Abstract
Clothing and other sorts of bodily adornment represent an important means by which individuals and groups express their identity. Garments, hairstyles, and the display of related possessions may reveal the nature of a person’s relationship to his or her contemporaries, whether with respect to religious belief, gender, age, ethnic affiliation, status, or membership in a kin group. These practices are culturally specific, but may share certain features with more distant communities through trade, political or military contact, or the desire to emulate powerful or ancient models. Mores regarding personal appearance thus often serve to reinforce the social order, just as their violation may challenge the status quo. As a consequence, the existence of specific sorts of dress to distinguish particular social groups may indicate important hierarchical divisions existing within a society that are not tied solely to legal rank or social status. Keeping in mind that laws prescribing personal appearance preserve the ideals of a regulating body rather than reflect what actually occurred in that kingdom or religious community, evidence for clothing nonetheless allows scholars to understand how nuances in the expression of difference in historical and contemporary communities are valued by their leaders.
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Notes
Canon 25: “Clericus nec comam nutnat nec barbam radat.” Canon 26: “Clericus professionem suam etiam habitu et incessu probet et ideo nec vestibus nee calceamentis decorem quaerat.” C. Munier, ed., Concilia Galliae A.314–A.506, Corpus christianorum series latina [CCSL] 148 (Turnhout: Typographi Brepols editores Pontificil, 1963), 171.
“Ut nullus clericus sagum aut vestimenta vel calciamenta saeculana, nisi quae religionem deceant, induere praesumat. Quod si post hanc definitionem clericus aut cum mdecenti veste aut cum arma inventus fuerit, a seniorebus ita coherceatur, ut trigmta dierum conclusione detentus aquam tantum et modeci panis usu diebus singulis sustentetur.” Charles de Clercq, ed., Concilia Galliae A.511–A.695, CCSL 148A (Turnhout: Typographi Brepols editores Pontifiai, 1963), 224.
Joseph Braun, Die liturgische Gewandung im Occident und Orient: Nach Ursprung und Entwicklung, Verwendung und Symbolik, reprint ed. (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1964), 101–16;
H. Leclercq, “Ceinture,” in Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie 8 (Paris: Létouzey et Ané, Éditeurs, 1909), cols. 2779–94.
Raymond Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 124–34.
Lynda L. Coon, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity (Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), 62–3. In Ireland, by contrast, one measure advocated that clerics continue to wear shoes, perhaps indicating that some were pursing humility with what was considered an excess of zealous behavior.
Hermann Wasserschieben, ed., Die irische Kanonensammlung 66, 8, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Verlag von Bernhard Tauchmtz, 1885), 237. No similar measure survives from Gaul.
Color also appears to have had great significance in relation to clothing in early medieval Ireland. The Law of Fosterage II 148–9 (Senchus Mor) specified the frequency and quantity of colored garments permitted to those of various social ranks. Arthur Haddan West and William Stubbs, eds., Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland 2, 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1878), 350–1.This code differed in a very basic way from the measures promulgated in the above mentioned synods in Gaul, since its main concern was to reinforce distinctions among laypersons based primarily on legal and economic criteria.
Cyril Vogel, “La discipline pémtentielle en Gaule des origines au IXe siècle: Le dossier hagiographique,” Revue des sciences religieuses 30 (1956). 176–7.
“Et ut hoc Vitium peculiaris radicitus amputetur, dentur ab abbate omnia quae sunt necessaria, id est cuculla, tunica, pedules, caligas, bracile, cultel-lum, graphium, acum, mappula, tabulas, ut omnis auferator necessitatis ex-cusatio.” Timothy Fry, ed., The Rule of Saint Benedict 55, 18 (Collegeville The Liturgical Press, 1981), 262–5.
“Vestimenta alio colore non induatis msi laia, lactina, et nigra nativa.” Aurelian, Regula ad monachos 26, in Patrologia latina [PL] 68, Jacques-Paul Migne, ed. (Paris. Apud editorem, 1847), col.391. By contrast, the fifth canon of the Irish Rule of Ailbe of Emly specifically forbade fringes of red leather as well as blue and red clothing to monks. Joseph O Neill, “The Rule of Ailbe of Emly,” Ériu 3 (1907): 96–7.
Barbara F Harvey, Monastic Dress in the Middle Ages: Precept and Practice (Canterbury: The William Urry Memorial Trust, 1988), 10–12.
Jacques Dubois, “Utilisation religieuse du tissu,” in Tissu et vêtement: 5000 ans de savoir-faire, 26 avril-30 novembre 1986 (Guiry-en-Vezm: Musée archéologique department du Val-d’Oise, 1986), 144–6.
Patrick J. Geary, “Sacred Commodities The Circulation of Medieval Relics,” in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, Arjun Appadurai, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 172–4.
Yitzhak Hen, Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul A D. 481–751 (Leiden. E.J. Brill, 1995), 219–26.
On the origins of this Rule, see: Germain Morin, “Problèmes relatifs à la règle de S. Césaire d’Arles pour les moniales,” Revue Bénédictine 44 (1932): 5–20;
D C. Lambot,“Le prototype des monastères cloîtrés de femmes. L’abbaye Saint-Jean d’Arles (VIe siècle),” Revue liturgique et monastique 23 (1937–1938): 170–4
Brian Brennan, “St. Radegund and the Early Development of Her Cult at Poitiers,” Journal of Religious History 13 (1985): 342–3
Conrad Leyser, “Long-Haired Kings and Short-Haired Nuns: Power and Gender in Merovingian Gaul,” Medieval World 5 (1992): 37–42.
Caesarius of Aries, Ad regulam virginum 44, in Sanctus Caesarius Arelatensis, Opera omnia 2, C113–114. Translation adapted from Maria Caritas McCarthy, The Rule for Nuns of Caesarius of Arles: A Translation with a Critical Introduction, Catholic University of America: Studies in Mediaeval History, new ser 16 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1960), 44
Bonnie Effros, “Symbolic Expressions of Sanctity: Gertrude of Nivelles in the Context of Merovingian Mortuary Custom,” Viator 27 (1996): 1–5; Coon, Sacred Fictions, 41–4.
“Amputandum ergo est hoc vitium radicitus ab omni monacha, ut nullam rem vel in vestimentis, seu in calceamentis, vel in quibushbet rebus sibi vin-dicet, vel suum esse dicat, nisi quantum ex abbatissae iussione penes se praecipitur retinere.…”Jacques-Paul Migne, ed., Regula cuiusdam patris ad virgines 17, in PL 88 (Paris: Apud editorem, 1850), col. 1066; Felice Lifshitz, “Is Mother Superior? Towards a History of Feminine Amtscharisma,” in Medieval Mothering, John Carmi Parsons and Bonnie Wheeler, eds. (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1996), 126.
Coon, Sacred Fictions, 33–41; Gabnella Schubert, Kleidung als Zeichen: Kopfbedeckungen im Donau-Balkan-Raum. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1993), 137–42.
“Mox indumentum nobile, quo celeberrima die solebat, pompa comitante, regina procedere, exuta ponit in altare et blattis, gemmis ornamentis men-sam divinae gloriae tot donis onerat per honorem. Cingulum auri pon-deratum fractum dat opus in pauperum. Similiter accedens ad cellam Sancti Iumeris die uno, quo se ornabat felix regma, conposito, sermone ut loquar barbaro, stapione, camisas, manicas, cofias, fibulas, cuncta auro, quaedam gemmis exornata per circulum, sibi profutura sancto tradit altario.”Venantius Fortunatus, De vita sanctae Radegundis 1,13, in MGH: SRM 2, p.369; Bonnie Effros, “Images of Sanctity: Contrasting Descriptions of Radegund by Venantius Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours,” UCLA Historical Journal 10 (1990): 46–7.
Georg Scheibelreiter, “Konigstöchter im Kloster: Radegund (+587) und der Nonnenaufstand von Poitiers (589),” Mitteilungen des Instituts fur Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung 87 (1979): 1–5; 10; Brennan, “St. Radegund,” 340–6.
H. E. F. Vierck, “La ‘chemise de Sainte-Balthilde’ à Chelles et l’influence byzantine sur l’art de cour mérovingien au VIIe siècle,” in Actes du colloque international d’archéologie: Centenaire de l’ abbé Cochet (Rouen: Musée départ-mental des antiquités de Seme-Maritime, 1978), 539ff.
Richard A. Gerberding, The Rise of the Carolingians and the ‘Liber historiae Francorum’ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 68–9.
On the bejeweled tomb of Eligius, bishop of Noyon, as a center of religious veneration, see: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity AD 200–1200 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 104.
Bonnie Effros, Caring for Body and Soul: Burial and the Afterlife in the Merovingian World (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), 20–3.
Aldhelm, De virginitate (prosa) 58, in MGH: Auctores antiquissimi [AA] 15, Rudolf Ewald, ed. (Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1919), 317–18; Hayo Vierck, “Zur angelsachsischen Frauentracht,” in Sachsen und Angelsachsen: Ausstellung des Helmsmuseums, Hamburgisches Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte 18. November 1978 bis 28. Februar 1979 (Hamburg: 1978), 256.
Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X 2,9, rev. ed., MGH: SRM 1, 1, Bruno Krusch, ed., (Hanover: Impensis bibliopolii Hahniani, 1951), 57; Averil Cameron, “How Did the Merovingians Wear Their Hair?” Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 43 (1965): 1203–16.
Margarete Weidemann, Kulturgeschichte der Merowingerzeit nach den Werken Gregor von Tours, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Monographien 3 (Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, 1982), 1: 20–3, 323–4; 2: 213.
Jörg Jarnut, “Die Adoption Pippins durch König Liutprand und die Italienpolitik Karl Martells,” in Karl Martell in seiner Zeit, Jörg Jarnut, Ulrich Nonn, and Michael Richter, eds., Beihefte der Francia 37 (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1994), 217–8. On the barbaratoria, see: Hen, Culture and Religion, 137–43
Jean-Jacques Chiflet, Anastasis Childerici I. Francorum regis sive thesaurus sepulchralis (Antwerp: Ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1655), 128; Michel Fleury, “Le monogramme de l’anneau d’Aregonde,” Les Dossiers de Archéologie 32 (1979): 43–5; Patrick Périn, “A propos de la datation et de l’interprétation de la tombe n.49 de la basilique de Saint-Denis, attribuée à la reine Arégonde, épouse de Clotaire Ier,” in L’art des invasions en Hongrie et en Wallonie’ Actes du colloque tenu au Musée royal de Mariemont du 9 au 11 avril 1979, Monographies du Musée royal de Mariemont [MRM], 6 (Morlanwelz: MRM, 1991), 11–30.
M. M. Deloche, Étude historique et archéologique sur les anneaux sigillaires et autres des premiers siècles du moyen âge (Paris: Ernest Leroux, Éditeur, 1900)
Canon 61: “Si quis catholicus capillos promissent more barbarorum, ab ae-clesia Dei alienus habeatur et ab omni Christianorum mensa, donec delictum emendat.” Ludwig Bieler, ed., The Irish Penitentials (Dublin. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1963), 7; 148
Conc. Agathense canon 15: “Paemtentes, tempore quo paenitentiam petunt, lmpositionem manuum et cilicium super caput a sacerdote sicut ubique constitutum est, consequantur; et si aut comas non deposuermt, aut vestimenta non mutaverint, abnciantur et nisi digne paenituerint, non recipiantur” Munier, ed., Concilia Galliae, CCSL 148, 201; Cyril Vogel, La discipline pénitentielle en Gaule des origines à la fin du VII siècle, Thèse pour le doctorat en théologie, Strasbourg 1950 (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1952), 104–6.
Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X 5,11, MGH: SRM 1,1, 206. “Magnus quoque planctus hic omni populo fuit; nam mulieres cum vins suis lu-gentes flebant, nigns vestibus indutae, percussa pectora, hoc funus [Chlodeberti] sunt prosequutae” Krusch, ed., Liber historiae Francorum 34, in MGH: SRM 2,301. On baptismal white, refer also to: Edmond Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule antérieures au VIII e siècle 1 (Paris: A l’Imprimerie impériale, 1856), 476–7; Dubois, “Utilisation religieuse,” 148.
The so-called Poenitentiale Cummeani 14,9, directed that: “Mulieres possunt sub mgro velamine accipere sacnficium.” Hermann Joseph Schmitz, ed., Die Bussbucher und die Bussdisciphn der Kirche 1 (Mainz: Verlag von Franz Kirchheim, 1883), 643. A chapter of the Irish canonical collection advocated modest dress for Christians on the authority of Jerome. Wasser-schleben, ed., Die irische Kanonensammlung 46, 1, 235.
But see: Joachim Werner, “Zur Entstehung der Reihengraberzivilisation: Ein Beitrag zur Methode der fruhgeschichtlichen Archäologie,” Archaeologia Geographica 1 (1950): 25;
Heiko Steuer, “Zur Bewaffnung und Sozialstruktur der Merowinger,” Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte 37 (1968): 30–74.
Pohl, “Telling the Difference,” 32–40; Bonnie Effros, “Dressing Conservatively: A Critique of Recent Archaeological Discussions of Women’s Brooches as Markers of Ethnic Identity,” in Gender and the Transformation of the Roman World: Women, Men and Eunuchs in Late Antiquity and After, 300–900 CE, Julia Smith and Leslie Brubaker, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press) But, in favor of the strict correspondence between women’s clothing and ethnicity, see: Max Martin, “Schmuck und Tracht des frühen Mittelalters,” in Fruhe Baiern im Straubinger Land. Gaude-museum Straubing, Max Martin and Johannes Prammer, eds. (Straubing: Druckerei Bertsch, 1995), 40–58.
Heiko Steuer, Fruhgeschichtliche Sozialstrukturen in Mittelauropa: Eine Analyse der Auswertungsmethoden des archaologischen Quellenmaterials, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, philologisch-historische Klasse, 3d ser., vol. 128 (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982), 52–3, 72–4; Edward James, “Burial and Status in the Early Medieval West,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th ser., 39 (1989): 31–7,
Heinrich Harke, “‘Warrior Graves’? The Background of the Anglo-Saxon Weapon Burial Rite,” Past and Present 126 (1990): 42–3.
Jürgen Hannig, “Ars donandi: Zur Ökonomie des Schenkens im früheren Mittelalter,” in Armut, Liebe, Ehre: Studien zur historischen Kulturforschung, Richard van Dülmen, ed. (Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1988), 11–15; Hardt, “Royal Treasures,” 277–80.
Cécile Barraud, Daniel de Coppet, André Iteanu, and Raymond Jamous, Of Relations and the Dead: Four Societies Viewed from the Angle of their Exchanges, Stephen J. Suffern, trans. (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994), 61–5; 103–5.
See, for instance, Lex Burgundionum 51, 3: “Ornamenta quoque vestimenta matronalia ad filias absque ullo fratris fratrumque consortio pertinebunt; quod quidem de his ornamentorum vestimentorumque speciebus circa filias ex lege servabitur, quarum mater intestata decessent. Nam si quid de propnis ornamentis vestibusque decrevent, nulla in posterum actione caus-abitur.” Ludwig Rudolf de Salis, ed , Leges Burgundionum, MGH: Leges 2, 1 (Hanover: Impensis bibhopohi Hahniam, 1892), 84. Other examples include the Leges Burgundionum 86, 1–2; Lex Thuringorum 31–3; Lex Franco-rum Chamavorum 42.
S. Rietschel,“Heergewate und Gerade,” in Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 2, Johannes Hoops, ed. (Strasbourg: Verlag von Karl J. Trubner, 1913), 467
Karl Friedrich von Richthofen, ed., Lex Thuringorum 28, MGH: Leges 5 (Hanover: Impensis bibhopohi Hahmani, 1875–1889), 131
Gabriele von Oldberg, “Aspekte der rechtlich-sozialen Stellung der Frauen in den frühmittelalterlichen Leges,” in Frauen in Spatantike und Fruhmittelalter. Lebensbedingungen-Lebensnormen-Lebensformen, Werner AfFeldt, ed. (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 1990), 223–7.
Frantiek Graus, Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger: Studien zur Hagiographie der Merowingerzeit (Prague: Tschechoslawakische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1965), 162–165; 203;
Alexander Bergengruen, Adel und Grundherrschaft im Merowingerreich, Vierteljahrschrift fur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte Beihefte 41 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1958), 171–83.
Joachim Werner, Das alamannische Fürstengrab von Wittislingen, Münchner Beiträge zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 2 (Munich: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1950), 1–66.
Siegfried Rietschel, “Der ‘Todtenteil’ in Germanischen Rechten,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte, germanistische Abteilung 32 (1911): 297–312. On the grounds for these interpretations, see: Bonnie Effros, Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, in press).
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Effros, B. (2002). Appearance and Ideology: Creating Distinctions between Clerics and LayPersons in Early Medieval Gaul. In: Koslin, D.G., Snyder, J.E. (eds) Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-08394-4_2
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