medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The best evidence that Henry and Cunegunde had a non-sexual marriage is a
letter from a bishop who was a close friend of the couple praying that
they'll finally be blessed with children. But I can't think offhand where
the reference is.
You also seem to be assuming a degree of marital privacy that would have
been unnatural in the early eleventh century, an age that seems to have
been much less inhibited than our own and included servants sleeping in the
master's bedroom, etc. It seems telling that it isn't for several
generations that we have sources claiming that H & C were abstinent.
I'm curious about the source of your definition of "Christian chastity."
The words "chastity" and "celibacy" seem to shift meanings quite a lot. I
had finally convinced myself that the standard "religious" definition was
that chastity = no sex at all and celibacy = no "improper" sex----in other
words, no sex at all for monks/nuns/etc., and only canonically approved sex
for married couples.
Phyllis
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>Assuming one means by "chaste" a marriage free of sexual relations
>(Christian chastity applies to all--not acting out of cupiditas and lust
>but out of caritas--but the chastity of a married couple will, of
>course, take place in a rather different context than that of a celibate
>religious), the historian in me asks how one could know that Henry and
>Cunegunde did or did not engage in marital relations. That they had no
>children would be obvservable to outsiders. But how would one know,
>especially at this distance, that they engaged in marital intercourse
>but no children resulted from it rather than remained abstinent?
>
>Dennis Martin
>
>>>> [log in to unmask] 07/12/02 17:33 PM >>>
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>culture
>, Canterbury.
>
>Henry II (d. 1024) . . . . Later legend gave Henry a prime qualification
>for sainthood: a chaste marriage (in reality, his marriage to Cunegunde
>appears to have simply been childless). He was canonized in 1146.
>
>
>Dr. Phyllis G. Jestice
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>
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