medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Dr. Saurer,
May be we have to have look also at the history of heterodox communities.
The privilege to ordain and shrive was in general currency in the practice
of Bogomils, Cathars and Lollards. Allow me to quote some examples.
A. BOGOMILS
Tenth century:
"The heretics absolve themselves, though they are tied up with de¬vilish
fetters. This is done not only by the men but also by the women which is
worthy of castigation." (Presbyter Cozma's testimony in his Tract Against
the Bogomils). Twelfth century (1143):
Heresy trial of the monks-bishops Leonce of Balbissa and Clement of Sasimes:
"...he ordained women for deaconesses letting them read prayers and the holy
Gospels, and serve mass along with Clement." και χειροτονήσαι γυναΐκασ διάκο
νίσσασ, κάιέπιτρέπειν αύταισ τάσ συνήθειο έκκλησιαστικάσ αϊτησεισ ποιεΤσθαι
καί την άγιων ευαγγελίων άνάγνοσιν και συλλειτουργήσαι ταύτασ μετά του
Κλήμεντου (Gouillard J., in Quatre procès de mystiques à Byzance. IV. Les
évêques "bogomiles" de Cappadoce, Paris: Institut des études Byzantines,74).
B/CATHARS
Beginning of the fourteenth century:
Depositions of Raymunda Valsiera for the Inquisition in Languedoc,
describing how Cathar women can practice the "Consolamentum", the sacrament
of the Cathars: "...that this power from the hands of the good men upon the
good men, and from the hands of the good women upon the good women...that
the good women possess the mentioned power and they can receive it for
exercising on men and women, and if so it is that good men are absent [the
adepts] can by saved by good women, the same way as good men do".(...quod
dicta potestas transiret de manibus ad manibus bonorum hominum ad bonos
homines; et bonarum mulierum ad bonas mulieres quia, ut dixit, ita sunt
bonae mulieres, sicut et boni homines; quae bonae mulieres.sicut et boni
homines; quae bonae mulieres dictam potestatem habent et possunt recipere in
fine homines et mulieres, si tantum sit, quod non sint praesentes boni
homines, et ita salvantur per bonas mulieres, sicut per bonos homines.")
("Errores Manichaeorum:
Confessio Raymundi Valsiera de Ax", in Dollinger, Ign.v., Beitrage zur
Sectengeschichte des Mitte latter, t.H-Dokumente vornehmlich wr Geschichte
der Valdesier und Kathurer, Miinchen, 1890, 165).
C/ LOLLARDS
Fifteenth century:
Lollards' depositions at the heresy trials in Norwich :
"Also that every man and every woman in good lyf oute of synne is a good
prest and hath [as] much poar of God in al thynges as ony prest ordered, be
he pope or bisshop." (Hawisia Moone, uxor Thome Moone de Lodne, 142).
"Item quod quilibet fidelis homo et quilibet fidelis mulier est bonus
sacerdos." (Sibilla, uxor Johannes Godsell de Dychingham, 67).
"Also that every good man and good woman is a prest." (Johannes Skylan de
Bergh, 147). (Heresy Trials In the Diocese of Norwich 1428-31, edited by
Tanner, Norman P., L., 1977)
Margaret Aston mentions that the Lollards produced some famous women
preachers. The question, however, of whether there were Lollard women
priests does not have a definite answer yet, according to her. Aston gives
the case (after Henry Knighton, 1391) of a Lollard woman that had taught her
daughter to celebrate mass but not to consecrate the sacrament. (Aston, M.,
Lollards and Reformers /Images and Literacy in Late Medieval religion/. The
Humbledon Press, 1984, 62, 69).
AND NOW – VERY IMPORTANT: 563 years after the trial of Norwich (where it was
established that the heretics gave women the right to shrive), the Anglican
Church, unique among the Christian Churches, ordained in March 1994 32 women
as priests; in this we can discern the distant influence of the tradition of
the English heretics. In its centuries-old disputation with the Vatican, the
Church of England used almost the same critical qualifications and epithets
as the heretics who preceded it.
The rigid position of the Catholic Church against the ordaining women was
corroborated by John Paul II on July 27, 1994. He explained that since Jesus
had chosen only men for apostles, there is no justifica¬tion for changing
the situation today. According to Reuter (the source of the information),
this position will almost certainly be maintained by subsequent popes.
Georgi Vasilev Ph.D., D.Litt.
Professor of European and Medieval Studies
State University of Library Studies and Information Technologies
Sofia 1784
119 Tsarigradsko shose bd
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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