The Corrupter of Boys : Sodomy, Scandal, and the Medieval Clergy /
Elliott, Dyan
The Corrupter of Boys : Sodomy, Scandal, and the Medieval Clergy / Dyan Elliott. - 1 online resource (448 p.) - The Middle Ages Series .
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART I -- Chapter 1. The Scandal of Clerical Sin -- Chapter 2. The Trouble with Boys -- Chapter 3. The Problem with Women -- Chapter 4. Sodomy on the Cusp of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries -- Chapter 5. Confession, Scandal, and the “Sin Not Fit to be Named” -- PART II -- Prologue -- Chapter 6. The Monastery -- Chapter 7. The Choir -- Chapter 8. The Schools -- Chapter 9. The Episcopal Curia -- Conclusion -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
In the fourth century, clerics began to distinguish themselves from members of the laity by virtue of their augmented claims to holiness. Because clerical celibacy was key to this distinction, religious authorities of all stripes—patristic authors, popes, theologians, canonists, monastic founders, and commentators—became progressively sensitive to sexual scandals that involved the clergy and developed sophisticated tactics for concealing or dispelling embarrassing lapses. According to Dyan Elliott, the fear of scandal dictated certain lines of action and inaction, the consequences of which are painfully apparent today. In The Corrupter of Boys, she demonstrates how, in conjunction with the requirement of clerical celibacy, scandal-averse policies at every conceivable level of the ecclesiastical hierarchy have enabled the widespread sexual abuse of boys and male adolescents within the Church.Elliott examines more than a millennium's worth of doctrine and practice to uncover the origins of a culture of secrecy and concealment of sin. She charts the continuities and changes, from late antiquity into the high Middle Ages, in the use of boys as sexual objects before focusing on four specific milieus in which boys and adolescents would have been especially at risk in the high and later Middle Ages: the monastery, the choir, the schools, and the episcopal court.The Corrupter of Boys is a work of stunning breadth and discomforting resonance, as Elliott concludes that the same clerical prerogatives and privileges that were formulated in late antiquity and the medieval era—and the same strategies to cover up the abuses they enable—remain very much in place.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780812297485
10.9783/9780812297485 doi
Celibacy--Christianity--History--To 1500.
Child sexual abuse by clergy--History--To 1500.
Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.
Clergy--Sexual behavior--History--To 1500.
Sexual misconduct by clergy--History--To 1500.
History-Medieval 500 to 1500.
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Norman Conquest to Late Medieval (1066-1485).
History. Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
BV4392 / .E45 2020
221.8/327209
The Corrupter of Boys : Sodomy, Scandal, and the Medieval Clergy / Dyan Elliott. - 1 online resource (448 p.) - The Middle Ages Series .
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART I -- Chapter 1. The Scandal of Clerical Sin -- Chapter 2. The Trouble with Boys -- Chapter 3. The Problem with Women -- Chapter 4. Sodomy on the Cusp of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries -- Chapter 5. Confession, Scandal, and the “Sin Not Fit to be Named” -- PART II -- Prologue -- Chapter 6. The Monastery -- Chapter 7. The Choir -- Chapter 8. The Schools -- Chapter 9. The Episcopal Curia -- Conclusion -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
In the fourth century, clerics began to distinguish themselves from members of the laity by virtue of their augmented claims to holiness. Because clerical celibacy was key to this distinction, religious authorities of all stripes—patristic authors, popes, theologians, canonists, monastic founders, and commentators—became progressively sensitive to sexual scandals that involved the clergy and developed sophisticated tactics for concealing or dispelling embarrassing lapses. According to Dyan Elliott, the fear of scandal dictated certain lines of action and inaction, the consequences of which are painfully apparent today. In The Corrupter of Boys, she demonstrates how, in conjunction with the requirement of clerical celibacy, scandal-averse policies at every conceivable level of the ecclesiastical hierarchy have enabled the widespread sexual abuse of boys and male adolescents within the Church.Elliott examines more than a millennium's worth of doctrine and practice to uncover the origins of a culture of secrecy and concealment of sin. She charts the continuities and changes, from late antiquity into the high Middle Ages, in the use of boys as sexual objects before focusing on four specific milieus in which boys and adolescents would have been especially at risk in the high and later Middle Ages: the monastery, the choir, the schools, and the episcopal court.The Corrupter of Boys is a work of stunning breadth and discomforting resonance, as Elliott concludes that the same clerical prerogatives and privileges that were formulated in late antiquity and the medieval era—and the same strategies to cover up the abuses they enable—remain very much in place.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780812297485
10.9783/9780812297485 doi
Celibacy--Christianity--History--To 1500.
Child sexual abuse by clergy--History--To 1500.
Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.
Clergy--Sexual behavior--History--To 1500.
Sexual misconduct by clergy--History--To 1500.
History-Medieval 500 to 1500.
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Norman Conquest to Late Medieval (1066-1485).
History. Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
BV4392 / .E45 2020
221.8/327209