Church fathers, independent virgins (review)

156 Reviews Robin's work is a splendid addition to those on the Italian humanists, and far the most scholarly study of Filelfo so far. She is thefirstto understand his complex character and to appreciate the artistry of his writings and their debt to bis Italian and classical predecessors. The book itself is well printed, strongly bound and a credit to the publisher. John R. C. Martyn Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies University of Melbourne Salisbury, Joyce E., Church fathers, independent virgins, London and New York, Verso, 1991; cloth; pp. viii, 168; R.R.P. US$69.95. Renunciation of theflesh,long considered one of the least accessible of medieval virtues, has become fashionable again, if only as an object of scholarly enquiry. Peter Brown has done much to change our attitudes in The body and society: men, women, and sexual renunciation in early Christianity (New York, 1988). Joyce Salisbury pays close attention to a theme not so emphasised by Brown: that the ascetic teaching of the Church Fathers was profoundly masculine in character. By contrast, the values expounded in the Lives of ascetic women, independent virgins, differ radically, she argues, from the patristic norm, which emphasised subjection to authority, the fear of sexual temptation, and the virtue of stability. There is much to applaud in this study, which indirectly can help open up for fresh reading a vast medieval literature about ascetic women saints. Her analysis of patristic teaching on sexuality (uniquely the Latin tradition) is clear and concise. Unlike many feminist commentators on the Church Fathers, Salisbury is careful to emphasise the gulf between the views of Jerome and earlier Fathers on sexuality and the much more sophisticated thinking of Augustine about the difference between good and bad sex. In her chapter on 'Augustine's sexual revolution', she presents the significance of Augustine's teaching, at odds with that of Jerome, that there was sex in Paradise, albeit without lust. While Salisbury is not thefirstto point out this difference, her clearly written commentary deserves to be commended. She does not exaggerate Augustine's innovation. 'Augustine was willing to alter the Christian understanding of sexuality, but not the late Roman hierarchy of power' (p. 49). The true originality of her book emerges in her discussion of sometittleknown saints, whose lives are recorded in a tenth-century manuscript of the Escorial. She convincingly presents the Lives of Constantina, in legend the virtuous daughter of Constantine, and of Mary the reformed prostitute of Egypt as subtly reworking traditional ascetic themes of Jerome. Egeria and Melania the Younger are free-footed aristocratic women who spend their money on spiritual sightseeing in a way Jerome did not approve. Pelagia and Castissima spurn conventional social mores by taking on men's clothing. Whatever the historical Reviews 157 basis behind these narratives, the model of behaviour being presented is clearly distinct from conventional masculine ascetic models. One difficulty of dealing with saints' Lives of this kind is that we lack alternative source material by which w e might supplement the hagiographical record. It is difficult to know how far traditional masculine models have already 'interfered' in the transmission of a legend. It might be helpful to team about the nature of the monastic communities in which the memory of these independent women was preserved. Nonetheless, Salisbury does a great service by forcing us to look at familiar stories in a new light Constant J. M e w s Department of History Monash University Staniland, Kay, Medieval craftsmen: embroiders, London, British Museum Press, 1991; paper; pp. 92; 77 plates; R.R.P. AUS$22.95 [distributed in Australia by Thames and Hudson]. This short, but lavishly and effectively illustrated, volume is one of a series which the British Museum is producing on medieval craftsmen. The name is perhaps inappropriate for embroiderers, who were predominantly, though by no means exclusively, women. The object of the work is to provide a non-technical overview of the organisation of the craft, its designers and operators, its methods and techniques, its patrons and their relationship with their clients. This it achieves with considerable success. As the author acknowledges, constant use and a brisk market in second hand clothes...