The pattern of lordship and feudal settlement in Cumbria

One indirect index of attitudes toward women, as well as their actual position in the medieval Church, can be gained through a collective study of saints' lives. For on one level, membership in the heavenly city reflected the earthly society of the middle ages. Although in theory the Church professed a policy of spiritual egalitarianism, in reality it was much more difficult for women than for men to transcend their sex and enter the ranks of the celestial hierarchy. The rather wide discrepancy in sanctity (approximately 85% of the saints of this period were male), can be explained in part by the exclusion of women from leadership roles in the secular Church hierarchy. However, certain periods were more conducive than others to the making of women saints. Women had a greater prominence, as reflected by their selection as saints, in the initial stages of the various movements of the Church. As the Church became more secure, right- minded and ultimately regularized and reformed, the premature enthusiasm for women waned. A backlash resulted in which women were viewed as liabilities and generally suspect. They were denied opportunities for a prominence in the religious community, a ‘visibility’ upon which sanctity was predicated.