In medieval Europe, the female body was seen (by men, at any rate) as an inferior, subordinate version of the male body. [1]
In medieval Europe, the female body was seen (by men, at any rate) as an inferior, subordinate version of the male body. [1]
While male bodies were praised (by other men) for their heat, women were likened to children; smaller, colder, smoother. Where the male body excreted extra heat and four temperaments, the female instead used menstruation. Like the study of the humours, menstruation could be used to determine the health of a woman, her character, and even her intellectual ability. [2] Saint Cecilia was famously put into a bath of boiling water, but, due to her cold female body, was not affected. [3] Like menstrual blood, female vaginal discharge could be used to determine character. From the Guide[ clarification needed ] "from your flesh's vessel, does there come the small of aromas or sweet balm? … Are you not come from foul slime? Are you not a vessel of filth?" [4] What a woman carried inside her was an indication of her spiritual and moral character. If the smell was good, so too was she; if not, she was but "a vessel of filth." It was not only men who wrote on the subject, however. Female Welsh poet Gwerful Mechain wrote a poem titled "To the Vagina", [5] and women with access to education and time (primarily those in nunneries) wrote on the potential sanctification of a woman's body.
Along with smell, a woman’s physical appearance was also indicative of her moral character. Outward physical beauty was a sign of high moral virtue, and physical ugliness was an indication of suspect morality. [6] However, even beautiful women were potentially dangerous, as they could entice men toward sexual sin. According to Liz Herbert McAvoy, "Salvation was always jeopardized by the unruly flesh … the flesh eventually took on a synonymy with the female and her dangerously seductive body. Moreover, it was a body which could not only corrupt men from without but also the woman herself from within." [7] The danger of a beautiful woman is alluded to in the Irish saga Echtra mac nEchach Muigmedóin, concerning Niall of the Nine Hostages: a young slave mother Cairenn with curly black hair gives birth to the son of a king, but is frightened by the queen Mongfind, who is wicked, beautiful, with long fair hair. [8] This harkens back to the feelings of danger posed by beautiful women. Ugly women were cursed by God and obviously evil, but beautiful women could also be wicked and instruments of the devil.
Further, as beauty was a gift of God, obvious attempts to augment or increase one's beauty could indicate sinful pride. A like of "beauty products exposed a great hubris, a woman who tried to make herself more beautiful than she appeared counted as one with Lucifer". [9] Thus, "The medieval body was central to a process of social classification according to categories of age, health, sex and purity, which were regulated through constructed categories such as stigma and gender." [10] The body was not so much a self-chosen expression of the self as an outward marker of inner morality, worthiness, and station.
Part of the rationale over the subordinate nature of female bodies came from the Christian teachings that held Eve, and thus all women, accountable for the fallen state of humanity. The best of women were virgins, as "the construction of the female chaste body as a sign of fallen humanity's alienation from its own properly angelic nature" only furthered the gap between pure virgins and women of a lower tier who were virgins no longer. [11]
In The Romaunt of the Rose , "women are synonymous with sensual desire." The character Genius views the female with suspicion, seeing them as dangerous beings. He counsels husbands to have sex with their wives, but never to reveal any secrets to them, as they are unstable. In the same text, however, the female character of Nature comments that man "is proud, murderous, thieving, treacherous, envious." [12] This trend is reflected in later literary traditions, notably Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth.
The Middle Ages saw the rise of first seven, then nine, then eighteen, and finally thirty standards of beauty in European culture. There were "Three to be long — hands, legs, and hair; three to be white, three to be pink, three to be round, three to be narrow, and so on." [6] Irish legends of sovereignty and kingship frequently featured a hag such as the one described in the poem Echtra Mac nEchnach, or Niall of the Nine Hostages: "twenty-seven rows of long teeth: the rough tusks were hard, like a buffalo’s horns are, [and] stretched around her ancient shoulders … her bitter eyes burned, on account of the harshness of her evil form.” [13] Once transformed, the beautiful maiden is instead described as "well-shaped bright white shins and smooth thighs, carefully arranged golden blonde tresses, smooth, tender white shoulders, dark black eyebrows, and radiant skin." [14] Some descriptions include "blackened skin" and "sores," a reference to leprosy. The leper was the opposite of medieval beauty and another sign of God's displeasure.
Claudio Da Soller examines the traditional European archetype of beauty: "a small head; blond hair; eyebrows set apart, long and arched; a narrow chin; large, prominent, colourful, and shining eyes, with long lashes; small, delicate ears; a long throat; a finely chiselled nose; small, even, sharp and white teeth, close together; red gums; red lips finely-drawn; a small mouth; and her face white, hairless, bright and smooth" and argues that, as these basic descriptions appear in nearly all European medieval descriptions of beauty, and thus should be regarded not merely as literary fall-backs but general descriptions. These features are "baby-like," seen in the large eyes, small hips, smooth skin, white teeth, small ears, and a slender nose. These standards can be seen in early Latin texts, as well as the Old Testament in the Song of Solomon. [15] Thomas Aquinas' main requirement in a beautiful woman was based on Pythagoras' theory of proportion and relation to surrounding features. [16]
Noblewomen such as Margery Kempe, often classified as mystics, wrote somewhat on the autonomy of the female body. Meanwhile, religious figures such as Julian of Norwich saw the female body as both a potential stumbling block to salvation and an instrument through which to deepen the personal relationship with Christ. The female body is a danger, both to men as a temptation, and to women as a corrupting influence on the female soul. [7]
Julian of Norwich takes on overtly sexual tones in her Short Text referring to her encounters with Christ. Like Saint Cecilia, a "bride of Christ" and Mary Magdalene, Julian wished to be not only a spiritual but a physical "lover of Christ". [17] This reflects the need for women to fit into the roles assigned to them—an unmarried woman was a dangerous woman, and moved outside the realm of perceived acceptability. Few records exist for any divide between common and elite women; rather, a universal standard of beauty applied to women of all classes, and with it a universal expectation. Women's bodies were for the bearing of children, be they field workers or queens.
Julian of Norwich, also known as Juliana of Norwich, the Lady Julian, Dame Julian or Mother Julian, was an English anchoress of the Middle Ages. Her writings, now known as Revelations of Divine Love, are the earliest surviving English language works by a woman, although it is possible that some anonymous works may have had female authors. They are also the only surviving English language works by an anchoress.
In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-orientated, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Anchorites are frequently considered to be a type of hermit, but unlike hermits, they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches. Also unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that closely resembled the funeral rite, following which they would be considered dead to the world and a type of living saint. Anchorites had a certain autonomy, as they did not answer to any ecclesiastical authority apart from bishops.
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages. The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in-between. Works of literature are often grouped by place of origin, language, and genre.
Margery Kempe was an English Christian mystic, known for writing through dictation The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles her domestic tribulations, her extensive pilgrimages to holy sites in Europe and the Holy Land, as well as her mystical conversations with God. She is honoured in the Anglican Communion, but has not been canonised as a Catholic saint.
Gwerful Mechain, is the only female medieval Welsh poet from whom a substantial body of work is known to have survived. She is known for her erotic poetry, in which she praised the vulva among other things.
Physical attractiveness is the degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term often implies sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be distinct from either. There are many factors which influence one person's attraction to another, with physical aspects being one of them. Physical attraction itself includes universal perceptions common to all human cultures such as facial symmetry, sociocultural dependent attributes and personal preferences unique to a particular individual.
Dom Serenus Cressy, O.S.B.,, was an English convert to Catholicism and Benedictine monk, who became a noted scholar in Church history.
The Book of Margery Kempe is a medieval text attributed to Margery Kempe, an English Christian mystic and pilgrim who lived at the turn of the fifteenth century. It details Kempe's life, her travels, her accounts of divine revelation including her visions of interacting with the Trinity, particularly Jesus, as well as other biblical figures. These interactions take place through a strong, mental connection forged between Kempe and said biblical figures. The book is also notable for her claiming to be present at key biblical events such as the Nativity, shown in chapter six of Book I, and the Crucifixion.
Revelations of Divine Love is a medieval book of Christian mystical devotions. It was written between the 14th and 15th centuries by Julian of Norwich, about whom almost nothing is known. It is the earliest surviving example of a book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. It is also the earliest surviving work written by an English anchorite or anchoress.
Spiritual autobiography is a genre of non-fiction prose that dominated Protestant writing during the seventeenth century, particularly in England, particularly that of Dissenters. The narrative generally follows the believer from a state of damnation to a state of grace; the most famous example is perhaps John Bunyan's Grace Abounding (1666). The first known spiritual autobiography is Confessions by Augustine of Hippo, or St. Augustine, which stands to this day as a classic when studying this genre.
Martha Reeves is a vowed Anglican solitary, with Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, as bishop-protector. A graduate of the Madeira School, she is also a Stanford-educated professor of theology who has written numerous articles and books under the name "Maggie Ross" as well as translated a number of Carthusian Novice Conferences. Reeves, at one time Desmond Tutu's spiritual director, was Bell Distinguished Professor in Anglican and Ecumenical Studies appointed to the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Kendall College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tulsa. In 1995, "A Rite for Contemplative Eucharist" emerged while being a theologian-in-residence in an Episcopal church in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. In March 2008, she donated 'silence' to the Museum of Curiosity.. Ross as an interviewee also shared about silence in the 2015 documentary In Pursuit of Silence directed by Patrick Shen. In October 2016, she gave the lecture "Healing Silence' at Durham University for its "Spirituality, Theology, and Health Seminar Series." The Hay Festival has been an event for presenting about the 'work of silence' under the topic title "Maggie Ross Talks to Rachael Kerr". She was an attendee of the 2018 Epiphany Conference on science and religion, a collaborative initiative between the Cambridge Epiphany Philosophers and the Oxford Monastic Institute. The 'work of silence' has touched grounds for many years now through the ravenwilderness blogspot, and an index of posts from 2006 to 2013 can be viewed from here and the entries from 2013 to 2020 here. The British & Irish Association for Practical Theology (BIAPT) had a planned inaugural event for its Spirituality Interest Special Group in 2020, with Ross as keynote speaker but was postponed. The keynote address "Silent Ways of Knowing" had been shared in four parts in Ross's blog. Reeves lives in Oxford, the United Kingdom, where a number of sermons and talks had been shared through the years in churches and academia around the area.
The Treatise of Love is an English prose text first printed around 1493. Its printing was the work of Wynkyn de Worde, who took over William Caxton's printing business in 1491, and printed the Treatise before he began publishing under his own name in 1494. Drawing greatly on the Ancrene Wisse, the text contains religious advice addressed to an audience of aristocratic women.
Judith MacKenzie Bennett is an American historian, Emerita Professor of History and John R. Hubbard Chair in British History at the University of Southern California. Bennett writes and teaches about medieval Europe, specifically focusing on gender, women's history, and rural peasants.
The feminine beauty ideal is a specific set of beauty standards regarding traits that are ingrained in women throughout their lives and from a young age to increase their perceived physical attractiveness. It is a phenomenon experienced by many women in the world, though the traits change over time and vary in country and culture.
Affective piety is most commonly described as a style of highly emotional devotion to the humanity of Jesus, particularly in his infancy and his death, and to the joys and sorrows of the Virgin Mary. It was a major influence on many varieties of devotional literature in late-medieval Europe, both in Latin and in the vernaculars. This practice of prayer, reading, and meditation was often cultivated through visualization and concentration on vivid images of scenes from the Bible, Saints' Lives, Virgin Mary, Christ and religious symbols, feeling from the result. These images could be either conjured up in people's minds when they read or heard poetry and other pieces of religious literature, or they could gaze on manuscript illuminations and other pieces of art as they prayed and meditated on the scenes depicted. In either case, this style of affective meditation asked the "viewer" to engage with the scene as if she or he were physically present and to stir up feelings of love, fear, grief, and/or repentance for sin.
For medieval women, mysticism was "a succession of insights and revelations about God that gradually transformed the recipient" according to historian Elizabeth Petroff of Oxford University in her 1994 book, Body and Soul. The word "mysticism" has its origin in ancient Greece where individuals called the mystae participated in mystery religions. This page focuses on examples primarily relating to Christian expressions of mysticism amongst women, their lives, and their significant contributions to their communities' theology and cultural psyche. The life of a medieval woman mystic was spent seeking unity with God in a series of stages. The mystical life of a medieval woman began with a purge of the spirit in which she released herself from earthly indulgences and attachments. In a state of contrition the medieval woman mystic faced suffering because of her past sins, and the mercy of God was revealed to her through penitence. Mystics sought to imitate the suffering of Christ in order to gain an understanding through experience. During the compassion stage of suffering, the pain experienced by the medieval woman mystic "revealed the believer's love of Christ, fostered unity with Christ and the world, and began to draw the believer beyond the physical Jesus who suffered on the Cross to understand the immensity of the love that motivated Christ in the world to suffer on humanity's behalf". Medieval women mystics experienced visions during what medieval historians refer to as the Illuminative stage of their lives that contained instructions from God and would communicate their revelations in written form.
Sovereignty goddess is a scholarly term, almost exclusively used in Celtic studies. The term denotes a goddess who, personifying a territory, confers sovereignty upon a king by marrying or having sex with him. Some narratives of this type correspond to folk-tale motif D732, the Loathly Lady, in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index. This trope has been identified as 'one of the best-known and most frequently studied thematic elements of Celtic myth'. It has also, however, been criticised in recent research for leading to "an attempt to prove that every strong female character in medieval Welsh and Irish tales is a souvenir of a Celtic sovereignty goddess".
Catrin ferch Gruffudd ap Hywel was a Welsh poet from Anglesey who, as a devout Catholic, wrote extensively about her opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Many of her poems still survive due to preservation by the National Library of Wales.
Elizabeth Herbert McAvoy is a Welsh scholar of medieval literature who specialises in medieval women's literature and in medieval anchorites. She is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Studies at Swansea University.