A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

Plate 5.10: Jael, Humility, and Judith (c.1140). In this early manuscript of the extremely popular Mirror of
Virgins, exemplary women triumph over evil. Humility (in Latin, humilitas, a feminine noun) was the key
virtue of the monastic life. Before she killed Holofernes, enemy of the Israelites, Judith prayed to God,
reminding him that “the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased thee” (Judith 9:16).