Bastards and Priests in the Middle Ages with Sara McDougall

Episode 10 of The Medieval Podcast: What was it like to be a bastard in medieval Europe? Were you excluded from one of the most important institutions of the time: the priesthood? Danièle is joined by Sara McDougall to talk about bastards, priests, and if you could be both at that same time.

Sara McDougall is an associate professor of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York (CUNY). Her works include Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230, and Bigamy and Christian Identity in Late Medieval Champagne. Click here to view her university webpage.

Her article, “Bastard Priests: Illegitimacy and Ordination in Medieval Europe”, appears in the January 2019 issue of Speculum (Volume 94, Number 1) – click here to access it from the University of Chicago Press.

You can read Sara’s article How Do You Say ‘Bastard’ in Medieval Latin? on Medievalists.net. She also wrote the article “When the Catholic Church’s prohibition on scandal helped women” in the Washington Post.

You can subscribe to The Medieval Podcast via iTunes or our RSS feed – click here to listen to more episodes

The host of The Medieval Podcast is Danièle Cybulskie. Click here to visit her website or follow her on Twitter @5MinMedievalist

Top Image: Detail of a miniature of a priest blessing a woman. British Library MS Harley 2897  fol. 220