Proving Woman (47 page)

⁶⁶
Greenspan, “
Erklaerung
,” introd., pp. 15–16. Greenspan posits that the vita may have been intended to allay fears of heterodoxy in the wake of her
mystical death, possibly in preparation for a canonization. Cf. Marcianese’s defensiveness with regard to Lucia of Narni’s
self-authored life (
Narratione della . . . B. Lucia da Narni
c. 23, p. 102).

⁶⁷
The visit to her house is rather elliptical, and the text is damaged. It seems that her parents were admitted to heaven “after
they came to the incontinent one [
incontinenti
] at her house for a little while” (Ignatius von Doïllinger, ed.,
Beitra
ï
ge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters
[Munich: C. H. Beck’sche, 1890], no. 72, 2:707). I can only imagine that
incontinenti
is intended by Rixendis as a self-deprecatory characterization. Nevertheless, a similar phrase is repeated again on the next
day, again with respect to certain souls’ transit from purgatory to heaven (2:708).

⁶⁸
“. . . in praesentia dictorum dominorum fingebat, se raptam et non loquebatur,” ibid., p. 707.

⁶⁹
Ibid., pp. 707–8.

⁷⁰
Ibid., p. 709.

⁷¹
Ibid., p. 710.

⁷²
Cf. Frances of Rome’s experience (Elliott, “
Dominae
or
Dominatae
?” pp. 75–76).

⁷³
Philip of Clairvaux, “Vita Elizabeth” c. 7, p. 367; cf. the testimony of the seventh anonymous witness, in Doïllinger,
Beitra
ï
ge
, no. 72, 2:711.

⁷⁴
Doïllinger,
Beitra
ï
ge
, seventh witness, no. 72, 2:709.

⁷⁵
See chap. 2, p. 68; chap. 4, p. 178, above.

⁷⁶
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
, ed. and trans. James Strachey et al. (London: Hogarth Press, 1958), 12:13–14.

⁷⁷
E. Longpré, ed., “Fr. Rogeri Marston,” p. 241.

⁷⁸
See Danielle Jacquart, in
Le Milieu m
è
dical en France du XIIe au XVe sie`cle: en annexe 2e
suppl
è
ment au
“
Dictionnaire
”
d
’
ErnestWickersheimer
(Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1981), tables 31–34, p. 393; cf.William Courtenay, “Curers of Body and Soul: Medical Doctors as Theologians,”
in
Religion and Medicine in the Middle Ages
, ed. Peter Biller and Joseph Ziegler (Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press in conjunction with Boydell and Brewer, 2001),
pp. 69, 72. The quintessential doctor-theologian is Arnau of Vilanova. See Joseph Ziegler,
Medicine and Religion,
c. 1300: The Case of Arnau of Vilanova
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), esp. pp. 47 ff. for a detailed examination of the compatibility of religious and medical language;
and Michael McVaugh, “Moments of Inflection: The Careers of Arnau of Vilanova,” in Biller and Ziegler,
Religion and Medicine
, pp. 47–68.

⁷⁹
Much of the following section is derived from Elliott, “Physiology of Rapture,” pp. 141–73, esp. 157–61; also see eadem,
Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle
Ages
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), pp. 40–45.

⁸⁰
An Alphabet of Tales: An English Fifteenth Century Translation of the Alphabetum narrationum
of Etienne de Besanc
ç
on
, ed. M. M. Banks,
EETS
, o.s., no. 127, pt. 2 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1905), no. 741, pp. 494–95.

⁸¹
Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum naturale
2.36, in
Speculum quadruplex
, vol. 1, col. 1629; also cf. 2.43, col. 1634. See Augustine,
On the Trinity
11.2, trans. A. W. Haddan, in
St. Augustin:
On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
,
LNPNFC
, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmann’s, 1887), p. 147.

⁸²
Pietro Pompanazzi,
De naturalium effectuum admirandorum causis, seu De incantationibus
liber
c. 5, in
Opera
(Basel: Ex officina Henricpetrina, 1567), pp. 67–68 and 81–84; cf. c. 3, p. 32; see Zarri,
Le sante vive
, p. 59.

⁸³
For William’s balancing of science and theology, see Noeïl Valois,
Guillaume d
’
Auvergne,
eve
ê
que de Paris (1228
–
1249): sa vie et ses ouvrages
(Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1880), pp. 265–310.

⁸⁴
William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 20, in
Opera
, 1:1054. See Juliana Schiesari,
The
Gendering of Melancholia: Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and the Symbolics of Loss in Renaissance
Literature
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992), pp. 96–112.

⁸⁵
There were exceptions: Hildegard of Bingen implies she was possessed of a melancholic complexion, which would help to explain
her receptivity to visions. See Peter Dronke,
Women
Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (
]
203) to Marguerite Porete
(
]
1310)
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 182–83; Barbara Newman,
Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), pp. 132–33. But unlike the traditional idealization of melancholy,
Hildegard’s reading was extremely negative (Schiesari,
The Gendering of
Melancholia
, pp. 141–59).

⁸⁶
William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 20, in
Opera
, 1:1054.

⁸⁷
Ibid. pt. 2, 3, c. 24, 1:1066. Valois sees William’s work as a repository for thirteenth-century superstition, even when
denouncing it (
Guillaume d
’
Auvergne
, pp. 311–32).

⁸⁸
William of Auvergne,
De anima
pt. 33, in
Opera
, 2:193;
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 13 and c. 21, in
Opera
, 1:1041 and 1058; cf. Denis the Carthusian (d. 1471),
De contemplatione libri tres
3.18, in
D. Dionysi Cartusiani opera omnia in unum corpus digesta
, vol. 41,
Opera minora
(Tournai: Typis Carthusiae S. M. de Pratis, 1911), 9:279. Also see Galen,
On the Affected Parts
3.9 –10, trans. R. E. Siegel (Basel: S. Karger, 1968), pp. 88–94.

⁸⁹
William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 20, 21, in
Opera
, 1:1054, 1058 (note that chaps. 20 and 21 both appear as c. 20 in this edition).

⁹⁰
Albertus Magnus,
Quaestiones de animalibus
bk. 15 q. 11, as cited in Helen Rodnite Lemay, trans.,
Women
’
s Secrets: A Translation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus
’
s
“
De Secretis Mulierum
”
with
Commentaries
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), introd., p. 48. Also see Alcuin Blamires,
The Case for Women in Medieval Culture
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), p. 127. For the pejorative connotation of the term “mobility,” see John Cassian’s “De animae mobilitate
et spiritualibus nequitiis,” in
Confer
è
nces
, ed. and trans. E. Pichery,
SC
, 42 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1955), 1:242–77.

⁹¹
Such pathologization is an ongoing trend. See Mazzoni’s
Saint Hysteria
, esp. introd., pp. 1–16. On the mystics’ exploitation of hysteria to undermine the mind-body split, see pp. 156–96, esp.
177–90 for Angela of Foligno.

⁹²
Lemay,
Women
’
s Secrets
c. 11, p. 132.

⁹³
Ibid., Commentator B, p. 134.

⁹⁴
Thomas of Cantimpré,
Liber de natura rerum
1.60, ed. H. Boese (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1973), 1:66.

⁹⁵
See Jeffrey Hamburger’s delineation of the interaction between vision and devotion in a late medieval female religious community,
Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997), esp. pp. 128 ff.; and Chiara Frugoni, “Female Mystics, Visions,
and Iconography,” in
Women and Religion in Medieval and
Renaissance Italy
, ed. Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi, trans. Margery Schneider (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 130–64.

⁹⁶
See Elliott,
Fallen Bodies
, pp. 40–41.

⁹⁷
Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum naturale
25.84, in
Speculum quadruplex
, vol. 1, col. 1828. Cf. Thomas of Cantimpré,
Liber de natura rerum
2.15, 1:95.

⁹⁸
Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum naturale
26.66, in
Speculum quadruplex
, vol. 1, col. 1879; cf. 2.119, col. 153; see Elliott, “Physiology of Rapture,” p. 146.

⁹⁹
Danielle Jacquart and Claude Thomasset,
Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages
, trans. M. Adamson (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 83–84. See Galen’s definition
On the Passions and Errors of the Soul
, trans. P. W. Harkins (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1963), p. 32, and Augustine’s discussion in
De civitate dei
19.4–6, ed. Bernardus Dombart and Alphonsus Kalb,
CCSL
, 48 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1955), 2:664–71; trans. H. Bettenson,
City of
God
19.4–6 (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1972), pp. 345–51.

¹⁰⁰
William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 13, in
Opera
, 1:1041, 1043. He further seeks to substantiate his contention regarding demonic influence by noting that prayers of holy
people prove effective where doctors have failed (1:1042). In Galenic tradition, melancholics can develop a lupine or canine
disease (
morbus lupinus sive caninus
) whereby the sufferers are compelled to roam in a wolfish manner on February evenings (
De melancholia
c. 3, in
Claudii Galeni opera
omnia
, ed. C. G. Kühn [Leipzig, 1830; reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965], 19:719). For the rising interest in werewolves in
this period, see Caroline Walker Bynum’s
Metamorphosis and
Identity
(New York: Zone Books, 2001), pp. 92–98, 105–9. Cf. Avicenna’s similar list of the delusions that the melancholic experiences,
in
Liber canonis
bk. 3, fen. 1, tract. 4 (Venice, 1507; reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1964), fols. 188v–89r; cf. Galen,
De melancholia
c. 1, in
Opera
, 19:702.

¹⁰¹
Alexander of Hales (d. 1245),
Quaestiones disputatae
“
Antequam esset fratrem
”
q. 68, membrum 7, c. 36–37, ed. Fathers of the College of Saint Bonaventure (Florence: College of Saint Bonaventure, 1960),
3:1358–59; cf. Aquinas on prophecy,
ST
2a 2ae, q. 172, art. 2, resp. ad 3, 40:38–39.

¹⁰²
See, however,the bewilderment of Peter of Spain (d. 1277) over the fact that young people are more prone to lovesickness
though less prone to melancholia than are the old, in his commentary on
Viaticum
, in Mary Wack, ed.,
Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: The
“
Viaticum
”
and Its
Commentaries
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), pp. 242–43.

¹⁰³
Aquinas,
Expositio super Dionysium de divinis nominibus
lect. 10, in
Opuscula omnia
, ed. P. Mandonnet (Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1927), 2:396; Gerson,
De theologia mystica
c. 39, in
Oeuvres
, 3:284; Denis the Carthusian,
De contemplatione libri tres
3.18, in
Opera
, vol. 41,
Opera minora
8:279. For human love as a mirror of divine love, see especially Richard of Saint Victor,
De
quatuor gradibus violentiae caritatis
,
PL
196, cols. 1207–24.

¹⁰⁴
William of Auvergne,
De anima
pt. 33, in
Opera
, 2:192.

¹⁰⁵
Aquinas,
ST
2a 2ae, q. 175, art. 1, resp., 45:95–97; William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 13, in
Opera
, 1:1040; Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum naturale
26.2, in
Speculum quadruplex
, vol. 1, cols. 1842–43; Denis the Carthusian,
De contemplatione libri tres
3.18, in
Opera
, vol. 41,
Opera minora
, 8:278; Nider,
Formicarium
5.1, p. 332. Other factors are likewise responsible for rapture, such as music, drugs, or fear (William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 3, c. 13, c. 20, in
Opera
, 1:1040; 1056, 1057; idem,
De anima
pt. 33, in
Opera
, 2:192.

¹⁰⁶
See William of Auvergne,
De universo
pt. 2, 2, c. 35, in
Opera
, 1:879; cf. ibid., pt. 2, 3, c. 20, 1:1053. William gives the same list of delusions as described above.

¹⁰⁷
William of Auvergne,
De anima
pt. 33, in
Opera
, 2:193; Vincent of Beauvais,
Speculum
naturale
26.96–97, in
Speculum quadruplex
, vol. 1, cols. 1903–4. Vincent’s discussion consists mainly of citations from Augustine’s
The Literal Meaning of Genesis
bk. 12. Cf. Thomas of Cantimpré,
Liber de natura rerum
2.13, 1:93–94.

¹⁰⁸
James of Vitry,
VMO
, p. 551; trans. King, p. 18. Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Die Wunder-geschichten
des Caesarius von Heisterbach
, ed. Alfons Hilka (Bonn: Peter Hanstein, 1933), no. 62, 1:89; also see no. 290, 1:180. Elisabeth herself mentions them in
F.W.E. Roth, ed.,
Visionen
bk. 1 and
Liber revelationum
c. 5, in
Visionen der hl. Elisabeth
(Brünn: Raigerner Benedictiner Buchruckerei, 1884), pp. 1, 125; trans. Anne Clark,
Elisabeth of Scho
ï
nau: The Complete Works
(New York: Paulist Press, 2000), pp. 41, 215.