New Trends in Feminine Spirituality: The Holy Women of Liège and Their Impact

Description

Was there a women's movement in the thirteenth century and is such a question meaningful in its medieval context? Far from being resolved, the issue of whether women had a thirteenth-century renaissance has still decisively to unsettle the periodization of Western European history in twelfth and sixteenth-century humanist renaissances. Herbert Grundmann long ago demonstrated the participation of women in the eremitically-inspired reforming movements of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in the production of vernacular literature. Yet it is upon his work that this volume builds, for the diocese of Liège is the key area in this development. It was from Liège that Jacques de Vitry approached the papacy to secure permission for the women of this bishopric of Liège, France and Germany to live together and to promote holiness in each other by mutual example. The seventeen contributors to this volume examine not only the beguine religious life in the southern Low Countries, but also the impact of this movement on later medieval Sweden, England and France, the new modes of influence exerted by women in their religious lives, and the revivals of feminine spirituality in the late medieval West through to contemporary North America. Research does not yet allow for a whole new synthesis, but this volume directs scholars to detailed work on specific localities and persons, with an awareness of the problems and possibilities of wider European comparisons. List of Maps and Illustrations viii Preface ix Abbreviations xi JOCELYN WOGAN-BROWNE and MARIE-ÉLISABETH HENNEAU / Introduction: Liège, the Medieval 'Woman Question', and the Question of Medieval Women 1 ANNE BLONSTEIN / juliana: a mass of dying notes 33 BARBARA NEWMAN / Devout Women and Demoniacs in the World of Thomas of Cantimpré 35 ELSE MARIE WIBERG PEDERSEN / The In-carnation of Beatrice of Nazareth’s Theology 61 ALEXANDRA BARRATT / Undutiful Daughters and Metaphorical Mothers among the Beguines 81 ANNE BLONSTEIN / ida: o those days of magic 105 PENNY GALLOWAY / Neither Miraculous Nor Astonishing. The Devotional Practice of Beguine Communities in French Flanders 107 BRENDA BOLTON / Thirteenth-Century Religious Women. Further Reflections on the Low Countries 'Special Case' 129 BRIDGET MORRIS / Birgittines and Beguines in Medieval Sweden 159 MARJORIE CURRY WOODS / Shared Books. Primers, Psalters, and the Adult Acquisition of Literacy among Devout Laywomen and Women in Orders in Late Medieval England 177 CAROLYNE LARRINGTON / Representing the Presentation. The Candlemas Vision and Marie d’Oignies’ Role in its Dissemination 195 ANNEKE B. MULDER-BAKKER / The Prime of their Lives. Women and Age, Wisdom and Religious Careers in Northern Europe 215 RENATE BLUMENFELD-KOSINSKI / Satirical Views of the Beguines in Northern French Literature 237 KATIE NORMINGTON / Dreams Made Public? Juliana of Mont Cornillon and Dame Procula 251 JANE CHANCE / Speaking 'in propria persona'. Authorizing the Subject as a Political Act in Late Medieval Feminine Spirituality 269 ANNE BLONSTEIN / margaret: and they call it the valley of passion 295 ULRIKE WIETHAUS / Female Spirituality, Medieval Women, and Commercialism in the United States 297 LUCE IRIGARAY / The Way of the Feminine 315 ANTONIA LACEY / Gendered Language and the Mystic Voice. Reading from Luce Irigaray to Catherine of Siena 329 ANNE BLONSTEIN / yvette: the old estate of not turning away 343 List of Contributors 345