International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2008 Abstracts

Among the sermons of the twelfth-century Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux is one on spiritual bloodletting. The piece is both curious and typical in that it draws upon firm knowledge about the physical world, in this case the medical practice of cutting open a vein, in order to clarify a point about the care of the soul.

In this paper, I shall continue with the theme of spiritual bloodletting, but I will consider the ways in which regular bloodletting done in all religious institutions in the Middle Ages met spiritual as well as physical needs. The term that Bernard of Clairvaux used to denote bloodletting, minutio, was that employed in the statutes and customaries of religious houses in reference to regular prophylactic bleeding. Anywhere from three to nine times per year, groups of religious would be bled and enjoy a three-day convalescence in which they were nourished with rich foods and readings from Scripture.

It is the spiritual counterparts to the physical actions that will be the focal point of my paper: the initial imitation of Christ in the letting of blood, then the feeding of the spirit, and finally the penitential gestures that were required in order to re-enter the community at the end of the third day. There were many parallels drawn between the physical and spiritual worlds in medieval religious life, but I shall argue that bloodletting constitutes a special case if only because of the emotive power of the substance involved. Just as Christ was described as having been phlebotomized on the cross to cure humanity of the sins of the five senses, so the medieval religious were bled to preserve and restore their own spirits and to maintain communal discipline.