Nuns and Priests: Mutuality and Dependence in the Medieval Monastery, 1050-1250

FAIN: FA-53181-07

Fiona Joy Griffiths
Stanford University (New York, NY 10012-1019)

From the eleventh century on, church reformers waged a campaign against clerical marriage which historians have suggested carried serious consequences for religious women. As reformers urged priests to avoid not only marriage, but women in general, nuns were often left without sacramental services. Yet even in this climate of increasing clerical misogyny, certain men remained willing to involve themselves in spiritual relationships with women; these men saw service to women as a central part of the Christian life. Why such men were drawn to women, and how they defended their involvement with them are the subjects of my study.