(He does not say
whether it was by her roaring.) Conrad of Wuerzburg compares the Holy
Virgin to a lioness who brings her dead cubs, _i.e._, mankind, to life
with loud roaring. Bartolome Zorgi, another troubadour of the same
period, likens his lady to a snake, for--he explains--"she flees from
the nude poet and her courage only returns with his clothes." During the
whole mediaeval period the unicorn was a well-known symbol of virginity,
more especially of the virginity of Mary. The _Golden Smithy_ of the
German minnesinger, afterwards monk Conrad of Wuerzburg, contains a
rather abstruse poem which begins:
The hunt began;
The heavenly unicorn
Was chased into the thicket
Of this alien world,
And sought, imperial maid,
Within thine arms a sanctuary.... etc.
Natural history was in a parlous state, and geographical knowledge was
equally spurious. The Church was averse to natural research, for the
only problem in the world was the salvation of man from everlasting
damnation.
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