Between Pit And Pedestal: Women In The Middle Ages

By any metric, the middle ages in Europe was not an egalitarian society. Gender roles were heavily ingrained in the culture, with men meant to have aggressive masculine traits, and women to have fragile feminine traits.The practice of minting coins was perfected by Roman Emperors such as Augustus, Vespasian, and Diocletian, and as many Roman customs did, it became adopted by medieval kings, particularly Anglo-Saxons ones. The minting of coins not only served as a way to facilitate the exchange of goods and services, but they also were political tools utilised by leaders. Cynethryth, Queen of Mercia and Wife of Offa the Great, was the only Anglo-Saxon Queen we know of who issued her own coinage1. This not only has implications for the political eptitude of Cynethryth, but also has significance to understanding of medieval gender roles and how women in power operated and exercised authority.

The term gender roles refers to the behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender. In society, we see males being taught that they should be the ones to bring in the income and be in charge of the household, while women are taught to stay home, take care of the children and be domestic. This concept has been a prominent factor in medieval life and continues to be prominent to this day. Gender roles have not changed since the medieval period, men continue to wear their “masks of masculinity” and dominate the workforce, while women are still expected dominate the domestic sphere.

Throughout the three literary periods: The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, and The Renaissance; women have been portrayed and treated in different ways. The Iliad by Homer is about the Trojan War fought by the Achaeans and Trojans which was over the capturing of the wife of King Menelaus, Helen of Troy, by Paris. In The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, it is about a group of 29 people who are all on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to worship St. Thomas’s shrine; however, as Chaucer describes all these types of people not many of them are very religious and the stories they tell show the perspective and portrayal of women in this time. In Francis Petrarch’s poetry Rhymes, he describes his love and admiration for a woman who doesn’t love him back, yet Petrarch still confesses his love for her through his poetry. Through these stories and poems, The Iliad, The Canterbury Tales, and Rhymes, from the three time periods, the role of women is a progression of how they were looked at and their role in that time period, by men.

During the medieval times, women were not seen as they are today. Although in the world today there are still those who are full of misogyny, it was much more common and intense during this time period. Women during the middle ages had specific roles assigned to them in society. These roles depended on the type of women they were, whether it be a peasant, noble woman, or an evil temptress. These roles that women have served have shown up in numerous stories from the middle ages including: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife’s Lament.

The women in medieval times had not much power over their life and decisions affecting them. Men had all the power and women where tossed aside as only being there for marriage, babies and housework. They were encouraged to stay inside, unless their work compelled them to do otherwise. Were they valued in society? Or were they just there to do as they are told and clean?

In the Middle Ages from 476 CE- 14th century almost all of the power of women was determined by biblical references. The average woman in a rural area had the duty of making clothes from wool, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. The women in town often were tasked in purchasing and trading goods and the normal housekeeping. In extreme cases women were known as witches. Other women became nuns and got involved in spiritual matters. In the year 1000 traditional marriage that involved getting married for financial reasons became less common. Although the parents still assisted in choosing the spouse it was becoming freer to choose who to marry. The woman was essentially owned by a male guardian almost like a child. However, if a rich widowed woman decided she did not want or have another guardian available, she was able to have her own name. During the Middle Ages many rich women were able to participate in things such as art, music or writing. It was rare for a woman not that well off to be able to purchase the tools or have the education to do art, music, or writing. All the rules developed depended on how

Because of this, scholars are bombarded with the male view of the female existence. This can lead to warped ideas of how women thought and behaved during the Middle Ages. With Heloise's letters, people can get a true sense of how a woman thought, felt, and behaved during this era. Some would argue that because Heloise was a noblewoman that she could not represent most women. While this may be true, what she can do, is represent the ideals and expectations that were expected of all women, regardless of social stature. According to historian, Katherine Clark, women were valued as "virgins, holy widows, and faithful wives." Although she could not be valued as a virgin, Heloise fell somewhere in between a holy widow and a faithful wife. Abelard

Throughout the letters of Heloise and Abelard, there are several examples of how gender roles shaped medieval France. In the third letter of the collection, Abelard writes to Heloise lamenting about his misfortunes. He asks her to pray for him because; “your prayer may win for me from God if this woman’s prayer obtained so much from a man.” In this letter, Abelard sees women having a stronger spiritual connection than men, and he even goes on to give evidence to this point. He says that when you look at, “the Old and New Testaments, you will find that the greatest miracles of resurrection have been displayed only, or chiefly, to women and were preformed for them or with respect to them.” He gives several examples, including, the resurrection of Christ and how it was the three Mary’s who found the empty tomb; in the Old Testament, Elias and Elisha resurrected two men at the prayers of their mothers; and Lazarus’s

Marie de France lived in a time when social graces were paramount to a good reputation, lordships and to securing good marriages. A woman was considered less valuable if she lost her virginity; a wife was subjected to her feudal lord, father, brother or son after her husband’s death. According to Angela Sandison’s article “The Role of Women in the Middle Ages”, this was because in the Middle Ages the Church and the aristocracy controlled public opinion and the legal system. These authorities of the times believed a woman’s place was in a submissive role to a man. In The Lay of the Nightingale, we will see how this social and religious hierarchy will impact the behaviors of the three people involved.

The emergence of Abelard’s and Heloise’s romantically intense relationship and eventual marriage begins with Abelard moving to Paris to pursue his teaching career. His teaching career in the art of philosophy proves to be fruitful in Paris and Abelard begins to observe a young girl named Heloise, because of her intellect. Abelard states, “A gift for letters is so rare in women that it added greatly to her charm and had made her renowned throughout the realm.” A Canon by the name of Fulbert, not realizing Abelard’s deep desire, request that Abelard teach his niece, Heloise, immediately. The teacher and student, Abelard and Heloise, soon

Women withstood a multitude of limitations in the medieval era. Due to the political, social, and religious restrictions women encountered, historians neglected to realize that they demonstrated agency. The female experience is something that has been overlooked until recently. Unfortunately, without the knowledge of how women found ways to exert their power, we are experiencing a deficit of knowledge in this period. Through the close examination of the primary sources: The Gospel of Mary, Dhouda’s Liber Manualis, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the creative means of female force are displayed.

Throughout the letters, Abelard and Heloise’s perspectives on gender roles were strictly based upon the traditional views on sexuality. For instance, in the egotistical mind of Abelard, women in the medieval society were viewed as a weaker sex who need help of the a stronger male since there were certainly things that “cannot be carried out by women”5. Moreover, Heloise, despite her being a woman, did not seem to be shocked at the idea that men are superior to women. Instead, she instinctively acknowledged the weaker nature of women indicated by her discussion of her abbey which she called “feminine”; she also described it as weak, frail, and needing a more careful attention6. Throughout the first four letters from Abelard and Heloise, they both held congruent views regarding masculinity and femininity, and this dichotomous way of looking at gender indeed did not deviate much from the conventional thinking of the medieval society.

Abelard and Heloise are a great example of a tragic love affair. One that still haunts the world to this day in many retrospect put onto a pedestal like the great tales of Romeo and Juliet or Tristian and Isolde. The idea that Abelard valued his academic life more than his ‘love’ of Heloise is a statement that is given much merit throughout his letters. However, an important fact that should not be overlooked when looking into this is that while yes, Heloise did mourn over the loss of their relationship and reminisce more than Abelard this could be because the letters also give us a look at how women are so dismissed in this period.

The 12th Century romance of Abelard and Heloise sheds light on the harsh realities that women of the time had to face regarding rights to education, and freedom to love whomever they choose. Through her letters Heloise proves to be a notable intellect, especially given her uncle’s devotion to her education, which was not a given right for women at the time. Abelard, a dedicated and famed intellectual, becomes her tutor, then her lover. After Heloise’s affair with Abelard is revealed, she faces societal pressures to marry, or be doomed to a tarnished reputation. Abelard, however, faces the ruin of his reputation through marriage, which highlights how both women and marriage were highly looked down upon in academia at the time. Though the couple marries in secret, as to protect the reputation of Abelard, betrayals by family cause them to be separated by their respective vows to the Church. However, their relationship continues through their letters to each other and friends for the rest of their lives. Abelard’s lesser regard of women is indicated through the priority of his reputation over the fair treatment of Heloise, as seen through their various correspondences with respect to their courting and marriage.

During the medieval period the church and women differed greatly. The medieval period last from the 5th century till the 15th century. The medieval period differed so greatly compared to what we are accustomed too. It is fascinating to see how different the women and church truly are.