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Famous Janina Ramírez Quotes

“In Cathar beliefs, humans were, by nature, imperfect — fallen angels whose soul and spirit had been given physical form in frail bodies. [...] Cathars strove for this moment of consolamentum when their souls would be reunited with their angelic form.”

SoulImperfectFrailFallen AngelsReunitedCatharsCathar Beliefs
Book:Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of it
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“[...] This reputation carried down the centuries immediately following, with this twelfth-century poem a testament to how she was perceived a quarter of a millennium after her death: Heroic Æthelflæd! Great in marital fame, A man in valour, though a woman in your name: Your warlike hosts by nature you obeyed, Conquered over both, though born by sex a maid.”

PoemReputationAethelflaed
Book:Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of it
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“Like her granddaughter, Clotilde wielded considerable influence. When her sons — heirs to the Merovingian dynasty — were deciding whether to overthrow the young heirs of Burgundy and take their lands under their control, they placed their decision in their mother's hands. They sent her a pair of scissors and a sword, with the following instructions: if she felt they should peacefully back down she should choose the scissors and cut off their long hair, which represented their royal power. If she felt they should assert their power, she should choose the sword. She famously replied, 'It is better for me to see them dead rather than shorn.' Clotilde was true to her name. She chose the sword. This decision brought about the murder of two young princes, aged seven and ten, killed by Clotilde's older sons on their mother's instructions. But she remained 'honoured by all' and celebrated for her humility and grace. [...]”

GraceHumilityDecisionsSwordMerovingianHonouredClotildeMerovingian Dynasty
Book:Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of it
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“Women like Hild chose to join monasteries, rising to positions of great power as abbesses, gaining wisdom and influencing decision-making within the newly emerging church. They had a choice and they embraced lives that brought them in touch with the Christian continent, with new ideas, beautiful art and architecture, and a world of stories, saints and sinners that would change the ideological landscape of Britain long-term. Not until the last decades have women been able to assume such roles within the modern church, but for a short time in the seventh century they were the movers and shakers. [...]”

ChurchChoicePosition Of PowerMonastery
Book:Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of it
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“[...] In a rather sad and humiliating scene we see the couple celebrating Midsummer Eve in 1413. Her husband asks: 'Margery, if there came a man with a sword who would slice off my head unless I should have sex with you as I have done before, tell me the truth from your conscience — for you say you will not lie — whether you would allow my head to be sliced off or allow me to be intimate with you, like in the past?' She replies, 'Truthfully, I would rather see you be slain than that we should turn again to the impurity of sexual activity.' She goads him further, asking why he won't try to have sex with her, even though they sleep in the same bed. He says: 'He became so afraid when he touched her that he dared not do more.' A far cry from the domineering husband we might expect from a medieval marriage. Margery adds insult to injury, explaining that she still lusts after other men but is sickened by her own husband.”

MarriageMedievalUnhappy Marriage1413Medieval Marriage
Book:Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of it
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