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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Bernadette Filotas <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >I thought -issa was fairly commonly added to the masculine form to refer to the wife of a functionary - e.g., dux, ducissa. If diaconissa and subdiaconissa were standing on their own, without the sua, I would be tempted to think they referred to deaconesses and subdeaconesses. Not in this clause though. >The fact that the text kicks off with presbiter cum presbitera sua makes it pretty definite even without "sua' - even without looking in Blaise s.v.presbitera. In any event, the context is clearly the relations of clerics with their wives. yes, i see your point and agree (just as though i knew what i was talking about, linguisitically) --otherwise we would have female priests (a.k.a. "priestesses"), which would not do at all. my interest is rather more secular, however: i've got ladies at the beginning of the 12th c. in the Chartrain witnessing documents as "Vidamess" (_Vicedomina_), sometimes clearly after the death of their husbands, the Vidame. i was just wondering if this "title" was, as it were, honorific or if they did, indeed, hold and discharge the responsibilities of the office (one of which entailed leading the Bishop's fief-holders in battle). at the same time the widowed Countess Adela of Blois was, apparently, in full charge of the office of countess as regent for her minor son for over two decades. presumably Adela wasn't leading the troops either, but was the "Vidamess" in charge of the Vidame's business? i'm inclined to think so, witnessing important acts with that title, sometimes with "X, filius ejus." the Vidame was, apparently, a quasi-clerical office, but i'm not sure how --or if-- this relates to "deaconesses," however. best from here, christopher Christopher Crockett Christopher's Book Room P.O. Box 1061 Bloomington, IN 47402 http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BooksBrowse?vendorclientid=807329&page=CLIENT ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html