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Ahlleinrd Die Lcidensgcschichtc lind der Briefwcchsel mit Hcloisa CJhc11ragen und hL");. von Eberhard Br()~L mit cinem Nachw()rt \"('1) \V;i!ter Ber~dlin 4 .. Ycrhc~scnc Autlagc. Sammlul1g \Veltlitcmlllr. 512 Seiten. I.cincn mit SchUl!\lm~(;hl<lg. Fadenhcftung ISH:"; 3-7953-0919-0 D\1 <H.- (is 34-"1.- ,Fr 45.30
d)er Brid\\'cch,cl j,t \·(jllig cinDJ<;arti\! .. Er iq cin Wl:rL d<l~ UIlS d-ie c;~taunlichc \\'I:ile und Viclgestalt des 12. Jahrhund<'n~ in Frankreich 'lor Augen bring! und das lUUt'1l1 wdtliterarist:he Be· deutung hal. Es cmhlilt die Liclx~· tmgiidie ctl1l'r Frau. lind twa[ in dCIll gan/cn Bogen \'(lll del ,innlichen Pa~_,inn hi~ hin lur Vcrhl",enhcit unci hi, fum crstickcndcn Vertich!. Zum erqen ~lal in lief Nw:hantike die Licbe,lmg(\die eim:]" FUll! .
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Die Lcgcnda aureu des .Jacobus dc Vuragine i\lI~ dem Latcini,chen iibt'r~etlt \Jlld mil einer Ein!eitung von Richard Bent. [L .-\lIfhge. Sammlung \Velt!itaatllr, XL J02S Seilen, Leinen mit SchUlIurthChlag, F,ldenheft\lnt:. Le,chal1d. ISBN J-7953-0913-1 D.\\ "]'9,XO OS 3R9.- ,Fr 51.20
Die vuriiegende Au\~!,jhe iSI eine l'o!lsUindigc lJber\e([ung dcr iiite.c,ten latcinischen !-Ianlbchril'ten der "Guldenen Leg<'nde{( d<,., !)nminikaner\ JaC(lhu~ de Vowgine: dc~ p(lpllWr~tell lind m":l\lvcrbrcitctcll religiiisen Volksbuches des i\litte!alter~. einer Dar\t<,lIung de" Leben" Je~ll lind del' Heiligen. das .hlcobu~ kOlllnlentierl und aus dem cr morali'iche NUI/.anwendullgen I.ieilr. Die >oLegenda aurea" dienre al~ Berr'h..:btllng~btlch \Jnd zur liig!ichen erbuuJirhen Lektlin:. Sic war cine c\rt "Lawnbl'cvlcr'l. aber auch eille e'ifrig benliUte Que!!e fUr Prediger lind eine schier lInehchiipflidle hmdgruhe fUr die kirchhd1C KU1l'it.
Carmill3 Bunma L.ieder dn Vagunten Laleinis.:h und Deul~eh Eine Aw,wuhl
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:\aeh Ludwig Laistner neu ilr~g von Reinhard Dlichting Mit ~,'ch, farbigen \lil1laluren d..:[ BenediktbclllTr Handschrift 6. ;\lItlage. :-Jellamgabe. Salllllliullg WcltliteratUI". 2,,],6 Seilen. Leinen mit Sehuvulmchlag. Fadenhcftllng. !SBN }·7953-0909-J Di\\ :'\S.- (is 297.- ~Fr 39.20
Die Carmina Bur,lna, mincllateini~ch: Lieder au, Benedlktbellcill. ~ind die ber(ihmteqe lind reidlhaitig.,te t\nthoiogie millel· iareini\cher l.yrik. ~'ine Saml11lul1g von vO[ allel11 l1l(lruli~ierendsatlri~cll<:n Gcdilhtcn. Lio:he~- lind Trinklledern. "Die Lang!ehigkeit del' l.ai,tner,chen Obntragung i,t sicher damit zu crkliin.:n. daB sie wie keine andere' Geist lind Form des Originals III eri'a-,~en lind wiedef/ugehen weiLl.« (Han, ! [oj/bauer) [)cr I"(JI1 Reinhurd I)(ichting be~ ~orgt,'n Ncuamgabe ,jnd u. <l.
ausfi.ihrliche KOlllmcntare Z\l den GeJichten heigt:'gehen
VERLAG LAMBERT SCHNEIDER
Pmtfach 10 Ol ':\, D· 708")6 Gerlingen. Telcfon (O7! 56) -B 08~{). Fax (071 56) 4.1 08-40
TAJB Tel A viver Jahrbl/ch fiir deutsche Geschichte XX/lI199J
Bernhard Jussen, Gdttingen
On Church Organization and the Definition of an Estate
The Idea of Widowhood in Late Antique and Early Medieval Christianity'
25
When Caesarius, Bishop of Aries, preached chastity to widows in his Sunday sermons, dissuading them from entering into a second marriage, he was well aware that his sermons were in keeping with the ideas of the Church Fathers." On this issue, around the year 500, a broad consensus had been reached among Christian writers on what was considered right or wrong.
It was never doubted among these writers that chastity was honorable for a widow. This opinion seems also to have been common in non-Christian Roman antiquity.3 The Church Fathers' disputes centered on other issues: was it a widow's duty to lead a chaste life, or was it only strongly expected of her? How should one respond if a widow remarried? Should she be ostracized, punished, or simply tolerated? \Vhat was her social reward if she led an exemplary life? There was less concern with eValuating widowhood than with its consequences, i.e., the relationship between morality .. md organization. The present study is concerned with the following three aspects: the definition of widowhood as an estate in late antiquity; the ecclesiastical appropriation and modification of traditional mourning practices; the relation het\veen the idea of widowhood, and the dominant ecclesiastical pattern of interpreting society as consisting of »three types of person« (tria Renera hominwn).
The theme introduced her is part of the work for a monograph in preparation on widows in the Middle Ages: I wish to thank Jonathan Harrow. University of Bielefeld, for his careful tran~lation of the German original. See. in particular, Caesarius of Aries. Sermo 0,7, in: M. 1. Delage (ed.). Ccsaire d' Aries, Sermons all peuple 1. (Sources Chretienns 175), Paris 1971,33314 (cited below note 34). See B. Ktitting,Art. Digamlls in: Reallexikon fiir Antikc unci Chri~tenlum 3, ! 957, 1016-1024, 1019.
26 Bernhard Jussen TAJB
1. Towards a Comprehensive History of Widowhood: The Discussions from Tertullian to Augustine
Prior to the year 200, widows were not a separate topic of discussion. Neither non-Christian nor early Christian authors had much to say about widows other than an occasional passing mention. It was only during the comprehensive discussion on sexual chastity, which Peter Brown and Aline Rouselle have described, that remarriage became a central problem:l- Since the Pauline epistles, Christian writers had tried increasingly to establish the relationship to one's own body as the decisive criterion of social classification. This was far removed from the ideas of Cicero, for example. who, a century before Paul, classified society according to artes into »honorable« ordines (doctors, architects, teachers), ordines with })nothing precious« (craftsmen), »disapprovable« types (customs officers, moneylenders), and the lowest categories (fishermen, butchers, dancers, and so forth).5 To handle this apparent break, Peter Brown reminds us that when examining Christians })we must begin with a different image of the human person and, with it, a very different view of society from that which prevailed among the civic elites of the Empire.«6 })A very different view of society« implies that very different criteria were used to classify it. From their body~centered perspective, Christian writers classified society into »types of person<<: (genera hominum) that did not otherwise appear in similar attempts to conceive society. They established categories such as )}virgin,« »cleric,« »lay person« or }}widow,« »continent,« »married.« Since Tertullian, Church Fathers had made widowhood into a new and separate topic for treatises. 7 They made »widow« part of the ideological framework according to which they classified society, and organized it conceptually. It was declared
P. Brown, The Body and Society. Men. Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christanity, New York 1988, and A. Rousselle: Porneia, Paris 1983.
5 Cicero, De officiis 1,42,150/151: lam de artificiis et quaestibus, qui libel'ales habendi, qui sordidi sint, haec Jere accepimus. Primum improbantur ii quaestus, qui in odia hominwn incurrunt, ul portiforum. ut fen erato rum. f. .. 1 OpUicesque omnes in sordida arte versantur; nee enim quicquam ingenuum habere potest officina. Minimeque arles cae probandae, quae ministrae sunt vo!uptatrlm )cetarii. tani/, coqui, fartores. piscatores<, ut ait Terentius. Adde hune, si placet. unguentarios, saftatores, tOlumque ludum talarium. Quibus autem artibus aut prudentia maior inest aut non mediocris utilitas quaeritur uf medicilla, lit architectura, lit doctrina rerum honestarum, ea sunt iis, quorum ordini conveniunt, honestae. Brown, Body (fn. 4), 34. E Kroymann (ed.), Tertullian, Ad uxorem libri duo, in: Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani opera 1,1 (CCSL 1.1), Turnhout 1954; idem., De exhortatione castitatis, in: ibid. 2, (CCSL 2), Turnhout 1954, 10 13- 1035; E. Dekkers (ed.), De monogamia, in: ibid. 1227-1253; Ambrose, De viduis liber lInllS, in: Migne PL 16,247-276; 1. Zycha (ed.), Augustin. De bono uiduitatis, in: CSEL 41, Prag et al 1900.304-343.
TAJll Church Organization 27
to be the divine concept, the divinely ordered above and helow of all types (genera) of all profession and life in society.s The historical moment when a greut number of writers began to conceive widowhood us a separate social category, as a })name<>: (nomen)9 or estate (in thc sociological sense) with sufficient worth to merit a separate trealies. provides a good beginning for a social history of widowhood in the Middle Ages. From this time on, we can detcct a specific honor or conduct explicitly defined for this social segment, perhaps also a unique symbol, and that the category )}wiC\ow« had been assigned a position in the organization of the Church.
The First Drafts of) Widmvhood<
The first signs of the perception of widowhood as a social category oreslate were the discussions of a specific ethics for widows. For Tertu!iian, since remarriage \vas a sure puth to damnation it was forbidden. Although none of the influential Church teachers followed him, they had great difficulty distancing themselves from Tertullian's attitude, His attitude was simple and rigorous, and seemed to be shared by a broad current or highly motivated Christians, particularly such charismatic figures as Montanus or Novatian. In contrast, the position of authors such as Origen or John Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, or Augustine was significantly more complicated to tea·ch. \Vhile they all preached against remarriage, they also defended it as lawfuL Although permitted, it remained nonetheless }'prostitution« (Jerome). 10 This contradiction was retained even in ecclesiastical law by simultaneously sanctioning and punishing a second marriage. One way in \vhich candidates for bishoprics in fifth-century Gaul had to demonstrate their orthodoxy was to affirm that )}they did not damn remarriage.<<:!l Damnation of remarriage had become a sign of
On conceptual classifications of society, see O.G. Oexle: Art. Stand, Klasse I-VI, in: O. Brunner. W. Conzc, R. KoscJ\eck (eds.). Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe 6, Stuttgart 1992, 155-200.157-159.
') Tertullian, Ad uxorem 1,8 (fn. 7), :'\82: NMJ de uiduitaris hmlOribus apud deum uno dicto eius per prophetam expedilllm: }iustejCrcite uiduae et pupiflo, et L1enite disputemus, dicitdominlls<. Duo ista nomina I ... J .\'Uscipit tueri pater omnium;
II) Jerome, Adverslis .Toviniannm L 14, in: Migne PL 23. 244: [Paulus] concedit viduis secunda matrimonia. Melius est enim licet alterum et tertiUIII. ufIum virum Ilosse, quam piurimos: id est, tolerabilius est uni homilli prosritutam esse, quam multis. Stat uta ecclcsiae antiquac.a. 475 cap. I. in: C. Munier (cd.), COl1cilia Gallbe I. u. 314- a. 506 (CCSL 148), Turnhout 1963, 164/5: Qui episcopllS ordinandus eSf, ante examinetur [ ... J si secunda malrimonia non damnet; see also Council of Nicaea c. 8, in: Mansi 2. 671: quod adhaerebunl & sequelJtur call1Olicae ecclesiae decreta, id est quae & cum digami.\· commullicabunt.
28 Bernhard fussen TAJB
heresy even in regions with no history of dogmatic struggles. On the other hancL widows who did remarry were to be punished~ at least according to the canonical texts.11
The fact that bishops wanted to sanction remarriage touches on the next aspect of the perception of widows as a separate social estale: the relationship between the idea and the organization. Acting against ecclesiastically defined morality, albeit legal, was to have organizational consequences.
Classificatory View and Church Organization
As early Christian thinkers were simultaneously creators of a completely new organization, their classificatory interpretation of society was first retleeted in the organization of their communities and laterin the organization of society. The discussion on asceticism was thus interwoven with the gradual formation of the structures of Church organization. One main problem in this formation process was that these early social philosophers and founders of the Church did not conceive organizational order in strict analogy to moral order. This requires some explanation. When the bishops who followed Augustine began to divide society into the »three types of person« (tria genera hominum) - the married people (coniugati), the continent people (continentes) anel the rulers (rectores) - the relation to one's own body was the decisive criterion. However, the bishops looked not only at the degree of asceticism, but also at the organization of the Church, and increasingly at that of society as a whole. From this perspective, the criterion of behavior gradually became secondary to another criterion: safeguarding episcopal power. How they managed to fit morally classified Christians into an organizational classification is revealed in a barely noticeable but nonetheless decisive redefinition of the three types of person: clerics, monks, and the laity. At first glance, it seems not to make much difference whether ascetics and priests were labeled continentes and rectores or monachi and clerici. However, this renaming concealed the issue of who would legitimately define truth and make authoritative decisions (see section 3). Nobody seemed to know how to fit widows into this version of the three types of person. Should they remain lay persons, or should they have access to the clergy? Widows provide a good example of the difficulties involved in reconciting ideological frameworks and organizational interests, as their nomen does not occur in these dominant schemas. Their social definition belonged in different sermonic contexts to these divisions or tripartitions of society.
Laodicaea a. 343/R I c. 1, in: Mansi 2, 564: Oportere ex eccfesiastico canones eos, qui fibere et legitime 5ecundo matrimonio coniuncti sunt [ ... J clIm exiguum tempus praeterierit, et orationibus et jejuniis vacaverint, eis ex venia dari ('ommunionem; also Neocaesarea a. 314/ 25 c. 3, in: Mansi 2, 539: De lis qui in plurima matrimonia incidunt, tempus quidem praestitutum esse man!festum est. Sed conversio et poenitentia eorum tempus contrahit: also Neocaesarea a. 314/25 c. 7. in: Mansi 2, 539.541; Ancyra a. 3 J 4 c. 19, in: Mansi 2, 5! 9.
TAJB Church Organization 29
Nonetheless, widows had to be fitted into this dominant ideological pattern of initially bipartite, and later tripartite classification. I only want to refer to the fact that well into the fifth century, widows who were active in the community as deaconesses belonged to the not yet clearly contoured clergy. They were later banned and repressed within about a century, although women apparently went on trying to become members of the clcrgyY At Orange in 441, the bishops defined priorly ordained deaconesses as lay persons: '; They should bow their heads to that blessing (benedictio) that the masses receive.«14 Henceforth, bishops condemned widows to an existence as lay persons, while the moral demands remained the same as those for clergy. With this two-sided strategy, the bishops maneuvered themselves into a difficult pastoral situation: chaste widows had to accept what we may call an »equal asceticism - lower reward« situation. It was impossible to preach this with the help of the differentiation between clergy and lay persons, neither was it possible under the tripartite social division into monks, clergy, and lay persons prevalent since Augustine. The prevailing schemes for interpreting society did not cover this estate. Some of the questions that arise pertain to the benefits of defining of widows as a social estate. How could widows take advantage of this definition to assert and defend their demands? And how did it coincide with organizational interests'? At best, the Church Fathers offered an interpretation of widowhood as a respectable way of living, and both clergy and laity could either adopt or ignore it. [n terms of the social history of widows. this is an important lead. Ifwe take for granted (although wider evidence is necessary, of course, only one type of source will be used here) that the definition of widowhood as a social estate was widely known in the Early MiddleAges, then social history's curiosity about numerous issues cannot sidestep this definition. It must be taken into consideration, for example, if we wish to study the identity available to a woman whose husband had died. This definition as a social estate also answers a large part of the question as to the extent widows were respected or not: which activities
11 Synod of Epa on a. 517 c. 21, in: C. De Clercq (ed.). Concilia Galliae a. 511-695 (CCSL 148a). Turnhout 1963, 29: Veduarum consecrationem, quas diaconas /lOCifant, ab omlli regione nostra paenitus abrogamus, sofa eis paenitentiae benedictione, si conuerti ambiunt imponenda; the synod of Paris 829 tried to avoid that widmvs tricky ordinate themselves, so that they could suh praetextu vefaminis fulfill ecclesiastical services; Synod of Paris 829 c. 42, in: A. Werminghoff (ed.), MGH Concilia 2.2, Hanover, Leipzig 1908, 638: fllvellimus, quod quaedam jeminae [, .. 1 sine consensu sacerdotum ideireo sibimetipsis velum imponant, ut ecclesiarum excubatrices et administratrices fieri possinf. { ... I Et quia in plerisque locis huiuscemodi .. data.'; laqueum saccrdotihus extitisse cognovimus [ ... 1.
I,! Synod of Orange a. 441 c. 25, ed. Munier (fn. 11),84: Diaconae omnimodis non ordillalldae: si quae iam sunt, benedictioni quae populo impenditur capita submiuant; for the texts on deaconesses in the cOllstitutiones apostolicae see M. Metzger, Les constitutions apostoJiques 2. Introduction (Sources chretiennes 329), Paris 1986,55/6; sec the work of G.A. Martimort. Les Diaconesses, Rome 1982.
30 Bernhard .Iussen TAJB
brought them honor, and which contempt. Nonetheless, this can only be part of the answer, as this portrayal of widows overlapped with other patterns, such as the portrayal of the »old wornan;« 15 or, from the perspective of familial strategies, simply with the portrayal of the widow as a }).stakc« in a game of family honor. The holy Segolena was certainly not the only one whose »relatives were not impressed by religious matters and advised her to remarry, after a respectable interval. so that they Ithe relatives] could once more shine in worldly things with her.«16 Ultimately, such questions only serve as various aspects of onc basic issue: How did the spiritual position of the Church Fathers. and the definition of widows as ordo, change widow's lives? In what way did this definition become, in Weber's words, a »typical component of the life fate« of widows?17 [f widows accepted this definition of their existence as a social estate, \vhat advantages could they gain? And when relatives, neighbors, and kings adopted this perspective, how did it change society's attitude to widows? [n other words, what weight did this view hold compared to other more familiar components of life, such as economic relationships or family structures? The following does not deal with the important relationship between this discussion of widowhood and the activities of widows, nor \vith the treatment they received from others. Neither does it compare the relevance of this pattern of interpretation in the life of widows with the relevance of other variables such as economic factors. Social differe,ntiation is a topic for a seperate discussion. The following study does not address the relationship between this ecclesiastical moral discussion and other discussions on topics such as family honor, nor its implementation in a social practice. Such issues would have to be considered in any comprehensive discussion of the situation of widows. I shall illuminate only one central aspect; namely, the establishment of a new way of perceiving widows as a social category, based on the discussions of widowhood by bishops at early medieval synods. There is a simple reason for discussing this particular issue: historians working on synodal records have been unable to find any decrees on }normal< widows in synodal legislation (except in incest decrees). They have found only decrees for religiously organized widows ~ deaconesses, veiled women (who, in Merovingian society, could live either in a monastery or at home), and the like, who, after a change of dress, led a cloistered life at home, as they are sometimes called, Deo devotae.
15 Some material collected by R. Sprandel, Altersschicksal und Altersmoral. Die Geschichte der Einstellllngen zum Altern nach der Pariser Bibelexegese des 12.-16. Jahrhunde~ts (Monographicn zurGeschichte des Mittelaltcrs 22), Stuttgart 19!-l1, esp. 54-100; P. Borscheld, Geschichte des Alters. Yom Spiitmittelalter bis Zllm 18. Jahrhllndert, MOnster 1987, 100-123.
16 Vita Segolenae viduae. in: AASS Juli 5, 632: Illi (parente,l) non causae religion is insistul1t, sed denuo cm!iugii jura solicitant. ut cum ipsa postmodum temporalifer r;loriarentur ..
17 Max Weber, Wirtschaft lind Gesellschaft. Studienausgabe, Tlibingen 19725.534: »typ!sche Komponcnte des Lebensschicksals".
TAlIl Church OrRanization 31
Such a lack of normal widows in a central source is rather improbahle, considering the effort made 10 dissuade widows from remarrying. It seems researchers have overlooked two important aspects: the social context of the canons, and rites of mourning in particular: as well as the question of how bishops conceptualized or perceived widowhood since Tertullian.
2. Early Medieval Canonical Texts: Appropriation and Modification of a Social Institution
What did the bishops talk about at their synods when the issue of widows in the canons was raised? Widows are easily recognized in their discussions on incest and the prohibition of particular remarriage options for widows. They are also the focus of attention in dicussions concerning deaconesses. And they arc frequently mentioned in discussions on veiled women. IS These contexts are easy to ascertain. and since they are not controversial. I shall not discuss them here. However, specialists' commentary on the other texts mentioning widows are less plausible. In these texts, the bishops do not talk about taking the veil, but rather about a change of dress (l/cstcm mutare). Specialists believe that a widow could lead a cloistered life at home. that she ~>coliid take a vow of chastity and remain in the world as a Dcodevota.« 19 This is reported to be an institution of older canon law, supposedly to have disappeared in the ninth century.20 The assumption
I~ See Svnod of St. Jean de Losne a. 673/5 c. 13, ed. De Clercq (fn. 13). 316: lllas uero, quas [)omi;li sacerdotes refigioso online uiuere cognoueril1l, {h'eat eis in domib!lS em'um caste pieque cOfluersare; lit Hero . .'Ii ner;legentes de caslitate earum extiterint. ad eas reuertentes in monasteriuo frudantur; Synod ofPuris a. 829 c. 1.44, ed. Werminghoff (fn. 13),638/9: Nobi/es feminae, quae aminis viris velantur et non in monasteriis sub spirifalis matris regimine, sed potius in domibus propriis. occasione liberorum rerumque suarum, residere delitiisque (lff/uere delectanfur { ... J quoniam huiuscemodi adufescellttllas, viros amilfentes et in sanctimoniafi hohitll propriis domibus residentes! ... J: for veiled women living at home in the sixth and seventh centuries. see G. Muschiol, Famula Dei. Zur Liturgie in merowingischen Frauenk16stern (forthcoming); for England D. Baltrusch-Schneider, Klosterleben als alternative Lebensform zur Ehe?, in: W. Goetz (ed.), Wciblichc Lebcnsgcstaltung jm Mittelalter, Kliln, Weimar, Wien 1991,45-64.
I~ S.F. Wemple. \Vomen in Francish Society. Marriage and the Cloister 500-900, Philadelphia 1981, 105. similar 157 (»vowed widows«); for the same opinion, see W. Hartmann. Die Synoden der Karolingerzeit im Frankenreich lind in Italien (Konziliengeschichte Reihe A: Darstellungen). Paderborn 1989. 425 and O. Pontal, Die Synoden im Merowingerreich (Konziliengeschichte Reihe A: Darstel1ungen). Paderborn 1986.246.
211 See Hartmann, Synoden (rn. 19),425: "Das altere Kirchenrecht hatte fiir Frauen allch die Mi.iglichkeit gekannt, daG sie in ihren Privathiiusern bleiben und dort ein geistliches Leben fUhren konnten. Dies galt besonders auch fijr Wjtwen. die nicht den Schleier nehmen muBten, sondei'll ein schwar;es K!eid ZlI tragen hatten (Cividale 79617 c. 11); solche vidual' sanctimoniales konnten entweder in ihren eigenen Hiiusern leben oder aber in ein Kloster eintreten;« Wemple. Women (fn. 19). 105: »Earlier she could take a vow of chastity and remain in the world as a Deo devota.«
32 Bernhard Jussen TAJB
seems to be based on the following observations: widows are mostly mentioned together with veiled women and virgins consecrated to God, remarriage was forbidden, and change of dress is always mentioned. It seems more likely, however, that the synods were not discussing a specific legally~defined status a widow could entcr or not, but rather were concerned with something quite different The late antique conceptualization of widowhood had become the unexpressed, self-evident frame of talking about widows in synodal texts, and the texts reveal efforts to shape this stage oflife. These canons are not connected with canons about ecclesiastical institutions ~ clerics, deaconesses, virgins. or veiled women. They are part of all those canons with which the bishops tried to appropriate and modify the main social institutions - initiation rites after birth, marriage, death, widowhood, and so on. A text from the Synod of St. Jean de Losne in 673 is comparatively clear, since it deals only with widows:
Women who have lost their husband and according to old custom change their dress and desire to live as widows should be under the protection of the ruler. 21
In this text, the bishops distinguish widowhood as a biological fact from its social role. Feminae sane, quae carum uims amiserint: these are the relictae as found in the decrees on incest. Distinguished from this is widowhood as an estate or as a social role that has to be accepted (ad viduitatem . .. permanere voluerint). The synods use the term viduae only when it concerns widowhood as a social estate with its unique morality. In the incest laws, on the other hand, they use the term relictae. In the text of St. Jean de Losne, the bishops tell us clearly enough what they were actually talking about. They were well aware that })after the death of her husband, a woman usually enters a second or third marriage.«22 But the bishops did not concern themselves with all women; only those widows who conformed to the Church's image of the widow. These, as the canon says, »should be under the protection of the ruler.« In the synodal records, vidutl was an evaluative word and always implicd a »)true widow« in the Pauline tradition. When bishops placed the topic of »widows« on the agenda, they were discussing (and forming) a social type whose honor was defined through set rules of asceticism and sexual chastity. That widows should be >}under the protection of the ruler« is important herc, since it transforms vidua
21 Saint Jean de Losne 673/5 c. 12113. cd. De C!ercq (fn. 13), 316: Feminae sane, quae earum lIiras amiserint el ad lIiduiratem studio priscam cOflslleflldinem atque ucste ml/tata permanere lIolucrillt. sub tuitionem principis !wheantur.
n Lex Gundobada c. 24,1, in: R. von Salis (cd.), MGH Leges nationllm Gennanicarum 2.1, Hannover 1892, 61: 5i qun mulier dunt(lx(lt Burgundia post mariti mortem ad secundas aut tertias nuptias. IIf adso/effieri, fortasse transierir; see Lex Salica c. 44,1. in: K.A. Eckhardt (cd.). MGH Leges nationum Germanicarum 4.2. Hanover 1969, 168/9: 5icut adsolit homo moriens et vidllam dimiserit qui eam vo[uerit accipere [ ... 1.
TAJB Church Organization 33
as a feature of social classification to an official one. Such a prescription had hardly any practical content. Its function should be sought in the bishops' repeated attempts to confinn and stabilize the desired ideas on widowhood. This seems to have been the main function of all the synodic decrees on widows who changed their dress. To confirm this, two phenomena have to be explained: (I) What does the change of dress mean if not entry into an exclusive legal status of the canon law? (2) Why are these widows always mentioned together with veiled women and virgins if the similarity was not institutional?
Vestem Mutare: The Appropriation of a Sign
The first idea that comes to mind is that dress did not indicate a religious institution, but served as a sign of mourning, and an act of displaying the loss of a husband. The text cited from St. Jean states that the dress was an »old custom.« We find this indication once again a hundred years hence. At Cividale in 796-7, a synod spoke of widows who »as a sign of chastity ,have put on the black quasi-cloistered (quasi-religiosa) vestment in accordance with old custom.«2J Thus, the widow's dress has four distinguishing characteristics: it is black; it is a sign of chastity; it is an old custom; and it is quasi-cloistered. What was this »old custom« of wearing black vestments as a sign of chastity? We recall the antique custom of wearing black as a sign of mourning. Late antique legislation recognized two signs of mourning: dress and chastity. It stipulated a period _. ten months or one year ~ wherein a widow was not allowed to remarry. Any woman who became pregnant during this period would be punished.24
Jerome complains about widows who although »they have changed their dress have not changed their attitude.« They painted their faces, »so that one could consider that they had not lost their husband hut were looking for one.«2S Jerome clearly explains the symbol here: »Vestem mutare« means »loss of the husband.« That researchers have been unable to ascertain a specific mourning dress in pictures from the Middle Ages, does not alter the fact that Jerome, and even Gregory of Tours,26 associated black vestments with a widow's mourning.
,1 Civida!c del Frilili 79617 c. I I, in: A. Werminghoff (ed.), MGH Cancilia 2.1. Hannover, Leipzig 1906. 193: ob continenliae signum Iligram Vl'stem quasi religiosam. siell/ antiquus mosfuit in his regionibus. indutaefllerint.
2-1 For references see KUbler. Art. Luctus. in: RE 13. Stuttgart 1927. 1697-1705. esp. 1698-1700. l' Jerome. Ep. 22.16 ad Ellstochillm. in: L Hilberg (ed.). Rusehii Hieronymi epistlilae 1 (CSEL
54), Vienna, Leipzig 1910, 164: easfuge. quos uiduas necessitasfecit {. . .;. nunc uero !antum lIeste fIll/tata pristina non fIll/tatHr amhilio. Proeeedi! elHlcas baslernarum ordo semillir ('I ruhefllibus baecis cUlisfarsa distenditur, ul eas putes maritos non amisse, sed quaerere.
;(, Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum III, 29. ed. B, Krusch und W. Levison (MGH SS rer. Merov. 1.1). Hanover 1951, 125: mulier!'s quoque amictae nigri.\' palleis. dissoluta cacsariae. superposito cinere. ut eas putares rirvrumfulleribus deservire. pfangendo sequebantur.
34 Bernhard .ll/ssen TAJB
Thus, when we read aboLit a change of dress for widows in synodal texts of the Early Middle Ages (from Orleans in 549 or Paris in 614, for example)Y \vhy should we think they refer to anything other than the texts of Jerome (c. 419-20) or Gregory of Tours (c. 5(4)? And, indeed, the emphasis in texts from 673 and 796-7, that changing dress was an old custom, could be a reaction to the fact that mourning dress was becoming increasingly less self-evident. This would also explain why after the ninth century we no longer hear of widows who changed their dress. Hence, vestem mutare may not indicate that a widow joined an institution of the early canon law, which disappeared during the ninth century, but that she had entered widowhood. A text from Orange in 441 seems, at first glance, to contradict this interpretation. But a close reading reveals clear support for this claim:
The declaration to maintain widowhood that is given before the bishop in the »sacristy« should be indicated by the widow's vestment bestowed by the bishop.2s
Preaching morals was insufficient for a Christian »stylization« of a widow's life. 29 It would be surprising not to find any ritual counterpart, and indeed such a counterpart appears in the text from Orange in which widows were offered an ecclesiastical ritual for the transition into their new phase of life. To the change in vestments during major rituals of transition in the Christian liturgy, such as baptism and death, we can thus add the transition from marriage to widowhood. In other words, the bishops had appropriated a traditional social institution: the change of dress as a sign of mourning. They turned this act into a sign of a social estate within their perception of society, a sign that could be ritually bestowed by the bishop. This is the basic framework for the ecclesiastical discussion of widows within which all synodal texts dealing with widows alongside virgins and nuns can be viewed. These texts now have to be explained.
!' Synod of Orleans a. 538 c. 19, ed. De Clercq (fn. 13), 121: De raptorihus uirginun/ consecratarum .leu in pro[losito suh dellotione lIiuentium id statuimus, ut. si qui.\' consecratae I'el del/otae. id est religionem professae, lIim illlerre praesumpserit f ... f; Paris a. 614 c. 15, cd. De Clercq (ibid.) 279: De uiduabus ('( puellis, quae sibi in habitu religion is in domos proprias tam a parelltibus quam per se lIestem mutauerint et se postea confra illstill/fa parrufII lie! precepta C(JIJOllum cOlliugiufII credideri!1t copu/alldas I ... J
,8 Synode of Orange <l. 441 c. 26, ed. Munier (fn. 11).85: Viduitatis serualldae prolessionem coram episcopo in secretario habitam imposita ah episcopo ueste uiduafi illdicmu/am.
19 To use a term taken from Max Weber's concept of social estates; see Weber, Wirtschaft (fn. 17),537.
TAJB Church Orgalli::;(/tion
Viduae Sive Puel/ae : The Ecclesiastical Stylization of a Behavior
A text from the Synod at Paris in 561-2 provides a good example:
35
One refrains from union \vith those ... who-whether widows orpuellae- have publicly declared (publica declaratione) that they profess (professae) a religious life (reiigionem), penance. or virginity through their change of dress (vestium commutatione) . .10
This is not a text concerned about two similar institutions of the canon law that a woman could join through a vow and a change of dress. It is a text concerned with two similar life-styles that have one thing in common: these women should be protected from men. The canon was directed toward men and had a very simple point: men should not molest SLlch women who seek to protect themselves from marriage (orremarriage) through their dress. The widow's dress was an officially recognized >~public declaration« (publica declaratio) of >1 don't want.< The bishops at the Paris Synod of 561 did not even imply that a vO\v had been taken. Wearing the specific dress was in itself interpreted as a public profession: lIestiwn commutatione . .. pllblicafuerint declaralione prqlessae. Hence, \vhen bishops in the Early Middle Ages assumed that a widow had professed (votum, prr~lessi{)) religio because of her dress, this may well have been that she had chosen the religious life-style bishops expected of her. To standardize a life-style of widows, the bishops always pushed widows close to veiled women and virgins dedicated to God, social types that also changed dress as an initiation rite. The state of widowhood was eventually defined by specific behavior only: no awarding of privileges as for the state ofcJergy, and, in the Middle Ages, not even a significant vestment. The bishops knew their demand was not particularly plausible. In the sixth century, a synod had recorded the reactions of lay persons: »Some say: Why should a widow not take a husband if she is not ordainecl?«31 Two centuries later, the problem was still the same. In Cividale in 796, the bishops once again emphasized their demand on widows: »Even \vhen they are not ordained by priests, we nonetheless demand that they continue to adhere to their vows.w12 With the demands they placed on widows, bishops could not proceed any differently from the way in which they implemented their demands concerning the sexual morals of married couples or incest, for example. They had to constantly repeat the stylization of widowhood, which had to remain without any
.10 Synod of Paris a. 551-573 c. 5, cd. De Clercq (fn. 13).207/8: 5. Similiter de carum erit coniuncrionihus absfinendum [. .. /. quae uestium commutatione, tam uiduae quam pueflae. rcligionem. poenitentiam aut uirginitatem Jlllhlicafllerint declaratione professae; for the date 56!, see Ponta!. Synoden (fn. 19). 122.
'I Synod of Tours a. 567 c. 2!, ed. De C1ercq (fn. 13). 187: Illud uero. quod aliqui die1111t: Vidlla. quae benedicta nonfuit. quare non debet maritflm accipere?
.1: Synod ofCividale <l. 79fl17 c. II. ed. Werminghoff(fn. 23),: Iicet non sinta sacerdote sacrafae, in hoc famen proposito eas perpetim persel'emre mandamus.
36 Bernhard lassen TAJB
concrete organizational consequences. That widows were mentioned so frequently together with nuns and virgins was the specific way for synodal texts to express ideas that had permeated sermons since antiquity: the behavior of a >lrue widow< should not be distinguished from the behaviour of virgins consecrated to God and similarly from that of veiled women. Accordingly, all widows had to be punished for remarriage. That this prohibition was unrealistic was just as little a matter of concern as in the prohibitions of incest. J.t Shaping social institutions, such as the initiation of children, the legitimate relations between man and woman, widowhood, death, burial or the rituals in memory of the dead, differed from shaping the institutions of ecclesiastical hierarchy. Accordingly, the logic of the two types of synodal texts dirfered. It was simple for the bishops to forbid the ordination of deaconesses, and success was rapidly achieved. However, they could not shape the conduct of widows in the same way. In the synodal texts, they could only define, and constantly redefine, the Paulinian true widow and the honor of this estate.
3. Widowhood and the Dominant Conceptual Framework of the Tria Genera Hominum : From Augustine to Abbo
From around 200, widowhood was conceived, within the conceptual framework of Christian writers, as a distinctive category in the order of society, endowed with a specific morality or )}honor.« When synods addressed widows, they always perceived them as a distinctive social estate whose honor was permanently defined in the bishops' discussions. However, this definition was a difficult manoeuvre. since the habitual aspect had hardly any organizational counterpart. Thus, the bishops had difficulties locating the status of widowhood within the dominant conceptual scheme of the tria genera hominum.
Caesarius and the Behavior
As 1 mentioned at the beginning of my study, when Bishop Caesarius of Aries preached morals to widows, it had long been clear what he was meant to preach:
The good widows who do not love pleasure and do not gossip, are neither nosy nor envious nor arrogant, those widows who serve God through fasting, prayer. and charity,just as the holy Annadid. these widows unite with the holy Anna herself into many thousands of widows.·14
\1 For the problems involved in pushing through the incest prohibitions. sec B. lussen, Patenschaft lind Adoption im friihen Mittc1alter. Kunstlichc Venvandtschaft als soziak Praxis (Ver6ffent!ichungen des !vlax-Planck-Tnstituts hir Geschichte 98), G6ttingen 1991.26-38.
.q Caesarius, Sermo 6,7, cd. Delage (rn. 2), 332-335: Bonae viduae, non deficiosae. non linguosae, 11011 cllriosae, non invillae. non superbae, quae ieil/niis eleemosynis et orationibus, I-ieut bema Anna faciebat, serviunt deo, cum ipsa saneta Alllla sociantur multis mifibus viduarwn.
TAJB Church Organization 37
Caesarius uses a catalogue of virtues and vices coded in the synodal texts. Charity, prayer, and fasting should determine the life of the widow; that is, nothing more than the traditional penances of all lay persons. Of course, Caesarius was not talking about a canonical institution. He wanted something else. He incorporated this list of virtues and vices into a sermon outlining society as a whole. He explained the relationship to his »beloved brothers(~ as follows:
In the Catholic church, there are three projessiones. These are those of the virgins, those of the widows, and those of the married persons (coniugati) .. The virgins should think of Maria, the widows should look upon Anna, and the married women (maritae) upon Susanna in order to imitate their purity.
For the married, he added Job as a second model ofbehavior. 35 Where should the »beloved brothers,« place themselves in such a schema. a monk, for example, or a cleric? Presentation of the Catholic Church, as preached by Caesarius, was certainly to be understood only associatively, One knew Job, for example, from another schema. People were more used to the classification into good leaders (honi praepositi), continents (continentes), and good married persons (cof1iugati et bene vivente5;), than into manied persons, widows and virgins, This schema did not recommend one should imitate Maria, Anna. and Susanna; rather, Noah »represented« (sign/ficat, praejigurat, demonstrat) the rulers, Daniel the continents, and Job the married persons. JIi The »[uling« cleric and the ,>abstinent« monk could relate to this schema with less trouble than to the one cited by Caesarius. And any widow present could view herself as ,)abstinent,« and see herself as »represented« by Daniel. However, the analogy with biblical personages was blurred in a curious way. While Caesarius' analogy of coniugali, viduae, and virgines to biblical women serves as classification of behavior alone. the criteria got confused in the schema
.15 Ihid. 332: Tres enim professiones sun! in sancta ecelesia catholica sunt virgines, sun! viduae. sunt etiam cOlliugati.[ ... 1 Virgines ergo cogitanres Mariam, viduae considerantes Annam. maritatae vcro Susallnalll. imitenlur iltarum castiratem; ibid. 334: Coniugati vero [, .. 1 sa//clo lob. sanctae Sarrae I'e! sal1ctae Susannae cum patriarchis et prophetis merehunlur felieifer sociari .
.il) Augustin, De cxcidio urbis Romae sermo 1.1. cd. M.V. O'Reil!y, in: Aurelii Augustini opera 8.2 (CCSL 46). Turnhout 1969, 249f: Sed ill Noe signUlc(lli sunl hon! praepositi qui regulll et gubernant ecclesialll [."/; ill Dalliele sign~(icallfur omnes saneti continentes; in lob significantur omnes ('olliugari et bene uil/clltes; Ellcherius of Lyon, Instructiones 1. De Ezechiele 1. ed. K. Wotke (CSEL 31), Prague, Leipzig, Vienna 1894,87: In his rribus sallois fria hominum genera sigillUicari uidelltur [".1; ill Noe eflim gubernatores ecelesiai' prae/'igllrantur, ill Daniele saner! continelltiamque sectalltes. in loh coniugati el iustitimll diligente.\'; Cassiodor, Expositio in Cantica Canticoflllll, in: Aliglle PL 70. 1039: Tres ellim sUllt o}"(line.l- Ecclesiae, doctorum. continentillm. et eoniu/-?lltorwll. quae species inlribus viris i!!is demonstratae sum, Noe, Daniel el lob. Noe enilll [. .. ] sallcfOs docfores sigllificat; Daniel caelcbs et eastus. continentium ordinem signU/cat; loh, qui uxorem habuit et filios, ordinem cOlliugatol"ull1 exprimit.
38 BCrflhtlrd JU5SeH TAJB
of rectores. continentes, and conillgati. The description of Noah as rector indicated his office. Thus the category of behavior clearly had a different dimension among the »guides.« It was an aspect of their office, an official
morality.
Augustine and the Organization
Augustine was responsible for inventing this fuzzy schema of the three types of person ~ represented by Noah, Daniel and Job ~ and made frequent lise of them in his writings. However, he sometimes used the theme of the three types without any direct link to the biblical figures. In that case he changed the pattern in a subtle but decisive way. Freed from allegories to the three biblical figures, he was able to subjugate the pattern to his ideas on the correct organization of the Church:
The three types of person seem to label the following: first, those who ... have chosen contemplation ... second, those who belong to the masses (plebs) ... third, those who \\'ork in clerical office:17
Here, the quality of behavior is no longer relevant to the type one belonged to: j} There are false monks, false clerics, and false believers. All three types ... have their good (members] and their bad.«38 Consequently, there now existed, since Augustine, two schemas referred to as tria genera hominum. The one schema contained no wicked persons, only the good \vere separated intoc!asses analogous with Noah, Daniel, and Job. Augustine included bad persons in the second version of his tria genera hominllm, \vhcn he classified according to his concept of social organization. Sometimes, Augustine presented both variants of the tria genera hominum one after the other. Without going into the late antique discussions where Augustine expressed these new interpretations, it can be assumed that this unnoticeable shift of criteria was directed toward the relationship between official holiness and
charismatic holiness. Widows were certainly not Augustine's major problem, but they were of concern to him. Since, according to Augustine's interpretation, no fasting nor prayer could advance them any further, they could only remain plebs. The two versions of the Augustinian tria genera hominwn had only just achieved their victory march through the thought of bishops and writers when the position of deaconess was abolished. This blocked the path into the clergy for widows.
.t7 Quaestiones evangeliorum 2.44, in: I'digne PL 31. 1357: Tria genera hominurn hie vidcntllr signijicari: Wllllll corum qui ofillm et quiefem eliRunt. [. .. J; alterum corum qui in plcbihus constituti regllntur a doct!oribu.l· [. .. J tertium eorum qui operantur in Ecclesiae ministerio.
\~ Enarrationes in Ps. 132.4. ed. Dekkers, Fraipont (Aurelii Augustini opera, 10,3 (CCSL40), Turnhout 1956, 1929-1930, 1928: Tam Sf/nt enim mmwchifalsi, quam et clericifalsi, etfideles falsi. Omnia gellf:'1"(l { ... J hahent hmws SilOS. habcnt malos suos; Quaestiones evangeliorum 2,44, in: Migne PL 31, 1357: Et ex iUis qui stint in otio, ef ex iUis qui slint il1l1f:'gotiis saeculi, et ex illis qui Deo ministrant in Ecclesia. aliqlli permanent, aliqui cadunt.
TAJB Church Organi::aliofl 39
Hence, there might be a link bctvvecn the demise of the deaconess and the triumph of the concept of the three types of person. It seems as if these two patterns provided an instrument for thought and argumentation that could be Llsed to master a series of critical problems. During late antiquity, as Peter Brown explains, an increasing number of individuals experimented \-\lith ascetic lifestyles and gained sodal Juthority through their life practices:w These persons confronted the bishops with several serious problems. For one, the bishops had to define the role of personal holiness in the qualification for office, and in the validity of rituals such as baptism. They had to channel the authority attained through asceticism. In particular. the principle of the holiness of office had to be pushed through against that of charismatic holiness. [f, forexample, the goal was to assign \vidows the life-style of the clergy, but the status ora lay person, one had to confront a series of problems prior to Augustine. As long as »clergy« and ),laity« were the only available categories, and it was not possible to classify ascetic behavior, the authority gained through fasting and prayer must have been, for the clergy, an organizationally uncontrollable and dangerous factor. Augustine's twin tripartition of society could even define and control complicated social positions. The lripartition into rectores, continentes, and conjugati, on the one hand, assessed and evaluated all conceivable grades of »good« behavior. On the other hand, the strikingly similar tripartition into clerici, mOl1achi, and
.fl"clelcslloici assigned a fixed organizational position to any behavior, be it »good« or »false.<<: It was precisely this tripartition that made the quality of individual behavior harmless: »AIl three sorts.. have their good and their bad.«40
For centuries, this provided a good instrument for tackling the continuously dangerous confrontation with charismatic authority: against the Irish ascetics in the seventh century; as well as against those lay persons in the High Middle Ages who followed Peter Waldo or the Cathari, and were repressed with violence; or those who follO\ved Francis of Assisi or Bruno and were bent under the authority of office. Both schemas were applied repeatedly over the following years with hardly any differentiation. They were a practical way of simultaneously conceiving and propagating the organizational, as well as the moral order of society. Problems would arise periodically when someone or other tried to play the one schema off against the other: »Why should a widow not take a husband ifshe is not ordained?«-11
)9 See P. Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity, 1978, esp. ch. 3. ID See fn. 38. 41 See fn. 31.
40 Bernhard ii/ssen TAlB
Abba and the Sexes
Occasionally, it became apparent that a further category dominated contemporary thought; onc that was never expressed specifically because, as a synod in the ninth century stated, }>all who think rationally accept it.«42[t was only in the tenth century that someone tried to integrate this category as well. Abbot Abbo of Fleury (d. 1(04) was the first to integrate it in his interpretation of society, in Apoiogeticlis ad Hugonem et Rodhertuln reges FraflCOrWJ1, in 994. It was Abbo who discovered the sexes. Abbo's task was completely different to Augustine's centuries before. His interpretation of society was bound to the purpose of upholding the independence of monasteries from the episcopacy.·n This could not be achieved by applying the two variants of the tria genera horninum as they had been handed down by Augustine, and in the common form they had taken on since Gregory the Great. Abbo wanted to show that priests are )-)inferior« to the })superior« monks.44 However, Gregory the Great or Jonas of Orleans had used Augustine's schema to maintain precisely the opposite. 45
Hence, Abho had to modify: We know that, in the Holy Church, there are three ordines, which can be equated with three stages, for believers of both sexes. It may well be that none are without sin; thus, the first is good, the second is better, and the third is the best. And the first ordo in both genders is the coniugali; the second, the continentes or widows; the third, the virgins or nuns. 46
This was an >improved< Augustine. Abbo had combined Augustine's tria genera hominum of the coniugali, continenfes, and rectores with the order of conjugali, viduae, and virgines from Caesarius, thereby enabling him to eliminate the troublesome rectores. However, a further modi fication introduced by Abbo is more interesting. Augustine
42 Synod of Paris a. 829 c. l.43. ed. Werminghoff (fn. 13),638: quod quantum sexuifemineo inlicitum et a religione Christiana sit alienum, omnis, qui sanwn sapit. facile advertit.
4.1 Regarding this text see G. Duby, The Three Orders. Feudal Society Imagined. London, Chicago 1980. 87-92 (french 1980, 112-118).
44 Abho of Fleury, Apologeticus ad Hugonem et Rodbertum reges Francorum. in: Migne PL 139, 464: ex tlfroque sexufidelium tres ordilles. ae si tres gnu/us. in saneta et ulliversali Ecclesia esse novimus; quorum licet nullllS sine peccato sit. tamen primus est honus. seculldus melior, tertius est optimus. Et primus quidem ordo est ill tilroque sexu conjugalorum; secundus cOlltinentium, vel viduarum; tertius virginum vel salluimonialium.
45 Gregory I., Homiliac in Hiezechihelem prophetam 2,4,6, ed. M. Adrien (CCSL 142), Turnhout 1971. 262-263; Jonas of Orlt~ans. Historia translationis s. Hucberti episcopi Tungrensis. in: Migne PL 106.389.
<16 Abbo, Apologeticus (fn. 44), 463: ex utroque sexufidelillm tres ordines. ac si (res gradus. in sancta et unirersaU Ecclesia esse /lovimus; quorum lieet !Julius sine peccato sit, tamen primus est honus, secundlls melior. tertius est optimus. Et primus quidem onlo est in Ilfroque sexu cOlljugatorum; secLll1du.\· continentium. vel viduarum: tertius virginum vel sanctitnonialiutn.
TAJB Church Organization 41
had indeed maintained that both his patterns would relate to each other; however, he never mentioned that a precise analogy was impossible.-n The »shrewd confusion of the ethical with the political,«4~ that Georges Duby attributes to Abbo was already the strength of the Augustinian proposition. But Abbo had to be )better< than a tradition in which a teacher like Gregory the Great had voiced contrary claims. Thus, after Abbo had explained the moral orclines of »both sexcs,« he added the ordines of social organization in the following manner: »Equally, there are three grades or ordines among men; the first is the laity; the second, the clergy; and the third, the monks.«·~<) Ahbo's trick was to attempt to transform the already traditional })shrcwd confusion of the ethical with the politicai« into a concrete analogy between moral and organizational tripartition. And he could only manage this with the help of an additional dodge. He had recognized that his predecessors had separated society into »grades« (gradus) of perfection regardless of gender, although gender had clearly been turned into a criterion in the actual organization oj' society. Hence, he ordered his pattern of thought according to gender: the moral fres gradus would apply to all; the organizational fres graclus, to men only. He had looked for the inconsistency, and found the reason for it. The inconsistency being that widows, for example, had been excluded from the clergy, even though they were expected to be on the same level of asceticism. Abbo built this into the pattern of thought and readjusted the picture of society by separating the sexes.
4. Clerical Sermons and Standards of Widows' Conduct in Context
Like several authors before, and many after, Caesarius preached to his congregation at Aries that one should honor those widows who have earned it. Ifhonor should be the reward for charity, prayer, and fasting, then al1 these acts must have been visible. Such »correct« appearances must have been significantly more important for the widow's honor than for the cleric's, for example. Whether a cleric could benefit from the honor of his estate or not, had less to do with his individual behavior than with his ordination. The honor helonged to the office. Among widows, in contrast, there were no official initiation rites, nor were there legal privileges, forms of estate-related exclusiveness, and, indeed, hardly any form of organization,
47 Augustinus. Quaestiones evangeliorum 2.44. in: Migne PL 31, 1357: (following the text cited fn. 37) Ad ipsa tria genera quae aSSUlfluntur, pertinere arhitroretiam tria ilia lIomina virorum S(1IJctorul1I. quos solos liherandos Ez.echiel prophetll {Jm/luntiat Nue. Daniel et job.
,~ Duby, Feudal society (fn. 43). 90. ~9 Abbo, Apologeticlls (fn. 44). 463: Virorum tantum similiter tres sunt gradlls vel ordines.
quorum primus est laicorum. secrllldus clericorum. tertius monachorum.
42 Bernhard illssen TAJB
in the Middle Ages. It seems there \vas not even any conspicLloLls vestment. If widows were nonetheless perceived as a distinct socia! category, this was primarily due to the clergy's sermons, repeatedly demanding a specific conduct, and promising not only heavenly reward but secular honor, as well. A widow had to make a far greater personal effort than a cleric in order to earn the honor of her estate. Thus, a particularly important question for the history of widows is how behavior worthy of honor was defined. When Mcrovingian bishops spoke about the hahitus religionis of widows. they were addressing a style of appearance that could be recognized as a variant of an accepted schema of thought and action. even in its individual or class-specific manifestations. The estate of widowhood, as defined by writers and preachers in the first centuries of Christianity , could not be recognized in daily life heyond the standardized conduct designated by the bishops as hahitus religionis. Hence. the history of the idea of widO\vhood is a history of the sermon and its effectiveness, as the social perception of widowhood belonged to the decisive objective conditions that a widmv had to anticipate. Yet, it is also the history of a disposition, that is, of an incorporated part of objective conditions in the life of widows. Irthe estate of widowhood was not only a favorite motive of the sermon but also an actual social institution, then we must search for more than sermons and particular vestments. There must have been a permanent willingness of widows to recognize and fulfil the ecclesiastical decrees that had become social expectations. If a category of religious thought was simultaneously a social institution, then we would have to find a certain level of agreement between sermons and the dispositions of widows. The essence of these dispositions, and whether even partial unanimity of dispositions among widows of a certain period can be assumed, is a matter to be dealt with in a comprehensive history of widowhood. It should draw attention to objective conditions such as the actual, and very varied, economic conditions, as well as family law, inheritence practices and the discourse on family honor.
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