Women in the Middle Ages: Religion, Marriage and Letters

This highly original study

explores the condition of

women in the medieval period, par¬

ticularly in relation to church, mar¬

riage, family, education and letters.

Angela Lucas relates women’s role

in literature to ideas prevailing in

the society for which that literature

was written. She examines wills and

charters, medical, theological and

philosophy treatises, and the ser¬

mons and homilies which related to

women as well as works of generally

recognised literary merit.

By using such varied material, the

author refutes the theoretical

notions of the inferiority of women

which abounded in the Middle

Ages. Always alert to the fact that

most of the information available

about women in the Middle Ages

was written by men, and that most of

that information related only to a

limited social spectrum, Angela

Lucas convincingly argues that

women had a significant role to play

in the social and intellectual life of

the period.