In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have attempted to free the study of medieval theology from its traditional scholastic interest in doctrinal issues in order to suggest how the history of ideas may assist us to understand the long term psychic concerns of medieval society. Dyan Elliot's current work should be read within the context of this effort to reread medieval visionary, scientific and theological texts in order to pull away the mask of dogma and reveal the libidinal fears and drives which animate medieval persons. The introduction provides a summary of the themes to be discussed, and lays down some of the premises on which this work is based. The book focuses on the attempt to create a ritually pure clergy between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries by reinterpreting and reintegrating traditional theological positions concerning such themes as "ritual pollution, sexual regulation and the status of the demonic."
The increasing role of women as the perceived primary sources of contagion is stressed, as many of the traditional Jewish sexual taboos were expanded in the face of the demand for clerical celibacy. Like other observers, Elliot situates the heightened stigmatization of women in the rhetoric of the Gregorian reform movement, most sharply voiced by Peter Damian. The author adopts the Freudian view "that repression occurs when social and ethical norms attempt abridgment or effacement of a libidinal instinct." (p. 8) Thus, the campaign for "clerical celibacy entailed a repression of libidinal instincts, particularly heterosexual ones." Such repressed desires led to their reemergence in distorted form, with the demonization of womankind in the high and late Middle Ages. Elliot remarks that "The clergy had attempted to create a female-free zone premised on a body that was hermetically sealed by ascendant male reason. Women reentered through the fissures in body and soul." (p. 34)
The first chapter deals with nocturnal emission. Elliot hypothesizes a decisive change from the relatively indulgent attitude voiced by Gregory the Great, who dismissed such phenomena as a byproduct of a dream state over which the believer has little control. Following the Gregorian reform movement, the polluting effects of emission required a penitential reexamination of one's dream life. The sacralization of the Eucharist further sharpened fears of demonic manipulation of human seed. After Lateran IV, such fears were extended to encompass the laity by means of the confessional.
The second chapter deals with the inalterably weak, impressionable and libidinous nature of womankind according to standard texts, especially Dominican. The somatic impact of woman's contemplation and gaze (both demonically and spiritually) have been remarked upon by others, such as Bynum. The presumed lasciviousness of women received greater theoretical support in the Aristotelianism of the thirteenth century scholastics. At the same time, virginity was increasingly regarded as more a mental than a physical state, to such an extent that even rape might be seen as a result of the victim's sinfulness rather than the perpetrator's brutality. Likewise female possession by an incubus was often described as consensual.
The third chapter deals with a theme that has rarely been broached by other scholars, sex in holy places. Several examples of the divine punishment meted out to those who so defile holy sites are provided from miracle and exempla collections. The obsession with pollution fears both drove women further away from sacred precincts and stimulated the rise of heretical sects. While in the eleventh century, mere fornicators were highlighted, by the thirteenth century such transgressions increasingly involved married couples; this was partly the result of a more positive attitude toward marriage. Nevertheless, Elliot notes the often ambivalent and self- contradictory remarks made by such theologians as Abelard about this sacrilegious deed. Later thinkers introduced the notion of public scandal as a concomitant of sacrilege at holy sites; perhaps here, more citation of legal sources would be warranted.
The fourth chapter deals with the fate of the priest's wife, whose very presence, commencing with the Gregorian reform movement, polluted the altar itself. The image of the Virgin Mary served to counterbalance this malevolent figure. Elliot here provides an interesting study of the renarration of the life of the fourth century married priest St. Severus of Ravenna in the eleventh century in accordance with Gregorian needs. Again, Peter Damian reinvents Severus's spouse as a carping agent of the Devil. In Damian's other works, the priest's wife is presented as cannibalistic, insatiably lustful, and demoniacal, a reflection of his obsession with sexual purity as the clerical ideal. The growing emphasis on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist further necessitated the banishment of women's corrupting influence.
The fifth chapter, titled "Avatars of the Priest's Wife. The Return of the Repressed," begins with a discussion of the feast of the conception of the Virgin, which was partly related to the need to free the material presence of Christ in the Eucharist from any impurities (if I understand Elliot's argument correctly). Elliot notes that, "The motif of Mary as substitute wife and antidote to clerical incontinence would increase as the Middle Ages progressed." (p. 114) Furthermore, Eucharistic theology ritually and symbolically elevated the status of the Host and demanded more scrupulous sanctions against clerical incontinence. Elliot rightly notes the fears engendered by the gap between the ideal and reality of clerical behavior. Theological argument often bordered on Donatism in its efforts to condemn priestly unworthiness in the performance of the sacrament. The line separating the priest's concubine, sacristan's wife and witch as polluters and sources of sin became blurred. Elliot thus argues that "the priest's wife would continue to cast a long shadow over female workers in the sacramental field, be they benevolent or benign". (p. 126)
Elliot's final chapter enters into the tangled web of late medieval arguments concerning the materiality of angels and demons, which culminated in their disembodiment in Christian theology. While during the early Christian centuries angels were regarded as corporeal beings, beginning with twelfth century theologians such as Hugh of St. Victor the incorporeality of the angelic was affirmed; although others, like Honorius Augustodunensis, claimed that angels and demons possessed "shapeshifting abilities", largely for purposes of deception. To Aquinas, they are pure intellect and will. This changing view may be partly attributed to a new appreciation of the positive salvific potential of the body, and a reaction against the threat of Cathar corporeal pessimism; here Elliot presents Catharist cosmological views found in inquisitorial transcripts and contemporary polemical literature. The new doctrine of disembodied demonology allowed even the demons to condemn "unnatural" sexuality. The demons' lack of bodies might even assist in the demonization of the Jews and heretics, who would serve as their surrogate agents.
Some may be put off by occasionally sweeping generalizations, which demand the reader's acceptance of certain ideological premises. For example, referring to Marie de France's laiYonec, Elliot writes, "her story must finally be read as a tantalizing confirmation of masculine society's worst fears: that whether or not women were actually capable of reproducing with demons, if they could they would^Ëand happily dispense with men altogether." (p. 60) The work does not always form an organic whole, since there is no claim to provide a full overview of the theology of pollution, demonology and sexuality. Aside from some effective use of inquisitorial trials, sermons (especially John Gerson) and the exempla of Thomas of Cantimpre and Caesarius of Heisterbach, the sources are largely scholastic systematic theology. It is thus difficult to gauge to what extent the concerns (psychopathology might be a more suitable term) of male clergy were shared by the laity. A wider use of other exempla and sermon collections, which may suggest that clerical interests were a response to lay needs, might free the reader from the temptation to view medieval society as totally hegemonic, or that a sharp divide separated lay and clergy. For example, Johannes Herolt's extensive discussion of sins against nature in his sermon collection (not cited by Elliot) so closely conforms to earlier arguments, that one may suspect the common casuistic plagiary of the medieval preacher, rather than a response to specific local issues. Perhaps insufficient stress is placed on the compartmentalization of knowledge found among medieval intellectuals. Remarks in medical, theological and philosophical works by the same author dealing with the same theme might be inconsistent and contradictory.
Although sometimes tough going (e.g., the occasional attempt to pack too many ideas into one sentence) the above remarks should nevertheless not deter readers interested in the libidinous subsoil of medieval culture from consulting this provocative and well documented work. I often found myself both mentally sparring with the author and at the same time stimulated to raise new questions and reread old texts for new and fresh meanings. The notes include rich and evocative citations from primary sources (although in this case one must lament the publisher's failure to place such notes within the text, rather than at the end of the volume).