Perpetua in Medieval England

Abstract

Depictions of Perpetua in medieval England seem to differ from those most popular on the continent, as the Old English Martyrology, the Cotton-Corpus Legendary, and Goscelin of St. Bertin’s Liber Confortatorius, or Book of Consolation and Comfort all emphasize the martial, rather than maternal, aspects of Perpetua. Cotter-Lynch argues that rather than eliding the gender ambiguity of Perpetua’s text, texts in the medieval English tradition often emphasize the simultaneity of Perpetua’s male and female aspects, returning to the more syncretic conception of gender identity portrayed in the Passio Perpetuae. This emphasis on gender ambiguity also includes a privileging of Perpetua’s own agency in her martyrdom, and an exploration of the ways in which she might be seen as exemplary for medieval English women.