80 Especially Barbeyrac in his _Morale des Pères_. He was answered by Ceillier, Cromaziano, and others. Matthew of Westminster relates of Ebba, the abbess of a Yorkshire convent which was besieged by the Danes, that she and all the other nuns, to save their chastity, deformed themselves by cutting off their noses and upper lips. (A.D. 870.) _ 81 De Civ. Dei_, i. 22-7. 82 This had been suggested by St. Augustine. In the case of Pelagia, Tillemont finds a strong argument in support of this view in the astounding, if not miraculous, fact that, having thrown herself from the top of the house, she was actually killed by the fall! “Estant montée tout au haut de sa maison, fortifiée par le mouvement que J.-C. formoit dans son cœur et par le courage qu’il luy inspiroit, elle se précipita de là du haut en bas, et échapa ainsi à tous les piéges de ses ennemis. Son corps en tombant à terre frapa, dit S. Chrysostome, les yeux du démon plus vivement qu’un éclair.... Ce qui marque encore que Dieu agissoit en tout ceci c’est qu’au lieu que ces chutes ne sont pas toujours mortelles, ou que souvent ne brisant que quelques membres, elles n’ostent la vie que longtemps après, ni l’un ni l’autre n’arriva en cette rencontre; mais Dieu retira aussitost l’âme de la sainte, en sorte que sa mort parut autant l’effet de la volonté divine que de sa chute.”—_Hist. ecclés._ tome v. pp. 401-402. 83 “Et virginitatis coronam et nuptiarum perdidit voluptatem.”—_Ep._ xxii. 84 “Quis enim siccis oculis recordetur viginti annorum adolescentulam tam ardenti fide crucis levasse vexillum ut magis amissam virginitatem quam mariti doleret interitum?”—_Ep._ xxxix. 85 For a description of these penances, see _Ep._ xxxviii. _ 86 Ep._ xxxix. 87 St. Jerome gave some sensible advice on this point to one of his admirers. (_Ep._ cxxv.) 88 Hase, _St. François d’Assise_, pp. 137-138. St. Palæmon is said to have died of his austerities. (_Vit. S. Pachomii._) 89 St. Augustine and St. Optatus have given accounts of these suicides in their works against the Donatists. 90 See Todd’s _Life of St. Patrick_, p. 462.