ABSTRACT
Studies of the medieval aristocracy used to be dominated by an endless semantic debate on two concepts: feudalism and nobility. But fundamentally the Church aimed to establish Christian monogamy for life. It not only represented the heart and core of the Roman law on which the practice of earlier courts had been based, but presumably it reflected a widespread custom. The kings and princes of Europe rapidly exhausted the families into which they could marry. This was the issue which was brought into the open and settled in the papal court. The case of Richard of Anstey is famous because he left a diary of his expenses in the suit. Some of Alexander III's decisions show a kindly disposition and a readiness to defend helpless young women against male chicanery. In the letters of Heloise and Abelard so vivid and revealing a vision of the world in which these qualities met, as seen through the eyes of a woman.
