Women also entered the less feminine fields of controversy. Susanna Hopton is an interesting example. In her youth she had become a Catholic, but under the influence of her husband she entered upon a thorough study of the points at issue between the Catholics and the Protestants. Dr. Hickes says of her: "She made herself as perfect in the controversie, as English writers could make her, who managed the controversie on both sides. I have (says he) above twenty popish authors, which she left me, and some of them with marginal notes in her own hand. She was well versed in Bishop Moreton's, Archbishop Laud's and Mr. Chillingworth's works, and Ranchin's _Review of the Council of Trent_, etc."[154] As a result of this reading she drew up a long and learned letter to Father Tuberville, showing him why she had renounced the Church of Rome. This letter was published by Dr. Hickes immediately after her death in his volume of _Controversial Letters_ in 1710. Mr. William said that she was an excellent casuist and divine, and could encounter and confute all enemies of the church. "Her discourse and stile upon serious matters was strong, eloquent and nervous; upon pleasant subjects, witty and facetious: and when it required an edge was sharp as a razor." _Daily Devotions_, _Meditations on the Six Days Of Creation_, and _Meditations on the Life of Christ_ were her other works. As a wife, a neighbor, and a friend she seems to have been in high esteem, but her life had the church as its center. [Sidenote: Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham (1658-1708)] Damaris Cudworth and Mary Astell, two of the most gifted women of the period, became involved in the theological discussion between John Norris and John Locke. Miss Cudworth knew both disputants well. As a young woman she had corresponded with Norris on the subject of "Platonic Love," and in 1689 he had dedicated to her his _Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life, with reference to the study of learning and knowledge_. But it was Locke who had a permanent influence on her opinions. While she was still in Cambridge with her father, Ralph Cudworth, Locke taught her divinity and philosophy. After her marriage to Sir Francis Masham in 1685, Locke was a frequent visitor at their home, and from 1691 till his death in 1704 he lived permanently with them. Her polemical articles were doubtless written under his inspiration. In 1694 the correspondence between Mary Astell and John Norris was published, under the title, _Letters concerning the Love of God_. Two years later Lady Masham answered their arguments in her _Discourse concerning the Love of God_,[155] which was attributed to Locke and answered by Norris. In 1700 Lady Masham published _Occasional Thoughts in reference to a virtuous Christian Life_, which is her closing word in the controversy.