ABSTRACT
It is generally assumed that fewer women were literate than men in every century of western European history. In the cathedral closes and the houses of the clergy there were many women in this period. The great age of women mystics and of the women leaders of religion lay in the future. But one of the best twelfth-century biographies is that of Christina of Markyate, recluse and prioress. Of the former the Empress Theophanu and the Empress Kunigunde were notable examples; of the latter the English queens, Emma and Edith. Between Germany and England in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries the links were close. Yet a closer look at the history of religious women in other parts of Europe at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries reveals a striking paradox. But many knew something of their story, and Heloise herself commanded in later life a deep respect as a person.
