educated in either the arts or the sciences, whom we mentioned before. That’s why I’m all the more amazed at the opinion of some men who state that they are completely opposed to their daughters, wives or other female relatives engaging in study, for fear that their morals will be corrupted.’

  Rectitude replied, ‘This should prove to you that not all men’s arguments are based on reason, and that these men in particular are wrong. There are absolutely no grounds for assuming that knowledge of moral disciplines, which actually inculcate virtue, would have a morally corrupting effect. Indeed, there’s no doubt whatsoever that such forms of knowledge correct one’s vices and improve one’s morals. How coul
d anyone possibly think that by studying good lessons and advice one will be any the worse for it? This view is completely unthinkable and untenable. I’m not saying that it’s a good idea for men or women to study sorcery or any other type of forbidden science, since the Holy Church did not ban people from practising them for nothing. However, it’s just that it’s not true to say that women will be corrupted by knowing what’s right and proper.

  ‘Quintus Hortensius, who was a great rhetorician and a fine orator of Rome, did not subscribe to this opinion. He had a daughter named Hortensia, whom he loved dearly for her keen wits. He educated her himself, teaching her the science of rhetoric in which, states Boccaccio, she so excelled that she not only resembled her father in her intelligence, agile memory and excellent diction, but in fact surpassed him in her marvellous eloquence and command of oratory. On the subject of what we said before about all the benefits that women have brought, the good that this lady did is especially worthy of note. It was at the time when a triumvirate ruled over Rome that this Hortensia decided to take up the cause of women, thus performing a task which no man dared to do. As Rome was in great financial straits, it was proposed to levy certain charges on women and, in particular, to put a tax on their valuables. This Hortensia spoke so persuasively that she was listened to as attentively as if it had been her father speaking, and won her case.

  ‘If we discuss more recent times, rather than going back to ancient history, Giovanni Andrea, the famous legist who taught at Bologna nearly sixty years ago, similarly opposed the view that women should not be educated. He gave his beloved daughter Novella, a fine and lovely girl, such a good education and detailed knowledge of law that, when he was busy with other tasks which prevented him from lecturing to his students, he could send his daughter in his place to read to them from his professorial chair. In order not to distract the audience by her beauty, Novella had a little curtain put up in front of her. Thus she lightened her father’s load and relieved him of some of his duties. In his devotion to her, he chose to preserve her name for posterity by writing an important commentary on a legal text which he named La Novella in her honour.

  ‘Therefore, it is not all men, especially not the most intelligent, who agree with the view that it is a bad idea to educate women. However, it’s true that those who are not very clever come out with this opinion because they don’t want women to know more than they do. Your own father, who was a great astrologer and philosopher, did not believe that knowledge of the sciences reduced a woman’s worth. Indeed, as you know, it gave him great pleasure to see you take so readily to studying the arts. Rather, it was because your mother, as a woman, held the view that you should spend your time spinning like the other girls, that you did not receive a more advanced or detailed initiation into the sciences. But, as that proverb which we’ve already had occasion to quote says, “What is in our nature cannot be taken away.” Despite your mother’s opposition, you did manage to glean some grains of knowledge from your studies, thanks to your own natural inclination for learning. It’s obvious to me that you do not esteem yourself any less for having this knowledge: in fact, you seem to treasure it, and quite rightly so.’

  I, Christine, then replied, ‘Without a doubt, what you’re saying, my lady, is as true as the Lord’s Prayer itself.’

  37. Christine addresses Rectitude, who gives examples to contradict those who claim that few women are chaste, beginning with Susanna.

  ‘As far as I can see, my lady, all forms of goodness and virtue can be found in the female sex. So why is it that these men say that so few women are chaste? If this were true, all their other qualities would be worthless, because chastity is the supreme virtue in a woman. Yet, hearing what you’ve just said, the truth would seem to be very different from what they claim.’

  Rectitude answered, ‘The complete opposite is true, as I’ve told you before and as you yourself already know. I could keep telling you more on this subject until the end of time itself! The Holy Scripture mentions so many excellent and chaste ladies who preferred to die rather than lose their chastity, bodily integrity and good conscience. One such lady was the virtuous and lovely Susanna, wife of Joachim, who was a very rich and influential member of the Jewish race. As this honest lady was walking in her garden one day, she was approached by two old men, corrupt priests, who tried to tempt her into sin. Seeing that she completely rejected their advances and that their pleas were getting them nowhere, they threatened to denounce her in court for having been found with a young man. On hearing their threats, and knowing that the punishment for an adulterous woman was to be stoned, she exclaimed, “I am caught on all sides, for if I refuse to do what these men want, my body shall be put to death. But, if I give in to their demands, I shall be committing a sin in the eyes of the Creator. However, I would rather be innocent and suffer death than risk rousing God’s anger by sinning.” Susanna therefore screamed out loud and the other members of her household came running. To cut a long story short, the corrupt priests managed to convince the court with their false testimony and Susanna was sentenced to death. Yet God, who always looks after His own, opened the mouth of the prophet Daniel, who was just a small child in his mother’s arms: when the boy saw Susanna being led to her punishment, followed by a great crowd of people who were all weeping, he cried out that the innocent woman had been wrongfully accused. She was taken back to the court where the corrupt priests were properly cross-examined and found guilty by their own confessions. The blameless Susanna was saved and it was they who were punished instead.’

  38. About Sarah.

  ‘The twentieth chapter of the first book of the Bible tells of the chastity and virtue of Sarah. This lady was the wife of Abraham, the great patriarch. Many good things are said about this lady in Holy Scripture, but I can’t go into them all here. None the less, we can cite her chastity as an example of what we were saying before about the large numbers of beautiful women who remained pure. Sarah was so astonishingly lovely that she outshone all other ladies of her time. She was lusted after by many princes but remained faithful and ignored them all. Amongst those who were after her was King Pharaoh, who forcibly stole her from her husband. However, thanks to her great virtue, which surpassed even her beauty, she was shown such grace by Our Lord, who loved her dearly, that she was protected from all taint. God tormented Pharaoh and all his household by afflicting their bodies with dreadful diseases and torturing their consciences with terrible visions. The king was unable to lay a finger on Sarah and thus had to let her go.’

  39. About Rebecca.

  ‘The good and honest lady Rebecca, wife of Isaac the patriarch, Jacob’s father, was no less beautiful or pure than Sarah. The Holy Scripture sings her praises very highly for her many qualities, and she is mentioned in chapter 24 of the first book of the Bible. Being upright, decent and honourable, this lady was a model of chastity to all those women who saw her. Moreover, she behaved with such extraordinary humility and modesty towards her husband that she didn’t seem like a noblewoman at all. For this reason, the good Isaac revered her greatly and cherished her most dearly. However, her exemplary purity and goodness earned her more than just the affection of her husband. God Himself deemed her to be so deserving of His love and favour that, when she was old and infertile, He nevertheless sent her twins, Jacob and Esau, from whom all the tribes of Israel were descended.’

  40. About Ruth.

  ‘I could tell you much more about the fine, untainted women mentioned in the Holy Scripture, but I’ll have to keep my comments brief. Ruth, another noble lady, was the ancestor of the prophet David. She was extremely chaste, both in marriage and in widowhood, being greatly attached to her husband. This was apparent when, on his death, she left her people and her native land to go and spend the rest of her days with the Jews, the race to which her husband had belonged. She even went to make her home with her mother-in-law. In short, this worthy lady was so decent and virtuous that a whole book in the Bible was devoted to her and her life, in which a
ll these things are recounted.’

  41. About Penelope, Ulysses’s wife.

  ‘You can find many examples in books of pagan women who were righteous and honourable. Penelope, wife of the prince Ulysses, was a very virtuous lady: amongst her other qualities, she was particularly prized for her chastity. Several history books mention her in detail. This lady conducted herself most sensibly the whole time that her husband was away at the siege of Troy, which lasted ten years. Despite the fact that she was courted by various kings and princes for her great beauty, she refused to listen to a single word they said. She was not only extremely wise and prudent, but also very moral and pious. After the destruction of Troy, she waited yet another ten years for her husband, even though he was thought to have perished at sea, where he had faced many dangers. On his return, he found her assailed by a king who was attracted by her extraordinary virtue and purity to the point of wanting to force her to marry him. Disguised as a pilgrim, her husband made enquiries about her and was delighted to hear nothing but good reports. He was also overjoyed to find that his son Telemachus, who had only been a small child when he left, was now a young man.’