| Popis: |
This chapter assesses the practice of foot-bathing and the kissing of the feet. Foot-bathing was part of the ritual of hospitality in the Hebrew Bible. Meanwhile, in the Middle Ages, the kiss of a foot was sometimes performed as a sign of a vassal's homage to his lord. The chapter then considers the unique status that distinguishes Clare of Assisi from her female companions: because she is the superior, she must also be the servant of the community, and not just the “servant of the Lord.” In Clare's Form of Life, it is clearly stated that the abbess has authority over all the “subject sisters,” who have “renounced their own wills” and are “firmly bound to obey their abbess in all the things they have promised the Lord to observe and which are not against their soul and our profession.” Yet by a reversal, like a counterweight to this obedience and as a kind of institutional version of the washing of feet, the superior is placed below her subordinates. |
