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Since the patristic age, Christians have held ambivalent notions about
the meaning of virginity and the status of the virgin. In the early Middle Ages, a
physiological definition prevailed; after the thirteenth century, there was an in
creasing tendency to interpret virginity in moral and psychological terms—the
"true" virgin was characterized by purity and humility. Certain women who
were wives and mothers were called to vocations of special holiness, which might
include severe ascetic practices, pilgrimage, and mystical communion with God.
Some of these women suffered painful conflict over their marital status and
family ties, but their experience and reputations marked significant changes
in Christian ideas about sexuality and family life. When Luther argued that the
virgin was not necessarily the "best" Christian, he argued within a tradition that
had widened and expanded during the last medieval centuries.
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