widows-msg - 9/1/07

Widows and widowers in the Middle Ages.

NOTE: See also the files: p-marriage-msg, burials-msg, p-weddings-bib, weddings-msg, babies-msg, p-births-msg, Black-Death-art, nuns-msg, monks-msg, nuns-a-monks-lnks.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 09:20:02 -0500
From: "ysabeau" <ysabeau at mail.ev1.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: poor widow
To: Cooks within the SCA  <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On a slightly different tangent, I was surprised to find that
there was a system set up in the guilds to take care of widows.
One of the streets I saw, I think in Hamburg, was a series of
houses that were used for the widows of a certain type of guild. I
kept meaning to go back and get more information on it because I
think that was the pre-cursor for social security ~grin~. Has
anyone else heard of this? I always thought that widows were left
to fend for themselves until this tour.

Ysabeau

From: Jessica Bonner <nichol_storm at yahoo.com>
Date: April 27, 2005 8:14:43 PM CDT
To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Florilegium: Medieval Period Wedding Vows

Stefan,

My apologies! I fear I've mislabeled this email. This
is a *chastity* vow, not a wedding vow. Too many hours
with my head buried in dusty old books, I fear. The
translation is:

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, I, Katherine Bernard, the widow of William
Bernard, do vow to God, His mother the Virgin Mary,
Saint Francis, and all the saints of paradise, in the
hands of my father in god, Reverend Thomas, by the
grace of God bishop of Ely, that from this day forward
I will be chaste in my body and will keep holy
chastity loyally and devoutly all the days of my
life."

Jessica Chisholm

> On Apr 27, 2005, at 3:51 PM, Jessica Bonner wrote:
>
>> From John R. H. Moorman's "Grey Friars in Cambridge,
>> 1225-1538" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
>> 1952) there is quoted a 14th century English wedding
>> vows:
>>
>> "En la nomme du piere du fitz et du seint expirit Jeo
>> Katherine Bernard femme nadgairs William Bernard face
>> mon avowe a dieu a sa douce miere seinte marie et
>> feint ffraunceys et toux les seintz de paradys en vos
>> mayns mon reverent piere en dieu Thomas par le grace
>> de dieu Evesque de Ely que desore in avant serrai
>> chaste de mon corps et seynte chastite garderay
>> loialment et devoutement toux les jours de ma vie."
>>
>> Jessica Chisholm

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