The Profession of w i d o w h o o d The Profession of w i d o w h o o d WiDoWs, PasToral Care & meDieVal moDels oF Holiness Katherine Clark Walter the CatholIC unIversIty oF amerICa press washIngton, d.C. Copyright © 2018 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. ∞ Image on page iii: Master of the Magdalen Legend, Netherlands, Portrait of Mary of Hungary, ca. 1550, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Walter, Katherine Clark, author. Title: The profession of widowhood : widows, pastoral care, and medieval models of holiness / Katherine Clark Walter. Description: Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018018726 | ISBN 9780813230191 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Widows—Religious life—History—To 1500. | Widowhood—Europe—History—To 1500. Classification: LCC BV4528 .W35 2018 | DDC 261.8/35883—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018726 Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction: Pious Widowhood in the Middle Ages 1 Chapter 1 Creating the Widow in the Early Church 24 Chapter 2 The Widow and the Cloister: Early Medieval Hagiography 77 Chapter 3 The Veil and the Vow: Professed Widowhood in Canon Law and Liturgical Manuscripts 123 Chapter 4 Chaste Widows and the Penitential Ethos in Later Medieval Hagiography 197 Chapter 5 Managing the Matron: Widowhood in Medieval Sermon Literature 250 Chapter 6 Reading Widows: Grief, Memory, and the Parody of Chaste Widowhood in Medieval Literature 299 Chapter 7 Like a Picture before the Eyes: Transitions to the Early Modern World 347 Conclusion 399 Bibliography 407 Index 427 Illustrations 165 Benediction of a widow, William’s Pontifical, Clm 10073, f. 103v 166 Consecration of an abbess, William’s Pontifical, Clm 10073, f. 83r 167 Consecration of a deaconess, William’s Pontifical, Clm 10073, f. 84v 168 Consecration of virgins, William’s Pontifical, Clm 10073, f. 85r 169 Blessing of the hair shirt, William’s Pontifical, Clm 10073, f. 229r 170 Benediction on the head of those who are fasting, illumination at the beginning of book 3 of William’s Pontifical, Clm 10073, f. 237r 173 Bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Bnf Ms., fr. 14969, f. 49v 174 Bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Bnf Ms., fr. 14969, f. 50r 229 Elizabeth receives the tunica, reliquary, ca. 1236–49, Elizabeth Church, Marburg, detail 230 Elizabeth receives the tunica, east choir window, ca. 1250, Elizabeth Church, Marburg, detail 366 Ivory book cover of the Simeon Codex, ca. 1100, Trier Cathedral treasury 367 Nicolo Pisano, Presentation in the Temple, ca. 1260 (panel detail), Pisa Baptistry vii viii IllustratIons 368 Giotto, Presentation in the Temple, 1304–6, fresco, Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua 372 Guariento, Crucifixion with the Donatrix Bona Maria Bovolini, ca. 1360, Museo Civico, Bassano 373 Guariento, Crucifixion with the Donatrix Bona Maria Bovolini, ca. 1360, Museo Civico, Bassano (detail) 376 Master of the Magdalen Legend, Netherlands, Portrait of Mary of Hungary, ca. 1550, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 377 Attributed to Jan Cornelisz, Netherlandish, Mary (1505–1558), Queen of Hungary, Metropolitan Museum of Art 379 Bernardino Licinio, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1525–35, Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan 381 Leandro Bassano, Portrait of a Widow at Her Devotions, ca. 1590–1600, private collection aCknowledgments Acknowledgments This book benefited from invaluable help from many colleagues, friends, and family members over the years. At Indiana University, Leah Shop- kow, David Brakke, Karma Lochrie, Arthur Field, and Dyan Elliott guided this project at its beginning. A summer stipend from the Newberry Li- brary and fellowships from the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) and Indiana University assured its completion as a dissertation. I am especially grateful to Konrad Vollman, Gunther Bernt, Christine Foohs, Ulrich Montag, Joachim Wild, Cynthia Hall, Lisa Bessette, and Karola Matschinske for their support while I completed manuscript re- search at Munich’s Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Cynthia Hall and Jörg Hettich offered me their incomparable hospitality on many subsequent research trips to Munich. Throughout the process of transforming the dissertation into a book, my colleagues at Fort Lewis College in Colora- do and The College at Brockport, State University of New York, offered constructive help in the preparation of the manuscript. Wanda Wakefield was an enthusiastic reader and indexer, while Alison Parker and Doreen Hunter offered excellent guidance and advice. Nancy Cardona provid- ed perennial good sense and moral support. Tim Thibodeau generously answered questions of all kinds about medieval liturgy; I am especially grateful for his unparalleled insights into the work of William Durand of Mende. Grants from The College at Brockport and a Re-Invitation Grant from the DAAD permitted additional research. I owe special thanks for the patience and support of the librarians and interlibrary loan special- ists at Fort Lewis and The College at Brockport. I am indebted to Catholic University of America Press editors Da- vid McGonagle and Trevor Lipscombe for guiding this book through the publication process. I am also grateful to the manuscript reviewers. Anne Needham patiently edited the entire manuscript; she untangled arcane references, caught potentially embarrassing mistakes, and im- proved the text through many excellent insights and thoughtful com- ix