The thirteenth century was one of the most theologically vibrant periods in the history of the Christian church. It was in this period that the subject matter of theology was more closely defined, and that theology became a subject for study in educational institutions. One of the features of the Renaissance was urban life, which experienced a growth and popularity it had not known since the Roman era. By 1200, anyone who aspired to the best education in theology made their way to Paris. Under Aristotelian influence, it was easy to produce theologies that were pantheistic or subsumed incorporeal individuals into a single undivided intelligence. As Christian theologians grew more knowledgeable of Jewish biblical interpretation, commentators from that tradition, especially Maimonides and Rashi, were quoted with admiration, and even given preference over some Christian readings of texts. Over time, philosophical theology was confined to an increasingly narrow academic ghetto, and science and rationality moved to conquer the world.

This chapter examines the liturgical performance of gender, the ways in which the differences between men and women were acted out in the recurrent ceremonies of the medieval church. The liturgical commentators' explanations for this distinction played on the common association of women with sin. The moment during the mass specifically devoted to 'union, charity, peace, and reverence' within the Christian community provided another opportunity for the performance of gender difference. The order of kissing during the ritual of peace further reinforced notions of social hierarchy within the Christian community. In the early thirteenth century, Sicard of Cremona claimed that it was the 'custom of the Romans' that menstruating women not enter a church 'out of reverence'. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, however, as theologians and pastors began to pay greater attention to unorthodox belief, they interpreted more and more biblical references to women in terms of heresy.