Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 5706
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Cartwright , Jane.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Desire to Corrupt: Convent and Community in Medieval Wales [discusses the number of nunneries in Wales, their population, and economic condition; also considers Welsh social and cutltural attitudes toward women's sexuality and religious devotion as reflected by the Cywyddwyr poets, a group that wrote under aristocratic patronage in the fourteenth century].
  • Source: Medieval Women in Their Communities.  Edited by Diane Watt.  University of Toronto Press, 1997.  Pages 20 - 48.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Cywyddwyr, Welsh Poets Literature- Verse Monasticism Noble Women Nuns in Literature Sexuality Wales Welsh Literature Women in Religion
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: General
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: "Jane Cartwright opens the collection with her essay "The Desire to Corrupt: Convent and Community in Medieval Wales." In an effort to uncover both the existence and attitudes towards Wales' very small nun population, Cartwright reads Cywyyddwyrpoetry in conjunction with more traditional historical sources, such as bishops' registers. The evidence for only three convents suggests that devoting one's virginity to Christ and retiring to a convent was not typically an option for even noble women. Cartwright concludes that Welsh women were encouraged to live in the world and express their spirituality as mothers and wives." From the review written by Katherine L. French of "Medieval Women in Their Communities," "Medieval Review" (TMR ID: 96.12.11). [Reproduced by permission of the "Medieval Review."].
  • Author's Affiliation: Trinity College, Carmarthen
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1997.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0802042899