Chapter 8 Chapter Seven French Women from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century

Chapter Seven French Women from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century The evolution of the situation of women is not a continuous process.At the time of the Great Invasion, the entire civilization was once again under suspicion.Roman law itself was influenced by this new ideology of Christianity, and in later centuries the barbarians successfully enforced their own laws.The economic, social and political situation is thus reversed: the situation of women is also affected. Christian ideology has played no small role in oppressing women.Undoubtedly, there is in the Gospel a scent of divine love which comes to women as it does to lepers.Indeed, it was the untouchables, slaves, and women who upheld the new law with great zeal.In the early days of Christianity, when women were under the control of the church, they were more respected.Both they and the men proved to be martyrs.But during worship, they can only sit in an inconspicuous place, and what the "deaconesses" have the right to do is only caring for the sick and helping the poor and other secular affairs.Even if marriage is considered an institution requiring mutual fidelity, it seems obvious that the wife is to be completely submissive to her husband, affirmed by St. Paul, by Jewish tradition, that is, by barbaric anti-feminist ideas.

St. Paul warned women not to show their faces, but to be careful everywhere.He bases the subordination of woman to man on the basis of the Old and New Testaments. "For man is not of woman, but woman is of man; no man was created for woman, but woman for man." Another says, "The husband is the ruler of the wife, which is even the same as Christ is Christ. Let the wives be completely subject to their own husbands, as Christians are to be subject to Christ." In religions that condemn the flesh, women have also become devils of great allurement.Tertullian wrote: "Woman, you are the gate of the devil, you lead astray those whom even the devil dare not attack directly. It is your fault that the Son of God had to die; you will mourn forever and be in rags "Saint Ambrose said: "It was Eve who led Adam to sin, and not Adam who led Eve to sin, and it is just and just for a woman to take for husband the man she led to sin." St. John Criso Stowe said: "Among all beasts, there is no one that is as harmful as women." When the canon law was enacted in the 4th century, marriage was seen as a concession to human fragility and incompatible with Christian perfection. .St. Palome wrote: "Let us take the ax in hand and cut down once and for all the fruitless tree of marriage." From the time of Gregory VI, who enforced clerical celibacy, the dangerous nature of women has been more and more criticized. Stern emphasis: the priests all declared her nature vile and vile.St. Thomas stayed true to this tradition, saying that woman is merely an "accidental," incomplete being, a flawed being.He wrote: "Man is over woman, as Christ is over man. It is preordained and unalterable for woman to live under the dominion of man, and she has no right to leave her husband." And, the Church The law also does not recognize any institution of marriage other than the dowry model, which leaves women legally incapacitated and powerless.Not only is the male profession still closed to her, she is also not allowed to testify in court, and her testimony is not recognized as having legal force.Emperors were to some extent influenced by priests.Legislation straight up to Tinney, while respecting the woman as wife and mother, considered her subordinate to these functions.She is legally incapacitated solely because of her situation in the home, not because of her sex.Divorce was forbidden and marriages were held in public ceremonies.The mother has authority over her children equal to that of the father, and she has the same right of inheritance as her children.If the husband dies, she becomes their legal guardian.Due to the amendment of the Villian law by the Senate, a woman can make a contract based on the interests of a third party in the future, but cannot make a contract for her husband.Her dowry was indivisible—it was the hereditary property of her children, and she was not allowed to dispose of it.

In territories occupied by barbarians, these laws blended with Germanic traditions.The Germans usually have no leader, and the family is an independent society. A woman is completely dominated by men at home, but she is respected and has certain rights.Marriage was monogamous, and adultery was severely punished.As Tacilon said, during the war, the wife goes out with her husband and lives and dies with him.The inferiority of women is due to physical weakness rather than psychological weakness.From the time when they can be in charge of the family, women may be better educated than men. These traditions continued until the Middle Ages, and women were in a position of absolute dependence on their fathers and husbands.The Franks did not maintain the chastity of the Germans: they practiced polygamy.A woman does not need her consent to marry, and her husband can abandon her at will, treating her like a servant.The law gave her powerful protection from harm and abuse, but only regarded her as a man's property and the mother of his children.As the state grew stronger, so did the changes of Rome: the guardianship system became a social trusteeship system, which protected the woman but kept him in a servile position.

When feudalism emerged from the upheavals of the early Middle Ages, the status of women was fluid.Feudalism caused confusion in authority between sovereignty and property, between public, private and mighty power.This is the reason for the alternating rise and fall of women in the system.At first, she did not have private rights because she had no political power, and this was because, until the eleventh century, the social order was based only on power, and fiefdoms were property controlled by the army, a power that women could not exercise.Later, a woman could also have inheritance rights when she had no male heir, but her husband was the guardian, and he exercised the right to control the land and its income.She is part of the fief and has no autonomy of action at all.

As in the days of the Roman gens, the domain was no longer family property: it belonged to the lord, and so did the women.The lord chooses a husband for her, her children belong to the lord rather than remain with him, and the husband is destined to become a domestic servant responsible for protecting the lord's property.So, through the "protection" imposed on her by her husband, Di becomes a slave of the domain and of the master of the domain: her fate is harder than ever.A female heir - equals land and a castle.When she was twelve or younger, she might marry a baron.But more marriages means more property, so marriages are repeatedly dissolved by the church in hypocrisy.The excuse for this is easily found in the practice of prohibiting intermarriage between relatives.This is the case even if the relatives are far away and not necessarily related by blood.In the 11th century, many women were abandoned like this four or five times.

If a woman becomes a widow, she should immediately find a new master.We see, in the "Ode to Commendation," that Flemagne was all married to a group of widows of his baron, who was killed in Spain.Many epics speak of the cruel sale of girls or widows by kings or barons.The wives were often beaten and punished, and dragged around by their hair.The knight didn't care much about women, he thought his horse was far more valuable. The young women in "Fu Gong Song" are always courting, but once they are married, they must abide by one-sided loyalty.The way girls are brought up is crude, they do menial work, they are neither dignified nor educated.They grew up to hunt, to go on pilgrimages to distant lands, and to guard the fiefs of their master while he was away.Some of the women in these castles were as greedy, treacherous, and brutal as the men.Horrific stories about them survive to this day.But all these are exceptions.Usually the women of the castle pass the time with organizing, praying, serving their husbands, and in utter boredom.

The “love of chivalry” that emerged in the south of France in the twelfth century may have improved the lot of women, whether it came from the affair of a noblewoman with a young manservant, superstition of the Virgin Mary, or love of God in general.It is doubtful that courtship by mistresses actually existed, but there is no doubt that the Church raised the superstition of the Saviour's mother to such an extent that we can say that God became a woman in the seventh century.The leisure of the ladies made it possible for them to socialize, to be suave, to write poetry for show.Learned women, such as Elen Of Aopindne of Aquitaine and Blanche of Navare, both patronized poets, and the general prosperity of culture gave women new prestige.Chivalry is often seen as platonic, but in reality feudal husbands were guardians and tyrants, and wives courted extramarital lovers.Chivalry is a compensation for brutal, formal social conventions.As Engels said: "The love relationship in the modern sense only existed outside the society in ancient times. The Middle Ages began when the ancient world with the germination of sexual love stopped, that is, from adultery." As long as the marriage system still exists , which is indeed the form love will take.

But it was neither chivalry, nor religion, nor poetry, but entirely other reasons, that women had a certain advantage when feudalism was dying.With the strengthening of kingship, the feudal lord lost much of his authority, including the right to decide the marriage of servants and the right to use the property under his guardianship.Instead of military service but money, the benefice consecrates to the sovereign, and it becomes purely hereditary property, without any reason why the sexes should be treated unequally.In France, an unmarried woman or widow has all the rights of a man.As the owner of the fief, she exercised the judicial power, signed treaties, and issued decrees.She even played a military role, went to command the army, and participated in battles: there were female soldiers before Ran Dak (Loffor), so this saint 5!The exclamation will not make people BI disgusted.

However, there are also many factors that have united against women's independence, and these factors will not be completely eliminated at once.Physical frailty is no longer a consideration, but as far as married women are concerned, affiliation is still socially beneficial.So husband power still exists after the feudal system perished.We still see this paradox today: the woman who is most fully integrated into society has the least privileges.Marriage under civil feudalism was exactly the same as under military feudalism: the husband remained the wife's guardian.The bourgeoisie followed these laws as it arose, and girls and widows had the rights of men.But the married woman is an underage under guardianship, beaten and scolded, her conduct is closely monitored, and her property is arbitrarily embezzled.Among the nobility and the bourgeoisie, property interests required a single person to manage.This may be a single woman, and her abilities are recognized.But from feudal times to the present, married women have been deliberately made victims of private property.The richer the husband, the more attached the wife is; the more powerful he is socially and economically, the more authoritatively he can play the patriarchal role.On the contrary, shared poverty makes the marriage relationship a reciprocal relationship.Neither the feudal system nor the church made women free.The transition from the patriarchal family to the real marital family occurred rather in the process of getting rid of serfdom.The serf and his wife had nothing.They have the right to use the house and furniture, but since they have no property, men have no reason to want to dominate their wives.Instead, common interests unite them, and the wife rises to the status of partner.When serfdom was abolished, poverty remained.In the small-scale rural communes, among the workers, husband and wife lived on an equal basis.Woman has achieved real autonomy in free labor because the role she plays is indeed economically and socially important.Medieval comedies and fables reflected a society of workers, merchants, and peasants in which the husband had no advantage over his wife except the strength to beat her.But the wife counteracts the violence with cunning, so the life of husband and wife is equal.Meanwhile, the rich woman pays for her laziness in submission.

Women retained some privileges in the Middle Ages, but the laws, carried over throughout the Ancien Regime, were codified by the sixteenth century.Thus feudal social customs arose, in which the woman lost all protection against the man's desire to keep her bound at home.The code denied her access to "masculine" status, completely disqualified her from citizenship, and placed her under the guardianship of her father when she was unmarried.If she was not married, her father would send her to a convent; if she married, she, her property, and children would be placed under the full authority of her husband.The husband was held responsible for her debts and conduct, and she had few direct relationships with government authorities or outsiders.She labors and mothers more like a servant than a partner: the things she does, the values ​​and people she creates, are not her own property, but belong to the family, and thus to the head man.In other countries, the situation of a woman is not much better: she has no political rights, and social mores are harsh.All European legal codes are based on canon law, Roman law, and German law - all of which are unfavorable to women.Private property and the family exist in all countries, and they are regulated according to these institutions.

In all these countries, one of the results of the domestic servitude of "recent women" was the existence of prostitutes.Hypocritically kept on the fringes of society, prostitutes play a very important role in society.Christianity has the utmost contempt for prostitutes, yet recognizes them as a necessary evil.Both St. Augustine and St. Thomas asserted that the suppression of prostitution would mean the collapse of society through degradation: "The whore is to the city as the sewer is to the palace." Prostitutes existed, but when the bourgeois family was established and strict monogamy became the rule, men were obliged to seek pleasure outside the home. The efforts of Emperor Charles Wu against prostitution, and later those of Charles IV of France and Maria Theresa of Austria in the eighteenth century, were equally unsuccessful.Social organization makes prostitution indispensable.As Schopenhauer (Qin b Fear oil) put it evasively: "The prostitute is the sacrifice that mankind puts on the altar of monogamy." The idea, but in a different way: "Prostitutes, as the highest type of depravity, are the greatest guardians of chastity." Jewish usury activities and prostitutes' extramarital sex are also condemned by society and the state, but society must not Do not live with financial speculation and extramarital love. Therefore, society assigns these functions to ghettos or other ghettos and other ghettos. Like Jews, prostitutes must also be clearly marked on their clothes. and therefore unable to guard against the police; for most of them, life was difficult. But there were also many prostitutes who were free, and some even lived well. As in the days of high-class Greek courtesans, life with "decent women" Compared with, the romantic and luxurious life provides more opportunities for women's individualism. In France, the single woman has a special status. Her independence and the restraint of the wife form a very sharp contrast. She is a striking figure.But social custom deprived her of all the rights the law gave her.She has all the rights of citizenship—but they are abstract and empty; she has no economic autonomy or social dignity.Spinsters often spent their lives under the protection of their father's family, or lived with other spinsters in nunneries.She knows little of any other form of liberty than disobedience and sin—just as the Roman woman in Decline could only win her liberty through her fall.Negativity is still the lot of women, and the autonomy of action they acquire is still negative. In such cases, it is obviously very rare for a woman to make a difference, or feel fully present.Among the working class, economic oppression abolishes gender inequality, but it also deprives individuals of all opportunities.Among the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, women are still bullied: they are merely living a parasitic life.She had little education, and it was only in exceptional circumstances that she could conceive and implement concrete designs.Queens and regents have this rare joy that their sovereign power raises them above their sex.In France, the Saliclaw does not allow women to inherit the throne, but they sometimes play an important role at the side of their husbands or after the death of their husbands, such as St. Clotilda, St. Radegund and Card This is the case with Blanche of Castille.Convent life allowed women to be independent of men: some abbots wielded great power.Héloise had gained as much fame as a priory as she had gained in love.The female soul receives all the inspiration and power that the male soul possesses from the mystical relationship of subjection to God.The respect given by society enables them to complete difficult careers.Ran Duc's adventures have a mystical flair, but they're no more than fleeting escapades.However, the experience of St. Catherine of Siena (St. Catherine of Siena) has a profound meaning.In a very ordinary life, she gained great popularity in Siena by virtue of her active philanthropic activities, and by attesting to the imagination that she lived an intense spiritual life.So she has the authority she needs to be successful, which women don't usually have.Her influence was turned to in counseling the condemned, in bringing back the lost, in alleviating the grudges between family and city.She has the support of society, and society depends on her to realize its own existence, so she can fulfill the mission of mediation.She preached obedience to the Pope from city to city, maintained extensive contacts with bishops and rulers, and was finally chosen by Florence as an envoy to Avignon to seek the Pope.Queens, by their theocracy, and saints by their bewildering virtues, indeed won the support of society so that they could act on an equal footing with men.Society, by contrast, only asks other women to be demure and silent. In short, men held rather unfavorable opinions about women in the Middle Ages.Erotic poems undoubtedly praise love, and "The Joyful Roman" encourages young people to serve their ladies for life.But in contrast to this literature (produced by lyric poetry), works of bourgeois inspiration attacked women viciously: allegories, comedies, and short poems accused them of laziness, sensuality, and lasciviousness.The worst enemies of woman are priests, who blame marriage.The church sanctifies marriage, but does not allow Christian elites to marry: this contradiction stems from the "controversy about women".Priests wrote "sorrowful" at the shortcomings of women and the sufferings of men in marriage, and ridiculed them, while their opponents wanted to prove women's superiority.The debate continued throughout the 15th century, and it wasn't until Christine de Ihaan lashed out at priests in the Letters of the Love of God that we first saw women take up pens in defense of women .She later insisted that if little girls were well educated, they would "understand all the mysteries of art and science" as well as boys.In fact, the debate only indirectly involved women.No one thought of giving women a different role in society than they currently have.Rather it is a question of contrasting priestly life with the state of marriage, that is to say, a masculine question caused by the church's ambiguous attitude towards marriage.The conflict was resolved by Luther's disagreement with clerical celibacy.The situation of women is not affected by this controversy; this "controversy" is a secondary phenomenon that reflects rather than changes social attitudes. From the early fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, little changed in the legal status of woman, but her actual situation among the privileged classes did improve.The Italian Renaissance was an age of individualism that favored the revealing of the strong and was indifferent to gender.Women became powerful sovereigns, warriors and generals, artists, writers and musicians.Most of these famous women were high-class prostitutes; they were free in spirit, lifestyle and financial resources, and their crimes and debauchery were legendary.This licentiousness would characterize in later centuries those women of position or fortune who escaped the rigors of common morality at the time.Except queens and queens who showed that women can achieve when circumstances are favorable—Catherine de Medici, Elizabeth and Isabella, and St. Women, women achieved little in the way of positive achievement, as they were largely deprived of education and other favorable conditions in the 16th century. In the 17th century, women at leisure devoted themselves to art and literature and played an important role in the cultural salons of the upper class.In France, Madame de Lambuet, Madame de Sévigné, and other women were famous.Elsewhere, Queen Christina, Miss de Schurman (Mile de Schurman) and other women were similarly admired.Through this power and prestige, women of rank or renown began to infiltrate the world of men, and finally, through Madame de Mainteno, she proved how important a shrewd woman can be in the affairs of state behind the scenes.Some people break free from the shackles of the bourgeoisie in order to become famous in the world, so there is another kind of woman that was not known at the time—the actress. In 1545 a woman appeared on stage for the first time.Even at the beginning of the seventeenth century, most actresses were also the wives of actors; but later, they were as independent professionally as in their private lives.The high-class courtesan is best embodied in Niy de Lanclou.She had the greatest independence and freedom possible for a woman at the time. In the 18th century, women's freedom continued to expand.The social customs of the time were still strict: a young girl could only receive a very low education; she was not to be consulted about marrying her off or sending her to a nunnery.The rising middle class imposed strict moral codes on wives.But the women of this class lead a life of extreme dissoluteness, and the upper middle class "is polluted by the stereotype; neither the nunnery nor the family can restrain the woman. For most women this freedom remains Abstract, passive: almost merely for fun. But the knowledgeable, ambitious woman creates opportunity. Pressing the dragon sheds new light; the woman protects and inspires the writer, becomes his first reader; They study philosophy and science, and establish physics and chemistry laboratories. The political prestige of Mrs. de Pompadour (Mine de Ihanwtr) and Mrs. Press Barry (Mine de Buy) implies the power of women, and they are indeed controlling the country. So in the old Institutional culture has always been the most accessible field for women who want to make a difference. But the fact that no woman has yet reached the heights of Dante and Shakespeare is explained by their general mediocrity. Except for female elites ,Culture is by no means the property of any woman, by no means of the female group, while male genius is often from the male group. Even privileged women are facing obstacles, although nothing can stop St. Terri Shakespeare or Catherine-like characters are brilliant, but great writers and many conditions are conjoined against female writers. Virginia Woolf (Viopnia Woolf) in "A Space of Own", fictionalized a Shakespeare's sister, And compared her poor and limited life with Shakespeare's learned and adventurous life. Only in the 18th century did a middle-class woman named Mrs. AphaBehn appear. She is A widow who, like a man, lived by writing. She was followed by women, but even in the nineteenth century they were often forced into anonymity. They did not even have "a space of their own," that is, they had no material Independent status in the world, and this status is one of the necessary conditions to win spiritual freedom. Virginia Woolf said that in Britain, women writers have always aroused people's hostility. Things are better in France because social and intellectual life are linked.But generally speaking, public opinion is also hostile to "women scholars".After the Renaissance, women with status and intelligence, together with Erasmus (E_Xun) and others, wrote in defense of women. Margaret of Navare wrote many articles against the licentious society. At the same time as the customs, an ideal of emotional mysticism, not too restrained, chastity was proposed, which reconciled marriage and love for the honor and happiness of women. The enemies of women are certainly not silent. They provoked The old controversy of the Middle Ages, published the "prime" which is critical of women everywhere. Erotic literature - "The Hut's Cabin" - attacked the folly of women, and religious literature quoted St. Paul, the Fathers and Ecclesiastes to criticize women slander. The success of women has given rise to new attacks on them: the affective woman, known as the pdeicuse (female elegant scholar) who provokes public opinion. Such terms as pdeicuseridicde (ridiculous female refined scholar) and erudite are applauded, but Morrie Mourn (MOlt6re) was not the enemy of woman: he lashed out at forced marriage, demanded freedom of expression for young girls, respect and independence for wives. Bossuet preached against women, and Boileau wrote Satirical poems inspired some people to passionately defend women. Poulein de la Barre, the most important feminist of the time, published "The Equality of the Sexes" in 1673. He believed that men take advantage of their superior physical strength to support their own sex, while women acquiesce to their dependent status by habit. They have never had a fair chance—neither liberty nor education. Therefore, he argues, it is impossible, on the basis of past behavior, to They judge that nothing can prove their inferiority to men. In the 18th century, there were also two views on this issue.Some writers want to prove that women do not have immortal souls.Rousseau dedicates women to husband and motherhood, so he becomes the mouthpiece of the middle class.He said: "The whole education of women should be related to men... Women are created to marry men and endure his injustices." But it is beneficial.Most philosophers regard them as equals to strong men.Voltaire blamed the injustice of women's fate.Diderot believes that her inferiority is mainly caused by society.Montesquieu, on the other hand, contradicted himself by saying, "It is contrary to reason and nature to subject women to the family... They have never ruled the family empire." reason.But almost alone Mercier—in his "Paris Scenes"—expressed his indignation at the plight of working women and thus raised the very important question of female labor.Condorcet wanted women to enter political life, arguing that if education was equal they would be equal to men.He said: "The more women are enslaved by the law, the more dangerous their domestic empire is... If maintaining this family empire is not so relevant to women's interests, if this family empire is no longer their only means of protecting themselves from oppression, it will will perish."