#Abelard the Scholar

[amara-airgid]

Made after seeing the map Higher Education on DeviantArt

Here is Gwendal of Pallet,A young student of renown in the Scholastic League who's living in Paris and attending uni there,in the Faculties of Letters and Theology. The only heiress to Abélard's glory and ideology.

The map was made by RvBOMally on DeviantArt.

Art : mine

#scholastic #peter abelard #higher education #alternate universe #that's scary #a world where scholars are at the top of the food chain #wow

[infatuatedheloise]

so when his scholar friend was in town this past week, he & his wife, his friend, and a librarian at our college went out for dinner, and the next day he & I were talking and he says, "we talked about you at dinner last night" which is an insane way to start that conversation. apparently, they all discussed my presentation LOL

and I remember that when I was recounting this story to my mom & stepdad, my stepdad got really weirded out and looked to my mom like "what?!" ummmm so I think I need to be a little more selective in the stories I tell about our conversations because this is not the first time someone has thought abelard & I's convos have been weird or that we're too close

#professor crush #teacher attachment #teacher crush

[jurakan]

Got a fun fact today?

I ALWAYS have Fun Facts, Em!

…aw fudge, I’m looking at the notes I made during the day, and I’m realizing you probably know a lot of these things I was thinking of doing for today, like the relationship between Smilodon and modern cats, so, uh, let’s talk Church Fathers.

Today You Learned that there is an academic debate on whether Origen of Alexandria (c.185 - c.253) cut off his own junk.

Note: this image was made in the 1500’s and probably not what he actually looked like.

So very famously, Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” And then there’s Matthew 19:12, which says “there are those who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven.” Origen wrote that anyone who takes this literally is a foolish fool and he never mentions anything on the subject in the writings of his that we have today.

But.

Fourth Century Christian scholar Eusebius, who thought Origen was THE SHIZ, wrote in his Church History that when he was young Origen decided to either chop off his own junk, or have someone do it for him. This would let him A) follow the words of Jesus, and B) be a teacher of the Word of God to young men and women and no one would ever be able to claim that he was doing any hanky panky with any of his students.

[That sounds weird, but keep in mind that in antiquity it wasn’t unheard of for teachers to be involved with their students like that. There are sources that claim Socrates and his student Alcibiades were lovers, for instance. And it happened well into the Christian era too! Abelard and Heloise, anyone?]

So did he castrate himself or not? [shrugs] We don’t know. Eusebius was a long time after Origen, so it’s not like he was there. But where did he get the story from? It’s likely that female students wouldn’t have been left alone with him given standards of the day, so that reason might not hold any water. It sounds like the kind of thing that would be gossip passed down by his enemies, but again, Eusebius thought Origen was awesome so it’s weird if he decided to tell people a thing that made him sound bad. Because, to reiterate, Origen said he thought it was a dumb thing to do. But does he say that out of experience?

I don’t know! But it’s insane! Because here is a commonly-cited theologian, who some consider to be a Church Father, who may or may not have lopped off his junk!

Is that crazy or what.

#Fun Fact Friday #Today You Learned #Origen #Church Fathers #Church history #history #what the what

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 6.3

350 – The Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators. 713 – The Byzantine emperor Philippicus is blinded, deposed and sent into exile by conspirators of the Opsikion army in Thrace. He is succeeded by Anastasios II, who begins the reorganization of the Byzantine army. 1098 – After a five-month siege during the First Crusade, the Crusaders seize Antioch (today's Turkey). 1140 – The French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy. 1326 – The Treaty of Novgorod delineates borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark. 1539 – Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain. 1602 – An English naval force defeats a fleet of Spanish galleys, and captures a large Portuguese carrack at the Battle of Sesimbra Bay 1608 – Samuel de Champlain lands at Tadoussac, Quebec, in the course of his third voyage to New France, and begins erecting fortifications. 1621 – The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherland. 1658 – Pope Alexander VII appoints François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France. 1665 – James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England), defeats the Dutch fleet off the coast of Lowestoft. 1781 – Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending raid by Banastre Tarleton. 1839 – In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kilograms of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War. 1844 – The last pair of great auks is killed. 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races): Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor: Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia. 1866 – The Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario back into the United States. 1885 – In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escapes the North-West Mounted Police. 1889 – The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon. 1916 – The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men. 1935 – One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa. 1937 – The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson. 1940 – World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris. 1940 – Franz Rademacher proposes plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.[ 1941 – World War II: The Wehrmacht razes the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground and murders 180 of its inhabitants. 1942 – World War II: Japan begins the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island. 1943 – In Los Angeles, California, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines attack Latino youths in the five-day Zoot Suit Riots. 1950 – Herzog and Lachenal of the French Annapurna expedition become the first climbers to reach the summit of an 8,000-metre peak. 1962 – At Paris Orly Airport, Air France Flight 007 overruns the runway and explodes when the crew attempts to abort takeoff, killing 130. 1963 – Soldiers of the South Vietnamese Army attack protesting Buddhists in Huế with liquid chemicals from tear-gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalized for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments. 1965 – The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk. 1969 – Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half; resulting in 74 deaths. 1973 – A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft. 1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded. 1980 – An explosive device is detonated at the Statue of Liberty. The FBI suspects Croatian nationalists. 1980 – The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak hits Nebraska, causing five deaths and $300 million (equivalent to $987 million in 2021) worth of damage. 1982 – The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street; he survives but is left paralysed. 1984 – Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000. 1989 – The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation. 1991 – Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists. 1992 – Aboriginal land rights are recognised in Australia, overturning the long-held colonial assumption of terra nullius, in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), a case brought by Torres Strait Islander Eddie Mabo and leading to the Native Title Act 1993. 1998 – After suffering a mechanical failure, a high speed train derails at Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people. 2006 – The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence. 2012 – A plane carrying 153 people on board crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board and six people on the ground. 2012 – The pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II takes place on the River Thames. 2013 – The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, Maryland. 2013 – At least 119 people are killed in a fire at a poultry farm in Jilin Province in northeastern China. 2015 – An explosion at a gasoline station in Accra, Ghana, kills more than 200 people. 2017 – London Bridge attack: Eight people are murdered and dozens of civilians are wounded by Islamist terrorists. Three of the attackers are shot dead by the police. 2019 – Khartoum massacre: In Sudan, over 100 people are killed when security forces accompanied by Janjaweed militiamen storm and open fire on a sit-in protest.

#Events

[trivialqueen]

We watched “the Queen’s Gambit” and the Dude (a major chess nerd) has been obsessed with playing. However, I’m shit at chess, so he had to find a better opponent.

#cats cats cats #Abelard the Scholar #the little man #the dude abides #i know nothing about chess #Unless you’re talking about the musical

[martymango0]

Abelard the Scholar

I keep forgetting to post my Christmas projects so we’re doing Christmas in July! Here’s the first one! 

Under the cut ‘cause per usual it’s long & image heavy

So as part of my Christmas gifts this year I included, for the fist time, something that wasn’t food: ornaments!

They were made out of leftover fabric from other projects my mom & I did; the pattern came with the plush tree we made. It turned out that the fabrics we had left were not explicitly Christmassy so that was nice since it means my friends can choose if they want it to be a holiday decoration or just a little trinket or whatever.

I got a bunch of goodhearted shit from my friends for that labeling

However, there is one friend who got a special ornament; for my friend Caitlin I decided to make an ornament version of her cat, Abelard (the Scholar).

This guy! (pic taken by Caitlin @trivialqueen)

So I started by just drawing Lard to figure out what pieces I needed & what detail stitching I was going to do, then I made a pattern. For many of my one-off plushies I just freehand cut my pieces or I draw straight on the back of the fabric but 1) I was working mostly in fabric I already had which I have limited supplies of so I didn’t want to waste it on mistakes & 2) I had a bunch of fiddly bits that needed to be in proportion 

I generally make my patterns out of parchment paper because it’s nice & thin but reasonably sturdy and because we almost always have that on hand in the kitchen. I also tend to cut wider than my pattern pieces in case I need to account for an error.

The head & his collar were the base, then I added his chin with a little bit of stuffing for definition

His nose spot is actually a single piece under his nose, which btw is the smallest detail I’ve ever made from fabric for a plushie; most of the time I do small details as embroidery. I had to recut those pieces several times to get the shape right & they still ended up a bit off, but we’re talking pieces the size of my thumbnail here so...

So then I added his nose to his face. This also had stuffing in it so he has a bit of a muzzle.

And then the rest of the details. 

Voila! A finished Abelard! 

He’s a little wonky, & that angle does him no favors, but I think he turned out pretty well. I’m also really proud of that calligraphic “A” I embroidered for his tag.

#plushies #abelard the scholar #handmade #hand sewing

[thetudorslovers]

"I wish, my love, that your love were less sure of me, so that you would be more anxious. But the more reason I have given you for confidence in the past, the more you neglect me now. At every moment of my life, God knows, I have always feared offending you, not God. I have tried to please you, rather than him.

If Augustus, emperor of the whole world, thought fit to honor me with marriage, and conferred all the earth on me to posses forever, it would be dearer and more honorable to me not to called his empress [imperatrix], but your whore [meretrix].

Even during the celebration of the mass, when our prayers should be purer, lewd visions of those pleasures take such a hold upon my unhappy soul that my thoughts are on their wantonness instead of on prayers. i should be groaning over the sins i have committed, but i can only sigh for what i have lost."

-Heloise (1101? -- 1163/4?), in a letter to Abelard (1079 - 1142) , in “The Letters of Heloise and Abelard. A translation of their correspondence and related writings”, translated by Mary Martin McLaughlin with Bonnie Wheeler .

#perioddramaedit #history #edit #history edit #medieval #medieval history #heloise #heloise and abelard #abelard and heloise #pierre abelard #12th century #medieval scholar #middle age #french history #petrus abaelardus #letters #love letters #historical couple #historical figures #a historic love #letters of heloise and abelard #sabrina bartlett #diarmuid noyes #philosophy #women in history #dark academia #historical #medieval europe

[racefortheironthrone]

If the maesters had different scholars and philosophers in a philosopher part of their Citidel. What sort of views, things said, different kind of conflicting opinions would you expect but also like to see? From ancient, to mediveal to perhaps early renaissance

Well, we already know (from WOIAF) that the Citadel has a good deal of natural philosophers, so it's entirely likely that there is a structure in place for more general philosophy - I doubt that there are separate metals for epistemology, ethics, logics, metaphics, etc. but there probably is one of the unclaimed metals (maybe platinum?) that stands in for philosophy, with its own archmaester with a ring, rod, and mask.

As for what Westerosi philosophy looks like, it's rather hard to say because it would have followed a very different course of development from medieval philosophy. (What the relationship between First Men, Valyrian, and Andal scholarship is is entirely a subject for headcanons.) For example, you might have thought that by parallel to medieval Europe, you might see a lot of scholasticism in the Citadel. However, scholasticism can't reallly be separated from Catholic theology and the desire to harmonize Catholic theology with the Aristotelian and Neoplatonic philosophy that was dominant in late antiquity. Without those influences, who knows what the philosophy of an Anselm, an Abelard, or a Thomas Aquinas would have looked like?

My instinct tells me that Westerosi philosophy looks quite different from medieval philosophy, because of the different relationship between the academy and the church. As I've written about before, the Citadel has a good deal of autonomy from the Faith of the Seven due to its longer institutional pedigree and high degree of assimilation into the feudal power structure. As a result, there's less of an impetus to make sure that academic theory is sympatico with religious doctrine than was the case in the medieval university.

#historical analysis #the citadel #maesters #medieval universities #medieval philosophy

[histoireettralala]

Without souls ?

"It was only in the fifteenth century that the Church admitted that women had a soul." This statement was candidly affirmed one day on the radio by some writer of fiction who was no doubt motivated by good intentions but whose informations showed proof of several lacunae! So, for centuries, soul-less beings were baptized, confessed, and admitted to the Eucharist! How strange that the first martyrs honored as saints were women and not men. Saint Agnes, Saint Cecilia, Saint Agatha, and so many others. How truly sad that Saint Blandine and Saint Genevieve were deprived of immortal souls. How surprising that one of the most ancient catacombs (in the burial ground of Priscilla) represented the Virgin with Child, well designated by the star and the prophet Isaiah. And finally, whom shall we believe, those who reproach the medieval Church for the cult of the Virgin Mary or those who judge the Virgin to have been considered at that time to be a creature without a soul ?

Without letting such nonsense delay us, we will merely recall here that some women (who were not, in any particular way singled out by their family or their birth, since they came, as we would say today, from all social strata, as witnessed by the sheperdess of Nanterre) enjoyed in the Church and by their function in the Church, an extraordinary power during the Middle Ages. Certain abbesses were feudal lords whose power was respected equally with that of other lords, some wore the cross just like a bishop; they often administered vast territories with villages, parishes... One example among thousands of others in the middle of the twelth century, the cartularies permit us to follow the formation of the monastery of the Paraclete whose superior was Héloïse; one need only skim through them to note that the life of an abbess of that period included a whole administrative aspect: donations were accumulated that allowed, here, the collection of a tithe on a vineyard, there, the right to rent on hay or corn, here to have a barn, and there a right of pasture in the forest... Her activity was also that of an owner, indeed, of a lord. This is to say that, by their religious functions, certain women exerced, even in secular life, a power that many men would envy today.

(Edmund Blair Leighton, Abelard and his student Heloise, 1882)

On the other hand, one notes that the religious of the time- about whom, we should say in passing, serious research is completely lacking- were for the most part extremely well-educated women who could have rivaled the most learned monks of the time in their knowledge. Héloïse herself knew and taught Greek and Hebrew to her nuns. It was from a abbey of women, that of Gandersheim, that a manuscript came in the tenth century containing six comedies in rhymed prose in imitation of Terence; they have been attributed to the famous abbess Hroswitha, whose influence, moreover, on the literary development of the Germanic lands is well known. These comedies, probably enacted by the religious, are, from the point of view of dramatic history, considered to be proof of a scholarly tradition that contributed to the development of theatre in the Middle Ages. Let us add in passing that many of the monasteries of men and women dispensed local instruction to the children of the region.

(Hildegard von Bingen)

It is surprising, also, to note that the best-known encyclopedia of the twelth century came from a woman religious, the abbess Herrad of Landsberg. It was the famous Hortus deliciarum, Garden of Delights, in which scholars draw the most reliable information about the state of technical knowledge of that time. Just as much could be said for the works of the famous Hildegarde of Bingen. Finally, another woman religious, Gertrude of Helfta, in the thirteenth century, tells us how happy she was to pass from the state of "grammarian" to that of "theologian", which is to say that, after having gone through the stage of preparatory studies, she reached the higher stage, like that studied at the University. Which proves that in the thirteenth century, convents of women were still what they had always been since the time of Saint Jerome, who established the first of them, the community of Bethlehem: centers of prayer, but also of religious knowledge, exegesis, learning; Sacred Scripture was studied there, considered as the basis of all knowledge, and also all the elements of religious and secular learnings. The religious were educated girls; moreover, entering a convent was a normal path for those who wanted to develop their knowledge beyond the usual level. What seemed extraordinary in Héloïse in her youth was the fact that, not being a religious and not manifesting any desire to enter a convent, she nevertheless pursued very dry studies instead of contenting herself with the more frivolous, more carefree life of a girl wanting to "remain in the world." The letter that Peter the Venerable sent to her explicitly says so.

But there are more surprising things yet. If one wants to get an exact idea of the place held by women in the Church in feudal times, one must wonder what would be said in our twentieth century of convents of men placed under the authority of a woman. Would a project of this kind have the least chance of succeeding in our time ? This was, however, achieved with great success and without providing the least scandal in the Church by Robert d'Arbrissel at Fontevrault, in the early part of the twelth century. Having resolved to situate the extraordinary crowd of men and women who were following in his footsteps- for he was one of the great converters of all time- Robert d'Arbrissel decided to found two convents, one for men and the other for women; between them rose the church, which was the only place where the monks and nuns could meet. Now this double monastery was placed under the authority, not of an abbot, but of an abbess. The latter, through the will of the founder, was to be a widow, having had the experience of marriage. Let us add, to complete the picture, that the first Abbess, Petronilla of Chemillé, who presided over the fortunes of this order of Fontevrault, was twenty-two years old. Such audacity would not have the least chance of being envisaged again in our own time.

If one examines the facts, the conclusion is inescapable: during the whole feudal period, the place of women in the Church was certainly different from that of men [..] but it was an eniment place, which, moreover, symbolized perfectly the cult, which was likewise eminent, rendered to the Virgin among all the saints. And it is scarcely surprising that the period ends with a woman's face: that of Joan of Arc, who, let us say in passing, could never have obtained in later centuries the audience or aroused the confidence that she obtained in the end.

Régine Pernoud- Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths. Women without souls. 1977

#middle ages #régine pernoud #those terrible middle ages: debunking the myths #a whole lot of stupidity is still said today even though on some points it's gotten better since pernoud wrote her book

[dwellordream]

"Same-sex sexual practices between women in the medieval West were perceived to be a sin "against nature, that is, against the order of nature, which created women's genitals for the use of men, and conversely, and not so women could cohabit with women." If this is how Peter Abelard (d. n42) glossed Saint Paul's epistle to the Romans (Rom. 1:26), he was only reiterating what church fathers had been claiming and echoing the difficulties they had in imagining the very possibility of lesbian sexuality. In fact, Anastasi us (d. 518), bishop of Antioch, is said to have asserted: "Clearly [the women] do not mount each other but, rather, offer themselves to the men." Despite repeated attempts to negate their possibility and existence, same-sex practices between women must have persisted since, centuries later, medieval manuals of penance address the question of how to deal with such "vile affections." Jean Gerson, the fifteenth-century rector of the University of Paris, describes this lustful act as one in which "women have each other by detestable and horrible means which should not be named or written." 

This silencing strategy which dictated that female lesbian practices be neither named nor committed to writing seems to have enjoyed especial appeal among jurists in the following centuries. Indeed, one hundred years later, in his gloss of Spain's law code, the Siete Partidas (1256), Gregory Lopez alludes to the sin "against nature" as "the silent sin" (peccatum mutum). Similarly, a sixteenth-century jurist, Germain Colladon, recommended that descriptions of such crimes, requiring the death penalty, should not be read aloud publicly, lest they incite other women to imitate them: ''A crime so horrible and against nature is so detestable and because of the horror of it, it cannot be named." This denied, unnamed, unnamable, and silenced sin that must have been common enough in the European Middle Ages to warrant such pronouncements from theologians and legal scholars alike and that at times merited the death penalty has led until very recently to a general neglect of medieval female homosexuality among contemporary critics.

The disavowal of female same-sex activity by medieval (male) legal authorities goes hand in hand with the prevailing negative attitudes toward women in the Middle Ages, the contradictory notions regarding their sexuality in general, including heterosexuality. After all, "natural sex" was limited to a narrow range of acceptable behaviors, as Karma Lochrie reminds us: "sex in the proper vessels with the proper instruments in the proper positions with the appropriate procreative intentions in orderly ways and during times that are not otherwise excluded." These views, based on Aristotle's male-centered model which considered a woman to be an "accidental deviation," a failed male fetus, were recuperated by the Christian church fathers (Augustine, Jerome, Tertulian, and others), who emphasized celibacy and persistently associated sexuality with the Fall, and woman with sin. In this worldview, male and female homosexuality was nothing but a "human distortion of divine order."

Ironically, the invention of the category "sodomy'' in the middle of the twelfth century only served to exclude female homosexuality from public discourse and thus to silence it even further. Even though sodomy was defined as both a male and a female sin, few theologians actually concerned themselves with female homosexuality. Theological discourses regularly focused on men more than they did on women because their primary goal was the control of clerics and their sexual misconduct: Peter Damian's virulent pamphlet against sodomy contained in his Book of Gomorrah (ca. 1048-54), which does not discuss women, is a case in point. Similarly, medieval medicine and medieval science both paid relatively little attention to homosexuality (male or female) in the Middle Ages. After all, according to the dominant clerical teachings of the period, same-sex relations between women could only be perceived as trivial because women were passive "by nature," played a secondary role in sexuality and reproduction, and were thus at some level not fully sexual. 

In addition, such relations were overlooked because of the prevailing Western phallocentric view of human sexuality, because "no sperm were spilled," and because sexuality between women did not pose a threat to lineage through the production of illegitimate heirs. Contemporary scholarship seems to have followed Peter Damian's footsteps or medieval theological and scientific perspectives and maintained the primacy of male homosexuality over female alternative sexual practices. The scholarly neglect of medieval lesbianism has been so profound that in her biography of a sixteenth-century Italian nun, Judith Brown observed: "In light of the knowledge that Europeans had about the possibility of lesbian sexuality, their neglect of the subject in law, theology, and literature suggests an almost active willingness to disbelieve." Her view has been echoed more recently by Jacqueline Murray in a 1996 essay tellingly entitled "Twice Marginal and Twice Invisible." In this article, Murray describes the status of the medieval (Western) lesbian in contemporary scholarship, observing that "of all groups within medieval society lesbians are the most marginalized and least visible."

…The study of female homosexuality in the Middle Ages has been further hampered by anachronistic views of what constitutes lesbianism. Given the definitional fluidity of this category today (Who exactly counts as a lesbian?), critics have been at a loss as to where to search for medieval literary lesbians. Because the distinction between desire and acts still remains a powerful organizing principle in queer studies, scholars have been struggling with important methodological issues: Should the medievalist search for expressions of female homosexuality in literary depictions of samesex acts or in the portrayal of homoerotic desires? Can one speak of homosexuality even in the absence of specific (homo)sexual acts? What conclusions should be drawn from texts that insert a brief sexually alternative interlude only to end on a heteronormative note? Where is the line between intimate female friendships and female same-sex attachments? What distinguishes the lives of medieval literary single women, prostitutes, and lesbians? 

These questions, coupled with the fact that medieval lesbians for the most part did not leave traces of their relations and that the majority of surviving literary texts are composed by men, have all contributed to the further silencing of the medieval literary lesbian in contemporary scholarship. Perhaps the most persistent methodological (and theoretical) issue facing medievalists is the question of naming: How should the absence of a specific label denoting lesbianism in medieval Western literary texts be interpreted (and this will be the case of all Old French texts that we will be examining)? Critics continue to struggle over what to call expressions of same-sex desire in the Middle Ages. They have been especially reticent to apply the label "lesbianism" to manifestations of same-sex attraction, sentiments, eroticism, and even behaviors because the notion of sexual identity continues to be viewed as a modern phenomenon. 

The fact that no specific label to denote lesbianism was used until the sixteenth century has been taken to mean that medieval culture was silent on the question of lesbianism. And yet, as Sautman and Sheingorn remind us, it is "highly problematic to assume that sexuality begins to exist only when discourse says it does, either by explicitly naming it (as in the modern period) or by speaking authoritatively about it (as in the medieval period)." It is equally problematic to assume that the absence of a name necessarily means absence of power, for again, as Sautman and Sheigorm observed, such lack may paradoxically also signify "power reclaimed through resistance to externally imposed categories with their implicit negative assessments and marginalizations." Recent scholarship has revealed that female same-sex desire and practices, if not a specific identity, then at least an actual consciousness, existed in the West well before the nineteenth century.

In fact, classical archaeology has uncovered that the first figurations of female couples (in clay, bronze, and stone) predate any other figuration of human couples including not only that of Adam and Eve, but also Homeric couples such as Achilles and Patrocles. The statues of these female couples, discovered in the Gonnersdof caves in the Rhine Valley and dated to 12,500 B.C.E., are not unique. Some have also been discovered along the Danube River, in Romania, while others were painted on Anatolian vases. In fact, 90 percent of all human couples dating from the twelfth to the sixth century B.C.E. are of female couples, according to Gabriele Meixner. Furthermore, the existence of female homosexuality is attested in Plato's Symposium where Zeus's slicing of humans resulted in three types of couplings: male homosexuals, female homosexuals, and androgynous heterosexual couples. Female homosexuals are clearly identified in Plato's text: "All the women who are sections of the woman have no great fancy for men: they are inclined rather to women, and of this stock are the she-minions."

…My reading has benefited from Judith Bennett's concept of "lesbian-like," which has proved to be especially helpful in expanding the scholarly search for "real life" lesbians in the Middle Ages. Because Bennett's goal is to document the sexual practices of "ordinary [Western] women" who represented "more than ninety percent of medieval women" (2)-as opposed to literary lesbians (whose story Crossing Borders will begin to tell)-she bids us to broaden our investigation into medieval sources and to include "women whose lives might have particularly offered opportunities for same-sex love; women who resisted norms of feminine behavior based on heterosexual marriage; women who lived in circumstances that allowed them to nurture and support other women" (10). If these are the women that Bennett dubs "lesbian-like," this is how she describes the "range of practices" that such women might engage in: If women's primary emotions were directed toward other women, regardless of their own sexual practices, perhaps their affection was lesbian-like. 

If women lived in single-sex communities, their life circumstances might be usefully conceptualized as lesbian-like. If women resisted marriage or, indeed, just did not marry, whatever the reason, their singleness can be seen as lesbian-like. If women dressed as men, whether in response to saintly voices, in order to study, in pursuit of certain careers, or just to travel with male lovers, their cross-dressing was arguably lesbian-like. And if women worked as prostitutes or otherwise flouted norms of sexual propriety, we might see their deviance as lesbian-like. Bennett's category "lesbian-like" has many advantages, not least that of being more specific than Adrienne Rich's "lesbian continuum," which includes all woman-identified experiences. It also possesses undeniable value for the study of literary lesbians in the Middle Ages, for, as will become evident in the following chapters, the range of practices that Bennett describes permeates much of medieval French writings.”

- Sahar Ahmer, “Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Same-Sex Love Between Women.” in Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures

#sexuality #medieval #history #cw: homophobia #sahar ahmer #crossing borders

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Today in Christian History

Today is Thursday, April 21st, the 111th day of 2022. There are 254 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

847: Death of Otgar, archbishop of Mainz, an event made all the more memorable because Rabanus Maurus, a famous educator and scholar, will be unanimously elected as his successor.

1109: Death of Anselm of Canterbury, English theologian, author of the ontological argument for the existence of God, and a father of medieval scholasticism.

1142: Death at Cluny of theologian Pierre Abelard, whose “conceptualism” changed the development of philosophy. He will be remembered for seducing his student Heloise. Although often accused of heresy, he remained a popular teacher.

1555: William Bradford is chosen governor of Plymouth Colony when his predecessor John Carver dies suddenly.

1621: Maryland Toleration Act is passed by the Maryland assembly, allowing freedom of worship for all Christians. It has the strong support of Lord Baltimore, the Roman Catholic proprietor of Maryland.

1649: Maryland issues an act defining and forbidding blasphemy and making it an offense to rail publicly against another person’s faith. It promises toleration to anyone who professes Christ.

1847: Rev. Henry Lipowsky, a former lieutenant in the Austrian Army, opens the first Bohemian-American church in the United States, the St. John Nepomuk Church of St. Louis, Missouri.

1855: Sunday school teacher Edward Kimball visits the Holton Shoe Store in Boston, Massachusetts, where Dwight L. Moody works, finds him in a stockroom, and speaks to him of the love of Christ. Shortly thereafter, Moody is converted and devotes his life to serving God, becoming a notable American evangelist.

1908: While rushing to assist a dying man in Labrador, missionary-doctor Wilfred Grenfell is trapped on an ice-pan (a small flat sheet of ice) and almost loses his life when it floats into the ocean.

1991: Egypt grants the Coptic Orthodox Church of Mayiet Bara a permit to repair its toilet, publishing the edict in a semi-official newspaper. This outrages Christians and moderate Muslims because it highlights their long-standing complaint that even the simple repair of a lavatory in a Christian house of worship cannot proceed without the written consent of the Minister of the Interior.

#Today in Christian History #April 21 #Death of Anselm of Canterbury #death of theologian Pierre Abelard #Death of Otgar #William Bradford is chosen governor of Plymouth Colony #Wilfred Grenfell is trapped on an ice-pan #Maryland Toleration Act is passed

[apenitentialprayer]

The Salvation of the Just Pagan? A Brief Survey of Medieval Thought

The question of the salvation of those who have never heard of Christ has been one that has haunted Christian intellectuals since at least the third century, if not earlier. The question of if and how those who had never heard of Christ could be saved, and in what way this salvation was tied to the redemptive sacrifice of the Crucifixion, has led to a series of different opinions on the matter. Some believed that all those outside of a few figures mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures were destined for hell, while others (seeming precursors to Rahner) went as far as to say that Jesus completely emptied Hell of its current contents during the Harrowing of Hell. Below is a brief description of prominent Christian thinkers up until the High Middle Ages, and their thoughts on the issue. Justin Martyr, from the second century, believed that there were pre-Christian Jews and pagans who were counted among the redeemed. Socrates, Heraclitus, Abraham, and the three youths of the furnace are identified as such pre-Christian “Christians.” Clement of Alexandria, whose current status as a saint is a little turbulent due to some suspicion of unorthodox thought, had a twofold opinion; first, he believed that the great ethical philosophers of the Classical tradition took inspiration from the prophetic tradition of Israel, and thus had a share in the eternal fates of their influences. Additionally, he believed that Christ’s Harrowing of Hell had a quality of missionary work to it: not only did Christ rescue the faithful, but gave others the opportunity to accept His saving grace. Alexandria, it should be noted, was a city very proud of the philosophical heritage given to it by its pagan past; that Clement was anxious about his intellectual forebears shouldn’t be surprising. Origen of Alexandria, a student of Clement, agreed. In Contra Celsus, he wrote: “We maintain this, that when He was in the body He convinced not merely a few, but so many that the multitude of those persuaded by Him led to the conspiracy against Him; and that when He became a soul unclothed by a body, He conversed with souls unclothed by bodies, also converting those of them who were willing to accept Him, or those who, for reasons which He Himself knew, He saw to be ready to do so.” (Book II, Chapter 43) Ambrosiaster, in the fourth century, made this statement in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans: “Indeed men sinned, Jews as much as Greeks, for which reason the death of Christ was an advantage for all; and at this time, this must be believed and observed, that He taught and freed all from hell.” Augustine of Hippo, famous for his elaboration of Original Sin and the doctrine of the massa damnata, did not believe that those who did not believe in this life could be saved. He saw the argument that people could be saved without knowing Christ, taken to its logical conclusion, meant that Christians should not try to spread knowledge of Christ, lest someone damn themselves by coming to know Christ and rejecting Him. Yet Augustine makes a distinction between the faiths of the pre- and post-Incarnational eras; before Christ, people could implicitly believe in Him through their longing for the Messiah, a longing which would have saved the figures of the Old Testament. Pope Gregory the Great by and large affirmed Augustine’s view, declaring the belief that Jesus Christ saved everyone from Hell by revealing Himself to each one individually to be heretical. He believed only those who expected His eventual coming was saved. Writing to the Church in Constantinople, he writes: “the Lord on His descent into hell only released from its confines those who in their fleshy existence had been guarded by his grace in faith and in good works.” Anastasius Sinaita, a seventh century writer, records a story that Plato appeared to someone who anathematized him; the apparition tells the scholar to stop embarrassing himself, informing the man that he was the very first to believe in Christ when Christ appeared in Hades. Even as he records this story, though, Anastasius is careful to make clear that the Harrowing of Hell was a one-time event, and that those now sent there cannot expect redemption. It should be noted that Anastasius was a Greek Christian, like Clement and Origen, and may not have been affected by Augustine the way that the Latin Church was. Peter Abelard, in the twelfth century, focused less on the necessity of belief in a Messiah for salvation, but shifted focus onto belief in the muliplicity of the Godhead. In his thinking, Trinity was the essential doctrine of salvation. He believed that some pagan philosophers were crawling towards an understanding of the Trinity in their metaphysical worldviews, and that this develoment would have given them a natural faith that would have left them open to the possibility of salvation. Bernard of Clairvaux rabidly attacked this idea, believing that one could not develop a salvation-worthy understanding of the Trinitarian concept through natural reason alone. Peter Lombard, a more orthodox student of Abelard, attempted to create a definition for the minimum level of faith required to be saved before the Incarnation of Christ; looking at the Epistle of the Hebrews, he says that, at the bare minimum, before the Law a person would have had to believe that God existed and that there was benefit in seeking Him. Even this was not definite. He also believed the prophets and patriarchs had the truths of the Christian faith revealed to them, while the masses would have had to be content with the implicit faith Augustine described the ancients as having. Thomas Aquinas may require a whole post on his own. He affirmed the possibility of the salvation of virtuous pagans, seeing in them an implicit faith of both Redeemer and Trinity (like Lombard, he believed that the masses had an implicit faith; influenced by Abelard, he saw Trinity as something the ancient philosophers were groping towards in the darkness). He added another element to the necessity of salvation; not just an implicit faith, but an implicit love for the object of that faith. This would have been easier to prove among the ancient Hebrews, who put this love into action through rites dedicated to God. Dante Alighieri, despite his clear affection for Classical writers, is less generous than Thomas Aquinas, at least in principle. Writing a poem about the afterlife, he had to take a stance, while Thomas Aquinas could simply leave a possibility open. While he affirmed Thomas Aquinas’s formulation, in practice he did not believe most pagans even maintained an implicit faith. Ripheus, a Trojan hero, is a major exception, but most of the ancient just remained in Limbo; Aristotle, Socrates, Ovid, and even Dante’s own beloved Virgil, despite Virgil’s reputation as a pagan prophet among many medieval Christians. The York Mystery Plays, an expression of popular piety in fourteenth-century England, depicts the view deemed heretical by Augustine and Gregory the Great. Namely, Hell itself mournfully declares that it has been completely emptied by the Harrowing, but Jesus tells Hell not to worry, because it will be filled again by the end of the world. The majority of this information is found in Ralph V. Turner’s “Descendit ad Inferos: Medieval Views on Christ's Descent into Hell and the Salvation of the Ancient Just,” with some elaborations after looking at the source material he cites.

#Christianity #Catholicism #Salvation #history #long post

[troybeecham]

Today the Church remembers St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Monk.

Ora pro nobis.

St. Bernard de Clairvaux, (born 1090 AD, probably Fontaine-les-Dijon, near Dijon, Burgundy [France]—died August 20, 1153 AD, Clairvaux, Champagne; canonized January 18, 1174; feast day August 20), was a Cistercian monk and mystic, the founder and abbot of the abbey of Clairvaux, and one of the most influential churchmen of his time.

Born of Burgundian landowning aristocracy, Bernard grew up in a family of five brothers and one sister. The familial atmosphere engendered in him a deep respect for mercy, justice, and loyal affection for others. Faith and morals were taken seriously, but without priggishness. Both his parents were exceptional models of virtue. It is said that his mother, Aleth, exerted a virtuous influence upon Bernard only second to what Monica had done for Augustine of Hippo in the 5th century. Her death, in 1107, so affected Bernard that he claimed that this is when his “long path to complete conversion” began.

He turned away from his literary education, begun at the school at Châtillon-sur-Seine, and from ecclesiastical advancement, toward a life of renunciation and solitude. Bernard sought the counsel of the abbot of Cîteaux, Stephen Harding, and decided to enter this struggling, small, new community that had been established by Robert of Molesmes in 1098 as an effort to restore Benedictinism to a more primitive and austere pattern of life. Bernard took his time in terminating his domestic affairs and in persuading his brothers and some 25 companions to join him. He entered the Cîteaux community in 1112, and from then until 1115 he cultivated his spiritual and theological studies.

Bernard’s struggles with the flesh during this period may account for his early and rather consistent penchant for physical austerities. He was plagued most of his life by impaired health, which took the form of anemia, migraine, gastritis, hypertension, and an atrophied sense of taste.

Founder And Abbot Of Clairvaux

In 1115 Stephen Harding appointed him to lead a small group of monks to establish a monastery at Clairvaux, on the borders of Burgundy and Champagne. Four brothers, an uncle, two cousins, an architect, and two seasoned monks under the leadership of Bernard endured extreme deprivations for well over a decade before Clairvaux was self-sufficient. Meanwhile, as Bernard’s health worsened, his spirituality deepened. Under pressure from his ecclesiastical superiors and his friends, notably the bishop and scholar William of Champeaux, he retired to a hut near the monastery and to the discipline of a quack physician. It was here that his first writings evolved. They are characterized by repetition of references to the Church Fathers and by the use of analogues, etymologies, alliterations, and biblical symbols, and they are imbued with resonance and poetic genius. It was here, also, that he produced a small but complete treatise on Mariology (study of doctrines and dogmas concerning the Virgin Mary), “Praises of the Virgin Mother.” Bernard was to become a major champion of a moderate cult of the Virgin, though he did not support the notion of Mary’s immaculate conception.

By 1119 the Cistercians had a charter approved by Pope Calixtus II for nine abbeys under the primacy of the abbot of Cîteaux. Bernard struggled and learned to live with the inevitable tension created by his desire to serve others in charity through obedience and his desire to cultivate his inner life by remaining in his monastic enclosure. His more than 300 letters and sermons manifest his quest to combine a mystical life of absorption in God with his friendship for those in misery and his concern for the faithful execution of responsibilities as a guardian of the life of the church.

It was a time when Bernard was experiencing what he apprehended as the divine in a mystical and intuitive manner. He could claim a form of higher knowledge that is the complement and fruition of faith and that reaches completion in prayer and contemplation. He could also commune with nature and say:

Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you cannot learn from the masters.

After writing a eulogy for the new military order of the Knights Templar he would write about the fundamentals of the Christian’s spiritual life, namely, the contemplation and imitation of Christ, which he expressed in his sermons “The Steps of Humility” and “The Love of God.”

Pillar Of The Church

The mature and most active phase of Bernard’s career occurred between 1130 and 1145. In these years both Clairvaux and Rome, the centre of gravity of medieval Christendom, focussed upon Bernard. Mediator and counsellor for several civil and ecclesiastical councils and for theological debates during seven years of papal disunity, he nevertheless found time to produce an extensive number of sermons on the Song of Solomon. As the confidant of five popes, he considered it his role to assist in healing the church of wounds inflicted by the antipopes (those elected pope contrary to prevailing clerical procedures), to oppose the rationalistic influence of the greatest and most popular dialectician of the age, Peter Abelard, and to cultivate the friendship of the greatest churchmen of the time. He could also rebuke a pope, as he did in his letter to Innocent II:

There is but one opinion among all the faithful shepherds among us, namely, that justice is vanishing in the Church, that the power of the keys is gone, that episcopal authority is altogether turning rotten while not a bishop is able to avenge the wrongs done to God, nor is allowed to punish any misdeeds whatever, not even in his own diocese (parochia). And the cause of this they put down to you and the Roman Court.

Bernard’s confrontations with Abelard ended in inevitable opposition because of their significant differences of temperament and attitudes. In contrast with the tradition of “silent opposition” by those of the school of monastic spirituality, Bernard vigorously denounced dialectical Scholasticism as degrading God’s mysteries, as one technique among others, though tending to exalt itself above the alleged limits of faith. One seeks God by learning to live in a school of charity and not through “scandalous curiosity,” he held. “We search in a worthier manner, we discover with greater facility through prayer than through disputation.” Possession of love is the first condition of the knowledge of God. However, Bernard finally claimed a victory over Abelard, not because of skill or cogency in argument but because of his homiletical denunciation and his favoured position with the bishops and the papacy.

Pope Eugenius III and King Louis VII of France induced Bernard to promote the cause of a Second Crusade (1147–49) to quell the prospect of a great Muslim surge engulfing both Latin and Greek Orthodox Christians. The Crusade ended in failure because of Bernard’s inability to account for the quarrelsome nature of politics, peoples, dynasties, and adventurers. He was an idealist with the ascetic ideals of Cîteaux grafted upon those of his father’s knightly tradition and his mother’s piety, who read into the hearts of the Crusaders—many of whom were bloodthirsty fanatics—his own integrity of motive.

In his remaining years he participated in the condemnation of Gilbert de La Porrée—a scholarly dialectician and bishop of Poitiers who held that Christ’s divine nature was only a human concept. He exhorted Pope Eugenius to stress his role as spiritual leader of the church over his role as leader of a great temporal power, and he was a major figure in church councils. His greatest literary endeavour, “Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles,” was written during this active time. It revealed his teaching, often described as “sweet as honey,” as in his later title doctor mellifluus. It was a love song supreme: “The Father is never fully known if He is not loved perfectly.” Add to this one of Bernard’s favourite prayers, “Whence arises the love of God? From God. And what is the measure of this love? To love without measure,” and one has a key to his doctrine.

St. Bernard was declared a doctor of the church in 1830 and was extolled in 1953 as doctor mellifluus in an encyclical of Pius XII.

O God, by whose grace your servant Bernard, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

#christianity #jesus #saints #monasticism #god #father troy beecham #troy beecham episcopal #father troy beecham episcopal

[jcinknetwork]

Enter the Proseverse, a world of Period Dramas colliding in the Romantic Era and flinging our most beloved literary and dramatic characters into society alongside original muses as they navigate their own stories, the narrative of Prose, and Gothic Nature.

IV. The Narrative Companion: Dr. John Watson. When Dr. Watson finds himself retired from his military commission and in need of residence, his path is crossed by none other than Mister Sherlock Holmes and forever altered as the good doctor is thrust into the world of mysteries and chaos at the side of his constant companion. (M, ~30, Bourgeoisie or Gentry, Suggested Portrayal is David Burke or Edward Hardwicke)

V. The Pemberley Gentleman: Fitzwilliam Darcy. When Miss Elizabeth Bennet went to the Lakes as planned and never met Mister Darcy in Derbyshire, their novel was unequivocally altered. They never spoke of the Wickham letter, Bingley never returned to Netherfield, and Miss Elizabeth never knew to attribute Lydia’s saving to anyone except Mr. Gardiner. With three years gone by, can the course of their story be rewritten? (M, ~30, Gentry, Suggested Portrayal is Jonathan Bailey)

VI. The Scholarly Alchemist. When Lady Poinsettia Percy seeks out the scholar to further her so-very-unladylike fascination with the ancient magical art of alchemy, they find in each other kindred spirits. But will they be star crossed lovers, forced apart like Abelard and Heloise? Or will their story find a different end? (M, Open)

#jcink #jcink rp #want ad #jcink premium #historical rp #fantasy rp #historical fantasy rp

[josiecarioca]

Eloise Snape facts

For @snapescapades @hbprincealice @viper-official @artisticreptilequeen @arabellafiggypudding

Eloise was named after French medieval writer, scholar and linguist Heloise de Argenteuil, better known for ther tragic romance with theologian  Pierre Abelard. The spelling “Eloise” (instead of “Heloise”), however, comes from the Glenn Miller song “Sweet Eloise”. Evelyn had added the name “Heloise” to the list of possible baby names, but Eloise kicked for the first time when Evelyn and Severus were listening to “Sweet Eloise” in one of the records of her late father's  jazz collection (which Evelyn's mother gave to Severus as a gift). So they decided to go with “Eloise” for a girl.

“Eloise” comes from the proto-germanic Hailawidis, meaning “Safe/Healthy Woods/forest”

Eloise's middle name “Roisin” is Irish for “little rose”. It comes from the Irish ballad “Roisin Dubh” (“Little Black Rose”), which Evelyn's father used to sing to her as a lullaby. Roses are also Evelyn's favorite flower and her mother has a garden of them.

One time when Soren was 14 and Eloise 9 they had a pretty big falling out, and Eloise (stubborn as she is) refused to talk to him for days. Soren was so distraught he decided to apologise via a dramatic (read “goofy and ridiculous”) performance of White Hassle´s “Sweet Eloise”. The song has become their “jam” since then, and they often blast it when hanging out or travelling together.

Eloise wasn´t named after Eileen for the same reason Soren wasn't named after Paul: Severus and Evelyn believed their kids should have their own names, instead of being named after deceased relatives.

Eloise was born on May 30th, which is also the feast of Joan of Arc.

Eloise is a gemini like her late great-grandmother Liz. Even though Liz passed away when Eloise was very young and they didn’t have a lot of time together, Eloise does have a lot in common with he.r like the habit of reading tarot cards, the aptitude for crafts and a tendency to waltz her way through difficult situations completely unbothered.

Unlike Soren, Eloise is the epitome of “cool and collected”, even when things don´t go her way, she smiles and nods until she can find a way to make sure they do go her way.

Severus was very surprised when she was sorted into Ravenclaw, as she seemed to have the markings of a true Slytherin (driven, ambitious, smart), but eventually he understood she was a pure Ravenclaw: studious, artistic and much more interested in knowledge by itself than in excelling academically over her peers.

The sorting hat took literally seconds to place her in Ravenclaw.

Her patronus is a Mourning Dove, a species of dove native to the Americas. Mourning doves are her favorite bird since she saw them in a nature documentary when she was around 5. That’s the reason Severus and Evelyn  call her “little dove” as a nickname.

In her Hogwarts years, Eloise had a black and white cat named Zenaida, after the scientific name of the mourning dove (Zenaida Macroura).

She often comes off as “ditzy” or “scatter brained” because she tends to get way into her thoughts often, particularly when studying or working on something.

Eloise's interest in herbology and healing magic comes from both her grandmothers: Sophia and Eileen. In their summer holidays in Doolin Eloise would spend a lot of time helping Sophia with her garden or going with her to visit the farmer's markets, while Soren was out on his adventures. Eloise also inherited Eileen´s notebooks that contained all of her potions studies, most of which were healing potions that she used to make some money helping muggle neighbours with their ailments. Since Soren never showed a lot of interest in potion making, Severus saved his mother's notebooks for her.

She collects seashells and seaglass. In fact, Eloise has inherited her mother's obssession with the sea (to the point her wand has a mermaid hair core)

She´s a fan of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks.

Eloise is very soft spoken and gentle, but she's also extremely stubborn and driven. When she wants something, she will do what it takes to get it, but she'll do it in an open and earnest manner, as she's very bothered by the idea of using deception or subterfuges. Eloise is the type of adversary who will warn you they're going to beat you and tell how they´re going to beat you, proceed to beat you exactly like she said she would and then honestly and charmingly congratulate you for giving her a good combat.

Like her brother, Eloise decided to pursue a muggle higher education after Hogwarts. She has a degree in Botany from Trinity College Dublin (her mother and brother´s Alma mater) and a Masters degree in Herbal Medicine from the  The Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).

Also like Soren before her, Eloise stayed at Fin and Doug's house while going to university.

She moved into a studio apartment in Cork during her Masters. While Severus, Evelyn and Soren all offered to pay for her expenses, she took up a job with the City Council in the Parks and outdoors's department  (in adition to the required internships and the occasional part time gig at landscaping).

Eloise uses the scientific knowledge and techniques she learned from her muggle education to make potions that are more effective and less of a hassle to brew. She doesn't sell her potions however, preferring to use them exclusively for her patients/clients, and doesn´t consider herself a potioneer, but a healer first and foremost.

Eloise has started her career as a healer in St. Mungo's before setting up her own practice.

She's particularly skilled at treating children, and has a soft spot for them.

#Eloise Snape #severus x evelyn #severus snape x evelyn black #severus snape x OC #written per request #I may be getting too attached #Post War #Post War AU #AU of an AU #it is getting a bit out of hand

[trivialqueen]

This would be why my chapter is delayed. Sorry Jeff.

#Abelard the Scholar #adventures with Abelard #Behold a kitty