Religious masculinities in William of Newburgh’s Historia rerum Anglicarum

Abstract

William’s revenant stories, far from being oddities, fit well within the Historia rerum Anglicarum and can be read as reformist models of masculine behaviour. They present the reader with negative examples, such as clerics who acted in inappropriate ways and got their rightful punishment, as well as positive examples of men who not only stayed faithful to the precepts of the church but bolstered their masculinity by doing so. Reading the revenant stories within this framework allows us to see how religious men adopted and adapted secular masculine ideals, shows us the value of focusing on the intersection of gender and religious status, reveals the different means through which gendered messages spread, and acts as a reminder that although one group may have been the target of regulations, all men were affected by them.