¹ In my opinion, the debate over the authenticity of the famous correspondence has been resolved in Heloise's favor, since those who maintain that her letters were forged have been unable to supply either a plausible identity or plausible motive for the alleged forger; nor have they been able to point to any comparable ‘fiction’ in medieval letter collections. For the controversy, see Benton, John F., ‘Fraud, Fiction and Borrowing in the Correspondence of Abelard and Heloise,’ in Pierre Abélard—Pierre le Vénérable (Paris 1975) 469–506 (an argument later modified by Benton, ); Benton, John F. and Ercoli, F. P., ‘The Style of the Historia calamitatum: A Preliminary Test of the Authenticity of the Correspondence Attributed to Abelard and Heloise,’ Viator 6 (1975) 59–86; Monfrin, Jacques, ‘Le problème de l'authenticité de la correspondance d'Abélard et d'Héloise,’ Pierre Abélard—Pierre le Vénérable 409–24; Dronke, Peter, Abelard and Heloise in Medieval Testimonies (Glasgow 1976); id., Women Writers of the Middle Ages (Cambridge 1984) 140–43; Jaeger, C. S., The Prologue to the Historia calamitatum and the “Authenticity Question”,’ Euphorion 74 (1980) 1–15; and the articles by Luscombe, D. E., Benton, John F., Peter Dronke, and von Moos, Peter in Petrus Abaelardus (edd. Rudolf Thomas et al., Trierer Theologische Studien 38; Trier 1980) 19–100. The most recent contributions by Benton, John F., Silvestre, Hubert, and Fraioli, Deborah appear in Fälschungen im Mittelalter V. Fingierte Briefe (MGH Schriften 33.5; Hanover 1988) 95–200.Google Scholar

² ‘Cuius quidem rei defectu et indigentia nunc agitur ut ad eiusdem regulae professionem tam mares quam feminae in monasteriis suscipiantur, et idem institutionis monasticae iugum imponitur infirmo sexui aeque ut forti. Unam quippe nunc Regulam beati Benedicti apud Latinos feminae profitentur aeque ut viri. Quam sicut viris solummodo constat scriptam esse ita et ab ipsis tantum impleri posse tam subiectis pariter quam praelatis’: Muckle, J. T., ed., ‘The Letter of Heloise on Religious Life and Abelard's First Reply,’ Mediaeval Studies 17 (1955) 242; trans. Radice, Betty, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Harmondsworth 1974) 159–60.Google Scholar

³ ‘Quippe sicut nomine et continentiae professione nobis estis conjunctae, ita etiam fere omnia nostra vobis competunt instituta’: McLaughlin, T. P., ed., ‘Abelard's Rule for Religious Women,’ Mediaeval Studies 18 (1956) 243; trans. Radice 184.Google Scholar

⁴ ‘Quippe quo infirmior est feminarum sexus, gratior est Deo atque perfectior earum virtus’: Muckle, Mediaeval Studies 17 (1955) 268.Google Scholar

⁵ McLaughlin, Mary, ‘Peter Abelard and the Dignity of Women: Twelfth Century “Feminism” in Theory and Practice,’ in Pierre Abélard—Pierre le Vénérable 287–333.Google Scholar

⁶ Smith, Jacqueline, ‘Robert of Arbrissel: Procurator mulierum,’ in Medieval Women (ed. Derek Baker; Oxford 1978) 175–84; Sally Thompson, ‘The Problem of the Cistercian Nuns in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries,’ in ibid. 227–52; Kaspar Elm, ‘Die Stellung der Frau in Ordenwesen …,’ in Sankt Elisabeth: Fürstin, Dienerin, Heilige (Sigmaringen 1981) 7–28; Jane Schulenberg, ‘Sexism and the Celestial Gynaeceum — from 500 to 1200,’ Journal of Medieval History 4 (1978) 117–33.Google Scholar

⁷ Frauenmystik im Mittelalter (edd. Peter Dinzelbacher and Dieter Bauer; Ostfildern 1985); Peaceweavers (edd. Nichols, John and Shank, Lillian T., Medieval Religious Women 2; Kalamazoo 1987); Gertrud Lewis, J., Bibliographie zur deutschen Frauenmystik des Mittelalters (Berlin 1983); Petroff, Elizabeth, Consolation of the Blessed (New York 1979); eadem, Medieval Women's Visionary Literature (Oxford 1986); Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley 1987).Google Scholar

⁸ Many of these texts are discussed by Walker, Caroline Bynum in Docere verbo et exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth-Century Spirituality (Missoula 1977). This volume is concerned with the differences between monks and regular canons, and consequently does not consider works written for nuns or solitaries.Google Scholar

⁹ See the Appendix for a listing. One text, John of Fruttuaria's Tractatus de ordine vitae, was written a few decades earlier, and Stephen of Sawley's Speculum novitii may be slightly later than the period covered in this study. But both these works circulated under Bernard's, St. name and were thus received by medieval readers as part of the mainstream of twelfth-century formative spirituality.Google Scholar

¹⁰ See for instance Honemann, V., Die Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei des Wilhelm von Saint-Thierry: Lateinische Überlieferung und mittelalterliche Übersetzungen (Munich 1978); Giles Constable, ‘The Popularity of Twelfth-Century Spiritual Authors in the Late Middle Ages,’ in Renaissance Studies in Honor of Hans Baron (edd. Anthony Molho and John Tedeschi; DeKalb 1971) 5–28.Google Scholar

¹¹ Dumont, Charles, introduction to Aelred de Rievaulx, La Vie de recluse (Sources chrétiennes 76; Paris 1961) 34–36.Google Scholar

¹² Bernards, Matthäus, Speculum virginum: Geistigkeit und Seelenleben der Frau im Hochmittelalter (Cologne 1955; rpt. 1982) 6–13; id., ‘Die mittelrheinischen Handschriften des Jungfrauenspiegels,’ Archiv für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 3 (1951) 357–64.Google Scholar

¹³ On the diffusion of a thirteenth-century text by David of Augsburg, cf. Tage Ahldén, R., Nonnenspiegel und Mönchsvorschriften (Uppsala 1952).Google Scholar

¹⁴ For Heloise's antifeminism, see the polemic against marriage ascribed to her in Abelard's Historia calamitatum, ed. Muckle, Mediaeval Studies 12 (1950) 185–89; the list of men destroyed by evil women in her second epistle, ed. id., Mediaeval Studies 15 (1953) 79–80; and formulaic remarks about female weakness and corruption in her third letter, Mediaeval Studies 17 (1955) 242–43, 246, 252. Hildegard argued that woman, as a ‘weak and infirm habitation,’ was unfitted for the priesthood: Scivias 2.6.76 (ed. A. Führkötter, Corpus christianorum: Continuatio mediaevalis [CCCM] 43; Turnhout 1978) 290. On several occasions she referred to her own era contemptuously as an ‘effeminate age’ (PL 197.167B, 185C, 1005AB).Google Scholar

¹⁵ ‘Viros se nominant, sed inter effeminatos se moribus collocant’: Peter of Celle, De disciplina claustrali 10, ed. Gérard de Martel, L'école du cloǐtre (Sources chrétiennes 240; Paris 1977) 186.Google Scholar

¹⁶ ‘Quae ubi perfectae rationis incipit esse, non tantum capax, sed et particeps, continuo abdicat a se notam generis feminei, et efficitur animus particeps rationis, regendo corpori accommodatus, vel seipsum habens spiritus. Quamdiu enim anima est, cito in id quod carnale est effeminatur; animus vero, vel spiritus, non nisi quod virile est et spirituale meditatur’: William of St.-Thierry, Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei 198, ed. Jean Déchanet, Lettre aux frères du Mont-Dieu (Sources chrétiennes 223; Paris 1975) 306–8; my translation is adapted from Theodore Berkeley, trans., The Golden Epistle: A Letter to the Brethren at Mont Dieu (Cistercian Fathers Series 12; Kalamazoo 1976) 79; cf. 35 n. 50.Google Scholar

¹⁷ ‘[L]ascivia mutat et dissolvit; titubatio effeminat et confundit; … delicie virilem animum feminam reddunt…. Si vir forme prestantis, et stature, divitiarum gloria, linea nobilitatis, ceteris eminentior et clarius, vanitatis huius umbram captaverat, mirum non est, etiam si humilitatis callem professus est; quod vero mulier, quo sexu nihil fragilius est, in alta levatur, monstro simile est…. Spiritus sanctus in hoc loco, mollicie vili solutam, et in opere dei desidem pro muliere posuit animam; que licet rectis intendat operibus, nihil tamen mercedis fere consequitur, studiis suis pigricia quadam fluitantibus…. Porro virum, animum vult intelligi virilem, et sensum rationabilem; qui dum fervido spiritalis exercicii semper cursu movetur, interdum in ipso recti studii zelo etsi modicum offendere cogitur, que offensio quasi quedam in celestibus exerciciis macula, iniquitatis nomen accepit.’ Speculum virginum, MS London, British Library, Arundel 44, fols. 31^r, 63^r, 97^v–98^r. On the text from Ecclesiasticus see Arduini, M. L., ‘Il tema “vir” e “mulier” nell’ esegesi patristica e medioevale di Eccli. XLII.14,’ Aevum 55 (1981) 246–61.Google Scholar

¹⁸ ‘Non te lasciva iocunditas reducat ad sexum. Vince mulierem, vince carnem, vince libidinem’: The Letters of Osbert of Clare 40 (ed. Williamson, E. W.; London 1929) 139.Google Scholar

¹⁹ ‘[P]ura hominis meditatio sub viri nomine mystice describitur; infirma vero cogitatio mulieris titulo praenotatur. bona vero opera ad masculum referimus; actus autem noxios sexus inferioris charactere figuramus’: ibid. 42 (Williamson 170).Google Scholar

²⁰ ‘[N]on enim expedit illi sexui proprii regiminis uti libertate, tum propter ejus naturalem mutabilitatem, tum propter tentationes extrinsecus advenientes, quibus mulieris infirmitas non sufficit resistere’: Idung of Prüfening, Argumentum super quatuor quaestionibus 7, in Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus 112 (ed. Bernhard Pez; Augsburg 1721) 528; trans. Leahey, Joseph in Cistercians and Cluniacs (Cistercian Fathers Series 33; Kalamazoo 1977) 176.Google Scholar

²¹ Wathen, Ambrose, Silence: The Meaning of Silence in the Rule of St. Benedict (Washington 1973).Google Scholar

²² Philip of Harvengt, De institutione clericorum (PL 203.665–1206). Most of the treatise De silentio clericorum in fact deals with preaching. See Bynum, , Docere verbo et exemplo 50–55.Google Scholar

²³ ‘Recte virum perfectum appellat, qui quasi vir viriliter stando in sermone suo offendendo non titubat; fragilis enim et quasi femineus esse convincitur, qui non solum otiosa vel levia proferendo, et quasi in minimis offendendo, huc illucque vacillando dilabitur, verum et impellente ira, praecipitante furore, nullo moderamine retinens fraenum linguae, … totus penitus conquassatur’: Odo of St.-Victor, Epistolae de observantia canonicae professionis recte praestanda 4 (PL 196.1407AB).Google Scholar

²⁴ ‘Nam si hoc ad quemlibet virum honestum pertinet, quanto magis ad feminam, quanto magis ad virginem, quanto magis ad inclusam?’: Aelred of Rievaulx, De institutione inclusarum 5 (ed. Talbot, C. H., CCCM 1; Turnhout 1971) 641.Google Scholar

²⁵ ‘Quae quanto in vobis subtilior et ex mollitie corporis vestri flexibilior, tanto mobilior et etiam in verba pronior existit …’: Regula sanctimonialium (McLaughlin 245; trans. Radice 188).Google Scholar

²⁶ Abelard, , Epistola de studio litterarum (PL 178.332–33).Google Scholar

²⁷ Howard Bloch, R., ‘Medieval Misogyny,’ Representations 20 (1987) 3.Google Scholar

²⁸ Bolton, Brenda, ‘Mulieres sanctae,’ in Women in Medieval Society (ed. Stuard, Susan M.; Philadelphia 1976) 141–58; eadem, ‘Vitae Matrum: A Further Aspect of the Frauenfrage,’ in Medieval Women 253–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁹ ‘Mulieribus tamen semper in penitentia iniungendum est quod sint predicatrices virorum suorum. Nullus enim sacerdos ita potest cor viri emollire sicut potest uxor…. Debet enim in cubiculo et inter medios amplexus virum suum blande alloqui, et si durus est et immisericors et oppressor pauperum, debet eum invitare ad misericordiam; si raptor est, debet detestari rapinam; si avarus est, suscitet in eo largitatem …’: Thomas of Chobham, Summa confessorum 7.2.15 (ed. Broomfield, F., Analecta mediaevalia Namurcensia 25; Louvain 1968) 375. See Farmer, Sharon, ‘Persuasive Voices: Clerical Images of Medieval Wives,’ Speculum 61 (1986) 517–43.Google Scholar

³⁰ ‘O Dina, quid necesse est ut videas mulieres alienigenas?… Tu curiose spectas, sed curiosius spectaris. Quis crederet tunc illam tuam curiosam otiositatem, vel otiosam curiositatem, fore post sic non otiosam, sed tibi, tuis, hostibusque tam perniciosam?’: Bernard of Clairvaux, De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae 10.29, in Sancti Bernardi Opera (edd. Jean Leclercq and Henri Rochais; Rome 1957–77) III 39; trans. Ambrose Conway, M., Treatises II (Cistercian Fathers Series 13; Kalamazoo 1980) 58.Google Scholar

³¹ Osbert, , Letters 41 (Williamson 143); Idung of Prüfening, Argumentum 7 (Pez 525); Peter of Celle, De disciplina claustrali 4 (Martel 146); Hugh of Fouilloy, De claustro animae 3.1 (PL 176.1087–88); Stephen of Sawley, Speculum novitii 24, ed. Edmond Mikkers, Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensium Reformatorum 8 (1946) 66; Speculum virginum fol. 14^r.Google Scholar

³² ‘[H]eo is gulti of þe bestes deaÐe biuoren vre louerd. 7 schal uor his soule onswerien adomesdei 7 ӡelden þe bestes lure. hwon heo naueÐ oþer ӡeld; buten hire suluen’: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle (MS London, British Library, Cotton Nero A.XIV) Day (ed. Mabel Day, EETS 225; London 1952) 25; Ancrene Riwle, trans. Mary Salu (Notre Dame 1955) 23–25.Google Scholar

³³ On the consequences of this rule, see Schulenberg, Jane, ‘Strict Active Enclosure and its Effects on the Female Monastic Experience (500–1100),’ in Distant Echoes (edd. Nichols, John and Shank, Lillian T., Medieval Religious Women 1; Kalamazoo 1984) 51–86.Google Scholar

³⁴ On women's use of inverted misogyny, see Dronke, Peter, Women Writers, esp. 64–79; Newman, Barbara, ‘Divine Power Made Perfect in Weakness: St Hildegard on the Frail Sex,’ in Peaceweavers 103–22.Google Scholar

³⁵ ‘[S]i in viris virtus rara est avis in terris, quanto magis in femina fragili et nobili? Denique mulierem fortem quis inveniet? Multo magis quis fortem et nobilem?’: Bernard, Epistolae 113 (PL 182.256D). The rara avis in terris, a tag from Juvenal's sixth Satire, shows the antifeminist tradition on which Bernard was drawing even in his oblique praise of a woman.Google Scholar

³⁶ Id., Epistola 114 (PL 182.259c).Google Scholar

³⁷ ‘[T]alem te fieri cupio, splendida et clara virgo, immo de viro Christo virilis et incorrupta virago.’ ‘Nulla ante illam femina huius praerogativae dignitatem obtinuit, neque post illam obtinebit ulterius’: Osbert, Letters 40, 42 (Williamson 136, 155).Google Scholar

³⁸ On the origins of the topos, see Ruether, Rosemary, ‘Misogynism and Virginal Feminism in the Fathers of the Church,’ in Religion and Sexism: Images of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New York 1974) 150–83; Ann McNamara, Jo, A New Song: Celibate Women in the First Three Christian Centuries (Women and History 6/7; New York 1983), esp. 108–15.Google Scholar

³⁹ Abelard, , De auctoritate vel dignitate ordinis sanctimonialium, ed. Muckle, Mediaeval Studies 17 (1955) 253–81.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Both the text of this rule and its practical status are shrouded in confusion; its complete text is extant in only one MS containing the correspondence, and it differs in several particulars from a later rule apparently written by Heloise (PL 178.313–26). Cf. Mohr, Rudolf, ‘Der Gedankenaustausch zwischen Heloisa und Abaelard über eine Modifizierung der Regula Benedicti für Frauen,’ Regulae Benedicti Studia 5 (1976) 307–33; Linda Georgianna, ‘Any Corner of Heaven: Heloise's Critique of Monasticism,’ Mediaeval Studies 49 (1987) 221–53.Google Scholar

⁴¹ ‘Praepositum autem monachorum quem abbatem nominant sic etiam monialibus praeesse volumus ut eas quae Domini sponsae sunt cujus ipse servus est proprias recognoscat dominas nec eis praeesse sed prodesse gaudeat…. Omnes quoque fratres in professionibus suis hoc se sororibus sacramento astringent quod nullatenus eas gravari consentient et earum carnali munditiae pro posse suo providebunt’; Abelard, Regula (McLaughlin 259–60; trans. Radice 212–13).Google Scholar

⁴² Abelard also followed Robert of Arbrissel's rule for Fontevrault in specifying that the abbess should be a matron with experience of the world, not a virgin raised in the cloister. On Fontevrault see Smith, Jacqueline, ‘Robert of Arbrissel’; Penny Schine Gold, ‘Male/Female Cooperation: The Example of Fontevrault,’ in Distant Echoes 151–68.Google Scholar

⁴³ Among the exceptions are two letters from Anselm to a certain Robert and a group of women under Robert's direction (Sancti Anselmi Opera omnia [ed. Franciscus Schmitt; Edinburgh 1946–61] IV 134–35 and V 359–62), and Geoffrey of Vendǒme's epistle 48 to the recluses Hervé and Eve (PL 157.184–86). These letters contain nothing that is gender-specific, but all were addressed to a mixed audience. Caroline Walker Bynum has argued that in the later Middle Ages, gender was a concern far more central to male writers than to female writers: ‘“… And Woman His Humanity”: Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages,’ in Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols (edd. Caroline Walker Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman; Boston 1986) 257–88.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Cf. Shahar's, Shulamith classification of women as a ‘fourth estate’ following the three traditional ordines: The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages (trans. Chaya Galai; London 1983).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ ‘Huc accedit; quod virginitatem corporis per vim illatam potest perdere, quod in masculo ipsa natura repellit…. vasa quanto sunt fragiliora, tanto diligentiori egent custodia, illa scilicet, quae fit, ne vas frangatur, non illa, quae sit, ne furto vel rapina auferatur, quam aurea vasa magis requirunt, quam vitrea. Foemina vero Sanctimonialis exigit utramque, quia parabolice potest dici vas vitreum propter fragilem sexum, & vas aureum propter virginalis Sanctimoniae propositum’: Idung of Prüfening, Argumentum 6 (Pez 521–22; trans. Leahey 168–69).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ ‘Virginitas aurum est, cella fornax, conflator diabolus, ignis tentatio. Caro virginis, vas luteum est, in quo aurum reconditur, ut probetur’: Aelred, De inst. incl. 14 (Talbot 650).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ ‘þis bruchele uetles is bruchelure þene beo eni gles. uor beo hit enes to broken, ibet ne biÐ hit neuer. ne ihol ase hit er was’; Ancrene Riwle (Day 73; trans. Salu 72).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ This caveat is ubiquitous in the virginity literature. Cf. Augustine, , Enarrationes in Psalmos 99.13 (PL 37.1280); Caesarius of Aries, Homilia 12 (PL 67.1074); Speculum virginum fol. 21^r; Thomas of Froidmont, Liber de modo bene vivendi ad sororem 22.64 (PL 184.1239D).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ ‘Cujus quanto superior est gradus, tanto gravior est casus. Cui perseveranti quanto felicior et suprema speranda est glorificatio, tanto cadenti miserior et extrema est timenda damnatio’: Ivo of Chartres, Epistolae 10 in Correspondance I (ed. Jean Leclercq; Paris 1949) 40–42.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ ‘Et, cum omni peccato per poenitentiam medeamur, solus lapsus virginum restitutionis remedium non meretur’: Peter of Blois, Epistolae 35 (PL 207.114c).Google Scholar

⁵¹ ‘Ah se þu herre stondest, beo sarre offearet to fallen; for se herre degre, se þe fal is wurse. Þe ontfule deouel bihalt te se hehe istihe towart heouene þurh meiÐhades mihte, … ant scheote[ð] niht ant dei his earewen, idrencte of an attri healewi, towart tin heorte to wundi þe wiÐ wac wil, ant makien to fallen, as Crist te forbeode’: Hali Meidhad (ed. Bella Millett, EETS 284; Oxford 1982) 7.Google Scholar

⁵² Ibid. 11–12.Google Scholar

⁵³ ‘Divisit enim [Deus] inter te et me quasi inter lucem et tenebras, te sibi conservans, me mihi relinquens…. Quam miser ego tunc qui meam pudicitiam perdidi, tam beata tu, cuius virginitatem gratia divina protexit…. Verumtamen et me nolo aemuleris, valdeque putes erubescendum, si post tot flagitia, in illa vita tibi fuero inventus aequalis, cum saepe virginitatis gloriam intervenientia quaedam vitia minuant, et veteris conversationis opprobrium morum mutatio et succedentes vitiis virtutes obliterent’: Aelred, De inst. incl. 32 (Talbot 674, 676).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Marsha Dutton-Stuckey has shown that Aelred casts himself in the role of the prodigal son and thus places his sister in the invidious position of ‘elder brother’: ‘A Prodigal Writes Home: Aelred of Rievaulx, De institutione inclusarum,’ in Heaven on Earth (ed. Rozanne Elder, E., Cistercian Studies Series 68; Kalamazoo 1983) 35–42.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Atkinson, Clarissa, ‘“Precious Balsam in a Fragile Glass”: The Ideology of Virginity in the Later Middle Ages,’ Journal of Family History 8 (1983) 131–43.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Book of Margery Kempe, ch. 22 (trans. Windeatt, Barry; Harmondsworth 1985) 88.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ A rare exception is the romance hero Galahad, whose success in the quest for the Grail depends on his perfect virginity. But I have yet to discover an instance in the literature of formation where a male virgin is celebrated in the same way as a female virgin. An interesting proof-text is Rev. 14.4. The 144,000 virgins honored in this verse are male (they ‘have not defiled themselves with women’), yet in medieval usage the text was applied almost exclusively to females.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Bernard, , Epistolae 113 (PL 182.258–59).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ ‘[I]n illa enim superni imperatoris aula erunt paranymphi tui angeli, cives dei, ut te ad regis introducant cubiculum, et investiant purpura et bysso coloribus intinctis, sanctorum praerogativa meritorum: virginitas vero tua, quae in sacris nuptiis nescit dispendium castitatis, diademate coronata radiabit aureo, et pretiosi lapides tuo subtilius inserentur vestimento’: Osbert, Letters 22 (Williamson 91–92).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ ‘Si vis nubere terrestri marito propter divitias, considera quod terrenae divitiae fallaces sunt et transitoriae, quia aut in praesenti vita transeunt, aut saltem in morte recedunt. Nube ergo illi, apud quern thesauri sunt incomparabiles, et divitiae immutabiles; quas nec fur furatur, nec tinea demolitur. Si autem vis nubere terrestri viro, quia pulchritudine insignitur, considera quia pulchritudinem aut infirmitas extenuat, aut senectus exstirpat, aut saltem articulus mortis exterminat. Nube ergo illi, cujus pulchritudinem sol et luna mirantur’: Alan of Lille, Summa de arte praedicatoria 47 (PL 210.195BC). The ultimate source of these comparisons is Wisd. of Sol. 8, where it is argued that Wisdom is the most desirable bride. Alan simply reverses the genders.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Speculum virginum, fols. 72–73, gives several anti-marital exempla (David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, Susanna and the elders, Solomon and his harem) in which men are undone by women.Google Scholar

⁶² ‘Nesciunt virgines quid ex maritali licentia mulieris sustineat infirmitas. Nesciunt, inquam, quibus uxor subjiciatur injuriis, quanta fecundam sauciet anxietas, quo sterilis moerore crucietur. Si formosa est, difficile caret infamia; deformem maritus aspernatur. Nunquam lectus est sine rixa, cujus vel pudet vel taedet conjugalem’: Hildebert of Lavardin, Epistolae 1.21 (PL 171.194BC).Google Scholar

⁶³ ‘Filiae hujus saeculi filiae Babylonis, quae de carnis immunditia sibi destinant successors, in peccato concipiunt, in dolore pariunt, in timore nutriunt, de viventibus semper sollicitae sunt, de morientibus inconsolabiliter affliguntur. Si vis parere, vis perire’: Peter of Blois, Epistolae 55 (PL 207.167BC).Google Scholar

⁶⁴ ‘Magna differentia est inter caelestes nuptias et terrenas…. [P]allida fades eius efficitur et oculorum claritas densa caligine concavatur: … pellicula rugas in facie contrahit et rotunditas digitorum in manibus tabescit: uterus intumescens impregnantis distenditur, et viscera intrinsecus gravidata dissipantur…. nec alio modo onusta gemmis et auro concipit aut parit in palatio quam inops et pannosa mulier in tugurio’: Osbert, Letters 40 (Williamson 136).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ ‘[B]ikimeÐ þeow under mon, ant his þrel, to don al ant drehen þet him likeÐ, ne sitte hit hire se uuele’: Hali Meidhad 2–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ ‘Ant hwet ӡef ich easki ӡet, þah hit þunche egede, hu þet wif stonde, þe ihereÐ hwen ha kimeÐ in hire bearn schreamen, siÐ þe cat et te fliche ant ed te hude þe hund, hire cake bearnen o þe stan ant hire kelf suken, þe crohe eornen i þe fur — ant te cheorl chideÐ?’: ibid. 19.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ The trobairitz lyric ‘Na Carenza al bel cors avinen’ offers similar advice to women: one sister finds the thought of marriage depressing and another expresses the view that ‘having children is a penance,’ so the third counsels both to bear glorious seed by marrying ‘Coronat de Scienza,’ or Christ. See Dronke, , Women Writers 101–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ ‘For Gode, þah hit nere neauer for Godes luue, ne for hope of heouene, ne for dred of helle, þu ahtest, wummon, þis were for þi flesches halschipe, for þi licomes luue, ant ti bodies heale, ouer alle þing to schunien’: Hali Meidhad 17.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ On its theory and practice, see Duby, Georges, The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France (trans. Barbara Bray; New York 1983); Herlihy, David, Medieval Households (Cambridge, Mass. 1985).Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Brown, Peter, The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York 1988).Google Scholar

⁷¹ Foundations of canonesses were analogous in name only, since these aristocratic houses — found chiefly in Germany — were often allied with noble families and lacked the apostolic impulse, as well as the clerical status, of the new canons. The anti-elitist Tengswich of Andernach, whose brother Richard of Springiersbach was a leading canonical reformer, appears to have been an exception.Google Scholar

⁷² Thompson, Sally, ‘The Problem of the Cistercian Nuns’; Freed, John, ‘Urban Development and the “Cura Monialium” in Thirteenth-Century Germany,’ Viator 3 (1972) 311–27.Google Scholar

⁷³ Alan of Lille, Summa 43, 47 (PL 210.189–91, 194–95).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Peter of Blois, Sermones 62–64 (PL 207.741–50).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Abelard, , Regula (McLaughlin 252–54, 257). Abelard was obviously thinking of Heloise herself.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ ‘Et sit [abbas] tamquam dispensator in domo regia qui non imperio dominam premit, sed providentiam erga eam gerit … Quae quibus officiis ipsa praeceperit et quantum voluerit praesint, ut sint videlicet istae quasi duces vel consules in exercitu dominico. Reliquae autem omnes tamquam milites vel pedites, istarum cura eis praevidente, adversus malignum ejusque satellites libere pugnent’: ibid. (McLaughlin 259, 252; trans. Radice 212, 198–99).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ ‘Si de fatuis [virginibus es], congregatio tibi necessaria est: si de prudentibus, tu congregationi…. Sive peccatrix, sive sancta sis, noli te separare a grege’: Bernard, Epistolae 115 (PL 182.262AB).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ ‘Cum sit inter alias sorores virgo christi maxima vel magisterio vel artis scientia, sive nobilitatis linea, seu virtutum gratia, sit tamen omnium minima, mente sit omnium ancilla…. Sed de his quid rogo dicendum est, que levato supercilio, de linea generis, inter alias sorores socialis gratie limitem excedunt; conditionem dividentes ac per hoc nature communi de privato gloriando detrahentes?… Quod si carnem respicias; mira nobilitas est, mira generis claritudo, ubi vermis de verme nascitur, et putredo de pulvere laudatur’; Speculum virginum fols. 37^v, 99^v.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Hildegard of Bingen, Epistolae 100, 101, 108, 109, 112 (on perseverance in the abbatial role); Epp. 98, 105, 113 (against excessive abstinence). See PL 197.320–34.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ ‘Et quis homo congregat omnem gregem suum in unum stabulum scilicet boves, asinos, oves, hedos ita quod non discrepant se? Ideo et discretio sit in hoc, ne diversus populus in unum gregem congregatus in superbia elationis et in ignominia diversitatis dissipetur, et precipue, ne honestas morum ibi dirumpatur, cum se invicem odio dilaniant quando altior ordo super inferiorem cadit, et quando inferior super altiorem ascendit’: Hildegard of Bingen, Epistolae 116 (PL 197.338B). For a better text and discussion see Haverkamp, Alfred, ‘Tenxwind von Andernach und Hildegard von Bingen: Zwei “Weltanschauungen” in der Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts,’ in Institutionen, Kultur und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter (edd. Lutz Fenske, Werner Rösener, and Thomas Zotz; Sigmaringen 1984) 515–48.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Schulte, Aloys, Der Adel und die deutsche Kirche im Mittelalter (3rd ed. Darmstadt 1958).Google Scholar

⁸² ‘BoÐe hit is right þet heo dreden 7 luuien. auh þet ðer beo more euer of luue: þen of drede’: Ancrene Riwle (Day 195; trans. Salu 191).Google Scholar

⁸³ Honorius, , De vita claustrali (PL 172.1247–48).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Hugh of Fouilloy, De claustro animae 1.9–17 (PL 176.1033–49).Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Peter of Celle, De disciplina claustrali 11–17 (Martel 188–224).Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Peter of Porto, Regula clericorum 2.28 (PL 163.730c).Google Scholar

⁸⁷ ‘[O]stendendum est Deo auxiliante, quae in talibus Dei servis differentia, quae intentionis sit in diversis professionibus forma. Ad demonstrandum ergo quod istae diversitates professionum Deo placeant accingor’: Libellus de diversis ordinibus et professionibus qui sunt in aecclesia (edd. and trans. Giles Constable and Bernard Smith; Oxford 1972) 2–3. The treatise discusses different types of hermits, monks, and canons; a projected second book on the varieties of religious women was apparently never written.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Leclercq, Jean, ‘Deux opuscules sur la formation des jeunes moines,’ Revue d'ascétique et de mystique 33 (1957) 390–91.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ ‘Solent animi leves minimeque fundati, cum audierint quosdam in diversis virtutibus ac studiis bonis magnifice praedicari, ita eorum laude succendi, ut eorum imitari statum protinus desiderent. At frustra, nam ex huiusmodi mutatione ac varietate propositi dispendium capiunt, non profectum, quia qui multa sequitur, nihil integre consequetur. Ideo hoc unicuique expediens est, ut secundum propositum, quod elegit, et gratiam, quam accepit, summo studio ac diligentia ad operis arrepti perfectionem pervenire festinet: aliorum laudes amet et admiretur virtutes, ac nequaquam a sua, quam semel elegit, professione discedat. Multis namque viis ad Deum tenditur’: Stephen of Sawley, Speculum novitii 24, ed. Mikkers 67; trans. O'Sullivan, Jeremiah, Treatises (Cistercian Fathers Series 36; Kalamazoo 1984) 118. The passage cited is from Cassian's Collationes 14.5–6 (PL 49.959–60).Google Scholar

⁹⁰ For Adam's career, see Bouvet, Jean, introduction to Adam de Perseigne, Lettres (Sources chrétiennes 66; Paris 1960) 7–29.Google Scholar

⁹¹ ‘Per lorum quippe promissae stabilitatis tanquam pia iumenta ad caeleste praesepium religamur’: Letter 5 to Osmund of Mortemer (De institutione novitiorum) 61, in ibid. 126.Google Scholar

⁹² See McGuire, Brian, Friendship and Community: The Monastic Experience, 350–1250 (Kalamazoo 1988).Google Scholar

⁹³ Southern, R. W., ‘Peter of Blois: A Twelfth Century Humanist?,’ in his Medieval Humanism (New York 1970) 123.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ ‘[I]n rebus humanis nihil sanctius appetatur, nihil quaeratur utilius, nihil difficilius inveniatur, nihil experiatur dulcius, nihil fructuosius teneatur.’ ‘Dicamne de amicitia quod amicus Iesu Ioannes de caritate commemorat: Deus amicitia est?’: Aelred, De spiritali amicitia 2.9, 1.69 (ed. Anselm Hoste, Opera omnia, CCCM 1; Turnhout 1971) 303–4, 301; trans. Eugenia Laker, Mary, Spiritual Friendship (Cistercian Fathers Series 5; Kalamazoo 1977) 71, 65.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ ‘[V]iginti simul vel triginta singulis diebus conferrent ad invicem de spirituali iocunditate scripturarum et ordinis disciplinis…. super grabatum illius ambulantes et decumbentes loquebantur cum eo ut parvulus confabulabatur cum matre sua…. Non sic infrunite agebat cum suis ut est quorundam consuetudo abbatum insipiencium qui, si monachus socii manum tenuerit sua vel aliqua dixerit quod illis displiceat, cappam postulant, fratrem spoliant et expellunt. Non sic Alredus, non sic’: Walter Daniel's Life of Ailred (ed. and trans. Powicke, F. M.; London 1950) 40.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Boswell, John, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Chicago 1980) 221–26.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Guibert of Nogent, De virginitate (PL 156.579–80, 608BC). This unusual author is discussed by Benton, John F. in his introduction to Guibert's Monodiae. See Benton, , Self and Society in Medieval France: The Memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent (New York 1970).Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Ibid. 9 (PL 156.594–96).Google Scholar

⁹⁹ ‘Nihil enim pulchrius, quam eos et magistros vitae habere et testes. Pulchra itaque copula seniorum atque adolescentium’: John of Fruttuaria, Tractatus de ordine vitae et morum institutione (PL 184.567A). For the attribution of this work to John, see Wilmart, André, ‘Jean l’Homme de Dieu: auteur d'un traité attribué à saint Bernard,’ Auteurs spirituels et textes dévots du moyen ǎge latin (Paris 1932) 64–100.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ ‘Nascitur etiam ex amica frequenti et honesta collocutione commendabilis quaedam familiaritas, per quam magister efficitur ad corripiendum audacior, correptus ad disciplinam patientior, uterque ad intelligentiam Scripturarum eruditior’: Adam of Perseigne, Lettres 5.57 (Bouvet 118).Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ ‘Neminem habeat familiarem…. si autem familiaritas interdicitur hominum, quanto magis mulierum?’: Arnulf of Bohéries, Speculum monachorum (PL 184.1176–77). The antithesis of homines and mulieres is disturbingly frequent in the literature.Google Scholar

¹⁰² ‘Nullam certe personam te frequentius visitare vellem, nec cum aliqua te crebrius visitante familiare te vellem habere secretum. Periclitatur enim fama virginis crebra certae alicuius personae salutatione, periclitatur et conscientia’: Aelred of Rievaulx, De inst. incl. 7 (Talbot 642).Google Scholar

¹⁰³ ‘[S]ed vitiorum materias, gulam, somnum, requiem corporis, feminarum et effeminatorum familiaritatem atque convictum infra metas necessitatis cohibeamus.’ ‘Illa intuetur singulas, et inter puellares motus, nunc irascitur, nunc ridet, nunc minatur, nunc blanditur, nunc percutit, nunc osculatur, nunc flentem pro verbere vocat proprius, palpat faciem, stringit collum, et in amplexum ruens, nunc filiam vocat, nunc amicam. Qualis inter haec memoria Dei …?’: ibid. 23, 24 (Talbot 656, 640–41).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Ivo of Chartres, Epistolae 10 (Leclercq 42–48).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Thomas of Froidmont, Liber de modo bene vivendi 13 (PL 184.1222–24). For a long time this uninspired text was inexplicably ascribed to Bernard, St. Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ ‘Charissima soror, fuge societatem saecularium mulierum…. Sicut sirena per dulces cantus decipit marinarios, ita saecularis femina per suos deceptorios sermones decipit Christi servos…. Soror charissima, si tanto studio fugies feminas, quanto magis debes fugere viros? … moneo te, ut vir quamvis sit sanctus, nullam tamen tecum habeat societatem’: ibid. 57–58 (PL 184.1285–86).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ ‘Ubi enim promiscuum sexum virorum scilicet ac mulierum sanctitati licet assignatum, paries unus distincte concludit, quamvis sanctitas utrorumque miraculorum fulmine montes feriat, fide et precum maiestate montes moveat; tamen nisi timor et amor dei intercesserit, adversariorum calumnie commanentia patebit’: Speculum virginum fol. 56^v.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ ‘Sanctas igitur amicicias quere, unde possis adiuvari, si te constiterit aliqua adversitate pulsari. Compedem pedibus suis innectit, qui se in amiciciam alterius cuius mores ignorat, sine consideratione transfundit. Itaque morosa deliberatione morem eius et vitam que eligenda est precurre; et sic probatam, amicicie admitte. Que enim intemperata est ad amicicias; promptior erit ad inimicicias’: ibid. fol. 103^r. Cf. Aelred, , De spiritali amicitia 3.6 (Hoste 318).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ ‘[H]oc te instruere sacra scriptura, femina virtutis, exemplo non desinit, ut cum Sanctis viris familiarem et religiosam parias amicitiam, sicut cum beato papa Urbano virginem peperisse legimus gloriosam’: Osbert, Letters 42 (Williamson 156).Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ ‘Si quis igitur habet animam virginalem, et amator est pudicitiae, non debet mediocribus esse contentus, … sed perfectas virtutes sequatur…. Adolescens, profice! … Desere ima quantum vales, et summa pete. Non deficias neque tepescas, ut gradum perfectionis possis ascendere, ad quam nonnisi multis laborious pervenitur. Euge nunc, euge, frater bone, initia transcende, et ad superiora tende’: John of Fruttuaria, Tractatus de ordine vitae 6 (PL 184.574AB).Google Scholar

¹¹¹ ‘[N]ecesse est cupiditas vel amor noster a carne incipiat, quae si recto ordine dirigitur, quibusdam suis gradibus duce gratia proficiens, spiritu tandem consummabitur’: Bernard, De diligendo Deo 15.39 (Leclercq III 152); trans. Walton, Robert, Treatises II (Kalamazoo 1980) 130.Google Scholar

¹¹² William of St.-Thierry, Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei, ed. Déchanet.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Guigo II, the Carthusian, Scala claustralium, edd. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh (Sources chrétiennes 163; Paris 1970); trans. Colledge, E. and Walsh, J., The Ladder of Monks (Garden City, NY 1978) 81–99.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Herrad of Hohenbourg, Hortus deliciarum (reconstructed by Green, Rosalie, Evans, Michael et al.; London 1979) I 352–53.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ ‘Suspecta sit mortalis vite condicio; his animabus precipue, que quasi pregnantes femine etiam pariture per clivosa quedam et aspera gradientes aborsum momentis singulis metuunt’: Speculum virginum fols. 106^v–107^r.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ I would like to thank the Mead-Swing Lecture Committee at Oberlin College and the graduate medieval consortium at Cornell University for opportunities to present an earlier version of this paper. My gratitude is due to Walker Bynum, Caroline and Elizabeth Brown, A. R. for their helpful readings.Google Scholar