Autor: Dyan Elliott

Medieval clerics believed that original sin had rendered their ‘fallen bodies’ vulnerable to corrupting impulses—particularly those of a sexual nature. They feared that their corporeal frailty left t …

The early Christian writer Tertullian first applied the epithet ‘bride of Christ’ to the uppity virgins of Carthage as a means of enforcing female obedience. Henceforth, the virgin as Christ’s spouse …

Around the year 1215, female mystics and their sacramental devotion were among orthodoxy’s most sophisticated weapons in the fight against heresy. Holy women’s claims to be in direct communication wi …

In the fourth century, clerics began to distinguish themselves from members of the laity by virtue of their augmented claims to holiness. Because clerical celibacy was key to this distinction, religi …

Wide-ranging examination of women’s achievements in and influence on many aspects of medieval culture. Medieval women were normally denied access to public educational institutions, and so also denie …

The early Christian and medieval practice of spiritual marriage, in which husband and wife mutually and voluntarily relinquish sexual activity for reasons of piety, plays an important role in the dev …