medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Melissa,
I've done some work on Middle English translations of RSB
for nuns. They definitely take desires of the flesh to
include food & drink - the lines 'Bot at žai neuer assent
vntil / Žair flesch 3ernyng fully to fil' are about not
drinking too much wine (if you look at visitation records,
drinking comes up more often than sex as a problem,
though admittedly they sometimes go together). Since
gluttony as well as lechery is a sin of the flesh
I'd expect this to be a standard reading of the phrase. I
too was surprised at how little there is about sexual
abstinence - all I can suggest is that it's taken as a
given and not felt to need much explication. As far as I
can see the text at that point is just repeating the
commandments and the duties of ordinary Christians before
getting onto monk-specific matters, which explains why the
mention of adultery. But there are real monastic
specialists on the list who will no doubt have more
authoritative views on the matter.
Sarah
On Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:43:14 +1000 Melissa Raine
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> In chapter 4 of the rule, which in my Latin-English edition (ed. Justin
> McCann, 1952) calls "the tools of good works", one of the injunctions
> listed is "Not to fulfil the desires of the flesh" ("Desideria carnis
> non efficere"). Can anyone tell me whether this refers specifically to
> sexual activity, as the phrase tends to suggest in modern English, or is
> it broader than that? This particular chapter also specifically forbids
> gluttony, but would excessive interest in food and drink also have been
> generally thought of as "desires of the flesh"?
>
> For that matter, since the monks were (and are, I believe) celibate, why
> does the same chapter also forbid adultery ("non adulterari")? Further
> on in the same chapter, one of the tools listed is "to love chastity"
> ("castitatem amare"), but nowhere does sex per se appear to be
> explicitly forbidden. Have I missed something?
>
> Melissa
>
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