simplest answer is, common sense sent them thither. The men,
especially of the upper fighting classes, were killed off rapidly;
the women were not killed off, and a large number always remained,
who, if they had wished to marry, could not. What better for them
than to seek in convents that peace which this world could not give?

They may have mixed up with that simple wish for peace the notion of
being handmaids of God, brides of Christ, and so forth. Be it so.
Let us instead of complaining, thank heaven that there was some
motive, whether quite right or not, to keep alive in them self-
respect, and the feeling that they were not altogether useless and
aimless on earth. Look at the question in this light, and you will
understand two things; first, how horrible the times were, and
secondly, why there grew up in the early middle age a passion for
celibacy.

Salvian, in a word, had already grown up to manhood and reason, when
he saw a time come to his native country, in which were fulfilled,
with fearful exactness, the words of the prophet Isaiah:-


'Behold, the Lord maketh the land empty, and maketh it waste, and
turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants
thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as
with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her
mistress; as with the seller, so with the buyer; as with the lender,
so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver
of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly
spoiled; for the Lord hath spoken this word.'