Medieval Theology and the Natural Body (York Studies in Medieval Theology, 1) (Volume 1)

New interdisciplinary essays on the treatment of the body in medieval theology. The attitudes towards the human body held by different branches of medieval theology are currently a major focus of scholarly attention. This first volume from York Medieval Press includes studies of the metaphor of man as head and woman as body, Abelard, women and Catharism, the female body as an impediment to ordination, women mystics, and the University of York's 1995 Quodlibet Lecture given by Eamon Duffy on the early iconography and "lives" of St Francis of Assisi. PETER BILLER is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York; A.J. MINNIS is Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English, Yale Univesrity. Contributors: PETER BILLER, ALCUIN BLAMIRES, DAVID LUSCOMBE, W.G. EAST, A.J. MINNIS, DYAN ELLIOTT, ROSALYNN VOADEN, EAMON DUFFY On March 11 1995, a conference on medieval theology and the natural body, organised by the University of York's Centre for Medieval Studies, was held at King's Manor, York, under the title 'This Body of Death' (echoing Romans 7. 24). This collection includes the papers delivered on that occasion, together with further invited papers on the theme. An introductory essay by Peter Biller on medieval and contemporary concerns with the body is followed by Alcuin Blamire's examination of the paradoxes inherent in the metaphor of man as head, woman as body, in authors ranging from St Augustine to Christine de Pizan. Peter Abelard, a writer who 'dislocated' this image, is the principal figure of the next two papers. David Luscombe's study looks successively at Abelard's view of the role of senses in relation to thought and mind, the problem of body in resurrected beings, and dualities in his correspondence with Heloise. W.G. East then takes up the famous correspondence and love affair, focusing on the putting to death of the body in the religious life, the discussion in the correspondence of the Benedictine rule's appropriateness for women, and Abelard's hymn and his own mutilation. Peter Biller uses a sketch of the history of the discussion of women and Catharism as a preliminary to an examination of Cathar views of material women, while Alastair Minnis traces and analyses the tradition of scholastic theological discussion of female sex as an impediment to ordination and teaching. Dyan Elliott examines views of the physiological basis of various forms of rapture, concentrating in particular on later medieval female mystics. One prominent figure in later medieval female spirituality, Margery Kempe, stars in the following paper, Rosalynn Voaden's study of the way The Book of Margery Kempe constructed Margery's very sexual awareness of both female and male bodies. The volume concludes with the first of the Annual Quodlibet Lectures in medieval theology, which was delivered in York by Eamon Duffy on 30 November 1995, on the early iconography and vitae of St Francis of Assisi. This is the first volume to be published by York Medieval Press, under the aegis of University of York's Centre for Medieval Studies in association with Boydell & Brewer, with the aim of promoting innovative scholarship and fresh criticism on medieval culture. It has a special commitment to interdisciplinary study, in line with the Centre's belief that the future of medieval studies lies in areas in which its major disciplines at once inform and challenge each other. The attitudes towards the human body held by different branches of medieval theology are currently a major focus of scholarly attention. This first volume from York Medieval Press includes studies of the metaphor of man as head and woman as body, Abelard, women and Catharism, the female body as an impediment to ordination, women mystics, and the University of York's 1995 Quodlibet Lecture given by Eamon Duffy on the early iconography and lives' of St Francis of Assisi..... Thenew scholarly essays collected here explore ways in which the human body -- a major focus of attention in recent work on literary theory and cultural studies --was treated by several branches of medieval theology; they are derived in the mainfrom a conference held at York in 1995, under the title This Body of Death', together with further invited papers on the same theme. It includes the first of the Annual Quodlibet Lectures in medieval theology, Eamon Duffy's masterly study of the early iconography and lives' of St Francis of Assisi. PETER BILLER is Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York; A.J. MINNIS is Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of York. Contributors: PETER BILLER, ALCUIN BLAMIRES, DAVID LUSCOMBE, W.G. EAST, A.J. MINNIS, DYAN ELLIOTT, ROSALYNN VOADEN, EAMON DUFFY Medieval Theology and the Natural Body 3 CONTENTS 6 LIST OF PLATES 7 ABBREVIATIONS 8 MEDIEVAL THEOLOGY AND THE NATURAL BODY 12 John Of Naples, Quodlibets and Medieval Theological Concern with the Body 13 Paradox in the Medieval Gender Doctrine of Head and Body 23 Peter Abelard's Carnal Thoughts 40 This Body of Death: Abelard, Heloise and the Religious Life1 51 II 57 Cathars and Material Women1 68 1. Historiography: the Origins of the Myth 71 i. The Middle Ages 71 ii. Protestant and Catholic polemic 78 iii. Liberty 82 2. Material Women 88 i Moneta of Cremona 88 ii. Depositions 95 De impedimento sexus: Women's Bodies and Medieval Impediments to Female Ordination 115 1. A Sequence of Sentences Commentaries 116 2. Sex, Sacrament and Symbol 119 i Imaging God 121 ii. Crowning glories 126 3. Female Frailties 128 i. A woman's touch 128 ii. Weak minds in weak bodies 129 4. Power and Precedent: Test-cases from Canon Law and the Bible 131 5. A Contemporary Context? 140 The Physiology of Rapture and Female Spirituality 146 1. Mystical Rapture and the Presence of God 147 2. Souls Follow Bodies 149 3. Angelic or Demonic Rapture 154 4. Discernment and the Body48 156 5. Women and Rapture 162 Beholding Men's Members: The Sexualizing of Transgression in The Book of Margery Kempe 179 THE 1995 QUODLIBET LECTURE 195 Finding St Francis: Early Images, Early Lives 196 1. Inventing Francis: The Early Lives 196 2. Miracle and Image: The Earliest Pictures 205 3. Picture and Story: The Bardi Dossal 217 4. Scepticism and Defence: From the Bardi Dossal to the Assisi Frescoes 235 INDEX OF NAMES AND TITLES 240 A 240 B 241 C 241 D 242 E 242 F 242 G 243 H 243 I 243 J 244 K 244 L 244 M 244 N 245 O 245 P 245 Q 245 R 245 S 246 T 246 U 246 V 246 W 246 Z 247