SOURCE: Warren, Nancy Bradley. “Pregnancy and Productivity: The Imagery of Female Monasticism within and beyond the Cloister Walls.” The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 28, no. 3 (fall 1998): 531-52.

In the following essay, Warren explores the Middle English version of the story of the miracle of the pregnant abbess from the Alphabet of Tales, interpreting it in terms of the association made between women's economic and sexual activities.

The Miracle of the Pregnant Abbess: the Problem of Maternity

In the Middle English version of the miracle of the pregnant abbess, as it appears in the collection of exempla known as the Alphabet of Tales, “Ane abbatiss of a grete place” becomes pregnant when she “þurgh entysing of þe devull … lete hur carvur … hafe at do with hur.”¹ She hides her pregnancy as long as possible, but her condition inevitably becomes obvious. The nuns, realizing that the abbess is...