Middle Ages tended to belong to royal houses, their religious experiences were not
shaped by the attempt to create sharply gendered divisions of power.
Increased sophistication regarding emotional and sensual aspects of devotion to the
human Christ and asceticism. Women followed here a larger cultural trend that
manifested itself in the secular tradition of courtly love and the bridal mysticism
propagated by St. Bernard of Clairvaux in his Commentaries on the Song of Songs.
Unlike St. Bernard’s more cautious teachings, however, women’s exploration of
psychological dynamics became more concrete and radical, frequently culminating in
highly sexualized experiences of spiritual union or intensely celebrated psychosomatic
pregnancies.
The final stage of medieval women’s religious life is defined by increased repression,
decline of institutional support, and marginalization. As Caroline Bynum and other
scholars have pointed out, by the 15th century the image of the woman mystic is almost
identical with that of the witch. The dramatic biographies of women mystics of the 14th
and early 15th centuries illustrate this turn of events. All of the women who were
eventually executed as heretics overstepped the limits that kept earlier women mystics in
their gendered niche. They claimed for themselves the exclusively male prerogatives—
sanctioned as divinely instituted—to pronounce theological teachings (Marguerite Porete,
burned 1310), to become publicly active in a male role (Jeanne d’Arc, burned 1431), or to
usurp religious authority that rivaled or even canceled out ecclesiastical authority (Na
Prous Boneta, burned 1325; Jeanne Daubenton, burned 1372). Those of their
contemporaries who were spared the stake followed the pattern of obedience and
integration in existing institutions chosen by the women of the 12th and 13th centuries.
After the death of her husband, Jeanne-Marie de Maillé (1331–1414) cared for the sick
and poor, was eventually forced to retreat to Planche-de-Vaux to live as a recluse, and
finally joined the Franciscans in 1386. From within the safe walls of the monastery, she
became a revered counselor and visionary, who was even summoned to King Charles VI
on several occasions. Coletta Boylet of Corbie (1381–1447) received revelations
regarding the Franciscans at the age of nine; as an adult, she first chose the lifestyle of a
tertiary, then that of a recluse at Corbie. Motivated by revelations, Coletta asked for papal
permission to reform Franciscan monasteries and proceeded to found the remarkable
number of seventeen female and at least seven male institutions. Her authority was
guarded by an unwavering commitment to church-approved channels for religious
activity and intensely mystical phenomena that were identified with femininity rather
than masculinity—long-lasting ecstatic states, levitations, revelations from souls in
Purgatory, and the like.
In contrast, Jeanne d’Arc’s mysticism appears minimalistic. The young woman
followed the supernatural voices of SS.Michael, Catherine, and Margaret; there are no
other charismatic gifts reported. Like Marguerite Porete, Jeanne d’Arc had no spiritual
director, did not live in a community, and moved about freely. Marguerite Porete, Na
Prous Boneta, Heilwic Bloemard (d. 1335), and Marie of Valenciennes (fl. end of the
14th c.) all claimed the possibility of transcending the limits of human sinfulness, either
by having been elected mother (donatrix) of the Holy Spirit and receiving a glorified
body (Na Prous Boneta), or by having achieved the perfection of the âme anéantie, the
annihilated and therefore liberated soul. These teachings catapulted the women mystics
outside of quantifiable and therefore controllable parameters of social norms and
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1864