REFORM AND THE REPRESENTATION OF CRUSADERS

Analysis of medieval masculinities, and the various ways in which men were conceptualised and represented in different contexts, has often focussed on the rich evidence provided by the impact of the eleventh-century reform movements. One significant consequence of this movement was the unrelenting insistence by religious reformers that there should be a greater distinction made between the lives of the clergy and the laity. There were repeated calls for the improvement of clerical behaviour and education; celibacy was more strictly enforced upon the male clergy; and priests were restricted from taking up arms. The behaviour of male professional religious discussed in explicitly gendered terms was thus a particular target, in part in order to establish the superiority of religious men over laymen. However, reform also left a wider mark on society as a whole. There was an increasing tendency to position religious values and terminology within the secular sphere, as part of attempts to transform cultural attitudes concerning what was appropriate conduct for men and women. This was not a simple one-way process, as reform ideals encouraged a receptive and sometimes proactive laity to seek new spiritual outlets. Taking the crusading cross, for instance, was one way members of the laity could express their piety. However, the texts which advocated these reform ideals were often written by the clergy and for the clergy; and, thus, as Katherine Cushing put it, these accounts ‘may often be evidence merely of aspirations to effect change rather than real change’.