Papers by Christian Knudsen
Poverty and Prosperity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 2012
Introduction: The 'naughty nun' in literary tradition and historical reality In a particular fift... more Introduction: The 'naughty nun' in literary tradition and historical reality In a particular fifteenth-century manuscript containing mostly copies of theological works, there is a curious collection of love poetry, written by some anonymous clerk, most likely a student doing practice exercises common to artes dictaminis. 1 Within this collection, however, there is a particular short original creation, which one nineteenth-century scholar labeled "an absolutely obscene poem." 2 The piece in question is posed as a dialogue between an amorous nun and a clerk: Monacha: Deponam velum, deponam cetera quaeque, ibit et ad lectum nuda puella tuum. (I will take off my veil, I will take off everything else, and a naked girl will go to your bed.) Clericus: Si uelo careas, tamen altera non potes esse. Vestibus ablatis non mea culpa minor. (Clerk: Even if you take off your veil, you would not be any different and my sin would be no less with your clothes gone.) 3
Enfermements. Volume III, 2017
L’obligation du célibat était tout aussi importante pour les moniales que pour les moines. Ce son... more L’obligation du célibat était tout aussi importante pour les moniales que pour les moines. Ce sont pourtant les premières qui ont focalisé l’attention des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée parmi les maiora crimina et était durement sanctionnée par l’Église médiévale. Si la législation épiscopale insiste sur la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elle en dit peu sur les religieuses elles-mêmes et sur leur punition. En outre, bien que les écrits monastiques de la fin du Moyen Âge insistent moins sur la chasteté des moines, ces derniers n’y sont pas moins astreints. Dans cet article, je montrerai que, bien que la fornication, et en particulier celle avec une moniale, soit condamnée par l’Église, les inconduites sexuelles des moines et des moniales ne sont pas punies particulièrement sévèrement. En outre, malgré l’insistance de la législation sur la préservation de la chasteté féminine, les pénitences imposées aux religieux, qu’ils soient hommes ou femmes, sont tout à fait similaires. Cependant, alors que les moniales sont moins souvent accusées d’incontinence que les moines, elles sont plus facilement reconnues coupables et soumises à une pénitence. Ce paradoxe semble résulter d’une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes à se disculper par le biais de la purgation canonique, en raison notamment de la preuve accablante que pouvait constituer une grossesse.While the requirement of celibacy was important for both monks and nuns – it is the former which traditionally received more notice from ecclesiastical authorities. Indeed, while fornication of any sort was condemned by the medieval Church, fornication with a nun was classified as one of the maiora crimina which incurred the highest ecclesiastical legal condemnation. However, while legislative sources emphasize the culpability of the sexual partners of nuns, they tell us very little about the degree of guilt attributed to the nuns themselves, and the punishment assigned to them. Similarly, although the physical chastity of monks was de-emphasized in comparison to nuns in monastic writings of the later Middle Ages, it was still expected of them. In this essay, I will demonstrate that although ecclesiastical discourse treated fornication seriously – particularly fornication with a nun, ultimately, the consequences of sexual misconduct were not particularly severe for either sex. Moreover, despite the greater weight legislative sources place on female chastity, the types of penance allocated to religious men and women were remarkable similar. However, despite being accused less, nuns were far more likely to be convicted of sexual misconduct and be allocated penance as a resuit. This discrepancy seems to be the resuit of a greater difficulty for women to clear themselves by compurgation which could be negated by affirmative evidence such as pregnancy
Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England Christian... more Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England Christian D. Knudsen Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Medieval Studies University of Toronto This dissertation examines monastic sexual misconduct in cloistered religious houses in the dioceses of Lincoln and Norwich between and . Traditionally, any study of English monasticism during the late Middle Ages entailed the chronicling of a slow decline and decay. Indeed, for nearly years, historiographical discourse surrounding the Dissolution of Monasteries (-) has emphasized its inevitability and presented late medieval monasticism as a lacklustre institution characterized by worsening standards, corruption and even sexual promiscuity. As a result, since the Dissolution, English monks and nuns have been constructed into naughty characters. My study, centred on the sources that led to this claim, episcopal visitation records, will demonstrate that it is an exaggeration due to t...
Enfermements III. Le genre enfermé. Hommes et femmes en milieux clos (XIIIe-XXe siècle), edited by Isabelle Heullant-Donat, Julie Claustre, Élisabeth Lusset and Falk Bretschneider. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne., 2017
Pénitence sexuée et conduite sexuelle monastique inappropriée
Bien que l'obligation de céliba... more Pénitence sexuée et conduite sexuelle monastique inappropriée
Bien que l'obligation de célibat était importante aussi bien pour les nones que pour les moines – ce sont ces derniers qui ont traditionnellement reçu le plus grand nombre de rappels à l’ordre de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, bien que la fornication sous toutes ses formes ait été condamnée par l'Église médiévale, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée comme l'un des maiora crimina et donnait lieu à la condamnation légale ecclésiastique la plus sévère. Cependant, alors que les sources législatives soulignent la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elles nous en disent très peu sur le degré de culpabilité attribué aux religieuses elles-mêmes, et sur les sanctions qui étaient prises à leur encontre. De même, alors que la chasteté sexuelle des moines fut reléguée au second plan par rapport à celle des nones dans les écrits monastiques datant de la fin du Moyen-Âge, on ne l’attendait pas moins d’eux. Dans cet essai, je montrerai que, bien que le discours ecclésiastique traitait la fornication de manière sérieuse - particulièrement la fornication avec une religieuse, en fin de compte, les conséquences d’une conduite sexuelle inappropriée n'étaient pas particulièrement graves pour les deux sexes. En outre, malgré le fait que les sources législatives accordent plus d’importance à la chasteté des femmes, les types de sanctions attribuées aux hommes et aux femmes de foi étaient remarquablement similaires. Toutefois, malgré le fait qu’elles étaient accusées moins souvent, les religieuses étaient beaucoup plus susceptibles d'être condamnées pour conduite sexuelle inappropriée et d’être sanctionnées par la suite. Cette différence semble être le résultat d'une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes de se dédouaner en purgatoire, ce qui pouvait être remis en cause par une preuve affirmative, comme une grossesse.
English Abstract
Gendered Penance and Monastic Sexual Misconduct
While the requirement of celibac... more English Abstract
Gendered Penance and Monastic Sexual Misconduct
While the requirement of celibacy was important for both monks and nuns – it is the former which traditionally received more notice from ecclesiastical authorities. Indeed, while fornication of any sort was condemned by the medieval Church, fornication with a nun was classified as one of the maiora crimina which incurred the highest ecclesiastical legal condemnation. However, while legislative sources emphasize the culpability of the sexual partners of nuns, they tell us very little about the degree of guilt attributed to the nuns themselves, and the punishment assigned to them. Similarly, although the physical chastity of monks was de-emphasized in comparison to nuns in monastic writings of the later Middle Ages, it was still expected of them. In this essay, I will demonstrate that although ecclesiastical discourse treated fornication seriously – particularly fornication with a nun, ultimately, the consequences of sexual misconduct were not particularly severe for either sex. Moreover, despite the greater weight legislative sources place on female chastity, the types of penance allocated to religious men and women were remarkable similar. However, despite being accused less, nuns were far more likely to be convicted of sexual misconduct and be allocated penance as a result. This discrepancy seems to be the result of a greater difficulty for women to clear themselves by compurgation which could be negated by affirmative evidence such as pregnancy.
Résumé en Français
Pénitence sexuée et conduite sexuelle monastique inappropriée
Bien que l'obligation de célibat était importante aussi bien pour les nones que pour les moines – ce sont ces derniers qui ont traditionnellement reçu le plus grand nombre de rappels à l’ordre de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, bien que la fornication sous toutes ses formes ait été condamnée par l'Église médiévale, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée comme l'un des maiora crimina et donnait lieu à la condamnation légale ecclésiastique la plus sévère. Cependant, alors que les sources législatives soulignent la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elles nous en disent très peu sur le degré de culpabilité attribué aux religieuses elles-mêmes, et sur les sanctions qui étaient prises à leur encontre. De même, alors que la chasteté sexuelle des moines fut reléguée au second plan par rapport à celle des nones dans les écrits monastiques datant de la fin du Moyen-Âge, on ne l’attendait pas moins d’eux. Dans cet essai, je montrerai que, bien que le discours ecclésiastique traitait la fornication de manière sérieuse - particulièrement la fornication avec une religieuse, en fin de compte, les conséquences d’une conduite sexuelle inappropriée n'étaient pas particulièrement graves pour les deux sexes. En outre, malgré le fait que les sources législatives accordent plus d’importance à la chasteté des femmes, les types de sanctions attribuées aux hommes et aux femmes de foi étaient remarquablement similaires. Toutefois, malgré le fait qu’elles étaient accusées moins souvent, les religieuses étaient beaucoup plus susceptibles d'être condamnées pour conduite sexuelle inappropriée et d’être sanctionnées par la suite. Cette différence semble être le résultat d'une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes de se dédouaner en purgatoire, ce qui pouvait être remis en cause par une preuve affirmative, comme une grossesse.
Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England
Chris... more Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England
Christian D. Knudsen
Doctor of Philosophy
Centre for Medieval Studies
University of Toronto
2012
This dissertation examines sexual misconduct in monasteries in the dioceses of Lincoln and Norwich between 1430 and 1530. Traditionally, any study of English monasticism during the late Middle Ages entailed the chronicling of a slow decline and decay. Indeed, for nearly 500 years, scholarship surrounding Henry VIII’s Dissolution of Monasteries (1536-40) emphasized its inevitability and presented late medieval monasticism as a lacklustre institution characterized by worsening standards, especially sexual promiscuity. Consequently, since the Dissolution, English monks and nuns have been constructed into naughty characters and according to this narrative, essentially, got what they deserved.
Despite this widespread assumption that sexual misconduct was endemic to late medieval English monasteries, there has been no serious attempt to test this hypothesis. Did late medieval English monks and nuns deserve their naughty reputation? This dissertation, centred on the sources that led to this claim, episcopal visitation records, will demonstrate that it is an exaggeration made possible by the nature of the sources, and a disregard for contextualisation and comparison between nuns and monks.
Chapter one discusses the development of the monastic ‘decline narrative’ and how lasciviousness came to be strongly associated with it. Chapter two presents the historical background and my methodology. Chapter three surveys the characteristics of monastic sexual misconduct such incidence rates, sexual partners and pregnancies. Chapter four examines the response of Church authorities to sexual scandals. Finally, Chapter five investigates the connection between the Dissolution and sexual misconduct, and in particular, the sodomy accusations made by Henry VIII’s agents.
The overarching conclusion is that sexual misconduct in English monasteries occurred at very low rates. Although sexual misconduct was considered a sin by Church authorities, in general, bishops de-emphasized it compared to other disciplinary issues such as financial mismanagement. In contrast, Henry VIII’s agents strove to amass evidence of widespread monastic sexual misconduct, and even re-classified masturbation under the more serious crime of sodomy to bolster the number of accused monastic ‘sodomites’. Consequently, their salacious reports played a key role in justifying the Dissolution and constructing the image of naughty nuns and promiscuous monks that we have inherited to this day.
Poverty and Prosperity, in The Rich and the Poor in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 2012
Conference Presentations by Christian Knudsen
While the sixth century, Regula Benedicti, required unquestioning obedience of monks to their le... more While the sixth century, Regula Benedicti, required unquestioning obedience of monks to their leaders, the reality of everyday monastic life during the late Middle Ages presents a more complex view. Evidence from late medieval England abounds with examples of internal monastic power struggles, organized revolts, and smear campaigns directed at abbots and abbesses to discredit them before the only people could order their removal – bishops. This paper analyses patterns of monastic promotion and demotion as recorded in a corpus of episcopal visitation records from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich between 1420-1530.
On December 3, 1440, the bishop of Lincoln, William Alnwick, conducted a routine visitation of th... more On December 3, 1440, the bishop of Lincoln, William Alnwick, conducted a routine visitation of the Augustinian abbey of Leicester. During his visit, however, Alnwick heard damning allegations against Leicester’s abbot, William Sadyngtone, who was accused of sexual incontinence, financial misconduct and most alarming of all, of being an active practitioner of witchcraft who regularly cast incantations in front of the other canons. What had begun as a somewhat mundane visitation quickly evolved into a full-scale episcopal investigation into the abbot’s conduct.
While accusations of abbatial witchcraft were certainly unusual, the episcopal apparatus of visitation was well-equipped to deal with nearly any sort of misconduct. In the record, visitations are normally referred to as inquisitiones praeparatoriae and indeed, an episcopal visitation was a type of inquisition. While the medieval inquisition is more commonly associated with the criminal persecution of heresy (particularly Cathars), this was not its original focus. Indeed, as a number of scholars have recently demonstrated, the inquisitio actually arose as a means of maintaining clerical discipline rather than prosecuting heretics. The implication of these studies is that episcopal visitations of clergy influenced the later development of the more familiar judicial inquisition, not the other way around. In other words, the episcopal visitation was the original inquisition. However, while there is a wide range of scholarship concerning the use of inquisitio in criminal proceedings and the persecution of heresy, its association with episcopal visitation has attracted much less interest. Consequently, the exact process of inquisitio employed during episcopal visitations of monasteries is not well understood.
My paper will explore how visitatorial inquisition worked in practice based on a series of visitation records which detail numerous cases of monastic misconduct ranging from witchcraft to sexual misconduct from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich between 1420-1530. This paper forms part of an expanded chapter of my revised doctoral dissertation on monastic sexual misconduct which I am in the process of converting to a book entitled “Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England.”
"Maiora Crimina: Rape, Spiritual Incest and Cloistered Virginity in Late Medieval England
Few ... more "Maiora Crimina: Rape, Spiritual Incest and Cloistered Virginity in Late Medieval England
Few crimes were considered as serious by the medieval Church, as engaging in sexual relations with a nun. Indeed, fornication with nuns was consistently rated by medieval English Church councils as one of the maiora crimina alongside murder, parricide, and crimes against nature. However, the line between fornication and rape is not clear in cases of monastic sexual activity. The virginity of nuns was protected both symbolically by the veil and physically by the cloister wall, constructed as much to prevent breaches from within as from outside. Yet, as numerous scholars have shown this barrier was permeable. How did the authorities react differently to sexual breaches made by the nuns as opposed to outsiders? This paper will explore the role that consent played in how ecclesiastical authorities dealt with cases of female monastic sexual misconduct and rape in late medieval England by examining a series of cases in episcopal records from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich."
Talks by Christian Knudsen
Television Work by Christian Knudsen
Book Reviews by Christian Knudsen
knowledge of their archaeological context, the style of the items can often be related to dat-abl... more knowledge of their archaeological context, the style of the items can often be related to dat-able images on coins or in carvings on rune stones and churches. Pedersen also mentions, at the very end of her contribution, a possibility that should be more generally considered: that both crosses and Thor's hammers were amulets reflecting " a general need for personal reassurance , assistance, and protection " (222) rather than alignment with a particular culture or social status. I would also note that the lattice of ropes described by Sindbaek and illustrated on p. 186 resembles that found on the Lisbjerg altar on p. 213. Jón Viðar Sigurðsson's " afterthoughts " turn to written sources and discuss the implications of known contacts between Anglo-Saxon and Norwegian kings in the ninth and tenth centuries. Readers unfamiliar with the period may need to be reminded that neither Norway nor any of the other " countries " discussed in this volume existed in its present form in the Middle Ages; for Norway, in particular, the northern area around Trondheim, for which the nearest Christian community would have been in England, should be contrasted with the more Denmark-oriented area around present-day Oslo. The overall tendency in the volume is to reexamine objects and motifs traditionally classified as " Christian " or " pagan, " and their contexts, primarily as indications of social, rather than religious, networks or identities. In their summations, both Garpizanov and Sigurðs-son favor " top-down " models of conversion. It must be remembered, however, that our sources—whether written or archaeological—are biased towards the upper classes. Ordinary people rarely appear in chronicles, well-furnished burials, or runic commemorations. Sindbaek's reminder of the primacy of archaeological evidence should be taken seriously.
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Papers by Christian Knudsen
Bien que l'obligation de célibat était importante aussi bien pour les nones que pour les moines – ce sont ces derniers qui ont traditionnellement reçu le plus grand nombre de rappels à l’ordre de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, bien que la fornication sous toutes ses formes ait été condamnée par l'Église médiévale, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée comme l'un des maiora crimina et donnait lieu à la condamnation légale ecclésiastique la plus sévère. Cependant, alors que les sources législatives soulignent la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elles nous en disent très peu sur le degré de culpabilité attribué aux religieuses elles-mêmes, et sur les sanctions qui étaient prises à leur encontre. De même, alors que la chasteté sexuelle des moines fut reléguée au second plan par rapport à celle des nones dans les écrits monastiques datant de la fin du Moyen-Âge, on ne l’attendait pas moins d’eux. Dans cet essai, je montrerai que, bien que le discours ecclésiastique traitait la fornication de manière sérieuse - particulièrement la fornication avec une religieuse, en fin de compte, les conséquences d’une conduite sexuelle inappropriée n'étaient pas particulièrement graves pour les deux sexes. En outre, malgré le fait que les sources législatives accordent plus d’importance à la chasteté des femmes, les types de sanctions attribuées aux hommes et aux femmes de foi étaient remarquablement similaires. Toutefois, malgré le fait qu’elles étaient accusées moins souvent, les religieuses étaient beaucoup plus susceptibles d'être condamnées pour conduite sexuelle inappropriée et d’être sanctionnées par la suite. Cette différence semble être le résultat d'une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes de se dédouaner en purgatoire, ce qui pouvait être remis en cause par une preuve affirmative, comme une grossesse.
Gendered Penance and Monastic Sexual Misconduct
While the requirement of celibacy was important for both monks and nuns – it is the former which traditionally received more notice from ecclesiastical authorities. Indeed, while fornication of any sort was condemned by the medieval Church, fornication with a nun was classified as one of the maiora crimina which incurred the highest ecclesiastical legal condemnation. However, while legislative sources emphasize the culpability of the sexual partners of nuns, they tell us very little about the degree of guilt attributed to the nuns themselves, and the punishment assigned to them. Similarly, although the physical chastity of monks was de-emphasized in comparison to nuns in monastic writings of the later Middle Ages, it was still expected of them. In this essay, I will demonstrate that although ecclesiastical discourse treated fornication seriously – particularly fornication with a nun, ultimately, the consequences of sexual misconduct were not particularly severe for either sex. Moreover, despite the greater weight legislative sources place on female chastity, the types of penance allocated to religious men and women were remarkable similar. However, despite being accused less, nuns were far more likely to be convicted of sexual misconduct and be allocated penance as a result. This discrepancy seems to be the result of a greater difficulty for women to clear themselves by compurgation which could be negated by affirmative evidence such as pregnancy.
Résumé en Français
Pénitence sexuée et conduite sexuelle monastique inappropriée
Bien que l'obligation de célibat était importante aussi bien pour les nones que pour les moines – ce sont ces derniers qui ont traditionnellement reçu le plus grand nombre de rappels à l’ordre de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, bien que la fornication sous toutes ses formes ait été condamnée par l'Église médiévale, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée comme l'un des maiora crimina et donnait lieu à la condamnation légale ecclésiastique la plus sévère. Cependant, alors que les sources législatives soulignent la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elles nous en disent très peu sur le degré de culpabilité attribué aux religieuses elles-mêmes, et sur les sanctions qui étaient prises à leur encontre. De même, alors que la chasteté sexuelle des moines fut reléguée au second plan par rapport à celle des nones dans les écrits monastiques datant de la fin du Moyen-Âge, on ne l’attendait pas moins d’eux. Dans cet essai, je montrerai que, bien que le discours ecclésiastique traitait la fornication de manière sérieuse - particulièrement la fornication avec une religieuse, en fin de compte, les conséquences d’une conduite sexuelle inappropriée n'étaient pas particulièrement graves pour les deux sexes. En outre, malgré le fait que les sources législatives accordent plus d’importance à la chasteté des femmes, les types de sanctions attribuées aux hommes et aux femmes de foi étaient remarquablement similaires. Toutefois, malgré le fait qu’elles étaient accusées moins souvent, les religieuses étaient beaucoup plus susceptibles d'être condamnées pour conduite sexuelle inappropriée et d’être sanctionnées par la suite. Cette différence semble être le résultat d'une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes de se dédouaner en purgatoire, ce qui pouvait être remis en cause par une preuve affirmative, comme une grossesse.
Christian D. Knudsen
Doctor of Philosophy
Centre for Medieval Studies
University of Toronto
2012
This dissertation examines sexual misconduct in monasteries in the dioceses of Lincoln and Norwich between 1430 and 1530. Traditionally, any study of English monasticism during the late Middle Ages entailed the chronicling of a slow decline and decay. Indeed, for nearly 500 years, scholarship surrounding Henry VIII’s Dissolution of Monasteries (1536-40) emphasized its inevitability and presented late medieval monasticism as a lacklustre institution characterized by worsening standards, especially sexual promiscuity. Consequently, since the Dissolution, English monks and nuns have been constructed into naughty characters and according to this narrative, essentially, got what they deserved.
Despite this widespread assumption that sexual misconduct was endemic to late medieval English monasteries, there has been no serious attempt to test this hypothesis. Did late medieval English monks and nuns deserve their naughty reputation? This dissertation, centred on the sources that led to this claim, episcopal visitation records, will demonstrate that it is an exaggeration made possible by the nature of the sources, and a disregard for contextualisation and comparison between nuns and monks.
Chapter one discusses the development of the monastic ‘decline narrative’ and how lasciviousness came to be strongly associated with it. Chapter two presents the historical background and my methodology. Chapter three surveys the characteristics of monastic sexual misconduct such incidence rates, sexual partners and pregnancies. Chapter four examines the response of Church authorities to sexual scandals. Finally, Chapter five investigates the connection between the Dissolution and sexual misconduct, and in particular, the sodomy accusations made by Henry VIII’s agents.
The overarching conclusion is that sexual misconduct in English monasteries occurred at very low rates. Although sexual misconduct was considered a sin by Church authorities, in general, bishops de-emphasized it compared to other disciplinary issues such as financial mismanagement. In contrast, Henry VIII’s agents strove to amass evidence of widespread monastic sexual misconduct, and even re-classified masturbation under the more serious crime of sodomy to bolster the number of accused monastic ‘sodomites’. Consequently, their salacious reports played a key role in justifying the Dissolution and constructing the image of naughty nuns and promiscuous monks that we have inherited to this day.
Conference Presentations by Christian Knudsen
While accusations of abbatial witchcraft were certainly unusual, the episcopal apparatus of visitation was well-equipped to deal with nearly any sort of misconduct. In the record, visitations are normally referred to as inquisitiones praeparatoriae and indeed, an episcopal visitation was a type of inquisition. While the medieval inquisition is more commonly associated with the criminal persecution of heresy (particularly Cathars), this was not its original focus. Indeed, as a number of scholars have recently demonstrated, the inquisitio actually arose as a means of maintaining clerical discipline rather than prosecuting heretics. The implication of these studies is that episcopal visitations of clergy influenced the later development of the more familiar judicial inquisition, not the other way around. In other words, the episcopal visitation was the original inquisition. However, while there is a wide range of scholarship concerning the use of inquisitio in criminal proceedings and the persecution of heresy, its association with episcopal visitation has attracted much less interest. Consequently, the exact process of inquisitio employed during episcopal visitations of monasteries is not well understood.
My paper will explore how visitatorial inquisition worked in practice based on a series of visitation records which detail numerous cases of monastic misconduct ranging from witchcraft to sexual misconduct from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich between 1420-1530. This paper forms part of an expanded chapter of my revised doctoral dissertation on monastic sexual misconduct which I am in the process of converting to a book entitled “Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England.”
Few crimes were considered as serious by the medieval Church, as engaging in sexual relations with a nun. Indeed, fornication with nuns was consistently rated by medieval English Church councils as one of the maiora crimina alongside murder, parricide, and crimes against nature. However, the line between fornication and rape is not clear in cases of monastic sexual activity. The virginity of nuns was protected both symbolically by the veil and physically by the cloister wall, constructed as much to prevent breaches from within as from outside. Yet, as numerous scholars have shown this barrier was permeable. How did the authorities react differently to sexual breaches made by the nuns as opposed to outsiders? This paper will explore the role that consent played in how ecclesiastical authorities dealt with cases of female monastic sexual misconduct and rape in late medieval England by examining a series of cases in episcopal records from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich."
Talks by Christian Knudsen
Television Work by Christian Knudsen
Book Reviews by Christian Knudsen
Bien que l'obligation de célibat était importante aussi bien pour les nones que pour les moines – ce sont ces derniers qui ont traditionnellement reçu le plus grand nombre de rappels à l’ordre de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, bien que la fornication sous toutes ses formes ait été condamnée par l'Église médiévale, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée comme l'un des maiora crimina et donnait lieu à la condamnation légale ecclésiastique la plus sévère. Cependant, alors que les sources législatives soulignent la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elles nous en disent très peu sur le degré de culpabilité attribué aux religieuses elles-mêmes, et sur les sanctions qui étaient prises à leur encontre. De même, alors que la chasteté sexuelle des moines fut reléguée au second plan par rapport à celle des nones dans les écrits monastiques datant de la fin du Moyen-Âge, on ne l’attendait pas moins d’eux. Dans cet essai, je montrerai que, bien que le discours ecclésiastique traitait la fornication de manière sérieuse - particulièrement la fornication avec une religieuse, en fin de compte, les conséquences d’une conduite sexuelle inappropriée n'étaient pas particulièrement graves pour les deux sexes. En outre, malgré le fait que les sources législatives accordent plus d’importance à la chasteté des femmes, les types de sanctions attribuées aux hommes et aux femmes de foi étaient remarquablement similaires. Toutefois, malgré le fait qu’elles étaient accusées moins souvent, les religieuses étaient beaucoup plus susceptibles d'être condamnées pour conduite sexuelle inappropriée et d’être sanctionnées par la suite. Cette différence semble être le résultat d'une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes de se dédouaner en purgatoire, ce qui pouvait être remis en cause par une preuve affirmative, comme une grossesse.
Gendered Penance and Monastic Sexual Misconduct
While the requirement of celibacy was important for both monks and nuns – it is the former which traditionally received more notice from ecclesiastical authorities. Indeed, while fornication of any sort was condemned by the medieval Church, fornication with a nun was classified as one of the maiora crimina which incurred the highest ecclesiastical legal condemnation. However, while legislative sources emphasize the culpability of the sexual partners of nuns, they tell us very little about the degree of guilt attributed to the nuns themselves, and the punishment assigned to them. Similarly, although the physical chastity of monks was de-emphasized in comparison to nuns in monastic writings of the later Middle Ages, it was still expected of them. In this essay, I will demonstrate that although ecclesiastical discourse treated fornication seriously – particularly fornication with a nun, ultimately, the consequences of sexual misconduct were not particularly severe for either sex. Moreover, despite the greater weight legislative sources place on female chastity, the types of penance allocated to religious men and women were remarkable similar. However, despite being accused less, nuns were far more likely to be convicted of sexual misconduct and be allocated penance as a result. This discrepancy seems to be the result of a greater difficulty for women to clear themselves by compurgation which could be negated by affirmative evidence such as pregnancy.
Résumé en Français
Pénitence sexuée et conduite sexuelle monastique inappropriée
Bien que l'obligation de célibat était importante aussi bien pour les nones que pour les moines – ce sont ces derniers qui ont traditionnellement reçu le plus grand nombre de rappels à l’ordre de la part des autorités ecclésiastiques. En effet, bien que la fornication sous toutes ses formes ait été condamnée par l'Église médiévale, la fornication avec une religieuse était classée comme l'un des maiora crimina et donnait lieu à la condamnation légale ecclésiastique la plus sévère. Cependant, alors que les sources législatives soulignent la culpabilité des partenaires sexuels des religieuses, elles nous en disent très peu sur le degré de culpabilité attribué aux religieuses elles-mêmes, et sur les sanctions qui étaient prises à leur encontre. De même, alors que la chasteté sexuelle des moines fut reléguée au second plan par rapport à celle des nones dans les écrits monastiques datant de la fin du Moyen-Âge, on ne l’attendait pas moins d’eux. Dans cet essai, je montrerai que, bien que le discours ecclésiastique traitait la fornication de manière sérieuse - particulièrement la fornication avec une religieuse, en fin de compte, les conséquences d’une conduite sexuelle inappropriée n'étaient pas particulièrement graves pour les deux sexes. En outre, malgré le fait que les sources législatives accordent plus d’importance à la chasteté des femmes, les types de sanctions attribuées aux hommes et aux femmes de foi étaient remarquablement similaires. Toutefois, malgré le fait qu’elles étaient accusées moins souvent, les religieuses étaient beaucoup plus susceptibles d'être condamnées pour conduite sexuelle inappropriée et d’être sanctionnées par la suite. Cette différence semble être le résultat d'une plus grande difficulté pour les femmes de se dédouaner en purgatoire, ce qui pouvait être remis en cause par une preuve affirmative, comme une grossesse.
Christian D. Knudsen
Doctor of Philosophy
Centre for Medieval Studies
University of Toronto
2012
This dissertation examines sexual misconduct in monasteries in the dioceses of Lincoln and Norwich between 1430 and 1530. Traditionally, any study of English monasticism during the late Middle Ages entailed the chronicling of a slow decline and decay. Indeed, for nearly 500 years, scholarship surrounding Henry VIII’s Dissolution of Monasteries (1536-40) emphasized its inevitability and presented late medieval monasticism as a lacklustre institution characterized by worsening standards, especially sexual promiscuity. Consequently, since the Dissolution, English monks and nuns have been constructed into naughty characters and according to this narrative, essentially, got what they deserved.
Despite this widespread assumption that sexual misconduct was endemic to late medieval English monasteries, there has been no serious attempt to test this hypothesis. Did late medieval English monks and nuns deserve their naughty reputation? This dissertation, centred on the sources that led to this claim, episcopal visitation records, will demonstrate that it is an exaggeration made possible by the nature of the sources, and a disregard for contextualisation and comparison between nuns and monks.
Chapter one discusses the development of the monastic ‘decline narrative’ and how lasciviousness came to be strongly associated with it. Chapter two presents the historical background and my methodology. Chapter three surveys the characteristics of monastic sexual misconduct such incidence rates, sexual partners and pregnancies. Chapter four examines the response of Church authorities to sexual scandals. Finally, Chapter five investigates the connection between the Dissolution and sexual misconduct, and in particular, the sodomy accusations made by Henry VIII’s agents.
The overarching conclusion is that sexual misconduct in English monasteries occurred at very low rates. Although sexual misconduct was considered a sin by Church authorities, in general, bishops de-emphasized it compared to other disciplinary issues such as financial mismanagement. In contrast, Henry VIII’s agents strove to amass evidence of widespread monastic sexual misconduct, and even re-classified masturbation under the more serious crime of sodomy to bolster the number of accused monastic ‘sodomites’. Consequently, their salacious reports played a key role in justifying the Dissolution and constructing the image of naughty nuns and promiscuous monks that we have inherited to this day.
While accusations of abbatial witchcraft were certainly unusual, the episcopal apparatus of visitation was well-equipped to deal with nearly any sort of misconduct. In the record, visitations are normally referred to as inquisitiones praeparatoriae and indeed, an episcopal visitation was a type of inquisition. While the medieval inquisition is more commonly associated with the criminal persecution of heresy (particularly Cathars), this was not its original focus. Indeed, as a number of scholars have recently demonstrated, the inquisitio actually arose as a means of maintaining clerical discipline rather than prosecuting heretics. The implication of these studies is that episcopal visitations of clergy influenced the later development of the more familiar judicial inquisition, not the other way around. In other words, the episcopal visitation was the original inquisition. However, while there is a wide range of scholarship concerning the use of inquisitio in criminal proceedings and the persecution of heresy, its association with episcopal visitation has attracted much less interest. Consequently, the exact process of inquisitio employed during episcopal visitations of monasteries is not well understood.
My paper will explore how visitatorial inquisition worked in practice based on a series of visitation records which detail numerous cases of monastic misconduct ranging from witchcraft to sexual misconduct from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich between 1420-1530. This paper forms part of an expanded chapter of my revised doctoral dissertation on monastic sexual misconduct which I am in the process of converting to a book entitled “Naughty Nuns and Promiscuous Monks: Monastic Sexual Misconduct in Late Medieval England.”
Few crimes were considered as serious by the medieval Church, as engaging in sexual relations with a nun. Indeed, fornication with nuns was consistently rated by medieval English Church councils as one of the maiora crimina alongside murder, parricide, and crimes against nature. However, the line between fornication and rape is not clear in cases of monastic sexual activity. The virginity of nuns was protected both symbolically by the veil and physically by the cloister wall, constructed as much to prevent breaches from within as from outside. Yet, as numerous scholars have shown this barrier was permeable. How did the authorities react differently to sexual breaches made by the nuns as opposed to outsiders? This paper will explore the role that consent played in how ecclesiastical authorities dealt with cases of female monastic sexual misconduct and rape in late medieval England by examining a series of cases in episcopal records from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Lincoln and Norwich."