Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- For Ian Hawke
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Display
- Chapter 2 Reception and Intrusion
- Chapter 3 Enclosure
- Chapter 4 Family
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Male religious houses
- Appendix B Nunneries
- Appendix C Hospitals and leper houses
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
Chapter 2 - Reception and Intrusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- For Ian Hawke
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Display
- Chapter 2 Reception and Intrusion
- Chapter 3 Enclosure
- Chapter 4 Family
- Conclusion
- Appendix A Male religious houses
- Appendix B Nunneries
- Appendix C Hospitals and leper houses
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
Summary
In this chapter I examine the theme of intrusion by the laity into sacred space and the methods used to accommodate it. It would be wrong to talk of intrusion purely as the incorrect use of space. Attitudes towards a lay presence in religious spaces varied according to context, and, accordingly, could be welcomed or discouraged. Reception and intrusion can, however, be seen as a direct result of display and are revealed most obviously in normative texts and miracula. The services provided by monastic houses for lay people led to ingress by the laity into both nuns' and monks' cloisters. The laity came into monastic houses seeking hospitality, charity, schooling for their children and a place for retirement. Churches and monasteries also provided access to shrines and relics for pilgrims, which resulted in lay people trespassing into areas reserved for the monks, nuns and clergy. The problem of intrusion is particularly acute in a discussion of clerical celibacy, as revealed in Bishop Arnulf of Lisieux's letters and Archbishop Eudes Rigaud's register. Parish priests interacted with the laity to a greater extent than their monastic counterparts. Problems of gender are apparent, both in terms of the intrusion of wives and concubines into a male sacred space, and in the identity of priests as celibate males in a secular society. There was a very real tension between a strict interpretation of the rule favoured by the Church hierarchy and the need to deal with more practical day-to-day matters.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religious Life in Normandy, 1050–1300Space, Gender and Social Pressure, pp. 52 - 87Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007