=The Home.= As time went on in the Middle Ages, the houses built as a means of defense grew less, so that the castle began to disappear and the home to take its place. The houses began to assume proportions of grandeur and forms of beauty, the outgrowth of the love of magnificence and display of the times. In England the manor houses were grouped around a courtyard with the entrance through a gate-house. In the house was a great hall, made to accommodate a large number of people. The kitchen was a large room, sometimes having three or four large fireplaces. Leading from the hall were chambers for the lord and lady and guests. There were also the bake-house, brew-house, stables, granaries, ox-stalls, pig-sties, and other buildings. The town houses had usually been no higher than two stories, but later went up to three or four stories in height. They often had gardens about them. They were built of stone, brick, or wood, sometimes having a cellar of stone while the upper part was wood. They were thatched with straw, but often tiles were used. Thin horn, talc, and canvas were placed across windows, but glass was coming into more common use, so that many houses had glass in their windows. The rooms were lighted by candles, sometimes torches were used, the candles being set in standing or hanging candlesticks of iron, wood, or latten. The heating was done by a fire built in the center of the hall, the smoke escaping through an opening in the roof, or there was a fireplace in the corner or the side of the room. The fuel used was wood, charcoal, ling, peat, or coal. In the hall the furniture consisted of tables, seats, and a cupboard. In the chamber was a bedstead with curtains around it and the bedding consisted of a straw mattress, a feather bed, bolster, pillows, sheets, and blankets. There were chairs in the room, a table, and a clothes chest. The walls were painted or hung with tapestry. The floors were bare or strewn with rushes or straw, some floors being of tiles, and carpets came into use late in the period. =Women.= At the time of the beginning of Christianity women had reached a high position at Rome, having great freedom, power, and influence. At the first women played an important part in the activities of the Christians, but later they were relegated to quite a subordinate place. The old church fathers even went farther and claimed that woman was a source of evil and that she should live in continual penance on account of the curses she had brought upon the world. So it became her duty to remain at home secluded, going out into public only when visiting the sick or attending church, and then she must be veiled. Nor should she enhance her beauty, which was only a snare, by dress but such should be simple and grave and of plain color, not for the purpose of ornament but for protection alone.