uses had a "head-mistress," elected by
themselves, who was to keep discipline and order, and whose special
duty it was to diligently watch that non-guild competitors, the
"interlopers," did not injure the legitimate trade. When caught, these
were condignly punished. The inmates of one of these houses for women,
located in Nuerenberg, complained with the Magistrate, that "other
inn-keepers also kept women, who walked the streets at night, and took
in married and other men, and that these plied (the trade) to such an
extent, and so much more brazenly, than they did themselves in the
municipal (guild) girls-house, that it was a pity and a shame to see
such things happen in this worthy city."[45] These "houses for women"
enjoyed special protection; disturbances of the peace in their
neighborhood were fined twice as heavily. The female guild members also
had the right to take their place in the processions and festivals, at
which, as is known, the guilds always assisted. Not infrequently were
they also drawn in as guests at the tables of Princes and Municipal
Councilmen. The "houses of women" were considered serviceable for the
"protection of marriage and of the honor of the maidens,"--the identical
reasoning with which State brothels were justified in Athens, and even
to-day prostitution is excused. All the same, there were not wanting
violent persecutions of the _filles de joie_, proceeding from the
identical male circles who supported them with their custom and their
money. The Emperor Charlemagne decreed that prostitutes shall be dragged
naked to the market place and there whipped; and yet, he himself, "the
Most Christian King and Emperor," had not less than six wives at a time;
and neither were his daughters, who followed their father's example, by
any means paragons of virtue. They prepared for him in the course of
their lives many an unpleasant hour, and brought him home several
illegitimate children. Alkuin, the friend and adviser of Charlemagne,
warned his pupils against "the crowned doves, who flew at night over the
palatinate," and he meant thereby the daughters of the Emperor.

The identical communities, that officially organized the brothel system,
that took it under their protection, and that granted all manner of
privileges to the "priestesses of Venus," had the hardest and most cruel
punishment in reserve for the poor and forsaken Magdalen. The female
infanticide, who, driven by desperation, killed the fruit o