The situation of women in the Middle Ages
Participation and the place of women in history have been neglected by historians for a long time. They were in the shadow of a world dominated by males. In thinking of the medieval world and the role of the woman, this picture of exclusion is further aggravated because beyond the silence that we find in the sources, the texts that very rarely treat the female world is impregnated by hatred of the religious of the time for them.
In the Middle Ages , most of the ideas and concepts were developed by the Scholastics.All we know about the women of this period came from the hands of men of the Church,people should live completely away from them.Many clerics considered them mysterious, did not understand, for example, how they generated the life and heal diseases using herbs.
The woman to the clergy was considered a being very close to the flesh and the senses and therefore a potential sinner. After all, they all descended from Eve, to blame for the human race fall. In the early Middle Ages, the main concern for women was to keep them away from virgins and the clergy of these demonic beings who personified temptation.Thus, most of the ecclesiastical authorities of that period saw the woman as carrier and evil disseminator. This made them bad by nature and drawn by addiction.
From the eleventh century with the institution of marriage by the Church, motherhood and the role of good wife began to be exalted.Created a form of female salvation from basically three female models: Eva (sinful),Maria (the model of perfection and holiness) and Mary Magdalene (the repentant sinner).
The marriage was to satisfy and control female drives. In marriage the woman would be restricted to one partner who had to master it function, educate them and make had a pure and chaste life.
They were considered as the cause and object of sin, was a carrier entry to the devil. Just were not considered objects of sin when they were virgins, mothers or wives, or when they lived in the convent. When they were wives could not sell or mortgage their property without the authority and consent of her husband.
The peasant worked hard:took care of the children, spun wool, weaving and helped to cultivate the land. Women with a higher social level had an equally troubled routine, as ran the family plot when their husbands were away fighting the neighbors or cross to the Holy Land. Patient care, children education were also the female tasks.
This lack of knowledge of feminine nature caused fear to men. Religious relied on Sin Eva Original to connect it to the corporeality and diminishes it. That's because, according tothe biblical text, Eve was created from Adam's rib, and therefore dominated by the senses and the desires of the flesh. Because of this view, it was believed that it was created eat only function to procreate.
In the Original Sin idea found another feature criticized in women by clerics, the chatter.After all it was a request for Eve that Adam accepted the forbidden fruit, and dust that was considered deceptive.
Mary was the redeemer of Eve, who came into the world with a mission to liberate Eve of the Fall curse. It was developed so the idea of Mary was the mother of mankind, of all men and women living in God's grace, while Eve was the mother of all who die by nature. The cult of Mary was based on four pillars: the divine motherhood, virginity, the immaculate conception and assumption.
Therefore, women were encouraged to remainchaste until marriage, if your choice of life was marriage. But the best way to follow the example of Mary was to remain a virgin and become the bride of Christ, based on the recurring idea that Mary was "sister, wife and servant of the Lord." Eva symbolized real women, and Mary the ideal of holiness that should be followed by all women to attain divine grace, the way to salvation.
But as Mary was an ideal to be followed, unachievable by ordinary women, comes to the figure of Mary Magdalene, the repentant sinner, showing that salvation is possible for all who leave a life full of sin. With this image of sinful woman who repents and follows the master to Calvary, Mary Magdalene has shown that all sinners are able to reach God.
From there it was designed women, as well as sinful the right to repentance, demonstrated by the prostration, humiliation and tears, as opposed to the chatter of Eve, who led all mankind to sin. Therefore, women should be preaching without words, made only by corporal mortification.
All this anti-feminism had basic objectives:away from the clergy women, institutionalizing marriage and Christian morality shaped by creating a second female model the Virgin Mary.
The three models spread throughout the Middle Ages (Eve, Mary Magdalene and)make clear the civilizing role and moralizing played by the Catholic Church over approximately a thousand years of training in Western society.
The passage of the corporeality of vision and damnation women, based on the model of Eve, seen as an ally of the devil. This state of curse was tempered with the cult of the Virgin Mary, who brought reconciliation between humanity and God, however, this still restrictive reconciliation because only those who live in grace reach salvation. Mary Magdalene extends the possibility of salvation to all who had fallen into error, but were able to repent.
Eva concentrates in itself all the vices that bring symbols seen as feminine, such as lust, gluttony, sensuality and sexuality. All these attributes appear in it as an example. And as a way of salvation for women, they offered the figure of Mary Magdalene, the prostitute repentant best known and submitted to the men and the Church.
It is clear so it is not possible to analyze what women think of themselves: what we were transmitted by sources are ideal models and rules of behavior that are not always positive.
This woman design, which was built through the centuries, even predates Christianity. He was assured by him and gave it allowed the maintenance of the men in power, provided a security based on the distance to the celibate clergy, legitimized the submission established by men order. This construction has just begun to crumble, but the foundations are still very firmly planted in our society.
Text written by Professor Patricia Barboza da Silva Licensed by the Federal University of Rio Grande - FURG.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:
DUBY, G; PERROT, M (right). women's history: the Middle Ages. Port; Afrontamento 1990.
RAMON, Llull. Missoginia and holiness in the Middle Ages: the three female models in the book of wonders. Brazilian Institute of Philosophy and Science Raimundo Líilio. 2002.
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Category: General history
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