‘Stronger than men and braver than knights’: women and the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome in the later middle ages
2003; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 29; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0304-4181(03)00032-0
ISSN1873-1279
Autores Tópico(s)Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
ResumoAbstract Women who participated in the long-distance pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries faced a variety of economic and social barriers. Based upon the pilgrimage narratives of Margery Kempe, Felix Fabri, and others, this article examines the strategies women used to overcome those barriers both before and during the journey. While resistance to women’s pilgrimages was strong, in part, because they did not fit their quotidian roles as caregivers, it was nevertheless to aspects of those same normative roles that women appealed in order to justify their pilgrimages and shield themselves from censure during their journeys. Keywords: Medieval womenPilgrimageJerusalemRome Notes 1 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury tales. Nine tales and the general prologue, ed. V. A. Kolve and Gendong Olson (New York, 1989), 120-21, lines 655-58: … ‘Whoso that buildeth his hous al of salwes,/ And priketh his blinde hors over the falwes,/ And suffreth his wyf to go seken halwes,/ Is worthy to been hanged on the galwes!’ Modern translation is the author’s own. 2 On the topic of pilgrimage as spiritually dangerous in the later middle ages, see J. Sumption, Pilgrimage. An image of medieval religion (Totowa, N. J.,1975), chaps 14–15; and C. Zacher, Curiosity and pilgrimage. The literature of discovery in fourteenth-century England (Baltimore, 1976), chaps 1–3. 3 Sumption, Pilgrimage, 262; S. Signe Morrison, Women pilgrims in late medieval England. Private piety as public performance (New York, 2000), 108–117; and L. A. Craig, ‘Wandering women and holy matrons: Women as pilgrims in the later middle ages, 1300–1500 C. E’. (Ph.D. diss., The Ohio State University, 2001), chap. 2. 4 B. Ward, Miracles and the medieval mind. Theory, record, event, 1000-1215 (London, 1982), 124. 5 J. M. Bennett, Introduction to Sisters and workers in the middle ages, ed. J. M. Bennett, E. A. Clark, J. F. O’Barr, B. A. Vilen and S. Westphal-Wihl (Chicago, 1989), 6. 6 Sumption, Pilgrimage 262, suggests that it ‘is possible that at the close of the middle ages women formed the majority of visitors at many shrines;’ J. Brefeld, A guidebook for the Jerusalem pilgrimage in the late middle ages. A case for computer-aided textual criticism (Hilversum, 1994), 15, notes that a figure of one-quarter to one-third female pilgrims has been suggested; and Craig, ‘Wandering women and holy matrons’ 134, has noted that women comprised anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the suppliants in the later medieval miracle collections she examined. 7 J. Brefeld, A guidebook for the Jerusalem pilgrimage in the late middle ages, 15. 8 P. A. Halpin, ‘Anglo-Saxon women and pilgrimage’, Anglo-Norman studies XIX. Proceedings of the Battle Conference (Suffolk, UK, 1996), 96–122. 9 G. Constable, ‘Opposition to pilgrimage in the middle ages’, Studia Gratiana XIX. Melanges G. Fransen I (Rome, 1976), 127, 131. 10 This translation, and all those used in-text here, is from F. Fabri, ‘The wanderings of Felix Fabri’, trans. Aubrey Stewart, in The library of the Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society vols. 7–10 (New York, 1971), vols. 7–8, 395. The Latin text is available as ‘Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Aegypti peregrinationem’, ed. by C. D. Hassler, in Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart vols I–III (Stuttgart, 1843), vol. II, 322: Juxta eandem domum erat alia curia magna, in qua manere solebant foeminae peregrinae, quae viris in hospitali magno cohabitare minime permittebantur. 11 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 528; also Evagatorium vol. II, 418–419. 12 J. Capgrave, Ye Solace of Pilgrimes. A description of Rome, circa A.D. 1450, by J. Capgrave, an Austin Friar of King’s Lynn, ed. C.A. Mills (London, 1911), 77. 13 For example, G. da Rivolta, Prediche del Beato Fra Giordano da Rivalto dell’Ordine dè Predicatori (Florence, 1739), 253, mocks women pilgrims in his sermon on Luke 18:9–14; and J. Capgrave, Ye Solace of Pilgrimes, 77, discusses women’s excessive desire to go to Rome as pilgrims. 14 See, for example, Sumption, Pilgrimage, 260–63; D. Webb, Pilgrims and pilgrimage in the medieval west (London, 1999), 236–8. 15 Halpin, Anglo-Saxon women and pilgrimage, 97. 16 K. Utterback, ‘The vision becomes reality. Medieval women pilgrims to the Holy Land’, in Pilgrims and travelers to the Holy Land, ed. B. F. LeBeau and M. Mor (Omaha, 1996), 159–68. 17 S. S. Morrison, Women pilgrims in late medieval England. 18 M. Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. and trans. L. Staley (New York, 2001); the Middle English text is available in M. Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. S. Brown Meech (London: Early English Text Society, 1940). 19 The Liber Celestis of St. Bridget of Sweden, the only other later medieval pilgrimage narrative that was dictated by a woman, does not contain information about Bridget’s participation in pilgrimage rituals, her interactions with fellow-pilgrims, or her experiences of travel; instead, it records the visions she had while in Jerusalem. Because of this, the text sheds little light on women’s experiences of pilgrimage as they are addressed here. In the words of her editor, ‘Most of what we know of the Saint in the Liber we learn from the words addressed to her by the divine speakers: and their messages only apply in the most general terms to her personal situation’. R. Ellis, introduction to The Liber Celestis of Bridget of Sweden, vol. 1, ed. R. Ellis (Oxford, 1987), xiv. 20 J. C. Hirsch, ‘Author and scribe in the Book of Margery Kempe’, Medium Aevum 44 (1975), 145–150. 21 L. Staley, Margery Kempe’s dissenting fictions (University Park, Penn., 1994). 22 R. K. Stone, Middle English prose style. Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich (The Hague, 1970); and K. Lochrie, ‘The Book of Margery Kempe. The marginal woman’s quest for literary authority’, The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 16, no. 1 (1986), 33–56. 23 Fabri, Wandering’, trans vols. 7–10; and Evagatorium, vols. I–III. H. F. M. Prescott discussed his journeys in depth in Jerusalem journey. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the fifteenth century (London, 1954) and Once to Sinai. The further pilgrimage of Friar Felix Fabri (London, 1957). 24 Sumption, Pilgrimage, 138–40. 25 Constable, ‘Opposition to pilgrimage’, 123–46, esp. 135–6. 26 Sumption, Pilgrimage 171. 27 L. E. Mitchell, ‘Women and medieval canon law’, in: Women in medieval western European culture, ed. L. E. Mitchell (New York, 1999), 152. 28 Sumption, Pilgrimage 171. 29 On the pilgrims’ uniform, see Sumption, Pilgrimage 172–73; and for a version of the initial ceremony, see J. Wickham Legg, ed., The Sarum Missal edited from three early manuscripts (Oxford, 1969), 452. 30 J. A. Brundage. ‘Widows as disadvantaged persons in medieval canon law’, in Upon my husband’s death. Widows in the literature and histories of medieval Europe, ed. L. Mirrer (Ann Arbor, 1992), 193–206, 194. 31 J. A. Brundage, Medieval canon law and the crusader (Madison, 1969), 12–15. 32 Sumption, Pilgrimage 170. 33 Sumption, Pilgrimage 205. 34 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 1, 6; also Book, Meech, ed. 6: …sche was maryed to a worschepful burgeys…. 35 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 11; also Evagatorium vol. II, 31. 36 Fabri, Wanderings vols. 7/8, 166; also Evagatorium vol. II, 149: Inter quos erat quidam Flandrensis cum sua uxore intrans galeam. 37 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 31, 58; also Book, Meech, ed., 79. 38 Fabri, Wanderings vols. 7/8, 41; also Evagatorium vol. II, 56. 39 Sumption, Pilgrimage 170. 40 M. Wade Labarge, A small sound of the trumpet. Women in medieval life (Boston, 1986), 33–35. 41 Webb, Pilgrims and pilgrimage 238. 42 For example, the Treatise on the Holy Land, written by the Italian friar Francesco Suriano, was composed as a dialogue between himself and his sister, a nun. In it, he describes the Holy Land for her, and tells her ‘Great is your fervour, my most beloved sister, and your burning desire for these most holy places of the merit of which I do not believe you are deprived, for that you cannot see them comes only from an impossibility (emphasis mine)’. Suriano, Treatise on the Holy Land, trans. by Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (1949; rpr. Jerusalem, 1983), 110. Felix Fabri commented on his difficulties and fears in obtaining permission, as well; see Fabri, Wanderings, vol. 7, 48–9. Also Constable, ‘Opposition to pilgrimage’, 131. 43 Brundage, ‘Sexual equality in: medieval canon law’, in: Medieval women and the sources of medieval history, ed. J. T. Rosenthal (Athens, Georgia, 1990), 67. 44 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 26, 44–45; also Book, Meech, ed., 60: Whan tyme cam þat þis creatur xuld vysiten þo holy placys wher owyr Lord was whyk & ded, as sche had be reuelacyon 3erys a-forn, sche preyd þe parysch preste of þe town þer sche was dwellyng to sey for hir in þe pulpyt þat, yf any man er woman þat cleymyd any dette of hir hosband or of hir þei xuld come & speke with hir er sche went, & sche with þe help of God, xulde makyn a-seth to ech of hem þat þei schuldyn heldyn hem content. & so sche dede. Sythen sche toke hir leue at hir hosband & of þe holy ankyr… 45 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chap. 11, 19; also Book, Meech, ed., 24: Margery, grawnt me my desyr, & I schal grawnt 3ow 3owr desyr. My first desyr is þat we xal lyn style to-gedyr in o bed as we han do be-for; þe secunde þat 3e schal pay my dettys er 3e go to Iherusalem; & þe thrydde þat 3e schal etyn & drynkyn with me on þe Fryday as 3e wer wont to don. 46 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 11, 19–20; also Book, Meech, ed., 24. 47 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chap. 11, 20; also Book, Meech, ed., 25: Sere, yf it lyke 3ow, 3e schal grawnt me my desyr, & 3e schal haue 3owr desyr. Grawntyth me þat 3e schal not komyn in my bed, & I grawnt 3ow to qwyte 3owr dettys er I go to Ierusalem. & makyth my body fre to God so þat 3e neuyr make no chalengyng in me to askyn no dett of matrimony aftyr þis day whyl 3e leuyn, & I schal etyn & drynkyn on þe Fryday at 3owr byddyng. 48 C. Bynum, Holy feast and holy fast. The religious significance of food to medieval women (Berkeley, 1987), 220. 49 Bennett, Introduction to Sisters and workers, 6. 50 Morrison, Women pilgrims, 46. 51 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 166; also Evagatorium vol. II, 150. 52 Brundage, ‘Widows as disadvantaged persons’, passim. 53 For brief summaries of the freedoms and complications of widowhood in the middle ages, see L. Mirror, introduction to Upon my husband’s death, 1–17; and Lebarge, A small sound 164–166. 54 C. Estow, ‘Widows in the chronicles of late medieval Castile’, in: Upon my husband’s death, 153–168, 153. 55 Morrison, Women pilgrims, 45–46. 56 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 11; also Evagatorium vol. II, 31: et quaedam etiam mulieres, vetulae, devotae matronae divites…. 57 Fabri, Wandering vol. 7/8, 26; also Evagatorium vol. II, 43: Videntes autem antiquae vetulae matronae necessitatem nostram…. 58 Pierre-André Sigal, L’homme et le miracle dans la France médiévale (XIe-XIIe siècle) (Paris, 1985), 118: Avant ou au cours du voyage, les pèlerins cherchiant à se grouper. 59 See Brefeld, A guidebook for Jerusalem pilgrimage, 19; Sumption, Pilgrimage 189–90. 60 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 11; also Evagatorium vol. II, 31–2: Hoc quidem superbi nobiles aegere ferentes cogitabant navem, in qua transducendae essent illae matronae, non velle ascendere, indignum aestimantes, in vetularum consortio ad militiam suscipiendam pergere. Et ad hoc conabantur superbi illi omnes nos inducere, ne navem illam conduceremus, in quam vetulae venturae erant. Sed alii milites prudentiores et conscientiosi contradicebant superbis illis, et gaudebant de poenitentia illarum matronarum, sperantes, quod propter devotionem earum navigatio nostra salubrior fieret. Unde propter illam causam orta fuit inter nobiles illos implacabilis inimicitia, et duravit, quousque Deus illos superbos de medio tulit. Manserunt autem devotae matronae illae nobiscum, cum per mare intrando et exuendo. 61 Brefeld, A Guidebook for the Jerusalem pilgrimage 21. 62 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 11; also Evagatorium vol. II, 31: Miratus fui audaciam illarum vetularum, quae se ipsas prae senio ferre vix poterat, et tamen fragilitatis propriae oblitae, amore illius sanctae terrae in consortium militium juvenum se ingerebant, et laborem fortium virorum subibant. 63 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 166; also Evagatorium vol. II, 149–150: Ad ingressum autem illius mulieris multi turbati fuerunt, pro eo, quod ipsa sola erat in galea, quia nulla mulier erat nobiscum…Nec erat aliquis in nostra galea, cui ingressus illius vetulae non displicaret, pro eo, quod una sola muliercula inter tot generosos viros commorari deberet, signanter cum satis vaga et curiosa primo aspectu videretur; …Discurrebat enim continue per navem, et curiosissima erat, omnia videre aut audire volens, et se multum odiosam faciebat. 64 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 153; also Evagatorium vol. II, 137: Mulieres peregrinae non accedunt ad mensam communem sed manuent in suis stantiis, et ibi manducant, ibi dormiunt. 65 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 15; also Evagatorium vol. II, 138: Vix potest se peregrinus movere sine contactu collateralis; locus etiam est clausus et caldissimus ac grossis vaporibus ac diversis plenus. 66 W. Wey, The itineraries of William Wey, ed. B. Badinel (London, 1867), 4: yf ye goo in a galey make yowre covenaunte wyth the patrone bytyme, and chese yow a place in the seyd galey in the overest stage; for in the lawyest under hyt ys ryght smoleryng hote and stynking. (Modern translation is the author’s own). 67 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 167; also Evagatorium vol. II, 150: Omnibus erat spina in oculis haec foemina. 68 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 166; also Evagatorium vol. II, 150: Nam pro vero dico, quod VII illae vetulae, cum quibus prima vice transfretavi, quietiores fuerunt et et rarius videbantur, quam illa unica anus. 69 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 150; also Evagatorium vol. II, 134–135: Ideo aliqui statim ut de mensa surgunt, ascendunt, et per galeam inquirunt, ubi melius vendatur vinum, et ibi se ponunt, et totem diem juxta vinem deducunt…alii clamant ex jucunditate…Alii per funes currunt; alii saltant; alii suam fortitudinem probant levando onera, vel alias faciendo animosa. 70 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 161; also Evagatorium vol. II, 145: Caveat etiam ne galeotis incipientibus currere ad labores impedimentum cursus praebeat, quia eum, si etiam nobilis multum esset, vel episcopus, trudunt et deorsum dejiciunt, super eumque procurrunt, quia labores navales sunt celerrimi et ignei, nec capiunt moram. 71 Sumption, Pilgrimage 263. 72 Capgrave, Ye solace of pilgrimes, 77: Al þoo whech haue be at rome knowe weel þat þe women þer be passing desirous to goo on pilgrimage and for to touch and kisse euery holy relik. Now in uery sothfastnesse þese places whech are forbode hem be rith smale in quantite. And uphap sum woman be in the prees eþer for seknesse or with child hath be in grete perel þere and for þis cause þei wer forbode þe entre of þese houses as I suppose. (Modern translation is the author’s own.) 73 Capgrave, Ye solace 71–2. 74 Capgrave, Ye solace 63 75 P. Tafur, Travels and adventures, 1435–1439, trans. M. Letts (New York, 1926), 39. 76 Capgrave, Ye solace 77, n. 1: . …und deweil er ob dem altar stund und sy in ansach mit poser begir, do eging yr die nature; das sicht man auf dem merbelstein do dy fraw ist gestanden. 77 P. Crawford, ‘Attitudes to menstruation in seventeenth-century England’, Past and Present 91 (1981), 47–73, 60. 78 J. J. Jusserand, English wayfaring life in the middle ages, trans. L. Tomlin Smith (London, 1950), 217–218. 79 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 527–28; also Evagatorium vol. II, 418–19: …primi clamabant propter sequentium importunitatem, et ultimi propter praecedentium tarditatem, medii vero propter pressuram utrorumque clamabant…et exportavimus in scutellis et flasconibus nostris aquam sacram pro his, qui in hiatum ingredi non poterant; propter praedictas enim pressures mulieres peregrinae, sociae nostrae, non introiverunt, sed cum quiete et pace foris sedentes manserunt in sua devotione…. 80 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 190; also Evagatorium vol. II, 169: quia extra civitatem ad quandum (sic) ecclesiam evagata fuerat, non existimans, galeam hoc die recedere. Die illius autem mulieris nemo tristis erat absentia, nisi maritus ejus, quia feceret se ultra modum odiosum suis fatuis locutionibus et curiosis indagationibus rerum inutilium. 81 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 201; also Evagatorium vol. II, 178: De cujus ingressu parvum gaudium erat. Compatiebur tamen misellae propter angustias ejus ex recessu navis perpessas. 82 R. Guylforde, The pylgrymage of Sir Richarde Guylforde knyght and controuler unto our late soveraygne lorde kynge Henry the Vii and howe he went with his servaunts and company towardes Jherusalem (n.p.,1511), 91. 83 Fabri, Wandering vol. 7/8, 128; also Evagatorium vol. II, 119. 84 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 41; also Evagatorium, vol. II, 56: …et etiam mansimus propter dominae praegnantis et gravidae refocillationem, quae valde fuerat in illis tempestatibus infirmata; mirum est quod non fuit mortua simul cum foetu in tantis terroribus. 85 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 27, 47; also Book, Meech, ed., 64: . …not-wythstondyng sche had behestyd hir maystres & sekyrd hir þat sche xulde not forsake hir for no nede. 86 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapters 28, 49, and 29, 54; also Book, Meech, ed., 66–67, 74. 87 Kempe, Book, Stale, trans., Chapter 28, 51–2; also Book, Meech, ed., 70: …þan sche fel down & cryed with lowde voys, wondyrfully turnyng & wrestyng hir body on euery syde, spredyng hir armys a-brode as 3yf she xulde a deyd…. 88 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 28, 50; also Book, Meech, ed., 68: sche…walwyd & wrestyd with hir body, spredyng hir armys a-brode, & cryed with a lowed voys as þow hir hert xulde a brostyn a-sundyr. 89 For recent examples, see P. Weissman, ‘Margery Kempe in Jerusalem: Hysterica compassio in the late middle ages’, in: Acts of interpretation. The text in its contexts, 700–1600, ed. by M. J. Carruthers and E. D. Kirk (Norman, Okla., 1982); P. R. Freeman, C. Rees Bogorad, and D. E. Sholomskas, ‘Margery Kempe, a new theory. The inadequacy of hysteria and postpartum psychosis as diagnostic categories’, History of Psychiatry 1, no. 2 (1990), 169–90; and N. F. Partner, ‘Reading the Book of Margery Kempe’, Exemplaria 3 (1991), 29–66. 90 N. P. Stork, ‘Did Margery Kempe suffer from Tourette’s Syndrome?’ Mediaeval Studies 59 (1997), 261-300. 91 Some of the works in this vein include C. W. Atkinson, Mystic and pilgrim. The Book and the world of Margery Kempe (Ithaca, NY, 1983); K. Lochrie, Margery Kempe and translations of the flesh (Philadelphia, 1991); McEntire, ed., Margery Kempe. A book of essays (New York, 1992); and S. Beckwith, ‘A very material mysticism: The medieval mysticism of Margery Kempe’, in: Gender and text in the later middle ages, ed. J. Chance (Gainesville, Florida, 1996), 195–215, and Morrison, Women pilgrims, 138. 92 K. Ashley, ‘Historicizing Margery: The Book of Margery Kempe as social text’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 28, no. 2 (1998), 371–88, 375. 93 W. Harding, ‘Body into text: The Book of Margery Kempe’, in Feminist approaches to the body in medieval literature, ed. L. Lomperis and S. Stanbury (Philadelphia, 1993), 183–184. 94 R. Kieckhefer, ‘Convention and conversion. Patterns in late medieval piety’, Church History 67, no. 1 (1998), 41. 95 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 283–84; also Evagatorium vol. II, 239: Super omnes autem mulieres peregrinae sociae nostrae et sorores quasi parturientes clamabant, ullulabant et flebant. The same correspondence between Margery’s devotional behaviour and that of Fabri’s matrons has been noted in Weissman, ‘Margery Kempe in Jerusalem’, 215, who argues that such ‘hysterical’ behaviour was the result of medieval patriarchy; she failed to note, however, that Fabri described all the pilgrims, men and women, as engaging in such behaviour. 96 Fabri, Wanderings vols. 9/10, 32–3; also Evagatorium vol. III, 51–52: …quamvis aliqui milites rudes et crudeles murmurarent, quod propter unam vetulam totus exercitus inquietaretur, et si quis secutus fuisset eorum consilium, vetulam illam omnino dimisissemus in perditione…Accepta autem cum gaudio est matrona…. 97 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 9/10, 19; also Evagatorium vol. III, 41: …quae supra nos in arundinibus etiam balneantur cum pudore, silentio, devotione et cum maturitate, multo magis quam nos. 98 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 27, 47. 99 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 166; also Evagatorium vol. II, 149–150. 100 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 166; also Evagatorium vol. II, 150: …sed Dominus Augustinus patronus alterius galeae omnes mulieres in suam galeam collegerat. 101 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 31, 58; also Book, Meech, ed., 79: Hir name was Margaret Florentyne & sche had with hir many Knygtys of Roodys, many gentylwomen, & mekyl good caryage. 102 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 38, 68; also Book, Meech, ed., 93. 103 Von Harff, The pilgrimage of Arnold von Harff, Knight, from Cologne through Italy, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Ethiopia, Nubia, Palestine, Turkey, France and Spain, which he accomplished in the years 1496–1499, trans. Malcom Letts (London, 1946), 90–1. 104 Von Harff, Pilgrimage, 77, 249, and 284. 105 Leonardo Frescobaldi, ‘The Pilgrimage of Leonardo Frescobaldi’, in: Visit to the holy places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, and Syria in 1384 by Frescobaldi, Gucci, and Sigoli, ed. and trans. Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem, 1948), 45. 106 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 163; also Evagatorium vol. II, 147: Et nemo peregrinos theutonicos recipit in domum suam, nisi lenones; qui ut in plurimum sunt Theutonici…. 107 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 188; also Evagatorium vol. II, 167: Erat autem mulier illa urbana et reverentialis, et discreta, et omnia nobis necessaria procuravit abunde…. 108 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 26; also Evagatorium vol. II, 43: Sed et nos, …in lectulos decidimus aegritudinis magnae: et adeo multiplicati fuerunt infirmi, quod servitores non erant, qui necessaria cupita infirmis ministrarent. Videntes autem antiquae vetulae matronae necessitatem nostram, motae super nos misericordia nobis servierunt; non enim aliqua inter eas infirma. In quo facto confudit Deus in robore illarum vetularum fortitudinem illorum militum, qui Venetiis eas sperebant, cum eisque navigare refugiebant. Discurrebant autem per galeam de uno infirmo ad alterum et suis spretoribus derisoribus in lectulis prostratis serviebant. 109 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 11; also Evagatorium vol. II, 31: …illarum vetularum, quae se ipsas prae senio ferre vix poterant, et tamen fragilitatis propriae oblitae, amore illius sanctae terrae in consortium militum juvenum se ingerebat, et laborem fortium virorum subibant. 110 Fabri, Wanderings vol. 7/8, 11; also Evagatorium vol. II, 31–2: Sed alii milites prudentiores et conscientiosi contradicebant superbis illis, et gaudebant de poenitentia illarum matronarum, sperantes, quod propter devotionem earum navigatio nostra salubrior fieret. 111 Kempe, Book, Staley, trans., Chapter 27, p. 48. 112 Fabri, Wanderings, Stewart, trans., vol. 9/10, p. 67–8; also Evagatorium, Hassler, ed., vol. III, p. 79–80: Sed in his omnibus comperegrinae et sociae nostae annosae vetulae antecedebant nos, praeripientes loca militum, et nec gemebant, nec conuerebantur de labore, sed fortiores viris et militibus adaciores primae in acie procedebant. Magnam verecundiam faciebant nobis istae vetulae sua infatigabilitate, unde quidam miles dixit mihi: ecce, frater, non credo has vetuals esse foeminas, sed daemones sunt, mulieres enim, praesertim annosae, sunt fragiles, tenerae et delicatae, istae autem sunt ferreae, cunctis militibus fortiores…Sed unde fragilibus fortitudo, mulieribus robur, nisi ab eo, qui infirma mundi eligit, ut confundat fortia, qui praetulit eas viris, ne quis glorietur de sexu, de fortitudine, pulchritudine, juventute et de nobilitate. Siquidem nec ipsae erant viri, nec fortes, nec pulchrae, nec nobiles, et tamen omnes labores peregerunt sine defectu, per quos militia acquiritur. Et in hoc confudit Deus superbiam illorum militum, qui eas dedignabantur habere socias….
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