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Sabine Jansen

Constructions of Female Religious Experiences and their Functions in Mystical Vitae- and Revelation-literature of the Later Middle Ages: The "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner"

Series A: General & Theoretical Papers ISSN 1435-6473 Essen: LAUD 1999 (2nd ed. with divergent page numbering 2007) Paper No. 490

Universität Duisburg-Essen

Sabine Jansen

University of Cologne (Germany)

Constructions of Female Religious Experiences and their Functions in Mystical Vitae- and Revelation-literature of the Later Middle Ages: The "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner"

Copyright by the author Reproduced by LAUD 1999 (2nd ed. with divergent page numbering 2007) Linguistic Agency Series A University of Duisburg-Essen General and Theoretical FB Geisteswissenschaften Paper No. 490 Universitätsstr. 12 D- 45117 Essen

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Constructions of Female Religious Experiences and their Functions in Mystical Vitae- and Revelation-literature of the Later Middle Ages: The "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner"

Abstract Looking for the 'woman in the Middle Ages', one inevitably encounters those text-corpora of female mystical Vitae- and Revelation-literature which were written in south-west German Dominican convents in the later Middle Ages. Written by women and relating the religious life of the , these texts seem to release a view on specific forms of female religiousness and female writing. This impression is reinforced at these texts in which the 'writing acting I' and the 'experiencing I' become one and thereby suggest the idea of quasi- autobiographical, confessionlike records. As an example, the lecture chooses the so called "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner" († 1352, of the Dominican convent Maria Medingen) preserved in the oldest manuscript of 1353. In this text a nun (without naming herself) narrates her religious, mystical experiences during her convent life. Characteristic on the one hand is that these experiences are always perceived physical, the body functions simultaneously as space and expression of her encounter with . On the other hand, these experiences are interdependent with the process of writing them down. They are not only the cause for her record but the writing down itself functions as cause and catalyst for mystical experience. First of all, these poetically proven religious experiences of the 'textual I' will be brought out. Using the commendable studies of Caroline Walker Bynum concerning medieval female religiousness, it must be asked how far these religious, corporeal experiences and the narrating of them can be classified as specifically female. In other words, how do they relate to the institutionalized 'male' discourse about female religiousness and the writing about them in the Middle Ages? Is the 'poetic space' used to originate specific female ways of experience literarilly and to set them against the prevailing gender- constructions or are these constructions taken up affirmatively? The previous research about the "Revelations" has regarded them - both from a conservative-misogynistic and a feminist point of view - as 'factography', as a realistic depiction of female religiousness, of the biological and social experiences of a woman in the Middle Ages. Thereby the literary constructions of female religiousness were taken as real- life situations. In contrast, this lecture will focus on the text as a literary one. The depicted experiences will be treated as genre-dependent, imaginary testing of female religiousness and female writing in the poetic space. This perspective will lead to a new estimation of the

1 narrator in the "Revelations" who will not be taken up with historical referentiality to a medieval female author 'Margarethe Ebner' anymore but with her textual, poetic function. Therefore it will also be neccessary to refer to the handing down-situation of the manuscript and how the ascribing of the text to Margarethe Ebner has taken place. Thereby the view will be directed from the textually mediated but apparently real female religious experience to the text itself, to its function as a literary tested, in an I-gesture transposed female religiousness.

I. When we look for texts recorded by women which convey ideas of female religiousness, we hardly expect to find them in the Middle Ages. But indeed, from the 13th to 15th century comparatively many hagiographic and revelation-texts were produced which seem to convey directly female ideas of religious experience, not least - one believes - guaranteed by the sex of the female protagonist and 'author' herself. These texts are subsumed under the term 'mystic' because they explicitly depict the strived for or even performed encounter of the female protagonist with the divine partner. This encounter is mostly carried out via the person of Christ - especially his humanitas - and leaves aside the world outside and the protagonist's work upon it. Therefore many scholars have directed their attention to the quality of the protagonist's relationship to and encounter with the divine partner Christ. Both are - according to the modern opinion - of an almost provocative affectivity and they stress the role of the body as a space for the experience of the Divine. Apart from other texts, particularly the vernacular vitae- and revelation-literature of the southwest Dominican convents have caught the critic's attention as evidence of such a conception of an affective, the body stressing religiousness: in the middle of the 14th century, about a hundred years after the convents had been incorporated in the , they developed literary activities and a corpus of texts were produced which, roughly speaking, sum up the religious life of the women who lived in the respective convent. One distinguishes between the so-called sisterbooks and the single-personal vitae- and revelation-texts. The sisterbooks are compilations of life-descriptions of several sisters - especially from the initial stage of the convent - which were expandable for the vitae of following sisters.1 Within the sisterbooks the narrator acts as eye-witness or as someone who gathers oral evidence of the sisters' religious life. In contrast, the extensive, single- personal vitae- and revelation-texts2 are mostly written down from the viewpoint of the experiencing I, who is at the same time introduced as the telling and writing I.

1 Up to now we know the Adelhausener, Engelthaler, Katharinentaler, Kirchberger, Oetenbacher, Tösser, Unterlindener (in Latin), Weiler, and the so-called 'Ulmer sisterbook'. The origin of the latter is not clear yet, even Graf (1984), who assigns it to the convent of Gotteszell, cannot submit conclusive evidence. Regarding the sisterbooks altogether cf. for an overview the recent study by Jaron Lewis (1996). 2 Besides the "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner" cf. the "Revelations of Adelheit Langmann" and "Elsbeth of Oye" and the "Life" and "Revelations of Christine Ebner".

2 II. From out of these texts I have selected the "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner" for my lecture. The oldest manuscript is dated from the year 1353 and it was written at the Dominican convent Maria Medingen (near Donauwörth) where two years before the nun Margarethe Ebner had died. She is identified as the protagonist and narrating I of the "Revelations".3 If we take a look at this text from the aspect of the protagonist's experience of and encounter with God, we also notice a kind of spirituality which is centered on the Person of Christ and characterized by a high degree of affectivity between the textual I and her divine partner. This impression is above all evoked by the charging of the text with images taken from the interhuman sphere and by the depiction of the God-woman-relationship as a family or sexual one. But what seems to be piquant is that these images, which are used to describe the religious experiences within the "Revelations", are apparently applied without metaphorical speech. This way, the depiction of the textual Fs encounter with especially Christ's humanitas appears to be based upon concrete, real experiences; and regarding these experiences - like the graces and revelations centered on the passio, the eucharist, or the childhood of Christ - both the protagonist's and Christ's body have a very prominent function. For a long time, most scholars who have dealt with the "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner" have agreed that these religious experiences would represent a kind of typically female spirituality. Above all the emotionality, the somatizing of the religious experiences, and the concentration upon the childhood of Christ would correspond to the "Wesen der Frau" ('woman's nature') and her predestined "Liebes- und Hingabefähigkeit" ('ability to love and devotion') (Zoepf 1914: 13); here, too, the "fraulich und mütterlich" ('feminine and motherly') kind of religiousness would be shown, that characterizes female mysticism altogether (Kunisch [1968]: 158). The intellectual achievement of the 'author' of the "Revelations" is considered to be very low: Weitlauff (1973: 239f), for example, suggests the danger of "Verflachung der Mystik" ('mysticism becoming shallow') not least resulting from the fact that "Margarethe" was no "geistvolle Persönlichkeit" ('wise personality'), while Wentzlaff-Eggebert ([1969]: 63) even detects "pathologische Züge" ('pathological features'), which would show the danger of "verdrängten weiblichen Gefühls" ('suppressed female emotions'). The list of such evaluations can be further extended but the examples may be sufficient to make clear that previous investigations into the "Revelations" rather show the gender-constructions of scholars than providing any useful contribution to an analysis of medieval ideas of female spirituality. Taking this into consideration, the studies of Bynum are far more informative because Bynum strives for a classification of female religiousness in the Middle Ages - as we are faced with in the hagiographic and revelation-

3 Concerning the reference of the textual I to Margarethe Ebner cf. ... For narratological reasons, I will do without dubbing the I of the text Margarethe Ebner. Instead, terms as, for instance, protagonist, narrator, experiencing or narrating I will be used.

3 texts - and places it within the medieval discours about spirituality and feminity. Turning to Bynum's commendable studies, I will first of all take some prominent subjects out of the "Revelations" regarding the textual Fs religious experiences. Then I will analyse how far these experiences can be grounded in the medieval theological and spiritual discours about (female) religiousness, how they relate to the 'male' discours about (female) spirituality, and if here indeed original female ideas about religious experiences come to fruition. Taking Peters' and Bürkle's approaches to female mystical literature as a point of departure, who both especially deal with the literarity of these texts, I will eventually investigate the problem of possible functions of literary designed forms of female religiousness within the specific context of the origin and use of the "Revelations".

One recurrent image which is used within the "Revelations" to characterize the relationship between the protagonist and the divine partner is the bridemystical motive of Christ as "gemahel" ('spouse') (Strauch [1966]: 69,19; 113,20; 149,20f.)4 who talks to the experiencing I in the language of the Song of Songs by reverting to the motives of the to-let- oneself-find and above all of the "Minnekuss" ('love-kiss'): 'ich bin ain gemahel diner sel, daz ist mir ain lust ze miner ere. ich han ain mineklichez werck in dir, daz ist mir ain süesses spil. des zwinget mich din minne, daz ich mich lauz finden, daz ez der sel as genuoch ist, daz es der lip nit liden wil. din süezzer lust mich findet, din inderiu begirde mich zwinget, din brinnendiu minn mich bindet (...). da wil ich dir geben den minnen kus, der diner sel ist ain lust, ain süesses inners berüeren, ein minnekliches zuofüegen.'

('I am a spouse of your soul that is a pleausure for my honour. I have a lovely work within you which is a sweet play to me. That forces me your love that I let myself find so that it is quite enough to the soul, so that the body can't suffer it. Your sweet pleasure finds me, your inner yearning forces me, your burning love binds me (...) now I want to give you the love-kiss which is a pleasure to your soul, a sweet inner touching, a lovely union.') (69,19-70,3) The identification of the Song of Songs' spouse with Christ turns up at the latest since Origines (+253/4).5 But while Origines above all defined the bride as the church and valued to her identification as single soul a marginal status, Rupert of Deutz (ca. 1070-1129)6 and especially the Cistercian Bernhard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)7 again took up the interpretation of the bride as the single believer's soul and elaborated it decidingly. Bernhard's sermons on the Song of Songs finally became a milestone of the spiritual turning point in the 12th century. Now, God and Christ were no longer regarded as the stern judges

4 In the following the textpassages out of the "Revelations" will just be indicated by the number of the page and line. 5 About the interpretation of the Song of Songs by Origines cf. Only (1958:18ff). 6 About the interpretation of the Song of Songs by Rupert of Deutz cf. Only (1958:121ff.). 7 About Bernhard of Clairvaux cf. Ohly (1958: 136ff.) and Köpf (1986; 1992).

4 of the world but as merciful and loving. From then on, the relationship prefigured in the Song of Songs did not find its fulfillment within the ecclesiastical heilsgeschichte anymore but within the relationship between the believer's soul and God. With Bernhard came a bridemystical interpretation to the fore which is characterized by the two partners' striving for each other and by the union as the presence of God within the soul. Finally, this union is executed by the given kiss from mouth to mouth (cf. Cantica Canticorum 1,2: "He shall kiss me with the kiss of his mouth").8 In connection with the use of bridemystical motives within the "Revelations" - especially of the love-kiss - the narrator directly refers to Bernhard: "ich het grozzen lust und begird, daz ich den kus enphieng mit minem herren sant Bernhart und umbvangen würde mit der minne siner arme" ('I strongly felt like and desired that I received the kiss with my master Bernhard and that I would be embraced with the love of his arms') (21,25-22,2).9 But the given kiss is not carried out as kiss from mouth to mouth but as a kiss into the open heart of Jesus Christ: "so naigt sich min herr Jhesus Cristus her ab von dem criucz und liezz mich küzzen in sin offen hercz und trankt mich mit sinem bluot dar usse" ('So my Lord Jesus Christ leaned down from the cross and let me kiss into his open heart and let me drink out of it with his blood') (21,18-20). The kiss and thus the union with the Divine leads to the image of men's nurturing at Christ's breast as receipt his blood and thus to the eucharistic event. As Bynum (1982:113ff.) has pointed out, the believer's nursing at Christ's breast - and thus the attribution of female, motherly qualities to Christ - is not an unusual image of the eucharistic feeding.10 Further, within medieval spirituality the Eucharist itself just like the kiss is one of the central images of the encounter with the Divine, actually qua incorporation of Christ's body (Bynum 1991c:124).11 In a different passage of the "Revelations" the narrator even points out that the reception of the host has let her feel the "gegenwertiket unsers herren" ('presence of our lord') (84,25f., also cf. 89, 4- 10). This presence of God is above all expressed by tasting real blood and flesh when receiving the host:

8 Cf. especially the Sermon 3.III of Bernhard of Clairvaux (1994:82). 9 In this connection, it is very interesting that the manuscript Berlin, mgq 179 - which was written in the second half of the 15th century and comes from the Dominican convent St. Nikolaus in undis in Strasbourg - compiles the "Revelations" with Bernhard's sermons about the Song of Songs. But mind that the reference to Bernhard in this passage of the "Revelations" does not necessarily imply the primary reception of his works. In the Middle Ages many texts were produced which mediated Bernhard's ideas of an affective, bridemystical spirituality and which were even traded under his name (concerning this problem cf. Köpf 1985: 50f.) Regarding this, the reference to Bernhard's sermons in this lecture is always an exemplary one. 10 Also Bynum (1991a:205; 1991b: 158). The idea of Christ as "die Mutter, deren Brust im Sakrament mit Fleisch und Blut uns nährt" ('the mother whose breast nurtures us with flesh and blood in the sacrament') is also found, for instance, in the "St. Trudperter Hohelied" (Ohly 1993: 19). 11 Also cf. Bernhard of Clairvaux (1995: 512, 514), Sermon 75,II.5.

5 mir ist die diu blosse warhet, in der in der er uns geben hat sin hailigez bluot und flesch, as enphindenlichen und gegenwertklichen gewesen, as ob ich ez liplich sehe und esse und trunke in aller der wise, as ez der uns der hailig cristenlich gelaub set." ('The mere truth, as he has given us his holy blood and flesh, was as perceptible and present to me as if I had physically seen and eaten and drunk it in a way as the holy Christian faith tells us.') (105,21-26) The idea of the consecrated host as physical corpus Christi has to be understood as an exemplification of the dogma of transubstantiation which underlies the eucharistic event. Accordingly, the host does not just symbolize but is the body of Christ: Item dar nach sach ich den aller lutersten claren lip aines mannes, und der lag blozzer vor mir. nu enphieng ich die aller grösten genade und süesseket von dem libe, wan er was so gar durchglestig. und da wart mir geben, daz wir den lip allen sölten essen. daz was mir ain grosser dinge, daz man den lip tailen und essen solt. (Therafter I saw by far the purest, clearest body of a man and this body laid bear in front of me. Now I received by far the greatest grace and sweetness by the body because he was so shining and then I was made to unterstand that this was the body we all should eat. To me it was something great that we should divide and eat the body.') (50,5-10) The experience of the Divine via Christ's body finally manifests itself in the textual I's visionary experiences which are centered on Jesus' childhood: Since she had begun to write this book, thus the narrator, she feels a special love for the infant Jesus (86,15-17; 87,22f.). And indeed, in the following it appears to her within several visions partly as the divine interlocuter (for example 99,13-102,23) partly as the infant who she caresses and nurses at her breast. She herself provokes this experience by taking a picture of the infant Jesus out of a cradle and by pressing it against her breast: so nim ich daz bilde uzze der wiegen und leg ez an min blozzes herze mit grossem lust und süessiket und enphinde denne der aller greftigosten genade mit der gegenwertkeit gotz (...) aber min begirde und min lust ist in dem säugen, daz ich uz siner lutern menschet gerainiget werde und mit siner inbrünstiger minne uz im entzündet werde und ich mit siner gegenwertket und mit siner süezzen genade durchgossen werde (...)

('So I take the picture out of the cradle and put it to my bear heart with great joy and sweetness and then I feel by far the strongest grace of the presence of God (...) But my desire and my pleasure results from the nursing because of that I will be purified by his pure humanity and will be lighted by his ardent love and be poured through his sweet grace (...)') (87,9-21). The idea of nursing the infant Jesus refers to the imitatio Mariae and the swelling and milk- giving of the breasts could be read as the believer's reception of the Divine.12 The motive of

12 Also cf. the sermon on the Song of Songs 9,V by Bernhard of Clairvaux (1994: 140): "Persistentibus autem repente infunditur gratia, pinguescit pectus, replet viscera pietatis inundatio; et si sit qui premat, lac conceptae dulcedinis ubertim fundere non tardabunt." ('But when we remain, suddenly grace pours out upon us, the heart swells and a stream of love fills our breast; and if someone is there who squeezes

6 pregnancy can be understood accordingly but now the reception of the Divine does not take place within the protagonist's visionary experiences anymore but happens to her 'concrete' body and thus can be experienced by the outside world: Sometimes such blows to the heart befall her, so the narrator, that three women of the convent have to hold on to her und die sprechent, daz sie müezzent gen ainander mit aller craft druken, und denne enphindent sie under irn henden, as sich etwaz lebendigez umb ker inwendik und niendert anderswa. und diu drit frawe hebt mit etwen daz haupt. etwenn mag ich ez nit geliden, und dar inne koment mir die starken stösse, die mich inwendiklich erbrechent, daz ich grösselich geswollen wirde und sunderlich für mich, als ain frawe diu groz mit ainem kinde gaut.

('and they say they have to push with all their might against each other and then they have a feeling under their hands as if something living moves inside and nowhere else. And the third woman rises sometimes my head, but I cannot stand it and meanwhile I receive blows breaking me inside which are that strong that they make me swell up especially in front as a pregnant woman.') (120,9-17) The recurring illnesses of the protagonist, which for the first time befall her when she is twenty years old, also function as physical manifestations of divine graces: Do man zalt von Cristus geburt driuzehen hundert jar und in dem zwelften jar, do erzaigt mit got sin grozz vätterlich triu an dem tag Vedasti et Amandi vor vasnaht und gab mir grozzen siechtagen und unkunden (...) wie aber ich vor lebte wol zwainczig jar, daz kan ich niht geschriben, wan ich min selbs niht war nam

('In the year 1312 God showed me his great fatherly fidelity on the day Vedasti et Amandi before Shrove Tuesday and he gave me great illness and unconsciousness (...) but I cannot write how I lived around twenty years before because I was not aware of myself) (1,8-15). For the moment, she tries to defend herself against this illness and takes medicine but it just increases her suffering (2,10f). But one of her fellow sisters convinces her that her illness is pleasing in the sight of God: "wan grosser siechtag um got ze liden, daz wär der lengesten leben ains daz uf ertrich wer." ('because to suffer great illness for God would be one of the longest lives upon earth.') (2,19-21) From now on, illness becomes an integral part of her life and detailed depictions of her sufferings dominate large passages of the text. Some scholars have tried to analyse the depicted symptoms according to modern medical knowledge but they mostly did not come further than to notice that these sufferings may be "psychisch bedingte" ('psychologically determined') illnesses (Weitlauff 1973: 243; 1980: 303) or "Erscheinungen der Wechseljahre" ('symptoms of the menopause') (Weitlauff 1973: 250). But if we take a close look at the text, we notice that both the symptoms and the times when they appear correlate with the passion of Christ: pains of the heart (50,23f.), of the head, hands and feet (118,9-20) are described and these sufferings descend upon the textual

it, it will overflow with the milk of the received sweetness at once.')

7 I during the passion, especially 14 days before Easter (for example 17,7f.; 46,11-15). Finally, at Easter follows her 'miraculous' recovery whose significance is once revealed to the protagonist in a vision by Christ: "ich heti mit im geliten, ich sölt nu mit im frölich erstan." ('I had suffered with him now I should be resurrected with him joyfully.') (56,18f.) Therefore, physical suffering is not regarded as evil but as a gift of grace which makes the imitatio of the suffering Christ possible. Accordingly, she does not only endure the painful blows to her heart (92,15f.) but she regards them as gifts of love from God (92,25ff.) which she receives in love as Christ "so creftiger stösse an sin minnedez herze enphieng" ('received such hard pushes to his loving heart') (93,3f.).

As the previous outline may have shown the "Revelations" indeed refer to the contemporary theological and religious discourse and thereby they mark a change of spirituality which had already started in the 12th century. From then on, both the spirituality of the Cistercians, Franciscans and the of neoplatonism stressed more and more the similarity of the human being to God, his Creation as imago dei and reversed the adoption of man's humanitas by God (Bynum 1982: 17). In addition, the new form of an affective spirituality, so Bynum (1982: 129f.), was based on the assumption of the closeness of the human being to God achieved by Christ's incarnation which made God at the same time accessible via the humanitas Christi.13 Consequently, the human, physical body gained more significance by being the medium which enabled the encounter with the Divine qua imitatio of Christ's humanity according to Augustine per hominem Christi ad deum Christi. Thus, castigations as they are depicted in medieval hagiographic texts have less the function of suppressing and deadening the body. Rather, castigations open up a possibility of uniting with Christ by the imitation of his passio. In the vita of Heinrich Seuse (1907:34,11f.) (about 1295-1366), for instance, the protagonist is addressed by Christ as follows when Heinrich thinks that he cannot stand the constant castigations of his body any longer: "'Du mu°st den durpruch nemen dur min gelitnen menscheit, solt du warlich komen zu° miner blossen gotheif'". ('You have to break through my suffered humanity if you want to come veriliy to my mere Divinity'.) But how does the religiousness of women differ from that of men as it is depicted in the texts? First of all, it differs in the extreme accentuation of the somatic quality of all religious experiences and in the emotional quality of the relationship to God, which generates the genre 'female vita'. In addition, the language of these texts seems to go beyond all metaphorical indication; these texts seem to reflect real, physical experiences. This may not be surprising with respect to texts of other genres taking part in the discourse about spirituality as, for instance, sermons or treatises.14 Yet the difference to the contemporary male vitae is striking.

13 Bynum (1991a:222ff.) draws attention to the theological discussions of the 13th and 14th century refering to the problem of the relation between body and soul. These discussions show that from now on theologicans began to consider the human being more and more as a psychosomatic whole and thus they connoted the physical body far more positive than before. 14 Nonetheless, refering to female mystical hagiographic or revelation-literature mystic studies repeatedly

8 Taking the Friedrich Sunder-vita as an example, Bürkle (1996: 123) shows that within the male vita bodily manifestations of, for example, pregnancy and union are always transposed upon a quasi "geistliche Ebene" ('spiritual level') followed by theological reflections about the spiritual experiences. Within the texts of the Dominican nuns, however, "die Tendenz zu einer weitgehend personalen Konkretisierung der sel allerdings unübersehbar." ('the tendency of a far-reaching personal concretion of the soul is obvious.') (ibid 124) Bürkle (ibid 129) considers it as a signum of the male and female mystics of the 13th and folio whig centuries that the topic of the encounter with God is brought up "in komplementären Geschlechterrelationen von Heiligem und göttlichen Partner" ('in complementary gender- relations of saint and divine partner'). As the sister of the female vita encounters in persona the divine partner, in the male vita it is "Frau Seele" ('lady soul'). But the connection of women's religious experience to the concrete body on the one hand and its transposition within the vitae with male protagonists upon the level of the soul on the other hand reflects exactly such concepts of gender as they are brought out by Bynum (for example 1991c: 146f; 1991a: 210) in her studies on medieval spirituality: As the man was spirit the woman was body and as the male symbolized the spirit the female symbolized the body. And in the end, so Bynum (1991a: 197f; 1991b: 172), the somatic quality of female religious experiences and the extension of the motherly role into the liturgy was a continuation of women's responsibility for the body as was established by social conventions. By seeing themselves fixed for the body, women were able to infer on a specific female form of imitatio (Bynum 1991c: 149). In other words, women saw themselves predisposed to use their body as a means of accessing the Divine qua the - material - humanitas Christi. Women of the Middle Ages did not develop a "religious subculture", so Bynum's (1991b: 154) conclusion, but they took up concepts of spirituality which where already brought out by men and then they elaborated them on the basis of their own gender experiences: "For the first time in Christian history major devotional and theological emphases emanate from women and influence the basic development of spirituality." (Bynum 1982: 172) Such an assertion can only be maintained if one, like Bynum, disregards the fact that these texts have to be considered as literary ones and turns femaleness with its historical, social, and biological15 implications into a category of experience which is then just mirrored by the texts. But then it goes unnoticed that we always have to distinguish between female religiousness as real experience and female religiousness as concept; but through the text only the last level is accessible.16 Bynum reduces the function of these texts

complain about a "Verdinglichung" ('making concrete') (Langer 1982:185) in comparison with Meister Eckhart or, with regard to Bernhard of Clairvaux, about a lack of "Nüchternheit" ('rationality') (Köpf 1985: 69) without considering the difference between the genres and their different forms of presenting specific topics (Peters 1988: 190 Anm. 2 and Bürkle 1996: 39). 15 Concerning the biological argumentation cf. Bynum (1991a: 200; 1982: 212, 216). 16 Without denying any lived forms of such religiousness per se.

9 to the reproduction of real, lived forms of specific female religiousness and scarcely differentiates who produced the texts and what institutional interests may have underlay it.17 But indeed, the earliest texts in which the ideas about female spirituality discussed above become obvious were written by men. They were produced in the early 13th century and deal with the lifes of religious women in Flandern and Brabant. The most prominent example is the vita of Mary of Oignies by Jakob of Vitry. Here the new programme of female, christocentric and somatic religiousness is developed which - according to the prevailing stereotypes of gender - assigns women the affective access to God complementary to the erudition of the clericals (Bürkle 1996: 180f). In his prologue to the vita Jakob of Vitry (1969: 630f.) explicitly formulates the interest which underlies his record of Mary's of Oignies life: His client is the bishop of Toulouse who is driven out of his town by the heretics. And Jakob of Vitry aims the vita at these heretics, hoping that those who could not be reaches by commands may be moved to the desired behaviour by examples. The heretics denied the function of priests concerning the transubstantiation (Geyer 1992: 162), refused specific forms of materialness - like the motherhood of Maria (ibid 106f.) or the material visibility of holyness altogether (ibid 141f.) - as well as the cross as the symbol of human salvation because they considered Christ's death as a shame and not as a triumph (ibid 107). Regarding this, the vita of Mary of Oignies can be read as an orthodox counter-programme which tries to disprove the heterodox ideas of faith by presenting a female saint whose body - as a 'body of evidence' - 'clearly' shows that the Christian dogmas, which were denied by the heretics, became manifest. Thus one could believe that they could really be experienced. It was the idea of the woman as body which predestined women for the depiction of the visibility of God's work and for the exemplification of ideas of faith which first of all concernd the humanitas Christi.

Once this new concept of female religiousness was established, it should dominate the following centuries although the interests underlying changed. Now we have to ask why the hagiographic and revelation-texts of the Dominican nuns of the 14th and 15th century - obviously without any official instructions of the order18 - convey this program of female sanctity, why even upon the level of the text no alternative concept was developed but why the one already established was taken up. We can find an answer to these questions once we realize that these texts do not try to test literarily original female concepts of spirituality outside the established male discourse. Even less do they reflect lived female forms of religious experience. Apart from the edifying and didactic exemplum-function of these

17 Also cf. Haas ([1996]: 275) who suggests - regarding the Dominican female mystical literature of the later Middle Ages - "sorglich auf die soziale Einbettung [dieser Texte] zu achten, die 'Spiegelungen' zunächst nicht in der isolierten Seele einer Betroffenen, sondern im Gemeinschaftsraum eines Klosters darstellen." ('to pay carefully attention to the social embedding [of these texts] which first of all represent no 'reflections' of the isolated soul of the person affected but of the common room of a cloister.') 18 Regarding this topic cf. Bürkle (1996: 145-151).

10 texts, the interest underlying may be based upon the literary generation of a person's 'holyness' whose Christian rightful life and experiences of divine graces should confirm the convent's pleasance in the sight of God and its being chosen at the same time.19 With respect to the "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner", the primary function of the text might have been to prove the 'sanctity' of a member of the convent who obviously was already whorshipped during her lifetime: Margarethe Ebner was not - as usual - buried on the graveyard of the convent but in the hall of the chapter which soon afterwards was converted into the so-called 'Margarethen-Kapelle' ('Chapel of Margarethe'); the 14th century-tombstone is still preserved (Jedelhauser 1936: 88f.; Seitz 1970: 91). Already in 1353 we have the first documentary proof of a donation "an das licht der seligen Margarethen Ebnerin in der capelle" ('to the light of the blessed Margarethen Ebnerin in the chapel') which was followed by severel others (Jedelhauser 1936: 88; Seitz 1970: 91f.). In my opinion, the "Revelations" served to legitimize the whorshipped Margarethe Ebner by applying sanctioned patterns of female religiousness and by presenting a 'life' which corresponded to ecclesiastical and monastic rules. Thereby the orthodoxy of Margarethe and not least the 'truth'20 of her allegedly experienced graces and revelations should be testified. On the level of the story we can find several strategies of legitimacy and affirmation of the truth which consist in connecting the protagonist's religious experiences of grace with the heilsgeschichte - for instance her illness - respectively with her practicing the monastic rules. Thus, the narrator reports within the centre part of the "Revelations" how she practises her prayer and how she experiences the grace as caused by her paternoster: "ich han die creftigosten und die aller süessosten, unkündigosten genade under minen paternoster" ('I experience the strongest and by far sweetest, unconscious grace when I pray my paternoster') (74,5-7). Accordingly, acts which Christian compassion demands are connected with special gifts of grace: "und sunderlich gieng ich alle tag über ain siech ellende swöster in dem , as ob ich über unsern lieben herren gieng. und daz han ich in minen begirden und maiming, wenne ich über ainen siechen gan, und enphinde ob in grosser genade in dem herzen" ('And especially I cared for an ill sister every day in Advent as if I went to our dear Lord. And that is my desire and opinion when I care for an ill one and I feel great grace because of her in the heart') (114,14-19, cf. also 46,24-47,8).

As evidence for the orthodoxy of the graces functions not least the protagonist's obedience, in other words, her repeatedly depicted respect and subordination to the rules and to the authority of the order: although she acknowledges and experiences her illness as a gift of

19 Concerning the affirmative and the community confirming function of these texts cf. also Peters (1989: 195f.). 20 Within the medieval, Christian discourse, 'truth' is not to be equated with historical reality but with "theologische Richtigkeit" ('theological lightness') of the event depicted (Schreiner 1966: 137; cf. also Ruhrberg 1995: 156). In this respect, we cannot tell by looking at the text which concrete acts of Margarethe Ebner have lead to her being whorshipped. Even if the text should contain such particles of her real religious life, we have to reckon with the possibility of literary transformation according to dogmatic principles.

11 grace, she is worried that she might not always be able to obey the rules because of her afflictions (4,15-17). At another point in the text, she also stresses "daz ich in sehse jarn ainen tag nie gebrach aller der vasten, die unser orden und diu cristenhait uf geseczet hat." ('that I did not break the Lent which was set by our order and Christendom, in six years for one day.') (66,22-24, also cf. 95,11f.) The narration of another episode fulfills a similar function: Once a secular woman is laid out within the church of the convent, and from then on it is impossible for her to pray there because she can not speak a word. But when the visitator of the convent gives her orders to pick up the regular prayer, she, miraculously, is able to pray and take part in the Eucharist again all of a sudden (153,3-21). This experience strengthens her confidence in the superiors' authority and their orders: "und waiz daz min herre Jhesus Cristus wol, daz ich sider me begirde zuo minen maisterscheften han gehebt und auch me schreken han zu iren gebotten denne vor." ('And my Lord Jesus Christ knows very well that since than I have more desire for my superiors and I have more fear of their orders than before.') (153,21-24)21 But it is not just the presentation of an orthodox, female religiousness connected with the regular practice of the monastic life which functions as proof of a saintly life. As was discussed above with respect to the vita of Mary of Oignies, it is also the depiction of the female body as visible sign which serves as evidence for God's work. Repeatedly the narrator refers to the fact that her sufferings where perceptible "uswendig" ('on the outside') or she changes the point of view by recounting the perceptions and interpretations of her fellow sisters concerning her physical changes. Thus, they are summoned as witnesses for God's work of salvation with her; for instance, when she suddenly recovers at Easter after a severe illness and is able to go to matins in the choir: "do wart aller min covent gefräwet, und namen alle wunder ab den barmhertzigen werken unsers herren" (Then the whole convent was pleased and they all were surprised at the merciful works of our Lord') (57,6-8). But the protagonist's body does not gain its full value as evidence until it is identified with a real person and, finally, with the supposed author Margarethe Ebner. Although the I of the text remains anonymous, already in the oldest manuscript of 1353 the main text of the "Revelations" is followed by a prayer which is titled as "Hie hebt sich an der Ebnerin paternoster" ('Here the paternoster of the Ebnerin begins').22 Therefore, a reference between the textual I and its repeatedly mentioned paternoster and the historical "Ebnerin" is established. As Nisters (1997: 44) explaines with respect to the "Fließende Licht der

21 The protagonist's obedience as well as the connection of her experiences of grace with her monastic practices do not only function as proof of the saintly life of the textual I but also prove the order's orthodoxy and its pleasance in the sight of God. 22 Cf. fol. 98b (Strauch [1966]: 161,7). In addition, a manuscript which was written between 1484 and 1492 in at the convent of Medingen hands down an excerpt of the "Revelations" even under the full name "Margretha Ebnerin" (, Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. III.1.8°31, fol. 109v). In a manuscript written in 1441 respectively 1446/49, which belongs to the Domican convent of Augsburg, the paternoster is handed down as belonging to "der Ebnerin" (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cgm 480, fol. 165v).

12 Gottheit", such a referentiality assigns a central function to the body in proving the "Autorheiligkeit" ('author's sanctity') and in verifying the truth of the text because the manifestations of sanctity - supposedly textexternal - can be verified at the physical presence. Thus, it is not just the body of 'Margarethe Ebner', created at the level of the text, which serves as proof of her holiness but the text itself is authorized by the historically verifiable Margarethe Ebner who is whorshipped as a saint. This interdependent legitimacy is mainly achieved by the homodiegetic narrator: without deciding on the real authorship of Margarethe Ebner - finally it is possible that the "Revelations" were indeed written in 1353 legitimated by an orthodox claim - , the personal identity between the narrating and experiencing I and its identification with Margarethe Ebner serve to present her as author and evoke a feeling of immediacy and closeness to reality in the scenes depicted. This impression is reinforced by the perpetual change from past tense to the present tense in the presentation of the events. Thereby, the experiences themselves and narrating about these experiences seem to merge and the narrating I puts it accordingly: Item allez daz ich gescriben han, daz wart mit as gegenwärtig, so man ez von mir und uz mit scriben wolt, mit sölcher inner genade als ze der zit, do ez mir geben wart, und mit so vil richen sinnen und worten, daz ich ainz kum vor dem andern gescriben moht.

('All that I have written was as present to me as if one wanted to write it from and out of me and with such an inner grace like at the time when it was given to me and with so many rich senses and words that I could scarcely write one after the other.') (114,1-5) Through the fusion of the story- and narration-level and thus by the re-experiencing of the narrated qua narration, the recipient of the "Revelations" does not only become a witness of the statement about experience but - by his identification with the implied addressee of the text - quasi-witness of the experience itself (Jansen 1996: 85). Although 'authorship' of Margarethe Ebner can be regarded as a strategy of authorizing the text, we have to consider that in the Middle Ages, as Grubmüller (1992: 338) explaines, not only a reproductive writing activity of women could have been an offensive "Anspruch auf die Teilhabe an der Autorität des klerikalen Mediums Schrift" ('claim to participate in the authority of the clerical medium of writing'). The depiction of writing serves as a catalyst of the experiences of grace and as such as an authorizing strategy of the writing itself. This is well expressed in the proceeding quotation, namely by including the act of writing in the life of grace and thus by indicating the recording as willed by God. The depiction of the record as announced by God serves the same function, namely that "alliu gegend" ('all regions') have to hear about the miracles he works upon her (26,14-19). Thus, the text takes up a position within the Christian church that all that is revealed by God has to become obliging; but obligingness means writing it down (Grubmüller 1992:338). The order to write given to the protagonist by her spiritual friend is even more explicit: "Item ich wart

13 gebeten von dem warhaften friund gotez (...) daz ich ime scribe, waz mir got gebe." (I was asked by the true friend of God (...) to write him what was given to me by God.') (83,27- 84,1) In line with the humility topos, the recording is depicted as initiated by God and a cleric. Thus, the female I within the text can no longer be held responsible for the written text and the writing itself - what would have been a presumption. She becomes the instrument in and with which the divine works of grace materialize.

III. The fact that - not only in the case of the "Revelations of Margarethe Ebner" - the poetic space of the text is not used to develop - at least on the level of the text - specific female forms of religious experience may be disappointing if one hopes to find a 'second culture' concerning the literary activities of women in the Middle Ages. This may be especially true for those text which are written in an I-gesture and therefore seem to allow a direct view upon 'original' female religious experience or at least upon ideas about it. Instead, we are confronted with texts which pick up ideas of female religiousness - embedded in the practice of the monastic rules - which were developed within the 'male' discourse and with texts which, in addition to that, seem to refuse any responsibility and authority for the written. But as I tried to make clear, the interest underlying in the "Revelations" is not the developement of alternative concepts of female spirituality but rather the affirmative adoption of an established pattern which is functionally aligned with interests rooted in the institution of the convent (and of the order). In this respect, the evocation of an "Unmittelbarkeit der Niederschrift und Authentizität des Geschriebenen" ('immediacy of the record and authenticity of the written') (Bürkle 1994: 121) - as it turns out to be effective within the academic reception up to now - proves to be the intended, real literary achievement of female writing activities within the field of medieval female mystical literature.

14 References

Texts Bernhard von Clairvaux. 1994. Samtliche Werke V: Sermones Super Cantica Canticorum. Predigten über das Hohe Lied. Winkler, Gerhard B. (ed.). Innsbruck: Tyrolia. Bemhard von Clairvaux. 1995. Sämtliche Werke VI: Sermones Super Cantica Canticorum. Predigten über das Hohe Lied. Winkler, Gerhard B.(ed.). Innsbruck: Tyrolia. Jakob de Vitry (1969): Vita B. Mariae de Ogniacensis. In Acta Sanctorum 23. Juni IV: 630- 666. Seuse, Heinrich. 1907. Deutsche Schriften. Bihlmeyer, Karl (ed.). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Strauch, Philipp. [1966]. Margaretha Ebner und Heinrich von Nördlingen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Mystik. Amsterdam: Schippers.

Articles and Monographs Bürkle, Susanne. 1994. Weibliche Spiritualität und imaginierte Weiblichkeit. Deutungsmuster und - perspektiven frauenmystischer Literatur im Blick auf die Thesen Caroline Walker Bynums. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 113 (Sonderheft): 116-143. Bürkle, Susanne. 1996. Literatur im Kloster. Historische Funktion und rhetorische Legitimation frauenmystischer Texte des 14. Jahrhunderts. Diss. (masch.). Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen. Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1982. Jesus as Mother. Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1991a. The Female Body and Religious Practice in the Later Middle Ages. In Bynum, Caroline Walker. Fragmentation and Redemption. Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion. New York: Urzone, 181-238. Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1991b. "...And Women his Humanity": Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages. In Bynum, Caroline Walker. Fragmentation and Redemption. Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion. New York: Urzone, 151-179. Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1991c. Women Mystics and Eucharistic Devotion in the Thirteenth Century. In Bynum, Caroline Walker. Fragmentation and Redemption. Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion. New York: Urzone, 119-150. Geyer, Iris. 1992. Maria von Oignies. Eine hochmittelalterliche Mystikerin zwischen Ketzerei und Rechtgläubigkeit. (Europäische Hochschulschriften Reihe 23, Theologie 454). Frankfurt am Main, Bern, New York, Paris: Graf, Klaus, 1984. Die Nonnenviten aus Gotteszell bei Schwäbisch Gmünd. Zum Entstehungsort des sog. 'Ulmer Nonnenbuchs'. Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte 3: 191-195.

15 Grubmüller, Klaus. 1992. Sprechen und Schreiben. Das Beispiel Mechthild von Magdeburg. In Janota, Johannes (ed.). Festschrift Walter Haug und Burghart Wachinger. Tübingen: ,335-348. Haas, Alois M. [1996]. Schreibweisen der Frauenmystik. In Haas, Alois M. Mystik als Aussage. Erfahrungs-, Denk- und Redeformen christlicher Mystik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 270-281. Jansen, Sabine. 1996. Semantisierung narrativer Formen. Analyse des narrativen Diskurses in den Offenbarungen der Margarethe Ebner. M.A. thesis, University of Cologne, Cologne. Jaron Lewis, Gertrud. 1996. By Women, for Women, about Women. The Sister-Books of Fourteenth-Century Germany. (Studies and Texts 125). Michigan: Edwards. Jedelhauser, M. Canisia O.P. 1936. Geschichte des Klosters und der Hofmark Maria Medingen von den Anfängen im 13. Jahrhundert bis 1606. (Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Dominikanerordens in Deutschland 34). Vechta: . Köpf, Ulrich. 1985. Bernhard von Clairvaux in der Frauenmystik. In Dinzelbacher, Peter und Bauer, Dieter R. (eds.). Frauenmystik im Mittelalter. (Wissenschaftliche Studientagung der Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart. 22.-25. Februar 1984 in Weingarten.) Ostfildern: Schwabenverlag, 48-77. Köpf, Ulrich. 1986. Mystik im Denken Bernhards von Clairvaux. Eine Hinführung zu ausgewählten Texte. In Schmidt, Margot und Bauer, Dieter R. (eds.). 'Eine Höhe über die nichts geht'. Spezielle Glaubenserfahrungen in der Frauenmystik? (Mystik in Geschichte und Gegenwart Abt. I, Christliche Mystik 4). Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 19-69. Kunisch, Hermann. [1968]. Margarethe Ebner oder das gottgelobte Herz. In Kunisch, Hermann. Kleine Schriften. Berlin: Duncker& Humblot, 157-163. Langer, Otto. 1982. Enteignete Existenz und mystische Erfahrung: Zu Meister Eckharts Auseinandersetzung mit der Frauenmystik seiner Zeit. In Seidel, Kurt Otto (ed.). Sô predigent etelîche. Beiträge zur deutschen und niederländischen Predigt im Mittelalter. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 49-96. Nisters, Christiane. 1997. Der 'gepineget lichnam'. Zur Bedeutung des 'Autorinnenkörpers für die Wahrheitslegitimation des Fließenden Lichts der Gottheit'. In Krause, Günther (ed.). Literalitat und Körperlichkeit. Littéralité et Corporalité. (Kultur-Kreise 1). Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 21-46. Ohly, Friedrich. 1958. Hohelied-Studien. Grundzüge einer Geschichte der Hoheliedauslegung des Abendlandes bis um 1200. Wiesbaden: Steiner. Ohly, Friedrich. 1993. Gebärden der Liebe zwischen Gott uns Mensch im 'St. Trudperter Hohenlied'. Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch N.F. 34, 9-31. Peters, Ursula. 1988. Religiöse Erfahrung als literarisches Faktum. Zur Vorgeschichte und Genese frauenmystischer Literatur des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts. (Hermaea 56). Tübingen: Niemeyer.

16 Peters, Ursula. 1989. Mittelalterliche Literatur - ein Krisenphänomen? Überlegungen zu einem funktionsgeschichtlichen Deutungsmuster. In Poag, James F., Fox, Thomas C. (eds.). Entzauberung der Welt: Deutsche Literatur 1200-1500. Tübingen: Francke, 175-196. Ruhrberg, Christine. 1995. Der literarische Körper der Heiligen. Leben und Viten der Christina von Stommeln (1242-1312). (Bibliotheca Germanica 35). Tübingen, Basel: Francke. Schreiner, Klaus. 1966. Zum Wahrheitsverständnis im Heiligen- und Reliquienwesen des Mittelalters. Saeculum 17, 131-169. Seitz, Anton . 1970. Verwandtschaft, Stammbaum und Wappen der Mystikerin Margareta Ebner von Kloster Medingen. Beitrag zur Genealogie des Stadt- und Landadels im nördlichen Ostschwaben. Jahrbuch des Historischen Vereins Dillingen/Do. 72: S. 91-109. Weitlauff, Manfred. 1973. Margaretha Ebner (um 1291 - 20. Juni 1351). In Schwaiger, Georg (ed.). Bavaria Sancta. Zeugen christlichen Glaubens des Mittelalter in Portrats 3. Regensburg: Pustet, 231-267. Weitlauff, Manfred. 1980. Ebner, Margarethe. In Ruh, Kurt (ed.) Die deutschte Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon. Zweite, völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage. Berlin, New York: De Gryter, Sp. 303-306. Wentzlaff-Eggebert, Friedrich Wilhelm. [1969]. Deutsche Mystik zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit. Einheit und Wandlung ihrer Erscheinungsform. Dritte erweiterte Auflage. Berlin: de Gruyter. Zoepf, Ludwig. 1914. Die Mystikerin Margarethe Ebner (c. 1291-1351). Leipzig, Berlin: B.G. Teubner.

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