"Precious Balsam in a Fragile Glass" : the Ideology of Virginity in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract

Since the patristic age, Christians have held ambivalent notions about the meaning of virginity and the status of the virgin. In the early Middle Ages, a physiological definition prevailed; after the thirteenth century, there was an in creasing tendency to interpret virginity in moral and psychological terms—the "true" virgin was characterized by purity and humility. Certain women who were wives and mothers were called to vocations of special holiness, which might include severe ascetic practices, pilgrimage, and mystical communion with God. Some of these women suffered painful conflict over their marital status and family ties, but their experience and reputations marked significant changes in Christian ideas about sexuality and family life. When Luther argued that the virgin was not necessarily the "best" Christian, he argued within a tradition that had widened and expanded during the last medieval centuries.