for the sisterhood. So that, methinks, they prospered
more through gifts in a single year than I should have done if I
had stayed there a hundred. True it is that the weakness of
womankind makes their needs and sufferings appeal strongly to
people's feelings, as likewise it makes their virtue all the more
pleasing to God and man. And God granted such favour in the eyes of
all to her who was now my sister, and who was in authority over the
rest, that the bishops loved her as a daughter, the abbots as a
sister, and the laity as a mother. All alike marvelled at her
religious zeal, her good judgment and the sweetness of her
incomparable patience in all things. The less often she allowed
herself to be seen, shutting herself up in her cell to devote
herself to sacred meditations and prayers, the more eagerly did
those who dwelt without demand her presence and the spiritual
guidance of her words.

CHAPTER XIV

OF THE EVIL REPORT OF HIS INIQUITY

Before long all those who dwelt thereabouts began to censure me
roundly, complaining that I paid far less attention to their needs
than I might and should have done, and that at least I could do
something for them through my preaching. As a result, I returned
thither frequently, to be of service to them in whatsoever way I
could. Regarding this there was no lack of hateful murmuring, and
the thing which sincere charity induced me to do was seized upon by
the wickedness of my detractors as the subject of shameless outcry.
They declared that I, who of old could scarcely endure to be parted
from her I loved, was still swayed by the delights of fleshly lust.
Many times I thought of the complaint of St. Jerome in his letter
to Asella regarding those women whom he was falsely accused of
loving, when he said (Epist. xcix): "I am charged with nothing save
the fact of my sex, and this charge is made only because Paula is
setting forth to Jerusalem." And again: "Before I became intimate
in the household of the saintly Paula, the whole city was loud in
my praise, and nearly every one deemed me deserving of the highest
honours of priesthood. But I know that my way to the kingdom of
Heaven lies through good and evil report alike."

When I pondered over the injury which slander had done to so great
a man as this, I was not a little consoled thereby. If my rivals, I
told myself, could but find an equal cause for suspicion against
me, with what accusations would they persecute me! But how i