Ideas about sexual difference shape, and in turn are shaped by, religious culture. This is as true of Christianity, the dominant European religion, as of any other faith. Despite St. Paul’s declaration of radical spiritual equality for all, regardless of ethnicity, status, or sex—“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28)—gender has been both a theoretical and a practical factor in the organization of religious life throughout the history of Christianity. The historical relationship between gender and religion...

The records of the prosecution depict especially vividly the Lollard community active in the city of Coventry in the early sixteenth century. The court book recording the depositions of those brought before Bishop Geoffrey Blyth in 1511 and 1512 brings to life the people of this important Midlands town as they went about their heretical business. While in many respects the Coventry Lollards were unusual as compared to their counterparts in other communities, a case study of this Lollard group provides a useful basis on which to ground further discussion. Just as we can study the heterodox in order to...

A Lollard community was not a strictly defined association. While all adherents of the sect from a particular locality may be said to belong to the same Lollard community, they did not meet together in large community groups, and almost certainly they created no membership lists or other written signs of affiliation (as did later Protestant sects).¹ The practice of the Lollard faith—which most often involved discussion of doctrine—took place in formal and informal situations, in almost ritualized gatherings and in casual conversations between neighbors in the street. The cement that made a Lollard community cohere was in...

Historians studying the social aspects of medieval heretical sects and Protestant movements have approached in various ways the important question of the role of the family, the basic unit of social organization.¹ Scholars of medieval heresy have often tied the patriarchal nature of families in the Middle Ages to Catholicism; a revolt against Catholicism constituted a revolt against patriarchy. The Marxist thesis of Gottfried Koch, for instance, contends that women became involved in heresy (specifically Catharism) as a rebellion against their families and the patriarchal system typified and represented by the medieval Catholic Church. This thesis has been challenged in...

Although women did not generally play leading roles in Lollardy, this chapter examines the exceptions: active and enthusiastic members of the sect who were recognized as such by other Lollards and by the authorities. One common factor among prominent women was high social position, which could allow a woman, interacting with a group of men below her in rank, to stretch the conventions governing the behavior of lower-status women. Gender was shaped partly by social position, at the same time as social position itself was gendered. This does not mean, however, that gender became an unimportant factor among the social...

Men and women did not respond to the lure of the Lollard movement in the same way. Men, both urban and rural, artisans and agricultural workers, joined the sect in much greater numbers than did women of similar socio-economic backgrounds. Men were, moreover, the movement’s more enthusiastic and active adherents. Most Lollard women became involved as wives or other relatives of men of the sect, suggesting that their involvement was less an individual choice than a family decision.¹ Clearly, men of these social groups were more attracted to the sect than were their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters.

How do...