Dyan Elliott is Assistant Professor of History and Adjunct of Women's Studies at Indiana University.

"[Dyan Elliott] reveals the deep tensions and ambiguities about sexuality and marriage in the Christian church as attitudes evolved from apostolic times to the sixteenth century... I loved this book for its magnificent scholarship, clarity of expression, provocative ideas, and scholarly modesty."--Penelope D. Johnson, American Historical Review "A penetrating study for a wide scholarly audience on the place of women, marriage, and sexuality in Christianity from Augustine to the Renaissance... Using spiritual marriage as a prism, Elliott is able to examine the themes of sacramental theology, female spirituality, sin, sexuality, and gender relations."--Philip F. Riley, History "Elliot masterfully examines why female spirituality was perceived as a threat to the church and society at large, challenging the boundaries of sanctity and heresy... By tracing the downward trajectory of holy women through medieval society's progressive reliance on inquisitional procedure, Elliot argues that inquisitional mechanisms for assessing female spirituality created confusion between the saintly and the heretical; these efforts to constrain female spirituality were part of a larger program of constraining women."--Choice

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction31"A Place in the Middle": Intramarital Chastity as Theoretical Embarrassment and Provocation162Spiritual Marriage as Insoluble Problem or Universal Nostrum?513Eleventh-Century Boundaries: The Spirit of Reform and the Cult of the Virgin King944The Conjugal Debt and Vows of Chastity: The Theoretical and Pastoral Discourse of the High and Later Middle Ages1325Spiritual Marriage and the Penitential Ethos1956Virgin Wives266Conclusion297Appendixes303Select Bibliography321Index355