Dyan Elliott: 3 books
Fallen Bodies
Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages
Language: English
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Medieval clerics believed that original sin had rendered their "fallen bodies" vulnerable to corrupting impulses—particularly those of a sexual nature. They feared that their corporeal frailty left them susceptible to demonic forces bent on penetrating and polluting their bodies and souls.
Drawing...
Proving Woman
Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages
Language: English
Release Date: January 10, 2009
Around the year 1215, female mystics and their sacramental devotion were among orthodoxy's most sophisticated weapons in the fight against heresy. Holy women's claims to be in direct communication with God placed them in positions of unprecedented influence. Yet by the end of the Middle Ages female...
The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell
Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500
Language: English
Release Date: November 29, 2011
The early Christian writer Tertullian first applied the epithet "bride of Christ" to the uppity virgins of Carthage as a means of enforcing female obedience. Henceforth, the virgin as Christ's spouse was expected to manifest matronly modesty and due submission, hobbling virginity's ancient...