èצӰĎń

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Priests' Wives and Concubines in the Medieval West

Date
Thu October 27th 2022, 8:30am - 6:00pm
Event Sponsor
Organized by the Department of History with generous funding from France-èצӰĎń Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. Cosponsored by Department of Religious Studies, Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Language, and the Europe Center.
Location
Cecil H. Green Library, Hohbach Hall

This conference focuses on medieval women married to or living with priests, with the goal of restoring priests’ wives to scholarship on gender, spirituality, family life, and the church, particularly in western Europe.   Speakers will explore the lives and circumstances of priests’ women, the sources that can reveal or shed light on their status or experiences, and the various roles—social as well as cultural—that they played within the family, their local communities, and the church more broadly.  More information about the project can be found . 

Conference Program
Thursday, October 27, 2022

8:30-9:15 am: Coffee

9:20 am: Greeting and Introduction

9:30 -11:00 am:

  •  (Universität TĂĽbingen) and  (Universität TĂĽbingen): Contexts for the Defense of Clerical Marriage in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries

Coffee break
11:30 am -1:00 pm: 

  •  (UniversitĂ© de Limoges): L’entourage fĂ©minin des chanoines de la collĂ©giale Saint-Seurin de Bordeaux au XIIe siècle : Ă©pouses et veuves dans la vie communautaire sĂ©culière
  •  (University of Sheffield): Ego Agna, mater tua: Priests' wives and Female Relatives as Protagonists in Frankish and Spanish Charters, c. 900-1100

1:00 -2:30 pm: Lunch (Citrus Courtyard)
2:30 - 4:00 pm:

  • (University of California- Berkeley): Priest’s Wives, their Children, and the Bishop’s Notaries: The Thirteenth-century Visitation Records of CittĂ  di Castello
  • (UniversitĂ© de Poitiers): Priests’ and Bishops’ Wives in Tuscany (10-12th): An Ambiguous Recognition

Coffee
4:30-6:00        

  •  (UniversitĂ© de Lille): Ecclesia, quae sponsa vel uxor eius dicitur: Priests, Women and Churches in the early medieval West
  •  (University of Sheffield): “Since a priest or deacon cannot have a lawful wife”: Rather of Verona’s struggle against clerical families in late tenth-century northern Italy.

 
Friday, October 28, 2022
8:30 - 9:00 am: Coffee
9:00-10:30 am:

  •  (Bar-Ilan University): Riding the Black Mare, Casting Away a Hungry Rat: The Priest’s Concubine in Medieval Folklore
  •  (University of Santiago de Compostela): Put the Blame on Her? Wives, Lovers, Daughters, and Sisters Facing Priest's Celibacy (NW Iberia, 800-1200)

Coffee
11:00-12:30 pm: 

  •  (Stephen F. Austin State University): Priests, Concubines, and Slaves in Central-Medieval Bavaria
  •  (èצӰĎń): Making Men “Worthy of the Priesthood”: Clerical Wives and Ordained Husbands

12:30-2:00 pm: Lunch (Citrus Courtyard)
2:00-4:15 pm: 

  •  (UniversitĂ© Paris 1 – PanthĂ©on-Sorbonne): Cleric's wives in Britanny: Exceptions or Models for Clerical Couples in France ? (late 10th-early 11th century)
  •  (John Jay College of Criminal Justice): The Bishop’s Wife
  •  (Independent Scholar): Describing Priests' Wives in Normandy and England, 1050-1150

Coffee
4:45 pm: Wrap up and conference conclusions