d deserved praise for
preserving her virginity, provided always that her motives were
praiseworthy. Two hundred years before the reign of Charles VII, a
young girl of Reims realised that a grave sin may be committed against
the Church of God by refusing the solicitations of a clerk in a
vineyard. Here is the damsel's story as related by the canon Gervais.

"On a day, Guillaume with the White Hands, Uncle of King Philippe of
France, for his pleasure rode forth from his town. A clerk of his
following, Gervais by name, who was in the heat of youth, saw a maiden
walking alone in a vineyard. He went to her, greeted her and asked:
'What are you doing in such great haste?' And with fitting words he
courteously solicited her.

"Without even looking at him, calmly and gravely she replied: 'God
forbid, youth, that I should ever be yours or any man's, for if I were
to lose my virginity and my body its purity, I should inevitably fall
into eternal damnation.'

"Such words caused the clerk to suspect that the maiden belonged to
the impious sect of the Cathari, whom the Church was in those days
pursuing relentlessly and punishing severely. One of the errors of
these heretics was indeed to condemn all carnal intercourse. Impatient
to resolve his doubts, Gervais straightway provoked the damsel to a
discussion on the Church's teaching in this matter. Meanwhile, the
Archbishop, Guillaume with the White Hands, turned his steed, and,
followed by his monks, came to the vineyard where the clerk and the
maiden were disputing together. When he learnt the cause of their
disagreement he ordered the maiden to be seized and brought into the
town. There he exhorted her, and, in charity, endeavoured to convert
her to the Catholic Faith.

"She would not submit, however. 'I am not well enough grounded in
doctrine to defend myself,' she said to him. 'But in the town I have a
mistress, who, with good reasons, will easily refute all your
arguments. She it is who lodges in that house.'

"The Archbishop Guillaume straightway sent to inquire after this
woman; and, having questioned her, perceived that what the maiden had
said concerning her was true. The very next day he convoked an
assembly of clerks and nobles to judge the two women. Both of them
were condemned to be burnt. The mistress contrived to escape, but
promises and persuasions having failed to turn the maiden from the
pernicious error of her ways, she was delivered up to the executioner.
S