medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, Paul Hyams has uncovered some
evidence that sometimes men left naming to women or naming was
appropriated by women - i.e. that it formed part of a female celebratory
rite of passage around childbirth, perhaps - P. R. Hyams, 'Maitland and
the rest of us' in J. Hudson, ed., _The History of English Law.
Centenary Essays on 'Pollock and Maitland_ (Oxford, 1996), p. 232, n.
59:
'Another case cited Pollock and Maitland ii 399 illustrates a related
matter. It shows that sometimes women not only delivered the child but
also arranged his baptism and naming, all presumably in the father's
absence. Names were important enough that contemporaries would, one
imagines, have been shocked by this, even with a babe not expected to
live.'
Dave Postles
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