ABSTRACT
Women's ability to give life made husband and wife equal in theory and, like a man, a woman was free to choose her mate. Marriage therefore required no more than the free and voluntary agreement of a pair along with consummation. Women have always been loved, but much depended on age and class. Christian's age created a positive cult of love in which lovers were truly equal. Iseult is as competent in woman's work such as healing as Tristan is in hunting and making war. Male complaints about women were sometimes plaintive. Focused by monks, male ambivalence towards women was experienced as rarely before or after. The charm of a girl's figure and the lilt of her voice tempted both Peter Damian and Peter, the hermit of Monte Morrone, and both converted their attraction into scatological anger. Peter Damian charged that heterosexual carnality led to homosexuality.
