Professor Edith Hall

Where she really started losing people was continuing to preach from the pulpit. It was understandable, maybe, the first few times because she was reporting what Jesus had said in these visions, but continuing to do that wanders into dangerous territory and who would inspire someone to continually act in such a manner contrary to God, but the devil.

So the local community starts turning against her and suggests that her parents had been possessed by devils, and then all of this sort of comes to a head when the nuncio comes to town. He is very suspicious of things like the heart exchange and the mystical marriage and especially stigmata.

So the local community starts turning against her and suggests that her parents had been possessed by devils, and then all of this sort of comes to a head when the nuncio comes to town. He is very suspicious of things like the heart exchange and the mystical marriage and especially stigmata.

The biggest sign of all of demonic, if not possession, association... is that she didn't go vegan anymore. She started secretly eating meat. And in particular, she had a love of salami and mortadella. And I mean... I can't blame her. Mortadella is delicious.

The biggest sign of all of demonic, if not possession, association... is that she didn't go vegan anymore. She started secretly eating meat. And in particular, she had a love of salami and mortadella. And I mean... I can't blame her. Mortadella is delicious.

Not quite. Instead, we end up with Benedetta having sex not with the devil, but with her best friend, Bartolomeo.

Not quite. Instead, we end up with Benedetta having sex not with the devil, but with her best friend, Bartolomeo.

I think that it is more problematic, but there's multiple levels of coercion, I think, going on here also. It's not just that Splenditello made them do it for his own benefit, but... Benedetta claims that Splenditello really inhabits her body or takes over her body in certain ways so that she herself is actually subject to coercion in a way to then make Bartholomea also go through with it.

I think that it is more problematic, but there's multiple levels of coercion, I think, going on here also. It's not just that Splenditello made them do it for his own benefit, but... Benedetta claims that Splenditello really inhabits her body or takes over her body in certain ways so that she herself is actually subject to coercion in a way to then make Bartholomea also go through with it.

So the final investigative visit was in November of 1623. There's no more evidence of stigmata or of a mystical wedding ring. Benedetta is no longer seeing visions. Splenditello has left her. Benedetta agrees that she had been deceived by the devil and lived very obediently under a new abbess.

So the final investigative visit was in November of 1623. There's no more evidence of stigmata or of a mystical wedding ring. Benedetta is no longer seeing visions. Splenditello has left her. Benedetta agrees that she had been deceived by the devil and lived very obediently under a new abbess.

We don't really hear from her again, although the convent records basically indicate that she died when she was 71 years old, that she had been ill for 18 days. But this diary also reveals one interesting fact. She had been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 35 years. So it appears that her recantation and her reformation to live the good life under a new abbess was for naught.

We don't really hear from her again, although the convent records basically indicate that she died when she was 71 years old, that she had been ill for 18 days. But this diary also reveals one interesting fact. She had been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 35 years. So it appears that her recantation and her reformation to live the good life under a new abbess was for naught.

I really wanted to talk a little bit about medieval lesbians. In the introduction to her book, Immodest Acts, about Benedetta Carlini, Judith C. Brown says, had the material belonged to a later epoch, the sexual allegations against Benedetta would not have been all that rare. But what about medieval lesbians?

I really wanted to talk a little bit about medieval lesbians. In the introduction to her book, Immodest Acts, about Benedetta Carlini, Judith C. Brown says, had the material belonged to a later epoch, the sexual allegations against Benedetta would not have been all that rare. But what about medieval lesbians?

Looking for medieval lesbians, one of the things about studying them is that it allows for participation in the creation of social and sexual histories and forefronts the female experience in a field that continues to be dominated by white straight men. And even the term homosexual has been co-opted and used only to describe homosexuality. male same-sex encounters.

Looking for medieval lesbians, one of the things about studying them is that it allows for participation in the creation of social and sexual histories and forefronts the female experience in a field that continues to be dominated by white straight men. And even the term homosexual has been co-opted and used only to describe homosexuality. male same-sex encounters.

So it's good on the one hand that we have Benedetta Carlini. Bad, of course, because of the situation. But good because the scant handful of documented lesbians are generally documented for being caught. Benedetta Carlini was on trial, oddly enough, mostly for preaching, and the immodest act came out.

So it's good on the one hand that we have Benedetta Carlini. Bad, of course, because of the situation. But good because the scant handful of documented lesbians are generally documented for being caught. Benedetta Carlini was on trial, oddly enough, mostly for preaching, and the immodest act came out.

We can find medieval lesbians and joy in medieval lesbian activities in such places as mystic texts, where female saints call Jesus their mother, then suckle from his side as breastfeeding before crawling into the open vaginal-shaped wound. One such woman was Catherine of Siena.