Women of the Twelfth Century

Women of the Twelfth Century

Europe during the twelfth century Middle Ages was inhabited by generations of women who lived with a dark shadowy cloud cast over them. In some literature, the only glimpse of light a female received was her association with a particular male. However, within the story of the love affair between Peter Abelard and his young student Heloise, a new light was shed upon the lives of women in the Middle Ages. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, translated by Betty Radice and revised by Michael Clanchy, was the story told through the personal and profound letters of a tragic love affair between a renowned French philosopher, Abelard, and one of his students, the young maiden Heloise .

Peter Abelard was a reputable philosophy and widely sought teacher in the art of dialectic who fell in love with Heloise, a young maiden living in her Uncle Fulbert's house. Abelard was hired by Fulbert to live in the house and teach Heloise as a personal tutor. Lessons quickly turned into love affairs, which in turn ended in Heloise becoming pregnant with an illegitimate child. Abelard and Heloise secretly married, but wit 22122n1323w h hopes of keeping Abelard's reputation intact. To hide their secrets and for Abelard's continued pursuit of his life of study, Heloise went away to a convent while Abelard sought solitude in a monastery. However, Heloise's Uncle Fulbert felt undermined by Abelard and was determined to seek vengeance on him by castration . The letters of Abelard and Heloise are eloquently written, personal accounts of life as it was in medieval times. Abelard and Heloise wrote a series of letters to each other over time that revealed the nature of the role of women in terms of personal relationships, scholarship, and religion in the twelfth century Middle Ages.

In personal relationships, the letters written between Abelard and Heloise offered an intimate perspective by both a man and a woman about the natural order of people within their relationships. When Abelard addressed his letter to her, he put her name before his. According the Heloise, the man should have come before the woman, just as superior rank comes before inferior rank. She viewed woman as inferior beings to men, similar to her belief of putting "wife before husband, handmaid before lord, nun before monk, deaconess before priest, and abbess before abbot " showing that all positions of woman throughout society, no matter their status, could not have achieve equal status with men.

However, in his letter back to Heloise, Abelard addressed this issue by stating that when Heloise married him she became his superior . Therefore, Abelard did not make a mistake in putting Heloise's name first, because in his eyes she will always come before him. It seemed, however, that Abelard said this yet acted differently. He put her in a convent to rid himself of his wife so that he may put himself first and continue with his studies. In light of his wound from castration, he believed that only one of them must suffer the consequences of their wrongdoings, and therefore he would suffer because he believed that she was "naturally weaker in sex ."

Abelard and Heloise found it necessary to keep their marriage and their illegitimate child secretly hidden from the world. Fornication of unmarried women with any single or married man was greatly looked down upon and punished in the twelfth century Middle Ages . However according to Friedelehe, any woman could freely give her consent and enter a contractual relation based on mutual consent with a man . Age, status, or consent of the parents was no longer throughout the twelfth century and issue before a man and woman entered into legal matrimony. Abelard and Heloise had a typical relationship of the Middle Ages. The primary age for a woman to be married is her maiden years. This is the transition from childhood to adulthood, where the girl is no longer considered a child but a maiden. Maidens were generally characterized by their beauty and virginity, as they were the focus of every male's desire. Maidenhood was the perfect age of a woman's life to fall in love and consent to marriage . Heloise was a maiden as well as the object of desire in the eyes of Abelard, who was over twenty years older than her .

Common to the twelfth century Middle Ages, Heloise's Uncle Fulbert did everything within his power to enhance her learning and scholarship . Like many young girls of her time, Heloise was educated in a convent at Argenteuil when she was growing up . However, women were educated through the humble learning of the convent differently than men who were highly educated in philosophy, spirituality, dialectic, and letters . Abelard found a gift for letters rare in a woman, which made the talented Heloise even more attractive in his eyes. Abelard even believed that Heloise was blessed by God's grace with the talent to allow her to instruct in the convent when she became the abbess

Saint Katherine was a model of young girls in the twelfth century Middle Ages. As a young girl, Saint Katherine was educated and owned many books. Books were previously a sign of nobility but by the twelfth century, more women of different classes including aristocracy, gentry, and even merchants were becoming educated. As the women of these various classes began to read more, the hierarchy became blurred and books could no longer be used as a symbol of class . Heloise was educated in the house of her Uncle Fulbert, as most women of the time would have been educated at home. At the turn of the eleventh century, the Middle Ages entered what became known as the take-off. Throughout the take-off, women underwent economic change and began an upwardly mobile passage beyond typically female-oriented gender tasks. As women became more educated, they experienced an array of job opportunities such as colonizers, entrepreneurs, and many more vocational options. However, a woman's education was not always as formal as a man's education. Typically, a young girl would be educated by her mother in the trade or art which her mother already practiced .

The role of women within the realm of religion also changed since the eleventh century. By Heloise's time in the Middle Ages, young girls were commonly educated by their mothers or in a convent. This began a girl's connection to the Church as early childhood. In the beginning of the letters between Abelard and Heloise, after they were married they sought shelter in a monastery and a convent, respectively, to avoid society out of shame, confusion, misery, and remorse for what they did . It was common in the Middle Ages to use religion and faith to hind from the demands of daily life, to find the peace and quiet to study and concentrate, or sometimes as a self-inflicted punishment for mistakes. Heloise, however, was so young and facing life in her prime years that the other women in the convent tried to convince her that a religious life was too hard of a penance to serve for her offenses .

Women in the Middle Ages were also affected by the religious choices made by their husbands. When a husband was called to a religious life as a bishop, deacon or presbyter, they were not allowed to give up care for his wife and family. In this aspect, the pious man was required to still be the provider for his family especially his wife, however, obviously he could not lie carnally with her .

After the sixth century, most women in the Middle Ages were born into Christianity. Within their community of religion, women had many options by the twelfth century in which they could participate. Women could choose to move to a community of fellow vowed believers, either a convent or a monastery. Within this smaller community of faith, women were even capable of becoming leaders as an abbess, prioress, or teacher. However, it became increasingly harder for women since the twelfth century to use vocations to avoid cultural expectations of women as property owner and legal franchisers just as it was extremely difficult for Heloise and Abelard to escape from their lives inside the walls of a convent or a monastery.

Throughout The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, a personal, intimate light was shed upon women in the twelfth century Middle Ages in regard to their participation in religion, scholarship and personal relationships. Women living in the times of the Middle Ages were generally overshadowed by the great men, philosophers, and scholars of their day. Through the developments during the early Middle Ages, women's roles in marriage were more prominent and they were more capable of making decisions about personal issues. Women began to become more educated around the eleventh century. They began to participate more in other trades and arts. In the Middle Ages, women's role in religion was full of options and vocations. Since the twelfth century Middle Ages, women have been in an upwardly mobile spiral moving towards a world like today where they find themselves free in every opportunity they choose.