Conversion, Conversi, and the Christian Life in Late Medieval Tuscany

Abstract

There are two kinds of Christians, according to Gratian the clergy, occupied with the divine office, prayer, and contemplation, and the laity, involved in this world. For Gratian, living at the end of a period of intense religious reform, the issue was still one of protecting the liberty of the church and insuring the correct ordering of society. If the church was to maintain its vitality and meet the challenges of a sinful world, it needed an unambiguous structure and inflexible discipline. He described the clergy, how they should live, and in what ways they could participate in the secular world. And, he argued, these distinctions between the lay and ecclesiastical estates were ancient he traced them back to St. Jerome. The reformer had little to say about the laity. Those in holy orders were to devote themselves to salvation through an imitation of Christ. Although laymen certainly were capable of finding salvation, their duties were to command women, plow fields, and pay tithes.' Gratian's description of the laity is but one of several possible outlines of medieval Christian society. While it is primarily a constitutional description, it has the merit of highlighting a problem that Christians faced during and after the Gregorian reforms: What are the avenues to Christian perfection most appropriate to the laity? In the early Middle Ages it had been possible for the laity, even married couples, to convert, give themselves to God, and