Pueri, Iuvenes , and Viri : Age and Utility In the Gregorian Reform

Abstract

This article explores the role played by ideas about age and appropriate behavior for different stages of life in shaping the eleventh-century ecclesiastical reformers' vision for an ordered Christian society—notable at a time when the role of the Church and especially the papacy as both the definer and enforcer of utilitas was increasingly emphasized. By focusing on how some influential reformers and writers characterized youth, adulthood, and that shadowy stage between them, the iuventus, this article examines the extent to which the reformers not only drew upon the language of age and life stages but also combined them with ideas of suitability and utility in a powerful rhetoric that reinforced their scheme of social definition.