Elegit Domum sibi Placabilem: Choice and the Twelfth-Century Religious Woman
Abstract
This dissertation probes medieval sources to identify how and why women made transformative
choices in their own lives and analyzes the consequences of those choices. The major case study
investigates the life of Marie of Blois-Boulogne, a twelfth-century abbess, countess, wife, and mother.
Marie experienced change and tragedy, provoking the need to make choices with religious and political
ramifications. As such, her story enables us to examine decision-making in the context of controversy on the
one hand and family obligations and personal ambition on the other. Relevant themes—such a child
oblation, the holy veil and enclosure, legal and illegal marriage—frame Marie and create a microhistory of
the world that she inhabited. Other historical women and literary characters from the eleventh through
thirteenth centuries flesh out more of the discussion. These case studies and presentations fit into three body
chapters that examine the power exercised by parents, complications of the enclosure, and the end of marital
relationships.
Medieval chronicle accounts, charters, monastic cartularies, seals, and letters, provide the material
evidence for this study. Each type and each example do more than convey raw data, however, as they elicit
narratives that form and inform the subject and the reader. These narratives lend themselves to a literary critique and examination using Hayden White’s theory of employments. This interdisciplinary exercise
makes use of four classical modes of plot structure: Tragedy, Comedy, Romance, and Satire. Within this
examination, the sources are read for what they omit as much as for what they include.
My conclusions prove that women exercised choice and decision-making power that went well
beyond the recognized pattern of the either/or of secular marriage or religious profession. Instead, these
women’s choices enabled them to realize pragmatic objectives that reinforced family goals; equally their
choices reflected personal ambition and aspiration. The attainment of status, adventure, and authority reflect
some of the motivations that I have identified. More often than not, these choices and their consequences
elicited disapprobation from male leaders.
Table of Contents
Chronology -- Introduction -- Chapter one. Ut te ab infantia sponsam sibi eligeret: Religious Status and Idealized Identities -- Chapter Two. N’onques ne fu tenue anclose: Daring the Enclosure -- Chapter Three. Non est honestum ut uxor debeat…suo manere: Women and marital choice -- Chapter Four. Pulcherrimus miles…comitissam Boloniensem duxit uxorem: The Making and Unmaking of Marie -- Thesis Conclusus—Conclusions and Summations -- Appendix A. Romsey abbey images -- Appendix B. Matthew’s Tomb -- Appendix C. 1162 Papal letters -- Appendix D. 1168 Papal letters -- Appendix E. 1170 and 1171 charters -- Appendix F. 1173 charter
Degree
Ph.D.