Mystics, Demoniacs, and the Physiology of Spirit Possession in Medieval Europe

Comparative Studies in Society and History

Volumn 42, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 268-306

  Caciola, Nancy ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85016402827     PISSN: 00104175     EISSN: 14752999     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0010417500002474     Document Type: Article

References (201)

1. Portions of this paper were delivered at the Annual Medieval Studies Conference in Leeds, UK, in June 1999
2. and at the conference “Demons, Spirits, Witches: Popular Mythology and Christian Demonology” Budapest, Hungary, in October 1999. I benefitted greatly from conversations with colleagues at these events, especially Joanna Cannon, Gábor Klaniczay, and Moshe Sluhovsky.
3. Vita Venerabilis Idae Virginis. In Acta Sanctorum. (Paris and Rome, 1865) vol. 11 (13 April): 163. Hereafter cited as AASS.
4. For further exploration of the connections between mental illness and demonic possession, see Barbara Newman, “Possessed by the Spirit: Devout Women, Demoniacs, and the Apostolic Life in the Thirteenth Century.” Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies. 73, 3 (July, 1998): 733–70
5. Murial Laharie, La folie au Moyen Age, XIe-XIIIe siècles. (Paris, 1991).
6. A similar distinction, between a “subjective” approach to internal piety and an “objective” and external viewpoint, has been noted by Richard Kieckhefer, who ascribes these differences, in part, to the different tone of the sources regarding male and female saints. See “Holiness and the Culture of Devotion: Remarks on Some Late Medieval Male Saints.” In R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski and T. Szell, eds., Images of Sainthood in the Middle Ages. (Ithaca, 1991).
7. Kieckhefer's remarks are explicitly couched as part of a dialogue with the most important work in the study of medieval women's sanctity: Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987), hereafter cited as HFHF. Bynum's monograph may be seen as part of a larger oeuvre that includes a number of articles, now collected in two editions.
8. See Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High to Late Middle Ages. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1981)
9. Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion. (New York, 1990).
10. Without belaboring the point, it can safely be said that Bynum's influence upon the field (including the present author) has been enormous. Additional studies of interest include Donald Weinstein and Rudolph Bell, Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of Western Christendom. (Chicago, 1982), with an important chapter on women saints.
11. See also Rudolph Bell, Holy Anorexia. (Chicago, 1985), a book that has much to recommend it
12. An anachronistic title, combined with the proximate release of HFHF, has worked to overshadow the considerable merits of this particular study. John Nichols and Lillian Shank, eds., Distant Echoes: Medieval Religious Women. (Kalamazoo, 1984)
13. idem, Peace Weavers: Medieval Religious Women. (Kalamazoo, 1987)
14. Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff, Medieval Women's Visionary Literature. (Oxford, 1986)
15. idem, Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism. (Oxford, 1994).
16. Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Szell, Images of Sainthood, includes several additional articles of interest on feminine sanctity.
17. See also Dyan Elliott, Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock. (Princeton, 1993)
18. Barbara Newman, From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature. (Philadelphia 1995)
19. JoAnn MacNamara, Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millenia. (Cambridge, MA, 1996).
20. Grace Jantzen, Power, Gender, and Christian Mysticism. (Cambridge, UK, 1996), adopts an explicitly religious viewpoint.
21. idem, Towards a Sociological Study of Canonized Sainthood in the Catholic Church. In Stephen Wilson, ed., Saints and their Cults: Studies in Religious Sociology, Folklore, and History. (Cambridge, UK, 1983): 189–216.
22. Richard Kieckhefer, Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and their Religious Milieu. (Chicago, 1984) explores the “theology of sanctity” implicitly manifested by hagiographical representations of the saints, both male and female.
23. Aviad M. Kleinberg, Prophets in their Own Country: Living Saints and the Making of Sanctity in the Later Middle Ages. (Chicago, 1992), is a provocative attempt to discuss the “making of sanctity” in close context, but the individual chapters are occasionally inconsistent with the high degree of methodological subtlety expressed in the introduction.
24. For a critique, see N. Caciola, “Through a Glass, Darkly: Recent Work on Sanctity and Society.” Comparative Studies in Society and History. 38, 2 (April, 1996): 301–309.
25. The most prolific national historiographical tradition that explicitly discusses the social context of women's mysticism is the Italian, which has had a limited impact upon scholarship in the English-speaking world. An explicit attempt to introduce this body of scholarship to an Anglo-American audience is Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi, eds., Women and Religion in Renaissance Italy. Trans. Margery Schneider. (Chicago, 1996).
26. I highly recommend the outstanding work of Anna Benvenuti Papi, In Castro Poenitentiae: Santità e Società Femminile nell'Italia Me-dievale. (Rome, 1990).
27. See also Gabriella Zarri, Le Sante Vive: Cultura e Religiosità Femminile nella Prima Età Moderna. (Turin, 1990)
28. Sofia Boesch-Gajano and Lucia Sebastiani, Culto dei Santi, Istituzioni, e Classi Sociali in Età Preindustriale. (Rome, 1984)
29. Lucetta Scaraffia, La Santa degli Impossibili. (Turin, 1990).
30. For example, see Elliott's hyperbole in Spiritual Marriage, 258
31. “many of these women … were frequently honored as saints after their death, or even in their lifetime,” and 264
32. “the move to chastity … or a higher level of asceticism in general undoubtedly had an empowering effect on the women in question” (emphasis added). This seems to me an assertion that requires proof, rather than meriting status as a self-evident fact. Bynum gives a characteristically nuanced and careful dissection of the issue of women mystics' empowerment in “Women Mystics in the Thirteenth Century: The Case of the Nuns of Helfta.” Jesus as Mother, 170–262. In HFHF, Bynum supports an argument about women mystics' growing prestige by referring to Vauchez's statistical study, but the significance of these figures can easily be overestimated, as I will argue below.
33. See Vauchez, Sainthood, 268–69, with particular attention to table 23. Bynum cites these exact figures in HFHF, 21.
34. Kleinberg, Prophets, 10–11, raises similar points about Vauchez's statistics, noting that the initially impressive 18.2 percent of lay Scandinavian saints canonized between 1305 and 1431 actually represents only one person.
35. Vauchez, Sainthood, 369. As is well known, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Since the latter are subject to such a broad degree of interpretation, I would like to make my own parameters clear. Like Vauchez, I am emphasizing contemporary saints who lived between 1198 and 1500, and leaving out Saint Cunegond (d. 1033, canonized 1200) and Saint Margaret of Scotland (d. 1093, canonized 1249), whose cults had existed since the eleventh century and were merely ratified by the formal process of canonization. The four laywomen who lived in the later Middle Ages and were formally canonized were: Elizabeth of Thuringia (d. 1231, canonized 1234), Hedwig of Silesia (d. 1243, canonized 1267), Brigit of Sweden (d. 1373, canonized 1391, 1415, and 1419), and Catherine of Siena (d. 1380, canonized 1460). Of this number, two…Hedwig of Silesia and Elizabeth of Thuringia…conformed to a non-mystical pattern of sanctity, being known, rather, for their aristocratic charity and dynastic status. This model of female sainthood was particularly associated with Central Europe, as Gábor Klaniczay has shown in a pair of articles: “I Modelli di santità femminile tra i secoli XIII e XIV in Europa Centrale e in Italia.” In S. Graciotti and C. Vasoli, eds., Spiritualità e lettere nella cultura Italiana e Ungherese de basso Medioevo. (Florence, 1995): 75 -109
36. “Miraculum and Maleficium: Reflections Concerning Late Medieval Female Sainthood.” In R. Po-Chia Hsia and R. W. Scribner, eds., Problems in the Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Europe. (Harrassowitz, 1997): 49 -73. The remaining two women, Catherine of Siena and Brigit of Sweden, are the only laywomen mystics canonized in the Middle Ages. It is noteworthy that Brigit's case was so very controversial that she had to be canonized repeatedly. Although it is true that this group constitutes more than half of the statistical sample of lay saints studied by Vauchez, the absolute numbers of such women still remained too low to undergird a strong argument about their presence in the celestial court. Moreover, as I have noted, only two of these examples conform to our picture of the “typical” mystical lay béguine or tertiary. The only additional woman to be successfully canonized during this period was Clare of Assisi (d. 1253, canonized 1255), founder of the Poor Clares, or order of Franciscan nuns.
37. Weinstein and Bell, Saints and Society, seem to have been the originators of this practice.
38. See “A Note on Terminology,” 14–15.
39. This was especially true in the Low Countries, which produced no local cults for the numerous béguines and recluses that are known to modern scholars. Vauchez, Sainthood, 129, notes this absence.
40. Catherine's cult first began in Venice, with the preaching of Dominican supporters there, rather than in her home town of Siena. See M. H. Laurent, “Il Processo Castellano.” Fontes Vitae S. Catharinae Senensis Historicae. vol. 9 (Milan, 1942).
41. On the careful control of Catherine's image, see Sofia Boesch-Gajano and Odile Rédon, “La Legenda Major di Raimondo da Capua: Costruzione di una Santa.” In D. Maffei and P. Nardi, eds., Atti del Simposio Internazionale Cateriano-Bernadiniano. (Siena, 1982). In Italy, women mystics were apt to acquire a greater degree of local influence than in the Low Countries. This is perhaps due both to the greater prestige of the mendicant orders in this area, as well as to the strong desire of Italian towns to have a homegrown patron in the celestial court. Two interesting examples are Fina of San Gimignano and Verdiana of Castelfiorentino, who were both objects of lively local cults that received little attention from the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Margaret of Cortona was venerated as a saint within the city of Cortona, but the commune's request for a canonization inquiry was rejected by the Papal curia: Sainthood, 72
42. André Vauchez and Joanna Cannon, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti. (University Park, PA, 1999). However, many Italian religious women also encountered strong local opposition to their claims of divine inspiration, as I shall demonstrate.
43. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion. Trans. Ephraim Fischoff. (Boston, 1922): 10.
44. Two excellent works explicitly dealing with aspects of cult formation are Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. (Chicago, 1981), and the collection of essays by Wilson, Saints and their Cults.
45. On the dynamics of this relationship, see John Coakley, “Friars as Confidants of Holy Women in Medieval Dominican Hagiography.” In Blumenfeld-Kosinski and Szell, Images of Sainthood, 222–246.
46. There has been some previous work that notes the juxtaposition of women mystics and “demonic women” of various kinds: witches, heretics, false saints, and demoniacs. For example, Bynum did not miss these intimations: she notes suspicions directed against female mystics at several points in HFHF, but does not expand upon the theme. (See pages 8, 21, 84–86 for examples.) For works explicitly devoted to exploring the juxtaposition, two publications in Italian focus mainly on the Early Modern period, though with some medieval evidence: Marcello Craveri, Sante e Streghe: Biografie e Documenti dal XIV al XVII Secolo. (Milan, 1980), gives several case studies
47. Gabriel-la Zarri, ed., Finzione e Santità tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna. (Turin, 1991), is a collection of short articles.
48. Richard Kieckhefer, “The Holy and the Unholy: Sainthood, Witchcraft, and Magic in Late Medieval Europe.” The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 24 (1994): 355–85, despite a title that seems to address this theme, actually argues at the outset that the duality of “holy and unholy” is not a particularly fruitful comparison in regard to the careers of saints and witches.
49. Kieckhefer suggests instead that this duality is manifested more provocatively in the rituals of necromancers, and goes on to give a fascinating and provocative analysis of learned magic. Peter Dinzelbacher, Heilige oder Hexen? Schicksale auffälliger Frauen im Mittelalter und Frühneuzeit. (Zürich, 1995), an expansion of his earlier article in Finzione e Santità, adopts a structuralist approach, comparing basic elements of the witches' sabbath with elements in the careers of specific women mystics.
50. The perceptive recent article by Barbara Newman, “Possessed by the Spirit,” argues (among other things) for the enhanced prestige of both women mystics and women demoniacs (see especially pages 753–62).
51. Rosalynn Voaden has recently published a study of the theme of the discernment of spirits with special attention to the writings of Brigit of Sweden, God's Words, Women's Voices. (York, 1999).
52. My own interest in the topic began as dissertation research: Nancy Caciola, “Discerning Spirits: Sanctity and Possession in the Later Middle Ages.” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1994), but my thinking has evolved substantially since then.
53. A useful corrective to overly reified views of the institution is articulated by Gary Macy, “Was there a ‘The Church’ in the Middle Ages?” In R. N. Swanson, ed., Unity and Diversity in the Church. (Cambridge, UK, 1996), 107–116.
54. Vauchez, Sainthood, 207–212.
55. Herbert Grundmann was an exception to this rule. In examining “religious movements,” Grundmann examined both “heretical” and “orthodox” groups as merely different branches of a single spiritual movement. Herbert Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegun-gen im Mittelalter. (Hildesheim, 1961).
56. English translation by Steven Rowan, Religious Movements in the Middle Ages. (Notre Dame, 1995).
57. Jacques de Vitry, Vita Mariae Oignacensis. AASS vol. 25 (23 June): 548.
58. The phrase is repeated verbatim by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale. (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1965), 1240.
59. Thomas of Cantimpré, Vita Christinae Mirabilis.AASS vol. 32 (24 July).
60. An excellent English translation is Margot King, The Life of Christina Mirabilis. (Kalamazoo, 1986), 6.
61. King, Life of Christina, 11.
62. De Beata Alpaide Virgine.AASS vol. 64, pars priori (3 Nov.): 180
63. Joannis Brug-man, De S. Lidwina Virgine. AASS vol. 11 (14 April): 334. For Catherine, see the longer discussion below.
64. Jean Gerson, De Distinctione Verarum Visionum a Falsis. Ed. Ellies du Pin, Opera Omnia Joannis Gersonii. I: 48.
65. See also Paschal Boland, The Concept of Dis-cretio Spirituum in John Gerson's “De Probatione Spirituuum” and “De Distinctione Verarum Visionum a Falsis.” (Washington, DC, 1959). This incident appears on p. 87- 88 of Boland's translation; Boland's commentary, however, must be used with caution.
66. Vita Venerabilis Idae Virginis. AASS vol. 11 (13 April): 164; cf. also 172.
67. Peter of Dacia, Acta B. Christinae Stumblensis. AASS vol. 25 (22 June): 251.
68. Peter of Dacia, Acta B. Christinae, 302 (stoning); 318 (sermons). There also is an element of competition between the mendicant orders here, since Christina moved within Dominican circles. For further reviling of Christina see pages 237; 255; 295–96.
69. John Marienwerder, Vita Dorotheae Montoviensis. Ed. H. Westpfahl. (Bóhlau, 1964), 43.
70. Étienne de Bourbon, Anecdotes historiques, légendes et apologues, tirés du re-cueil inédit d'Étienne de Bourbon, Dominicain du XIIIe Siècle. Ed. A. Lecoy de la Marche. (Paris, 1878): 113.
71. Joseph Klapper, ed., Erzälungen des Mittelalters, In deutscher Übersetzung und lateinischen Urtext. (Hildescheim, 1978): 348–49. The manuscript is the product of two different hands, both probably dating from the second half of the fourteenth century.
72. Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum. Ed. Joseph Strange. 2 vols. (Cologne, 1851), I, 332.
73. Johannes Nider, Formicarius. (Douai, 1602), 386–388.
74. Nider, Formicarius, 249–250.
75. Richer of Sens, Chronici senoniensis, Liber IV, cap. xviii. In L. d'Achery, ed., Spicilegium sive Collectio Veterum Aliquot Scriptorum qui in Galliae Bibliothecis Delituerunt. (Paris, 1723), 634–636.
76. The canonization process has been partially edited, see Enrico Menesto, ed., Il Processo di Canonizzazione di Chiara di Montefalco. (Florence, 1984).
77. The full process may be found in Antica Processo della Beata Chiara da Montefalco. (Vatican City: Archivio Segreto Vaticano, ms. Riti 2929, 1r-1028r.) For the accusations of malefice and of associating with heretics, see ff. 877v-881r. It should be noted that the word “malefice” in this context probably does not refer to magic or witchcraft, but to falsification, “evildoing” in a more natural sense.
78. “How many times … !” was she accused of casting out demons by the prince of demons: Raymond of Capua, Vita Maior, 882. Her fasting is questioned on page 904. Painters were forbidden to represent Catherine with the stigmata by a 1472 bull of Six-tus IV.
79. Laurent, “Processo Castellano,” 269.
80. Gerson, De Distinctione, 54
81. Boland, Concept of Discretio Spirituum, 97.
82. The text of the Inquisitorial proceedings is edited by F. Tocco, “Il Processo dei Guglielmiti.” Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche, e Filologiche. ser. 4, vol. VII (Rome, 1899): 309–384; 407–69.
83. Scholarly treatments of Guglielma are few: See Luisa Muraro, Guglielma e Maifreda: Storia di un'Eresia Femminista. (Milan, 1985)
84. Stephen Wessley, “The Thirteenth-Century Guglielmites: Salvation Through Women.” In Derek Baker, ed. Medieval Women. (Oxford, 1978), 289–304
85. Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. (New York, 1955), vol. III, 90–102. See also the following note.
86. The inquisitorial process has been edited by William May, “The Confession of Prous Boneta, Heretic and Heresiarch.” In J. Mundy et al., eds., Essays in Medieval Life and Thought. (New York, 1965), 3–30.
87. A translation is available by David Burr, “Confession of Na Prous Boneta.” In Paul Halsall, ed., The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html.
88. Caesarius of Heisterbach likewise mentions a man who publicly preached that he was the Holy Spirit, demonstrating that the idea was not unique to women, though I am primarily concerned with women here. Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum, I: 307.
89. An interesting discussion of both Guglielma of Milan and Na Prous Boneta may be found in Newman, Virile Woman, 182–223.
90. The text of her revelations has been translated into modern French, see Jean-Pierre Hiver-Bérenguier, Constance de Rabastens: mystique de Dieu ou de Gaston Febus. (Toulouse, 1984). The demoniac accusation is on page 194.
91. Her case is discussed by Vauchez, Laics, 239–249.
92. Sebastian of Perugia, Vita B. Columbae Reatinae. AASS vol. 18 (20 May). Columba accused: 180; physical exam: 180; 187.
93. Arnaldo of Foligno, Vita B. Angelae de Fulgino, AASS, vol. 1 (4 Jan.). Arnaldo sends book: 188; Angela complains: 191.
94. Juncta Bevagnate, Vita Margaritae de Cortona. AASS vol. 6 (22 Feb).
95. Vita Venerabilis Lukardis, ed. C. de Smedt et al., Analecta Bollandia XVIII (1899): 330–332.
96. Francesco Silvestris, Vita B. Osannae, 564.
97. Osanna's case is discussed by Gabriella Zarri, “Living Saints: A Typology of Female Sanctity in the Early Sixteenth Century.” In Bornstein and Rusconi, eds., Women and Religion, 219–304.
98. See also Zarri, Le Sante Vive.
99. Arne Jönsson, ed. Alfonso of Jaén: His Life and Works; With Critical Editions of the Epistola Solitarii, the Informaciones, and the Epistola Servi Christi. (Lund, 1989).
100. A discussion may be found in Eric Colledge, “ Epistola solitarii ad reges: Alphonse of Pecha as Organizer of Birgittine and Urbanist Propaganda.” Mediaeval Studies XVIII (1956): 19–49.
101. See also R. Voaden, God's Words
102. Thomasso Caffarini, Libellus de Supplemento Legende Prolixe Vriginis Beate Catharine de Senis. (Rome: 1974). This is quite a lengthy work, running to 417 pages in the modern printed edition.
103. For a further gloss on my meaning, see N. Caciola, “Wraiths, Revenants, and Ritual in Medieval Culture.” Past and Present 152 (August, 1996): 3–45, especially pages 10–11.
104. There were learned exceptions to this opinion, however. Certain scientific writers of the time considered various forms of mental unbalance and dissociation to be due to natural causes (such as an imbalance of the humors, or an exceptional “subtlety” to their spirits), rather than possession by demons. Cf. Bert Hansen, Nicole Oresme and the Marvels of Nature: The De Causis Mirabilium. (Toronto, 1985), 287.
105. For a discussion of Oresme, see E. Paschetto, ed. Demoni e Prodigi: Note su Alcuni Scritti di Witelo e di Oresme. (Turin, 1978), 59–60
106. Lynn Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science. (New York, 1934): Vol. III, 398–471.
107. There has been a proliferation of modern works dealing with medieval medicine as well. A classic and exhaustive study is the multivolume work of Thorndike, History of Magic, esp. vols. II-III.
108. Excellent recent studies include Nancy Siraisi, Taddeo Alderotti and his Pupils: Two Generations of Italian Medical Learning. (Princeton, 1981)
109. idem, Medieval and Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. (Chicago, 1990)
110. Marie-Christine Pouchelle, The Body and Surgery in the Middle Ages. Trans. R. Morris (New Brunswick, 1990)
111. Jole Agrimi and Chiara Crisciani, Les Consilia Médicaux. (Louvain, 1994).
112. Much recent work has focused on sexuality, see Danielle Jacquart and Claude Thomasset, Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages. Trans. M. Anderson (Princeton, 1988)
113. M. Anthony Hewson, Giles of Rome and the Medieval Theory of Conception. (London, 1975).
114. Particularly outstanding is Joan Cadden, Meanings of Sex Differences in the Middle Ages. (Cambridge, UK, 1993).
115. My discussion of the physiology of the spirit is based on the works cited in the previous footnote and, in addition, on James Bono, “Medical Spirits and the Medieval Language of Life.” Traditio xl (1984): 91–130
116. M. D. Chenu, “Spiritus: Vocabulaire de l'Ame au XIIe Siècle.” Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Theologiques xli (1957): 209–32
117. G. Verbeke, L'Évolution de la Doctrine du Pneuma du Stoicisme à S. Augustin. (New York, 1987)
118. Ruth Harvey, The Inward Wits: Psychological Theory in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. (London, 1975).
119. I have discussed this material in a somewhat different context in “Wraiths, Revenants.”
120. Bono, “Medical Spirits,” 98–99.
121. On the heart as the seat of selfhood and subjectivity, see Eric Jager, “The Book of the Heart: Reading and Writing the Medieval Subject.” Speculum 71 (1996): 1–26.
122. The toad: Miracula B. Idesbaldi Abbatis, AASS vol. 11 (18 April): 587.
123. Coal: Vita S. Bernardini Senensis, AASS vol. 18 (20 May): 106.
124. Red rock and leaf: Vita B. Placidi Eremitae, AASS vol. 23 (12 June): 110.
125. Hairy worm: Thomas of Cantimpré, Bonum Universale de Apibus, (Douai, 1597) II: xxxvi; iiii.
126. Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck u.-Verlagsanstalt, 1965), col. 1881.
127. A. G. Little, Liber Exemplorum ad Usum Pradicantium. (Aberdeen, 1907), 9.
128. An earlier version may be found in Gerald of Wales'Gemma Ecclesiastica, ed. J. S. Brewer, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera. (London 1862) vol. II: 54. I have excerpted the Liber Ex-emplorum because of its pithier phrasing.
129. See Bynum, Fragmentation, 119–50
130. Vauchez, Les Laïcs, 259–64
131. Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture. (Cambridge, UK, 1991), 120- 21; 316–19.
132. Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum, I: 293.
133. This is the story in which the demon appears as a hairy worm, Thomas of Cantim-pré, De Apibus, II: xxxvi; iiii.
134. Gerald of Wales, Gemma Ecclesiastica, II, 71. In J. S. Brewer, Giraldi Cambrensi Opera. (London, 1862), vol. 2
135. Thomas of Cantimpré, De Apibus, II: lvii; lxiii; lxxxix.
136. Vita S. Hildegardis Virgine, AASS vol. 45 (17 Sept.), 693.
137. Rupert of Deutz, De Sancto Spiritu. Ed. In J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina. (Paris, 1844–1864). vol. 167: 1597–1598.
138. Guillaume d'Auvergne, De Universo II, 3, 13. Guillelmi Alverni Episcopi Parisiensis … Opera Omnia, 2 vols. (Paris, 1674, repr. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1963).
139. Alexander of Hales, Summa Theologiae. III: 175. (Florence, 1930).
140. Thomas Aquinas, Quodlibeta. q. II, art. 8.
141. This consensus about the physiology of possession was also reflected in exorcists' manuals. Although these manuals date from a slightly later time period (nearly all are from the fifteenth century), they betray a similar preoccupation with the physical inhabitation of the demon within the body. Some exorcisms include extensive lists of body parts from which the demon is cast forth: these lists are repeatedly invoked throughout the ritual. Another, simpler formula, exclaims to the demon, “The three-hundred seventy veins have long been filled with you! And so have all two hundred forty bones!” (Münich: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, ms. Clm. 10085, 2v). The latest examples have longer individual formulae for each important part of the body. The goal of these rituals is to reclaim the physical “territory” of the body, and then to close or seal the body against further demonic incursions.
142. A third school of thought, which relies upon the diagnosis of psychological disorders underlying possession, has produced work of varying quality. For a rather misogy-nistic version, see William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, (New York, 1958), especially pages 267–71; 314–17.
143. A more balanced and historically contextual-ized example of this interpretive school is Moshe Sluhovsky, “A Divine Apparition or Demonic Possession? Female Agency and Church Authority in Sixteenth-century France.” Sixteenth-Century Journal 27, 4 (1995): 1036–1052.
144. Also recommended is Sud-hir Kakar, Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and its Healing Traditions. (Delhi, 1990), which combines a subtle psychoanalytic approach with a social-deprivation analysis similar to that of the authors enumerated in the following note. See as well J. H. Chajes, “Judgements Sweetened: Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern Jewish Culture.” Journal of Early Modern History. 1 (1997): 124–169.
145. I. M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism. (New York, 1971).
146. Idem, “A Structural Approach to Witchcraft and Possession.” In Mary Douglas, ed., Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations. (London, 1970).
147. Michel de Certeau, “La Parole de la Possesée,” unaccountably translated as, “Discourse Disturbed: The Sorceror's Speech,” by Tom Conley in The Writing of History. (New York, 1988).
148. Such a translation obscures the significant gender implications of the original title. Idem, La Possession de Loudon. (Paris, 1980). The dominant scholarly narrative about female mysticism, with its focus upon the enhanced prestige and cultic veneration of women mystics, is inflected by this interpretation.
149. Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols. (London, 1970).
150. Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Trans. Joseph Swain. (London, 1915).
151. See also Lyndal Roper, “Exorcism and the Theology of the Body.” In L. Roper, ed., Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality, and Religion in Early Modern Europe. (New York, 1994), 171–198.
152. See in particular Joan Wallach Scott, “Experience.” In Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott, Feminists Theorize the Political. (New York, 1992), 22–40.
153. Though de Certeau notes the “structural homology between problems raised by sorcery, possession, and mysticism.” Unfortunately, his elaboration of this point remains tantalizingly brief. “Discourse Disturbed,” 249–250.
154. The literature on performance theory is extensive. A helpful, though somewhat out of date overview is in Lawrence Sullivan, “Sound and Senses: Toward a Hermeneu-tics of Performance.” History of Religions 26, 1 (August, 1986), 1–33.
155. See also Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. (New York, 1992), for a discussion of the history of ritual theory.
156. Helpful specific examples include the essays of S. J. Tambiah in Culture, Thought, and Social Action. (Cambridge, MA, 1985)
157. Roy Rappaport, “The Obvious Aspects of Ritual.” In R. Rappaport, Ecology, Meaning, and Religion. (Berkeley, 1979), 173–222
158. Edward Schieffelin, “Performance and the Cultural Construction of Reality.” American Ethnologist (1985): 707–24
159. Jonathan Z. Smith, To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. (Chicago, 1987).
160. A collection of classic articles on the topic may be found in Ronald L. Grimes, Readings in Ritual Studies. (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1996).
161. Discussion of a performative theory of identity formation in relation to medieval women saints is found in Kathleen Biddick's critique of Caroline Bynum: “Genders, Bodies, Borders: Technologies of the Visible.” Speculum 68 (April, 1993): 389–418.
162. For a brilliant application of performance theory to the realm of gender formation, see Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. (New York, 1990).
163. I myself have gone over some of this ground before in “Through a Glass, Darkly.”
164. Scott, “Experience.”
165. Stephen Crites, “The Narrative Quality of Experience.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. XXXIX: 3 (Sept. 1971): 291–311.
166. See the incisive comments of Barbara Newman in regard to the attractions of the demoniac role in “Possessed by the Spirit,” especially pages 755–762.
167. Also bearing on this point, Clive Holmes, “Women: Witnesses and Witches.” Past and Present. 140 (August 1993): 45–78.
168. See, in this connection, Gabor Klaniczay, “Legends as Life-strategies for Aspirant Saints in the Later Middle Ages,” The Uses of Supernatural Power: The Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. (Princeton, 1990), 95–110.
169. Delooz, Sociologie et Canonisations.
170. Schieffelin, “Performance and Cultural Construction,” 722.
171. Kathleen M. Erndl, Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India in Myth, Ritual, and Symbol. (Oxford, 1993), 134.
172. Butler, Gender Trouble, 136.
173. Two recent works that approach the question of female physiology and the demonic may be of interest here: Jole Agrimi and Chiara Crisciani, “Savoir médical et anthropologie religieuse. Les représentations et les fonctions de la vetula (XIIIe-XVe siècle).” Annales E. S. C. 48, 5 (September/October 1993): 1281–1308.
174. Nicole Jacques-Chaquin, “Représentations du corps sorcier à l'âge classique.” In Jean Céard, ed., La Folie et le corps. (Paris, 1985), 201–222.
175. Quoted in Pouchelle, Body and Surgery, 148.
176. Betty Radice, trans., The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. (London, 1974), 166. Heloise may have been joking in this passage (it occurs as a justification for asking Abelard to allow a greater measure of wine to her community of nuns), but the physiological conception itself is not necessarily satirical.
177. Jean de Mailly, Abrégé des Gestes et Miracles des Saints. ed. A. Dondaine. (Paris, 1947), 316.
178. A variant is found in Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend. Trans. William Granger Ryan (Princeton, 1993) vol. II: 62.
179. Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum, I: 314.
180. J. Z. Smith, To Take Place, 40.
181. See Raymond of Capua, Vita Maior, 908.
182. For facial transfigurations see Raymond of Capua, Vita Maior, 884
183. Peter of Dacia, Vita Christinae Stumblemsis, 256. Stigmatics include Ida of Louvain, Gertrude ab Oosten, Guglielma of Milan; Christina of Stommeln; Catherine of Siena; Dorothy of Montau, and Lidwina of Scheidam.
184. For a history of the theme, see Pierre Debongnie, “Essai Critique sur l'Histoire des Stigmatisations au Moyen Age.” Études Carmeli-taines: Mystiques et Missionaires. 20e Annèe: vol. II (October 1936): 22–59
185. Herbert Thurston, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism. (Chicago, 1952).
186. Raymond of Capua, Vita Major, 908. This precise theme is also found in the hagiographies of Dorothy of Montau, Osanna Andreasia of Mantua, and Lutgard of Ay-wières; for other variants, keep reading.
187. The autopsy is described in nauseating detail by several witnesses throughout the saint's canonization process. See Menestò, ed. Il Processo … di Chiara da Montefalco; Antica Processo della Beata Chiara da Montefalco. (Vatican City: Archivio Segre-to Vaticano, ms. Riti, 2929: 1r-1028r.)
188. Francesco Silvestris, Vita B. Osannae, 624.
189. Jönsson, Alfonso of Jaén, 251.
190. Lukardis communicated another nun by breathing her spirit into the nun's mouth, thus making an equivalence between Lukardis' spirit, joined to God, and the Eucharist: Vita Venerabilis Lukardis, 337–338.
191. Margaret of Cortona described Christ as speaking from “near her heart” after receiving communion; in the next breath, we are told God is “in her soul.” Juncta Bevagnate, Vita Margaritae, 338.
192. For further discussion of the theme of eucharistic reception as a form of union with God see Bynum, Fragmentation, 119–50
193. Vauchez, Les Laïcs, 259–264.
194. See also De B. Alpaide, 182
195. Vita Bonae Virginis, 145
196. May, “Confession of Na Prous Boneta,” for instances of heart themes. Also of interest in this regard is the recent book by Jeffrey Hamburger, Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997).
197. Johannes Nider, Formicarius, 185–187.
198. Here I respectfully differ with the conclusions drawn by Walter Simons in an excellent article: “Reading a Saint's Body: Rapture and Bodily Movement in the Vitae of Thirteenth-Century Béguines.” In Sarah Kay and Miri Rubin, Framing Medieval Bodies. (Manchester, 1994), 10–23.
199. This fact accords well with Mary Douglas' analysis of attitudes towards bodily comportment as the basic ground upon which cultures decide whether trance is beneficent or dangerous. Cf. Natural Symbols, passim. A discussion of the increasing regulation of gesture may be found in Jean-Claude Schmitt, La Raison des Gestes. (Paris, 1990)
200. idem, “The Ethic of Gesture,” in M. Feher, ed., Fragments for a History of the Human Body. Vol 2. (New York, 1989). The trend has earlier roots, but becomes an increasingly dominant criterion beginning in the late fourteenth century.
201. Henry of Freimar, Der Traktat Heinrichs von Freimar über die Unterscheidung der Geister. ed. R. Warnock & A. Zumkeller. (Würzburg: 1977), 158. The text dates from the first quarter of the fourteenth century.