Strong Verbs Are Just Better

I was wondering the other day if there was actually any concrete idea of lesbianism in the middle ages- that is, any idea that women might be getting up to hanky panky by themselves, and any detailed idea of what they were doing.

Magistra et Mater, in her post today on the trouble with talking about sex as a medievalist, points to this fantastic blog which is posting up bit by bit a translation of Hincmar of Rheims. In the midst of a lovely and circular discussion of adultery and fornication (is it worse to sleep with a prostitute or have anal sex with your wife? Is it worse to sleep with your daughter or with another man?¹, we have this:

Women also have this sordid appetite, as Ambrose says explaining the Apostle ‘working shamefulness in women’, who put flesh to flesh, (not by putting the genital organ of one into the body of the other, since nature prevents this), but changing the natural use of this part of the body into a use which is against nature. Since they are said to use certain instruments of diabolical work nevertheless for boiling up desire. And thus fornicating, they sin in their own bodies.

And that was from his Responsio 12b, for the record. Translation by Letha Boringer.

And here's Magistra's advice on working on Medieval Sex:

I think, therefore, that it is possible to write about sex and still succeed in the academy (though that doesn’t necessarily imply I’m going to succeed). In order to do so, however, you will probably need a) to write about other things at times as well as sex (so you don’t come across as obsessed), b) to give the air of having an extremely uninteresting sex life yourself, c) to stick closely to what medieval evidence we have (and as authors like Ruth Mazo Karras have pointed out, we have actually got quite a lot for the Middle Ages as a whole) and d) be really careful with footnotes (because once again the assumption arises: if you’re playing fast and loose with academic rigor, what other standards are you prepared to lower?) With that warning, let’s all get out there and find some more stories about dodgy nuns.

So there we go, I now have an extra incentive to memorise the MHRA style guide Awesome gave me: meticulous footnoting will allow me to talk about lesbian nuns. If I ever find any.



1. The answers are both B. Which presumably makes sodomising your son the worst sin around, but they didn't get to that part.