THE CHURCH OF the first millennium incorporated clergy and laity at
every level. Its flaws and its virtues stemmed equally from this bonding
with the encompassing society. On the one hand, the domination of the
nobility readily undermined the ancient principle of canonical election
of bishops by clergy and people. Princely bishops, on the other hand,
were best suited to defend the interests of their churches against inter-
fering lords. Kings raided church coffers and filled church offices with
their own friends, but they also took a devout interest in the quality of
spiritual services and personnel. Moreover, female and male partnerships
progressed in various dimensions. A celibate clergy tightly enclosed
within its own order had not yet consigned all laity to the world and the
flesh. Chapters of canons and canonesses regularly formed a mixed
community. Clerical wives bound priests to their parishioners, while the
option of spiritual marriage opened a higher plane to clerical as well as
secular couples. Monasticism attracted women and men with vocations
for celibacy and accommodated a controlled syneisactic lifestyle. Priestly
monopoly of the sacraments was balanced by monastic devotions like
the laus perennis, which offered nuns a satisfying liturgical life. The
autonomy of each convent guaranteed its local ties, while episcopal and
secular authorities alike reined in any tendency to eccentricity. Changing
times and radical idealism brought the old church under attack. Canon-
esses, in particular, offended reformers anxious to close the circles of the
clergy to women:

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