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Traditionally, classes and textbooks on Western history have had little to say about the lives of women in Western civilization. This lack of attention was largely due to the fact that women were officially excluded from politics and the military in such formative civilizations as Classical Greece and Rome, as well as being excluded from official positions within the early Christian Church. In fact, when women did draw the attention of historians in the Classical and Medieval eras, it was usually because these women were transgressing accepted norms in these male-dominated, hierarchical societies. However, as we now know, women contributed to these early societies in very important ways, not just as wives and mothers but, occasionally, as political leaders and even military figures. In this class, we’ll examine the political, social, and cultural forces that shaped women’s lives, and we’ll examine the lives of a few of the remarkable women who challenged these forces, both successfully and unsuccessfully.
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“On account of lightness of mind”: social and cultural views of women in ancient Europe
Top—Eowyn offering Aragorn a cup of mead, from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; bottom—amulets representing female figures, one carrying a horn of mead or ale, from Vikings: the North American Saga,
edited by Fitzhugh and Ward.
• Women in Celtic, Germanic, and Norse society• Marriage
• The “morning gift”• Germanic morgengabe• British/Welsh cowyll• Irish coibche
• Women choosing their husbands• Peace weavers
• Adultery• Punished in Germanic society?
• Divorce• Allowed in Welsh and Irish society
Evidence of women’s role in society. Left—keys carried by the wife of a householder; center—an amulet whose hairstyle indicates a high status woman; right—a reconstruction of a Finnish noblewoman’s dress. Images from Vikings:
The North American Saga, edited by Fitzhugh and Ward.
The Oseberg Ship, built c. 820 AD, buried c. 825, excavated 1904.
The Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway• Used to bury two
women, one possibly a queen, the other her slave.
• Buried with a horse-drawn cart, buckets, barrels, and a tapestry depicting the funeral procession.
Women and the early Christian ChurchStone inlay depicting Jesus, 3rd century AD.
• Women as spiritual equals• God as creator (not
procreator)• Eve and the exile from Eden• The Virgin Mary
Christian attitudes toward marriage and divorce
Mosaic of St. Paul, 3rd century AD.
• Women as equal to men, or subordinate?• Genesis 1 and 2 • St. Paul, d. circa 60 CE• St. Augustine, d. 430 CE
• Marriage indissoluble• Limited ability to divorce
• Immoral behavior• Adultery• Severe abuse
• Marriage for the purpose of procreation
Women as converts, martyrs, and saintsFresco of a veiled Christian woman, 3rd-5th century AD, Giordani
Catacomb, Rome.
• St. Thecla, d. 1st century CE
• The Gnostic Church• Greek “gnosis,” meaning knowledge• Gospel of Mary Magdalene• Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon
• St. Perpetua, d. 203 CE
Celibacy and monasticismIcon of the Virgin and Jesus, 6th-7th century, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt.
Sinai, Egypt.
• Celibacy as the better path
• St. Jerome, d. 420 CE• “Against Jovinian”• “Letter to Eustochium”
• St. Macrina, d. late 4th century CE
• Transvestite nuns• Matrona/Babylas, 6th century CE• Mary/Marinos, 7th century CE
Christianizing QueensTop—map of the Carolingian Empire, from Lynn Hunt, The Making of the West, Volume 1; right—map of Anglo-Saxon England, from Peter Hunter Blair, Roman
Britain and Early England, 55 BC-AD 871.
• Christianizing queens• Clothild, d. early 6th century
• Queen of Clovis I, king of Franks
• Bertha, d. early 7th century• Queen of Aethelberht, king of Kent
• Aethelburh, d. mid 7th century• Queen of Edwin, king of Northumbria
Women as saints and missionariesImage of St. Balthild, 14th century, British Library, London.
• St. Radegund, d. 587• Queen of Clothar I, king of Neustria
• St. Brigit, 6th century (Ireland)• St. Bathild, d. 680
• Queen of Clovis II, king of Burgundy and Neustria
• St. Hilda, d. late 7th century• Whitby, England
• St. Leoba, d. late 8th century• Saxony (NW Germany)• St. Boniface, d. late 8th century
• Double monasteries
Women in Carolingian EuropeEnde’s illumination of the apocalypse from “Commentary on the apocalypse of St. John”
by Beatus of Gerona.
• Charlemagne’s educational reforms• Court school at Aachen• Monastic schools• Ende, Leon, Spain, d. late 10th century
• “Depintrix” and “Die Aiutrix”
• Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, d. 1001• Women and religious authority
• The proprietary church• Soldiers of Christ
• The third gender• Claustration• Castimony
• Female saints• From conversion to maintenance
• De-emphasizing of women’s role as “peace weavers”
Saints, mystics, and heretics• Some of the overarching issues in medieval society,
1100-1500• Church reform, crusades, and new religious orders• Growing papal authority• Concerns regarding heresy• The Black Death, 1347-1350• The Avignon Papacy, 1305-1377• The Great Schism, 1378-1417
Mary as the ideal womanTriumph of the Virgin, Senlis Cathedral, c. 1170 AD.
• The Cult of the Virgin Mary• Founded by St. Bernard of
Clairvaux, d. 1153
Left—Triumph of the Virgin, Chartres Cathedral, c. 1210; right—Coronation of the Virgin, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, c. 1210.
Medieval image of Mary and Eve“The Tree of Life and Death,” by Berthold Furtmeyer, Archbishop of
Salzburg’s Missal, 1481 AD.
Mystics and saintsFresco of Saint Claire (l) and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (r), by Simone
Martini, 1317, Capella di San Martino, San Francesco, Assisi, Italy.
• Hildegard of Bingen, d. 1178
• St. Elizabeth of Hungary, d. 1231
• St. Clare of Assisi, d. 1253• The order of the Poor Clares
• St. Catherine of Siena, d. 1380
• Anchoresses
Hildegard’s visionsLeft—Hildegard dictating a vision to a scribe, Liber Scivias, as preserved in the Rupertsberger
Codex, c. 1180; center—the cosmic tree, Liber Scivias; right—an image of the universe, Liber Scivias.
Suspicious mysticsIllumination of Margery Kempe, from MS. Royal 15 D. 1, British Library,
London.
• Beguines• Beguinages• Hadewijch of Brabant, d. circa
1240
• Margery Kempe, d. 1438
Mystic and hereticPortrait of Joan of Arc, c. 1485, Archives Nationales, Paris.
• Joan of Arc, d. 1431• The Hundred Years’ War,
1337-1453• Jean la Pucelle (the Maiden)
HereticsDepiction of Waldensians, in Martin le France, “Le Champion des Dames,” c. 1440,
Bibliotheque Nationale Grenoble.
• Waldensians• Founded by Peter Valdes, d.
1216
• Cathars• 13th-14th centuries• Perfecti
• Lollards• Founded by John Wycliffe,
d. 1384
