Gender and Christianity in Medieval Europe: New Perspectives

168 Pages·2008·9.853 MB·English

by  Lisa M. Bitel (Editor), Felice Lifshitz (Editor)

Gender and Christianity
in Medieval Europe
THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Ruth MazoKarras, SeriesEditor
EdwardPeters, FoundingEditor
Acompletelistofbooksin the seriesisavailablefrom the publisher.
Gender and Christianity
in Medieval Europe
New Perspectives
EDITED BY LISA M. BITEL AND
FELICE LIFSHITZ
PENN
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia
ISBN: 978-0-8122-2013-1
ToJo Ann McNamara
magistra doctissima et mater omnium bonarum
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Contents
Introduction
ConventRuins and ChristianProfession: Towarda Methodology
for the HistoryofReligion and Gender 1
LisaM. Bitel
1. Tertullian, theAngelic Life, and the Bride ofChrist 16
DyanElliott
2. OneFlesh, Two Sexes,Three Genders? 34
JacquelineMurray
3. ThomasAquinas'sChastityBelt: Clerical Masculinityin
Medieval Europe 52
RuthMazo Karras
4. Women's Monasteriesand SacredSpace: The Promotion of
Saints' CultsandMiracles 68
Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg
5. PriestlyWomen,VirginalMen: LitaniesandTheirDiscontents 87
FeliceLifshitz
Notes 103
Bibliography 129
ListofContributors 145
Index 147
Acknowledgments 159
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Introduction
Convent Ruins and Christian Profession
Toward a Methodologyfor theHistory ofReligion and Gender
LISA M. BITEL
Near Tuam in the west ofIreland, a partial wall stands in an otherwise
emptyfield (Figure 1). Itforms an arch ofbig, rough rocks. A passerby
who looks through the arch will see more fields marked by a recent
low wall meant to keep in the cattle. If she looks through the other
way, shewill also glimpse fields. The farmer who owns the land has nei
ther knocked down the arch nor preserved it. Cows graze around it.
Nineteenth-century surveyors noted it on ordnance survey maps. Mod
ern touristswho strayinto the field to confrontthe arch-and there are
notmany-cannotpossiblymake much ofit.
The broken arch is all that remains ofthe medieval convent ofCell
Craobhnat, also known through the medieval centuries as Kilcreevanty,
Saint Mary of Casta Silva, Kilcreunata, Cill-Craebhnat, and Kilcrevet.1
Only a few written records marked the birth and death ofthe convent.
Its foundation documentfrom around 1200, along with a petition sub
mitted to Pope Honorius III by the first generation ofnuns, hint at the
diverse devotional practices and spiritualities ofwomen who once lived
there. CellCraobhnat'snunsbegan asBenedictines, decided to become
Cistercians, and then, atthe orderofa localbishop,wereforced to turn
Arrouasian, a more restrained order oftheAugustinians popularin Ire
land. A brusque account ofthe convent's dissolution in the Tudor pe
riod three hundred-someyears laterreveals thatCell Craobhnathad by
thenbecome the motherhouse ofatleastfifteen moreArrouasian com
munitiesinwesternIreland.When KingHenryVIII emptiedandexpro
priated Irish monasteries in the earlysixteenth century, Cell Craobhnat
stillowneda thousandacres.1Together, however, the textsmention only
four women who lived at Cell Craobhnat over the course ofmore than
three centuries, all of whom were abbesses descended from the con
vent'sfounding familyof0 Conors.