1. On account of lightness of mind: social and cultural views of women in ancient Europe TopEowyn offeringAragorn a cup of mead, from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; bottomamulets representing female figures, one carrying a horn of mead or ale, from Vikings: the North American Saga, edited by Fitzhugh andWard. Women in Celtic, Germanic, and Norse society Marriage The morning gift Germanic morgengabe British/Welsh cowyll Irish coibche Women choosing their husbands Peace weavers Adultery Punished in Germanic society? Divorce Allowed inWelsh and Irish society

2. Evidence of womens role in society. Leftkeys carried by the wife of a householder; centeran amulet whose hairstyle indicates a high status woman; righta reconstruction of a Finnish noblewomans dress. Images from Vikings: The North American Saga, edited by Fitzhugh andWard. 3. The Oseberg Ship, built c. 820 AD, buried c. 825, excavated 1904. TheViking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway Used to bury two women, one possibly a queen, the other her slave. Buried with a horse-drawn cart, buckets, barrels, and a tapestry depicting the funeral procession. 4. Women and the early Christian Church Stone inlay depicting Jesus, 3rd century AD. Women as spiritual equals God as creator (not procreator) Eve and the exile from Eden TheVirgin Mary 5. Christian attitudes toward marriage and divorce Mosaic of St. Paul, 3rd century AD. Women as equal to men, or subordinate? Genesis 1 and 2 St. Paul, d. circa 60 CE St. Augustine, d. 430 CE Marriage indissoluble Limited ability to divorce Immoral behavior Adultery Severe abuse Marriage for the purpose of procreation 6. Women as converts, martyrs, and saints Fresco of a veiled Christian woman, 3rd-5th century AD, Giordani Catacomb, Rome. St.Thecla, d. 1st century CE The Gnostic Church Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge Gospel of Mary Magdalene Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon St. Perpetua, d. 203 CE 7. Celibacy and monasticism Icon of theVirgin and Jesus, 6th-7th century, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Sinai, Egypt. Celibacy as the better path St. Jerome, d. 420 CE Against Jovinian Letter to Eustochium St. Macrina, d. late 4th century CE Transvestite nuns Matrona/Babylas, 6th century CE Mary/Marinos, 7th century CE 8. Christianizing Queens Topmap of the Carolingian Empire, from Lynn Hunt, The Making of theWest,Volume 1; rightmap of Anglo-Saxon England, from Peter Hunter Blair, Roman Britain and Early England, 55 BC-AD 871. Christianizing queens Clothild, d. early 6th century Queen of Clovis I, king of Franks Bertha, d. early 7th century Queen of Aethelberht, king of Kent Aethelburh, d. mid 7th century Queen of Edwin, king of Northumbria 9. Women as saints and missionaries Image of St. Balthild, 14th century, British Library, London. St. Radegund, d. 587 Queen of Clothar I, king of Neustria St. Brigit, 6th century (Ireland) St. Bathild, d. 680 Queen of Clovis II, king of Burgundy and Neustria St. Hilda, d. late 7th century Whitby, England St. Leoba, d. late 8th century Saxony (NW Germany) St. Boniface, d. late 8th century Double monasteries 10. Women in Carolingian Europe Endes illumination of the apocalypse from Commentary on the apocalypse of St. John by Beatus of Gerona. Charlemagnes educational reforms Court school at Aachen Monastic schools Ende, Leon, Spain, d. late 10th century Depintrix and Die Aiutrix Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, d. 1001 Women and religious authority The proprietary church Soldiers of Christ The third gender Claustration Castimony Female saints From conversion to maintenance De-emphasizing of womens role as peace weavers 11. Saints, mystics, and heretics Some of the overarching issues in medieval society, 1100-1500 Church reform, crusades, and new religious orders Growing papal authority Concerns regarding heresy The Black Death, 1347-1350 The Avignon Papacy, 1305-1377 The Great Schism, 1378-1417 12. Mary as the ideal woman Triumph of theVirgin, Senlis Cathedral, c. 1170 AD. The Cult of theVirgin Mary Founded by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, d. 1153 13. LeftTriumph of theVirgin, Chartres Cathedral, c. 1210; rightCoronation of theVirgin, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, c. 1210. 14. Medieval image of Mary and Eve TheTree of Life and Death, by Berthold Furtmeyer, Archbishop of Salzburgs Missal, 1481 AD. 15. Mystics and saints Fresco of Saint Claire (l) and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (r), by Simone Martini, 1317, Capella di San Martino, San Francesco, Assisi, Italy. Hildegard of Bingen, d. 1178 St. Elizabeth of Hungary, d. 1231 St. Clare of Assisi, d. 1253 The order of the Poor Clares St. Catherine of Siena, d. 1380 Anchoresses 16. Hildegards visions LeftHildegard dictating a vision to a scribe, Liber Scivias, as preserved in the Rupertsberger Codex, c. 1180; centerthe cosmic tree, Liber Scivias; rightan image of the universe, Liber Scivias. 17. Suspicious mystics Illumination of Margery Kempe, from MS. Royal 15 D. 1, British Library, London. Beguines Beguinages Hadewijch of Brabant, d. circa 1240 Margery Kempe, d. 1438 18. Mystic and heretic Portrait of Joan of Arc, c. 1485, Archives Nationales, Paris. Joan of Arc, d. 1431 The HundredYearsWar, 1337-1453 Jean la Pucelle (the Maiden) 19. Heretics Depiction ofWaldensians, in Martin le France, Le Champion des Dames, c. 1440, Bibliotheque Nationale Grenoble. Waldensians Founded by PeterValdes, d. 1216 Cathars 13th-14th centuries Perfecti Lollards Founded by JohnWycliffe, d. 1384