Gender and heresy : women and men in Lollard communities, 1420-1530 / Shannon McSheffrey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McSheffrey, Shannon.

Contributor:

Henry Charles Lea Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lollards.

Christian heresies--England--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Christian heresies.

Sex role--Religious aspects--Christianity--Case studies.

Sex role.

Sex role--England--History.

History.

Sex role--Religious aspects--Christianity.

England--Church history--1066-1485.

England.

Church history.

Genre:

Case studies.

Penn Provenance:

Peters, Edward, 1936- (donor) (Lea copy)

Physical Description:

xi, 253 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Gender & heresy

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [1995]

Summary:

Shannon McSheffrey studies the communities of the late medieval English heretics, the Lollards, and presents unexpected conclusions about the precise ways in which gender shaped participation within the movement. While much recent scholarship has contended that heresies offered medieval women opportunities for religious and social expression that they could not find in orthodoxy, Gender and Heresy demonstrates that the Lollard movement provided no such outlet. Within Lollardy, challenges to orthodoxy did not lead to questioning of dominant medieval gender categories.

McSheffrey examines the archival and printed sources for the later Lollard communities to analyze the activities, relationships, and beliefs of the individuals who made up these groups. Her study emphasizes how complex interactions between socioeconomic status, gender identities, and religious culture shaped participation in religious movements.

Contents:

Gender and Religious Deviance 1

Lollardy 7

The Communities 15

2. The Lollards of Coventry 22

The Lollard Prosecutions in Coventry 23

The Coventry Conventicles 25

Coventry's Civic Oligarchy and the Lollard Community 37

The Coventry Lollard Community in Perspective 45

3. The Lollard Communities 47

Schools and Conventicles 49

Lollard Activities Outside the Conventicles 66

Lollards and Recruitment to the Sect 72

4. Lollards and the Family 80

Lollard Beliefs and the Family 82

Family Relationships in the Lollard Communities 87

5. Gender and Social Status 108

Prominent Women in Lollardy 109

Prominent Men and Elite Men in Lollardy 124

6. Conclusion: Lollardy, Gender, and Late Medieval Religious Culture 137

Women and Late Medieval Religion 138

Lollardy and Orthodoxy 142

Gender and Religion 148

Appendix The Lollard Communities 151

Alnwick's Prosecutions in East Angelia, 1428-31 151

Chedworth's Prosecutions in the Chiltern Hills, 1462-64 152

Langton's Prosecutions in the Diocese of Salisbury, 1485-91 153

J. Blythe's Prosecutions in the Diocese of Salisbury, 1499 153

Audley's Prosecutions in the Diocese of Salisbury, 1502-21 154

Prosecutions and Detections in the Dioceses of Salisbury and Winchester Before Bishop Longland, c. 1521 155

Smith's and Longland's Prosecutions in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1500-1530 156

Prosecutions in London and Environs and Hertfordshire, 1500-1530 160

Prosecutions in Essex and Hertfordshire, 1500-1530 161

Warham's Prosecutions in the Diocese of Canterbury, 1511-12 163

Hales's and G. Blyth's Prosecutions in Coventry, 1485-1512 164.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [223]-240) and index.

Local Notes:

Presented to the Penn Libraries by Dr. Edward Peters.

ISBN:

0812233107

9780812233100

0812215494

9780812215496

OCLC:

33044776