Ordering WomenÆs Lives: Penitentials and Nunnery Rules in the Early Medieval West

by Smith,Julie Ann

• ISBN13: 9781859282380
• ISBN10: 1859282385
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book takes an innovative approach to the study of the penitentials and nunnery rules and the ways in which these texts impinged upon the lives of female audiences. The study emphasises the importance of the texts for the promotion of Christian values and of the expectations of churchmen in the construction of appropriate Christian behaviour for women in the early medieval West. These texts constitute the only written works which would have had direct influence upon the lives of lay and religious women. The work focuses upon the elements of the penitentials which provided female-specific expectations, and these fall largely into two categories of sexuality and pre-Christian practices. The nunnery rules seldom provided comprehensive sets of behavioural expectations. Rather, rules emphasised expectations relating to issues of enclosure, work and abstinence which came to be perceived as the defining characteristics of religious women.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	1	(3)
The Texts	4	(11)
Penitentials	4	(2)
Nunnery Rules	6	(9)
Section I - Penitentials
History	15	(26)
Public Penance	17	(2)
Private Penance	19	(7)
Purposes of Penance	26	(5)
The Place of Penitentials in Women's Lives	31	(10)
Sexuality	41	(36)
Sexuality within Marriage	43	(12)
Marriage by Abduction	44	(1)
Serial Monogamy	45	(1)
Kin Marriage	46	(1)
Abstinence within Marriage	47	(1)
Modes of Intercourse	48	(1)
Adultery	49	(3)
Divorce	52	(3)
Sexuality outside Marriage	55	(6)
Fornication	55	(1)
Rape	56	(2)
Sexual Incest	58	(1)
Prostitution	59	(1)
Deviant Sexuality	60	(1)
Sacred Space	61	(3)
Clerical Marriage and Sexuality	64	(2)
The Nunnery	66	(2)
Volition	68	(9)
Work and Magic	77	(34)
Women's Work with Non-Magical Associations	77	(11)
Healthcare	79	(2)
Contraception and Abortion	81	(4)
Childcare	85	(3)
Magical and Pagan Practices	88	(23)
Healing	89	(4)
Contraception and Abortion	93	(1)
Love Magic	94	(1)
Food Preparation	95	(1)
Textile Work	96	(1)
Intentional Evil Magic	97	(4)
Funeral Practices	101	(10)
Section II - Nunnery Rules
History	111	(44)
Eremitic and Domestic Asceticism	111	(6)
Augustine's `Rule for Nuns'	117	(1)
Early Western Monasticism	118	(2)
Benedict's Rule	120	(2)
Caesarius' Rule for Nuns	122	(5)
Columbanian Monasticism	127	(6)
Early Monasticism in England	133	(4)
Eighth-century Benedictine Movement	137	(8)
Tenth-century Reform Movements	145	(10)
Enclosure	155	(28)
Nunnery Structures	157	(4)
The Rules for Enclosure	161	(22)
Work and Abstinence	183	(40)
Abstinence	184	(15)
Detachment from the Secular World	185	(3)
Relinquishment of Status	188	(1)
Poverty	189	(2)
Avoidance of Friendship	191	(2)
Silence	193	(2)
Simplicity of Dress	195	(3)
Fasting and Food	198	(1)
Work	199	(14)
Prayer	199	(2)
Reading	201	(3)
Domestic Labour	204	(5)
Special Officers	209	(1)
Abbess and Prioress	210	(3)
Obedience	213	(10)
Conclusion	223	(4)
Bibliography	227	(16)
Index	243