Disabled Clerics in the Late Middle Ages

Ninon Dubourg is a doctor in Medieval History of the University of Paris Diderot, now a post-doctoral researcher at the Transitions Unit of the University of Liège (Belgium). She is in charge of the research blog History of Disease, Disability and Medicine in Medieval Europe and the co-organiser of the EHESS’ monthly seminar “Construire une histoire du handicap et de la surdité au travers des siècles” (Building a history of disability and deafness through the centuries) with Fab-rice Bertin (EHESS) and Gildas Brégain (Rennes, CNRS) (2021-2022). She is a foreign associate member of the research network Homo Debilis at the Bremen University and a member of the Re-search Group Handicap et sociétés of the Réseau Jeunes chercheurs Santé et Sociétés at the EHESS.

"In this important and well-researched book, Ninon Dubourg analyzes the interactions between disabled clerics and the medieval papacy, drawing on an abundant source base of petitions sent to popes and the papal letters composed in response"Amelia Kennedy, Princeton Theological Seminary, in The Journal of Religion.

• Preface, Introduction: A Formal Dialogue, Chapter 1: Legal Origins of the Prohibition on Clerical Disability, Chapter 2: Aetiologies of Impairment: Congenital, Geriatric, and Acquired Conditions, Chapter 3: Joining the Clergy, Chapter 4: Staying in the Clergy, Chapter 5: Leaving the Clergy, Conclusion, List of works cited for each chapter