HIST 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Gilbertine Order, Men Only, Cathedral School
12 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Women also feel the religious fervor of the 11th and 12th centuries. Most famous nun of the period was hildegard of bingen: died 1179. Ten-fold increase in nunneries in france and england between 1000-1300 ce: 1/2 are benedictine, others connected with the new orders. Dynamic of growth not the same with nunneries as it was for monasteries: women cannot be priests. Therefore, women cannot practice christianity without men. Idea that women should stay inside and not manage the economic affairs of the nunneries: women must have religious men to help if they are to live a religious life. A sense that religious men should not help religious women. No marriage for priests and chastity for all religious men. Only way to guarantee chastity is to keep men and women apart. There was great suspicion of any male-female religious practice. Still a sense that women could be holier than men. Result of these tensions: weird growth pattern for nunneries.
