Women religious virtuosae from the middle ages: a case pattern and analytic model of types

INTRODUCTION

Comparative historical analysis of thirteenth-century women religious virtuosae offers a new vista over the terrain of the sociological categories initialized by Troeltsch (1956) and Weber (1985, 1978) neither of whom showed much interest in pre- Reformation female piety (Bynum 1991). In fact, like new wine in old wineskins, a systematic empirical examination of medieval women exemplars mandates reformulation of central concepts in the sociology of religion rooted in the Weberian-Troeltsch edifice, such as church/ecclesia, denomination, sect, cult, and congregation (Bainbridge and Stark 1979; Becker 1932; Johnson 1971; Neibuhr 1932; Troeltsch 1956; Weber 1985, 1958; Yinger 1970), but especially mysticism, as well as inner-worldly and world renouncing asceticism (cf. Bynum 1991:78). More recent sociological theorists have accomplished this reformulation in part (Collins 1986; Schluchter 1989, 1996; Kaelber 1998). But even Schluchter's erudite typology of stances to the world of religious virtuosi (1989) fails to incorporate the full range of variation within the ecclesia afforded by the inclusion of women.

The following paper executes a comparative historical analysis of five thirteenth-century women exemplars using the case-pattern and analytical model as summarized by Hall (1999). The analytic model identifies distinctive features present or absent in each exemplar or "ideal type." The five cases were drawn from a thirteenth-century cross section representative of the variety of religious expression within and outside the medieval Roman Catholic ecclesia. The conclusions suggest a tentative reformulation of the Weberian "inner-worldly" versus "world renouncing" and "asceticism" versus "mysticism" dichotomies. They enhance lines set Out in the theoretical work of Schluchter (1989, 1996) with his magnificent clarification of Weber.

The analysis and reformulation are cast in a setting of organizational and theological pluralism within and external to the medieval Roman Catholic ecclesia; they are integrated with observations regarding broader societal transformations. The contextual observations open a vast research agenda insofar as they suggest a close cousin to denominationalism within the ecclesia, variation in degree and type of mysticism and asceticism, non-sacramental "election," and unmediated relationships to God - long before Protestantism. These observations nonetheless corroborate themes pre-empted by Collins (1986), Schluchter (1989), and Kaelber (1998).

THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY ROMAN CATHOLIC ECCLESIA

Troeltsch (1956) developed his understanding of "church" around the "relatively unified ecclesiastical culture" (Schluchter 1996:209) that emerged in Europe following the Gregorian reforms of the eleventh century. The caesaropapist interpenetration of nobility and church characteristic of European civilization since Charlemagne was transformed so as to effect separation of the secular and religious domains. The unity of the two spheres, societas christiana and societas humana, was constituted through a nomocratic theology, the institution of sacramental grace, and dogmatic privileging of the sacerdotal hierarchy. Troeltsch (1956) believed that these ecclesiastic developments enabled universal participation in the divine and simultaneously "provided leeway for autonomous developments outside the church" (Schluchter 1996:209). In other words, separation of the religious from secular, the institution of penance and of sacramental grace, and the cultural hybrid that became canon law transformed religious practic e into "obedience to an institution." The unity thereby achieved paradoxically revitalized tension between a sacred church and the secular world and "made possible under the canopy of a Christian symbolic universe a certain pluralism" (Schluchter 1996:210).

The de jure separation of the religious from the secular gave rise to pluralism, not only in the broader medieval culture but also within the church itself (Schluchter 1996). The same structural unity that enhanced tension between the church and the world produced tension between a bureaucratic ecclesia embedded in an imperfect world and strict religious virtuosi. For Troeltsch the tension had been traditionally resolved through a "sect-like" monasticism. The monastic orders were linked to the bureaucratic structure through papal recognition and interlocking networks. However, they stood apart from the corruption and chaos of the secular world and were ordered by the discipline of religious rules. After the Gregorian reforms these orders proliferated in quantity and kind.

The unity of medieval feudal culture was solidified by vast informal connections between church, monasticism and nobility through familial networks and ties. Most succinctly stated, the Gregorian reforms emerged in tandem with Benedictine monastic developments. These dovetailed with the devolution of a familial model based on the territorial prince and a rule of law privileging the eldest son. They took place in the context of a gift economy linking the sacred to the profane through debt and obligation, not yet monetary and market oriented (Bouchard 1987; Rosenwein 1989; Duby 1991). Second sons, cousins, and even daughters from the nobility entered a monastic life of prayer ndowed by a powerful aristocracy because, inter alia, this life stood in sharp contrast to their own context of the real brute force and strife in the secular world (Rosenwein 1989).