LE3 .A278 2016

2016

Hewitt, Sonia

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

Classics

History & Classics

By the fourth century, women were able to transcend the traditional patriarchal Roman society by adopting the ascetic lifestyle. These women were able to express their agency and autonomy as individuals, which was unique in Roman society. In the fourth century, ascetic women’s agency reached its apex, while simultaneously both the Church and State were enacting legislation that eroded their agency and autonomy by legislating their lifestyle. The social position created by the Church and State for the ascetic women limited their agency and stripped away the independence that previous generations of ascetic women enjoyed. The first chapter is a literature review of both ancient and modern sources. The second chapter involves a discussion of women’s legal and cultural status within traditional Roman society. Then, early Christian scriptures are discussed which advocated for equality and celibacy. The Pauline letters legitimized asceticism as an acceptable alternative to marriage and provided the basis for women to have positions of leadership within early Church communities. Next, it examines examples of liberated ascetic women asserting their agency and autonomy. This chapter concludes with a survey of dissenting voices within Christianity. The third chapter reviews new legislation which the Church and State passed during the fourth and fifth centuries that eroded ascetic women’s agency, before concluding with a discussion of the absence of women in the early Christian histories, the changing discourse in The Acts of Thecla, the death of Blaesilla and St. Augustine’s Letter 211. This thesis argues that ascetic women transcended the traditional social structure but later lost their agency because of the reassertion of traditional Roman gender norms in secular and ecclesiastical law and social practice.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1429