Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7981
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): McLaughlin , Megan.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Bishop as Bridegroom: Marital Imagery and Clerical Celibacy in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries [The author argues that reformers used the longstanding image of the bishop as a bridegroom of his church to combat problems of lay investiture, simony, and episcopal elections. In instances of clerical celibacy, the bridegroom allegory complicated matters. Nevertheless, it was not entirely eliminated from the debate. McLaughlin suggests this is an indication of the importance of the bridegroom metaphor to the reformist program. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Medieval Purity and Piety: Essays on Medieval Clerical Celibacy and Religious Reform.  Edited by Michael FrassettoGarland Medieval Casebooks Series.  Garland Publishing, 1998.  Pages 209 - 237.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Bishops Bridegroom, Image of Celibacy Clergy- Sexual Behavior Ecclesiastical Reform Investiture Contest Marriage, Image of Popes Simony
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: 11-12
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: Megan McLaughlin focuses more on ideology than on power, in "The Bishop as Bridegroom: Marital Imagery and Clerical Celibacy in the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries." Her study of how reform-minded bishops in the eleventh century adopted the image of
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1998.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0815324308