Women: Luther and the Medieval Roman Catholic Church
The medieval view of women and the woman's role was essentially informed by a centuries-long, Christian informed tradition, upheld by patriarchal society. Thus, that there should exist a vast discrepancy between the views of Luther and the views of the medieval Roman Catholic Church regarding women is to perhaps wish too much. Modern feminism may be, to some extent, found in the works of Chaucer, whose Wife of ath represents a departure from "acceptable" womanhood in the medieval world. ut even a century and a half later not much has changed on this front. Luther's animus towards the Catholic Church was mainly doctrine and practice-centered. Luther had a conception of the faith that differed and evolved significantly as the Protestant Reformation got underway. Nonetheless, there can be found teachings by both Luther and the Catholic Church that can be compared for a…...

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Bibliography

Darlage, Adam. "Double Honor: Elite Hutterite Women in the Sixteenth Century."

Church History, vol. 79, no. 4 (Dec 2010): 753-782

Karant-Nunn, Susan; Viesner-Hanks, Merry. Luther on Women: A Sourcebook. UK:

Cambridge, 2003.

This gave her husband the right to sell any of her property and she was not in a position to object in any way. Religious women with their vows of obedience and poverty really had no reason to get involved in legal matters and were untouched in any way by the legal structure.
idows were the only women who held in legal position in the society. "She (a widow) regained her legal personality, was entitled to a certain share of her husband's holdings and, for the first time in her life, could make independent decisions." Legally, this was the best position for women. It was not without problems especially for wealthy women. These women were frequently intimidated into a second marriage or into relinquishing parts of their holdings. They had no legal recourse against this kind of intimidation in the same way that married women could not object to domestic…...

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Works Cited

Barber, Richard. The Penguin Guide to Medieval Europe. New York: Penguin

Books, 1984.

Conway, Stephen. "Silent Voices: Women in the Middle Ages." 1991.  http://www.subverbis.com/essays/medievalwomen.rtf .

Delort, Robert. Life in the Middle Ages. Trans. Robert Allen. New York:

omen
The specific attitude toward women in medieval times was that they were inferior to men. Generally, women were taught that they should be meek and obedient to their fathers and husbands. This view of women was consistent to women of mythology in many ways. Many of the myths and legends created were directed towards women, to teach them lessons in humility and obeisance. They explained the social laws and rules which women had to obey, despite their influence over their husbands.

Medieval women had major responsibilities and were not at all inferior to men in terms of daily effort. Most worked and did not stay at home. Many toiled alongside their families in the fields, and some were employed in workshops or were trades-women. omen sometimes had the responsibility of running large estates, due to the death of a husband. They settled local disputes and arranged estate finances. They even took…...

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Works Cited

Dozier, E.P., (1971). The American Southwest. In Leacock, E.B., & Lurie, N.O. (Eds.),

North American Indians in historical perspective. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.

Faiman-Silva, S. (1997). Choctaws at the Crossroads. Lincoln: University of Nebraska

Press.

Northern and Southern California
Gender and the Middle Ages

Legend, Faith, and Historical Reality

'woman,' as was understood by a resident of Europe during the Middle Ages, was either the mother of Jesus or the physical embodiment of Eve's sin. In the rhetorical discourse of courtly love, women functioned either as representations of desire or objects of adoration for men to save. They could inspire heroic deeds in the hearts of knights yet in the Christian discourse of the lives of the saints and miracles, women functioned as representations of what was worldly, fleshy and desirable in a negative fashion. Thus, to eschew the feminine in the religious discourse of the period was evidence of saintliness, as seen through the eyes of saintly hagiographers.

omen thus occupied an ideologically precarious position within the context of Medieval Europe. They were symbolically central. They were not socially marginal as a group, as transactions and exchanges of…...

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Works Cited

Bennett, Judith. Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1297-1344Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1297-134. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

A de Troyes, Chretien. "Yvain: The Knight with the Lion." Arthurian Romances. New York: Penguin Classics, 1991.

Joinville, Jean. Life of Saint Louis. New York: Penguin Classics.

Chretien de Troyes, "Yvain: The Knight with the Lion," Arthurian Romances, (New York: Penguin Classics, 1991), p.296.

Women in Monasticism
Famous women in monasticism

In monasticism, the participation of women started very early and apart from the hermits who lived in the desert, there were women in ome who were living like in a monastic manner. One of the first such instances was Paula who founded with Jerome a double monastery in Bethlehem, as also Macrina in Cappadocia at nearly the same time. Even in recorded history, there are the records from Palladius from the 5th century saying that in the desert he encountered women in monastic lives. He had met a convent of 400 women led by a remarkable individual, Amma Talis which had been going on for 80 years. His records clearly state the freedom that these women seemed to have as also their generous hospitality. Another famous personality, Pachomius, who has founded the cenobitic monastery, had written down rules in the 3rd century BC, which were…...

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REFERENCES

"Catholic Online Saints: St. Scholastica" Retrieved from   Accessed 26 September, 2005http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=240 

"Christina of Markyate" Retrieved from  http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/religion/p/c_markyate.htm 

Accessed 26 September, 2005

"Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)" (18 August, 2005) Retrieved from Accessed 26 September, 2005http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html

This is furthered by the fact that the daughter closest to the infant, who perches on her mother's lap, holds that baby's hand, implying an ascent to motherhood. Behind the family, the picture window showing grand gardens and mansion details implies wealth. Indeed, the smooth texture and use of dark colors further suggests royalty. hile both Drurer's and van Ceulen's portraits use light and dark and positioning as symbols, then, Druer's work is focused on the Bibles -- spirituality -- while van Ceulen's painting is quite clearly focused on the earth -- economics, royalty, inheritance, and family.
The symbolism contained in these paintings is extremely relevant to another symbolic work out of the late Renaissance, Lanyer's "Eve's Apology in Defense of omen." In this work, Lanyer argues that women should not be held wholly responsible for Adam's actions in the Garden of Eden -- where women were rumored to have…...

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Works Cited

Lanyer, Amelia. "Evel's Apology in Defense of Women." CharleyYoung's.com 1611. 17

July 2009.

Medieval Cultural Exchange
Contrasting Medieval eligious Expression:

An analysis across Christian and Islamic Civilization

In Chapters 7, 8 and 9 of John McKay's A History of World Societies, the similarities and differences of medieval Christian and Islamic civilization across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are detailed as the rise and fall of political and religious actors are presented. One fascinating subject that stands out from such a tremendous amount of material and which returns the student of history to the human scale is how the two civilizations influenced each other in developing new perspectives on religious expression through art, ranging from architecture to calligraphy to even everyday objects such as religious clothing. An understanding of how these two civilizations influenced one another contributes to a more complete understanding of the broader issues of politics, religion and geopolitical competition that defined this historical epoch.

One of the most prominent areas of religious cross-influence across…...

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References:

Goskar, T. (2011). Material Worlds: The Shared Cultures of Southern Italy and its Mediterranean Neighbors in the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries. Al-Masaq. Vol. 23, No. 3.

Hoare, T. (2005). Introduction to World Humanities. Johnson County Community College. Date Retrieved 12/27/11. URL: http://staff.jccc.net/thoare/145byz.htm

Mango, C. (1972). The Art of the Byzantine Empire. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

McKay, J.P. (2008). A History of World Societies: Volume A: From Antiquity to 1500. New York, NY: Beford Publishers.

Conservative Jews use a different prayer book and have somewhat shorter services. Some of the prayers are in English, while in the Orthodox synagogue the entire service is in Hebrew.
Reform Jews take a radical approach and declare that revelation is not central to belief and that even the commandments in the Torah can be discarded if they conflict with the demands of modern living. Reformed Jews agree that God may have revealed Himself to Moses, but they deny that God revealed the Torah as an eternal covenant with His people.

In America, the different Jewish sects have taken a different approach to maintaining their specific community and have shaped their different synagogues to reflect differences in belief. Reform and Conservative synagogues have no separate section for men and women, who sit together during the services. In Orthodox practice, separation of the sexes is an absolute law. The reason given for…...

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Bibliography

Adler, Ruth. Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998.

Asheri, Michael. Living Jewish. New York: Everest House, 1978.

Bronner, Leila Leah. From Eve to Esther: Rabbinic Reconstructions of Biblical Women. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994.

Darr, Katheryn Pfisterer. Far More Precious Than Jewels. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox, 1991.

Women in Chaucer and Shakespeare
What is a female reader supposed to get from reading a poem or watching a play written by male authors? If the topic is classical, the chances are that it is intended as a sort of model for conduct, a form of etiquette instruction in the guise of a worthy lesson from the traditional classical education -- and therefore obliged to reflect contemporary moral standards to which women were expected to adhere. I propose to compare the treatment of women in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida -- specifically in Act III Scene 1, the moment when Pandarus finally manages to effect a meeting between the lovers of the title -- with that much earlier in Chaucer's ook of the Duchess, with specific reference lines 1052-1087. I think we can see a shift from the medieval to the modern mindset in such a comparison: specifically to watch how…...

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Bibliography

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead, 1999. Print.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Book of the Duchess." In The Riverside Chaucer. Edited by L. Benson, R. Pratt, and F.N. Robinson. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Troilus and Cressida. Edited by William Rolfe. New York: Harper's, 1905. Print.

Cecilia Penifader
Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader

The extent gender and class played in Cecilia's life experiences

Looking at the life of other peasants, Cecilia was from a wealthy family. They had a large house constructed from twigs, moss and mud covering approximately 150 sq. Cecilia came from a one-roomed family house, with a fireplace at the center for cooking and warmth. Cecilia spent much of her life as a child in the garden surrounding their house, where she played and helped with caring for her younger sibling (Agnes), cooking, and gardening. Cecilia's home was surrounded with a diverse and large community. Cecilia came from a village whereby people lived close to one another and sometimes shared a wall. Most trade and businesses took place in the villages while critical economic activities occurred in the countryside. The economy of this village looks upon arable fields and pastures, arable fields comprise of a quarter of…...

Women's choice lead a celebate life, remain a virgin, a rejection societal expectations? A conclusion drawn thesis question. I attaching suggested books citation. Essay 12 pages length counting citations bibliography.
Was a Women's choice to lead a celibate life or remain a virgin a rejection of societal expectations?

The role of women in the society has been widely debated throughout the history of both philosophical thought and social sciences. Women have a particular place in society since ancient times and there are clear indications, in the religious literature, that women have had specific views and opinions regarding their own place in the society. In this context, the current research discusses the choice of women to lead a celibate life or keep herself a virgin and whether this choice was a reaction to societal expectations and social pressures. The perspective of the research analysis is focused on Christian traditions from the Apostles…...

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Kung, 2001, p22-3

Karant-Nun, 2003, p10

idem, p11

The second statute which serves to maintain the economic and political domination of women is the rule stating that women may not "dare or presume to take for spinning more than one ball of wool at one time," because this prevents any attempt on the part of female workers to stockpile or otherwise accumulate enough wool to sell or use it outside the established, guild-monitored economy ("Statutes of a wool guild," 1384, 106). Although this statute may have decreased the overall efficiency of the wool-spinning process by requiring women to go get a new ball of wool every time they finish, it also served to protect the guild from rebellion or discontent, because allowing women greater control over the process "might give rise to a strong organization of skilled craftsmen who would be much more difficult to control than" individual women, spinning one ball of wool at a time out…...

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Works Cited

Belfanti, C.M. (2004). Guilds, patents, and the circulation of technical knowledge northern italy during the early modern age. Technology and Culture, 45(3), 569-589.

Caferro, W.P. (2008). Warfare and economy in renaissance italy, 1350 -- 1450. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 39(2), 167-209.

Statutes of a wool guild. (1384). Padua.

The gatehouse at Harlech contained spacious chambers or halls, with fireplaces and latrines. There is little doubt that the guardhouse was home to the constable of the castle. Master James of St. George, the Harlech's builder, was himself appointed constable of his creation (Williams 2007, p. 7). The gatehouse was also occupied, in this period, by Sir John de Bonvillars, Deputy Justiciar of North Wales. The larger rooms on each level were fitted with tall windows. The most favored rooms faced the courtyard, the chimneys of their fireplaces making an additional architectural arrangement on the roof of the gatehouse (Williams 2007, p. 21). The view from Harlech is particularly impressive. The sea and the mountains of Snowdonia provide a majestic backdrop to the royal castle. It has even been suggested at oscommon that the castle's original location beside a lake and in the middle of an expansive field may…...

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References

Barry, T.B., 1988, the Archaeology of Medieval Ireland, London: Routledge.

Brown, Allen, 1970, English Castles, Chancellor Press, 59 Grosvenor St., London.

Curtis, E., 2002,. A History of Ireland: From Earliest Times to 1922, London: Routledge.

Davies, R.R., 1997, the Revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Medieval Philosophy
In the introduction to the Greenwood series the Great Cultural Eras of the Western World, A.D. 500 to 1300, is described as the Middle Ages.

"Borders and peoples were never quiescent during these tumultuous times." Schulman (2002). Germanic tribes had invaded and settled in the former oman Empire, and the synthesis of three cultures -- the classical, Christian, and Germanic -- had begun. In the sixth century, Clovis had completed the Frankish conquest of Gaul; the Vandals controlled North Africa; the Visigoths, forced to retreat from southern Gaul by the Franks, continued to dominate Spain; and the Angles and Saxons had settled in Britain. At the same time, the emperors of the Eastern Empire, Constantinople, thrived. " ... The oman papacy began to play an independent role in European society." Schulman, (2002) says "Pepin needed papal support to become king. Schulman, (2002, p. viii) It is later commented that the…...

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References

Adams, M.M. (1999). What Sort of Human Nature? Medieval Philosophy and the Systematics of Christology. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.

Burch, G.B. (1951). Early Medieval Philosophy. New York: King's Crown Press.

Driscoll, J. (1966) The New Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia. New York: Grolier's

Glick, L.B. (1999). Abraham's Heirs: Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe (1st ed.). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

A Greek man's male friends served this purpose.
Ancient Rome followed the patterns in male-female roles as set by the Greeks for most of their history. Like the Greeks, love was generally not an element of most male/female relationships and prostitution was a major industry. For the Romans, the natural order of things was that men were better suited to labor outside the home while women were considered better equipped for handling matters within the home. Unlike Greek women, however, who were relegated to operating in the background even with the home, Roman women were afforded a much larger role in the home but were still not allowed to participate in affairs that occurred in public. In both Greek society and Roman society it must be remembered that they were societies in which under-population was a concern and not over-population as it is today. As a result, the primary function…...

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Works Cited

Kevin Reilly, "Men and Women: Hunters and Gatherers" in The West and the World: a history of civilization from the ancient world to 1700. Kevin Reilly (New York: Harper & Row, 1989).

Kevin Reilly, "Men and Women: Hunters and Gatherers" in The West and the World: a history of civilization from the ancient world to 1700. Kevin Reilly (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 12.

Reilly, 26.

Reilly, 15.