![]() | Proving Woman Around the year 1215, female mystics and their sacramental devotion were among orthodoxy's most sophisticated weapons in the fight against heresy. Holy women's claims to be in direct communication with God placed them in positions of unprecedented influence. Yet by the end of the Middle Ages female mystics were frequently mistrusted, derided, and in danger of their lives. The witch hunts were just around the corner. Dyan Elliott is Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University. She is the author of Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock (Princeton) and Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages. |
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