Women of the English Renaissance and Reformation by Rhetha M. WarnickeReview by: Nancy Lyman RoelkerBibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, T. 46, No. 2 (1984), pp. 515-517Published by: Librairie DrozStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20677048 .

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COMPTES RENDUS 515

Rhetha M. WARNICKE, Women of the English Renaissance and Reforma tion, Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. and London, England, 1983. Contributions to Women's Studies, n* 38.

?... the underlying theme of this book is to trace the degree to which

English society adopted the classical training advocated for women by Sir Thomas More... (p. 116).

Rhetha M. Warnicke's organization of her material and marshalling of her arguments

- tightly reasoned and well-expressed

- follows the thread very effectively. Every one of the approximately 200 pages weighs evidence

applicable to the underlying theme or relates to major questions it raises. These include the inevitable Reformation-era comparisons between Protes tants and Catholics -

though with some surprising results - and also

analysis of fine distinctions among the sub-groups on each side of the main

dichotomy. Valuable comparisons of female with male educational goals and experience throughout the century are made.

The author has chosen a generational model as her method. After

analysis of More's program (Chapter 2) she distinguishes four generations, Pre-Reformation (Chapter 3), Reformation (Chapter 6), mid-Elizabethan

(Chapter 7), and Jacobean (Chapter 10). Each is clearly characterized. Every women known to have had a classical education is named, and there are mini-biographies (and bibliographies) of the most prominent, where the sources are more extensive. More's particular contribution to the Chris tian humanist opinion

- that classical studies and piety were not only com

patible but reciprocally enriching - was the advocacy of classical training

for women in order to produce an elevated type of marriage:

Through his daughters, who were to be educated as perfect wives in his home... he hoped to effect his ideas about the ideal union of man and woman.

In a letter of 1518 he stated that men should be prepared for public service and women for <maternal and wifely service (pp. 23, 81). The emphasis on marriage turns out to be crucial to the ultimate failure of More's pro gram to prevail, as Warnicke interprets its fate through the generations, as a result of developments in the intellectual and religious climate later in the

century.

Curiously, the person who most seriously and thoroughly applied More's program to his daughters was Henri VIII. Both Mary Tudor and Elizabeth received superior intellectual training, including Latin and

Greek, at the hands of leading scholars, by their father's command. In imi tation, other branches of the royal family and a group of noble families close to the monarch did likewise. The Seymours, the Howards, the Fitza lans all aspired to marry a daughter to Prince Edward. Warnicke makes a

point of distinguishing the contemporary ?court humanists patronized by Anne Boleyn, including the poets Wyatt and Surrey, whose models were Petrarchan and neo-Platonic, especially Italian, from those trained in the tradition of More. The Boleyn group initiated the current that subse quently won out in female education - vernacular languages and literatu res, with French eventually dominant (pp. 37-38; 130-131).

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516 COMPTES RENDUS

One remarkable private family exemplified More's program in the Reformation generation, the five brilliant daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke: the eldest, Mildred, whose scholarship was said to have oegalled if not overmatched all others', became the wife of William Cecil, Elizabeth's right-hand man. Anne Cooke's translation of John Jewel's Latin defense of English Protestantism on historical grounds was publish ed in 1564 at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury and is still circu lated in the 1980's by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Know

ledge. Anne married Sir Nicholas Bacon, also prominent in the royal circle, as was Lord John Russell, husband of Elizabeth Cooke, who was still act

ively producing translations of the classics in her 70's. Another daughter married Sir Henry Killgrew. Two or more of the Cooke sisters were among the learned women who attended Mary Tudor in the 1550's. along with

representatives of the Greys, the Seymours and members of the More circle who had returned to England at Mary's accession. As the author notes, little scholarly attention has been paid to the intellectuals in Mary's circle, and it is noteworthy that they were Catholic women (pp. 105-108).

Two striking facts about the second generation women humanists are that they were concentrated in a small number of endogamous families, all with some connections to the royal family, and that with the exception of More's descendants' circle, the fathers were primarily responsible for their

daughters' classical training. The significance of this highly visible though limited application of More's program

can be tested by looking ahead to its rejection in the reign of Elizabeth. As she had no children to be educated, the nobility lost the incentive to instruct their children in ancient languages. Aristocrats who could aspire to marry into the

royal family... came to realize, however reluctantly, that their Queen would never wed... The personal qualities of Elizabeth began to be looked upon as

exceptional if not eccentric - her marital status, her education... even her lon

gevity, [and] few noble parents chose to educate their daughters as classicists

(pp. 109; 134-135).

Another factor contributing to the abandonement of Latin in female edu cation as England became more self-consciously anti-Catholic, was the sus

picion that because women were emotionally weak, ?they would be easily seduced by the Papists or even the Devil, if they were conversant in Latin.

As early as 1565... a women was accused of witchcraft for saying prayers in that language (p. 118).

In the mid-Elizabethan generation, only Anne Cecil, Lady Oxford, a

daughter of Mildred Cooke, and Lady Arbella Stuart, cousin of James VI and his rival for the English throne, carried on the More tradition in the highest circle, while Mary, Countess of Pembroke, the outstanding female intellectual and patroness, represents rather the apex of the courtly vernacular current. Warnicke spends some time recounting Pembroke's exceptional literary gifts, which have not been sufficiently recognized as distinct from those of her brother, Sir Philip Sidney, a neglect initiated by the Countess herself, as she subordinated her work to his in all her publica tions (pp. 116-123). Her translations of some of the Psalms of Marot, one of Mornay's philosophical discourses and a Senecan play of Robert Gar

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COMPTES RENDUS 517

nier, reflect French classical and Protestant influences on the Elizabethan Renaissance.

The most important of several revisionist points in the book is War nicke's contention that analysis of <<women's issues , like family relation ships, education and witchcraft, yields evidence that dispels both <the notion that Puritans held unique attitudes toward women , and the

widely-held assumption that Protestant women enjoyed greater social esteem than Catholic women (p. 151). Discussion of the latter group (Chapter 9), is especially rich in fresh information. Whereas Protestant

women of the later decades not only lacked classical instruction but were under the domination of their husbands, opportunities for independence and initiative opened up for Catholic women, whose husbands were victims of persecution or in exile, (pp. 84-86). This is an interesting parallel to the

independence and initiative shown by Protestant noblewomen in France. It was easier in both countries for women of a family to avoid the penalties for religious dissent than for the male members, precisely because of their lower status.

More's integral vision of classical scholars as ideal wives had been cut in two by intervening events:

Although the Reformers had adopted Sir Thomas More's familial concepts, they had generally ignored his advocacy of classical training for women, view

ing it as a hindrance rather than a help to marital harmony. While the adhe rents of the Counter-Reformation... rejected the religious patriarchalism of

More because it was based on anti-clerical attitudes, some did display more

sympathy for his educational philosophy. The result was that there were a few

outstanding classicists among the women of the fourth [Jacobean] generation (p. 200).

The facts that these women were almost all unmarried and that several achieved their distinction as nuns brings added emphasis to the point. (As in scientific discovery, so in historical scholarship, the same <new idea

will often occur to more than one person at about the same time. This revi sionist assessment of the correlation between women's status and confes sion in the 16th century is also advanced in a forthcoming article by Char

marie Jenkins Blaisdell). Among these Catholic female classicists were the

Copley sisters, nuns at St. Ursula's in Louvain, who were great-great-grand daughters of Margaret Gigs Clement, the most important woman humanist of More's circle after his daughter Margaret. Thus an aesthetically satisfying ?closing of the circle is achieved with descendants of one of the female humanists of More's own entourage, ?where both the movement for the advanced education of women and this book began (p. 200).

Providence, Rhode Island. Nancy Lyman ROELKER.

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