Fiona J Griffiths
Biographic Data
| ID | 3676743 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fiona J Griffiths |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fiona J |
| FAMILY NAME | Griffiths |
| SIGNATURE | GRIFFITHS F J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5295-8104 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Marriage of a Cleric and Canon in Twelfth-Century Paris
When Heloise initially refused Abelard’s proposed marriage in the early years of the twelfth century, she professed to prefer the terms “friend” and even “concubine” or “whore” to the language of “wife.” Over the centuries, Heloise’s seemingly shocking profession has furnished the basis for romanticized notions of her gendered and sexualized self-sacrifice to Abelard. This paper revisits Heloise’s language, placing it within the context of debate…
Materializing history
The Corrupter of Boys
Wives, concubines, or slaves? Peter Damian and clerics’ women
From the mid‐eleventh century, the reformed papacy launched a campaign against clerical marriage that, within a hundred years or so, would largely succeed in establishing the priesthood as a celibate (if not always chaste) caste. According to the reforming monk Peter Damian, women who associated with priests formed a particular target of papal discipline: Peter reports that Pope Leo IX ruled in 1049 that such women should be made slaves of the Ro…
Introduction
Froibirg Gives a Gift
This paper focuses on a priest’s wife, Froibirg, who donated a manuscript to the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuern in 1055 and was remembered by the monks as an “uxor presbiteri” until the eighteenth century. Although Froibirg appears in the historical record only once during her lifetime, the broader social and religious contexts of her donation were richly documented by the communities with which she was associated: the monastery of Benedikt…
Sensory Reflections
Partners in Spirit
Women and Reform in the Central Middle Ages
This essay considers women's involvement in the various reform movements of the central Middle Ages: papal reform, monastic revival, and the general movement for spiritual renewal that inspired laywomen and laymen to adopt a religious life within the world. Recent scholarship has constructed reform as having either opposed women (associating all women with threats to priestly chastity and unleashing a powerful clerical misogyny) or largely ignore…
The Cross and the Cura monialium
Siblings and the Sexes within the Medieval Religious Life
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Seeing and Knowing
Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book
Men’s duty to provide for women’s needs’
This paper examines the 12th-century cura monialium, the care of nuns, in light of the experiences of the men and women of the Paraclete. It is argued that, despite public ambivalence concerning the interaction of monastic men and women, Abelard came to identify the cura as integral to his own redemption. Moreover, service to women was a commitment that he enjoined on all religious men. Heloise's letters suggest that the cura was of equal interes…
I sermoni di Abelardo per le monache del Paracleto . Pietro Abelardo , Paola de Santis
Ordering Women's Lives
Sensory Reflections
Wives, concubines, or slaves? Peter Damian and clerics’ women
From the mid‐eleventh century, the reformed papacy launched a campaign against clerical marriage that, within a hundred years or so, would largely succeed in establishing the priesthood as a celibate (if not always chaste) caste. According to the reforming monk Peter Damian, women who associated with priests formed a particular target of papal discipline: Peter reports that Pope Leo IX ruled in 1049 that such women should be made slaves of the Ro…
Introduction
Siblings and the Sexes within the Medieval Religious Life
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Men’s duty to provide for women’s needs’
This paper examines the 12th-century cura monialium, the care of nuns, in light of the experiences of the men and women of the Paraclete. It is argued that, despite public ambivalence concerning the interaction of monastic men and women, Abelard came to identify the cura as integral to his own redemption. Moreover, service to women was a commitment that he enjoined on all religious men. Heloise's letters suggest that the cura was of equal interes…
Ordering Women's Lives
Men’s duty to provide for women’s needs’
This paper examines the 12th-century cura monialium, the care of nuns, in light of the experiences of the men and women of the Paraclete. It is argued that, despite public ambivalence concerning the interaction of monastic men and women, Abelard came to identify the cura as integral to his own redemption. Moreover, service to women was a commitment that he enjoined on all religious men. Heloise's letters suggest that the cura was of equal interes…
I sermoni di Abelardo per le monache del Paracleto . Pietro Abelardo , Paola de Santis
Seeing and Knowing
Mechthild of Magdeburg and Her Book
The Cross and the Cura monialium
Siblings and the Sexes within the Medieval Religious Life
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Women and Reform in the Central Middle Ages
This essay considers women's involvement in the various reform movements of the central Middle Ages: papal reform, monastic revival, and the general movement for spiritual renewal that inspired laywomen and laymen to adopt a religious life within the world. Recent scholarship has constructed reform as having either opposed women (associating all women with threats to priestly chastity and unleashing a powerful clerical misogyny) or largely ignore…
Partners in Spirit
Sensory Reflections
Introduction
Froibirg Gives a Gift
This paper focuses on a priest’s wife, Froibirg, who donated a manuscript to the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuern in 1055 and was remembered by the monks as an “uxor presbiteri” until the eighteenth century. Although Froibirg appears in the historical record only once during her lifetime, the broader social and religious contexts of her donation were richly documented by the communities with which she was associated: the monastery of Benedikt…
Wives, concubines, or slaves? Peter Damian and clerics’ women
From the mid‐eleventh century, the reformed papacy launched a campaign against clerical marriage that, within a hundred years or so, would largely succeed in establishing the priesthood as a celibate (if not always chaste) caste. According to the reforming monk Peter Damian, women who associated with priests formed a particular target of papal discipline: Peter reports that Pope Leo IX ruled in 1049 that such women should be made slaves of the Ro…
Materializing history
The Corrupter of Boys
The Marriage of a Cleric and Canon in Twelfth-Century Paris
When Heloise initially refused Abelard’s proposed marriage in the early years of the twelfth century, she professed to prefer the terms “friend” and even “concubine” or “whore” to the language of “wife.” Over the centuries, Heloise’s seemingly shocking profession has furnished the basis for romanticized notions of her gendered and sexualized self-sacrifice to Abelard. This paper revisits Heloise’s language, placing it within the context of debate…
Medieval Literature and History (12 works) · History (11 works) · Art (8 works) · History (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Classics (5 works) · Classics (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity (5 works)