Growing Old in the Middle Ages

'Winter Clothes Us in Shadow and Pain'

Shulamith Shahar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134768561
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The social realities of old age have undergone profound changes since the middle ages. This study shows, however, that the images, attitudes and expectations of old people have changed for less.

Shulamith Shahar shows how the status and social participation of the elderly varied according to gender, social stratum, economic resources, position, level of functioning, and personality, as well as according to regional custom.

The book offers a broad cultural history of old age in medieval western Europe. Shahar examines the images, attitudes and advocated norms used in relation to the elderly and looks at the elderly in various social strata: churchmen and nuns, rulers, small office holders and soldiers, town dwellers and peasants.

A valuable insight into life and society in the Middle Ages, this will prove an invaluable addition to history reading lists.

1
WHO WERE THE OLD IN THE MIDDLE AGES?

Gerontologists and specialists in geriatrics have expressed reservations about fixing the onset of old age on a purely chronological basis. Their reasons are manifold. The process of ageing is a gradual one. There is no one biological event after which the person becomes old. Nor is it an even process: the organs and systems in our bodies do not all age at the same rate. Individuals also differ from one another both physically and mentally. In view of all this, Robert Butler (who coined the term ‘ageism’ to describe age-based discrimination) concluded that the idea of chronological ageing is a myth, because the advancing years intensify the individual differences more than making a broad similarity.¹ The geriatric consultant Marian Rabinowitz maintains that every elderly person has six ages: chronological, biological, cognitive, emotional, social and functional.² It has also been argued that in different economic, social, ethnic and cultural contexts, a man or a woman being 60 or 70 signifies different things, even in the same historical period. Hence the chronological age is only a marker showing where the individual stands in relation to time; or else, it serves as a convenient device for placing individuals in their social space. But the significance of age is a contingent, rather than an independent variable. One specialist in memory noted the relative and subjective nature of determining the onset of old age. In a discussion about the increasing likelihood of degenerative diseases of the memory among the old, he was asked, ‘What age are we talking about?’ He answered, smiling, ‘An old person is one who is 15 years older than you.’³

Medieval scholars were likewise aware of the gradual nature of the ageing process, as well as of individual variations in its progress. Some also noted the subjectivity of determining the onset of old age. Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190–1264) wrote: ‘Amid the strains and labours of youth one does not notice old age creeping up one one…It does not take over all of a sudden, but destroys by slow degrees.’⁴ Arnold of Villanova (c. 1235–1311) pointed out the differences between human types. According to him, those of choleric temperament (namely, those whose dominant humour was the yellow bile), who had a sharp intellect, were prone to diseases in their youth. But provided they survived that stage, they would enjoy good health in subsequent years, would age late and even live long.⁵ Maimonides proposed a purely subjective yardstick for old age in a woman: ‘Who is an old woman? One who is called old and does not protest.’⁶

Developmental psychologists who follow C.G.Jung’s division of developmental stages throughout human life, and not only in childhood and adolescence, disagree on the question of whether continuity or change predominates through the stages of the personality’s development; hence also on the question whether old age is a separate state of life entailing a significant personality change, or a continuation of a continuous self. For their part, old people reject the notion that old age is a separate stage in their lives and tend to emphasize the enduring, ageless self. This tendency was expressed in a series of interviews with 70 to 80-year-old men and women. In telling their life stories, they emphasized their continuous identity and interpolated symbolically significant elements from their past into their present self-images.⁷ St Augustine of Hippo, who greatly influenced Medieval thinkers, was also conscious of the continuity of the ageless self as it was expressed by the old people interviewed. He voiced this awareness in his sermon Ad competentes in connection with his division of the lifecycle into six stages, in which old age began at 60.

By means of these divisions or stages of age, you will not change from one stage to another, but staying the same, you will always know newness. For the second age will not follow so that an end may be put to the first; nor will the use of the third mean the ruin of the second; nor will the fourth be born so that the third may die; nor will the fifth envy the staying power of the fourth; nor will the sixth suppress the fifth. Although these ages do not come into being at one and the same time, they continue in harmony with one another in the soul, whose relationship with God is right, and they will conduct you to the everlasting peace and tranquility of the seventh stage.⁸

Like Augustine, developmental psychologists have also fixed on the age of 60 as the beginning of the final stage of life, that of old age.⁹ Most geriatric specialists and gerontologists too, for all their reservations regarding an arbitrary chronological determinant, estimate that at 60 to 70 a person’s abilities begin to decline to some extent, and the first signs of failure appear; that is, they too have recourse to chronological age as an indicator of competence.¹⁰ In contemporary Western society, obligatory retirement at 65 marks the onset of legal old age. Modern retirement may be described as a rite of passage, complete with its three classical stages. It is a transition from the status of a working person to a liminal one, in which one is still working, but the conditions of retirement are already being discussed (the level of the pension and emoluments from the retirement funds). There is usually a little celebration, at which long or short speeches (depending on the person’s position) are made, and gifts are given. The person now passes to the status of a pensioner. In the Middle Ages there was no such rite of passage, because there was no general policy of retirement or pensions. But in the Middle Ages, too, people were regarded as old from a certain age on, and thereafter enjoyed certain exemptions by law.

There is a widespread idea, to which a number of historians also subscribe,¹¹ that during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance men and women were deemed old at an earlier age than today. The popular notion is that people were regarded as old from their early forties. The idea is based mainly on the life expectancy in that period, which was considerably shorter than it is today. The historians who derived their opinion from Medieval and Renaissance sources were relying mainly on two kinds of sources: texts dealing with ‘the ages of Man’, or ‘the stages of Life’s course’ (aetates hominis; cursus aetatis) and on the statements of people about their own ageing, as found in letters and in literary and philosophical writings. In this chapter we shall attempt to show that it is unsafe to draw conclusions from such sources regarding the earlier ageing (relative to our time) of Medieval and Renaissance people and also to propose a different kind of source, namely, legislative texts, from which to determine at what age people were defined as old in those days. Subsequent chapters will examine to what extent the cultural norm regarding the onset of old age, as depicted in the legislative texts, found expression in the social reality.

The division of life into stages, like the categorization of people by age group, was not unique to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but is apparently a feature of all cultures, including oral ones.¹² Divisions into all kinds of stages appear in a variety of Medieval texts: scientific, medical, didactic, homiletic and literary, and were even depicted in the arts. The various systems of division have been studied by several scholars from a variety of aspects, mainly in the past decade.¹³ In this context we shall confine ourselves to a limited number of examples of the most popular schemes, without going into the physical and psychological traits which their authors attributed to each stage, or the expectations associated with them. Most of these schemes did not originate in the Middle Ages but were adapted, with some modifications, from Greek and Roman traditions, sometimes based on the Moslem versions of the ancient divisions. During the thirteenth century, writings began to appear in the vernacular languages and dealt with these divisions, thereby reaching a broader audience, so that even people who did not know Latin became familiar with the various schemes. Many who could not read heard about them (especially about the various expectations that concerned them at each stage) in sermons, and saw them depicted artistically in wall paintings and sculptures.¹⁴ The commonest divisions were into three, four, six and seven stages, more rarely into five and twelve. Since our subject is the onset of old age, we shall refer only to those divisions which specify the person’s age at the beginning and end of every stage. There were many divisions whose authors discussed each stage and its characteristics, but did not specify the age in question. The divisions into three, four and seven stages were considered to be scientific, since they all sought to offer a physical explanation and foundation for the processes of the individual’s growth, development and ageing. The division into three stages was based on Aristotelian biology; the division into four on physiology, i.e. the theory of humours; and the division into seven stages, following Ptolemy, was based on astrology, namely, on the premise that man is subject throughout his life to the influence of the celestial bodies, presenting at every stage the characteristic traits of his dominant planet. However, as Burrow has already shown, not all the schemes based on three, four and seven stages rested on the above scientific theories. Some authors used a four-stage division which was not based on the theory of humours, but corresponded to the four seasons of the year; others used a seven-stage division corresponding to the seven cardinal virtues, or the seven canonical hours, and so forth. The most Christian was the division into six stages, based on the scheme of St Augustine of Hippo. It rested on a correspondence between six stages in the life of man and the six epochs of human history in its Christian version.¹⁵

An example of a three-stage division may be found in the work of a thirteenth-century physician, Bernard de Gordon, ‘On the Conservation of Human Life’ (De conservatione vitae humanae):

1. Aetas pueritiae—from birth to age 14
2. Aetas iuventutis—14 to 35
3. Aetas senectutis—35 to the end of life.

The first stage was further divided into several sub-stages.¹⁶ In another work the author stated that the final stage, that of old age (senectus) ended at 60.¹⁷

Here are some examples of four-stage divisions. In Dante’s Convivio:

1. Adolescenza—from birth to age 25
2. Gioventtite—25 to 45
3. Senetute—45 to 70 (old age)
4. Senio (extreme old age)—70 to death.¹⁸

In Philip of Novare’s thirteenth-century didactic work Les quatre ages del’homme:

1. Anfance—from birth to age 20
2. Jovant—20 to 40
3. Moien age—40 to 60
4. Viellece—60 to 80

Philip stated that few lived to be 80, and whoever passed this point had better pray for death. He, too, like Bernard de Gordon, divided the first stage into sub-stages.¹⁹

In the thirteenth century Aldebrandin of Siena, in his book Le régime du corps, divided thus:

1. Adolescentia—from birth to 25 or 30
2. Juventus—25 or 30 to 40 or 45
3. Senectus—40 to 60
4. Senium (extreme old age)—from 60 to death.

Aldebrandin of Siena also subdivided the first stage.²⁰

The treatise of Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘On the Nature of Things’ (De natura rerum), written in the middle of the thirteenth century, offers an example of a seven-stage division:

1. Infantia—from birth until the child begins to speak
2. Pueritia—from the beginning of speech to age 14
3. Adolescentia—14 to 35
4. Robor—35 to 50
5. Senectus (old age)—50 to 70
6. Etas decrepita (decrepitude)—70 until death
7. Mors—death.²¹

Another seven-stage division appears in a poem about love, youth and spring, ‘The Fair Bush of Youth’ (Le Jolt Buisson de jonece), by Jean Froissart, written in the third quarter of the fourteenth century. The author notes the celestial body which dominates each stage: from birth to age four—the moon; four to 14—Mercury; 14 to 24—Venus; 24 to 34—the sun; 46–58—Jupiter (sometimes this stage continues for a few more years); from 58 until one passes into the hands of Atropos (namely, until death)—Saturn.²² According to the poet, one is too old for love at 35, though actual old age begins at 58. Andreas Capellanus, the twelfth-century theoretician of courtly love, was more generous in apportioning years of love. In his view, men may love until they are 60, women until they are 50. His reasoning was physiological-psychological, not moral or social. He held that though sexual intercourse was possible after this stage, its sensual pleasure no longer aroused love, because of the cooling of the natural heat and the increase of evil external humours entering the body. These cause discomforts and ailments, with the result that at this stage a man must content himself with the pleasures of eating and drinking.²³ (Beyond defining the maximum age for love for women, Andreas concerned himself exclusively with the senses and feelings of men.)

Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote an encyclopaedia which contained different and at times even contradictory views on its various subjects, proposed two schemes of division: one, following Isidore of Seville, into six stages, and another, following Avicenna, into four. The six-stage division is:

1. Infantia—birth to age seven
2. Pueritia—seven to 14
3. Adolescentia—15 to 28
4. Iuventus—28 to 50
5. Gravitas—50 to 72
6. Senectus—72 to the end of life.

The final stage had a sub-stage, of extreme old age. The four-stage division is:

1. Aetas adolescendi—birth to 32
2. Aetas consistendi—32 to 35 or 40
3. Aetas diminuendi (the stage of decline)—35 or 40 to 60
4. Aetas minuendi (stage of enfeeblement)—60 to the end of the life.²⁴

Herlihy and Klapisch maintain that in the second half of the fourteenth century people’s awareness of the sharply reduced life expectancy, due to the Black Death, found expression in their schemes of life’s stages. They base their argument on a comparison between the scheme of Philip of Novare, in the thirteenth century, and that of the poet Eustache Deschamps. A ballad of Deschamps, written in 1384, presented four lifestages of 16 years each, with life ending at age 64.²⁵ (In an earlier ballad Deschamps put it even earlier, at 60.²⁶ By contrast, Philip of Novare proposed four stages of 20 years each, life ending at 80. But it is very doubtful that Deschamps based his scheme on the demographic reality. Bernard de Gordon, who lived in the thirteenth century, also put the end of life at age 60.²⁷ Pope Innocent III (1160–1216), writing in the later half of the twelfth century when the population was rapidly expanding and life expectancy was rising, expounding on the wretchedness of the human condition, stated that few reach the age of 40, and very few (paucissimi) the age of 60.²⁸

In sum, we may say that with regard to the stage of childhood the various schemes were, if not in full agreement, at least in broad accord as to its span (either in the basic division or by means of the sub-stages), but with regard to the onset of old age the authors differed widely. The age at which old age sets in differs not only between the various schemes but often even between schemes based on the same number of stages. Even in the few examples given, old age begins at 35, 40, 45, 50, 58, 60 and 72. The schemes were developed in different contexts and related to different configurations of nature and time. They expressed the symbolic nature of every stage of life, as well as the writers’ value judgements. Their divisions were not based on empirical evaluations derived from the biological or social realities. They were more interested in the qualitative change which took place in the transition from stage to stage than in the rate and age at which it happened. The fact that certain numbers had symbolic values also affected their choice of ages for the beginnings and endings of the different stages. It is also obvious that the Latin term senectus—old age—(or its equivalent in one of the vernacular languages) did not have the same meaning for all the writers. Some applied it to the period following the stage of youth (roughly equivalent to our ‘middle age’), as well as to the elderly and senescent stages. Others applied it only to the ‘middle-aged’ and elderly stages, and applied the term senium for the stage of extreme old age. Still others applied the term senectus only to the elderly stage (again, using the term senium for extreme old age). There can be no doubt that the wide discrepancies between the ages defined in the various divisions as the onset of old age make it impossible to argue that people were considered old from their forties, or to use these divisions in support o...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction On the History of Old Age in Medieval Europe
• 1 Who were the Old in the Middle Ages?
• 2 The Old Body
• 3 Transcending Age, Transcending the Body
• 4 Who and what is an Old Man, and how he Should Conduct Himself
• 5 ‘Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother’
• 6 Churchmen in Their Old Age
• 7 Old Age in the Ranks of the Rulers and Soldiers
• 8 Old Age in Urban Society
• 9 Old Age in the Peasantry
• 10 The Old and the Charitable Organizations
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography