High Anxiety: Masculinity in Crisis in Early Modern France ed. by Kathleen P. Long (review)

REVIEWS 235 Princeton University Press, 2001) xi + 304 pp., ill., maps. Judith Herrin graces us with an informative and entertaining account of the rule of three Byzantine empresses, Women in Purple. Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora ruled the eastern Mediterranean Christian empire of Byzantium in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. In addition to the dubious honor of being women rulers in an age when few females yielded such power, all three left lasting contributions to universal art and culture by preserving and protecting the veneration of religious icons in the Eastern Christian Church. The policy against the worship of icons had its beginnings in the seventh century. Throughout the 720s and 730s the Saracens were attacking the outreaches of Byzantium with the ultimate goal of entrenching themselves in the capital city of Constantinople. After a series of defeats at the hands of the Arabs , the Byzantine emperor Leo III, believing that his Arab enemies were granted victory because of their strict stand against the worship of images, issued an edict banning the worship of all icons in his own empire. In 787, at Empress Irene’s initiative, the worship of icons was reinstated. Surviving numerous plots designed to dethrone her, Irene is the first woman ruler of Byzantium, a precedent that served Euphrosyne and Theodora well. Her ascent to power is an accomplishment in itself considering that Irene insists on being declared empress at a time when the concept of a Byzantine woman ruler was inconceivable. Empress Euphrosyne’s most notable contribution was as mentor to her daughter in law, Theodora. Euphrosyne made sure that the final bridal candidates , Theodora included, were all iconophiles., and she continued to aid the cause of the iconophiles from behind the scenes as advisor to the young Theodora . Euphrosyne’s inclusion in this trilogy serves more as a link between the generations than as portrait of an innovator. The definitive restoration of icon worship takes place in March 843 as a result of Empress Theodora’s efforts. Success was not an easy task as she needed to gain the support of the church, the army, the nobles, and the public at large. As a result of her efforts in the restoration of icons, she is canonized as a saint in the Easter Christian Church. The famous Menologion of Basil of ca. 1000 attests to this, portraying Theodora with a halo and holding a small round icon. The restoration of icons is more than a story on successful policy making in the Middle Ages or a captivating account of the cultural legacy of an long gone empire. In the context of the times, the policy of restoration can also be viewed as a triumph for the status of women in Byzantine society. Outside of the nunnery it was very rare for a woman to attain a position of power or influence; even communities of nuns were dependent upon an ordained priest. Relegated outside the corridors of power, political or religious, women found fulfillment in the adoration of icons in the privacy of their own homes, so perhaps it is no coincidence that women rulers had a special role in the restoration of icons. MIHAELA LUIZA FLORESCU, Cerritos College, Norwalk, CA High Anxiety: Masculinity in Crisis in Early Modern France, ed. Kathleen P. Long (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press 2002) xviii+ 238 pp. The authors of the eleven essays that comprise the anthology High Anxiety: Masculinity in Crisis in Early Modern France, edited by Kathleen P. Long, REVIEWS 236 argue that the social and political upheaval in the period following the French Wars of Religions resulted in an anxiety about masculinity. These authors attempt to tease out the developments of masculinity and the male norm in sixteenth - and seventeenth-century France that would eventually result in the transformation of such institutions such as marriage, monarchy, the market, and the church, in the period leading up to and after the Revolution. The authors, who are primarily scholars of literature or French studies, examine a wide range of sources from pamphlets, fairy tales, jokes, poetry, and medical works to the works of such authors as Montaigne and Labé. The volume opens with “Louise Labé’s Transgressions...