Holiness and Masculinity in Medieval Europe

Discussions of the relationship between gender and religion most often focus attention on female religious figures. In redressing this bias, this collection of fourteen essays, taken from a conference held at the University of Huddersfield in 2001, examines how medieval masculinity related to concepts of holiness. Contents include: Sexual prowess, the battle for chastity and monastic identity (J Murray) ; Masculine identity in mystic marriages (C D Muir) ; Masculinity and eunuch saints in Byzantium (S Tougher) ; Holiness and masculinity in the Lives of Anglo-Saxon martyr-kings (E Christie) ; Monarchy, martyrdom and masculinity: England in the later Middle Ages (W M Ormrod) .