Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/302

 282 Hijiory of Dotnejiic Manners our minds that in the middle ages the clergy were the great corrupters of domeftic virtue among both thefe claffes. The chara6ter of the women, as defcribed in the old fatirills and ftory-tellers, as well as in records of a ftill more llriAly truthful chara6ter, was very low, and, in the towns efpecially, they are defcribed as fpending much of their time in the taverns, drinking and goffiping. Of courfe there were everywhere — and, it is to be trufted, not a few — bright exceptions to this general chara6ler.