Sublime

One night, as this creature lay in bed with her husband, she heard a melodious sound so sweet and delectable that she thought she had been in paradise. And immediately she jumped out of bed and said, ‘Alas that ever I sinned! It is full merry in heaven.’

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

But if a man was not up to this level of heroism and self-denial, if he did not possess what the Church called ‘the gift of continency’, then he might marry; it was better to marry than to burn. But it was seen as a concession for the weak.

And there, as years passed, this wonder-woman bore child after child, five of them—all girls.

I discovered her. Charmante, a perfect Gretchen,4 and we’ve already become acquainted. The prettiest little thing, really!’

ruth

I daresay I must call this my home – though truly there never was so dank and drear a place – though Essex being flat and featureless at least has in its favour the kind of skies which all my life I have sought – I confess to having been surprised by affection for my husband – this dreadful emotion roused by discovering that he has commissioned a r

reverenced.