Proving Woman (48 page)

¹⁰⁹
Menesto`,
Il processo
, Sr. Marina, witness 38, ad art. 42, pp. 117–18; Sr. Thomassa, witness 39, ad art. 42, p. 191; cf. Sr. Johanna, witness 1,
ad art. 138, pp. 78–79.

¹¹⁰
See Nider,
Formicarium
2.1, 5.10, pp. 47, 406; Bernard Basin,
De artibus magicis ac magorum
mali
fi
ciis opus praeclarissimum sacrelegis disquisitoris magistri bernardi basin cesara-gustanensis
ecclesie canonicum nuper amendis quam plurimis emendatum
(Paris: Denis Roce, 1506), see propositio 8 on demonic deception (unpaginated). Both these writers are indebted to William
of Auvergne.

¹¹¹
Bede,
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
1.27, ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), pp. 92–93; Raymond of Peñafort,
Summa de
poenitentia et matrimonio
1.5.10 (Rome: Joannes Tallini, 1603), p. 44; cf. x.5.7.1. The following section parallels Elliott, “Women and Confession,”
pp. 44–48.

¹¹²
See chap. 4, n. 208, above. Though degraded as a cleric, Guiard was not necessarily a priest.

¹¹³
Aquinas,
Scriptum super libros sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi
bk. 4, dist. 21, q. 2, art. 3, resp. and resp. ad 4, ed. Maria Fabianus Moos (Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1947), 4:1066, 1067.
For Angelo Carletti, such a lie was a mortal sin (
Summa angelica de casibus conscientialibus
(Venice: Iac. Sanouinum, 1569), ad
confessio sacramentalis
, no. 6, fol. 99r.

¹¹⁴
See Thomas Tentler,
Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977), pp. 75–78, 156–62; D. Catherine Brown,
Pastor and Laity in
the Theology of Jean Gerson
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 68–72.

¹¹⁵
Gerson,
De passionibus animae
c. 18, 21, in
Oeuvres
, 9:15, 17.

¹¹⁶
Gerson,
De remediis contra pusillanimitatem
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:381. An alternative title to this work is
De scrupulis conscientiae
. Also see the French translation in
Oeuvres
, 8:386–98. Glorieux is unclear as to which version came first, but believes that the Latin was written before 30 July 1405
(introd., 8:386).

¹¹⁷
Gerson,
De passionibus animae
c. 18, c. 20, in
Oeuvres
, 9:17, 20.

¹¹⁸
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:377. Gerson goes on to say that angels, good or bad, cannot enter the higher part of the soul. Cf.
De passionibus animae
c. 15, 9:13–14; c. 17, 9:15. See Elliott,
Fallen Bodies
, pp. 19, 44.

¹¹⁹
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:379; also see
De passionibus animae
c. 20, 9:19–20.

¹²⁰
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:379; cf. 10:383. He also attempts to sensitize the priest to this problem. See his discussion of permissible formulas
of absolution for the last rites to avoid driving the dying penitent to despair (
De forma absolvendi a peccatis
, 9:174).

¹²¹
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:381. This exculpation does not apply to the carnally minded and slothful (10:381–82). Also see
De directione cordis
c. 20–21, 8:102–3;
Traite
é
des
diverses tentations de l
’
ennemi
, 7,2:353. Cf. Gerson’s parallel evocation of the recitation of the hours and scupulosity (
De praeparatione ad missam
, in
Oeuvres
, 6th consideration, 9:43). See Elliott,
Fallen Bodies
, pp. 27–29.

¹²²
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:381. His short treatise
Contre conscience trop scrupuleuse
discusses the fear of an insufficient confession (7,2:140–41).

¹²³
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:381; cf.
Traite
é
des diverses tentations de l
’
ennemi
, 7,2:358. See Tentler,
Sin and Confession
, p. 158.

¹²⁴
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:382, 385;
De meditatione cordis
c. 17, 8:82.

¹²⁵
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:385; cf.
De cognitione castitatis
, 9:62. In this latter instance, he is addressing excessive scrupulosity over any kind of seminal emission. See Elliott,
Fallen Bodies
, p. 23. The Latin version of
De remediis
proposes that for a person who has not committed a mortal sin, if confession is more agitating than calming, then frequent
confession should cease. Gerson adds that the person in question should still feel entitled to celebrate the eucharist—presupposing
a clerical audience (10:384). The vernacular, however, permits the person to celebrate or communicate, thus accommodating
a lay audience (10:387). Also see
Traite
é
des diverses tentations de l
’
ennemi
, in which excessive scrupulosity with regard to receiving communion is regarded as diabolical temptation (7,2:357).

¹²⁶
Gerson,
Regulae mandatorum
no. 7, in
Oeuvres
, 9:96; cf. C. 28 q. 1 dpc 14. Both Aquinas and Godefroid of Fontaines in their quodlibets on the subject of erroneous conscience
likewise evoke this quotation (Aquinas, quodlib. 3, q. 12, art. 2 [27],
sed contra
, in
Opera omnia: Quaestiones
de quolibet
, ed. Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum [Rome: Commissio Leonina, 1996], 25,2:285), and Godefroid of Fontaines,
Les Quodlibets onze
–
quatorze de Godefroid de Fontaines
, ed. J. Hoffmans (Louvain: Editions de l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, 1932), quodlib. 12, q. 2, vol. 5, fasc. 1–2,
p. 85. See Odon Lottin,
Psychologie et morale aux XIIe et XIIIe sie`cles
(Louvain: Abbaye du Mont César, 1948), 2,1:394–98, 400–406; Xavier Colavechio,
Erroneous Conscience
and Obligations: A Study of the Teaching from the Summa Halesiana, Saint Bonaventure, Saint
Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas
(Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1961), pp. 67–103. Also see the discussion of erroneous conscience in chap.
6, pp. 241–44, below.

¹²⁷
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:381; cf.
Regulae mandatorum
no. 7, 9:96; no. 8, 9:97;
Traite
é
des diverses tentations de l
’
ennemi
, 7:346 ff.;
De signis bonis et malis
, 9:163;
De praeparatione
ad missam
3d consideration, 9:37–39;
De meditatione cordis
c. 17, 8:82, 83;
Le pro
fi
t de
savoir quel est peche mortel et veniel
, 7,2:382.

¹²⁸
Gerson,
Regulae mandatorum
no. 23, in
Oeuvres
, 9:100; nos. 8–9, 9:97; no. 1, 9:95; Gerson,
Le pro
fi
t de savoir
, 7,2:382.

¹²⁹
Gerson,
Le pro
fi
t de savoir
, in
Oeuvres
, 7:370–89; also see
Examen de conscience selon les
pe
ê
ches capitaux
, 7,2:393–400;
Regulae mandatorum
, 9:94–132.

¹³⁰
Gerson,
De meditatione cordis
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:82;
Regulae mandatorum
no. 7, 9:96.

¹³¹
Pierre Michaud-Quantin, “La conscience individuelle et ses droits chez les moralistes de la fin du Moyen-Age,” in
Universalismus und Partikularismus im Mittelalter
, ed. Paul Wilpert, Miscellanea mediaevalis, 5 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1968), p. 50.

¹³²
Gerson,
De praeparatione ad missam
, in
Oeuvres
, 9:43. In Greek mythology, Scylla and Charybdis are female monsters, the former personifying a dangerous rock located between
Italy and Sicily, the latter a whirlpool in the same area. Elsewhere, Gerson again cites Gregory’s “habit of good minds” regarding
the problem of erroneous conscience (Gerson,
De regulae mandatorum
no. 4, 9:96).

¹³³
VLA
, p. 199, trans. King, pp. 45–46; p. 207, trans. King, p. 90; p. 209, trans. King, pp. 101–2; cf. the way Margaret of Ypres
was likewise obsessed with the recital of her hours (
VMY
, pp. 116–17; trans. King, pp. 35–36).

¹³⁴
VLA
, p. 199, trans. King, p. 45; cf.
De apibus
2.52.4, pp. 482–83.

¹³⁵
Gerson,
De meditatione cordis
, in
Oeuvres
, 8:83–84. This passage appears only in selected manuscripts. Cf. John of Marienwerder’s similar description of Dorothea and
himself being “glued” together in
amicitia
on their first meeting, prefiguring a relationship that the visionary Lord equates with marriage (
Vita Dorotheae
3.27.2, p. 149). Also see Gerson’s account of the risks incurred through a converted matron’s fervor (
De simpli
fi
catione cordis
, 8:95. Cf.
Traite
é
des
diverses tentations de l
’
ennemi
, 7,2:348). Brian McGuire argues that Gerson’s anxiety over same-sex friendship is rooted in his own experience, in “Jean
Gerson and the End of Spiritual Friendship: Dilemmas of Conscience,” in
Friendship in Medieval Europe
, ed. Julian Halsedine (Thrupp, UK: Sutton, 1999), pp. 236–38. Also see chap. 7, p. 268, below. Confessors’ manuals were replete
with advice for minimizing temptations afforded by female penitents. Raymond of Peñafort instructed the priest to make a woman
sit across from him but to avoid looking into her face (
Summa
de poenitentia
3.34.30, pp. 464–65). By Antoninus of Florence’s time, women were to be confessed only in public with witnesses. Strict time
limits were to be imposed on women “who wish to confess excessively frequently . . . [the priest should] always use harsh
and rigid words toward them rather than gentle” (
Confessionale Anthonini
3.11 [Paris: Jehan Petit, 1507?], fol. 28r). Antoninus further condemns priests who hear daily confessions (fol. 28v). Cf.
John Nider’s
Confessionale
seu manuale confessorum fratris Johannis Nyder ad instructionem spiritualem pastorum
valde necessarium
2.1, 6th rule (Paris: Jehan Petit, n.d.), unpaginated.

¹³⁶
Gerson,
De remediis
, in
Oeuvres
, 10:378.

¹³⁷
Gerson,
Poetimini: Contre la luxure
, in
Oeuvres
, 7,2:828. Gerson also explicitly condemns the priest whose carnal lust interferes with God’s work—for instance, a confessor
who prefers certain penitents on the basis of looks, age, or gender (
De signis bonis et malis
, 9:166). Cf. John of Freiburg’s advice to the penitent who plainly sees the lust his or her confession excites on the face
of the priest (
Summa confessorum
bk. 3, tit. 34, q. 81 [Rome: n.p., 1518], fol. 192r).

¹³⁸
Gerson, to an unknown recipient, but perhaps Peter d’Ailly, in
Oeuvres
, 2:21; trans. Brian McGuire,
Jean Gerson: Early Works
(New York: Paulist Press, 1998), p. 165.

¹³⁹
John Nider,
Consolatorum timorate conscientie
(Paris: Jehan Petit, 1502?) 3.4–5 (unpaginated).

¹⁴⁰
Ibid. 3.2.

¹⁴¹
Ibid. 3.16; cf. 3.15.

¹⁴²
Ibid. 3.2.

¹⁴³
Nider,
Formicarium
2.12, pp. 175–76; cf. an instance concerning a monk (pp. 176–77).

¹⁴⁴
Ibid. 2.12, p. 173–74; cf. a case concerning a widow (pp. 175–76).

¹⁴⁵
John of Marienwerder,
Septililium B. Dorotheae
7.4, ed. Franz Hipler,
AB
4 (1885): 247.

¹⁴⁶
Ibid., p. 248. Christ also insists on confession in a public place. Cf. John’s similar rationale for transcribing Dorothea’s
revelations only in open areas of the church (idem,
Vita Dorotheae
1.7, p. 50).

¹⁴⁷
John of Marienwerder,
Septililium
7.5, p. 249.

¹⁴⁸
Dorothea’s austerities may have substantially interfered with her children’s health. (Only one of her nine children survived.)
This perhaps makes the case for her projection upon the nameless female penitent who inadvertently killed her child all the
stronger. On Dorothea’s self-mortification when nursing, see Elliott,
Spiritual Marriage
, p. 230. On the unnerving parallels between interrogation of penitents and heretics, see Annie Cazenave, “Aveu et Contrition:
Manuels de confesseurs et interrogatoires d’inquisition en Languedoc et en Catalogne (XIIIe–XIVe sie`cles),” in
La Pi
è
te
é
populaire au Moyen Age
, Actes du 99e congre`s national des Sociétés Savantes, Bescan ç on, 1974 (Paris: Bibliothe`que Nationale, 1977), pp. 333–52.

¹⁴⁹
Cf. chap. 1, p. 26, above; also note the distinction between the seal of confession and the seal of secrecy.

¹⁵⁰
Zanchino Ugolini,
Tractatus de haereticis
, in
Tractatus universi iuris
, ed. Camillo Campeggi (Venice: Franciscus Zilettus, 1584), vol. 11, pt. 2, c. 34, fol. 264r; Lorenzo Paolini, ed.,
Il
“
De
of
fi
cio inquisitionis
”
: La procedura inquisitoriale a Bologna e a Ferrara nel Trecento
(Bologna: Editrice Universitaria Bolognina, 1976), 1:80, 141. Raymond of Peñafort’s consultation with the bishop of Tarragona
was more clement. See chap. 1, p. 27, above.