ABSTRACT

This chapter draws attention to a more specific pressure exerted on the cultural construction of masculinities - competition between different groups of chaste men rather than between chaste and sexually active men. In the thirteenth century, in particular, growing intra-Christian religious diversity led to conflicts about the respective religious authority of different elites. The Franciscans and Dominicans adapted older monastic and clerical concepts while also engaging in direct or indirect confrontation with these competing elites of the Latin Church. The discussion of chastity among the thirteenth-century Dominicans makes for an interesting comparison. Generally speaking, the Dominican tradition shows a reserve towards contact with women similar to the Franciscan one. In conclusion, it seems legitimate to say that in regard to chaste masculinity, the tensions arising from the conflict between secular clergy, new mendicant and old monastic orders in the thirteenth century set up a framework of pressures that could not be ignored.