In 1428 a Breton monk, named Thomas Connecte, preached throughout Flanders, Artois, Picardy, and the neighbouring provinces. He travelled from town to town, riding on a small mule and followed by a crowd of disciples on foot. On reaching his destination he said mass on a platform expressly prepared for him, then he preached against non-juring priests, the “hennins” of great ladies, and also against gamblers, calling upon the latter to burn their draught-boards and chess-boards, cards, ninepins, and dice. He called on children to help him, frequently shouting out the first, by way of example, “_au hennin!_” whenever he caught sight of any woman wearing a high head-dress in the streets; and if she failed to find a speedy refuge in some house she was soon covered with mud, dragged in the gutter, and sometimes severely wounded. Connecte was looked upon by the people as an admirable reformer, but he failed to reform the head-gear of women; victory remained with the hennin. Another monk, a Franciscan, one Brother Richard, followed in the steps of Connecte the Carmelite. On the 16th April, 1429, he began a course of sermons at the Abbey Church of St. Geneviève, which lasted till April 26th. He ascended the pulpit at five in the morning, and remained there until ten or eleven o’clock. He, too, endeavoured to reform the dress of women and their towering head-gear. His discourses occasioned some disturbances. After the tenth sermon Brother Richard received his dismissal from the Governor of Paris. It could not be said that the holy men preached in the desert, for wheresoever they lifted up their voices there were large audiences, and for a time the obnoxious hennins disappeared; but only for a time. “The ladies,” wrote Guillaume Paradin, the historian, “imitate the snails who draw in their horns, and when the danger is over put them out farther than ever; and in like manner hennins were never more extravagant than after the departure of Brother Thomas Connecte.” Finally, whether their husbands spoke on behalf of economy, or their priests appealed to the decrees of the Church, victory remained with the women. They only gave up the hennins from a caprice similar to that which had invented them. No one will expect to find Frenchwomen more constant or more economical in dress than their husbands. In the reign of Charles V., beauty had already asserted its claims, and coquetry filled the heart of women who sought for admiration. They gave up the fashions of the Middle Ages, and uncovered their bosoms; in addition to hennins they wore padded head-dresses with horns, or pieces of stuff cut out and laid one upon the other like the petals of a flower.