Francis of Assisi and the Feminine - Franciscan Institute Publications

12 FRANCIS OF ASSISI AND THE FEMININE
side Francis, they drew me to concentrate my efforts on certain,
possibly obsessive, themes.
In 1101 Robert of Arbrissel instituted the Order of Fontevraud
in the Loire Valley. In this community for both men
and women, something in itself rare, what is unique is the
fact that the men, at the express wish of their founder, submitted
themselves to the authority of the women. Since
Jules Michelet, historians and others continue to be fascinated
by its strange propositum, the mainspring behind a religious
experiment which seemed to fly in the face of social
norms. In fact, it troubled the brothers themselves during
Robert’s lifetime! I followed the lines of research of Jean-Marc
Bienvenu and an article by Dominique Iogna-Prat, finding
support in the unedited ending of the second legend of Robert,
his Vita altera. I came to understand that this servitude
was conceived by the founder of Fontevraud as a form of
extreme humiliation, a salutary penance whereby one submitted
unflinchingly to the authority of a being regarded as
less worthy.
However, it cannot be denied that, like it or not, this
novel, limited opportunity for women had positive effects
on their status in medieval society. It was the Golden Age of
the 12th century, one generation from the Gregorian reform
of the Church, that decisive moment, described as “acte postgregorien,”
3 by Pierre Toubert. There is an unavoidable ambiguity:
Robert made a propositum for a religious life in which
women, as depicted in a particular understanding of femininity,
were regarded as instruments of male ascetism to the
benefit of men. At the same time, this gave them the opportunity
to come closer to power and the sacred. Whatever
interpretation you choose, it cannot be denied that
whether as subjects or objects, women were central to the
experience lived by the Breton hermit.
An exact contemporary of Dante, since she probably
died in the 1320s, Clare of Rimini, needless to say, did not
reach the fame and notoriety of the author of the Divine
Comedy and De vulgari eloquentia. She did not even share the
reputation of those holy women closest to her in time and