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Advice Literature for Holy Women in the Twelfth Century

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Advice Literature for Holy Women in the Twelfth Century GENDERED LESSONS: ADVICE LITERATURE FOR HOLY WOMEN IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Laura Michele Diener, M.A ***** The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Professor Barbara Hanawalt, Advisor Approved by Professor Joseph Lynch Professor Lisa Kiser __________________________ Advisor History Graduate Program ABSTRACT In this dissertation I examine the impact of gender on the spirituality of religious women. I consider a number of texts dating from approximately 1080-1200 written specifically for women that I refer to as religious advice literature, or prescriptive literature. By advice literature, I refer to a variety of genres including letters, sermons, saints’ lives, and visionary texts. Religious men such as Peter Abelard, Osbert of Clare, Goscelin of St. Bertin, and Conrad of Hirsau designed these prescriptive texts to address what they perceived as the issues that directly affected the lives of women. These issues included the preservation of sexual purity and the practice of monastic meditation. I argue that they described traditional metaphors for monastic activity in gendered language. This technique served to make their texts relevant to the lives of religious women. I also consider the potential reactions of female readers. To this end, I consider the writings of female authors such as the Heloise, abbess of the Paraclete in France and Hildegard von Bingen, German abbess and renowned visionary. I also examine the writings of men that were influenced by religious women such as the Life of Christina of Markyate and the Second Life of Robert of Arbrissal. While there are far fewer examples of advice literature written by women, those that have survived reveal a wealth of information and allow us to gauge the reactions of women to monastic living. These prescriptive texts reveal that religious men and women rarely agreed about the nature of the female sex and in particular its capacity for learning and monastic living. ii They also debated extensively about the site of gender difference and the relationship between female physicality and spirituality. I explore these questions from two perspectives—the men who wrote for religious women and the women who read their works and occasionally wrote their own responses. iii Dedicated to Kitty iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my dissertation committee. Barbara Hanawalt has been a wonderful advisor. I am so lucky that I have been able to work with her. She is a fascinating person as well as an amazing writer and teacher. Joseph Lynch is a meticulous reader and admirable scholar. He has improved my writing immeasurably and it has been an honor to work with him. Lisa Kiser helped me think in an interdisciplinary way and I am grateful for her thoughtful comments and careful readings. Other scholars and staff members at Ohio State have encouraged me throughout my time as a student. Frank Coulson patiently worked with me on many translations for my master’s thesis as well as this dissertation. His classes on paleography and medieval Latin are among my most delightful experiences at Ohio State. Working with Anna Grotans was also a great pleasure and I will remember her German and Old Norse classes fondly. I am also grateful to the following people for advice and help throughout my studies: Alison Beach, Cynthia Brokaw, Marsha Dutton, Fiona Griffiths, Daniel Hobbins, Alastair Minnis, Ann Morganstern, Nathan Rosenstein, R.J. Stansbury, and Maurice Stevens. Joby Abernathy, Sharon Malson, Pamela Sheidt, Gail Summerhill, and Jan Thompson have always been helpful and have promptly answered all my questions. Although I have worked on my dissertation specifically at Ohio State, I owe a tremendous debt to my former teachers at Vassar College and Bryn Mawr and Gilman v schools: Mita Choudhury, Katherine Little, Karen Robertson, Jerry Thornberry, Amanda Mann, Ms. Norton, and Ms. Barry. I am also grateful to my family and friends. My father, Allan Diener, provided encouragement as well as generous financial support throughout the entire writing process. Whether he knows it or not, he has always encouraged my interest in history. He spent many Saturday afternoons patiently driving me to all the college libraries and archives in the Baltimore city and county area so that I could happily pursue self- designed research projects. He also instituted the policy under which he would buy me one book each week provided I read it and discussed its contents with him. Twenty-nine years ago, my mother, Diane Diener, unknowingly began this entire process by teaching me how to read and write. Despite her job working for the Canadian government, Anne Collinson took the time to edit multiple drafts for me. I also enjoyed many conversations with her and Angela Ryan about the nature of women’s history. James Bennett is one of the most elegant writers I know and it has been a pleasure to go through the Ohio State history program alongside him. Rachael Ball, Christianna Thomas, Susan Dawson, and Jaimie Sassone have been lovely at every opportunity. The following people have helped in multiple ways: David Dennis, Karen Diener, Susan Eisner, Valerie Emanoil, Julie Gallagher, Julia Geiger, Dan Holtsberry, Alli Jessing, Jennifer Lavin, John and Detty Lavin, Danny O’Malley, and Isabella Winkler. The size and shape of my household has varied over the last several years but its many members have exerted a strong presence in my life. Kevin Lavin has been my vi most beloved friend for many years and I am deeply grateful to him. Wylie and Charlotte Diener were not involved directly in the writing process but I have a great deal of affection for them nonetheless. I would also like to thank Joanna Newsom, Bjork, Tom Waits, Neko Case, and Joni Mitchell for helping to make writing much more pleasurable. I would like to thank above all my precious companion Kitty Diener. He has been with me since my first days in graduate school and he sat beside me during almost every moment of writing and reading for this dissertation. He constantly brings me luck and I am filled with love and gratitude towards him. vii VITA April 19, 1978 . Born – Baltimore, Maryland 2000 . B.A. Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vassar College 2003 . M.A. History, The Ohio State University 2001 – present . Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University 2006 – present . Lecturer, Antioch College PUBLICATIONS Research Publications 1. Book Review: Jane Geddes, The St. Albans Psalter: A Book for Christina of Markyate, London: The British Library, 2005. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 38 (2007): 227-229. 2. Article: “‘Enter the Bedchamber of Your Soul’: Advice for Nuns at Prayer” in Pastoral Care in the Late Middle Ages, Ed. Ronald J. Stansbury, Companions to the Christian Tradition Series, Brill Press, Forthcoming. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Area of Emphasis: Medieval Minor Fields: Ancient History, Medieval Literature viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . ii Dedication . iv Acknowledgments . v Vita . viii Chapters: 1) Introduction . .. 1 2) Enter the Bedchamber of Your Soul: Advice for Women at Prayer . 25 3) The Anonymous Heroine: Aelred of Rievaulx’s Rule for His Sister . 69 4) A Universal Ideal?: Virginity and its Alternatives for Holy Women . 101 5) Is Virtue Perfected in Infirmity?: Debating Gender Difference in the Writings of Abelard and Heloise . 136 6) Women Advising Women: The Correspondence of Hildegard von Bingen . .. 172 7) Conclusion . 212 Bibliography . 225 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION As in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak; but should be subordinate, as the law also 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. Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached? –I Corinthians 14:34-36 With the apostles having been scandalized in the passion of the Lord, and having despaired concerning his death, the devotion of holy women persisted immovable and did not at all recede from the bone of Christ; since they retained such great constancy either of hope or of charity, so they were not separated [from him] by death either in mind or body.—Peter Abelard, Sixth Letter to Heloise1 Women and Christianity have always existed in a complex relationship. Born at the intersection between several ancient religious systems, early Christianity absorbed the misogyny of the surrounding world. Its sacred religious texts are filled with statements defaming the nature of women. Ancient and medieval church leaders limited the autonomy and leadership roles of female worshippers and generations of women internalized these negative ideas about themselves. At the same time, Christianity offered women unprecedented opportunities for spiritual fulfillment, education, and independence. Individual women and men have always grappled with these inherent contradictions. 1 “Cum itaque carnes consumerentur, os Christi adhaesit pelli, quia, scandalizatis in passione Domini apostolis, et de morte ipsius desperatis, sanctarum, devotio feminarum perstitit immobilis, et ab osse Christi minime recessit, quia fidei, vel spei, vel caritatis constantiam in tantum retinuit, ut nec a mortuo mente disiungerentur aut corpore,” J.T. Muckle, “The Letter of Heloise on Religious Life and Abelard’s First Reply,” in Mediaeval Studies 17 (1955):257. 1 In this dissertation I examine the conundrum of gender and spirituality in the context of the European high middle ages. I consider a number of texts dating from approximately 1080-1200 written specifically for religious women that I refer to as advice literature, or prescriptive literature. By advice literature, I refer to a variety of genres including letters, sermons, saint’s lives, and visionary texts.
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