Processions and Privileges

In the fifteenth century the abbess fought to maintain her superiority over the canons of Sainte-Radegonde when citizens were crafting a new identity for Poitiers. The flashpoints for this contest were the town’s public processions during Rogation Days and the nuns’ demand to have control over Sainte-Radegonde. While the canons drew upon rhetorical strategies that denied female competence, the abbess drew on theories championing women’s political abilities and demanded the canons serve in public displays according to her strict requirements. The king and his seneschal supported the nun’s position, suggesting that office trumped gender, and the female sex of the abbess did not diminish her claims to hold authority. Chapter 6 emphasizes the importance of material objects such as Radegund’s relics, the relic of the True Cross, and banners recalling her sanctity in the public performance of civic and ecclesiastical identity during town processions.