14 Advent
risked introducing “clandestine” children conceived out-
side the marriage into familial descent. In the 12th century
ecclesiastical jurisdiction prevailed, but from the end of
the century, temporal authorities following Roman law
claimed to take control of the judgment of adulterers, argu-
ing that they were a nuisance to public order. During the
13th century the dominance of lay courts became general.
Ecclesiastical judges had normally imposed simple
penances and fines, while secular judges inflicted harsh
sanctions on adulterous women and their accomplices.
By the end of the 13th century, the law began to limit
the repression and punishment of adultery. No longer
seeking it out, the court’s action now was initiated by a
complaint from a husband or by the “capture” of the
lovers in the act itself (in flagrante delicto). The repres-
sion of adultery then became primarily a private affair.
However, common-law texts and opinion regularly raised
the supposition that if the guilty pair were caught in the
act by the husband, he, driven by excusable anger, could
be excused for killing either the man or the woman or
both. From the 14th century, it was enough for the hus-
band to ask the king for a regularly granted letter of
remission. However, in the law of southern France, the
penalty for adultery remained the course:The guilty pair
had to run a ritual path, naked, to the sound of a trum-
pet, and both were whipped. The coursecould be avoided
by a fine. It remained more difficult for women: Civil
sanctions such as the loss of her dowry and her legal rep-
utation or fama in the community might be added.
Despite the ranting of preachers and moralists who thun-
dered in the latter Middle Ages against the sins of wives
and other women and the laxity of repression, social
reprobation toward adultery seems very muted, at least in
popular literature.
Further reading:James A. Brundage, Law, Sex and
Christian Society in Medieval Europe(Chicago: The Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1987).
Advent The Advent period is the penitential four
weeks in the Roman liturgy from the ninth century that
precede and anticipate Christmas. The weeks also signify
the end of the year and suggest the opening of time onto
the last days, or eschatology. This expectation of Christ-
mas and the Incarnation of Christ and the eschatological
expectation of the second coming of Christ rest on the
idea of the two comings of Christ, the Incarnation and
the Last Judgment. To this, Saint Bernard added a third
expectation, the coming of Christ into people’s souls.
Further reading:A. Carthusian, From Advent to Pen-
tecost,trans. Carmel Brett (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publi-
cations, 1999).
Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is situated between
Greece and Anatolia or Asia Minor. It contains numerous
islands and has a complex coastline. The Aegean was
essential to the economic well-being of CONSTANTINOPLE,
which needed access to the sea for food and trade. Its
islands, such as CRETE, supplied grain and other food-
stuffs to Constantinople. The defense of the Aegean
entailed from the seventh century the important naval
command of the theme, or military administrative district,
of Karabisianoi. In the ninth and 10th centuries, there was
further naval development to prevent Arab raids into the
Aegean from Crete, which the Arabs had seized around- By the end of the 11th century, Venetian economic
power dominated and after 1204 was further assured
by control of the strategic islands of Crete, Euboea,
Andros, and Naxos along with bases in the vicinity of
Constantinople itself. This Venetian colonial empire lasted
until the Ottoman conquests of the 16th century.
Further reading: Henry Mangles Denham, The
Aegean: A Sea-Guide to Its Coasts and Islands(London: J.
Murray, 1963); Peter Lock, The Franks in the Aegean,
1204–1500(London: Longman, 1995).
Ælfric, abbot of Eynsham(Grammaticus)(ca. 953–
ca. 1015)conservative scholar, writer
Ælfric was born about 950/955 near Winchester, En-
gland. His studies in Winchester coincided with the
revival of Benedictine monasticism in England. He con-
tributed varied writings that preserved, translated, and
disseminated the Christian tradition. Ælfric was influ-
enced by the recent example of King ALFRED, who tried
to make the learning of the past available to his subjects
in the vernacular instead of Latin. He did have doubts
about making Latin texts available to the laity.
Soon after he became a monk at Cerne Abbey in
Dorset in 987, he produced texts explaining Christianity’s
message and history. He wrote his first series of 40 homi-
lies or commentaries on the readings at the service of the
day in 989 and his second series in 992. These two col-
lections explained the Gospel as it was read to the faithful
every Sunday and on feast days. They built upon the
ideas and interpretations of Saints AUGUSTINE,AMBROSE,
JEROME, and BEDEand were theologically conservative in
aim and outlook. He drew on both ornamented Latin
prose and traditional Old English poetry. Between 992
and 1002 Ælfric revised and expanded his homilies, pro-
duced other didactic religious writings and translations,
and wrote three Latin works to aid students in the study
of language. These included a grammar, a glossary, and a
text for use in vocabulary drills. All were full of informa-
tion about Anglo-Saxon daily life. Between 1002 and
1005, he wrote a series of lives of the saints and free
translations with commentary on the first seven Old Tes-
tament books of the Bible. In 1005 Ælfric became the
first abbot of a new monastery at Eynsham near Oxford,
where he continued to revise and expand his cycles of
homilies and to write supplementary works of pedagogy
and edification. Ælfric died between 1010 and 1020.