The Manly Priest: Clerical Celibacy, Masculinity, and Reform in England and Normandy, 1066-1300 by Jennifer d. Thibodeaux (review)

problems and inconsistencies, which he puts forward even in his chapters on the Bible and early christianity, maintaining a disparity between the old Testament’s edenic portrayal of the equality of the sexes and a notion of male headship to which women must be submissive. His account of the medieval period unveils numerous ambiguities and tensions. on the one hand, the period affirmed consent as the basis of marriage, thus making the woman an equal partner in agreeing to a marriage; on the other, women were often subject to familial economic concerns. on the one hand, the church denounced spousal abuse and protected women from brutality; on the other, many husbands treated their wives poorly. The point for angenendt, however, is that christianity did affirm the equality the sexes and conceived of marriage as a partnership; the point is that, when given the chance, the christian church did protect women from savage husbands. What angenendt wants his readers to understand is how unusual such a situation is in the history of the world.