brutal
soldiers.

+725. The sex relation and position of women.+ In such a period the sex
relation is sure to be degraded and the position of woman is sure to be
compromised. They can only be defined by the restraints which are
observed or enforced. When all restraints are set aside sensuality is
set free. Women were not suppressed. They took their place by the men
and only demanded for themselves a liberty equal to that assumed by the
men. The opinion has been expressed that Isabella d'Este "may be
regarded as the most splendid realization of the Renaissance ideal of
woman."[2268] Vittoria Colonna has been more generally accorded that
position. She is doubly interesting for her Platonic relation to Michael
Angelo, who was fifteen years her senior,[2269] and for her personal
character. The title "bastard" was often worn with pride. In royal
houses it happened often that the illegitimate branch took the throne on
the failure of the other, so that the existence of the former was a
recognized and useful fact, not a shameful one.[2270] Although it was
true that woman "occupied a place by the side of man, contended with him
for intellectual prizes, and took part in every spirited movement,"
although many of them became celebrated for humanistic attainments, and
were intrusted with the government of states,[2271] yet it was not
possible that they could maintain womanly honor and dignity side by
side with the concubines and bastards of their husbands. The love of men
for men was a current vice which was hardly concealed and which degraded
the sex relation.[2272] The individualism of the period is interpreted
as a motive for making love to the wife of another, that is, to another
fully developed individual.[2273] Adultery also appealed to the love of
intrigue and the appreciation of the imaginative element. Lewd stories
and dramas were produced in great numbers in which the cunning and
deception of adultery were developed in all imaginable combinations of
circumstances. In real life a woman's relatives showed great ferocity in
enforcing against her all the current conventions about her conduct.
That was because she might bring disgrace and ridicule on them by
marrying beneath her, or by a liaison which was known and avenged by her
husband. The assassination of the husband in such cases was only a
trifling necessity which might be called for.[2274] A physician having
married a widowed duchess, born a princess of Aragon, her bro