Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe

Long considered to be a definitive and truly groundbreaking collection of sources, Women’s

Lives in Medieval Europe uniquely presents the everyday lives and experiences of women in
the Middle Ages. This indispensible text has now been thoroughly updated and expanded
to reflect new research, and includes previously unavailable source material.
Emilie Amt brings together public and private records, letters, laws, historical and
personal narratives, and archaeological evidence from across medieval Europe, spanning
the fifth to the fifteenth century, examining how women from all ranks of society lived.
Working within a multi-cultural framework, the book focuses not just on the Christian
majority, but also presents material about women in minority groups in Europe, such as
Jews, Muslims, and those considered to be heretics.
This new edition includes expanded sections on marriage and sexuality, and on
peasant women and townswomen, as well as a new section on women and the law. There
are brief introductions both to the period and to the individual documents, study ques-
tions to accompany each reading, a glossary of terms and a fully updated bibliography.
Incorporating the laws, regulations and religious texts that shaped the way women lived
their lives, and personal narratives by and about medieval women, the book is unique
in examining women’s lives through the lens of daily activities, and in doing so as far as
possible through the voices of women themselves.

Emilie Amt is the Hildegarde Pilgram Professor of History at Hood College in Mary-
land, where she studies medieval religious women and twelfth- and thirteenth-century
English government. Her books include Medieval England 1000–1500: A Reader (2000), and
The Accession of Henry II in England: Royal Government Restored, 1149–1159 (1993).
This page intentionally left blank
Women’s Lives in
Medieval Europe
A Sourcebook
Second Edition

Edited by Emilie Amt

First published 1993
by Routledge New York
Second edition published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneouly published in the US
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2010 Emilie Amt
Typeset in Baskerville by
Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0-415-46684-9 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-46683-0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-46684-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-46683-7 (pbk)
For Amy Gottfried, Lisa Algazi, and Jennifer Ross
This page intentionally left blank
Contents

Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
A note on money 7

I The heritage of ideas 9

A. Christian belief 10
╇ 1. The Bible: Adam and Eve (1st millennium bc) 10
╇ 2. The Bible: Model women in the Gospels (1st c. ad) 12
╇ 3. The Bible: Epistles of St. Paul (1st c. ad) 14
╇ 4. St. Jerome: Virginity and marriage (4th c. ad) 17
╇ 5. St. Augustine of Hippo: On the good of marriage (ca. ad 401) 19
B. Roman ideals 21
╇ 6. Funeral eulogy of Turia (1st c. bc) 21
╇ 7. Seneca: Letter to his mother (1st c. ad) 22
╇ 8. Laws of the Roman Empire (3rd–6th c. ad) 24
C.╇ Germanic custom 26
╇ 9. Tacitus: The Germans (ad 98) 26
10. Laws of the Salian Franks (6th c. ad) 27

IIâ•… Women and the law 33

11. Cáin Adamnáin: Irish law of women (7th c.) 34
12. Gratian: Canon law on marriage (12th c.) 35
13. Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) 38
14. Norman laws (early 13th c.) 40
15. Laws of Sicily (1231) 45
16. Spanish laws (13th c.) 52
17. Customs of Magdeburg (13th c.) 60
18. London crimes and punishments (14th c.) 61
19. Sumptuary laws (13th–14th c.) 63

IIIâ•… Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health 67

20.╇ Theodore’s penitential (ca. 690) 68
21.╇ The life of Christina of Markyate: Christina’s rebellion (12th c.) 71
viiiâ•… Contents
22.╇ Liturgy for the marriage service (11th–16th c.) 75
23.╇ Manorial court rolls: Unfree women’s marriages (13th–14th c.) 79
24.╇ Holy Maidenhood: A debate on marriage (13th c.) 80
25.╇ Episcopal court records: Elizabeth Lovell sues her husband (1326–8) 83
26.╇ Dowry practices in Italy (14th c.) 85
27.╇ The householder of Paris: Manual for his wife (ca. 1392) 86
28.╇ Liturgy for mothers (11th–16th c.) 95
29.╇ The Trotula: On the conditions of women (12th c.) 95
30.╇ Hildegard of Bingen: Medical writings (12th c.) 100
31.╇ University of Paris records: Case of a woman physician (1322) 103

IVâ•… Noblewomen’s lives 107

32.╇ Gregory of Tours: The story of Ingitrude and Berthegund (6th c.) 108
33.╇ Dhuoda: Manual for her son (841–3) 110
34.╇ Anglo-Saxon wills (10th–11th c.) 114
35.╇ Autobiography of Guibert de Nogent: Life of his mother (11th–12th c.) 118
36.╇ Matilda of Stickney: Land grants (ca. 1170–98) 123
37.╇ The roll of ladies and boys and girls (1185) 125
38.╇ The Book of the Knight of the Tower (1371) 127
39.╇ Leonor López de Córdoba: Autobiography (14th–15th c.) 131
40.╇ Cristina Corner: Petition for exemption from sumptuary laws (15th c.) 134
41.╇ Christine de Pizan: Autobiographical writing (1405) 135
42.╇ Household accounts of Dame Alice de Bryene (1412–13) 138
43.╇ Margaret Paston: Letters to her husband (15th c.) 141
44.╇ A manor house: Ightham Mote (ca. 1340) 144

Vâ•… Peasant women’s lives 147

45.╇ Working women on Frankish royal estates (6th–8th c.) 148
46.╇ Legal status of German peasants (11th c.) 148
47.╇ Women farmworkers’ duties (ca. 1270) 150
48.╇ Survey of Alwalton: Lands and obligations (1279) 151
49.╇ Manorial court rolls (14th c.) 152
50.╇ Coroners’ records: Unexpected deaths (13th–14th c.) 155
51.╇ Peasant dwellings 158

VIâ•… Townswomen’s lives 161

52.╇ Parisian guild regulations (13th c.) 162
53.╇ Veronese civic statutes (1276) 164
54.╇ Lawsuit: Women moneylenders (1281) 165
55.╇ Apprenticeship documents (13th–14th c.) 166
56.╇ Business contracts (13th–15th c.) 168
57.╇ Infractions of commercial regulations (13th–14th c.) 170
58.╇ Parisian maids and nurses (1351) 174
59.╇ Guardians’ accounts: Raising girls (14th c.) 175
 Contentsâ•… ix
60.╇ London prostitutes (14th c.) 176
61.╇ An Italian servant girl (1465–9) 178
62.╇ Town houses (13th–14th c.) 179

VIIâ•… Religious lives 181

63.╇ Church council decrees (5th–6th c.) 182
64.╇ Caesarius of Arles: Rule for nuns (ca. 512–34) 183
65.╇ Simeon of Durham: Segregated churches (7th–11th c.) 190
66.╇ Gilbertine women’s worship (12th c.) 192
67.╇ Hildegard of Bingen: Letter to her nuns (12th c.) 193
68.╇ The rule of St. Clare (1253) 195
69.╇ Eudes of Rouen: Visitations of nunneries (13th c.) 201
70.╇ The Ancrene Riwle (13th c.) 206
71.╇ Description of the Beguines of Ghent (1328) 213
72.╇ Accounts of nuns entering Italian convents (14th–15th c.) 216
73.╇ The book of Margery Kempe: Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (15th c.) 218
74.╇ Athanasios Chalkeopoulos: Southern Italian visitations (1457) 222
75.╇ Plans of religious communities (12th–13th c.) 227

VIIIâ•… Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women 229

A. Jewish women 230
76.╇ Hebrew chronicles: Massacres of Jews during the First Crusade (1096) 230
77.╇ Maimonides: The Book of Women (12th c.) 233
78.╇ Judah Asheri: Family history (13th–14th c.) 237
79.╇ Eleazar of Mainz: Moral instruction for his family (14th c.) 238
80.╇ Jewish sumptuary laws (15th c.) 239
81.╇ A marital question: An innkeeper’s wife leaves home (ca. 1470) 240

B. Muslim women 243

82.╇ The Qur’an (7th c.) 243
83.╇ Lawsuit in Sicily (973) 246
84.╇ Market regulations at Seville (12th c.) 247

C. Heretic women 249

85.╇ Descriptions of heretics: Waldensian women’s activities (13th c.) 249
86.╇ Inquisition records of Jacques Fournier: Life of a Cathar woman (1320) 250
87.╇ Confession of a Lollard woman (1430) 255

Glossary 258
Further reading 263
Index 271
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgements

It is my pleasure to thank all those who have encouraged and helped me as I planned
and worked on this new edition of Women’s Lives. In particular, for their generous advice
and suggestions, I am grateful to Dr. Cordelia Beattie, Professor Janet Burton, Professor
Monica Green, Dr. Miriam Müller, Professor Shona Kelly Wray, and Professor Megan
McLaughlin. I thank Janet Sorrentino and William North for contributing original trans-
lations of documents in Chapter VII. I owe a great debt to colleagues at Hood College,
especially Susan Day, Toby Peterson, and Aimee Gil. At Routledge, Victoria Peters, Eve
Setch, Annamarie Kino, and Emily Kindleysides did much to ensure that this new edition
was begun and completed. And, as always, I am grateful to my students for the invaluable
contributions they have made through their interest, criticism, and energetic discussion.
Emilie Amt (2010)

A cknowledgements for the first edition

I have incurred many debts in the preparation of this book. For hours of discussion of
the Middle Ages, medieval women and the teaching of women’s history, I would like
to thank my students at both Washington College and the Oxford Centre for Medieval
and Renaissance Studies, and my friends and colleagues, especially S. J. Allen, Susan
Fischler, Elizabeth Baer, Ellen Klein and Elizabeth Amt. I am grateful to Dr. Maryann
Brink and Dr. Jacqueline Murray for reading and commenting on the entire manuscript;
the faults that remain are of course my own. A generous Faculty Enhancement Grant
from Washington College in 1990 aided in the collection of documents for the volume.
For help in assembling the collection, my thanks are due to Jacklin Wheeler, Rachel
Demma and the staff of the Clifton M. Miller Library, especially Lois Kuhn.
I am grateful to the authors and presses which have generously allowed me to reprint
their translations of medieval documents here. Every effort has been made to trace copy-
right holders, although that has not been possible in every case.

S ource acknowledgements

The Bible: Adam and Eve (1st Millenium bc)

The Bible: Model Women in the Gospels (1st c. ad)
The Bible: Epistles of St. Paul (1st c. ad)
Extracts from Genesis 1:24–2:9, 2:15–3:20; Luke 1:26–49, 7:36–39, 44–48, 50; John
20:1–18; I Corinthians 7:1–14, 25–34; 14:34–35; Galatians 3:26–28; Ephesians 5:22–33;
xii  Acknowledgements
I Timothy 2:8–15; 3:8–13; 5:1–5, 9–14 from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible,
copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in
the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
St. Jerome: Virginity and Marriage (4th c. ad)
Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical
Library from St. Jerome: Volume I, Loeb Classical Library Volume 262, translated by
F.A. Wright, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, © 1933, by the President
and Fellows of Harvard College. The Loeb Classical Library ® is a registered trade-
mark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Extract selection pp. 91, 93,
99, 101.
“Against Jovinian” from St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works, tr. W.H. Fremantle. Select Library
of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. 2, Vol. VI (Edinburgh, 1892).
St. Augustine of Hippo: On the Good of Marriage (5th c. ad)
Tr. C.L. Cornish, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. 1, Vol. 3, ed. Philip Schaff (Buffalo,
NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887), pp. 399, 400.
Funeral Eulogy of Turia (1st c. bc)
Extracts from the Funeral Eulogy of Turia.
Erik Wistrand, The So-Called Laudatio Turiae: Introduction, Text, Translation, Commen-
tary, Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia, XXXIV (Göteborg: Acta Universitatis
Gothoburgensis, 1976), pp. 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31. Reprinted with permission of Acta
Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
Seneca: Letter to his Mother (1st c. ad)
Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical
Library from Seneca – Moral Essays: Volume II, Loeb Classical Library Volume 254, trans-
lated by John W. Basore, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, © 1932, by the
President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Loeb Classical Library ® is a regis-
tered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Extract selection pp.
471–3, 473, 475.
Laws of the Roman Empire (3rd–6th c. ad)
From: The Civil Law, tr. S. P. Scott (Cincinnati, 1932). Reprinted by AMS Press Inc., New York.
Tacitus: The Germans (1st c. ad)
Source: tr. Maurice Hutton, in Tacitus: Dialogus, Agricola, Germania, Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914).
Laws of the Salian Franks (6th c. ad)
Extracts from The Laws of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks, tr. Theodore John Rivers (New
York: AMS Press, 1986). Chapter 10: Clauses 1, 4, 6, 7; Ch. 13: Cl. 1–4, 6–9, 11–14;
Ch. 15: Cl. 1–3; Ch. 19: Cl. 1–4; Ch. 20: Cl. 1–4; Ch. 24: Cl. 1–3, 5–6, 8–9; Ch. 25: Cl.
1–2, 5–7; Ch. 41: Cl. 1, 5, 15–21; Ch. 64: Cl. 1–3; Ch. 65a; Ch. 98: Cl. 1–2; Ch. 104: Cl.
1–11; Pages 145–6. Copyright © 1986 AMS Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduced
with permission.
Irish Laws (7th c.)
Cáin Adamnáin: An Old-Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnan, ed. and tr. Kuno Meyer (Oxford,
1905), pp. 3, 5, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33.
 Acknowledgements  xiii
Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215)
Extracts from Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council:
H.J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils (St. Louis, Mo. and London: B.
Herder Book Co., 1937), pp. 238–39, 279–82.
Laws of Sicily (1231)
Extracts from The Liber Augustalis, or Constitutions of Melfi, Promulgated by the Emperor Frederick
II for the Kingdom of Sicily in 1231 translated with an introduction and notes by James M.
Powell (Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY 1971). pp. 23–7, 66–7, 72–3, 75, 98, 100,
113–15, 117–18, 121–4, 130–1, and 145–8. Reprinted with permission of Syracuse Univer-
sity Press.
Spanish Laws (13th c.)
Las Siete Partidas, tr. Samuel Parsons Scott, ed. Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, © 2000) Vol. 4 (2000), excerpts from pages 881–3, 895, 920–1, 950–1,
973–. Vol. 5 (2000), excerpts from pages 1141, 1417, 1423–4, 1425–6, 1429–30, 1436–7,
and 1440–2. Reprinted with permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Customs of Magdeburg (13th c.)
Source: Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, A Source Book for Mediæval History (New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907).
London Crimes and Punishments (14th c.)
Source: Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and
tr. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868).
Sumptuary Laws (13th–14th c.)
London: Statutes of the Realm, Vol. I (1810).
Theodore’s Penitential (ca. 690)
Extracts from Theodore’s Penitential, from Medieval Handbooks of Penance, John T.
McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, New York: Columbia University Press, 1938, pp.
184–6, 195–8, 208–212. © Columbia University Press. Reprinted with permission of
the publisher.
The Life of Christina of Markyate: Christina’s Rebellion (12th c.)
The Life of Christina of Markyate, a Twelfth Century Recluse, edited and translated by C.H.
Talbot (1987), Oxford University Press, pp. 35, 39–41, 45–7, 49, 51–3, 55, 59–65.
Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press.
Manorial Court Rolls: Unfree Women’s Marriages (13th–15th c.)
Wellington rolls from Arthur L. Humphreys, Materials for the History of the Town and Parish
of Wellington in the County of Somerset (London: Henry Gray, 1910), vol. 2, pp. 167, 170,
171, 172, 183.
Ingoldmells rolls from Court Rolls of the Manor of Ingoldmells in the County of Lincolnshire, tr. W.
O. Massingberd (London: Spottiswoode & Co., Ltd., 1902), pp. 24, 41, 160, 175, 185.
Holy Maidenhood: A Debate on Marriage (13th c.)
Extracts from Holy Maidenhood:
Hali Meidenhad: An Alliterative Homily of the Thirteenth Century, ed. F. J. Furnivall (Early
English Text Society, 1922. Reproduced with permission of The Council of the Early
English Text Society.
xiv  Acknowledgements
Episcopal Court Records: Elizabeth Lovell Sues Her Husband (1326–8)
Translation by Emilie Amt, from R.H. Helmholz, Marriage Litigation in Medieval England
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 191–5.
Dowry Practices in Italy (14th–15th c.)
Dowry law tr. Trevor Dean, The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 198.
Diary tr. Julia Martines reprinted by permission of Waveland Press, Inc. from Gene
Brucker, ed. Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti & Gregorio Dati
(Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 1967 [reissued 1991]), pp. 110, 112, 113–115.
All rights reserved.
The Householder of Paris: Manual for His Wife (c. 1392)
Eileen Power, The Goodman of Paris © 1928. London: George Routledge & Sons. Repro-
duced by Permission of Taylor and Francis Books, UK.
Liturgy for Mothers (11th–16th c.)
Liturgy for marriage, pregnancy, and churching of women:
The Sarum Missal in English, tr. Frederick E. Warren (London: Alexander Moring Ltd., 1911).
The Trotula: On the Conditions of Women (12th c.)
Extracts from The Conditions of Women:
The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine, ed. and tr. Monica H. Green (Phil-
adelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, © 2001), pp. 71, 73, 75, 79, 81, 83, 93, 95, 97,
99, 101, 103, 111. Reprinted with permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hildegarde of Bingen: Medical Writings (12th c.)
Hildegarde of Bingen, On Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Selections from Cause et Cure, ed.
and trans. Margret Berger (Cambridge: D.S Brewer, 1999), pp. 55–6, 63–5, 81, 89–90.
Reprinted with permission of Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
Dhuoda: Manual for Her Son (841–43)
Extracts from Dhuoda:
Reprinted from Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel for Her Son, by Dhuoda
translated and with an introduction by Carol Neel, by permission of the University of
Nebraska Press. Copyright © 1991) the University of Nebraska Press. Extract selection
pp. 2, 5–6, 12–13, 99–100, 101–102, 106.
Anglo-Saxon Wills (10th–11th c.)
Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. and tr. Dorothy Whitelock (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1930), pp. 11, 13, 15, 63, 65, 85, 87, 95, 97. Reprinted with permission of
Cambridge University Press.
Autobiography of Guibert de Nogent: Life of His Mother (11th–12th c.)
The Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent, Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy, tr. C.C. Swinton Bland
(London and New York, 1925), pp. 9, 10–11, 12–14, 22, 23–24, 40, 41–42, 44–45,
46–47, 47–50, 52, 120.
The Roll of Ladies and Boys and Girls (1185)
Extracts from Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus, ed. John Horace
Round (London: The Pipe Roll Society, 1913; repr. Kraus, 1966). Translated for this
volume by Emilie Amt.
 Acknowledgements  xv
The Book of the Knight of the Tower (1371)
Rebecca Barnhouse, The Book of the Knight of the Tower: Manners for Young Medieval Women
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 40–1, 56, 77, 79, 81, 118–20, 147, 163,
200–1. Reprinted with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.
Leonor López de Córdoba: Autobiography (14th–15th c.)
Amy Katz Kaminsky and Elaine Dorough Johnson, ‘To Restore Honor and Fortune:
“The Autobiography of Leonor López de Córdoba”,’ in The Female Autograph: Theory
and Practice of Autobiography from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century, ed. Domna C. Stanton
(University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 73–74, 75–76, 77, 78–80.
Christine de Pizan: Autobiographical Writing (1405)
‘Selections from the Works of Christine de Pizan: The Lavision-Christine,’ tr. Nadia
Margolis, in Elizabeth Alvida Petroff, Medieval Women’s Visionary Literature (Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1986), from pp. 335–9. By permission of Oxford University Press.
Household Accounts of Dame Alice de Bryene (1412–13)
The Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene, tr. M. K. Dale, ed. Vincent B. Redstone
(Ipswich: Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History, 1931), pp. 1–2, 28, 54,
85. Reprinted with permission of Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.
The Paston Family: Letters (15th c.)
The Paston Letters: A Selection in Modern Spelling, ed. Norman Davis (London: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1963), pp. 3–5, 5–8, 13–14, 20–21, 54, 55. By permission of Oxford University
Press.
A Manor House: Ightham Mote (c. 1340)
The Development of Igthham Mote: An Architectural Handbook (The National Trust, 1988), pp.
1–4. Drawings by Allan T. Adams. ©, reproduced by kind permission of the National
Trust.
Legal Status of German Peasants (11th c.)
Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Mediaeval History
(Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), pp. 553, 555–8.
Women Farmworkers’ Duties (13th c.)
Dorothea Oschinsky, Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting
(Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 287, 289, 425, 427. By permission of Oxford Univer-
sity Press.
Manorial Court Rolls (14th c.)
Extracts from the Survey of Alwalton (no. 48) and Durham court rolls (no. 49):
Ideas and Institutions in European History, 800–1715, eds. Thomas C. Mendenhall, Basil
D. Henning and A.S. Foord (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1948), pp.
85–88.
Manorial Court Rolls (14th c.)
Holkham rolls from Medieval England as Viewed by Contemporaries, ed. W. O. Hassall (New
York: Harper & Row, 1965), pp. 147–8. Originally published in 1957 by Basil Blackwell,
Oxford, as They Saw It Happen.
Bradford rolls from English Economic History: Select Documents, eds. A. E. Bland, P. A. Brown
and R. H. Tawney (London, 1914)
xvi  Acknowledgements
Coroners’ Rolls: Violent Incidents (13th–14th c.)
Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls, ed. R. F. Hunnisett (Bedfordshire Historical Record Society,
1961).
Peasant Dwellings
Jean Chapelot and Robert Fossier, The Village and House in the Middle Ages, tr. Henry Cleere
(London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1985), p. 243 and p. 242. Reprinted with permission of
Anova Books.
Maurice Barley, Houses and History (London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1986), p. 159.
Apprenticeship Documents (13th c.)
Roy C. Cave and Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History
(Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936), pp. 256–7.
Fifth document from Not in God’s Image, ed. Julia O’Faolain and Lauro Martines (New
York: Harper & Row, 1973), pp. 157–8.
Business Contracts (13th–15th c.)
Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry
Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868).
Contract of Fygin, to train brewers, from The Legend of Good Women: Medieval Women in
Towns and Cities, by Erika Uitz, p. 59. Published by Moyer Bell Limited, Colonial Hill/
RFD 1, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549.
Reprinted with permission of Moyer Bell.
Infractions of Commercial Regulations (13th–14th c.)
London cases from Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centu-
ries, ed. and tr. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868).
Guardians’ Accounts: Raising Girls (14th c.)
Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry
Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868).
London Prostitutes (14th c.)
Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry
Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868).
An Italian Servant Girl (1465–69)
Mary Rogers, ed., Women in Italy, 1350–1650 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2000), pp. 113–114. Reprinted with permission of Manchester University Press.
Town Houses (13th–14th c.)
Carpenter’s specifications from Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth
Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868).
Illustration of Lincoln townhouse after R. H. Jones, 1980, in Helen Clarke, The Archae-
ology of Medieval England (London: The British Museum, 1984), p. 178. Reprinted
with permission of the British Museum Images. Image © The Trustees of the British
Museum.
Simeon of Durham: Segregated Churches (7th–11th c.)
Simeon of Durham, A History of the Church of Durham, tr. J. Stevenson in The Church Histo-
rians of England (1858).
 Acknowledgements  xvii
Hildegard of Bingen: Letter to Her Nuns (12th c.)
Letter of Hildegard of Bingen, reprinted from Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works,
edited by Matthew Fox, pp. 294–7. Copyright Bear & Co. 1987, by permission of Bear
& Co., Inc., PO Drawer 2860, Santa Fe, NM 87504.
The Rule of St. Clare (1253)
Extracts from The Rule of St. Clare, Chapters 1–8, 11–12. Reprinted from Clare of Assisi:
Early Documents, edited and translated by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M., Cap. © 1988 by
The Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order. Reprinted with permission of The
Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order.
Eudes of Rouen: Visitations of Nunneries (13th c.)
The Register of Eudes of Rouen, tr. Sydney M. Brown, ed. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan, © 1964,
Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 6, 7–8, 18–19, 38–39, 48, 48–49, 82–83, 126,
199, 285, 411, 569, 584, 692–3. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
The Ancrene Riwle (13th c.)
James Morton, The Nun’s Rule, Being the Ancren Riwle Modernised (London: De La More Press,
1905; Chatto & Windus, 1924), pp. 3–7, 11–20, 40, 50–51, 53–56, 72–73, 312–326.
Accounts of Nuns Entering Italian Convents (14th–15th c.)
Extract from Sister Bartolomea Riccoboni, Life and Death in a Venetian Convent, ed. and tr.
Daniel Bornstein (Chicago and London, 2000), pp. 66, 68–9, 72, 93, 99. © 2000 by the
University of Chicago. Reproduced with permission of University of Chicago Press.
Extract from Mary Rogers, ed., Women in Italy, 1350–1650 (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2000) p. 212.
The Book of Margery Kempe: Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (15th c.)
The Book of Margery Kempe, tr. B. A. Windeatt (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1985), pp.
96, 96–99, 100, 101–3, 104, 110–12.
Plans of Religious Communities (12th–13th c.)
Plan of Lacock Abbey:
Anthony New, A Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales (London: Constable, 1985), p.
227. Reprinted with permission of Constable & Robinson.
Plan of Watton Priory: Drawn by Max Maschner, printed in Raymonde Foreville,
Saint Gilbert of Sempringham: His Life and Achievement, tr. Kathleen F. Dockrill (Lincoln:
Honywood Press, 1986), p. 23. Reprinted with kind permission of Lincoln Cathedral
Publications.
Hebrew Chronicles: Massacres of Jews during the First Crusade (1096)
Extracts from Hebrew Chronicles:
Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1987). pp. 231–2, 243–4, 244–5, 257–8, 258–9, 265, 266, 292–3. Reprinted with
permission of University of California Press.
Maimonides: The Book of Women (12th c.)
Isaac Klein, tr., The Code of Maimonides, Book Four: The Book of Women, Yale University
Press, copyright 1972, pp. 73–74, 80–82, 87, 88–89, 130–131, 131–132, 133, 147, 148,
153–154, 155.
Reproduced with permission of Yale University Press.
xviii  Acknowledgements
Judah Asheri: Family History (13th–14th c.)
Eleazar of Mainz: Moral Instruction for His Family (14th c.)
Extracts from the wills of Judah Asheri and Eleazar of Mainz:
Reprinted from Hebrew Ethical Wills, © 1926, by Israel Abrahams, trans., published by the
Jewish Publication Society with the permission of the publisher (Philadelphia: The Jewish
Publication Society of America, 1926), pp. 165–166, 184–186, 188–189, 209–214.
A Marital Question: An Innkeeper’s Wife Leaves Home (ca. 1470)
The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, ed. Jacob R. Marcus (Cincinnati: The Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, 1938), pp. 194, 389–93.
The Qur’an (7th c.)
Quran, The Final Testament: Authorized English Version, with the Arabic Text, tr. Rashad Khalifa
(Tucson: Islamic Productions, 1989). Selections are from these suras and verses: 2: 221–3,
226–31, 233–7, 240–1, 282; 4: 1, 3, 7, 11–12, 15–16, 19–25, 32, 34–5; 24: 32–3, 60; 33:
35–59.
Market Regulations at Seville (12th c.)
Islam: From the Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of Constantinople, Volume II: Religion and Society,
edited and translated by Bernard Lewis. Copyright © 1987 by Bernard Lewis. Vol. 2, p.
94, and pp. 160–161 and 163. By permission of Oxford University Press.
Descriptions of Heretics: Waldensian Women’s Activities (13th c.)
Extracts about Waldensian women, from Rainer Sacconi, Etienne de Bourbon, David
of Augsburg, and the Passau Anonymous, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe: Documents
in Translation, ed and tr. Edward Peters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1980), pp. 142, 144, 149, 150, 157.
Reprinted with permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Inquisition Records: Life of a Cathar Woman (1320)
Extracts from Inquisition Records of Jacques Fournier:
Readings in Medieval History, ed. Patrick J. Geary (Lewiston, NY: Broadview Press, 1989),
pp. 542–3, 545, 546, 547, 549, 554–5, 558. Copyright © 1989 by Patrick J. Geary.
Reprinted by permission of University of Toronto Press Higher Education Division.
Confession of a Lollard Woman (1430)
Extracts from trial record of Hawisia Moone:
Heresy Trials in the Diocese of Norwich, 1428–31, ed. Norman P. Tanner (London: Royal
Historical Society, 1977), pp. 140–4. Reprinted with permission of the Royal Historical
Society.

Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce copyright material before
this book went to press. If any proper acknowledgement has not been made, we would
invite copyright holders to inform us of the oversight.
Introduction

Numbers in parentheses refer to the documents in the book.

This book is a collection of primary sources for the study of women’s lives in Europe
during the Middle Ages, from about 500 to about 1500 ad Its purpose is to present
firsthand information about women’s everyday lives and activities and the conditions in
which they lived, and to show the reader on what sorts of evidence historians base their
conclusions about these aspects of history. For readers who have little background in
medieval history, some general information about medieval Europe may be helpful.
Until the fifth century ad, much of western Europe lay within the Roman Empire,
a vast collection of territories including parts of the Middle East and North Africa. In
Europe itself during the centuries of Roman rule, much of the native Celtic population
had become highly Romanized in its culture (6–7), political allegiance and legal prac-
tices. But in the last few centuries of the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes which had
long lived on the eastern fringes of the European provinces moved into the Romanized
lands in large numbers. This wave of “barbarian” invasions, along with severe political
and economic problems, gradually killed off the Roman Empire, which was replaced
by a number of Germanic successor kingdoms, including those of the Franks in Gaul
(modern France), the Visigoths in Spain, the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Burgundians in and
around what is now Switzerland, and the Anglo-Saxons in England.
The Germanic tribes brought with them a very different society from that of Rome (9).
Whereas Roman civilization was highly urbanized, for example, the Germans had until
then seldom settled even in villages. The Romans had a long history of written legisla-
tion; the Germans used a system of customary law which had not yet been written down.
Different practices regarding marriage and family can be seen in the extracts from Roman
and Germanic law in this book (8, 10). Centuries of contact between the Germans and the
empire, however, had wrought changes on both sides, and now, as the Germans settled in
what had long been Roman territory, further mingling of the two cultures occurred. The
Germanic kingdoms which were established inside the old boundaries of the now defunct
empire were by no means entirely Germanic in their ethnic makeup or their culture.
Even more influential than Roman tradition in this process of change was the religion
of the late Roman Empire. Christianity had originated in Palestine, where a small group
of Jews believed that the wandering Jewish preacher, Jesus, who had been executed by the
Roman authorities early in the first century ad, was the “Christ,” the son of God and savior
of humanity. They based their faith in part on the sacred books of the Jewish religion (1) but
also created their own new Scriptures as they recorded the events of Jesus’ life and wrote
letters to each other (2–3). Although Christians were persecuted at first by both the Jewish
religious authorities and the Roman government, their religion survived and spread. In
the year 313 it received approval from the Roman emperor Constantine, and in the late
2â•… Introduction
fourth century it became the official religion of the empire. The cultural initiative of the
late Roman Empire passed from pagan writers to Christian theologians such as St. Jerome
(4) and St. Augustine of Hippo (5), who explored the details of Christian belief and laid the
foundation for church law. It was the Christian church, too, which filled the vacuum in
leadership during the fifth century, as the Roman world faced widespread military, political
and economic crises and the Roman government crumbled. Bishops began to provide the
services for which the government had once been responsible; in particular, the bishop of
Rome came to assume a prominent role in Italy, so much so that as the “pope” he was
eventually recognized as the leader of the church throughout the western Mediterranean
regions. Clergymen and monks also preserved what ancient learning survived the fall of
the Roman Empire in the west, and throughout most of the Middle Ages the church main-
tained a near monopoly on literacy and education.
The church was eager to convert the pagan Germans to Christianity. It accomplished
this through intensive mission work and through alliances with Germanic kings, queens
and nobles, who saw advantages to themselves in allying with the existing authority
in their new territories. Christian beliefs, including ideas about women, marriage and
family, had already mingled with Roman traditions. Now Christian views were adopted
by the Germanic settlers as well. Thus the three main ingredients of medieval European
civilization had come together: the Roman, the Germanic and the Christian. Chapter I
of this book presents examples of these three traditions. The rest of the book is about the
new civilization that arose from their combination.
The period from the fifth century to the eleventh is often designated the “Early Middle
Ages.” This is the time sometimes known as the “Dark Ages” – in part because of the
collapse of Roman civilization, with the loss of much classical knowledge, but also
because relatively few historical sources remain to tell us of the events of these years. The
documents which do survive include the laws which the Germanic and Celtic societies
did write down (10–11) and the works of historians such as Gregory of Tours (32, 45).
Much of the essential character of medieval Europe was already apparent in this early
period, especially in religious matters. Monasteries and convents, for example, came to
play a key role in economic and cultural life, and many noble families dedicated sons and
daughters to the religious life, in which they lived according to a monastic “rule” such
as that of Caesarius of Arles (64). Women were encouraged to be nuns, but their other
options in the church – serving as deaconesses or in partnership with husbands who were
priests – were closed off by the decisions of church councils (63) and by more insidious
attitudes (65). The councils established “canon law” or church law, which regulated the
lives of members of the clergy and many aspects of private life for laypeople (12, 13). For
most of the laity, canon law was enforced by the local priest, who heard one’s confession
regularly and assigned penance for one’s sins (20). Thus the church gradually succeeded
in imposing on secular society its standards of behavior in areas such as marriage.
The political face of early medieval Europe was dominated by the Franks, and in the
eighth century the Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne (who ruled from 768 to 814)
conquered and ruled many neighboring kingdoms. The resulting “Carolingian Empire”
included much of what is now France, Germany and Italy. Among their other activities,
the emperors promulgated new rules for the administration of the empire and their own
estates, some of which survive to inform us about everyday life in Carolingian Europe
(45). In this new realm cultural energy reached a height unknown since the days of
Roman power. The rich intellectual life of the royal court produced many of the written
works of the period, including the well-educated noblewoman Dhuoda’s book of advice
 Introduction  3
for her son (33). Meanwhile, in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms across the English Channel,
women enjoyed a legal position that was stronger than in much of Europe, being able to
inherit land and dispose of it in their wills (34).
While the Carolingian Empire flourished, however, the west was beginning to suffer
invasions by three new groups: the Scandinavian Vikings, the Muslim “Saracens” from
North Africa, and the Asian Magyars. Under these onslaughts and other stresses in the
ninth and tenth centuries, imperial government once again collapsed, and Europe entered
another period of political fragmentation. This time, the surviving political units were small
kingdoms, duchies and counties, ruled by local nobles who could offer some degree of
protection to their followers. The bond between a lord and each his followers, or vassals,
became an important one in many parts of western Europe in these years. Noblemen put
themselves under the lordship of more powerful men who could grant them estates called
“fiefs” (from the Latin feudum) in return for loyalty and military service. Such “feudal” rela-
tionships dominated many aspects of life for the ruling classes in the centuries to follow.
Noble women’s roles as holders and conveyers of fiefs can be seen in law codes (14–15)
and other documents (35–7). Proper behavior for noble girls is described in the Book of the
Knight of the Tower (38), whereas letters, accounts, and physical evidence give glimpses of the
day-to-day concerns of noble women (40, 42–4). Christine de Pizan and Leonor López de
Córdoba recount their own life experiences in autobiographical writings (39, 41).
Many women’s life experiences revolved around marriage and family, and we are
fortunate to have a vast array of sources that address these subjects. Whether marriage
began at church (22) or in some less formal arrangement, it was under the jurisdiction
of canon law and church courts (12–13, 25). Parents generally arranged marriages, and
they might pressure a young woman to marry even if, like Christina of Markyate, she
preferred to dedicate her life to religion (21). A bride usually brought a dowry of money,
goods, or property into the marriage (26). Some writers might paint a negative picture of
marriage (24), while a work like that of the Householder of Paris may be idealized (27),
but both open windows on the realities of medieval marriage and family life. When the
wife became a mother, she could hope for support from the rituals of the church (28) as
well as from medical practitioners and wetnurses (29–31).
Marriage, like everything else, came with more severe legal restrictions for unfree peasant
women (23). Peasants made up the great majority of the medieval population, and during
the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, the period we call the “High Middle Ages” or
the “Central Middle Ages,” the majority of peasants were unfree, of serf or villein status
(46, 48). Legally tied to the land, they answered in their lord’s court for all sorts of servile
obligations to him or her, as well as for petty crimes (49). Their lives, however, were not
necessarily bleak and colorless, and they engaged in a variety of occupations (47, 50–1).
The High Middle Ages were characterized, above all, by widespread economic revival
and the resulting growth of towns and cities, along with their effect on every other aspect
of life. New technology, an improved climate and expanding frontiers gradually raised
the standard of living and produced surpluses which formed the basis for a commercial
boom. The use of money as a medium of exchange increased, along with banking and
written record-keeping (54, 56). Towns flourished as centers of trade, and the town-
dwelling population, which made its living in trade and industry, grew. Townspeople
organized themselves into guilds: the merchant guild, which often served as a sort of
town government, included only the wealthiest citizens, while each industry had its own
craft guild, which set standards and regulated the industry, and to which all practitioners
of that trade belonged (52). In towns, women found opportunities to train and work in
4  Introduction
a myriad of crafts and trades (52–3, 55, 57–8). They also worked as prostitutes and fell
foul of commercial regulations (57, 60). Towns were often able to use their wealth to buy
a certain amount of independence from their lords, and town governments made their
own laws (17–19, 53) and oversaw the behavior and welfare of the urban population (59).
Life in town had its own distinct character (62).
The increased pace of life in the High Middle Ages can be seen in religion as well.
Christianity in this period was characterized by a growing variety of activities and outlooks.
In the eleventh century the church struggled overtly with secular authorities for ecclesias-
tical power and independence, and in the twelfth century canon lawyers like Gratian (12)
codified church policy and reasserted its pre-eminence in many areas of life. In 1095, the
increasingly militant church launched the first of the Crusades, papally sanctioned holy
wars against the Muslims of the Holy Land and Spain (16) and against heretics in Europe.
The Crusades would last through the thirteenth century, and one of their unintended
effects was the widespread persecution of the Jewish minority in Europe (76, 78). Another
characteristic of high medieval religion was dissatisfaction with the wealth, worldliness and
soft living (69) that critics perceived in many monasteries and convents. New “reform”
orders of monks – and less often of nuns – were founded in the late eleventh century and
the twelfth century; these included the Cistercians and the mixed order of the Gilbertines
(66, 75). In the early thirteenth century a new wave of reform brought forth the Dominican
and Franciscan orders, including the Poor Clares (68). Women entered convents for a
range of reasons and at different points in their lives (72). Large numbers of Christians also
turned to less formal religious movements, such as that of the Beguines (71) and their male
counterparts, the Beghards. Mysticism, the direct communication of the soul with God,
was practiced by such respected individuals as Hildegard of Bingen (67) and St. Bernard
of Clairvaux. Another form of religious practice was anchoritism, the life of the recluse or
hermit (70). Some groups, such as the French Waldensians (85), found that their spiritual
enthusiasm led them into beliefs and practices condemned by the church; and this upsurge
in heresy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries caused the church to found the Inquisition
to deal with Christians who had strayed from the fold (86). The Late Middle Ages saw a
variety of religious practices continue to flourish. Margery Kempe’s narrative (73) reminds
us of the continuing popularity of pilgrimage (and to a lesser extent mysticism), while the
spectrum of European monasticism still included tiny groups or even single nuns following
a diversity of rules (74). New groups of heretics would continue to appear as well, such as
the English Lollards (87).
Many of these religious developments centered on towns and cities, and so too did
the new forms of higher education. The cathedral schools of the twelfth century and
the universities of the thirteenth century were urban institutions. While women partici-
pated fully in the religious revival of these years, they were excluded from formal higher
education once the university became the standard seat of learning. The universities also
carefully guarded their monopoly on certain fields like medicine (31). In other spheres of
culture, however, noblewomen played a prominent role, serving as patrons and producers
of music and poetry and shaping the codes of chivalry and courtly love, which softened
the hard-working and unromantic lives of the nobility.
Medieval writers commonly divided the members of society into three “estates” or
“orders”: those who fought, those who prayed, and those who worked. While the estates
were often described in terms of men only, in reality women belonged to or were attached
to each of them. The “fighters” were the knights or noblemen, whose wealth, power and
status derived from their lands; for this reason they were willing to swear allegiance to the
 Introductionâ•… 5
lords who gave them fiefs and let their heirs inherit them. The women of this estate did
not normally fight, but they shared in the other jobs of the nobility, running households
and estates; and the concern with land shaped every noblewoman’s life in fundamental
ways, such as the choice of a husband. The praying estate consisted of the clergy and
the monastic community, and while women were excluded from the former, they made
up a sizeable and often active portion of the latter. The third estate, the workers, did
not mean everyone who worked – for virtually everyone, including nobles, monks and
nuns, did work in medieval society – but those whose position in society was defined by
their manual labor: artisans, servants and the peasantry. Artisans might work for them-
selves or as employees; servants worked for employers or their lords. Peasants worked
the land, raising their own food and supporting their lords. There were many degrees of
social status within the working estate, even among the peasantry. Some peasants were
free, but most were serfs or villeins, who were not slaves but were legally bound to the
land and required to perform certain work for their lords. Serfs might hope to achieve
freedom through manumission (46) or by running away to a town, where the law often
granted them freedom if they remained for a set length of time, often a year and a day.
Women participated fully in the working life in industry (Chapter VI), domestic service
(61) and agriculture (Chapter V).
Of course, many people did not fit neatly into notional frameworks such as that of the
three estates and were marginalized in one way or another. Most strikingly, religious minor-
ities were excluded by the Christian authorities and by secular governments. Muslims ruled
a gradually shrinking part of the Iberian peninsula, where Islamic culture (83–4) flourished
for centuries before they were eventually driven out by Christian armies at the end of
the fifteenth century; they also formed part of the population of Sicily. Jews, in contrast,
dwelt with Christians in towns all across Europe, where they formed a visible and vulner-
able minority with an ancient and distinctive culture (77–81). After facing pogroms from
the end of the eleventh century onward (76), the Jews were expelled from many northern
European countries over the course of the thirteenth century. Similarly perilous was the
situation of heretics, Christians who strayed from approved beliefs; they faced prosecution
and punishment including death if they were detected and caught (86–7). A different kind
of marginalization was that suffered by groups within Christian society whose actions or
status brought down the disapproval of their neighbors; an example is prostitutes (60).
Many aspects of life, culture and institutions were similar across medieval Europe, but
there were also important differences from region to region, in agricultural and industrial
products, in political and social organization, and in the ethnic and religious makeup of
the population. The towns of Italy, for example, tended to be freer of outside control
than most European towns, and some of them specialized in Mediterranean trade, which
brought eastern luxury goods to the west (19, 53). The Iberian peninsula comprised the
Muslim territories in the south along with a number of small Christian principalities in
the north, and the warfare between them was a major factor in shaping Spanish society
(16). At the same time, Germans were pushing eastward into the lands of the pagan Slavs,
bringing new lands into cultivation, on which grain was grown for much of Europe, and
which drew surplus peasants eastward as settlers. The German king also claimed the
prestigious title of “Holy Roman Emperor” and lands stretching as far south as central
Italy (15); yet the real power in Germany usually lay with the territorial princes and the
bishops, and few emperors were able to assert control in Italy. The kings of France, on
the other hand, steadily enlarged their territories and their control over their vassals,
forming alliances with rich towns and with the church. Wine was already one of the
6  Introduction
major products of the thriving French economy (52), and a new market for French wine
was one of the results when the duke of the French territory of Normandy (14) conquered
the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England in 1066 and replaced the old Anglo-Saxon nobility
there (21, 34) with French noble families. England’s greatest export was raw wool, large
amounts of which were sold to the towns of Flanders, a particularly important center
for cloth making on the northern French coast (55–7). Medieval merchants visited fairs
across the continent, and while the vast majority of Europeans probably never traveled
far from the place of their birth, pilgrims (73), scholars and soldiers also helped to spread
goods, news and ideas.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, known as the “Later Middle Ages,” are best
known for the traumas they brought. Population growth had already begun to slow in
the early fourteenth century, before the Black Death, or bubonic plague, killed between
a quarter and a third of the entire population of Europe in 1347–9. For the next few
centuries, this terrifying disease would continue to break out periodically. The initial
plague left behind a land surplus and a severe labor shortage, which enabled peasants
and workers to win improved legal status, pay and conditions; their lords and employers
then attempted to limit such gains through laws controlling wages and prices. Meanwhile,
England and France engaged in a long series of wars known collectively as the Hundred
Years’ War, lasting from 1337 to 1453, which battered the French countryside and left
England in political disarray. Yet this period of upheaval was also the backdrop to a great
deal of cultural activity, such as that in which Christine de Pizan (41) participated at the
French royal court, and the literary and artistic developments in fifteenth-century Italy
which are known today as the Renaissance.
The materials in this book are, as much as possible, about ordinary women. Although
many of them belonged to the nobility, no queens or princesses are represented, and other
famous or exceptional women have generally been avoided. Literary and artistic sources
are missing here, even though much of what we know or surmise about the lives of medi-
eval women comes from or is influenced by literature and art. Instead, the material in this
book is “historical”: public and private records, letters, laws, regulations and instructional
works, historical and personal narratives, and plans and drawings based on archaeological
evidence. Whenever appropriate, women’s own writings have been included. Not enough
of these survive from the Middle Ages to enable us to build up an accurate picture of life
from a purely female perspective, especially because women who wrote were not usually
interested in telling us many of the things we most want to know about them. But to hear
their occasional voices adds an important dimension to the study of women’s lives.
The modern reader may encounter certain difficulties in reading medieval texts. For
example, there are strong religious elements and ecclesiastical biases in many of the docu-
ments here, which may be alien or frustrating to the reader familiar with a more secular
society. This is in part because medieval Europe was indeed a highly religious civilization,
and the modern reader must therefore resist the urge to dismiss the true religious feelings
and important religious motivations of the men and women who appear in these sources.
Miracles and religious visions were accepted as real by many or most people. The church
itself was an integral part of the power structure, controlling vast wealth and wielding great
political influence and judicial power. As we have seen, religious differences could also
define marginal and persecuted groups within society (Jews, Muslims and heretics). The
church’s views played a large part in shaping secular laws and social norms, and sex roles
and gender constructs are perhaps the areas in which this is most obvious. On the other
hand, the religious viewpoint of the sources can sometimes distort our view of even religious
 Introduction  7
subjects. Much of the written material that survives from the Middle Ages was written by
churchmen, but this does not mean that churchmen spoke for everyone.
Similarly, the reader should be aware that medieval standards of truth, originality and
accuracy were not the same as ours. Supernatural explanations of events were more widely
accepted than they are today. Authors of literature and history borrowed freely from other
works, and the boundaries between myth, story and history were not clear ones. Literary
conventions can also distort the historical record; for example, the writers often invented
dialogue freely, and sometimes even the villains speak in biblical quotations. One way to
read such sources is to look for clues in accounts as to what might “really” have happened.
Another is to study the mindset of the age, taking the belief itself as an important historical
fact. A third is to enter into the mindset of the age, taking the belief for granted. All three
approaches can be illuminating for the student of medieval history.
The sources in this book are grouped thematically and arranged chronologically within
those thematic sections. The reader will notice that there are far more documents here from
the twelfth and later centuries than from the Early Middle Ages. This is mainly because
the more widely literate culture of the High and Later Middle Ages has left us far more
written sources, and also because the written evidence from which historians deduce what
we know about life in the Early Middle Ages tends to be more fragmentary and lends itself
less well to selective reading by non-specialists. Once we reach the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, medieval historians find themselves profiting from a virtual explosion of written
source materials which illuminate almost all aspects of society. As the reader will find in
these pages, those aspects include the daily lives, concerns and occupations of women.
The Glossary at the end of the book defines many of the unfamiliar words and phrases
that appear in the readings. The list of suggested Further Reading will help the user
further explore the subjects of the chapters through both primary sources and works of
recent scholarship.

A note on money

From the eighth to the thirteenth century, the standard coin of most European countries
was the silver penny (plural “pence”). For accounting purposes, twelve pence made a
“shilling,” and twenty shillings made a “pound.” These units, of course, went by different
names in different languages.

English 1 penny 1 shilling 1 pound

(= 12 pence) (= 20 shillings)

symbol/abbreviation d. s. £

Latin denarius, denarii solidus, solidi libra, libre

Italian denaro, denari soldo, soldi lira, lire
French denier, deniers sou, sous livre, livres

Additional units of money referred to some of the documents in this book can be
found in the Glossary at the end of the book. Units of measurement are also listed in the
Glossary.
This page intentionally left blank
I The heritage of ideas
Christian belief, Roman ideals, and
Germanic custom

It is a commonplace that medieval civilization was a blend of Roman, Christian, and

Germanic elements. The readings in this section examine the condition of women in
these three traditions and the ideas about women that were passed on from these tradi-
tions to medieval Europe. Of the documents represented here, the Roman ones have the
least direct relevance to the study of medieval women, but they reveal a set of attitudes
that are echoed in many other pieces in this book; Roman law was studied and imitated
in the High Middle Ages and had a particular effect on canon law. The Germanic docu-
ments represent a society as yet little influenced by the church, but they also describe the
status and condition of European women in the first few centuries after the conversion
of the Germans to Christianity. The Christian writings were the ones that continued to
exert the most direct and vital influence on the atmosphere in which Europeans lived
and worked throughout the Middle Ages, for the Bible and the Church Fathers were still
regarded as having spiritual and practical authority in the fifteenth century and beyond.
10  The heritage of ideas
A. CHRISTIAN BELIEF

1. T he B ible : A dam and E ve (1 st millennium bc )

The Scriptures of the Hebrews became the Old Testament – the first part – of the
Christian Bible. Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, begins with the story of
the creation of the universe, the earth and everything on it. The extracts reproduced
here include the two versions given in Genesis of the creation of the first people,
and the story of the “Fall” of humankind from a perfect state into one of sin. The
Fall created the need for God’s eventual salvation of the human race through Jesus
Christ.
Source: Genesis 1:24–2:9, 2:15–3:20, from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Used by
permission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds:
cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was
so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and everything that
creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the
earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves
upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall
have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and
to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have
given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had
made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning,
a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the
seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day
from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,
because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the
field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up – for the Lord God
had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a
mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground – then the Lord
God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted him a garden in Eden, in
the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord
God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. …
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
 The heritage of ideas  11
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the
garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall die.”
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make
him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of
the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would
call them; and whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name. The
man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field;
but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up
its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out
of Man.”
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they
become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God
had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the
garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to
the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that
the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also
gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they
knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the
day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among
the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said,
“I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I
hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom thou gavest
to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the
woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me,
and I ate.”
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above
all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you
shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule
over you.”
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife, and have eaten of the
tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because
of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring
12  The heritage of ideas
forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall
eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to
dust you shall return.” The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother
of all living.

Questions: How is the first woman portrayed in this account? What is her purpose on earth, and her
relation to man? What is her role in the Fall, the eating of the fruit? What could this story, in its
parts and in its entirety, be interpreted as meaning for woman’s future?

2. T he B ible : M odel women in the G ospels (1 st c . ad )

The Gospels are early accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, and form part of the New
Testament, the second part of the Christian Bible. The events described in these
extracts took place in the late first century bc and early first century ad.
Source: Luke 1:26–49, 7:36–39, 44–48, 50; John 20:1–18, from the Revised Standard Version of
the Bible. Used by permission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ.

The Virgin Mary

In the following passage a young woman learns that she is to become miraculously
pregnant with the “Son of God,” Jesus Christ – the central figure of the Christian
religion. The importance of the Virgin Mary in Christian attitudes toward women
is second only to that of Eve. The “Annunciation” also became a favorite subject of
medieval artists, playwrights and poets.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named
Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David;
and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, O favored one,
the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her
mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,
Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the
Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father [King]
David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will
be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” And the
angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this
is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impos-
sible.” And Mary said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according
to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah,
and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth
heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with
the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the
 The heritage of ideas  13
babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a
fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all
generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and
holy is his name.”

Mary Magdalene
Although the woman in the first story below is not named, she is elsewhere identi-
fied as a “Mary,” and she was believed in the Middle Ages to be the same person
as Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ followers, “from whom seven devils had been
driven out” (Luke 8:2). Mary Magdalene’s close relationship with Jesus is shown in
the second story below, where she is the first to see him after his resurrection from
the dead. Thus Mary Magdalene became an important model for repentant sinners,
and particularly for prostitutes.

One of the Pharisees [that is, members of a strict Jewish sect] asked [Jesus] to eat
with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat at table. And behold, a woman
of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was sitting at table in the Phari-
see’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet,
weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her
head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee
who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would
have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”
And Jesus answering said to him, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you
gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with
her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my
feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he
who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven … Your
faith has saved you; go in peace.”

The following episode takes place on Easter morning, two days after the crucifixion
and burial of Jesus.

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it
was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran,
and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said
to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they
have laid him.” Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the
tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and
stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon
Peter came, following him, and he went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and
the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a
place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he
saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the
dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
14  The heritage of ideas
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into
the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one
at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She
said to them, “Because they have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have
laid him.” Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know
that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to
her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren
and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God.” Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she
told them that he had said these things to her.

Questions: What is the Virgin Mary’s attitude toward the news she receives? How does each woman
break rules in her society? How does each woman exhibit faith? In what ways could each be viewed
as a specifically female role model for later generations?

3. T he B ible : E pistles of S t . P aul (1 st c . ad )

St. Paul was one of the early converts to Christianity and traveled widely in the
ancient world as a Christian missionary. His role in shaping the beliefs and spreading
the faith of the early Christian church can hardly be overestimated. His teachings
on women – like his teachings on everything else – became important Christian
doctrines. The passages below are taken from his letters of advice to the fledgling
Christian communities; these passages were often cited by medieval writers and
indeed are still cited today.
Source: Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Used by permission of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ.

Marriage and celibacy

I Corinthians 7:1–14, 25–34
It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of the temptation to immo-
rality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The
husband should give to the wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her
husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; like-
wise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does. Do not refuse
one another except perhaps by agreement for a season, that you may devote your-
selves to prayer; but then come together again, lest Satan tempt you through lack
of self-control. I say this by way of concession, not of command. I wish that all were
[celibate] as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind
and one of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I
do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry
than to be aflame with passion.
To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate
 The heritage of ideas  15
from her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her
husband) – and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
To the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and
she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband
who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For
the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is
consecrated though her husband. …
Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my
opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present
distress it is well for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek
to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. But if you marry, you do not
sin, and if a girl marries she does not sin. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles,
and I would spare you that. I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short.
… For the form of this world is passing away.
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs
of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious to please his wife,
and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the
affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious
about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. …
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to
be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. But in my judgment she is happier if
she remains as she is. And I think that I have the Spirit of God.

Husbands and wives

Ephesians 5:22–33
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the
wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church
is subject to Christ, so let wives be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands,
love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that the church
might be presented before him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives
as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members
of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two shall become one.” This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ
and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see
that she respects her husband.

Women’s role in the church

I Corinthians 14:34–35
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the churches. For
they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there
is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful
for a woman to speak in church.
16  The heritage of ideas
I Timothy 2:8–15; 3:8–13; 5:1–5, 9–14
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger
or quarreling; also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly
apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as
befits women who profess religion. Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness.
I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For
Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was the
transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing of children, if she continues in
faith and holiness, with modesty.
Deacons … must be serious, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not
greedy for gain; they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And
let them also be tested first; then if they prove themselves blameless let them serve as
deacons. The women likewise must be serious, no slanderers, but temperate, faithful in
all things. Let deacons be married only once, and let them manage their children and
their households well; for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for them-
selves and also great confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. …
Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as you would a father; treat younger men
like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity.
Honor widows who are real widows. If a widow has children or grandchildren, let
them first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some return acceptable
in the sight of God. She who is a real widow, and is left all alone, has set her hope on God
and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. …
Let no one be enrolled as a widow who is under sixty years of age, or has been
married more than once; and she must be well attested for her good deeds, as one
who has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the feet of the saints,
relieved the afflicted, and devoted herself to doing good in every way. But refuse
to enroll younger widows; for when they grow wanton against Christ they desire to
marry, and so they incur condemnation for having violated their first pledge. Besides
that, they learn to be idlers, gadding about from house to house, and not only idlers
but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger
widows marry, bear children, rule their households, and give the enemy no occasion
to revile us. …

Gender and Christ

Galatians 3:26–28
This short passage is one of the most important in Paul’s writings for the more liberal
tradition about women’s place in the Christian church.

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Questions: What roles do these passages lay out for women in the Christian church? In family life?
How might one reconcile the teaching of the last passage with the more restrictive views in the other
passages?
 The heritage of ideas  17
4. S t . J erome : V irginity and marriage (4 th c . ad )

One of the most influential theologians of the early church, St. Jerome (ca. 340–420)
practiced much of his ministry among wealthy and pious women, encouraging them
to live as dedicated virgins or widows, the forerunners of nuns. Eustochium was one
of these, an unmarried woman who had vowed her life to God. Jovinian, on the
other hand, was a churchman who asserted that the married life was just as worthy
in God’s view as the celibate one; Jerome argued against this at length. His reply is
famous in part for the passage he quotes from “Theophrastus,” an ancient writer
known from no other source.
Source: Letter to Eustochium reprinted by permission of the publishers of the Loeb Classical
Library from Select Letters of St. Jerome, translated by F. A. Wright, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1963; “Against Jovinian” from St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works, tr. W. H. Fremantle.
Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 2, vol. VI (Edinburgh, 1892).

Letter to Eustochium
Some one may say: “Do you dare to disparage wedlock, a state which God has blessed?”
It is not disparaging wedlock to prefer virginity. No one can make a comparison between
two things, if one is good and the other evil. Let married women take their pride in
coming next after virgins. “Be fruitful,” God said, “and multiply and replenish the earth”
[Gen. 1:28]. Let him then be fruitful and multiply who intends to replenish the earth:
but your company is in heaven. The command to increase and multiply is fulfilled after
the expulsion from Paradise, after the recognition of nakedness, after the putting on of
the fig leaves which augured the approach of marital desire. Let them marry and be
given in marriage who eat their bread in the sweat of their brow, whose land brings forth
thorns and thistles, and whose crops are choked with brambles. My seed produces fruit
a hundredfold.
… Eve in Paradise was a virgin: it was only after she put on a garment of skins that
her married life began. Paradise is your home. Keep therefore as you were born, and say:
“Return unto thy rest, O my soul” [Ps. 116:7]. …
I praise wedlock, I praise marriage; but it is because they produce me virgins. I
gather the rose from the thorn, the gold from the earth, the pearl from the oyster.
Shall the ploughman plough all day? Shall he not also enjoy the fruit of his labour?
Wedlock is the more honoured when the fruit of wedlock is the more loved. Why,
mother, grudge your daughter her virginity? She has been reared on your milk, she
has come from your body, she has grown strong in your arms. Your watchful love
has kept her safe. Are you vexed with her because she chooses to wed not a soldier
but a King? She has rendered you a high service: from to-day you are the mother by
marriage of God. …
In the old days, as I have said, the virtue of continence was confined to men, and
Eve continually bore children in travail. But now that a virgin has conceived in the
womb a child, upon whose shoulders is government, a mighty God, Father of the age
to come, the fetters of the old curse are broken. Death came through Eve: life has come
through Mary. For this reason the gift of virginity has been poured most abundantly
upon women, seeing that it was from a woman it began. As soon as the Son of God set
foot on earth, He formed for Himself a new household, that as He was adored by angels
in heaven He might have angels also on earth.
18  The heritage of ideas
Against Jovinian
But you will say: “If everybody were a virgin, what would become of the human race?”
Like shall here beget like. If everyone were a widow, or continent in marriage, how
will mortal men be propagated? … You are afraid that if the desire for virginity were
general there would be no prostitutes, no adulteresses, no wailing infants in town or
country. Every day the blood of adulterers is shed, adulterers are condemned, and lust
is raging and rampant in the very presence of the laws and the symbols of authority
and the courts of justice. Be not afraid that all will become virgins: virginity is a hard
matter, and therefore rare, because it is hard. “Many are called, few chosen.” Many
begin, few persevere. And so the reward is great for those who have persevered. If all
were able to be virgins, our Lord would never have said (Matt. 19:12): “He that is able
to receive it, let him receive it”: and the Apostle would not have hesitated to give his
advice, (l Cor. 7:25) “Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord.”
… A book On Marriage, worth its weight in gold, passes under the name of Theo-
phrastus. In it the author asks whether a wise man marries. And after laying down
the conditions – that the wife must be fair, of good character, and honest parentage,
the husband in good health and of ample means, and after saying that under these
circumstances, a wise man sometimes enters the state of matrimony, he immediately
proceeds thus: “But all these conditions are seldom satisfied in marriage. A wise man
therefore must not take a wife. For in the first place his study of philosophy will be
hindered, and it is impossible for anyone to attend to his books and his wife. Matrons
want many things, costly dresses, gold jewels, great outlay, maid-servants, all kinds of
furniture, litters and gilded coaches. Then come curtain-lectures the live-long night:
she complains that one lady goes out better dressed than she: that another is looked
up to by all: ‘I am a poor despised nobody at the ladies’ assemblies.’ ‘Why did you
ogle that creature next door?’ ‘Why were you talking to the maid?’ ‘What did you
bring from the market?’ ‘I am not allowed to have a single friend, or companion.’ She
suspects that her husband’s love goes the same way as her hate. There may be in some
neighbouring city the wisest of teachers; but if we have a wife we can neither leave her
behind, nor take the burden with us. To support a poor wife, is hard: to put up with a
rich one, is torture.
“Notice, too, that in the case of a wife you cannot pick and choose: you must take
her as you find her. If she has a bad temper, or is a fool, if she has a blemish, or is proud,
or has bad breath, whatever her fault may be – all this we learn after marriage. Horses,
asses, cattle, even slaves of the smallest worth, clothes, kettles, wooden seats, cups, and
earthenware pitchers, are first tried and then bought: a wife is the only thing that is not
shown before she is married, for fear she may not give satisfaction. Our gaze must always
be directed to her face, and we must always praise her beauty: if you look at another
woman, she thinks that she is out of favour. … If a woman be fair, she soon finds lovers;
if she be ugly, it is easy to be wanton. It is difficult to guard what many long for. It is
annoying to have what no one thinks worth possessing. But the misery of having an ugly
wife is less than that of watching a comely one. Nothing is safe, for which a whole people
sighs and longs. One man entices with his figure, another with his brains, another with
his wit, another with his open hand. Somehow, or sometime, the fortress is captured
which is attacked on all sides.
“Men marry, indeed, so as to get a manager for the house, to solace weariness, to
banish solitude; but a faithful slave is a far better manager, more submissive to the
 The heritage of ideas  19
master, more observant of his ways, than a wife who thinks she proves herself mistress if
she acts in opposition to her husband, that is, if she does what pleases her, not what she is
commanded. But friends, and servants who are under the obligation of benefits received,
are better able to wait upon us in sickness than a wife who makes us responsible for her
tears (she will sell you enough to make a deluge for the hope of a legacy); who boasts of
her anxiety, yet drives her sick husband to the distraction of despair. But if she herself is
poorly, we must fall sick with her and never leave her bedside. Or if she be a good and
agreeable wife (how rare a bird she is!), we have to share her groans in childbirth, and
suffer torture when she is in danger. …
“Then again, to marry for the sake of children, so that our name may not perish,
or that we may have support in old age, and leave our property without dispute, is the
height of stupidity. For what is it to us when we are leaving the world if another bears our
name, when even a son does not all at once take his father’s title, and there are countless
others who are called by the same name. Or what support in old age is he whom you
bring up, and who may die before you, or turn out a reprobate? Or at all events when
he reaches mature age, you may seem to him long in dying. Friends and relatives whom
you can judiciously love are better and safer heirs than those whom you must make your
heirs whether you like it or not. Indeed, the surest way of having a good heir is to ruin
your fortune in a good cause while you live, not to leave the fruit of your labour to be
used you know not how.”

Questions: What arguments does Jerome make in favor of virginity and against marriage? What
arguments were being made for the other side? Why do you think Jerome was such an influential
thinker?

5. S t . A ugustine of H ippo :

O n the good of marriage ( ca . ad 401)
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was the single most influential writer on Christian
theology in the “patristic” period, so named for the “Fathers” of the church. His
views on most subjects became the accepted position of the medieval church; some
of his thoughts on marriage and sex are reproduced here.
Source: Trans. C. L. Cornish, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 3, ed. Philip Schaff (Buffalo,
NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887).

1. Forasmuch as each man is a part of the human race, and human nature is something
social, and hath for a great and natural good, the power also of friendship; on this
account God willed to create all men out of one, in order that they might be held
in their society not only by likeness of kind, but also by bond of kindred. Therefore
the first natural bond of human society is man and wife. Nor did God create these
each by himself, and join them together as alien by birth: but He created the one
out of the other, setting a sign also of the power of the union in the side, whence
she was drawn, was formed. For they are joined one to another side by side, who
walk together, and look together whither they walk. Then follows the connexion of
fellowship in children, which is the one alone worthy fruit, not of the union of male
and female, but of the sexual intercourse. For it were possible that there should exist
in either sex, even without such intercourse, a certain friendly and true union of the
one ruling, and the other obeying. …
20  The heritage of ideas
3. This we now say, that, according to this condition of being born and dying, which
we know, and in which we have been created, the marriage of male and female is
some good; the compact whereof divine Scripture so commends, as that neither is
it allowed one put away by her husband to marry, so long as her husband lives: nor
is it allowed one put away by his wife to marry another, unless she who have sepa-
rated from him be dead. Therefore, concerning the good of marriage, which the
Lord also confirmed in the Gospel, not only in that He forbade to put away a wife,
save because of fornication, but also in that He came by invitation to a marriage,
there is good ground to inquire for what reason it be a good. And this seems not
to me to be merely on account of the begetting of children, but also on account of
the natural society itself in a difference of sex. Otherwise it would not any longer
be called marriage in the case of old persons, especially if either they had lost sons,
or had given birth to none. But now in good, although aged, marriage, albeit there
hath withered away the glow of full age between male and female, yet there lives
in full vigor the order of charity between husband and wife: because, the better
they are, the earlier they have begun by mutual consent to contain from sexual
intercourse with each other: not that it should be matter of necessity afterwards
not to have power to do what they would, but that it should be matter of praise
to have been unwilling at the first, to do what they had power to do. If therefore
there be kept good faith of honor, and of services mutually due from either sex,
although the members of either be languishing and almost corpse-like, yet of souls
duly joined together, the chastity continues, the purer by how much it is the more
proved, the safer, by how much it is the calmer. Marriages have this good also, that
carnal or youthful incontinence, although it be faulty, is brought unto an honest
use in the begetting of children, in order that out of the evil of lust the marriage
union may bring to pass some good. Next, in that the lust of the flesh is repressed,
and rages in a way more modestly, being tempered by parental affection. For
there is interposed a certain gravity of glowing pleasure, when in that wherein
husband and wife cleave to one another, they have in mind that they be father and
mother.

Questions: What, according to Augustine, is the good, or purpose, of marriage? What is his opinion
of sex? What are the implications here for the relationship between husbands and wives?
 The heritage of ideas  21
B.  ROMAN IDEALS

6. F uneral eulogy of T uria (1 st c . bc )

In the following funeral speech, which was later engraved on a memorial tablet, a
Roman man of the first century bc pays tribute to his wife. She is traditionally known
as Turia, but their actual identities are unknown.
Source: Erik Wistrand, The So-Called Laudatio Turiae: Introduction, Text, Translation, Commentary,
Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia, XXXIV (Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothobur-
gensis, 1976).

Why should I mention your domestic virtues: your loyalty, obedience, affability,
reasonableness, industry in working wool, religion without superstition, sobriety of
attire, modesty of appearance? Why dwell on your love for your relatives, your devo-
tion to your family? You have shown the same attention to my mother as you did to
your own parents, and have taken care to secure an equally peaceful life for her as
you did for your own people, and you have innumerable merits in common with all
married women who care for their good name. It is your very own virtues that I am
asserting, and very few women have encountered comparable circumstances to make
them endure such sufferings and perform such deeds. Providentially Fate has made
such hard tests rare for women.
We have preserved all the property you inherited from your parents under common
custody, for you were not concerned to make your own what you had given to me without
any restriction. We divided our duties in such a way that I had the guardianship of your
property and you had the care of mine. …
Your generosity you have manifested to many friends and particularly to your beloved
relatives. On this point someone might mention with praise other women, but the only
equal you have had has been your sister. For you brought up your female relations who
deserved such kindness in your own houses with us. You also prepared marriage-portions
for them so that they could obtain marriages worthy of your family. The dowries you had
decided upon Cluvius and I by common accord took upon ourselves to pay, and since we
approved of your generosity we did not wish that you should let your own patrimony suffer
diminution but substituted our own money and gave our own estates as dowries. I have
mentioned this not from a wish to commend ourselves but to make clear that it was a point
of honour for us to execute with our means what you had conceived in a spirit of generous
family affection. …
[When I was in exile for political reasons, you] provided abundantly for my needs
during my flight and gave me the means for a dignified manner of living, when you took
all the gold and jewellery from your own body and sent it to me and over and over again
enriched me in my absence with servants, money and provisions, showing great inge-
nuity in deceiving the guards posted by our adversaries.
You begged for my life when I was abroad – it was your courage that urged you to this step
– and because of your entreaties I was shielded by the clemency of those against whom you
marshalled your words. But whatever you said was always said with undaunted courage.
Meanwhile when a troop of men … tried to profit by the opportunities provided by
the civil war and break into our house to plunder, you beat them back successfully and
were able to defend our home. …
22  The heritage of ideas
Why should I now hold up to view our intimate and secret plans and private conver-
sations: how I was saved by your good advice when I was roused by startling reports to
meet sudden and imminent dangers; how you did not allow me imprudently to tempt
providence by an overbold step but prepared a safe hiding-place for me, when I had
given up my ambitious designs, choosing as partners in your plans to save me your
sister and her husband Cluvius, all of you taking the same risk? There would be no
end, if I tried to go into all this. It is enough for me and for you that I was hidden and
my life was saved. …
When peace had been restored throughout the world and the lawful political order
reestablished, we began to enjoy quiet and happy times. It is true that we did wish to have
children, who had for a long time been denied to us by an envious fate. …
When you despaired of your ability to bear children and grieved over my childless-
ness, you became anxious lest by retaining you in marriage I might lose all hope of
having children and be distressed for that reason. So you proposed divorce outright
and offered to yield our house free to another woman’s fertility. … I must admit that
I flared up so that I almost lost control of myself; so horrified was I by what you tried
to do that I found it difficult to retrieve my composure. … What desire, what need to
have children could I have had that was so great that I should have broken faith for
that reason and changed certainty for uncertainty? But no more of this! You remained
with me as my wife. For I could not have given in to you without disgrace for me and
unhappiness for both of us.
But on your part, what could have been more worthy of commemoration and praise
than your efforts in devotion to my interests: when I could not have children from your-
self, you wanted me to have them through your good offices and, since you despaired of
bearing children, to provide me with offspring by my marriage to another woman. …
Fate decreed that you should precede me. You bequeathed me sorrow through my
longing for you and left me a miserable man without children to comfort me. I on my
part will, however, bend my way of thinking and feeling to your judgements and be
guided by your admonitions.
But all your opinions and instructions should give precedence to the praise you have
won so that this praise will be a consolation for me and I will not feel too much the loss of
what I have consecrated to immortality to be remembered for ever. …
I pray that your [spirits] will grant you rest and protection.
Questions: What kind of a relationship did the speaker and his wife have? What kind of person was
she? Did she meet, surpass, or violate the Roman ideal of a wife, and how? What was that ideal?

7. S eneca : L etter to his mother (1 st c . ad )

In this letter to his mother, the Roman philosopher Seneca tries to comfort her in
her distress over his exile from Rome. He praises her virtues, which are typical of
the ideal Roman matron, by setting them against the faults he saw in many women
of his day. He cites as models of behavior Cornelia and Rutilia, mothers famous in
Roman history for their virtues.
Source: Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Loeb Classical Library from Seneca: Moral
Essays, vol. II, translated by John W. Basore, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932.

It is not for you to avail yourself of the excuse of being a woman, who, in a way, has
been granted the right to inordinate, yet not unlimited, tears. And so our ancestors, seeking
 The heritage of ideas  23
to compromise with the stubbornness of a woman’s grief by a public ordinance, granted
the space of ten months as the limit of mourning for a husband. They did not forbid public
mourning, but limited it; for when you lose one who is most dear, to be filled with endless
sorrow is foolish fondness, and to feel none is inhuman hardness. The best course is the
mean between affection and reason – both to have a sense of loss and to crush it. There is
no need for you to regard certain women, whose sorrow once assumed ended only with
their death – some you know, who, having put on mourning for sons they had lost, never
laid the garb aside. From you life, that was sterner from the start, requires more; the excuse
of being a woman can be of no avail to one who has always lacked all the weaknesses of a
woman.
Unchastity, the greatest evil of our time, has never classed you with the great majority
of women; jewels have not moved you, nor pearls; to your eyes the glitter of riches has
not seemed the greatest boon of the human race; you, who were soundly trained in an
old-fashioned and strict household, have not been perverted by the imitation of worse
women that leads even the virtuous into pitfalls; you have never blushed for the number
of your children, as if it taunted you with your years; never have you, in the manner of
other women whose only recommendation lies in their beauty, tried to conceal your
pregnancy as if an unseemly burden, nor have you ever crushed the hope of children
that were being nurtured in your body; you have not defiled your face with paints and
cosmetics; never have you fancied the kind of dress that exposed no greater nakedness
by being removed. In you has been seen that peerless ornament, that fairest beauty on
which time lays no hand, that chiefest glory which is modesty. You cannot, therefore,
allege your womanhood as an excuse for persistent grief, for your very virtues set you
apart; you must be as far removed from woman’s tears as from her vices. But even
women will not allow you to pine away from your wound, but will bid you finish quickly
with necessary sorrow, and then rise with lighter heart – I mean, if you are willing to turn
your gaze upon the women whose conspicuous bravery has placed them in the rank of
mighty heroes.
Cornelia bore twelve children, but Fortune had reduced their number to two …
Nevertheless, when her friends were weeping around her and cursing her fate, she
forbade them to make any indictment against Fortune, since it was Fortune who had
allowed the Gracchi to be her sons. Such a woman had right to be the mother of him
who exclaimed in the public assembly: “Do you dare to revile the mother who gave birth
to me?” But to me his mother’s utterance seems more spirited by far …
Rutilia followed her son Cotta into exile, and was so wrapped up in her love for
him that she preferred exile to losing him; and only her son’s return brought her
back to her native land. But when, after he had been restored and now had risen to
honour in the state, he died, she let him go just as bravely as she had clung to him;
and after her son was buried no one saw her shed any tears. When he was exiled she
showed courage, when she lost him, wisdom; for in the one case she did not desist
from her devotion, and in the other did not persist in useless and foolish sorrow.
In the number of such women as these I wish you to be counted. In your effort to
restrain and suppress your sorrow your best course will be to follow the example of
those women whose life you have always copied.
Questions: What is Seneca’s opinion of women in the abstract? What does his relationship with his
mother seem to be like? What ideals of Roman womanhood does he describe? How do those ideals
compare with Turia, in the previous document?
24  The heritage of ideas
8. L aws of the R oman E mpire (3 rd –6 th c . ad )

Roman civil law evolved over the course of many centuries. The selection below on
dowry is from Ulpian’s Rules, a third-century book of legal commentary; the laws
on marriage, divorce and adultery are from the Corpus Juris Civilis, a compilation
commissioned by the sixth-century emperor Justinian and used in the Middle Ages
as a textbook of Roman law.
Source: The Civil Law, tr. S. P. Scott (Cincinnati, 1932). Reprinted by AMS Press, New York.

Dowry
A dowry is either given, expressly stated, or promised.
A woman who is about to be married can state her dowry, and her debtor can do so,
at her direction; a male ascendant of the woman related to her through the male sex,
such as her father or paternal grandfather, can likewise so do. Any person can give or
promise a dowry. …
When a woman dies during marriage, her dowry given by her father reverts to him,
a fifth of the same for each child she leaves being retained by the husband, no matter
what the number may be. If her father is not living, the dowry remains in the hands of
the husband. …
When a divorce takes place, if the woman is her own mistress, she herself has the right
to sue for the recovery of the dowry. If, however, she is under the control of her father,
he … can bring the action for the recovery of the dowry; nor does it make any difference
whether it is adventitious or profectitious.
If the woman dies after the divorce, no right of action will be granted to her heir,
unless her husband has been in default in restoring her dowry. …
Portions of a dowry are retained either on account of children, on account of bad
morals, on account of expenses, on account of donations, or on account of articles which
have been abstracted.
A portion is retained on account of children, when the divorce took place either
through the fault of the wife, or her father; for then a sixth part of the dowry shall be
retained in the name of each child, but not more than three-sixths altogether. …
A sixth of the dowry is also retained on the ground of a flagrant breach of morals;
an eighth, where the offence is not so serious. Adultery alone comes under the head of a
flagrant breach of morals; all other improper acts are classed as less serious.
If a husband in anticipation of divorce abstracts anything belonging to his wife, he
will be liable to an action for the clandestine removal of property.

Marriage and divorce

Roman citizens unite in legal marriage when they are joined according to the precepts of
the law, and the males have attained the age of puberty and the females are capable of
childbirth, whether they are the heads of families or the children of families, if the latter
have also the consent of the relatives under whose authority they may be, for this should
be obtained and both civil and natural law require that it should previously be secured.
Those who seize the property of a wife on account of a debt of her husband, or
because of some public civil liability which he has incurred, are considered to have been
guilty of violence. …
 The heritage of ideas  25
Marriage is dissolved by divorce, death, captivity, or by any other kind of servitude
which may happen to be imposed upon either of the parties …
It is not a true or actual divorce unless the purpose is to establish a perpetual sepa-
ration. Therefore, whatever is done or said in the heat of anger is not valid, unless the
determination becomes apparent by the parties persevering in their intention, and hence
where repudiation takes place in the heat of anger and the wife returns in a short time,
she is not held to have been divorced.

Adultery
The lex Julia [against adultery] declares that wives have no right to bring criminal accusa-
tions for adultery against their husbands, even though they may desire to complain of the
violation of the marriage vow, for while the law grants this privilege to men it does not
concede it to women. …
No one doubts that a husband cannot accuse his wife of adultery if he continues to
retain her in marriage. … Under the new law, however, he can do so, and if the accusa-
tion is proved to be true, he can then repudiate her, and he should file a written accusa-
tion against her. If, however, the husband should not be able to establish the accusation
of adultery which he brought, he will be liable to the same punishment which his wife
would have undergone if the accusation had been proved. …
The laws punish the detestable wickedness of women who prostitute their chastity to
the lusts of others, but do not hold those liable who are compelled to commit fornication
through force, and against their will. And, moreover, it has very properly been decided
that their reputations are not lost, and that their marriage with others should not be
prohibited on this account. …
Where a girl, less than twelve years old, brought into the house of her husband,
commits adultery, and afterwards remains with him until she has passed that age, and
begins to be his wife, she cannot be accused of adultery by her husband, for the reason
that she committed it before reaching the marriageable age; but, according to a rescript
of the Divine Severus, which is mentioned above, she can be accused as having been
betrothed. …
The right is granted to the father to kill a man who commits adultery with his daughter
while she is under his control. …
Hence the father, and not the husband, has the right to kill the woman and every
adulterer; for the reason that, in general, paternal affection is solicitous for the interests
of the children, but the heat and impetuosity of the husband, who decides too quickly,
should be restrained.
… Where the law says, “He may kill his daughter at once,” this must be understood
to mean that having today killed the adulterer he cannot reserve his daughter to be
killed subsequently; for he should kill both of them with one blow and one attack, and
be inflamed by the same resentment against both. But if, without any connivance on his
part, his daughter should take to flight, while he is killing the adulterer, and she should be
caught and put to death some hours afterwards by her father, who pursued her, he will
be considered to have killed her immediately.

Questions: What is dowry, and why is it important? What marriage rights did a woman have in
Roman law? What was adultery? What were the ramifications of adultery for women?
26  The heritage of ideas
C.  GERMANIC CUSTOM

9. T acitus : T he G ermans ( ad 98)

Tacitus, a Roman historian who died in ad 117, described the Germans in a
work which is one of our earliest pieces of information about the Germanic tribes.
Disgusted with the corruption he perceived in Roman society, Tacitus is here holding
up the “barbarian” Germans as models of virtue; thus many of the things he empha-
sizes in this account are traditional Roman virtues such as modesty, morality and
courage. The term “Germans” refers here to all the Germanic tribes, which would
migrate further into western Europe in the centuries after Tacitus; they are the stock
from which most western European peoples, including the English and the French,
descended.
Source: Tr. Maurice Hutton, in Tacitus: Dialogus, Agricola, Germania, Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914).

[The Germans are] a peculiar people and pure, like no one but themselves;
whence it comes that their physique, in spite of their vast numbers, is identical: fierce
blue eyes, red hair, tall frames, powerful only spasmodically, and impatient at the
same time of labour and hard work, and by no means habituated to bearing thirst
and heat; to cold and hunger, thanks to the climate and the soil, they are accus-
tomed. …
The strongest incentive to courage [in warfare] lies in this, that neither chance
nor casual grouping makes the squadron or the wedge, but family and kinship: close
at hand, too, are their dearest, whence is heard the wailing voice of woman and the
child’s cry: here are the witnesses who are in each man’s eyes most precious; here the
praise he covets most: they take their wounds to mother and wife, who do not shrink
from counting the hurts and demanding a sight of them: they minister to the combat-
ants food and exhortation.
Tradition relates that some lost or losing battles have been restored by the women,
by the incessance of their prayers and by the baring of their breasts; for so is it brought
home to the men that the slavery, which they dread much more keenly on their women’s
account, is close at hand: it follows that the loyalty of those tribes is more effectually guar-
anteed from whom, among other hostages, maids of high birth have been exacted.
Further, they conceive that in woman is a certain uncanny and prophetic sense: they
neither scorn to consult them nor slight their answers. …
For clothing all wear a cloak, fastened with a clasp, or, in its absence, a thorn: they
spend whole days on the hearth round the fire with no other covering. The richest men
are distinguished by the wearing of under-clothes; not loose … but drawn tight, throwing
each limb into relief. They wear also the skins of wild beasts. …
The women have the same dress as the men, except that very often trailing linen
garments, striped with purple, are in use for women: the upper part of this costume does
not widen into sleeves: their arms and shoulders are therefore bare, as is the adjoining
portion of the breast.
None the less the marriage tie with them is strict: you will find nothing in their char-
acter to praise more highly. They are almost the only barbarians who are content with a
wife apiece: the very few exceptions have nothing to do with passion, but consist of those
 The heritage of ideas  27
with whom polygamous marriage is eagerly sought for the sake of their high birth.
As for dower, it is not the wife who brings it to the husband, but the husband
to the wife. The parents and relations are present to approve these gifts – gifts not
devised for ministering to female fads, nor for the adornment of the person of the
bride, but oxen, a horse and bridle, a shield and spear or sword; it is to share these
things that the wife is taken by the husband, and she herself, in turn, brings some
piece of armour to her husband. Here is the gist of the bond between them, here in
their eyes its mysterious sacrament, the divinity which hedges it. That the wife may
not imagine herself released from the practice of heroism, released from the chances
of war, she is thus warned by the very rites with which her marriage begins that she
comes to share hard work and peril; that her fate will be the same as his in peace and
in panic, her risks the same. This is the moral of the yoked oxen, of the bridled horse,
of the exchange of arms; so must she live and so must die. The things she takes she
is to hand over inviolate to her children, fit to be taken by her daughters-in-law and
passed on again to her grandchildren.
So their life is one of fenced-in chastity. There is no arena with its seductions, no
dinner-tables with their provocations to corrupt them. Of the exchange of secret letters
men and women alike are innocent; adulteries are very few for the number of the people.
Punishment is prompt and is the husband’s prerogative: her hair close-cropped, stripped
of her clothes, her husband drives her from his house in presence of his relatives and
pursues her with blows through the length of the village. For prostituted chastity there is
no pardon; beauty nor youth nor wealth will find her a husband. No one laughs at vice
there; no one calls seduction, suffered or wrought, the spirit of the age. Better still are
those tribes where only maids marry, and where a woman makes an end, once for all,
with the hopes and vows of a wife; so they take one husband only, just as one body and
one life, in order that there may be no second thoughts, no belated fancies: in order that
their desire may be not for the man, but for marriage; to limit the number of their chil-
dren, to make away with any of the later children is held abominable, and good habits
have more force with them than good laws elsewhere.
There then they are, the children, in every house, filling out amid nakedness and
squalor into that girth of limb and frame which is to our people a marvel. Its own mother
suckles each at her breast; they are not passed on to nursemaids and wet-nurses.
Nor can master be recognised from servant by any flummery in their respective
bringing-up: they live in the company of the same cattle and on the same mud floor till
years separate the free-born and character claims her own.
The virginity of youth is late treasured and puberty therefore inexhaustible; nor for
the girls is there any hot-house forcing; they pass their youth in the same way as the boys:
their stature is as tall; when they reach the same strength they are mated, and the chil-
dren reproduce the vigour of the parents.

Questions: What stands out in this description of Germanic women? How do they differ from Roman
women? Which elements of the description are most likely to be hyperbole?

10. L aws of the S alian F ranks (6 th c . ad )

The Franks were a Germanic people who migrated into the Roman province of
Gaul (modern France) in the fifth century and there became Christians in the
course of the sixth and seventh centuries. As in all the Germanic tribes, their
28  The heritage of ideas
“laws” were customary and oral, and were codified only when the tribes came into
contact with the literate Romans and adopted or developed written languages.
So these laws are not in their primitive form; for example, marriage is a contract
here, but the laws contain vestiges of the days when German men had purchased
their wives.
Source: The Laws of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks, tr. Theodore John Rivers (New York: AMS
Press, 1986).

Pact of Salic laws (early 6th c.)

10.  Concerning abducted slaves …
1. If anyone steals another’s slave or maidservant, horse or draft horse, and it can be
proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 1400 denarii, which make thirty-
five solidi, in addition to its value and a fine for the loss of use.
4. If anyone abducts another’s maidservant, let him be held liable for 1200 denarii,
which make thirty solidi.
6. If anyone seduces a maidservant worth fifteen or twenty-five solidi, if [he is] a
swineherd, a vinedresser, a blacksmith, a miller, a carpenter, a groom or any
overseer worth twenty-five solidi, let him be held liable, if it can be proven that
he did this, for 2880 denarii, which make seventy-two solidi, in addition to her
value.
7. If anyone abducts a boy or girl, [both of whom are] domestic servants, let him pay
twenty-five solidi for his or her value. Moreover, let him be held liable for 1400
denarii, which make thirty-five solidi, in addition to his or her value and a fine for
the loss of his or her use.

13.  Concerning abduction of freewomen or wives

  1. If three men abduct a girl who is free-born from a house or workshop, let these three
be compelled to pay 1200 denarii, which make thirty solidi.
  2. Nevertheless, [if] there are more than three [men], let each one of them be held
liable for 200 denarii, which make five solidi.
  3. Those who carry arrows, let each one of them be held liable for 120 denarii, which
make three solidi.
  4. For a rapist, let him be held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-
half solidi.
  6. But if that girl who is carried off is under the king’s protection, then the fredus [that
is, a fine for wrongdoing, payable to the king and the judge] demanded shall be 2500
denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half solidi.
  7. But if a servant of the king or a freedman carries off a freewoman, let him compen-
sate with his life.
  8. But if a girl who is free-born of her own will follows any [slave into matrimony], let
her lose her freedom.
  9. If a freeman takes another’s maidservant [for his wife], let him suffer similarly.
11. If anyone is united in an incestuous marriage with his sister or his brother’s daughter,
or with a cousin of the nearest degree, or with his brother’s or uncle’s wife, let them
be subjected to punishment so that their union will be dissolved. And if they have
 The heritage of ideas  29
children, they are not legitimate heirs, but are marked with infamy.
12. But if anyone abducts another’s fiancée and unites himself with her in marriage, let
him be held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half solidi.
13. For the benefit of the bridegroom, whose fiancée she is, let [the abductor] be held
liable for fifteen solidi [in addition].
14. If anyone follows a betrothed girl in a wedding procession who is on her way to be
married and assaults her on the road and forces her to engage in sex, let him be held
liable for 8000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.

15.  Concerning homicide of a freeman, or the abduction of another’s wife in the lifetime of the
husband
1. If anyone kills a freeman or abducts another’s wife in the lifetime of the husband,
and it can be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 8000 denarii, which
make 200 solidi.
2. If anyone forcibly engages in sex with a free-born girl, and it can be proven that he
did this, let him be held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half
solidi.
3. If anyone secretly engages in sex with a free-born girl [and] both willingly consent,
and it can be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 1800 denarii, which
make forty-five solidi.

19.  Concerning magic potions or herbs

1. If anyone gives a magic potion or herbs to another to drink, and [the latter] dies, and
it can be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 8000 denarii, which make
200 solidi, or he shall certainly be handed over to fire.
2. If anyone gives a magic potion or herbs to another to drink and he for whom it
was prepared lives, let the criminal who is proven to have committed this and
is convicted be held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half
solidi.
3. If anyone throws a magic spell on another wherever he goes, let him be held liable
for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half solidi.
4. If a woman gives a magic potion to another woman whereby [the latter] cannot have
children, let her be held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half
solidi.

20.  Concerning him who touches a freewoman’s hand, arm or finger

1. If a freeman touches a freewoman’s or any woman’s hand, arm or finger, and it can
be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 600 denarii, which make fifteen
solidi.
2. If he presses her arm, let him be held liable for 1200 denarii, which make thirty
solidi.
3. If he definitely places his hand above her elbow, and it can be proven that he did
this, let him be held liable for 1400 denarii, which make thirty-five solidi.
4. If anyone touches a woman’s breast or cuts it so that blood comes forth, let him be
held liable for 1800 denarii, which make forty-five solidi.
30  The heritage of ideas
24.  Concerning homicide of young children and women
1. If anyone kills a boy who is free-born and under twelve years of age, but who has not
yet completed his twelfth year, and it can be proven that he did this, let him be held
liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi.
2. But if anyone shears the long hair of a free-born boy without his parents’ consent,
and it can be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 1800 denarii, which
make forty-five solidi.
3. But if he shears a free-born girl without the parents’ consent, and it can be proven
that he did this, let him be held liable for 1800 denarii, which make forty-five solidi.
5. If anyone strikes a freewoman who is pregnant [and] if she dies, and it can be proven
that he did this, let him be held liable for 28,000 denarii, which make 700 solidi.
6. But if anyone kills a child in its mother’s womb or within nine nights before [her
child] has a name, and it can be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for
4000 denarii, which make 100 solidi.
8. If anyone kills a freewoman after she has begun to have children, and it can be proven
that he did this, let him be held liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi.
9. After she can have no more children, let him who kills her be held liable, [if] it can
he proven that he did this, for 8000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.

25.  Concerning fornication involving maidservants or slaves

1. If a freeman fornicates with another’s maidservant, and it can be proven that he did
this, let him be held liable to the maidservant’s master for 600 denarii, which make
fifteen solidi.
2. But if anyone fornicates with a maidservant of the king, and it can be proven that he
did this, let him be held liable for 1200 denarii, which make thirty solidi.
5. But if a slave fornicates with another’s maidservant and after this crime this maid-
servant dies, either let this slave pay 240 denarii, which make six solidi, to the maid-
servant’s master, or let him be castrated. In fact, let the slave’s master pay the value
of what the maidservant is worth to the maidservant’s master.
6. But if the maidservant does not die because of this, either let the slave receive 300
lashes upon his back, or let him be compelled to pay 120 denarii, which make three
solidi, to the maidservant’s master.
7. If a slave unites in marriage with another’s maidservant without the master’s consent,
either let him be whipped, or let him be compelled to pay 120 denarii, which make
three solidi, to the maidservant’s master.

41.  Concerning homicide of freemen

  1. But if anyone kills a free Frank or [any] barbarian who is living in accordance with
the Salic law, and it can be proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 8000
denarii, which make 200 solidi.
  5. But if anyone kills [either] him who is in the king’s retinue or a freewoman, and it can be
proven that he did this, let him be held liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi.
15. If anyone kills a girl who is free-born before she can have children, let him be held
liable for 8000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.
16. If anyone kills a freewoman after she has begun to nurse, let him be held liable for
24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi.
 The heritage of ideas  31
17. But after middle age and after she can have no more children, let him who kills her
be held liable for 8000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.
18. If anyone kills a boy who has long hair, let him be held liable for 24,000 denarii,
which make 600 solidi.
19. If anyone kills a woman who is pregnant, let him be held liable for 600 solidi.
20. If anyone kills a mother with a child in the womb or before [the child] has a name,
let him be held liable for 100 solidi [for the fetus].
21. If anyone kills a freeman inside his house, let him be held liable for 600 solidi.

64.  Concerning witches

1. If anyone calls another a witch, that is, a performer of witchcraft, or the latter is said
to carry a kettle where witches do their cooking, and it cannot be proven, let him be
held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half solidi.
2. But if anyone calls a freewoman a witch or prostitute, and it cannot be proven, let
him be held liable for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half solidi.
3. If a witch eats a man and it can be proven that she did this, let her be held liable for
8000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.

65a.  Concerning him who becomes engaged to another’s daughter and [later] rejects her
If anyone desires to marry another’s daughter in the presence of his and the girl’s rela-
tives, and afterwards he rejects her and he is unwilling to take her, let him be held liable
for 2500 denarii, which make sixty-two and one-half solidi.

Sixth-century legislation
98.  Concerning women who marry their slaves
1. If a woman unites in marriage with her slave, let the public treasury acquire all her
property and let her be outlawed.
2. If anyone of her relatives kills her, let nothing at all be required from either her rela-
tives or the public treasury for this death. Let that slave endure the worst death by
torture, that is, let him be broken on the wheel. But if anyone of the relatives gives
food or shelter to this woman [because she has been outlawed], let him be held liable
for fifteen solidi.

104.  Concerning women who are struck or their hair is untied

  1. If anyone unties the hair of a woman, so that her veil falls to the ground, let him be
held liable for fifteen solidi.
  2. But if he unties her hair band, so that the hair touches her shoulder, let him be held
liable for thirty solidi.
  3. If a slave strikes a freewoman or unties her hair, either let him lose his hand or let
him pay five solidi.
  4. If anyone strikes a pregnant freewoman in the stomach or kidneys with his fist or heel
and the fetus is not aborted [but] because of this it becomes so ill that it nearly dies,
let him be held liable for 200 solidi.
32  The heritage of ideas
  5. If anyone strikes [a woman so that] the fetus is killed and is aborted, let him be held
liable for 600 solidi.
  6. But if the woman was killed due to this, let him be held liable for 900 solidi.
  7. But if the woman who was killed was under the king’s protection for some reason, let
him be held liable for 1200 solidi.
  8. But if the child that was aborted was a girl, let him compensate 2400 solidi.
  9. One-half of this compensation is to be observed for maidservants, freedwomen, or
Roman women.
10. If anyone aborts the fetus of a maidservant (if she is an ordinary girl), let him compen-
sate sixty-two and one-half solidi, and also one denarius.
11. But if this maidservant is employed in her master’s pantry or textile workshop, let
him compensate 100 solidi and one denarius for her.

Legislation on rape (594)

By similar judgment it was agreed on the calends of March [594] when everyone was
assembled that whoever attempts to rape [a woman], whereby a dishonorable crime is
perpetrated, let him realize that his life is in peril, and let none of our magnates attempt
to ask for him, but let each one of them be pursued in such a manner as an enemy of God.
But whoever attempts to transgress our edict, in whichever county he is surrendered, that
judge by public proclamation may kill the rapist, and no wergeld is required for him. And
if he flees to a church, let him be apprehended without any pleading after being surren-
dered to the bishop, and let him be sent into exile. If perhaps the woman agreed to be
seduced, let them both be sent into exile together, and if they flee to a church, let them
both be killed together. And let their property be acquired by their lawful relatives and
let our public treasury acquire what is owed it.

Questions: How did sex interact with other factors to determine a person’s worth in Frankish society?
What crimes, if any, were perceived as women’s crimes? Of what crimes were women perceived as
more likely to be victims? Why is touching a woman’s hair, fingers, or arm treated as a crime? What
attitudes toward sexual activity are revealed in these laws?
II Women and the law

The readings in this chapter illustrate some of the legal conditions under which medieval
women lived – conditions which applied more or less to all women, regardless of social
status or occupation. These selections are, however, merely examples; while they may
reflect widespread attitudes toward women, they come from specific places at specific
times. Many of the themes and issues raised in a general way in this section will recur
later in the book, in the experiences of specific women’s lives.
The analysis of these documents requires one to consider why they were written and
how accurately they reflect the realities of life. Other cautions apply to any law used as
a source: laws are by nature prescriptive (or proscriptive) rather than descriptive; the
practices they forbid may in fact be very common ones in the society in question. On
the other hand, laws may be anachronistic in forbidding practices that are no longer
common. Like any kind of source, laws are best used in conjunction with a variety of
other sources that can illuminate the subject from other angles.
34  Women and the law
11. C áin A damnáin : I rish law of women (7 th c .)
This Irish law code is believed to have been issued in 697 at the instance of Adamnan,
an abbot and missionary. It is traditionally said to be the earliest set of Irish laws that
granted protection to women and children, who had not previously enjoyed any such
status under the law. In the text below, a cumal is nominally the value of a bondmaid,
worth three to ten cows, and a sét is a fraction of a cumal, worth approximately one cow.
Source: Cáin Adamnáin: An Old-Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnan, ed. and tr. Kuno Meyer (Oxford,
1905).

  1. Five ages before the birth of Christ, to wit, from Adam to … the birth of Christ.
During that time women were in bondage and in slavery, until Adamnan, son of
Ronan … came.
  2. [Bondmaid] was a name for women till Adamnan come to free them… That woman
had no share in bag or in basket, nor in the company of the house-master; but she dwelt
in a hut outside the enclosure, lest bane from sea or land should come to her chief.
  3. The work which the best women had to do, was to go to battle and battlefield,
encounter and camping, fighting and hosting, wounding and slaying. On one side of
her she would carry her bag of provisions, on the other her babe. Her wooden pole
upon her back. Thirty feet long it was, and had at one end an iron hook, which she
would thrust into the tress of some woman in the opposite battalion. Her husband
behind her, carrying a fence-stake in his hand, and flogging her on to battle. For at that
time it was the head of a woman, or her two breasts, which were taken as trophies.
  4. Now after the coming of Adamnan no woman is deprived of her testimony, if it be
bound in righteous deeds. For a mother is a venerable treasure, a mother is a goodly
treasure, the mother of saints and bishops and righteous men, an increase in the
Kingdom of Heaven, a propagation on earth.
  5. Adamnan suffered much hardship for your sake, O women, so that ever since Adam-
nan’s time one half of your house is yours, and there is a place for your chair in the
other half; so that your contract and your safeguard are free; and the first law made
in Heaven and on earth for women is Adamnan’s Law….
34. This is the enactment of Adamnan’s Law in Ireland and Britain: exemption of the
Church of God with her people and her emblems and her sanctuaries and all her prop-
erty, live and dead, and her law-abiding laymen with their lawful wives who are obedient
to Adamnan and to a lawful, wise and pious confessor. The enactment of this Law of
Adamnan is a perpetual law on behalf of clerics and women and innocent children until
they are capable of slaying a man, and until they take their place in the tribe….
35. Whoever wounds or slays a young clerical student or an innocent child under the ordi-
nance of Adamnan’s Law, eight cumals for it for every hand (engaged), with eight years of
penance, up to three hundred cumals; … and it is the same fine for him who commits the
deed and for him who sees it and does not save to the best of his ability….
41. A further enactment of the Law, that payment in full fines is to be made to Adamnan
for every woman that has been slain, whether a man has a share in it, or cattle or
hound or fire or a ditch or a building, – for everything that is made is liable under
the Law, both ditch and pit and bridge and fire-place and (door-)step and pools and
kilns, and every other danger, [unless] the woman deserves it. …
42. Whatever violent death a woman dies, except it be (by) the hand of God, or (in conse-
quence of) rightful lawful cohabitation, it is paid in full fines to Adamnan, both slaying
 Women and the law  35
and drowning and burning and poison and breaking and perishing in a quagmire and
death by tame beasts and pigs and cattle. If, however, it is a first crime … on the part
of pigs or hounds, they shall be killed at once, and half the due of a [crime by a] human
hand [will be paid to Adamnan] for it; if it is not a first crime, full due is paid….
44. One-eighth of everything small and great to the community of Adamnan from the
slaying of clerics or innocent children. If it be a life-wound any one inflicts on a woman
or a cleric or an innocent, seven half-cumals are due from him, fifteen séts upon the
nearest and remoter kindred as being accomplices. Three séts for every white blow
[that is, a blow causing neither bleeding nor bruising], five séts for every drawing of
blood, seven séts for every wound requiring a tent, a cumal for every confinement to
bed, and payment of the physician besides. If it be more than that, it goes upon half-
dues for killing a person. If it is a blow with the palm of the hand or with the fist, one
ounce of silver (is the fine) for it. If there be a green or red mark, or a swelling, an
ounce and six scruples for it. For seizing women by the hair, five wethers. If there is
a fight among women … three wethers.
45. Men and women are equally liable for large and small dues from this on to (any)
fights of women, except outright death. For a woman deserves death for the killing
of a man or woman, or for giving poison whereof death ensues, or for burning, or
for digging under a church [to look for treasure], that is to say, she is to be put into a
boat of one paddle … upon the ocean to go with the wind from the land. A vessel of
meal and water [is] to be given with her. Judgement upon her as God deems fit….
50. If it be rape of a maiden, seven half-cumals (is the fine) for it. If a hand (is put) upon
her or in her girdle, ten ounces for it. If a hand (is put) under her dress to defile her,
three ounces and seven cumals for it. If there be a [resulting] blemish of her head or
her eyes or in the face or in the ear or nose or tooth or tongue or foot or hand, seven
cumals are (to be paid) for it. If it be a blemish on any other part of her body, seven
half-cumals for it. If it be tearing of her dress, seven ounces and one cumal for it.
51. If it be making a gentlewoman blush by imputing unchastity to her or by denying her
offspring, there are seven cumals (to be paid) for it….
52. If a woman has been got with child by stealth, without contract, without full rights,
without dowry, without betrothal, a full fine for it.

Questions: What rights and protections are granted to women in these laws? What dangers are
anticipated for women? Compare these laws to those of the Salian Franks.

12. G ratian : C anon law on marriage (12 th c .)

Marriage was one of the areas in which church courts, rather than secular courts, had
jurisdiction over medieval Christians. The rules and precedents with which ecclesias-
tical courts worked in such cases were complex and at times contradictory. From the
twelfth century on, the standard collection of these “canons” was Gratian’s Decretals,
a massive compilation of excerpts from Christian writers and church council deci-
sions illustrating every aspect of Christian life, organized into series of hypothetical
cases and their component “questions.” The text below consists mainly of Gratian’s
summary statements; most of the explanatory quotations which make up the bulk of
Gratian’s book have been omitted here.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Corpus Juris Canonici, ed. E. Friedberg (1959).
36  Women and the law
Case 27, Question II
  1. [According to John Chrysostom:] “Coitus does not make a marriage; consent does;
and therefore the separation of the body does not dissolve it, but the separation of
the will. Therefore he who forsakes his wife, and does not take another, is still a
married man. For even if he is now separated in his body, yet he is still joined in his
will. When therefore he takes another woman, then he forsakes fully. Therefore he
who forsakes is not the adulterer, but he who takes another woman.”
  2. … When therefore there is consent, which alone makes a marriage, between those
persons, it is clear that they have been married.
20. A woman who has been sent to a monastery without the consent of her husband is
not prohibited from returning to live with him. …
21. He who has become a monk without his wife’s consent must return to her. …
22. A man may not make a monastic vow without his wife’s consent. …
If any married man wishes to join a monastery, he is not to be accepted, unless
he has first been released by his wife, and she makes a vow of chastity. For if she,
through incontinence, marries another man while he is still living, without a doubt
she will be an adulteress. …
23. A husband and a wife may not turn to the religious life without the knowledge of
their bishop. According to the synod of Pope Eugenius, “If a husband and wife have
agreed between themselves to turn their life to religion, by no means let this be done
without the knowledge of their bishop, so that they may be individually and properly
examined by him. For if the wife is not willing, or indeed the husband, the marriage
is not dissolved, even for such a reason.”
24. A husband is not permitted to be celibate without his wife’s consent. …
26. A wife is not permitted to take a vow of celibacy, unless her husband chooses the
same way of life.
27. A girl who is betrothed is not prohibited from choosing the monastery. [According
to Pope Eusebius:] “Parents may not give a betrothed girl to another man; but she
herself may choose a monastery.”
29. If a woman proves that her husband has never known her carnally, there may be a
separation. …
35. Marriage is initiated in the betrothal. …
36. The union of the couple completes the marriage. For according to St. Ambrose,
“In all marriage the union is understood to be spiritual, and it is confirmed and
completed by the bodily union of the couple.”
50. One man may not take [in marriage] a girl betrothed to another man. …
51. If a man plights his troth to any woman, he is not permitted to marry another.

Case 30, Question II

Betrothals may not be contracted before the age of seven. For only the consent is contracted,
which cannot happen unless it is understood by each party what is being done between them.
Therefore it is shown that betrothals cannot be contracted between children, whose weak-
ness of age does not admit consent. This same is attested by Pope Nicholas: before the time
of consent a marriage cannot be contracted. He says, “Where there is no consent from either
party, there is no marriage. Therefore those who give girls to boys while they are still in the
cradle, and vice versa, achieve nothing, even if the father and mother are willing and do this,
unless both of the children consent after they have reached the age of understanding.”
 Women and the law  37
Case 30, Question V
1. Clandestine marriages should not be made. …
2. It is not permitted to perform a marriage in secret. …
6. No one shall marry a wife without a public ceremony.

Case 31, Question I

10. So that the peril of fornication may be avoided, a second marriage is allowed. …
11. Neither a second nor a third nor successive marriages shall be condemned.

Case 31, Question II

1. A girl whose own agreement has never been shown is not required by the oath of her
father to marry. …
3. Those who are to be of one body ought also to be of one spirit, and therefore no
woman who is unwilling ought ever to be joined to anyone.

Case 32, Question I

Many authorities and arguments show that an immoral woman should not be taken to
wife. For she who is found guilty of adultery is not supposed to be kept in marital fellow-
ship except after the completion of penance. John Chrysostom said this:
  1. He who does not wish to forsake his adulterous wife is a protector of vice. “Just as the
man who forsakes a chaste woman is cruel and unjust, so he who keeps an immoral
woman is foolish and unfair. For he who conceals the crime of his wife is a protector
of vice.”
  2. A man may forsake his wife because of her fornication, but he may not marry
another. …
  4. Let him who does not wish to forsake his adulterous wife do penance for two years,
if she pays her conjugal debt to [that is, has sexual relations with] him. …
  5. After penance for adultery the man may receive his wife. …
But it is another thing to marry an immoral woman, or to keep an adulterous wife,
whom you dress in your own habits, your chastity and your modesty…
14. It is no sin to marry an immoral woman.

Case 32, Question II

1. Childbirth is the sole purpose of marriage for women. …
3. Immoderate conjugal union is not an evil of marriage, but a venial sin, because of
the good of marriage. …
7. Those who obtain drugs of sterility are fornicators, not spouses.

Case 32, Question V

19. A man is not permitted to forsake his wife except because of fornication. …
21. Let a man who forsakes his wife for a cause short of fornication be deprived of
communion. …
23. Adultery in either sex is punished in the same way.
38  Women and the law
Case 32, Question VI
1. A fornicator cannot forsake his wife for fornication. …
4. Men are to be punished more severely for adultery than women.

Case 32, Question VII

  1. The bond of marriage cannot be dissolved by fornication. …
  2. Once a marriage has been proved to have begun, it cannot be dissolved for any
reason. …
  3. If a man leaves his wife, or a woman her husband, on account of fornication, he or
she is not permitted to marry another. …
  5. Let a man forsaken by his wife, or a woman forsaken by her husband, be brought to
penitence, unless they wish either to live continently or be reconciled to each other. …
  6. He who dares to wed a woman forsaken by her husband is a fornicator. …
  8. A faithful wife who leaves her adulterous husband may not marry another. …
10. He who forsakes his wife on account of fornication and marries another is proved a
fornicator. …
14. Unnatural acts are more filthy and disgraceful than fornication or adultery. …
25. A marriage cannot be dissolved because of a bodily infirmity or wound. …
26. A madman or a madwoman cannot contract marriage. …
27. No man may forsake an infertile wife and marry another for her fertility.

Case 33, Question II

1. No man may forsake his wife, unless the reason for forsaking her is first demon-
strated to the church. …
2. Divine law forbids a man to forsake his wife, except on account of fornication. …
3. A woman forsaken by her husband without an inquiry into the cause shall be restored
to all her rights. …
4. No judgment is to be made between the man and his wife concerning their marriage
contract or the crime of adultery, except after such restitution. …
5. Marriage is completely forbidden to men who have killed their wives. …
6. No man may kill his adulterous wife.

Questions: What is the essential element of marriage? How much control does a woman have over her
marriage? How might a marriage end? How equally do these laws treat women and men?

13. D ecrees of the F ourth L ateran C ouncil (1215)

Pope Innocent III convened a great council of the universal church (including repre-
sentatives of the eastern churches) in 1215, and the council then approved canons
that had been drawn up in advance, addressing key points of doctrine and canon law.
  Consanguinity refers to blood relationships, affinity to relationships created by
marriage and sexual relations. In earlier times the church had forbidden marriage
between people related in the seventh degree of consanguinity. The Fourth Lateran
Council relaxed the prohibition, scaling it back to the fourth degree of consanguinity,
or first cousins. Clandestine marriages – that is, marriages carried out by the couple
 Women and the law  39
without a priest or witnesses – were unlawful, but nevertheless the church continued
to consider them valid when they occurred.
Source: H. J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils (St. Louis, MO and London: B.
Herder Book Co., 1937).

Canon 1
Not only virgins and those practicing chastity, but also those united in marriage, through
the right faith and through works pleasing to God, can merit eternal salvation.

Canon 50
It must not be deemed reprehensible if human statutes change sometimes with the change of
time, especially when urgent necessity or common interest demands it, since God himself has
changed in the New Testament some things that He had decreed in the Old. Since, therefore,
the prohibition against the contracting of marriage in the second and third degree of affinity
and that against the union of the offspring from second marriages to a relative of the first
husband, frequently constitute a source of difficulty and sometimes are a cause of danger to
souls, that by a cessation of the prohibition the effect may cease also, we, with the approval
of the holy council, revoking previous enactments in this matter, decree in the present statute
that such persons may in the future contract marriage without hindrance. The prohibition
also is not in the future to affect marriages beyond the fourth degree of consanguinity and
affinity; since in degrees beyond the fourth a prohibition of this kind cannot be generally
observed without grave inconvenience…. Since therefore the prohibition of conjugal union
is restricted to the fourth degree, we wish that it remain so in perpetuity, notwithstanding
the decrees already issued relative to this matter either by others or by ourselves, and should
anyone presume to contract marriage contrary to this prohibition, no number of years shall
excuse him, since duration of time does not palliate the gravity of sin but rather aggravates it,
and his crimes are the graver the longer he holds his unhappy soul in bondage.

Canon 51
Since the prohibition of the conjugal union in the three last degrees has been revoked, we
wish that it be strictly observed in the other degrees. Whence, following in the footsteps of
our predecessors, we absolutely forbid clandestine marriages; and we forbid also that a priest
presume to witness such. Wherefore, extending to other localities generally the particular
custom that prevails in some, we decree that when marriages are to be contracted they must
be announced publicly in the churches by the priests during a suitable and fixed time, so
that if legitimate impediments exist, they may be made known. Let the priests nevertheless
investigate whether any impediments exist. But when there is ground for doubt concerning
the contemplated union, let the marriage be expressly forbidden until it is evident from
reliable sources what ought to be done in regard to it. But if anyone should presume to
contract a clandestine or forbidden marriage of this kind within a prohibited degree, even
through ignorance, the children from such a union shall be considered illegitimate, nor
shall the ignorance of the parents be pleaded as an extenuating circumstance in their
behalf, since they by contracting such marriages appear not as wanting in knowledge but
rather as affecting ignorance. In like manner the children shall be considered illegitimate
if both parents, knowing that a legitimate impediment exists, presume to contract such a
40  Women and the law
marriage in the sight of the church (not clandestinely) in disregard of every prohibition.
The parochial priest who deliberately neglects to forbid such unions, or any regular priest
who presumes to witness them, let them be suspended from office for a period of three years
and, if the nature of their offense demands it, let them be punished more severely. On those
also who presume to contract such marriages in a lawful degree, a condign punishment is
to be imposed. If anyone maliciously presents an impediment for the purpose of frustrating
a legitimate marriage, let him not escape ecclesiastical punishment.

Canon 52
Through some necessity the common mode of procedure in computing the degree of
consanguinity and affinity has been replaced by another, namely, hearsay testimony, since
on account of the shortness of human life eye-witnesses cannot be had in the matter of
reckoning to the seventh degree. But, since we have learned from many instances and
from experience that, in consequence of this, legitimate marriages are beset with many
dangers, we decree that in this matter hearsay witnesses be not received in the future, since
the prohibition now does not extend beyond the fourth degree, unless they be reputable
persons to whom uprightness is a precious asset and who before the dispute arose obtained
their testimony from those gone immediately before, not from one indeed, since he would
not suffice if he were living, but from two at least, who must have been reliable persons,
beyond suspicion and of good faith, since it would be absurd to admit them if their inform-
ants were worthy only of rejection. Not even if one person has obtained his testimony from
many, or if an unreliable person has obtained his from men of good faith, must they be
admitted as many and suitable witnesses, since even in the ordinary judicial processes the
statement of one witness does not suffice, even though he shine in all the splendor of guber-
natorial dignity, and, moreover, legitimate acts are denied to persons of a disreputable
character. Witnesses of this kind must declare on oath that in giving their testimony they
are not actuated by hatred, fear, love, or self interest; let them designate persons by their
names or by a satisfactory description or circumlocution, and distinguish by a clear compu-
tation each degree on both sides, and let them include in their oath that they obtained their
information from their forefathers and believe it to be so. But neither do such witnesses
suffice unless they declare on oath that they have seen persons who belonged to at least one
of the aforesaid degrees and who acknowledged themselves blood relatives. For it is more
tolerable that some who have been united contrary to the laws of men be separated than
that those who have been legitimately united separate in violation of the laws of God.

Questions: What reasons would exist for relaxing the rules on marriage within certain degrees of
consanguinity or affinity? Would the possibility of clandestine marriage in general be potentially
advantageous or disadvantageous for women? What does Canon 51 tell us about procedures in the
church courts, and about difficulties faced by litigants?

14. N orman laws ( early 13 th c .)

These laws from the French duchy of Normandy deal largely with questions of
marriage and inheritance among the nobility, but they also include some laws which
apply to the lower classes and some criminal laws. The differing punishments for
men and women convicted of the same capital crime (Chapter XXXV, number 6)
were a fairly common feature in medieval law.
 Women and the lawâ•… 41
â•… Dower was the portion of his goods or land (often one-third) which a man was
required to assign to his wife at the time of their marriage. This European-wide
custom provided for the widow’s support: a woman had a life interest in her dower,
but it reverted to her late husband’s heirs upon her death. Dowry was the property
brought by a woman into her marriage.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Coutumiers de Normandie, I: Le Très Ancien Coutumier de Normandie, ed.
Ernest-Joseph Tardif (Rouen, 1881).

Chapter III. [Concerning widows and wards]

1. Widows and wards are under the protection of the church. A widow shall have as her
dower up to one-third of the inheritance of the donor [that is, her husband], except
the chief dwelling, which remains to the heir; if indeed another dwelling was given
to the widow in dower, she shall have that, except the tower or castle. She shall have
her dowry, whatever and as much as was given to her at her betrothal, if the donor
was able to give it to her.
2. If, however, the dower or dowry given in this way to the widow is denied to the widow,
let them be restored by the oath of men who were present at her betrothal, the relatives
and friends of either party; for a betrothal is made by relatives and friends.

Chapter IV. Concerning mortgages of a dowry or dower

1. If the husband of the widow mortgaged the dowry or dower of his wife while she
was living, and she abjured [her right], she shall not be held to the command of her
husband; but the woman shall have them whole, as they were given to her before the
church door [at the time of her marriage].
3. Otherwise, the buyer or mortgage-holder of the dower or dowry of the widow shall
have in exchange the equivalent from the inheritance of the heir of the deceased
seller or mortgager; and if the husband had no estate but did have chattels on the
day of his death, the money shall be returned to the buyer out of any of these chat-
tels, those of the widow’s deceased husband, or of the heir; and if there are none, the
buyer will receive nothing from nothing.

Chapter V. Concerning dowers

1. If anyone has a wife and children, and, while they are living, one of the sons takes a
wife, and [the son] gives her as dower part or all of the dowry of his mother, and the
father and the sons die, the mother shall have her whole dowry without challenge;
and the widowed bride of the son shall receive an equivalent dower from the estate of
the father or of the deceased son, and if there is no estate on the part of the deceased
husband, the younger widow shall wait for her dower, until her husband’s widowed
mother, in whose dowry her dower was located, dies.
2. And if the widow was the wife of some rural smallholder, she may have one-third of
his land in dower; and, if there is only a dwelling without land, the widow shall have
her third in the dwelling.
3. For urban properties it shall be the same; for a burgher, if he has but one house, may
give a third of it to his wife in dower.
42  Women and the law
4. If anyone has no estate and has promised silver or gold to his wife in dower, let her
dower be taken from their common chattels after the death of her husband; and she
may spend that.
5. If a widow wishes to have her own share of the chattels and wishes to have the other
portion, belonging to her deceased husband, in dower, she shall have it in this way: that
portion shall be put aside in the hands of lawful men, until the land and rent have been
obtained, on whose revenues the widow lives, and she shall have the land and rent in
dower. This land and rent shall come to the heir after the death of the woman.
6. It is not lawful for a widow to sell the woods in her dower, or to root out thickets.
7. After the death of widows, the dower shall return to the nearer heirs, from whose
inheritance the dower was taken.

Chapter IX. Concerning sisters’ portions

1. All tenements, if they happen to descend to sisters, shall be equally divided … so that
the eldest sister shall have the chief dwelling, and her sisters shall hold from her.

Chapter X. Concerning the dowry of sisters

1. If any heir has a sister, he shall marry her [with a dowry] of part of his father’s land,
or of money, according to his ability, reasonably, both in kind and in land, unless she
forfeits it by living badly and loosely.

Chapter XI. Concerning the custody of orphans

1. [The mother shall not] have custody of an orphaned heir … because she will take
a husband and have sons by him; those sons, envious of his inheritance, may kill
the elder brother or heir, or the husband may kill his stepson, in order to give the
inheritance to his own sons. [Nor shall the boy’s kinsmen have custody,] lest perhaps
desiring his death and coveting his inheritance they abuse the boy. To avoid such
faithlessness and cruelty, it has been decreed that an orphan be in the custody of him
who was joined to the boy’s father by faith through homage and was his companion
… the lord of the land, who cannot have that inheritance in demesne; for such heirs
of noble family have [custody of] many heirs. …
4. An orphan heir may not be married without the consent of his lord, who ought to
marry him honorably. The same goes for girls who are heiresses.
5. The sons of … a burgher, a peasant or a servant shall not be in custody.

Chapter XIV. Concerning wards

1. If a male ward has sisters of marriageable age, they shall not wait until their younger
brother is of age, but they shall be married by their friends and kinsmen, [with
dowries] either of chattels or of land from the estate; whatever the case, they shall
have reasonable dowries.
2. And when their brother comes of age, if the dowries were unreasonable, let them be
made reasonable either through the courts or through his friends, but, if the dowry has
been improved or ploughed or built upon, the value of the improved dowry shall not be
counted, but only its value on that day when it was given as dowry at the church door.
 Women and the law  43
Chapter XXXV. Concerning homicide
1. If a father accidentally kills his son, he shall do the penance laid on him by the
church, and if he killed him in anger, he shall go into exile, out of the realm of the
duke. His wife shall follow him, but after the death of her husband she may return
to her inheritance. And since a son comes from the flesh and blood of the father, a
father shall not be punished with death for the killing of his son.
2. If a brother accidentally kills his brother, or a cousin his cousin, or a sister her sister, or
a mother her son or daughter, they shall do the penance laid on them by the church.
3. If a brother kills his brother in anger, or a cousin his cousin, or a sister her sister, let
them be punished with death; and if they maim them, let them be punished in their
limbs [that is, mutilated].
4. If a mother kills her son or daughter in anger, she shall go into exile from the realm
of the duke, just like the father.
5. If a lord kills his man, let him be punished with death; and, if a man kills his lord,
unless it happened by accident, let him be drawn and hanged, and if by accident let
him be punished with death.
6. If a son or daughter accidentally kills his or her father or mother, let them do the
penance laid on them by the church, and, if in anger, let the son be drawn and
hanged, and let the woman be burned to death.

Chapter L. Concerning [rape]

1. If anyone rapes any maiden, whether she was in a village or in the fields or in the
woods, she ought to cry out, if she can, and those nearby ought to hear her. The
rapist shall be held, if they can catch him, and the girl, as soon as she can, should
hasten to the chief justice of the duke whom she can find nearby, and he shall have
the girl and her injuries examined by good women and law-worthy matrons, who
know how to discern the injuries of rape.
2. The rapist who is convicted in this way, by the oaths of good and faithful women,
may clear himself of the crime by the trial of water if he wishes, and if he fails it [that
is, if he floats] let him be punished in his limbs.
3. And if, before he is convicted of this crime, he wishes to marry the girl, he may take
her to wife; if the girl’s parents and the girl are agreeable, this is permitted.
4. But if any woman who is someone’s concubine wishes to have her lover as her husband,
and therefore she says that he took her by force, and she has been seen by the matrons to
have sustained no injuries of deflowering, and no cries were heard by those nearby, and she
offers herself to prove this charge by trial, she shall not be heard, but shall be whipped. …
5. But if any takes his neighbor’s wife by force, the wife shall not prove it [in court],
but her husband shall, and he may prove it by a duel, if he wishes. The one who is
convicted shall be punished in his limbs; and if the husband loses the duel, he shall give
40 shillings and one penny for having yielded; and the woman shall be whipped. …
6. If anyone rapes a widow, and her cries are heard by those nearby, she shall not
prove such violence by her own hand; but if she has any man or relative of hers, who
saw the crime and was unlawfully wounded, he may accuse the abductor by duel
concerning his injury and the crime against the woman. The convicted rapist shall
be punished in his limbs; if the other man loses the duel he shall give 40 shillings and
one penny for having yielded; the widow shall be whipped.
44  Women and the law
7. If the widow has no such man, the duke shall hold the abductor in prison until he is
pardoned and released, or he purges himself by trial, even if the crime was noticed
by those nearby.

Chapter LI. Concerning [prostitutes]

2. If anyone takes a prostitute by force and does not give her her price, he shall be in
the duke’s mercy for all his chattels, and the prostitute shall have her price, and her
damages shall be paid, if her clothes were torn; and if the abductor has no money,
he shall do penance in the duke’s custody for eight days.

Chapter LXXIX. Concerning dowers

1. A woman, after the death of her husband, seeks her dower, either from the estate
of her husband, or from someone not related to her. And she may seek only one-
third of the land of which her husband was seized [that is, in possession] when he
contracted with her at the church door. But if he was not seized of anything, because
his father was alive and held the inheritance, and if the father was present when
his heir married the woman, and he consented to the marriage and arranged it,
the woman ought to have in dower one-third of that part which belonged to her
husband, or which would have come to him upon the death of his ancestor.
2. If she was dowered with a certain portion which does not exceed one third of her
husband’s estate, she ought to be contented with that.
3. If another woman was married to the predecessor of this woman’s husband and was
dowered on that inheritance, the former shall have one-third of the whole inheritance for
as long as she lives, and the latter shall have one-third of the remaining two-thirds of the
estate; after the death of the former, one-third of her dower shall descend to the latter.
4. If a woman seeks her dower from someone not related to her, he is not required to
answer her, except in the presence of the heir and after an inspection. … And, while
the case is pending, the tenant shall not be robbed, but the heir shall give the woman
her whole dower, if he has it, and if he does not have if, she shall have her dower in
the land under question, if her husband was seized there when he married her.
5. But if the tenant proves his defense, the woman shall have one-third of his tenement, and
the heir shall provide him an exchange nearby; and when the woman dies, that tenement
shall revert to him who possessed it, and the heir shall have his exchange back.
6. A woman should not be dowered in the chief dwelling if her husband has a tenement in
the countryside which is worth one-third of his inheritance. But if he does not have such a
tenement, she may be dowered with one-third of the dwelling. If he has various dwellings,
she should have her dower in one which is worth one-third [of his whole estate]. If they are
of equal value, he should assign her as many as are worth one-third [of his whole estate].
7. A man may not do anything with the tenement of which he was in possession when he
married his wife, such that the woman will not have her dower after his death. …
9. Cases of dower shall allow only one delay for non-appearance [of a party in court],
or delay for illness, or more defaults, or other delays, like property cases, because the
woman acquires nothing except her own living, and her dower cannot be damaged to
the detriment of the heir, and she cannot request her dower in things which her husband
acquired after the marriage was contracted. And if the heir says, against the woman
seeking dower, that she is in possession of her dower, an inspection should be made.
 Women and the law  45
10. If a woman was dowered with chattels, she should have her dower in chattels after the
death of her husband, if there are enough chattels, and this should be counted among the
other debts, which are not charged to the woman’s part. And if there are not enough chat-
tels, she shall have recourse to the inheritance and the heir, for as much as one-third.
11. Questions concerning chattels given in dower belong to the ecclesiastical court; those
concerning land belong to the king alone.
12. If a husband loses his inheritance, whether by fraud and collusion, or because of his
own offense, so that he is condemned to death or must leave the country, the wife
loses her dower, but not that tenement that she has in her own right.

Chapter LXXX. Concerning women’s dowries

1. When something is given on behalf of a woman to her husband, which is commonly
called dowry, if any question arises about it, the ecclesiastical court shall investigate
and judge in cases of chattels, and the king’s court in cases of land.
2. If anyone gives land as a dowry to his daughter or sister or kinswoman, he may not
object to his own deed; but after the donor’s death his heirs may revoke whatever
was given in excess of the third of the inheritance from which dowries should be
given; and this if there is only one daughter or sister.
3. But if there are more, there remains to that married woman and to her heirs only
a portion of the third part which belongs to her, because all the sisters cannot have
more than a third to be divided thus between them.
4. When a sister arrives at a marriageable age, if her brother or kinsman, whose partner
she is in the inheritance, does not wish to provide her with a suitable marriage, and she
complains about this, her brother shall be called to the king’s court, and a delay of a
year and a day shall be given to him. In that period of time he should provide her with a
husband, according to her condition and lands, and he should arrange this meanwhile,
to the best of his ability. If he does not do this, the king’s justice should then supply his
default and assign to the woman one-third of the inheritance, if she is the only sister, or a
part of the third, if there are more, and thus the woman can marry whom she wishes.
5. And as long as she is without a husband, she may run her land just as men do. …
7. A woman shall not lose her inheritance on account of her husband’s crime; but if he goes
into exile, or if he is banished, his wife shall not have possession of her inheritance while
he is alive, nor shall she have its profits, but rather the lord king. But when her husband
dies, she may have her inheritance again, unless she, like her husband, was condemned.

Questions: What was the position of widows under these laws? What family relations are depicted
here? If a man committed a crime, how was his innocent wife affected? What seem to be the under-
lying assumptions of the laws on rape in this code? What effect might they have had?

15. L aws of S icily (1231)

The Kingdom of Sicily, which included much of southern Italy, came under the dominion
of the Holy Roman Empire in the thirteenth century when the hereditary king of Sicily
also became the emperor Frederick II. It was Frederick who had the “Constitutions of
Melfi” drawn up – a collection of his own laws for Sicily and those of previous kings.
Source: The Liber Augustalis, or Constitutions of Melfi, Promulgated by the Emperor Frederick II for the Kingdom
of Sicily in 1231, tr. James M. Powell (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971).
46  Women and the law
Book I
Title XX: About rape and violence inflicted on nuns
If anyone presumes to rape nuns or novices, even for the purpose of marriage, he should
be punished by death.

Title XXI: About violence inflicted on prostitutes

It is fitting that all persons subject to the scepter of our rule should be governed by the
grace of our majesty. We favor the glory of peace by defending one from another, both
men and women, from elders, from minors, and from equals and by not allowing force
to be used at all.
Therefore, those miserable women who are marked as prostitutes by their quest for
shame should rejoice in gratitude for our favor that no one may force them to satisfy
his will if they are unwilling. Those acting against this general edict, after they have
confessed and been convicted, should be punished by death. The order of considera-
tion should require that if force has been used in places suitable for abode, the cry of the
woman oppressed should attract attention as soon as possible after it has been emitted.
But it will not appear that force was used if a delay of eight days has ensued, unless it is
proved that she was detained against her will for that time.

Title XXII: About those who rape virgins and widows

We order that the capital punishment which the statutes of the divine Augustuses sanc-
tioned against those who rape virgins, widows, wives, or even engaged girls and against
their accomplices and supporters should be observed inviolably. Those customs, which
obtained in some parts of the Kingdom of Sicily until the present, by which those who
raped a woman escaped capital punishment by marrying her or by arranging for another
to marry her, should not be permitted at all. …
The laws of our predecessors as kings of Sicily permitted the judgment by combat
in complaints about violences inflicted on any women at all if the proclamation of these
violences was proved within the period assigned by the same constitutions. But by our holy
foresight, we order the removal not only of the judgment by combat but also of the penalty
of forfeiture both in this case and in all other crimes except for treason and secret murder.
For there is a very great risk for those accusers who can hardly or never prove their
accusations by common proofs since crimes of this kind are hidden from the observations
of men who are able to provide testimony of the truth. Therefore, when common proofs
fail and when extraordinary proofs, like the judgment by combat … have been removed
by our law, cases of this kind are left without remedy. Since we are unwilling to dismiss
such great crimes unpunished for lack of proof, we have decreed that, if any persons
have been accused by violences of this kind by their own confessions as a result of a guilty
conscience, or if they have been accused by witnesses who have found the accused in
the very acts of sexual intercourse – which cannot happen very often – they should be
convicted. Even if we were not consulted, they would be subject to capital punishment
both by earlier constitutions and our own. But if the real truth of the matter cannot be
proved, but it is only proved that a woman or another in her behalf has three times
denounced someone for tampering with her chastity by his actions or in some other way
to keep him from repeating this illegal presumption of his, and if he is later found with the
 Women and the law  47
woman who is crying out and calling for the help of others with her screams, and if he is
found in a struggle, or in flight, or even in or near the house of this woman, or if he holds
the woman violently beneath him while he opens the guard of her virginity and corrupts
her or attacks her after she has been corrupted, while she is crying out, we order that his
case should be remitted to the knowledge of our highness after a full discussion and the
aforesaid and similar proofs so that from the opinion of our inspiration, which we shall
receive from the hand of God, the case may reach a just decision. But, in the meantime,
the accused should be handed over to the custody of his pledges or to jail.

Title XXIII: If anyone should not help a woman suffering violence and crying out
We desire that whoever hears a woman who is being attacked calling out should hasten
to run to her assistance when he hears her. But if he does not go to her assistance, he
should pay four augustales as a penalty to our treasury for such serious neglect. No one
should be able to pretend about hearing the screams to escape the penalty if he was
under the same roof and in the same place where the voice could be heard and if he is
not proved to be deaf or crippled by a severe pain or otherwise ill, or if he is not proved
to have been sleeping at the time of the screams.

Title XXIV: About the penalty for women who complain unjustly
We curtail the very evil and abhorrent ground for an accusation, which has prevailed
until now to the serious expense of our subjects, whereby a woman who had not suffered
the violence or injury of rape made accusations about some persons untruthfully. And
thus the accused, for fear of the accusation which would be brought or could be brought
or which was already brought, insofar as they were afraid of the contest of the law courts
and the outcome of the affair, chose unequal marriages [to escape the rape charge by
marrying the accusing woman]. Sometimes, also, these women obtained blackmail from
their victims for concealing the aforesaid accusations. We desire and command that if
any woman should in the future be convicted of such false calumny, she should know that
she has been caught in a trap of death and that she has fallen into the pit that she was
preparing for the downfall of another, if she had proved what she had given information
about. If, at the time for punishment, she is found to be pregnant, we, persuaded by our
kindness, desire to postpone the punishment until forty days after the delivery. After she
has been delivered of the child, we order that it should be reared at our expense by our
officials who are then in charge of those regions unless she has next of kin, relatives, or
even in-laws whom she may persuade to rear the child with the affection of a relation.

Book II
Title II: A commune which has been accused and a married woman can appoint a procurator in
criminal cases
We … permit and order, too, that syndics should be appointed in criminal cases and
capital accusations as in civil cases which are brought against communes by private
persons or by communes against other communes or private persons. … We also extend
this favor of our majesty to married women. They should be able to appear in judgments
in criminal and capital cases through their husbands and others whom they desire as
48  Women and the law
legitimate and sufficiently instructed procurators, if they desire, whether they are the
plaintiffs or the defendants.

Title VIII: About the wives and parents of those who have been exiled
We desire that the innocent should avoid punishment and that the guilty should be
punished. Therefore, by this general law, we decree that the wives and mothers of those
exiled should not be molested in any way in their business, dowries, wedding gifts, and
in the dower quarter by reason of the aforementioned exile or condemnation. Rather,
they should hold all these goods in full and free of all molestation. But they and the sons
or parents of the one exiled should not dare to provide for him in any way at all from the
goods which were saved for them by the kindness of our piety. For we want him to be
needy and we do not want him to expect sustenance from anyone. But if they do provide
for him, we order that they should be deprived of the favor they seem to abuse, and their
goods should be added to our treasury.

Title XLI: About the full restitution of legal status to women

We settle the equity of the laws for women who have been injured because of the weak-
ness of their sex by ordering that they should be aided both by us and by our officials to
the best of their ability as is decent and necessary.

Title XLIV: About the full restitution of the legal status of women
In order to clarify the obscurity of the law that the divine King Roger, our grandfather,
promulgated about the restitution of legal status for women, we order that women who
live by the law of the Lombards or the Franks should be restored to their former legal
status in judicial proceedings only when they are proved to have been injured grossly
through the negligence or fraud of their guardians or procurators and when they cannot
be preserved from injury from the aforesaid guardians and procurators because those
persons are not solvent. The same is the case if they should incur a great loss because of
the excessive simplicity of their protectors. For, though the simplicity of the prescribed
matters may excuse them, still their simplicity should not result in a loss for the women.
However, we do not see that it is necessary for women to have help with contracts, at
which they can not only be present but also have the presence of judges and guardians
and procurators, unless perhaps they are shown to have promised or to have agreed by
fraud or because of the weakness of their sex to an excessive dowry beyond their patri-
mony or beyond the capabilities of their patrimony. We also maintain the validity of
those cases where the ancient laws aided the rights of women who lacked knowledge: if
through error, they illegally withdraw an accusation before the penalty has been handed
down; if they commit the crime of incest through ignorance of the law; or if, through
ignorance on account of the weakness of their sex, they fail to draw up documents that
must be drawn up. They should also receive help if they are found to have been deceived
through ignorance of the law in making satisfaction to a creditor in the public courts.
Likewise, if they pay as a result of mediation without knowing that they are protected by
the benefit of the Velleian Senatusconsultum [which prohibits creditors from suing a woman
for another person’s debts] they should receive help. We desire that all these provisions
and others, if the proved antiquity of the law has introduced them, should remain valid.
 Women and the law  49
Book III
Title XIII: How a [dower] should be established in fiefs and [castles]
If any baron or knight marries a wife and he has three fiefs, he may legally establish one of the
three fiefs as a [dower] for his wife. But if he has fewer, we permit him to establish a dowry in
money depending on the nature and the number of the fiefs. However, if he has more than
three, he may legally establish a [dower] out of the part that has been determined to be greater.
Moreover, a count or baron who holds [castles] can establish a [dower] from these …, but he
cannot establish the [castle] from which the barony or county takes its name as a [dower].

Title XV: On [dowers]

We also grant permission for barons and knights to establish a [dower] from two fiefs,
and if one of them has only one and a half fiefs, he can establish a half-fief dowry. But
if any of these barons or knights have only one, he should know that he will be allowed
the right to establish a [dower] for his wife in the future only in money and not in land,
depending on the nature of the fief.

Title XVI: How [dowers] ought to be established

After the death of her husband, a woman who has a dower in land is required to promise fealty
for the dower to the heir or to the lord of the barony for his life, his members, and the capture
of his body. She should also promise that she will not seek by guile or ingenuity the means
whereby the aforesaid dower may be withdrawn from the barony or county, always with the
reservation of the mandate of the higher lord. But a woman is not required to promise fealty
to the [illegitimate] sons of a common marriage. At the request of the lord, a woman who
holds a dower is required to be present at service of the court. If she should not be present, she
should be disseized after three warnings by the lord. Also, if unjust burdens are inflicted on the
men by the dowers, the woman is required to correct them by the lord of the barony or the
fief. The men ought to promise fealty to the lady of the dower, always with the reservation of
the right of the lord, count or baron. They are also required to promise fealty to the count or
baron, with the reservation of the right of the aforesaid lady of the dower.

Title XVII: About brothers who obligate part of a fief for the dowries of their sisters
We permit brothers to obligate part of a fief for the dowries of their sisters if they do not
have movable property or heritable tenancies. Also, if they have three or more fiefs, they
can grant one of them as a dowry for their sister. However, in all the aforesaid matters,
if a fief is alienated, obligated, or established as a dowry, the marriage itself should be
contracted by our special license. Otherwise, all agreements will have no force.

Title XXII: How marriages should be contracted

By the present law, we order that all the men of our kingdom and especially the nobles who
desire to contract marriage must have the marriage celebrated solemnly and publicly, with
due solemnity and a priestly blessing, after the betrothal has been solemnized. Otherwise,
they should know that, if they die, they would be acting against our royal edict and would
have no legitimate heirs either by will or by intestacy among those who were procreated
50  Women and the law
from a clandestine and illegal marriage against our law. Women should also know that they
would have no legal right to the dowers due other wives. We relax the rigor of this law to all
those who have already contracted marriage at the time of its promulgation. We also relax
the chain of this necessity for all widows who desire to marry a husband.

Title XXIII: A wife should not be married without license of the court
In order to preserve the honor due to our crown, we order by the present constitution that no
count, baron, or knight, or anyone else who holds in chief [that is, directly] from us baronies or
fiefs registered in the records of our diwan, should dare to marry a wife without license. They
should not dare to marry off their daughters, whom they can and should arrange marriages
for, or to marry off their sons with movable or immovable property, notwithstanding the
contrary custom which is said to have been observed in some parts of the kingdom.

Title XXX: About the right of wardship

We provide in an imperial manner for minors who cannot be helped by the judgment of
their age. We order that if our serenity grants the wardship of male or female youths to
someone’s administration, they should render account of the administration of the ward-
ship in the presence of the justiciar of the region or another to whom we have ordered this
especially delegated, after they have relinquished the wardship with the arrival of puberty.
After the amount which should be given to the court for this wardship has been deducted,
as is the custom, and also after just and moderate expenses (which it will be established
that this guardian has paid out for his sustenance and dress and which he has made for the
person or property of the child or for the service due our court from the property of the
minor) have been deducted, the remainder must be handed over in full to the orphan. But
if it has been proved that the guardian has administered the property of the child fraudu-
lently, he must repair his entire loss as a result of this fraud, whatever it may be, from his
own property and pay that amount to our sacred treasury. We abolish for the future the evil
custom that, until now, exempted guardians from making accountings.

Title XXXIV: About male and female slaves

We order generally that no male or female slaves should be seized by anyone unless they
restore them to their lord as quickly as possible. If they do not know the lord, they should
hand them over to the bailiffs of our court. The bailiffs should send them to our great court.
They should know that whoever dares to seize any slave or handmaiden in any way from now
on, or to detain them in any way whatever, will, with all his goods, be subject to the penalty of
the court. Unless bailiffs send them to our great court, they will undergo the same penalty.

Title XXXVI: About fugitive slaves

We order that fugitive slaves, which a royal commission ordered to be sent to our great
court and did not decide their further disposition, should be kept for a year for the conven-
ience of their lords. If, within a year, he who can prove by legitimate documents that he is
the owner appears, we order that the aforesaid slaves should be returned to him save for the
right which from ancient usage, according to circumstances, belongs to our court. But if the
owners do not appear, the slaves should be collected for our private purposes.
 Women and the law  51
Title LXXIV: About adulteries and about procuring
The harshness of the laws has been softened. The penalty against adulterers who attack the
wives of others must no longer be the sword. Rather we introduce the penalty of confiscation
of their property if they have no legitimate children from the violated marriage or another.
For it is most unjust that children should be defrauded of their inheritance if they were born at
a time when the law of the marriage was legally observed. But a woman must not be handed
over to her husband who would rage against her until he killed her. Instead, the slitting of her
nose, which is more severely and more cruelly introduced, should pursue the vengeance of
the violated marriage. But if her husband is unwilling to give her a punishment, we will not
allow such a crime to go unpunished but will order her to be publicly flogged.

Title LXXVII: Lascivious women must be removed from association with good women
A woman who has exhibited her body for sale far and wide cannot be accused of adul-
tery. But we prohibit violence to be done to her, and we forbid her to dwell among
women of good reputation.

Title LXXXI: About the penalty for a wife caught in the act of adultery
If a husband catches his wife in the very act of adultery, he may kill both the adulterer
and his wife, but without any further delay.

Title LXXXIV: About madams

We order that madams, who solicit the shame of wives, daughters, sisters, and finally
virgins and honest women that some good man has within the walls of his house, should
be punished by the slitting of their noses as are adulteresses according to the statutes of
our grandfather, King Roger. But we order that those who attract the minds of women,
who, since they have lived freely and were under no one’s protection, have given them-
selves to the wills and pleasures of men at any time (though it is not really believable that
they would desire to give themselves for the first time), should be beaten after they have
been convicted by legitimate proof of committing such acts, and they should be marked
on the forehead in recognition of the crime they have attempted. Such madams should
know for sure that if they attempt to repeat what they have done again, they will certainly
and without doubt be subjected to the slitting of their noses.

Title LXXXV: About the penalty for a mother who prostitutes her daughter publicly
We order that mothers who publicly prostitute their daughters should be subject to the
penalty of having their noses slit, which was established by the divine King Roger. But we
believe that it is not only unjust but cruel for other mothers, who give their consent, and
for their daughters, who may not be able to marry a husband because of their poverty but
who also cannot even sustain life, to be subject to this penalty when they expose them-
selves to the pleasures of some man who gives them sustenance for life and other favors.

Questions: How is prostitution treated in these laws? What hierarchy of women is constructed here?
What is the attitude toward rape? How does it compare with that in the Norman laws (document
14)? What property rights and safeguards are established here for women?
52â•… Women and the law
16.╇S panish laws (13 th c .)
The following extracts are from Las Siete Partidas, a well-known law code compiled
in the thirteenth century under King Alfonso X of Leon and Castile. While much of
the text is concerned with the usual matters of medieval law, there are some distinc-
tively Spanish concerns as well. From the eighth to the eleventh century, most of the
Iberian peninsula had been controlled by Muslims, known in Spain as “Moors.” In
the eleventh century, Christian rulers in northern Spain began a slow “reconquest”
of the peninsula. The laws of these Christian kingdoms often reflected their frontier
mentality and the uneasy coexistence of the two societies, Christian and Muslim.
(For Muslim and Jewish documents from Spain, see Chapter VIII below.)
Source: Las Siete Partidas, tr. Samuel Parsons Scott, ed. Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2001), vols. 4 and 5.

Part IV, Title I

VI. Of what age betrothed persons should be
Males and females can be betrothed after they are seven years of age, because then they begin
to possess intelligence, and are old enough to be content with a betrothal; and if any persons
are betrothed before they arrive at this age, or their relatives contract such a betrothal in their
names, one or both of them being under seven years of age, none of their acts will be valid;
except where they have passed this age, and are content with what they have done, and agree
to it, for in this case the betrothal will be valid…. In order for a marriage to be contracted, the
male must be fourteen years of age and the female twelve, and where any persons are married
before that time, it will not be a marriage, but a betrothal, except when they are so near it that
they are already fitted for carnal union; for the knowledge and the ability for the performance
of this make up for the deficiency of age.

VII. Who has power to compel betrothed persons to be married and in what way this compulsion
should be exercized
Bishops, or those who occupy their places, can compel betrothed persons to complete their
marriage. This would be the case when one of the said persons desires to avoid the marriage, and
the other wishes to carry it out, for, in this case, the one who desires to escape from concluding it
should be subjected to compulsion. For those who promise to marry one another are bound to
do so except where one of the parties offers some lawful excuse, which must be valid….

VIII. For how many reasons betrothals can be hindered, or annulled, so as not to be carried out
Betrothals can be opposed and prevented, so as not to be carried out, for nine reasons. First,
where one of the betrothed parties enters a religious order, which either of them has a right
to do even though the other may oppose it…. Second, where one of the parties goes to some
other country and cannot be found, or his whereabouts ascertained. In a case of this kind the
other ought to wait for three years, and if the absent person should not return by that time
the other can ask permission to marry and it should be given…. Third, where either of the
parties is a leper or deformed, or becomes blind, or loses his nose, or any other more serious
accident happens to him than those above named. Fourth, where, before they are united,
 Women and the law  53
some affinity arises between them, so that one of them becomes carnally joined to a relative of
the other. Fifth, where the betrothed parties disagree, and both of them consent to separate.
Sixth, where either of them commits fornication, on account of which the marriage relation
can be severed…. The seventh reason is, where one is betrothed by words relating to future
time, and, after this, either of them is betrothed to some other person by words relating to
the present time; for, in this instance, the first betrothal is annulled, and the second becomes
valid…. The eighth reason for which a betrothal may be annulled, is where parties carry off
any one’s betrothed and lie with her, for then the party is not bound to marry her, if he does
not desire to. The ninth reason is, where persons are betrothed before they have arrived at the
lawful age; for when either of them is under said age and afterwards attains it, and does not
desire to contract the marriage, he or she can then ask permission to marry someone else, and
this should be granted, and the betrothal made in this way should be annulled….

Title III
I. In how many ways secret marriages are celebrated, and for what reason the Holy Church forbade
them to be performed by stealth
There are three kinds of marriages which are called clandestine. First, when they are
performed secretly and without witnesses, so that they cannot be proved; second, when they
are performed in the presence of others, but the bride is not asked of her father or mother,
or any other relatives who may have charge of her, and her dowry is not given in their pres-
ence, or the other rites which the Holy Church directs performed. Third, when the parties
do not publish the banns in the church where they are parishioners, for, in order that the
marriage may not be performed in secret, it is necessary before the parties are married that
the priest should state in the church before all those who are present, that “Such-and-Such
a man desires to marry Such-and-Such a woman, (mentioning them both by name) and
that he notifies all those there present, that if any one among them knows the existence of
any impediment on account of which one should not marry the other, he should say so
before a certain day,” which he especially designates. And, moreover, the priests should exert
themselves in the meantime to ascertain, as far as they can do so, whether any impediments
exist between the parties, and when they find any indications of one they should forbid the
marriage until they learn whether or not it is of a character to prevent it. The reason why
marriage is forbidden by the Holy Church to be performed secretly, is the following; because
if disagreement arises between the husband and the wife, so that one of them is not willing to
live with the other, although the marriage was genuine, as above stated, the church cannot,
on this account, employ compulsion against the one who wishes to leave the other. This is the
case because the marriage cannot be proved, for the church cannot decide matters which are
concealed, but only those concerning which parties made statements which were proved.

Title IX
VII. For what reasons a married woman, who lies with another man, does not commit adultery,
and cannot be accused of it
Where a man has sexual intercourse with a married woman by force, taking her by surprise
so that she cannot protect herself from him, if the act is performed in this manner she does
not commit adultery, and cannot be accused of it. Moreover, a woman with whom another
man lies cannot be accused if she thinks that it was her husband who was with her. This
54  Women and the law
would be the case where a husband leaves his wife’s bed at night for some purpose, and
another person who was sleeping in the house goes to her and she receives him, thinking that
it is her husband; for when he lies with her in this way she cannot be accused of committing
adultery, except where she was cognizant in some way of this wickedness or where she acted
maliciously by giving her consent afterwards, knowing that it was not her husband.

VIII. What circumstances excuse women so that their husbands cannot accuse them of adultery
Where a married man leaves his country to join the army or perform a pilgrimage, or to
go to some other place distant from his country, and happens to be delayed there for a
long time, so that persons make his wife believe that he is dead, and she marries another
man; when she marries under such circumstances she cannot be accused of committing
adultery, even though her first husband may be living, for her ignorance excuses her. But
if after she had married her second husband she should ascertain positively that her first
husband was living, and should remain with her second husband, or have carnal inter-
course with him, and this should be proved, she can be accused.
Moreover, a person who becomes a heretic, a Moor, or a Jew, cannot accuse his wife
of adultery, and this is the rule for the reason that he himself committed adultery spiritu-
ally. Wherefore, since the accusation of a person who committed adultery carnally can be
rejected, much more readily can this be done in the case of a person who committed it spir-
itually, by changing his religion and persisting in his wickedness. Under other circumstances
a woman cannot be accused of adultery, as, for instance, where a Jew had married a woman
and separated from her, as directed by the Jewish law, by giving her a statement of repudia-
tion, and after this becomes a Christian, and she marries another Jew. If, however, while she
is still married to her second husband she should desire to become a Christian, and to claim
her as her husband the man to whom she was married in the first place and who became a
Christian before he married another woman, she can do so; and he must receive her, and he
cannot accuse her of adultery, nor can he reject her, or refuse to receive her for this reason.

X. In what way a wife can complain of her husband, and the husband of his wife, in order to
obtain a separation by reason of some impediment existing between them
When a wife complains of her husband, on account of his being of a cold disposition, or
impotent, she should file her application in writing, or state it orally, making said complaint
simply in the following manner, before one of the judges of the Holy Church, alleging
specifically that she complains of her husband because he cannot have intercourse with
her, and asks to be separated from him and that permission be given her, to marry someone
else, as she desires to have children. It is stated above that a complaint of this kind should be
made simply, because the party who makes it is not required to include in her application,
either the era, the month, or the day on which it is filed, as is necessary in other documents
containing accusations. A husband can complain of his wife in the same way, where an
impediment exists in her which prevents him from having sexual intercourse with her.

Title XIV. Concerning other women whom men keep, and to whom they
are not married
The Holy Church forbids Christians to keep concubines, because they live with them in
mortal sin. The wise men of the ancients, however, who made the laws, permitted certain
 Women and the law  55
persons to keep them without being liable to a temporal penalty, because they considered
it less wicked to have one than to have many, in order that the children born of them
might be more certain.

I. What kind of a woman can be accepted as a concubine

Every woman who, from her birth, has been free from all servitude and has never been
a slave … can be accepted as a concubine according to the law, whether she belongs to
a low family, or was born in some vile place, and whether she makes an evil use of her
body, or not. … A woman who had been emancipated, as well as a slave, can also be
kept in this way.

II. Who can keep a concubine and in what way this may be done
Ordinarily, as the secular laws direct, any man who is not hindered by membership
in a religious order, or by marriage, can keep a concubine without fear of temporal
punishment, except he must not keep one who is a virgin or under twelve years of
age, or a widow who lives honorably and has a good reputation. When anyone desires
to take a … concubine, he should do so in the presence of reliable men, stating
publicly before them, that he take said woman as his concubine. When he takes her
in any other way a well grounded suspicion will arise against the parties that she is
his lawful wife, and not his concubine; and when any suit is brought on this account
the secular judge must so decide it, except where it is proved that the man took her
as his concubine; but where the widow is not such a person as is mentioned above,
but is of very low descent and has a bad reputation, or has been convicted of having
committed adultery with a man who had a lawful wife, although she herself may be
free, a man has no reason to take a woman of this kind as his concubine in the pres-
ence of witnesses …
No man can keep several concubines, for, as the laws direct, she is called a concubine
who is one single person, and she must be such so that the party who keeps her can marry
her, if he desires so to do.

Title XIX
III. Whether children should be in charge of their father or their mother, in order to be supported
and brought up
Mothers should nourish and bring up their children while they are under three years of
age, and their fathers those who have passed that age. Where, however, the mother is so
poor that she cannot rear them, the father is obliged to furnish her with what is necessary
for that purpose. When a separation takes place for any lawful reason, the parent who is
at fault is required to provide out of his or her own property, if he or she is wealthy, the
means to support the child; whether they are over or under three years of age, and the
other party who was not to blame should bring them up and have charge of them. But
where the mother has control of them for some reason like that aforesaid, and marries,
she should not then have the care of them, nor is the father bound to give her any prop-
erty for this purpose, but he should take charge of the children and rear them if he has
the means.
56  Women and the law
V. Which children parents are bound to bring up, and which ones they are not
Men have children by their lawful wives and sometimes by women who are not their
wives, and a distinction exists in rearing their offspring; for relatives in the direct ascending
line of the father as well as the mother are bound to support the children who are born of
women whom men have lawfully married. The same rule applies to those who are born
of women openly kept by men as mistresses instead of wives. … But those who are born
of other women, as, for instance, in adultery, incest, or other fornications, relatives in the
direct ascending line of the father are not bound to provide for, unless they desire to do
so … to keep them from perishing. But the mother as well as the relatives in the direct
ascending line of the latter are obliged to provide for such children, when they have the
means. This is the case because the mother is always sure that a child born of her is her
own, and the father is not, so far as children born of women of this kind are concerned.

Part VII, Title XVII

I. What adultery is … who can make an accusation on account of it, and against what persons
this can be done
Adultery is an offense which a man knowingly commits by lying with a married woman,
or one betrothed to another. … Wherefore the learned men of the ancients declared that,
although a married man might lie with another woman who had a husband, his own wife
could not accuse him before the secular judge on this account. … They consider this just
for several reasons. First, because no injury or dishonor results to his own wife from adul-
tery committed by a man with some other woman. Second, because from the adultery
which his wife commits with another man her husband becomes dishonored through her
receiving another into her bed, and, moreover, because through adultery committed by
her great injury may result to her husband. For, if she should become pregnant by the
man with whom she committed adultery, the child of another would become an heir
along with his own children, which could not happen to a wife from the adultery which
her husband commits with another woman; and, therefore, since the injury and dishonor
are unequal, it is proper that the husband should have this advantage, and the power
to accuse his wife of adultery if she commits it, and that she should not have the right
to accuse him; and this was established by the ancient laws, although, according to the
decrees of the Holy Church, it is not so.

XIII. One man can kill another whom he finds having intercourse with his wife
A husband who finds a vile man in his house or in any other place in the act of intercourse
with his wife, can kill him without being liable to any penalty, although he may not have
given him the warning we mentioned in the preceding law; he should not kill the woman,
however, but should notify reliable men in what situation he found her, and place her in
the hands of the judge to pass upon her the sentence which the law provides.

XIV. Where a father finds a man in the act of intercourse with his daughter, who is married, he
should either kill both parties or neither of them
When a father finds his daughter committing adultery with a man in his own house, or in
that of his son-in-law, he has a right to kill her and the man whom he finds committing
 Women and the law  57
this wickedness with her; but he should not kill one of them, and leave the other, and if
he does so, he will be liable to punishment.

Title XIX
I. Concerning the reasons why men sin greatly who lie with [women belonging to a religious order,
or with widows living honorably in their own houses, or with virgins by means of flattery or fraud,
not employing violence against them]
We decree that those are guilty of great wickedness, who, by deceit or flattery, or by any
other means, seduce women who are virgins or widows, who are of good reputation and
are living honorable lives, and especially when the culprits are guests in the house of the
parents of said women or in their own houses, or in those of others; or who do this while
frequenting the home of their friends.
A party who lies with a woman of this kind cannot offer the excuse that he did not
commit a very serious offense by saying that he did it with her consent, and without the
employment of force; for, as the learned men of the ancients declare, to allure and entice
women like the aforesaid with empty promises, causing them to commit wickedness with
their bodies, is in the nature of violence, and those who act in this manner are more guilty
than if they had performed the act by force. … Where the man who committed the act
is a person of distinction, he shall lose half of all his property, which shall be forfeited to
the royal treasury; but if he is of low rank, he shall he publicly scourged, and banished to
some island for five years. If the party who enticed or corrupted any of the women afore-
said is a slave, or household servant, he shall be burned for his offense; but if the woman
whom a man corrupts is not one belonging to a religious order, or a widow, or a virgin,
or a person of good reputation, but some vile woman, then we decree that the said party
shall not be punished for his offense, provided he did not employ force against her.

TITLE XX. Concerning those who force, or carry away virgins or

women belonging to religious orders, or widows who are living
honorably
I. What this force is which men use against women, and how many kinds there are
To force, or carry off a woman who is a virgin, or married, or who belongs to a religious
order, or is a widow living respectably at home, is a very great offense and act of wicked-
ness, for two reasons. First, because the force is employed against persons who are living
honorably and in the service of God, and are of high consideration in the world. Second,
because great dishonor is inflicted upon the relatives of the woman who is violated, and
great insolence is displayed against her lord by violating her in contempt of the ruler of
the land where this is done.

III. What penalty those who violate any of the women aforesaid and their abettors deserve
When a man carries off a widow of good reputation, a virgin, a married woman, or one
belonging to a religious order, or has sexual intercourse with any of them by force, and is
convicted of it in court, he shall lose his life for this reason; and, moreover, all his property
shall belong to the woman whom he thus carried away or violated; except where, afterwards,
she, of her own accord, and not having any husband, marries him who carried her off or
58  Women and the law
violated her. In this case the property of the ravisher shall belong to the father or mother of
the woman ravished, if they did not give their consent to the violation or the marriage; for
if it is proved that they consented to it, then all the property of the ravisher shall be forfeited
to the royal treasury. From the said property, however, the dowry and marriage gift of the
wife of the party who committed the violence must be deducted, and, also the debts which
he contracted up to the day on which he was sentenced. If the woman carried off or violated
was a nun or member of a religious order, then all the property of the ravisher shall belong
to the convent from which he took her. … but where a man violates any other woman, who
is not one of those referred to [above], he shall be banished for it according to the will of the
judge, the latter taking into consideration who the party who committed the violence, and the
woman whom he violates, are, as well as the time when, and the place where, this was done.

Title XXII. Concerning procurers

I. What injury is caused by them
A very great offense arises from [the acts of procurers], for, through the wickedness of such
persons, many women who are good become bad, and also those who have begun to err
become worse through their riotous behavior; and the procurers themselves are also guilty
acting in this way and causing women to sin by inducing them to commit wickedness with
their bodies, by which they afterwards are dishonored; and, in addition to all this, fights,
and many quarrels and even the death of men result from the conduct of such persons.

II. What penalty they deserve after they have been found guilty
After he has been convicted he must be driven out of the town along with the bad women
of this kind. If any person knowingly rents his houses to bad women, in order to establish
brothels in them, he shall lose them, and they shall be forfeited to the royal treasury; and,
in addition to this, he shall pay ten pounds of gold.
Moreover, we decree that those who keep female captives, or other girls, in their houses
for the purpose of causing them to commit wickedness with their bodies on account of
the money which they receive out of their earnings; where they are captives, they shall be
emancipated … and where they are women who are free, those who brought them up in
this way, and received the price of the meretricious acts which they compelled them to
commit, and afforded them the opportunity for the same, must bestow them in marriage,
and give them dowries out of their own property, to such an amount that they can live upon
them; and if they refuse, or have not the means to do so, they should be put to death.
We also decree that any person who acts as a procurer for his wife shall be put to
death. A party who acts as a procurer for any other married woman, virgin, nun, or
widow of good reputation, in consideration of anything given or promised to him, shall
suffer the same penalty. What we stated in this Title applies also to women who engage
in this nefarious occupation.

Title XXIV
IX. What penalty a Jew deserves who has intercourse with a Christian woman
Jews who live with Christian women are guilty of great insolence and boldness, for which
reason we decree that all Jews who, hereafter, may be convicted of having done such a
 Women and the law  59
thing shall be put to death. For if Christians who commit adultery with married women
deserve death on that account, much more do Jews who have sexual intercourse with
Christian women, who are spiritually the wives of Our Lord Jesus Christ because of the
faith and the baptism which they receive in His name; nor do we consider it proper that
a Christian woman who commits an offense of this kind shall escape without punish-
ment. Wherefore we order that, whether she be a virgin, a married woman, a widow,
or a common prostitute who gives herself to all men, she shall suffer the same penalty
which we mentioned in the last law in the Title [below] concerning the Moors, to which
a Christian woman is liable who has carnal intercourse with a Moor.

X. What penalty Jews deserve who hold Christians as slaves

A Jew shall not purchase, or keep as a slave a Christian man or woman, and if anyone
violates this law the Christian shall be restored to freedom and shall not pay any portion
of the price given for him, although the Jew may not have been aware when he bought
him, that he was a Christian; but if he knew that he was such when he purchased him,
and makes use of him afterwards as a slave, he shall be put to death for doing so. More-
over, we forbid any Jew to convert a captive to his religion, even though said captive may
be a Moor, or belong to some other barbarous race. If anyone violates this law we order
that the said slave who has become a Jew shall be set at liberty, and removed from the
control of the party to whom he or she belonged. If any Moors who are the captives of
Jews become Christians, they shall at once be freed, as is explained in the Fourth Partida
of this book, in the Title concerning Liberty, in the laws which treat of this subject.

XI. Jews shall bear certain marks in order that they may be known
Many crimes and outrageous things occur between Christians and Jews because they
live together in cities, and dress alike; and in order to avoid the offenses and evils which
take place for this reason, we deem it proper, and we order that all Jews male and female
living in our dominions shall bear some distinguishing mark upon their heads so that
people may plainly recognize a Jew, or a Jewess; and any Jew who does not bear such a
mark, shall pay for each time he is found without it ten maravedis of gold; and if he has
not the means to do this he shall publicly receive ten lashes for his offense.

Title XXV
VI. What penalty a Christian of either sex who becomes a Jew, a Moor, or a heretic, deserves
Our Lord God desired that kings and princes should have dominion over the people, in order
that through them justice might be maintained, and also because as often as disputes and
controversies arise among men which cannot be decided by the ancient law, through their
means new advice might be obtained by means of which said controversy could be equitably
decided; and therefore we order that if, from this time forward, as it has formerly occurred,
any married woman acknowledging our faith becomes a Jewess, a Moor, or a heretic, and
marries again in accordance with the rites of her new religion, or commits adultery; her
dowry, her marriage gifts, and all property which she held in common with her husband
at the time when she committed this offense, shall belong to him; and we decree that her
husband if he becomes a Jew, a Moor, or a heretic, shall undergo the same penalty which
60  Women and the law
we stated should be inflicted upon his wife. Where, however, the said woman has children,
they, after the death of their father, shall inherit the property which the husband obtains on
account of the offense committed by his wife, and although he may have children by another
wife, the latter shall not be entitled to any of said property. We decree that the same disposi-
tion shall be made of his property if he committed an offense of this kind.

X. What penalty a Moor and a Christian woman deserve who have intercourse with one another
If a Moor has sexual intercourse with a Christian virgin, we order that he shall be stoned,
and that she, for the first offense, shall lose half of her property, and that her father, mother,
or grandfather, shall have it, and if she has no such relatives, that it shall belong to the king.
For the second offense, she shall lose all her property, and the heirs aforesaid, if she has
any, shall obtain it, and if she has none, the king shall be entitled to it, and she shall be put
to death. We decree and order that the same rule shall apply to a widow who commits this
crime. If a Moor has sexual intercourse with a Christian married woman, he shall be stoned
to death, and she shall be placed in the power of her husband who may burn her to death,
or release her, or do what he pleases with her. If a Moor has intercourse with a common
woman who abandons herself to everyone, for the first offense, they shall be scourged
together through the town, and for the second, they shall be put to death.

Questions: How do these secular laws treat the marriage matters that are legislated above in canon
law (documents 12 and 13)? What light do these laws shed on marginal women including prosti-
tutes and concubines? How does the presence of Muslims and a large Jewish population affect the
Christian authorities’ attitudes toward Christian women?

17. C ustoms of M agdeburg (13 th c .)

In 1261 the city of Magdeburg, on the German–Polish border, sent this version of its
laws to another town which had asked for them as a model. Towns usually had their
own laws, either in addition to or instead of the laws of the kingdom in which the
town was located. Women were not usually considered “citizens” of a town, but their
rights were safeguarded in urban law just as they were in feudal law and local and
manorial custom. One difference was that land was not necessarily the most impor-
tant element of an inheritance in an urban family, as it was in the countryside.
Source: Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, A Source Book for Mediæval History (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907).

  1. When Magdeburg was founded the inhabitants were given such a charter as they
wished. They determined that they would choose aldermen every year, who, on
their election, should swear that they would guard the law, honor, and interests of
the city to the best of their ability and with the advice of the wisest people of the
city. …
14. If a man dies leaving a wife, she shall have no share in his property except what he
has given her in court, or has appointed for her dower. She must have six witnesses,
male or female, to prove her dower. If the man made no provision for her, her chil-
dren must support her as long as she does not remarry. If her husband had sheep,
the widow shall take them.
 Women and the law  61
15. If a man and woman have children, some of whom are married and have received
their marriage portion, and the man dies, the children who are still at home shall
receive the inheritance. Those who have received their marriage portion shall have
no part of [the inheritance]. Children who have received an inheritance shall not sell
it without the consent of the heirs. …
18. No one, whether man or woman, shall, on his sick-bed, give away more than three
shillings’ worth of his property without the consent of his heirs, and the woman must
have the consent of her husband. …
55. When a man dies his wife shall give [to his heirs] his sword, his horse and saddle,
and his best coat of mail. She shall also give a bed, a pillow, a sheet, a table-cloth,
two dishes and a towel. Some say that she should give other things also, but that is
not necessary. If she does not have these things, she shall not give them, but she shall
give proof for each article that she does not have it.
56. If two or more children inherit these things, the oldest shall take the sword and they
shall share the other things equally.
57. If the children are minors, the oldest male relative on the father’s side, if he is of the
same rank by birth, shall receive all these things and preserve them for the children.
When they become of age, he shall give them to them, and in addition, all their
property, unless he can prove that he has used it to their profit, or that it has been
stolen or destroyed by some accident without any fault of his. He shall also be the
guardian of the widow until she remarries, if he is of the same rank as she is.
58. After giving the above articles the widow shall take her dower and all that belongs to her;
that is, all the sheep, geese, chests, yarn, beds, pillows, cushions, table linen, bed linen,
towels, cups, candlesticks, linen, women’s clothing, finger rings, bracelets, headdress, psal-
ters, and all prayer-books, chairs, drawers, bureaus, carpets, curtains, etc., and there are
many other trinkets which belong to her, such as brushes, scissors, and mirrors, but I do
not mention them. But uncut cloth, and unworked gold and silver do not belong to her.

Questions: What was the legal status of a woman, under these laws? What rights, protections, and
responsibilities did she have? What does the list of items in clause 58 reveal about women’s roles?

18. L ondon crimes and punishments (14 th c .)

The following accounts, from the municipal records of London, show female criminals
before the city officials. Male criminals faced the same officials and the same or similar
penalties; but some of the crimes described below are particularly female ones.
Source: Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry
Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868). Modernized.

A strumpet (1311)
Margaret de Hontyngdone, Marion de Honytone, and Henry le Beste were arrested in the
ward of Broad Street by Richard le Kissere, serjeant of the same ward, on the Friday before
the feast of St. Vincent [9 June] … and put into the Tun [that is, a London prison], because
the said Margaret had before been driven out from the aforesaid ward as a common strumpet
[that is, a prostitute], and had afterwards harbored men of bad repute … And William de
Louthe, servant of the Company of the Friscobaldi, and William Sailleben became sureties
62  Women and the law
for the said Henry, that in future he would well and trustily behave himself. And the women
… swore oaths that they would behave themselves properly in the same manner.

A curfew-breaker (1320)
Emma, daughter of William [the Wiredrawer], of York, was taken by William the Offi-
cial, serjeant of the ward of Cheap, and put into the Tun, on the night of Sunday before
the Feast of St. Martin [11 November], … because she was found wandering about after
curfew was rung at the place assigned, namely, at [the church of] St. Martin’s le Grand,
together with a certain bundle of cloths.
Afterwards, on Tuesday the feast of St. Martin, she was brought to the guildhall
before the mayor, and was told that she must find security as to keeping the peace; and
she was accordingly delivered to the said William the Official, that he might take a pledge
from her for so doing.

A thief (1337)
Desiderata de Toryntone was taken at the suit of John Baret, of Bydene, in the county of
Berkshire, for a certain robbery committed upon him in the hostel of the bishop of Salisbury
in Fleet Street, in the suburb of London, on [6 May], … of 30 dishes and 24 salt-cellars of
silver, belonging to Lady Alice de Lisle, the same John Baret’s mistress, to the value of £40,
and which were then in his keeping, and were stolen from him; as to which he accused her,
and of which number, 14 dishes and 12 salt-cellars were found upon her. His sureties that
he would prosecute her for felony were William de Toppesfeld and Reynald de Thorpe.
The jurors say … that the said Desiderata is guilty of the felony aforesaid. Therefore
she is to be hanged. She has no chattels.

A child-stealer (1373)
On Monday, the feast of St. Benedict the Abbot [21 March], … Alice de Salisbury, a beggar,
was adjudged to the pillory called the “thewe,” for women ordained, by decision of the mayor
and aldermen, there to stand for one hour in the day; because on the Sunday before she had
taken one Margaret, daughter of John Oxwyke, grocer, in the Ropery in London, and had
carried her away, and stripped her of her clothes, that she might not be recognized by her
family; so that she might go begging with the same Alice, and gain might be made thereby …
As to the which, the same Alice was convicted before the mayor and aldermen.

A scold (1375)
Alice Shether was brought before the mayor, on Tuesday the 4th of September, …
because at the wardmote [that is, the local court] of John Haddele, alderman of Tower
Ward, she was indicted for being a common scold; and because all the neighbors dwelling
in that vicinity were so greatly molested and annoyed by her malicious words and abuse,
she sowing envy, discord, and ill-will among them, and repeatedly defaming, molesting,
and backbiting many of them, sparing neither rich nor poor, to the great damage of the
persons and neighbors there dwelling, and against the ordinance of the city.
Wherefore, upon the complaint of the said alderman, and of many of her neighbors
in the same ward … the said Alice was questioned on the matters aforesaid, and it was
 Women and the lawâ•… 63
enquired of her how she would acquit herself thereof; whereupon, she said she was in no
way guilty of the things aforesaid, and [requested a jury trial].
The jury … said upon their oath, – that she is guilty of all the things above charged
against her. Therefore it was awarded that she should have punishment of the pillory,
called the “thewe,” for women ordained, there to stand for one hour. And precept was
given to the sheriffs to have proclamation made of the nature of her offense.

Questions: How are the crimes and punishments described here specifically female? Do they reveal
stereotypes about women? What difficulties may lie behind the women’s actions?

19.╇S umptuary laws (13 th –14 th c .)

Sumptuary laws have been common in many societies; they enforce various social
distinctions by regulating consumption and display, especially in terms of clothing.
Medieval society considered it improper for people to dress above their station in
life, as for example when wealthy merchants dressed more richly than nobles who
were their social superiors but might be poorer than some members of the bour-
geoisie. The ruling council of Venice appointed a special body of 27 members in
1299 to pass sumptuary laws. This kind of legislation was also used to distinguish
between prostitutes and “respectable” women. (An example of a noblewoman asking
to be exempted from the Venetian sumptuary laws can be found in Chapter IV, and
further examples of sumptuary laws can be found in Chapters VI and VIII.)
Source: Venice trans. E. Amt from Lo statuto inedito delle nozze veneziane emanato nell’anno 1299, ed. C.
Foucard (Venice: Tipografia de commercio, 1858); England from Statutes of the Realm, vol. I (1810),
reprinted with the permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Spelling and punctuation modernized.

Venice (1299)
1. It has been decreed by the council of twenty-seven that henceforth at weddings or on
the occasions of weddings in the city of Venice, no one may send or receive presents,
or gifts, or even goblets, by any method or means, under penalty of 20 soldi di grossi
for each time, except that goblets may be sent to the home of the bride, and also to
the home of the bridegroom, on those days when it is customary to send them, and
also to the priest, as is the custom.
2. And that the bride may not be accompanied, either when going to her husband or when
returning home, by more than eight ladies, and the bridegroom may not have at the
wedding banquet more than twenty lords and twenty ladies in all. And similarly the attend-
ants on the part of the bride may not be more than the said number at the banquet, on
the day of the wedding. A lady thirteen years old or younger shall not be held to be a lady,
unless she is married, and if she has been married and is now a widow she shall be held to
be a lady; and a man twenty years old or younger shall not be held to be a lord. …
5. Item, that no bride may carry, or cause to be carried, more than four [new] dresses
[in her trousseau], under penalty of 20 soldi di grossi. …
6. Item, that henceforth no man or woman or lady may wear borders of pearls, under
penalty of 20 soldi di grossi, except that brides, if they wish, may have borders of pearls
on their wedding dress a single time, and similarly one headpiece of pearls; and they
may not place the aforesaid borders on any gown other than the wedding gown. And
64  Women and the law
the aforesaid borders, which are placed on the wedding dress and cloak, may not be
worth more than 20 soldi di grossi altogether, under the aforesaid penalty.
  7. And that no person may wear an embroidered border beyond the value of five lire di
piccoli; and no person may place any embroidered border on a cloak or on a fur. Strings
of pearls for the hair are totally forbidden and prohibited, so that no woman or lady may
wear them henceforth, under penalty of 100 soldi for each time she is found contravening
this law. And also she may not have more than one row of gold or amber buttons worth
more than 10 soldi di grossi, under the aforesaid penalty of 100 soldi, nor any hair orna-
ment of pearls worth more than 100 soldi, under the aforesaid penalty. …
  8. Item, that henceforth no man or lady or woman may have more than two cloaks of
vair or other fur, and if any now have more they may not wear more than two of
them from now on, under penalty of 20 soldi di grossi for each time.
  9. Item, that a lady or woman may wear only one cloak lined with silk under the afore-
said penalty. Except that if she ought to wear another silk-lined cloak for mourning,
she may do so. …
10. Item, that henceforth no woman’s tunic may have a train of more than one arm’s
length trailing on the ground or an underdress train of more than half an arm’s length,
under the aforesaid penalty. Except that a bride may have whatever sort of train she
wishes a single time, on her wedding tunic. And the garments which exist today may
remain as they are, however many trains they have, and henceforth they may not be
manufactured except as stated above, under penalty of 20 soldi di grossi. …
11. Item, that ladies are exempted and excepted from these orders, when they are going
to or coming from the palace, and may wear those things and ornaments which they
bring from the palace, but afterwards they may not do otherwise than others may,
under the aforesaid penalty of 20 soldi di grossi.

England (1363)
8. Item, for the outrageous and excessive apparel of diverse people, against their estate
and degree, to the great destruction and impoverishment of all the land, it is ordained,
that grooms, as well servants of lords, as they of mysteries [that is, regulated crafts],
and artificers, shall be served to eat and drink once a day of flesh or of fish, and the
remnant of other victuals, as of milk, butter, and cheese, according to their estate.
And that they have clothes for their vesture, or hosing, whereof the whole cloth shall
not exceed two marks, and that they wear no cloth of higher price, of their buying,
nor otherwise, not nothing of gold or silver embroidered, enameled, nor of silk, nor
nothing pertaining to the said things; and their wives, daughters, and children shall
be of the same condition in their clothing and apparel, and they shall wear no veils
passing 12 pence a veil.
9. Item, that people of handicraft, and yeomen, shall take not wear cloth of an higher
price for their vesture or hosing, than within forty shillings the whole cloth, by way
of buying, nor otherwise; nor stone, nor cloth of silk nor of silver, nor [belt, knife,
button,] ring, garter, nor owche [that is, ornamental collar or brooch], ribbon,
chains, nor no such other things of gold nor of silver, nor no manner of apparel
embroidered, aimeled [that is enameled], nor of silk by no way, and that their wives,
daughters, and children be of the same condition in their vesture and apparel; and
that they wear no veil of silk, but only of yarn made within the Realm, nor no
manner of fur, nor of budge, but only of lamb, cony, cat, and fox.
 Women and the law  65
10. Item, that esquires and all manner of gentlemen, under the estate of a knight, which
have no land nor rent to the value of an hundred pounds by year, shall not take
nor wear cloth for their clothing or hosing of an higher price, than within the price
of four marks and a half the whole cloth, by way of buying nor otherwise; and that
they wear no cloth of gold, nor silk, nor silver, nor no manner of clothing embroi-
dered, ring, buttons, nor owche of gold, ribband, girdle, nor none other apparel, nor
harness [that is, armor], of gold nor of silver, nor nothing of stone, nor no manner of
fur; and that their wives, daughters, and children be of the same condition, as to their
vesture and apparel, without any turning up or purfle [that is, ornamental border],
and that they wear no manner of apparel of gold, or silver, nor of stone. But that
esquires, that have land or rent to the value of 200 marks by year and above, may
take and wear cloths of the price of five marks, and cloth of silk and of silver, ribband,
girdle, and other apparel reasonably garnished of silver; and that their wives, daugh-
ters, and children may wear fur turned up of miniver, without ermines or letuse, or
any manner of [gem]stone, but for their heads.
11. Item, that merchants, citizens and burgesses, artificers, people of handicraft, as well
within the city of London, as elsewhere, which have clearly goods and chattels, to
the value of 500 pounds, and their wives and children, may take and wear in the
manner as the esquires and gentlemen which have land to rent to the value of 100
pounds by year; and that the same merchants, citizens, and burgesses, which have
clearly goods and chattels, to the value of 1000 pounds and their wives and chil-
dren may take and wear in the manner as esquires and gentlemen, which have land
and rent to the value of 200 pounds by year: and no groom, yeoman, or servant of
merchant, artificer or people of handicraft shall wear otherwise in apparel than is
above ordained of yeomen of lords.
12. Item, that knights, which have land or rent within the value of 200 pounds shall
take and wear cloth of 6 marks the whole cloth, for their vesture, and of none higher
price; and that they wear not cloth of gold, nor cloths, mantle, nor gown furred with
miniver nor of ermines, nor no apparel broidered of [gem]stone, nor otherwise; and
that their wives, daughters, and children be of the same condition; and that they
wear no turning up of ermines, nor of letuses, nor no manner of apparel of [gem]
stone, but only for their heads. But that all knights and ladies, which have land or
rent over the value of 400 marks by year, to the sum of 1000 pounds, shall wear at
their pleasure, except ermines and letuses, and apparel of pearls and [gem]stone, but
only for their heads. …
14. Item, that carters, ploughmen, drivers of the plough, oxherds, cowherds, shepherds
… and all other keepers of beasts, threshers of corn, and all manner of people of
the estate of a groom, attending to husbandry, and all other people, that have not
forty shillings of goods, nor of chattels, shall not take nor wear no manner of cloth,
but blanket, and russet [wool] of twelve-pence; and shall wear the girdles of linen
according to their estate; and that [they come to eat and drink] in the manner as
pertaineth to them, and not excessively. And it is ordained, that if any wear or do
contrary to any of the points aforesaid, that he shall forfeit against the king all the
apparel that he hath so worn against the form of this ordinance.

Questions: What situations or fears seem to have worried the authorities and prompted these laws?
To what extent are these laws gender-specific? What can we learn from them about how women
lived?
This page intentionally left blank
III Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health

This chapter brings together source materials describing marriage and a number of
related subjects: family life, sex, childbirth, and women’s health care. The analysis of
these documents, like all medieval sources, requires one to consider why they were written
and how accurately they reflect the realities of life. For instance, except for Hildegard
of Bingen’s medical treatise, none of the works in this chapter was written by a woman.
However, with some of the sources here we begin to learn about the experiences of indi-
vidual women (Christina of Markyate, the unfree women named in the manorial court
rolls, the Householder of Paris’s wife). In the testimony recorded in Elizabeth Lovell’s
marriage case or the prosecution of Jacoba Felicie for practicing medicine, we come close
to hearing their voices.
68  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
20. T heodore ’ s penitential ( ca . 690)
In this seventh-century handbook for confessors, a wide range of sins and infractions
against canon law is envisioned, along with the church’s prescribed penance for
each. Priests could use such a text as a guide when hearing the confessions of their
parishioners and administering the sacrament of penance.
Source: John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1938).

Of fornication
  1. If anyone commits fornication with a virgin he shall do penance for one year. If with
a married woman, he shall do penance for four years. …
  2. [Theodore] judged that he who often commits fornication with a man or with a
beast should do penance for ten years.
12. If a woman practices vice with a woman, she shall do penance for three years.
13. If she practices solitary vice, she shall do penance for the same period.
14. The penance of a widow and of a girl is the same. She who has a husband deserves
a greater penalty if she commits fornication.
15. He who emits semen into the mouth shall do penance for seven years: this is the
worst of evils. Elsewhere it was [Theodore’s] judgment that both [participants in this
offense] shall do penance to the end of life, or twelve years, or as above seven.

Of the penance for special irregularities in marriage

  4. If anyone finds his wife to be an adulteress and does not wish to put her away but has
had her in the matrimonial relation to that time, he shall do penance for two years
on two days in the week and [shall perform] the fasts of religion; or as long as she
herself does penance he shall avoid the matrimonial relation with her, because she
has committed adultery.
  7. A woman may not take a vow without the consent of her husband; but if she does take a
vow she can be released, and she shall do penance according to the decision of a priest.
  8. He who puts away his wife and marries another shall do penance with tribulation for
seven years or a lighter penance for fifteen years.
  9. He who defiles his neighbor’s wife, deprived of his own wife, shall fast for three years
two days a week and in the three forty-day periods.
10. If [the woman] is a virgin, he shall do penance for one year without meat and wine
and mead.
11. If he defiles a vowed virgin, he shall do penance for three years, as we said above,
whether a child is born of her or not.
12. If she is his slave, he shall set her free and fast for six months.
13. If the wife of anyone deserts him and returns to him dishonored, she shall do penance
for one year; otherwise for three years. If he takes another wife he shall do penance
for one year.
14. An adulterous woman shall do penance for seven years. …
15. A woman who commits an offense with another woman shall do penance for three
years as a fornicator. So also shall she do penance who mixes her husband’s semen
in food for the increase of love.
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  69
16. A wife who tastes her husband’s blood as a remedy shall fast for forty days, more or less.
17. Moreover, women shall not in the time of impurity enter into a church, or commu-
nicate [that is, take communion] – neither nuns nor laywomen; if they presume [to
do this] they shall fast for three weeks.
18. In the same way shall they do penance who enter a church before purification after
childbirth, that is, forty days.
19. But he who has intercourse at these seasons shall do penance for twenty days.
20. He who has intercourse on the Lord’s day shall seek pardon from God and do
penance for one or two or three days.
21. If a man has intercourse from behind with his wife, he shall do penance for forty days
the first time.
22. For a graver offense of this kind he ought to do penance as one who offends with animals.
23. For intercourse at the improper season he shall fast for forty days.
24. Women who commit abortion before [the fetus] has life shall do penance for one year or
for the three forty-day periods or for forty days, according to the nature of the offense; and
if later, that is, more than forty days after conception, they shall do penance as murderesses,
that is for three years on Wednesdays and Fridays and in the three forty-day periods….
25. If a mother slays her child, if she commits homicide, she shall do penance for fifteen
years, and never change except on Sunday.
26. If a poor woman slays her child, she shall do penance for seven years….
28. If an infant that is weak … has been recommended to a [priest for baptism], and dies
[unbaptized, the priest] shall be deposed.
29. If the neglect is on the part of the parents, they shall do penance for one year; and if a
child of three years dies without baptism, the father and the mother shall do penance
for three years….

Of matters relating to marriage

1. Those who are married shall abstain from intercourse for three nights before they
communicate.
2. A man shall abstain from his wife for forty days before Easter, until the week of
Easter. On this account the Apostle says: “That ye may give yourselves to prayer” [I
Cor. 7:5].
3. When she has conceived, a woman ought to abstain from her husband for three
months before the birth, and afterward in the time of purgation, that is, for forty days
and nights, whether she has borne a male or a female child.
4. It is also fully permitted to a woman to communicate before she is to bear a child.
5. If the wife of anyone commits fornication, he may put her away and take another;
that is, if a man puts away his wife on account of fornication, if she was his first, he is
permitted to take another; but if she wishes to do penance for her sins, she may take
another husband after five years.
6. A woman may not put away her husband, even if he is a fornicator, unless, perchance,
for [the purpose of his entering] a monastery….
7. A legal marriage may not be broken without the consent of both parties.
8. But either … may give the other permission to join a monastery for the service of God….
9. If a husband makes himself a slave through theft or fornication or any sin, the wife, if
she has not been married before, has the right to take another husband after a year.
This is not permitted to one who has been twice married.
70  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
10. When his wife is dead, a man may take another wife after a month. If her husband
is dead, the woman may take another husband after a year.
12. And woman who commits adultery is in the power of her husband if he wishes to be
reconciled to an adulterous woman. If he makes a reconciliation, her punishment
does not concern the clergy; it belongs to her own husband.
13. In the case of a man and a woman who are married, if he wishes to serve God and
she does not, or if she wishes to do so and he does not, or if either of them is broken
in health, they may still be completely separated with the consent of both.
20. If a woman leaves her husband, despising him, and is unwilling to return and be
reconciled to her husband, after five years, with the bishop’s consent, he shall be
permitted to take another wife.
22. Again, if she has been taken into captivity [by force], her husband shall wait five
years; so also shall the woman do if such things have happened to the man.
23. If, therefore, a man has taken another wife, he shall receive the former wife when she
returns from captivity and put away the later one; so also shall she do, as we have
said above, if such things have happened to her husband.
24. If an enemy carries away any man’s wife, and he cannot get her again, he may take
another…. If after this the former wife comes again to him, she ought not to be
received by him, if he has another, but she may take to herself another husband, if
she has had [only] one before…
30. A husband who sleeps with his wife shall wash himself before he goes into church.
31. A husband ought not to see his wife nude.
34. Parents may not give a betrothed girl to another man unless she flatly refuses [to
marry the original suitor]; but she may go to a monastery if she wishes.
35. But if she who is betrothed refuses to live with the man to whom she is betrothed, the
money which he gave for her shall be paid back to him, and a third part shall be added;
if, however, it is he that refuses, he shall lose the money which he gave for her.
36. But a girl of seventeen years has the power of her own body.
37. Until he is fifteen years old a boy shall be in the power of his father, then he can
make himself a monk; but a girl of sixteen or seventeen years who was before in the
power of her parents [can become a nun]. After that age a father may not bestow his
daughter in marriage against her will.

Of male and female slaves

4. If the master of a male and a female slave joins them in marriage and the male slave
or the female slave is afterward set free, and if the one who is in slavery cannot be
redeemed, the one who has been set free may marry a free born person.
5. If any freeman takes a female slave in marriage, he has not the right to put her away
if they were formerly united with the consent of both.
6. If anyone acquires [as a slave] a free woman who is pregnant, the child that is born
of her is free.
7. If anyone sets free a pregnant slave woman, the child which she brings forth shall be
[in a state] of slavery.

Questions: Where in the text is there an implicit double standard? An explicit double standard? How
are different categories of women treated differently? Overall, what sins does the author believe women
are likely to commit? What does this text tell us about unfree women’s lives?
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  71
21. T he life of C hristina of M arkyate :
C hristina ’ s rebellion (12 th c .)
Christina of Markyate was born in England at the end of the eleventh century. Her
family was a noble Anglo-Saxon one, as her biographer tells us, but Christina’s biog-
raphy was written because (through her rejection of marriage and her choice of a
religious life) she became a renowned holy woman – a local saint. “Saints’ lives” were
a common form of narrative writing throughout medieval Europe; the writer of such
a work presented the holy figure as capable of miracles and worthy of veneration.
  Christina’s struggle did not end with the episcopal decision described below; after
this a bribe from Autti caused the bishop to reverse his ruling, and Christina even-
tually had to run away from home to enter the religious life. She died sometime
between 1155 and 1166.
Source: Reprinted from The Life of Christina of Markyate, a Twelfth Century Recluse, edited and trans-
lated by C. H. Talbot (1959), by permission of Oxford University Press. Reprinted in the Oxford
Medieval Texts series, 1987.

In the town of Huntingdon there was born into a family of noble rank a maiden of
uncommon holiness and beauty. Her father’s name was Autti, her mother’s Beatrix. The
name which she herself had been given in baptism was Theodora, but later on, through
force of circumstance, she changed it to Christina.
… Autti and Beatrix brought their daughter Christina with them to our monastery of
the blessed martyr St. Alban, where his sacred bones are revered, to beg his protection
for themselves and for their child. When the girl therefore had looked carefully at the
place and observed the religious bearing of the monks who dwelt there, she declared how
fortunate the inmates were, and expressed a wish to share in their fellowship. … Thence-
forward she lost all interest in worldly ostentation and turned to God with all her heart,
and said, “Lord, my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. …
Grant me, I beseech Thee, purity and inviolable virginity whereby Thou mayest renew
in me the image of Thy Son: who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy
Spirit God for ever and ever, Amen.”
After she had returned to Huntingdon she revealed to Sueno [her spiritual advisor]
what she had vowed and he, who was considered in those parts as a light of God,
confirmed the virgin’s vow before God. …
After this the aforesaid young man [Burthred] called on her father and mother to
arrange his betrothal with the girl who they had promised should be his wife. When
they spoke to her about preparations for the wedding, she would not listen. And when
they asked the reason, she replied: “I wish to remain single, for I have made a vow of
virginity.” On hearing this, they made fun of her rashness. But she remained unmoved
by it: therefore they tried to convince her of her foolishness and, despite her rejections,
encouraged her to hurry on the marriage preparations. She refused. They brought her
gifts and made great promises: she brushed them aside. They cajoled her; they threat-
ened her; but she would not yield. At last they persuaded one of her close friends and
inseparable companions, named Helisen, to soothe her ears by a continuous stream of
flattery, so that it would arouse in her, by its very persistence, a desire to become the
mistress of a house. … But she was quite unable to extort one word signifying her consent
even though she had spent a whole year trying out these stratagems. Some time later,
however, when they were all gathered together in the church, they made a concerted and
72  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
sudden attack on her. To be brief, how it happened I cannot tell. All I know is that by
God’s will, with so many exerting pressure on her from all sides, she yielded (at least in
word), and on that very day Burthred was betrothed to her.
After the espousal the maiden returned once more to her parents’ home whilst her
husband, though he had houses elsewhere, built her a new and larger dwelling-place near
his father-in-law. But although she was married, her former intentions were not changed,
and she freely expressed her determination not submit to the physical embraces of any
man. The more her parents became aware of her persistence in this frame of mind, the
more they tried to break down her resistance, first by flattery, then by reproaches, some-
times by presents and grand promises, and even by threats and punishment. And though
all her friends and relatives united forces together in this purpose, her father Autti surpassed
them all in his efforts, whilst he himself was outclassed by the girl’s mother, as will become
evident later on. After they had tried out many methods without result, they finally hit on
this subterfuge. Putting her under strict and rigorous guard, they prevented any religious
god-fearing man from having any conversation with her: on the other hand they freely
invited to the house people given to jesting, boasting, worldly amusement, and those whose
evil communications corrupt good manners. … [And] they took her with them, against
her will, to public banquets, where divers choice meats were followed by drinks of different
kinds, where the alluring melodies of the singers were accompanied by the sounds of the
zither and the harp, so that by listening to them her strength of mind might be sapped away
and in this way she might finally be brought to take pleasure in the world. But their wiles
were outwitted at all points and served but to emphasize her invincible prudence.
See finally how she acted, how she behaved herself at what is called the Gild merchant,
which is one of the merchants’ greatest and best-known festivals. One day, when a great
throng of nobles were gathered together there, Autti and Beatrix held the place of honour,
as being the most important among them. It was their pleasure that their daughter Chris-
tina, their eldest and most worthy daughter, should act as cup-bearer to such an honour-
able gathering. Wherefore they commanded her to get up and lay aside the mantle which
she was wearing, so that, with her garments fastened to her sides with bands and her sleeves
rolled up her arms, she should courteously offer drinks to the nobility. They hoped that the
compliments paid to her by the onlookers and the accumulation of little sips of wine would
break her resolution and prepare her body for the deed of corruption. Carrying out their
wishes, she prepared a suitable defence against both attacks. Against the favours of human
flattery she fixed in her memory the thought of the Mother of God. … Against the urge to
drunkenness, she opposed her burning thirst. …
But as her parents had been outwitted in this, they tried something else. And at night
they let her husband secretly into her bedroom in order that, if he found the maiden asleep,
he might suddenly take her by surprise and overcome her. But even through that provi-
dence to which she had commended herself, she was found dressed and awake, and she
welcomed the young man as if he had been her brother. And sitting on her bed with him,
she strongly encouraged him to live a chaste life, putting forward the saints as examples.
… When the greater part of the night had passed with talk such as this, the young man
eventually left the maiden. When those who had got him into the room heard what had
happened, they joined together in calling him a spineless fellow. And with many reproaches
they goaded him on again, and thrust him into her bedroom another night, having warned
him not to be misled by her deceitful tricks and naïve words nor to lose his manliness.
Either by force or entreaty he was to gain his end. And if neither of these sufficed, he was
to know that they were at hand to help him: all he had to mind was to act the man.
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  73
When Christina sensed this, she hastily sprang out of bed and clinging with both
hands to a nail which was fixed in the wall, she hung trembling between the wall and the
hangings. Burthred meanwhile approached the bed and, not finding what he expected,
he immediately gave a sign to those waiting outside the door. They crowded into the
room forthwith and with lights in their hands ran from place to place looking for her,
the more intent on their quest as they knew she was in the room when he entered it and
could not have escaped without their seeing her. … Then the maiden of Christ, taking
courage, prayed to God, saying: “Let them be turned backward, that desire my hurt;”
and straightaway they departed in confusion, and from that moment she was safe. …
Whilst her parents were setting these and other traps for her they fixed a day for the
marriage with their son-in-law several times. For they hoped that some occasion would
arise when they could take advantage of her. For what woman could hope to escape so
many snares? And yet, with Christ guarding the vow which his spouse had made, the
celebration of the wedding could nohow be brought about. Indeed, when the day which
they had fixed approached and all the necessary preparations for the marriage had been
arranged, it happened first that all the things prepared were burned by an unexpected fire,
and then that the bride was taken with a fever. In order to drive away the fever, sometimes
they thrust her into cold water, at other times they blistered her excessively. …
Her father brought her [to the priory of Huntingdon] another time, and placing her
before Fredebertus, the reverend prior, and the rest of the canons of the house, addressed
them with these words: “I know, my fathers, I know, and I admit to my daughter, that I
and her mother have forced her against her will into this marriage and that against her
better judgement she has received this sacrament. Yet, no matter how she was led into it,
if she resists our authority and rejects it, we shall be the laughing-stock of our neighbours,
a mockery and derision to those who are round about. Wherefore, I beseech you, plead
with her to have pity on us: let her marry in the Lord and take away our reproach. Why
must she depart from tradition? Why should she bring this dishonour on her father? Her
life of poverty will bring the whole of the nobility into disrepute. Let her do now what we
wish and she can have all that we possess.” When Autti had said this, Fredebertus asked
him to leave the assembly and with his canons about him he began to address the maiden
with these words: “We are surprised, Theodora, at your obstinacy, or rather we should say,
your madness. We know that you have been betrothed according to ecclesiastical custom.
We know that the sacrament of marriage, which has been sanctioned by divine law, cannot
be dissolved, because what God has joined together, no man should put asunder. … [He
quotes several passages from the Bible about marriage and about children’s duty of obedi-
ence to parents.] Nor should you think that only virgins are saved: for whilst many virgins
perish, many mothers of families are saved, as well we know. And since this is so, nothing
remains but that you accept our advice and teaching and submit yourself to the lawful
embraces of the man to whom you have been legally joined in marriage.”
To these exhortations Christina replied: “I am ignorant of the scriptures which you
have quoted, father prior. But from their sense I will give my answers thereto. My father
and mother, as you have heard, bear witness that against my will this sacrament, as you
call it, was forced on me. I have never been a wife and have never thought of becoming
one. Know that from my infancy I have chosen chastity and have vowed to Christ that I
would remain a virgin: this I did before witnesses, but even if they were not present God
would be witness to my conscience continuously. This I showed by my actions as far as I
was allowed. And if my parents have ordered me to enter into a marriage which I never
wanted and to break the vow which I made to Christ which they know I made in my
74  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
childhood, I leave you, who are supposed to excel other men in the knowledge of the
scriptures, to judge how wicked a thing this is. If I do all in my power to fulfil the vow I
made to Christ, I shall not be disobedient to my parents. What I do, I do on the invitation
of Him whose voice, as you say, is heard in the Gospel: ‘Every one who leaves house or
brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or possessions for My name’s
sake shall receive a hundredfold and possess eternal life.’ Nor do I think that virgins only
will be saved. But I do say, and it is true, that if many virgins perish, so rather do married
women. And if many mothers of families are saved, which you likewise say, and it is true,
certainly virgins are saved more easily.”
Fredebertus, astonished at the common sense and answers of Christina, asked her,
saying, “How do you prove to me that you are doing this for the love of Christ? Perhaps
you are rejecting marriage with Burthred in order to enter a more wealthy one?” “A
more wealthy one, certainly,” she replied. “For who is richer than Christ?” Then said he,
“I am not joking. I am treating with you seriously. And if you wish us to believe you, take
an oath in our presence that, were you betrothed to him as you have been to Burthred,
you would not marry even the king’s son.” At these words the maiden casting her eyes
up to heaven and with a joyful countenance replied: “I will not merely take an oath, but
I am prepared to prove it, by carrying red-hot iron in these my bare hands [that is, by
passing a traditional judicial test]. For, as I have frequently declared, I must fulfil the vow
which through the inspiration of His grace I made to the only Son of the Eternal King,
and with the help of this same grace I mean to fulfil it. And I trust to God that the time is
not far off when it will become clear that I have no other in view but Christ.”
Fredebertus then called in Autti and said to him: “We have tried our best to bend
your daughter to your will, but we have made no headway. We know, however, that our
bishop Robert will be coming soon to his vill at Buckden, which is near this town. Reason
demands that the whole question should be laid before him. Let the case be put into his
hands after he comes and let her take the verdict of the bishop, if of no other. What is the
point of tearing your vitals and suffering to no purpose? We respect the high resolution of
this maiden as founded on impregnable virtue.” To which Autti replied, “I accept your
advice. Please seek the bishop on this affair.” He agreed, and so Autti brought back his
daughter and placed her under the usual restraint.
In the meantime he heard that the bishop had come out to Buckden. Fredebertus
immediately sought him out, being sent by Autti: and with him went the most noble
citizens of the town, who thought that, as the marriage had already been performed, the
bishop would immediately order the betrothed woman to submit to the authority of her
husband. Hence they laid before him in detail and without delay all the facts which they
knew pertained to the business in hand, namely what Christina had done, what others
had done to her, beginning with her childhood and bringing it up to the present day.
At last they brought forward the proposal … that since neither adversity not prosperity
could bring her to it she should be forced to accept her marriage at least by episcopal
authority. After weighing the evidence minutely, the bishop said: “I declare to you, and
I swear before God and His blessed Mother that there is no bishop under heaven who
could force her into this marriage, if according to her vow she wishes to keep herself for
God to serve Him freely and for no man besides.”

Questions: What ideals are in conflict in this story? How does the account suggest that betrothal
and marriage might be uncertain or fluid states? What will bring resolution to Christina’s situation?
Which party or parties hold the authority over marriage?
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  75
22. L iturgy for the marriage service (11 th –16 th c .)
The medieval church struggled for centuries to assert its authority over marriage;
only gradually did it succeed in making the marriage ceremony itself a religious one.
A couple might consent to have the ceremony at the church door, for example, but
not the Mass inside the church afterwards. Thus the liturgy of the service repre-
sents, in a way, an ideal – the church’s idea of how a marriage should be solem-
nized, rather than the way most marriages were necessarily performed. As canon
law acknowledged, a marriage need not even be performed by a priest (or in front of
witnesses) in order to be valid.
  Wedding liturgy, like most liturgy, differed from place to place and changed over time;
this example is from Salisbury in England, and was in use there from the mid-eleventh
century on. The so-called Sarum liturgy gradually spread throughout the British Isles.
Although the service is condensed here, the complete text contains no blessings of the
bridegroom comparable to those of the bride. In the text, “V.” (versicle) indicates the
priest’s part; “R.” is the congregation’s spoken response. The written cross (†) in the text
indicates that the priest makes the sign of the cross at that point in the liturgy.
Source: The Sarum Missal in English, tr. Frederick E. Warren (London: Alexander Moring Ltd,
1911). Adapted.

The church wedding

The man and the woman are to be placed before the door of the church, or in the face
of the church, in the presence of God, and the priest, and the people. The man should
stand on the right hand of the woman, and the woman on the left hand of the man, the
reason being that she was formed out of a rib in the left side of Adam. Then shall the
priest ask the banns, and afterwards he shall say [not in Latin but] in the vulgar [that is,
the vernacular] tongue, in the hearing of all,
“Brethren, we are gathered together here, in the sight of God, and his angels, and all
the saints, and in the face of the Church, to join together two bodies, to wit, those of this
man and this woman,” – here shall the priest look upon both persons – “that henceforth
they may be one body; and that they may be two souls in the faith and law of God, to
the end that they may earn together eternal life; and whatsoever they may have done
before this,”
Then let a charge be made to the people in the vulgar tongue, thus –
“I charge you all by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that if any of you
know any cause why these persons may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, he
do now confess it.”
The same charge shall be made to the man and woman; so that if aught hath been done
by them secretly, or if they have made any vow, or know aught in any way concerning
themselves, why they may not lawfully contract matrimony, they may then confess it. If
anyone shall wish to allege any impediment, and shall give security for proving it, the
marriage must be deferred until the truth of the matter be ascertained. If, however, no
impediment be alleged, the priest is to enquire about the dower of the woman. The priest
shall not betroth, or consent to a betrothal between a man and a woman, before the third
publication of banns. Banns ought to be asked on three distinct holy days, so that at least
one week-day intervene between each of such holy days. After this, the priest shall say to
the man, in audience of all, in the vulgar tongue,
76  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
“N[ame] wilt though have this woman to thy wedded wife, wilt thou love her, and
honour her, keep her and guard her, in health and in sickness, as a husband should a
wife, and forsaking all others on account of her, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye
both shall live?”
The man shall answer, “I will.”
Then shall the priest say unto the woman, “N[ame] wilt thou take this man to thy
wedded husband, wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honour, and keep him, in
health and in sickness, as a wife should a husband, and forsaking all others on account of
him, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?”
The woman shall answer, “I will.”
Then let the woman be given by her father or a friend; if she be a maid, let her have
her hand uncovered; if she be a widow, covered; and let the man receive her, to be kept
in God’s faith and his own, as he hath vowed in the presence of the priest; and let him
hold her by her right hand in his right hand. And so let the man give his troth to the
woman, by word of mouth, presently, after the priest, saying thus:
“I N. take thee N. to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for
better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, till death us do part, if
holy church will ordain it: And thereto I plight thee my troth” (withdrawing his hand).
Then the woman shall say, after the priest,
“I. N. take thee N. to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day, for
better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to be mild and obedient,
in bed and at board, till death us do part, if holy church will ordain it: And thereto I
plight thee my troth” (withdrawing her hand).
Then shall the man lay gold, or silver, and a ring upon a dish or book; and then the
priest shall ask whether the ring have been previously blessed or not; if it be answered
not, then shall the priest bless the ring, thus,
V.  The Lord be with you.
R.  And with thy spirit.
“Let us pray. O creator and preserver of mankind, giver of spiritual grace, bestower
of eternal salvation, do thou, O Lord, send thy blessing † upon this ring, that she who
shall wear it may be armed with the strength of heavenly defence, and that it may be
profitable unto her eternal salvation. Through etc.” R. Amen.
“Let us pray. Bless, O Lord, this ring, which we bless in thy holy name; that whoso-
ever she be that shall wear it, may abide in thy peace, and continue in thy will, and live,
and increase, and grow old in thy love; and let the length of her days be multiplied.
Through etc.”
Then let holy water be sprinkled over the ring. If, however, the ring shall have been
previously blessed, then immediately after the man has placed the ring upon the book,
the priest shall take up the ring, and deliver it to the man. The man shall take it in his
right hand with his three principal fingers, holding the right hand of the bride with his
left hand, and shall say, after the priest,
“With this ring I thee wed, and this gold and silver I thee give: and with my body I
thee worship, and with all my worldly chattels I thee honor.”
Then shall the bridegroom place the ring upon the thumb of the bride, saying, “In the
name of the Father”; then upon the second finger, saying, “and of the Son”; then upon
the third finger, saying, “and of the Holy Ghost”; then upon the fourth finger, saying,
“Amen,” and there let him leave it, … because in that finger there is a certain vein, which
runs from thence as far as the heart; and inward affection, which ought always to be fresh
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  77
between them, is signified by the true ring of the silver. Then, while they bow their heads,
the priest shall pronounce a blessing upon them. [A blessing, a Psalm, the Gloria, the
Kyrie, a litany and two more blessings are said at this point.]
Here they shall all go into the church, as far as the step of the altar; and the priest, together
with his ministers, shall say, as they are going, the Psalm “Blessed are all they etc.” …
Then the bridegroom and bride kneeling before the step of the altar, the priest shall
ask the bystanders to pray for them … [A litany, or responsive prayer, is then said.]
“Let us pray. The Lord bless you out of Sion, that ye may behold Jerusalem in pros-
perity all the days of your life, and that ye may see your children’s children, and peace
upon Israel. …
“Let us pray. O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, bless these young
persons, and sow the seed of eternal life in their hearts, that whatsoever they shall profit-
ably learn, they may indeed fulfil the same. Through Jesus Christ thy Son, the restorer of
mankind. Who with thee etc.” R. Amen.
“Let us pray. Look down, O Lord, from heaven, and bless † this compact; and as
thou sentest thy holy angel Raphael to Tobias, and to Sarah, the daughter of Raguel; so
vouchsafe, O Lord, to send thy blessing † upon these young persons; that they abiding
in thy will, and continuing under thy protection, may both live, and grow, and grow old
in thy love; that they may be both worthy and peaceful, and that the length of their days
may be multiplied. …
“Look down, O Lord, mercifully upon this thy servant and upon thy handmaid; that
in thy name they may receive heavenly blessing †, and that they may see the sons of their
sons and daughters, to the third and fourth generation, in safety, and that they may ever
remain stedfast in thy will, and hereafter attain to the kingdom of heaven. …
“The almighty and merciful God, who by his power did create our first parents Adam
and Eve, and did knit them together by his own sanctification, himself sanctify and bless
your souls and bodies, and join you together in the union and love of true affection.
Through etc.”
Then he shall bless them, saying thus:
“God almighty bless † you with all heavenly blessing, and make you worthy in his
sight; pour upon you the riches of his grace, and teach you with the word of truth, that
ye may be able to please him both in body and soul.” R. Amen.
These prayers being finished, they shall be brought into the presbytery, that is to say,
between the quire and the altar, on the south side of the church, and the woman being placed
on the right hand side of the man, that is to say, between him and the altar, there shall be
begun the Mass of the Trinity. … [The preliminary portions of the Mass are said.]
“Accede, O Lord, to our supplications, and be pleased mercifully to accept this obla-
tion, which we offer unto thee on behalf of thy servants whom thou has vouchsafed to
bring to mature life, and to the day of their espousals.”
… After the Sanctus the bridegroom and bride shall prostrate themselves in prayer at the
step of the altar, a pall being extended over them, which four clerks in surplices shall hold at
the four corners, unless one or both shall have been previously married and blessed, because
in that case the pall is not held over them, nor is the sacramental blessing given. …
“Be favourable, O Lord, unto our supplications, and of thy goodness assist the ordi-
nances whereby thou hast ordained that mankind should be increased; that they who are
joined together by thy authority may be preserved in thy help. …
“O God, who by thy mighty power hast made all things out of nothing, who after
other things set in order in the world didst create for man, made after thine own image,
78  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
the inseparable assistance of woman; that out of man’s flesh woman should take her
beginning, teaching that what thou has been pleased to make one, it should never be
lawful to put asunder. …
“O God, who hast consecrated the state of matrimony to such an excellent mystery,
that in it is signified the sacramental and nuptial union betwixt Christ and Church;
“O God, by whom woman is joined to man, and the union, instituted in the begin-
ning, is gifted with that blessing †, which alone has not been taken away either through
the punishment of original sin, or through the sentence of the deluge, look graciously,
we beseech thee, on this thy handmaiden, who now to be joined in wedlock, seeketh to
be guarded by thy protection. May the yoke of love and peace be upon her; may she be
a faithful and chaste wife in Christ, and abide a follower of holy matrons. May she be as
amiable to her husband as Rachel, wise as Rebecca, long-lived and faithful as Sara. Let
not the father of lies get any advantage over her through her doings; bound to thy faith
and thy commandments may she remain united to one man; may she flee all unlawful
unions; may she fortify her weakness with the strength of discipline. May she be bashful
and grave, reverential and modest, well-instructed in heavenly doctrine. May she be
fruitful in child-bearing, innocent and of good report, attaining to a desired old age,
seeing her children’s children unto the third and fourth generation; and may she attain
the rest of the blessed, and to the kingdom of heaven. Through etc.” [The remainder of
the Mass follows.]

Blessing the Marriage Chamber

On the following night, when the bridegroom and bride have gone to bed, the priest shall
approach and bless the bed-chamber, saying:
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
“Let us pray. Bless †, O Lord, this chamber and all that dwell therein, that they may
be established in thy peace and abide in thy will, and live and grow in thy love, and that
the length of their days may be multiplied. Through etc.”
Blessing over the bed only.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
“Let us pray. Bless †, O Lord, this sleeping-chamber, who neither slumberest nor
sleepest; thou who watchest over Israel watch over these thy servants who rest in this bed,
guarding them from all phantasies and illusions of devils, guard them waking that they
may meditate upon thy commandments; guard them sleeping that in their slumber they
may think of thee; and that here and everywhere they may ever be defended by the help
of thy protection. Through etc.”
Then shall this blessing be said over them in bed:
“Let us pray. God bless † your bodies and souls; and bestow his blessing † upon you,
as he blessed Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” R. Amen.
Another blessing over them.
“Let us pray. May the hand of the Lord be over you; and may he send his holy angel,
to guard and tend you all the days of your life.” R. Amen.
Another blessing over them.
“Let us pray. The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bless † you, triune in
number, and one in name.” R. Amen.
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  79
This done, the priest shall sprinkle them with holy water, and dismissing them in
peace, so depart.

Questions: What ideas about marriage would have been impressed on those present at this marriage
ceremony? What beliefs about women and marriage underlie the ritual here? What role is conceived
of for the bride as she enters marriage?

23. M anorial court rolls :

U nfree women ’ s marriages (13 th –14 th c .)
For much of the medieval period, the majority of the population consisted of unfree
peasants – not slaves, but serfs, who were legally tied to the land where they lived.
Their obligations to their lords varied, but usually included a certain amount of
work per week or per year. In addition, serfs lived under a myriad of legal restric-
tions, including limits on where they could live and whom they could marry. In these
records from two English manors, we see women paying merchet, the fine that an
unfree woman owed to her lord for permission to marry.
Source: Wellington rolls from Arthur L. Humphreys, Materials for the History of the Town and Parish
of Wellington in the County of Somerset (London: Henry Gray, 1910); modernized. Ingoldmells rolls
from Court Rolls of the Manor of Ingoldmells in the County of Lincolnshire, tr. W. O. Massingberd (London:
Spottiswoode & Co., Ltd, 1902).

Wellington court rolls

(1277) Margery Gidelonde gives to the lord 40d. for marrying herself within [the manor]
by the pledge of Reginald Hurchel.
Sibilla who was the wife of John in the Alre, gives to the lord £6 13s. 4d., that she may be
able to marry herself within the manor whenever she shall please, payable half at the Puri-
fication of the Blessed Mary [2 Feb.] and the other half at Easter, by the pledge of Walter
de Whitheie, Reginald Hurchel, William de Forde. And it is granted by the steward and by
the assent of the aforesaid Sibilla, that, because Walter de Whitheie paid [or shall pay] the
aforesaid fine, when the aforesaid Sibilla shall have married herself, the same Walter shall
be able to hold the aforesaid tenement until he shall have levied the aforesaid ten marks.
(1342) Thomas atte Mere (2d.) and William atte Mere (2d.) are in mercy because
they did not produce Joan atte Mere, the lord’s bondwoman, to make a fine, because she
married herself outside the manor without licence. And let her be distrained to be at the
next [court] to [a fine], etc.
(1343) Also [the jurors] present that Agnes, daughter of Adam de Gydelond, married
herself within the manor without licence; and the aforesaid Agnes now comes and says
that previously she made a fine; and in this matter she has a day at the next [court] to
show the record [of her fine], etc. …
Alice, who was the wife of Jordan atte Mulle, gives to the lord £6 13s. 4d. for one
messuage and half a virgate of land … to have and to hold in villeinage so long as she
shall keep herself single and chaste; the fine to be paid at four feast days, by pledge of
John Robyn, John atte Rewe, John Roter, and Robert atte Middele.
(1383) Katherine daughter of John Tylyhey gives a fine of 20s. for licence to marry and
dwell where she pleases within the lordship of the lord or without, so that henceforth she may
not be molested or challenged because of villeinage for ever, by pledge of John Tylyhey.
80  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
Ingoldmells court rolls
(24 Apr. 1303) From Elena Turs for licence to marry within the manor with five acres of
bond land, 10s. [with] William Abald [as her] pledge.
(16 Aug. 1315) From Beatrice daughter of William Belte of Skegnesse for licence to
marry Alan de Hulseby without the manor, pledge Matilda atte Gote. Merchet 2s.
(24 May 1365) From Inglesia daughter of John de Doufdyk for licence to marry Alan
the servant of Gilbert Smith, pledge etc. Merchet 2s.
(13 Oct. 1376) Agnes daughter of Ranulph Raper of Ingoldmels, a bond woman of
the lord, has licence to marry John Ward, etc. Merchet 6s. 8d.
(28 Aug. 1387) Joan Brok, a free woman, holding bond land, has licence to marry
William Osmound, and gives to the lord for licence 40d.
(19 Oct. 1391) Agnes daughter of Simon Withson, a bond woman of the lord, has
licence to marry Richard de Wele, a free man. Merchet 6s. 8d.

Questions: What factors affected an unfree woman’s need to seek permission to marry? Other than
marriage, what relations between men and women do we see in these records? What roles do women
play here besides bride?

24.  H oly M aidenhood : A debate on marriage (13 th c .)

Holy Maidenhood is a treatise on virginity; its purpose is to persuade young women to
become nuns, dedicating themselves to chastity for religious purposes. The author
clearly shares the views of St. Jerome on the desirability of celibacy. But he is not
above using other arguments to turn his female audience against marriage. While
the goal is to portray married life in as negative a light as possible, arguments in favor
of marriage are quoted so that they can be refuted, and this is also an interesting
piece of writing for its emphasis on the physical as well as spiritual welfare of women.
This version is a modern paraphrase of the original Middle English.
Source: Adapted from Hali Meidenhad: An Alliterative Homily of the Thirteenth Century, ed. F. J. Furnivall
(Early English Text Society, 1922; repr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969).

But observe more exactly, as we before told you, what the wedded suffer. … Now you are
wedded, and from so high estate alighted so low: … into the filth of the flesh, into the manner
of a beast, into the thraldom of a man, and into the sorrows of the world. See now, what fruit
it has, and for what purpose it chiefly is: All, or partly, be now well assured, to cool your lust
with filth of the body, to have delight of your fleshly will from man’s intercourse: before God,
it is a nauseous thing to think thereon, and to speak thereof is yet more nauseous. …
“Nay,” you will say, “as for that filth, it is nothing; but a man’s vigor is worth much,
and I need his help for maintenance and food; from a woman’s and man’s copulation,
worldly welfare arises, and a progeny of fair children, that give much joy to their parents.”
Now thus you have said, and think that you say the truth. But I will show you that this
is all made smooth with falsehood. But first of all, now, whatsoever welfare or joy come
out of it, it is too expensively bought, for which you soil yourself, and surrender your own
dear body to be given up to ill usage, and dealt with so shamefully, with so irrecoverable
a loss as the grace of maidenhood is. …
You say that a wife has much comfort from her husband, when they are well matched,
and each is well content with the other. Yea. But ’tis rarely seen on earth. But suppose it is so:
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  81
in what is their comfort and delight for the most part, but in the filth of the flesh or worldly
vanity, which turns all to sorrow and care in the end? Not only in the end, but ever and anon;
for many things shall anger and vex them, and make them worry, and sorrow and sigh for each
other’s ills. Many things shall separate and divide them, which annoy loving persons: and the
dint of death at the end sever one from another. So it cannot but be that that vigor must end in
misery; and the greater their satisfaction together was, the sorer is the sorrow at parting. …
Thus, woman, if you have a husband, … yet shall need happen to you. And what if things
be lacking to you, so that you have neither your will with him, nor prosperity either, and must
groan without goods within waste walls, and in want of bread must breed your offspring;
and still further, lie under the most hateful man, who, even if you had all wealth, will turn it
to sorrow; for, suppose now, that riches were rife with you, and your wide walls were proud
and well supplied, and suppose that you had many under you, domestics in your hall, and
your husband were angry with you, and should become hateful to you, so that each of you
two shall be exasperated against the other; what worldly good can be joy to you? When he is
out, you shall await his homecoming with all sorrow, care, and dread. While he is at home,
all your wide dwellings seem too narrow for you; his looking on you makes you aghast; his
loathsome mirth and his rude behavior fill you with horror. He chides and jaws you, as a
lecher does his whore; he beats you and mauls you as his bought thrall and patrimonial slave.
Your bones ache, and your flesh smarts, your heart within your swells with sore rage, and
your face outwardly burns with vexation. What shall be the copulation between you in bed?
But those who best love one another often quarrel there, though they make no show of it in
the morning; and often from many a slight, though they love each other ever so much, they
each bitterly grieve by themselves. She, much against her will, must suffer his will, often with
great misery, though she loves him well. All his foulnesses and his indecent playings, – even
if they are accompanied with filthiness, especially in bed – she shall, whether she wishes to or
not, suffer them all. May Christ shield every maiden from inquiring or wishing to know what
these are! for they that try them most, find them most odious. …
Look around, happy maiden: if the knot of wedlock be once knotted, let the man be
an idiot or a cripple, be he whatever he may, you must keep to him. If you are fair, and
with good cheer fairly salute all, in no way shall you protect yourself against slander and
evil blame. If you are of no great esteem and ill-tempered, you may, both to others and
to your husband, become of still less esteem. If you become of small esteem to him, and
he of as little to you, or if you love him much and he regards you little, it will grieve you
so strongly that, quick enough, you will, as many cursed women have done, make poison,
and give evil in place of remedy. Or whosoever will not act so, may deal with witches,
and, to draw his love towards her, forsake Christ and her Christianity, and true faith.
… If she cannot breed, she is called barren. Her lord loves and respects her less; and
she, as one that is very bad, weeps at her fate, and calls them glad and happy that breed
a family.
But now suppose it all happens that she has her wish of offspring, as she pleases, and
then let us see what amount of joy arises therefrom. In begetting of them, is her flesh
first torn with foulness. … In the gestation, is heaviness and hard pain every hour; in the
actual birth is the strongest of all pangs, and occasional death; in the nourishing the child,
many a miserable moment. As soon as it appears in this life, it brings with it more care
than joy, especially to its mother; for if it is a misshapen birth, as often happens, and if it
lacks any of its limbs, or if it somehow be amiss, it is a sorrow to her, and a shame to all its
kindred, a reproach in an evil mouth, a talk among all men. If it is wellshapen and seems
likely to live, a fear of the loss of it is instantly born along with it; for she is never without
82  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
fear lest it go wrong, till one or other of the two lose the other. And often it occurs that
that child most loved, and most bitterly purchased, most sorrows and disturbs its parents
at last. Now what joy does the mother have? She has, from the misshapen child, sad care
and shame, both; and for the thriving one, fear, till she loses it for good. …
Now let us proceed! Consider we what joy arises afterwards from gestation of chil-
dren, when the offspring in you quickens and grows. How many miseries immediately
wake up with it, that work you woe enough, fight against your own flesh, and with many
sorrows make war upon your own nature. Your ruddy face shall turn lean, and grow
green as grass. Your eyes shall be dusky, and underneath grow pale; and by the giddi-
ness of your brain your head shall ache sorely. Within your belly, the uterus shall swell
and strut out like a water bag; your bowels shall have pains, and there shall be stitches
in your flank, and pain rife in your loins, heaviness in every limb. The burden of your
breast on your two breasts, and the streams of milk which trickle out of you. All your
beauty is overthrown with a withering. Your mouth is bitter, and nauseous is all that you
chew, and whatever your stomach disdainfully receives, with lack of appetite, it throws
up again. With all your pleasure, and your husband’s joy, you are perishing. Ah, wretch!
the anxiety about the throes of your torment deprive you of the night’s sleep. When it
comes to that at last, there is the sore sorrowful anguish, the strong piercing pang, the
comfortless ill, the pain upon pain, the wandering lamentation. While you are in trouble
with those, in your fear of death, there is shame in addition to that sorrow, at all the old
wives’ indelicate skill, who are skilled in that time of woe, and whose help you must have,
no matter how unbecoming. … [W]e reproach not women with their sufferings, which
the mothers of us all endured at our own births; but we exhibit them to warn maidens,
that they may be the less inclined to such things. …
After all this, there comes from the child thus born, a crying and a weeping, that must
about midnight make you waken, or her that holds your place, for whom you must care.
And what of the cradle foulness and the constant giving of the breast? to swaddle and
feed the child for so many unhappy moments. And consider his late growing up, and his
slow thriving; and that you must ever have an anxiety in looking for the time when the
child will perish, and bring on his mother sorrow upon sorrow. Even if you are rich, and
have a nurse, you must, as a mother, care for all that should be done by the nurse. …
Little does a maiden know about all this same trouble of wives’ woe, in her relation
to her husband; nor of their work so nauseous that they in common work; nor of the
pain, nor of the sorrow and the filth in the bearing and birth of a child; nor of a nurse’s
watches, nor of her sad trials in the child’s fostering: how much she must at once put into
its mouth, neither too much nor too little; though these things be unworthy to be spoken
of, yet they show all the more in what slavery wives are, who must endure such things,
and in what freedom maidens are, that are free from them all. And what if I ask besides,
though it may seem silly, how the wife stands, who hears, when she comes in, her child
scream, sees the cat at the meat, and the hound at the hide? Her cake is burning on the
stone and her calf is sucking all the milk up, the pot is running into the fire, and the churl
is scolding. Though it is a silly tale, it ought, maiden, to deter you more strongly from
marriage, for it does not seem silly to her that tries it.

Questions: What positive aspects of marriage and family life are noted here? How does the author
show his understanding of family love? What concerns are expressed for the physical health and
comfort of women?
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  83
25. E piscopal court records :
E lizabeth L ovell sues her husband (1326–8)
Because marriage was governed by canon law, cases concerning the validity of
marriages were heard in ecclesiastical courts, often those of archdeacons or bishops.
In the following typical example from England, Elizabeth Lovell brings a claim
against Thomas son of Robert of Marton, claiming that the two of them are legiti-
mately married, whereas Thomas is claiming that they are not.
Source: Trans. E. Amt from R. H. Helmholz, Marriage Litigation in Medieval England (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1975).

Plaintiff’s statement
Before you, my lord judge, the attorney for Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Simon Lovell,
knight, … said and lawfully proposed on her behalf, against Thomas son of Robert
of Marton and whoever legally represents him, that the said Thomas and Elizabeth
contracted marriage by words of mutual consent legitimately pronounced to each other
in the present tense; that the same Thomas, in the presence of Elizabeth and of other
law-worthy individuals expressly admitted this; that these things are public, notorious,
and manifest in the deaconry of Ryedale and nearby places; and that the talk and public
opinion there agrees on these matters. Wherefore the said attorney seeks in the name
above, that, once these matters have been proved in law, the said Thomas be judged by
you, my lord judge, to be the legitimate husband of the same Elizabeth, his lady, and that
he be compelled to take her with marital affection and cleave to her, and furthermore
that everything just be done.

Witness statements
Agnes, daughter of Lord Simon Lovell, knight, was sworn, examined, and carefully ques-
tioned concerning the above points. First, as to whether she knew Thomas son of Robert
of Marton, the defendant, she said that she had known him for ten years, and that Eliza-
beth was her sister. Asked whether she had ever been present when Thomas offered and
said any marriage vows to Elizabeth, she said yes. Asked what the words were, and where
and when they were offered, she said that Thomas and Elizabeth were present in the said
Lord Simon’s brewhouse at Drokton in Ryedale, on the Sunday before the Feast of the
Purification of the Virgin Mary, this year [that is, on Jan. 26, 1326], after dinnertime,
well before dark, when Agnes, who was present, heard Thomas, who was holding Eliza-
beth’s right hand, say these words, “I promise that I will not take in marriage anyone but
you.” And Elizabeth immediately replied, “I promise that I will never have any husband
but you.” And to confirm and secure this agreement they clasped hands and afterwards
kissed each other; a certain Nicholas Bartholomew was also present and a witness with
the Agnes, and no one else as far as she knows.
She also says that she was present in a certain room located above Lord Simon’s gate
at Drokton, on Monday in Easter week, this year [that is, on March 24, 1326], where
she came to Elizabeth with their sister Eufemia; in this room the said Thomas was at that
time lying naked in his bed when she heard, she says, the said Thomas and Elizabeth
speak about marriage vows previously exchanged between them. And Thomas then said
that his friar-confessors had told him that their previous contract was not valid; but that
84  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
it was lawful for either one of them to marry another as they wished. And then the words
of each to each other they voluntarily offered, Thomas speaking first and holding Eliza-
beth’s right hand: “Here I take Elizabeth as my truly wedded wife, to hold and to have
to the end of my life, and to this I pledge my faith.” Elizabeth replied to him, “And I take
you, Thomas, as my truly wedded husband, to hold and to have to the end of my life, and
to this I pledge my faith.” And after this contract they kissed each other. This witness did
not hear other words of marriage offered between them.
Asked who else was present then, the witness said that her sister Eufemia and Thomas’s
servant Richard Hynman were also present with the speakers, and no one else as far as she
knows. Asked what time of day the said contract was begun, she says soon after sunrise. Asked
what clothes the said Elizabeth was dressed in, she says a green overdress with a dress and hood
of red. This witness knows nothing certain on other matters in this case that were put to her.
William of Bessingby was sworn, examined, and carefully questioned. First, as to
whether he knows for certain of any marital contract entered into by Elizabeth … and
Thomas son of Robert of Marton, he says that he was not present at the contract begun
between them; nevertheless he heard them acknowledge, in the presence of the said
Lord Simon, Robert of Marton, Edmund of Stanley, William of Appleton, William of
Thornton, the witness himself and his wife, that they had consented to each other by
vows of marriage, and had contracted to each other by vows of marriage.
Asked where and in what form the aforesaid parties had made the said acknowledg-
ments, he says that Thomas and Elizabeth appeared in Hougham parish church, in front
of the aforesaid people, on the Monday eight days after Michaelmas this year; Elizabeth
went first and asserted that Thomas had first said the following words to her at Drokton
on the Sunday after the most recent Feast of the Purification: “I promise that I will not
take in marriage anyone but you.” And afterwards on the Tuesday of Easter week he
had said the following: “Here I take Elizabeth as my truly wedded wife, to hold and to
have to the end of my life, and to this I pledge my faith.” And as Elizabeth spoke, in
similar words each time Thomas spoke. And afterwards Thomas, after this assertion by
Elizabeth, consulted very briefly with William of Thornton and William of Appleton
and Elizabeth. And immediately returning to Simon and the others named above, he
acknowledged that he had spoken and offered such marriage vows to Elizabeth in the
form recited by Elizabeth. But Thomas added that at the time when he made and offered
such marriage vows to Elizabeth, he thought in his mind and will that he would not fulfill
the said contract unless their friends [and family] agreed. And then Elizabeth replied to
him that she did not know about this idea, but that the contract was a simple one, without
any condition. Thomas said nothing to contradict this assertion.
Note that on Dec. 28, 1326, Thomas son of Robert of Marton, appearing before us,
the official of the church of York and commissary general in the greater church of York,
… judicially confessed before us that he had solemnized a marriage with a certain Elena
daughter of Jordan of Aneport, dwelling at Ryngoy in the diocese of Chester, pending
the lawsuit over the marriage with Elizabeth daughter of Lord Simon Lovell, knight,
which is not yet decided; nevertheless he asserted that he had made a precontract of
marriage with the aforesaid Elena before the unfinished lawsuit.

Judgment
In the name of the Lord, amen. Having heard and understood the merits of the marriage
case brought before us, the official of the church of York, between Elizabeth daughter of
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  85
Lord Simon Lovell, knight, … and Thomas son of Robert of Marton, … we find the said
plaintiff to have sufficiently proved the case she brought to trial before us, and we defini-
tively judge and pronounce, in this writing, the aforesaid Thomas to be the legitimate
husband of the said Elizabeth. 27 Nov., 1328.

Questions: How did the “wedding” of Elizabeth and Thomas differ from what we might expect?
By what steps did it take place? Which marriage-law issues arose in this lawsuit? How may social
status have factored into the relationship? What role did family members and acquaintances play,
or seem to have played?

26. D owry practices in I taly (14 th c .)

In late medieval Italy, a woman’s right to inherit property from her father’s family was
increasingly curtailed. On the other hand, dowry became increasingly important in
marriage arrangements, to the extent that it was hard for people to conceive of marriage
without a dowry, and the amount of the dowry was critical in negotiations. Thus the
dowry became a woman’s compensation for losing her stake in the patrimonial inherit-
ance. These two trends are illustrated below, in two very different documents.
Source: Dowry law tr. Trevor Dean, The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2000); diary tr. Julia Martines in Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence,
ed. Gene Brucker (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 1991).

Dowry law (Perugia, 1342)

If any woman is given a dowry by her father, mother, brother, maternal or paternal
uncle or any other person, such a woman and her descendants cannot and may not have
any reversionary claim on the inheritance of any of those who endowed her, or of their
descendants in the male line, while any male descendant survives. Moreover, if a woman
is given a dowry by her brother or brothers, and one of those brothers dies without
sons, then the other brothers or nephews succeed and the woman and her descendants
are excluded from the inheritance. Except in all cases the last will and testament of any
of the above: if they leave anything to an endowed woman, this is to be observed. And
except that, in time of need, women can have food and clothing from the inheritance, as
its resources allow.

Diary of Gregorio Dati (14th c.)

As appears in these accounts, [my business associates and I] renewed our partnership
on 1 January 1393 when I undertook to invest 1,000 florins. I did not actually have the
money but was about to get married [again] – which I then did – and to receive the
dowry which procured me a larger share and more consideration in our company. Yet
we achieved little that year. …
In God’s name, I shall continue this record of my activities, which it is well to have
in writing so as to recollect them, and which I began back on page 1. My beloved wife,
Bandecca, went to Paradise after a nine-month illness started by a miscarriage in the
fifth month of pregnancy. It was eleven o’clock at night on Friday, 15 July 1390, when
she peacefully returned her soul to her Creator … The next day I had her buried in S.
Brancazio; she had received the last sacraments. …
86  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
In the name of God and the Virgin Mary … and all the blessed saints in heaven – may
they ever intercede for us – I shall record here how I married my second wife, Isabetta,
known as Betta, the daughter of Mari de Lorenzo Vilanuzzi and of Monna Veronica,
daughter of Pagolo d’Arrigo Guglielmi, and I shall also record the promises which were
made to me. May God and his Saints grant by their grace that they be kept.
On 31 March 1393, I was betrothed to her and on Easter Monday, 7 April, I gave
her the ring. On 22 June, a Sunday, I became her husband in the name of God and good
fortune. Her first cousins, Giovanni and Lionardo di Domenico Arrighi, promised that
she should have a dowry of 900 gold florins and that, apart from the dowry, she should
have the income on a farm in S. Fiore a Elsa, which had been left her as a legacy by her
mother, Monna Veronica. It was not stated at the time how much this amounted to, but it
was understood that she would receive the accounts. We arranged our match very simply
indeed and with scarcely any discussion. God grant that nothing but good may come of
it. On the 26th of that say June, I received a payment of 800 gold florins from the bank of
Giacomino and Company. This was the dowry. I invested it in the shop of Buonoccorso
Berardi and his partners, and it is recorded here, on page 2 among the profits. At the same
time I received the trousseau which my wife’s cousins valued at 106 florins, in the light of
which they deducted six florins from another account, leaving me the equivalent of 100
gold florins. But from what I heard from her and what I saw myself, they had overestimated
it by 30 florins or more. However, from politeness, I said nothing about this.
I have not declared this dowry nor insured it on account of their negligence and in
order to put off paying the tax. They dare not urge me to do so since they are obligated
towards me. Yet I must do so, and if by God’s will something were to happen before
I do, I want her to be as assured as can be of having her dowry, just as though it had
been declared and insured. For the fault is not hers. It turns out that the income she is
to receive comes from a farm in S. Fiore on the Elsa on the way to Pisa. It is a nice piece
of property which apparently belonged to Pagolo Guglielmi. Giovanni and Lionardo
bought it from Betta’s mother, Monna Veronica, or rather bought a half-share in it for
500 gold florins and paid a tax on this sale. Later they sold back their share to Monna
Veronica, paying another tax, for 575 florins … When Monna Veronica died in April
1391, she left the income from this farm to Betta and to her children after her.
On 26 September 1402 … as the penalties for evading the tax on contracts were
remitted by law for those who paid that day, I … declared the dowry of 900 gold florins
received from Leonardo and Domenico … and on the 30th of September, I paid 30 gold
florins, being 3½ per cent, to the account of the taxes on contracts.

Questions: Although the two documents are from different cities, how do the ideas apparent in them
relate to each other? What male attitudes toward marriage and toward female family members are
detectable here? How do we see women taking action or expressing themselves?

27. T he householder of P aris : M anual for his wife ( ca . 1392)

The anonymous author of this work is known as the Ménagier (“householder” or
“goodman”) of Paris. The book he wrote is addressed to his young wife, and is a guide
for her good behavior and housekeeping; much of the material in it which is not repro-
duced here consists of moral advice and illustrative stories. It is one of the most famous
and widely used sources for the lives of medieval women. Like any prescriptive work, it
presents an idealized picture – things the way they should be. But it was written with prac-
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  87
tical problems in mind and was intended to be of real use in guiding an actual woman
in her day-to-day life. The author was a wealthy, middle-aged member of urban society;
his wife came from the lower nobility. The work also tells us something about the lives
of women other than the young wife herself; the day-to-day activities of Dame Agnes
the Beguine (who served as their housekeeper) and various female employees are also
described. We can only speculate on the author’s sources of information, especially for
the practical aspects of housekeeping, which would hardly have been within his own
realm of experience; perhaps we hear Dame Agnes’ voice in these parts.
Source: Adapted from the translation by Eileen Power, The Goodman of Paris (London: George
Routledge & Sons, 1928); Old French text in Le Ménagier de Paris, eds. Georgine E. Brereton and
Janet M. Ferrier (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1981).

Prologue
Dear Sister,
At the age of fifteen years, in the week that you and I were wed, you asked me to be
indulgent to your youth and to your small and ignorant service, until you had seen and
learned more; to this end you promised that you would give me all heed and would be
very careful and diligent to keep my love; you spoke full wisely, and, I am sure, with
wisdom other than your own, beseeching me humbly in our bed, I remember, for the
love of God, not to correct you harshly before strangers or before our own people, but
rather each night, or from day to day, in our chamber, to remind you of unseemly or
foolish things done in the day or days past, and chastise you, if it pleased me, and then
you would strive to amend yourself according to my teaching and correction, and to
serve my will in all things, as you said. And your words were pleasing to me, and won
my praise and thanks, and I have often remembered them since. And know, dear sister,
that all that I know you have done since we were wed until now and all that you shall do
hereafter with good intent, was and is to my liking, pleases me, and has well pleased me,
and will please me. For your youth excuses your unwisdom and will still excuse you in
all things as long as all you do is with good intent and not displeasing to me. And know
that I am pleased rather than displeased that you tend rose-trees, and care for violets,
and make chaplets, and dance, and sing: nor would I have you cease to do so among our
friends and equals, and it is good and seemly so to pass the time of our youth, so long as
you neither seek nor try to go to the feasts and dances of lords of too high rank, for that
does not become you, nor is it compatible with your rank or mine.
And as for the greater service that you say you would willingly do for me, if you were
able and I taught it to you, know, dear sister, that I am well content that you should do
me such service as your good neighbors of similar rank do for their husbands, and as your
kinswomen do unto their husbands. Ask their advice in private, and then follow it either
more or less as you please. For I am not so overwhelming in my attitude to you and your
good intent that I am not satisfied with what you do for me therein, nor with all other
services, provided there be no disorder or scorn or disdain, and that you are careful.
For although I know well that you are of gentler birth than I, nevertheless that would
not protect you, for, by God, the women of your lineage are good enough to correct
you harshly themselves, if I did not, if they were to learn of your error from me or from
another source; but I have no worry for you; I have confidence in your good intent. Yet
although, as I have said, you owe me only the lesser service, I want you to know how to
give good will and service and honor in greater measure and abundance than is fit for
88  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
me, either so that you may serve another husband, if you have one, after me, or to be
able to teach greater wisdom to your daughters, friends or others, if you choose and have
such a need. For the more you know the greater your honor and the greater the praise
belonging to your parents and to me and to others around you, by whom you have been
nurtured. And for your honor and love, and not for my service (for I deserve only the
common service, or less), since I had pity and loving compassion on you who for so long
have had neither father not mother, not any of your kinswomen near you to whom you
might turn for counsel in your private needs, but only myself, for whom you were brought
from your kin and the country of your birth – for these reasons I have often wondered
how I might find a simple general introduction to teach you the things which you might
already have known how to introduce into your work and care, had you not had these
difficulties. And lastly, it seems to me that if your love is as it has appeared in your good
words, it can be accomplished in this way, namely in a general instruction that I will write
for you and present to you, in three sections containing nineteen principal articles.
The first section of the three is necessary to gain the love of God and the salvation
of your soul, and also to win the love of your husband and to give you in this world that
peace which should be in marriage. And because these two things, namely the salvation
of your soul and the comfort of your husband, are the two things most necessary, there-
fore are they here placed first. And this first section contains nine articles.
The first article speaks of worshipping and thanking our Savior and his blessed Mother
at your waking and your rising, and of apparelling yourself suitably. The second article
speaks of fit companions, and of going to church, and of choosing your place, of hearing
mass and of making confession. The third article is that you should love God and his
blessed Mother and serve them continually and set and keep yourself in their grace.
The fourth article is that you should dwell in continence and chastity, after the
example of Susanna, of Lucretia, and others. The fifth article is that you should love your
husband (whether myself or another) after the example of Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel.
The sixth article is that you should be humble and obedient to him after the example of
Griselda [and others]. … The seventh that you be careful and heedful of his person. The
eighth that you be silent in hiding his secrets. … The ninth and last article shows that if
your husband should try to act foolishly or does act so, you must wisely and humbly draw
him away from such action. …
The second section is necessary to increase the profit of the household, gain friends
and save one’s possessions; to succor and aid oneself against the ill fortunes of age to
come, and it contains six articles.
The first article is that you take care of your household with diligence and persever-
ance and respect for work; take pains to find pleasure therein and I will do likewise on
my part. … The second article is that at the least you take pleasure and have some little
skill in the care and cultivation of a garden, grafting in due season and keeping roses
in winter. The third article is that you know how to choose menservants, doorkeepers,
handymen or other strong folk to perform the heavy work that from hour to hour must
be done, and likewise laborers, etc. And also tailors, shoemakers, bakers, pastry-makers,
etc. And in particular how to set the household menservants and chambermaids to work,
to sift and winnow grain, clean dresses, air and dry, and how to order your folk to take
thought for the sheep and horses and keep and amend wines. The fourth article is that
you, as sovereign mistress of your house, know how to order dinners, suppers, dishes and
courses, and be wise in that which concerns the butcher and the poulterer, and have
knowledge of spices. The fifth article is that you know how to order, ordain, devise and
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  89
have made all manner of pottages [that is, soups and stews], civeys, sauces and all other
meats, and the same for sick folk.
The third section tells of games and amusements that are pleasant enough to keep
you in countenance and give you something to talk about in company, and contains
three articles. The first article is concerned with amusing questions, which are set out and
answered in strange fashion by the chance of dice and by rooks and kings. The second
article is how to feed and fly the falcon. The third article tells of certain other riddles
concerning counting and numbering, which are subtle to find out and guess.

Caring for a husband

The seventh article of the first section shows how you should be careful and thoughtful
of your husband’s person. So, fair sister, if you have another husband after me, know
that you should think much of his person, for after a woman has lost her first husband
and marriage, she commonly finds it hard to find a second to her liking, according to
her rank, and she remains lonely and disconsolate for a long time, and the more so if she
loses the second. So love your husband’s person carefully, and I pray you keep him in
clean linen, for that is your business, and because the trouble and care of outside affairs
lies with men, so must husbands take heed, and go and come, and journey hither and
thither, in rain and wind, in snow and hail, now drenched, now dry, now sweating, now
shivering, ill-fed, ill-lodged, ill-warmed and ill-bedded. And nothing harms him, because
he is upheld by the hope which he has of the care which his wife will take of him on his
return, and of the ease, the joys and the pleasures which she will do to him, or cause to
be done to him in her presence; to be unshod before a good fire, to have his feet washed
and fresh shoes and hose, to be given good food and drink, to be well served and well
looked after, well bedded in white sheets and nightcaps, well covered with good furs, and
assuaged with other joys and amusements, intimacies, loves and secrets whereof I am
silent. And the next day fresh shirts and garments.
Certainly, fair sister, such services make a man love and desire to return to his home
and to see his good wife, and to be distant with others. So I advise you to make such
cheer to your husband at all his comings and stayings, and to persevere in this; and also
be peaceable with him, and remember the rustic proverb, which says there are three
things which drive the goodman from home: a leaking roof, a smoky chimney and a
scolding woman. And therefore, dear sister, I beseech you that, to keep yourself in the
love and good favor of your husband, you be unto him gentle, and amiable, and good-
tempered … and beware of roofless house and of smoky fire, and scold him not, but be
unto him gentle and amiable and peaceable. Have a care that in winter he has a good fire
and smokeless and let him rest well and be well covered between your breasts, and thus
bewitch him. And in summer take heed that there be no fleas in your chamber, nor in
your bed, the which you may do in six ways, I have heard. For I have heard from several
that if the room is strewn with alder leaves, the fleas will be caught on them. And I have
heard that if you have at night one or two bread trenchers slimed with glue or turpentine
and set about the room, with a lighted candle in the midst of each trencher, they will
come and be stuck to them. Another way, which I have tried and which works, is to take
a rough cloth and spread it about your room and over your bed, and all the fleas that
hop onto it will be caught, so that you may carry them away with the cloth wherever you
want. And also sheepskins. And I have seen blankets set on the straw [on the floor] and
on the bed, and when the black fleas hopped onto them, they were more easily found on
90  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
the white, and killed. But the best way is to guard oneself against those inside the cover-
lets and the furs, and the material of the dresses with which one is covered. For that I
have tried this: when the coverlets, furs or dresses, in which there are fleas, are folded and
shut tightly up, for instance in a chest tightly bound with straps, or in a bag well tied up
and pressed, or otherwise put and pressed so the aforesaid fleas are without light and air
and are kept imprisoned, then they will perish forthwith and die. And I have sometimes
seen in diverse chambers, that when one had gone to bed they were so full of mosquitoes,
which at the smoke of the breath came to sit on the faces of those that slept, and stung
them so hard, that they had to get up and light a fire of hay, in order to make a smoke so
that they had to fly away or die. And this may be done by day if they are suspected. And
likewise he who has a mosquito net may protect himself with that.
And if you have a chamber or a passage where there are a great many flies, take little
sprigs of fern and tie them to threads like tassels, and hang them up, and all the flies will
settle on them at eventide; then take the tassels down and throw them out. … [Several
more remedies for flies follow.]
And thus shall you preserve and keep your husband from all discomforts and give him
all the comforts you can bethink of, and serve him and have him served in your house,
and you shall rely on him for outside things, for if he is good he will take even more pains
and labor in them than you would wish, and by doing what I have said you will cause him
to miss you all the time and have his heart with you and your loving service, and he will
shun all other houses, all other women, all other services and households. …
But there are certain old hags, who are sly and play the wise woman and pretend great
love by way of showing their heart’s great service, and nothing else; and be sure, fair sister,
that the husbands are fools if they do not notice it. And when they do notice it, and the
husband and wife grow silent, and pretend with each other, it is an ill beginning and will
lead to a worse end. And there are some women who serve their husbands very well in the
beginning, and then they find that their husbands are then so loving to them and so good-
tempered, that they think those husbands will scarcely dare to be angry with them, if they
do less, so they slacken and little by little they try to show less respect and service and obedi-
ence, but – what is more – they take upon themselves authority, command and lordship,
first in a small thing, then in a larger, and a little more every day. Thus they attempt and
advance and rise, they think, and they think that their husbands, who say nothing about
this because they are so good-tempered or perhaps because they are setting a trap, do not
notice it, because they permit it thus. And certainly, it is an ill thought and deed, for when
the husbands see that they cease their service, and climb to domination, and that they do it
too much, and that by enduring ill, good may come, then those women are all at once, by
their husband’s rightful will, cast down even as Lucifer was. … Wherefore you should be
obedient in the beginning and ever persevere therein, according to this example.

Dealing with servants

Which tells how to choose serving men, servants and chambermaids, etc.
Concerning which matter, dear sister, if perchance you should desire to become a good
housewife, or to help thereto some lady among your friends, know that serving folk be of
three kinds. There are some who are hired as workmen for a fixed time, to perform some
short piece of work, as porters who carry burdens on their backs, wheelbarrow men, packers
and the like; or for one day or two, a week or a short season, to perform some necessary, or
difficult, or laborious work, as reapers, mowers, threshers, vintagers, basket bearers, wine
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  91
pressers, coopers and the like. Others are hired for a time and for a special craft, as dress-
makers, furriers, bakers, butchers, shoemakers and the like, who work by the piece upon a
particular task. And others are taken to be domestic servants, serving by the year and dwelling
in the house. And of all these there is none who does not full readily seek work and a master.
As for the first, they are necessary for the unloading and carrying of burdens and the
doing of heavy work; and these are commonly tiresome, rough and prone to answer back,
arrogant, haughty (except on pay day), and ready to break into insults and reproaches if you
do not pay them what they ask when the work is done. So I pray you, dear sister, that when
you need such things done, you bid master Jehan the Dispenser or other of your folk to seek
out, choose and take, or cause to be sought out, chosen and taken, the peaceable ones; and
always bargain with them before they set hand to the work, that there may be no dispute
afterwards. Still, most often they wish not to bargain, but desire to fall upon the task without
bargain made, and they say nicely: “Milord, it is nothing – there is no need; you will pay me
well, and I shall be content with what you think fit.” And if Master Jehan takes them thus,
when the work is finished they will say, “Sir, there was more to do than I thought; there was
this and that to do, and here and there to go,” and they will not take what is given and will
break out into shouting and foul words. So bid Master Jehan not to set them to work, not
allow them to be set to work, without first making terms with them, for those that desire to
earn are your subjects before the work is begun, and for the need that they have to earn they
fear lest another should take it before them and fear to lose the work and the wage thereof to
another. Wherefore they bear themselves more reasonably. And if perchance Master Jehan
were to believe in them and put too great faith in their fair words, and it happened therefore
that he allowed them to begin work without bargaining, they know well that after they have
set their hand to it, none other for shame will meddle with it, and so you will be in their power
afterwards and they will ask more; and if then they are not paid according to their will, they
will cry and shout foul and outrageous blame upon you; and they have no shame and spread
abroad evil report concerning you, which is worst of all. Wherefore it is better to bargain with
them plainly and openly before the work, to avoid all argument. And certainly, this I do beg
of you, that if need be you cause enquiry to be made, how those whom you would set to work
have borne themselves toward others, and also that you have nothing to do with folk who
answer back and are arrogant, proud and scornful, or give foul answers, however great profit
or advantage it seems to be and however cheaply they are willing to come; but graciously
and quietly send them away from you and from your work, for if once they begin thereon,
you shall not escape without slander and wrangling. Wherefore cause your people to engage
servants and workmen who are peaceful and good-humored, and pay them more, for peace
and rest lie entirely in having worthy servants to deal with; for which reason there is a saying:
“He that hath to do with good servants, he hath peace,” and likewise one might well say that
he that has to deal with grumblers stores up sorrow for himself.
And concerning others, such as vintagers, threshers, laborers and the like, or such as
tailors, clothmakers, shoemakers, bakers, farriers, tallow-candlemakers, spicers, blacksmiths,
wheelwrights, and others like unto them, dear sister, I counsel and pray you ever to bear
in mind that you bid your people to have quiet folk to work for them and to make bargain
beforehand and to reckon and make payment often, without long credit by tally or on paper.
Nevertheless, it is better to keep tally and paper than to keep all things in the memory, for
creditors think ever that the sum is more and debtors that it is less, and thereby is born wran-
gling, hatred and foul reproach; and cause your good creditors to be paid readily and often
that which is owing to them and bear yourself lovingly towards them, that they change not
towards you; for it is not always possible to find others that are peaceable folk.
92  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
And as to chambermaids and house servants, who are called domestics, know, dear sister,
that in order that they may obey you better and fear the more to anger you, I leave you the
rule and authority to have them chosen by Dame Agnes the Beguine, or whichever other of
your women you please, to receive them into our service, to hire them at your pleasure, to
pay and keep them in our service as you please, and to dismiss them when you will. Never-
theless you should speak privately with me about it and act according to my advice, because
you are too young and might be deceived by your own people. And know that of those
chambermaids who are unemployed, there are many who offer themselves and clamor and
seek urgently for masters and mistresses; and of these take none until you first know where
their last place was, and send some of your people to get their character, that is whether they
chattered or drank too much, how long they were in the place, what work they have been
wont to do and know how to do, whether they have homes or friends in the town, from what
manner of folk and what part of the country they come, how long they were there and why
they left; and by their work in the past you shall find out what hope or expectation you may
have of their work in the future. And know that often such women from distant parts of the
country have been blamed for some vice in their own district and this is what brings them into
service at a distance. For if they were without fault they would be mistresses and not servants;
and of men I say the same. And if you find from the report of her master and mistress that
a girl is what you need, find out from her and cause Master Jehan to register in his account
book in her presence, on that same day whereon you engage her, her name and the names
of her father and mother and some of her kinfolk, and the place where they live and her
birthplace and references. For servants will fear the more to do wrong if they know that you
are recording these things, and that if they leave you without permissions, or are guilty of any
offense, you will write and complain to the justice of their country and to their friends. And
notwithstanding bear in mind the saying of the philosopher called Bertram the Old, who says
that if you engage a maid or man of high and proud answers, you shall know that when she
leaves she will miscall you if she can; and if, on the contrary, she is flattering and full of blan-
dishments, trust her not, for she seeks to trick you in some other way; but if she blushes and is
silent and ashamed when you correct her, love her as your daughter.
Next, dear sister, know that after your husband you should be mistress of the house,
the giver of orders, visitor, ruler and sovereign administrator, and it is for you to keep
your maidservants in subjection and obedience to you, teaching, correcting and chas-
tising them; wherefore forbid them all excess and gluttony of life.
Also forbid them to quarrel with each other or with your neighbors; forbid them to speak
ill of others, save only to you and in secret, and only in so far as the misdeed concerns your
profit, and to save harm from befalling you and not otherwise; forbid them to lie, to play at
forbidden games, to swear foully and to utter words that smell of villainy, unseemly words and
ribald, as do certain evil or ill-bred persons, who curse about “bloody bad fevers, the bloody
bad week, the bloody bad day.” … Forbid revenge to them and teach them in all patience
by the example of Melibeus, of whom I have told you. And as for you yourself, dear sister, be
such in all that you do, that in you they may find an example of all goodness.
Now we must speak of setting your folk and your servants to work at times suitable
for work and of giving them rest likewise at due times. Concerning the which matter,
dear sister, know that you and Dame Agnes the Beguine (who is with you to teach you
wise and ripe behavior and to serve and train you, and to whom in particular I give the
charge of this matter) must devise and order and lay one duty upon one and another
upon the other, according to the work which has to be done and the fitness of your folk
to one sort of labor or another. And if you bid them to do something now and these your
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  93
servants answer, “There is plenty of time,” “It shall be done soon,” or “It shall be done
early tomorrow morning,” consider it to be forgotten; all must be done again; it goes for
nothing. And likewise concerning that which you order all in general to do, know that
each waits for the other to do it, and it is as before.
So be warned, and bid Dame Agnes the Beguine to see that what you desire to be
done at once is begun before her eyes; at first, let her bid the chambermaids very early
to sweep out and clean the entrances to your house, that is the hall and other places
whereby people enter and stay to speak in the house, and let them dust and shake out
the covers and cushions which are on the benches; and afterwards let the other rooms be
likewise cleaned and tidied for the day, and so daily, as is fitting for our rank.
And through the same Dame Agnes you should chiefly and carefully and diligently
take thought for your chamber animals, such as little dogs and birds; and you and the
Beguine should also take thought for other domestic birds, for they cannot speak, and
therefore you must speak and think for them, if you have any.
And also I bid Dame Agnes the Beguine, when you are in the country, to order those
whose business it is to take thought for the other beasts; such as Robin the shepherd, to
look to his sheep, ewes and lambs, and Josson the oxherd to his oxen and bulls, Arnould
the cowherd and Jehanneton the dairymaid to take thought for the cows, the heifers and
the calves, the sows, pigs and piglets, Eudeline the farmer’s wife to look to the geese,
goslings, cocks, hens, chickens, doves and pigeons, and the carter or the farmer to take
thought for our horses, mares and the like. And the said Beguine and you yourself like-
wise, ought to show your folk that you know about it all and care about it, for so will
they be the more diligent. And, if you remember, cause your people to remember to
feed these beasts and birds, and Dame Agnes ought to lay this work upon those men and
women who are best suited to it. And hereupon, let it be observed that it behooves you to
cause Dame Agnes to inform you of the number of your sheep, ewes and lambs, and to
have them constantly visited and to make enquiry concerning their increase and decrease
and how or by whom they are cared for, and she should report it to you, and between the
two of you, you should cause it to be written down. …
Now let me return to the subject of how you and the Beguine shall set your folk to work
at fit times and shall cause your women to air and go over your sheets, coverlets, dresses
and furs, fur coverlets and other things of the sort. Concerning which, know and tell your
women that in order to preserve your fur coverlets and your stuffs, it is good to air them
often, in order to prevent the damage which moths may do to them; and because such
vermin gather when the cold weather of autumn and winter grows milder and are born
in the summer, at such time it behooves you to set out furs and stuffs in the sun in fair and
dry weather; and if there comes a dark damp mist that clings to your dresses, and you fold
them in such a condition, that mist folded and wrapped up in your dresses will shelter
and breed worse vermin than before. Wherefore choose a fine dry day, as soon as you see
heavier weather coming, before it reaches you, have your dresses hung up under cover
and shaken to get rid of most of the dust, then cleaned by beating them with rods. And the
Beguine knows well that if there be any spot of oil or other grease, this is the remedy: Take
wine and heat it until it is warm, and set the stain to soak in it for two days, and then wring
out the stuff in which the stain is, without squeezing it too hard, and if the stain is not gone,
let Dame Agnes the Beguine have more wine prepared and mix oxgall with it, and do as
before. … [Several more stain removers are described, and other household hints given.]
And after this and with this, fair sister, bid Master Jehan the Dispenser to order Richart
of the kitchen to air, wash and clean and do all things that pertain to the kitchen, and see
94  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
that Dame Alice the Beguine for the women and Master Jehan the Dispenser for the men
set your folk to work on all sides: the one upstairs, the other downstairs, the one in the fields,
the other in the town, the one in the chamber, the other in the solar, or the kitchen, and
send one here, the other there, each according to his place and his skill, so that these serv-
ants all earn their wages, men and women according to what they know and have to do;
and if they do so, they will do well, for laziness and idleness are the root of all evil.
Nevertheless, fair sister, at suitable times have them all seated at table, and give them
to eat one kind of meat only, but plenty of it, and not several varieties, not dainties and
delicacies; and order them one drink, nourishing but not intoxicating, whether it is wine
or something else, but not several kinds. And bid them to eat well and drink well and
deeply, for it is reasonable that they should eat at a stretch, without sitting too long over
their food and without lingering over their meat, or staying with their elbows on the
table. And as soon as they begin to tell tales and to argue and to lean upon their elbows,
order the Beguine to make them rise and remove their table, for the common folk have a
saying, “When a servant holds forth at table and a horse grazes in the ditch, it is time to
take them away, for they have had their fill.” Forbid them to get drunk, and never allow
a drunken person to serve you nor approach you, for it is perilous; and after they have
taken their midday meal, when it is due time, cause your folk to set them to work again.
And after their afternoon’s work, upon feast days, let them have another meal, and after
that, in the evening, let them be fed abundantly and well as before, and if the weather is
cold let them warm themselves and take their ease.
After this, let your house be closed and shut up by Master Jehan the Dispenser or by
the Beguine, and let one of them keep the keys, so that none may go in or out without
leave. And every evening before you go to bed, cause Dame Agnes the Beguine or Master
Jehan the Dispenser to go round with a lighted candle, to inspect your wines, verjuice and
vinegar, to see that none has been taken away, and bid your farmer to find out from his
men whether your beasts have fodder for the night. And when you have made sure from
Dame Agnes or Master Jehan that the fires on your hearths are all covered, give your folk
time and space for the repose of their limbs. And make certain before bedtime that each
of them has, at a distance from his bed, a candlestick with a large foot in which to put his
candle, and that they have been wisely taught how to extinguish it with mouth or hand
before getting into bed, and by no means with their shirts. And you should also have them
admonished and told, each separately, what he must begin to do on the morrow, and how
each must rise up on the morrow and set to work on his own task, and let each be informed
thereon. And still there are two things I would say to you: the one is that if you have girls
or chambermaids of fifteen to twenty years, since they are foolish at that age and have seen
nothing of the world, have them sleep near you, in a closet or chamber, where there is no
dormer window or low window looking onto the road, and let them go to bed and arise
at your own time, and you yourself (who, if God please, will be wise by this time) should
be near to guard them. The other thing is that if one of your servants falls ill, lay all your
concerns aside, and take care of him yourself full lovingly and kindly, and visit him and
think of him or her very carefully, seeking to bring about his cure. And thus you will have
fulfilled this article.

Questions: How would you characterize the relationship between this husband and wife? How is the
wife’s spiritual health related to her role as a wife? What is the wife’s role in the household? What
are Dame Agnes’s duties? What is the relationship between the wife and Dame Agnes? What role
does social rank play in this marriage?
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  95
28. L iturgy for mothers (11 th –16 th c .)
These extracts come from the liturgy for two short church services, one a mass on
behalf of pregnant women and those in labor, and the other for the “churching” of
women – the blessing of women who had recently given birth and were attending
church for the first time after the delivery.
Source: The Sarum Missal in English, tr. Frederick E. Warren (London: Alexander Moring Ltd,
1911).

Prayers for women pregnant and in labor

Kind virgin of virgins, holy mother of God, present on behalf of thy devoted hand-
maidens their earnest prayers to the Son, thou that art the benign assister of women in
travail. …
Hearken, O most merciful Father, to the entreaty of thy servant on behalf of thy poor
handmaidens who are now, or who shall be hereafter, in labour; most humbly entreating
thy majesty, that as by thy providence thou hast ordered that they do conceive, so by
thy blessing thou wouldest go before them, and bring matters to a speedy and successful
issue, to the honour of thy holy name, through the intercession of the glorious virgin. …
Poor women, labouring with child, flee to thy succour, O Mary; whom I entreat thee
that thou despise not in the hour of their necessity, but deliver them from all dangers,
virgin ever blessed. …
Hail, Mary, consoler of women in labour, full of grace, helper of infants; because the
Lord is with thee, be their protector; that thou mayest be blessed above women, and that
the fruit of thy womb may be extolled by all Christians as blessed above all.

Blessing of a woman after childbirth

[The service begins outside the church.]
[Priest:] “O God, who hast delivered this woman thy servant from the peril of child-
birth, and hast made her to be devoted to thy service; grant that when the course of this
life hath been faithfully finished, she may obtain eternal life, and rest under the wings of
thy mercy.”
Then shall the woman be sprinkled with holy water by the priest, saying, “Thou shalt
purge me, O Lord, with hyssop.”
Then shall the priest lead her by the right hand into the church, saying, “Enter into
the temple of God, that thou mayest have eternal life, and live for ever and ever.”

Questions: Why would these services be needed? What beliefs and assumptions underlie their exist-
ence? Do they recall ideas from other documents that you have read?

29. T he T rotula : O n the conditions of women (12 th c .)

The three medical texts on diseases, treatments, and cosmetics for women, known
collectively as the Trotula, were written in the Italian city of Salerno, probably in the
twelfth century. The title originated with a female author named Trota, responsible
for one of the texts, but her identity is largely lost to us. Instead we have a collection
of writings that were much copied and adapted throughout the later Middle Ages,
96  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
for use by practitioners who were eager for authoritative information about women’s
bodies and useful remedies for their specific problems. Salerno was famous for its
medical school, with a faculty of learned men, but much of the actual health care
of women across Europe, particularly in gynecological matters, was provided by
midwives and other women.
Source: The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine, ed. and tr. Monica H. Green (Phila-
delphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).

1. When God the creator of the universe in the first establishment of the world differ-
entiated the individual natures of things each according to its kind, He endowed
human nature above all other things with a singular dignity, giving to it above the
condition of all other animals freedom of reason and intellect. And wishing to sustain
its generation in perpetuity, He created the male and the female with provident,
dispensing deliberation, laying out in the separate sexes the foundation for the
propagation of future offspring. And so that from them there might emerge fertile
offspring, he endowed their complexions with a certain pleasing commixtion, consti-
tuting the nature of the male hot and dry. But lest the male overflow with either one
of these qualities, He wished by the opposing frigidity and humidity of the woman to
rein him in from too much excess, so that the stronger qualities, that is the heat and
the dryness, should rule the man, who is the stronger and more worthy person, while
the weaker ones, that is to say the coldness and humidity, should rule the weaker
[person], that is the woman. And [God did this] so that by his stronger quality the
male might pour out his duty in the woman just as seed is sown in its designated field,
and so that the woman by her weaker quality, as if made subject to the function of
the man, might receive the seed poured forth in the lap of Nature.
2. Therefore, because women are by nature weaker than men and because they are
most frequently afflicted in childbirth, diseases very often abound in them especially
around the organs devoted to the work of Nature. Moreover, women, from the
condition of their fragility, out of shame and embarrassment do not dare reveal their
anguish over their diseases (which happen in such a private place) to a physician.
Therefore, their misfortune, which ought to be pitied, and especially the influence
of a certain woman stirring my heart, have impelled me to give a clear explana-
tion regarding their diseases in caring for their health. And so with God’s help, I
have labored assiduously to gather in excerpts the more worthy parts of the books
of Hippocrates and Galen, so that I might explain and discuss the causes of their
diseases, their symptoms and their cures.
3. Because there is not enough heat in women to dry up the bad and superfluous
humors which are in them, nor is their weakness able to tolerate sufficient labor so
that Nature might expel [the excess] to the outside through sweat as [it does] in men,
Nature established a certain purgation especially for women, that is, the menses, to
temper their poverty of heat. The common people call the menses “the flowers,”
because just as trees do not bring forth fruit without flowers, so women without their
flowers are cheated of the ability to conceive. This purgation occurs in women just
as nocturnal emission happens to men. For Nature, if burdened by certain humors,
either in men or in women, always tries to expel or set aside its yoke and reduce its
labor.
4. This purgation occurs in women around the thirteenth year, or a little earlier or a little
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  97
later, depending on the degree to which they have an excess or dearth of heat or cold. It
lasts until the fiftieth year if she is thin, sometimes until the sixtieth or sixty-fifth year if she is
moist. In the moderately fat, it lasts until the thirty-fifth year. If this purgation occurs at the
appropriate time and with suitable regularity, Nature frees itself sufficiently of the excess
humors. If, however, the menses flow out either more or less than they ought to, many
sicknesses thus arise, for then the appetite for food as well as for drink is diminished; some-
times there is vomiting, and sometimes they crave earth, coals, chalk, and similar things.
5. Sometimes from the same cause pain is felt in the neck, the back, and in the head.
Sometimes there is acute fever, pangs of the heart, dropsy, or dysentery. These things
happen either because for a long time the menses have been deficient or because the
women do not have any at all. Whence not only dropsy or dysentery or heart pangs
occur, but other very grave diseases.
7. Sometimes women lack the menses because the blood in their bodies is congealed
or coagulated. Sometimes the blood is emitted from other places, such as through
the mouth or the nostrils or in spit or hemorrhoids. Sometimes the menses are defi-
cient on account of excessive pain or wrath or agitation or fear. If, however, they
have ceased for a long time, they make one suspect grave illness in the future. For
sometimes women’s urine turns red or into the color of water in which fresh meat
has been washed. For the same reason, sometimes their face changes into a green or
livid color or into a color like that of grass.

On paucity of the menses

19. If women have scant menses and emit them with pain, take some betony or some
of its powder, some pennyroyal, sea wormwood, mugwort, of each one handful. Let
them be cooked in water or wine until two parts have been consumed. Then strain
through a cloth and let her drink it with the juice of fumitory.
20. If, however, the menses have been deficient for a long time, take two drams of rhubarb,
one dram each of dry mugwort and pepper, and let there be made a powder and let her
drink it morning and evening for three days, and let her cover herself so that she sweats.
21. Likewise, take one handful each of mint, pennyroyal, and rue; three drams of rock
salt, one plant of red cabbage, and three heads of leek. Let all these be cooked
together in a plain pot, and let her drink it in the bath.
24. Likewise, take tansy, clover, mugwort, fry with butter, and place upon the navel.
25. A certain physician made this in the region of France. Take ginger, laurel leaves, and
savin. Pound them and place them together in a plain pot on live coals, and let the woman
sit upon a perforated seat, and let her receive the smoke through the lower members, and
thus the menses will return. Let this be done three or four times or even more often. But
for the woman who frequently makes applications of this kind, it is necessary that she
anoint her vagina inside with cold unguents lest she becomes excessively heated.
26. Also good for the above-mentioned conditions is a fumigation of cumin, fennel, dill,
calamint, mint, nettle – all these mixed together or individually.
27. Scarification also works well for the same condition, and coitus likewise. Phlebotomy
from the hand, however, is harmful.
28. If she has no fever, let her eat leeks, onions, pepper, garlic, cumin, and fishes with
scales. Let her drink strong wine if she has no pain in the head nor any nervous
disorder nor any fever, because wine is harmful in any fever.
98  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
On excessive flux of the menses
29. Sometimes the menses abound beyond what is natural, which has happened because
the veins of the womb are wide and open, or because sometimes they break open
and the blood flows in great quantity. And the flowing blood looks red and clear,
because a lot of blood is generated from an abundance of food and drink; this blood,
when it is not able to be contained within the vessels, erupts out.
31. The cure. If, therefore, the blood is the cause, let it be bled off from the hand or the arm
where the blood is provoked upward. Any sort of gentle cathartic ought also to be taken.
34. Let her eat hens cooked in pastry, fresh fish cooked in vinegar, and barley bread. Let
her drink a decoction made from barley, in which great plantain root is first cooked,
and boil it with the decoction and it will be even better. And afterward boil [the root]
in seawater until it cracks and becomes wrinkled, and let vinegar be added and let it be
strained through a cloth and let it be given to drink. Let her drink red wine diluted with
seawater. And if great plantain root is boiled with the decoction, so much the better.
43. In another fashion, take shells of walnut and make a powder and give it in a drink
with seawater. Then make a plaster of the dung of birds or of a cat [mixed] with
animal grease and let it be placed upon the belly and loins.

On ulcers of the womb

70. Sometimes the womb is ulcerated from the intensity of a medicine or matter, sometimes
from miscarriage; this is recognized by the sanies [that is, discharge] flowing out and
by an ache and stabbing pain of the womb. If there are wounds from sanies and from
corrosion of the vein, the sanies will turn a little bit blackish with a horrible stench. First,
therefore, there ought to be applied things to clean out the sanies and to mitigate the
pain, such as juice of deadly nightshade, great plantain with rose oil, and white of egg
with woman’s milk and with purslane juice and lettuce, which are by nature cold. Let the
diet be cold. Let her be bathed in water where roses; sweet gale, fenugreek, skin of pome-
granate, lentils, oak apples, pomegranate, and similar things have been cooked. But if the
veins have putrefied, let dragon’s blood or myrrh or [Armenian] bole or frankincense or
birthwort be given. From these uncompounded things, make an enema or a pessary.
71. No less useful is acacia with honeysuckle, inserted by means of a pessary.

On the regimen of pregnant women

79. Note that when a woman is in the beginning of her pregnancy, care ought to be
taken that nothing is named in front of her which she is not able to have, because
if she sets her mind on it and it is not given to her, this occasions miscarriage. If,
however, she desires day or chalk or coals, let beans cooked with sugar be given to
her. When the time of birth comes, let her be bathed often, let her belly be anointed
with olive oil or with oil of violets, and let her eat light and readily digestible foods.
80. If her feet swell up, let them be rubbed with rose oil and vinegar, and after the
remaining foods let her eat poultry, quince, and pomegranate.
81. If her belly is distended from windiness, take three drams each of wild celery, mint,
and cowbane, three drams each of mastic, doves, watercress, and madder root, five
drams of sugar, two drams each of castoreum, zedoary, and Florentine iris. Let there
be made a very fine powder, and let it be prepared with honey, and let three scruples
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  99
of it be given to her with wine. This medicine takes away windiness and [danger of]
miscarriage if it is taken as it should be needed.

On those who do not wish to conceive

84. If a woman does not wish to conceive, let her carry against her nude flesh the womb
of a goat which has never had offspring.
85. Or there is found a certain stone, [called] “jet,” which if it is held by the woman or
even tasted prohibits conception.
86. In another fashion, take a male weasel and let its testicles be removed and let it be
released alive. Let the woman carry these testicles with her in her bosom and let her
tie them in goose skin or in another skin, and she will not conceive.
87. If she has been badly torn in birth and afterward for fear of death does not wish to
conceive any more, let her put into the afterbirth as many grains of caper spurge
or barley as the number of years she wishes to remain barren. And if she wishes to
remain barren forever, let her put in a handful.

On difficulty of birth
  90. But there are some women who are so afflicted in the function of birth that hardly ever
or never do they deliver themselves, which has to come about from several causes.
Sometimes extraneous heat supervenes around the inner organs, whence they are
excessively constricted in birth. Sometimes the exit of the womb is too small, either
because the woman is too fat, or sometimes because the fetus is dead and cannot aid
Nature in its movement. And this last condition happens to a young woman giving
birth in the winter when naturally she has a tight orifice of the womb, made more so
on account of the coldness of the season, for she is more constricted by the coldness
of the air. Sometimes from the woman herself all the heat evaporates and she is left
without any strength, and she has none left to help herself [in giving birth].
  91. Treatment. It is expedient for a woman giving birth with difficulty that she be bathed in
water in which mallow, fenugreek, linseed, and barley have been cooked. Let her sides,
belly, hips, and vagina be anointed with oil of violets or rose oil. Let her be rubbed vigor-
ously and let oxizaccara be given in a drink and some powder of mint and wormwood,
and let one ounce be given. Let sneezing be provoked with powder of frankincense
placed in the nostrils. Let the woman be led about at a slow pace through the house.
  92. And those men who assist her ought not look her in the face, because women are
accustomed to be shamed by that during and after birth.
  93. If the child does not come out in the manner in which it ought, as when the legs
or arms exit first, let a midwife assist with a small and smooth hand moistened in a
decoction of linseed and fenugreek, and let her replace the child in its place and let
her put it in its correct position.
  94. If the child is dead, take rue, mugwort, wormwood, and black pepper. This whole
mixture, having been ground and given in wine, is good [for this condition], or
[when it is given] with water in which lupins have been cooked.
  95. Or let summer savory be ground and tied upon the belly, and the fetus will come
out whether it is alive or dead.
104. If the afterbirth remains inside, haste must be made to eject it. Therefore, let
sneezing be provoked, and let this be done with the mouth and nose dosed.
100  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
108. And let her be suffumigated from below with the eyes of salty fish or with some horse’s
hoofs or with some dung of a cat or lamb. For these things bring down the afterbirth.
109. Also it helps to cook linseed in hot water and to give it to drink.
110. This does the same thing: bdellium with wine.
111. If, however, the blood does not exit after the afterbirth, let those things be done
which have been said to provoke the menses.
112. If after birth the womb aches, take one dram each of storax, frankincense, and
the juice of opium poppy, and two drams of the seed of black grapes. Let them be
placed upon some coals and let the woman be suffumigated. This aids greatly.

On choosing a wet nurse

126. A wet nurse ought to be young, having a clear color, a woman who has redness
mixed with white, who is not too close to her last birth nor too far removed from
it either, who is not blemished, nor who has breasts that are flabby or too large, a
woman who has a large and ample chest, and who is a little bit fat.
127. Her diet. She should not eat salty or spicy or pungent things, nor those things in
which heat is strong, nor styptic things, nor leeks or onions, nor the rest of those
spices which are added to foods for flavoring, such as pepper, garlic, garden rocket,
but above all garlic. Also, let her avoid anxiety and let her beware provoking her own
menses. And if her milk is diminished, let porridges made of bean flour and likewise
of rice, and wheat bread and milk and sugar be given to her to drink, by which things
the milk is augmented, and let a little fennel seed be mixed in. If, on the other hand,
her milk becomes thick, let her nutriment be made subtle, and so let her be compelled
to work. In addition, vinegary syrup and light wine ought to be given to her. If the
milk becomes thin, let her nutriments be thick and strong, and let her get more sleep.
If the bowel of the child is loose, let constipating things be given to the nurse.

Questions: What medical and other principles seem to be applied here? How might one categorize the
types of remedies described? How effective are the various remedies likely to have been? Why would
patients be concerned about lack of menses? What was the role of the wet nurse in the family?

30. H ildegard of B ingen : M edical writings (12 th c .)

Hildegard of Bingen was a prominent German Benedictine nun and abbess, a
woman who had grown up in monastic life and achieved fame as a mystic and
writer. Her works cover a wide span of subjects, from theology to natural science,
from political and moral advice to music. She is known today for, among other
things, her “theology of the feminine.” In the following extracts from her medical
writings, Hildegard describes some aspects of the female body and its functions. Her
application of the theory of “humors” by identifying people as sanguine, phlegmatic,
choleric, or melancholic is typical of ancient and medieval medical thinking.
Source: Hildegard of Bingen, On Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Selections from Cause et Cure, ed. and
trans. Margret Berger (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1999).

A girl experiences a taste for pleasure from her twelfth year on. If she has unchaste thoughts
she may already exude the foam of pleasure then, although this pleasure is not yet mature
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  101
enough to receive semen. Since the girl is still immature, it is necessary to watch over her
very carefully so that she does not fall victim to lewdness, because at this age she is more
than ever susceptible to aberrant thoughts. Since she is not yet fertile at her immature
age she will, if she is not protected as mentioned above, easily lose her sense of decency
and modesty and her understanding of what is appropriate – all on account of immature
pleasure and freedom. As a result of such a bad attitude a girl will later on imitate the habits
of cattle rather than those of human beings. If a girl has a youthful and humid disposition
her pleasure will be mature and she will be fertile in her fifteenth year. Yet if she is weak
and infirm she will reach her sexual maturity in her sixteenth year. Then she will have a
mature and fully developed mind and more stable habits than before. Around the fiftieth
year of her life a woman will give up her girlish habits and unstable attitude. She now
attains a poised and stable demeanor. If she has a youthful, humid and strong disposition,
carnal pleasure will weaken around her seventieth year. But if she has a weak and infirm
disposition, it will wane around her sixtieth year. Around her eightieth year carnal pleasure
will leave her entirely, as was mentioned above for males.

Sanguine women
Some women are plump by nature. They have soft and delightful flesh, slender blood
vessels, and good untainted blood. Because their blood vessels are slender they contain
less blood and their flesh grows that much better and is that much more permeated with
blood. They have a clear and light facial coloring, are lovable in the embrace of love and
meticulous in arts. Their mental disposition is such that they are capable of self-control.
They suffer only a moderate effusion of blood from the rivulets of menstruation and
their uterus is strongly developed to bear children. Thus they are also fertile and able
to receive man’s semen. Still, they do not bear many children. If they remain without a
husband so that they do not bear offspring, they will possibly suffer physical pain. But if
they have a husband they are healthy. If, at menstruation, drops of blood are locked up
in them before the natural time, so that they do not flow out, then these women will occa-
sionally be melancholic, or suffer a pain in the side, or a worm will grow in their flesh, or
lymph nodes, called scrofulae, will burst, or a rather mild form of leprosy will develop.

Phlegmatic women
There are other women whose flesh does not grow much because they have thick blood
vessels and rather healthy white blood containing, however, a small amount of poison
which gives it its light color. They have a severe expression and a dark coloring. They are
industrious and useful and possess a somewhat virile mind. At menstruation their rivulets
of blood flow moderately, neither too little nor too much. Because they have thick blood
vessels they are extremely fertile with offspring and conceive easily, since also their uteri
and all their viscera are strongly developed. They attract men and cause men to pursue
them, and therefore men love them. If they wish to abstain from men, they are able to
abstain from intercourse with them with only some, though not too much, debilitating
effect. Yet if they have avoided intercourse with men, they will become morose and disa-
greeable in their demeanor. But if they have been together with men so that they do not
wish to abstain from them, they will be unrestrained and excessive in their lust, as has
been observed by men. Because they are somewhat virile they will occasionally, due to
the greenness within them, grow a little fluff on the chin. If, at menstruation, the rivulet
102  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
of blood is constricted in them before the natural time, they will occasionally incur an
unsoundness of the head, madness in other words. Or they will suffer from the spleen and
dropsy, or a swelling will develop as always in tumors, or they will develop wildly growing
flesh on a limb, like a gall on a tree or on an apple.

Choleric women
There are other women who have soft flesh but big bones, average blood vessels and
dense red blood. Their facial coloring is pallid, they are intelligent and kind. People show
them respect and are afraid of them. At menstruation they suffer severe blood loss. Their
uteri are strongly developed and they are fertile. Men like their disposition but stay out
of their way because these women draw men’s attention but do not attract them. In a
marital union they are chaste and faithful as wives, and together with their husbands they
are physically healthy. If they are deprived of husbands they will suffer physically and be
debilitated by that, because they do not know in which man to put their womanly faith
and also because they do not have a husband. If the flow at menstruation ceases sooner
than it should, they will easily become paralyzed and their humors will dissolve, so that
their humors become weak and these women will either feel pain in the liver or will easily
incur a black tumor as from a dranculus or their breasts will swell with cancer.

Melancholic women
But there are other women who have haggard flesh, thick blood vessels, average-sized bones,
and blood that is more bluish than sanguineous. Their faces are a blend of greyish and black
color. These women are also windy, and wavering in their thoughts and wearisome when
they waste away as a result of annoyance. They are not very resilient, so that at times they
are wear from melancholia. At menstruation they suffer severe blood loss, and they are sterile
because they have a weak and fragile uterus. Therefore they can neither receive nor retain
nor warm man’s semen. Consequently they are healthier, stronger and happier without
husbands than with them, because they will become weak if they have been with husbands.
But men avoid them and shy away from them because they do not talk pleasantly to men and
because men love them only a little. If, at some time, these women feel carnal pleasure, it will,
however, pass quickly in them. But if they have robust and sanguine husbands, occasionally
some of these women can bear at least one child when they reach a sound age like fifty. But
if they have had different husbands whose nature is weak, they will not conceive from them,
but remain sterile. If their menstruation ceases sooner than is right for the nature of women,
they will at times suffer gout and swelling of the legs, or they will incur an unsoundness of the
head, brought on by melancholia. Or they will suffer back or kidney pain or a rapid swelling
of the body because waste matter and foulness, from which menstruation should have purged
their bodies, remain enclosed in them. If they do not receive any help in their infirmity, so
that they are not freed from it by the help of God or by medicine, they will die very soon.

Conception
When a woman has intercourse with a man, a warm pleasurable feeling in her brain
announces the sensation of this pleasure in intercourse and the outpouring of semen.
After the semen has fallen into its place, this extremely strong warmth in the brain will
attract and hold it. Soon the woman’s loins, too, contract, and all the members of her
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  103
body that were prepared to open at menstruation close at once very tightly like a strong
man enclosing something in his hand. Then menstrual blood intermingles with semen,
makes it sanguineous and turns it into flesh. When it has become flesh, this same blood
draws a vessel around it, like a little worm preparing its dwelling out of itself. And so the
blood prepares this vessel day after day until a human being is formed in it and until this
human being receives the breath of life. Then this vessel grows with the human being and
is so firmly set that it cannot move from its place until the human being leaves it.

Bloodletting for women

Woman has many more noxious humors and much more noxious waste matter in her body
than man. Therefore from the twelfth year of her life she too should observe the same general
rules and considerations that apply to the venesection of the male. The only exception is that
for a woman bloodletting can be continued until the age of one hundred because, on account
of the noxious humors and tainted waste matter, there exists a greater necessity for her than
for man. This is evident at the time of menstruation as well. For if she were not purged of
noxious humors and waste matter at the time of menstruation, she would swell up completely
and become bloated and would not be able to live. After her hundredth year, however,
one should not withdraw blood from a blood vessel because by then she is already purged
of blood and outpouring humors. If she perhaps feels some humors in herself later on, she
should let pustules develop, in fact in the same places where cauteries are usually applied.

Questions: On what kinds of sources and experiences might Hildegard have drawn in writing these
passages? What do we learn here about attitudes toward sexuality? Toward medical treatment?

31. U niversity of P aris records :

C ase of a woman physician (1322)
Most trades and professions were regulated in medieval towns; with the rise in the thir-
teenth century of university education, from which women were excluded, the medical
profession came to be increasingly controlled by medical faculties. The case below
documents the clash between a woman who continued to provide health care and the
academic community. Jacoba’s arguments were eventually rejected by the authorities.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Chartularium universitatis parisiensis, eds. H. Denifle and E. Chatelain
(Paris: Delalain, 1891).

The dean and masters who preside over the faculty of medicine of Paris intend to
prove the following against the lady Jacoba Felicie, the defendant:
1. That the said Jacoba has visited many sick people suffering from serious illness, in
Paris and in the suburbs, often examining their urine both jointly and separately,
taking their pulse, and feeling, palpating and holding their bodies and limbs.
2. That, after such examination of urine and such touching, she has said to those sick
people, “I shall heal you, God willing, if you have faith in me,” making an agreement
with them to cure them, and receiving money for this.
3. That, when the agreement had been made between the said defendant and the
patients or their friends, for the cure of their internal illness or of the wound or
external abscess appearing on the bodies of the said patients, the said defendant
often has visited and visits the said patients, constantly and continually examining
104  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
their urine in the manner of physicians and doctors, taking their pulse, and touching
and holding their bodies and limbs.
4. And that, after these touchings and actions, she has given and gives the said patients
syrups to drink, pain relievers, laxatives and digestives, both liquid and nonliquid, as
well as aromatic and other potions, which they take and drink by mouth in the pres-
ence of the said defendant, who herself ordered and gave them.
5. That, in these actions, she has often exercised and continues to exercise a medical
practice in Paris and its suburbs, that she has practiced and practices it from day to
day, although she has not been approved in any official school in Paris or elsewhere,
and that she does this without the license of the chancellor of the church of Paris and
of the said dean and masters.
6. That she does this in violation of the law, by which she was not and has not been
approved, and that she was warned by order of the venerable man the official of
Paris, under pain of excommunication and sixty Parisian pounds, that henceforth
she might not practice in Paris or in the suburbs, as mentioned above, and she is
liable to the aforesaid penalties, since she is neither licensed nor approved by the
aforesaid chancellor, dean and masters, and since a special warning had even been
given to her that she might not from henceforth [practice]. …
7. That, ignoring the warning and prohibition that were given her, the said defendant,
neither approved nor licensed by the said persons, as mentioned above, has prac-
ticed and practices in Paris and in its suburbs, continually visiting the sick and giving
them the aforesaid potions and examining their urine, and diagnosing their illnesses,
as has been said. …

Clemence de Belvaco, a maker of pewter pots, who lives in front of the king’s palace,
[produced and sworn as a] witness … and asked what she knew of the charges, etc.,
answers on oath that she knew nothing, except that when she herself was suffering a heat
sickness and was in the hands of the physicians, her husband had heard Jean de St. Omer
say that he and others had been cured by the said Jacoba, with God’s help, of the illnesses
which they suffered. And then her husband sent for the said Jacoba. When she came, the
same Jacoba inspected her urine and took her pulse, saying nothing to her. And when she
had done this, the same Jacoba had a certain drink made of many herbs … and when the
said drink had been made and [Clemence] had seen it, she did not want to drink from
it, because it was so horrible, and her husband and her physicians had kept her, she says,
from drinking from that potion. Asked if she knows whether [Jacoba] had visited other
sick people in Paris and in the suburbs and whether she herself had been present at those
visits, etc., she answers that she knows nothing beyond what she has already said. …
Joanna, wife of Denis Bilbaut, living in the street of the ironmongers in Paris, [produced
and sworn as a] witness, … and asked [what she knew of the charges], etc., answers on oath
that when, around the previous feast of St. Christopher, she was afflicted with a feverish
illness, and very many physicians had visited her in this illness, including a certain brother
from Cordelis, Master Herman, Mainfred and many others, she was so oppressed with this
sickness that on a certain Wednesday around this feast day she could not speak, and the
aforesaid physicians consigned her to death. And so it would have been for her, had not the
said Jacoba supervened, at her own request to her. When she arrived, she examined her
urine and palpated her pulse, and soon she gave her a certain clear water to drink, and she
gave her another syrup to cause her to go to the privy. And she worked so well on her that,
with God’s grace helping, she arose cured of her illness. And she has been asked whether
 Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health  105
she saw the said Jacoba visit other invalids. She answers that she saw no visits to other sick
people besides herself, but she says that she had heard it said that [Jacoba] had cured other
invalids, including Jean de St. Omer and many others whom she did not know, in the city
of Paris and in villages and suburbs. Asked whether [Jacoba] had visited her for money or
for free, she answers that she never paid anything to the said Jacoba for curing her, but she
freely offered to give money which the same Jacoba refused to accept. …
Joanna de Monciaco, a mercer living in the street called “Quiquempoix,” a widow,
produced [and sworn] as a witness [and] asked what she knew concerning the charges,
etc., answers that she had recently suffered from a certain sickness around her kidneys, for
which she had been for eleven days at [the hospital of] St-Sulpice near St-Germain-des-
Prés, near Paris, and for which illness the physicians Masters Guilbert, Herman, Mainfred
and Thomas sought a cure as best they could, but for which they could do nothing, as she
told it. And when she had seen this, and was disturbed by it, she heard tell of the said Jacoba
and of her cures, and she immediately sent for her to come to her. When [Jacoba] arrived,
she examined her and took her pulse and examined her urine. And immediately when she
had done this, she told Joanna that with the grace of God she would put Joanna in a good
state. Joanna answered that she wished this. And then Jacoba visited her for many days,
and often gave her a certain very clear water to drink, by virtue of which, and with God’s
help, she was cured, as she says. Asked whether she knows of what the said water was
composed, she says she does not know. Asked whether Jacoba visited her in the manner
of physicians, she says she does not know, except as she has already said. Asked whether
Jacoba made an agreement with her to cure her and whether Jacoba received money from
her for this, she replied that she did not, and that she wished to have nothing. …
These are the arguments which the said Jacoba makes and proposes. …
Jacoba says that if the said deans and master have issued any statute, decree, warning,
prohibition or excommunication, which they now try to use against her, they did so at the
time merely because of and against idiots and fatuous ignorant ones, fools totally ignorant
of the art of medicine and its precepts and usurping practical office, from whose number
the said Jacoba is exempted, being experienced in the art of medicine and learned in the
precepts of that art. For which reasons the aforesaid statute, decree, warning, prohibition
and excommunication are not and cannot be binding on her. …
And [she argues that] the said statute and decree, etc., were made because of and
against the aforesaid idiots, fools and usurpers and those who then were in Paris prac-
ticing medicine, who now are dead or else so old and decrepit that they cannot exercise
the said office, as appears from the tenor of the said statute and decree, etc., which were
enacted one hundred and two years ago, and Jacoba was not alive at that time, nor for
sixty years afterwards, in the nature of things; rather she is young, inasmuch as she is
about thirty years old, as is shown by her appearance. …
And [she argues that] it is better and more suitable and proper that a woman wise and
experienced in the art should visit sick women, and that she should examine them and
inquire into the secrets of nature and its hidden things, than that a man should do so, to
whom it is forbidden to see and inquire into the aforesaid things, nor to touch women’s
hands, breasts, belly and feet, etc.; rather a man ought to avoid and shun the secrets of
women and the intimate things associated with them as much as possible. And it used to
be that a woman allowed herself to die, rather than reveal her secret illnesses to a man,
because of the modesty of the female sex, and because of the shame which she would have
suffered in revealing them. And for these reasons many women and even men perished in
their illnesses, not wanting to call in doctors, lest they see their private parts. …
106  Marriage, sex, childbirth, and health
And supposing, for the sake of argument, that it were bad for a woman to visit, cure
and examine, as has been said, etc., nevertheless it is less bad that a wise woman, discreet
and experienced in the aforesaid matters, should practice in the aforesaid matters,
because the sick of either sex, who have not dared to reveal their private parts to men,
do not wish to die. Therefore the laws say that lesser evils should be permitted, so that
greater ones may be avoided. And therefore, since the said Jacoba is experienced in the
art of medicine, it is better for her to visit, that she might practice medicine, than that the
sick should die, especially because she cures and heals everyone in her care, and it ought
to be permitted.
And it has been ascertained and so proved, that some sick people of either sex, afflicted
with many grave illnesses and laboring through the work of many experienced masters of
the art of medicine, have not been able to recover from their illnesses at all, despite all the
care and diligence which they could give them, which sick people the said Jacoba, when
she was called in afterwards, cured in a short time.

Questions: Why was Jacoba a popular medical practitioner? Why was she on trial? What do we
learn from the testimony of her patients? How effective do her treatment methods seem to have been?
In the final arguments, is gender a major concern?
IV Noblewomen’s lives

This chapter is about the lives of women of high social rank: the nobility and, in the Later
Middle Ages, the gentry or knightly class. What primarily set the members of this small
group (perhaps five percent of the population) apart from their social inferiors was their
status as landowners, or more accurately, landholders. These are the people who lived
in castles and manor houses, with peasants to work the land for them. But the nobles
themselves did not lead lives of leisure; a noblewoman was responsible for the smooth
running of a household that might include large numbers of servants, retainers and rela-
tives, and she was often expected to look after the whole estate – and even defend it in
her husband’s absence.
Throughout much of Europe in the High and Later Middle Ages the members of this
class were linked to each other in complex networks of lordship and vassalage, the rela-
tionships known today as “feudal” ones because they were based on the possession of a
“fief” (feudum). A noble lady could inherit a fief, but it then passed to her husband. Rarely
was she herself considered either a lord or a vassal, and almost never was she allowed to
run her estates as an unmarried woman. Virtually the only visible single women in this
social class were those who became nuns, even though wives showed themselves perfectly
capable of overseeing their husbands’ properties. Widows, however, were often allowed
a great deal of latitude in ruling their own lands.
Because literacy was somewhat more widespread among the upper classes and because
they had both literate staffs and more contacts with the highly literate world of the church,
we have far more written evidence about the lives of noblewomen than about their lowlier
contemporaries, and we have more personal glimpses of them from an earlier date than
we generally do of working women.
108  Noblewomen’s lives
32. G regory of T ours :
T he story of I ngitrude and B erthegund (6 th c .)
In the narrative below, two Frankish noblewomen are seen fighting to have their
own way, and maneuvering through the intricacies of family relationships, politics,
and finances. The author and narrator of this story is Bishop Gregory of Tours, who
took a particular interest in these events because the nunnery which Ingitrude had
founded was located on the grounds of his church.
Source: Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, tr. O. M. Dalton (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1927). Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.

The matter between Ingitrude and her daughter [Berthegund] I think it well to relate
from its beginning. When, some years before, Ingitrude founded the convent [in the
city of Tours], … she sent a message to her daughter, to the following effect: “Leave thy
husband, and come to me, that I may make thee abbess of this flock which I have assem-
bled.” Her daughter, on receiving this foolish advice, came with her husband to Tours,
where she entered her mother’s nunnery, saying to him: “Return hence and look after
our property and our children; I shall not go back with thee. For none that is joined in
wedlock shall behold the kingdom of God.” But the husband sought me out and told me
all that his wife had said. Thereupon I went to the nunnery and there read aloud those
canons of the Nicene Council in which it is said: “If a woman abandon her husband, and
spurn the nuptial state in which she hath lived with honour, on the plea that she who
hath been joined in wedlock shall have no part in the glory of the celestial kingdom, let
her be accursed.” When she heard this, Berthegund was afraid of excommunication at
the hands of the bishops of God; she therefore quitted the convent and returned home
with her husband. But after three or four years her mother again sent her a message,
entreating her to come to her. Thereupon she loaded vessels with her own goods and
those of her husband, who was away from home, took one of her sons with her, and
came to Tours. But her mother could not keep her there on account of the husband’s
obstinate pursuit; she also feared to become involved in the charge to which her daughter
had exposed them both by her dishonesty. She therefore sent her to Bertram, bishop of
Bordeaux, her own son, and brother of Berthegund. The husband following her, the
bishop said to him: “She shall no longer be thy wife, because thou didst wed her without
the assent of her parents.” At this time, be it said, they had been married nearly thirty
years. The husband came several times to Bordeaux, but the bishop always refused to
give her up. On the occasion of King Guntram’s visit to Orleans, of which I have written
above, this man bitterly accused the bishop, saying: “Thou hast taken from me my wife,
together with her servants; and behold thou hast done that which ill beseemeth a bishop,
for thou hast sinned with her handmaids, and she with servants of thy household.” The
king at this was furious, and forced the bishop to promise the restoration of the wife
to her husband. “She is my kinswoman,” he said; “if she hath committed any evil in
her husband’s house, I will punish her; but if she hath not, why should the husband be
exposed to all manner of humiliation, and his wife be taken from him?” Then Bishop
Bertram gave his promise, saying: “Certainly my sister came to me, after the lapse of
many years, and I kept her with me as long as she cared to stay, out of my affection and
love for her. She hath now left me; let him seek her and take her whither he will; I shall
not stand in his path.” Although he made this statement, he sent her a private message
to put off her secular garb, do penance, and withdraw to the church of the holy Martin;
 Noblewomen’s lives  109
which things she straightway did. Her husband then came with a following of many men
to remove her from the sacred place. She was in the habit of a nun, and declared that
she was vowed to penitence; she therefore refused to go with him. Meanwhile Bishop
Bertram died at Bordeaux. She now came to her senses and said: “Woe is me, that ever
I hearkened to the advice of a wicked mother. My brother is dead; I am forsaken by my
husband and separated from my children. Whither shall I go in my misery; what shall I
now do?” After reflecting for a while, she decided to go to Poitiers; and though her mother
[wished] to keep her with her, she altogether failed in this. In consequence enmity arose
between them and they were always coming before the king in a dispute about property,
the daughter claiming that which came to her from her father, the mother her part in
the estate of her late husband. Berthegund produced a deed of gift from her brother
Bertram, saying: “This and this my brother bestowed upon me.” But her mother would
not recognize the deed, seeking to secure all for herself, and sent emissaries to break into
her daughter’s house and take her effects, the deed among them. At a later time she was
proved in the wrong as to this action, for she was forced to restore some of these effects
upon her daughter’s demand. The king sent letters to my brother, Bishop Maroveus, and
myself urging us to bring about a reconciliation. When Berthegund came to Tours and
appeared in our court, we compelled her, as far as we could, to listen to reason. But we
were unable to bend her mother, who betook herself in bitter dudgeon to the king with
the object of disinheriting her daughter from all share in her father’s property. When she
had stated her case before him in her daughter’s absence, judgement was given that the
said daughter should receive a quarter, and that the remaining three-quarters should
pass to herself and to her grandsons, the children of another son. The priest Theuthar …
came by the royal command to make the division. But the daughter resisting, no division
was made, and the quarrel was not appeased. …
Ingitrude … now began to fail in health, and appointed her niece abbess in her stead.
The community murmured at this act, but upon our reprimand contention ceased.
Ingitrude was on bad terms with her daughter, who had taken her property from her; and
she now adjured us that this daughter should not be suffered to offer prayers either in the
monastery which she had founded, or at her tomb. She departed this life I believe, in the
eightieth year of her life, and was buried on the eighth day of March. Nevertheless, her
daughter Berthegund came to Tours, and not being received, went to King Childebert,
begging him [for] permission to succeed her mother in the government of the monastery.
The king had forgotten the decision which he had formerly given in favour of the mother,
and now granted her a new diploma, signed by his own hand, to the effect that she might
have possession of all that had belonged to her father and her mother, and take all that
Ingitrude had left to the nunnery. Armed with this order she came back, and stripped the
place so bare of all its furniture that she left nothing within but bare walls. She then assem-
bled a motley crowd of scoundrels, ready for any lawless act, to carry off all the produce of
any other lands given to the monastery by the devout. So many wicked things she did, that
it were scarce possible to set them down in order. When she had possessed herself of all
that I have described, she returned to Poitiers, venting false accusations against the abbess,
notwithstanding that she was her nearest kinswoman.

Questions: What roles do the women in this story fill? What factors are at issue in the dispute over
Berthegund’s marriage? What conflicting loyalties and ideals are seen here? What kinds of power
are exercised, and by whom?
110  Noblewomen’s lives
33. D huoda : M anual for her son (841–3)
Dhuoda was a ninth-century noblewoman who married a high-ranking official at
the court of the king of the Franks. Her book, which is excerpted below, provides all
the information we have about her. Her birth date is unknown, but she tells us about
her marriage, in 824, to Bernard of Septimania, a powerful noble who served the
Frankish emperor, and of the birth of her two sons in 826 and 841 respectively. The
most striking aspect of Dhuoda’s story is that she wrote from confinement ordered
by her husband, and that she had been forcibly separated from her children. This,
indeed, was her impetus in writing. Most of the book that Dhuoda wrote for her son
while she was her husband’s virtual prisoner is taken up with moral and religious
teachings; the parts reproduced below are the autobiographical sections and some of
those which illustrate, however sketchily, Dhuoda’s relationship with her elder child.
While nuns in the Early Middle Ages were often better educated than those in later
centuries, a lay female author was a great rarity. The italicized phrases are biblical
quotations.
Source: Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel for Her Son, tr. Carol Neel (Lincoln, NB,
and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1991).

In the name of the Holy Trinity

In the name of the Holy Trinity, here begins the handbook of Dhuoda, which she sent
to her son William.
I am well aware that most women rejoice that they are with their children in this
world, but I, Dhuoda, am far away from you, my son William. For this reason I am
anxious and filled with longing to do something for you. So I send you this little work
written down in my name, that you may read it for your education, as a kind of mirror.
And I rejoice that, even if I am apart from you in body, the little book before you may
remind you, when you read it, of what you should do on my behalf.

Here begins the Prologue

Things that are obvious to many people often escape me. Those who are like me lack under-
standing and have dim insight, but I am even less capable than they. Yet always there is he at
my side who opened the mouths of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent. I, Dhuoda, despite
my weakness of mind, unworthy as I am among worthy women – I am still your mother, my
son William, and it is to you that I now address the words of my handbook. From time to
time children are fascinated by dice more than all the other games that they enjoy. And some-
times women are absorbed in examining their faces in mirrors, in order then to cover their
blemishes and be more beautiful, for the worldly intention of pleasing their husbands. I hope
that you may bring the same care, burdened though you may be by the world’s pressures, to
reading this little book addressed to you by me. For my sake, attend to it – according to my
jest – as children do to their dice or women to their mirrors.
Even if you eventually have many more books, read this little work of mine often.
May you, with God’s help, be able to understand it to your own profit. You will find in
it all you wish to know in compact form. You will find in it a mirror in which you can
without hesitation contemplate the health of your soul, so that you may be pleasing not
only in this world, but to him who formed you out of dust. What is essential, my son
 Noblewomen’s lives  111
William, is that you show yourself to be such a man on both levels that you are both
effective in this world and pleasing to God in every way.
My great concern, my son William, is to offer you helpful words. My burning, watchful
heart especially desires that you may have in this little volume what I have longed to be
written down for you, about how you were born through God’s grace. I shall best begin
there.

Preface
In the eleventh year of the imperial rule of our lord Louis, who then reigned by Christ’s
favor – on the twenty-ninth of June 824 – I was given in marriage at the palace of Aachen
to my lord Bernard, your father, to be his legitimate wife. It was still in that reign, in
its thirteenth year on the twenty-ninth of November [826], that with God’s help, as I
believe, you were born into this world, my firstborn and much-desired son.
Afterward, as the wretchedness of this world grew and worsened, in the midst of the
many struggles and disruptions in the kingdom, that emperor followed the path common
to all men. For in the twenty-eighth year of his reign [840], he paid the debt of his
earthly existence before his time. In the year after his death, your brother was born on
the twenty-second of March [841] in the city of Uzès. This child, born after you, was the
second to come forth from my body by God’s mercy. He was still tiny and had not yet
received the grace of baptism when Bernard, my lord and the father of you both, had
the baby brought to him in Aquitaine in the company of Elefantus, bishop of Uzès, and
others of his retainers.
Now I have been away from you for a long time, for my lord constrains me to remain
in this city. Nonetheless I applaud his success. But, moved by longing for both of you, I
have undertaken to have this little book – a work on the scale of my small understanding –
copied down and sent to you. Although I am besieged by many troubles, may this one thing
be God’s will, if it pleases him – that I might see you again with my own eyes. I would think
it certain that I would, if God were to grant me some virtue. But since salvation is far from
me, sinful woman that I am, I only wish it, and my heart grows weak in this desire.
As for you, I have heard that your father, Bernard, has given you as a hostage to
the lord king Charles. I hope that you acquit yourself of this worthy duty with perfect
good will. Meanwhile, as Scripture says, Seek ye therefore the kingdom of God … and all these
things shall be added unto you, that is all that is necessary for the enjoyment of your soul
and your body.
So the preface comes to an end.

Cautionary words
And so I urge you, O my handsome and beloved son William, that you not be distracted
by the mundane cares of this earthly world from acquiring many volumes. In these books
you should seek out and learn from the wise men of the church, the holiest of masters,
more and greater things about God your creator than are written here. Beseech the
Lord, cherish him, and love him. If you do this, he will be your guardian, your leader,
your companion, and your country – the way, and the truth, and the life – endowing you most
generously with prosperity in this world. He will bring all your enemies to peace. As for
you, as is written in Job, Gird up thy loins like a man. Be humble of heart and chaste in body.
Set thyself up on high, and be glorious, and clothe thyself with beauty.
112  Noblewomen’s lives
What more can I say? I, Dhuoda, am always with you to encourage you. In the
future, should I fail you by my absence, you have this little moral work as a reminder, so
that as you read in spirit and body and as you pray to God you may be able to look upon
me as if in a mirror. Then you may clearly see your duty to me. My son, my firstborn son
– you will have other teachers to present you with works of fuller and richer usefulness,
but not anyone like me, your mother, whose heart burns on your behalf.
Read the words I address to you, understand them and fulfill them in action. And
when your little brother, whose name I still do not know, has received the grace of
baptism in Christ, do not hesitate to teach him, to educate him, to love him, and to call
him to progress from good to better. When the time has come about that he has learned
to speak and read, show him this little volume gathered together into a handbook by
me and written down in your name. Urge him to read it, for he is your flesh and your
brother. I, your mother Dhuoda, urge you, as if I even now spoke to both of you, that
you “hold up your heart” from time to time when you are oppressed by the troubles of
this world, and “look upon him who reigns in heaven” and is called God. May that all-
powerful one whom I mention frequently even in my unworthiness make both of you,
my sons – along with my lord and master Bernard, your father – happy and joyful in the
present world. May he make you successful in all your undertakings, and after the end of
this life may he bring you rejoicing to heaven among his saints. Amen.

Returning to myself, I grieve

The sweetness of my great love for you and my desire for your beauty have made me all
but forget my own situation. I wish now, the doors being shut, to return to my own self. But
because I am not worthy to be numbered among those [relatives for whom you should
pray,] who are mentioned above, I still ask that you – among the innumerable people
who may do so – pray without ceasing for the remedy of my soul on account of your
special feeling for me, which can be measured.
You know how much, because of my continual illnesses and other circumstances, I
have suffered all these things and others like them in my fragile body – according to the
saying of a certain man, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles – because of my
pitiful merits. With God’s help and because of your father, Bernard, I have at last confi-
dently escaped these dangers, but my mind still turns back to that rescue. In the past I
have often been lax in the praise of God, and instead of doing what I should in the seven
hours of the divine office, I have been slothful seven times seven ways. That is why, with a
humble heart and with all my strength, I pray that I may take my pleasure in continually
beseeching God for my sins and my transgressions. May he deign to raise even me into
heaven, shattered and heavy though I am.
And since you see me as I live in the world, strive with watchful heart – not only in
vigils and prayer but also in alms to the poor – that I may be found worthy, once I am
liberated from the flesh and from the bonds of my sins, to be freely received by the good
Lord who judges us.
Your frequent prayer and that of others is necessary to me now. It will be more and
more so in time to come if, as I believe, my moment is upon me. In my great fear and grief
about what the future may bring me, my mind casts about in every direction. And I am
unsure how, on the basis of my merits, I may be able to be set free in the end. Why? Because
I have sinned in thought and in speech. Ill words themselves lead to evil deeds. Nevertheless
I will not despair of the mercy of God. I do not despair now and I will never despair. I leave
 Noblewomen’s lives  113
no other such as you to survive me, noble boy, to struggle on my behalf as you do and as
many may do for me because of you, so that I may finally come to salvation.
I acknowledge that, to defend the interests of my lord and master Bernard, and so
that my service to him might not weaken in the March and elsewhere – so that he not
abandon you and me, as some men do – I know that I have gone greatly into debt. To
respond to great necessities, I have frequently borrowed great sums, not only from Chris-
tians but also from Jews. To the extent that I have been able, I have repaid them. To the
extent that I can in the future, I will always do so. But if there is still something to pay
after I die, I ask and I beg you to take care in seeking out my creditors. When you find
them, make sure that everything is paid off either from my own resources, if any remain,
or from your assets – what you have now or what you eventually acquire through just
means, with God’s help.
What more shall I say? As for your little brother, I have above directed you time and
again concerning what you should do for him. What I ask now is that he too, if he reaches
the age of manhood, deign to pray for me. I direct both of you, as if you were together
here before me, to have the offering of the sacrifice and the presentation of the host made
[that is, masses offered] often on my behalf.
Then, when my redeemer commands that I depart this world, he will see fit to prepare
refreshment for me. And if this transpires through your prayers and the worthy prayers
of others, he who is called God will bring me into heaven in the company of his saints.
This handbook ends here. Amen. Thanks be to God.

I ask that you write this epitaph on my grave

When I too have reached the end of my days, see to it that my name as well be written
down among the names of those dead persons. What I wish and what I yearn for with
all my might, as though it were happening now, is that you order the following verses to
be cut in the stone of the place where I am buried, on the slab that hides my body. Then
those who see this epitaph on my burial place may pour out worthy prayers to God for
my unworthy self.
And as for any other who may someday read the handbook you now peruse, may he
too ponder the words that follow here so that he may commend me to God’s salvation as
if I were buried beneath these words.
Find, reader, the verses of my epitaph:

Formed of earth, in this tomb

Lies the earthly body of Dhuoda.
Great king, receive her.
The surrounding earth has received in its depths
The flimsy filth of which she was made.
Kind king, grant her favor.
The darkness of the tomb, bathed with her sorrow,
Is all that remains to her.
You, king, absolve her failings.
You, man or woman, old or young, who walk back and forth
In this place, I ask you, say this:
Holy one, great one, release her chains.
Bound in the dark tomb by bitter death,
114  Noblewomen’s lives
Closed in, she has finished life in earth’s filth.
You, king, spare her sins.
So that the dark serpent
Not carry away her soul, say in prayer:
Merciful God, come to her aid.
Let no one walk away without reading this.
I beseech all that they pray, saying:
Give her peace, gentle father,
And, merciful one, command that she at least be enriched
With your saints by your perpetual light.
Let her receive your amen after her death.

Return frequently to this little book. Farewell, noble boy, and always be strong in Christ.
This little book was begun in the second year after the death of Louis, the late emperor,
two days before the Kalends of December, on the feast of St. Andrew, at the beginning
of the holy season of the Lord’s Advent. With God’s help it was finished four days before
the Nones of February, the feast of the Purification of the holy and glorious Mary, always
virgin, under the favorable reign of Christ and in the hope for a God-given king.
Reader, if you are found worthy to see Christ in eternal happiness, pray for that
Dhuoda who is mentioned above.

Questions: How does Dhuoda feel toward her husband? Toward her sons? What is her sense of
herself? What does she see as her place in the world? Does she think she has been treated fairly?
What are her concerns and preoccupations?

34.  A nglo -S axon wills (10 th –11 th c .)

“Anglo-Saxon” is the general term used today for the various Germanic tribes
(including Angles and Saxons) who settled in the southern and central parts of the
island of Britain in the fifth and sixth century, setting up kingdoms which collec-
tively became known as “England” (“Angle-land”). About seventy Anglo-Saxon wills
survive today in some form, many of them made by women; the women’s wills are
similar to those of men because Anglo-Saxon law allowed women to own land and
leave it to heirs of their own choice. (Later in the Middle Ages, women’s testamen-
tary powers were often limited to the disposition of their clothing and other personal
belongings.) In the pieces below, ellipses indicate places where words are missing
or indecipherable because of damage to the manuscripts. Names ending in ‑flæd,
‑thryth, ‑waru, ‑gifu, ‑burg, ‑swith, ‑lufu, and ‑wyn are female ones.
Source: Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. and tr. Dorothy Whitelock (Cambridge, 1930). Reprinted by permis-
sion of Cambridge University Press.

The will of Wynflæd (ca. 950)

Wynflæd declares how she wishes to dispose of what she possesses, after her death. She
bequeathes to the church her offering … and the better of her offering-cloths, and her cross; and
to the refectory two silver cups for the community; and as a gift for the good of her soul a mancus
of gold to every servant of God, and besides that one mancus to Ceolthryth and Othelbriht and
Elsa and Æthel…th; and one pound to the community at Wilton and one mancus to Fugel.
 Noblewomen’s lives  115
And she bequeathes to her daughter Æthelflæd her engraved bracelet and her brooch,
and the estate at Ebbesborne and the title-deed as a perpetual inheritance to dispose of as she
pleases; and she grants to her the men and the stock and all that is on the estate except what
shall be given from it both in men and stock for the sake of her soul. And at Charlton, also, she
grants her the men and the stock except the freedmen, and except that a gift for her soul to
the value of half a pound be supplied for [the church at] Milborne from the stock at Charlton,
and from Chinnock a gift for her soul to the value of half a pound for [the church at] Yeovil.
And to Eadmær [she grants] the estates at Coleshill and Inglesham, and she grants to
him also the estate at Faccombe, which was her marriage-gift, for his lifetime, and then
after his death, if Æthelflæd survive him, she is to succeed to the estate at Faccombe, and
after her death it is to revert to Eadwold’s possession. And if it is God’s will that Eadwold
be old enough in his father’s lifetime to hold land, then I ask Eadmær to relinquish to
him one of two estates, either Coleshill or Adderbury, and after his lifetime, both. And at
Inglesham she wishes that there be furnished on her behalf for [the church at] Wantage a
gift for her soul worth half a pound, and [the same] at Coleshill; and that from the stock
the equivalent of sixty pence be supplied for [the church at] Shrivenham, sixty for [the
church at] Coleshill and sixty for [the church at] Childrey.
And Wulfwaru is to be freed, and she is to serve whom she pleases, and …ttryth also.
And Wulfflæd is to be freed on condition that she serve Æthelflæd and Eadgifu. And she
bequeathes to Eadgifu a woman-weaver and a seamstress, the one called Eadgifu, the other
called Æthelgifu. And Gerburg is to be freed, and Miscin and Hi… and the daughter of
Burhulf at Chinnock, and Ælfsige and his wife and elder daughter, and Ceolstan’s wife. And
at Charlton Pifus and Eadwyn and …’s wife are to be freed. And at Faccombe Eadhelm and
Man and Johanna and Sprow and his wife and En… and Gersand and Snel are to be freed.
And at Coleshill Æthelgyth and Bica’s wife and Æffa and Beda and Gurhann’s wife are to
be freed; and Wulfwaru’s sister, Brihtsige’s wife, and … the wright, and Wulfgyth, Ælfswith’s
daughter are to be freed. And if there be any penally enslaved man besides these whom she
has enslaved, she trusts to her children that they will release him for her soul’s sake.
And [she grants] to Ælfwold her two buffalo-horns and a horse and her red tent. And
she bequeathes to Eadmær a cup with a lid, and another to Æthelflæd, and prays that
between them they will furnish two fair goblets to the refectory for her sake, or augment
her own ornamented cups … worth one pound. Then she would like half a pound of
pence to be put into each cup, and that Eadwold should be given back his own two silver
cups. And she bequeathes to him her gold-adorned wooden cup in order that he may
enlarge his armlet with the gold, or that he may receive sixteen mancuses of red gold in
exchange; that amount has been put on it. And she bequeathes to him two chests and in
them a set of bed-clothing, all that belongs to one bed.
And Eadmær is to pay to Eadwold as much stock and as many men as he (?) has
bequeathed to him at Avon, and he afterwards [is to pay] to his father what he wishes.
And with regard to the estate at Chinnock, the community at Shaftesbury possess it
after her death, and she owns the stock and the men; this being so, she grants to the
community the peasants who dwell on the rented land, and the bondmen she grants to
her son’s daughter Eadgifu, and also the stock, except the gift for her soul which must
be rendered to Yeovil; and she wishes that six oxen and four cows with four calves be
allowed to remain on the estate. And of the bondmen at Chinnock she bequeathes to
Eadwold, Ceolstan, Eadstan’s son, and Æffa’s son, and Burhwyn [and] Martin and
Hisfig; and in their place she bequeathes to Eadgifu, Ælfsige the cook and Ælfwaru,
Burga’s daughter, and Herestan and his wife, and Ecghelm and his wife and their
116  Noblewomen’s lives
child, and Cynestan and Wynsige and Brihtric’s son and Eadnyn and Bunele’s son and
Ælfhere’s daughter.
And she bequeathes to Æthelflæd, daughter of Ealhhelm, Ælfhere’s younger daughter,
and her double badger-skin(?) gown, and another of linen or else some linen cloth. And
to Eadgifu two chests and in them her best bed-curtain and a linen covering and all the
bed-clothing which goes with it, and … and her best dun tunic, and the better of her
cloaks, and her two wooden cups ornamented with dots, and her old filagree brooch
which is worth six mancuses. And let there be given to her four mancuses from her
… and a long hall-tapestry and a short one and three seat coverings. And she grants
to Ceolthryth whichever she prefers of her black tunics and her best holy veil and her
best headband; and to Æthelflæd the White her … gown and cap and headband, and
afterwards Æthelflæd is to supply from her nun’s vestments the best she can for Wulfflæd
and Æthelgifu and supplement it with gold so that each of them shall have at least sixty
pennyworth: and for Ceolwyn and Eadburg it shall be thirty pennyworth. And there are
two large chests and a clothes’ chest, and a little spinning box and two old chests.
Then she makes a gift to Æthelflæd of everything which is unbequeathed, books and
such small things, and she trusts that she will be mindful of her soul. And there are also
tapestries, one which is suitable for her, and the smallest she can give to her women. And
she bequeathes to Cynelufu her share of the untamed horses which are with Eadmær’s.
And to Æthelflæd she grants her … and the utensils and all the useful things that are
inside, and also the homestead if the king grant it to her as King Edward granted it
to Brihtwyn her mother. And Eadwold and his sister are to have her tame horses in
common. …

The will of Wulfwaru (984–1016)

I, Wulfwaru, pray my dear lord King Ethelred, of his charity, that I may be entitled
to make my will. I make known to you, Sire, here in this document, what I grant to St
Peter’s monastery at Bath for my poor soul and for the souls of my ancestors from whom
my property and my possessions came to me; namely then, that I grant to that holy place
there an armlet which consists of sixty mancuses of gold, and a bowl of two and a half
pounds, and two gold crucifixes, and a set of mass-vestments with everything that belongs
to it, and the best dorsal that I have, and a set of bed-clothing with tapestry and curtain
and with everything that belongs to it. And I grant to the Abbot Ælfhere the estate at
Freshford with the produce and the men and all the profit which is obtained there.
And I grant to my elder son Wulfmær the estate at Claverton, with produce and with
men and all profits; and the estate at Compton with produce and men and all profits; and
I grant him half the estate at Butcombe with produce and men and all profits, and half of
it I grant to my younger daughter Ælfwaru, with produce and men and all profits. And
they are to share the principal residence between them as evenly as they can, so that each
of them shall have a just portion of it.
And to my younger son Ælfwine I grant the estate at Leigh, with produce and men and
all the profits; and the estate at Holton, with produce and men and all profits; and the estate
at Hogston, with produce and men and all profits; and thirty mancuses of gold.
And I grant to my elder daughter, Gode, the estate at Winford, with produce and
men and all profits; and two cups of four pounds; and a hand of thirty mancuses of gold
and two brooches and a woman’s attire complete. And to my younger daughter Ælfwaru
I grant all the women’s clothing which is left.
 Noblewomen’s lives  117
And to my son Wulfmær and my second son Ælfwine and my daughter Ælfwaru –
to each of the three of them – I grant two cups of good value. And I grant to my son
Wulfmær a hall-tapestry and a set of bed-clothes. To Ælfwine my second son I grant a
tapestry for a hall and tapestry for a chamber, together with a table-cover and with all
the cloths which go with it.
And I grant to my four servants Ælfmær, Ælfweard, Wulfric and Wulfstan, a band of
twenty mancuses of gold. And I grant to all my household women, in common, a good
chest well decorated.
And I desire that those who succeed to my property provide twenty freedmen, ten in
the east and ten in the west; and all together furnish a food-rent for Bath every year for
ever, as good as ever they can afford, at such season as it seems to all of them that they
can accomplish it best and most fittingly. Whichever of them shall discharge this, may
he have God’s favour and mine; and whichever of them will not discharge it, may he
have to account for it with the Most High, who is the true God, who created and made
all creatures.

The will of Wulfgyth (1046)

Here in this document it is made known how Wulfgyth grants after her death the things
which Almighty God has allowed her to enjoy in life.
First to my lord his due heriot [that is, death tax]. And I grant the estate at Stisted,
with the witness of God and my friends, to Christchurch for the sustenance of the monks
in the community, on condition that my sons Ælfketel and Ketel may have the use of
the estate for their lifetime; and afterwards the estate is to go to Christchurch without
controversy, for my soul and for my lord Ælfwine’s and for the souls of all my children:
and after their lifetime half the men are to be free. And I grant to the church at Stisted,
besides what I granted during my life, [Eldeme’s] land and in addition so much that in
all there shall be after my death fifty acres of woodland and of open land.
And I grant to my sons Ulfketel and Ketel the estates at Walsingham and at Carleton
and at Harling; and I grant to my two daughters, Gode and Bote, Saxlingham and
Somerleyton. And to the church at Somerleyton sixteen acres of land and one acre of
meadow. And to my daughter Ealdgyth I grant the estates at Chadacre and at Ashford,
and the wood which I attached to the latter. And I grant Fritton to Earl Godwine and
Earl Harold.
And I grant to Christ’s altar at Christchurch a little gold crucifix, and a seat-cover.
And I grant to St Edmund’s two ornamented horns. And I grant to St Etheldreda’s a
woollen gown. And I grant to St Osyth’s half a pound of money, and that my children
shall give. And I grant to St Augustine’s one dorsal [hanging].
And he who shall detract from my will which I have now declared in the witness of
God, may he be deprived of joy on this earth, and may the Almighty Lord who created
and made all creatures exclude him from the fellowship of all saints on the Day of Judg-
ment, and may he be delivered into the abyss of hell to Satan the devil and all his accursed
companions and there suffer with God’s adversaries, without end, and never trouble my
heirs.
Of this King Edward and many others are witnesses.
118  Noblewomen’s lives
The will of Ulf and Madselin (ca. 1067)
This is the agreement which Ulf and his wife Madselin made with [God] and with
St. Peter when they went to Jerusalem. That is, the estate at Carlton to Peterborough
[Abbey] after their death for the redemption of their souls; and the estate at Bytham to
St. Guthlac’s; and the estate at Sempringham to St. Benedict’s [Abbey] at Ramsey.
And to Bishop Ealdred the estates at Lavington and Hardwick as a complete purchase,
and the estates at Skillington and Hoby and Morton, on which the Bishop has a mort-
gage of eight marks of gold; and if they return home, the Bishop is to be paid his gold; but
if neither of them return, the Bishop is to supply for their souls’ sake as much as the land
is worth above that gold. And if it should go other than well with the Bishop, the Abbot
Brand is to succeed on these same terms.
And I have granted the estate at Manthorpe to the Abbot Brand. And I have granted
the estate at Wilby to my kinsman Siferth. And she has granted the estate at Stoke to her
kinswoman Leofgifu. And she has granted the estate at Stroxton to Ingemund, and he
[has granted] to her in return the west hall at Winterton.
And the estate at Overton is to be sold, and [the money] employed for the souls of
both of us. And I have granted two estates to my mother, namely Kettleby and Keelby
Cotes, and she has granted to me Messingham and Kettleby. And if I do not come home
Ingemund is to have the estate at Kirmington. And I have granted the estate at Claxby to
my brother Healden: and the estate at Ormsby and all that I possessed there to St Mary’s
monastery. And my servants are to have Limber if I do not come home; and the estate at
Lohtun which she has there [is to go] to Thorney.

Questions: What kinds of things did women own? To whom did they leave their possessions? What
occupations did women have? What do the wills reveal about women’s social networks? About
women of different social ranks? What did these women want to accomplish with their wills? What
circumstances prompted will-writing, and why?

35. A utobiography of G uibert de N ogent :

L ife of his mother (11 th –12 th c .)
Guibert de Nogent was born into a noble French family in the 1060s. His father died
during Guibert’s infancy, leaving a young widow. Guibert eventually became a monk
and served as Abbot of Nogent for twenty years. His autobiography, written in 1115, is
unusual both because it is a rare medieval example of this genre and because Guibert
says so much in it about his mother, giving us what is presumably an informed narrative
account of her life, albeit from a rather limited viewpoint. The book is addressed to God.
Source: The Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent, Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy, tr. C. C. Swinton Bland
(London and New York, 1925).

Her character
First and above all, therefore, I render thanks to Thee for that Thou didst bestow on me
a mother fair, yet chaste, modest and most devout. …
Thanks to Thee therefore, O God, that Thou didst infuse her beauty with virtue;
for the seriousness of her manner was such as to make evident her scorn for all vanity;
her rare speech and her tranquil features gave no encouragement to light looks. Thou
 Noblewomen’s lives  119
knowest, Almighty God, Thou didst put into her in earliest youth the fear of Thy Name
and into her heart revolt against the allurements of the flesh. Take note that hardly
anywhere was she to be found in the company of those who made much of themselves,
and as she was temperate herself, so was she sparing in blame of those who were not, and
when sometimes a scandalous tale was told by strangers or those of her own household,
she would turn away herself and take no part in it, and was as much annoyed by such
whisperings as if she had been slandered in her own person. …
Of this woman most true, as I hope and believe, I was by Thy favour born, the worst
of all that she begat. In two senses was I her last child, for whereas my brothers and sisters
have passed away in good hope of salvation, I alone am left in utter despair.

Childbirth
Almost the whole of Good Friday had my mother passed in excessive pain of travail, (in
what anguish, too, did she linger, when I wandered from the way and followed slippery
paths!) when at last the eve of Easter dawned.
Racked, therefore, by pains long-endured, and her tortures increasing as her hour
drew near, when she thought I had at last in natural course come to the birth, instead I
was returned within the womb. By this time my father, friends, and kinsfolk were crushed
with dismal sorrowing for both of us, for whilst the child was hastening the death of the
mother, and she her child’s in denying him deliverance, all had reason for compassion.
It was a day on which with the exception of the special anniversary service celebrated
at its own time the regular offices [that is, worship services] for the household were not
taking place. And so they ask[ed] counsel in their need and [fled] for help to the altar of
the Lady Mary, and to her (the only Virgin to bear a child that ever was or would be)
this vow was made and in the place of an offering this gift laid upon the Gracious Lady’s
altar: that should a male child come to the birth, he should be given up to the service of
God and of herself in the ministry, but if one of the weaker sex, she should be handed
over to the corresponding calling. At once was born a weak little being, almost an abor-
tion, and at that timely birth there was rejoicing only for my mother’s deliverance, the
child being such a miserable object. In that poor mite just born there was such a pitiful
meagreness that he had the corpse-like look of one born out of due time. … On that same
day, when I was put into the cleansing water [of baptism], a certain woman – as I was
told in joke when a boy and young man – tossed me from hand to hand saying, “Can
such a child live, think you, whom nature by a mistake has made almost without limbs,
giving him something more like a line than a body?”

Raising a son
Although [my teacher] crushed me by such severity, yet in other ways he made it quite
plain that he loved me as well as he did himself. With such watchful care did he devote
himself to me, with such foresight did he secure my welfare against the spite of others
and teach me on what authority I should beware of the dissolute manners of some who
paid court to me, and so long did he argue with my mother about the elaborate richness
of my dress, that he was regarded as exercising the guardianship not of a master, but of a
parent, and not over my body only, but my soul, too. … Certainly this same master and
my mother, when they saw me paying to both alike due respect, tried by frequent tests to
see whether I should dare to prefer one or the other on a definite issue.
120  Noblewomen’s lives
At last, without any intention on the part of either, an opportunity occurred for a test
which left no room for doubt. Once I had been beaten in school – the school being no
other than the dining-hall in our house, for he had given up the charge of others to take
me alone, my mother having wisely required him to do this for a higher emolument and a
better position. When, therefore, at a certain hour in the evening, my studies, such as they
were, had come to an end, I went to my mother’s knees after a more severe beating than I
had deserved. And when she, as she was wont, began to ask me repeatedly whether I had
been whipped that day, I, not to appear a tell-tale, entirely denied it. Then she, whether I
liked it or not, threw off the inner garment which they call a vest or shirt, and saw my little
arms blackened and the skin of my back everywhere puffed up with the cuts from the twigs.
And being grieved to the heart by the very savage punishment inflicted on my tender body,
troubled, agitated and weeping with sorrow, she said: “You shall never become a clerk
[that is, a clergyman], nor any more suffer so much to get learning.” At that I, looking at
her with what reproach I could, replied: “If I had to die on the spot, I would not give up
learning my book and becoming a clerk.” Now she had promised that if I wished to become
a knight, when I reached the age for it, she would give me the arms and equipment.
But when I had, with a good deal of scorn, declined all these offers, she, Thy servant,
O Lord, accepted this rebuff so gladly, and was made so cheerful by my scorn of her
proposal, that she repeated to my master the reply with which I had opposed her. Then
both rejoiced that I had such an eager longing to fulfill my father’s vow. …
At length my mother tried by every means to get me into a church living.

Early married life

After these reasonings at length I return to Thee, my God, to speak of the conversion of
that good woman, my mother. She, when hardly of marriageable age, was given to my
father, a mere youth, by provision of my grandfather. …
Now it so happened that at the very beginning of that lawful union conjugal inter-
course was made ineffective through the bewitchments of certain persons. For it was said
that their marriage drew upon them the envy of a step-mother, who, having nieces of
great beauty and nobility, was plotting to entangle one of them with my father. Meeting
with no success in her designs, she is said to have used magical arts to prevent entirely
the consummation of the marriage. His wife’s virginity thus remaining intact for three
years, during which he endured his great misfortune in silence, at last, driven to it by his
kinsfolk, my father was the first to reveal the facts. Imagine how my kinsmen tried hard
in every way to bring about a divorce, and their constant pressure upon my father, young
and raw, to become a monk. … This, however, was not done for his soul’s good, but with
the purpose of getting possession of his property. But when their suggestion produced
no effect, they began to hound the girl herself, far away as she was from her kinsfolk
and harassed by the violence of strangers, into voluntary flight out of sheer exhaustion
under their insults, and without waiting for divorce. Meanwhile she endured all this,
bearing with calmness the abuse that was aimed at her, and, if out of this rose any strife,
pretending ignorance of it. Besides certain rich men perceiving that she was not in fact a
wife, began to assail the heart of the young girl; but Thou, O Lord, the builder of inward
chastity, didst inspire her with purity stronger than her nature or her youth. …
O God, Thou knowest how hard, how almost impossible it would be for women of the
present time to keep such chastity as this; whereas there was in those days such modesty,
that hardly ever was the good name of a married woman smirched by ill report. Ah! how
 Noblewomen’s lives  121
wretchedly have modesty and honour in the state of maidenhood declined from those
times to these, and both the reality and the show of a mother’s guardianship shrunk to
naught! Therefore coarse mirth is all that may be noted in their manners and naught but
jesting heard, with sly winks and ceaseless chatter. Wantonness shews in their gait, only
silliness in their behaviour. So much does the extravagance of their dress depart from
the old simplicity that in the enlargement of their sleeves, the straitness of their skirts, the
distortion of their shoes of Cordovan leather with their curling toes, they seem to proclaim
that everywhere shame is a castaway. A lack of lovers to admire her is a woman’s crown
of woe. On her crowds of thronging suitors rests her claim to nobility and courtly pride.
There was of old time, I call God to witness, greater modesty in married men, who would
have blushed to be seen in the company of such women, than there is now in married
women; and men by such shameful conduct are emboldened in their amours abroad and
driven to haunt the market-place and the public street. …
When, therefore, that bewitchment was brought to naught with the aid of a certain
old woman, my mother submitted to the duties of a wife as faithfully as she had kept her
virginity when assailed by so many reproaches. Happy as she was in all else, she laid herself
open to the chance, if not the certainty, of endless misery when she, whose goodness was
ever growing, begat [me]. … Yet Thou knowest, Almighty One, with what purity and holi-
ness in obedience to Thee was my upbringing, what care of nurses in infancy, of masters
and teachers in boyhood, she gave me, with no lack even of fine clothes for my little body,
putting me on an honourable equality with sons of princes and nobles. …
O God, Thou knowest what warnings, what prayers she daily poured into my ears
not to listen to corrupting words from anyone. She taught me, as often as she had leisure
from household cares, how and for what I should to pray to Thee. Thou alone knowest
with what pains she travailed that the sound beginning of a happy and honourable child-
hood guarded by Thee, might not be ruined by an unsound heart.

A missing husband
Now whilst the young girl was still living a married life, something befell which gave no
slight impulse to the amendment of her life. The French in the time of King Henry were
fighting with much bitterness against the Normans and their Count William, who afterward
conquered England and Scotland, and in that clash of the two nations it was my father’s fate to
be taken prisoner. It was the custom of this Count never to hold his prisoners for ransom, but
to condemn them to life-long captivity. The news being brought to his wife … she abstained
from food and drink, and sleep was still more impossible through her despairing anxiety, the
cause of this being not the amount of his ransom, but the impossibility of his release.
In the dead of that night, as, full of deep anxiety, she lay in her bed, since it is the habit
of the Devil to invade souls weakened with grief, suddenly whilst she lay awake, the Enemy
himself rushed upon her and by the burden of his oppression almost crushed the life out of
her. As she choked in agony of spirit and lost all use of her limbs, being unable to make a
single sound, having only her reason free, in utter silence she awaited aid from God alone.
Then behold, from the head of her bed, a spirit, no doubt a good one, [called on the Virgin
Mary, overcame the evil spirit] … and said, “Take care to be a good woman.” But the
attendants, alarmed by the sudden uproar, rose to see how their mistress did, and found
her half-dead, with bloodless face and all the strength of her body beaten down; they ques-
tioned her about the noise and thereupon were told the causes of it, and hardly were they
able by their presence and talk and by lighting of a lamp to revive her.
122  Noblewomen’s lives
Widowhood
Now after the death of my father, although the beauty of her face and form remained
undimmed, and I, scarce half a year old, was enough cause for anxiety, she resolved
to continue in her widowhood. With what spirit she ruled herself, what an example of
modesty she set, may be gathered from the following instance. When my kinsmen, eager
for my father’s fiefs and possessions, strove to take them by the exclusion of my mother,
they fixed a day for advancing their claims [in court]. The day came and the nobles were
in council prepared to act in despite of all justice. My mother, being assured of their
greedy intentions, had retired to the church and was repeating her regular prayers before
the image of the crucified Lord. One of my father’s kinsmen, having the same views as
the others and instructed by them, came to request her presence to hear their decision, as
they were waiting for her. Whereupon she said, “I will do nothing in the matter but in the
presence of my Lord.” “Whose lord?” said he. Then, stretching out her hand towards the
image of the crucified Lord, she replied, “This is my Lord, this is the advocate through
whom I will plead.” At that saying the man reddened and, not being very subtle, put on
a wry smile to hide his evil intent and went off to tell his friends what he had heard. And
they too, being covered with confusion at such an answer, and knowing they had no just
occasion against her utter honesty, ceased to trouble her.
Soon one of the chief men of that place and province, a nephew of my father, as greedy
as he was powerful, attacked the woman in the following terms: “Since, mistress,” said he,
“you have sufficient youth and beauty, it is meet that you should marry, that your life in
the world may be more pleasant; and the children of my uncle should be placed under my
care to be trustily brought up by me, his possessions finally coming into my hands, as is
right they should.” “But,” said she, “you know that your uncle was of very noble descent.
Since God has taken him away, Hymen [the god of marriage] shall not repeat his rites over
me, unless a marriage with some much greater noble shall offer.” Now with craft did the
woman speak of getting for husband a greater noble, knowing that could hardly, if at all,
come to pass, so that, as he misliked talk of a higher noble, she, who was wholly set against
noble and mean alike, might forthwith put an end to all hope of a second marriage. And
he setting down to overmuch pride her talk of a greater noble, she rejoined, “Certainly
a greater noble, or none at all.” He perceiving the resolution with which the lady spoke,
desisted from his designs, and never again required of her anything of the kind.
In much fear of God, then, and with like love of all her kin and, most of all, the poor,
this woman wisely ruled us and ours, and that loyalty which she had given her husband
in his lifetime she kept unbroken and with double constancy to his spirit, with no loos-
ening of the ancient union of their bodies by substitution of other flesh on his departure,
almost every day striving to relieve him by the offering of the life-bringing sacrifice [that
is, a mass said for the benefit of his soul]. Friendly to all the poor in general, to some in
her abounding pity she was generous and bountiful to the full extent of her means. The
sting of remembering her sins could not have been sharper if she had been given up to
all kinds of wickedness, and if she had dreaded the punishment of every ill deed that is
done. In plainness of living there was nothing that she could do, for her delicacy and her
sumptuous rearing did not admit of a meagre diet. In other matters no one knew what
self-denial she practised. With these eyes I have seen and made certain by touch that
whereas over all she wore garments of rich material, next to her skin she was covered
with the roughest haircloth, which she wore not only in the daytime, but, what was a
great hardship for a delicate body, she even slept in it at night.
 Noblewomen’s lives  123
The night offices she hardly ever missed, being as regular at the services attended by all
God’s people in holy seasons; in such fashion that scarcely ever in her house was there rest
from the singing of God’s praises by her chaplains, who were always busy at their office.
So constantly was her dead husband’s name on her lips, that in prayer, in almsgiving,
in the midst of ordinary business, she continually spoke of him, because he was for ever
in her mind. For with love of whom the heart is full, to his name shapeth the tongue in
speech, whether it will or no.

Retirement to religious life

About twelve years after my father’s death, I am told, during which the widow managed
house and children under worldly garb, she now made haste to bring to happy birth a
resolve with which she had long been in labor. … [S]he resolved to retire to the monastery
of [Fly]. Having therefore built a little house, built near the church through the agency of
my master, at last she came forth from the place where she was staying, and knowing that I
should be utterly an orphan with no one on whom to depend – for great as was my wealth
of kinsfolk and connections, yet there was none to give me the loving care a little child needs
at such an age, for with no lack of food and clothing I [still] suffered from the loss of all those
precautions for the helplessness of tender years that only a woman can provide – knowing
I say, that I should be exposed to such want of care, yet the love and fear of God hardened
her heart, but in her journey to this convent having to pass through the town in which I was
living, the sight of the castle gave intolerable anguish to her lacerated heart stung with the
bitter remembrance of what she had left behind. …
A few years before her death she conceived a strong desire to take the sacred veil [as
a nun]. When I tried to dissuade her, putting forward as authority the passage where it
is written, “Let no prelate attempt to veil widows,” saying that her most chaste life would
be sufficient without the external veil, as Anselm, too, abbot of Bec, … had of old time
forbidden, yet so much more was she inflamed and by no reasoning could be driven from
her resolve. So she prevailed, and when taking the veil in the presence of John, the Abbot
of that place, gave satisfactory reasons for this act, and in the end she proved that … her
consecration was invited by signs from heaven.

Questions: What picture of marital and family relations is given here? What concerns and problems
did Guibert’s mother have as a young wife, as a mother, and as a widow? What attitudes toward
the supernatural are evident in this text? What ideals are espoused in the work?

36. M atilda of S tickney : L and grants ( ca . 1170–98)

The most common kind of written evidence from much of medieval Europe is not
narrative but documentary: formal agreements, records of transactions, accounts kept
by institutions or individuals, and so on. Charters, a very common type of document,
most often record land grants or sales, many of which were made to the church. Most
charters record the actions of men, and the witnesses to the actions, whose names are
recorded at the end, were also usually men, the rare female witness generally being the
wife of the grantor. Still, sufficient numbers of women’s names and actions appear in
the vast body of charter evidence to make this kind of document useful to the historian
of women, particularly in tracing women and their lands within families. Matilda of
Stickney and her husband belonged to the lower end of the landed class of medieval
124  Noblewomen’s lives
England; they may not even have been of knightly status, but their charters are typical
in most ways of the documents left to us by the lower nobility. One unusual feature
here is the regional landscape, which was characterized by marshes.
Source: trans. E. Amt from “Some Revesby Charters of the Soke of Bolingbroke,” ed. Dorothy
M. Owen, in A Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Stenton, ed. Patricia M. Barnes and C. F. Slade
(London: Pipe Roll Society, 1962).

To all sons of the holy mother the church, William of Stickney and Matilda his
wife [send] greeting. Know that we have given and granted to God and St. Mary and
the monks of St. Lawrence [i.e. Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire], in perpetual alms, (1)
whatever they hold between the causeway which goes from the door of the barn toward
Stickney and Margaret’s meadow which is next to Torendic, and between the yard of
the grange and their sheepfold, and (2) meadowland three perches in width, along the
western side of Nordike causeway, contiguous with the causeway, and in length from
a certain piece of land in Stickney to Smalna, and (3) whatever they have inside their
ditch, from the eastern corner of the garden to the western corner of the orchard, from
the northern part of the causeway which goes from the grange toward Stickney. All these
things we have granted them in perpetual alms, free and quit from all earthly service and
secular exaction, and whatever is owed to the king or to any man for this land, we and
our heirs shall do, and we and our heirs guarantee this land and this donation to the same
monks against all men. Witnesses: Robert, son of Ernisius; Ralph Travers; William de
Agerni; William, the clerk of Robert son of Ernisius; Torald, dean of Edlington; Robert
his brother; Robert Calf; Geoffrey of Enderby; Adam of Enderby; Alan his brother;
Gilbert de Cauz.

To all sons of the holy mother the church, William of Stickney [sends] greeting.
Know that I, for my health and that of all my ancestors, have granted to the monks of
St. Lawrence that they may have the common pasture and all its easements in all places
which are called “Wythage.” This common and these easements I have granted and
given them in perpetual alms, with the consent and good will of Matilda my wife and
of Alan my heir, free and quit of all earthly service and secular exaction and absolved
by me and my heirs. Witnesses: Thorald, dean of Horncastle; Ralph, clerk of Baumber;
Andrew, son of John of Edlington; Warin of Edlington; William Tisun; Master William
of Newark; Robert of Enderby; Reiner de Belleland; Gilbert of Bolingbroke.

To all sons of the holy mother the church, Matilda daughter of Roger of Huditoft,
wife of William of Stickney, [sends] greeting. Know that I have granted and given to
God and Saint Mary and the monks of St. Lawrence, for the health of my own soul and
my husband William’s, and those of all my ancestors and heirs, in perpetual alms, that
whole homestead which Alice, sister of Hugh Habba, held in Stickney. This land, with
all its appurtenances within the village and outside, I have given to the same monks free
and quit by me and my heirs, and absolved of all earthly service and secular exaction,
except that those monks shall give to me and to my heirs ten and a half pence annually,
that is, five pence at Christmas and five and a half pence at the feast of St. Botolph. And
whatever service is owed for this land to the king or to any man, I and my heirs will do,
and we will guarantee it against all men. Witnesses: Alan, priest of Stickney; Roger the
cleric; Geoffrey le Neucumen; William the cleric; Eustace; Godfrey and Simon; Lady
Margaret; and Elena, wife of Roger the clerk.
 Noblewomen’s lives  125
To all sons of the holy mother the church, Matilda, daughter of Roger of Huditoft of
Stickney, [sends] greeting. Know that I have granted and given to God and St. Mary and to
the monks of St. Lawrence, in perpetual alms, half a bovate of land in the territory of Stickney,
that is, that half a bovate which Alan le Neucumen held in that village. I have given this land
free and quit by me and my heirs, and absolved of all earthly and secular exaction, with all
its appurtenances in homesteads and smallholdings, in meadows and pastures, in arable land
and marshland. And whatever is owed for this land to the king or to any man, I and my heirs
will do, and we will guarantee this land with all its appurtenances to the same monks, against
all men. This donation I made to them in the time of my widowhood, with the consent and
good will of Alan, my son and heir, and of my other heirs. These were the witnesses: Robert,
the deacon of Bolingbroke; Robert, the priest of Mareham; Roger of Benniworth; Gilbert de
Boulogne; Nicholas del Keene; Alard of Hoiland; William, son of Hemming; Richard, cleric
of Mareham; Geoffrey and Adam of Enderby. These were also witnesses: Christiana, wife of
Henry of Claxby; and Eda, wife of Richard, the clerk of Mareham.

Questions: How active is Matilda in these transactions? What role do the charters show her playing?
Do we learn anything else about her life from them? In what other roles do women appear in these
documents? Are any of these surprising?

37. T he roll of ladies and boys and girls (1185)

In 1185 King Henry II of England had an investigation made and a document drawn
up listing the women and children under his direct feudal control: the widows, daugh-
ters and minor sons of his deceased feudal tenants. Under feudal custom, the widows
and unmarried children were his to give in marriage (generally for a fee), and the lands
were his to exploit until their rightful heirs came of age. The partial results of this
inquiry survive today; this is an unusual document, but it illustrates a very common
situation: noble women and children whose feudal lords had great power over their
lives and lands. The information provided about the individuals here is sketchy, but
illuminating all the same – especially as these are people about whom we otherwise
would know little or nothing. The entries below are excerpts from the survey results.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis de XII Comitatibus, ed. John Horace
Round (London: The Pipe Roll Society, 1913; repr. Kraus, 1966). Used with the permission of the
Controller of Her Britannic Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Rohese de Bussy, who was the daughter of Baldwin fitzGilbert and the wife of William
de Bussy, is in the gift of the Lord King, and is 50 years old; and she has two daughters,
of whom John de Builli has the elder and Hugh Wake has the second. Her inheritance
in Morton is worth £15 per year, with livestock of three plow-teams and 200 sheep. The
land which she now has there is worth £4; her two daughters and the other men who
hold by their service have the rest. …
The wife of Walter Furmage, who was the daughter of Thomas de Nevill, is in the
gift of the Lord King, and is 24 years old, and she has a daughter who is the heir, who
is not yet a year old. She has half a plow-team of land in Crosholm, for which she pays
5s. annually, and it could be put to farm with a mill for 2 marks [i.e. 13s. 4d.]. The same
woman has four bovates of land in Sinterby, which she holds in demesne, and she culti-
vates them with one plow, and they are her dowry from her father’s fief, and the land is
worth 12s. per year.
126  Noblewomen’s lives
The wife of Simon de Crevequer, who was the daughter of Robert fitzErnisius, and
daughter of the daughter of John Ingelram, is in the gift of the Lord King, and is 24 years
old; and she has two sons, the elder of whom is five years old, the younger four. Her land
in Haneworth is worth 100s. annually, and it cannot be worth more. …
Margaret Engaine has been in the gift of the Lord King for the past eight years; and Geof-
frey Brito married her, it is said, without a license from the King; and this was previously shown
to the justices. Geoffrey Brito found pledges that he would answer at the exchequer, three
weeks after Michaelmas, for the aforesaid Margaret whom he married; they were Thomas de
Hale and Alan de Hale and John of Southwick. … Margaret Engaine, whom Geoffrey Brito
married, as is told above, has six pounds’ worth of land in Pytchley; and she is 50 years old, and
her heir is Richard Engaine. And she was the daughter of Richard fitzUrse. …
Alicia, who was the wife of Fulk de Lusors and the sister of William d’Auberville, is
in the gift of the Lord King; and she has two sons who are knights and two others and
six married daughters and three unmarried daughters, who are in the custody of their
mother. Her land in Glaptorn is worth 100s. annually with the following stock: two plow-
teams and six cows and one bull and 30 pigs and 40 sheep. Her land in Abiton, which is
her dower and is in Spelho Hundred, is worth £14 annually.
Alicia, who was the wife of Thomas de Bellofago and the daughter of Waleran d’Oiri,
is in the gift of the Lord King, and is 20 years old. She has in Ashley one and a half
knights’ fees, which Peter of Ashley and Robert de Watervill hold from her; their service
was given as dower to the aforesaid lady. She has one son who is three years old and is in
the custody of Nigel fitzAlexander.
Beatrice, who was the wife of Robert Mantel, the Lord King’s servant in the Honor of
Nottingham, is in the gift of the Lord King, and she is 30 years old. Her land in Roade, which
she has in dower, is worth 30s. per year with stock of one plow-team, and there are six virgates
there. She has three sons and one daughter; the eldest son is 10 years old and is in the custody of
Robert de Salcey, it is said, on the King’s orders. The other children are with their mother. …
Mary de Trailli, who was the wife of Geoffrey de Trailli, is in the gift of the Lord King,
and she is 40 years old, and was the kinswoman of Earl Simon. Walter de Trailli was
her son and heir, and besides him she has another son who is a monk, and one married
daughter, and another who is a nun. Her land, Northill, is worth £14 annually. …
Beatrice, who was the wife of Richard Gubiun, is in the gift of the Lord King, it is
believed, because she has her dower in Northampton; and she is more than 40 years old
and has seven sons and six daughters. She has 18 pounds’ worth of land in Flete Hundred
in the fief of Simon de Beauchamp. …
Matilda Malherbe is in the gift of the Lord King and is 40 years old; and she has a son
and heir who is a knight, and also sons and daughters besides him, but the jurors do not
know how many. Half of the village of Hockliffe, which is her dowry, and which she holds
from Robert Malherbe her brother, is worth £4 15s. 4d. annually, with the one plow-team
which is there; and if 100 sheep were added, it would be worth £5 15s. 4d. …
William of Windsor, son of William of Windsor the elder, is in the custody of the Lord
King. And by [the King’s] orders he is and has been in the custody of his mother Hawise
of Windsor, for nine years, along with his lands, Horton and Eton. The aforesaid William
is 18 years old. …
Hawise of Windsor is in the gift of the Lord King, and, besides the above-named heir,
she has seven daughters; two of them are overseas, two are nuns, and three are in the gift
of the Lord King. The age of the aforesaid lady is not known to the jurors, because she
was born overseas. …
 Noblewomen’s lives  127
Basilia, who was the wife of David Pinel … and is 18 years old, and was the daughter
of Robert Taillard of Merlawe, is in the gift of the Lord King, and she has two thirds
of the aforementioned half hide of land, with her children, that is, one son and one
daughter, who are in the custody of their mother … and the son is three years old, and
the daughter is two. …
Cecily of Bowthorpe is in the gift of the Lord King; she has had two husbands, Hugh
de Scotcia and Eustace of Leyham. By Hugh she had three sons, and by Eustace two
sons and two daughters. Reginald, her firstborn son and heir, is 24 years old; his father
Eustace was of the family of the count of Meulan and a kinsman of Robert fitzHumfrey.
The aforesaid Cecily is of the family of the Earl de Redvers, and she is 50 years old. Her
land in Bowthorpe is worth £8 with regular stock. In the same manor Roger of Hoo
holds a quarter of a knight’s fee from the same Cecily, beyond the land worth £8. The
aforesaid Reginald her son has a wife, the niece of the sheriff Wimer, whom, according
to Wimer, he received from the King.
She who was the wife of John de Bidun the younger, Matilda by name, is in the
gift of the Lord King, and she is 10 years old and was the daughter of Thomas fitz-
Bernard. Her land in Kirkby is worth £6, with stock of one plow-team, and it cannot
be worth more.

Questions: What facts about the women seem to have been of concern to the royal officials who compiled
these records? Looking carefully at the ages given in the document, can you draw any conclusions?
What does the evidence in this source tell us about marriage and family life among the nobility?

38.  T he B ook of the K night of the T ower (1371)

The following extracts come from a book of moral instruction written in 1371
by a French knight named Geoffrey de La Tour Landry, for his three daughters,
Jeanne, Anne, and Marie. The book, which was full of anecdotes borrowed from
literature as well as first-hand advice offered by the father to his girls, became a
popular instructional work, being copied many times in the following centuries,
being translated into other medieval languages, and passing into print almost as
soon as the printing press was invented. Although it presents a prescriptive and
idealized picture of how young noblewomen should live, it nevertheless serves as
evidence for the values and daily concerns of this social group and of one family
within it.
Source: Rebecca Barnhouse, The Book of the Knight of the Tower: Manners for Young Medieval Women
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

My very dear daughters, I am much older than you and have seen the world longer
than you have, so I’ll teach you about the world according to my own knowledge,
which isn’t large. Because of my great love for you, I want you to turn your hearts
and your thoughts to God, to fear and serve him. Doing so will bring you happiness
and honor in this world as well as in that other world, for certainly all the true happi-
ness, honor, and all of a person’s good name comes from God and from the grace of
his holy spirit. All things happen according to his pleasure and rule, and he returns a
hundredfold all the service done to him. Therefore, my dear daughters, it is good to
serve such a Lord.
128  Noblewomen’s lives
How matins and hours ought to be said
Because the first work that man and woman must do is to adore and worship our Lord and to
say his service, as soon as you wake up you ought to acknowledge him as your Lord and maker
and remember that you are his creature. Say your matins, hours, and prayers, and give thanks
and praise him. … It is better to thank and bless our Lord God than to ask him for things. The
requesting, the demanding, and the giving of rewards and praise is the office of the angels, who
always give thanks, honor, and praise to God. We should thank God instead of asking things of
him because he knows better than we do what is good for a man or woman.
Before going to sleep, we ought to pray for those who are dead. Also, we should pray
for those who pray for dead men. And don’t forget the blessed and sweet Virgin Mary,
who prays for us night and day. Commend yourself to the holy saints of heaven, and
when that is done, then you may go to sleep.

How good daughters ought to fast until they are married

Also, my dear daughters, you ought to fast three or four days a week until you’re married.
It’s important to subdue your flesh so it won’t become aroused, and this will keep you
pure and sound in the service of God, for which you will be doubly rewarded. If you can’t
fast three days, at least fast on Fridays in honor of Christ’s suffering. And if you can’t eat
just bread and water, at the very least don’t eat anything that has to be killed. … It’s also
good to fast on Saturday in honor of Our Lady and her virginity, because she will help
keep you chaste, and will help keep evil temptations from mastering you. This is a great
victory over the flesh and a very holy thing – and it’s not that difficult to get used to. It’s
as natural as hearing Mass and saying your hours and doing holy works, just as the holy
women in the lives of the saints have done.

How good women ought to comport themselves courteously

My daughters, be gracious and modest because you will earn both the grace of God
and the love of all people in this way. Courtesy overcomes wretches. … Courtesy is the
path to friendship and all worldly love, and it can vanquish the high spirits and anger
of all creatures. …
Therefore, my fair daughters, show courtesy to the people of lower classes and do
them honor, and speak to them fairly and sweetly, and answer them courteously, and
they will give you greater reverence, more praise, and more renown than will the great,
because the honor and courtesy that’s given to the great estates is but their right. But
that which is done to small gentlemen and gentlewomen and to others of lesser degree –
that honor and courtesy comes of a noble and courteous heart. The low or poor man or
woman to whom it is given is happy to receive it and gets great pleasure from it.

How young maidens ought not to turn their heads thoughtlessly here
and there
Daughters, don’t be like the tortoise or the crane, which turn their heads above their
shoulders, winding their heads here and there like a weathervane. Instead, hold your-
selves steadfast like the hare, a beast that always looks in front of him without turning his
head all about. Always look directly in front of you and if you must look to the side, turn
 Noblewomen’s lives  129
your face and your body together, holding yourself firm and sure, for those who frivo-
lously cast their eyes about and turn their faces here and there are mocked. …
And thus … don’t cast your eyes about at others, nor turn your neck here and there,
and don’t be too full of words, for one who speaks too much isn’t thought to be wise. You
should understand before you answer, and if you pause a little before you do, you will
answer better and more wisely. …
And therefore, my fair daughters, all gentlewomen and noble maidens of good lineage
ought to be quiet, modest, mature, steadfast in manner, and of little speech. They should
answer courteously, and not move restlessly nor cast their sight around easily. Those who
haven’t acted the way they should have lost their marriages.

Of those who are the first to take new fashions

Fair daughters, I beg you not to be the first to try new fashions. Instead, be the last
and wait the longest, especially when it comes to new fashions of women from foreign
regions. … [For] you should dress moderately according to the way good women dress
in this region. Don’t be the first to wear the fashions of foreign women because you’ll be
mocked and scorned.
But God have mercy on us this day because some will never rest until they have a
copy of the new fashion of new kind of gown, and will say to their husband daily, “Such
and such a thing would look good on me, and it’s very beautiful, and I tell you I must
have it.”
And her husband says to her, “My love, such a one may have it, but others who are
wiser than she is don’t.”
“What do I care how they dress?” the woman says, and she keeps giving reasons why
she must have it. But these women who have their hearts most set on worldly pleasures
aren’t very wise.
There’s currently a habit among serving women of lower classes to wear fur on their
collars that hangs down to the middle of their backs, and they also wear fur on their heels,
which get all daubed with dirt. I don’t recommend this for either winter or summer. It
would be better in the winter for them to take the fur that hangs around their heels and
put it on their stomachs, because that has more need of heat than their heels, and in
summer it would be better not to wear it at all, because it shelters flies.
However, I don’t intend to speak against other ladies in this book, but instead to speak
to my own daughters, and the women and servants of my house, to whom I may say what
pleases me, according to my own will.

Of those who gladly go to feasts and jousts

Don’t be overdesirous of going to such feasts, because feasts and revels have been the
cause by which many good ladies and gentlewomen lose their reputations. Of course,
sometimes they must obey their husbands and their relatives and go to feasts. But my
daughters, if you do go because you can’t easily refuse, when night comes and the dancing
and singing begins, keep yourselves away from it and always have some of your relatives
or servants by you. Then if the torches or lights are quenched, they will stay by you to
protect you from evil eyes and evil tongues who spy and say more harm than exists. Then
you will keep your honor, your name, and your good reputation against liars who will
always say evil things and forget the good.
130  Noblewomen’s lives
How men ought to love according to their own estate and degree
[Here the girls’ mother speaks to their father:] “Sir, I do not want them to take pleasure with
those who are of lower estate or degree than they are. No unmarried woman should set her
love on a man of lower rank than she is. If she did, her family and friends would consider
her degraded. Those who love such people act against their honor, for people ought to
desire nothing as much as the honor and the friendship of the world. That’s all lost as soon
as she takes herself away from their governance and counsel. I could tell you examples of
many who have been dishonored in this way and hated by their relatives and friends.
“And therefore, Sir, I, their mother, forbid them to set their love on one of lower
degree than their own. Nor should they have as their lord one of higher estate, for the
great lords won’t take them as wives, but they deceive them to have the delights and
pleasures of their bodies, and to bring them to the folly of the world.”

How women ought to be charitable according to the example of

Our Lady
Every good woman ought to be as charitable as the holy lady who gave the greatest thing
she had for the love of God. By her example, Saints Elizabeth, Lucy, and Cecelia and
many other holy ladies were so charitable that they gave most of their belongings to the
poor, as you can read in their legends.
I want you to know about a good lady of Rome. While she was at Mass she saw a poor
woman who was shaking from cold. The good lady had pity on her and privately called
to her and took her to her house, which wasn’t far away, to give her a good furred gown.
While they were gone, the priest who was saying the Mass couldn’t speak a word. The
moment she returned, however, he spoke as he had before. Afterwards he saw in a vision
why had had lost his speech and how God praised the lady’s gift before his angels. Every
good woman should be as charitable as this lady and not allow her poor neighbors to
suffer from cold or hunger or other ills, but … help them as far as [her] power reaches.

How it is good to shelter and receive the servants and ministers of

God in your house
It’s good to harbor the servants of God, that is to say the preachers and those who preach
the faith. In the same way, we should shelter pilgrims and the poor people of God, as the
Holy Gospel tells us. There it says that on the great and dreadful day – Judgment Day
– God will ask whether men have visited and sheltered poor people in his name. Then
every man and woman must give a reckoning of how they have used their earthly goods.
Thus, it is a virtue to shelter the poor and the servants of God, for good may come of it.
Every woman ought to have pity when she sees that somebody wrongs the poor
people of God, who are his servants. In the Gospels he says, that which is done to my
servants in my name is done to me. And he says more: he will have mercy on those who
have been full of pity. Concerning this, the sage says that a woman ought by her nature
to be sweeter and more compassionate than a man, for a man should be firmer and of
higher spirit. Therefore, those whose hearts are neither meek nor full of pity may be
called mannish. Further, the sage says in the book of wisdom that a woman by her nature
ought not to stint on things that come easily to her, like tears and a humble heart that has
pity for poor parents whom she sees suffering great need.
 Noblewomen’s lives  131
Questions: What does the knight want his daughters to do and not to do? Why? What worldly and
spiritual concerns does he have for them? In what ways does the text reveal ideas about social rank?
How are men and women compared in the text?

39. L eonor L ópez de C órdoba : A utobiography (14 th –15 th c .)

Leonor López was a Spanish woman of very high rank, as she carefully explains in this
work, which is one of the earliest known pieces of female autobiography. She was only
eight years old when, we learn here, she was imprisoned with the rest of her family for
political reasons. After the events described below, she rose once more to a powerful
position at the royal court, but she had to retire in disfavor in 1412, and it was after
this that she had the story of part of her life written down in her own words.
Source: Amy Katz Kaminsky and Elaine Dorough Johnson, “To Restore Honor and Fortune:
‘The Autobiography of Leonor López de Córdoba,’” in The Female Autograph: Theory and Practice of
Autobiography from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century, ed. Domna C. Stanton (University of Chicago
Press, 1987).

Therefore, know all who see this document, how I, Doña Leonor López de Córdoba,
daughter of my Lord Grand Master Don Martín López de Córdoba and Doña Sancha
Carrillo, to whom God grant glory and heaven, swear by this sign † which I worship, that
all that is written here is true for I saw it and it happened to me, and I write it to the honor
and glory of my Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Virgin Mary his mother who bore
him so that all creatures that suffered might be certain that I believe in her mercy, that if
they commend themselves from the heart to the Holy Virgin Mary she will console and
succor them as she consoled me. And so that whoever might hear it [might] know the
tale of my deeds and miracles that the Holy Virgin Mary showed me, it is my intention
that it be left as a record. I ordered it written as you see before you. I am the daughter
of the aforesaid Grand Master of Calatrava, in the time of Lord King Don Pedro, who
bestowed the honor of giving him the Commandery of Alcantara, and at last of Calat-
rava, and that Grand Master my father was a descendant of the House of Aguilar and
nephew of Don Juan Manuel, son of a niece of his, a daughter with a brother. And he
rose to very high rank, as can be found in the Chronicles of Spain.
As I have said, I am the daughter of Doña Sancha Carrillo, niece and maid of the
most illustriously remembered Lord King Don Alfonso (whom God grant Holy para-
dise), father of the aforementioned Lord King Don Pedro. My mother died very young,
and so my father married me at the age of seven years to Ruy Gutiérrez de Henestrosa,
son of Juan Ferrández de Henestrosa, High Chamberlain of Lord King Don Pedro and
his High Chancellor of the Secret Seal, and High Steward of Queen Doña Blanca his
wife, who married Doña María de Haro, Lady of Haro and los Cameros. My husband
inherited many goods from his father and many offices. And his men on horseback
numbered three hundred, and forty skeins of pearls as fat as chickpeas, and five hundred
Moors, men and women, and two thousand marks of silver in tableware, and the jewels
and gems of his household you could not write down on two sheets of paper. And his
father and his mother left all this to him because they had no other son or heir. To
me, my father gave twenty thousand gold coins upon marriage. And my husband and
I resided in Carmona with the daughters of Lord King Don Pedro, and my brothers-
in-law, husbands of my sisters, and a brother of mine whose name was Don Lope López
de Córdoba Carrillo. …
132  Noblewomen’s lives
And Lord King Don Enrique seeing himself King of Castile came to Seville and …
ordered that they cut off my father’s head in the Plaza de San Francisco in Seville, and
that his property be confiscated, and that of his son-in-law, defenders, and servants. …
The rest of us were kept prisoner for nine years until Lord King Enrique died. Our
husbands had sixty pounds of iron each on their feet, and my brother Don Lope López
had a chain on top of the irons, in which there were seventy links. He was a child of thir-
teen years, the most beautiful creature there was in the world. And they singled out my
husband to be put in the hunger tank, where they held him for six or seven days without
food or drink because he was a cousin of the lady princesses, daughters of Lord King Don
Pedro. At this juncture a plague came, and my two brothers, my brother-in-law, and
thirteen knights of the house of my father all died. … And they took them all out to the
ironsmith’s like slaves to remove their irons. After they were dead my sad little brother
Don Lope López asked the jailer who held us to tell Gonzalo Ruiz Bolante to do us a
great kindness and a great honor for the love of God: “Sir jailer be so kind as to strike
these irons from me before my soul departs, and do not let them take me out to the iron-
smith’s.” … He was but one year older than I, and they took him out to the ironsmith’s
on a plank like a slave, and they buried him with my brothers and with my sisters, and
with my brothers-in-law in San Francisco of Seville. …
Then the very eminent and very honorable, most illustriously and saintedly remem-
bered Lord King Don Enrique died, and he ordered in his will that they let us out of
prison and return to us all that was ours. And I stayed at the home of my lady aunt María
García Carrillo, and my husband went to reclaim his property and those who held it
esteemed him little, because he had no rank nor means to claim it, and you well know
how rights depend on the station you have on which to base a claim. And thus was my
husband lost, and he wandered seven years through the world, a wretched man, and
never did he find a relative or friend who did him a good turn or had pity on him. And
at the end of seven years, they told my husband, who was in Badajoz with his uncle Lope
Fernández de Padilla in the War of Portugal, that I was doing very well in the house of
my lady and aunt Doña María García Carrillo, that my relatives had done me much
kindness. He rode on his mule, which was worth very little money, and what he wore was
not worth thirty maravedís. And he came through the doorway of my lady and aunt.
… After my husband came, as I have said, he went to the house of my lady aunt,
which was in Córdoba next to San Hipólito, and she took me in with my husband there
in some houses adjacent to hers. And seeing that we had so little peace, for thirty days I
said a prayer to the Holy Virgin Mary of Bethlehem, praying every night on my knees
three hundred Hail Marys, that she might put it into my lady aunt’s mind to consent and
open a doorway into her dwellings. And two days before I finished the prayer, I asked
my aunt if she would allow me to open that passageway so that we would not have to
walk through the street, among all the knights who were in Córdoba, to come and eat at
her table. And her grace responded that she would be happy to do so, and I was greatly
consoled. When on the following day I tried to open the passageway, maids of hers had
turned her against me, so that she would not do it, and I was so disconsolate I lost my
patience, and the one who had most set my lady aunt against me died in my hands, swal-
lowing her tongue. …
Then there was a raid on the Jewish quarter, and I took an orphan child who was there
and had him baptized so that he might be instructed in the faith. And one day, walking
back with my lady aunt from mass at San Hipólito, I saw the clerics of San Hipólito
dividing up those courtyards … and I begged my lady aunt Doña Mencía Carrillo that
 Noblewomen’s lives  133
she be so kind as to buy that place for me, since I had been in her company for seventeen
years. She bought them for me and gave them. … I believe that for the charitable act I
performed in raising that orphan in the faith of Jesus Christ, God helped me in giving me
the beginning of a house. … At this time, it pleased God that with the help of my lady
aunt and of the labor of my hands I built in that courtyard two palaces and a garden and
another two or three houses for the servants.
Then there came a very cruel pestilence, and my lady did not want to leave the city.
I begged her for mercy to flee with my little children so that they would not die, and this
did not please her, but she gave me permission, and I departed from Córdoba, and I
went to Santaella with my children. The orphan I brought up lived in Santaella, and he
gave me lodging in his house, and all the residents of the town were very happy with my
going there, and received me very warmly because they had been servants of my lord and
father. And thus they gave me the best house that there was in the place, which belonged
to Fernando Alonso Mediebarba. My lady aunt arrived unexpectedly with her daugh-
ters, and I removed myself to a small apartment. And her daughters, my cousins, were
never favorably disposed toward me because of the kindness their mother did me, and
from then on I suffered so much bitterness that it cannot all be written down. And a pesti-
lence came, and my lady departed with her people for Aguilar, and she took me with her,
although her daughters thought that was doing too much, because she loved me greatly
and had a high opinion of me. And I sent the orphan whom I had raised to Ecija.
The night we arrived in Aguilar the young man came in from Ecija with two tumors
on his throat and three dark blotches on his face and a very high fever. Don Alfonso
Fernandez, my cousin, was there, and his wife and all his household, and although all
of them were my nieces and my friends, they came to me when they found out that my
servant had come in that state. They said to me: “Your servant Alonso has come with
pestilence, and if Don Alfonso Fernandez sees him, he will wreak havoc being in the pres-
ence of such an illness.” You who hear this story can well understand the pain that came
to my heart for I was angered and bitter. Thinking that such great suffering had entered
the house on my account, I had a servant of the lord my father, the Grand Master, called,
whose name was Miguel de Santaella, and I begged him to take that young man to his
house, and the poor man became afraid and said: “My lady, how shall I take him sick
with the pestilence, for it may kill me?” And I said to him, “Son, God shall not will it
so.” And he took him out of shame. And because of my sins, thirteen people, who kept
vigil over him during the night, all died. And I offered a prayer that I had heard a nun
say before a crucifix. It seems she was very devoted to Jesus Christ, and it is said that
after she heard morning prayer, she came before the crucifix and prayed on her knees
seven thousand times: “Merciful son of the Virgin, take pity.” And one night the nun
heard that the crucifix answered her and said: “You called me merciful and merciful I
shall be.” I place great faith in these words and prayed this prayer every night, entreating
God that he should want to free me and my children, and if any of them had to be taken
away, it should be the older one for he was in great pain. And it was God’s will that one
night I could not find anyone to watch over that suffering young man, because all those
who had watched over him up to then had died. And that son of mine whose name was
Juan Fernández de Henestrosa, after his grandfather, and who was twelve years and
four months of age, came to me and said: “My lady, is there no one who will watch over
Alonso tonight?” And I said to him: “You watch over him for the love of God.” And he
answered me: “My lady, now that the others have died, do you want it to kill me?” And I
said to him: “For the charitable act I am performing, God will take pity on me.” And my
134â•… Noblewomen’s lives
son, so as not to disobey me, went to watch over him, and because of my sins, that night
he came down with the plague and the next I buried him. And the sick one survived,
but all those stated above died. And Doña Teresa, wife of Don Alfonso Fernández my
cousin, became very angry that my son was dying for that reason in her house, and with
death in his mouth, she ordered him to be taken out. And I was so wrought with anguish
that I could not speak for the shame that those noble people made me bear. And my sad
little son said: “Tell my lady Doña Teresa that she not have me cast out, for my soul will
soon depart for Heaven.” And that night he died, and he was buried in Santa María la
Coronada, which is in the town. But Doña Teresa had designs against me, and I did not
know why. And she had ordered that he not be buried within the town, and thus, when
they took him to be buried I went with him. And when I was going down the street with
my son, the people, offended for me, came out shouting: “Come out good people and
you will see the most unfortunate, forsaken and condemned woman in the world,” with
cries that rent the Heavens. Since the residents of that place were all liege and subject to
my lord father, and although they knew it troubled their masters, they made great display
of the grief they shared with me, as if I were their lady.
That night, as I came back from burying my son, they told me that I should go to
Córdoba, and I approached my lady aunt to see if she would order me to do it. But she
said to me: “Lady niece, I cannot fail to do so, as I have promised my daughter-in-law
and my daughters, who are of one mind; since they have pressed me to remove you from
my presence, I have granted it to them. I do not know what vexation you have caused my
daughter-in-law, Doña Teresa, that she feels such ill will toward you.” And I said to her
with many tears: “My lady, may God not save me if I deserved this.” And thus I came to
my houses in Córdoba.

Questions: What kind of person was Leonor, as an individual and in her relationships? What was most
important to her? How did she deal with the hardships she faced? How did she shape her narrative?

40.╇C ristina C orner :

P etition for exemption from sumptuary laws (15 th c .)
In this text, a noblewoman of the Italian city of Venice petitions the pope for exemption
from sumptuary laws of the sort printed in Chapter II (document 19). The outcome
was that Cristina’s petition was granted for a period of three years, for a fee.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Lo statuto inedito delle nozze veneziane emanato nell’anno 1299, ed. C. Foucard
(Venice: Tipografia de commercio, 1858).

Most blessed father: Since in the city of Venice there has been from ancient times … an
edict, law or statute, by which it is decreed that women of that city may not wear in public
caps, circlets, rings, necklaces, garments, or ornaments of gold and silver, precious stones,
gems or jewels, or other precious jewelry or ornaments, under certain penalties, therefore
your devoted Cristina, daughter of Andrew Corner of Venice, dares not wear her many
jewels and ornaments, although she is known to have them. Wherefore she, who comes
from a noble family, beseeches Your Holiness that she be permitted to wear publicly the
aforesaid circlets, rings, necklaces, garments, and ornaments of gold and silver, pearls,
gems, precious stones or jewels, and other jewelry and precious ornaments, in honor
of her parents, and of her own beauty, and that she, who has previously complied with
 Noblewomen’s lives  135
this law, according to the tradition and custom in the said city, shall in these matters live
freely and lawfully, as she can and is able. Deign from your special grace to grant and
permit this, the aforesaid law and statute or any others to the contrary notwithstanding.

Questions: On what grounds does Cristina base her request? What specifically does she ask for? What
do this document and its results tell us about the effectiveness of the Venetian sumptuary laws?

41. C hristine de P izan : A utobiographical writing (1405)

Christine de Pizan (1365–1430?) is one of the most prominent medieval women
writers; in the excerpt below, she tells part of the story of her life. After the events
recounted here, Christine went on to make her living as a professional writer. Her
published works included love poetry, a treatise on the accomplishments of famous
women, a book of advice for women of various ranks and conditions, and a poem
in praise of Joan of Arc. Unlike most other well-known medieval women writers,
Christine came from a secular background, having been educated in the French
royal court where her father worked.
Source: “Selections from the Works of Christine de Pizan: The Lavision-Christine,” tr. Nadia Marg-
olis, in Elizabeth Alvida Petroff, Medieval Women’s Visionary Literature (Oxford University Press, 1986).

I was born of noble parents in the land of Italy in the city of Venice, where my father,
born in Bologna, where I was since then nourished, went to marry my mother, who was
also born there, this marriage having been arranged through the longtime acquaintance
of my father with my mother’s father, a scholar with both master’s and doctorate born
in the town of Forli and a graduate of the institute of Bologna, who then was a salaried
counsel to the above-mentioned city where I was born. Because of this relative my above-
mentioned father had come to know the Venetians and was, because of the extent and
reputation of his knowledge, apparently retained as a salaried counsel of the said city of
Venice during which time he resided in that city amidst wealth and many honors.
… [Because of] his desire to see the colleges of Paris and the high status of the
French court: he thus decided to come to the French king, expecting to serve the King
on a temporary basis and visit the said institutes over the space of one year and then
return to his wife and family, whom he bade stay in Bologna with all of their possessions
and belongings. And all of these things having been arranged with permission from the
said lords of Venice, he left and came to France, where he was most grandly received
and honored by wise King Charles. And soon afterward, verification of his learning and
knowledge established him as the King’s special adviser and private counsel, whom he
held in such high regard that after the beginning of the following year my father was
not granted his leave (as originally planned), for the King desired to keep him at all
costs and thus generously, at his own expense, sent him to bring back his wife, children
and other family to live all of their lives in France and to be near him, promising them
adequate revenues and pensions to ensure the honorable status of their estate. … And
so, as said before, we were transported from Italy to France: how grandly were received
the wife and children of your kindred spirit, Master Thomas, my father, upon their
arrival in Paris. Dressed in the rich Lombard garments as befitted women and children
of their estate, these the most benign and wise King wished to see and receive joyously,
which was done right after their arrival to the Louvre palace in Paris in the month of
136  Noblewomen’s lives
December. There was the King at the presentation of the said household to the beau-
tiful and honorable company of relatives manifest before his eyes as he welcomed the
wife and family most warmly.

Here Christine tells of her good fortune

To return to the point in my own fortunes, the time came whereupon I was approaching
the age when it is customary for young ladies to take a husband. Although I was still quite
a young thing, I was much sought after by knights and other nobles and wealthy clerics,
may this not be taken as boasting on my part. For the honorable reputation and the great
love that the King demonstrated toward my father was never but for the reason that my
father was considered a man worthy not by material wealth but by his knowledge and
good character. He thus had in mind a young scholar, recently graduated, of good birth
from noble parents of Picardy, whose qualities met with my father’s approval as his son,
to whom I was given in marriage. In this matter, I do not complain to Fortune, for to
choose the right person in all ways I myself could have done no better than that person.
Soon after our marriage, the good King, who thought highly of him, gave him the posi-
tion, as it was vacant at that time, of notary and secretary in financial affairs and retained
him at his court as a most beloved servant.

Christine begins to speak of her bad fortune

Thus endured this prosperity for several years, but as Fortune showed herself to be
envious of our success, she sought to restrain the source from which it came, and were
it not for this dear lady the kingdom would not have suffered the grave misfortunes that
made themselves felt in the household of Master Thomas. It was then that the most wise
good prince, ravaged not by the natural course of things, but who, at the rather young
age of forty-four years, fell to a rather brief illness from which he passed away. Alas, it
indeed happens that good things last but a short while. …
So thus did my father’s large earnings diminish: the 100 francs per month, plus books
and other gifts, did not amount to what he had originally expected from the good King
for himself and his heirs: the 500 pounds in books and many other material goods which
the King had forgotten to promise him on paper before his untimely death so that he was
retained by the governing princes on a sadly diminished salary. In addition to which, he
had already reached old age, so that he soon took ill and became incapacitated through
which many privations threatened, rendering us less financially independent. For this
reason, I believe that it is careful financial management in youth that provides us with
security in old age. All the while when he was of sound mind, my father, as a true catholic,
recognizing his creator to the end, passed away [and was] mourned and sadly missed.

More of the same

Now there remained as head of the household my husband, young and courtly, wise
and moderate and much loved by princes and all people who came into contact with his
office, which, because of his good sense, sustained the estate of the said family. But since
Fortune had already set about moving her wheel downward, disposed toward pain, in
order that she might strike me down to the lowest point, she could not bear that this very
good person should endure for me. Because of Fortune, he died when in the flower of his
 Noblewomen’s lives  137
abilities, wisdom, and promise in his position so that he could have risen to high office.
She took him from me in the flower of his youth at the age of thirty-four and when I was
twenty-five, having to care for three small children and an extensive household. I was
thus with good reason full of bitterness, lamenting the loss of his sweet companionship
and our past happiness that had only lasted ten years for me. Seeing arrive the great flood
of tribulation rushing toward me, I desired more to die than to live, without forgetting my
faith or my promise given to him in love never to take another husband.
And so I had fallen into the valley of tribulation. For just as Fortune, when she wishes
to bring something into decline, whether it be a city, an empire, or an individual person,
searches far and wide for all possible obstacles in order to guide that person upon whom
she wishes to vent her anger to the point of utter unhappiness, so this happened to me.
I was therefore not present at the death of my husband, who was suddenly stricken by a
rapid epidemic. Nevertheless he met his end a good catholic in the city of Beauvais where
he had gone with the King, and was accompanied only by his servants and an entourage
of strangers so that the precise state of his possessions could not be known. For it was the
custom for married men not to talk about or declare the complete state of their affairs to
their wives, from which often comes harm as it was to happen to me in my experience,
and it makes no sense unless women, instead of being ignorant, learn wise management
of such matters. I know well that it was not clear to me all that he had. Now it was neces-
sary for me to go to work, something which I, nurtured on the finer things of life, had not
learned, and to be the navigator of our ship cast out to sea in a storm without a captain,
that is, our bereaved household without hearth nor country. I was thereupon beset by
troubles from everywhere. And as is the case with all widows, legal complaints and trials
surrounded me from all sides. Even those who owed me assailed me so that I would not
try to ask them for anything. And Heaven only knows that it was true that many took
advantage of the disarray of my husband’s papers so as to collect fraudulent debts and
other benefits to be obtained by liars. I was thus early on deprived of my rightful inherit-
ance from my husband …. Other troubles plagued me concerning inheritance, on which
they asked for back rent and large arrearages never mentioned in the original decrees …
I came upon the culmination of my adversities when I was stricken like Job by a lengthy
illness … it is a wonder to what extent Fortune was unleashing herself against me … So
you might be able to know if for me, a fragile and naturally timid woman, making virtue
out of necessity was a costly and dangerous task.

Christine tells of how she changed her way of life

After these things had happened during my youth as well as my greatest occupations
outside, I returned to the life that pleased me the most. That is to say, solitary and calm,
and so in solitude first came to me ruminations on Latin and the orators of beautiful
learning and various sententiae and polished rhetoric that I had heard in the past when my
friends, my father and husband were alive, although I retained but little of these because
of my youthful frivolity. For even though I had been naturally since birth inclined to
study, family affairs common to married folk took me away from such pursuits, and also
the frequent bearing of children; and with this, too flagrant youth – the all too charming
enemy of good sense – that often leaves children with only the mind for play, while they
frequent their studies only for fear of beatings. But because I did not have this fear, the will
to play mastered that of intelligence and understanding, so that I could never consistently
apply myself to the labor of learning.
138  Noblewomen’s lives
The pleasure Christine derives from study
Now was the state of my life transmuted in another disposition. But not so much as
to change my bad fortune. Thus, while suffering, I was able, through the solace and
productivity of my solitary and speculative life, to persevere through the malevolence
not only to my person but also to that of those closest to me, which I attributed to the
pattern of my adversities. And I will tell you how, by taking my good friends away
from me as always, she repulsed my progress and prosperity. Fortune does not suffer
them to live long. It is true that, as rumors ran here and there among the princes of the
order and manner of my way of life, that is, at study, and although I wished to keep
it secret, I made them a present of my new volumes, however feeble and meager they
were, on various subjects which, through their grace as benign and humble princes,
they saw willingly and accepted with great pleasure. And the more I held to my unac-
customed image of a woman of letters, the more esteem came and with it, dignity, so
that, within a short time, my said books were discussed and circulated in various parts
and countries.

Questions: In what ways does Christine see her gender as having affected the course of her life?
Where does she not raise the issue of gender where you might expect it? Christine has sometimes been
described as an early “feminist” writer; what aspects of this piece reveal a consciousness that might
be so described? To what extent does Christine’s complaint against Fortune seem to be heartfelt, and
to what extent a literary convention?

42. H ousehold accounts of D ame A lice de B ryene (1412–13)

Dame Alice de Bryene, a wealthy widow, lived on an estate in eastern England in the
late fourteenth and early fifteenth century. She had her steward, John, keep meticu-
lous records of the daily consumption of the household; extracts from these accounts
are printed below. In another document from her household, some of Dame Alice’s
servants are listed as a “lady’s maid and chamberlain, squires, chaplains, grooms,
clerks of the chapel and boys.” There are also accounts of the purchases made for the
household for the year, in which it is noted that Alice herself did some of the shop-
ping, particularly for spices, salt, wax and candles, and some food items; her steward,
however, did most such work.
Source: The Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene, tr. M. K. Dale, ed. Vincent B. Redstone (Ipswich:
Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History, 1931).

The account of John … [of the] expenses of the household of Dame Alice de Bryene
… from the eve [of the feast of St. Michael] the Archangel, in the thirteenth year of the
reign of [Henry] the fourth after the Conquest, until the eve of [the same feast] in the
first year of the reign of King Henry the fifth, for one whole year [i.e. from 28 Sept. 1412
to 28 Sept. 1413].

Meals: Breakfast 8, dinner 20, supper 20. Sum 48.

Thurs., 29 Sept., the feast of St. Michael, the Lady took her meals there with her
household; in addition, Agnes Sampson, a certain groom [of] Robert Louell for the
whole day, two friars of Norwich, Colbrook, and one of the household of John Cok
at one repast. Pantry: 40 white loaves and 6 black loaves; wine from what remained;
 Noblewomen’s lives  139
ale from stock. Kitchen: One quarter of bacon, one joint of mutton, one lamb, and 32
pigeons. Purchases: in companage, 2d. Provender: hay from stock for 7 horses of the
Lady and of the company; fodder for the same one bushel of oats.
Sum of the purchases, 2d.

Meals: Breakfast 8, dinner 22, supper 10. Sum 40.

Frid., the last of Sept., the Lady took her meals with the household; in addition,
Marg[aret] Sampson with her daughter, son and one of her household, Thomas Malcher’
at one repast, 9 of the household of Colbrook Manor and one of the household of Thomas
Darbour for the whole day. Pantry: 46 white loaves and 6 black loaves; wine from what
remained; ale from stock. Kitchen: half a salt fish and one stockfish. Purchases: in a
hundred white herrings, 18d. Provender: hay from stock for 9 horses of the Lady and
company, [fodder] one bushel one peck of oats.
Sum of the purchases, 18d.

Meals: Breakfast 6, dinner 18, supper 12. Sum 26.

Sat., the first of Oct., the Lady took her meals with the household; in addition,
Colbrook for the whole day. Pantry: 44 white loaves and 6 black loaves; wine from what
remained; ale from stock. Kitchen: Half a salt fish and one stockfish. Purchases: In a
hundred oysters 2d. In a hundred smoked herrings 18d. In 33 merlings and 9 [plaice],
14d. In bread for [the] merchant’s horse ½ d. Provender: hay from stock for 6 horses of
the Lady and company; fodder for the same, one bushel of oats.
Sum of the purchases, 2s. 10d.

The baking: one quarter of wheat, whence came 236 white loaves and 36 black
loaves.
Meals: Breakfast 6, dinner 20, supper 20. Sum 46.
Sun., 2 Oct., the Lady took her meals with the household; in addition, Thomas
Sampsom with a woman of his household, John Hethe, “Jerold” the harvest-reeve of
the manor at one repast. Pantry: 50 white loaves and 10 black loaves of which newly
baked 10 white loaves and 2 black loaves; wine from supply; ale from stock. Kitchen: one
quarter of bacon, one joint of mutton, one lamb, 20 pigeons. Purchases: in beef and pork
5s. 8d. Provender: hay from stock for 7 horses of the Lady and company; fodder for the
same, one bushel of oats.
Sum of the purchases, 5s. 8d.

The brewing: 2 quarters of malt whereof one quarter drage [that is, mixed grain],
whence came 112 gallons of ale.
Meals: Breakfast 10, dinner 21, supper 21. Sum 52.
Mon., 3 Oct., the Lady took her meals with the household; in addition, John Salt-
well with 2 fellows, Robert Mose and Colbrook for the whole day, Robert Wellyng’
with one of his household, Thomas Sampsom with one of his household at one
repast. Pantry: 50 white loaves and 6 black loaves; wine from what remained; ale
from stock. Kitchen: One quarter of bacon and 24 pigeons. Purchases: nil. Prov-
ender: hay from stock for 6 horses of the Lady and company; fodder for the same,
one bush. of oats.
Sum of the purchases, nil.
140  Noblewomen’s lives
A New Year’s banquet
Meals: Breakfast 30, dinner one hundred 160 [sic], supper 30. Sum, two hundred [sic].
Sun., 1 Jan. [Guests] William Sampsom with his wife and one of his household, Edward
Peyton with one of his household, William Langham with one of his household, the wife of
Robert Dynham with her son, John Teyler’ with his son, Richard Sc[ri]ven[er], the bailiff of
the manor with the harvest-reeve and 8 of the household of the manor, Margaret Brydbek,
one harper, Agnes Whyte, the whole day, Agnes Rokwode with 2 sons, a daughter and a
maidservant, the vicar of Aketon with one of his household, Richard Appylton with his wife
and one of his household, Thomas Malcher’ with 300 tenants and other strangers, one repast.
Pantry: 314 white, and 40 black, loaves, whereof newly baked 104 white, and 14 black,
loaves; wine from what remained; ale from stock. Kitchen: 2 pigs, 2 swans, 12 geese, 2 joints
of mutton, 24 capons, 17 conies. Purchases: beef 8s. 2d., veal 3s., 5 young pigs 2s. 4d., 12 gall.
milk 18d. Provender: hay from stock for 18 horses; fodder for the same, 2½ bush. oats.
Sum of purchases, 15s.

Lent
Meals: Breakfast 6, dinner 16, supper 8. Sum 30.
Mon., 10 Ap. [Guests] John Lytelton with one of his household to supper and extras.
Pantry: 42 white, and 6 black, loaves; wine from supply; ale from stock. Kitchen: 50 red
herrings, 50 white herrings, half a salt fish, one stockfish. Purchases: nil. Provender: hay
from stock for 8 horses; fodder for the same one bush. one pk. oats.
Sum of purchases, nil.

Meals: Breakfast 8, dinner 18, supper 12. Sum 38.

Tues., 11 Ap. [Guests] John Lytelton with one of his household, a maidservant of the
manor, the whole day. Pantry: 40 white, and 6 black, loaves; wine from supply; ale from
stock. Kitchen: 50 red herrings, 60 white herrings, half a salt fish, one stockfish. Purchases:
nil. Provender: hay from stock for 8 horses; fodder for the same, 1½ bush. oats.
Sum of purchases, nil.

One cade of red herrings begun, 5.

Meals: Breakfast 3, dinner 22, supper 3. Sum 28.
Wed., 12 Ap. [Guests] John Lytelton with one of his household, Kendale, with his
son, the whole day, 3 men of Brockeleigh, John Bande, one repast. Pantry: 60 white,
and 6 black, loaves; wine from supply; ale from stock. Kitchen: 50 red herrings, 50 white
herrings, half a salt fish, one stockfish. Purchases: nil. Provender: hay from stock for 10
horses; fodder for the same 2 bush. oats.
Sum of purchases, nil.

Harvest time
The baking: one qr. wheat for the boon-workers, whence came 105 loaves.
Meals: Breakfast 7, dinner 19, supper 26. Sum 52.
Tues., 1 Aug. [Guests] Alice Fouler, 8 of the household of the manor, the whole day,
Richard Appylton with one of his household, Maud (Matilda) Archer, the harvest-reeve
of the manor with 16 boon-workers, one repast. Pantry: 54 white, and 6 black, loaves,
 Noblewomen’s lives  141
and 6 loaves for the boon-workers; wine from supply; ale from stock. Kitchen: One
quarter of beef, one quarter of bacon, one joint of mutton and 12 pigeons. Purchases: nil.
Provender: hay from stock for 5 horses; fodder for the same, 3 pk. oats.
Sum of purchases, nil.

The brewing: 2 qrs. malt whereof 1 qr. drage, whence came 112 gall. ale.
Meals: Breakfast 20, dinner 40, supper 40. Sum 100.
Wed., 2 Aug. [Guests] John Scoyl with 27 boon-workers, the bailiff of the manor with the
harvest-reeve, William Cowpere, the whole day. Pantry: 50 white, and 6 black, loaves, and
32 loaves for the boon-workers; wine from supply; ale from stock. Kitchen: 80 white herrings,
1½ salt fish, one stockfish. Purchases: 3 thornbacks, 7 soles and 5 plaice 17d., milk and cream
5d., eggs 6d. Provender: hay from stock for 5 horses; fodder for the same, 3 pk. oats.
Sum of purchases, 2s. 4d.

Meals: Breakfast 20, dinner 30, supper 30. Sum 80.

Thurs., 3 Aug. [Guests] the bailiff of the manor with the harvest-reeve, John Scoyl
with 27 boon-workers, the whole day. Pantry: 50 white, and 6 black, loaves, and 22
loaves for the boon-workers; wine from supply; ale from stock. Kitchen: One quarter
of beef, 1½ quarters of bacon, 2 joints of mutton, 20 pigeons. Purchases: milk 2d. Prov-
ender: hay from stock for 5 horses; fodder for the same, 3 pk. oats.
Sum of purchases, 2d.

Questions: What can we learn from these accounts about what it was like to eat at Dame Agnes’s
table? What guests did Dame Agnes entertain? What other people did she feed? How did life in the
household change during the Lenten season, and at harvest time?

43. M argaret P aston : L etters to her husband (15 th c .)

Personal letters of this sort were relatively unusual in the Middle Ages, but we begin
to find them surviving in greater numbers from the fifteenth century on. Margaret,
who married John Paston in 1440, dictated most of her letters, and they are preserved
in a vast family archive along with the letters and business documents of many of
her relatives and their employees and business associates. The version used here is a
modern paraphrase of the letters, which were written in Middle English.
  The Pastons are not exactly “noble”; rather they belong to the “gentry,” a class
that was emerging in England in the Later Middle Ages. The gentry were descended
variously from wealthy peasants or yeomen (as the Pastons were) or from merchant
families that had acquired wealth, or from the knightly class, which was no longer
considered “noble.” But the gentry shared with the nobility a whole range of activi-
ties and concerns, including landed wealth, the status of knighthood and authority
over peasants and employees.
  In 1448, a dangerous rivalry arose between the Paston family and their neighbor
Lord Moleyns. Margaret had written to John in May of that year describing the
outbreak of violence between the servants and followers of the two households and
threats to herself and her mother. In November 1459, a close business associate of
Margaret’s husband died, leaving his lands to the Pastons.
Source: The Paston Letters: A Selection in Modern Spelling, ed. Norman Davis (London: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1963). Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
142  Noblewomen’s lives
Early years of marriage
14 (?) December 1441
Right reverend and worshipful husband, I recommend me to you, desiring heartily
to hear of your welfare, thanking you for the token that ye sent me by Edmund Peres,
praying you to [know] that my mother sent to my father to London for a gown cloth
of musterdevillers to [have made into] a gown for me; and he told my mother and me,
when he was come home, that he charged you to buy it after that he were come out of
London. I pray you, if it be not bought, that ye will vouchsafe to buy it and send it home
as soon as ye may; for I have no gown to wear this winter but my black and my green a
lierre, and that is so cumbrous that I am weary to wear it.
As for the girdle [that is, belt] that my father promised me, I spoke to him thereof a
little before he went to London last, and he said to me that the fault was in you, that ye
would not think thereupon to [have it made]; but I suppose that is not so – he said it but
for an excuse. I pray you, if ye dare take it upon you, that ye will vouchsafe to [have it
made before] ye come home; for I had never more need thereof than I have now, for I
am grown so fat that I may not be girt in no bar of no girdle that I have but of one.
Elizabeth Peverel hath lain sick fifteen or sixteen weeks of the sciatica, but she sent
my mother word by Kate that she should come hither when God sent time, even if she
had be wheeled in a barrow. John of Damme was here, and my mother discovered me
to him [that is, told him my secret]; and he said by his troth that he was not gladder of
nothing that he heard this twelvemonth than he was thereof. I may no longer live by my
craft[iness], I am discovered by all men that see me. Of all other things that ye desired
that I should send you word of, I have sent you word of in a letter that I did write on our
Lady’s Day last. …
The Holy Trinity have you in his keeping. Written at Oxnead in right great haste on
the Thursday next before Saint Thomas’ Day.
I pray you that ye will wear the ring with the image of Saint Margaret that I sent you
for a remembrance till ye come home. Ye have left me such a remembrance that maketh
me to think upon you both day and night when I would sleep.
Yours, M. P.

28 September 1443
Right worshipful husband, I recommend me to you, desiring heartily to hear of your
welfare, thanking God of your amending of the great disease that ye have had; and I
thank you for the letter that ye sent me, for by my troth my mother and I were not in
heart’s ease from the time that we learned of your sickness till we learned verily of your
amending. My mother promised another image of wax of the weight of you to [the shrine
of] Our Lady of Walsingham, and she sent 4 nobles [that is, 26s. 8d.] to the four orders
of friars at Norwich to pray for you; and I have promised to go on pilgrimage to Wals-
ingham and to Saint Leonard’s for you. By my troth I had never so heavy a season as I
had from the time that I learned of your sickness till I learned of your amending, and yet
mine heart is in no great ease, nor shall be till I know that ye be very whole.
Your father and mine was this day sevennight at Beccles for a matter of the Prior of
Bromholm, and he lay at Geldeston that night and was there till it was 9 of the clock the
next day. And I sent thither for a gown, and my mother said that I should none have
thence till I went there again; and so they could none get. My father Garneys sent me
word that he should be here the next week, and mine uncle also, and they will play here
 Noblewomen’s lives  143
with their hawks; and they wish to have me go home with them. And so God help me
I shall excuse myself from going thither if I may, for I suppose that I shall more readily
have tidings from you here than I should have there. …
I pray you heartily that ye will vouchsafe to send me a letter as hastily as ye may, if
writing be none disease to you, and that ye will vouchsafe to send me word how your sore
is doing. If I might have had my will I should have seen you ere this time. I would ye were
at home, [for] your sore might be as well looked to here as it is there ye been now, more
than a new gown, though it were of scarlet. I pray you, if your sore be whole and so that
ye may endure to ride, when my father comes to London that ye will ask leave and come
home when the horse shall be sent home again; for I hope ye should be kept as tenderly
here as ye be at London.
I have no leisure to write half a quarter so much as I should say to you if I might
speak with you. I shall send you another letter as hastily as I may. I thank you that
ye would vouchsafe to remember my girdle, and that ye would write to me at this
time, for I suppose the writing was none ease to you. Almighty God have you in
his keeping and send you health. Written at Oxnead in right great haste on Saint
Michael’s Even.
Yours, M. Paston
My mother greeteth you well, and sendeth you God’s blessing and her own; and she
prayeth you, and I pray you also, that ye be well dieted of meat and drink, for that is the
greatest help that ye may have now to your health. Your son fareth well, blessed be God.

Defending family property

1448
Right worshipful husband, I recommend me to you, and pray you to get some cross-
bows, and windases to bend them with, and quarrels [that is, bolts fired by cross-bows];
for your houses here are so low that no one can shoot out with a long bow, though we
had never so much need. I suppose ye should have such things from Sir John Fastolf if ye
would send to him. And also I would ye should get two or three short poleaxes to keep
indoors, and as many jacks [that is, sturdy leather jackets], if ye may. …

28 February 1449
Right worshipful husband, I recommend me to you, desiring heartily to hear of your
welfare, beseeching you that ye be not displeased though I have left that place that ye left
me in; for by my troth there were brought me such tidings by diverse persons which are
your well-wishers and mine that I dared no longer abide there, of which persons I shall
let you have knowledge when ye come home. I was told that divers of the Lord Moleyns’
men said that if they might get me they should steal me and keep me within the castle,
and then they said they would that ye should fetch me out; and they said it should be but
a little heart-burning to you. And after I heard these tidings I could have no rest in mine
heart till I was here, nor dared I go out of the place that I was in till that I was ready to
ride; nor was there anyone in the place who knew that I should leave, save the goodwife,
not an hour before I came thence. And I told her that I should come hither to order
such gear as I would have made for me and for the children, and said I supposed that I
should be here a fortnight or three weeks. I pray you that the cause of my coming away
may been secret till I speak with you, for they that let me have warning thereof do not
wish it known.
144  Noblewomen’s lives
I spake with your mother as I came hitherwards, and she offered, if ye wished, to
let me abide in this town. She would with right good will that we should abide in her
place, and deliver me such gear as she might forbear, to keep with household till ye
might be provided with a place and stuff of your own to keep with household. I pray
you send me word by the bringer of this how ye wish that I act. I would be right sorry
to dwell so near Gresham as I did, till the matter were fully determined betwixt the
Lord Moleyns and you.

Mourning
24 December 1459
Right worshipful husband, I recommend me unto you. May it please you to know
that I sent your eldest son to my Lady Morley to have knowledge what sports were used
in her house in Christmas next following after the decease of my lord her husband. And
she said that there were no disguisings nor harping nor luting nor singing, nor any loud
disports, but playing at the tables and chess and cards; such disports she gave her folks
leave to play, and none other.
Your son did his errand right well, as ye shall hear after this. I sent your younger son
to the Lady Stapleton, and she said according to my Lady Morley’s saying. …
I am sorry that ye shall not at home be for Christmas. I pray you that ye will come
as soon as ye may; I shall think myself half a widow because ye shall not be at home, etc.
God have you in his keeping. Written on Christmas Eve.
By your M. P.

Questions: In the first letter, what is Margaret’s secret, and what plans is she making because of it?
In the letters in general, what kind of relationship does she have with her husband? What kinds of
crises arise, and how does she deal with them? What other concerns are discussed in the letters?

44.  A manor house : I ghtham M ote ( ca . 1340)

Manor houses were the typical dwellings of the medieval nobility. Ightham Mote,
in southeast England, dates from the fourteenth century and is still standing today,
though it has been modified many times over the centuries. The reconstructed draw-
ings here show the building as it probably appeared in the fourteenth century; the
floor plan shows surviving parts in black and conjectural parts in dashed lines. The
building was made partly of stone and partly of timber. The Great Hall, used for
dining and gathering, was apparently heated by a central hearth; smoke would have
escaped through louvres in the roof. The solars were used as living and sleeping
space.
Source: The Development of Ightham Mote: An Architectural Handbook (The National Trust, 1988). Draw-
ings by Allan T. Adams, by kind permission of the National Trust ©.

Questions: How would the noble family and their servants have used the spaces shown here? How
comfortable was this as a living and working space? Which of the other documents in this chapter
could be connected to a building like Ightham Mote?
 Noblewomen’s lives 145

....... I
I
......... .. . .'---'-.1 ....

----,
I

2 :
I
1----
4 -----
4 3
-----
L-....-....,~-T--
I
I I
1..---.1

···················· .. · ·····················Ii .. · · · · · ·
I I
I I
1 Chapel and Undercroft. 3 Great Hall.
2 Stair Turret. 4 Solars.

Figure 44a Plan of the Building

1 Chapel. 7 East-West Solar.

2 Stair Turret. 8 Other timber buildings
3 Probable Service/Kitchen Area. probably occupied the
4 Great Hall. enclosed area.
5 Possible timber Porch. 9 Probable En try.
6 North-South Solar 10 Moat.

Figure 44b Exterior View

146 Noblewomen’s lives

1 Chapel.
2 ? Original Doorway.
3 Stone Arch.
4 Great Hall.
5 (Site of) Hearth.
6 Crypt or Undercroft.

Figure 44c Interior View 1

1 Chapel. 3 East-west Solar.

2 Great Hall. 4 North-south Solar.

Figure 44d Interior View 2

V Peasant women’s lives

The vast majority of the medieval population worked for a living, and by far the greatest
number belonged to the rural peasantry. As peasants were normally illiterate, they have
left few records, except when they came into contact with officialdom on the manor or
in the legal system. Such records are very scarce before the thirteenth century, when the
use of written documents became more common throughout Europe. We are fortunate
that the official records sometimes give us vivid glimpses of peasant lives and even echoes
of their voices.
148  Peasant women’s lives
45. W orking women on F rankish royal estates (6 th –8 th c .)
The first passage below, an episode from a sixth-century chronicle, describes the
fate of a woman who became involved in a plot against the queen mother and the
king’s wife. The second document is excerpted from legislation issued in the time of
Charlemagne (768–814), comprising detailed instructions for the stewards who ran
the Frankish royal estates. These included a few references to women’s work and the
general conditions in which the workers there lived. Women laborers might live in
such workshops instead of with their families. The term “household” here refers to
all the people who depended on or worked for the ruler.
Source: Septimina from Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks, tr. O. M. Dalton (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1927), reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press; Carolingian
laws trans. E. Amt from M. Guérard, Explication du Capitulaire De Villis (Paris: Bibliothèque de
l’École des Chartes, 1853).

Gregory of Tours: Septimina’s story

Septimina, nurse of the royal children … and Droctulf, who had been associated with
Septimina to aid her in bringing up the young princes … confessed [under torture] to
all the charges … Septimina was severely flogged, together with Droctulf, and her face
was seared with red-hot irons; all that she had was taken from her, and she was sent to
the domain of Marlenheim to turn the mill and daily prepare the flour for the food of the
women in the gynaeceum [that is, the women’s workshop].

Carolingian laws: Women’s work on royal estates

  2. Let the members of our household be well cared for, and let no one impoverish them.
31. Let [our stewards] set apart each year what is necessary for the workers and for the
women’s workshops, and let them supply this fully at the proper time. …
43. Let [our stewards] give materials to our women’s workshops at the proper time, as is
usual, that is, linen, wool, woad, vermilion, madder, wool-combs, teazles, soap, oil,
vessels, and any other small items which are necessary for their work.
49. Let our women’s workshops be well ordered, with houses, heated rooms and cottages;
and let them be enclosed by good fences and strong doors, such that they may do our
work well.
53. Let each steward see to it that our people on his estate are not thieves or criminals.
54. Let each steward see to it that the members of our household do their work well, and
do not spend their time idly in the market-place.
56. Let each steward hold audiences and dispense justice frequently on his estate, and let
him see to it that the members of our household live rightly.

Questions: How did Septimina’s position and circumstances change during the events described? Why
might she have taken the risk she did? How do the documents here reveal the vulnerability of working
women? What responsibilities did women have? In what conditions did they live and work?

46. L egal status of G erman peasants (11 th c .)

The first document below is extracted from a code of laws set forth by the bishop of
Worms, in the Rhineland in western Germany, for the peasants who lived on his lands.
 Peasant women’s lives  149
In the laws, the bishop’s tenants are referred to as “the family of St. Peter,” and two
ranks of serfs, or unfree peasants, the higher-ranking fisgilini and the lower-ranking
dagewardi, are identified. The majority of medieval peasants were serfs (also known
in England as “villeins”); they were not slaves owned by other people, but they were
unfree, legally bound to the land on which they lived, and they were obliged to serve
the owner or holder of that land. Like slaves, serfs could be freed by their masters. The
second document below was issued by the German King Henry III in 1050.
Source: Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Mediaeval History
(Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905).

A bishop’s law for his peasants

  1. If anyone of the family of St. Peter legally marries a woman who is also a member
of the family, and gives her a dower and she has peaceable possession of it for a year
and a day, then if the man dies, the wife shall hold the whole of the dower until she
dies. When the woman dies, if they had no children, the dower goes to the nearest
heirs of the man. If the woman dies first, the same disposition shall be made of it
[that is, it reverts to the husband and his heirs]. If after marriage they acquire prop-
erty, when one of them dies, the other shall have it and do what he will with it. If the
wife brought any property to her husband at the time of the marriage, at the death
of both, their children, if they have any, shall inherit it. If they have no children, it
shall return to her relatives unless she gives it away before her death. If the children
die after inheriting it, it shall return to the nearest relatives of their mother.
10. If a man and his wife die leaving a son and a daughter, the son shall receive the
inheritiance of the servile land [i.e. the land which the father held], and the daughter
shall receive the clothing of her mother and all the cash on hand. Whatever other
property there is shall be divided equally between them.
14. If anyone from the bishop’s domain lands marries someone who belongs to a fief
which is held from the bishop, he shall continue to be under the bishop’s jurisdiction.
If anyone from such a fief marries someone from the bishop’s domain land, he shall
continue under the jurisdiction of the lord of the fief on which he lives.
15. If anyone marries a foreign woman [that is, one who does not live on the bishop’s
territory], when he dies two-thirds of their possessions shall go to the bishop.
16. If a fisgilinus marries a dagewarda, their children shall be of the lower rank; and like-
wise if a dagewardus marries a fisgilina.
22. If anyone attempts to reduce a fisgilinus to the rank of a dagewardus and subject him to
an unjust poll tax [as a symbol of servile rank], the fisgilinus shall prove his rank by the
testimony of seven of his nearest relatives, but he shall not hire them for the purpose.
If the charge is made that his father was not a fisgilinus, two female witnesses shall be
taken from his father’s family and one from his mother’s. If it is said that his mother
was not of that rank, two [female witnesses] shall be taken from her family and one
from his father’s family, unless he can prove his rank by the testimony of the Schoeffen
[that is, judicial officers] or of his relatives.
23. If any member of the family enters the house of another with an armed force and
violates his daughter, he shall pay to her father, or to her guardian, three times the
value of every piece of clothing which she had on when she was seized, and to the
bishop his ban for each piece of clothing. And he shall also pay to her father a triple
fine and the bishop’s ban. And because the law of the church does not permit him
150â•… Peasant women’s lives
to marry her, he shall appease her family by giving to twelve members of it twelve
shields and as many lances and one pound of money.

Freeing of a serf (1050)

Henry, etc. Let all our faithful Christian subjects, both present and future, know that we,
at the request of a certain nobleman, named Richolf, have freed a certain one of his female
serfs, named Sigena, by striking a penny out of her hand. We have freed her from the yoke of
servitude, and have decreed that the said Sigena shall in future have the same liberty and legal
status as all other female serfs who have been freed in the same way by kings or emperors.

Questions: In what ways do these laws resemble those governing the lives of higher-ranking people,
as seen in the law codes in Chapter II? How do they differ? How are women’s lives and concerns
addressed in these laws? What do we learn here about the legal status of women?

47.╇W omen farmworkers ’ duties ( ca . 1270)

Medieval treatises on estate management, like the one excerpted below, often describe
in detail the responsibilities of various agricultural workers. Although most of these
employees were male, a few jobs were routinely assumed to belong to women, most
notably that of the dairymaid. The job of dairymaid was one in which a peasant
woman might earn wages and save up for a dowry before marriage. This anonymous
work, known as the Seneschaucy, was written in England in the 1260s or 1270s.
Source: Dorothea Oschinsky, Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting
(Oxford University Press, 1971).

The dairymaid ought to be loyal, of good repute, and clean; she ought to know her
work and what relates to it. She ought not to allow under-dairymaids or anyone else to
take or carry away milk, butter, or cream whereby the cheese will be less and the dairy
will lose. She ought to know well how to make and salt cheese and how to preserve and
look after the vessels of the dairy so that it is not necessary to buy new ones every year.
She ought to know the day on which to begin making cheese and of what weight, when to
begin making two cheeses and the days when number and weight ought to be changed.
Bailiff and reeve ought to inspect frequently the dairy and the cheese, when they increase
and decrease in number what their weight is, and that no loss or theft occurs in the dairy
whereby the weight might suffer. … The dairymaid ought to help winnow the corn
whenever she can; she ought to keep geese and hens and answer for the yield; and she
ought to keep and screen the fire so that no harm arises through lack of supervision. …
And you ought to have in every place where there is a dairy some person in charge, be it a
man or a woman. And if it were a man he ought to do the same things a dairymaid would do.
And, because of the benefits which he has from milk he ought to take one quarter of corn every
sixteen weeks where other servants have one quarter for every twelve weeks. And the dairy-
maid ought to winnow all the corn, and half of her pay shall be for paying the woman who will
help her. And they ought to winnow four quarters of wheat and of rye for one penny and six
quarters of barley, peas, and beans for one penny. And always and with every kind of corn she
ought to winnow five quarters stricken of every four heaped. … The dairymaid ought to look
after all the small stock which are kept on the manor such as sucking pigs, peacocks and their
issue, geese and their issue, capons, cocks, and hens and their issue in chickens and eggs. …
 Peasant women’s lives  151
If there is a manor in which there is no dairy then it is always advisable to have a woman
there for much less money than a man would take, to take care of the small stock and of all
that is kept on the manor and to answer for all the issues there just as the dairymaid would do,
that is for sows and their piglets, for peacocks and their chicks, and if there are some, for geese
and their goslings and for capons, cocks, hens and their chickens and eggs. And she ought to
be responsible for half of the winnowing of the corn just as the dairymaid would be.

Questions: What skills and knowledge did the dairymaid need to have? How responsible a position
was this? How independent was she in her job? What evidence is there in this source of how women
are treated in comparison with men?

48. S urvey of A lwalton : L ands and obligations (1279)

The manorial survey was a census, taken by the lord of the manor to determine the
identities, status and obligations of the peasants who lived on his land and under his
authority, and whose labor supported him. These extracts are from a thirteenth-
century survey of an English manor. Only the heads of households are recorded.
  Villeins were unfree peasants (or serfs) legally tied to the land and obligated to
work for the lord. A virgate was a measure of land, notionally equal to one-fourth
of what a team of oxen could plow in a season, or often about 30 acres; a rood was
a quarter of an acre, and a croft was a small holding of land. When a peasant died
leaving an inheritance, the lord was entitled to collect heriot, an inheritance tax,
which was often the best animal from the peasant’s stock.
Source: Ideas and Institutions in European History, 800–1715, eds. Thomas C. Mendenhall, Basil D.
Henning and A. S. Foord (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1948).

The abbot of Peterborough holds the manor of Alwalton and vill from the lord king
directly. …
Villeins. Hugh Miller holds 1 virgate of land in villeinage by paying thence to the said
abbot 3s. 1d. Likewise the same Hugh works through the whole year except 1 week at
Christmas, 1 week at Easter, and 1 at Whitsuntide, that is in each week 3 days, each day
with 1 man, and in autumn each day with 2 men, performing the said works at the will
of the said abbot as in plowing and other work. Likewise he gives 1 bushel of wheat for
benseed and 18 sheaves of oats for fodder-corn. Likewise he gives 3 hens and 1 cock yearly
and 5 eggs at Easter. Likewise he does carrying to Peterborough and to Jakele and nowhere
else, at the will of the said abbot. Likewise if he sells a brood mare in his court for 10s. or
more, he shall give to the said abbot 4d., and if for less he shall give nothing to the afore-
said. He gives also merchet and heriot, and is tallaged at the feast of St. Michael, at the will
of the said abbot. There are also 17 other villeins, viz. John of Ganesoupe, Robert son of
Walter, Ralph son of the reeve, Emma at Pertre, William son of Reginald, Thomas son
of Gunnilda, Eda widow of Ralph, Ralph Reeve, William Reeve, Thomas Flegg, Henry
Abbot, William Hereward, Serle son of William Reeve, Walter Palmer, William Abbot,
Henry Serle; each of whom holds one virgate of land in villeinage, paying and doing all
things, each for himself, to the said abbot yearly just as the said Hugh Miller. …
Cotters. Henry, son of the miller, holds a cottage with a croft which contains 1 rood,
paying thence yearly to the said abbot 2s. Likewise he works for 3 days in carrying hay
and in other works at the will of the said abbot, each day with 1 man and in autumn 1
day in cutting grain with 1 man.
152  Peasant women’s lives
[The obligations of three more male cotters are listed.]
Likewise Sara, widow of Matthew Miller, holds a cottage and a croft which contains
half a rood, paying to the said abbot 4d.; and she works just as the said Henry.
Likewise Sara, widow of William Miller, holds a cottage and a croft which contains
half a rood, paying to the abbot 4d.; and she works just as the said Henry.
[The similar obligations of 18 more cotters, including four women, are enumerated.]
Likewise each of the said cottagers, except the widows, gives yearly after Christmas a
penny which is called head-penny.

Questions: How does the status of men and women compare on this manor? Which women have
status similar to that of men? What evidence does this source provide for what women’s lives were
like?

49. M anorial court rolls (14 th c .)

The lord of a manor had wide jurisdiction over the lives of the peasants living there,
and the manor court was the place where many of those powers were exercised. At
the sessions of the manor court, disputes between peasants were settled, payments
due to the lord were collected, and minor infractions of the law were dealt with. The
records kept of these proceedings therefore show a wide range of peasant activities
and problems.
  The documents here come from English manors. Among the fines that unfree
peasants in England might have to pay their lords were merchet, for permission to
marry; leyr or leyrwite, a fine for illicit sexual activity or bearing an illegitimate child;
and chevage, for permission to live away from the manor.
Source: Holkham rolls from Medieval England As Viewed by Contemporaries, ed. W. O. Hassall (New
York: Harper & Row, 1965); Durham rolls from Ideas and Institutions in European History, 800–1715,
eds. Thomas C. Mendenhall, Basil D. Henning and A. S. Foord (New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1948); Bradford rolls from English Economic History: Select Documents, eds. A. E. Bland, P. A.
Brown and R. H. Tawney (London, 1914).

Holkham court rolls, 1332–3

Thomas son of William drew blood from Bartholomew Coltyng spitefully and is fined 3d. …
Bertha atte Drove broke into the house of Alice Digge and is fined 2d.
Edmund Haldeyn broke into the house of Roger de Monte. Fine 3d. …
Margaret and Alice Otes broke the lord’s pound for 4 pigs taken for a debt of the lord
and for execution of the court’s decisions. Fine 6d.
Alice Otes rescued from the lord’s bailiff a veil taken in execution of a decision of the
lord’s court. Fine 3d.
Mariota of the household of Henry Spellere rescued from William son of Thomas 2
horses taken for services due to him. Fine 3d. …
[Seven men are fined 1d. each for making an illegal path. One is fined 4d. for the
same.]
Margaret wife of Richard Marchal made an illegal path over the land of Margaret
Godecok at Crosgate. Fine 1d.
William of the household of Matilda Charle made an illegal path over the land of the
lord at Walsinghamgate with a cart. Fine 3d. …
 Peasant women’s lives  153
Durham court rolls, 1345–70
First Tourn of the [manorial courts] of the Priory of Durham, beginning at Fery, July 6th
AD 1345, before lords William of Chareton and Robert of Benton, Terrar and Bursar,
and Simon Esshe, Steward.
Spen, 1345. Agnes widow of Adam de Mora has taken a house and 50 acres of land which
her husband Adam formerly held, paying annually for her life 33s. 4d. And there is remitted
to her 16s. 8d. a year from the old rent on account of her age and weakness of mind.
Billingham, 1345. Agnes daughter of William Nouthird has taken a cottage with the
curtilage, which the said William her father formerly held, to be held on payment of 6d.
a year and 20 autumn works in the manor of Billingham, provided she has food. Fine,
2s.; pledges J. of Stokton and Alexander son of Gilbert. …
Billingham, 1364. It is enjoined upon all the tenants of the vill that none of them
grind his [or her] grain outside of the domain so long as the mill of the lord prior is able
to grind, under penalty of 20s. …
West Raynton, 1365. A day is given to all the tenants of the vill to make a law that
neither they nor their wives nor their servants shall cut down anything within the woods,
not carry anything green away from the woods. …
Coupon, 1365. From Agnes Postell and Alice of Belasis, for bad ale, 12d. From Alice
de Belasis, for bad ale, and moreover because the ale which she sent to the Terrar [that
is, bursar] was of no strength, as was proved in court, 2s. …
Newton Bewley, 1368. From Alice, servant of Adam of Marton, for leyr 6d. …
East Raynton, 1370. From Margaret daughter of Robert Wright for merchet, pledge,
Alice her mother, 2s.
Fery, 1370. From Margaret Ferywoman for leyr, 6d. …

Bradford court rolls, 1349–50

Court of Bradford holden on Saturday, the eve of St. Lucy the Virgin, 23 Edward III
[12 Dec. 1349].
… Amice, daughter and heir of Roger de Oulesnape, came here into the Court and
took a cottage and 4 acres of poor bondage land in the town of Stanbury after the death
of the aforesaid Roger, to hold to her and her heirs according to the custom of the manor
by the services, etc., saving the right, etc. And she gives to the lord 2s. of fine for entry
[into her inheritance]. Pledge, Roger son of Jordan. …
John Barne of Manningham, who held a messuage and a bovate of bondage land
there, is dead. And hereupon came Margery his wife and took those tenements, to hold
according to the custom of the manor for the term of her life by the services, etc. And she
gives to the lord 2s. of fine. Pledge, John atte Yate.
Margaret and Agnes, daughters and heirs of Hugh Browne, Alice, Joan and Juliana, daugh-
ters and heirs of John Kyng, Juliana, who was the wife of Hugh Kyng of Thornton, Robert son
of John Bollyng and Elizabeth his wife, Alice, daughter and heir of Robert de Manyngham,
and Thomas her husband, William, son and heir of Ellen Coke, and John (dead), son and heir
of John de Wyndhill, came here into Court and did their fealties, and they have a day at the
next Court to acknowledge their tenements and services, etc. and also to show their deeds etc.
Agnes Chapman came here into Court and took a small house in Bradford called the
Smythhouse, to hold at the will of the lord by the services. And she gives to the lord 18d.
of fine to have such an estate, etc. …
154  Peasant women’s lives
William Wilkynson, who held [in Manningham] in like manner a messuage and a
bovate of land, is dead, and Alice his daughter and heir is of the age of half a year.
And hereupon came John Magson, her next friend, to whom [the inheritance cannot
descend] and took full wardship of the aforesaid land and heir until her full age, etc., by
the services, etc. And he gives to the lord 2s. of fine for entry. Pledges Hugh Barne and
Thomas de Chellowe.
Thomas Neucomen, who held a messuage and a bovate of land in Bradford, is dead.
And hereupon came Margery, daughter and heir of the same Thomas, and took the
aforesaid tenements, to hold to her and her heirs according to the custom of the manor
by the services, etc., saving the right, etc. And the fine for entry is put into respite until
the next court. …
It is presented … that Alice Geldoghter and Adam Notebroun are bakers and sell bad
bread contrary to the assize. Therefore they are [in mercy]. …
Court of Bradford holden on Thursday next before the feast of St. Gregory the Pope,
24 Edward III [11 March 1350].
… Alice Chilyonge of Manningham, the lord’s bondwoman, came here in Court and
made fine of 12d. with the lord for her leyrwite; pledge, William Walker; and the fine is
not more because she is very poor and has nothing. …
Roger son of Roger de Manynghame has made a fine of ½ mark for the merchet of
Cecily his wife, the lord’s bondwoman; pledge, Thomas de Manynghame.
Thomas Gabriell has made the fine of ½ mark in like manner for the merchet of
Maud his wife, the lord’s bondwoman; pledge, Thomas de Tiresale. …
Agnes daughter of Adam atte Yate, the lord’s bondwoman, has made fine for
her chevage, for license to dwell wheresoever she will, to wit, 6d. to be paid yearly at
Michaelmas and Easter in equal portions; pledge, Robert atte Yate.
It is presented by Roger Judson, Thomas son of Roger, Thomas Gabriel, Adam del
Oldfeld, Robert de Oldfeld, and John atte Yate, that Cecily de la More, the lord’s bond-
woman, has been violated by John Judson; therefore let her be distrained to make fine
therefor with the lord.
Further, it is presented that Isabel daughter of William Childyong, the lord’s bond-
woman, has married one William Cisson, a free man, without license. And Alice daughter
of John Gepson, the lord’s bondwoman, has married one William del Hale, a free man,
at Beston, without license; therefore let them be distrained to make fine with their lord
for their merchet, etc.
Let inquest be made touching the sons and daughters of William del Munkes, who dwell
at Darthington and are the lord Duke’s bondmen and bondwomen of Bradford, etc.
Further, it is presented that Alice daughter of William Childyong, the lord’s bond-
woman, dwells at York; therefore let her be taken, etc. …
Court holden at Bradford on Wednesday, 12 December, 32 Edward III [1358].
Again Anabel del Knoll has a day [scheduled to come to court] … to rebuild a house
on a plot of land which she holds of the lord at will, and under the same penalty as in the
Court preceding.
It is ordered, as many times before, to take William son of Richard Gilleson, Roger son of
William del Mersh, dwelling with John de Bradlay, Thomas son of John atte Yate, William
son of William Childyong (in Pontefract), Alice daughter of John atte Yate (in Selby), Alice
daughter of William Childyong (in Methelay), and William son of William Childyong, the
lord’s bondmen and bondwomen of his lordship here, etc., who have withdrawn without
license, and to bring them back hither until [they make fine for their chevage]. …
 Peasant women’s lives  155
Roger son of Roger makes plaint of Alice de Bollyng [in a plea] of trespass, pledge
to prosecute, William Walker, to wit, that she has not made an enclosure which she is
bound to make between his holdings and her own holding in Mikelington, so that for lack
of enclosure there divers cattle entered and fed off his corn, to wit, his rye and oats and
grass, to his damages of 10s. And the aforesaid Alice defends and says that the aforesaid
Roger, and not she, is bound to make an enclosure there, and hereon she puts herself
upon the country. But the jurors hereupon elected, tried and sworn, say on their oath
that the aforesaid Roger is bound to make the aforesaid enclosure between the aforesaid
holdings. And therefore it is awarded that the aforesaid Roger be in mercy [having been
convicted] for his false claim, and that the said Alice go without a day.

Questions: What activities of women in the community are revealed in these sources? For what
reasons do women appear in court? What kinds of interactions do they have with men? Under what
kinds of authority and restrictions do women live? What rights and responsibilities do they have?

50. C oroners ’ records : U nexpected deaths (13 th –14 th c .)

The following are extracts from the rolls kept by the coroners, English public officials
whose duties included (and still include) the investigation of any unexpected death.
These documents provide us with two kinds of information. Their main concern
is with death and crime, and so they tell us much about law enforcement and the
dangers that resulted in sudden death. But in the course of describing the events
being investigated, the rolls record a wealth of incidental information about daily
life. Because the vast majority of the medieval population belonged to the peas-
antry, most of the people appearing in these rolls are peasants as well, both male
and female. (The eventual outcomes of most of these cases are not included in the
following excerpts. When the inquest itself is described, the four towns named are
those required by law to provide the members of the inquest jury.)
Source: Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls, ed. R. F. Hunnisett (Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 1961).
Reprinted with the permission of the Controller of Her Britannic Majesty’s Stationery Office.

  9. On 14 Jan. 1267 Sabinia, an old woman, went into Colmworth to beg bread. At
twilight she wished to go to her house, fell into a stream and drowned by misadven-
ture. The next day her son Henry searched for her [and] found her drowned …
13. Soon after nones on 22 July 1267 Emma, Christine de Furnevall’s washerwoman,
tried to draw water from a leaden vat full of boiling water with a bowl in Cadbury
and by misadventure fell into it. Richard the Brewer of Christine’s house was present,
tried to drag her from the vat, lost his foothold and fell in. Gregory de Canmori
arrived, saw them lying in the vat, raised the hue [to notify others of the death] and
called his servant Richard, who dragged them both out. Emma died about vespers
on 24 July, having had the rites of the church.
14. On 12 Aug. 1267 William Blaunche’s daughters, Muriel aged almost 6 and Beatrice
aged almost 3, were in his house in Great Barford, William and his wife Muriel being
in the field, when a fire broke out in the house and burned it together with Beatrice.
30. On 24 Sept. Margery wife of Simon Daffe [of] Great Barford went between Great Barford
and Roxton by the river Ouse looking for her husband, who had earlier been drowned
there, and, coming by a ditch near “Lytlemade” meadow, found a poor woman, a stranger,
lying dead there, raised the hue and ran to Great Barford, which followed the hue.
156  Peasant women’s lives
  Inquest before the same coroner by Great Barford, Roxton, Wilden and Renhold,
who knew nothing of this death, the woman having no wound or injury, but they
believed that she died of cold and because she was weak. Margery found pledges,
Robert the Carpenter and Jordan of Seaton, both of Great Barford.
  35. About nones on 2 Oct. 1270 Amice daughter of Robert Belamy of Staploe and Sibyl
Bonchevaler were carrying a tub full of grout between them in the brewhouse of Lady
Juliana de Beauchamp in the hamlet of Staploe in Eaton Socon, intending to empty
it into a boiling leaden vat, when Amice slipped and fell into the vat and the tub upon
her. Sibyl immediately jumped towards her, dragged her from the vat and shouted; the
household came and found her scalded almost to death. A chaplain came and Amice
had the rites of the church and died by misadventure about prime the next day.
  58. After nones on 24 May 1270 Emma daughter of Richard Toky of Southill went to
“Houleden” in Southill to gather wood. Walter Garglof of Stanford came, carrying
a bow and a small sheaf of arrows, took hold of Emma and tried to throw her to the
ground and deflower her, but she immediately shouted and her father came. Walter
immediately shot an arrow at him, striking him on the right side of the forehead and
giving him a mortal wound. He struck him again with another arrow under the right
side and so into the stomach. Seman of Southill immediately came and asked him
why he wished to kill Richard, and Walter immediately shot an arrow at him, striking
him in the back, so that his life was despaired of. Walter then immediately fled. Later
Emma, Richard’s wife, came and found her husband wounded to the point of death
and shouted. The neighbours came and took him to his house. He had the rites of the
church, made his will and died at twilight on the same day.
  73. About prime on 27 March 1270 Mariot, formerly the wife of Richard the Reeve
of Pertenhall, who was infirm, feeble and old, lay in her bed in Pertenhall while
Maud Mody, John Spayne and Richard’s son Henry were about the affairs of the
house, at the plough and elsewhere. She rose from her bed, took a pitcher in her
hand, went to a well in her court-yard and tried to draw water, but, because she
was feeble, she slipped and fell into the well and drowned by misadventure. Maud
Mody came to the house and into the court-yard, saw Mariot lying in the well and
raised the hue. John Spayne came to the hue and sprang to Mariot, because he
thought to save her, but could not because she was dead.
103. About prime on 16 Feb. 1271 Alexander le Gardiner of Potton, Lady Christine de
Fornival’s servant, was digging under the walls of an old dovecote in the garden in
Lady Christine’s court-yard in Sutton to demolish them and, as he dug, the wall by
misadventure fell upon him and broke his head so that he immediately died there.
His wife Alice came with his breakfast, looked for him, saw his surcoat and cap and
the spade with which he dug and so found him dead and his whole body broken.
106. After midday on 16 June 1271 Annora daughter of Agnes Oter, aged 3, went out of
the south side of her mother’s house in Edworth, while her mother was seeking fuel,
by misadventure fell into a ditch outside a wood and drowned. Agnes first found
her dead and shouted; the neighbours came.
116. Well into the night of 30 March 1270 Simon and Richard, sons of Hugh the Fisher of
Radwell, came from the house of Hugh’s daughter Alice towards that of their father in
Radwell and wished to cross the court-yard of Robert Ball of Radwell, in which Simon
son of Agnes of Radwell and Juliana daughter of Walter the Fisher of Radwell were lying
under a haystack. Simon immediately arose and struck Simon the Fisher on the top of
the head to the brain apparently with an axe, so that he immediately died. Richard,
 Peasant women’s lives  157
seeing this, raised the hue and fled. Simon the felon immediately fled and Juliana with
him. The township came and the hue was followed. Robert Ball found pledges, Robert
de la More and Simon the Reeve of Radwell. Richard found pledges, his father and
Richard Tappe of Radwell. … It was ordered that Simon and Juliana be arrested. …
  [At the eyre (the court dealing with criminal cases) it was ordered that Simon
son of Agnes, who was suspected, be exacted and outlawed, but that Juliana, who
was not suspected, could return if she wished. Simon’s chattels, worth 21d., were
forfeited; Juliana had no chattels.]
228. About prime on 28 Feb., while William Sagar of Sutton was at the plough, his wife
Emma took a bundle of straw inside the court-yard of his house in Sutton, intending to
go to heat an oven. She came to a part of the court-yard which was near their dwelling-
house and near a well on the north of the house, and by misadventure fell into the well
and drowned. Maud daughter of Ellis Batte of Sutton was sitting in William’s house
guarding Emma’s child Rose, who was lying in a cradle, heard the noise made by
Emma as she sank, immediately went outside [and] found Emma drowned. …
251. About midnight on 12 Aug., when John Clarice was lying near his wife Joan daughter
of Richard le Freman, as was his custom, in his bed in the chamber of his house at
Houghton Regis in the liberty of Eaton Bray, madness took possession of him, and
Joan, thinking that he was seized by death, took a small scythe and cut his throat. She
also took a [bill-hook] and struck him on the right side of the head, so that his brain
flowed forth and he immediately died. The next day Joan fled to Houghton Regis
church. About prime on that day John’s son Ralph was troubled that his father was
lying in bed so late, entered the chamber, called him [and] found him dead. …
  On 15 Aug. Joan was asked about this felony in the said church before the
same coroner and townships. She openly confessed that she had committed it
alone without any help. The port of Dover was assigned to her by the road called
“le Kokevey,” which enters into the king’s highway. She then abjured the realm
according to the custom of England.
  Inquiry was made about the felon’s chattels by the same townships, who said that on
the day of the felony John and Joan jointly had 2 horses worth 5s., a mare with a foal
worth 5s., a stirk worth 20d., a calf worth 12d., 3 pigs worth 4s., 3 young pigs worth
18d., household goods worth 18d., 3 acres of wheat worth 4s. 6d. an acre, 3 acres of
maslin worth 4s. an acre and 11 acres of dredge worth 4s. an acre, total £4. 9s. 2d. …
  [At the eyre … Joan was found to have no chattels. John’s were distributed
among his boys.]
255. At twilight on 4 Sept. 1300 Nicholas le Swon of Bedford came to his house there,
when his wife Isabel was at Robert Asplon’s house giving milk to Robert’s son,
and asked his daughter where her mother was. She said: at Robert Asplon’s house;
whereupon he immediately went after her because she stayed there too much. As
he left his house he met his wife and told her to come home to sleep, saying that he
wanted to go to his bed. While Isabel was making his bed, Nicholas drew his sword
and struck her in the back so that she immediately died. He immediately fled. His
chattels were 3 bushels of corn worth 15d., 2 bushels of oats worth 4d., 8 lbs. of
wool worth 2s., wood worth 4d., 2 pigs worth 3d. and a chest worth 4d. …
259. On 10 Sept. 1301 William son of Peter of Bromham, nephew of the vicar of
Wootton, Stephen de Rivers, William the Cobbler and Margery le Wyte came
together from a tavern in Bedford towards Wootton, and as they came into Cauld-
well road a quarrel arose between them. William the vicar’s nephew, seeing John
158 Peasant women’s lives
Hokerynge, who was following them but with no ulterior motive, drew his bow and
shot at him with a barbed arrow. Margery went between them in order to stop the
quarrel and by misadventure received a blow from the arrow in her throat so that
she immediately died. William immediately fled.

Questions: What does this source tell us about women’s living and working conditions? About recrea-
tion and leisure? How did youth, old age, and poverty make people vulnerable? What glimpses are
there here of relations between the sexes?

51. p eAsAnt dwellings

The construction of peasant houses varied widely across Europe, but such dwellings
were generally small and simple in layout. Many peasants shared their roof with
animals, as can be seen in the floor plan below. The reconstructed drawing shows
what the interior of a fairly large peasant home might have looked like.

… in northern Germany [the “Lower German House”] appeared in the thirteenth century.
… Medieval and post-medieval examples show the main characteristics of this type: the central
passage was enlarged to accommodate vehicles, and the doorway in one of the short walls, giving
access to the byre section, becomes the main entrance, and even the only means of access.
The section reserved for human occupation is usually central within the building,
sometimes on one side, especially in post-medieval examples. The hearth is, as a general
rule, placed centrally.

Floor plan (Saxony, 13th c.)

1 hearth
2 2 living area
3 byre

• 4 central aisle

3 f
4
3

o~' _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _- L_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _~lpm

Figure 51a Plan of a peasant home, as reconstructed from archaeological remains

Source: Jean Chapelot and Robert Fossier, The Village and House in the Middle Ages, tr. Henry Cleere
(London: B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1985).
 Peasant women’s lives 159
Reconstructed Drawing (England)

Figure 51b Artist’s reconstruction of an English peasant home, based on archaeological and other evidence
Source: Maurice Barley, Houses and History (London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 1986).

Questions: How would the peasant family have used the spaces shown here? How comfortable was
this as a living and working space? Which of the other documents in this chapter can you connect to
buildings like these?
This page intentionally left blank
VI Townswomen’s lives

A small but very important group in medieval society was the urban population,
consisting of workers in crafts and the merchants, who lived by buying and selling. As the
documents in this chapter reveal, women played a vital role in the urban as well as the
agrarian economy. A few women even held the special legal status of femme sole, “single
woman” – a woman who regardless of her marital status was considered an independent
person for business purposes. More common were townswomen who worked as day
laborers or alongside their husbands in the family business.
162  Townswomen’s lives
52. P arisian guild regulations (13 th c .)
The craft guilds, organizations of all those working in a particular craft or trade, were
powerful institutions in medieval European towns from the eleventh and twelfth
centuries onward; the regulations printed here provide a good idea of the scope of
their activities and authority. In about 1270 Etienne de Boileau compiled his Livre
des métiers, or Book of Crafts, a collection of the regulations of Parisian craft guilds. The
statutes of most of the guilds are couched in purely masculine terms, but some speak
of female apprentices and workers; a few refer to “mistresses” as well as “masters” of
the craft; and a handful of the codes are those of exclusively female guilds, concerned
with various aspects of the silk industry. Many male guilds, whose statutes are not
included here, made provision for widows who wished to continue in the trade of
their late husbands.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Le Livre des Métiers, XIIIe Siècle, eds. René de Lespinasse and François
Bonnardot (Paris, 1879; repr. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980).

The craft of silk fabric

1. No journeywoman maker of silk fabric may be a mistress of the craft until she has
practiced it for a year and a day, after she has done her apprenticeship, because she
will be more competent to practice her craft and observe the regulations.
2. No mistress of this craft may take an apprentice for fewer than six years with a fee of
four livres, or for eight years with forty sous, or for ten years with no fee; and she may
have no more than two apprentices at the same time, and she may not take another
until their apprenticeships are completed.
3. No mistress or journeywoman may work at night or on a feast day observed by the
whole town.
4. No mistress of the craft may weave thread with silk, or foil with silk, because the work
is false and bad; and it should be burned if it is found.
5. No mistress or journeywoman of the craft may make a false hem or border, either
of thread or of foil, nor may she do raised work of thread or foil. And if such work is
found, it should be burned, because it is false and bad.
6. No mistress or journeywoman of the craft, after she has done her apprenticeship,
may hire anyone who is not a mistress of the craft, but she may take work to do from
whomever she likes.
7. It is ordered that all the mistresses of the said craft who send their work outside
the town to be done must show it to those who are designated to watch over
the craft, along with the work of their own house, to make sure that it is up to
standard.
8. And anyone who infringes on any of the above regulations must pay eight Parisian
sous, each time she is found at fault; of which the king will have five sous, and the
craft guild twelve deniers, and the masters who oversee the craft two sous for their
pains and for the work they do in overseeing the craft.
9. To safeguard this craft in the manner described above, there should be established
three masters and three mistresses, who will swear by the Saints that they will make
known to the provost of Paris or to his representative all the infringements of the
regulations of the said craft, to the best of their ability.
 Townswomen’s lives  163
The craft of weavers of silk kerchiefs at Paris
  1. Any woman who wishes to weave silk kerchiefs in Paris may do so, provided she knows
how to practice the craft well and truly, according to the following usage and customs.
  2. First: it is ordered that no journeywoman of the craft may work on a feast day which
the commune of the city celebrates and which is commanded by the holy Church.
  3. No one may work at night, because one cannot do as good work at night as during
the day.
  4. It is ordered that no one may have more than one apprentice in the craft who is not
related to her and one who is a relative; and she may not take an apprentice for fewer
than seven years with a fee of twenty sous, or eight years without a fee. And if it happens
that any mistress sells her apprentice for her need, she may not take another before her
term is up; and if it happens that the apprentice buys her own freedom, the mistress may
not take another apprentice before the term of the one who bought her freedom is up.
  5. It is ordered that no mistress or journeywoman of the craft may buy silk from Jews,
from spinsters or from any others, but only from the proper merchants.
  6. No woman may work on the premises of a man or woman, if she does not know the craft.
  7. Whoever infringes any of these regulations, she must pay six sous as a fine for each
time that she is found at fault: of which four sous are for the king, and two sous are
for those who oversee the craft, for their pains therein.
  8. It is ordered that no mistress or hired woman of the aforesaid craft may put the work
which she does, whether warped or not warped, or whether finished or unfinished,
in pawn to any Jew or Lombard or any other kind of person. And if she does this,
every time she does it and is discovered, she will pay a fine of ten sous: of which the
king will receive six sous and the mistresses who oversee the craft four sous.
  9. No one may sell woven scraps, if they are not worked in the craft.
10. The aforesaid craft has three good women and true who will oversee the craft on
behalf of the king, sworn and pledged at Chastelet, who will make known all the
infringements against the craft, whenever they discover them.

The craft of the fullers of Paris

1. Whoever wishes to be a fuller in Paris may do so freely without buying the privilege
of the craft from the king.
2. Master fullers may have no more than two apprentices who are not their sons or
their brothers, born of legal marriages.
3. The apprentice or apprentices should and may do everything in the craft which their
master commands.
4. Master fullers may teach their craft to the children of their wives, and to their brothers
born of legal marriages, and may have them with their apprentices, just as they may
their own children and brothers.
5. If a master dies, his wife may practice the craft and keep the apprentices, freely, in
the manner described above; and with the two apprentices she may teach the chil-
dren of her husband and her brothers born of a legal marriage.
6. If a widowed woman practicing the aforesaid craft of fullers marries a man who is
not a member of the aforesaid craft, she may not practice the craft; and if she marries
a man who is a member of the craft, even if he is an apprentice or a worker, she may
practice it freely. …
164  Townswomen’s lives
13. No woman may lay a hand on the cloth, to do things belonging to the craft of fullers,
before the cloth has been sheared.

The trade of bathhouse-keepers

1. Whoever wishes to be a bathhouse-keeper in the city of Paris may freely do so,
provided he works according to the usage and customs of the trade, made by agree-
ment of the commune, as follow.
2. Be it known that no man or woman may cry or have cried their baths until it is day,
because of the dangers which can threaten those who rise at the cry to go to the baths.
3. No man or woman of the aforesaid trade may maintain in their houses or baths
either prostitutes of the day or night, or lepers, or vagabonds, or other infamous
people of the night.
4. No man or woman may heat up their baths on Sunday, or on a feast day which the
commune of the city keeps.
  And every person should pay, for a steam-bath, two deniers; and if he bathes, he
should pay four deniers.
  And because at some times wood and coal are more expensive than at others, if
anyone suffers, a suitable price shall be set by the provost of Paris, through the discus-
sion of the good people of the aforesaid trade, according to the situation of the times.
  The male and female bathhouse-keepers have sworn and promised before us to
uphold these things firmly and consistently, and not to go against them.
5. Anyone who infringes any of the above regulations of the aforesaid trade must make
amends with ten Parisian sous, of which six go to the king, and the other four go to
the masters who oversee the trade, for their pains.
6. The aforesaid trade shall have three good men of the trade, elected by us unani-
mously or by a majority, who shall swear before the provost of Paris or his represent-
ative that they will oversee the trade well and truly, and that they will make known
to the provost of Paris or his representative all the infringements that they know of
or discover, and the provost shall remove and change them as often as he wishes.

Questions: To what extent, and in what circumstances, were women in positions of authority in these
guilds? What types of occupation seem to be dominated by women? What are the concerns of the
regulations? What do the rules reveal about the lives of women in these businesses?

53. V eronese civic statutes (1276)

These excerpts from the thirteenth-century law code of the Italian city of Verona
deal with women in general and with women who are engaged in business. Similar
to some other Italian civic legislation at this time, the laws about spinning and hair
may be aimed at women who were out in public, in contact with possible marriage
partners, and thus were circumventing traditional ways of arranging marriages.
Source: Trans. E. Amt from Gli statuti Veronesi del 1276 colle correzioni e le aggiunte fino al 1323, ed. Gino
Sandri (Venice, 1940).

112. How sellers of oil or fruit ought to behave

Item, we order that a woman who sells oil or fruit, or anything else that is eaten,
ought to hold boys in apprenticeship selling the aforesaid things, … nor spin, nor
 Townswomen’s lives  165
to commit any immorality. And whoever does otherwise, let her be punished with
a fine of 5s. for each offense.
113. That no merchant women or other women selling wine or anything edible ought to
spin or wind thread while standing at their places
  Item, we order that no merchant women or other women selling wine or anything
edible may or ought to spin or wind thread, sitting or standing at their stations or
places where they sell their wares or wine, under the said penalty of 10s. And
whoever is the accuser, half the penalty will go to the accuser, the other half to the
commune of Verona.
114. That women shall not go spinning in the road to La Rocca
  Item, we order that any woman should not go spinning to La Rocca [that is, a
rocky promontory on the lake outside Verona] nor winding thread through the city
and towns of Verona [and its district]. And if any woman does otherwise, let her be
punished for each offense with a fine of 10s. And whoever is the accuser, half the
penalty will go to the accuser, the other half to the commune of Verona.
115. That women ought not to comb their hair in doorways
  Item, we order that no person ought to comb her hair, standing in doorways or
outside her house, under the said penalty; and in these matters, whoever is the accuser,
half the penalty will go to the commune of Verona, the other half to the accuser.

Questions: What behaviors are the laws attempting to prevent? How were the women apparently
mixing business with other activities? What boundaries were they transgressing?

54. L awsuit : W omen moneylenders (1281)

The medieval church forbade “usury,” or money-lending for profit, and many
secular governments also prohibited it officially, although there were various legal
ways to charge interest. Some medieval Christians engaged in money-lending, but
it was the Jews who were famous as bankers in medieval Europe. In the court case
below, two Jewish women, Bona and Belasez, are engaged in small-scale money-
lending, and a Christian woman, Matilda, is their customer.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Select Pleas, Starrs, and Other Records from the Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews,
AD 1220–1284, ed. J. M. Rigg (London: Selden Society, 1902).

Moses of Dog Street and Bona, his wife, are required to respond to Matilda La Megre in a
case of unjust detention of pledges. Matilda complains that she gave seven ells of burnet [cloth],
worth three shillings per ell, in pledge to them and Belasez for six shillings, on the Tuesday
after the feast of St. Benedict in the ninth year of the reign of King Edward, on the following
condition: that whenever, within fifteen days after this transaction, she might pay the said six
shillings to the aforesaid Jews, they would deliver the aforesaid pledge [i.e. the cloth] to her for
the said six shillings; and within those fifteen days the aforesaid Matilda did go to the house of
the said Jews, and offered them the aforesaid six shillings, and the aforesaid Belasez accepted
three shillings for the three shillings which she had lent to Matilda for the aforesaid pledge, but
the aforesaid Moses and Bona refused to accept the other three shillings, demanding from her
ten shillings in principal and interest for the aforesaid three shillings, in contravention of the
king’s statutes, and they said they would not return her pledge, unless she wished to give them
the said ten shillings for it; and to this day they unjustly retain the said pledge, to her damage to
the amount of forty pounds, and against the king’s statute. And she offers to prove this.
166  Townswomen’s lives
The aforesaid Moses and Bona … say that they have received nothing from the said
Matilda, and that they have no goods of hers handed over by her, but that the aforesaid
Belasez gave them a certain measure of burnet in pledge for 8s. 9d.; and that they would
have been willing to return the cloth to Matilda for the aforesaid 8s. 9d., for which the
cloth had been pledged. And they ask that the justices inquire of Belasez whether the said
cloth was pledged for such a sum of money. …
Belasez says that the said Matilda once asked her to lend her five shillings on pledge of the
aforementioned cloth, but that she did not have the money, so she asked Bona, wife of the said
Moses, to go in with her and lend Matilda half of this sum of five shillings for the aforesaid
pledge, and that Bona then did lend Matilda 2s. 6d. for the aforesaid pledge, and Belasez
herself lent her 2s. 6d. And another time the same Bona and Belasez lent the same Matilda
twelve pence on the same pledge, so that she received from them six shillings in all, three shil-
lings belonging to Bona and three shillings belonging to Belasez, for which she had pledged
the said cloth to both of them. And Belasez says that she told Moses and Bona to deliver the
aforesaid cloth to Matilda for the three shillings which they had lent to Matilda, because she
had paid Belasez her three shillings; but they refused to give back the said cloth, unless Matilda
gave them ten shillings for it. And because it is disproved by Belasez’s testimony, on which the
said Moses and Bona relied, that the said Matilda owed them 8s. 9d. on the said cloth, because
she borrowed only three shillings from them, for which they demanded ten shillings in usury,
against the king’s statutes, therefore the said Moses and Bona are committed to the Tower of
London, to be held in safe custody, until they have made satisfaction to the king for this offense,
and until the said cloth is delivered to the said Matilda for three shillings, as said above.

Questions: Does the case seem to be one of misunderstanding or bad faith? What is the relationship
between the two parties? What are the power dynamics? Do they change during the case? How do
the women use the law?

55.  A pprenticeship documents (13 th –14 th c .)

An apprentice was someone, usually an adolescent, who was legally bound over
to someone else (the master or mistress) to be taught a craft or trade. This system,
which also provided upkeep and surrogate parenting for the apprentice, was the
main mechanism for vocational training in medieval European towns. While the
majority of apprentices and masters were male, girls and women also participated
widely in this system. An apprenticeship usually lasted from four to seven years.
Source: First two documents trans. E. Amt from Recueil de Documents Relatifs à l’Histoire de l’Industrie
Drapière en Flandre, ed. Georges Espinas and Henri Pirenne (Brussels: Librairie Kiessling and Co.,
1920); third document from Roy C. Cave and Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval
Economic History (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936); fourth document trans. E. Amt,
from Robert Ricart, The Maire of Bristowe Is Kalendar, ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith (Wesminster: The
Camden Society, 1872); fifth document from Not in God’s Image, ed. Julia O’Faolain and Lauro
Martines (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).

Apprenticeship contracts from Flanders (13th c.)

Let everyone now and in the future and everyone who sees and hears this present charter
know that Jehans Spikine, townsman of Ypres, has made a contract with Jehan Paresis
the patchworker, and with his wife, to the effect that the said Jehan Paresis and his
 Townswomen’s lives  167
wife shall teach Lambkin, the son of Jehan Spikine, to mend dyed drapes, from the
middle of March, for two years. The aforesaid Jehans Paresis shall give the aforesaid
Lambkin, every day that he works, his breakfast at prime and his dinner at midday. And
to have this aforesaid convenience, if the aforesaid Jehans Spikine gives the aforesaid
Johan Paresis 1½ marks artois, then Jehans Paresis will consider himself well paid; and
if it should happen that Jehans Paresis does not teach the aforesaid Lambkin within two
years, Jehans Paresis and his wife shall repay Jehan Spikine their money as is fitting. The
witnesses to this contract were the aldermen of Ypres, Jehans son of Andrew and Tierris
li Sages. It was made on Monday after the middle of March, 1264.

Let everyone now and in the future and everyone who sees and hears this present charter
know that Isabel de Dickemue, townswoman of Ypres, shall keep Ernoul Spagnart for
the next year, and must provide him with food and drink; and shall teach him to dye in
scarlet. For this the aforesaid Isabel will retain 13 pounds artois for having the aforesaid
Ernoul Spagnart, to make her profit for the term set out above, and at the conclusion of
the term Isabel shall give the sum back to Ernoul Spagnart or to the person to whom he
assigns this charter. And be it known that if the aforesaid Isabel lends any money to the
aforesaid Ernoul by the will of his father William Spagnart, it shall be deducted from the
above debt. The witnesses to this contract were the aldermen of Ypres, Jehans Firtons
and Huelos Crouselin. It was made on the feast of the Holy Cross, in September, 1283.

Be it known to present and future aldermen that Ouede Ferconne [of Arras] appren-
tices Michael, her son, to Matthew Haimart on security of her house, her person, and her
chattels, and the share that Michael ought to have in them, so that Matthew Haimart will
teach him to weave in four years, and that he (Michael) will have shelter, and learn his
trade there without board. And if there should be reason within two years for Michael
to default she will return him, and Ouede Ferconne, his mother, guarantees this on the
security of her person and goods. And if she should wish to purchase his freedom for
the last two years she may do so for thirty-three solidi, and will pledge for that all that
has been stated. And if he should not free himself of the last two years, let him return,
and Ouede Ferconne, his mother, pledges that if Matthew Haimart suffers either loss or
damage through Michael, her son, she will restore the loss and damage on the security of
herself and all her goods, should Michael do wrong.

Customs of London (14th c.)

And married women who practice certain crafts within the city, by themselves without
their husbands, may take girls to be their apprentices to serve them and learn their crafts,
and these apprentices shall be bound by their indentures of apprenticeship to both the
husband and his wife, to learn the wife’s trade … and such indentures shall be enrolled
[in the city records], women’s as well as men’s. And let it be known that those who have
such an apprentice may sell and assign their apprentice to anyone they wish, just as they
may sell their chattels.

Paris lawsuit (1399)

Poncette, wife of Cardinot Aubry, a linen draper, was summoned before us [the court]
at the request of her apprentice, Perrette la Maugarnie, who asked to be freed from her
168â•… Townswomen’s lives
contract [of apprenticeship] on the grounds that the said Poncette had no workshop and
only did occasional work here and there. Poncette confessed that in truth she had no
workshop, did only occasional work in one place and another, and had been a long time
without working or teaching anything of the said craft to Perrette. After considering the
matter, we freed Perrette from her contract and condemned Poncette to pay costs.

Questions: Within an apprenticeship arrangement, what roles might a woman play? What rights
and responsibilities did the master or mistress have with regard to an apprentice? What difficulties
might arise in the relationship between the master or mistress and the apprentice, and how were they
addressed? What does the institution of apprenticeship tell us about medieval society?

56.╇B usiness contracts (13 th –15 th c .)

Business deals which involved precious objects, large sums of money, or long-term
arrangements might be set out in writing. It is interesting to note that luxurious goods like
those described in the three London contracts below were often forbidden by sumptuary
laws to people of the relatively low status of pepperers and spicers (see Chapter II).
Source: First document trans. E. Amt, from Recueil de Documents Relatifs à l’Histoire de l’Industrie
Drapière en Flandre, ed. Georges Espinas and Henri Pirenne (Brussels: Librairie Kiessling and Co.,
1920); next three documents from Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth
Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868); fifth docu-
ment reprinted with permission from The Legend of Good Women: Medieval Women in Towns & Cities, by
Erika Uitz, published by Moyer Bell Limited, Colonial Hill/RFD 1, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549.

Debt to be paid in dyed thread (Flanders, 1288)

Let everyone know … that Mehaus Wittewille, townswoman of Ypres, owes to Jehan le
Hardre, townsman of Ypres, 29s. 9d., to him or to the person to whom he assigns this
charter; and of the aforementioned sum she shall pay him 10s. artois between now and
next Easter, and she shall pay him the rest between now and the next fair of Thourout
[which begins on 24 June], by dying thread, one pound for each 6d. artois. The pledge for
this is Christine Wittewille, her mother, townswoman of Ypres. This contract shall not
last for more than a year after its term. The witnesses of this contract were the aldermen
of Ypres, Jakemes le Blake and Jehan Poivre. It was made in November, the Monday
after St. Brice’s Day, 1288.

Arrangement about an embroidered cloth (London, 1304)

To all those who this letter shall see and hear, Thomasin Guydichon of Lucca, greeting in
God. Whereas I had in time past granted, released, and quitclaimed unto Aleyse Darcy,
who was the daughter of Messire Thomas Darcy, all my share, and all the right and claim
that I ever had, or could have, in one piece of cloth, embroidered with divers works in
gold and silk, which she is now preparing, eight ells in length, and six ells in breadth, for
ever; in consideration of 300 marks sterling which I lately received for the aforesaid Aleyse
from Messire Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and Sir John de Sandale, clerk, for another
embroidered cloth which the aforesaid Aleyse and myself sold to the Earl of Lincoln afore-
said, – as by a letter of quitclaim, sealed with my seal, the which was made at London, on
the Monday next after Christmas Day in the year of Grace 1302, more fully appears; – be
 Townswomen’s lives  169
it known unto all of you that I, the aforesaid Thomasin, do … release and quitclaim unto
the aforesaid Aleyse, by the present letter, all the action, and the right and claim, which I
ever had, or in any manner ought to have, in the cloth of gold aforesaid; in such manner
that neither I … nor my heirs, nor my executors, nor any other man, by us, for us, or in
our name, may or can, from this day forth, claim, challenge, or demand, at any time what-
soever, any right or claim whatsoever against the aforesaid Aleyse, against her heirs, or her
executors, by reason of the said embroidered cloth which she is now preparing. In witness
of which thing I have to this letter set my seal.

A sale of precious items (London, 1338)

To all those who this letter shall see or hear, Walter Adryan, pepperer, of London, greeting
in God. Know ye, that I have sold and granted unto Margery Randolf, of the same city,
jewels and other things below written, that is to say –; a circlet, a [handled cup] of silver
with a foot, a [buckle] of gold, a girdle of silver, 12 silver spoons, a [cup] on a foot, and
silver covercle, a silver cup and covercle, a [handled cup] of mazer, with an impression of
St. Thomas of Lancaster thereon, and with a covercle, a [handled cup] of mazer with an
impression of a head, 2 chaplets of pearls and of prayer-beads, a table-cloth of 5½ ells, and
4 linen sheets; all for 10 marks sterling, which the said Margery has paid me in the City of
London beforehand, for all such jewels and the other things before named.

A sale of jewels (London, 1363)

To all who this letter shall see or hear, Agneys Chalke, spicer, of London, greeting in God.
Know that I have sold and delivered for a certain sum of silver, by me received on the day
of the making hereof, to Master John Caumbrugge, executor of the will of Master Michael
de Northburghe, late Bishop of London, whom may God assoil, a coronal of gold, wrought
with stones, that is to say, with rubyes, saphirs, emeralds, and pearls; and a [brooch] of gold, in
the fashion of an eagle, wrought with stones, that is to say, with rubyes, saphirs, emeralds, and
pearls, with one great ruby in the breast thereof; and two rings of gold, the one with a dyamaunt,
and the other enamelled; and one mazer, bound with silver gilt; to have and to hold all the
said jewels well and freely, to him and to his assigns forever. In witness of the truth whereof,
to this letter of true sale I have set my seal. Given at London, on the Eve of St. Michael [29
September], in the 37th year of the reign of King Edward, after the Conquest the Third.

Agreement to train brewers (Cologne, 1420)

Thus that I, the aforementioned Fygin with the knowledge, approval and permission of
my aforementioned husband have agreed with the honourable wise gentlemen mayors
and town council of Cologne … that I shall loyally and industriously and to the best of
my ability teach two men to make good grut. These two men shall be appointed by them.
They have appointed a man by the name of Hermann von Aiche, the brewer upstream
near Airsbuch, whom I have already begun to teach and whom I shall continue to teach
and another, whom they still have to appoint … without dishonestly withholding any
of my knowledge of the making of the aforementioned grut. With this document I have
obliged and committed myself to do this for the aforementioned gentlemen and the town
of Cologne for eight consecutive years, beginning with the date of this document. And
whenever they let me know that they need me for their grutmaking I shall, unless I am
170  Townswomen’s lives
ill, come to their town of Cologne to instruct and teach. And for every day that I leave
my house and live in Cologne for this reason they shall give me one mark of the Cologne
currency to cover my labour and my upkeep.

Questions: What roles do women play in these contracts? In what types of business do they engage?
Comparing these documents with the preceding ones in this chapter, do you see a pattern as to types
of businesses in which women most often engage?

57. I nfractions of commercial regulations (13 th –14 th c .)

Commercial life was regulated by guild regulations such as those of Paris, and also by
municipal codes and royal decrees. In cases like those below, from London and two
Flemish cities, women are in the minority among the offenders, but they are found
committing almost every kind of commercial misdemeanor. The term “shilling” is
used here both as an amount of money (12 pence) and as a measure of weight (3⁄5 of
an ounce). In the baking trade, customers brought their own dough to be baked (for a
fee) in the baker’s oven; thus it is their neighbors’ dough, not their own, that the bakers
are accused of stealing. The word assize means a law setting product standards.
Source: London cases from Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centu-
ries, ed. and tr. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868); spelling and
language modernized. Saint-Omer and Ypres cases trans. E. Amt from Recueil de Documents Relatifs à
l’Histoire de l’Industrie Drapière en Flandre, ed. Georges Espinas and Henri Pirenne (Brussels: Librairie
Kiessling and Co., 1920).

Lightweight bread, London (1298)

Be it remembered, that on the Wednesday after the feast of St. Laurence [10 August]
… Juliana la Pestour [that is, Baker] of Nuetone, brought a cart laden with six shillings’
worth of bread into West Cheap: of which bread, that which was light bread was lacking
in weight, according to the assize of the halfpenny loaf, to the amount of 25 shillings.
And of the said six shillings’ worth, three shillings’ worth was brown bread; which bread
was of the right assize. It was therefore adjudged, that the same should be delivered to
the aforesaid Juliana, by Henry le Galeys, mayor of London, Thomas Romeyn, and
other aldermen. And the other three shillings’ worth, by award of the said Mayor and
Aldermen, was ordered to be given to the prisoners in the Newgate.

Lightweight bread, London (1310)

On the Monday before the feast of St. Hilary [13 January] … the bread of Sarah Foting,
Christina Terrice, Godiva Foting, Matilda de Bolingtone, Christina Prichet, Isabella
Sperling, Alice Pegges, Johanna de Cauntebrigge, and Isabella Pouveste, bakeresses of
Stratford, was taken by Roger le Paumer, sheriff of London, and weighed before the
mayor and aldermen; and it was found that the halfpenny loaf weighed less than it ought
by eight shillings. But seeing that the bread was cold, and ought not to have been weighed
in such a state, by the custom of the city, it was agreed that it should not be forfeited this
time. But in order that such an offense as this should not pass unpunished, it was decided
… that three-halfpenny loaves should always be sold for a penny; but that this time the
aforesaid bakeresses should have that penny.
 Townswomen’s lives  171
Bakers stealing dough, London (1327)
John Brid, baker, was summoned to answer for certain falsehood, malice, and deceit
committed by him, to the nuisance of the common people. … [It was alleged that]
the same John … did skillfully and artfully cause a certain hole to be made upon a
certain table of his, called a moldingboard, belonging to his bakehouse, in the manner
of a mouse-trap, in which mice are caught; there being a certain trap-door secretly
provided for closing and opening such hole.
And when his neighbors and others, who were accustomed to bake their bread
at his oven, came with their dough or material for making bread, the said John used
to put such dough or other material upon the said table, called a moldingboard, as
aforesaid; and … the same John had one of his household … sitting in secret beneath
such table; which servant of his, so seated beneath the hole, and carefully opening it,
piecemeal and bit by bit carefully withdrew some of the dough aforesaid, frequently
collecting great quantities from such dough, falsely, wickedly, and maliciously; to the
great loss of all his neighbors and other persons living near. …
William atte Sele, John atte Barnet, Robert de Bertone, John de Polberowe,
Robert de Brokesbourne, Roger de Milton, and Richard de Honesdone, bakers,
and Alice de Brightenoch, and Lucy de Pykeringe, bakeresses, in whose houses, also,
similar tables, called moldingboards, were found, with similar holes, and with similar
dough beneath, as aforesaid, fraudulently and maliciously collected, were summoned
in similar manner as to the fraud, malice, and deceit aforesaid. … Who appeared;
and each of them being singly arraigned as to the matters aforesaid, they say that
they are in no way guilty. … And hereupon, … [the jurors] say upon their oath that
the aforesaid John and all the others are guilty of all, both as to the hole so suspected,
and the dough drawn through the hole, and the other things charged against them;
and that for long they have been accustomed to commit the said falsehood and deceit.
Therefore it was adjudged that the said John and all the others should be committed
to the [prison] of Newgate … [until sentencing].
Afterwards, … it was agreed and ordained, that all those of the bakers aforesaid,
beneath whose tables with holes dough had been found, should be put upon the
pillory, with a certain quantity of such dough hung from their necks; and that they
should so remain upon the pillory until vespers at St. Paul’s in London should be
ended.
And as to the two women aforesaid, because they allege that they have husbands,
namely, Alice [has] William de Brechenoke for her husband, and Lucy aforesaid
[has] Hugh de Pykerynge for her husband, and this same has been attested by their
neighbors; seeing too that the same Alice and Lucy allege that the said deed was not
their deed; – it was agreed and ordained that they should be sent back to the prison
of Newgate, there to remain until it should have been otherwise ordained as to them;
and that all such tables with holes, as aforesaid, should be thrown down and utterly
destroyed, and from thenceforth not allowed to be made; and that if any one of the
said bakers should in future be found acting with such deceit, falsehood, and malice,
he should stand upon the pillory for one whole day, and afterwards abjure the city, so
as at no future time to return thereto. …
It should also be known, that the women aforesaid remained in the said prison of
Newgate, in the custody of the sheriffs before-mentioned.
172  Townswomen’s lives
Rotten meat, London (1348)
At a congregation of Thomas Leggy, the mayor, the aldermen, sheriffs, and an immense
number of the commonalty, on [6 May] … John, son of John Gylessone, of Refham, and
Agnes le Ismongere, were questioned for that on that day they had exposed for sale, in
diverse places in the City of London, putrid and stinking meat; in deceit, and to the peril
of the lives, of persons buying the same, and to the scandal and disgrace of the mayor,
aldermen, sheriffs, and all the commonalty, of the city aforesaid.
And the said Agnes for herself said, that she bought meat of the aforesaid John, son of
John Gylessone, to the value of 4 pence, supposing that the same was good and proper,
and without any default; and which meat she, Agnes, with such belief, exposed for sale.
And the said John in full court acknowledged that he had sold the meat aforesaid to the
said Agnes, for the price before mentioned; further acknowledging, of his own accord,
that shortly before he sold [it to her], he had found a certain dead sow, thrown out near
the ditch [outside] Alegate, in the suburb of London; which sow he then flayed, and the
flesh of the same, cooked as well as raw, he exposed for sale to the aforesaid Agnes, and
to others who chose to buy it.
And [it was decided that] … the skin of the said sow … should be carried by the sher-
iffs of the city in public before him, the said John, to the pillory on Cornhill; and that he,
the said John, should be first upon the pillory there, and the said flesh be burnt beneath
him, while upon the pillory.
And seeing that the said Agnes thought that the said meat, so sold to her, was good and
proper, when she bought the same, it was decided that she should go acquitted thereof.

Fraudulent measure of ale, London (1364)

On the 23rd day of November, … Alice, wife of Robert de Caustone, appeared before
Adam de Bury, the mayor, and the aldermen, and before them acknowledged that she
had sold ale in a measure called a “quart,” that was not sealed; and also, that in the same
measure there was put pitch, one inch and a half in depth, and that rosemary was laid
upon it, so as to look like a bush, in the sight of the common people.
Which measure was assayed by the standard of London; whereby it was found that six
such quarts as this would not make one proper gallon of ale. And for the falsehood and
deceit aforesaid, it was adjudged by the mayor and aldermen, that the said Alice should
undergo the punishment of the pillory for women ordained, called the thewe. … And the
same false measure was divided into two equal parts; one of which was tied to the pillory, in
sight of the common people, and the other part remained in the chamber of the guildhall.

Rotten fish, London (1372)

On Saturday next after the Feast of St. Giles the Abbot [1 September], … Margery
Hore, fishwife, was brought here, before the mayor and aldermen, with certain fish
called “soles,” stinking and rotten, and unwholesome for the use of man, which she had
exposed for sale at the Stokkes on the day aforesaid, in deceit of the common people, and
against the ordinance published thereon, and to the scandal of the city. …
Which Margery being questioned thereupon, did not deny the same, etc. Therefore
it was awarded that she should have the punishment of the pillory ordained for women,
called the thewe, for her fraud and deceit aforesaid; and that the said fish should there be
burnt etc., and the cause of her punishment there proclaimed.
 Townswomen’s lives  173
Deceptive tapestry, London (1374)
On Monday next after the feast of St. Valentine [14 February], … Henry Clerke, John
Dyke, William Tanner, and Thomas Lucy, tapicers, and masters of the trade of tapicers,
in London, caused to be brought here a coster of tapestry, wrought upon the loom after
the manner of the work of Arras, and made of false work, by Katherine Duchewoman, in
her house at Fynkeslane, being 4 yards in length, and 7 quarters in breadth; seeing that
she had made it of linen beneath, but covered with wool above, in deceit of the people,
and against the ordinance of the trade aforesaid; and they asked that the coster might be
adjudged false, and for that reason burnt, according to the form of the articles of their
trade, as here in the chamber enrolled etc.
And whereas the said Katherine was warned to be here on the morrow, to shew if she
had aught to say why the same coster should not be burnt, for the reason aforesaid, she
did not afterwards appear etc.
Therefore, after due examination thereof by the masters aforesaid, and other reputable
men of the same trade, by assent of the mayor, recorder, and certain of the aldermen, it
was ordered that the said coster, as being false work, should be burnt, according to the
form of the articles of the trade of tapicers aforesaid.

Fraud among drapers, Saint-Omer (1334–5)

William Hartscene, shearer, is completely deprived of his citizenship and his trade,
because he was accustomed to cut pieces off of whole cloths, so that the whole cloths gave
birth to the pieces, and then he would would hold back the larger part of the cloth, with
the border now cut off, so that the cloth appeared whole; and … he is banished forever
… Mabel Hatscene, widow of Michael Du Wal, is banished for 10 years and 10 days, …
because she knew of the deed and because she retained the said cloths.
Gillette Fols is banished for 10 years and 10 days, in December, … because she sold
and used as pledges greased and spun wool that she had received to spin.

Fraud among Drapers, Ypres (1394–5)

Sentence of £50 and deprivation of their trade … for one year, against multiple drapers
who fraudulently stretched their cloths against the measure:
Pool le Vleeschhauwere, Henric de le Recke, Griele wife of Jehan Vlamijnes, … and many
others, are each sentenced in the amount of £50 and are furthermore deprived of their trade,
which is called ghevoersceip, for one year, except that they may drape [the cloth] that they have in
their possession at present, but they shall be visited by the wardens and inspectors of the draping
trade, because they have sworn to protect the art and craft of selecting measures of cloth. …
Nicholas le Hiert is fined £50, and Marie his wife is deprived of her trade of draping
for one year, under the above conditions and for the above reasons.
Kateline Liefhooghs is banished for one year from the county of Flanders, … because
she had draping and weaving done outside the town [of Ypres].

Questions: Why do the women in these documents violate commercial regulations? How do the
authorities treat them? What extenuating circumstances are recognized? How does their sex affect the
situation? How might the punishments recorded here affect women and men differently?
174  Townswomen’s lives
58. P arisian maids and nurses (1351)
Additional tasks traditionally done by women are regulated in this ordinance issued
for the city of Paris by the French king, Jean II, in 1351.
Source: Trans. E. Amt, from Les Métiers et Corporations de la Ville de Paris, ed. René de Lespinasse
(Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1886).

Title XXVII: Chambermaids

1. Item, the chambermaids who walk the cattle and do the work of towns shall earn
twenty sous from the feast of St. Martin to the feast of St. John, and from St. John to
St. Martin, in winter, thirty sous at most and no more, and the others shall receive
up to that much, with their shoes. And those who are currently employed may not
leave their jobs until the end of their term; and even if they have been hired for a
higher wage, they shall not receive more; and whoever does otherwise shall be fined
as specified below.
2. Item, the chambermaids who work for the burghers of Paris, and for anyone else,
shall earn thirty sous per year at most, and no more, and the others shall receive up
to that much, with their shoes. And nurses shall earn fifty sous and no more; and if
they are employed, they may not leave until the end of their term. And whoever does
otherwise shall be fined.

Title XXVIII: Nurses

1. Item, nurses who are nursing children outside the house of the children’s father and
mother shall earn fifty sous a year and no more; and those who have already been
hired shall return at the said price and are required to serve their time. And for
anyone who does otherwise, whether the employer or the employee, the fine shall be
ten sous.
2. Item, the female contractors who are accustomed to hire out chambermaids and
nurses shall have, for contracting or hiring out a chambermaid, 18 deniers alto-
gether, and for a nurse two sous, the same from each person. And they may not hire
out or contract them more than once a year. And for anyone who takes or pays more
than this, the fine shall be ten sous, and the contractor who hires out a chambermaid
or a nurse twice in one year shall be punished with pain of her body, on the pillory
or otherwise.

Title LVI: Laundresses

1. Item, laundresses of any sort may not take, for washing each piece of laundry, alto-
gether, more than one tournois in any season; and anyone who does otherwise shall
be fined at will.

Questions: What new information do we have here about jobs available for women in a large city,
and about the organization of that work? What apparent problems are being addressed in this ordi-
nance? Which of the jobs mentioned here would be the most desirable, and why?
 Townswomen’s lives  175
59. G uardians ’ accounts : R aising girls (14 th c .)
These extracts from the municipal records of London reveal some of the details of
arrangements made for the guardianship of orphaned girls. Isabel, in particular,
obviously came from a very wealthy urban family.
Source: Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry
Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868). Spelling and language modernized.

Isabel de Hakeneye (1350)

The wardship of Isabel, daughter of Richard de Hakeneye, late alderman of London, was
delivered and granted to Richard, son of the aforesaid Richard de Hakeneye, brother of
the said Isabel, on the Monday after the feast of St. Valentine … with diverse silver plate
and jewels, in weight and value to the amount of £20 10s. 3d. sterling, which had been
left to the said Isabel by the will of Alice, the wife of the aforesaid Richard de Hakeneye,
and mother of the same Isabel; as also with £43 sterling in ready money; in full payment
of the whole portion of the said Isabel, left to her as well by the will of the said Richard
her father, as by the said will of her mother, Alice aforesaid. Also with one messuage
and three shops in the parish of St. Agnes within Aldersgate, in London, which are of no
value beyond the reprises upon them [that is, the deductions and payments owing from
them]. [This is] on the understanding that he shall answer unto the aforesaid Isabel,
when she reaches full age, as to the silver plate aforesaid, [and jewels], £20 10s. 3d. in
weight and value, and as to the said £43 … together with all the profit from the said
£43 in the meantime arising; saving to the aforesaid Richard his reasonable outlays and
expenses, dispersed for the maintenance of the said Isabel in the meantime. And further,
it shall not be lawful for the said Richard to marry the aforesaid Isabel to anyone in the
meantime, without the assent of the mayor and aldermen for the time being.
And the said Richard bound himself, his heirs and executors, and all his goods, move-
able and immoveable, wheresoever they might be, to do the same well and faithfully …
The particulars as to the silver plate and jewels, left to the said Isabel in the will of
Alice aforesaid, are set forth as follow, namely:
First, two silver pots, in weight and value, 100s. One enamelled pot, with lid, weight
£4 5s. One enamelled cup, with a lid, weight and value, 68s. 4d. One other enamelled
cup, with a lid, weight and value, 100s. Three cups plated with silver, with three lid,
weight and value, 38s. One silver water-pot, weight and value, 28s. 4d. One silver foot
for a cup, weight 10s. 7d. Twelve silver spoons, weight and value, 13s. Three silver
[buckles], with two [brooches], weight 12s. Five rings, value 5s. Sum total, £20 10s. 3d.

Alice Reigner (1380)

Account of John Bryan, citizen and fishmonger, delivered on the first day of December
… in the chamber of the guildhall of London, before the auditors by William Walworthe,
the then mayor, assigned; for the time that he was guardian of the body and chattels of
Alice, daughter of John Reigner, blader, an orphan of the said city; at the instance of
Richard Fraunceys, fishmonger, her husband, then present.
He charges himself with 100 marks received from the use of the said Alice; and with
profit thereupon for five years, at 4s. per pound yearly, according to the custom of the
said city, amounting to 100 marks. Sum total, 200 marks.
176  Townswomen’s lives
He claims allowance of one half of such increase, namely 2s. in the pound yearly for
five years, for his trouble as to the same, according to the custom of the city, making 50
marks. For the board of the said Alice, at 8d. per week, making 34s. 8d. yearly, in the
whole, £8 13s. 4d. For her clothes, linen and woolen, and bed, 13s. 4d. yearly, making in
the whole, £3 6s. 8d. For dressing and doctoring the head of the same Alice, and for her
teaching, shoes, and other small necessaries, 13s. 4d. yearly, making in the whole, £3 6s.
8d. For his expenses upon a plea in the courts of the bishop of London and of the arch-
bishop, for the marriage contract of the said Alice, £4 13s. 4d. Sum total, £53 6s. 8d.

Questions: How much can we tell from each of these accounts about the circumstances in which each
girl grew up? What can be inferred, if anything? What is missing? How do the situations of the two
girls compare?

60. L ondon prostitutes (14 th c .)

Prostitution was usually regarded by medieval society as a sinful but necessary occu-
pation. Procuring or pimping, however, was less likely than prostitution to be toler-
ated, and prostitutes themselves were regulated in ways designed to set them apart
from other people and to limit the damage which they were perceived as doing to the
community. Although prostitution, of course, also occurred in rural communities, it
was more visible and organized in towns and cities. The extracts below are from the
municipal records of London.
Source: Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries, ed. and tr. Henry
Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868). Spelling and language modernized.

Regulation of prostitutes’ clothing (1382)

On the 13th day of February, … it was ordered by the mayor, and aldermen, and
common council, that all common harlots, and all women commonly reputed as such,
should have and use hoods of ray only; and should not wear any manner of budge, or
[jewelry], or reverse, within the franchise of the city. And if anyone should be found
doing to the contrary thereof, she was to be taken and brought to the compter [that is,
prison], and the sheriffs were to have the colored hoods, budge, [jewelry], or reverse, to
the contrary of this ordinance found upon her.

A procuress (1385)
On the 27th day of July … Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Moring, was brought before
Nicholas Brebre, knight, the mayor, the aldermen, and the sheriffs of London, in the
guildhall, because, both at the information of diverse persons and upon the acknowledg-
ment and confession of one Johanna her serving-woman, the same mayor, aldermen,
and sheriffs were given to understand that the said Elizabeth, under color of the craft of
embroidery, which she pretended to follow, took in and retained the same Johanna and
diverse other women, as her apprentices, and bound them to serve her after the manner
of apprentices in such art; whereas the truth of the matter was, that she did not follow
that craft, but that, after so retaining them, she incited the same Johanna and the other
women who were with her, and in her service, to live a lewd life, and to consort with
 Townswomen’s lives  177
friars, chaplains, and all other such men as desired to have their company, both in her
own house, in the parish of All Hallows near the [city] wall, in the ward of Broad Street,
in London, and elsewhere; and used to hire them out to the same friars, chaplains, and
other men, for such stipulated sum as they might agree upon, both in her own house and
elsewhere, and she retained in her own possession the sum so agreed upon.
And in particular, on Thursday the 4th day of May last past, by the compassing and
procuring of the said Elizabeth, and of a certain chaplain, whose name is unknown, she
sent the same Johanna, and ordered her to accompany the said chaplain at night, that
she might carry a lantern before him to his chamber – but in what parish is likewise
unknown – it being her intention that the said Johanna should stay the night there with
the chaplain; of their own contriving, while the said Johanna herself, as she says, knew
nothing about it. Still, she remained there with such chaplain the whole of that night;
and when she returned home to her mistress the next day, this Elizabeth asked her if she
had brought anything with her for her trouble that night; to which she made answer that
she had not. Whereupon, the same Elizabeth used words of reproof to her, and ordered
her to go back again to the chaplain on the following night, and whatever she should be
able to lay hold of, to take the same for her trouble, and bring it with her. Accordingly,
Johanna by her command went back on the following night to the said chaplain, at his
chamber aforesaid, and again passed the night there: and the next day she rose very
early in the morning, and bearing in mind the words of her mistress, and being afraid
to go back without carrying something to her said mistress, she took a portifory [that is,
a liturgical book] that belonged to the chaplain, and carried it off, the chaplain himself
knowing nothing about it; which portifory she delivered to the said Elizabeth, who took
it, well knowing how and in what manner the same Johanna had come by it. And after
this, the said Elizabeth pledged this portifory for eight pence, to a man whose name is
unknown.
And many other times this Elizabeth received similar shameful gains from the same
Johanna, and her other serving-women, and retained the same for her own use; living
thus abominably and damnably, and inciting other women to live in the same manner;
she herself being a common harlot and procuress.
Whereupon, on the same day, the said Elizabeth was asked by the court, how she
would acquit herself thereof; to which she made answer, that she was in no way guilty,
and put herself upon the country to the same. Therefore the sheriffs were instructed
to summon twelve good men of the venue aforesaid to appear here on the 28th day of
the same month, to make a jury thereon; and the said Elizabeth was in the meantime
committed to prison.
Upon which day the good men of the venue aforesaid appeared … [and] declared
upon their oath, the same Elizabeth to be guilty of all the things above imputed to her;
and that she was a common harlot, and a common procuress. And because through such
women and similar deeds many scandals had befallen the said city, and great peril might
through such transactions in future arise; therefore, according to the custom of the city of
London in this and similar cases, and in order that other women might beware of doing
such things; it was adjudged that the said Elizabeth should be taken from the guildhall to
the Cornhill, and be put upon the thewe [that is, the pillory for women], there to remain
for one hour of the day, the cause thereof being publicly proclaimed. And afterwards,
she was to be taken to some gate of the city, and there be made to foreswear the city,
and the liberty thereof, to the effect that she would never again enter the same; on pain
178  Townswomen’s lives
of imprisonment for three years, and the said punishment of the thewe, at the discretion
of the mayor and aldermen for the time being, as often as it should please them that she
should suffer such punishment.

Restriction of prostitutes (1393)

Whereas many and diverse affrays, broils, and dissensions, have arisen in times past,
and many men have been slain and murdered, by reason of the frequent resort of, and
consorting with, common harlots, at taverns, brewhouses of huksters, and other places of
ill-fame, within the said city and its suburbs; and more especially through Flemish women,
who profess and follow such a shameful and dolorous life, we do by our command forbid,
on behalf of our lord the king, and the mayor and alderman of the city of London, that
any such women shall go about or lodge in the said city, or in the suburbs thereof, by
night or by day; but they are to keep themselves to the places thereunto assigned, that
is to say, the stews [that is, bathhouses] on the other side of [the River] Thames, and
Cocks Lane; on pain of losing and forfeiting the upper garment that she shall be wearing,
together with her hood, every time that any one of them shall be found doing to the
contrary of this proclamation. And every officer and serjeant of the said city shall have
power to take such garments and hoods, in manner and form aforesaid, the which they
shall bring to the guildhall, and shall have the half thereof for their trouble.

Questions: How were prostitutes regulated in London, and how did regulation change over time?
What does the story of Elizabeth and Johanna reveal about the actual practice of prostitution? What
does it tell us about how the community responded to prostitutes’ activities?

61.  A n I talian servant girl (1465–9)

Domestic service was the most common job for young unmarried women across
Europe. In Italy, it was usual for the employer to promise a dowry when hiring a
servant girl; elsewhere she might be working to save up a dowry from her earnings.
The following passage is from the diary of Neri di Bicci, a painter living in Florence.
Source: Mary Rogers, ed., Women in Italy, 1350–1650 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000).

Monday 7 October 1465

I took Mechera [Domenica] as a servant. … On the day stated above Amadore di Giuliano
d’Amadore from Castello de Gangalandi left his sister Domenica with me as a servant.
She was about 9 years old, [and she is to stay] for eight years or more. And when the eight
years or more are over, if she has been a good, discreet and honest servant, when she gets
married I must give her one hundred lire for her to give to her intended husband, and
whichever linen or woollen clothes she is using then. This was agreed with Amadore.

Thursday 21 September 1469

On this day Mechera, daughter of the late Giuliano d’Amadore, whom Amadore left
with me as a servant on 7 October 1465, left. He had left her for a period of eight years
when she was a small girl, but she did not want to stay with me because she was not
 Townswomen’s lives  179
obedient or prompt in doing reasonable and honest things. She asked permission to take
those items listed below, that is:
1 overdress of grey cloth, almost new
1 overdress of rough grey cloth, used
1 multicoloured dress, used
1 dress of rough grey cloth, used
4 good chemises
4 caps
4 handkerchiefs and kerchiefs
2 boxes, used
2 ribbons
1 pair of boxes
1 belt, new
1 head kerchief.

Questions: What is Mechera’s situation at the time of the first entry, and why? What has happened
by the time of the second document? What evidence is there as to her character? How much control
does she have over her circumstances? What is her financial status?

62. T own houses (13 th –14 th c .)

Town buildings often served as both dwellings and commercial establishments, with
the owners of a business living on the premises, along with servants, apprentices and
possibly employees. The first document here is a set of carpenter’s specifications
for a building being planned in London in the fourteenth century. The plan and
reconstructed drawing are based on the archaeological remains of a building in the
English town of Lincoln.
Source: Specifications from Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centu-
ries, ed. and tr. Henry Thomas Riley (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1868); spelling and
language modernized. Plan from Helen Clarke, The Archaeology of Medieval England (London: The
British Museum, 1984), after R. H. Jones, 1980.

Carpenter’s specifications (1308)

Simon de Canterbury, carpenter, came before the Mayor and Aldermen on the Saturday
next after the Feast of St. Martin the Bishop [11 October], … and acknowledged that he
would make at his own proper charges, down to the locks, for William de Hanigtone, a
pelterer, before the Feast of Easter then next ensuing, a hall and a room with a chimney,
and one larder between the said hall and room; and one sollar over the room and larder;
also, one oriole [window] at the end of the hall, beyond the high bench, and one step
with an oriole [porch], from the ground to the floor of the hall aforesaid, outside of that
hall; and two enclosures as cellars, opposite to each other, beneath the hall; and one
enclosure for a sewer, with two pipes leading to the said sewer; and one stable, [blank] in
length, between the said hall and the old kitchen, and twelve feet in width, with a sollar
above such stable, and a garret above the sollar aforesaid; and at one end of such sollar,
there is to be a kitchen with a chimney; and there is to be an oriole [window-room]
between the said hall and the old chamber, eight feet in width.
180 Townswomen’s lives
Plan and reconstruction of a town house (13th–14th c.)

Reconstruction
.-- . ;
•• p

Questions: How would the family and household have used the spaces shown here? How comfort-
able was this as a living and working space? Which of the other documents in this chapter can you
connect to buildings like these?
VII Religious lives

Women living the religious life were a tiny minority, but they loom large in the written
source material. Writers who were churchmen themselves were more interested in writing
about nuns – either to praise or to blame them – than about other kinds of women. The
religious achievements of female saints and other renowned holy women were the female
accomplishments that medieval writers were most likely to recognize. Moreover, nuns
were (somewhat tenuously) part of the literate network of the church; thus convents turn
up in ecclesiastical documents. More importantly, nuns and mystics were almost the only
women who did any writing themselves – though it was somewhat unusual even for a
nun to write, especially in the Later Middle Ages.
A life dedicated to religion was in some ways a restricted one, but it did offer an alter-
native to the usual path of marriage and motherhood, and it might well be an opportu-
nity for a woman to exercise considerable responsibility as an abbess or other monastic
official. Many women became nuns because their families dedicated them to religion at a
youthful age, but others chose the convent out of genuine piety or an affinity for a life of
study or service. Religious impulses could also find an outlet in less permanent activities
such as pilgrimages.
182  Religious lives
63. C hurch council decrees (5 th –6 th c .)
Church councils, which were formal meetings of bishops and other important
churchmen, decided the church’s official stance on many issues, including the posi-
tion of women in the church, whether as wives of clergymen or in their own right.
The following decrees come from councils held in Gaul (the region that would later be
called France) and applied to the church there; they are in line with similar decisions
by other church councils. The practice of ordaining deaconesses died out relatively
quickly, but it took many centuries for the church to enforce clerical celibacy widely.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, vol. 148: Concilia Galliae, A. 314-A. 506, ed.
C. Munier; and vol. 148A: Concilia Galliae, A. 511-A. 695, ed. Charles de Clercq (Turnholt, 1963).

Ancient statutes of the church (ca. 475)

  36. Young widows who are frail in body shall be supported at the expense of the church
whose widows they are.
  37. A woman, however learned and holy, shall not presume to teach men in the assembly.
  38. A layman shall not dare to teach when clergy are present, unless they are examining him.
  39. A man who is put in charge of religious women shall be examined by the bishop of
the place.
  41. A woman shall not presume to baptize.
  99. A holy virgin who offers herself to the bishop for consecration shall be dressed in
the sort of garments she shall always wear, suitable to her profession and chastity.
100. Widows or nuns who are chosen for ministry to women who are to be baptized shall
be so instructed in this office that they can, by clear and sound speech, teach ignorant
and rustic women how they should answer the questions of the baptizer at the time
when they are baptized, and how they should live after they have received baptism.
102. Widows who are supported by a stipend from the church should be so assiduous in the
work of God that they delight the church with their good works and their prayers.

Council of Orange (441)

25. Deaconesses of any sort shall not be ordained. If any now exist, they shall bow their
heads for the same blessing which is given to the people.
26. The profession of consecrated widowhood made before a bishop in his chamber is to be
shown by the vidual garments bestowed by the bishop. And the abductor of such women,
or the woman who deserts such a profession, deserves to be eternally damned.

Council of Arles (442–506)

2. He who is to be received into the priesthood may not be bound by the tie of marriage,
unless a conversion is promised.
3. If any clergyman from the rank of the diaconate shall presume to have a woman for
his comfort, other than his grandmother, mother, sister, daughter or niece, or his wife
who has converted with him, he shall be excommunicated. And this penalty shall
equally affect the woman too, if she does not wish to separate herself from him.
4. No deacon or priest or bishop shall bring a girl, whether freeborn or slave, into his
personal chamber.
 Religious lives  183
Council of Orange (533)
17. Women who have until now received the diaconal blessing, against the prohibi-
tions of the canons, shall be excommunicated if they are shown to have fallen
again into marriage. But if, warned by their bishop and recognizing their error,
they dissolve such a marriage and do penance, they shall return to the grace of
communion.
18. It was also pleasing [to the council] that the diaconal blessing be given to no woman
from now on, on account of the frailty of the [female] condition.

Council of Epaone (517)

21. We utterly annul in this whole region the consecration of widows who are called
deaconesses, and only the blessing of penitence, if they agree to be converted, is to
be given them.
32. If any widow of a priest or deacon remarries, let her be expelled from the church,
until she shall be separated from the unlawful union, and her husband too shall be
punished with similar severity until he has been corrected.

Questions: How many roles for women in the church are mentioned here? What are the specific
and overall attitudes of church authorities toward those roles? What effect would the elimination of
marriage for priests have on women, and on the church?

64. C aesarius of A rles : R ule for nuns ( ca . 512–34)

A monastic “rule” is the collection of regulations under which a particular commu-
nity or a whole “order” of monks or nuns lives. Caesarius, a sixth-century bishop of
Arles in Gaul, wrote the first rule specifically for nuns. It was first implemented in the
convent at Arles where his sister, Caesaria, was abbess. Drawing on earlier monastic
rules written for men, Caesarius’ Rule was adopted in various forms by many female
communities in early medieval Europe and was adapted for use by male houses as
well. Although the more famous Rule written for monks by Caesarius’ contempo-
rary, Benedict of Nursia, eventually became the dominant monastic rule for both
men and women throughout medieval Europe, the Rule of Caesarius continued to
serve as a model for other rules written specifically for women. It was particularly
influential, in thinking about female monasticism, in its emphasis on the need for
religious women to remain strictly cloistered.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Sancti Caesarii Episcopi Arelatensis Opera Omnia, vol. II: Opera Varia, ed. D.
G. Morin (Maretioli, 1942).

1. To his holy and very venerable sisters in Christ, living in the monastery which we
established with God’s aid and inspiration, Bishop Caesarius.
  Because the Lord in his mercy has deigned to inspire and aid us in establishing a
monastery for you, we have also established for you spiritual and holy precepts as to
how you ought to live in that monastery, in accordance with the statutes of the ancient
fathers; and in order that with God’s help you may be able to keep them, you must,
while living perpetually in the cells of your monastery, invoke the presence of the Son of
God with assiduous prayers, so that afterwards you may say with confidence: “I found
184  Religious lives
him whom my soul loveth” [Cant. 3:4]. And therefore I ask you, sacred virgins and souls
dedicated to God, who with your lamps shining await with clear conscience the coming
of the Lord, that, because you know that I labored to establish a monastery for you, you
with your prayers might ask that I be made a companion on your journey; and that,
when you shall enter joyfully into the kingdom with the wise and holy virgins, you might
obtain by your plea that I not remain outside with the foolish ones. May divine favor
grant blessings in the present life to your sanctity, which is praying for me and shining
among the precious gems of the church, and make it worthy of eternal blessings.
2. And because many things in monasteries of maidens seem to be different from those
of monks, we have chosen a few things out of the many, by which the older and the
younger ones shall live according to the Rule, and strive to fulfill spiritually what
they have seen to be especially suitable to their sex.
  These principal things are suited to your holy souls:
  If anyone, having left her parents, wishes to renounce the world and enter the holy
fold, in order to evade, with God’s help, the jaws of spiritual wolves, let her never leave
the monastery until her death, not even into the church, where the door can be seen.
3. Let her strive to shun and avoid oaths and curses like the venom of the devil.
4. And she, who at God’s inspiration has changed her life to become a nun, is not
permitted to assume the clothing of a religious immediately, unless her determina-
tion has already been proved in many tests; but, under the care of one of the seniors,
let her persist in the clothing in which she came for a whole year. As to whether
she may change that clothing, and whether she may have a bed in the community,
let her be in the power of the prior; and just as he considers her person and her
conscience, so much more quickly or slowly shall he allow her to progress.
5. Those who have come to the monastery as widows, or leaving their husbands behind, or
having changed their clothing, are not exempted from this, unless they have previously
deeded or given or sold all their resources to whomever they wish, so that they retain
in their power nothing which they control or possess for themselves, according to the
Lord’s command: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast” [Matt. 19:21]; and,
“If anyone does not leave everything, and follow me, he cannot be my disciple.” This I
say, therefore, venerable daughters, because nuns who have possessions cannot achieve
perfection. Even those who enter the religious life as virgins, if they do not fulfill this
condition, either shall not be received, or shall not be permitted to put on the clothing of
religion, until they have freed themselves of all the impediments of this world.
6. Those who do not control their own wealth, because their parents are still living, or who
are still minors, shall be required to draw up charters when they gain control over their
parents’ property, or when they reach the age of majority. Therefore we give this order
to your holy souls, mindful of the example of Ananias and Saphiras, who, although they
said they had offered everything to the apostles, had offered only a part, and had deceit-
fully kept a part for themselves, which is neither fitting, nor permissible, nor useful.
7. None, not even the abbess, may have her own maid serving her; but if they have a
need, let them receive some assistance from the younger ones.
  And, if it can be done, even with difficulty, no little girl shall ever be taken into the
monastery, until she is six or seven years old, able to learn to read and write and to
obey the rules. Girls, whether they are the daughters of nobles or of commoners, are
definitely not to be received for the purpose of raising or teaching them.
8. No one shall choose for herself what work or task she shall do; but it shall be up to
the superior to order what seems useful.
 Religious lives  185
  9. No one shall be permitted to choose separate accommodations, nor to have a
bedroom or a chest or anything of this sort, which can be closed up privately; but all
shall stay in one room, in separate beds. Nor may those who are old or sick, so that
it is suitable for them to be deferred to or to be cared for, have single cells, but let all
be housed in one, and let them remain there.
  Let them never speak in a loud voice, according to the Apostle’s command: “Let
all clamor be put away from you” [Eph. 4:31]; such is not at all fitting or useful.
10. Similarly, during hymns, talking and working are not permitted.
11. No one whosoever shall presume to serve as godmother to any girl, whether rich
or poor; for she who has disregarded her own liberty for the love of God ought not
to seek or have the love of others, so that without any impediment she may always
devote herself to God.
12. She who when the signal is sounded comes late to worship or to work, shall be
subject to rebuke, as is fitting. If she has not improved in this at the second or third
admonition, let her be separated from the community and from communal meals.
13. She who is admonished, corrected or reproved for any fault shall not presume to
respond to her accuser at all; she who does not wish to fulfill any one of these things
which are commanded shall be sequestered from the communion of prayer or from
the table, depending on the gravity of her fault.
14. … In all physical service, whether in the kitchen, or whatever daily living requires,
each of them, except the mother and the prioress, ought to take a turn in the duties.
15. In vigils, so that no one becomes sleepy through idleness, let there be such work as
does not distract the mind from hearing the reading. If anyone grows sleepy, let her
be commanded to stand while the others are sitting, so that she may drive away from
herself the faintness of sleep, lest she be found either unenthusiastic or negligent in
the work of God.
16. Let them accept their daily task of wool-working with humility and strive to complete
it with great industriousness.
17. Let no one consider anything her own, whether clothing, or any other thing. …
18. Let all obey the mother after God; let them defer to the prioress.
  Let them be silent while they sit at table, and direct their thoughts to the reading.
When the reading is finished, the holy meditation of the heart is not to cease. If there
is need of anything, she who is at the head of the table should take care of it, and
what is necessary should be sought with a nod rather than by voice. Let not only your
throats take in nourishment for you, but let your ears also hear the word of God.
  All should learn to read.
19. They should always devote themselves to reading for two hours, that is, from
daybreak until the second hour. For the rest of the day let them do their work, and
not occupy themselves in conversation. …
20. When, however, it is necessary for their work, then let them speak. When the rest are
working together, let one of the sisters read until the third hour; for the rest of the
time, meditation on God’s word and prayer from the heart should not cease. …
21. Let those who had something in the world, when they enter the monastery, humbly
offer it to the mother, to be used for the common good. And those who had nothing
should not seek in the monastery that which they could not have outside it. But let
those who are known to have had something in the world not despise their sisters
who have come to this holy fellowship from poverty; nor should they take pride in
the riches which they have presented to the monastery, just as they enjoyed them in
186  Religious lives
the world. What does it benefit you to disperse your wealth, and to be made poor by
giving to the poor, if your wretched soul is filled with diabolical pride? You should
all therefore live harmoniously and peacefully, and honor God, whose temples you
are worthy to be, in each other.
  Apply yourselves to your prayers without pause, in accordance with the Evange-
list’s saying: “Pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy” [Luke 21:36]; and the
Apostle: “Pray without ceasing” [I Thess. 5:17].
22. When you pray to God with psalms and hymns, let that which is offered in your
voice be pondered in your heart. Whatever work you are doing, when reading is not
being done, ruminate always on something from the holy scriptures.
  The sick are to be treated in such a way that they recover quickly; but when they have
regained their good health, let them return to the more beneficial practice of abstinence.
  Let not your apparel be notable, nor should you aspire to please in your clothing,
but in your morals, which is fitting for your purpose.
23. Let no desire for the gaze of men spring up in you at the devil’s urging; nor should
you say that you have chaste souls if you have unchaste eyes: for the unchaste eye is
the messenger of the unchaste heart. Nor should she who gazes immodestly on a man
think that she is not seen by others when she does this: she is certainly seen, by those
she supposes do not see her. But behold, even if she is hidden, so that she is seen by no
man, what about that overseer, from whom nothing at all can be hidden? Let her fear
therefore to displease God; let her avoid sinfully pleasing man. When therefore you stand
together, if the provider of the monastery arrives there, or any other man with him,
guard each other’s modesty; for God, who lives in you, also guards you in this way.
24. If you see anyone behaving more freely than is proper, correct her privately as your sister;
if she does not heed you, bring it to the attention of the mother. Nor should you think it
malicious, when you give such evidence with a holy spirit: for you are no more innocent,
and you become a partner in her sin, if you permit your sister to perish by being silent
when you could save her by rebuking her. For if she had a wound in her body, or had
been bitten by a snake, and wished to hide this because she was afraid to be operated on,
would it not be cruel to keep such a thing quiet, and merciful to make it known? How
much more, then, ought you to reveal the counsel of the devil and his plans, so that the
wound of sin in her heart is not worsened, or the evil of concupiscence nourished longer
in her breast! And you must do this with the love of a sister and with hatred of vice.
25. Whoever – God forbid – has fallen into such evil that she secretly receives letters or
any instructions or presents from someone, if she has voluntarily confessed this, let
her be forgiven, and prayers be said for her; if, however, she is accused or convicted
while concealing it, let her be punished more severely, according to the statutes of
the monastery. Let her be subject to similar punishment if, by a sacrilegious daring,
she has presumed to send letters or presents to anyone. If, however, anyone wishes,
in fondness for her parents or in friendship for anyone, to send a gift of bread, let her
discuss it with the mother; and, if the mother permits it, let the sister give it via the
porteresses, and they shall send it on, by name, to whomever she wishes; let her not
presume to give or receive anything herself, without the prioress or the porteress.
26. And although it ought not to be thought or believed that holy virgins hurt each other
with harsh words or invective, nevertheless if by chance and human frailty, any of the
sisters at the devil’s urging should happen to break out into such sin, so that they either
commit theft, or strike each other, it is right that they, by whom the statutes of the rule
were broken, should receive the legitimate punishment. For it is necessary that in these
 Religious lives  187
matters, that which the Holy Spirit taught through Solomon regarding disobedient
children should be fulfilled: “He who loves his son will not spare the whip” [Ecclus.
30:1]; and also, “Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell”
[Prov. 23:14]. And let them receive that punishment in the presence of the congrega-
tion, according to the Apostle: “Them that sin, rebuke before all” [1 Tim. 5:20].
27. And because the mother of the monastery must be concerned for the health of souls,
and for the resources of the monastery which are necessary for the sustenance of
the body, and must always meditate, and must offer affection to those who call on
her, and must answer letters from the faithful, therefore all responsibility for wool-
working, whence the clothing of the holy sisters is supplied, belongs to the prioress
or to the wool-mistress. Through their industry let whatever garments are needed be
prepared so faithfully, with zeal and love of God, that however often the holy sisters
have a need, they can meet it with holy discretion.
28. Let them make clothing in the monastery with such industriousness that the abbess never
needs to procure it from outside the monastery. And such clothing as is offered to you for
a suitable time does not belong to you. But if contention and murmuring arise among
you because some of you have perhaps received something of lesser quality than you had
before, test yourselves in this: for how much is lacking to you in that inner holy habit of the
heart, if you are murmuring on account of the bodily habit? Nevertheless if your weakness
is indulged, so that you have more than daily use requires, put what you have in one place
under communal custody, and let the registrar hold the keys to your boxes or chests.
29. No one is to work on anything of her own, unless the abbess has given her an order
or permission; but let all your work be done in common, with such holy zeal and
such fervent alacrity as you would give to it if it were your own.
30. Let such women be appointed by the superior to the offices of cellaress and porteress
and wool-mistress, not as the wishes of any, but such as the needs of all, decide, in the
fear of God; and therefore let none of the sisters have or keep around her bed anything
that pertains to eating and drinking. And whoever does this shall undergo very strict
correction. Above all, before God and his angels, I entreat you: let none of the sisters
secretly buy wine or in any way obtain it; but if any does receive some wine, let the
porteresses receive it in the presence of the abbess or the prioress, and let them hand
it over to the wine-mistress; and let it be dispensed to her to to whom it was sent, in
accordance with the statutes of the rule, and as is proper for her infirmity, by the wine-
mistress’s dispensation. And because it is normal for the cells of the monastery not
always to have good wine, it will be the concern of the holy abbess to provide such wine
as shall soothe those who are ill or who were raised more delicately.
31. Baths should not be denied to those whose infirmities require them; but let what is
needed for her health be done without murmuring, according to medical advice and
at the command of the superior, even if she who is sick does not wish to bathe. If,
however, it is not required by any infirmity, her desire shall not be indulged.
32. The care of those who are ill or otherwise laboring under any weakness should be
entrusted to one who is sufficiently faithful and responsible, who will seek from the
cellar whatever she sees to be necessary. And someone ought to be chosen who will
both keep the monastic rigor and serve the sick faithfully. And if the needs of the sick
require it, and it seems right to the mother of the monastery, the sick ones may even
have their own small cellar and common kitchen. …
33. You should have no quarrels, … and if they happen, let them be ended as quickly
as possible, lest anger grow into hatred, and a rod turn into a beam, and the soul be
188  Religious lives
made murderous. For thus you read: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer”
[I John 3:15]; and: “Lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” [I Tim.
2:8]. Whoever injures her sister with invective or cursing or even by accusing her
of faults, let her remember to make amends for her sin. If she presumes to repeat
this vice, let her suffer the most severe punishment, until through her penance she
deserves to be received again. Let the younger ones especially defer to the elders.
34. If anyone is excommunicated for any reason, removed from the congregation, let her
reside in the place which the abbess has ordered, with one of her spiritual sisters, until
humbly penitent she receives forgiveness. If, however, as frequently happens, at the urging
of the devil, sisters injure each other, they should seek each other’s pardon and forgive
their debts, because of the prayers, and the more frequent your prayers are, the purer
they ought to be. If she whose pardon is sought does not wish to forgive her sister, let her
be removed from the community, and she should fear this, for if she will not forgive, she
will not be forgiven. And she who never wishes to seek pardon, or does not seek it from
the heart, or who is asked but does not forgive, has no place in the monastery. Therefore
refrain from harsh words, and if they have been uttered, you should not hesitate to offer
healing from that same mouth by which the wounds were made.
35. And when the need for discipline compels you, as prioress, to say harsh words in
order to restrain evil behavior, and if you feel that you have perhaps been excessive
in this, it is not required of you to ask for forgiveness, lest in preserving your humility
too well, you damage your authority over those who ought to be subject to you. But
all should seek forgiveness from the Lord, who knows with how much kindness you
love even those whom you have very properly reproved.
  Let the mother, who bears responsibility for all of you, and the prioress be obeyed
without murmuring, lest charity be saddened in them. And let those who lead you take
care to observe discretion and the rule with charity and true piety. Let them set an example
of good works to all around them; let them reprove the restless, comfort the fearful, and
support the frail, always remembering that they will have to account to God for you.
Wherefore even you, who more piously subject yourselves, ought to pity not only your-
selves but also them, for as they seem to be superior among you in rank, so much greater
is the danger in which they live. For which reason you ought humbly to obey not only the
mother, but also the prioress, the chancelloress and the infirmaress with reverence.
36. Above all, for the safeguarding of your reputation, let no man come into the private part
of the monastery or into the oratory, with the exception of bishops, the provider and a
priest, deacon, subdeacon and one or two readers, commended by their age and life, who
must celebrate masses from time to time. And when the buildings must be remodeled,
or doors or windows must be constructed, or any repairs of this sort are needed, such
artisans and workers as are necessary to do the work may come in with the provider, but
not without the knowledge and permission of the mother. And the provider may never
enter the inner part of the monastery except for those reasons which we have explained
above, and never without the abbess or at least some other very respectable witness, so
that the holy women have their private place as is fitting and expedient.
37. Secular matrons and girls and widows still in lay clothing similarly are prohibited
from entering.
38. This is to be observed: that the abbess, for her proper dignity, not go to meet callers
in the parlor without two or three sisters. Bishops, abbots or other religious, whose
good life commends them, may enter the oratory to pray if they ask. This should also
be observed: that the door of the monastery be open to callers at suitable hours.
 Religious lives  189
39. You are never to prepare any banquet, either in the monastery or outside it, even
for these persons, that is, for bishops, abbots, monks, clerks, secular men, women in
secular clothing, or the parents of the abbess, or of any nun; nor may a banquet be
prepared for the bishop of this city or for the provider of this monastery, nor for any
religious woman from the diocese, unless they happen to be of very holy life, and do
sufficient honor to the monastery; and let this be be done very rarely.
40. If any woman comes from another city to inquire after her daughter or to visit the
monastery, if she is a religious, and it seems right to the abbess, she ought to be
invited to a banquet, but others must never be at all, for holy virgins who are dedi-
cated to God ought to pray for all people, devoting themselves to Christ, rather than
prepare worldly feasts. If anyone wishes to see her sister or daughter or any relative
or kinswoman, let her not be denied a conversation in the presence of the infirmaress
or some other senior nun.
41. The abbess is not to dine outside the congregation unless required to do so by some
indisposition, infirmity or business.
42. In this above all I remind you and call you to witness, holy mother, and venerable
prioress, whoever you are, and also you to whom the care of the sick is entrusted, and
the chancelloress and the infirmaress; that you consider most carefully whether any of
the sisters, either because they were raised more delicately, or perhaps because they
frequently suffer a weakness of the stomach, cannot abstain as the rest do, or at least
find it very difficult to fast, and if in their modesty they do not presume to ask, you are
to order that they be given what they need by the cellaress, and that they accept it. And
they may be very sure that whatever they have consumed by dispensation or order of
the superior, at whatever hour, they have received Christ in that repast. And the cella-
ress, and she who cares for the sick, shall be proclaimed before God and his angels for
all their solicitude, for their care and diligence toward the sick.
  And I also advise this: to avoid excessive noise, alms should not be given daily or
continually at the door of the monastery; but let the abbess arrange to have what
God has given, such as remains to the use of the monastery, distributed to the poor
through the provider.
43. Above all, this is to be observed: if any man or woman, because of their close rela-
tionship, gives or sends clothing or anything else to his or her daughter, it is not to
be received secretly; wherefore I call all who watch at the gate to witness before God
and his angels, that they permit nothing to be given from the monastery, and that
they let nothing be received into the monastery from outside, without the knowledge
and approval of the abbess. But if the abbess, as is common, is busy with callers, the
porteresses shall show whatever has arrived to the prioress. If they neglect to do this,
both the porteresses who permitted and those who received shall not only suffer the
most severe punishment of the monastery, but they also know that because of their
transgression of the holy Rule they will have to plead their case with me before God.
And as for that which was sent, if it is necessary for her, let her have it; but if she
needs nothing, let it be given back and offered to one who needs it, because of the
Lord’s command: “He that hath two coats, let him impart to him who hath none”
[Luke 3:11]. And when new clothes are received, if they do not need the old ones,
let them give them back to the abbess, to be distributed to the poor or to those just
beginning or to the younger ones.
44. Let them have all their clothing only in a simple and respectable color, never black,
never bright white, but only natural or milky-white; let it be made in the monastery
190  Religious lives
by the industry of the prioress and the care of the wool-mistress, and distributed by
the mother of the monastery, to each reasonably, according to her needs. Let there be
no other colors in the monastery, except natural and milky-white, as said above: for
anything else is not fitting for the the humble state of the virgins. Let your bedding also
be simple: for it is not proper for worldly covers or patterned hangings to decorate the
bed of a religious. You are not to use silver, except when worshiping in the oratory.
45. There is never to be anything covered or decorated with embroidery or needlework or
fine weaving in the monastery. Even the ornaments in the oratories ought to be simple,
never embroidered, never silken; and let nothing be added to these other than crosses,
either black or white, and only of plain work from scraps of cloth or linens. For no waxed
curtain should be hung, no figured plaque should be set up, nor should any painting
be done on the walls or in the rooms, because that which pleases not the spiritual eyes,
but the human ones, ought not to be in the monastery. And if any ornament is given to
the monastery, by you or by any of the faithful, let it either be sold for the benefit of the
monastery, or let it be assigned, if necessary, to the Church of St. Mary. Needlework is
never to be done, except in small napkins and face-towels, as the abbess orders.
46. None of you shall presume to receive the clothes of clerks or laymen, nor of your
relatives, nor of any man or woman from outside, whether to wash them, or to sew
them, or to mend them, or to dye them, except at the command of the abbess, lest
the good name of the monastery be harmed through this careless familiarity which
is the enemy of reputation. Whoever does not observe this, let her be struck with the
punishment of the monastery, just as if she had committed a crime.
47. You, holy and venerable mother of the monastery, and you, prioress of the holy
congregation, I admonish and adjure before God and his angels, that no threats or
arguments or blandishments shall ever so soften your spirit that you relax any part of
the institution of this holy and spiritual Rule. I believe that according to the mercy of
God you shall not incur any charge of negligence, but that for your holy obedience
which pleases God you shall happily attain to eternal bliss.

Questions: What authority structure is assumed for the convent? In clause no. 7, what is the intent
in accepting young girls? What challenges and problems are anticipated? What is the overall intent
of the religious life envisioned in the Rule?

65. S imeon of D urham : S egregated churches (7 th –11 th c .)

The following narrative illustrates the attitudes of many churchmen toward women and
the consequences this could have for female religious life. The prohibition against women
within the church grounds is an unusual one, but the ideas behind it are not. In the
Early Middle Ages there were quite a few double monasteries housing both monks and
nuns, and these were gradually abandoned, sometimes because of the kind of problems
and attitudes described here. St. Cuthbert was a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon bishop;
Simeon, a monk, wrote his account in the late eleventh or early twelfth century.
Source: Simeon of Durham, A History of the Church of Durham, tr. J. Stevenson in The Church
Historians of England (1858).

It is a well-known fact, that into scarce one of the churches which the blessed [St.
Cuthbert] illustrated with the presence of his body … has permission to enter been
granted to a woman. How this custom originated, we will now show. …
 Religious lives  191
During the period of his episcopate, the monastery of Coldingham was consumed by a
fire, which, though happening accidentally, yet was admitted by all who were acquainted with
the circumstances to have had its foundation in the wickedness of the inmates. In this place
resided congregations of monks as well as nuns, which, however, were separated from each
other, and resided in distinct dwellings; but they grew lax, and receded from their primitive
discipline, and, by their improper familiarity with each other, afforded to the enemy [Satan]
an opportunity of attacking them. For they changed into resorts for feasting, drinking, conver-
sation, and other improprieties, those very residences which had been erected as places to be
dedicated to prayer and study. The virgins also, who had been dedicated to God, despising
the sanctity of their profession, devoted themselves to the sewing of robes of the finest work-
manship, in which they either adorned themselves like brides, thereby endangering their own
estate of life and profession, or they gave them to men who were strangers, for the purpose
of thereby securing their friendship. It was no wonder, then, that a heavy punishment from
heaven consigned this place and its inhabitants to the devouring flames. … [T]hey were for
a short time induced to abandon their evil deeds, and to chastise themselves. But, after the
death of the religious abbess Ebba, they returned to their former pollutions, or rather they
did worse than hitherto; and while they were saying, “Peace, peace,” the heavy wrath of
God came upon them. Not long after this, Cuthbert, that man of God, being elevated to the
episcopal throne, careful that an example of this sort should no longer provoke the anger of
God against themselves or their successors, entirely secluded [the monks] from the society of
women, apprehensive that the incautious use of that familiarity should endanger the purpose
which they had in hand, and their ruin should afford the enemy cause for rejoicing. Men and
women alike assented to the arrangement, by means of which they were mutually excluded
from each other’s society, not only for the present, but for all future time; and thus the entry
of a woman into the church became a matter which was entirely forbidden. Wherefore he
caused a church to be erected in the island on which was his episcopal see, and this the
inhabitants called “Grene Cyrice,” that is, The green church, because it was situated upon
a green plain; and he directed that the women who wished to hear masses and the word of
God should assemble there, and that they should never approach the church frequented by
himself and his monks. This custom is so diligently observed, even unto the present day, that
it is unlawful for women to set foot even within the cemeteries of those churches in which his
body obtained a temporary resting-place, unless, indeed, compelled to do so by the approach
of an enemy or the dread of fire. …
There have been some women, however, who in their boldness have ventured to
infringe these decrees; but the punishment which has speedily overtaken them, gave
proof of the magnitude of their crime. One of these, named Sungeova, the wife of the
son of Bevo, who was named Gamel, as she was one night returning home from an enter-
tainment, was continually complaining to her husband that there was no clean piece of
the road to be found, in consequence of the deep puddles with which it was everywhere
studded. So at last they determined that they would go through the churchyard of this
church, (that is, of Durham,) and that they would afterwards make an atonement for
this sin by almsgiving. As they were going on together, she was seized with some kind of
indefinite horror, and cried out that she was gradually losing her senses. Her husband
chided her, and urged her to come on, and not be afraid; but as soon as she set foot
outside the hedge which surrounds the cemetery of the church, she immediately fell
down; and being carried home, she that very night ended her life. …
Here follows another narrative of the same kind. A certain rich man – who after-
wards resided amongst us in this church, wearing the dress of a monk – had a wife; and
192  Religious lives
she, having heard many persons talk of the beauty of the ornaments of the church, was
inflamed, woman-like, with the desire of seeing these novelties. Unable to bridle her
impetuous desires, for the power of her husband had elevated her above her neighbours,
she walked through the cemetery of the church. But she did not go unpunished; for pres-
ently she was deprived of her reason, – she bit out her own tongue; and in her madness
she ended her own life by cutting her throat with her own hand. For, as it was no easy
matter to keep her at home, she wandered from place to place; and one day she was
found lying dead under a tree, her throat all bloody, and holding in her hand the knife
with which she had committed suicide.
Many other instances might easily be added to these, showing how the audacity of women
was punished from heaven; but let these suffice, since we must proceed to other matters.

Questions: How does Simeon portray the monks and nuns? What does the solution to their corruption
indicate about gender attitudes? How are laywomen portrayed?

66. G ilbertine women ’ s worship (12 th c .)

In the twelfth century, double monasteries (that is, those that had both women and
men resident within the same foundation, though not sharing living or working quar-
ters) were revived by some small reform orders such as the order of Sempringham
(the Gilbertines) in England and the order of Fontevrault in France. Double monas-
teries presented certain difficulties for liturgical celebration. Under normal circum-
stances in these houses, the two sexes would rarely see each other, but on special
festal occasions when all members of the order participated in processions, the order
of personnel had to be arranged so that the women followed the men to prevent the
men from seeing the women. One feast requiring specific logistical planning in the
Order of Sempringham was Palm Sunday, when the distribution of blessed palms
had to be handled. In the second text below, the writer directs the order in the
procession for the Feast of the Purification of Mary, or Candlemas.
  Several of the new reformed monastic orders of the twelfth century, especially the
Cistercians, emphasized simplicity in their liturgical music. They believed that elabo-
rate musical forms could be dangerously sensual and that complex performances led to
pride. Although in many female monasteries nuns experienced a full liturgical life, the
first Master of the Order of Sempringham made, in the third text below, an unusual
restriction that was recognized by a number of twelfth-century contemporaries. He
may have meant they should only chant simply, or omit antiphons, or that they should
not intone at all. In any case, the restriction was articulated with quite vivid imagery.
Source: Trans. Janet T. Sorrentino from The Gilbertine Rite, ed. R.M. Woolley, (London: Henry
Bradshaw Society, 1921–2), and from William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. J. Caley, H.
Ellis and B. Bandinel, (London, 1817–30).

The ecclesiastical offices of the canons of the order of Sempringham

Concerning Palm Sunday
On this day, a most celebratory procession is enacted in memory of the Lord’s procession
which he took to his own Passion, where he was received coming into Jerusalem. This proces-
sion is arranged differently among the different groups in our order. It should be done one
 Religious lives  193
way in the houses of canons and another in the houses of nuns. How it should be done in each
case must be explained, and first the way it should be among the nuns. In houses of nuns,
then, once Terce has been chanted after the sprinkling of holy water, the prior (or another
priest assigned by the cantor if the prior is not there) blesses and sprinkles the palm branches
that have been gathered by the sacrist on the step of the altar. Then, after the sacrist has
offered a branch to the prior, the cantor should begin the antiphon Pueri ebreorum. Then, the
sacrist should quickly distribute the branches to the canons, and let them be sent in together
with the [communion] hosts in a little bundle of branches to the nuns, who should divide
them between themselves and the lay sisters. While the palm branches are being distributed,
these two antiphons should be sung: Pueri hebreorum tollentes and Pueri hebreorum usetimenta, etc.;
these may be repeated two or three times if there is some delay in distributing the palms.

Concerning the arrangement of the procession [for Candlemas]

The arrangement of the procession is like this: First proceeds the carrier of the holy water.
After him, two candlebearers side by side and walking with solemn pauses. After these goes
the thurifer with the censor. After him, comes the carrier of the crucifix, and after him, the
subdeacon (unless he carries the cross) with the text of the gospel, gilded if such may be
had. For in smaller convents the cross can be carried to the procession. After the subdeacon
follows the deacon with the relics of the saints. After him comes the priest, vested. But if the
prior of the house or a great person such as a bishop or the master of the order should be
there, let him follow in the middle after the canons, after the deacon or the priest. In houses
of nuns, however, the seculars proceed, and after them the lay brothers, with the eldest
going first, except two older men who should follow the [lay brothers’] novices.

Institutes pertaining to the nuns of the order

XX. Concerning chant being prohibited to the nuns and how they ought to behave in church
We do not permit our nuns to sing; rather we forbid it altogether, desiring instead that
they should say the psalms in a direct way in spiritual humility with the blessed Virgin,
perpetual mother of God and daughter, rather than that they should pervert the minds
of the weak with lascivious modulation with the daughter of Herodias. Let each one hold
her place in the order proper to her conversion unless someone out of stubborn negli-
gence won’t say the psalms; in that case such a person should be placed last of all. Those
who have been educated, let them begin at the order of the prioress according to the
order of the psalms. Let no office be held in the church unless it has already been well-
rehearsed in the refectory or in chapter. In the back of the choir, let a mature nun stand
at Masses, in order to check and see whether anyone is misbehaving in choir.

Questions: What sense of ritual do these texts convey? How important were details? Did women play
the main roles in these parts of the liturgy of female houses, or did men? How do you interpret the
final text, concerning singing? What matters seem important to the author of the final text?

67. H ildegard of B ingen : L etter to her nuns (12 th c .)

Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1178) was one of the foremost women of her day. An abbess
who corresponded with powerful churchmen and secular leaders, she was also a
learned author and a respected mystic. In this letter she recounts the history of her
194â•… Religious lives
convent at Rupertsberg for the nuns living there and exhorts them in their spiritual
life. Hildegard had first entered the religious life at Disibodenberg, where she and
her sisters lived under the authority of an abbot. When the women wished to leave
and found their own community at Rupertsberg, the abbot had refused permission,
until Hildegard became ill and paralyzed. This was attributed to divine displeasure,
the abbot relented, and Hildegard, as abbess, led the nuns to Rupertsberg.
â•… An excerpt from Hildegard’s medical writing can be found in Chapter III (docu-
ment 30). References to more of her works, including songs and mystical, moral and
scientific writings, can be found in the list of Further reading.
Source: Reprinted from Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works, edited by Matthew Fox, Copyright
Bear & Co. 1987, by permission of Bear & Co., Inc., PO Drawer 2860, Santa Fe, NM 87504.

O daughters, who out of your love for charity are following the footsteps of Christ and who
for the sake of spiritual improvement have chosen me, poor creature that I am, in humble
submissiveness to be your mother, I have something to say to you from my maternal heart,
something that doesn’t originate with me but comes from godly vision: this spot, the resting
place for the earthly remains of the holy confessor Rupert, to whose patronage you have
taken refuge, is the site I have recognized according to God’s will and with the evidence of
miracles as a place for the sacrifice of praise. I came here with the approval of my superiors
and with God’s aid I have freely taken possession of it for myself and all of those who follow
me. After that I went back by God’s direction to Disibodenberg, the community I had left
with permission, and I presented before all who lived there this proposal – namely, that not
only our place of residence, but all the real estate added to it as gifts, should not be attached
to them but should be released. But in all of this practical business I had nothing else in mind
but the salvation of souls alone and concern for the discipline commanded in our rule.
I then shared with the Abbot [Kuno], the superior at this site, what I had received in a
true vision: “The bright streaming light speaks, ‘You should be the father over the provost
[Volmar] and over the spiritual care of this mystical plant-nursery for my daughters. The gifts
made to them belong neither to you nor to your brothers. On the contrary, your monastery
should be their shelter.’ But if you want to grow stubborn in your opposition and gnash your
teeth against us, you will be like the hated Amalekites in the Bible and like Antiochus, of whom
it is written that he robbed the temple of the Lord (I Maccabees 1:21). Some of you have said in
your unworthiness, ‘We want to diminish your possession.’ Here is the response of the Divine:
‘You are the worst thieves! But if you should try to take away the shepherd of the sisters’ spir-
itual healing [Provost Volmar], then I further say to you: You are like the sons of Belial and you
don’t have the justice of God before your eyes. Therefore, God’s judgment will destroy you!’”
When in these words, I, poor creature that I am, demanded from the abbot named above
the freedom of the place and the possessions of my daughters (as I explained above), all these
things were granted to me through a written contract in a legal codex. All who saw, heard,
and perceived these things, great and lowly alike, took a favorable view of them, so that it was
surely God’s will that this was all pinned down in writing. And all who depend on God, expe-
rience God, and listen to God’s word, should favorably certify, enforce, and defend this legal
transaction, so that they might receive that blessing which God gave to Jacob and Israel.
Alas, what a great lament my daughters will raise after the death of their mother,
when they will drink no more at their mother’s breast and when they will speak with sighs
and sorrow and often with tears: “Oh, how gladly we would drink at the breast of our
mother, if only we now had her in our midst.”
 Religious lives  195
And therefore, daughters of God, I advise you and I have advised you from my youth that
you love one another, so that because of your goodwill towards others you might be like the
angels as a bright shining light strong in your powers, as your father Benedict taught.
May the Holy Spirit grant you its gifts, for after my death you will no longer hear
my voice. But may my voice never fall into forgetfulness among you; may it rather be
heard often in your midst in love. Now my daughters blush in their hearts because of the
sorrow that they feel because of their mother. They sigh and long for heaven. But later
through God’s grace they will be radiant in bright, shining light and they will be staunch
champions in the House of God.
But if any in the flock of my daughters should want to sow discord or bring about the
abandonment of this convent and its spiritual discipline, then I pray that the gift of the
Holy Spirit may drive such thoughts out of their hearts. But if someone, God forbid, should
nevertheless go ahead and act in this way, then may the hand of the Lord strike such a one
down before all the people, for such a person would merit being put to shame.
And so, my daughters, live in this place you have chosen for yourselves, so that you
may fight for God with total dedication and constancy and thus gain for yourselves here
a heavenly reward.

Questions: How does Hildegard describe her conflict with Abbot Kuno? What were her concerns
during the struggle to establish the community at Rupertsberg? What kinds of imagery does she use
in her letter? How does she characterize the religious life?

68. T he rule of S t . C lare (1253)

Clare of Assisi was born in 1193 into a well-off Italian urban family. Interested in the ideas
of the radical preacher Francis of Assisi, she refused to marry, and in 1212 she became a
follower of Francis. He eventually established her as the leader of a community of religious
women at the church of San Damiano. Like the members of Francis’ male order, known
as the Friars Minor, the “Damianites,” as the women were called, lived a rigorous life of
spiritual poverty and charitable works. The rule that Clare wrote for her convent was the
first religious rule written by a woman. It was finally approved by the pope in 1253, the year
of her death. Franciscan nuns are known today as “Poor Clares,” after their founder.
Source: Reprinted from Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, edited and translated by Regis J. Armstrong,
O.F.M., Cap. © 1988 by The Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order. Used by permission
of Paulist Press.

[I. In the name of the Lord begins the form of life of the poor sisters]
The form of life of the Order of the Poor Sisters that Blessed Francis established is this:
to observe the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, by living in obedience, without
anything of one’s own, and in chastity.
Clare, the unworthy servant of Christ and the little plant of the most blessed Francis,
promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Innocent and his canonically elected
successors, and to the Roman Church. And, just as at the beginning of her conver-
sion, together with her sisters she promised obedience to the Blessed Francis, so now she
promises his successors to observe the same obedience inviolably, and the other sisters
shall always be obliged to obey the successors of Blessed Francis and Sister Clare and the
other canonically elected Abbesses who succeed her.
196  Religious lives
[II. Those who wish to accept this life and how they are to be received]
If, by divine inspiration, anyone should come to us desiring to accept this life, the Abbess is
required to seek the consent of all the sisters; and if the majority have agreed, she may receive
her, after having obtained the permission of the Lord Cardinal Protector. If she judges [the
candidate] acceptable, [the Abbess] should carefully examine her, or have her examined,
concerning the Catholic faith and the sacraments of the Church. And if she believes all these
things and is willing to profess them faithfully and to observe them steadfastly to the end; and
if she has no husband, or if she has [a husband] who has already entered religious life with the
authority of the Bishop of the diocese and has already made a vow of continence, and if there
is no impediment to her observance of this life, such as advanced age or ill-health or mental
weakness, let the tenor of our life be thoroughly explained to her.
If she is suitable, let the words of the holy Gospel be addressed to her that she should go
and sell all that she has and take care to distribute the proceeds to the poor (Matt. 19:21). If she
cannot do this, her good will suffices. Let the Abbess and the sisters take care not to be concerned
about her temporal affairs, so that she may freely dispose of her possessions as the Lord may
inspire her. However, if some counsel is required, let them send her to some discerning and
God-fearing men, according to whose advice her goods may be distributed to the poor.
Afterwards, once her hair has been cut off round her head and her secular clothes
set aside, she may be permitted three tunics and a mantle. Thereafter, she may not go
outside the monastery except for a useful, reasonable, evident, and approved purpose.
When the year of probation is ended, let her be received into obedience, promising to
observe perpetually our life and form of poverty.
No one is to receive the veil during the period of probation. The sisters may also
have little mantles for convenience and propriety in serving and working. In fact, the
Abbess should with discernment provide them with clothing according to the diversity of
persons, places, seasons and cold climates, as it shall seem expedient to her by necessity.
Young girls who are received into the monastery before the age established by law
should have their hair cut round [their heads]; and, putting aside their secular clothes, they
should be clothed in a religious garb, as the Abbess sees fit. However, when they reach the
age required by law, they may make their profession clothed in the same way as the others.
The Abbess shall carefully provide a Mistress from among the more discerning sisters of
the monastery both for these and the other novices. She shall form them diligently in a holy
way of life and proper behavior according to the form of our profession.
The same form described above should be observed in the examination and reception of
the sisters who serve outside the monastery. These sisters may wear shoes. No one may live with
us in the monastery unless she has been received according to the form of our profession.
I admonish, beg, and exhort my sisters to always wear cheap garments out of love of
the most holy and beloved Child Who was wrapped in such poor little swaddling clothes
and laid in a manger and of His most holy Mother.

[III. The Divine office and fasting, confession and communion]

The sisters who can read shall celebrate the Divine office according to the custom of the
Friars Minor. They may have breviaries for this, but they should read it without singing.
Those who, for some reasonable cause, occasionally are not able to recite their hours by
reading them, may, like the other sisters, say the Our Father’s.
Those who do not know how to read shall say twenty-four Our Father’s for Matins;
 Religious lives  197
five for Lauds; seven for each of the hours of Prime, Terce, Sext, and None; twelve,
however, for Vespers; seven for Compline. Let them also say for the dead seven Our
Father’s with the Requiem aeternam at Vespers; twelve for Matins, because the sisters who
can read are obliged to recite the office of the Dead. When a sister of our monastery shall
have departed this life, however, they should say fifty Our Father’s.
The sisters shall fast at all times. They may eat twice on Christmas, however, no
matter on what day it happens to fall. The younger sisters, those who are weak, and those
who are serving outside the monastery may be mercifully dispensed as the Abbess sees fit.
But the sisters are not bound to corporal fasting in time of manifest necessity.
They shall go to confession, with the permission of the Abbess, at least twelve times
a year. They shall take care not to introduce other talk unless it pertains to the confes-
sion and the salvation of souls. They should receive Communion seven times [a year],
that is, on Christmas, Thursday of Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin, the feast of Saint Francis, and the Feast of All Saints. The Chaplain may
celebrate inside [the enclosure] in order to give Communion to the sisters who are in
good health or to those who are ill.

[IV. The election and office of the Abbess: The Chapter, and the officials
and the discreets]
The sisters are bound to observe the canonical form in the election of the Abbess. They
should quickly arrange to have the Minister General or the Minister Provincial of the
Order of Friars Minor present. Let him dispose them, through the Word of God, to
perfect harmony and the common good in the election that is to be held. No one should
be elected who is not professed. And if a non-professed is elected or somehow given
them, she should not be obeyed unless she first professes our form of poverty.
At her death the election of another Abbess shall take place. If at any time it should
appear to the entire body of sisters that she is not competent for their service and common
welfare, the sisters are bound as quickly as possible to elect another as abbess and mother
according to the form described above.
Whoever is elected should reflect upon the kind of burden she has undertaken and to
Whom she must render an account of the flock committed to her. She should strive as
well to preside over the others more by her virtues and holy behavior than by her office,
so that, moved by her example, the sisters may obey her more out of love than out of
fear. Let her avoid particular friendships, lest by loving some more than others she cause
scandal among all. Let her console those who are afflicted. Let her also be the last refuge
for those who are troubled, lest the sickness of despair overcome the weak should they fail
to find in her the remedies for health.
Let her preserve common life in everything, especially in whatever pertains to the
church, the dormitory, refectory, infirmary, and clothing. Let her vicaress be bound to
serve in the same way.
The Abbess is bound to call her sisters together at least once a week in the Chapter,
where both she and her sisters should humbly confess their common and public offenses
and negligences. Let her consult with all her sisters there concerning whatever pertains
to the welfare and good of the monastery, for the Lord frequently reveals what is best to
the least [among us].
Let no heavy debt be incurred except with the common consent of the sisters and
by reason of manifest necessity, and let this be done by the procurator. Let the Abbess
198  Religious lives
and her sisters, however, be careful that nothing is deposited in the monastery for safe-
keeping; for such practices often give rise to troubles and scandals.
Let all who hold offices in the monastery be chosen by the common consent of all the
sisters to preserve the unity of mutual love and peace. Let at least eight sisters be elected
from the more discerning ones in the same way, whose counsel the Abbess should be
always bound to use in those matters which our form of life requires. Moreover the sister
can and should, if it seems useful and expedient, remove the officials and discreets and
elect others in their place.

[V. Silence, the parlor, and the grille]

Let the sisters keep silence from the hour of Compline until Terce, except those who are serving
outside the monastery. Let them also continually keep silence in the church, the dormitory,
and the refectory, only while they are eating. They may speak discreetly at all times, however,
in the infirmary for the recreation and service of the sick. Nevertheless, they can communicate
always and everywhere, briefly and in a low tone of voice, whatever is necessary.
The sisters may not speak in the parlor or at the grille without the permission of the
Abbess or her Vicaress. Let those who have permission not dare to speak in the parlor
unless they are in the presence and hearing of two sisters. Let them not presume to go
to the grille, moreover, unless there are at least three sisters present [who have been]
appointed by the Abbess or her Vicar from the eight discreets who were elected by all
the sisters for the council of the Abbess. Let the Abbess and her Vicaress be themselves
bound to observe this form of speaking. [Let the sisters speak] very rarely at the grille
and, by all means, never at the door.
Let a curtain be hung inside the grille which may not be removed except when the
Word of God is preached or when a sister is speaking with someone. Let the grille have
a wooden door which is well provided with two distinct iron locks, bolts, and bars, so
that it can be locked, especially at night, by two keys, one of which the Abbess should
keep and the other the sacristan. Let it always be locked except when the Divine Office
is being celebrated and for the reasons given above. Under no circumstance whatever,
may a sister speak to anyone at the grille before sunrise or after sunset. Let there always
be a curtain on the inside of the parlor, which may not be removed.
No one may speak in the parlor during the Lent of Saint Martin and the Greater
Lent, except to a priest for Confession or for some other manifest necessity, which is left
to the prudence of the Abbess or her Vicaress.

[VI. The lack of possessions]

After the Most High Heavenly Father saw fit by His grace to enlighten my heart to
do penance according to the example and teaching of our most blessed Father Saint
Francis, shortly after his own conversion, I, together with my sisters, willingly promised
him obedience.
When the Blessed Father saw we had no fear of poverty, hard work, trial, shame, or
contempt of the world, but, instead, regarded such things as great delights, moved by
compassion he wrote a form of life for us as follows:
“Because by divine inspiration you have made yourselves daughters and servants of
the Most High King, the heavenly Father, and have taken the Holy Spirit as your spouse
choosing to live according to the perfection of the holy Gospel, I resolve and promise for
 Religious lives  199
myself and for my brothers to always have that same loving care and solicitude for you
as [I have] for them.”
As long as he lived he diligently fulfilled this and wished that it always be fulfilled by
his brothers.
Shortly before his death he once more wrote his last will for us that we – or those, as
well, who would come after us – would never turn aside from the holy poverty we had
embraced. He said:
I, little brother Francis, wish to follow the life and poverty of our most high Lord Jesus
Christ and of His holy mother and to persevere in this until the end; and I ask and counsel
you, my ladies, to live always in this most holy life and poverty. And keep most careful
watch that you never depart from this by reason of the teaching or advice of anyone.
Just as I, together with my sisters, have ever been solicitous to safeguard the holy
poverty which we have promised the Lord God and blessed Francis, so, too, the
Abbesses who shall succeed me in office and all the sisters are bound to observe it
inviolably to the end: that is to say, by not receiving or having possession or ownership
either of themselves or through an intermediary, or even anything that might reason-
ably be called property, except as much land as necessity requires for the integrity and
proper seclusion of the monastery, and this land may not be cultivated except as a
garden for the needs of the sisters.

[VII. The manner of working]

Let the sisters to whom the Lord has given the grace of working work faithfully and
devotedly after the Hour of Terce at work that pertains to a virtuous life and the common
good. They must do this in such a way that, while they banish idleness, the enemy of the
soul, they do not extinguish the Spirit of holy prayer and devotion to which all other
things of our earthly existence must contribute.
At the Chapter, in the presence of all, the Abbess or her Vicaress is bound to assign
the work of her hands that each should perform. Let the same be done if alms have been
sent by someone for the needs of the sisters, so that a prayer may be offered for them in
common. Let all such things be distributed for the common good by the Abbess or her
vicaress with the advice of the discreets.

[VIII. The sisters shall not acquire anything as their own; begging
alms; the sick sisters]
Let the sisters not appropriate anything, neither a house nor a place nor anything at
all; instead, as pilgrims and strangers in this world who serve the Lord in poverty and
humility, let them confidently send for alms. Nor should they be ashamed, since the Lord
made Himself poor in this world for us. This is that summit of the highest poverty which
has established you, my dearest sisters, heiresses and queens of the kingdom of heaven; it
has made you poor in the things [of this world] but exalted you in virtue. Let this be your
portion which leads into the land of the living. Clinging totally to this, my most beloved
sisters, do not wish to have anything else forever under heaven for the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ and His most holy mother.
Let no sister be permitted to send letters or to receive or give away anything outside
the monastery without the permission of the Abbess. Let it not be permitted to have
anything that the Abbess has not given or allowed. Should anything be sent to a sister by
200  Religious lives
her relatives or others, let the Abbess give it to the sister. If she needs it, the sister may use
it; otherwise, let her in all charity give it to a sister who does need it. If, however, money
is sent to her, the Abbess, with the advice of the discreets, may provide for the needs of
the sister.
Concerning the sick sisters, let the Abbess be strictly bound to inquire diligently, by
herself and through other sisters, what their illness requires both by way of counsel as well
as food and other necessities. Let her provide for them charitably and kindly according to
the resources of the place. [Let this be done] because all are bound to serve and provide
for their sisters who are ill just as they would wish to be served themselves if they were
suffering from any illness. Let each one confidently manifest her needs to the other. For
if a mother loves and nourishes her child according to the flesh, should not a sister love
and nourish her sister according to the Spirit even more lovingly?
Those who are ill may lie on sacks filled with straw and may use feather pillows for
their head; those who need woolen stockings and quilts may use them.
When the sick sisters are visited by those who enter the monastery, they may answer
them with brevity, each responding with some good words to those who speak to them.
But the other sisters who have permission [to speak] may not dare to speak to those
who enter the monastery unless in the presence and hearing of the two sister-discreets
assigned by the Abbess or her Vicaress. Let the Abbess and her Vicaress, as well, be
bound to observe this manner of speaking.

[XI. The custody of the enclosure]

Let the portress be mature in her manner of acting, discerning, and of a suitable age. Let
her remain in an open cell without a door during the day.
Let a suitable companion be assigned to her who may take her place in everything
whenever necessary.
Let the door be well secured by two different iron locks, with bars and bolts, so that,
especially at night, it may be locked with two keys, one of which the portress may have, the
other the Abbess. Let it never be left without a guard and securely locked with one key.
Let them most diligently take care to see that the door is never left open, except when this
can hardly be conveniently avoided. Let it never be opened to anyone who wishes to enter,
except to those who have been given permission by the Supreme Pontiff or our Lord Cardinal.
The sisters may not allow anyone to enter the monastery before sunrise or to remain within
after sunset, unless a manifest, reasonable, and unavoidable cause demands otherwise.
If a bishop has permission to offer Mass within the enclosure, either for the blessing of
an Abbess or for the consecration of one of the sisters as a nun or for any other reason, let
him be satisfied with both as few and virtuous companions and assistants as possible.
Whenever it is necessary for other men to enter the monastery to do some work, let
the Abbess carefully post a suitable person at the door, who may only open it to those
assigned for work and to no one else. Let the sisters be extremely careful at such times
not to be seen by those who enter.

[XII. The Visitator, the chaplain, and the Cardinal Protector]

Let our Visitator always be taken from the Order of the Friars Minor according to the
will and command of our Cardinal. Let him be the kind of person who is well known for
his integrity and good manner of living. His duty shall be to correct any excesses against
 Religious lives  201
the form of our profession, whether these be in head or in the members. Taking his stand
in a public place, that he can he seen by others, let him speak with several and with each
one concerning the matters that pertain to the duty of the visitation as he sees best.
We ask as a favor of the same order a chaplain and a clerical companion of good
reputation, of prudent discernment and two lay brothers, lovers of a holy and upright
way of life, in support of our poverty, as we have always mercifully had from the afore-
said Order of Friars Minor, in light of the love of God and our blessed Francis.
Let the chaplain not be permitted to enter the monastery without a companion.
When they enter, let them remain in an open place, in such a way that they can always
see each other and be seen by others. They may enter the enclosure for the confession of
the sick who cannot go to the parlor, for their Communion, for the Last Anointing and
the Prayers of the Dying.
Suitable and sufficient outsiders may enter, moreover, according to the prudence of
the Abbess, for funeral services and on the solemnity of Masses for the Dead, for digging
or opening a grave, or also for making arrangements for it.
Let the sisters be strictly bound always to have that Cardinal of the Holy Roman
Church, who has been delegated by the Lord Pope for the Friars Minor, as Governor,
Protector, and Corrector, that always submissive and subject at the feet of that holy
Church and steadfast in the Catholic faith, we may always observe the poverty and
humility of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His most holy Mother and the Holy Gospel we
have firmly promised. Amen.

Questions: What dangers and challenges does Clare anticipate in the religious life? What measures
did she prescribe in order to meet them? What kind of relations did she deem appropriate between
Franciscan women and the outside world? What was the spiritual ideal to which the Rule aspired?
How was it influenced by gender?

69. E udes of R ouen : V isitations of nunneries (13 th c .)

As archbishop of Rouen, Eudes had the duty of visiting and inspecting the reli-
gious houses in his archdiocese in northern France. Like many bishops, he kept
a “register” of his activities, including these visitations. Eudes’s register has been
taken by some historians to indicate that monasticism was in a particularly poor
condition in thirteenth-century Normandy, but similar records can be found in other
places. One reason for the negative impression given here is the tendecy of a bishop’s
register, like court records, to record the problems and to ignore the areas in which
all is well. Still, the excerpts below provide a very different view of monasticism from
that given by the rules which those in the religious life were supposed to follow. In
Eudes’s register, male religious houses appear in similar moral and disciplinary diffi-
culties, but the female institutions are much poorer and therefore have much worse
financial problems.
  The “chapter” mentioned frequently in these records is the regular meeting of
nuns or monks to conduct the business of their house, so called because the meeting
generally opened with the reading of a chapter from the monastic rule followed by the
order. The term was also used to refer to the room in which the meeting was held.
Source: The Register of Eudes of Rouen, tr. Sydney M. Brown, ed. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan, 1964,
Columbia University Press, New York. Used by permission.
202  Religious lives
1248
August 7. We visited the monastery at Bival and found some of the nuns defamed of the
vice of incontinence. This day the abbess resigned the government of the abbey into our
hands, and we gave the nuns permission to elect another. They appointed the day after
tomorrow for the election.
August 9. This day the prioress of Bival and certain other nuns presented their elect
to us through a letter from the community in the following form:
“Clemence of Appetot, prioress of Bival, and its entire community, to the reverend
father in Christ, Eudes, by the grace of God archbishop of Rouen, greetings and due and
dedicated obedience. When a vacancy occurred in our monastery through the resignation
of Sister Eleanor, our former abbess, a fact which we believe does not escape your watch-
fulness, we chose with your permission the Saturday before the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin as the time to elect a suitable person for the monastery. Convening that day in
chapter, and invoking the grace of the Holy Spirit, we treated this business. At length, with
the common consent and will of the whole chapter, we agreed to give our sisters Matilda
of Les Andelys, Joan of Bec, and Matilda of Hoqueville power to provide our monastery
with a head and to chose an abbess. They, taking counsel together have canonically with
one heart and one mind provided Marguerite of Aunay [as abbess] for our monastery.
Wherefore with care and devotion we beg Your Paternity to confirm the provision made in
respect to this worthy person and to bestow the gift of benediction, when it shall seem good
to you. Given the Sunday following in the year of our Lord 1248.”
We confirmed this election.

1249
January 4. We visited the monastery of St-Amand-de-Rouen, where we found forty-one
veiled nuns and six [unvowed novices] due to take the veil. They make profession only
when they receive the archbishop’s blessing. We ordered that when they had reached
the age for taking the vows, they should wait yet another year before making profession.
Sometimes they sing the hours of the Blessed Mary and the Suffrages with too much
haste and jumbling of the words; we enjoined them to sing these in such a way that
those beginning a verse should wait to hear the end of the preceding verse, and those
ending a verse should hear the commencement of the following verse. Item, the monas-
tery has one priory, to wit, at Saane[-St-Just], where there are four professed nuns. Item,
they have the patronage of ten churches. There are three priests in perpetual residence.
[The nuns] confess five times a year. They do not keep the rule of silence very well; we
enjoined them to correct this. They eat meat freely in the infirmary, to wit, three times
a week. Sometimes the healthy ones eat with the sick in the infirmary, two or three with
one sick sister. They have chemises, use feather beds and sheets, and wear cloaks of
rabbits, hares, cats, and foxes; we utterly forbade the use of rabbit skins. The nuns sleep
cinctured and in their chemises. Each nun receives a measure of wine, but more is given
to one than to another; we ordered that wine should be given to each according to her
needs and in equal measure, and if one of them should without permission give a portion
of her wine to another outside the house she should be compelled by the abbess to go
without wine the next day. The monastery has debts amounting to two hundred pounds
and an income of one thousand pounds. The abbess does not give detailed accounts to
the community at large; we ordered her to cast her accounts each quarter.
 Religious lives  203
March 17. We were at La Salle-aux-Puelles near Rouen, and we found during our
visitation that they do not hold their chapter twice a week, as … ordered. Item, lay folk
constantly enter the cloisters, the kitchens, and the workrooms; they mingle with the
sisters and talk with them without permission. Item, there is overmuch talking in the
refectory. The prioress does not audit the accounts with the chapter. The measure of
bread has been decreased. We ordered them to hold a chapter twice a week. We prohib-
ited the entry of lay folk into the cloisters or workrooms, and we forbade the sisters to talk
with any lay folk without receiving permission from the prioress. We forbade talking in
the refectory or in the dormitory after Compline unless in a low voice, and briefly. …
July 9. We visited the priory at Villarceaux. There are twenty-three nuns and three
lay sisters in residence. They confess and receive Communion six times a year. They
have an income of about one hundred pounds, and they owe about fifty pounds. The
prioress casts her accounts only once a year. We ordered them to be cast every month
by the prioress, by the priest and by two of the nuns especially elected by the community
for this purpose. Item, because of their poor financial condition, we forbade them to
receive any nun, even should the abbess [of St-Cyr] send one. There are four nuns who
are professed only; namely, Eustacia, Comtesse, Ermengarde and Petronilla. Many have
pelisses of the furs of rabbits, hares, and foxes. They eat meat in the infirmary when there
is no real need; silence is not well observed anywhere, nor is the cloister closed off. Joan of
l’Aillerie at one time left the cloister and went to live with a certain man and had a child
by him, and sometimes she goes out to see the said child; item, she is ill famed of a certain
man called Gaillard. Isabelle la Treiche is always complaining about the prioress and
finding fault with other sisters. … Joan of Hauteville wanders beyond the priory alone
with Gaillard, and last year she had a child by him. The sister in charge of the cellars is
ill famed of Philip of Villarceaux and of a certain priest of her own neighborhood. Item,
the subprioress [is ill famed] with Thomas the carter; Idonia, her sister [is ill famed]
of Crispin, and this ill fame has arisen within the year. Item, the prior of Gisors often
comes to this priory to see the said Idonia. Philippa of Rouen [is ill famed] of the priest at
Chèrence, in the diocese of Chartres. Marguerite, the treasurer, is ill famed of Richard
of Genainville, cleric. Agnes of Fontenay is ill famed of the priest at Guerreville, in the
diocese of Chartres. La Toolière is ill famed of Sir Andrew of Mussy, knight. All of them
let their hair grow down to the chin, and put saffron on their veils. Jacqueline left the
priory pregnant as a result of her relations with one of the chaplains, who was expelled
because of this. Item, Agnes of Mont-Secours is ill famed of the same man. Ermengarde
of Gisors and Joan of Hauteville came to blows. The prioress is drunk nearly every night.
They manage their own affairs as best they can. The prioress does not get up for Matins,
does not eat in the refectory, and does not correct excesses. We considered that an order
should be drawn up concerning these things, and we despatched [a] letter to the prioress
and to the community.

1250
May 14. We visited the monastery of nuns at St-Sauveur-d’Evreux. There are sixty-one
nuns in residence. The nuns occasionally drink in rooms other than the refectory and the
infirmary. Item, they have small dogs, squirrels, and birds; we decreed that all such things
be taken away. They do not observe the Rule. They have an income of nine hundred
pounds; they owe about six hundred pounds. They eat meat when there is no need for
it. They have locked coffers; we enjoined the abbess to make frequent and unannounced
204  Religious lives
inspection of these coffers or else have the locks removed. They owe about forty pounds
in pensions. Their stock of provisions is low. We enjoined the abbess to cast her accounts
at least twice a year in the presence of some sisters elected by the community. Item, we
decreed that they were to put away their metaled belts and their unseemly purses. Item,
we decreed that the abbess should visit the sisters more frequently and take away the
purses and pillows which they make unless they have her permission to possess them.

1251
May 25. At Montivilliers, at the expense of the monastery. May 26. At the same, and we
visited the abbess in chapter. We found everything there to be in good condition.

1253
September 18. We visited the nuns of St-Saëns. In residence are fifteen nuns, two lay sisters,
and one lay brother. One nun is dwelling alone at St-Aubert. We enjoined that another nun
be sent to her. When they leave the priory the nuns sometimes stay away for two weeks or
even longer, and by themselves. Since the one was stolen from the chapter, they have no
French copy of the Rule. They sometimes eat meat when there is no need, but this is because
of their poverty. They have keys, but they say that they keep what is under key with the
permission of the prioress. They owe about one hundred pounds. They have four carucates of
land and one hundred pounds in rents. A nun assists the priest at Mass.1 We enjoined them to
correct all of these things. Their priest is incontinent; we enjoined them to get another. Dom
Luke, the priest, is their confessor. The prioress eats in the infirmary more often than she does
in the refectory. We enjoined them to correct all of these matters.

1256
July 23. We visited the priory at St-Aubin, where there are fifteen nuns. … We, at the
time, took the veil away from Alice of Rouen and from Eustasia of Etrépagny because of
their fornications. We sent Agnes of Pont to the leper house at Rouen, because she had
connived at Eustasia’s fornication, and indeed had even arranged it, as the rumor goes;
further, she gave the said Eustasia, as report has it, some herbs to drink in order to kill
the child already conceived within the said Eustasia. We removed the prioress from her
office. Until a new prioress shall be instituted, we have suspended punishment of Anas-
tasia, the subprioress, who is ill famed of incontinence.

1260
March 5. This very day we visited the nuns’ priory at St-Aubin, after we had pronounced
God’s Word. Sixteen nuns were there. The prioress was away. At our last visitation we forbade
them to receive or give the veil to anyone without our special mandate. However, despite
our command, they had received as a nun and bestowed the veil upon a certain girl, to wit,
the daughter of Sir Robert, called Malvoisin, knight. When we asked them why they had
presumed to do this, they replied that urgent necessity and poverty had so compelled them,

1  This was forbidden by canon law. See Church Council Decrees above, Document 63.
 Religious lives  205
and that in consideration of their consent, the father of this girl had given and endowed them
with an annual income of one hundred shillings, and they had a letter to prove this. They
added that they had done this without the consent or wish of the prioress. We, realizing and
considering that they had not done this without the vice of greed and of depraved simony,
subsequently ordered the dean of Bray, by letter patent, to admonish, as the law requires, the
said nuns to remove this girl from their house before Ascension Day and, having taken away
the veil from her, to return her to her father’s house. Upon the prioress we enjoined and
caused to have enjoined a penance which seemed expedient because she had allowed such a
crime, and likewise upon the nuns for their boldness in undertaking such a matter.

1264
October 18. With God’s grace we visited the nuns’ priory at St-Aubin, where twelve nuns
were in residence. Beatrice of Beauvais was a rover, and it was said that she had had
several children. The houses badly needed repair, especially the roof of the main monas-
tery where they could hardly stay when the weather was rainy. They did not chant their
Hours, especially Matins, because many of them had been sick for a long time. Because
of the absence of the prioress, who was then lying ill in bed, we could not obtain complete
information concerning the state of the house.

1265
March 28. With God’s grace we visited Bondeville priory. Thirty nuns, four lay sisters,
and two lay brothers were there. They should confess and receive Communion once a
month. They complained that doves flew through the choir and chancel and created
a tumult there which, as they said, disturbed the Divine Office; wherefore we ordered
them to block up or plaster most of the windows, for several of them were superfluous.
They owed one hundred twenty pounds. With God’s grace we found other things to be
in good condition. In truth, recognizing the feebleness of Comtesse who had long been
prioress there, and wishing to make provision for her comfort, we felt that we should
remove her from office, although she was worthily acquitting herself of this position and
had done so for many years. We gave the community permission to elect another.

1268
May 16. With God’s grace we came to the priory at Villarceaux, where there were nine-
teen nuns. According to the certain and statutory number there should be twenty nuns,
four lay sisters, and four general maidservants. … Eustasia, a former prioress, had a
certain bird which she kept to the annoyance and displeasure of some of the older nuns,
wherefore we ordered it removed. She, because of this, spoke somewhat indiscreetly and
irreverently to us, which much displeased us. They did not have wheat and oats to last
until the new harvest. They owed seventy pounds.

Questions: What does the source reveal about daily monastic life? How does the picture of monastic
life that emerges from this source differ from that promoted in the religious rules, earlier in the chapter?
What problems arose within the monastic communities described here? What problems arose in
the nuns’ relations with the world beyond the monastery? How would you describe the relationship
between the nuns and the bishop?
206  Religious lives
70. T he A ncrene R iwle (13 th c .)
Anchoresses and anchorites (also known as “recluses” or “hermits”) were women
and men who lived a life recognized as “holy” but who usually did not belong to a
regulated monastic community. The church did officially require a would-be recluse
to obtain permission from the local bishop. Some anchorites lived in groups; some
lived alone but in contact with the local secular community; some lived in complete
isolation, either in the wilderness or in cells where they were fed by other people
but had no contact with them. The “Ancrene Riwle” is an early thirteenth-century
English text, probably written for a group of three anchoresses and then adapted for
a community of twenty. In places it is greatly influenced by monastic rules, but the
life it prescribes, especially in the excerpts below, is less stringent than a monastic
one – since, indeed, anchoresses were not nuns.
Source: James Morton, The Nun’s Rule, Being the Ancren Riwle Modernised (London: De La More Press,
1905; Chatto & Windus, 1924).

Preface
Do you now ask what rule you anchoresses should observe? Ye should by all means,
with all your might and all your strength, keep well the inward rule, and for its sake
the outward. The inward rule is always alike. The outward is various, because every
one ought so to observe the outward rule as that the body may therewith best serve
the inward. Now then, is it so that all anchoresses may well observe one rule? “All may
and ought to observe one rule concerning purity of heart,” that is, a clean unstained
conscience, without any reproach of sin that is not remedied by confession. This the lady
rule effects, which governs and corrects and smoothes the heart and the conscience of sin,
for nothing maketh it rugged but sin only. To correct it and smooth it is the good office
and the excellent effect of all religion and of every religious order. This rule is framed
not by man’s contrivance, but by the command of God. Therefore, it ever is and shall
be the same, without mixture and without change; and all men ought ever invariably to
observe it. But all men cannot, nor need they, nor ought they to keep the outward rule
in the same unvaried manner, “that is to say, in regard to observances that relate to the
body.” The external rule, which I called the handmaid, is of man’s contrivance; nor is
it instituted for any thing else but to serve the internal law. It ordains fasting, watching,
enduring cold, wearing haircloth, and such other hardships as the flesh of many can bear
and many cannot. Wherefore, this rule may be changed and varied according to every
one’s state and circumstances. For some are strong, some are weak, and may very well
be excused, and please God with less; some are learned, and some are not, and must
work the more, and say their prayers at the stated hours in a different manner; some
are old and ill favoured, of whom there is less fear; some are young and lively, and have
need to be more on their guard. Every anchoress must, therefore, observe the outward
rule according to the advice of her confessor, and do obediently whatever he enjoins and
commands her, who knows her state and her strength. He may modify the outward rule,
as prudence may direct, and as he sees that the inward rule may thus be best kept.
No anchorite, by my advice, shall make profession, that is, vow to keep any thing as
commanded, except three things, that is, obedience, chastity, and constancy as to her abode;
that she shall never more change her convent, except only by necessity, as compulsion and
fear of death, obedience to her bishop or superior; for, whoso undertaketh any thing, and
 Religious lives  207
promises to God to do it as his command, binds herself thereto, and sinneth mortally in
breaking it, if she break it wilfully and intentionally. If, however, she does not vow it, she
may, nevertheless, do it, and leave it off when she will, as of meat and drink, abstaining
from flesh or fish, and all other such things relating to dress, and rest, and hours, and
prayers. Let her say as many, and in such a way, as she pleases. These and such other
things are all in our free choice, to do or to let alone whenever we choose, unless they are
vowed. But charity or love, and meekness and patience, truthfulness, and keeping the ten
old commandments, confession, and penitence, these and such others, some of which are
of the old law, some of the new, are not of man’s invention, nor a rule established by man,
but they are the commandments of God, and, therefore, every man is bound and obliged
to keep them, and you most of all; for they govern the heart, and its government is the main
point concerning which I have to give directions in this book, except in the beginning and
in the concluding part of it. As to the things which I write here concerning the external rule,
ye, as my dear sisters, observe them, our Lord be thanked, and through his grace ye shall
do so, the longer the better; and yet I would not have you to make a vow to observe them
as a divine command; for, as often thereafter as ye might break any of them it would too
much grieve your heart and frighten you, so that you might soon fall, which God forbid,
into despair, that is, into hopelessness and distrust of your salvation. Therefore, my dear
sisters, that which I shall write to you in the first, and especially in the last part of your book,
concerning your service, you should not vow it, but keep it in your heart, and perform it as
though you had vowed it. …
Now, my dear sisters, this book I divide into eight distinctions, which ye call parts,
and each part treats separately, without confusion, of distinct matters, and yet each one
falleth in properly after another, and the latter is always connected with the former.
The first part treats entirely of your religious service.
The next is, how you ought, through your five senses, to keep your heart, wherein
is order, religion, and the life of the soul. In this part there are five chapters or sections
concerning the five senses, which guard the heart as watchmen when they are faithful,
and which speak concerning each sense separately in order.
The third part is of a certain kind of bird, to which David, in the Psalter, compares
himself, as if he were an anchorite, and how the nature of those birds resembles that of
anchorites.
The fourth part is of fleshly, and also of spiritual temptations, and of comfort against
them, and of their remedies.
The fifth part is of confession. The sixth part is of penitence. The seventh part is of
a pure heart, why men ought and should love Jesus Christ, and what deprives us of his
love, and hinders us from loving him.
The eighth part is entirely of the external rule; first, of meat and drink and of other
things relating thereto; thereafter, of the things that ye may receive, and what things ye
may keep and possess; then of your clothes and of such things as relate thereto; next of
your tonsure, and of your works, and of your bloodletting; lastly, the rule concerning
your maids, and how you ought kindly to instruct them.

Speech and visitors

Wherefore, my dear sisters, love your windows as little as possible; and see that they be
small, – the parlour’s smallest and narrowest. Let the cloth upon them be twofold; black
cloth; the cross white, within and without. …
208  Religious lives
First of all, when you have to go to your parlour window, learn from your maid who
it is that is come; for it may be some one whom you ought to shun; and, when you must
needs go forth, make the sign of the cross carefully on your mouth, ears, and eyes, and
on your breast also, and go forth in the fear of God to a priest. Say first, “Confiteor,” and
then “Benedicite,” which he ought to say; hear his words and sit quite still, that, when he
parteth from you, he may not know either good or evil of you, nor know any thing either
to praise or to blame in you. Some one is so learned and of such wise speech, that she
would have him to know it, who sits and talks to him and gives him word for word, and
becomes a preceptor, who should be an anchoress, and teaches him who is come to teach
her; and would, by her own account, soon be celebrated and known among the wise. –
Known she is well; for, from the very circumstance that she thinketh herself to be reputed
wise, he understands that she is a fool; for she hunteth after praise and catches reproach.
For, at last, when he is gone away he will say, “This anchoress is a great talker.” …
Without a witness, of man or of woman, who may hear you, speak not with any man
often or long; and even though it be of confession, in the same house, or where he may look at
you, let there be a third person present; except the same third person upon another occasion
should fail thee. This is not said in respect of you, dear sisters, nor of any such as you; – no,
but because the truth is disbelieved, and the innocent often belied, for want of a witness. Men
readily believe the evil, and the wicked gladly utter falsehoods against the good. …
Hold no conversation with any man out of a church window, but respect it for the
sake of the holy sacrament which ye see therein, and sometimes take your woman to the
window of the house; the other men and women to the window of the parlour, to speak
when necessary; nor ought ye but at these two windows. …
Silence always at meals; for if other religious persons do so, as you well know, ye ought
before all; and if any one hath a guest whom she holds dear, she may cause her maid,
as in her stead, to entertain her friend with glad cheer; and she shall have leave to open
her window once or twice, and make signs to her of gladness at seeing her. The courtesy
of some is nevertheless converted into evil to her. Under the semblance of good, sin is
often hidden. An anchoress ought to be very different from the mistress of a family. Every
Friday of the year keep silence, unless it be a double feast; and then keep it on some other
day in the week. In Advent and in the Ember days, Wednesdays and Fridays; in Lent,
three days; and all the holy week until noon in Easter eve. To your maid, however, you
may say, in few words, what you please, and if any good man is come from a distance,
listen to his speech, and answer, in a few words, what he asks.
… You must not, upon any account, imprecate evil upon any one; nor take an oath, except
ye be able to speak from clear or certain knowledge of the fact, or in some such way; nor are
you to preach to any man; nor must any man ask of you, or give you advice or counsel. Consult
with women only. St. Paul forbade women to preach, “Mulieres non permitto docere” [“I do
not permit women to teach,” I Tim. 2: 12]. Rebuke no man, nor reprove him for his fault;
but, if he be very forward, holy aged anchoresses may do it in some manner; but it is not a
safe thing, and belongeth not to the young. It is their business who are set over the rest and
have to take charge of them. An anchoress hath only to take heed to herself and her maidens.
Let every one attend to his own business and not meddle with that which is another’s. Many
a man thinketh that he doeth that well which he doeth very ill; for, as I said before, sin is oft
concealed under the appearance of good; and, by means of such rebukes, an anchorite has
raised between her and her priest, either a treacherous love or a great quarrel.
Wherefore, my dear sisters, if any man requests to see you, ask him what good might
come of it; for I see many evils in it, and no good; and if he insists immoderately, believe him
 Religious livesâ•… 209
the less; and if any one becometh so mad and so unreasonable that he puts forth his hand
toward the window cloth, shut the window quickly and leave him; and as soon as any man
falls into evil discourse that tends towards impure life, close the window directly and give him
no answer at all, but go away with this verse, that he may hear it, “The wicked have told me
foolish tales, but not according to thy law;” and go forth before your altar, with the Miserere
[a prayer for forgiveness]. Do not reprove any man of such a character in any way but this,
for, with the reproof, he might answer in such a way and blow so gently that a spark might be
quickened into a flame. No seduction is so perfidious as that which is in a plaintive strain; as
if one spoke thus: “I would rather suffer death, than indulge an impure thought with regard
to you; but had I sworn it, I could not help loving you; and yet I am grieved that you know it.
But yet forgive me that I have told you of it; and, though I should go mad, thou shalt never
after this know how it is with me.” And she forgives him, because he speaks thus fair, and
then they talk of other matters. But, “the eye is ever toward the sheltering wood, wherein is
that I love.” The heart is ever upon what was said before; and still, when he is gone, she often
revolves such words in her thoughts, when she ought to attend diligently to something else.
He afterwards seeketh an opportunity to break his promise, and swears that necessity forces
him to do it; and thus the evil grows, the longer the worse; for no enmity is so bad as false
friendship. An enemy who seems a friend is of all traitors the most treacherous.

Chapter VIII: Domestic matters

I said before, at the commencement, that ye ought not, like unwise people, to promise
to keep any of the external rules. I say the same still; nor do I write them for any but you
alone. I say this in order that other anchoresses may not say that I, by my own authority,
make new rules for them. Nor do I command that they observe them, and ye may even
change them, whenever ye will, for better ones. In regard to things of this kind that have
been in use before, it matters little.
Of sight, and of speech, and of the other senses enough was said. Now this last part, as I
promised you at the commencement, is divided and separated into seven small sections.
Men esteem a thing as less dainty when they have it often, and therefore ye should
be, as lay brethren are, partakers of the holy communion only fifteen times a-year: at
Mid-winter; Candlemas; Twelfthday; on Sunday half-way between that and Easter, or
our Lady’s day, if it is near the Sunday, because of its being a holiday; Easter-day; the
third Sunday thereafter; Holy Thursday; Whitsunday; and Midsummer day; St. Mary
Magdalen’s day; the Assumption; the Nativity; St. Michael’s day; All Saints’ day; St.
Andrew’s day. And before all these days, see that ye make a full confession and undergo
discipline; but never from any man, only from yourselves. And forego your pittance for
one day. And if any thing happens out of the usual order, so that ye may not have received
the sacrament at these set times, ye may make up for it the Sunday next following, or if
the other set time is near, ye may wait till then.
Ye shall eat twice every day from Easter until the Holyrood day, the later, which is
in harvest, except on Fridays, and Ember days, and procession days and vigils. In those
days, and in the Advent, ye shall not eat any thing white, except necessity require it. The
other half year ye shall fast always, except only on Sundays.
Ye shall eat no flesh nor lard except in great sickness; or whosoever is infirm may eat
potage without scruple; and accustom yourselves to little drink. Nevertheless, dear sisters,
your meat and your drink have seemed to me less than I would have it. Fast no day upon
bread and water, except ye have leave. There are anchoresses who make their meals with
210  Religious lives
their friends outside the convent. That is too much friendship, because, of all orders, then
is it most ungenial, and most contrary to the order of an anchoress, who is quite dead to
the world. We have often heard it said that dead men speak with living men; but that they
eat with living men, I have never yet found. Make ye no banquetings, nor encourage any
strange vagabond fellows to come to the gate; though no other evil come of it but their
immoderate talking, it might sometimes prevent heavenly thoughts.
It is not fit that an anchoress should be liberal of other men’s alms. Would we not
laugh loud to scorn a beggar who should invite men to a feast? … [An] anchoress ought to
take sparingly only that which is necessary for her. Whereof, then, may she make herself
liberal? She must live upon alms, as frugally as ever she can, and not gather that she may
give it away afterwards. She is not a housewife, but a church anchoress. If she can spare
any fragments for the poor, let her send them quite privately out of her dwelling. Sin is oft
concealed under the semblance of goodness. And how shall those rich anchoresses that are
tillers of the ground, or have fixed rents, do their alms privately to poor neighbours? Desire
not to have the reputation of bountiful anchoresses, nor, in order to give much, be too
eager to possess more. Greediness is the root of bitterness: all the boughs that spring from it
are bitter. To beg in order to give away is not the part of an anchoress. From the courtesy
of an anchoress, and from her liberality, sin and shame have often come in the end.
Make women and children who have laboured for you to eat whatever food you can
spare from your own meals; but let no man eat in your presence, except he be in great
need; nor invite him to drink any thing. Nor do I desire that ye should be told that ye
are courteous anchoresses. From a good friend take whatever ye have need of when she
offereth it to you; but for no invitation take any thing without need, lest ye get the name
of gathering anchoresses. Of a man whom ye distrust, receive ye neither less nor more
– not so much as a race of ginger. It must be great need that shall drive you to ask any
thing; yet humbly shew your distress to your dearest friend.
Ye shall not possess any beast, my dear sisters, except only a cat. An anchoress that
hath cattle appears … a better housewife than anchoress. … For then she must think of
the cow’s fodder, and of the herdsman’s hire, flatter the heyward, defend herself when
her cattle is shut up in the pinfold, and moreover pay the damage. Christ knoweth, it is
an odious thing when people in the town complain of anchoresses’ cattle. If, however,
any one must needs have a cow, let her take care that she neither annoy nor harm any
one, and that her own thoughts be not fixed thereon. An anchoress ought not to have
any thing that draweth her heart outward. Carry ye on no traffic. An anchoress that is
a buyer and seller selleth her soul to the chapman of hell. Do not take charge of other
men’s property in your house, nor of their cattle, nor their clothes, neither receive under
your care the church vestments, nor the chalice, unless force compel you, or great fear,
for oftentimes much harm has come from such caretaking. Let no man sleep within your
walls. If, however, great necessity should cause your house to be used, see that, as long as
it is used, ye have therein with you a woman of unspotted life day and night.
Because no man seeth you, nor do ye see any man, ye may be well content with your
clothes, be they white, be they black; only see that they be plain, and warm, and well
made – skins well tawed; and have as many as you need, for bed and also for back.
Next your flesh ye shall wear no flaxen cloth, except it be of hards and of coarse canvas.
Whoso will may have [the linen-wool garment called] a stamin, and whoso will may be
without it. Ye shall sleep in a garment and girt [that is, belted]. Wear no iron, nor haircloth,
nor hedgehog-skins; and do not beat yourselves therewith, nor with a scourge of leather
thongs, nor leaded; and do not with holly nor with briars cause yourselves to bleed without
 Religious lives  211
leave of your confessor; and do not, at one time, use too many flagellations. Let your shoes
be thick and warm. In summer ye are at liberty to go and to sit barefoot, and to wear hose
without vamps, and whoso liketh may lie in them. A woman may well enough wear drawers
of haircloth very well tied, with the strapples reaching down to her feet, laced tightly. If ye
would dispense with wimples, have warm capes, and over them black veils. She who wishes
to be seen, it is no great wonder though she adorn herself; but, in the eyes of God, she is
more lovely who is unadorned outwardly for his sake. Have neither ring, nor broach, nor
ornamented girdle, nor gloves, nor any such thing that is not proper for you to have.
I am always the more gratified, the coarser the works are that ye do. Make no purses,
to gain friends therewith … but shape, and sew, and mend church vestments, and poor
people’s clothes. Ye shall give nothing away without leave from your father confessor.
Assist with your own labour, as far as ye are able, to clothe yourselves and your domestics,
as St. Jerome teacheth. Be never idle; for the fiend immediately offers his work to her who
is not diligent in God’s work; and he beginneth directly to talk to her. For, while he seeth
her busy, he thinketh thus: It would avail nothing if I were now to accost her, nor would
she take time to listen to my teaching. From idleness ariseth much temptation of the flesh,
“All the wickedness of Sodom came of idleness, and of a full belly.” Iron that lieth still soon
gathereth rust; and water that is not stirred soon stinketh. An anchoress must not become a
schoolmistress, nor turn her anchoress-house into a school for children. Her maiden may,
however, teach any little girl concerning whom it might be doubtful whether she should
learn among boys, but an anchoress ought to give her thoughts to God only.
Ye shall not send, nor receive, nor write letters without leave. Ye shall have your hair cut
four times a-year to disburden your head; and be let blood as oft, and oftener if it is necessary;
but if any one can dispense with this, I may well suffer it. When ye are let blood, ye ought to
do nothing that may be irksome to you for three days; but talk with your maidens, and divert
yourselves together with instructive tales. Ye may often do so when ye feel dispirited, or are
grieved about some worldly matter, or sick. Thus wisely take care of yourselves when you are
let blood, and keep yourselves in such rest that long thereafter ye may labour the more vigor-
ously in God’s service, and also when ye feel any sickness, for it is great folly, for the sake of one
day, to lose ten or twelve. Wash yourselves wheresoever it is necessary, as often as ye please.
When an anchoress hath not her food at hand, let two women be employed, one who
stays always at home, another who goes out when necessary; and let her be very plain, or
of sufficient age; and, by the way, as she goeth let her go singing her prayers; and hold no
conversation with man or with woman; nor sit, nor stand, except the least possible, until she
come home. Let her go nowhere else, but to the place whither she is sent. Without leave,
let her neither eat nor drink abroad. Let the other be always within, and never go out of
the gate without leave. Let both be obedient to their dame in all things, sin only excepted.
Let them possess nothing unknown to their mistress, nor accept nor give any thing without
her permission. They must not let any man in; nor must the younger speak with any man
without leave; nor go out of town without a trusty companion, nor sleep out. If she cannot
read her hours in a book, let her say them with Paternosters and Ave Marias; and do the
work that she is commanded to do, without grudging. Let her have her ears always open
to her mistress. Let neither of the women either carry to her mistress or bring from her
any idle tales, or new tidings, nor sing to one another, nor speak any worldly speeches, nor
laugh, nor play, so that any man who saw it might turn it to evil. Above all things, they
ought to hate lying and ribaldry. Let their hair be cut short, their headcloth sit low. Let
each lie alone. Let their hesmel [that is, collar] be high pointed: none to wear a brooch.
Let no man see them unveiled, nor without a hood. Let them look low. They ought not to
212  Religious lives
kiss, nor lovingly embrace any man, neither of their acquaintance nor a stranger, nor to
wash their head, nor to look fixedly on any man, nor to romp nor frolic with him. Their
garments should be of such a shape and all their attire such that it may be easily seen to
what life they are dedicated. Let them observe cautiously their manners, so that nobody
may find fault with them, neither in the house nor out of the house. Let them, by all means,
forbear to vex their mistress; and, whenever they do so, let them before they either eat or
drink make obeisance on their knees bending to the earth before her and say, “Mea culpa”
[“My fault”]; and accept the penance that she layeth upon them, bowing low. And let not
the anchoress ever again thereafter upbraid her with the same fault, when vexed, except
she soon afterwards fall into the same, but drive it entirely out of her heart. And if any strife
ariseth between the women, let the anchoress cause them to make obeisance to each other
kneeling to the earth, and the one to raise up the other, and finally to kiss each other; and
let the anchoress impose some penance on both, but more upon her who is most in fault. Be
ye well assured, this is a thing most pleasing to God – peace and concord – and most hateful
to the fiend; and, therefore, he is always endeavouring to stir up some strife. …
Though the anchoress impose penance on her maidens for open faults, let them
nevertheless confess often to the priest; but always, however, with permission. And if
they cannot say the graces at meals, let them say, instead of them, Paternoster and Ave
Maria, before and also after meat, and the Creed over and above; and in conclusion
say thus, “May the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God Almighty, give our mistress
his grace, always more and more, and grant to her and us both to have a good ending,
and reward all who do us good, and be merciful to the souls of them who have done us
good – to the souls of them and of all Christians. Amen.” Between meals, do not munch
either fruit or any thing else; and drink not without leave; but let the leave be easily
granted in all those matters where there is no sin. At meat let there be no talking, or little,
and then be still. Also, neither do nor say any thing after the anchoress’ compline, until
prime next morning, whereby her silence might be disturbed. No servant of an anchoress
ought, properly, to ask stated wages, except food and clothing, with which, and with
God’s mercy, she may do well enough. Let her not disbelieve any good of the anchoress,
whatever betide, as that she may deceive her. The maidens out of doors, if they serve the
anchoress in such a manner as they ought, shall have their reward in the eternal blessed-
ness of heaven. Whoso hath any hope of so high a reward will gladly serve, and easily
endure all grief and all pain. With ease and abundance men do not arrive at heaven.
Ye anchoresses ought to read these little concluding parts to your women once every
week until they know it well. And it is very necessary for you both that ye take much care
of them, for ye may be much benefited by them; and, on the other hand, made worse.
If they sin through your negligence, ye shall be called to give account of it before the
Supreme Judge; and, therefore, it is very necessary for you, and still more for them, that
ye diligently teach them to keep their rule, both for your sake and for themselves; in a
gentle manner, however, and affectionately; for such ought the instructing of women to
be – affectionate and gentle, and seldom stern. It is right that they should both fear and
love you; but that there should be always more of love than of fear. Then it shall go well.
Both wine and oil should be poured into the wounds, according to divine instruction;
but more of the soft oil than of the biting wine; that is, more of gentle than of vehement
words; for thereof cometh that which is best – love-fear. Mildly and kindly forgive them
their faults when they acknowledge them and promise amendment.
As far as ye can, in regard to drink, and food, and clothing, and other things which
the wants of the flesh require, be liberal to them, though ye be the more strict and severe
 Religious lives  213
to yourselves; for so doth he that bloweth well: He turneth the narrow end of the horn
to his own mouth, and the wide end outward. And do ye the like, as ye would that your
prayers may resound like a trumpet, and make a sweet noise in the ears of the Lord;
and not to your own salvation only, but to that of all people; which may our Lord grant
through the grace of himself, that so it may be. Amen.
In this book read every day, when ye are at leisure – every day, less or more; for I
hope that, if ye read it often, it will be very beneficial to you, through the grace of God, or
else I shall have ill employed much of my time. God knows, it would be more agreeable
to me to set out on a journey to Rome, than to begin to do it again. And, if ye find that ye
do according to what ye read, thank God earnestly; and if ye do not, pray for the grace
of God, and diligently endeavour that ye may keep it better, in every point, according to
your ability. May the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the one Almighty God,
keep you under his protection! May he give you joy and comfort, my dear sisters, and for
all that ye endure and suffer for him may he never give you a less reward than his entire
self. May he be ever exalted from world to world, for ever and ever. Amen.
As often as ye read any thing in this book, greet the Lady with an Ave Mary for him
who made this rule, and for him who wrote it, and took pains about it. Moderate enough
I am, who ask so little.

Questions: Under what material conditions are anchoresses to live? What is the spiritual purpose of
these conditions? How does the author view women as spiritual people? What difficulties does the author
anticipate? How do anchoresses differ from nuns? How realistic do the author’s expectations seem?

71. D escription of the B eguines of G hent (1328)

The term “Beguine” was used to describe any member of a widespread and hetero-
geneous female religious movement which arose in northern Europe in the thirteenth
century. Its members were women who wished to live a religious life without actu-
ally becoming nuns. One impetus for this was the fact (alluded to in the beginning
of the text below) that most convents required a money payment or “dowry” before
accepting a new nun. Some Beguines lived in “Beguinages,” while others lived on their
own or with their families. Beguines generally supported themselves through manual
labor, and they did not take permanent vows as nuns did. Some Beguines engaged in
teaching, preaching and writing, and this often led to condemnation from the eccle-
siastical authorities, but many others, especially those who lived in highly regulated
communities, were praised by churchmen. The following document, written during a
church inquiry into Beguine activities in Flanders, seeks to assure the investigators that
the Beguines of Ghent are orthodox and respectable in every way.
Source: trans. E. Amt from Cartulaire du Beguinage de Sainte-Elisabeth à Gand, ed. Jean Béthune
(Bruges, 1883).

Why the Beguinage was founded

Those ladies of good memory, Joanna and her sister Margaret, successive countesses
of Flanders and Hainault, noticed that the region was greatly abounding in women for
whom, because of their own position or that of their friends, suitable marriages were
not possible, and they saw that the daughters of respectable men, both nobles and
214  Religious lives
commoners, wished to live chastely, but could not easily enter a monastery because of
the great number of these girls and the poverty of their parents, and that respectable
and noble but impoverished damsels had to go begging or shamefully support them-
selves or seek support from their friends, unless some solution could be found. Then by
divine inspiration, as it is piously believed, having first obtained the advice and consent
of respectable men of the diocese and elsewhere, in various parts of Flanders they set up
certain spacious places which are called Beguinages, in which the aforesaid women, girls
and damsels were received, so that living in common therein, they might preserve their
chastity, with or without taking vows, and where they might support and clothe them-
selves by suitable work, without shaming themselves or their friends.

The Beguinage of Saint Elizabeth

Among these Beguinages, they founded one in Ghent, which is called the Beguinage of
Saint Elizabeth, which is encircled by ditches and walls. In the middle of it is a church,
and next to the church a cemetery and a hospital, which the aforesaid ladies endowed
for the weak and infirm of that same Beguinage. Many houses were also built there for
the habitation of the said women, each of whom has her own garden, separated from the
next by ditches or hedges; and two chaplains were established in this place by the same
ladies.

The manual work which they do

In these houses, indeed, many dwell together communally and are very poor, having
nothing but their clothing, a bed and a chest, nor are they a burden to anyone, but by
manual work, washing the wool and cleaning the pieces of cloth sent to them from the
town, they earn enough money daily that, making thereby a simple living, they also pay
their dues to the church and and give a modest amount in alms. And in each convent
there is one who is called the mistress of work, whose duty is to supervise the work and
the workers, so that all things are faithfully carried through according to God’s will.

Their way of working and praying

On work days they hold to the practice of rising early in the morning and coming
together in the church, each going to her own place, which she has specially assigned to
her, so that the absence of anyone may thereby be more easily noticed. After they have
heard the Mass and said their prayers there, they return to their houses, working all
day in silence, in which thing they are considered very useful to the whole country. And
while working thus, they do not cease from prayer, for in each convent the two women
who are best suited for this recite clearly the psalm “Miserere” and other psalms which
they know, and the “Ave Maria,” one singing one verse, the other the next, and the
rest recite silently with them, or diligently listen to those who are reciting. Late at night,
after Vespers, they go into the church, devoting themselves to prayers and meditations,
until the signal is given and they go to bed. On Sundays and holy days, with masses and
sermons, prayers and meditations, they devote themselves to the Lord’s service in all
things; nor may anyone leave the Beguinage on these days without special permission
from the principal mistress.
 Religious lives  215
The severity of their life
We shall not say much of their abstinence from food and drink but this: that many of them are
satisfied for the whole day with the coarse bread and pottage which they have in common in
each convent, and with a drink of cold water they lessen their thirst rather than increase their
appetite. And many among them are accustomed to fast frequently on bread and water, and
many of them do not wear linen on their bodies, and they use straw pallets instead of beds.

Their training in manners

And in all these things, they have such respectable manners and are so learned in domestic
affairs that great and respectable persons often send them their daughters to be raised,
hoping that, to whatever estate they may later be called, whether in the religious life or
in marriage, they may be found better trained than others. Their way of living, in fear of
God and in obedience to the holy Mother Church, has been such that nothing unusual
or suspect has ever been heard concerning their congregation.

Their prayers for the dead

When any one of them dies, each member of the convent visits the corpse individually,
with devout prayers and intercessions, and each, according to her obligation, devoutly
performs fasts, vigils, psalms and prayers for the one who has died.

The color and form of their clothing

All wear the same color and style of clothing, so that they may thereby very strictly avoid
anything that might distinguish them from the others or be suspect. For they wear a
habit which is grey in color, humble, and of a coarse shape, and none may have anything
which is unusual or suspect in its shape, sewing, or belting, or in the way of nightcaps,
hoods, gloves, mitts, straps, purses and knives.

Government and correction

One woman, nominated by the conventual mistresses, rules the previously mentioned
hospital. She is called the principal mistress of the Beguinage, or the great mistress, and
each year, after the accounts are rendered, it is customary for her to be retained in or
removed from this office according to the will of the aforementioned conventual mistresses.
And she appoints the mistresses in the individual convents, with the advice and consent of
the convents and of respectable men; and only with the permission and at the will of the
said principal mistresses is anyone permitted to build or to tear down in that place, or to
give or assign a place in the convent. To her also falls the correction of those who transgress
against the praiseworthy rules of the said place, so that she may combat vices through
restraint within the Beguinage, or by the transfer of a person from one convent to another,
or by other similar penalties, or she may, through the complete expulsion of the rotten
member from the Beguinage, preserve the body of the rest from shame and decay. And no
one may be away from the Beguinage for long or spend the night in the town without her
permission. Nor may anyone leave the Beguinage for an hour, without the special permis-
sion of the conventual mistress; and she who has that permission may not go alone but must
216  Religious lives
have one or more companions, taken only from her own convent. Those who go out are
required to avoid anything suspect in all their movements, and in the places they go, and in
the persons they meet; those who do otherwise are warned about these matters, and unless
they immediately desist they are deprived of the consolation of the Beguinage.

The fame of the place

That benevolent confessor, the most pious king Saint Louis [King Louis IX, 1226–70],
personally visited this place in devotion, and, pleased with the zeal of these women,
arranged with the venerable father, the lord bishop of Tournai, that a church should be
consecrated for them, and acquired and conferred on them many privileges and liberties
for their devotion, and he established and endowed a Beguinage like this one at Paris, and
others in various places. There is also another Beguinage in Ghent, which is called “Oya,”
and many houses throughout the town where women dwell in a similar situation.

Questions: How do the Beguines differ from nuns? What is their daily life like? How is this model
of religious life influenced by gender? What message about the often controversial Beguine movement
does the author seem to be trying to convey here?

72.  A ccounts of nuns entering I talian convents (14 th –15 th c .)

For most nuns, we have little evidence as to their motives in entering the religion life,
nor do the sources often reveal much of the process by which they became nuns. For
younger entrants, the decision was probably a family one in most cases, just as marriages
were usually arranged by parents. Older women who took the veil, especially after being
widowed, are more likely to have done so as a matter of individual choice.
  The first selection below comes from records kept by Sister Bartolomea Riccaboni
of the deaths of nuns at the Venetian convent of Corpus Domini, a strict Domin-
ican house. The second is from the diary of Bernardino Zambotti, a member of a
substantial middle-class family in the Italian city of Ferrara.
Source: First document from Sister Bartolomea Riccoboni, Life and Death in a Venetian Convent, ed.
and tr. Daniel Bornstein (Chicago and London, 2000); second document from Mary Rogers, ed.,
Women in Italy, 1350–1650 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000).

Nuns’ entrances into the convent are recalled at their deaths

(Venice, 14th c.–1431)
In 1401 Sister Chiara Buonio passed from this life on the last day of March at the age of
seventeen. She was a nun at Santa Caterina and stayed there for six years. Seeing that
the rule was not observed, she made arrangements with her mother, who was a spiritual
woman, and entered this convent. She lived here for three years in very great desire for
perfection, and out of humility she performed the most demeaning chores in the convent
with the greatest joy. It pleased the Lord God to test her and give her an illness that lasted
more than a year, and she accepted it as a gift of God. When death drew near, she was
consecrated and with all the holy sacraments rendered her soul to her ardent spouse. …
In that year [1403] Sister Maruzza Bonzi, the mother of Sister Franceschina da Noale,
passed from this life. She belonged to the Third Order [that is, the lay order] of Saint Francis
and lived for nearly a hundred years. She fell ill and was almost at the point of death, and out of
 Religious lives  217
respect for her daughter she was brought inside here and dressed in our holy habit, and she lived
twenty-two days with great devotion. This blessed woman was like the good tree that bears good
fruit, since her daughter Sister Franceschina and her two daughters and niece belong to our
order, and the convent has more than two thousand ducats of her goods. I believe that because
of the good fruits that have sprung from her, she is enjoying the good things of life eternal. …
Sister Franceschina da Noale entered the convent seven days after it was enclosed, as a
widowed lady forty-nine years old. During her marriage she lived in the world in a holy fashion
and always wore a hair shirt under her velvet. When she was left a widow she dressed humbly
in coarse cloth; and when this convent was built, moved by the desire for greater perfection she
came to the order, bringing with her a seven-year-old daughter. This blessed woman never
meddled with her daughter, who was entrusted to the care of the [novice] mistress. …
In that year [1423] … Sister Onesta passed from this life. She was the daughter of the
marquis of Monte Santa Maria, and thus a woman from a great lineage, very elegant and
notoriously worldly. Our father Brother Giovanni Dominici [the founder of the convent] and
Brother Giovanni Benedetto … went to Città di Castello, and while Brother Giovanni was
preaching there, this woman, hearing that he was a youth of eighteen, went to his sermon
almost as a joke. The Holy Spirit made him speak so effectively that she was converted on the
spot; and hearing of this convent, she begged our father and Brother Giovanni to receive her
and make arrangements with her brothers to have her sent to Venice. When our father heard
her good intentions, he went to see her brothers. There were five or six of them, all great lords
who held castles; and when they heard that this sister of theirs had converted, they had a good
laugh, saying that she was so worldly and so vivacious that this could never last. The oldest of
the brothers … said that he wanted to observe her for several months, and that if she persisted
he would send her to Venice. Thus … she remained behind, persevering in her good inten-
tions; and she did so well that shortly thereafter one of her brothers accompanied her to Venice
together with Sister Piera and Sister Tommasa. She was a widow, twenty-three years old. …
On the tenth of [March 1431] Sister Geronima dei Cancellieri passed from this miser-
able life. She was a widow who entered the convent at the age of fifty-one and lived here for
twenty-six years. This woman was the daughter of the count of Pistoia; all her brothers were
counts of high estate. She married a knight and was left a widow while still young, and she
always had a desire to serve God. She had always longed to go someplace where she was
neither known nor honored. As it pleased God, who grants good wishes, she was converted
by the sermons of our father, who at that time was preaching in Tuscany; and upon hearing
of the good reputation of this convent she arranged with him to come to Venice. When this
reached the ears of her two sons, who were highly respected knights, and her two married
daughters, they sent word to all the passes as far as Rimini to have her detained. As it pleased
God, she got by them all and came to incarcerate herself in here for his love.

A young woman enters a convent (Ferrara, 1480–2)

On Saturday 18th [of November 1480] … Ser Jacomo Zambotto, notary and Ferrarese
citizen, my father, gave a donation to the monastery of S. Agostino for my sister Eufroxina,
who on the following day was to enter the monastery. And he sent a sack of bread, eggs,
cheese, two pieces of veal, chicken and fish, the bed and a chest of possessions, and wine,
and he consigned them the dowry, debited against 300 lire of marchesini the monastery
had for spices from our shop …
On the 19th, Sunday morning: Suor Eufroxina, my sister, was accompanied by other
gentlewomen on foot and young men in front, to the monastery of S. Agostino, dressed
218  Religious lives
in silver brocade with her hair loosened on her shoulders, with the devotional image …
and a lavishly decorated holy doll [that is, a devotional statue of the infant Jesus], and
with a candle of white wax in the fashion of a bride. And after the mass was said by Don
Zoanne da Carpi, chaplain to the sisters, she was blessed and received, with singing by
the nuns and the abbess with great devotion …
On the 3rd [of November 1482], Sunday morning: my sister, Suor Eufroxina, this
morning made her profession, after mass had been sung in the church of S. Agostino … And
several relatives and friends offered her candles, according to custom, together with my father
… And they gave the donation due to the pious women for her living costs as is usual.

Questions: What do the sources reveal about choice and motivations? How are families involved
in each woman’s entrance? What are the economic implications of joining a convent? Why did
Geronima dei Cancellieri’s children react as they did to her decision? What do we learn here about
relations between families and religious houses?

73. T he book of M argery K empe :

P ilgrimage to the H oly L and (15 th c .)
Margery Kempe was born into a wealthy merchant family of the town of King’s Lynn,
in England, in about 1373; she married a local merchant at the age of twenty and bore
him many children. Margery is famous because she underwent a long and emotional
religious conversion experience and then, near the end of her life, had a priest write
down the story of her life. Her autobiography is worth reading in full for the first-hand
account it gives us of many aspects of Margery’s experiences. The extract printed here
is the story of Margery’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem; although Margery was an unusual
woman (and an unusual pilgrim), many men and women went on pilgrimages to
places both near and far, so this is an account of a common religious activity.
  Note that Margery always refers to herself in the third person, as “this creature.”
Source: The Book of Margery Kempe, tr. W. Butler-Bowden (Greenwich, CT: Devin-Adair Publishers
Inc., 1944).

Chapter 26
When the time came that this creature should visit those holy places where Our Lord
was quick and dead, as she had by revelation years before, she prayed the parish priest of
the town where she was dwelling, to say for her in the pulpit, that, if any man or woman
claimed any debt from her husband or herself, they should come and speak with her ere
she went, and she, with the help of God would make a settlement with each of them, so
that they should hold themselves content. And so she did.
Afterwards, she took her leave of her husband. … Then she went forth to Norwich,
and offered at the Trinity, and afterwards she went to Yarmouth and offered at an image
of Our Lady, and there she took her ship.
And next day they came to a great town called Zierikzee [in Flanders], where Our Lord
of His high goodness visited this creature with abundant tears of contrition for her own sins,
and sometime for other men’s sins also. And especially she had tears of compassion in mind
of Our Lord’s Passion. And she was [given communion] each Sunday where there was time
and place convenient thereto, with great weeping and boisterous sobbing, so that many
men marvelled and wondered at the great grace that God had wrought in His creature.
 Religious lives  219
This creature had eaten no flesh and drunk no wine for four years ere she went out
of England, and so now her ghostly father [that is, her confessor] charged her, by virtue
of obedience, that she should both eat flesh and drink wine. And so she did a little while;
afterwards she prayed her confessor that he would hold her excused if she ate no flesh,
and suffer her to do as she would for such time as pleased him.
And soon after, through the moving of some of her company, her confessor was
displeased because she ate no flesh, and so were many of the company. And they were
most displeased because she wept so much and spoke always of the love and goodness
of Our Lord, as much at the table as in other places. And therefore shamefully they
reproved her, and severely chid her, and said they would not put up with her as her
husband did when she was at home and in England.
And she answered meekly to them: – “Our Lord, Almighty God, is as great a Lord here
as in England, and as good cause have I to love Him here as there, blessed may He be.”
At these words, her fellowship was angrier than before, and their wrath and unkind-
ness to this creature was a matter of great grief, for they were held right good men and
she desired greatly their love, if she might have it to the pleasure of God.
And then she said to one of them specially: – “Ye cause me much shame and great
grievance.”
He answered her anon: – “I pray God that the devil’s death may overcome thee soon
and quickly,” and many more cruel words he said to her than she could repeat.
And soon after some of the company in whom she trusted best, and her own maiden
[that is, her maidservant] also, said she could no longer go in their fellowship. And they
said that they would take away her maiden from her, so that she should no strumpet be,
in her company. And then one of them, who had her gold in keeping, left her a noble [6s.
8d.] with great anger and vexation to go where she would and help herself as she might,
for with them, they said, she should no longer abide; and they forsook her that night.
Then, on the next morning, there came to her one of their company, a man who loved
her well, praying her that she would go to his fellows and meeken herself to them, and pray
them that she might go still in their company till she came to Constance [in Germany].
And so she did, and went forth with them till she came to Constance with great discom-
fort and great trouble, for they did her much shame and much reproof as they went, in
divers places. They cut her gown so short that it came but little beneath her knee, and made
her put on a white canvas, in the manner of a sacken apron, so that she should be held a
fool and the people should not make much of her or hold her in repute. They made her sit
at the table’s end, below all the others, so that she ill durst speak a word.
And, notwithstanding all their malice, she was held in more worship than they were,
wherever they went.
And the good man of the house where they were hostelled, though she sat lowest at
the table’s end, would always help her before them all as well as he could, and sent her
from his own table such service as he had, and that annoyed her fellowship full evil.
As they went by the way Constance-ward, it was told them that they would be robbed
and have great discomfort unless they had great grace.
Then this creature came to a church and went in to make her prayer, and she prayed with
all her heart, with great weeping and many tears, for help and succour against their enemies.
Then Our Lord said to her mind: – “Dread thee naught, daughter, thy fellowship
shall come to no harm whilst thou art in their company.”
And so, blessed may Our Lord be in all His works, they went forth in safety to
Constance.
220  Religious lives
Chapter 27
When this creature and her fellowship had come to Constance, she heard tell of an English
friar, a master of divinity, and the Pope’s legate, who was in that city. Then she went to that
worshipful man and shewed him her life from the beginning till that hour, as nigh as she
might in confession, because he was the Pope’s legate and a worshipful clerk.
And afterwards she told him what discomfort she had with her fellowship. … He
full benignly and kindly received her as though she had been his mother, and received
her gold, about twenty pounds, and yet one of them withheld wrongfully about sixteen
pounds.
And they withheld also her maiden, and would not let her go with her mistress,
notwithstanding that she had promised her mistress and assured her that she would not
forsake her for any need.
And the legate made arrangements for this creature and made her his charge as if she
had been his mother.
Then this creature went into a church and prayed Our Lord that He would provide
her with a leader.
And anon Our Lord spoke to her and said: –
“Thou shalt have right good help and a good leader.”
Immediately afterwards there came to her an old man with a white beard. …
Then they went forth day by day and met with many jolly men. And they said no
evil word to this creature, but gave her and her man meat and drink, and the good wives
where they were housed, laid her in their own beds for God’s love, in many places where
they came.
And Our Lord visited her with great grace of ghostly comfort as she went by the way.
And so God brought her forth till she came to Bologna [in Italy]. And after she had come
there, there came thither also her other fellowship, which had forsaken her before. And
when they heard say that she had come to Bologna ere they had, then had they great
wonder, and one of their fellowship came to her praying her to go to his fellowship and
try if they would receive her again into their fellowship. And so she did.
“If ye will go in our fellowship, ye must make a new covenant, and that is this – ye
shall not speak of the Gospel where we are, but shall sit still and make merry, as we do,
both at meat and at supper.”
She consented and was received again into their fellowship. Then went they forth to
Venice and dwelt there thirteen weeks; and this creature was [given communion] every
Sunday in a great house of nuns, and had great cheer among them, where Our Lord
Jesus Christ visited this creature with great devotion and plenteous tears, so that the good
ladies of the place were much marvelled thereof.
Afterwards, it happened, as this creature sat at meat with her fellowship, that she
repeated a text of the Gospel that she had learnt beforetime with other good words, and
then her fellowship said she had broken covenant. And she said: –
“Yea, sirs, forsooth I may no longer keep your covenant, for I must needs speak of My
Lord Jesus Christ, though all this world had forbidden it me.”
Then she took to her chamber and ate alone for six weeks, unto the time that Our
Lord made her so sick that she weened to have been dead, and then suddenly He made
her whole again. And all the time her maiden let her alone and made the company’s
meat and washed their clothes, and, to her mistress, under whom she had taken service,
she would no deal attend.
 Religious lives  221
Chapter 28
Also this company, which had put the aforesaid creature from their table, so that she
should no longer eat amongst them, engaged a ship for themselves to sail in. They bought
vessels for their wine, and obtained bedding for themselves, but nothing for her. Then
she, seeing their unkindness, went to the same man where they had been, and bought
herself bedding as they had done, and came where they were and shewed them what she
had done, purposing to sail with them in that ship which they had chartered.
Afterwards, as this creature was in contemplation, Our Lord warned her in her mind
that she should not sail in that ship, and He assigned her to another ship, a galley, that
she should sail in. Then she told this to some of the company, and they told it forth to
their fellowship, and then they durst not sail in the ship they had chartered. So they sold
away their vessels which they had got for their wines, and were right fain to come to the
galley where she was, and so, though it was against her will, she went forth with them in
their company, for they durst not otherwise do.
When it was time to make their beds, they locked up her clothes, and a priest, who
was in their company, took away a sheet from the aforesaid creature, and said it was his.
She took God to witness that it was her sheet. Then the priest swore a great oath, by the
book in his hand, that she was as false as she might be, and despised her and strongly
rebuked her. …
So they went forth into the Holy Land till they could see Jerusalem. And when this
creature saw Jerusalem, riding on an ass, she thanked God with all her heart. …
Then went they to the temple in Jerusalem and they were let in on the same day at
evensong time, and abode there till the next day at evensong time. Then the friars lifted
up a cross and led the pilgrims about from one place to another where Our Lord suffered
… His Passion, every man and woman bearing a wax candle in one hand. And the friars
always, as they went about, told them what Our Lord suffered in every place. … And
when they came up on to the Mount of Calvary, she fell down because she could not
stand or kneel, and rolled and wrested with her body, spreading her arms abroad, and
cried with a loud voice as though her heart would have burst asunder. …

Chapter 30
Another time, this creature’s fellowship would go to the Flood of Jordan [that is, the
Jordan River] and would not let her go with them. Then this creature prayed Our Lord
that she might go with them, and He bade that she should go with them whether they
would or not. Then she went forth by the grace of God, and asked no leave of them.
When she came to the Flood of Jordan, the weather was so hot that she thought her
feet would have burnt for the heat that she felt.
Afterwards she went with her fellowship to Mount Quarentyne. There Our Lord
fasted forty days, and there she prayed her fellowship to help her up on to the Mount.
And they said, “Nay,” for they could not well help themselves. Then had she great
sorrow, because she might not come on to the hill. And anon, happed a Saracen [that
is, a Muslim], a well-favoured man, to come by her, and she put a groat into his hand,
making him a sign to bring her on to the Mount. And quickly the Saracen took her
under his arm and led her up on to the high Mount, where Our Lord fasted forty
days.
Then was she sore athirst, and had no comfort in her fellowship. Then God, of His
222  Religious lives
great goodness, moved the Grey Friars with compassion, and they comforted her, when
her countrymen would not know her. …
Afterwards, when this creature came down from the Mount, as God willed, she went
forth to the place where Saint John the Baptist was born. And later she went to Bethania,
where Mary and Martha dwelt, and to the grave where Lazarus was buried and raised
from death into life. And she prayed in the chapel where Our Blessed Lord appeared to
His blissful Mother on Easter Day at morn, first of all others. And she stood in the same
place where Mary Magdalene stood when Christ said to her: –
“Mary, why weepest thou?”
And so she was in many more places than be written, for she was three weeks in Jeru-
salem and the country thereabout, and she had ever great devotion as long as she was in
that country.
The friars of the Temple made her great cheer and gave her many great relics,
desiring that she should have dwelt still amongst them if she would, for the faith they had
in her. Also the Saracens made much of her, and conveyed her, and led her about the
country wherever she would go; and she found all people good to her and gentle, save
only her own countrymen.
Then Our Lord commanded her to go to Rome and, so, forth home into England.
… When Our Lord had brought them again to Venice in safety, her countrymen forsook
her and went away from her, leaving her alone. And some of them said that they would
not go with her for a hundred pound.
When they had gone away from her, then Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who ever helpeth at
need, and never forsaketh His servants who truly trust in His mercy, said to this creature: –
“Dread thee not, daughter, for I will provide for thee right well, and bring thee in
safety to Rome and home again into England without any villainy to thy body, if thou wilt
be clad in white clothes, and wear them as I said to thee whilst thou wert in England.”

Questions: What spiritual practices of Margery’s are alluded to in this text? What obstacles did
Margery have to overcome during her pilgrimage? How did various people she encountered view her
and treat her, and why? What does this source tell us about more typical pilgrims than Margery?
Using a map, trace Margery’s travels.

74. A thanasios C halkeopoulos :

S outhern I talian visitations (1457)
In October 1457, four years after Constantinople had fallen to the Ottoman Turks,
Athanasios Chalkeopoulos, monk and accomplished scribe and translator, began a
six-month visitation of seventy-eight male and female Byzantine monastic communi-
ties in southern Italy that lived under the Greek Rule of St. Basil. Authorized by Pope
Calixtus III, Athanasios sought to achieve two principal objectives in visiting these
houses: to gather information systematically about the state of Greek monasticism in
these regions as a preliminary to reforming and revitalizing these representatives of
the Basilian order in the West, and to disseminate a range of regulations, formulated
by Rome, intended to affirm the rigor of the Basilian way of life. Like the thirteenth-
century register of Archbishop Eudes of Rouen (see document 69), Athanasios’ visita-
tion record bears witness to the state of Greek female monasticism in the mid-fifteenth
century, when recruitment was increasingly difficult, the intellectual training of the
monastic inhabitants was often modest at best, and the prestige of Greek monasti-
 Religious lives  223
cism was increasingly compromised. The selections below represent the range of
female monastic communities that Athanasios encountered in his travels, in terms
of both size and wealth. The female communities he visited were never large and, in
contrast to the male monasteries, were usually in excellent moral condition and not
suffering from material neglect or the dissipation of the monastery’s property.
Source: trans. William L. North from Le ‘Liber Visitationis’ d’Athanase Chalkéopoulos [1457–1458],
ed. M.-H. Laurent & André Guillou, Studi e Testi 206 (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, 1960).

The monastery of Santa Febronia, 2 October 1457

[After visiting the monastery of San Giovanni di Castagneto in Reggio Calabria], we went
to the monastery of the nuns of Santa Febronia, which is about a mile away from the
monastery of San Menas. First, we observed that it was very well built but that the monas-
tery was without a cloister except for a few little houses. There the abbess stayed with her
father and mother, a young woman, and a boy, whom she maintained for the sake of her
soul, along with an old man and his wife. We also observed that she has no nuns, because
no one – not even the woman who stays with her – wishes to assume the habit.
We examined Cicco Lagano, the chaplain of the said monastery, on oath in the
following way:
First, when asked whether this abbess knew her letters, he said that she did not know
her letters and therefore did not say the office each day but she does say a little, as far as
she knows it.
When asked why she does not learn her letters, since she is young and had been
ordered by our predecessor the abbot of San Filarete to go to Reggio to learn letters,
insofar as it is contained in her acts, he said that she was not able to do it because of the
fees and also because of the pestilence which ruled in those parts at the time.
When asked whether she served the goods of the monastery well, he said that she
served them well.
When asked if she provides for the nuns, he said that she does not have any nuns but
that she provides for and treats well those whom she maintains [whom we mentioned
above].
When asked if she preserves her honor, he said that she preserved it.
When asked if she observes the rules of the house, he said that she observes them well
as much as she can.
When asked if she goes outside the monastery, he said that she rarely goes out and
when she does, she is always in the company of her parents.
When asked if she is restrained in her behavior, he said yes.
When asked if she has a servant, he said that whatever she possesses belongs to the
monastery.
When asked if she has a oikonomos or proctor, he said that she has her father and in the
absence of her father, she has brothers.
When asked if she observes the fasts, he said yes.
When asked if she confesses, he said that she confesses during Lent and during the
forty days of Christmas at least.
When asked if she wears the habit, he said that she wears it.
When asked if the office is said in the church, he said that the office is not said except
for the Mass only twice a month.
224  Religious lives
When asked if the office of the dead is said, he said no.
When asked about the monastery’s income, he said that the returns of the said church
rise to six unciae or forty ducats; the incomes are contained in wine, oil, rents, chestnuts
and acorns. …
Antonius Paymus, when asked on oath, if she serves the goods of the church, spoke as
did the first witness in effect.
When asked if she preserves her honor, he said the same thing as the first.
When asked about all the other things, he said the same thing as the first witness. …
Domna Pelagia, abbess of the aforesaid monastery, when asked under oath if she is
literate, said that she knows a little – and this is what we, too, observed – and the little
she knows she learned with the abbess of San Dimitrio in Reggio, and she would have
learned more if the war between the Aragonese and Venetians had not occurred. Later
on, because she did not have the opportunity, she was unable to learn more but says the
office as best as she knows and has learned it.
When asked if Mass is celebrated, she said that it is celebrated twice a month, just as
the priest – the previous witness – said.
When asked if she preserves the property of the monastery, she said that she tries as
best she can to preserve the property of the monastery as much as possible.
When asked if she benefited the monastery in some way, she said that there was
a certain church of San Nicola. The church had a barn that had been destroyed; she
rebuilt it and also had built certain small cells in the church.
When asked if she holds property, she said no.
When asked if she had nuns, she said that she could not have them because the
monastery is in a forest.
When asked about the value of the said monastery, she said that it is worth forty
ducats.
When asked in what kinds of things the renders of the aforesaid monastery consist,
she said that it is paid in grain, wines, rents, and there is one garden which is worth two
uncia annually.
Then we made an inventory of the moveable goods of the aforesaid church, which consist of
the following: 1 book of Gospels, 1 book of Epistles, 1 Anastasimos [a liturgical book for Easter],
1 Psalter, 1 Paraclitikon [liturgical book for Byzantine chant], 1 book of prophets, 1 Athanasion
[Book of Questions and Answers by Anastasius the Sinaite], 1 menologion for the three months
of September, October, November, 1 menologion for the four months of December, January,
February, and March, another menologion for the five months of April, May, June, July, and
August, Triodion [liturgical book for the period including the weeks of preparation, Great Lent,
and Holy Week], Horologion [book of hours], 1 missal, 1 book of the Office of St. Febronia, 1
chalice with paten of pewter, 1 pair of white vestments. It has certain altar cloths.
It has one mattress, 1 cover, 1 pillow, 2 pairs of linens, 1 carpet, 2 tablecloths, 2
napkins, 1 cauldron, 1 spit, 1 large cauldron, 3 washcloths, 1 chain [for hanging some-
thing], 1 beam and other housewares.
It also has in the territory of Calanna one house in which [there are] three barrels of
six measures each.
When all this was completed, we admonished her as is customary and gave her the
chapters written below that she should observe in the following manner.
First, we order and command you under the charge of holy obedience and under the
penalty reserved to our judgment that you absolutely find a teacher who will teach you
how to read. At the very least he should teach you how to read the Divine Office.
 Religious lives  225
We order you under the same penalty that at the very least Mass be celebrated in the
church weekly, twice a month for the dead, and twice a month on Sunday.
We order you under the same penalty that you try as hard as you can to find a nun
whom you may keep with you for company.
We order you under the same penalty to wear a wool shirt.
We order you under the same penalty to say the Divine Office in the best way
you know how and as a substitute for what you do not know, say for Matins ten Our
Fathers and ten Hail Marys, and at prime, terce, sext, nones, you say five of each
each hour, at Vespers ten, at Compline eight; and for the souls of the founder of the
said church and of all its benefactors, and also for the well-being of the lord King, the
Highest Pontiff, and the Protector of our order, and for the dead, you say fifteen Our
Fathers each day.
We order you under the same penalty to create an inventory of all the goods of the
said church and a notebook – clear and comprehensible – about the income and expen-
ditures of the said church.
We order you under the same penalty to have a copy of the Chapters of the General
Chapters approved in Rome and to read them at least once a month.
We order you under the same penalty to own the Rule as abbreviated by the most
reverend Lord Cardinal of Nicea and you read it twice a month.
We order you under the same penalty to have a copy of the Chapters of the provincial
chapter held at Castrovillari and you read them once a week.
We order you under the same penalty that you observe everything that the rule of our
order orders you to observe.
Issued in the monastery of Santa Febronia, on 3 October in the sixth indiction in
1452 in the third year of the pontificate of the most holy father in Christ and our lord
Lord Calixtus III, pope by divine providence.

Monastery of the Forty Saints [11 October 1457]

On … 11 October, we came to the monastery of the Forty Saints, where we found a very
young abbess, about seventeen, named Romana with a certain nun named Elisabeta,
whom we examined. And we first asked whether the abbess said the office, [Elisabeta]
said that the abbess says the office as far as she knows it together with her.
When asked whether she preserves the property of the monastery, she said that she
preserves them well but the proctor of the church, namely the protopapa, holds all the
church’s property because the abbess herself is a youth and administers none of the
church’s property.
When asked about the honor of the aforesaid abbess, she said that she is absolutely
honorable and discreet in her speaking, fasts during all the forty-day periods of fasting,
and never eats meat.
When asked how [the abbess] provides for her, she said that she takes good care of
her and they drink and eat together, except that they keep their grain separately.
When asked about Mass in the monastery, she said that it is rarely said because they
cannot find a priest.
Sister Romana, abbess of the aforesaid monastery, when asked whether the nun obeys
her, said that she is very obedient and says the office with her every day and is discreet in
her actions and does everything good.
In this monastery, we see that the church has been well treated. …
226  Religious lives
When this was finished, we admonished them as is fitting and gave to them chapters
similar to those we gave the others, which they promised to observe inviolate.
Issued in this monastery on 11 of the aforesaid month of October.

The female monastery of St Candelora of the city of Bova

[28 October 1457]
On this same day we visited a female monastery within the city of Bova, which is called
Santa Candelora. In it we found a certain simple-minded abbess. This monastery lacks
income, and she has nothing but three gold coins and lives by her labor. We admonished
her as fitting and left her in peace.

The monastery of Santa Anna [early November 1457]

While we were at the aforesaid monastery [the monastery of San Filippo de Argiro] we
also visited three female monasteries. And the first one we visited was the monastery of
Santa Anna, where we found an abbess named Caterina and three nuns: Marina, Anas-
tasia, and Magdalena. We first examined Marina in the following way:
Sister Marina, when examined as a witness, said that the abbess says the office together
with her nuns as far as they know it. They always keep the monastery closed, so that no
one enters except for the chaplain and the church’s proctor.
When asked whether the abbess was chaste and honorable, she said that the abbess
as well as the nuns were absolutely chaste, and she said that [the abbess] treated the nuns
well, as her spiritual daughters. She also managed the monastery’s property well.
When asked whether the other nuns are obedient, she said that they are very obedient,
have no personal property, always wear the habit and wool shirts, keep the forty-day
fasts, and do all good things insofar as they are able.
Sister Anastasia, when examined as a witness, said the same thing as her neighbor in
effect but in different words.
Sister Magdalena, when examined as a witness, said the same thing as her neighbor
in effect but in different words.
Sister Caterina, the abbess of the said monastery, said that all the nuns are obedient
and most chaste with regard to their bodies, and they do the things that they ought to do
like good and perfect nuns.
Then we made an inventory of the items noted below found in the monastery. They
are: 1 Gospel book, 1 Epistle, 1 book with Four Gospels, 1 Triodion, 1 Book of Prophets,
1 Katanuktikon [liturgical book concerning Lenten penance], 1 Anastasimon, 1 Menolo-
gion, 1 pair of white vestments, 1 chalice of pewter, 2 chasubles, 1 book of hours, 4 table
cloths, 1 curtain, 1 coverlet, 1 carpet, 1 pair of sheets, a large set of bedding, 2 beds, 3
boxes, 2 benches, a small set of bedding, 1 pair of sheets, 1 carpet, 2 cauldrons, 1 chain
for hanging things, 1 spit, 1 tripod, 4 buckets, 2 beams.
Then we admonished them as is fitting but we did not give them chapters, because we
left Brother Romano [abbot of the monastery of San Filippo di Argiro] in our stead with
a specific commission: he has to teach them about all the necessary things as is fitting.

Questions: How are these communities structured? What was life like in them? What kinds of chal-
lenges did the inhabitants face? What values did they uphold? What was the economic condition of
the monasteries? How did the visitor respond to what he found?
 Religious lives 227
75. p lAns of religious communities (12 th –13 th c .)
The first plan below represents the remains and conjectural original state of the
nunnery of Lacock in Wiltshire, England. This Augustinian community was founded
in 1232 by Ela, countess of Salisbury. The second plan is of Watton Priory in York-
shire, founded in 1150 as a house of the English Gilbertine order. Double monas-
teries, housing both male and female religious in separate buildings but as a single
community (often headed by a woman), had been fairly common in many parts of
Europe and the Mediterranean world in the Early Middle Ages, but the practice had
generally died out by the ninth century. The Gilbertines revived the custom briefly
with houses such as this one, where 140 nuns lived in one half of the complex and 70
canons in the other; there were also lay brothers and sisters who acted as servants.
Both the architecture and the regulations of the community prevented communica-
tion and fraternization between the men and the women.
The names of many of the buildings and rooms in these two plans can be found in
the Glossary at the end of the book.
Source: Lacock from Anthony New, A Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales (London: Constable,
1985); Watton from Raymonde Foreville, Saint Gilbert of Sempringham: His Life and Achievement, tr.
Kathleen F. Dockrill (Lincoln: Honywood Press, 1986). (Drawn by Max Maschner from a plate in
the Archaeological Journal, 58 (1901).)

Lacock (13th c.)

I"
BREWERY
L cj~
H/t:1mS"lTITTh1
- ~l ·1
.1,
.,,
' . .:
228 Religious lives
Watton Priory (12th c.)

Canoos' Dorter o~er Doner Stairs

I"\---'?
Chapter House ~r::-~--"':'
Parlour '-~ " .• WATTON PRIORY
Warming House ,,<~:_-:-':!;.--~-~ '.\ \
,,:__
Yorkshire East Riding
CeUar c: ;_.- ~ '\. "- \ :
.. rsi\.;

~•.~ ~:~::::"! ,
~'" ~ Canons' Chapel .

Dining Chamber
Ante Chapel Solar

Canons' Frater ": ~~ ., \ \.

.:..ov-'e:.:.r_C=---e:c:I:c:lar=---_ _ _~e__:_.. '+canons' Cloister \\
NewHaU
and '::.1
~
North Cloister Alley

Probable site of
Canons' Kitchen

Little Garner Hall Side

Outer Court
= Modern Garden Wall

Probable site or Window House

Gallery to Window House

:'iuns' Dorter over

Parlour
Chapter House
Warming House

Rere Horter
--(c.-,~
() II
Outer Court (
(:
:,?~ Chapel

( ;) Nuns' Cloister
. South Aisle
Nuns' Frater over Cellars (: ~ "J~.:~~~~._______~N-'a=-v~e
Stairs to:.-~'--'-rc:a::te::::r'-------_ __ ___f~;:,t:-::,:·::~ ~

';"ffi ~~.~.--- .....-... ~ : Galilee

por~ch=______--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_~~~:-~~~;~~~~;~ Chapel over Entry

~':-~-':. ;- --'-:";' ~i

Lay Sisters' Lod~in~

\cale in left
~ and (;uesl House over Ra"tement
!'I-----
'----_._.
Guest House over

Questions: How does the physical layout of the monastery reflect its function and priorities? How do
the religious complexes compare with a secular dwelling such as Ightham Mote (see document 44)?
How are Laycock and Watton similar to each other, and how and why are they different?
VIII Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women

The readings in the preceding chapters have all described the lives of women of the
Christian and largely Germanic majority; there were also minorities in medieval Europe.
The Jews, whose religion was rejected by Christians, were nevertheless officially toler-
ated by the church and protected by governments; they were forbidden to own land, but
Jewish communities flourished in many medieval towns, profiting from trade and often
practicing money-lending, which was forbidden for Christians. Blamed for the death of
Christ and resented for their relative wealth, the Jews were regarded by Christian society
with suspicion, and from the time of the First Crusade on they were often the victims of
persecution, massacres and expulsions.
The Muslims came to the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) in the early
eighth century, during the great era of Arabic expansion which followed the death of
Mohammed, the founder of Islam, in 632. For several centuries they ruled that region
and even made incursions into Gaul. In the eleventh century the Christians to their north
regained the offensive, and over the following centuries Spain was gradually wrested from
Muslim control. In the meantime, Christian, Jewish and Muslim society rubbed shoul-
ders there, sometimes in hostility, sometimes in relative tolerance. The island of Sicily was
the site of another ethnically and religiously diverse society, being inhabited by European
Christians, by Muslims and by Byzantine Greeks. On the eastern frontiers of Europe, too,
lived many pagan peoples who were only slowly converted to Christianity, or whose partic-
ular brand of Christianity made them seem alien to the Catholics of the west.
Finally, there were within Christian society groups of people who rejected religious
doctrines defined by the Roman Catholic church and practiced their religion in ways
which differed in minor or major ways from that of the majority. Such divergent beliefs
were called “heresy” by the church, and a heretic could be punished in various ways,
including death. The heretics are included here because some of the larger groups formed
distinct communities within society, and because the role of women in the heretical sects
was sometimes very different from that of women in the Catholic church.
230  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
A. JEWISH WOMEN

76. H ebrew chronicles :

M assacres of J ews during the F irst C rusade (1096)
Beginning in the eleventh century, the small communities of European Jews faced
increasing intolerance and persecution from the Christian majority. With the First
Crusade, Christian hostility broke out into large-scale violence, and from this point
on pogroms against the Jews became fairly common. The following is a Jewish
account of the first of the mass killings. The more prominent biblical quotations are
italicized.
Source: Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1987).

Events at Speyer
It came to pass that, when [the crusaders] traversed towns where there were Jews, they
said one to another: “Behold we journey a long way to seek the idolatrous shrine and
to take vengeance upon the Muslims. But here are the Jews dwelling among us, whose
ancestors killed [Jesus Christ] and crucified him groundlessly. Let us take vengeance first
upon them. Let us wipe them out as a nation; Israel’s name will be mentioned no more. Or else let
them be like us and acknowledge the son born of menstruation.”
Now when the [Jewish] communities heard their words, they reverted to the arts of
our ancestors – repentance, prayer and charity. The hands of the holy people fell weak
and their hearts melted and their strength flagged. They hid themselves in innermost
chambers before the ever turning sword. They afflicted themselves with fasting. They fasted
three consecutive days – both night and day, in addition to daily fasts, until their skin
shriveled on their bones and became as dry wood. They cried out and gave forth a loud and bitter
shriek. But their Father did not answer them. …
That year Passover fell on Thursday and the new moon of Iyyar on Friday. On the
eighth of Iyyar, on the Sabbath [that is, on 3 May 1096], the enemy arose against the
[Jewish] community of Speyer and killed eleven saintly souls who sanctified their Creator
on the holy Sabbath day and refused to be baptized. There was a notable and pious
woman who slaughtered herself for the sanctification of the [Divine] Name. She was the
first of those who slaughtered themselves in all the communities.

Events at Worms
On the twenty-third of Iyyar, they rose up against the [Jewish] community of Worms.
The community divided into two groups. Some stayed in their homes and some fled
to the bishop. Then the wolves of the steppes rose up against those that were in their
homes and pillaged them – men, women, and children; young and old. They tore
down the stairways and destroyed the houses. They plundered and ravaged. They
took the Torah and trampled it in the mud and tore it and burned it. They devoured
Israel with a greedy mouth.
Seven days later, on the new moon of Sivan, the day of the arrival of Israel at Sinai in
order to receive the Torah, those who still remained in the chambers of the [Christian]
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  231
bishop [who had given them refuge in his palace] were subjected to terror. The enemy
assaulted them, as they had done to the earlier group, and put them to the sword. They
[the Jews] held firm to the example of their brethren and were killed and sanctified the
[Divine] Name publicly. They stretched forth their necks, so that their heads might be
cut off for the Name of their Creator. There were some of them that took their own
lives. They fulfilled the verse: Mothers and babes were dashed together. Indeed fathers also
fell with their children, for they were slaughtered together. They slaughtered brethren,
relatives, wives, and children. Bridegrooms [slaughtered] their intended and merciful
mothers their only children. All of them accepted the heavenly decree unreservedly. As
they commended their souls to their Creator, they cried out: “Hear O Israel! The Lord
is our God; the Lord is one.” The enemy stripped them and dragged them about. There
remained only a small number whom they converted forcibly and baptized against their
will in their baptismal waters. Approximately eight hundred was the number killed, who
were killed on these two days. …
There was also a respected woman there, named Minna, hidden in a house under-
ground, outside the city. All the men of the city gathered and said to her: “Behold you
are a capable woman. Know and see that God does not wish to save you, for [the Jews] lie
naked at the corner of every street, unburied. Sully yourself [with the waters of baptism].” They
fell before her to the ground, for they did not wish to kill her. Her reputation was known
widely, for all the notables of the city and the princes of the land were found in her circle.
She responded and said: “Heaven forfend that I deny the God on high. For him and his
holy Torah kill me and do not tarry any longer.” There the woman whose praises were sung
at the gates was killed. All of them were killed and sanctified the Divine Name unreserv-
edly and willingly. All of them slaughtered one another together – young men and young
women, old men and old women, even infants slaughtered themselves for the sanctifica-
tion of the [Divine] Name.

Events at Mainz
Now I shall recount and tell the great wonders that were done that day by these saintly
ones. Behold has such a thing ever happened before, from the earliest days? For they
jostled one another saying: “I shall sanctify first the Name of the King of kings the Holy
One, blessed be he.” The pious women, the daughters of kings, threw coins and silver
out the windows at the enemy, so that they be occupied with gathering the money
in order to impede them slightly until they might finish slaughtering their sons and
daughters. The hands of merciful mothers slaughtered their children, in order to do
the will of their Creator. …
Subsequently the saintly women threw stones through the windows against the
enemy. The enemy threw stones against them. They took the stones until their flesh and
faces became shredded. They cursed and blasphemed the crusaders in the name of the
Crucified the impure and foul, the son of lust: “Upon whom do you trust? Upon a rotting
corpse!” The crusaders advanced to break down the door.
Who has seen anything like this; who has heard anything like that which the saintly and
pious woman, Rachel daughter of R. Isaac ben R. Asher wife of R. Judah, did? She
said to her companions: “I have four children. On them as well have no mercy, lest
these uncircumcised come and seize them alive and they remain in their pseudofaith.
With them as well you must sanctify the Name of the holy God.” One of her compan-
ions came and took the knife to slaughter her son. When the mother of the children
232  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
saw the knife she shouted loudly and bitterly and smote her face and breast and said:
“Where is your steadfast love, O Lord?” Then the woman said to her companions in
her bitterness: “Do not slaughter Isaac before his brother Aaron, so that he not see
the death of his brother and take flight.” The women took the lad and slaughtered
him – he was small and exceedingly comely. The mother spread her sleeve to receive
the blood; she received the blood in her sleeves instead of in the [Temple] vessel for
blood. The lad Aaron, when he saw that his brother had been slaughtered, cried out:
“Mother, do not slaughter me!” He went and hid under a bureau. She still had two
daughters, Bella and Matrona, comely and beautiful young women, the daughters
of R. Judah her husband. The girls took the knife and sharpened it, so that it not be
defective. They stretched forth their necks and she sacrificed them to the Lord God
of Hosts, who commanded us not to renounce pure awe of him and to remain faithful
to him, as it is written: You must be wholehearted with the Lord your God. When the saintly
one completed sacrificing her three children before the Creator, then she raised her
voice and called to her son: “Aaron, Aaron, where are you? I shall not have mercy
nor pity on you as well.” She pulled him by the leg from under the bureau where he
was hidden and she sacrificed him before the sublime and exalted God. She placed
them under her two sleeves, two on each side, near her heart. They convulsed near
her, until the enemy seized the chamber and found her sitting and mourning them.
They said to her: “Show us the moneys which you have in your sleeves.” When they
saw the children and saw that they were slaughtered, they smote her and killed her
along with them. With regard to her it is said: Mothers and babes were dashed to death
together. She [died] with her four children. … The father wailed and cried out when
he saw the death of his four children, comely and beautiful. He went and threw himself
on the sword in his hand. …
There were many women who sanctified the Name of the Creator to the death and
did not wish to exchange him for the crucified bastard. Rachel, the companion of the
deceased Rabbi Elazar and the companion of R. Judah ben R. Isaac, the great guide, was
killed for the sanctification of his Name. Likewise other saintly women who were with
them sanctified the [Divine] Name. These pious ones were brought before the courtyard
of the church and they entreated them to immerse themselves in the waters of baptism.
When they reached the church, they did not wish to enter a shrine of idolatry and their
feet were mired, against their will, on the threshhold. They did not wish to enter the
shrine of idolatry. … When the crusaders saw that they would not accept baptism –
rather that they trusted mightily in the living God with all their heart, then the enemy
leaped upon them and struck them with axes and blows. There the pious ones were killed
for the sanctification of the [Divine] Name. There were in addition two pious women.
One was Guta, the wife of Rabbi Isaac ben R. Moses, who had been killed at the outset,
and the second was Scholaster, the wife of R. Isaac who was [subsequently] burned for
the sanctification of the [Divine] Name. They likewise sanctified the sacred and unique
Name, whose uniqueness is celebrated by all the living, at the time when the saintly ones
were killed in the courtyard of the archbishop. They were in the courtyard of a certain
burgher. The enemy forced him out of his house, and the crusaders and burghers gath-
ered against them and urged them to be baptized with their evil waters. They put their
trust in the Holy One of Israel and stretched forth their necks. The crusaders struck them
without mercy. There the holy ones were killed for the sanctification of the awesome and
unique Name.
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  233
Events at Trier
After [many killings in Trier], the enemy saw those remaining in the [bishop’s] palace
– that they were as firm in their faith as at the outset and that their hands had not been
weakened by what had been done to these first [martyrs]. They said to one another: “All
this the women do – they incite their husbands, strengthening their hands to rebel. …”
Then all the ministers came and each grasped forcefully the hands of the women, smiting
and wounding them, and led them to the church in order to baptize them. Afterward they
sent and took forcefully children from the bosoms of their mothers and took them with
them, to fulfill what is said: Your sons and daughters shall be delivered to another people. The women
raised their voices and wept. Three days prior to informing them of this forced conversion,
the ministers came to the palace and closed the pit in which water was held in the palace,
for they feared lest they throw their children there to kill them. They did not permit them
to ascend the wall, so that they not throw themselves from the wall. All night they guarded
them that they not kill one another, until dawn. All this they planned because they did not
wish to kill them – rather they labored to seize them and to forcibly convert them.
There was a young woman in front of the gateway of the palace. She stretched her neck
outside and said: “Anyone who wishes to cut off my head for the fear of my Rock [that is, my
God] let him come and do so.” The uncircumcised did not wish to touch her, because the
young lady was comely and charming. But many times they wished to take her and carry her
off with them. They intended [to do so] but could not, for she threw herself to the ground and
made herself dead weight. Thus she remained in the palace. Then her aunt came and said
to her: “Do you wish to die with me for the fear of our Rock?” She answered and said to her:
“Yes, gladly.” They went and bribed the guard of the gate. They left and went to the bridge
and threw themselves into the water out of fear of the eternal King. Thus also did two young
girls from Cologne. … Praise to the Lord that they were accorded burial. May the Avenger
avenge in our days and before our eyes the blood of his servants that has been spilled. May
their virtue and saintliness serve for our merit and protect us on a day of evil.

Questions: What roles did women play during this crisis? What traditional and non-traditional female
virtues are praised in the depictions of women in these texts? How does the use of biblical language and
imagery affect the depictions of women? How is religious prejudice on both sides revealed?

77. M aimonides : T he B ook of W omen (12 th c .)

The rabbi Maimonides (1135–1204), one of the greatest Jewish philosophers of medi-
eval Europe, lived in Spain, in a region ruled by Muslims. He collected in this book
the traditions of Jewish law concerning the family, from ancient times to his own.
Much of the excerpt below concerns the ketubbah, the written document containing
the terms of the Jewish marriage contract; by extension, “ketubbah” could mean the
share of the husband’s property assigned to the wife in the document.
Source: Isaac Klein, tr., The Code of Maimonides, Book Four: The Book of Women, Yale University Press,
copyright 1972. Used by permission.

Elements of the marriage contract

Chapter XII. 1. When a man marries a woman, whether virgin or non-virgin, whether adult
or minor, whether a daughter of Israel, a proselyte, or an emancipated bondswoman, he
234  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
obligates himself to her for ten things, and is in turn entitled to four things from her.
2. Of the ten, three are found in the Torah: her food, her raiment, and her conjugal rights
(Exod. 21:10). Her food signifies her maintenance; her raiment, what the term implies;
her conjugal rights, sexual intercourse with her, according to the way of the world.
  The other seven are of Scribal origin, and all of them are conditions laid down by
the court. The first of them is the statutory ketubbah; the rest are called “conditions
contained in the ketubbah.” They are the following: to treat her if she falls ill; to ransom
her if she is captured; to bury her if she dies; to provide for her maintenance out of his
estate; to let her dwell in his house after his death for the duration of her widowhood;
to let her daughters sired by him receive their maintenance out of his estate after his
death, until they become espoused; to let her male children sired by him inherit her
ketubbah, in addition to their share with their half-brothers in his estate.
3. And the four things he is entitled to are all of Scribal origin, namely the following:
he is entitled to her earnings, to anything she finds, and to the usufruct of her estate
during her lifetime. And should she die in his lifetime, he is her heir, with precedence
over anyone else as to her estate.

Raiment and Housing

Chapter XIII. 1. How much raiment is the husband obligated to provide for his wife?
Clothes to the amount of fifty zuz per annum, in the coin current at that time, when
fifty zuz equaled six and a quarter silver denar.
The new garments should be given to her in the rainy season, so that they would
be well worn when she wears them in the dry season; as for worn-out garments,
meaning what remains of the original clothes, they are hers to cover herself there-
with during her menstrual period. She is also to be given a girdle for her loins, a cap
for her head, and shoes from one festival to the other.
2. When does this apply? In those days and in the Land of Israel. At other times,
however, and in other places, the specified value is not the determinant. There are
places where clothing may be very expensive or very cheap. The principle to be
observed is that the husband is obligated to give her garments suitable for the rainy
season and for the dry season, worth not less than what any housewife in that country
would require for her wearing apparel.
3. Included with the garments that he is obligated to give her are the house furnishings
and the dwelling itself in which she resides.
  What are the house furnishings? A spread couch, and a mattress or mat to sit on;
and eating and drinking utensils such as a pot, a platter, a cup, a bottle, and the like.
As for the dwelling, he must lease for her a house at least four cubits by four, with a
yard outside for her use. It should also have a separate lavatory.
4. He is likewise obligated to give her toilet articles, such as colored fabrics to wind
around her head and forehead, eye-paint, rouge, and the like, so that she might not
seem unattractive to him.
5. To whom does this apply? To the poor in Israel. As for the wealthy, everything
should be commensurate with his wealth. Even if he can afford to buy her silken and
embroidered garments and gold jewelry, he should be compelled to do so.
  The same applies to the dwelling, which should likewise be commensurate with
his wealth; and so should the toilet articles and the house furnishings – everything
should be according to his wealth. …
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  235
14. If a man says to his wife, “I do not wish to have your father, your mother, your
brothers, or your sisters come to my house,” his wish is to be honored, and she
should visit them instead when anything happens to them. She should also visit her
father’s house once a month, and on each pilgrimage festival. They, however, should
not visit her, unless something has happened to her, such as illness or a delivery, for
no man may be compelled to let others enter his premises.
  Thus, also, if she says, “I do not wish to have your mother or your sisters visit
me, nor do I wish to reside in the same courtyard with them, because they cause me
harm and annoyance,” her wish is to be honored.

Marital relations
Chapter XIV. 2. A wife may restrict her husband in his business journeys to nearby
places only, so that he would not otherwise deprive her of her conjugal rights. Hence
he may not set out except with her permission.
  8. The wife who prevents her husband from having intercourse with her is called “a
rebellious wife,” and should be questioned as to the reason for her rebelliousness.
If she says, “I have come to loathe him, and I cannot willingly submit to his inter-
course,” he must be compelled to divorce her immediately, for she is not like a
captive woman who must submit to a man that is hateful to her. She must, however,
leave with forfeiture of all of her ketubbah. …
  9. If she rebels against her husband merely in order to torment him, and says, “I am going
to make him suffer in this way, because he has done thus-and-so to me,” or “because he
has cursed me,” or “because he quarrels with me,” or anything similar, the court should
send her a message stating as follows: “Be it known unto you that if you persist in your
rebellion, your ketubbah … will stand forfeited.” After that an announcement should be
made about her in the synagogues and the houses of study, every day for four consecutive
weeks, to the effect that “So-and-so has rebelled against her husband.”
10. After the announcement the court should send her a second message, saying, “If you
persist in your rebellion, you will forfeit your ketubbah.” If she persists in her rebel-
lion and does not repent, a consultation should be held with her. Whereupon she is
to forfeit her ketubbah and lose her title to any ketubbah at all.

A wife’s work
Chapter XXI. 1. Anything a woman may find and her handiwork belong to her husband. And
what is she required to do for him? It all depends on the custom of the country. Where
the custom is for wives to weave, she must weave; to embroider, she must embroider; to
spin wool or flax, she must spin. If it is not the custom of the women of that town to do all
these kinds of work, he cannot compel her to do any of them, except spinning wool only –
because flax injures the mouth and lips – for spinning is a kind of work that is characteristic
of women, as it is said, And all women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands (Exod. 35:25).
2. If she exerts herself to perform more work than is proper for her, the surplus belongs
to her husband.
  If he has a great deal of money, and even if she herself has many maidservants, she
should not sit idle, without work, because idleness leads to immorality. She should
not, however, be compelled to work all day long, but may reduce her work in propor-
tion to their wealth.
236  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
3. … Every wife must likewise wash her husband’s face, hands, and feet, pour his cup
for him, spread his couch, and wait on him, for example, by handing him water
or a vessel, or removing these from before him, and the like. She is not obligated,
however, to wait on his father or his son.
5. There are other kinds of work that a wife must perform for her husband when they are
poor. These are the following: She must bake bread in the oven – Ezra ordained that a
wife should rise early to do her baking, so that bread might be available for the poor –
cook food, wash clothes, nurse her child, put fodder before her husband’s mount – but
not before his cattle – and attend to the grinding of corn. How should she attend to the
grinding? By sitting at the flour mill and watching the flour, not by doing the grinding
herself; or by driving the beast, so that the mill would not stand idle. If, however, the
local custom is for wives to do their grinding with a hand mill, she must do the grinding
herself.
11. As long as the wife is nursing her child, the amount of her work should be reduced,
while her maintenance should be augmented with wine and other things that are
beneficial for lactation.

Dowry
Chapter XXIII. 11. There are many customs regarding the dowry. …
13. If a man and a woman are negotiating with a view to matrimony, he saying to her, “How
much will you bring me?,” to which she replies, “So-and-so much. And how much will
you give me,” or “write for me?”, to which he replies, “So-and-so much”; and similarly,
if the two fathers are negotiating in behalf of the son and the daughter, respectively, the
one asking, “How much are you giving in behalf of your son?”, and the other replying,
“So-and-so much. And how much are you giving in behalf of your daughter?”, “So-and-so
much” – once the two parties perform the betrothal, each is entitled to the property stipu-
lated in the negotiation, even if no symbolic act of barter had taken place between them.

Misbehavior
Chapter XXIV. 11. The following acts, if committed by a woman, render her guilty
of transgressing the law of Moses: going out into the street with the hair of her
head uncovered, making vows or swearing oaths and not fulfilling them, indulging
in sexual intercourse during menstruation, failing to set aside her dough offering, or
serving her husband prohibited food, that is, not only such food as swarming and
creeping creatures or carrion, but also untithed food. …
15. How is a woman to be dismissed on the ground of ill repute? For example, if witnesses
testify that she has done something exceedingly unseemly, indicating that a trans-
gression has been committed, even though there is no clear evidence of harlotry.
How so? If, for example, she is alone in the courtyard, and people seeing a spice-
peddlar come out, immediately at the moment of his exit enter and find her rising
from the couch and putting on her trousers or tying her belt, or find moist saliva
above the canopy; or if both of them come out of a dark place, or help one another
to ascend from a pit, or the like; or if they see him kiss her at the opening of her
chemise, or see them kiss or hug each other, or if the two of them enter a place
one after the other and shut the doors, or act in a similar manner. In any case such
as these, if the husband wishes to dismiss her, she may be dismissed without her
ketubbah, and no warning is required.
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic womenâ•… 237
Questions: What seem to be the principles underlying these laws? What is the status of women here
in comparison with men? How realistic are the details of the laws? How do the Jewish laws compare
with the Christian ones in Chapter II?

78.╇ J udah A sheri : F amily history (13 th –14 th c .)

Judah Asheri (d. 1349) was a German Jew who migrated to Spain early in his life.
In his will he recounts episodes of family history which remind us of the precarious
conditions under which Jews lived in medieval Europe. The first paragraph below is
included for its description of a female medical practitioner.
Source: Hebrew Ethical Wills, tr. Israel Abrahams (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1926).

When I was an infant about three months old, my eyes were affected, and were never
completely restored. A certain woman tried to cure me when I was about three years of
age, but she added to my blindness, to the extent that I remained for a year unable to
see the road on which to walk. Then a Jewess, a skilled oculist, appeared on the scene;
she treated me for about two months, and then died. Had she lived another month, I
might have received my sight fully. As it was, but for the two months’ attention from her,
I might never have been able to see at all. …
One of the good methods which I desired for maintaining the family record was the
marriage of my sons to members of my father’s house. I had many reasons for this. First,
it is a fair and fit thing to join fruit of vine to fruit of vine. It is indeed an important duty,
for as our Sages said: He who loves his relatives, he who marries his sister’s daughter, and
he who lends to the poor in the hour of his distress – to him applies the text: “Then shalt
thou call, and the Lord will answer; thou shalt cry and He will say, Here I am.” Further-
more, the women of our family have grown accustomed to the ways of students, and the
love of the Torah has entered their hearts, so that they are a help to their husbands in
their scholarly pursuits. Moreover, they are not used to extravagant expenditure; they do
not demand luxuries, the provision of which disturbs a man from his study. Then again,
children for the most part resemble the mother’s family. Finally, if with changing times a
man see fit to seek his livelihood in another city, there will be none to place obstacles in
the way of the wife accompanying her husband.
The second plan is for me to write something of the history of my saintly progenitors,
for the edification of those that come after us. … As I left Germany when about thirteen
years of age, I did not acquire exact information as to our fathers’ righteous lives, except
the little which I heard from my lord, my father of blessed memory, and from his sister
and my grandmother, who related to me some of the family history. …
Six months after [my grandfather’s] death, at midnight on the Sabbath night, he
appeared to his wife and said to her: “Haste and rise, take thy sons and thy daughters,
and remove them hence, for tomorrow all the Jews of this place will be slain. So it was
decreed against the whole neighborhood, but we prayed and our petition was successful
except as regards this place.” She rose and obeyed, but returning to save her belongings,
she was killed with the congregation. She had previously rescued my lord, my father, R.
Asher of blessed memory, and his brother, R. Hayyim. … They had another brother …
[and] six sisters, the whole family saintly – all bearing deservedly high reputations among
their contemporaries. The nine of them escaped on the day and under the circumstances
narrated above. All of them had large families of sons and daughters, and I have heard
238  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
that one of the sons of my uncle, R. Hayyim, of blessed memory, married in Germany,
and that there were at his wedding about five hundred men and women, all relatives, the
relationship reaching to that of third cousins.

Questions: What roles do women play in Judah Asheri’s account of his life and his family? How
does this text relate to those that precede it in this chapter?

79. Eleazar of Mainz: Moral instruction for his family (14th c.)

Eleazar (d. 1357) left a will which is largely devoted to moral instructions for his sons
and daughters. Like a code of law, this type of source must be read not only for what
it prescribes but also for the clues it may contain about life as it was actually lived.
Note, in the first paragraph of this source, that Jews were required by their religious
laws to bathe regularly, reciting certain prayers beforehand and afterwards; this was
usually done at public bathhouses.
Source: Hebrew Ethical Wills, tr. Israel Abrahams (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1926).

My daughters must obey scrupulously the rules applying to women; modesty, sanctity,
reverence, should mark their married lives. They should carefully watch for the signs of the
beginning of their periods and keep separate from their husbands at such times. Marital inter-
course must be modest and holy, with a spirit of restraint and delicacy, in reverence and in
silence. They shall be very punctilious and careful with their ritual bathing, taking with them
women friends of worthy character. They shall cover their eyes until they reach their home,
on returning from the bath, in order not to behold anything of an unclean nature. They must
respect their husbands, and must be invariably amiable to them. Husbands, on their part,
must honor their wives more than themselves, and treat them with tender consideration.
If they can contrive it, my sons and daughters should live in communities, and not isolated
from other Jews, so that their sons and daughters may learn the ways of Judaism. Even if
compelled to solicit from others the money to pay a teacher, they must not let the young, of
both sexes, go without instruction in the Torah. Marry your children, O my sons and daugh-
ters, as soon as their age is ripe, to members of respectable families. Let no child of mine hunt
after money by making a low match for that object; but if the family is undistinguished only
on the mother’s side, it does not matter, for all Israel counts descent from the father’s side.
Every Friday morning, they shall put themselves in careful trim for honoring the
Sabbath, kindling the lamps while the day is still great, and in winter lighting the furnace
before dark, to avoid desecrating the Sabbath (by kindling fire thereon). For due welcome
to the Sabbath, the women must prepare beautiful candles. As to games of chance, I
entreat my children never to engage in such pastimes. During the leisure of the festival
weeks they may play for trifling stakes in kind, and the women may amuse themselves
similarly on New Moons, but never for money. In their relation to women, my sons must
behave continently, avoiding mixed bathing and mixed dancing and all frivolous conver-
sation, while my daughters ought not to speak much with strangers, nor jest nor dance
with them. They ought to be always at home, and not gadding about. They should not
stand at the door, watching whatever passes. I ask, I command, that the daughters of my
house be never without work to do, for idleness leads first to boredom, then to sin. But
let them spin, or cook, or sew. …
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic womenâ•… 239
Now, my sons and daughters, eat and drink only what is necessary, as our good
parents did, refraining from heavy meals, and holding the gross liver in detestation. The
regular adoption of such economy in food leads to economy in expenditure generally,
with a consequent reluctance to pursue after wealth, but the acquisition of a contented
spirit, simplicity in diet, and many good results. Concerning such a well-ordered life the
text says: “The righteous eateth to the satisfaction of his desire.” Our teachers have said:
“Method in expenditure is half a sufficiency.” Nevertheless, accustom yourselves and
your wives, your sons and your daughters, to wear nice and clean clothes, that God and
man may love and honor you. In this direction do not exercise too strict a parsimony.
But on no account adopt foreign fashions in dress. After the manner of your fathers order
your attire, and let your cloaks be broad without buckles attached. …
Be very particular to keep your houses clean and tidy. I was always very scrupulous
on this point, for every injurious condition, and sickness and poverty, are to be found in
foul dwellings.

Questions: What does the author want his daughters to do and not to do? Why? What worldly
and spiritual concerns does he have for them? In what ways does the text reveal the position of the
Jews as a minority group in a hostile society? How does this text compare with others written for the
moral instruction of women, especially the Book of the Knight of the Tower in Chapter IV (docu-
ment 38)?

80.╇ J ewish sumptuary laws (15 th c .)

“Sumptuary” laws regulating the dress and other aspects of material consumption
were common in medieval Europe. The following examples were enacted by the
Jewish authorities themselves; the Christian majority also sometimes imposed certain
restrictions of dress on Jews.
Source: The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, ed. Jacob R. Marcus (Cincinnati: The Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, 1938).

Forli, Italy, 18 May 1418

In order also to humble our hearts, and to walk modestly before our God, and not to
show off in the presence of the Gentiles, we have agreed that from today, until the termi-
nation of the time already mentioned [1426], no Jew or Jewess of the above recorded
Jewish communities, towns, or villages shall be so arrogant as to wear a fur-lined jacket,
unless, of course, it is black. Also the sleeves must not be open, nor be lined with silk, for
that would be arrogant. These fur-lined jackets, however, other than black, may still be
worn, provided that the sleeves and the garments themselves are closed at the sides and
at the back. …
Likewise no woman shall openly wear any girdle or belt if its silver weighs more than
ten ounces.

Valladolid, Spain, 2 May 1432

No son of Israel of the age of fifteen or more shall wear any cloak of gold-thread, olive-
colored material or silk, or any cloak trimmed with gold or olive-colored material or silk,
240â•… Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
nor a cloak with rich trimmings nor with trimmings of olive-colored or gold cloth.
This prohibition does not include the clothes worn at a time of festivity or at the
reception of a lord or lady, nor at balls or similar social occasions.
Because of the diversity of custom among the communities in regard to the wearing
of apparel, we find it impracticable to make a general ordinance which shall provide for
all the details that ought to be included, and we therefore ordain that each community
shall make such ordinances on the subject so long as this Ordinance endures, as will keep
before their minds that we are in Dispersion because of our sins, and if they desire to
establish more rigorous rules than this they have the power to do so.

Questions: What reasons are given here for the restrictions of dress? Which ones seem to be the most
important? Compare these regulations with the sumptuary laws in Chapter II (document 19).

81.╇ A marital question: An innkeeper’s wife leaves home (ca. 1470)

The narrator here is Hakkym ben Jehiel Cohen Falcon, a Jewish innkeeper in the
Italian city of Pavia. His wife, having left him, is under technical suspicion of sexual
misconduct, and thus Hakkym must appeal to the Jewish authorities for permission
to take her back as his wife. Normally a Jewish husband need not have divorced his
wife even if she admitted to adultery, but a cohen, a descendant of the Jewish priestly
caste, was held to a higher standard of purity than other Jews.
â•… The auxiliary bishop’s statement that the forty-day period of reflection for a
person preparing to be baptized was established by Jesus is inaccurate; it was actu-
ally established by Pope Gregory I (590–604).
Source: The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, ed. Jacob R. Marcus (Cincinnati: The Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, 1938).

[Hakkym writes his story to Rabbi Joseph Colon]

In order to relate everything that has happened to me I shall tell you in detail what my
business is and I shan’t hide a thing from you, sir. Now this is the matter concerning
which I make inquiry of my master:
For the past several years I have made my living as an innkeeper in Pavia, and this
was my business up to the year 230 [1469] when my wife began to trouble me saying:
“You’ve got to leave this business,” and she gave me some good reasons for it. After she
had kept hammering away at me every day for about six months and I had paid no atten-
tion to her – I kept pushing her off – the quarrel between us regarding this affair reached
its climax about the beginning of Adar 230 [February 1470]. While I was in the house
teaching my daughter, my wife picked herself up right at noon, took all the silver vessels
and her jewelry, and repaired to the house of a Gentile woman, a neighbor, to whom my
wife went frequently. This woman used to sew linen clothes for me, for my household,
and for the guests who used to come to my place. She was also my laundress.
My wife was in the house of this Gentile woman about half an hour before I inquired
of my daughters where she had gone – for I was intent on teaching my daughter.
Suddenly, however, my thoughts rose up and stirred me to ask my daughters: “Girls,
where is your mother?” They told me that she had gone outside and that my four year
old little girl, holding her right hand, had gone with her. I thereupon went after her,
seeking her in Jewish homes unsuccessfully, till my heart told me: “Go to the house of
the Gentile; perhaps she’s staying there.” So I turned in her direction and came to the
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  241
house of the Gentile woman but found the door locked. I knocked and the husband of
the woman opened the door at once, but when he saw that it was I, the husband of the
woman who had just come into his home, he was distressed and tried to close the door,
but he couldn’t, for I entered by force. When the auxiliary bishop, who was there, heard
my voice, he said to me: “Come on in and don’t be afraid.”
There were present there, in addition to the auxiliary bishop, two citizens, the bish-
op’s chaplain, and two Gentile women seated beside my wife, who was on a bench with
her daughter in her arms. As I came into the house the auxiliary bishop said to me: “Is
this your wife?” and I answered: “Yes, my lord.”
“According to what we now observe,” he said again, “another spirit has clothed your
wife, who wishes to change her religion; therefore are we come to encourage her to turn
to the Christian religion if she has really set her heart on it. If not, we advise her to return
to her people and to her God.”
I then asked his permission to have an earnest talk with her in German, and he gave
me permission to speak with her in any kindly way as long as I did not scold her. Now this
is what I said to her: “Why have you come here and why don’t you return home?” To
which she answered: “I’m going to stay here and I don’t care to return, for I don’t want
to be the mistress of a tavern.” “Come on, come on back,” I said to her, “I have already
promised you, you can do whatever your heart desires in this matter.”
“You can’t fool me again,” she responded. “You’ve lied to me ten times and I don’t
trust you.” And as she was speaking to me after this fashion I said to her: “Why have
you your little daughter in your arms?” “Take your daughter and go,” she answered,
and I took her in my arms. Then as I turned to go my way the auxiliary bishop said
to me: “Look here, Falcon, don’t be disturbed about your wife. No pressure will be
brought to bear on her. Nothing will be done in haste, but quietly, calmly, and with
her consent. Before we make a decision in this matter we will place her in a cloistered
spot, among virtuous nuns, where no man may enter. She’ll have to stay there forty
days until she completes the period of her isolation and reflection – for this practice
has been established by the founder of Christianity that one may determine what is
in the heart of those who come to change their religion, and also in order to prevent
confusion to Christianity.”
When I heard this I turned homeward weeping as I went. My oldest daughter came
out to meet me, and I told her all about the unseemly affair that had happened to me.
She ran to her mother to find out what she had in mind. “Go back to the house and don’t
be concerned, and don’t bother about me,” her mother told her. Whereupon the girl ran
to a prominent Jewess. Then the both of them came to the girl’s mother, and the Jewess
spoke to her. Behold, the entire conversation of this Jewess is recorded in a deposition
that has been forwarded to you.
Within half an hour after this had happened the bishop ordered the woman to be taken
to a convent in which a very rigorous Christian discipline prevailed and which, of all the
convents, was the most isolated from man. Such convents are shut off so completely that
no man can enter there except on rare occasions or in case of emergency. For instance,
the bishop would go there when there was an absolute need, or the physician, who was
assigned to them, would come there with the permission of the bishop if one of the nuns
took sick. When my wife went to the convent she was accompanied by seven Gentile
women and two citizens, and she remained there all that day and all that night.
However, her spirit was moved for good, and when the morning came she sent word
to the bishop that she earnestly desired to return to her home saying: “I am the wife of a
242  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
cohen, and if I stay here a day or two more I can no more return to the shelter of his home,
for he must divorce me.” …
The bishop then sent for me and came to meet me – for he had gone to the convent –
and he repeated to me all the things that had been said and done, and said further: “Look
here, your wife wants to return to your home, but I fear you may vex her with words
and reproaches. Don’t do it. For wherein has she sinned against you? And although she
says that she has no cause to fear, nevertheless I beg of you, please do not reprove her
or oppress her. Return to her as of old and I’ll do this for you: I’ll cross-question her in
the presence of witnesses, as is meet to be done in such a case,” and so he did. Toward
evening God’s light shone on that bishop, for he restored my wife to her home, and she is
there now, weeping for her sin, imploring my forgiveness and pardon and condonation,
and afflicting her soul, and may God forgive her.
Therefore your humble servant, here undersigned, requests my lord to be so kind as
to inform me – if I have found favor in your learned sight – whether my wife is permitted
to live with me or not. And this is the inquiry which I make of you, even as I might bring
my case before a divine oracle, and I shall adhere closely to whatever you command me.
It will be ascribed to you as an act of righteousness if you clarify this distressing situation,
and may God be kind and gracious unto you and give you opportunities greater even
than your ancestors’ to spread Torah and to impart knowledge to the people, for your
ways are ways of pleasantness.

Questions: Describe the relationship between Hakkym and his wife. What factors have contributed to
the current state of that relationship? What is the emotional state of Hakkym’s wife? What options
does she have, and what will be the consequences of various choices she might make? What is the
status of the Christian woman next door in relation to Hakkym’s family?
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  243
B. MUSLIM WOMEN

82. T he Q ur ’ an (7 th c .)
The holy book of Islam was compiled in the early seventh century in Arabia;
Muslims believe that it was dictated by Allah to Mohammed. The Muslim faith
was spread by the Arab conquests of the Middle East, Northern Africa and
Spain (by the early eighth century), and with it spread Islamic law, based on the
Qur’an. The passages below are addressed to men but prescribe the place of
women in Islamic society.
Source: Quran, The Final Testament: Authorized English Version, with the Arabic Text, tr. Rashad Khalifa
(Tucson: Islamic Productions, 1989). Selections below are from the following suras and verses:
2:221–3, 226–31, 233–7, 240–1, 282; 4:1, 3, 7, 11–12, 15–16, 19–25, 32, 34–5; 24:32–3, 60;
33:35–59.

The place of women

O people, observe your Lord; the One who created you from one being and created from
it its mate, then spread from the two many men and women. …
You shall not covet the qualities bestowed on each other by God; the men enjoy
certain qualities, and women enjoy certain qualities. …
The men are made responsible for the women, since God endowed them with
certain qualities, and made them the bread earners. The righteous women will cheer-
fully accept this arrangement, and observe God’s commandments, even when alone
in their privacy. If you experience opposition from the women, you shall first talk to
them, then [you may use such negative incentives as] deserting them in bed, then
you may beat them. If they obey you, you are not permitted to transgress against
them. …
The Muslim men, the Muslim women, the believing men, the believing women,
the obedient men, the obedient women, the truthful men, the truthful women, the
steadfast men, the steadfast women, the reverent men, the reverent women, the
charitable men, the charitable women, the fasting men, the fasting women, the
chaste men, the chaste women, and the men who commemorate God frequently,
and the commemorating women; God has prepared for them forgiveness and a great
recompense.

Women in law
If you transact a loan … [you] shall have two witnesses from among your men. If two
men are not available, then choose two women whose testimony is acceptable to all
parties. Thus, if one woman becomes biased, the other will remind her.

Inheritance
The men get a share of what the parents and the relatives leave behind. The women too
shall get a share of what the parents and relatives leave behind. Whether it is a small or
a large inheritance, [the women must get] a definite share. …
244  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
God decrees a will for the benefit of your children; the male gets twice the share of
the female. If the inheritors are only women, more than two, they get two-thirds of what
is bequeathed. If only one daughter is left, she gets one-half. …
You get half of what your wives leave behind, if they had no children. If they had chil-
dren, you get one-fourth of what they leave. All this, after fulfilling any will they had left,
and after paying off all debts. They get one-fourth of what you leave behind, if you had
no children. If you had children, they get one-eighth of the inheritance you leave behind.
All this, after fulfilling any will you had left, and after paying off all debts. …
O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit what the women leave behind,
against their will. You shall not force them to give up anything you had given them,
unless they commit a proven adultery. You shall treat them nicely. If you dislike them,
you may dislike something wherein God has placed a lot of good.

Marriage
Do not marry idolatress women unless they believe; a believing woman is better than an
idolatress, even if you like her. And do not give your daughters to idolaters, unless they
believe. A believer is better than an idolater, even if you like him. Those people invite to
Hell, while God invites to Paradise and forgiveness by His leave. …
If you deem it best for the orphans, you may marry their mothers – you may marry
two, three, or four of them. If you fear lest you become unfair, then you shall be content
with only one, or with what you already have. This way, you are more likely to avoid
inequality. …
Prohibited for you [in marriage] are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters,
the sisters of your fathers, the sisters of your mothers, the daughters of your brother,
the daughters of your sister, your nursing mothers, the girls who nursed from the same
woman as you, the mothers of your wives, the daughters of your wives, with whom you
have consummated the marriage – if the marriage has not been consummated, you may
marry the daughter. Also prohibited for you are the women who were married to your
genetic sons. Also, you shall not be married to two sisters at the same time – but do not
break up existing marriages. …
Also prohibited are the women who are already married, unless their husbands are
disbelievers at war with you. … All other categories are permitted for you in marriage,
so long as you pay them their due dowries. …
Those among you who cannot afford to marry free believing women, may marry believing
slave women. … You shall obtain permission from their guardians before you marry them,
and pay them their due dowry equitably. … Once they are freed through marriage, if they
commit adultery, their punishment shall be half of that for the free women. Marrying a slave
shall be a last resort for those unable to wait. To be patient is better for you. …
You shall encourage those of you who are single to get married. They may even
marry the righteous among your male and female servants; if they are poor, God will
enrich them from His grace. God is Bounteous, Knower. Those who cannot afford to
get married shall maintain morality until God provides for them from His grace. Those
among your slaves who wish to be freed in order to marry, you shall grant them their
wish, once you realize that they are honest. And give to them from God’s money that He
has bestowed on you. You shall not force your girls to commit prostitution, seeking the
materials of this world, if they wish to be chaste. If anyone forces them, then God, seeing
that they are forced, is Forgiver, Merciful.
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  245
Divorce
Those who intend to estrange their wives shall wait four months [for cooling off]; if they
reconcile, then God is Forgiver, Most Merciful. If they go through with the divorce, then
God is Hearer, Knower. The divorced women shall wait three menstruations [before
marrying another man]. It is not lawful for them to conceal what God has created in their
wombs, if they believe in God and the Last Day. [In case of pregnancy,] the husband’s
wishes shall supersede the wife’s wishes if he wants to remarry her. The women have rights,
as well as obligations, equitably. Thus, the men’s wishes prevail [in case of pregnancy]. God
is Almighty, Most Wise.
Divorce may be retracted twice. … If he divorces her for the third time, it is not lawful
for him to remarry her, unless she marries another man, and he divorces her. The first
husband can then remarry her, so long as they observe God’s laws. …
If you divorce the women, once they shall fulfill their interim [three menstruations],
you shall allow them to live in the same home amicably, or let them leave amicably. Do
not force them to stay, as a revenge. Anyone who does this wrongs his own soul. …
Divorced mothers shall nurse their infants two full years, if the father so wishes. The
father shall provide the mother’s food and clothing, equitably. No one shall be burdened
beyond capacity. … If the father dies, his inheritor shall assume these responsibilities. If the
parents mutually agree to part, after due consultation, they commit no sin by doing so. You
commit no sin by hiring nursing mothers, so long as you pay them equitably. …
You commit no error if you divorce the women before touching them, or before
setting the dowry for them. In that case, you shall compensate them – the rich as he can
afford and the poor as he can afford – an equitable compensation. This is a duty upon
the righteous. If you divorce them before touching them, but after you had set the dowry
for them, the compensation shall be half the dowry, unless they voluntarily forfeit their
right, or the responsible party chooses to forfeit the whole dowry. To forfeit is closer to
righteousness. Do not abandon amicable relations among you. …
The divorcees also shall be provided for, equitably. This is a duty upon the righteous. …
If you wish to marry another wife, in place of your present wife, and you had given
the latter a great deal, you shall not take back anything you had given her. Would you
take it fraudulently, maliciously, and sinfully? How could you take it back, after you have
been intimate with each other, and after they have taken from you a solemn pledge? …
If a couple fears separation, you shall appoint an arbitrator from his family and an
arbitrator from her family; if they decide to reconcile, God will help them get together.

Menstruation
They ask you about menstruation: say, “It is harmful. Therefore, avoid sexual intercourse
with the women during menstruation, and do not approach them until they are over it. Once
they are over it, you may have intercourse with them in the manner designed by God. God
loves the repenters, and he loves those who are clean.” Your women are the bearers of your
seed. Thus, you may enjoy them however you wish, so long as you maintain righteousness.

Adultery
Those who commit adultery among your women, you must have four witnesses against
them. If they do bear witness, then you shall keep such women in their homes until they
246â•… Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
die, or until God creates an exit for them. The couple who commit adultery shall be
punished. If they repent and reform, you shall leave them alone.

Widows
Those who die and leave wives, their widows shall wait four months and ten days
[before remarriage]. Once they fulfill their interim, you commit no sin by letting
them do whatever they wish, equitably. … You commit no sin if you declare your
engagement to the women, or keep it secret. But do not meet them secretly, unless
you have something righteous to discuss. Do not consummate the marriage until the
interim is fulfilled. …
For those who die and leave wives, a will shall provide their wives with support for
one year, provided they stay within the same household.

Women’s dress
The elderly women who do not expect to get married commit nothing wrong by relaxing
their dress code, provided they do not reveal too much of their bodies. To maintain
modesty is better for them. …
O prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the believing women to lengthen
their garments. Thus, they will be recognized [as righteous women] and avoid being
insulted.

Questions: How does the Qur’an view women? What rights and duties do women have? How are
they treated in comparison to men? How do these excerpts compare with the excerpts from the Bible
in Chapter I and with Christian laws in Chapter II?

83.╇L awsuit in S icily (973)

From the tenth to the eleventh century, the island of Sicily was ruled by Muslims,
and afterwards a significant Muslim population continued to makes its home there.
This account of a woman defending her property in court in tenth-century Sicily
comes from a travel narrative.
Source: Bernard Lewis, ed. and tr., Islam from the Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of Constantinople
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

[The judge ‘Uthman ibn al-Kharraz] was petitioned by a woman who was troubled by
an unfounded claim on a house which belonged to her. He asked her for proofs and
she pleaded possession, adducing witnesses and written evidence which she produced
to the judge. He, however, asked for additional witnesses. Now he trusted the testimony
of the schoolmaster Abu Ibrahim Ishaq ibn al-Majali. He knew about the affair of this
woman, and she asked him to act as witness on her behalf. This he refused to do until
she promised a bribe … whereupon he testified in her favor. It happened that ‘Uthman
was about to sign the order of judgment which he had given on Ishaq’s testimony and
to have it registered, when Ishaq demanded the money which the woman had promised
him. But she dismissed him and refused to pay what she had promised him, believing
in her right and trusting that the testimony was established and that she had no further
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic womenâ•… 247
need of Ishaq or of anyone else. But the judge summoned Ishaq to confirm his testimony
in person, so as to execute judgment in favor of the woman on the basis of his testimony.
Ishaq then said, “May God strengthen the judge! I now withdraw my testimony because
of certain problems which have arisen concerning it.” Now the judge had held Ishaq’s
testimony in such esteem that a withdrawal did not seem to him allowable. He began to
doubt his story and made a very thorough investigation, by which the truth of the matter
appeared.

Questions: How does the woman in this case feel about the legal system? Is her attitude justified by
events?

84.╇M arket regulations at S eville (12 th c .)

Much of Spain was still Muslim in the twelfth century, when the writer Ibn ‘Abdun
recorded the following rules for public behavior in the Muslim-ruled city of Seville.
(For Spanish Christian laws, see document 16 in Chapter II.)
Source: Islam: From the Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of Constantinople, Volume II: Religion and Society,
edited and translated by Bernard Lewis. Copyright (c) 1974 by Bernard Lewis. Reprinted by
permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

Women should be forbidden to do their washing in the gardens, for these are dens
for fornication. …
Women should not sit by the river bank in the summer if men appear there.
No barber may remain alone with a woman in his booth. He should work in the open
market in a place where he can be seen and observed. …
No one may be allowed to claim knowledge of a matter in which he is not competent,
especially in the craft of medicine, for this can lead to loss of life. The error of a physi-
cian is hidden by the earth. Likewise a joiner. Each should keep to his own trade and not
claim any skill of which he is not an acknowledged master – especially with women, since
ignorance and error are greater among them. …
The lime stores and [other] empty places must be forbidden, because men go there
to be alone with women.
Only good and trustworthy men, known as such among people, may be allowed to
have dealings with women in buying and in selling. The tradespeople must watch over
this carefully. The women who weave brocades must be banned from the market, for
they are nothing but harlots.
On festival days men and women shall not walk on the same path when they go to
cross the river. …
Muslim women shall be prevented from entering [the Christians’] abominable
churches, for the priests are evil-doers, fornicators, and sodomites. Frankish [that is,
European non-Muslim] women must be forbidden to enter the church except on days of
religious services or festivals, for it is their habit to eat and drink and fornicate with the
priests, among whom there is not one who has not two or more women with whom he
sleeps. This has become a custom among them, for they have permitted what is forbidden
and forbidden what is permitted. The priests should be ordered to marry, as they do in
the eastern lands. If they wanted to, they would.
No women may be allowed in the house of a priest, neither an old woman nor any
other, if he refuses marriage. …
248  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
The contractor of the bathhouse should not sit there with the women, for this is an
occasion for license and fornication. The contractor of hostelries for traders and travelers
should not be a woman, for this is indeed fornication. The broker of houses shall not be
a young man, but a chaste old man of known good character. …
Prostitutes must be forbidden to stand bareheaded outside the houses. Decent women
must not bedeck themselves to resemble them. They must be stopped from coquetry and
party making among themselves, even if they have been permitted to do this [by their
husbands]. Dancing girls must be forbidden to bare their heads.

Questions: What attitudes toward women are apparent in this text? What attitudes toward Chris-
tians? What situations are considered especially dangerous to general morality?
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  249
C. HERETIC WOMEN

85. D escriptions of heretics :

W aldensian women ’ s activities (13 th c .)
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw an upsurge in heresy – religious beliefs
and practices which were contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church. Several
heretical sects, including the Waldensian movement, became widespread. As we
see in the following texts, women sometimes found a larger role in these heretical
groups than they were allowed in the orthodox church. The writers of the following
selections were all concerned with describing heresy in order to combat it.
Source: Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe: Documents in Translation, ed. and tr. Edward Peters
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980).

Rainier Sacconi (1254)

[The Poor Men of Lyons] also say that a simple layman may consecrate the body of the
Lord [that is, officiate at the sacrament of the Eucharist]. And I believe that they say that
even a woman may do this, since they have never denied this to me. …
The Poor of Lombardy agree with [the statements above] concerning the swearing
of oaths and temporal justice. Concerning the body of the Lord, however, they believe
even worse things than the other group, saying that it may be consecrated by any person
as long as he is without mortal sin.

Etienne de Bourbon (ca. 1250)

A certain rich man of the city [of Lyons], called Waldo, … sold all his goods, and
despising the world, he gave all his money to the poor, and usurped the apostolic office
by preaching the gospel and those things which he had learned by heart, in the villages
and open places, and by calling to him many men and women to do the same thing, and
teaching them the gospel by heart, … who indeed, being simple and illiterate men and
women, wandered through villages and entered houses and preached in open places, and
even in churches, and provoked others to the same course.

David of Augsburg (Bavaria, 1270)

They give all their seal to lead others astray with them: they teach even little girls the words
of the Gospels and Epistles, so that they may be trained in error from their childhood.

The Passau Anonymous (Germany, the 1260s)

The second cause [of heresy] is that men and women, greater and lesser, day and night,
do not cease to learn and teach; the workman who labors all day teaches or learns at
night. They pray little, on account of their studies. They teach and learn without books.
They even teach in the houses of lepers. …
They also say that the clergy are full of … envy, because they alone wish to be teachers;
Matthew [23:13]: “Woe unto you, you scribes who hold the key of knowledge, and close
250  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
up the kingdom of heaven before all men.” From which they claim that all men, and even
women, are allowed to preach. … Against this, [the church cites] … Corinthians [I Cor.
14:34]: “Women should keep silence in Church, for it is not permitted for them to speak.”

Questions: How did the place of women in the Waldensian sect differ from that of women in the
Catholic church? How might ordinary people react to this? Why did the church find it so objection-
able? What were the arguments made on each side?

86. I nquisition records of J acques F ournier :

L ife of a C athar woman (1320)
One of the best-known heresies of the Middle Ages was that of the Albigensians or
Cathars, in the south of France, who were bloodily persecuted by the church and
by northern French nobles and eventually wiped out. The Cathars were dualists,
believing in a strict dichotomy between good (which included only purely spiritual
things) and evil (which included all material and earthly things). They rejected the
incarnation of Christ, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the doctrine of purgatory,
believing instead that individuals were reincarnated until they reached a perfect state
and could become purely spiritual.
  The inquisitor Jacques Fournier (who later became pope) recorded in detail his
interviews with suspected Cathar heretics, many of whom were condemned to death
for their beliefs. The following is one of many personal accounts preserved in Fourni-
er’s text; it is the story of one woman of the lower nobility and her dealings with the
Cathar community.
Source: Readings in Medieval History, ed. Patrick J. Geary (Lewiston, NY: Broadview Press, 1989).
Adapted.

Testimony of Béatrice de Planissoles

(August 7, 1320, in the chamber before the bishop and Gaillard de Pomiès)
Béatrice: Twenty-six years ago during the month of August (I do not recall the day), I
was the wife of the late knight Bérenger de Roquefort, castelain of Montaillou. The late
Raimond Roussel, of Prades, was the … steward of our household which we held at the
castle of Montaillou. He often asked me to leave with him and to go to Lombardy with
the good Christians [that is, the Cathars] who are there, telling me that the Lord had said
that man must quit his father, mother, wife, husband, son and daughter and follow him,
and that he would give him the kingdom of heaven. When I asked him, “How could I
quit my husband and my sons?” he replied that the Lord had ordered it and that it was
better to leave a husband and sons whose eyes rot than to abandon him who lives for
eternity and who gives the kingdom of heaven.
When I asked him “How is it possible that God created so many men and women if
many of them are not saved?” he answered that only the good Christians will be saved
and no others, neither religious nor priests, nor anyone except these good Christians.
Because, he said, just as it is impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, it
is impossible for those who are rich to be saved. This is why the kings and princes, prelates
and religious, and all those who have wealth, cannot be saved, but only the good Chris-
tians. They remained in Lombardy, because they did not dare live here where the wolves
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  251
and the dogs would persecute them. The wolves and the dogs were the bishops and the
Dominicans, who persecute the good Christians and chase them from this country.
He said that he had listened to some of these good Christians. They were such that
once one had heard them speak one could not do without them and if I heard them one
time, I would be one of theirs for ever.
When I asked how we could flee together and go to the good Christians, because, when
my husband found out, he would follow us and kill us, Raimond answered that when my
husband would take a long trip and be afar from our country, we could leave and go to the
good Christians. I asked him how we would live when we were there. He answered that
they would take care of us and give us enough with which to live. “But,” I told him, “I am
pregnant. What could I do with the child that I am carrying when I leave with you for the
good Christians?” [He said:] “If you give birth to it in their presence, it will be an angel.
With the help of God they will make a king and a holy thing of him because he will be
born without sin, not having frequented the people of this world, and they would be able to
educate him perfectly in their sect, since he would know no other.”
He also told me that all spirits sinned at the beginning with the sin of pride, believing
that they could know more and be worth more than God, and for that they fell to earth.
These spirits later take on bodies, and the world will not end before all of them have been
incarnated into the bodies of men and women. Thus it is that the soul of a new born child
is as old as that of an old man.
They also said that the souls of men and women who were not good Christians, after
leaving their bodies, enter the bodies of other men and women a total of nine times. If in
these nine bodies they do not find the body of a good Christian, the soul is damned. If on
the contrary, they find the body of a good Christian, the soul is saved.
I asked him how the spirit of a dead man or woman could enter the mouth of a preg-
nant woman and from there into the mouth of the fruit that she carries in her womb. He
answered that the spirit could enter the fruit of the woman’s womb by any part of her
body. When I asked him why children do not speak from birth, since they have the old
souls of other persons, he answered that God does not wish it. He also told me that the
spirits of God which sinned lived wherever they could.
Thus he urged me to leave with him so that we could go together to the good Chris-
tians, mentioning various noble women who had gone there.
Alesta and Serena, women of Châteauverdun, painted themselves with colors which made
them appear foreign so that they could not be recognized and went to Toulouse. When they
arrived at an inn, the hostess wanted to know if they were heretics and gave them live chickens,
telling them to prepare them because she had things to do in town, and left the house.
When she had returned she found the chickens still alive and asked them why they
had not prepared them. They responded that if the hostess would kill them, they would
prepare them but that they would not kill them. The hostess heard that and went to
tell the inquisitors that two heretics were in her establishment. They were arrested and
burned. When it was time to go to the stake, they asked for water to wash their faces,
saying that they would not go to God painted thusly.
I told Raimond that they would have done better to abandon their heresy than to
allow themselves to be burned, and he told me that the good Christians did not feel fire
because fire with which they are burned cannot hurt them.
Raimond also told me that one of these two women, when she was leaving her house at
Châteauverdun, had a child in a crib that she wanted to see before leaving. She kissed it, the
child smiled, and as she was beginning to move away from the place where it lay, she returned
252  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
toward it. The child began to laugh and this process began again so that she could not leave.
Finally she ordered its nurse to take it, which she did. Thus she was able to leave.
And Raimond told me this to encourage me to do the same!
About 21 years ago, a year after the death of my husband, I wanted to go to the
church of Montaillou to confess during Lent. When I was there, I went to Pierre Clergue,
the rector, who was hearing confessions behind the altar of Saint Mary. As soon as I had
knelt before him, he embraced me, saying that there was no woman in the world that he
loved as much as me. In my surprise, I left without having confessed.
Later, around Easter, he visited me several times, and he asked me to give myself to
him. I said one day that he so bothered me in my home that I would rather give myself
to four men than to a single priest because I had heard it said that a woman who gave
herself to a priest could not see the face of God. To which he answered that I was an
ignorant fool because the sin is the same for a woman to know her husband or another
man, and the same whether the man were husband or priest. It was even a greater sin
with a husband he said, because the wife did not think that she had sinned with her
husband but realized it with other men. The sin was therefore greater in the first case.
I asked him how he, who was a priest, could speak like that, since the church said
that marriage had been instituted by God, and that it was the first sacrament instituted
by God between Adam and Eve, as a result of which it was not a sin when spouses know
each other. He answered, “If it was God who instituted marriage between Adam and
Eve and if he created them, why didn’t he protect them from sin?” I understood then
that he was saying that God did not create Adam and Eve and that he had not instituted
marriage between them. He added that the Church taught many things which were
contrary to truths. Ecclesiastics said these things because without them it would inspire
neither respect nor fear. Because, except for the Gospels and the Lord’s Prayer, all of the
other texts of Scripture were only “affitilhas,” a word in the vernacular which designates
what one adds on one’s own to what one has heard.
I answered that in this case ecclesiastics were throwing the people into error.

(August 8, 1320, in the Chamber of the bishop before the bishop and Gaillard de
Pomiès)
Béatrice: Speaking of marriage, he told me that many of the rules concerning it do not
come from divine will who did not forbid people to marry their sisters or other persons
related by blood, since at the beginning brothers knew their sister. But when several
brothers had one or two pretty sisters, each wanted to have her or them. The result was
many murders among them and this is why the Church had forbidden brothers to know
their sisters or blood relatives carnally. But for God the sin is the same whether it is an
outside woman, a sister, or another relative, because the sin is as great with one woman
as with another, except that it is a greater sin between a husband and wife, because they
do not confess it and they unite themselves without shame.
He added that the marriage was complete and consummated as soon as a person
had promised his faith to the other. What is done at the church between spouses, such as
the nuptial benediction, was only a secular ceremony which had no value and had been
instituted by the Church only for secular splendor.
He further told me that a man and a woman could freely commit any sort of sin as
long as they lived in this world and act entirely according to their pleasure. It was suffi-
cient that at their death they be received into the sect or the faith of the good Christians
to be saved and absolved of all the sins committed during this life. …
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  253
And with these opinions and many others he influenced me to the point that in the
octave of Saints Peter and Paul I gave myself to him one night in my home. This was
often repeated and he kept me like this for one and one half years, coming two or three
times each week to spend the night in my house near the chateau of Montaillou.
I myself came two nights to his house so that he could unite himself with me. He even
knew me carnally Christmas night and still this priest said the mass the next morning
although there were other priests present.
And when, on this night of the Nativity, he wanted to have relations with me, I said to
him, “How could you want to commit so great a sin on so holy a night?” He answered that
the sin was the same to have intercourse with a woman on any other night or on Christmas
night. Since this time and many others he said mass the morning after having known me
the night before without having confessed since there was no other priest, and since I often
asked him how he could celebrate the mass after having committed such a sin the night
before, he answered that the only valid confession is one which one makes to God, who
knows the sin before it is committed, and who alone can absolve it. But the confession that
one makes to a priest who is ignorant of the sin until it is revealed to him and who does not
have the power to absolve sin has no value and is only made for the ostentation and the
splendor of this world. Because only God can absolve sins, man cannot. …
He told me all this and what will follow in my home, sometimes near a window that
looked out on the road, while I was delousing his head, sometimes near the fire, some-
times when I was in bed. We avoided being overheard by others as much as possible
when we broached this subject. I do not recall if Sibille my maid servant, the daughter
of Arnaud Teisseyre of Montaillou, who became the concubine of Raimond Clergue,
heard anything.
The priest told me that God only made the spirits and that which did not decay or
corrode, because the works of God endure for ever. But all of the body which one sees
and which one feels, that is to say the heaven and the earth and all that is in them, except
only the spirits, were the work of the devil, who rules the world, who made them. …
These heretical conversations continued between us for around two years and this
priest taught me all of this.
Inquisitor: Did you believe and do you still believe these heresies that this rector of the
church of Montaillou, Pierre Clergue, told you and in which he instructed you?
Béatrice: The last year, when I left the region of Alion from Easter until the
following August, I completely and fully believed these errors to the point that I would
not have hesitated to undergo any suffering to defend them. I believed that they were
truth taught by the priest whom, because he was a priest, I believed. … But when I
was at Crampagna with my second husband and I heard the preaching of the Domini-
cans and Franciscans and I visited with faithful Christians, I abandoned these errors
and heresies and I confessed at the penitential court of a Franciscan of the convent of
Limoux in the Church of Notre Dame de Marseille where I had gone to see my sister
Gentille, who lived at Limoux and who was the wife of the late Paga de Post. I made
this confession fifteen years ago and I remained around five years without confessing
heretical opinions that I had heard and believed although I confessed my other sins
during these five years.
At the time when I believed these heresies, I did not see (nor did I see before or after)
any heretics that I knew to be heretics, although I believed that they were good men
because they suffered martyrdom for God and this priest had taught me that it was only
in their sect that one could be saved.
254  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
I greatly regret having ever heard these heretical opinions and even more for having
believed these heresies, and I am ready to accept the penance that my lord the bishop
may wish to impose on me for them.

(August 22, in the episcopal chamber, before the bishop and Brother Gaillard de
Pomiès)
… I had said to [Pierre Clergue] at the beginning of our relations, “What will I do
if I become pregnant by you? I will be dishonored and lost.” He answered that he had
a good herb which, if a man wears it when he is with a woman, he cannot engender
nor can a woman conceive. I said to him, “What is this herb? Is it not the one that the
cheese makers put on their pots of milk into which they have put rennet and which
prevents the milk from curdling as long as it is on the pot?” He told me not to bother
trying to know what kind of herb it was but that it was a herb that had this power and
that he had some.
Since that time when he wanted to take me, he wore something rolled up and tied in a
piece of linen the thickness and length of an ounce or of the first digit of my little finger, with
a long thread which he passed around my neck. And this thing which he said was this herb
hung down between my breasts to the base of my stomach. He always placed it thus when
he wanted to know me and it remained on my neck until he rose. And if sometimes during
the same night this priest wanted to know me two or more times, he asked me, before we
coupled, where this herb was. I would take it by finding it by the thread which I had at my
neck and place it in his hand. He took it and placed it before the base of my stomach with
the thread passing between my breasts. This is how he coupled with me and no other way. I
asked him one day to leave this herb with me. He refused because he said that then I could
give myself to another man without becoming pregnant. He would not give it to me so
that I would refrain from so doing out of fear of the consequences. He did this in particular
thinking of his cousin Raimond Clergue, alias Pathau, who had first kept me before this
priest, his fraternal cousin, had me, because they were jealous of each other.
He again told me that he did not want me to have a child from him while my father,
Philippe de Planissoles was alive, because the latter would have been too ashamed, but
that after his death his wanted me to have his child.

Inquisitor’s Judgment on Béatrice

After this [testimony], the same year [1320], on the 25th of the month of August, the
above named Béatrice swore juridically before the bishop of Pamiers before my lord bishop,
assisted by Brother Gaillard of Pomiès, substitute of my lord the inquisitor of Carcassonne, in
presence of the religious person Brother Guillaume Séguier, prior of the convent of Preachers
(Dominicans) of Pamiers, the discreet person master Bernard Gaubert, jurist, and me, the
undersigned notary. Because she was very ill and in bed and her death was expected, my
lord bishop told her that if she had hidden anything concerning heresy in the confession that
she had made above about herself or others, or if she had accused a person against truth and
justice, she should admit it and reveal it, or she should exonerate the persons she had unjustly
accused. And my lord the bishop commanded this at the peril of her soul. …
And my lords the bishop and the inquisitor assigned to the above named Béatrice a
day to hear the definitive sentence on the preceding, that is, the following Sunday, March
8, before the third hour, in the house of the Preachers (Dominicans) of Pamiers. …
And the Sunday assigned to the above named Béatrice, she appeared in the cemetery
of Saint-Jean-Martyr of Pamiers and was given the sentence by my lords the bishop and
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  255
the inquisitor which reads as follows, “Know all ye, etc.” See this sentence in the book of
sentences of the Inquisition. [The death sentence for heresy is commuted to the wearing
a double cross, the sign of a convicted heretic.]
And I, Rainaud Jabbaud, cleric of Toulouse, sworn in the matter of the inquisition, on the
order of my lord the bishop, have faithfully corrected this confession against the original.

Questions: Why did Beatrice make the religious and personal choices she did? Can you detect a trend
over time in her life? What attitudes of other people toward Beatrice are revealed in her story? How
much of her own emotional life does she reveal? What factors affect the trustworthiness of her story?

87. C onfession of a L ollard woman (1430)

The Lollards were English heretics, followers of the teachings of John Wycliffe
(d. 1384). Though less divergent from Catholicism than the Cathars, they were
known for their anticlericalism and other radical positions. They were vigorously
persecuted and large numbers of them executed in the fifteenth century, yet they
persisted into the next century; Lollardy is often seen as having prepared the
ground in England for the Protestant Reformation. Women were often active in
the Lollard sect, and Hawisia Moone was one of the best known Lollard women in
the Norfolk region in her day.
Source: Heresy Trials in the Diocese of Norwich, 1428–31, ed. Norman P. Tanner (London, 1977).
English spelling and vocabulary modernized. Latin trans. E. Amt.

Latin prologue
Hawisia Moone, wife of Thomas Moone of Loddon in the diocese of Norwich, having
been defamed and strongly suspected of heresy, and on this occasion arrested and kept
under guard in prison, was brought in to respond in person. The aforesaid reverend father
[the bishop of Norwich], proceeding against her in his official capacity, spoke to Hawisia,
proposing and raising all the articles in the duplicate document concerning her abjura-
tion, drawn up in the English language and indented, and containing all her heresies and
errors in its articles. The same Hawisia confessed these articles and the heresies and errors
contained in them, and she judicially acknowledged that she had held, believed, asserted,
and affirmed [the errors]. And then Hawisia herself, informed by the said reverend father
that the said articles contain some heresies and many errors, asserted before the said father
that she wished, with a pure heart, to renounce those articles and all the heresies and errors
contained in them, as well as all heresy in general, and to forswear, under the form and
tenor of the said document, its contents. Which form and tenor Master John Wylly public
notary, by the bishop’s order read through publicly to Hawisia in English. And which form
and tenor Hawisia, as she said, heard and fully understood. And then Hawisia herself,
asserting that she did not know how to read the tenor of her said abjuration, appointed the
said Master John Wylly as the instrument of her voice for reading her abjuration in this
way, in the place and name of Hawisia herself … And [then] Hawisia, bending her knee
and placing her right hand on the gospel book, swore that from now on she would always
observe everything contained in the said duplicate document thus drawn up concerning that
abjuration and read through on behalf of the same Hawisia, insomuch as they concerned
the person of the same Hawisia, according to all the force, form, tenor, and effect of the said
duplicate writing, whose tenor is as follows.
256  Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women
English articles
In the name of God, before you, the worshipful father in Christ, William, by the grace of
God bishop of Norwich, I, Hawisia Moone, the wife of Thomas Moone of Loddon of your
diocese, your subject, knowing, feeling and understanding that before this time I have been
right homely and private with many heretics, knowing [them] for heretics, and them I have
received and harbored in our house, and them I have concealed, comforted, supported,
maintained and favored with all my power – which heretics’ names be these, Sir William
Whyte, Sir William Caleys, Sir Hugh Pye, Sir Thomas Pert, priests; John Waddon, John
Fowlyn, John Gray, William Everden, William Bate of Sethyng, Bartholomew Cornmonger,
Thomas Borell and Betty, his wife, William Wardon, John Pert, Edmond Archer of Loddon,
Richard Belward, Nicholas Belward, Bartholomew Monk, William Wright and many others
– which have oft times kept, held and continued schools of heresy in private chambers and
private places of ours, in the which schools I have heard, conceived, learned and reported the
errors and heresies which be written and contained in these indentures, that is to say:
First, that the sacrament of Baptism done in water in form accustomed in the Church
is but a trifle and not to be pondered, for all Christ’s people are sufficiently baptized in
the blood of Christ, and so Christ’s people need no other baptism. …
Also that confession should be made only to God, and to none other priest, for no
priest hath power to remit sin nor to absolve a man of any sin.
Also that no man is bound to do no penance which any priest enjoineth [him] to
do for their sins which they have confessed unto the priest, for sufficient penance for all
manner of sin is every person to abstain him from lying, backbiting and evil doing, and
no man is bound to do none other penance.
Also that no priest hath power to make Christ’s very body at mass in form of bread, but that
after the sacramental words said at mass of the priest there remaineth only material bread.
Also that the pope of Rome is father Antichrist, and false in all his working, … nor the
pope hath no power to make bishops, priests nor none other orders, and he that the people
call the pope of Rome is no pope but a false extortioner and a deceiver of the people.
Also that he only that is most holy and most perfect in living in earth is very pope, and
these mass-singers that be called priests be no priests, but they be lecherous and covetous
men and false deceivers of the people, and with their subtle teaching and preaching, singing
and reading piteously they rob the people of their goods, and therewith they sustain here
pride, here lechery, here sloth and all other vices, and always they make new laws and new
ordinances to curse and kill cruelly all other persons that hold against their vicious living.
Also that only consent of love betwixt man and woman, without contract of words
and without solennization in Church and without … asking, is sufficient for the sacra-
ment of matrimony. …
Also that every man may lawfully withdraw and withhold tithes and offerings from priests
and curates and give them to the poor people, and that is more pleasing to God. …
Also that every man and every woman being in good life out of sin is as good priest and
hath [as] much power of God in all things as any priest ordained, be he pope or bishop.
Also that censures of holy Church, sentences and cursings nor of suspending given by
prelates or ordinaries be not to be dreaded nor to be feared, for God blesseth the cursings
[of] the bishops and ordinaries. …
Also that it is not lawful to slay a man for any cause, nor by process of law to condemn
any traitor or any man for any treason or felony to death, nor to put any man to death for
any cause, but every man should remit all vengeance only to the sentence of God.
 Jewish, Muslim, and heretic women  257
Also that no man is bound to fast in Lent, Ember Days, Fridays nor vigils of saints,
but all such days and times it is lawful to all Christ’s people to eat flesh and [all] manner
[of] meats indifferently at their own lust as oft as they have appetite as well as any other
days which be not commanded to be fasted.
Also that no pilgrimage ought to be done nor be made, for all pilgrimage-going
serveth of nothing but only to give priests goods that be too rich and to make gay tapsters
and proud ostelers.
Also that no worship nor reverence ought be done to any images of the crucifix, of Our
Lady nor of none other saints, for all such images be but idols and made by working of man’s
hand, but worship and reverence should be done to the image of God, which only is man.
Also that all prayer ought be made only to God, and to none other saints, for it is
doubtful if there be any such saints in heaven as these mass-singers approve and command
to be worshiped and prayed to here in earth.
Because of which and many other errors and heresies I am called before you, worshipful
father, which have cure of my soul. And be you fully informed that the said mine affirming,
believing and holding be open errors and heresies and contrary to the determination of the
Church of Rome, wherefore I willingly follow … the doctrine of holy Church, and depart
from all manner of error and heresy, and turn with good will and heart to the oneness
of the Church. Considering that holy Church spareth not her bosom to him that will
turn again, nor God wills not the death of a sinner but rather that he be turned and live,
with a pure heart … I confess, detest and despise my said errors and heresies, and these
said opinions I confess heretical and erroneous and to the faith of the Church of Rome
and all universal holy Church repugnant. And for as much as by the said things that I so
held, believed and affirmed I showed myself corrupt and unfaithful, that from henceforth
I show me uncorrupt and faithful, the faith and doctrine of holy Church truly to keep I
promise. And all manner of error and heresy, doctrine and opinion against the faith of
holy Church and determination of the Church of Rome – and namely the opinions before
rehearsed – I abjure and forswear, and swear by these holy gospels by me bodily touched
that from henceforth I shall never hold error nor heresy nor false doctrine against the
faith of holy Church and determination of the Church of Rome. Nor no such things I
shall obstinately defend. Nor any person holding or teaching such manner of things I shall
obstinately defend by me or any other person openly or privately. I shall never after this
time be no receiver, favorer, counselor or defender of heretics or of any person suspect of
heresy. Nor I shall never trust to them. Nor wittingly I shall fellowship with them, nor be
homely with them, nor give them counsel, gifts, succor, favor nor comfort. If I know any
heretics or of heresy any persons suspect or of them favorers, comforters, or defenders, or
of any persons making private conventicles or assemblies, or holding any divers or singular
opinions from the common doctrine of the Church, I shall let you, worshipful father, or
your vicar general in your absence or the diocesans of such persons have soon and ready
knowing. So help me God at holy doom and these holy gospels.
In witness of which things I subscribe here with mine own hand a cross +. And to this
part indented to remain in your register I set my signet. And that other part indented
I receive under your seal to abide with me unto my life’s end. Given at Norwich in the
chapel of your palace the fourth day of the month [of] August, the year of our Lord a
thousand four hundred and thirty.
Questions: To what extent is this Hawisia’s own confession? What issues separate her from her
interrogators? What do we learn here about the Lollard community in Loddon and their beliefs?
Glossary

abjure  swear to leave a place or to cease a practice

antiphon  specific short text sung at a certain point during a church service, often
before or after a psalm
apprentice  someone, often an adolescent, who is legally bound over to another
person in order to learn a craft or trade
assize  law; regulatory law
attached  legally seized, arrested
Augustuses  Roman emperors. In the Sicilian laws, it refers to the medieval Holy
Roman Emperors.
banns  public notice of intended marriage
benedicite  (Latin) “say a blessing”; a common monastic greeting
bondwoman  unfree woman
boon-workers  peasants carrying out the work they are legally obligated to do for
their lord
bovate  measure of land, based on what one ox could plow in a season; roughly 10 to
20 acres
budge  fur made from lambskin
burnet  high-quality brown cloth
bursar  monastic official in charge of finances
cantor  person who leads the chant; or the monastic official responsible for music
carucate  measure of land, based on what a team of eight oxen could plow in one
season; roughly 120 acres
censor  server in church who carries a censer in which incense is burned
chapter  in monastic life, the daily meeting of the nuns or monks to conduct the busi-
ness of the house; or the room where the meeting took place
chattels  movable possessions (as opposed to land). The chattels of a convicted felon
were forfeited.
chevage  payment by unfree peasant for privilege of living elsewhere
choir  part of church building where nuns or monks sat, between nave and altar
church living  position or sinecure in the church to support a clerk, usually as a parish priest
churl  a free peasant
cinctured  belted. Sleeping cinctured, or belted, was correct monastic practice, but
having chemises (linen undergarments) was not.
civey  a sauce made of wine, vinegar, herbs and spices
cloister  colonnaded open space at the center of a monastery; also, by extension, the
monastery or the monastic life
 Glossary  259
commune  the urban community, or the formal organization of its citizens
companage  accompaniment
compline  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held just before
bedtime
compter  local London prison
confiteor  (Latin) “I confess”
conjugal debt  sexual intercourse owed to one’s spouse
convert  to take up the monastic life; or a person who has so converted
cony  rabbit
coster  hanging
cotter  peasant whose main holding is a cottage
covercle  lid
craft guild  organization of everyone in a given town involved in a particular craft or
trade
croft  small holding of land
cumal  nominally the value of a bondmaid; more often the value of three to ten cows
curtilage  land pertaining to something; land within boundaries
deacon  a clergyman, ranking lower than a priest, with administrative and charitable
duties
defamed  accused by rumor
discreets  advisers to the abbess
dispenser  household official similar to a butler
domestics  household servants
dorsal  an ornamental hanging for a chair or altar
dorter  dormitory, sleeping room
dower  the portion of his goods or land (often one-third) which a man was required to
assign to his wife at the time of their marriage. This European-wide custom provided
for the widow’s support: a woman had a life interest in her dower, but it reverted to
her late husband’s heirs upon her death.
dowry  the property brought by a woman into her marriage
drage  mixed grain
draper  dealer in cloth, usually in woolen cloth
drawn (as punishment)  disemboweled
ell  measure of length, equal to 45 inches in England
ember day  one of twelve days of fasting and prayer, coming in four groups of three
throughout the liturgical year
fardel  bundle
fast  to abstain from food; or to abstain from certain foods, usually meat
fine for entry  fee paid to the lord to obtain one’s inheritance
flawns  flat cakes or pies
frater  monastic dining hall
fulling  a step in the cloth-making process, involving the cleaning and thickening of
the cloth
gallery  passageway
girdle  belt
grange  collection of farm-buildings; barn
guild  organization, usually urban
hall  large room used for gathering
260  Glossary
heriot  payment owed to one’s lord upon one’s death; or payment due to a peasant’s
lord when the peasant died leaving an inheritance
hesmel  collar
hide  fiscal measurement of land, roughly 80 to 120 acres
host (communion host)  bread used in the mass or communion
hours (same as offices)  prayer or worship at designated intervals throughout the day,
carried out privately (as with a book of hours) or as part of the monastic life
huckster  pedlar, traveling merchant
hue  public notice of a crime or sudden death
hukster  pedlar, traveling merchant
incontinence  lack of chastity
infirmary  department of monastery caring for sick nuns or monks
journeywoman  female day laborer in a craft
lauds  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held in the morning
leyr, leyrwite  fine for illicit sexual activity or for bearing an illegitimate child
lire di piccoli  Venetian pounds in old (small) money, so called after a recent issue of
new (great) money
Lombards  people from Lombardy, known for being money-lenders
madder  a red dye
maid  virgin, or previously unmarried woman
mancus  Anglo-Saxon gold coin, or its equivalent in other gold
maravedí  Spanish coin, or monetary unit
master  man who is expert in his craft or trade
matins  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held during the night
mazer  a hardwood, or a cup made of such wood
mea culpa  (Latin) “my fault,” i.e. the words of confession
medlar  apple-like fruit of the medlar tree, eaten after it begins to decay
mercer  dealer in textiles
merchet  payment due to a peasant woman’s lord when she married
messuage  residence and the land pertaining to it
miserere  (Latin) “have mercy,” i.e. a prayer for forgiveness
mistress  woman who is expert in her craft or trade
musterdevillers  a type of grey woolen cloth
mysteries  regulated crafts
nave  main body of a church building, where the congregation stands
noble (as unit of money)  a gold coin worth 6s. 8d.
none, nones  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held in the
afternoon
offices (same as hours)  the eight prayer services said or sung daily in monasteries; also
used in other churches and by individuals
oratory  place of prayer; church
parlor  room in the monastery for nuns or monks to gather and talk
patronage of a church  the right to “present,” or appoint, a priest for the church
perch  measure of land, roughly five yards
pillory  a wooden apparatus for punishing wrongdoers by exposing them to public
shame. It had holes for the neck and arms.
pittance  in a monastic context, food items that were of better quality than usual,
given to the nuns or monks as a commemorative gift
 Glossary  261
pledge  someone who guaranteed one’s appearance in court, payment of debt, etc.
portifory  breviary, type of liturgical book
pottage  soup or stew
pound  place where stray animals were enclosed after being rounded up
presbytery  eastern part of church building, containing the altar; sanctuary
prime  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held in the morning
priory  a daughter house, presided over by its own prioress, but ruled by the abbess of
the mother house
procurator  representative of a party in a legal case
put herself upon the country  ask for a jury trial
quire (choir)  part of church building where nuns or monks sat, between nave and
altar
quitclaim  give up all legal claim to a thing
raise the hue  notify others about a crime or sudden death
ray  striped cloth
refectory  monastic dining hall
rere dorter  latrine
reverse  reverse side of fabric, used to make clothing more elaborate
rood  one quarter acre
sacrist  monastic official responsible for church vessels, vestments, and books
sacristy  room next to the church where sacred items such as church vessels, vest-
ments, and liturgical books are kept
sanies  thin discharge
Saracen  Muslim
seized of  in possession of
sét  a fraction of a cumal, sometimes worth one cow
sext  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held at mid-day
simony  the buying and selling of positions in the church, forbidden by canon law
solar, sollar  “sun room,” used as a sitting room
soldi di grossi  Venetian shillings in new (great) money, so called after a recent revi-
sion of the coinage
stews  bathhouses
strapples  coverings for the lower leg, made of bands wrapped around the leg
strumpet  prostitute
sureties  guarantees, or people to serve as guarantors
syndic  representative of a party in a legal case
take the veil  become a nun
tallage  a type of land tax
tapicer  upholsterer or tapestry-worker
teazles  prickly plant heads, dried and used to raise a nap on cloth
terce  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held in the morning
thewe  pillory for women. It was different in design from the men’s pillory, and may
have been chair-shaped.
thraldom  bondage
thrall  slave
thurifer  server in church who carries a thurible, a censer in which incense is burned
tourn  session of a court
tun  a London prison
262  Glossary
undercroft  lower story
vair  two-toned squirrel fur
verjuice  bitter juice from green or unripe fruit
vermilion  a red dye
vespers  one of the daily monastic services (hours or offices), held in the evening
vill  village
villein  serf, unfree peasant
villeinage  unfree peasant status
virgate  measure of land, equal to one-fourth of a carucate; roughly 30 acres
ward (geography)  division of a city
ward (person)  minor in the custody of a guardian
wardmote  local court of the (city) ward
wardship  guardianship
warming house  room where the nuns or monks could warm themselves; in earlier
periods, one of the few heated rooms in the monastery
wergeld  in Germanic law, the amount of money which a killer was required to pay to
the victim’s family. A person’s wergeld varied according to rank, sex and age.
Whitsun, Whitsuntide  the Christian feast of Pentecost
woad  a blue dye
yeoman  in the Late Middle Ages, a free, small landholder, of peasant stock
Further reading

Since the first edition of this book appeared, there has been a vast output of scholarship
in the field of medieval women’s history, so that any short bibliography like this one must
be a somewhat arbitrary selection. The following list is of necessity restricted by space,
and I have further limited it to books. Readers are urged to go further in specific fields,
and also to seek out the valuable material that is available in the form of journal articles
and, increasingly, in internet-based projects.

G eneral works on medieval women

Primary sources
Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (†203) to Marguerite
Porete (†1310). Cambridge, 1984.
Goldberg, P. J. P., ed. and tr. Women in England, c. 1275–1525. Manchester and New York, 1995.
Larrington, Carolyne, ed. Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook. London and New York, 1995.
O’Faolain, Julia and Lauro Martines, eds. Not in God’s Image: Women in History from the Greeks to the Victo-
rians. New York, 1973.
Petroff, Elizabeth Alvilda, ed. Medieval Women’s Visionary Literature. Oxford, 1986.
Thiébaux, Marcelle, ed. and tr. The Writings of Medieval Women. New York, 1987.
Watt, Diane. Medieval Women’s Writing: Works by and for Women in England, 1000–1500. Cambridge, 2007.
Wiesner, Merry and Lisa Di Caprio, eds. Lives and Voices: A Sourcebook on European Women. Boston, 2001.
Wilson, Katharina M., ed. Medieval Women Writers. Athens, GA, 1984.

Secondary works
Anderson, Bonnie S. and Judith P. Zinser. A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the
Present. New York, 1989. 2 vols.
Baker, Derek, ed. Medieval Women. Studies in Church History, Subsidia, I. Oxford, 1978.
Bechtold, Joan, Julia Bolton Holloway and Constance S. Wright, eds. Equally in God’s Image: Women in
the Middle Ages. New York, 1990.
Bennett, Judith M., Elizabeth A. Clark, Jean F. O’Barr, B. Anne Vilen and Sarah Westphal-Wihl, eds.
Sisters and Workers in the Middle Ages. Chicago, 1990.
Bennett, Judith M. and Amy M. Froide, eds. Singlewomen in the European Past, 1250–1800. Philadelphia, 1999.
Bitel, Lisa. Land of Women: Tales of Sex and Gender in Early Ireland. Ithaca, 1996.
Bridenthal, Renate and Claudia Koonz. Becoming Visible: Women in European History. Boston, 1977.
Brown, Nancy Marie. The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman. Orlando, 2008.
Bullough, Vern L., Brenda Shelton and Sarah Slavin. The Subordinated Sex: A History of Attitudes Toward
Women. Rev. edn. Athens, GA, 1988.
264  Further reading
Carpenter, Jennifer and Sally Beth MacLean, eds. Power of the Weak: Studies on Medieval Women. Urbana
and Chicago, 1995.
Echols, Anne and Marty Williams, eds. Women in Medieval Times: An Annotated Index of Medieval Women.
New York and Princeton, 1991.
Ennen, Edith. The Medieval Woman, tr. Edmund Jephcott. Oxford, 1990.
Erler, Mary and Maryanne Kowaleski, eds. Women and Power in the Middle Ages. Athens, GA, 1988.
Fell, Christine, with Cecily Clark and Elizabeth Williams. Women in Anglo-Saxon England and the Impact of
1066. Oxford, 1986.
Gies, Frances and Joseph. Women in the Middle Ages. New York, 1978.
Jesch, Judith. Women in the Viking Age. Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991.
Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca, 1995.
Kirshner, Julius and Suzanne F. Wemple, eds. Women of the Medieval World. Oxford, 1985.
Labalme, Patricia H., ed. Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past. New York, 1984.
Labarge, Margaret Wade. A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life. Boston, 1986.
Levin, Carole and Jeanie Watson, eds. Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Detroit, 1987.
Lewis, Katherine J., Noël James Menuge, and Kim M. Phillips, eds. Young Medieval Women. New York, 1999.
Leyser, Henrietta. Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England, 450–1500. London, 1995.
Lucas, Angela. Women in the Middle Ages: Religion, Marriage and Letters. New York, 1983.
Meek, Christine and Katharine Simms, eds. “The Fragility of Her Sex”?: Medieval Irishwomen in Their Euro-
pean Context. Dublin, 1996.
Morewedge, Rosemarie Thee, ed. The Role of Women in the Middle Ages. Albany, 1975.
Power, Eileen. Medieval Women, ed. M. M. Postan. Cambridge, 1975.
Rose, Mary Beth, ed. Women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Syracuse, NY, 1986.
Rosenthal, Joel T., ed. Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History. Athens, GA, 1990.
Shahar, Shulamith. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages. New York, 1983.
Skinner, Patricia. Women in Medieval Italian Society, 500–1200. Harlow, 2001.
Stuard, Susan Mosher. Women in Medieval Society. Philadelphia, 1976.
Stuard, Susan Mosher. Women in Medieval History and Historiography. Philadelphia, 1987.
Uitz, Erica. The Legend of Good Women: Medieval Women in Towns and Cities, tr. Sheila Marnie. Mt. Kisco, NY, 1990.
Ward, Jennifer. Women in Medieval Europe, 1200–1500. London, 2002.
Wemple, Suzanne Fonay. Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900. Philadelphia, 1985.
Williams, Marty and Anne Echols. Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle Ages. Princeton, 1992.

I T he heritage of ideas : C hristian belief , R oman ideals ,

and G ermaniccustom

Primary sources
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. On Virginity, tr. Daniel Callam. Toronto, 1980.
Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, tr. Peter Holmes, Robert Ernest Wallace and
Benjamin B. Warfield. Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. V. Grand
Rapids, MI, 1971.
Clark, Elizabeth and Herbert Richardson, eds. Women and Religion: A Feminist Sourcebook of Christian
Thought. New York, 1977.
Drew, Katherine Fischer, tr. The Burgundian Code. Philadelphia, 1972.
Drew, Katherine Fischer, tr. The Lombard Laws. Philadelphia, 1973.
Jerome. Select Letters of St. Jerome, tr. F. A. Wright. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA, 1963.
Jerome. St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works tr. W. H. Fremantle. Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers, ser. 2, vol. VI. Edinburgh, 1892; repr. Grand Rapids, MI, 1989.
Lefkowitz, Mary R. and Maureen Fant, eds. Women’s Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore, 1982.
Pharr, Clyde, tr. The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions. Princeton, 1952.
 Further reading  265
Rivers, Theodore John, tr. Laws of the Alamans and Bavarians. Philadelphia, 1977.
Rivers, Theodore John, tr. The Laws of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks. New York, 1986.
Schaff, Philip, ed. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 3. Buffalo, NY, 1887.
Scott, S. P., tr. The Visigothic Code (Forum Judicum). Boston, 1910.
Scott, S. P., ed. The Civil Law. Cincinnati, 1932.
Shelton, Jo-Ann. As the Romans Did: A Sourcebook in Roman Social History. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1998.

Secondary works
Bitel, Lisa. Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400–1100. Cambridge, 2002.
Cantarella, Eva. Pandora’s Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Society, tr. Maureen
B. Fant. Baltimore, 1987.
Gardner, Jane F. Women in Roman Law and Society. Bloomington, IN, 1986.
Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. Oxford, 1988.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York, 1975.
Wemple, Suzanne Fonay. Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900. Philadelphia, 1985.
Wiedemann, Thomas. Adults and Children in the Roman Empire. New Haven, 1989.

II W omen and the law

Primary sources
Akehurst, F.R.P., tr. The Coutumes de Beauvaisis of Philippe de Beaumanoir. Philadelphia, 1992.
Burns, Robert I. Las Siete Partidas, tr. Samuel Parsons Scott. Philadelphia, 2001.
Hall, G.D.G., ed. and tr. Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie qui Glanvilla vocatur: The Treatise on the
Laws and Customs of the Realm of England Commonly Called Glanvill, Nelson Medieval Texts. London, 1965.
Jenkins, Dafydd and Morfydd E. Owen, eds. The Welsh Law of Women. Cardiff, 1980.
Meyer, Kuno, ed. and tr. Cáin Adamnáin: An Old-Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnan. Oxford, 1905.
Powell, James M., tr. The Liber Augustalis, or Constitutions of Melfi, Promulgated by the Emperor Frederick II for the
Kingdom of Sicily in 1231. Syracuse, NY, 1971.
Schroeder, H. J. Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils. St. Louis, MO and London: B. Herder Book Co., 1937.

Secondary works
Hanawalt, Barbara A. “Of Good and Ill Repute”: Gender and Social Control in Medieval England. New York and
Oxford, 1998.
Hanawalt, Barbara A. and David Wallace, eds. Medieval Crime and Social Control. Minneapolis, 1999.
Jones, Karen. Gender and Petty Crime in Late Medieval England: The Local Courts in Kent, 1460–1560. Wood-
bridge, 2006.
Killerby, Catherine Kovesi. Sumptuary Law in Italy, 1200–1500. Oxford, 2002.
Menuge, Noël James, ed. Medieval Women and the Law. Woodbridge, 2003.
Stone, Marilyn. Marriage and Friendship in Medieval Spain: Social Relations According to the Fourth Partida of
Alfonso X. New York, 1990.
Thompson, Augustine. Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125–1325. University Park, PA, 2005.

III M arriage , sex , childbirth , and health

Primary sources
Bayard, Tania, tr. A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century New York, 1991.
Berger, Margret, ed. and tr. Hildegard of Bingen. On Natural Philosophy and Medicine: Selections from Cause et
Cure. Cambridge, 1999.
266  Further reading
Greco, Gina L. and Christine M. Rose, tr. The Good Wife’s Guide (Le Ménagier de Paris): A Medieval House-
hold Book. Ithaca, 2009.
Green, Monica H., ed. and tr. The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine. Philadelphia, 2001.
Lemay, Helen, tr. Women’s Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus, “De secretis mulierum” with Commen-
taries. Albany, 1992.
McCarthy, Conor, ed. Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages: A Sourcebook. London and New York, 2004.
McNeill, John T. and Helena M. Gamer, tr. and eds. Medieval Handbooks of Penance. New York, 1938.
McSheffrey, Shannon, ed. and tr. Love and Marriage in Medieval London. Kalamazoo, MI, 1995.
Murray, Jacqueline, ed. Love, Marriage, and Family in the Middle Ages: A Reader. Peterborough, Ontario, 2001.
Palmquist, Mary and John Kulas, eds. Hildegard of Bingen: Holistic Healing, tr. Manfred Pawlik and Patrick
Madigan. Collegeville, MN, 1994.
Payer, Pierre, tr. Raymond of Penyafort. Summa on Marriage. Toronto, 2005.
Radice, Betty, tr. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Harmondsworth, 1974.
Rowland, Beryl, tr. Medieval Woman’s Guide to Health: The First English Gynecological Handbook. Kent, OH, 1981.

Secondary works
Atkinson, Clarissa W. The Oldest Vocation: Christian Motherhood in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY, 1991.
Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning
of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. Chicago, 1980.
Brooke, Christopher, ed. The Medieval Idea of Marriage. Oxford, 1989.
Brundage, James A. Law, Sex and Christian Society in Medieval Europe. Chicago, 1990.
Bullough, Vern L. and James A. Brundage, eds. Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. New York, 2000.
Cadden, Joan. Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science and Culture. Cambridge, 1993.
Donahue, Charles, Jr. Law, Marriage, and Society in the Later Middle Ages: Arguments about Marriage in Five
Courts. Cambridge, 2008.
Duby, Georges. The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France, tr.
Barbara Bray. Harmondsworth, 1983.
Elliott, Dyan. Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock. Princeton, NJ, 1993.
Furst, Lilian R. Women Healers and Physicians: Climbing a Long Hill. Lexington, KY, 1997.
Gies, Frances and Joseph Gies. Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages. New York, 1987.
Green, Monica H. Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West. Aldershot, 2000.
Green, Monica H. Making Women’s Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynaecology.
Oxford and New York, 2008.
Helmholz, R. H. Marriage Litigation in Medieval England. Cambridge, 1974.
Herlihy, David. Medieval Households. Cambridge, MA, 1985.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing unto Others. New York, 2005.
Laiou, Angeliki E., ed. Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Societies. Washington, DC. 1993.
McCarthy, Conor. Marriage in Medieval England: Law, Literature, and Practice. Woodbridge, 2004.
Mews, Constant J. The Lost Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise. New York, 1999.
Neel, Carol, ed. Medieval Families: Perspectives on Marriage, Household, and Children. Toronto, 2004.
Parson, John Carmi and Bonnie Wheeler, eds. Medieval Mothering. New York, 1996.
Reynolds, Philip L. and John Witte, Jr., eds. To Have and To Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western
Christendom, 400–1600. Cambridge, 2007.
Riddle, John M. Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA,
1992.
Riddle, John M. Eve’s Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West. Cambridge, MA, 1997.
Sautman, Francesca Canadé and Pamela Sheingorn, eds. Same Sex Love and Desire among Women in the
Middle Ages. New York, 2001.
Shahar, Shulamith. Childhood in the Middle Ages. London and New York, 1990.
Sheehan, Michael M. Marriage, Family, and Law in Medieval Europe: Collected Papers, ed. James K. Farge.
Toronto, 1996.
 Further reading  267
Sweet, Victoria. Rooted in the Earth, Rooted in the Sky: Hildegard of Bingen and Premodern Medicine. New York
and London, 2006.
Walker, Sue Sheridan, ed. Wife and Widow in Medieval England. Ann Arbor, 1993.

IV N oblewomen ’ s lives

Primary sources
Barber, Richard. The Pastons: A Family in the Wars of the Roses. Harmondsworth, 1981.
Barnhouse, Rebecca. The Book of the Knight of the Tower: Manners for Young Medieval Women. New York, 2006.
Benton, John F. ed. Self and Society in Medieval France: The Memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent. New York, 1970.
Brown, Andrew and Graeme Small, eds. and tr. Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries,
ca.1420–1530. Manchester, 2008.
Christine de Pisan. The Treasure of the City of Ladies, or, The Book of the Three Virtues, tr. Sarah Lawson.
Harmondsworth, 1985.
Christine de Pizan. The Book of the City of Ladies, tr. Earl Jeffrey Richards. London, 1983.
Christine de Pizan. A Medieval Woman’s Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies, tr. Charity Canon
Willard, ed. Madeleine Pelner Cosman. New York, 1989.
Christine de Pizan. Christine’s Vision, tr. Glenda K. McLeod. New York, 1993.
Christine de Pizan. The Writings of Christine de Pizan, ed. Charity Cannon Willard. New York, 1993.
Christine de Pizan. The Selected Writings of Christine de Pizan, tr. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski (ed.) and
Kevin Brownlee. New York and London, 1997.
Christine de Pizan. The Vision of Christine de Pizan, tr. Glenda McLeod and Charity Cannon Willard.
Cambridge, 2005.
Dhuoda. Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel for Her Son, tr. Carol Neel. Lincoln, NB, and
London, 1991.
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks, tr. Lewis Thorpe. Harmondsworth, 1974.
Nicolas, Harris Nicholas, ed. Testamenta Vetusta: Being Illustrations from Wills, of Manners, Customs, etc., 2
vols. London, 1826.
Redstone, Vincent B., ed. The Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene, tr. M. K. Dale. Ipswich, 1931.
Ross, Barbara, ed. and tr. Accounts of the Stewards of the Talbot Household at Blakemere, 1392–1425. Keele, 2003.
Walmsley, John, ed. and tr. Widows, Heirs, and Heiresses in the Late Twelfth Century: The Rotuli de Dominabus
et Pueris et Puellis. Tempe, AZ, 2006.
Ward, Jennifer C. Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066–1500. Manchester, 1996.
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. and tr. Anglo-Saxon Wills. Cambridge, 1930.

Secondary Works
Bogin, Meg. The Women Troubadours. New York, 1980.
Coss, Peter. The Lady in Medieval England, 1000–1500. Stroud, 1998.
Evergates, Theodore, ed. Aristocratic Women in Medieval France. Philadelphia, 1999.
Gies, Joseph and Frances Gies. Life in a Medieval Castle. New York, 1974.
Harris, Barbara J. English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers. Oxford, 2002.
Labarge, Margaret Wade. A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century. Totowa, NJ, 1980.
Mirrer, Louise. Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe. Ann
Arbor, MI, 1991.
Rosenthal, Joel T. Patriarchy and Families of Privilege in Fifteenth-Century England. Philadelphia, 1991.
Stenton, Doris Mary. The English Woman in History. London, 1957.
Ward, Jennifer C. English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages. London, 1992.
Willard, Charity Cannon. Christine de Pizan, Her Life and Works. New York, 1990.
Woolgar, C. M. The Great Household in Late Medieval England. New Haven, 1999.
268  Further reading
V P easant women ’ s lives

Primary sources
Bailey, Mark, ed. and tr. The English Manor, c. 1200–1500: Selected Sources. Manchester, 2002.
Humphreys, Arthur L., ed. Materials for the History of the Town and Parish of Wellington in the County of
Somerset. London, 1910.
Hunnisett, R.F., ed. Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls. Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 1961.
Massingberd, W.O., tr. Court Rolls of the Manor of Ingoldmells in the County of Lincolnshire. London, 1902.

Secondary works
Balestracci, Duccio. The Renaissance in the Fields: Family Memoirs of a Fifteenth-Century Tuscan Peasant, tr.
Paolo Squatriti and Betsy Merideth. University Park, PA, 1999.
Bennett, Judith M. Women in the Medieval English Countryside. Oxford, 1989.
Bennett, Judith M. A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1295–1344. Boston, 1999.
Charles, Lindsey and Lorna Duffin. Women and Work in Preindustrial England. London, 1985.
Dyer, Christopher. Everyday Life in Medieval England. London and New York, 1994.
Gies, Joseph and Frances Gies. Life in a Medieval Village. New York, 1990.
Hanawalt, Barbara. The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England. New York, 1986.
Hanawalt, Barbara, ed. Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe. Bloomington, IN, 1986.

VI T ownswomen ’ s lives

Primary sources
Bateson, M., ed. Borough Customs. London, 1966.
Dean, Trevor, ed. The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages. Manchester, 2000.
Hanham, Alison, ed. The Cely Letters, 1472–1488. London, 1975.
Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge, ed. The Stonor Letters and Papers, 1290–1483, 2 vols. London, 1919.
Riley, H.T., ed. Memorials of London and London Life, 2 vols. London, 1868.
Rogers, Mary, ed. Women in Italy, 1350–1650. Manchester, 2000.

Secondary works
Barron, Caroline M. and Anne F. Sutton, eds. Medieval London Widows, 1300–1500. London, 1994.
Bennett, Judith M. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300–1600. New
York and Oxford, 1996.
Dillard, Heath. Daughters of the Reconquest: Women in Castilian Town Society, 1100–1300. Cambridge, 1984.
Farmer, Sharon. Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris: Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor. Ithaca,
2002.
Gies, Joseph and Frances Gies. Life in a Medieval City. New York, 1969.
Hanawalt, Barbara A., ed. Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe. Bloomington, IN, 1986.
Hanawalt, Barbara A.. The Wealth of Wives: Women, Law, and Economy in Late Medieval London. New York, 2007.
Hanham, Alison. The Celys and Their World: An English Merchant Family of the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge, 1985.
Herlihy, David. Opera Muliebria: Women and Work in Medieval Europe. Philadelphia, 1990.
Howell, Martha C. Women, Production and Patriarchy in Late Medieval Cities. Chicago, 1988.
Karras, Ruth Mazo. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England. Oxford, 1996.
McIntosh, Marjorie Keniston. Working Women in English Society, 1300–1620. Cambridge, 2005.
Nicholas, David The Domestic Life of a Medieval City: Women, Children, and the Family in Fourteenth-Century
Ghent. Lincoln, NB, 1988.
Origo, Iris. The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335–1410. Boston, 1957.
 Further reading  269
Otis, Leah Lydia. Prostitution in Medieval Society: The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc. Chicago, 1985.
Rossiaud, Jacques. Medieval Prostitution, tr. Lydia G. Cochrane. Oxford, 1988.
Thrupp, Sylvia. The Merchant Class of Medieval London, 1300–1500. Chicago, 1948.

VII R eligious lives

Primary sources
Ackerman, Robert W. and Roger Dahood, tr. Ancrene Riwle: Introduction and Part I. Binghamton, NY, 1984.
Armstrong, Regis J., ed. Clare of Assisi: Early Documents. Mahwah, NJ, 1988.
Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine: Select Letters, tr. J.H. Baxter. Loeb Classical Library. London, 1930.
Brunn, Emilie Zum and Georgette Epiney-Burgard, eds. Women Mystics in Medieval Europe. New York, 1989.
Donatus of Besançon. The Ordeal of Community, and The Rule of Donatus of Besançon, tr. Jo Ann McNamara
and John Halborg. Toronto, n.d.
Eudes of Rouen. The Register of Eudes of Rouen, tr. Sydney M. Brown, ed. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan. New
York and London, 1964.
Fox, Matthew, ed. Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works, with Letters and Songs. Santa Fe, NM, 1987.
Hallborg, John E., Jo Ann McNamara and Gordon Whatley, eds. Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Durham,
NC, 1992.
Hildegard of Bingen. Illuminations, ed. Matthew Fox. Santa Fe, NM, 1985.
Hildegard of Bingen. Explanation of the Rule of Benedict, tr. Hugh Feiss. Toronto, 1990.
Hrotswitha of Gandersheim. The Plays of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim, tr. Larissa Bonfante with Alexandra
Bonfante-Warren. Oak Park, IL, 1986.
Hrotswitha of Gandersheim. The Plays of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, tr. Katharina M. Wilson. New York,
1989.
Jacques de Vitry. The Faces of Women in the Sermons of Jacques de Vitry, ed. and tr. Carolyn Muessig.
Toronto, 1999.
Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Halcyon Backhouse with Rhona Pipe. London, 1987.
Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe, tr. Barry Windeatt. Harmondsworth, 1985.
Millett, Bella and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, eds. Medieval English Prose for Women: The Katherine Group and
Ancrene Wisse. Oxford, 1990.
Morton, James, ed. The Nun’s Rule, Being the Ancren Riwle Modernised. London, 1905.
Riccaboni, Sister Bartolomea. Life and Death in a Venetian Convent: The Chronicle and Necrology of Corpus
Domini, 1395–1436, ed. and tr. Daniel Bornstein. Chicago and London, 2000.
Talbot, C.H., tr. The Life of Christina of Markyate, A Twelfth-Century Recluse. Oxford, 1987.
Thomas de Cantimpré. The Life of Christina the Astonishing, tr. and ed. Margot King with David Wiljer.
Toronto, 1986.

Secondary works
Atkinson, Clarissa. Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and World of Margery Kempe. Ithaca, 1983.
Bynum, Caroline Walker. Holy Feast, Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley, 1987.
Cartwright, Jane. Feminine Sanctity and Spirituality in Medieval Wales. Cardiff, 2008.
Collis, Louise. Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe. New York, 1964.
Elkins, Sharon K. Holy Women of Twelfth-Century England. Chapel Hill, NC, 1988.
Finnegan, Mary Jeremy. The Women of Helfta: Scholars and Mystics. Athens, GA, 1991.
Flanagan, Sabina. Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life. New York, 1989.
Haight, Anne Lyon, ed. Hroswitha of Gandersheim: Her Life, Times, and Works, and a Comprehensive Bibliography. New
York, 1965.
Johnson, Penelope D. Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval France. Chicago, 1991.
McDonnell, Ernest W. The Beguines and Beghards in Medieval Culture with Special Emphasis on the Belgian Scene.
New Brunswick, NJ, 1969.
270  Further reading
McNamara, Jo Ann Kay. Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia. Cambridge, MA, 1996.
Newman, Barbara. Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine. Berkeley, 1987.
Newman, Barbara, ed. Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World. Berkeley, 1998.
Nichols, John A. and Lillian Thomas Shank, eds. Distant Echoes: Medieval Religious Women I. Kalamazoo, MI, 1984.
Nichols, John A. and Lillian Thomas Shank, eds. Peace Weavers: Medieval Religious Women II. Kalamazoo, MI, 1987.
Nichols, John A. and Lillian Thomas Shank, eds. Hidden Springs: Cistercian Monastic Women, I and II. Medi-
eval Religious Women III. Kalamazoo, MI, 1995.
Power, Eileen. Medieval English Nunneries. Cambridge, 1922.
Ruether, Rosemary and Eleanor McLaughlin, eds. Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and
Christian Traditions. New York, 1979.
Salisbury, Joyce E. Church Fathers, Independent Virgins. New York, 1991.
Simons, Walter. Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200–1565. Philadelphia, 2001.
Thurston, Bonnie Bowman. A Women’s Ministry in the Early Church. Minneapolis, 1989.
Venarde, Bruce L. Women’s Monasticism and Medieval Society: Nunneries in France and England, 890–1215.
Ithaca and New York, 1997.
Ward, Benedicta. Harlots of the Desert: A Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources. Kalamazoo, MI, 1987.
Wheeler, Bonnie, ed. Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth-Century Woman. New York, 2000.
Wilson, Katharina M. Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: Rara Avis in Saxonia? Ann Arbor, MI, 1987.

VIII  J ewish , M uslim , and heretic women

Primary sources
Bos, Gerrit, ed and tr. Ibn al-Jazzâr on Sexual Diseases and Their Treatment. London, 1997.
Dawood, N.J., tr. The Koran. Harmondsworth, 1990.
Henry, Sondra and Emily Taitz. Written Out of History: A Hidden Legacy of Jewish Women Revealed Through
Their Writings and Letters. New York, 1978.
Klein, Isaac, tr. The Code of Maimonides. Book Four: The Book of Women. New Haven and London, 1972.
Lewis, Bernard, ed. and tr. Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople, 2 vols. New
York, 1974.
Maitland, S. R., ed. Facts and Documents Illustrative of the History, Doctrine, and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and
Waldenses. London, 1832.
Marcus, Jacob R., ed. The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315–1791. Cincinnati, 1938.
Maxwell-Stuart, P.G., tr. The Malleus Maleficarum. Manchester, 2007.
Smith, Colin, Charles Melville, and Ahmad Ubaydli, eds. Christian and Moors in Spain, 3 vols. Warmin-
ster, 1988–2001.

Secondary works
Barkaï, Ron. A History of Jewish Gynaecological Texts in the Middle Ages. Leiden, 1998.
Baskin, Judith R. Jewish Women in Historical Perspective. Detroit, 1991.
Baumgarten, Elisheva. Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe. Princeton, NJ, 2004.
Deguilham, Randi and Manuela Marin, eds. Writing the Feminine: Women in Arab Sources. New York, 2002.
Fine, Lawrence, ed. Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period. Princeton and
Oxford, 2001.
Hambly, Gavin R.G., ed. Women in the Medieval Islamic World. New York, 1999.
Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy. Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French Village, 1294–1324. London, 1980.
Lindsay, James E. Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World. Westport, CT, 2005.
McSheffrey, Shannon. Gender and Heresy: Women and Men in Lollard Communities, 1420–1530. Philadelphia, 1995.
Richards, Jeffrey. Sex, Dissidence, and Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages. New York, 1991.
Winer, Rebecca Lynn. Women, Wealth, and Community in Perpignan, c. 1250–1300. Aldershot, 2006.
Index

abbesses 197–8 banquets: Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene,

abduction 62, 70 The 140
Abrahams, Israel: Hebrew Ethical Wills 237–9 Barley, Maurice: Houses and History 158–9
Adam and Eve 10–12 Barnes, Patricia M.: Medieval Miscellany for Doris
Adamnan 34–5 Mary Stenton 123–4
adultery: accusations 56; canon law 37–8; Jews Barnhouse, Rebecca: Book of the Knight of the Tower
240–2; Muslim women 245–6; penance 68; 127–31
rape 53–4; Roman Empire 25; Sicilian law Basore, John W.: Seneca: Moral Essays, vol II 22–3
51 bathhouse-keepers 164
Agnes the Beguine, Dame 87, 92–4 Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls 155–8
agricultural workers 65 Beguines of Ghent 213–16
Alvilda Petroff, Elizabeth: Medieval Women’s Berger, Margaret: Hildegard of Bingen, On Natural
Literature 135–8 Philosophy and Medicine: Selections from Cause et
Alwalton 151–2 Cure 100–3
Amt, E.: Cartulaire du Beguinage de Sainte-Elisabeth á Béthune, Jean: Cartulaire du Beguinage de Sainte-
Gand 213–16; Chartularium universitatis parisiensis Elisabeth á Gand 213–16
103–6; Corpus Juris Canonici 35–8; Coutumiers betrothal 31, 36, 52–3, 70
de Normandie, I: Le Très Ancien Coutumier de Bible, The 10–15
Normandie 41–5; Explication du Capitulaire De Bival 202
Villis 148; Gli statuti Veronesi del 1276 colle Bland, A.E.: English Economic History: Select
correzioni e le aggiunte fino 1323 164–5; Le Livre Documents 152–5
des Métiers, XIIIe Siécle 162–4; Les Mètiers et Boileau, Etienne de: Le Livre des métiers (Book of
Corporations de la Ville de Paris 173–4; Lo statuto Crafts) 162
inedito delle nozze veneziane emanato nell’anno Bondeville 205
1229 134–5; Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar, The Bonnardot, François: Le Livre des Métiers, XIIIe
166–8; Marriage Litigation in Medieval England Siécle 162–4
83–5; Recueil de Documents Relatifs á l’Histoire de Book of Margery Kempe, The 218–22
l’Industrie Drapière en Flandre 166–73; Rotuli de Book of the Knight of the Tower 3, 127–31
Dominabus et Pueris de Xii Comitabus 125–7; Sancti Bornstein, Daniel: Life and Death in a Venetian
Caesarii Episcopi Arelatensis Opera Omnia, vol. II Convent 216–18
183–90; Select Pleas, Starrs and Other Records from Bourbon, Etienne de 249
the Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, AD 1220- Bradford: manorial court rolls 153–5
1284 165–6 brewers 169–70
anchoresses 206–13 brides 63–4
anchorites 206–13 Britain 34
Ancrene Riwle 206–13 Brown, P.A.: English Economic History: Select
Anglo-Saxon Wills 114–18 Documents 152–5
apprenticeships 166–8 Brown, Sydney M.: Register of Eudes of Rouen
Armstrong, Regis J.: Clare of Assisi: Early Documents 201–5
195–201 Brucker, Gene: Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
Asheri, Judah: family history 237–8 85–6
assault 31–2 Bryene, Dame Alice de 138–41
Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent, The 118–23 business contracts 168–70
272â•… Index
Butler-Bowden, W.: Book of Margery Kempe, The confession 196–7
218–22 consanguinity 38–40
Constantine 1–2
Caesarius of Arles 2, 183–90 convents 4, 216–18
Candlemas 193 Córdoba, Leonor López de 131–4
canon law 2, 9 Corner, Christina 134–5
Carolingian Empire 2 Cornish, C.L.: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 19–20
carpenters 179–80 coroners’ records 155–8
Cartulaire du Beguinage de Sainte-Elisabeth á Gand: Corpus Juris Canonici 35–8
Beguines of Ghent 213–16 cotters 151–2
Cave, Roy C.: Source Book for Medieval Economic Coulson, Herbert H.: Source Book for Medieval
History 166–8 Economic History 166–8
celibacy 14, 36 Council of Arles (442-506) 182–3
census 151–2 Council of Epaone (517) 183
Chalkeopoulos, Athanasios 222–6 Council of Orange (441) 182
chambermaids 174 Council of Orange (533) 183
Chapelot, Jean: Village and House in the Middle Ages, Court Rolls of the Manor of Ingoldmells in the County of
The 158–9 Lincolnshire 80
charity 130, 207 Coutumiers de Normandie, I: Le Très Ancien Coutumier
charters 123–4 de Normandie 41–5
chastity 27, 35, 39, 186, 195 craft guilds 162–4
Chatelain, E.: Chartularium universitatis parisiensis crafts 3–4
103–6 crimes and punishments 61–3
Chazan, Robert: European Jewry and the First Crusades 4, 229, 230–3
Crusade 230–3 custody 110–14
chevage 152
child rearing: Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent, The dairymaids 150–1
119–20 Dale, M.K.: Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene,
child-stealers 62 The 138–41
childbirth 37, 95, 99-100; Autobiography of Guibert Dalton, O.M.: History of the Franks, The 108–9,
of Nogent, The 119 148
children 34, 36, 55–6, 81–2, 133 Dati, Gregorio 85–6
Christian Belief 10–20 daughters 127–31
Christian church 2 David of Augsburg 249
Christian doctrine 14–16 Davis, Norman: Paston Letters: A Selection in Modern
Christianity 1, 4, 12, 27–8 Spelling, The 141–4
Christians 59–60 Dean, Trevor: Towns of Italy in the Later Middle
Christina of Markyate 3, 71–4 Ages, The 85
Christine de Pizan 135-8 deaths 34, 35, 155–8
Chrysostom, John 37 Denifle, H.: Chartularium universitatis parisiensis
Church councils 182–3 103–6
Church Historians of England, The 190–2 Development of Ightham Mote, The 144
church wedding 75–8 Dhuoda 3, 110–14
churches 190–2 divorce 24–5, 245
civic statutes 164–5 domestic matters 209–13, 215
Civil Law, The 24–5 Dorough Johnson, Elaine: To Restore Honor
Clare of Assisi 195–201 and Fortune: The Autobiography of Leonor
Clare of Assisi: Early Documents 195–201 López de Córdoba 131–4
clothing 190, 234–5 dowers 41–2, 44–5, 49, 60–1
Code of Maimonides, Book Four: The Book of Women, dowries 45, 49, 178–9
The 233–7 dowry 3, 24, 27, 85–6, 236
Coldingham 191 drapers 173
commercial regulations 170–3 Durham 153
communion 196–7 dwellings 158–9
conception 99, 102–3
concubines 54–5 education 2, 4
conduct 236 Eleazar of Mainz 238–9
 Indexâ•… 273
enclosure of nuns 200 Goodman of Paris, The 87–94
England 64–5 Gospels 12–14
English Economic History: Select Documents 152–5 Gratian 35–8
episcopal court records 83–5 Green, Monica H.: Trotula: A Medieval Compendium
Espinas, Georges: Recueil de Documents Relatifs á of Women’s Medicine, The 95–100
l’Histoire de l’Industrie Drapière en Flandre 166–73 Gregory of Tours, Bishop: History of the Franks,
estate management 5, 150–1 The 108–9, 148
Eudes of Rouen 201–5 guardianship 174–5
European Jewry and the First Crusade 230–3 Guérard, M.: Explication du Capitulaire De Villis 148
Eustochium: Letter from St. Jerome 17 Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales, A 227
guilds 3–4, 162–4
farmworkers 150–1 Guillou, André: Le ‘Liber Visitationis’ d’Athanase
fasting 128, 196–7, 206 Chalkéopoulos 223–6
feasting 129–30
Felicie, Jacobs 103–6 Hakeneye, Isabel de 174–5
Female Autograph: Theory and Practice of Autobiography Hali Meidenhaad: An Alliterative Homily of the
from the Tenth to the Twentieth Century: Córdoba, Thirteenth Century 80–2
Leonor López de 131–4 Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel
femme sole 161 for Her Son 110–14
fines 152–5 harvest 140–1
Flanders 166–7, 177–8, 218 Hassall, W.O.: Medieval England As Viewed by
Foords, A.S.: Ideas and Institutions in European Contemporaries 152–5
History 800-1715 151–5 health 98–9
Foreville, Raymonde: Saint Gilbert of Sempringham: Helmholz, R. H.: Marriage Litigation in Medieval
His Life and Achievement 227 England 83–5
fornication 30, 37–8, 68 Henning, Basil D.: Ideas and Institutions in European
Fossier, Robert: Village and House in the Middle Ages, History 800-1715 151–5
The 158–9 Henry II, King of England 125–7
Foucard, C.: Lo statuto inedito delle nozze veneziane Henry III, German King 150
emanato nell’anno 1229 134–5 heresy 4, 229, 249–50, 255–7
Fournier, Jacques 250–5 Heresy Trials in the Diocese of Norwich 1428-31
Fox, Matthew: Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine 255–7
Works 194–5 heretics 59–60, 229, 249–57
France 182–3 Hildegard of Bingen 100–3, 193–5
Franks 2, 148 Hildegard of Bingen, On Natural Philosophy and
fraud 170–2, 173 Medicine: Selections from Cause et Cure 100–3
freewomen 28–9 Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works 194–5
Fremantle, W.H.: St. Jerome: Letters and Select History of the Church in Durham, A 190–2
Works 17–19 History of the Franks, The 108–9
fruit sellers 164–5 Holkham 152
fullers 163–4 Holmes McNeal, Edgar: Sourcebook for Medieval
Furnivall, F.J.: Hali Meidenhaad: An Alliterative History, A 60–1, 149–50
Homily of the Thirteenth Century 80–2 holy maidenhood 80–2
homicide 29, 30–1, 43, 56–7
Gamer, Helena M.: Medieval Handbooks of Penance hospitality 130–1
68–70 Houses and History 158–9
Gaul 182–3 housing 234–5
Geary, Patrick J.: Readings in Medieval History Humphreys, Arthur L.: Materials for the History of
250–5 the Town and Parish of Wellington in the County of
gentry 107, 141 Somerset 79
Germanic Customs 26–32 Hunnisett, R.F.: Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls 155–8
Germanic Tribes 1, 9, 114, 148–50 husbands 15, 89–90, 121
Germany 249 Hutton, Maurice: Tacitus: Dialogus, Agricola,
Gilbertine Rite, The 192–3 Germania 26–7
Gilbertine women 192–3
Gli statuti Veronesi del 1276 colle correzioni e le aggiunte Ideas and Institutions in European History 800-1715
fino 1323 164–5 151–5
274â•… Index
Ightham Mote 144–6 Volume II: Religion and Society 247–8
Ingoldmells (Lincolnshire) 80 leyr 152
inheritance 61, 85, 243–4 Liber Augustalis, or Constitutions of Melfi, Promulgated
Inquisition 4, 250–5 by the Emperor Frederick II for the Kingdom of Sicily
Islam from the Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of in 1231, The 45–51
Constantinople 246–7 Life and Death in a Venetian Convent 216–18
Islam from the Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of Life of Christina of Markyate, a Twelfth Century
Constantinople, Volume II: Religion and Society Recluse, The 71–4
247–8 literacy 2, 7, 107
Italy 85–6, 178–9, 216–18, 239 liturgy 75–9, 95
Livre des métiers (Book of Crafts) 162
Jean II, King of France 173–4 Lo statuto inedito delle nozze veneziane emanato nell’anno
Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, The 239–42 1229 134–5
Jews 58–9, 165–6, 229 Lollards 255–7
Jordan 221–2 London 61–3, 167
Jovinian 18–19 Lovell, Elizabeth 83–5
judgment 84–5, 254
Madselin (Ulf and Madselin) 118
Katz Kaminsky, Amy: To Restore Honor and Magdeburg 60–1
Fortune: The Autobiography of Leonor López magic potions 29
de Córdoba 131–4 Maimonides 233–7
Kempe, Margery 218–22 Mainz 231–2
kettubah 233–4 Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar, The 166–8
Khalifa, Rashid: Quran, The Final Testament: manorial court rolls 79–80, 152–5
Authorized English Version with the Arabic Text 243–6 Marcus, Jacob R.: Jew in the Medieval World: A
Klein, Isaac: Code of Maimonides, Book Four: The Sourcebook, The 239–42
Book of Women, The 233–7 Margolis, Nadia: Selections from the Works of
knights 65 Christine de Pizan: The Lavison-Christine
135–8
La Salle-aux-Puelles 203 marital relations 234–5
La Tour Landry, Geoffrey de: Book of the Knight of marriage: Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent, The
the Tower 127–31 120–1; canon law 35–8, 83; celibacy 14;
land ownership 114, 123–5, 143–4 Christina of Markyate 72–4; clandestine 37;
Las Siete Partidas 52–60 Córdoba, Leonor López de 131; Germanic
Lateran Council (1215) 38–40 Tribes 26; holy maidenhood 80–2; intercourse
laundresses 174 69; Jews 233–4; Muslim women 244; Paston,
Laurent, M.-H.: Le ‘Liber Visitationis’ d’Athanase Margaret 142–3; penance 68–9; religious lives
Chalkéopoulos 223–6 181; role of women 3; Roman Empire 24–5;
laws: Carolingian Empire 148; Irish law of secret 53; Sicilian law 49–50; St. Augustine of
women 34–5; Jews 233–7; Muslim women Hippo 19–20; unfree women 79–80
243; peasant women 149–50; role of women marriage chamber 78–9
33; Roman Empire 9; secular 6 Marriage Litigation in Medieval England 83–5
Laws of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks, The 27–32 marriage rights 24–5
Le ‘Liber Visitationis’ d’Athanase Chalkéopoulos 223–6 Martines, Julia: Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
Le Livre des Métiers, XIIIe Siécle 162–4 85–6
legal status 48 Martines, Lauro: Not in God’s Image 166–8
Legend of Good Women: Medieval Women in Towns and Mary Magdalene 13–14
Cities, The 168–70 Mary (Virgin) see Virgin Mary
legitimacy 39–40 Massingberd, W.O.: Court Rolls of the Manor of
Les Mètiers et Corporations de la Ville de Paris 173–4 Ingoldmells in the County of Lincolnshire 80
Lespinasse, René de: Le Livre des Métiers, XIIIe Materials for the History of the Town and Parish of
Siécle 162–4; Les Mètiers et Corporations de la Ville Wellington in the County of Somerset 79
de Paris 173–4 Matilda of Stickney 123–5
letters 22–3, 141–4 McNeill, John T. 68–70
Lewis, Bernard: Islam from the Prophet Muhammed to Medieval England As Viewed by Contemporaries 152–5
the Capture of Constantinople 246–7; Islam from the Medieval Handbooks of Penance 68–70
Prophet Muhammed to the Capture of Constantinople, Medieval Women’s Literature 135–8
 Indexâ•… 275
Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, Passau Anonymous 249
XIVth and XVth Centuries: business contracts Paston, Margaret 141–4
168–70; commercial regulations 170–3; crimes peasant women 147, 148–50
and punishments 61–3; guardianship 174–5; persecution 229
prostitutes 176–8; town houses 179–80 Perugia 85
Mendenhall, Thomas C.: Ideas and Institutions in Peters, Edward: Heresy and Authority in Medieval
European History 800-1715 151–5 Europe: Documents in Translation 249–57
menstruation 245; Hebrew Ethical Wills 238; phlegmatic women 101–2
Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s pilgrimage 4, 218–22, 257
Medicine, The 97–8 Pirenne, Henri: Recueil de Documents Relatifs á
merchet 152 l’Histoire de l’Industrie Drapière en Flandre
monasteries 2, 4, 192–3 166–73
Monastery of the Forty Saints 225–6 Pizan, Christine de 135–8
monastic life 36, 70, 216–18, 222 Planissoles, Beatrice de 250–5
monastic rule 183–90 political rule 5–6
moneylenders 165–6 possessions 198–200
Montivilliers 204 Powell, James M.: Liber Augustalis, or Constitutions of
Moone, Hiawisa 255–7 Melfi, Promulgated by the Emperor Frederick II for the
Moors 59–60 Kingdom of Sicily in 1231, The 45–51
moral advice 86, 127–31 Power, Eileen: Goodman of Paris, The 87–94
Morin, D.G.: Sancti Caesarii Episcopi Arelatensis pregnancy 95, 98–9
Opera Omnia, vol. II 183–90 procuresses 58, 176–7
Morton, James: Nun’s Rule, Being the Ancren Riwle professions 103
Modernised, The 206–13 property 246–7
mothers 34, 55–6, 95, 118–23 prostitutes: bathhouses 248; Christianity 13;
mourning 23, 144 London 176–8; Norman laws 44; restrictions
Muslims 229, 243–6 177–8; Sicilian law 51; violence 46
puberty 100–1
National Trust: Development of Ightham Mote, The 144
Neel, Carol: Handbook for William: A Carolingian Qur’an 243–6
Woman’s Counsel for Her Son 110–14 Quran, The Final Testament: Authorized English Version
New, Anthony: Guide to the Abbeys of England and with the Arabic Text 243–6
Wales, A 227
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 19–20 rape 32, 35, 43–4, 46, 149–50
Norman laws 40–5 Readings in Medieval History 250–5
North, William L.: Le ‘Liber Visitationis’ d’Athanase Recueil de Documents Relatifs á l’Histoire de l’Industrie
Chalkéopoulos 223–6 Drapière en Flandre: apprenticeships 166–8;
Not in God’s Image 166–8 business contracts 168–70; commercial
nunneries 108–9, 123, 227 regulations 170–3
nuns 57–8, 181, 196 Redstone, Vincent B.: Household Book of Dame Alice
Nun’s Rule, Being the Ancren Riwle Modernised, The de Bryene, The 138–41
206–13 Register of Eudes of Rouen 201–5
nurses 174 regulations 170–3, 176, 222
Reigner, Alice 175
O’Faolain, Julia: Not in God’s Image 166–8 religious: communities 227–8; lives 181, 207;
orphans 42, 174–5 minorities 5; practice 238–9
Oschinsky, Dorothea: Walter of Henley and Other Ricart, Robert: Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar, The
Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting 166–8
150–1 Riccoboni, Sister Bartolomea: Life and Death in a
O’Sullivan, Jeremiah F.: Register of Eudes of Rouen Venetian Convent 216–18
201–5 Rigg, J.M.: Select Pleas, Starrs and Other Records from
Owen, Dorothy M.: Some Revesby Charters of the Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, AD 1220-
the Soke of Bolingbroke 123–4 1284 165–6
rights 24–5, 60
Palm Sunday 192–3 Riley, Henry Thomas: Memorials of London and
Paris 86–94, 162–4, 167–8, 173–4 London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth and XVth Centuries
Parsons Scott, Samuel: Las Siete Partidas 52–60 61–3, 168–73, 174–5, 176–8, 179–80
276â•… Index
Rivers, Theodore John: Laws of the Salian and St. Candelora 226
Ripuarian Franks, The 27–32 St. Clare 195–201
Rogers, Mary: Women in Italy 178–9, 216–18 St. Cuthbert 190–2
role of women 3, 5, 15-16, 33 St. Elisabeth 214
Roman Empire 1, 24–5 St. Jerome 17–19
Roman Ideals 21–5 St. Jerome: Letters and Select Works 18–19
Round, John Horace: Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris St. Paul 14–16
de Xii Comitabus 125–7 St-Saëns 204
royal estates 148 St-Sauveur-d’Evreux 203–4
royal patronage 125–7 Stanton, Domna C.: Female Autograph: Theory
Rupertsberg 194 and Practice of Autobiography from the Tenth to the
Twentieth Century 131–4
Sacconi, Rainer 249 statutes 164–5, 182
Saint Gilbert of Sempringham: His Life and Achievement 228 Stevenson, J.: Church Historians of England, The 190–2
Salerno 95–100 strumpets 61–2
Salian Franks 27–32 Sueno 71
Sandri, Gino: Gli statuti Veronesi del 1276 colle sumptuary laws 63–5, 134–5, 239–40
correzioni e le aggiunte fino 1323 164–5 Swinton Bland, C.C.: Autobiography of Guibert of
sanguine women 101 Nogent, The 118–23
Santa Anna 226
Santa Febronia 223–5 Tacitus: Dialogus, Agricola, Germania 26–7
Sarum liturgy 75–9 Talbot, C.H.: Life of Christina of Markyate, a Twelfth
Sarum Missal in English, The 95 Century Recluse, The 71–4
Saxony 158f51a, 159f51b Tanner, Norman P.: Heresy Trials in the Diocese of
scolds 62–3 Norwich 1428-31 255–7
Scott, S.P.: Civil Law, The 24–5 Tawney, R.H.: English Economic History: Select
second marriages 37 Documents 152–5
Select Letters of St. Jerome 17 Thatcher, Oliver J.: Sourcebook for Medieval History,
Select Pleas, Starrs and Other Records from the Rolls A 60–1, 149–50
of the Exchequer of the Jews, AD 1220-1284 Theophrastus: On Marriage 18
165–6 thieves 62
Sempringham 192–3 Toulmin-Smith, Lucy: Maire of Bristowe is
Seneca 22–3 Kalendar, The 166–8
Seneca: Moral Essays, vol II 22–3 town houses 179–80
separation 54, 69 towns 4, 161, 179–80
servant girls 178–9 Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages, The 85
servants 90–4 Trier 233
Sicilian law 246–7 Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine,
Sicily 45–51, 229 The 95–100
silence 198 Turia 21–2
Simeon of Durham: History of the Church in Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence 85–6
Durham, A 190–2
Slade, C.F.: Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Uitz, Erika: Legend of Good Women: Medieval Women
Stenton 123–4 in Towns and Cities, The 168–70
slaves 28, 31, 50, 59, 70 Ulf and Madselin 118
So-Called Laudatio Turiae: Introduction, Text, University of Paris 103–6
Translation, Commentary, The 21–2 usury 165–6, 229
Sorrentino, Janet T.: Gilbertine Rite, The 192–3
Source Book for Medieval Economic History 166–8 Venice 63–4, 220
Sourcebook for Medieval History, A 60–1, 149–50 Verona 164–5
Spain 239–40 Village and House in the Middle Ages, The 158–9
Spanish laws 52–60, 247–8 Villarceaux 203, 205
Speyer 230 villeins 151
St-Amand-de-Rouen 202 Virgin Mary 12–13
St. Ambrose: marriage 36 virginity and marriage 17–19, 27
St-Aubin 204–5 virgins 46–7, 57–8
St. Augustine of Hippo 19–20 visitors 200–1
 Indexâ•… 277
Waldensian movement 249–50 wine sellers 165
Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Wistrand, Erik: So-Called Laudatio Turiae:
Management and Accounting 150–1 Introduction, Text, Translation, Commentary,
wards 41, 42, 50 The 21–2
Warren, Frederick E.: Sarum Missal in English, The 95 witches 31
Watton Priory 228 wives 15, 28–9, 86–94
Wellington (Somerset) 79 Women in Italy 178–9, 216–18
wet nurse 100 women’s health 95–100
Whitelock, Dorothy: Anglo-Saxon Wills 114–18 Woolley, R.M.: Gilbertine Rite, The 192–3
widows: abduction 57–8; Alwalton 152; work 198–9, 214, 235–6
Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent, The 122–3; Worms 230–1
Church councils 182–3; craft guilds 162; Wright, F.A.: Select Letters of St. Jerome 17
Muslim women 246; Norman laws 41; rape Wulfgyth 117
46–7; seduction 57; support 182 Wulfwaru 116–17
William of Stickney 123–4 Wynfloed 114–16