"Even though we tend to see medieval people as belonging to a
very ascetic culture that denies the body, I don't think that is
precisely true," Elliott says. "One could argue that the act of
denying the body is sinking more deeply into the body." To
regulate heavily the body one must focus a great deal of
attention on it, indirectly elevating and affirming its
importance. Elliott also points out that the central images of
Christianity--the crucified Christ and the Eucharist (a symbolic
eating of the body and blood of Christ)--are intensely physical.
"Should we call medieval Christianity body-denying or body-
confirming? Well, it is certainly body-controlling," Elliott
says. For medieval women in particular, practicing sexual
abstinence was also an attempt to gain control over their bodies
and their spirituality. Elliott's book, Spiritual Marriage:
Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock, closely examines celibacy
within marriage as an expression of the partners' piety. In the
introduction Elliott observes, "Wome