Negotiating clerical identities : priests, monks and masculinity in the Middle Ages

"Was a medieval priest viewed as masculine by his parishioners? Did a monk consider himself fully male? How did a bishop assert his masculinity in conflicts with secular authorities? These are some of the questions posed by Negotiating clerical identities. In this volume, Jennifer Thibodeaux has assembled the most cutting-edge research today on medieval clerics and masculine performances. Spanning a wide range of geographical contexts and time periods, the essays in this volume illuminate the ways in which medieval clerics performed masculinity and negotiated their gender identities, both with lay society and within the various orders of the medieval church."--Cover, p. [4]. Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 List of Abbreviations 11 Notes on Contributors 12 Introduction: Rethinking the Medieval Clergy and Masculinity 15 1 What Can Historians Do with Clerical Masculinity? Lessons from Medieval Europe 30 Part I: Monastic Masculinity: Bridging Secular and Clerical Identities 51 2 The Common Bond of Aristocratic Masculinity: Monks, Secular Men and St. Gerald of Aurillac 52 3 The Warrior Habitus: Militant Masculinity and Monasticism in the Henrician Reform Movement 70 4 Spiritual Warriors in Citadels of Faith: Martial Rhetoric and Monastic Masculinity in the Long Twelfth Century 99 Part II: Priestly Masculinity: Reconciling Celibacy and Sexuality 124 5 Saxo Grammaticus’s Heroic Chastity: A Model of Clerical Celibacy and Masculinity in Medieval Scandinavia 125 6 From Boys to Priests: Adolescence, Masculinity and the Parish Clergy in Medieval Normandy 148 7 Promiscuous Priests and Vicarage Children: Clerical Sexuality and Masculinity in Late Medieval England 171 Part III: Clerical Masculinity: Contested Identities 194 8 Between Warrior and Priest: The Creation of a New Masculine Identity during the Crusades 195 9 Knights, Bishops and Deer Parks: Episcopal Identity, Emasculation and Clerical Space in Medieval England 214 10 Mirror of the Scholarly (Masculine) Soul: Scholastics, Beguines and Gendered Spirituality in Medieval Paris 248 Index 275 Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Rethinking the Medieval Clergy and Masculinity....Pages 1-15 What Can Historians Do with Clerical Masculinity? Lessons from Medieval Europe....Pages 16-36 Front Matter....Pages 37-37 The Common Bond of Aristocratic Masculinity: Monks, Secular Men and St. Gerald of Aurillac....Pages 39-56 The Warrior Habitus: Militant Masculinity and Monasticism in the Henrician Reform Movement....Pages 57-85 Spiritual Warriors in Citadels of Faith: Martial Rhetoric and Monastic Masculinity in the Long Twelfth Century....Pages 86-110 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 Saxo Grammaticus’s Heroic Chastity: A Model of Clerical Celibacy and Masculinity in Medieval Scandinavia....Pages 113-135 From Boys to Priests: Adolescence, Masculinity and the Parish Clergy in Medieval Normandy....Pages 136-158 Promiscuous Priests and Vicarage Children: Clerical Sexuality and Masculinity in Late Medieval England....Pages 159-181 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 Between Warrior and Priest: The Creation of a New Masculine Identity during the Crusades....Pages 185-203 Knights, Bishops and Deer Parks: Episcopal Identity, Emasculation and Clerical Space in Medieval England....Pages 204-237 Mirror of the Scholarly (Masculine) Soul: Scholastics, Beguines and Gendered Spirituality in Medieval Paris....Pages 238-264 Back Matter....Pages 265-269 Was a medieval priest viewed as masculine by his parishioners? Did a monk consider himself fully male? How did a bishop assert his masculinity in conflicts with secular authorities? These are some of the questions posed by Negotiating Clerical Identities: Priests, Monks and Masculinity in the Middle Ages. In this volume, Jennifer Thibodeaux has assembled the most cutting-edge research today on medieval clerics and masculine performances. Spanning a wide range of geographical contexts and time periods, the essays in this volume illuminate the ways in which medieval clerics performed masculinity and negotiated their gender identities, with both lay society and within the various orders of the medieval Church "Was a medieval priest viewed as masculine by his parishioners? Did a monk consider himself fully male? How did a bishop assert his masculinity in conflicts with secular authorities? These are some of the questions posed by Negotiating clerical identities. In this volume, Jennifer Thibodeaux has assembled the most cutting-edge research today on medieval clerics and masculine performances. Spanning a wide range of geographical contexts and time periods, the essays in this volume illuminate the ways in which medieval clerics performed masculinity and negotiated their gender identities, both with lay society and within the various orders of the medieval church."--Page [4] of cover NL-ZmNBD Clerics in the Middle Ages were subjected to differing ideals of masculinity, both from within the Church and from lay society. The historians in this volume interrogate the meaning of masculine identity for the medieval clergy, by considering a wide range of sources, time periods and geographical contexts.