Forsaken: The Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism

9 Menstrual Impurity in Medieval Christianity

144 9 Menstrual Impurity in Medieval Christianity introduction Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity emerge as siblings from a common parent —Israelite religion. The rituals that Jews and Christians derived from the Temple cult not only throw light on their differences but also underscore that which mattered most to each culture. Early Christians conceived of themselves as the “true” Israel and as such had to respond to their cultic heritage . Paul encouraged Gentiles to abandon outward ritual acts and serve God through faith alone. Consequently, many church theologians abandoned levitical laws completely and used the story of the woman with a flux to prove Christian indifference to Jewish purity laws (Mark 5:25–34, Matthew 9:20–22, and Luke 8:42–48). Patristic exegetes rarely commented on Leviticus.1 Menstrual taboos, however, remained entrenched in Christian imagination and, like their Jewish contemporaries, some Christian legists adapted levitical purity laws to conditions of a post-Temple world. Like many Jews, these Christians distinguished between the prohibition against engaging in sexual relations with a menstruating woman (Lev. 18:19) and the perceived need to separate menstruants from the sacred (Lev. 15). Often, Christian legists focused on one or the other. Some theologians fashioned the church as the true Temple and transposed the Temple purity requirements of the menstruant and the parturient to the church. Others maintained the sexual prohibition against engaging in sexual relations with menstruants and ignored the purity stipulations. These two strands wove their way through Christian law and penitential literature through the eleventh century.2 Close analysis of Christian rationales for menstrual separation throws light on an essential difference between rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Where the rabbis advertise maintaining abstention to enhance marital libido,3 Chris- Menstrual Impurity in Medieval Christianity · 145 tiansadvocatemenstrualseparationasameansofsexualrestraint.Throughout the early Christian Middle Ages, we see an ever-increasing suspicion of sexuality in general and a concomitant exaltation of virginity. Priestly celibacy— mandated by the fourth-century Council of Elvira—was actively required of the clergy during widespread church reforms of the eleventh century. These Gregorian reforms divided the Latin West into two classes in relation to the divine: celibates who could lead Christian ritual and achieve spiritual heights, and the rest of the population who could not. Virginity—real or reclaimed —became prerequisite to spiritual success, and concupiscence—rather than physical impurity—became antithetical to the sacred. But rather than ignoring ritual purity, the medieval Latin church broadened its scope and redefined impurity as lust. Menstruation, a natural bodily purgation, was no longer a barrier to the sancta. This new attitude toward menstruation contributed to Christian women’s spiritual opportunities. The lenient treatment of menstruants in twelfthcentury Bible commentaries, theological treatises, and canon law coincides with the flowering of female mysticism in Western Europe. At the very moment that menstruants were unhesitatingly permitted church entrance, parturients were encouraged to undergo the new ritual of churching. Chastity was the new purity. separating menstruants from the sacred While early Christians may have used the Gospel story of the woman with the flux to announce their indifference to Jewish purity laws,4 menstrual taboos nonetheless remained fixed in the imaginations of many early adherents and were manifested in two distinct ways: some Christians avoided engaging in sexual relations with menstruants; others distanced menstruants from the sacred sites and sacred rituals. Just as menstruants were deemed invalid for ritual activity and barred from the Jerusalem Temple, some members of the true Israel barred menstruants from its contemporary incarnation Ecclesia in the early Middle Ages. Church as Temple After the Christianization of the empire in 329, Christians reimagined Palestine as terra sancta. The term holy became the most common adjective used to 146 · Islam and Christianity describe Palestinian pilgrimage sites, religious figures, and sanctuaries, and Christians transposed Temple art, architecture, and symbols to churches.5 Indeed, Branham suggests that church chancel screens were developed to respond to the hierarchical structure of the Jerusalem Temple: the altar area where the Christian priest gave the Eucharist was separated from the rest of the church to emulate the Holy of Holies.6 By this time, the notion of the church as Temple had already been used as a rationale to deny women church access. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria (c. 195–264), wrote: The question concerning women in the time of their [menstrual] separation , whether it is proper for them when in such a condition to enter the house of God...