old such an opinion?"

"They go further than that," replied Longarine. "They say that we ought
to accustom ourselves to the virtue of chastity; and in order to try
their strength they speak with the prettiest women they can find and
whom they like best, and by kissing and touching them essay whether
their fleshly nature be wholly dead. When they find themselves stirred
by such pleasure, they desist, and have recourse to fasts and grievous
discipline. Then, when they have so far mortified their flesh that
neither speech nor kiss has power to move them, they make trial of
the supreme temptation, that, namely, of lying together and embracing
without any lustfulness. (6) But for one who has escaped, so many have
come to mischief, that the Archbishop of Milan, where this religious
practice used to be carried on, (7) was obliged to separate them and
place the women in convents and the men in monasteries."

6 Robert d'Arbrissel, the founder of the abbey of
Fontevrault (see ante, p. 74), was accused of this
practice.--See the article Fontevraud in Desoer's edition of
Bayle's Dictionary, vi. 508, 519.--M.

7 Queen Margaret possibly refers to some incidents which
occurred at Milan in the early part of the fourteenth
century, when Matteo and Galeazzo Visconti ruled the city.
In Signor Tullio Dandolo's work, _Sui xxiii. libri delta
Histories Patrice di Giuseppe Ripamonti ragionamento_
(Milano, 1856, pp. 52-60), will be found the story of a
woman of the people, Guglielmina, and her accomplice, Andrea
Saramita, who under some religious pretext founded a secret
society of females. The debauchery practised by its members
being discovered, Saramita was burnt alive, and
Guglielmina's bones were disinterred and thrown into the
fire. The Bishop of Milan at this time (1296-1308) was
Francesco Fontana.--M.

"Truly," said Geburon, "it were the extremity of folly to seek to
become sinless by one's own efforts, and at the same time to seek out
opportunities for sin."

"There are some," said Saffredent, "who do the very opposite, and flee
opportunities for sin as carefully as they are able; nevertheless,
concupiscence pursues them. Thus the good Saint Jerome, after scourging
and hiding himself in the desert, confessed that he could not escape
from the fire that consumed his marrow. We ought, therefore, to
recommend ourselves to God, for unless He uphold