medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
It's perhaps a little late to contribute to this thread, but for the sake
of completeness it seems worth mentioning that some canonists upheld a
prohibition against holding a church funeral for women who died in
childbirth, explicitly stated in Johannis Beleth summa de ecclesiasticis
officiis, CCCM 41-41a, 2:315-316 & Honorius Augustodunensis, Gemma animae,
PL 172, coll. 583, 589. But the canonist Guillaume Durand de Mende
disagreed, noting that if great care is taken to avoid soiling the church
with blood, the dead woman's funeral may be held in church (Gullielmi
Duranti rationale diuinorum officiorum, CCM 140, 1:62). It is pollution
with blood that seems to be the main concern here.
Aline Hornaday
At 06:58 AM 2/13/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Women were not supposed to enter the altar area at all--though I suspect
>this was often ignored when it was a question of cleaning. Nevertheless,
>purists would not allow women to touch the sacred vessels either. Thus any
>untoward effect of women's natural functions was contained reasonably well.
>There is a famous letter attributed to Gregory the Great in Bede's
>Ecclesiastical History denying the idea that women could be considered
>"polluting" when menstruating or giving birth or otherwise functioning
>according to God's plan but in general ecclesiastical authorities were
>inclined to take no chances.
>
>Jo Ann
>
>The law locks up the man or woman
>Who steals the goose from off the common
>But leaves the greater villain loose
>Who steals the common from the goose.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Stephanie Budin <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Monday, February 12, 2001 9:46 AM
>Subject: Re: de[con]secration/de-secration (bloodshed)
>
>
> > Many Greetings from a new member,
> >
> > Concerning bloodshed and sexual acts as defiling, was there any
> >prohibition against giving birth within church space?
> >
> > Stephanie Budin
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