Soul Mates and Collaborators: Spiritual Direction in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

The 15th century is often regarded by scholars as a turning point in the history of spiritual direction, marking the beginning of a "Golden Age," which lasted well into the 18th century. The " confessor-spiritual director" emerged as one who fulfilled the role of spiritual counsellor as well as granting the forgiveness of sins after confession. Over the past two decades, historians have become increasingly interested in the dynamics of the relationships between confessors and their penitents, both inside and outside of the cloister. Scholars of both late medieval and early modern Europe have traced the ties that these spiritual relationships could create between the sexes, particularly where male clerics directed the souls of holy women ( lay and religious). Within the scholarship, a new attentiveness to the complexities of these encounters has challenged the traditional conception of male-female, confessor-penitent relationships as repressive and controlling. This article seeks to explore this recent shift in the historiography, before offering some new perspectives on future directions the field may take.