e
had already set apart from his paternal inheritance as a home for
destitute women, and the first sister house began. Like the Beguines,
the Sisters of the Common Life took no obligations binding them to
life-long service, but they differed from them in living more closely
together in one family, and had a common purse. They wore a gray
costume, and also worked for their own support. The special virtues they
inculcated were obedience to those above them in authority, humility
that would not shun the meanest task, and friendliness to all. Their
charitable duties were much the same as the Beguines; they cared for
children, nursed the sick, and often acted as midwives. In the first
half of the sixteenth century there were at least eighty-seven
sister-houses, mostly in the Netherlands.[20]

It will be noticed that these freer communities of religious women, that
bear so much closer resemblance to the deaconesses of the early Church
than to the sisterhoods of nuns contemporary with them, mostly existed
in the great free cities of Germany and the Netherlands, which were the
cradles of political and religious liberty, the centers of commerce and
of civilization at that time.

Among the Waldenses, the Poor Men of Lyons, who were already prominent
in the last half of the twelfth century, we find there were
deaconesses. We learn of them again, too, among the Bohemian brethren,
the followers of Huss. With deep Christian faith they endeavored to form
a Church after the apostolic model, and in 1457 appointed Church
deaconesses. "They were to form a female council of elder women, who
were to counsel and care for the married women, widows, and young girls,
to make peace between quarrelers, to prevent slandering, and to preserve
purity and good morals,"[21] aims which keep close to the apostolic
definition of this office.

Luther, the great master-mind of the Reformation, was too clear-sighted
to fail to appreciate the importance of women for the service of the
Church. Speaking of the quality which is an inherent part of the
diaconate of women, he says: "Women who are truly pious are wont to have
especial grace in comforting others and lessening their sorrows." In his
exposition of 1 Pet. ii, 5, he uttered truly remarkable words, for the
age in which he lived, concerning women as members of the holy
priesthood. He says: "Now, wilt thou say, Is that true that we are all
priests, and should preach? Where will that lead us? Shall ther