Hrotsvit's Sapientia: Rhetorical power and women of wisdom

Renascence, Winter 2003 by Richmond, Colleen D

IN the latter half of the tenth century, the Catholic canoness Hrotsvit lived in the thriving abbey of Gandersheim in Saxony and wrote legends, plays and epics, many of which focus on God's empowerment of women. Writing over one hundred years before the more famous Christian writer, Hildegard of Bingen, Hrotsvit specifically sought to characterize women unlike the corrupt and duplicitous women portrayed by Terence, the Roman playwright familiar to her medieval audience. While one must be careful not to attribute feminist agendas to medieval women writers simply because one wants to find them there, Hrotsvit's comments in "Preface to the Dramas" do suggest she wants to redefine women. She explains that she wants to show the "laudable chastity of sacred virgins" in order to counteract the "shameless acts of lascivious women" portrayed by Terence (Hrotsvit 3). While several of her plays particularly look at the value of chastity, the focus of The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Fides, Spes, and Karitas (often referred to as Sapientia)1 goes beyond that in affirming female value and spiritual power. Further, Hrotsvit proves herself an important literary voice by showing her own scholarship and skill. The construction and characters of Sapientia, then, speak across the centuries about spiritual empowerment of those with wisdom, faith, hope, and charity.

Recent scholarship on the plays of Hrotsvit shows various views on the playwright's depiction of Christian women. Does her work show the potential and power of women, or does it reinforce the victimization of women in a patriarchal medieval world? Katherina Wilson suggests,

In her glorification of Christian women, Hrotsvit is entirely orthodox. Like Saint Jerome, who made the famous pronouncement that through virginity woman can rise above her position and become like a man, Hrotsvit depicts her heroines as deriving their strength from the chaste ideal; virtue and chastity are almost synonymous to her. (Wilson, "Saxon Canoness" 39)

M.R. Sperberg-McQueen goes further and sees "disturbing ways in which, while championing female virtue, the plays nonetheless reinforce certain antifeminist, patriarchal values, ultimately asserting a male control of women that is particularly manifest in what happens to women's bodies" (Sperberg-McQueen 48). Taking quite a different view, Peter R. Schroeder claims that the playwright depicts empowered women: "The largely impersonal institution of the state, Hroswitha implies, rests on the largely relational institution of marriage; women, by exercising their power over the latter, can help bring down the former. Christianity is presented as a feminine attack on the male power structure" (Schroeder 54). Barbara K. Gold further suggests that Hrotsvit "was able to shape and to influence women's ways of knowing" (Gold 61). She also suggests that "Hrotswitha was the first medieval poet who made a conscious attempt to remold the image of women found in ancient literary depictions" (Gold 42). I find that indeed both her characters and the writer herself present a welcome refashioning of the image of women.

Yet this is a play about virgins who are martyred. How can a play that depicts the violent triumph of a corrupt pagan governor over innocent women possibly show these same women as empowered? Placing Hrotsvit's characters in line with recent scholarship on early Christian women heroes will provide context. Several scholars have recently suggested that medieval texts dealing with female martyrs may show women triumphant even in their persecution. For example, in her reconsideration of the Old English tale of Juliana, Alexandra Hennessey Olsen shows the rhetorical power and intellectual strength of that heroic martyr (Olsen 226-30). Helen Damico's essay on "The Valkyrie Reflex in Old English Literature" also discusses spiritual women of power when she considers Juliana, Elena, and Judith (Damico 184-87). Further, Paul Szarmach suggests that the characterization of women saints in Aelfric's Saints' Lives needs further consideration in this light (Szarmach, "Aelfric" 154; "St. Euphrosyne" 360). Like these earlier depictions of heroic Christian women, then, Hrotsvit's women characters in Sapientia show spiritual and intellectual power. In fact, Hrotsvit is one of the earliest women to dramatize such lives, and her skill as a craftsperson proves that women could show verbal and intellectual power in tenth century life as in its literature. The present essay, then, will consider the two-fold method by which Hrotsvit consciously portrays Christian women of power in Sapientia. First, in her female characters, Hrotsvit brings to life Christians of verbal and physical strength. Second, in her carefully structured work, Hrotsvit shows her own skill as literary craftswoman. In that regard, I will look particularly at how Sapientia's lecture on Boethian number theory has a role in the play, a role not yet adequately considered by scholars.

Because the play is not widely known, a summary of events may be in order. Sapientia tells the story of a mother, Sapientia, and her three daughters Fides, Spes, and Karitas, confronted by pagan Roman emperor Hadrian, who wants them to renounce their Christianity. Each female character refuses to foreswear her faith, and the three daughters are tortured and killed; then the mother dies in grief. The details of the torture of these martyrs are typical of medieval legends of saints' lives and martyr dramas. Each woman is offered the chance to give up her Christian beliefs. After she refuses, she is subjected to various tortures such as being boiled in tar and pitch and having her body mutilated with knives. In every case, the women are emotionally and spiritually unscathed by the torture, joyfully willing to suffer for their faith until death. Such stories and plays were intended to serve as inspiration to believers, illustrating the power of God to strengthen and aid the faithful in times of trouble or persecution.