Abstract

In central and late medieval Normandy, the experiences of the mentally ill and the cognitively impaired were shaped by factors as varied as customary law, the institutional settings for their care and confinement, and the medical and spiritual understanding of their afflictions. This paper will focus on the legal, institutional and spiritual aspects of responses to the mentally ill and cognitively impaired in Normandy between c. 1100 and c. 1500. My study of Normandy aims to complement the substantial work completed on mental illness in medieval England by Wendy Turner and others, as well as to explore the rich monastic, legal and civic sources for Normandy in relation to this topic. My paper will begin by examining how madness was addressed in Norman customary law, and discussing examples of how the issues raised in the law code were dealt with in practice. Next, I will examine the different institutional (and non-institutional) contexts in which those with mental disorders in Normandy were restrained and cared for. Finally, I will analyze an early twelfth-century account of the miraculous cure of a mad woman from Bayeux, in terms of how it evidences the spiritual and social dimensions of attitudes and responses to mental illness.