The Godly Woman

If Puritan girls were taught to read, as we covered in our last post, what exactly were they being taught to read, and what did Puritan society expect them to do with that knowledge? The answer is more complicated than the familiar image of the silent, submissive Puritan woman.

To be sure, women occupied a subordinate position in Puritan society. Their legal, political, and religious authority was limited in ways that would be difficult for us to reconcile with modern ideas of equality. Yet Puritan women were not expected to be ignorant. Quite the opposite. They were expected to be educated enough to understand scripture, raise godly children, manage households, and live according to a demanding religious code. 

And that creates an interesting contradiction. Part of the theological justification for female subordination came from the story of Eve. The Geneva Bible's rendering of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 connects Paul's prohibition against women teaching or ecercising authority over men directly to Eve, who was deceived and fell into transgression in Eden. 

Cotton Mather's ideal woman was hardly expected to disappear into the background. In Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion (1692), he described the virtuous woman as having a "Comely Presence," a "Handsome Carriage," a "ready Wit," and "Graceful Motions", qualities that could win favor among her neighbors. But Mather immediately warned that such qualitieis coudl also lead men into "Armors" through "betwitching looks and smiles." The implication is revealing: Puritan women were not imagined as devoid of beauty, charm, intelligence, or sexual influence. Rather, those qualities were expected to be carefully controlled and directed toward godly purposes.

That being said, women were also expected to be teachers. The Geneva Bible also stated, in a note on Deuteronomy 21:18, that 'it is the mother's duty also to instruct her children." That is not a small responsibility. Girls were taught to read the Bible because Puritans placed great value on the accessibility of Scripture. A Puritan mother was expected to help shape the spiritual lives of her children. Her own religious knowledge mattered because she was responsible for passing that knowledge along. The New Testament passage Titus 2:3-5 similarly describes older women as "teachers of honest things" who were to instruct younger women in godly behavior, even while emphasizing their submission to their husbands.

Indeed, some Puritan women earned reputations for extraordinary godliness and learning. Anne Browne Winthrop, mother of Governor John Winthrop, was herself highly educated. She could read Latin and both read and write French, and she took her religious responsibilities seriously, instructing her son and her three daughters. 

But there was another question: Could women speak? Here again, the answer was not as simple as we might expect. One biblical passage often cited to restrict women's religious authority was Paul's statement in 1 Timothy: "I permit not a woman to teach, neither to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." Yet, the Bible also contained passages that could be - and were - read as evidence that women could receive and communicate divine revelation. The prophet Joel wrote that God would pour out his spirit upon his people and that "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." The Book of Acts gives us another example in Philip the Evangelist, who had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. These passages created an interesting tension with Protestant theology.

Women were not necessarily forbidden from speaking about religions. The more complicated question was when, where, and with what authority could they speak? John Robinson, pastor of the congregation that became known as the Pilgrims during their years in Leiden, allowed women to prophesy under certain circumstances. The practice appears to have continued after their arrival at Plymouth. 

But that was not the same thing as giving women equal religious authority with men. This distinction becomes particularly important when we look at women who actually used their education and religious knowledge. Take Anne Bradstreet. She was New England's first published poet. Her collection, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, appeared in London in 1650. The story of how it reached the printer is revealing in itself. Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, took her manuscript to England and arranged its publication - without her consent. His own prefatory letter makes clear that the publication occurred without her knowledge and contrary to her expectations.

Bradstreet's accomplishments were extraordinary. but even an exceptionally educated and talented woman operated in a society in which male authority shaped the boundaries of her public life. Anne Hutchinson's case shows us where the boundaries became much clearere. She wa not merely a literate woman who understood Scripture. She held religious meetings in her home, attracted a substantial following, and open criticized the colony's ministers. In 1637, Governor John Winthrop condemned her meetings as "not tolerable nor comely in the sit of God nor fitting for your sex." The objection was partly about gender: Hutchinson wzs exercising a kind of public religious influence that Massachusetts authorities did not consider appropriate for a woman. But gender was not hte only issue. Hutchinson was also challenging the authority of the colony's religious leadership and claining that she received direct revelation from God. When Hutchinson defended herself by saying that she knew the truth through "an immediate revelation," the court's concern became theological as well as social. Who had the authority to determine what was true, the individual claiming God's direct guidance, or the ministers and magistrates who governed the religious community?

At her subsequent church trial in 1638, Thomas Shepard called her "a most dangerous spirit," accusing her of using her intelligence and eloquence to influence others. The language is revealing. They were not simply objecting to Hutchinson's opinions. They were questioning the source of her authority and the spiritual power behind her influence. We'll go off on a tangent about this topic in a later post.

The case of Anne Hutchinson helps us understand the larger system. The Puritans could believe that women needed to be educated while simultaneously believing that women were subordinate to men. They could exhort a godly woman for her religious knowledge while becoming alarmed when that knowledge gave her influence beyond the household. To modern eyes, these ideas can seem contradictory. To the Puritans, they weren't necessarily contradictory at all.

Education did not exist to create equality. It existed to create what they believed was a godly, ordered society in which every person understood the responsibilities and their place within the larger community hierarchy. Women had responsibilities. They were mothers, wives, daughters, teachers, caretakers, and workers. The women in farming families chopped wood and butchered pigs and chickens. Some women became midwives. Some managed households and businesses. Some became writers whose words survived for centuries. They were neither powerless nor equal. Some women inherited property (the legal way a woman could own property - until they married). And that brings us to an important question: What happened when a woman became a wife? That's where we're going next.

Until next time, keep questioning the past. It usually has receipts.

Notes & Sources

1. The Geneva Bible, notes on Deuteronomy 21:18 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15

2. Cotton Mather, Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, Boston, 1692, pp. 2-3, 12-13 [Link to digitized copy]

3. The Holy Bible, Geneva Version, Joel 2:28

4. The Holy Bible, Acts 21:9

5. The Holy Bible, Titus, 2:3-55

6. John Robinson, The Works of John Robinson, vol. 2, discussion of 1 Corinthians 14 and the practice of prophesying; see also Congretional Library & Archives, "Women and Sermons."

7. Anne Bradstreet, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (London, 1650)

8. John Woodbridge, prefatory letter to The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (London, 1650)

9. Massachusetts Historical Society, Paperw of the Winthrops Family, digital edition, documents relating to the Antinomian Controversy and Anne Hutchinson, 1637-1638.

10. "The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newton 1637" in Charles Francis Adams, ed., Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, pp. 274-276. See also the Massachusetts Historical Society/Colonial Society of Massachusetts editions of the Hutchinson proceedings in the Court. [Link to digitized source]

11. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties, 1641, "Liberties of Women."