Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 1989 annual meeting of the American Society of Church History and at the 1990 Fordham Medieval Studies Conference. I am grateful for comments and criticism from Caroline Bynum, Karl Morrison, Jo Ann McNamara, and Irene Silverblatt.

1. Natalie, Z. Davis, “‘Women's History’ in Transition: The European Case,” Feminist Studies 4 (1976): 83–103,Google Scholar and Joan, Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York, 1988), esp. the introduction and ch. 2.Google Scholar

6. Anna, Benvenuti Papi, “Frati mendicanti e pinzochere in Toscana: dalla marginalità sociale a modello di santità,” in Temi e problemi nella mistica femminile trecentesca (Rimini, 1983), pp. 109–135;Google ScholarMario, Sensi, “Incarcerate e Recluse in Umbria nei secoli XIII e XIV,” in Il movimento religioso femminile in Umbria, pp. 85–121Google Scholarand “Incarcerate e penitenti a Foligno nella prima meta del trecento,” in I Frati della penitenza di san Francesco nellà società del due-trecento (Rome, 1977), pp. 309–324.Google Scholar

7. The criterion for choice of these sources therefore is that they contain friars' explicit testimony to their own or others' role in relationships with holy women. I have thus not included the revelations of Mechthild of Magdeburg, for the Dominican Henry of Halle, who assembled them, did not write in his own voice of his relationship with her (although he is once quoted questioning her use of “masculine words,” Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit, ed. Morel, G. [Darmstadt, 1980], 5.12). While I hesitate to claim that the sources listed in this paragraph and the notes accompanying it are all of those that meet the criterion, I have included all that are known to me. Furthermore, such descriptions of saints' personal relationships with individual confidants in this period are a feature only of works about women, as I will argue in, “Friars, Gender and Sanctity: Mendicant Encounters with Saints, 1250–1325,” in the forthcoming Medieval Masculinity, ed. Clare Lees. The lack of comparable description of encounters with male saints underscores the importance of gender in the sources discussed here.Google Scholar

8. Beati Iordani de Saxonia Epistulae, (hereafter cited as Epist.) ed. Angelus, Walz, (Rome, 1951).Google ScholarJordan vested Diana and her sisters with their habits in 1223. The convent was incorporated into the Dominican order in 1226. For an overview of the correspondence, see Scheeben, H. C., Beiträge zur Geschichte Jordans von Sachsen (Vechta, 1938), pp. 83–95.Google ScholarGerald, Vann, To Heaven with Diana! (London, 1960) includes translations of the letters.Google Scholar

9. Vita [Lutgardis], Acta Sanctorum (hereafter AA SS), 06, vol. 4 (Paris, 1867), pp. 189–209Google Scholar(hereafter Vit. Lut. followed by book, chapter, and paragraph numbers). Thomas had visited Lutgard, and made references to their interactions: Vit. Lut. 1.1.7, 2.1.11, 2.1.15,, 2.2.24, 2.2.32, 2.3.38, 3.1.14, 3.2.16, 3.3.19. On Thomas as hagiographer see Simone, Roisin, “La méthode hagiographique de Thomas de Cantimpre,” in Miscellanea historica in honorem Alberti de Meyer, vol. 1 (Louvain, 1946), pp. 546–547.Google ScholarA translation of the vita is available, with helpful bibliography: Thomas of Cantimpré, The Life of Lutgard of Aywieres, tr. Margot, H. King (Saskatoon, 1987).Google Scholar

10. Thomas, of Cantimpré, Supplemenlum, AA SS 06, vol. 5, pp. 572–581Google Scholar(hereafter Supp. followed by chapter and paragraph numbers); Vita [Christinae], AA SS 07, vol. 5, pp. 650–660 (hereafter Vit. Chr. Mir., followed by chapter and paragraph numbers).Google ScholarTranslations are available: The Life of Christina of Saint-Trond, tr. Margot, H. King (Saskatoon, 1986)Google Scholarand The Life of Marie d'Oignies: Supplement, tr. Hugh, Feiss (Saskatoon, 1987).Google ScholarThere is another pertinent vita by Thomas which I have not had occasion to mention in the present article but have discussed elsewhere, that of the beguine Margaret of Ypres, which describes her interactions with her Dominican confessor Siger of Lille: Vita Margarete de Ypris, in Gilles, Meersseman, “Les Frères Prêcheurs et le mouvement devot en Flandre au XIII e siècle,” Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 17 (1947): 69–130.Google ScholarSee John, Coakley, “Friars as Confidants of Holy Women in Medieval Dominican Hagiography,” in Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe, ed. Renate, Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Timea, Szell (Ithaca, N.Y., 1991) pp. 225–228.Google Scholar

11. Petri de Dacia Vita Christinae Stumbelensis, ed. Johannes, Paulsen (Gothenburg, 1896) (hereafter cited as Vit. Chr. St.).Google ScholarSee Peter, Nieveler, Codex Iuliacensis: Christina von Stommeln und Petrus von Dacien, ihr Leben und Nachleben in Geschichte, Kunst und Literatur (Mönchengladbach, 1975).Google ScholarJarl, Gallén, La province de Dacie de I'Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs (Helsingfors, 1946), pp. 225–244, establishes the letters' chronology.Google Scholar

12. Vita [Umilianae],AA SS May, vol. 4 (Paris, 1868) pp. 385–410 (hereafter cited as Vit. Um. followed by chapter and paragraph numbers). On Humiliana see Anna, Benvenuti Papi, “Umiliana dei Cerchi. Nascita di un culto nella Firenze del Dugento,” Studi Francescani 77 (1980): 87–117.Google Scholar

13. Vita [Margaritae], AA SS 02, vol. 3 (Paris, 1865), pp. 302–363 (hereafter Vit. Marg. followed by chapter and paragraph numbers).Google ScholarOn Margaret see Constantin, Becker, “Marguerite de Cortone (sainte),” in Dictionnaire de Spintualité, vol. 10 (Paris, 1980),Google Scholarcols. 337–338 and bibliography there; Cardini, F. “Agiografia e politica: Margherita da Cortona e le vicende di una città inquieta,“ Studi francescani 76 (1979): 127–136;Google ScholarAnna, Benvenuti Papi, “ ‘Margherita Filia Ierusalem.’ Una visione mistica della Terrasanta nella spiritualita feminile Francescana,” in Toscana e Terrasanla net medioevo, ed. Cardini, F. (Florence, 1982), pp. 117–132;Google ScholarEnrico, Menestó, “La mistica di Margherita da Cortona,“ in Temi e problemi, pp. 183–206.Google Scholar

14. lt libra della beata Angela da Foligno (hereafter Il Libra), ed. Ludger, Thier and Abele, Calufetti (Rome, 1985).Google ScholarThe name “Arnold,“ which I am employing here following the usual convention, is witnessed only by a tradition posterior to the manuscripts of the work, which call him only “Friar A.“ See Paul, Lachance, The Spiritual Journey of the Blessed Angela of Foligno According to the Memorial of Frater A. (Rome, 1984), p. lll;Google Scholaron Angela see most recently Ulrich, Köpf, “Angela von Foligno. Ein Beitrag zur Franziskanischen Frauenbewegung um 1300,” Religiöse Frauenbewegung und mystische Frömmigkeit im Mittelalter, ed. Peter, Dinzelbacher and Dieter, R. Bauer (Cologne, 1988), pp. 225–250.Google ScholarVita e spiritualità della beata Angela da Foligno, ed. Schmitt, C. (Padua, 1987).Google Scholar

15. Robert, E. Lerner, The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages, p. 64 and bibliography there. Jo Ann McNamara has suggested a link between Dominicans' promotion of orthodoxy and their interest in holy women “whose mystical revelations validated their teachings.“ McNamara, “The Rhetoric of Orthodoxy: Clerical Authority and the Female Innovation in the Struggle with Heresy,“ in Maps of Flesh and Light, ed. Ulrike Wiethaus (forthcoming).Google Scholar

16. In the struggles over the cura monialium (note 3), convents' temporalia and spintualia were distinguished. Both orders especially resisted responsibility for the former. Grundmann, , pp. 274–284, 297–303, 305–310.Google Scholar

17. Grundmann, , pp. 323–324; McDonnell, , pp. 456–464.Google ScholarWilliam's views, apocalyptic in tone, associated friars with Antichrist; see Penn, Szittya, The Antifraternal Tradition in Medieval Literature (Princeton, 1986), pp. 11–61.Google Scholar

18. In comparison to female writers, for whom gender difference is not a prominent theme, male writers “use more dichotomous images, are more concerned to define ‘the female’ as both positive and negative, and speak more often of reversal and conversion.” Bynum, , “‘…And Woman His Humanity’: Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages,” in Gender and Religion, ed. Caroline, Walker Bynum, Steven, Harrell, and Paula, Richman (Boston, 1986), p. 261.Google ScholarSee also Bynum, , Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley, 1987), pp. 278–294 (on male and female writers' respective use of “symbolic reversal”) and Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1982), pp. 110–169 (on the symbolic power femaleness had for male Cistercians, quite apart from actual contact with women).Google ScholarKaren Glente has also noted this tendency of male writers to invest women with the symbolic power of otherness, showing how Thomas of Cantimpre pictured holy women, as women, as embodiments of a personal closeness to God which appeared unattainable to himself, and therefore as objects not of imitation but of wonder and admiration. Karen, Glente, “Mystikerinnenviten aus mannlicher und weiblicher Sicht: Ein Vergleich zwischen Thomas von Cantimpré und Katerina von Unterlinden,” in Religiöse Frauenbewegung, pp. 252–253.Google ScholarThere is a parallel in late twelfth- and thirteenth-century clerics' emphasis on persuasiveness as a particularly female trait, which gave women a unique power to evangelize (directed toward husbands) notwithstanding its association with Eve and weakness. Sharon, Farmer, ‘Persuasive Voices: Clerical Images of Medieval Wives,’ Speculum 61 (1986): 517–543, esp. 538–543.Google Scholar

19. Epist. 44, p. 50.Google Scholar

20. Epist. 44, pp. 50–51; 33, p. 39.Google ScholarA tone of mutuality is not entirely lacking; Epist. 13, p. 15, speaks of their mutual consolation through the letters.Google Scholar

21. “Vos igitur ad orationis studium vos convertentes orate pro me et pro fratre Henrico, priore Coloniensi, ac fratre Bernardo et aliis sociis meis, ut Dominus in beneplacito suoiter nostrum dírígat et concedat nobis procurare per suam gratiam salutem animarum, pro qua intendimus laborare, ut et vos laboris nostri participes fiatis.” Epist. 45, p. 51.Google ScholarOn the Dominican nuns' intercessions as self-consciously evangelical acts, in tune with the spirit of the order, see Marie-Humbert, Vicaire, “L'action de St. Dominique sur la vie reguliere des femmes en Languedoc,” in Lafemme dans la vie religieuse du Languedoc (XIII_e-XIV_e s.) (Toulouse, 1988), pp. 234–235.Google Scholar

22. Reports on his recruitment are to be found in twelve of the fifty-five letters: Epist. 1, 7, 8, 16, 19, 20, 21, 26, 32, 40, 42, 50.Google Scholar

23. Epist. 9, p. 11.Google Scholar

24. Epist. 33, pp. 39–10.Google Scholar

25. Epist. 11, p. 13.Google Scholar

26. “Suadeo tamen ego qui amici sponsi gero officium, qui ipso committente paranymphus vester sum, qui vos aemulor Dei aemulatione, qui vos despondi uni viro virginem castam exhibere Christo, suadeo, inquam, ego ut dignas vos exhibeatis eius amplexibus” Epist. 11, p. 13.Google Scholar

27. Epist. 15, p. 17 (comparison of his letters to Christ's sacrifice); 48, pp. 54–55 (comparison of his visits to Christ's visits); see also 24, p. 28: “Nolite ergo flere, filiae Jerusalem, super vos, quod ego corpore recesserim a vobis, sed gaudete super sponso vestro, qui in medio vestri est.”Google Scholar

28. Epist. 5, p. 8.Google Scholar

29. An example of his adoption of the stance of superior is his command to her produce a memoir of her life which she promised him. Letter 34 (written in 1384), Vit. Chr. St., p. 217.Google Scholar

30. Vit. Chr. St., p. 2.Google Scholar

31. “Nam licet per experienciam non noui, per scripturam tamen cognoui, quam amarum sit et acerbum talibus deliciis frustrari, talibus consolacionibus defraudari ei, qui semel talia degustauit.” Letter 5, Vit. Chr. St., p. 80.Google Scholar

32. Vit. Chr. St., pp. 25–26.Google Scholar

33. Letter 9, Vit. Chr. St., p. 97.Google Scholar

34. Vit. Um. 3.28.

35. Vit. Um., 4.40.

36. Vit. Marg., 2.12 (on her extreme devotion to the mass and preaching, for which she gave up her work as a midwife); 7. 179 (a revelation of priests' unworthiness); Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast, p. 141.Google Scholar

37. Supp. 1.2; 4.21.

38. Supp. 4.27.

39. Vit. Chr. Mir., 4.40. Thomas similarly portrayed Lutgard as both solicitous and admonitory of priests: it was she who criticized Jacques de Vitry for inappropriate love of a female religious, which was taking him from his preaching, and she saved him from it by her prayers. Vit. Lut. 2.1.3.

40. Vit. Um. 2.17–18, 3.22, 3.24.

41. Vit. Marg. 6. 167.

42. Vit. Marg. 5.101, 7.194, 9.234, 8.216, 6.153.

43. Vit. Marg, 9.229, 9.230, 9.241.

44. Vit.Lut. 1.1.15.

45. On the constancy of virtue in hagiographical representation of saints, see Réginald, Grégoire, Manuah di Agiologia (Fabriano, 1987), p. 77;Google ScholarThomas, Heffernan, Sacred Biography: Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages (New York, 1988), pp. 98–99.Google ScholarOn the tradition of saints with sinful pasts, see Dorn, E., Der sündige Heilige in der Legende des Mittelallers (Munich, 1967).Google Scholar

46. Vit. Marg. 4.79, 6.147, 5.101, 5.96, 5.118.

47. For example, Vit. Marg. 4.65, 4.71.

48. Il libro, ch. 7, p. 324; see also ch. 9 p. 386: “Scriptura divina est tantum altissima, quod non est aliquis homo ita sapiens in mundo, etiam si habeat scientiam et spiritual, quod possit earn intelligere ita plene quod non superetur intellectus eius ab ea; et tamen aliquid balbutit. Sed de illis ineffabilibus operationibus divinis illius minfestare Dei quae fiunt in anima, nihil omnino loqui vel balbutire potest.”Google Scholar

49. About his carefulness: “Et ego…cum magna reverentia et timore scribens ut nihil possem addere de meo nee unam dictionem tantummodo nisi recte sicut ab ipso ore referentis poteram capere, nolebam aliquid scribere postquam recedebam ab ea.” Il libro, ch. 2, pp. 170–172.Google ScholarHer responses: on one occasion she professed not to recognize her words, on another said he that had written “drily and without flavor (sicce et sine omni sapore)” and on another that though his words helped her remember her own words, they obscured her meaning. Il libro, ch. 2, p. 172; see also ch. 4, p. 218 and ch. 4 p. 222. Nonetheless, Arnold felt that he was not capable of noting anything down unless purified by confession of his own sins; ch. 2, pp. 172–174.Google Scholar

50. Il libro, ch. 7, p. 310.Google Scholar

51. Il libro, ch. 2, p. 172; ch. 9, p. 400.Google Scholar

52. Even during the time she was telling her revelations to Arnold, she served as an oracle for the friars. Arnold asked her prayers for a certain friar, and she received a response (Il libro, ch. 5, p. 250); she reported herself unable to pray for an oracle in response to a certain request because it was prideful and stupid (ch. 5, p. 252); she received a spontaneous revelation of a friar's impending apointment to a position of authority (ch. 6, p. 264).Google Scholar

53. They were therefore, in Victor Turner's term, “liminal personae,” in the sense here that they had no status of office, and the powers the friars attributed to them are those “‘powers of the weak,’ or, in other words, the permanently or transiently sacred attributes of low status or position,” observable in “most societies.” Victor, Turner, The Ritual Process (Chicago, 1969), pp. 95–96, 108–111.Google ScholarBut see Caroline, Bynum, in “Women's Stories, Women's Symbols: A Critique of Victor Turner's Theory of Liminality,” in Anthropology and the Study of Religion, ed. Robert, L. Moore and Frank, E. Reynolds (Chicago, 1984), pp. 105–119, for the important caveat that “women are fully liminal only to men” (p. 118), and not to themselves. The present essay, it is well to remember, concerns men's views of women, not their views of themselves.Google Scholar

54. On this reaction, see McNamara, “The Rhetoric of Orthodoxy.”

55. André Vauchez has suggested that female mystics over the course of the late middle ages were ultimately subversive of clerics' authority in the sense that their individualistic notion of the religious life implicitly bypassed the authority of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and indeed anticipated the Reformation. Vauchez, , “Prophétesses, visionnaires et mystiques en occident aux derniers siècles du moyen age,” in Les Réformes, enracinement socioculturel, ed. Chevalier, B. and Sauzet, R. (Paris, 1985), pp. 71–72.Google Scholar