Renaissance Feminism LIT ERA Y T EX T S AND POLITIC AL MO DELS

C O NS T AN CE JORDA N

CORN ELL U N IVERSITY PRESS

ITHACA ANU LONDON

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I The Terms of the D ebate

R EN AISSA N C E literature in de fen se of wo men is ro ug hly divisible into two genera l categories. The first is motivated by the claims of society and the sta te against those of the church, and insi sts on the value of familial as against celibate life. The second-overtly feminist­is devot ed to secur ing for wom en a status equal to that of m en .! Most w orks in both categories refute (or try to ) authorities assert ing th e moral w eakness of woman or her onto logical inferiority to man, rehearse proofs of her virtue, and attack mis ogyny. Works in which the status of wome n is the chief su bj ect also criticize the att itudes and pr actices of patriarchy, particular! y paternal gr eed and marital brutality.

Some of thi s literature, such as M ario Equicola's Libra di natu ra d'amore, may be pr op erl y categ orized as humanistic; but in general it is dir ected to a popular aud ience that could read fluently and w ith some appreciation for the main elem ents of a classical m oral culture th at by the six teen th

[T hroug hou t this book I refer to "w o ma n" gen ericall y, as th e com mo n or ideal type. T he practice is genera! th rou ghou t both the literature of defense and misogynist satire: la donna , la femme, and " wo man" or " wo mankind " are terms used to refer to the class of persons who are fem ale and deserve special treatm ent by men. As den oting a type, these rerrns are bot h sus tained and challenged by fem inists; they surv ive part icularly in femi nist discou rse, w here "the wo ma n" acquires heroic (som etim es called "v irile") pr oportions and is endow ed w ith feminine virtues that make her the equa l of ma n in eve ry respect . Ian Ma clean supposes that insofar as w riting on wo men established a co m mon type, it is larg ely conservative; JS a feature of in tellectua l his tory, it is less con troversial th an other kinds of inquiry; and as an index to social practice, it is inconsist en t: The Rmaissallce Notion ofWamllll: .1 Sir/ely ill the For/lilies ofScholasticismand Medica! Science ill European lntellectua! LIfe (Cambridg e: C am brid ge Uni versity Press, I 98o), r. By contrast, 1 thin k , works specifically o f pro tes t, co m mit ted bo th to pro moting and ex ploding the idea of "w oman, " are usually vig orous and heterod ox (if not alwa ys learn ed). and exhib it a diversity of concerns that vary wit h the circumstances of their writers and audiences.

r 2 RENAISS AN CE FEMINISM

centur y alr ead y had a wide representation in contemporary w orks on socia l an d political topics. M any w orks are dedicated to persons of note, as is Francois Billori's L e Fort inexpugnable de l'honneur du sex e f b llinin to Catheri ne de Medicis, but apa rt from treatises defending the righ t of a particular queen to rul e, such as John Aylmer's H arhorowefo r FaithjilII and T rew e S ubj ects, they do not press cases for individual women. T he vari­ous audiences for this literature are difficult to analyze precisely. Be cause certain features of a specifically urban life often seem to provide a focus for a given argum ent, I have generally assumed that th e readership for these w or ks was urban and of the bourgeoisie or " middlin g so rt" rather th an landed and aristo cratic. A few w orks were clearly intended in the first instan ce for royal women-Jean Marot's Doctrinal des princesses, for example, and Vives's De institutio [o em inae christiana e-s-ira : the fact that the y w ere prin ted (and in the case of Vives also trans late d from an ori ginal in Latin) means that they were also perceived as appropriate for a larger an d m ore socially heterogeneous audience. Works th at are pri­marily facetious, such as th e anony mo us X V ]oies de mariayeand E dward Gosynhill 's Scholehouse of Wo men, m ay ha ve had a readership that ex­tended to 'Nage laborers, ar tisans, an d tr adespeople. A mong obviously serious w orks, few appear to be concern ed w ith women w ho are not of the gent ry or nobility. Exceptions are catechisms such as that of C laude Badue1, the Engli sh homilies on obedience and disobedience, an d su ch demonstrably secta rian treatises on marriage as William Gouge 's D omes­tical! D uties. This is not to say th at persons o f lower social status did not read and feel themselves in sympathy w ith the opinions expressed in these w orks, but rather to indicate that th e popularity I earl ier claim ed fo r them did not, I think, extend abso lu tely throughout all social st rata.?

In any case, w hat seems to be m ost frequently at stake is the auton om y of the woman of the urban bourgeoisie within her family, especially with respect to her husband 's more or less absolute authority an d po w er over her. Her au to nomy- the independence w ith which she can m ake and act up on moral and political judgments-or lack of it is always considered as in ext ricably bound up w ith econ omic and especially reprod uctive func­tions that are fulfilled by domesti c activities designed to be perform ed exclusively at home, and by the bearing and nurtu ring of children .3 T he

:21assume that some of the works I shall discuss wer e known by having been read alou d . For a discussion of this kind of literacy. see N atalie Ze mo n Davis, "Printing and the Peop le, " in Society andCHlwre ill Earll' Modern France(Stanfo rd: Stanford Un iversity Press, 1975). 189- 226.

-The degr ee to w hich any person livin g in early mod ern Europe could claim to be "autonomous, " or self-governing, was deter mine d by soc ial circumstances substantiallv different from those that obtain in Western Europe and the United States toda y. Th~ six teenth-cent ury societies whose ideas on sex an d gender arc the subject of this book were

THE T ERM S O F THE D EBATE 1 3

ways in w hich a wo ma n's exerc ise o f her own wi ll is m ost fre qu ently anal yzed suggest th at th ese writers confron ted a co m m on social pr ob­lem: th e wom an w ho had lost the o ppo rtuni ty to make deci sions for hers elf or her fam ily, espec ially dec isio ns th at co nce rned the managemen t of property. A s she emerges fr om the pag es of these treatises, the typ ical wom an almost always appears to be a pe rson who is menaced by a kind of red unda ncy. She is shown as havin g to respond ill one of tw o w ays . Either she is to rea.ffirm th e va lue of her duties as her husband's subordi­nate or she must reje ct the g ro unds upon which sh e has been assigned he r role and disco ve r others th at p ro vide her wi th grea te r scope .

In the fir st instance , she is to agr ee to keep bu sy, to take seri ou sly he r househ old tasks, how ev er menial and in certain cases symbolic (as w hen dau ghters of rich gen try are required to spin to take up time), and ne ver to refuse to perform her hu sband' s o rde rs except in th e most ex trao rdi­nar y of m oral circums tan ces. Whatever opportunities for autonom y she ma y ha ve are represented as occasions in w hich to honor the o blig atio ns th at aris e from the complementarity of duties assigned to m en and wom en in marriage. H ere th e vir tue of w oma n is real , deserves respect, and so fo rt h , but it is alw ays anc illary to that of m an.

In the second instan ce, she is to reject th e principal features of pa­tri archy, often by way of a historicist cri tiq ue. In light of co n tem po rary circumstances, i t is argued, women ough t to be allowed to do more th an th ey did in th e past , especi ally if that past is biblical. Write rs propose gr ea ter de gr ees of au tono my for th e wife vis-a -vis her husband; th ey va lorize qualities th ou ght to be chara cteristically femin ine, particularly th ose that com e into pla y in th e public arena. At its most theoretical, their pr otest rec ognizes th e sys tematic nature of patr iarch y and envisages a soc iety struc tured alo ng fairer lin es in w hi ch an acknowledgment of sex ua l di fference does no t serve as the foundati on for political distinc­tions. O nce educa ted, wo men are to be considered capable of exe rcising both domesti cally and publi cly the kinds of virtue conventionally as­signed to males: justi ce, fortitude, pruden ce . M en, for their part, are to

organized ro provide their citizenry with a highly de termined sense of "place" or "office," ro whose requirem en ts specific kinds of behavior , designated as social dut ies, were ro be mod eled. Despite presc ribed lim its to most activities, however, there was for Christians a contin uous if also am biguo us challenge to honor d ivine law, w hich mi ght mean to act in ways contrary ro social duties or, to pu t the mat ter positively, in response to moral or spiritual duties. The tension between these two for ms ofob ligation is regi stered through­out the poli tical literature of the period. O ften acute w hen the du ties of wives and daughters are at issue, it is examined extensively thr oughout th is book. Fo r a br ief su rvey of the idea of "place" or "o ffice" as it applied to women in this per iod , see Shulamith Shahar, The Fourth Estate: A Hi.,tory oj Women in the Middle Ages (London and N ew York: Methuen , 1983), r-ro.

THE TERM~ OF THE D EBAT E T5

tions on women no t also balanced by a cou ntervailing Increa se in their freedo ms?

Ka thleen Cas ey has pointed ou t that the social. political. and eco no m ic: pow er of medieval wo men of feudal rank depenJ eJ upon the assum J?­tiori , un stated and certa inly un written, that th ey w ould not abu se it: "If feudal society oft en d,o;rogJted [rom its o wn rules w here t~l1lil y interest wa s at stake, so th at som e wom en of feud al rank exercised in fact powers that we re denied th em in law, it W;:J S because m ost of them, like th eir mal e relau vcs, could be trusted not to alter conven tional political ohjcetives."6 In other w ords. it w as expected that dynastic interests-expressive, as they were, of the int erests of th e nobilit y and gen try at large-would transcend in im porta nce all o the r interests, in cludin g those that had to do with wo men as a group. So me of the mo tivat ion for denying Renaissance wome n authority and power m ay the refo re have been a functi on of a newly acquired ability to articulat e interests th at w ere not dynastic and in line with their duties as w ives and mothers . It w omen could imagine a vital diff erence bet w een th eir interests and those of men, if they could sec that oppo rtunities CO achieve politi cal (in contras t to domestic ) vir tue ought not to be granted to the m in exceptional circumstances but rather as J. matter of course , the y clearly threatened the status quo , Were wome n to be identified as an underprivileged gro up irrespective of rank , rho justice of patriarchy might be called in question ; a basis fo r a thorough reorgani zat ion of society might be imagined , if not im media tely, at least at some future time, These were perceptions both cre ating and created by contem porary fem ini st protest. Literature defending w om en m ay there­fore need to be subjected to a double interpretation: feminis t protest

E urope an H istory, cri Re na te Briden rha l and C lau d ia Ko onz (Bos to n: H o ug h ton Mifliin , (977), I\lz- z !6; Kathleen Cas ey, "The C heshire Cat: Reco ns tructing the Ex perience of Me dieval Women, " in LihcrmillJ! l·HlIlI<l II '.' Hi story: Th eoretical aud C ritical Essa)'s, cd , Be­renic e A. Ca rroll (U rb ana: U niversit y o f Illi no is Press, 1970) , 224-1,49 : Mi ch ,1CI Mit­eerauer Jnd Reinh ard Seider, Tile European FilIll il)': Pilirill l"rh )' ami PonnersuipJiW II IIl f Middle .,-\gcs ill fhe P, m :1lI (C hicag o: University of C hicago Press. 19S-t): l.ilh an S. Robinson , " Wo m en und er Ca pitalism: T he Renaissan ce Lady," in Sex , CI,Jl'S , (1IHI Culture (B lo o m ­ing to n : Indiana University Press, 19R7). 150- 77. For a th eoreti cal overview in cludin g all ana lysis o f w o m en in m ode rn capiralis m , see H eidi H art mann, " C apitalism . Patr iar ch y, an d Job Segregat ion by Sex, " in Tile SigHS Reader, eel. Abel and Abel, 193-2 25. O n th e cities of norrhern Europe, see M artha C . Howell, WOlll el/, Production, ,w d J'ntrior,iT)' ill Late M ediev al C ities (C hicago: U n ive rs ity of Ch icag o P ress, 19S7): fo r an Eng lish case, see Mary Pr ior. "Women and the U rban Econom y : Oxford , ! ,00-1 800 , H in WO l1le ll ill Enol ish Socie'!}', 1500-.1800 , ed. Mary Prior (London and New York: Methuen, r98s), <)3-r r7: fu r a study of urban women 11l Tuscan y, see Judi th C. Br o w n, "P: Wom an 's Place Was in the Hom e: Women's Wurk in Renaissance Tuscany," in Rell'ri l il1,J! the Renaissance: The DI~I­

course, oj'SE.n llll Difference in Earl>, Modrrn Europe, cd . MargJret W. Ferg uson, Ma urecn Quil ligan . an d Na nc y V ickers (Chicago: Unive rsity of Chicago Press. r086). 206-44.

6C asc y, "C heshi re Cat, .. 2 3 l

16 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

records poverty, abuse, humiliation; it also testines to some degre literacy, education, leisure time-ill sh ort, the m eans by which to spend EO th e challenge o f reform.

The possibility returns liS to Joan Kell y 's seminal essay, "Did Wor H ave a Renaissance?" itself a reply to the prevailing opinion that II experience was like th at of men, an o pin io n traceable to Jakob Bur hardt's thesis that the Renaissance w as a period o f universal bettcrmei Kell y 's case is suppo rted by evidence from eco no m ic and legal histc Although practices var ied considerably according to time and place, m ost cases it appears that wi th the development of more co rnplica economic relations, women were given progressively less legal cont over property they o wned outright or jointly with a spouse, In her css on the lo ss of status for w o men in this period, Susan Mosher Stua w rites that the creation of a commercial economy altered the function leg al documents effe cting th e tr ansfer of property, Will s, and simi) instruments " w hose original purposes were to p rovide inter- or intr famili al systems of exchange, became th e formalized instruments commerce , banking and trade, in other words , devices for the transrni sian of business capital." This change was part of a larger econom transformation: with th e development of ' ';111 in cre asin gly elaborate bi rcaucratic structure whose rationalized rel ationships might be define with precision, " w o m en w ere "d efined o ut of positions of prominent and authority."8 They were at a greater disadvantage in cases of intei regional commerce, where their bu sin esses went beyond the limits of th com m unities in which they worked."

These developments presumably had th e greatest effects on women ir the hi gher ranks of society, w ho had substantial am ou nts of property ir their families , either owned in common with a spo use or in the form of: dowry. In various ways, th e conditions of women of lower ranks wert also altered. The thesis of Alice Clark 's classic study of working women in sev enteenth-century England-that their economic position deterio­rated with the advent of w age labor and industrializa tion-is still held to be largely valid .!" T he contributions of more recent historians ha ve

7Joan Kelly, " Did Wo men Ha ve a Renaissance ?" 111 Becomitlg Visibl«, ed . Bridcnth al and KOOllZ, t 37- 04. For Burckhardt see The C iviu ssation o] tlir Renaissance in Italy. trans . S. C; . C. Middlcrnorc (New York : Rand om H ou se. 19 54) , 292-96.

RSusan M osh er Stu ard , " D id Women Lose Statu s in Late M edieval ,111d Early M odern Times; " in Resturing Womell 10 Historv: Malaial sjilr 1+i?.<I Wt Civiiicntio», ed . Elizabeth Fox­G enov ese and Susan Mosher Stuard (Fund fo r th e Improvement of Post-Seconda ry Edu­cation ,1n d rhe Lilly Endowment, n .p., u.d.), t :J ~ o. 1 8~ .

"See esp. Ho well, WOIII CII, Productio», and Pow-i,mil)'. [7 ,1-8.1 . 1l)Alicc C lark, r·[lorkillg L :r~ 'l j WOll/ en ill /he Seventeenth C m tll l )' (LonJ un: Frank C uss,

1~)l 9; Ne w York: Reprints vf Economic Classics, 1\)68).

17 THE TERMS OF THE DEBA TE

modified it in some details; further adjustm ents need to be made if sixteen th-centur y w om en are under consideration. Roberta Hamilton argues that capitalism . not industrialization, was the factor that precipi­tated change in the status of women , whether of the peasantry, the mi ddling sort, or the gentry. I I Chris M iddleton describes the relevant form of capitalism as preindustrial (i. e., characteristic of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), with w ork going on "in the producer's own hom e through var ious forms of the putting-out system. "12 Women then effec­tively worked two jobs: one for which they were paid plus a second incumbent upon th em as women. They were continually employed, according to David Levine: "In addition to her normal chores [i.e., housekeeping, gardening, keeping livestock], the wife of a protoin­dustrialist or farm laborer was also expected to earn her wages."13 She might be more or less highl y train ed . By studying records of apprentices, K. D. M . Snell presents star tlin g evidence of very widespread employ­ment by women in all kinds of skilled trades-a fact that must have enhanced rather than restricted their economic status .!" But as N atalie Zeman Davis notes, "female wage-earners," who formed a large part of the preindustrial econom y, made up, "together with unskilled males, a kind of preproletariat. " 15 In any case, much of the working activities of skilled women did not apparently show up in records other than those of apprenticeships. M ich ael R ober ts writes that w hile even unem ployed men were identified by a trade in contemporary documents, women who practiced a trade were listed simply as a member of the h ouseh old of their next male kin. 16 And in fact Clark's principal point-that with capitaliza­tion came a division betw een work done by men and women for an employer (whether inside or outside the home, whether paid by piece or by a w age) and domestic work done by women, a division roughly translated as one between production and consumption-s-finds consis­tent corroboration in sixteenth-century manuals of household govern­

11 Roberta Hamilton, The Liberation of Women: A Study of Patriarch y and Capitalism (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978), 18.

12Chris Middleton, "Women's Labour and the Transition to Pre-Industrial Capitalism," in Womerl and Work in Pre-Industrial Britain, ed. Lindsey Charles and Lorna Duffin (London: Croom Helm , 1985), 184.

13D;)\'id Levine, Family Formation in an Age oj Nascent Capitalism (New York: Academic Press. 1977), 12, 13·

14K. D. M . Snell, Annals ofthe Labouring Poor: Social Chanoe and Agrarian Ellglarid, 1660­

1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge Un iversity Press, 1985),270-314. 15Natalie Zeman Davis, "'Women's History' in Transition: The European Case,"

Feminist Studies 3, 3/4 (1976): 86. 16Michae1 Roberts, "'Words They Are Women, and Deeds They Are Men': Images of

Work and Gender in Early Modern England, " in Women and f}ork ill Pre-Industria! England, cd. Charles and Duffin, 138-40.

1 8 REN AISSAN C E FEMINIS M

ment. There w ives are regul arly scolded for leaving the ho use and con­sum ing too much of what their husbands bring in. Their own domestic labo r is routinely discou nt ed, a fact that feminists no te and deplore. While their literar y pr ote sts probably found few readers among w age­earni ng persons, treatises do in fact mention women working on farms or ill workshops . O n the whole, th ey claim tha t althou gh women do the same work that m en do or comparable wo rk, it is invariably judged to be wort h less.

For Burckhardt 's thesis there is no comparable evidence . To substanti­ate it , one has to assume tha t in so me ways, at least, men and women we re equally affected by the intellectual vigor and the artistic achieve­ment that characterized Renaissance culture. 17 In two important respects, however-education and literacy-the record sug gests th at women did not even come near to matching th e achi evements ofthe men of the same rank mu ch befor e th e end of th e sevent eent h cent ury. 18 Feminists reg­ularly complain about th e lack of education for wome n . We are almost for ced to conclude that the Burckhardtian view of Ren aissance women wa s wron g. In any case, fem inist argument is writ ten and published largely in resp onse to a per ception tha t w om en were tre ated unjustly, though one ma y also note that th e per cept ion of injustice in itself indi­cates a kind of freedom.

Int erpreting fem inist tex ts presen ts other challenges. Despite the po­lemical nature of the debate on women, many texts cannot be charac­terized as simply for or agains t women . Treatises os tensibly defe nding women are sometimes ambiguous because th eir int ention is in fact tw o­

\7 As Joan Kelly remarks: "O n th e one hand , aristocratic wo men lost considerable economic , political, and cul tural power in relati on not only to th eir feudal foreb ear s bu t to men of their OWI1 class. O n the o ther hand , a new class of wome n w as created accordin g to a new gender cons tru ctio n of the do mestic lady. The content s of earl y feminist th eory reflec t th e declin in g power o f wo men of rank and the enforced domesti cati on of m iddle­class w omen . Yet it owes irs ve ry being to new po w ers o f education th at som e of th e w om en had at their com ma nd ": "Early f em inist Theory and the Q llerelle dcs je mm es," in W01ll W , History, 411d Th eory: Th e E ssays o. f Joall Kelly (C hic ago: U niversity o f C hic ago Pre ss, 1986), 67 . S<'<: ~ lso Je an Porterner: "T hat th e tr adi tion en fo rcin g th e dep endence of w ome n wa s m ad e more ex igent eve rythi ng go<:s to prove: the schedules o f notaries and the recor ds o f arrests , me moircs , d ram a. and fic tion. T ha t th e 111 overncnt [o r the liberation o f woman ha d a d irect an d unique influ en ce on ev en ts is also beyond any dou bt, at least in a highly d iscree t bu t very important area (because it concerned no t only th e present bur th e fu ture and guaran teed furthe r develop me nt); the ar ea of edu cati on" ; "Le Statut de la femme en fran ce de pu is la reformation des cou rumes jusqu 'a la reda ction du cod e civil. " in L" Femme, Recucils de la soci ete Je an Bodin, vol. !2 (Paris, n .d. ), 470-71 .

1 8D~vid C ressy, Li tem<y (HId the Socia! O rder: Re'1ding and Writillg jlJ Tudor and Stuart t;"nglmJ(/ (Ca mbridg e: Ca m bridge Universit y Press. T9Ro), I J 2 , UI1-29. The n umber of wom en w ho are rep resented in literature" ' lead ing and w ritin g and the num be r of w orks sig n r: c1 hy w om en in r t~l y during this period su ggest chat lit erate women w ere much COl1l ,1\ 0 11e r there rhan Tlorth of the Al ps.

TH E T ERM S OF T H E D EBAT E 19

fold and to a degree cont radicto ry. T hey are desig ned bo th to praise and to bla me w o men, to allow them a dignified and honored place in society w hile at the same time demo ns trating that this place is ben eath tha t of men, and to make att ractive to w omen th eir (new) role as social su bordi­nates by stressin g its basis in divine and natu ral law. In a more general way, this lit erature is intended to guarantee that th e authority of men is unquestioned by ant icipa ting and coming to terms w ith certain kinds of disaffect ion among bo th men and women. It att empts to make acceptable th e tr adit io nal (and probably reemphasized) subord ination of women, both by extoll ing the virt ues required by househ old govern ment (like n­ing them to th e civic virtues needed by men) and by seve rely circum­scribing the actual activities in w hich th ese virtues are to be brought in to play. On the o ther hand, dr amati cally misogynist literature can have :.1

fem inist dim ension; by depict ing women as forceful rebels , it can convey their capa city to think and to act. Here I do not mea n to underestimate literary mis ogyny as a means of perpetua tin g patriarchal privilege, bu t rather to point to a w ay in which it can become self-co ntradictory.

A m ore critical sen se in w hich thi s litera tur e defies categorization is with respe ct to the sex of its authors. Were it to submit to an ana lys is ofits arg umen ts by refe ren ce to aut horial sex, a reade r could safely insist on an int erp retation that takes th is in to account. Bur. in fact the sex (stated or implied) ofan aut ho r ap pears to have no clear or consistent relation to the op inio ns of men and w ome n ex pressed. (It is not even po ssible always to be certain of th e author 's sex . Treatises signed by men ma y have been written by women and vi ce versa. Even w hen the aut ho r of a work is w ell known , some form of collaboration cannot be rul ed out.) While it is usually possible to determine whether or not a text p resents a wom an 's point view, alth ough the determination ma y be am biguous in ways I have suggested, there are 110 clear indications tha t men and women to ok uni quely distin ct per spectives on fem inis t questions. Their disco urse is typ ically conducted along philosophical and po litical lines, concerned w ith right s, obligations, and duties, with relati ons conceived almos t as abstractions. The personal experience of women becomes a feature of th eir argument s on two topics chiefly: first , rape; and second, woman 's w ork, because it is either und erp aid or unpaid. On such subjects , treatises signed by men often repr esent th e feminist case th e more strongly, because they dir ectly eng age its legal and economic aspects. Treatises signed by women differ only (although not consistently) in sho w ing no enthusiasm for m arriage; their cri ticisms of th e ma rried sta te are fre­quen tly expressed in ut opian visions of a purely fem ale soci ety.

The subject of men in fem inism , or ma le feminis ts, not ne v to twen­tieth-century critic ism , m ay w ell have been a novelty in the Renaissance.

-.

-.

2 0 R EN A ISSA N C E FE M I N ISM

Step hen H eath, focusing on the p osition of the m ale femi nist tod ay, has argued that men cannot be fem inis ts in the fullest sense: "no m atter how 'sincere,' 'sym pathetic' o r wha tever, we are always also in a ma le posi tion which brings with it all the implications of dominatio n and app rop ria­non , everyth ing pr ecisely that is bein g challenged, that has to be al­tered ." 19 This do es not m ean, H eath lat er says, that men cannot actively su pport a fem inist po sition, Or th at-and this po in t is germane to our underst an ding of Ren aissan ce femi nis m-such a discrimi natio n between th e ma le an d fem ale feminist is free from historical determinants. Heath poi n ts out that John Stu art Mill's Subjection of Women exemplifies th e w o rk ofa m an w ho interp reted his cult ure from a woman's poin t of view in a period w hen such interpreta tions could rest largely on im personal factors . So much the more, 1 would then ag ree, does th e feminism of an Ag rippa of Nettesh eim or a William Heale demons trate a validity quite ind ependent of the personal experien ce of \ VOmCll-J vali dity acq uired through the rela ti ve cogency of abs trac t argume nts.

But it is also th e case that some Ren aissance tr eatises sig ned by men express fem inist opinions based on a sy mpa thetic ide ntifi cation with th e " female posi tion," a fact that m ay distinguish Rena issance from later femin isms. The co m ments of su ch w riters sugges t that in the position of woman as the quin tesse n tial subject-that is, as politically subordina te , economically dependent, and legally in capacitated-m an y Re naissance men saw reflected aspects of their own so cial situa tio ns. For w ha tever his rank, a man of thi s period would have been oblige d to contend wi th th e effec ts of a soc ial hie ra rchy. The m ore rigo rous h is experien ce of subor­dination and its con sequ ent disem powerment, the m ore his "m ale posi­tion " would have resembled that o f the " fem ale." His maleness and ma sculinity were therefore suscep tible to a degree of qu alification quite alien to th e exp erien ce of men in less stra tified societies.F?

This dou ble position in g of the man may account fo r the emphasis that ma n y Renaissanc e feminists plac ed on androgyn y. Beyond sex an d sex­ual diffe rence, and more im portan t th an anyt hing th ey de ter mi ne, Re­

19Stephen He ath , "M ale Femini sm , ,. in M en iI/ Feminism, ed . Alice Jard ine and Paul Sm ith (N ew York and London: Me thuen , 191\7), I .

20 lt is ent irely ap propriate tha t fem inists insist on the primacy of sex ove r class; for the criticism of M arxist views of th e op pression of women, see , i.a., Ro salind Coward , Patriarchal Precedents: Se xuali ty and S ocial Relations (London : Routled ge & Kegan Paul, [983 ), and Shu larnith Firesto ne's seminal study. Th e D ialectic o.fSe x : T he Cas e jor Feminist Revo lu tion (N ew York: Morro w. 1970). Yet the qu estion Renaissanc e feminism asks­"Wha t is sex-specifically in contrast to gender?" -finds an answ er th at challenges cr itics who. like He ath. circumscribe the fem inism of co ntem po rary me n by pointi ng to their inability to experience life as a w oman . W hile m en obviously cann ot be fem ale, th ey can experience ma ny of the effec ts of behav ing in a fem inine ma nner.

THE T ER M S OF THF. DF.R ATE 2 I

naissance feminists represent men and wo men as sharing gende red at­tributes, particularly with respect to the w ork they do: both labor and often at th e same tasks. Ad mi ttedly, femini sts acknowledge experiences in which phys iology is determina tive: m othe rs who nurse children be­have in acco rdance w ith th eir nature as fema les , altho ug h not necessarily in response to a fem inine disposit ion; men engage in hard labor for long periods because they are na turally strong, altho ug h ph ysical work is not an inherently mas culine activ ity. Wh at is stressed overall, however, is the decisive part played by a com m on and essentially human experience­always seen in this period in a dialectical tension with authorit y no matter wha t the subj ect-in testing and overcoming rigid categorizations of gender that are based on sexual difference.

DO CT RI NE

Scripture

The rhetor ical and phil osophical terms of th e Renaissance debate on wo men are dr awn initially fro m relig ious and philosoph ical discourse conce rn ing the virtue appro priate to particular categ ories of persons . T hey become contentious w hen femin ists reinterpret autho rita­tive texts in order to challenge the concept of virtue as sex- and gend er­specific. Contemporary social mores w ere based on the assumption that a person 's virtu e wa s to be assessed by reference not to a presumed individ­ualism bu t rather to the idea of socie ty as a "corporation ."21A person wa s known largel y by th e o ffice in life to w hich he had been called by God; his value or wo rt h was a reflection of the importance o f that o ffice and also of how well he filled it . Q uestions of virtu e th us inevi tably allude to a social hierarchy that was generally accepted as a reflecti on of the hierarchy of creation, an order in nature or of nature , instituted not fo rt uitously but pr ovid entially, an d therefore not subject to alteration by human beings. An d beca use the hierarchy of creation was instituted pr ovidentially, it had a historical dimension ; it was to be perceived as un folding in time , as th e scene upon w hich was played the histories o f individual and collective

21Ha rold j. Berman POi l1CS out thar jcrisdictional limicarions on autho rity and power in the Middle Ages w ere conce ived in terms appli cable to the state as a "co rpo ration ," a term (1IIIil'ersi tas; also covpus or co/legi/!lII) deri ved from Ju stinian: Law and Revolution: The Formation ofthe Westem L egal Tradition (C am bridge: Harvard University Press, 198 3), 215 . See also Ernst I-I. Kanro rowicz, The King's 71110 Bodies: A. Studv hi Medieval Political Theolog y (Princeton: Princeton Un ive rsity Press, (98 1), 193-232 , on the " m ystical bod ies" of church and state .

2 2 RE, ' AISSAN CE FEMI NISM

salva tion. T he o rder of na tur e wa s thus also an order in and ofhistory and historical time.

In thi s or der the office of woma n was w hat God had made it at the time of C reation according to Genesis 2 and 3. God makes woman because "it is not good that man shou ld be alone ," he needs a "helper"; and God instructs wo man th at her " husband shall ru le" over her. Because w oma n was initially ma de from the side of man to be his helper, and afterward, in her pos tlapsarian state, ordered to be his subject, she wa s do ubly under­privileged. T he manner ofher creation revea led her ontological inferiority, her punishment after the loss of paradise her political subordination in historical time. Both limitations are features of patriarchalism and the gross distinction between the worth of men-in-themselves and women­in- thems elves,

Woman had, however, an earlie r creation, which in effect gave her another nature and stat us that in the course of sixteenth-century deb ate came to affect the conditions of her office as they were conceived of in theory. In Genesis I, she, like man, was created in the image ofGod, and in this respect she was not different from him. This creatio n story is frequent Iy adduced as evid en ce of woman's spiritual equality w ith man, or, as Erasm us puts it, her "equality as a me m ber [wi th man] of Chris t." The spiritual sameness of man and w oman stan ds bo th in opposition to and as a complement of their political difference, just as the orde r of grace , the scene ofspiritual struggle, is bo th op posed to and com plemen­tary of the order of nature an d historical time in w hich the soc ial and pol itical effects of spiri tual st ruggle are manifest .

The French historian Jean D auvi llier finds the effects of w hat might be called a woman's dou ble nature registered in the church 's early teachin g on ma rriage and on the position of women in the church . "Christianity established the rule of marriage , a rule that covered a collection of rights and reciprocal duties. The rule is complex , becaus e, w ith respect ro conj uga l life, it insists on relations of equality between spouses; bu t with respect to the socie ty of the fami ly that the spouses constitute , it estab­lishes relations of inequ alit y, founded on the husband's rig ht to govern the fam ily." By the same line of reasoning, women are prevented from holding pos itio ns of authori ty over men within the church : "T herefore, 'while honor ing the spirit ual equality [of men and women], the hier­archies of natur e impose a certain inferiority upon the woman vis-a- is the man and, in the st ructure of the fami ly, of the wife vis-a-vis her husband .. .. She is removed from every function tha t would give her authority over a man. "22 A woman therefore acquires a twofold sense of

2~ieJ n Dauviliier, Les Temps apostoliques (Paris: Sirey, [970), 408, 418.

23 THE TE RMS O F T H E D EBATE

her own identity and w orth as a human being . As one who possesses an immortal soul, she is the equal of m an and sus ceptibl e to th e same salvation and damnation ; as one w ho lives in this wo rld, she is always his inferior and his subord inate. In th e langu age of Renaissan ce political th ought, she is a p ersona niixta: her natu ral and political self balan ced by her spiritual self. 2 3

As such, she posed a considerable pr oblem to m oralists. H ow is she to

be judged by the same m oral stan dard as her male su pe rior s? And if she is a political subordinate, can she be blamed for w hat goes wrong? Tradi­tional ists tended to an swer the first qu esti on by insi sting th at w oman needed more hel p in the process of salvation th an ma n did; she stood in gr eater need of g race . They answered th e seco nd by arg uing th at the w orld 's ev il aro se and con tinues to deri ve from th e disob edience of woman to her su peri or, man ; she is blamew orthy only in that she fails to fulfill her sup erior's orders. (H e of co urse ma y be blamed for choosing th e wrong course fo r her to follow.) Both ans wers fueled femin ist re­sponses and throughout the sixteenth century the significance of wom­an 's double nature remained cru cial to defenses of her virtue and of her right to autono my, especially in activities in th e public arena.

The com plexity of w oman's natur e recalls features of the typical sub­ject in contempo rar y political th ou ght. Throughout th e R enais san ce the

: political sta tus of the woman vis-a -vis the male head of the fami ly and of th e subject vis- ii-vis the ma gistr ate are comparable; th ou gh th e ways in which th e domestic and civic forms of go vernment are im agined ob­viously di ffer, they are frequently discussed in similar terms. Gordon Schochet has des crib ed Rena issanc e patriarchal theory (par tic ularly in Sir

23T he concept of wo man as a creat ure with tw o personae and therefo re tw o w ays of resp ond ing to experien ce is cent ral to all discussions of her st atus in this peri od. The exten t to wh ich she co uld claim an equality with man on the basis of her first crea tion was first a m att er of theolo gical de bate . Ian Maclean notes th at for both A ugusrine and Aquinas sh e mirror ed di vinit y on ly by virt ue of grace, w hich had endowed her with int ell ige nce; in oth er respe cts she mi rrors, and hence is second ary to, m an. See Renaissance No tion of fHmletl, r 3-14. and also , on the questio n ofequa lity, 2 0 . For all apol og etic view of patr istic com mentary on the equalit y of ma n an d w oman. see Jo An n McNa mara, "Sexual Eq ualit y and the C ult of Virginity in Earl y Ch ristian T hou ght, " Feminist S tudies 3 (1976): 145-5 8. For a good analysis ofall relevant doctrin e see Eleanor Com ma M cLoug hlin , " Equality o f Soul s, Inequ ality of Sexes: Woma n in M edieval Theol ogy, " in Relioion alia Sexism: Images of WOn/eli ill the J ewish and Christian Traditions, cd . Ro semary K. Rueth er (N ew Yo rk : Touchs tone, 1974), esp. 215-21. For an acute readin g of Gen. 1-3 and their patrist ic, med ieval. and Renaissan ce glosses, see Jam es G rantham Tu rn er, a ile Fiesl) : Paradisal Marriaoe and Sexual Relations ill the Age aJMilton (Oxford: Clarendon, T987), esp. 1-95. Turner poi nt s o ur how various were the wa ys in wh ich Genesi s and related passJges in th e Paulme epistles mIgh t be Interprered. For persons no t trained ill rheo1og v howeve rI texts we re un derstOod dlr ecrly to support the domestic d 1'· 1" b . f: lese wom en. an po ltIea su or d ina tio n o f

24 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

Robert Filmer's Patriarchia) as deriving all legal authorit y from the "di­vinel y ordained fatherly po wer of Adam"; the political obligations thus created hav e a "geneticjustification, for [they are defended by] the duty to ob ey in terms of the very origins of political society. " The authority of the father is therefore at one w ith the authority of the magistrate; paternal authority is also political authority. For proponents of constitutional forms of govern men t, the cru cial question to ask of patriarchalisrn wa s whether persons "w ho were naturally subjected to the authority of their fathers could nevertheless be politically free enough to establish their own govern ments ."24 In other words , whether a familial and domestic obe­dience absolutely ruled ou t the possibility of autonomy in the public arena; whether, in effect, citizens were always children w ith resp ect to the authority of the ma gistrate. Constitutionalist thought had denied th e j ustice of this political infantilism by deriving from th e subject'S primary obligat ion to obey God his right and duty to resist w hat his conscienc e determined w as an unlawful order. In this per spe ctive all persons are equ al by virtue of their conscience and their potential for salvation. Their spiritual condition-like that ofwoman-is gu aranteed by th eir creation in God's image before the institution of household or civil govern­

2 S ment. Common to both th e purely political and the specifically antifeminist

forms of patriarchalism is an acceptance of w hat Schochet calls the " teleological doctrine, " an "acceptance of the genetic proposition that origins det ermine development" (I I ). Teleological doctrine is far easier to j ustify in the case ofw oman than in that of the political subject, as it ha s ample scr iptural authority in Genesis 2 and 3, and virtually no precedents to the contrary are to be found in w hat passe s for historical record in this period. In thi s respect, feminists had a harder case to press than did constitutionalists . As Schochet points out, the political issue did not include a dispute as to whether the father had th e power of go vernance within the family [and therefore spe cifically the husband of the wife], but rather "whether th e rights of monarchs could be inferred from this po wer" (14). On the other hand, the ackn owledged differences between domestic and civic patriarchalism were perceiv ed to be favorable to

feminist protest. The autho rity and power of fathers and particul arl y of

.?A Gordon Scho chet, Patriarchalism ill Political T houoht (New Yor k: Basic Books, 1975), I ,

7· ~3Th e sign ificance of conscience to rhe po litica l beh avio r o f a C h ristian has a lon g

devel opment. It beco mes a politi cal issue w ith the Reformation. For an analy tic survey of the conce pr oCa C hris tian con science in Reformation poli tics, see Q uen tin Skinne r, "The Principl es o f Lutheranism ," in T he Foundations of Modern Political T ltouoh t, vo l. 2 (C am ­brid ge : C ambridg e Universit y Pre ss, 1978), esp. [2- [9.

25 T HE TER v,1S O F TH E D EBATE

.- Ji- husbands w as alw ays bo und by divine exa mple. T heir duty, insc ribed in -.C1S Scriptur e and invoked frequent ly in both learned and popular doctrine, to wa s to love th eir dependents, A com parable circumsc ription o f monar­) f chic pow er had much less subs tan tiation. Scriptural references to such <11 power were subject to w ide interpretation: a m onarch was to be to his .JI people as a shepherd to his she ep ; but should his care become lax or 1S abusive, it w as possible to argue, as absolutists such as James I actually nr did, tha t such a govern ment neverthel ess cont inued to be legitim ated by

divine law. Beyo nd tele ological doctrine and ethical imperatives, the use of scrip­

He tural author ity to justify m an's auth ority and pow er ov er woman, par­ticularl y in m arri age, is vas t, and needs to be noted (if on ly cursorily)

_-,c because it reveal s the scope of w hat feminist writers had to chall enge. To C hristians w ho read Scriptu re, the Pau line epistles establish for all pract i­cal purposes th e nature of C hristian marriage, and wi th it the nature of wom an. Paul bases his views on marriage on C hrist 's claims for those w ho are eunuchs fo r the kingdo m of heaven (Ma tt . 19:ro-1 2), and in effect creates a m oral hierarchy in which celibacy is preferred alth ough m arried fidelity is perm issible (1 C or. 7, especially 7- 9.) A wife provides a licit quenc hing for th e man w ho burns, bu t the pri ce he pays for th is solace is th at he thinks about his w ife rath er th an about th e kin gdom of heaven (1 C or. T32- 33). The op position here bet ween flesh and spirit is un compromi sin g and it is not surprisin g that woma n, w ho ins tances m an's fleshliness, is ordered to rem ain in subj ection . Ma n is both the head to her bod y and also, as C hrist is to his chur ch, a fIgure of the eternal in relation to her as an image of the faithful on earth . Paul directs no m ore emphatic me ssage specifically to w o m an than th at she is to be sub ordi­nate to and silent before man (1 C or. II :3, 8; 14:34-35; Eph, 5:22; C o!. 3:18; 1 Ti m . 2:II ; 1 Pet. 3:1)-a po litical cond ition tha t, like that of th e subject as child , is genetic in ori gin : "I suffer not a wom an to teach, nor to

usu rp authority over th e man, but to be in silen ce, For Adam was fir st formed, then Eve. And Adam wa s not deceived but the w oman being deceived was in the transgression " (1 Ti m . 2:12-14). This associati ve logi c links the pro hibition against speech w ith an originary mi suse of langu age; as a w ho le the passage im plies that the spiritual persona of wom an is inherently defective, that the ima ge of God is seen less clearly in her th an in man (a point Augustine and Aquinas later made explicit), Elsewhere in th e Paul ine epistle s the spiritual equality of the sexes is asserted: " there is neithe r male nor fem ale: for ye are all one in C hrist Jes us" (Gal. 3:28). This idea Seems to have an echo in the doctrine estab lishing a mutual sharing ofbodies : "T he wife hath not pow er ofher own body but the husband: and likewise also th e husband hath not power

2 6 RENAI SSANCE FEMINISM

of his own body, but the wife" (I Cor. 7:4). Yet the "honor" owed to w om an is "as unto the w eaker vessel" (I Pet. 3:7), and th e love the man owe s th e w oma n is as Christ's for his church , fro m superior to inferior.

The principal Latin Fathers of the earl y church were virt ually unan­imous in their ag reem ent with Paul. The notion that celibacy is better than m arried fidelity is regarded as absolut ely unexceptionable and, moreo ver, is further justified by the certainty that the times are ap ocalyp­tic. Observing th at the civilized w o rld is everywhere overrun by barbar­ians, J erome perceives th at the end of the age is at hand and the injunction "Be fruitful and multiply" no longer cbtains.v" Augustine, apolo gizing for m arriage , declares th at continence is better; it ma y even hasten th e highly desirable end of the world, which, if "all abstained, " would come within a generation.F? Even if thi s were not so, the case for asso ciating w ith woman is usually described as a w eak one . As Jerome claims, the history of the gentiles shows th at w oma n is responsible for the world's evil: "In all th e bombast of tragedy and the overthrow of houses, cities, and kingdoms, it is th e wives and concubines w ho stir up strife. " 28 And Tertullian , making the existen ce of woman a perpetual sign of human error, sees in the original sin of Eve the cause not only of her political subord ina tion and obligatory silence but also of a cont inuing guilt . Woman must attem p t to "expiate that which she derives from Eve-the ignominy ... of the first sin ... . Do you not know [he asks] that you are [each J an Eve ? The sentence of God on thi s sex of your s liv es in this age: the guilt must of necessit y live too. You are the devil's gateway. " 29 Such theological opinions demonstrate how teleological doctrine-that by Eve's creation and sin the pattern for all subsequent relations between men and women is est ablished-could be interpreted to express a fear of woman and of sexuality in general.

Nor did the ide a that woman wa s the spiritual equ al of man, similar to him in the order of grace, go unchallenged. Au gustine states th at the image of God is less perfectly realized in w oman th an it is in man. While w oma n, like man, is a human being (homo) and th erefore created in God's image, as a woman (femina) she lacks the essen tial feature of that divine

16St. Jerome, Letter 123. in Leiters and Select Wo rks. vol. 6 o f Select Library ofNicene and Post-N icene Fathers oft/Ie Christian Church , ed. Henry Wace and Philip Schaff, zd ser. (Ne w York, 1893), 234.

21St. Au gustine, " O n the Go od of Marri age," in TI,e Works o] St. Augustine. vo l. 3 of Select Library of N icene and Post-Ni cene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1956), 404.

285t.J erome, "Aga inst Jovinianus, " in Leiters andSelect Works, ed. Wace and Schafi, 38, . 19.T~ rt uIl i.a n, "On Female Dress ," in The Writillgs of Tertullian, vol. I [ of Ante-Nict'l~e

Christian Library; Translations ofthe Fathers down to 1'5 4 D d Ai d R t d Jam es D on aldson (Edinburgh, r869), r:3 . - - , . ., e . exan er 0 1erts an

04

THE TERMS O F THE DEBATE 2 7

image. rationality, \, -,"ich is reflected onl y in man (vir).30 So much is of cour se also implicit in w hat Christians were taught to und erstand about virgin ity. Ele anc r Commo McLaughlin has po inted out th at virginity as a condition of spiritu al excellence functions differently for a woma n th an for a man. It was a woman 's nature to bear children and she must den y it in the interest of her soul. " For the female, virg inity is no t an affir m ation of her being as a w oma n but an assum ption of th e nature of th e m ale, which is identified with th e truly human: rationality, st rength, cour age, steadfastne ss, loyalty.">' Admittedly, Paul had declared that a woman's salvation would be in the bearing of children (r Tim. 2 : I 5), but this dictum wa s effectively supersed ed by far more w idely accepted opinions on the absolute value of virg inity .

Nevertheless, th e fact th at there are two stories of creation, each instituting a different relation among man, woman , and God, did serve at least to suggest the possibility ofa defense ofwoman which took accoun t of her potential for autonomy and for public life . Their cont radictions

.; (are the two stories compatible or not? ) are eventually rep resented as elements of a feminist discourse that draws up on the increasingly sophis­ticated political (and primarily Pr otestant ) discourse on concepts of ma g­isterial authority and representative government. This indebtedness refines contemporary feminist argument . Even in the most rigidly con­ceived the ocracies, the au to no my ofth e subject is not con sidered negligi­ble. In the sixteenth cen tury it w as th e key to the development of theo ries of the state. In the political sphere it provided a basis initially for deter­mining the religious freedom of conscience, and secondarily for securing what came to be called political rights . In fem inist discourse, it was linked to a w oman 's sp iritual equalit y and to her full participation in the drama ofsalva tion. Be cause she could not be exempt fromjudgment, she could not be denied free will; and because she had free will, she had herself to confront, inevitably and notwithstanding any generic defi­cien cy, as her own moral authority, the entirely political authority of her husband or of the next mal e kin to w hich she was subj ect. The religious freedom of conscience both of th e Christian subject and of the woman as

30Kar i Eli sabeth Berresen writes th a t Augustine develop ed his not ion of w o ma n fr o m a need to reconcile G en . 1: 2 7 with I Co r. 11:7, which de clare s that only m en are ma de in Go d 's im age : "The im age of th e di vinity properl y underst ood is no t inheren t in the so ul as a unity in which tw o ele ment s participate ; it in heres on ly in th e m ascu line elem ent th at is dedicated to the co nte m platio n o f e tern al truths. By virtue of this exalt ed activity, the masculine elem ent tak es charge of th e feminine ele m ent . w h ich is char ge d w ith taking ca re of the necessities of dail y life": Subordination etequivalence: Natureetrolede la femmed'apres Augustin et Thomas d'A quiu (O slo and Paris: Univer si tet sfo rl ag et an d M aison Marne, 1968), 137·

31 McLaughl in , " Eq uality o f So uls , "234 ­

28 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

subject guaran teed that the authority of the magistrate and of the man cou d 110 t in all cases be absolute.

This is a well-established principle in virtually all treatises on the obedience ofa wife. Cle me nt of Alexandria's is an early formulation ofit : "The wise woman, then, will first choose to persuade her husband to be her associate in what is conducive to happiness . And should that be found impracticable, let her by herself earnestly aim at virtue, gaining her husband 's consent in everything, so as never to do anything against his will, with exception of what is reckoned as contributing to virtue and salvation." The idea that a woman must follow virtue before uxorial duty also find s corroboration in medieval law. Bractcn, for example, insists that a woman must obe y her husband in everything-she is sub v irga sua-as lon g as he does not order her to do something in violation of divine law.32

At the same time, such a gu arantee of a w oman 's autonomy raised the question of the appropriate forms of resistance. In po litical discourse, thi s qu estion produced a bo dy of literatur e on resistance theory, from Luth­er 's ear ly tr eatises on the noti on of passive resistance to the bold rein­terpretations of the significance of Romans 13 by such constitut ionalists as John Ponc t ."? In feminist discourse, it produced a literature that sub­verts not onl y the theor etical basis of patriarchalism but also the concept ofa hierarchy of creation which underlies it. One can ofcourse correctly argue that while political discourse affected the conduct ofactual gov ern­ments in later centuries, femin ist discourse changed nothing. Before this century, the social and economic hegemony of men in the societies of the West was in practice not challenged, nor was the validity of the assump­tions supporting it much examined. Whatever Renaissance feminists claimed as rights for women w ere not termed n~Rhts, 110r, until the beginning of the seven teent h century, were they dem anded except by way of arg uin g for a modification of existing domesti c order. The fact remains that the concepts cru cial to the idea of a society organized acco rding to princip les in im ical to patriarchy-heterogeneity in natu re and its creatures, androgyny as the bigendering of each sex, and the

32S t. Cl ement of Alexandria, T he M iscellanies, vol. 2 of Th e Writings of Cl ement of Alexandria . vol. 12 of A nte-Nicene Christ ian Library , ed. Rob ert s and Donaldson, 196. For Bracton , see Shahar, Fourth Estate, 88; Shahar cites F. Pollock and F. M aitland, A H istory of Engli sh La w (Cam bridge, 1898). 2:406 . O n a woman's sub ordin ation to her husband in genera l and without specific reference to co nscience. see M aclean, Renaissance No tion of Women, 18. A useful guideto the history of women5legal rightsisstill Eugene A. Hecker,

A J~ltort History of Women~ Rights (New York: Putnam, I9IO). " For an analytIc survey ofconcepts o[Je idmetere« . .

T he J)t/ty to Resist" rind "The Rieh: to ;" ., resIs~an ce, see, t.s., Quentm Skinner. n,o'<r;/I/. 2: ' 89-238 dnd 302-48 . " (51St, both in Foundations of Modem Political

29 TH E T ER M S O F T H E D EB AT E

·Il equality of m en and w omen in human society-were enunciated in feminist discourse of the six teen th century.

A ristotle's Biology

.i The single most imposin g challenge for a defender of w ome n-a challen ge th at tends to elicit from him or her a guarded accept ance of the necessity of a society controlled by men and , at the same time, the most paradoxical of arg um ents rejecting thi s nec essity­is the nature of w oma n's sexualit y. Her pro creativ eness is routinely given a kind of credit . Paul justifies a woman's existence by her ability to have child ren: "no twiths tanding [her orig inal sin] she shall be saved in child­

.­ bearing" (I T im . 2 :I 5). And defenses remind men that wome n are related to them in flesh and blood, that w omen carry in the ir bo dies the next genera tion and thus the ver y future . But a wo man's sexu al difference is more often a sign of w eakn ess-a point feminists discuss with gre ater intensit y and frequency th an do their opponents. Woman , it is gene rally agreed, is not as strong physically as man and , m ore important, is vulnerable sexu ally as he is not . N ot only because pr egn anc y and lact a­tion make her dependent on other persons, althou gh thi s physical dep en­dence is clearly important , but because her sex ual activity, in contrast to his, can result in scandal and disgrace. H er body can and commonly does signify th at she is sexually active w hether or not she wis hes the fact to be kn own. Maternity, unlike paterni ty, is not a discretionary matter, to be acknowledged or not, at w ill. These biolo gical facts un derlie arguments for restrictin g all wo ma n 's activi ties, particularl y th ose tha t tak e her into the public arena. Miso gynis ts ten d to perceive her inability to cont rol the effects of her sex uality- preg nancy-as an indication of an inherent moral debility. Feminists ha d to insist on m aking a distinction be tween a non prejudicial biol ogic al condition-pregnanc y-and behavior that is and can evidently be proved to be morally culpable-c-licentiousness.>' The importance of the virtue of chas tity was asserted by both sides. For writers w ho identified themselves with th e interests of men, a w o ma n's chastity sign ified dy nastic integrity; it wa s the foundation upon w hich pat riarchal soc iety res ted. The exchange between men of w omen and pr operty, and, to a degr ee, of w omen as pr operty, wa s pr edi cated on th e value of the w oma n as a vessel tha t w ould generate legitimate child ren

34The twe ntieth-cen tury interpretation of theeffects of this biological difference stresses economics over morals. On ce again the prej udice is agains t women, wh o in this case are poor If not also s.in ful. "Our national code of accep ted behavio r inclu des the tig ht o f men [0 pro pa,?ate child ren, and then desert them"; Stanley Lebergott , quoted in Andrew Hacker. Getting Rou gh on the Poor ," New York Review oj Books, O ct. 13, 1988, p. 13.

T H E TE RMS OF THE D EBA TE 3 I

-ally T hey w ere aw are th at according to Aristo telian na ture, th ere is in sexua l . ,.In . difference a relation of superior to infer io r, and thus that h is biology had

:o ro an obvious co rr espo nd ence w ith the view of th e beginning of human life vho in Scrip ture . To Aristotl e, the m ale is " the first efficien t or m ov ing cause

. al ly to which belong the defini tion and the form [of the em bryo] " (it is n ot, he .sts later insists, a "mater ial princ iple" creating mere resemblance [C A 4. I; .ly, 76Sb1, p. 11841), and as such the m ale is "bett er and m ore div ine in [his ]

nature th an the m aterial on w hich he works [th at is, than the female]." - ..:ss (As the ma le can in some sen se be said to " fashion" the embryo fro m

de mere m att er , he approaches a kind of div ine crea tiv ity -a point surely . ~ s­ not lost on readers w ho w ere accus tomed to seein g God as th e father of -:ey m ankind and C hrist as th e husband of the church. ) The m ale is therefore .nd to be kept sepa rate fro m the female "whe rever it is po ssib le and so far as it l ie is possibl e" and to come together w ith her only for th e "work of genera­.16 tion" (GA 2. I; 327a I , p. 1136). Fem ale pass ivi ty an d materiality are by

defin it ion cap abl e only of be ing elem ents of receptivi ty fo r th e male J d fo rmati ve and vitalizing seed . The matter she contributes to gen eration, -.ot th e m enses, lacks "the principle of so ul"; thi s is contribu ted only by th e -::n , at m ale, and in this sens e she is a "mutilate d male" (CA 2.3 ; 737b I, p. I 144)· : :d She is herself the product of a gestation al pr oce ss th at failed to reach full ~'u l potential. Ar istotle w rites th at a female is created when " the first p rinci ­::al ple does not bear sway and can not concoct the nourishment throu gh lack

of heat nor bring it into its prop er fo rm , bu t is defeated in thi s respe ct" (GA 4.1; 766a1 , p. II8S ). A struggle therefore take s pl ace wi thin the w o mb as form atte mpts to assert itself over m atter ; a "defeated " form is a fem ale form. Debility characteri zes the fem ale fo r her en tir e life. As

in formally less ev olved than a mal e, sh e is "perfect ed more quickly, " and IS her entire life cy cle is accomplished in a short er time: "females are we ak er

.n gen era tion : ibid .. 32-3 3. In nonscient ific circles , Ga len 's v iew of hum an ana tom y as ) , divinely o rdered ma y have been impo rtant to a reasse ssm ent o f w o ma n as perfect in her ~ c own wa y: "I n th e De I/SII poruum (IV, 360 passim) he [G alen] ca me to the co nclusion th at in

the st ruc tu re o f an y animal w e hav e the m ark o f a w ise workman o r derni urg e, and o f a '.;/ celestial mind : and th at 't he investigati on of the use of th e par ts of the body lays the . .1 fou ndati on of a tr uly scie n tific theol ogy w hich is m uc h greate r and m ore p recious than all

m ed icine' ": Lynn T horndike, T he H istory of Mag ic and Exp erimentai Science (N ew Yo rk : C olu mbia U niversit y P ress , 1923), r:r 49 . A sim ilar view of woman as w ell designed is expressed by Aquinas : " W ith refer ence to na ture in the species as a w hole , the fem ale is not somethi ng lI!anqlle, but is accor ding to the plan ofnatu re [il/tentio /Jatl/rae], and is directed to

: J the w ork of p roc rea tion": M aclea n , Renaissance Notion of WOIl1I1I1, 8-9, quoting Summa theolopico, raoz, I. H ow pr ecise and acc ura te a read ing of Aristo tle most Re~d isSdn cc femmls ts had IS un clear fro m th eir defen ses. M ore often than not, the V refer to ideas that are attri bu.ted to hi m in contemporary li teratu re on women . B ut how~v e r th ey cite him , the y inv ar iab ly see hun as an expon ent of miso g yny.

32. RE N AISSA NCE FEMINISM

and colder in nature, and we must look upon th e female character as being a sort of natural deficiency" (GA 4.6; 77sa1, p. 1199).

More important to feminists than Aristotle 's biology w as its impact on his politics. For the female's relative coldness and formlessness implied a w ho le set of characteristics that made a w om an radically unfit for any activity that was not , in essence, a resp onse to a signal or command from a man . Ari stotle 's politics is in a sense an extrapolation ofhis understand­in g of biology and reflects the same preferential distinction for the soul over the body, the intellect over th e passion s. Because the male, exempli­fyin g the rational element, is supe rior to the female, exem plifying the passionate element, it is natural, Aristotle writes in the Politics, that he rule and she be ruled : " this principle, o f necessity, extends to all m an­kind ."37 Their relations are as between a superior and his inferior or subordinate, and corr espo nd to the natural cha racter of their respective virtues or "excellen ces." A wom an , like a slave or a child, has only a part of the soul that inheres totally in man.

For the slave has no deliberative faculty at all; the woman has, but it is without authority, and the child has, but it is immature. So it must neces­sarily be suppo sed to be with the excellences of character also; all should partake of them, but only in such manner and degree as is required by each for the fulfilment of his function .... The temperan ce of a man and of a woman, or the courage and justice of a man and of a woman , are not, as Socrates maintained, the same; the courage of a man is shown in com­manding, of a woman in obeying. [Politi cs 1.1 3; 126oa1 , p. 1999]

Natural differences eventually dictate soc ial functions that follow rul es of decorum determined by character. " A m an w ould be th ou ght a coward if he had no m ore cou rage than a courageo us w om an , and a w oman w ould be th ought loquacious if she imposed no more restraint on her conversa­tion th an the good man; and indeed their part in the m anagement of the househ old is differen t, for the duty of the one is to acquir e, and of the other to preserve" (Politics 3.4; I 277b I, p. 2027). If these norms are n ot observed, and a wo m an rules a m an, even within a househ old, she abuses pol itical propriety and, ultimately, biol ogical nature. The perfect relation between man and wife is "aristocrat ic" : " fo r the m an rules in acco rdance with merit, and in those matters in which a man sh ould rule, but the m atters that befit a woman he hands over to her."38 Ifhe insists on taking charge of things appropriately hers, he ignores decorum and creates an

37 Politics 1. 5 , I 254b I , in Complete Works ofA ristotle, 2: I 990.

38lYicomac!zcall Ethics (hereafter lYE) 8 . 10, I rcob r , in Complete Works ofA ristotle, 2 : 1834.

34 RENAISS ANCE FEMINISM

such an argument is clearly paradoxical in the context of Christian notions of virtue.40 (Pri vate property also had religious sanction: Adam, it was believed , w as endowed with the world's goods and therefore the first property owner.) Humanist exemplum history provided feminists with another kind ofstrategy. Against claim s made in the name ofnatural or divine law, the y could represent historical " facts" concern ing virtuo us women gathered from Plutarch's Mulierum virtutes as well as Livy, Tac­itu s, and Valerius M aximus . Sixteenth-century w rit ers regarded Boccac­cio 's De mulieribus claris as su ch a source. But finally feminists, ado pting th e critical methods of humanist historians, replied to all th eir opponents by confronting the very con cept of authority and what it implies about understanding the order of nature and historical time. As lon g as an authority was held to speak the absolute truth, to invoke him was suffi cient to establish the truth or rightness ofa given position or pr actice, and no feminist could con ceive of forms ofsociety that might be alterna­tives to patriarchy. Their efforts we re therefore directed at disco vering reasons for ame liorating the condition of woma n within existing stru c­tures of fam ily and com m unity life. But when such authorities cam e to be regarded as historically contingent and relevant onl y to the particular situations they addressed (as the y increasingly did during the late fif­teenth and earl y sixteenth centur ies), then feminists could pr opose to leg itimate nontraditional view s of woma n which vitiated patriar chal norms .

REPRESENTATIVE HUMANISTS

Famous Women

Humanist writers touched on feminist issues as a con se­quence of their concern for the welfare of the res publica . Reacting to the clerical preference for the vita contempiativa over the vita actiua, they addressed the moral pr oblems confronting the Christian who had to recon cile civic duty, including the obli gation to m arr y and have child ren, with his soul 's salv ation. Bo ccaccio, for one , saw that politics could be regarded as providential rather than a dangerous distraction; moreover, because the good ruler prevailed w hile his evil counterpart became the

40Bur see Clement of.Alexan dria, who com ments that Plato intended that all property be com monly owned, smce dJVI~ lOn and factIOn among human beings were the outcome of rhe ownership of propeny. ThIS rulmg extended, "without doubt , even to wives": Fifth Letter, In Pairolograe cursus completus, Series latina, ed. Jacques-Paul Migne (Paris J 8 )130.57. ' 44 ,

THE T ERM S O f THE DEBA TE 35

n vict im of fortune, fam e was an index of moral status. 41 For o the r writers, the fate of the individual man was lin ked to his place in societ y-both in the family, the sea t of domesti c o rde r, and in the state, ex hibiting a civic order. M arr iage, leading to the generation and education of chi ldren, became a prerequisite of good citize nship. The family bec am e politicized , it s members describ ed in terms of their duties as governing and gov­erned .

The endo rse men t of m arriage for reason s of sta te entailed both a defense ofand, more subtly, an att ack on wo ma n w hich was qualita tively different from any thing w ri tt en earlier. The gr eat m edieval source of supposedly mi sogynist diatribe, Jean de M eun g 's Roman de La rose , cha rg ed w oman wi th a fundamental corruption ; it was answered by literature ext olling her priva te an d moral qu alities. R enaissance human­ist s w ere less direct in their opinions. Considering ho w a woman mi ght ben efit the state, they praised her for patience and loyalty, qualities th at made the political duties incumbent upon her appear to be consisten t with her suppos ed nature . She was chiefl y adm irable as th e faithful lieutenan t to her male superio rs; he r conduct reflected th e fact th at sh e had th e vi rtues in the m od e no t of co m ma nd but of subordina tio n, as

r- Aristotle had asserted. Were she to prov e an exc eption to this rule and be a Joan of Are , she wa s no longer purely a woman. Her virility testified to th e rightness of the general sche m e privilegin g man and legitimating patriarchy. In fact, he r virility was generally exhibited in action under­taken at a m oment of crisis th at had as its purpose the preser vation of the sta tus quo-the domestic o r politi cal order in w hich sh e w as always inferior and subordinate. Because women did not (and w ere not sup­pos ed to) do any thing to earn them public notice, a famou s woman w as almost a contrad iction in terms, either actually infamous or sim ply fan­tastic.

In the Proem to his De mulieribus claris (c. 1380), Boccaccio reveals the cri teria by which he has cho sen the w om en w hose histories he w ri tes . T he "fame" (claritas) they possess is not, he declares, in every case to be

41Boccaccio, w riting exe m plum history in orde r to benefit the state, illustrates the misfortunes that justly befall evil ru lers; "What alm igh ty Go d (or For tune, to use their [i.e ., the rulers '] language) did to those who we re in high office . . . [so that ] they, seeing feeble and defeated princes, king s thrown to earth by God 's judgment , mig ht kno w the power of the M ost High . . . ; might learn to refrain fro m mere pleasure" ; " Proem ," in De casibus "irorum illustrium , ed . Pier Giorgio Ricci and Vittorio Za ccaria, vol. 9 of Tim e Ie opere di GiOllanl1i Botcaccio, ed. Vittore B ranca (M ilan; Mondado ri, 1983), IO . Petrarch simply warns against a desire for fame, w hich is "a stimulus that excites a generous and modest spiri t, raises him up and spurs him on to satisfy the aspi rations of citizens, but it casts down wi cked and pres umptuous characters": "D e remediis utr iusque for tu ne," I, 92, in Francesco Petrarca, Prose, ed. G. Martellotti (Milan ; Riccardo Ricciardi, 1955), 636.

36 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

understood in the narrow sense of that term, that is , in relation to " v irtue" (l'irtll5); but rather more broadly: "I think famous those women w ho are w ell kno wn for so m e deed re cognized throughout the world. " 42

Initially, he puts the case for the famous woman who is w o r thy rather than reprehensible in what appear to be positive terms. Distinguishing betw een a characteristically Christian virtue that derives from an inner and co n tem plativ e activity and a cha rac teris tically pagan virtue that pro­motes the publi c good, the res publica, he states that he celeb rates the latter because its female ex pone n ts, unlike Christian sa ints, have as yet had no ch ro nicler. His ch o ice restricts the st andards by which h e will judge the virtue o f w oman to those supporting the vita activa-that is , standards b y which w o m en w ere usually cons id ered to b e worthless, whether because naturall y in capable of virtuous public activ ity or because they w ere legally barred from p articipating in it. H e thus ra ises the question of the relevan ce of his o w n histories to an audience of women. Are they to be understood .to provide models for emulation, as his praise of pagan heroines suggests ? Or ar e they to be taken as a warning that to con tem p o­rary Christian w o men th e public arena is closed ?

The ladies of sacred hist ory, foll owing the wa y and the directions of their hol y Teacher, often discipline them selves to tolerate adv ersity almo st be­yond human cons ideration. Pagan w omen, by contrast, attain [glory]­and with what a strength of spirit- either by a cert ain gift or instinct of nature; o r better, because the y are spurred on by a desir e for the fleeting sple ndor [wpidilas .filigoris /H Olllerlla l1 ei] of the wo rld; and so me times, bat­tered by fortune , they confront the heaviest of trials. The first kind of women .. . is described . . . in the w orks of pious men . . . . The merits of the second kind , unpublished in any book, I have undertaken to describe, as if to giv e them a j us t reward . [26J

42Boccaccio, De mulieribus clans , ed. Vittorio Zaccaria, vol. 10 of Tuite le opere di Gi ovanni Bocea ce io (Milan: Mondadori. 1967). :q. Boccaccio writes that he intended to dedicate this work to Queen Gio vanna of N apl es, but realizing that "the little light" of his work would be put out by her "greater" splendor, he has substituted Andrea Acciaiuoli, Countess of Altavilla. For an analysis of this work as a whole, sec my "Boccaccio's In­famous Women: Gender and Civic Virtue in the De IIl " lierihl/s clar!s," in AlI1biglJOIlS Realities: H'om EII i/l tile :\.fiddle Ages and Renaissance. ed. Carole Levin and Jeanie Watson (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987). 25-,+7. M y initial reading of [his text, concentrating on the apparent humanistic feminism of its proem, failed to grasp the profound irony of its actual histories; see my "Feminism and the Humanists: The Case of Sir Thomas Elyoc's Defence of Good [,.j,·(llllell , " in Rell'ritillg the Renaissance, cd. Ferguson et a!" 2.P - 58. The fullest account of Boccaccic's Latin works is still AttiJio Hortis, Studii Sil l

opere latine del Boccaccio (Trieste, 1879). Hortis considers the question of Boccaccio's misogyny in the De i/lil/ieribll$ claris (esp. 81-85 ). See also Virro rc Branca, Boccaccio: Th e Man c1II d His Works. trans. Richard Monges (New York: N ew York University Press, 1976), and Henri H au verre , Boa ace: Ell/de biographique et littiraire (Paris: Armand Co lin, 19!4).

37 THE TERMS O F THE DEBATE

Few of Boccaccio 's contempor aries, whether men or women , would have un dertaken to ignore "the dire ctions of their hoI y Teacher, " here in explicit oppos ition to the "desire" that prompts action in the fleetingly splendid world, and striven only to secure fame. His women readers wo uld have had cause to reflect even more deeply, for Scripture tau ght them to obey, not to com mand. And had the y overcome their fear of violating custom and positive law on the one hand and divine law on the other, and taken Boccaccios text as their guide , the y would have dis­cov ered an ambigui ty that go es deeper than me re con tradiction. Not only are his famo us women po or examples o f virtue , the y are also condemned, however covertly, for ven tur ing into a world reserved for

43 men. Boccaccio 's portrait of D ido demonstrates his double and contradic­

tor y in tention. Derivin g his account from Pet rarch rather than Vergil or Dante, Boccaccio relates that his heroine, whos e name is Elissa, is forced to flee her native land after her br other, the avaricious king Pygmalion, kill s her husband , Sychaeu s. N ow a widow, she vows to rem ain faithful to her dead hu sband, and takes the name D ido. She assumes com mand of her followers , soo n to found Car thage under her leadership, throu gh acts of deceit, not conquest. The single exception to this rule -her com mand to her follo w ers (all m en) to get wives by rapin g the virgins of C yprus­assumes thematic importance in relation to the second and tragic pha se of

43T his strategy of sub version is alread y evident in the principal text th at serv ed as Bo ccaccic 's model, Plutarch 's M ul ierum virtutes , the first extended defense of wome n to have had w ide cu rrency in the Renaissanc e. The classic st atem ent of misogyn y in G reek and Rom an antiqu ity is Hesiod's m yth of Pand or a (T heogoll)' 590-812); Plato and o thers who engag ed in sop histic debate late r und ertook to defend wo men fro m suc h attacks . See Philip Stadt er, Plutarch's H istorical Methods: All Ana lysis oj"1'vlHlie1lJ 11l VirtHles" (Ca mbridge: C ambridge Unive rsity Press, 1965), 3. Echoing Plat o' s MenD, Plutarch declares th at the virtues of man and woman are th e same ; they only appear to be different because " they tak e on the likeness o f the cus to ms on w hich they are founded, and o f th e te mp erament of per son s and their nurt ure and mod e of livin g" (tra ns. Frank Cole Babbitt, in Plutarch's Moralia, Loeb C lassical Librar y (Ca m br idge: Ha rvard Universi ty Pr ess, 1949),3 :475,479. Illustr ating his the sis by exa mples, ho w ever, Plu tar ch qu alifies the virtue of woma n so that its nature and scope correspo nd to Ari stotl e's rest rictive notion of sex and gender differ­ences . Hi s ty pica lly virt uo us woman assists and ins pir es men; if necessar y, sh.c sacrifices hers elf fo r th eir welfa re or tha t of the state. See esp. the histor y of Ar eta phila (Lov e of hon or), who , afte r she has freed her own city, Cyrene , from the ty ranny of her hu sband, "withd rew at onc e to her o wn qua rte rs am on g the w ome n , and, reje cting any sort of meddling in affair s, spent the rest of her life quietl y at the loom in the company of her friends and family" (55!) . The ima ge of a cou nt ry' s deliver er in m odest retirement was known to Plutar ch th roug h accou nts of such he roes as C incinna tus, w ho, havin g rescued the republic, retires to live a pri vate life on his farm- no t once but twi ce. But one needs to note the difference between th e par ticul ar conditio ns of freedom du e the men o f Cyrene and th ose that their fema le deliverer acce pts as appro priate for her as a wo ma n. By freeing his city, a Ci nc innatus secu res his OI!'I1 liberty; Plu tarch 's Arera phila may not be able eve n to en visage such a cond ition for herself.

38 RE N AI SSA N C E FEM IN ISM

her career, when she is a queen regnant. T his phase esta blishes that whatever her virtues, they are finally irr elevant to he r participation in public life . What is decisive is the fact that she is a woman. As such she canno t govern a people, not because there are laws th at preven t gy neco­cracy-in fact, she herselfhas made the original laws on which her state is founded-but because she can never overcome the effects ofher crea tio n as the inferior and subo rdinate of man.

Boccaccio concl udes this phase of Dido's history by extolling her virtuo us chas tity - the vir tue that caused her to commit suic ide rather th an m arr y her barbarous suitor, the ne ighboring king, M assitanus, who pressed his courtship by beseiging Carthage. The poet's tribute to the wi dowed queen obscures what his history ofhe r im plies: woma n 's rule is a political impossibility. Given the cus tOm ary relation of hu sband (hea d) to his wife (the bod y, or subordina te), Dido, a quee n, canno t take a hu sband (however civilized) as a king can take a wife. Her subjects fear destructio n fro m her marauding suitor if she do es not ag ree to his pro­posal; but they co uld reaso nably fear th e usurper and tyr an t if she did . She cannot be bo th a queen and a wife. Whateve r its moral significance, the chastity ofBoccaccio 's Dido has chiefly a political reference: she kills herself in response to her fear th at her citizenry, left unpro tec ted by th e relative impotence of th eir married queen regnant, would succ umb to the demands of the alien aut ho rity of her male consort. H er tragic end depends on th e fact tha t she will become politically im po ten t at th e mom ent of mar riage. W ha t w e intuitively understand as th e meaning of her action-tha t it act ually pro tects her subjects from a dan gerous ru le by removin g the possibility of a m arried queen regnant-is ma de clearer in Bo ccaccio 's acco unt of D ido in an earlier his tory of th e queen, in De casibus virorum illustrium. There, having agreed to marr y Massita nus, Did o asks fo r a delay, during which she for tifies her city against the barbarian 's army: "She summoned w hatever wa s ne cessary fo r the de­fense of the city, so that she would no t leave it undefended afte r havin g built it. "44 Satisfied th at it is safe , she co mmits suicide . The im preg nable wal ls ofher city are the correlative ofher in violate ph ysical self, and w ha t they pro tect-the independence of her people-is guaranteed by her refusal to allow herself to be possessed .

The pr oblem of gynecocracy that Boccaccio confronts in his fiction was to require an act ual sol ution later, w hen th e Engli sh succession

+lDe casibus l) iII O/1/1/1 illusuium, 140-41. Boccaccio, citing chronology, defends his chaste Dido as histori cally co rrect by con tras t to the amo rous Dido ofVergil and Dan te. Accord­ing to Eus ebi us, Boccaccio decl ares, T roy was destroyed long befo re Carthag e was bu ilt: "I don' t think Aeneas ever saw her [D ido]" : Canto 5. I, in Esposizionisopra la Commedia eli D ante , cd . Gio rgi o Pad oan, ve l. 6 of Tillie le opere (Milan: Mondadori, 1965). 300.

39 TH E T ERMS O F TH E D EB ATE

required that M ar y Tudor become the anoma ly Dido had avo ided: a married qu een regn ant. Bocc accio 's Di do illus trat es, in an y case, th e essential weak ness o f the wo rnan rul er-her status as natura lly and lega lly vulne rable ro men. D ido 's m ost im portant success (in that w itho ut it sh e would have had no people to lead), her autho rizatio n of her m ale subj ect s' rape o f fo reign w ome n. emphasizes the inevit ably mas culine charact er of political rule, the rul e ro w hich she, as a wo ma n although a m on ar ch, is also at las t subject. 45

Bo ccaccios Dido represents his conce ption of the wo ma n exp ert in go vernment o r "arms"; his Pope Joan exhibits the second of the tw o attributes of the virtuo us cit izen , maste ry of the "arts." Feminists oft en co mm ended wo me n fo r acco m plishmen ts in o rato ry, rhe toric, poe try, philoso ph y, and even theolo gy. Because a w oma n need not actually leave the pri vacy of her family to excel in these art s, how ever m uch su ch a sequestration mi ght seem to be at cross- purposes with her ed ucati on, pr aise of her int ellectual achievements did not appea r to tran sgress pa­triarchal norms. Yet th e ve ry act o f self-ex pression was often regarded as a vio lation of the spirit of domesticity. Spoken words might be over­heard; wri tte n spee ch mi ght be published ; words not known to be a woma n 's mi ght actually su cceed in persu ading m en to ac tio n and so provide her w ith a basis for achieving autho rity and po wer in th e public arena. Boccaccio' s acco unt of the legendar y Pop e Joan- whose fame (unlike th at of Dido) is a kind of notoriet y-illustrates that int ellectu al acti vit y cann ot be undertaken by the female br ain , situa ted as it is in the female bod y.

Joan is incontestably brilJi ant . Prevailing over her male co m pe titors, her sex ma sked by m asculine clothing, she is elected to the papa cy. Inevita bly her in tellect propels her into the pu blic aren a; inevit abl y too he r political po wer find s expression in lu st. 46 Whereas Dido was the obj ect of desire o r, perhaps, its provocation , Joan is an overtly desiring subj ect. D ido, reje cting desire, wa s prai sed for her vir tuo us self-sacrifice; Joan wa s punished by God, who , "pity ing his peopl e from on high , did not pe rm it a woman to occupy such a high place [as the papa cy]. . . . Ad vised by th e devil ... , elected to the sup reme offi ce of the papacy, [jean] was ov ercome w ith a burning lust [ardor libidillis]. . . . She found

45Boccaccio 's subtly cr itical repr esentation s of virile w omen elsew he re in thi s text stand in problematic contrast to his fulsom e prai se of Q ueen Giov an na of N aples, in fact a w oma n of cons ide rable au tho ri ty and pow er, and the last o f his subjects 111 this histo ry.

460 n the link bet w een fem ale sex uality and eloq uence, see the cha rges aga inst lsotra N ogaro Ja. whos e " fluent speech ,. indi cated to the Vene tian Nicco lo Barb o th at sh e w as pro mis cuous. They are quo ted in Lisa Jardin e. " Iso tta N ogarol a: Wom en H umanists-c­Edu cation fo r Wha t?" H istory ofEducation 12, -+ (J983) : 240 .

40 RE N AISSANCE FEMINI SM

one who mounted [defricere] her in secret (she, the successor of Peter!) and thus allayed her flaming prurience" ( lO I , 416). She became pregnant and gave birth ignominiously, in public . Denounced and dishonored, she left the country with her child. Her fate resembles Dido 's in that she could not realize her virtue publicly because she was female. Yet her case is also more complicated . By drawing the reader's attention to her violation of the sanctity of Peter's office, Boccaccio reminds us, whether or not inten­tionally, that a pope could in fact beget children and retain the papacy. In this sense, men's bodies can lie; they do not reveal their sexual experience; the y cannot signify the virtue of chastity or its opposite, the vice of promiscuity. Women 's bodies can and do .

Boccaccio 's history of the scandalous Joan conveys his sense that poli ti­cal authority and power are maintained through the creation ofa persona that compels the allegiance of the public, and jeopardized when there is clear evidence that a ru ler has failed to follow the rules . H e also sho ws that only the rule r who is publicly acknowledged as sinful is penalized-a condition that affects women disproportionately. God ma y be said to have punishedJoan because she assumed the papacy (although this was an office for which she was more suited than any of her male peers), and because she committed fornication (a sin male popes committed, too). But her punishment was occasioned by and was a response to her mater­nity, which was no more than an expression of the sexuality that she, a woman-unlike a man who becomes a father-had no w ay of control­ling, hiding, or denying. In effect, although I suspect without full aware­ness, Boccaccio has distinguished between the moral aspects of sexuality (lust as opposed to con tinence) and its amoral physical manifestation (matern ity as opposed to paternity) . Feminists would later attempt to clarify these distinctions by analyzing attitudes toward prostitution and rape.

Household Govemment

As the populations of cities increased and their govern ment became more complex. it was logical that humanists discussed the feasi­bility of observing Christian ethics in various kinds of forums : the mar­ketplace, the law courts, the legislature. To lay the foundations for constructive public acti vity, they studied the conduct of persons within a family, itself a diminutive image of the state. Their treatises describing the rights and duties of hu sband and wife, parents and child ren, master or mistress and servants or slaves circulated throughout the fifteenth cen­tury; they were printed and reprinted in considerable numbers th rough

THE TERM S OF T H E DEBAT E 41

th e beginnin g of the seven teenth cen tury. Vi rt ually all ur ge th eir readers to marr y. altho ugh why such encouragement was neede d is unclear. Rel igious scruples- reflecting a belief in the innate evil of woman and in the nec essity of soli tude for praye r an d contem plat ion- seem less an issue than do fears concerning loss of pe rsonal in dep endence d ue to increased respons ibilities , especially fin ancial ones. Most argument is di rected at reluctant brid egrooms , perhaps bec ause they were less bo und by paren tal w ishes th an their prospective brides . Femin ists' reactions to these treatises w ere sub tle rather th an ex plicit, in part because m an y conceded a good deal to th e domestic authority and power of the woman as wife or mother. But more often th an not, they punctuated their descript ions of m arit al com plementarity w ith st atem ents of womanly du ties th at frankly in hibi ted th e actual exercise of a woma n's autono my, and femi nists protested these restrict ion s.

Francesco Barbaro 's D e re ux oria (1416) conveys what were to becom e th e normat ive terms of the Renaissance discourse on the household­terms tha t subs equent discussion on the subj ect had necessaril y to co n­sider. Barb aro describes th e best means of ensuring dynastic integrit y (unders tandably, sin ce his is a noble Venetian family), and insi sts on the importance of women as proper ty and property holders."? H e believes tha t w ell-orde red fam ilies maintain the stabili ty of the sta te; and he sees tha t thi s order depends chiefly on contro Uing the activities of women in relation to th e producti on and distribution of wealth.

His th esis exemp lifies the kind of reasoning that exponen ts of pa­tri ar ch y, parti cula rly as it is manifest in th e m ale contro l of w ealth, could bring to bear on contem porary social and econom ic developments . Re­strictions on women , their behavior in private and in public, appear to have been m ore stringent in Italy than elsew here in Europe in the early Rena issance. Ka thleen Casey not es th at the eco no mic p ow er of It alian wo men was "earliest and m ost successfully blocked " fro m becoming po litically de cisive. These restri ctions foll owed a "crisis" in w hic h a number of factors, par ticularly economic, we re inst rumenta l. U nlike m en, wom en w ho lost the occupations th ey had foll ow ed under feud al­ism an d systems of produc tion dependent on the hou sehold and the guild

·17T he pa rtic ularly Vene tian characte r of Barbaro 's humanism is anal yzed by M argaret L. King. "Caldiera and the Ba rba ros on M ar riage and the Family : Humanist Refiections of Venetian Realities ," Journal ofMcdieva! alia Renaissance Studies 6, I (1976) : 19-50. See also AttiJio Cnesorrc's introductory remarks detailing the so urces, publication hi st ory, and social backg round to Francesco Barbaro, De reuxoria, ed. Gnesotto, Ani e memorie della A cc~demia di scienze letr er e ed ar ti in Padova (19 15- 16), n.s, 32 (Padova: Ba ttista Randi, n.d.).

42 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

w ere made economically redundant. The "newer paradigms of social structu re . . . did not . .. include am on g th em an active independent wife or female worker. " She became w hat Casey terms "an inactive partner" and hence a type on whom could be projected all the anx ieties attendant on social change.:" In Venice, m or e spec ific evi dence concern ing th e distribution of dowries su ggests how women as property and pr operty holders could affect the stability of families and the patriarchal authority and po wer directing them . Writing on the distribution of we alth through dowries and bequ ests , Stanle y Chojnacki points out th at w omen who had property to bequeath commonly did so on th e basis o f affection rather than strict kinship, and more oft en in favor of femal e th an mal e relati ves. The pattern of inherit ance from women therefore tended to undermine the we alth of patrilinear families. To the extent that w ome n could independentl y hold and pass on property, the y represented a poten­tial perturbation to patrilineage and fmally to patriarchy.49 Barbaro's fear of allowing women any degree of ind ependence, especially financial, find s real pr ovocation in the testamentary behavior of contemporary Venetian w omen.

Like many apologist s fo r what I have called the politicized m arr iage, Barbaro believes that household government, like civil govern ment, is supported by systems of law. He in vokes as auth oritative both natural law and its expression in th e ius gentium, or the so- called law of nations

+SCasey. "Cheshir e Ca t," 226-27 . 490n th e pow er of Venetian women to control wealth, Stanley C hoj nacki obse rves:

"T he com pensation that fathe rs and brothers traditi onall y had received for dowry expen­ditures was the acquisition of econo mic, soci al, and even politi cal allies in the persons of their new sons- and bro thers-in-law." Bu t, he goes on to not e, wo men, as mo thers, aunts, and cousins, also contrib uted to dowri es, and the pat tern s of their bequests often ran counter to those of me n. T hey contribu ted to the dowries of w om en who we re ou tside the patriJin eage, to their dau ghters' daug hters as we ll as to their sons' daug hters. O ther than dowrie s, bequests by wo men we re fur ther characte rized by a preferenc e for women, apparentl y deter mined by affection rather than close kin ship. Whil e mates and femal es benefit "almo st equally" in bequ ests by wo men to primary kin, "amo ng secondary kin beneficiaries (aunts , uncles, nieces, nephew s, cousins, etc .), fema les outnumber males by a cons iderable mar gin ": " Dowries and Kinsm en in Earl y Renaissance Venice," in WOllle11 i/ l

Medie val Society, ed . Susan Mosher Stu ard (Philadelphia: U niversity of Pennsylvania Press, 1976), 173-98. It was virt ually univ ersal pra ctice to maintain a w oman's dowry, dos, as her own wealth, ind ependent ofher husband 's property. The husband was entitled to its "use"- that is, the income resulting fro m its managem ent-but he could no t dispose of it , nor could his creditor s claim it. At a woman 's death, it reverted to her next of kin. Of comparable status was the husband 's gift to his wife at the tim e of marriage, the donatio propter nuptias. At the death of her husband, she had the use of th is prop erty if she had childre n; otherwise it revert ed to his family. See Charles Phin eas Sherm an, Roman Law ill the Modem World (Boston : Boston Book Co., 1917), 2:65-76. For a general assessment of attitudes toward wealth in famil ies, see Han s Baron, "A Ne w Attitude coward Wealth " ill Social and Economic Foundations oJthe Italian Renaissance, ed. Ant hony Molh o (N ew York­Wdey, 1969), 173- 82. .

THE TERMS OF THE DEBATE 43

(held to be that law honored by all peoples and the basis of all po sitive law). These two concepts were epitomized in the biological events of the natural world, and in the history of classical Rome. To gether "nature" and "Ro me" provide Barbaro with the elements of his ide al marriage and perfect household. In nature , "by which a des ire of congress for procrea­tion sake is communicated to every kind of animal," he discovers th e reason for marriage; in Rome he sees its political function. By taxing bachelors , Rome caused th em to pay th e debt th ey owed in children , a debt justifi ed by the state 's natural right to endure. The unmarried vio­lated a civ il code; the legitimately married remain ed within the law and benefited the sta te: "It hath been experienced that by legitimate m arriages children are more disposed by birth to honesty, more gravely educated , and bec ome better citizens, of whom the city consisting, will be more acceptable to its friends injustice, more terrible to its enemies in valo ur." The importance of marriage in turn guarantees the status of wives. As Barbaro observes, "Cato the C ensor said that there was so much respect and veneration du e to this state [m arriage] , that whos oever should offer violen ce to his w ife ... w as equa lly to be pros ecuted and detested with the violators of th e images of the goddesses [simulacra deo1'llm)." 50 Both abus es are crime s against the state w hich have symbolic meaning . Wives are "images"; that is, they are not to be protected as th e thing itself, whatever that ma y be, but only as its figuration . What wives stand for in this cont ex t is, as Barbaro has said , the ability of the state to reproduce itself. This ability in tum dep ends , he goes on to say, on th e transfonna­tion of the com pe titive and potentially hostile energies of men acting among themselves into the coope ra tive and amicabl e for ces of attract io n br inging men and women together. His opinion rec alls Ari stotle 's notion that th e trans generation al stabili ty of a family and hence a soc iety de­pends on treating each woman as the pr operty of an individual man : "In a state having women and children in common, love [between men] w ill be diluted , and the father will certainly not say 'my son, ' or the son, 'm y

50Francesco Barba ro, Direaions jor Love and Marriage. I II two books . Written origilwlly by Franc iscns Barbarus a Venetiall senator. A /ld f lOW translated into E/lglish by a person oj ql/alify (Londo n, 1677), sig. B 1- 3. I nave not ed the words of the original text in instan ces where the translation is dubious. The treatise, com posed in J41 5, is divided into a preface, "Quid sit conj ugium, " and a first and secon d part, "De delectu uxoris" and "De uxoris officio ," respect ively; it was dedicated (Q Lorenzo de' Med ici, on the occasion of his mar riage (Q

Ginevr a Cavalcanti. For an editi on with Italian on facing pages, see Prosatori iatini del quattrocent o, ed. Eugenio Gar in (Milan: Ricciardi, I 952), 105-37. Benjamin G. Kohl tra nslates the preface and the second part cf the text int o En glish in The Earthly Republic: Italia n Humanists 01/ C ouernment and Society, ed . Benjamin G. Kohl and Ron ald G. Witt with Eli zabeth Welles (Philadelphia: Uni versity of Pennsylvania Press, I97 8), I 79-88.

4 4 REN A1SSAN C E FEM IN ISM

fat he r.' "5 1 Fo r B arba ro, m en w ith gen erati ve women as their priv at e possessio ns can n ego tia te peacef ul co nq ues ts:

By this tve [vinculo, i.e., marri age] Ca dusius reconc iled the mo st seditious Carians amon gst them selves; by this alliance Cy rus appeased the Chal­deans tha t were at enm ity w ith their borderers; and at Ro me in the same day the Sabins we re bo th enemies and citizens. . . . An d what is more incre dible to be spoken, Alexan der by this affinity (but not by that stately brid ge) allied Asia to Europe. [B3J

The co n trib u tio n o f m arriage diplomacy to the future of states and empire s, as it is alluded to here, ap pears to have suggeste d to Barbaro the operation o f di vi ne will. Woman are " images" o f divinity inasmuch as they represent th e m eans o f pea ceful growth an d a way to enla rge th e empire without an y corresponding diminution of res ources .

Yet the imagery o f ex cha n ge m asks the real v io lenc e of the actio n s described. The en mity that threaten s co ns tan tly to di srupt relations among men is n ot, as Barbaro develops hi s arg u m en t , simply d iss ip ated in the amorous exchan ge s o f m arriage. It is actually redi rected to effec t the exchanges o f w o m en in and through which the g ro w th o f the state is sus tained . And in order for these ex cha n ges to h appen at all , the women excha nged must ag ree (o r be forced to ag ree) to co m pliance with the terms of ex change, in short, to be come human commodities, o bjects. B arb ar o 's des cri p ti on o f a wife 's virtue sugge sts w hy he can imagine that she m ight offer n o o bj ections to this role.

A w ife' s v ir tue is first of all to be m oral : she can no t run a house unless she can run herself. B eyond th at , she is to be exem pla ry:

As a pr ince canno t well govern a city unless he be expert in the common law, the custo ms of his ancesto rs, and the pub lick affairs . . . so neither can domestick affairs be rightly managed un less the excellenc e of the mistress of the famil y be a singular exam ple to the rest . And eve n as souldiers wh ich have an excellent commander are ashamed to desert th at place w hich is app ointed them ; so men and m aid-servant s will no t forsake that part of the family conce rn, the custody of which is co mm itted to the m by a chaste and prudent mist ress. [BS]

3 1Politics 2.4. 1 262bI , in Complete Works ojAristotle. 2:2004. In Aristotle's view, women were, of course, always property; the question was whether they were owned by one man or by many. Women can be exchanged among men in a variety of ways and for diverse reasons: to establish relations among families, to consolidate a political position or party, to acquire land or a public office . For an analysisof these systems of exchange, see Gayle Rubin, "The Traffi c in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex," in Toward all Alllhl'opology ~rWO l1lell , ed. Rayna R. Reiter (New Yo rk: Monthly Review Press, 1975), 157-2 ro .

THE TERM S O F THE DEBATE 45

Her subaltern role is defined by an overriding obligation to obey her husband. She fo llow s two ru les: th e rule ofself-effacement and the rule of transparenc y. Her actions must be as though they were her husband's : "Let her be so conversant with him, that it may be most certain that nothing will be good to her, nothing pleasant, without her husband." And her thoughts must be en tirely clear to him: "Let them [wives] feign nothing, let them dissemble nothing, let them conceal nothing . . . . I w ould that w ives should so live with their husbands, that in a m anner they might be of one mind and if it could be done ... that two should become one" (F2V- 3V) . Her activities are conditioned accordingly. Bar­baro insists th at his wife, unlike a Greek wi fe, is not to be restricted to her "bed-chamber, as in a prison." Yet she must venture into th e city only in the company of her husban d . She is to be unlike the moon, which shines only in the absence of the sun ; she is to be seen only when by her husb and, w hose light will ve ry nearly (bu t not quite) obscure hers (Gv). In other words, in public a wife is seen as a "pale refle ction" of her husband.52 H ence, too, she cannot express herself authoritatively; in fact , Barbaro denies that she can "know" anything:

Socrates [IsocratesJexhorteth men to speak either those things whi ch they certainly know, or which , with their honour, they cannot conceal. We enjoin women to concede the former as proper to men, but they may believe the latter also common to themselves; in whom loquacity cannot be enough reproved, by the most prudent and learned persons, nor taciturnity sufficiently applauded. (G2]

A woman 's eloquence is therefore, like her public appearance, also para­doxical: "T hey should think that th ey shall obtain the glo ry ofeloquence, if they adorn themselves with the famous ornament of silence" (G JV). In short, none of a woman's duties suggests that she is supposed to have a sense ofherselfas other than a useful extension of he r husband. Barbaro is able to conceive of his ideal wife in these terms because he can make use of Aristotelian notions of a female nature; woman is "naturally weak " in relation to m an , who is naturally strong. Wom an is "fearful," and he r fear brings "care" to preserve household order and direction (H 4). In other words, the duties that defin e a w ife are not im posed on her by a superior power, but derive fro m her innate disposition. Afflicted with a funda­

52The image, proverbial in the marriage literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen­turies, is Plutarch 's: "Whenever the moon is at a distance from the sun we see her conspicuous and brilliant, but she disappearsandhides herselfwhenshe comes near him. Contrariwisea virtuous womanought to be most visible inherhusband's company, andto stay in the house and hideherseJf whenhe is away": A dvice to Bride and Groom (Conjugalia pr aecepr a), in Plutarch's M oralia, 1:304-5.

4-6 RE NA ISSAN C E FEMINISM

m ental we akn ess, his typi cal wo man canno t be ex pected to demonstrate a virile vir tue that w ould permit her co take part in pu blic affairs, or to acquire th kinds of power needed for such activities.

T his picture is refuted, to a degree, w hen Barb aro addresses two situations in w hich w omen coul d, and obviously sometimes did, have real power: the situation of the w idow and that of the wom an of prop­ert y. In bo th cases, he sees dangers that betray his awareness of a fem ale nature different from the on e he has describ ed. Widows may prove recalcitr ant because experience has given them a sense of thems elves tha t is different fro m the sense that their husbands expect them to have and , indeed , th at they should have, if they are creatur es who are com para­tively weak: "We can scarce w ith great in geny [sic], elabor ate industry, and sing ular care reduce w idows, formed both to their own and other hu mors, to our own custornes" (C v). And a rich wife may pro ve disobe­dient: "I think the riches of the w ife unprofi table, unl ess the patt ern ofher husband's discipline sha ll appear easie to her, even in penury itself' (D S). The statement can be under stood by inference: w ith riches, a wom an may have reason to resist her hus band's autho rity. N ot sur prisingly, Barbaro is concerned about th e effect of a marri ed woman's property on the relationship between spouses. Lycurgus, he asserts , "ordained th at wives should be espoused without por tions" in order th at "Spartan w omen migh t not rem ain unmarried for their poverty, nor be married for their riches, for he for esaw that the Spart anes w ou ld seck vir tue not riche s in wives, and that the w ome n w ould be far more diligent in the acquisition of virtues" (D 6r-v) . Barbaro has earlier stated that the virtue proper to w oma n would constitute her as self-effa cing and transparent ; here he sees riches as reconstituting her as a tru e subj ect, a per son who is in some way independent of her husband.

Finall y, all Ba rbaro 's stipulations regarding the conduct of woman reflect his con cern that her role as a vessel of generation not be com pro­mised. He values a woman's sex uality as essent ial to the w elfare of the family and ultimately to the state , but he em phasizes that it ought no t to be the basis for any kin d of self- rep resentation:

Husbands shall accustom (their wives] to seem to be helpers, no t of lust, but of necessity: , . . [wives] sho uld so evidence their nuptial honour and modesty, that in their cong ress decency may acco m pany their embraces, lest by their avidity and immode sty, they be both defect ive in their ho nou r, and also less acceptable to their tacite husbands [mariti tacenti; i.e., uncom­plaining]. [H v]

~ arb aro identifies the expression ofsexual desire with speech and makes silence a SIgn of sexual mod esty. A husband 's "t aciteness" indicates both

T HE TE RM S O F THE DEBAT E 47

his reluctance to chast ize his 'wife for her passion and his own indifference or passivity; th e impli cation is th at she has had greater pleasure th an he. A woman's "m odesty" is linked to her silence , and a m an 's control ofher to the forfeit of he r sex ua l and her speaking self. Lacking express ion for her selfas subject, she becom es merely an object to be used . At the same time she is an "image" of some higher power and has symbolic value. What must be noticed is that her transformation into an obj ect and symbol has depended on a kind of violence . Men ag ree to cease hostilities among themselves because th ey can agree to exchange w ome n am ong th em­selves . In the pr ocess women lose their capac ity to speak and be heard ; they have value or are virtu ous onl y as the means by w hic h the continuity of soc iety is guaranteed .

H umanists writing on household go vern me nt did not gen erall y allude to personal ex perience, despite the int imate nat ure of their subject . Ba r­baro's objectivity, lik e his conservatism , is the rul e in this genre. Leon Battista Albe rt i's Libr! della jan: iglia (144 I ) is unus ual in focusing on the m ores of his own famil y in Flo rence , wh ich, as he lam ents , is "separated and scattered" by " the cond itions of our time, th e circumstances of our evi l fate ."5] The Alberti w ife 's part in restoring her fami ly to prosperity is clear and crucial: she is to m aintain domes tic or der by conserving what her husband has acquired. If she fails to do so , she not only hurts her family but also affects the fina ncial stabil ity of the state. For goods that are kept w ithin a family do not enter th e marketplace; conversely, those that are lost or so ld are put back in to competiti ve play. In excessive quantities , goods in the process of being exc hanged can cause me n to feel gr eed, am biti on , and an ind ifference to law. Ra the r than defi ne her value as th at of an object exc hanged bet ween men, as Barbaro does , Alberti sees a woma n as one w ho by conse rving pr opert y limits the nu mber of (real) objec ts to be exc hanged among men , and th ereby prevents rapid shifts in the fortunes of her family and, by ext ension, of tho se of others.

53Leon Ba tt ista Albe rti, Tire Falllily in Renaissance Florence: A Translation by Renee Nell HatkillS of "I L ibr! dellajiw 1is lio" (Columbia: U niversirv o fSo ut h Ca rolina Press, 1969),94. For a modern editio n, see Leon Ba tti sta Alberti, Opere volga ri, ed . Cecil G rayson , Scritro ri d 'I talia "I S (Ba ri: Laterza, 1960). Presented to the Florentine Republic in !44! as a cont ri­bu tion to a lite rar y contes t o n friendship, Albert i's book wa s circulated widely in manu­script but no t printed befo re !7}+. The text is divided inro a pro log ue and four bo ok s; the second , D,' re l/ x on'a , and the th ird, ECOII OlllicIL' , contain Alb ert i 's discussion of w oman and marriage . For studi es of Della.famiglia. see. i.a.. Enrico Au bel. Leon Battista A lberti e i libri dellaJunigbc .Citta di Castello : S. Lapi, 19!3) . For an excellent study of Alberti 's w orks as a whole. esp, his de velopment of th e idea of perspe ctive , see Joan Gadol, L eon Battista Al berti. Universal Man of tlic Early Renaissance (C hicago: U niver sit y of C hicago Pr ess. !9 69)· Watkins pro vides her rranslarion with a useful int roduction and bibliography of w o rks in English .

48 RENA ISSANCE FEMINI SM

Hi s diso rderly w ife stands for a systematic confusion that threatens the we ll-being of the state itself.

Alberti 's em phasis on economic s, necessit at ed in part by the actua l fmancial strait s of his family, also reflects contemporary Florentine atti­tu des toward property and prosperity. H e (like Barbaro) dra ws on Aris­totle , particularly the E co nomics, a text translated by his com patr io t Lion­ardo Bru ni in 1420 w ith this apo logy: "If it is a philosopher's task to study th e sta te, th e famil y, and even the administration and increase of pr op­ert y, then this alo ne pr oves that possession s and riches should not be regarded by the wi se m an with sovereign contempt. " 54 Restrictions on th e transfer of w omen's property sugges t to w hat extent the preservation of a fami ly's "possessions and riches" depended on its co ntrol. In legal affairs, a Floren tine woman wa s not allowed to be sine mundio, without th e guardianship (mundium) of her father or husband . H er fathe r could clausrrate her, redu ce her inheritance, determine her do wry, decide whom she w ould marry. Specifically designed to pre serve th e w ealth of the city was the law th at required th e w idow of a non-Florentine to retu rn to her patern al home in Florenc e if she w ished to keep her do wry, which otherwise reverted to her family. 55

Della famiglia is written as a series of dialogues in w hich the principal speakers, all mal e members of the Alberti family, arg ue for various positions on the conduct of fam ily life. The family's situation is pree­cario us , in that its head, the mi ddle-aged Lorenzo (Batt ista'S father), is dy ing. Hi s place is filled alte rn ately in the cour se of the dialogues by tw o cou sins, the yo ut hful Lionardo and the aged Giannozzo , but the tempo ­rar y nature of th ese substi tutions underscores th e fragility of the unit w hose con tinuity the speakers are tr ying to ensure. In Book II, ti tled De reuXMia, a dialogue be tween Ba ttista and Lionardo , the for mer argues for the dignity of romant ic love , the latt er fo r a marriage based on friendship.

Ba tt ista's yo uthful asser tion of the value of romantic love is clearly un dercut by th e evidence he brings to support it . To Batt ista, " love is a for ce and a law no t altogeth er deserving contempt and blame .. . so me thing imposed by divine na ture on any living creature bo th to reproduce itself and to in crease its kind" (95). It is, moreove r, m ost per fectly realized in m arri age: "We may consider the love ofhu sband and wife gre atest ofall. " And it is the basis for a society's w ealth: "It rules . .. the whole economy." So much, however, for th eory-these sta tements are immediately refuted when Batt ista obse rves: "Ye t somehow, I do not

54 Q uo ted in Baron, "New Attitude toward Wealth," 176. "E . Rodocanachi, La Femme italien ne at'epoque de fa Renaissance (Paris: Hach ett e, 190 7),

2 9 2 .

49 THE TERM S OF THE DEBATE

know why, it happens not infrequently that a woman prefers a lover to her own husband ." And later he notes that romantic love can drive a man

.J to kill his ow n child, as "Catiline, w ho for love ofAurelia Orestilla, killed his own son tha t he might take her to wife." Finally, love is opposed to the interests of the state. Women are generally faithless, Battista admits, and men in love are prone to acts of injustice that have socially and politically devastating results. H is description suggests a Senecan trag­edy: love, he claims, can restrain "the royal will and royal appetite, " raise "an insignificant and meretricious creature to glorious dignity and high estate," make us "despise fame, forget all honor and noble deeds, and lightly tear even the closest bonds of kinship." His interlocutor, Lio­

. 1 nardo, can hardly expect an obj ection when he redefines love as "a .: c limitless folly," "vile appetite," "brutish desire" (98- 101) . j To clarify what Battista has found perplexing, Lionardo insists on the

central importance of the fam ily, and claims that a love "free from all lasciviousness" and characterized as friendship is the onl y basis for mar­riage (lor) . He describes the origins of m arriage as a kind of social contract entered into for practical reasons, chiefly for the production of children. Terming a family "fortunate" if it has a "good supply of rich men" (r 10; see also 127), he discusses marriage in a perspective almost

·":5 anthropological-men wish progeny, women with progeny require pro­tection, therefore men appropriate and protect women. His principal point, that women are the conduits through w hich male members of a

) family must pass generationally, is made clear in his conclusion: the friendship he has ex tolled is an emotion felt by me n primarily for men, and it is expressed by agre ements about ho w women are to be shared and exchanged. In practice, it has nothing to do w ith feelings that a husband and wife have for each othe r. "That Pompey of yours, " he exclaims to Battista, "amorous as he was, did he not always put friendship first?"

Though Pompey was aflame with love of [Flora] yet he allowed Geminius to enjoy her. Thus he preferred to satisfy his friend's desire rather than his own strong passion. . .. That was a noble deed ofsuch friendship asalways

' J in wholesome minds outweighs the madness of sexual love. Such is the way of true and simple friendship, generous, as you see, and not willing to

; :1 share and give only property [la roba] to a friend, but to deprive oneselfand yield to him in good will and faith even the object ofone's personal and, as

:5 you say, divine affections and desires. [103]

The im plications of this image of male friendship are clear. The silent Flor a who is at the exemplary Po mp ey 's disposal is properry; thar she is also the object of Pom pey 's affectio n means onl y that he is able to regard property with affection. T he fact that he feels affection for a woman does

50 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

not necessarily mean th at he does not regard her as an object that he may acquire or dispose of at will.

In his first two books, Alberti makes a point of distinguishing among kinds of families, those at the crest of good fortune and those, like his own, which are in distress . In Book III, E conomi cus, he sets forth the means by which a family can retain or regain its prosperity. The task depends on a discrimination ofpublic and private duties , and on pursuing them without personal ambition. 56 On the smaller scale of civic order, Alberti imagines a version of the political equilibrium Barbaro dr eamed of when he described the diplomatic exchange of women of different nations. Ambition, his character Lionardo claims (introducing the sub­ject ofBook III), destroys a person and his family because it leads them to overextend their resources, but it also wrecks the stability that ought to obtain among families and within their society at large. He goes on to insist that "fame is born not in the midst of private peace but in public action"; that a citizen ought to desire "the unity, calm, peace, and tranquillity of his own house, but much more those of the country and of the republic ." Republics cannot be preserved "if all good men are solely content with their private leisure." But, he cautions , these public actions will not benefit "the country" and " the republic" "if men ofwealth or wisdom or .' nobility among the citizens seek more power than the other citizens, who are also free but less fortunate" (I 78). That is, the ideal citizen uses power only for the general good, and not to enh ance his position by undermin­ing that of another. Giannozzo's answer to the implications of this st ate­ment , their substantiation in the actual practice of family affairs , de­scribes the control of famil ial resources largely as it is effected by the husband's discipline of his wife.

For Giannozzo all public government of the kind Lionardo has extolled must begin with self-government: "One must never . .. for the sake of ruling others ... cease to bear rule over oneself." And if "private affairs" are not to "get in the way of public ones," there must be a proper division of labor within the house, that is, a man's wife must be his utterly obedient and trustworthy agent. It is she w ho must preserve the family 's "possessions," without which it will lack friends and allies, while her

36In her essay on the origins of the notion of female purity as a featu re of human society ever ywhere, Sherr y B. Ortner suggests that limitations on the social and econo mic competitiv eness of male head s offamilie s within a given society can be associated with the development of the apparatu s of state control. In her view, such men become "dornesti­cate~"-tha t is, they compensate for a loss ofpower and prestige insociety byitsexercis e within the famil y, and spe cl~cal! y over wives andchildren. Ifcorrect, her theory explains at lea:t In par t wh y Albert"! might lmk the control of wives with the COntainment of an1blt)l.on on the part of husbands. See "The Virgin and the State," Feminist Stt/dies ' 3(r97s . 19-3 5. 'h

THE TE RM S OF THE DEB AT E 5 I

- .l y h usband exerc ises an "hono ra ble authority " (179- 80). "N ature, " Lion ­ardo then observes (ela borating features of his earli er arg um en t from nature), concur s in this assign m en t of roles:

Men are by nature of a more elevated min d than wome n. They are more suited to struggle with arms and with cunning against the misfortunes which afflict coun try, religion, and one's own children. ... Women, on the

;. (1"v other hand. are almos t all timid by nature, soft, slow, and the refore mo re

"==1". useful when they sit still and watch over our thin gs. It is as tho ugh natur e - .'d thus provided for our well-being, arranging for men to bring things home

and for wo men to guard them . [207]

: 0 In fac t, as G ian nozzo 's description o f his rel ati onship w ith his w ife :0 shows, the conduc t he expects from her is no t in the least natural but -- t rather th e result of his own treat m ent of her.

Giannozzo be gins his desc rip t ion of hi s w ife 's educa tion b y noting that she knows nothing o f h is affairs : although he has shown her hi s " trea­sures, " he keeps h is books and records lo cked in hi s study. She "not only

: :1 could not read , she could not even lay hands on them. . . . I o ften used to ) [ express m y disapproval o f bold and forw ard females who tr y too hard to

know about things ou tside the house, an d abou t th e concerns of their husband and o f m en in genera l." H e w arn s husbands not to co nfide in the ir w ives: "They are m ad men if th ey thin k true prudence or good co u nsel lies in the female brain " (210). A w ife's ignorance is com pounded

: - by her isolation from persons in genera l. Sh e is not to particip at e in the society ofw omen, w hich is descr ibed as fr ivolous: " I shall be truly g lad if r see that you [his w ife] d isda in . . . the cha tt ering that some little gi rls do all da y, in th e house, at the d oor, and w herev er they go. They talk now w ith this friend , no w wi th that one; they ask a lot of questions and say a

-! lot o f th ings tha t they don't know as well as a lot th at they do." N or is she to convers e with m embers of her ow n househ ol d . She is to talk as little as possible to her servants or to listen to their opinions o r th eir co mplaints: "Too much familiarity kills re spect" (2 I 7- I 8).

M ore crucial than her ignorance and isolati on is her humiliati on, a st ate ofmind indu ced by a process that be gins at th e time of her m arriag e w ith her renunciation o f her mother and he r m other 's nurturance: she is to ld she must behave as an Alberti gi rl (21 5). Sh e h as to acknow ledge th at her mother's in struction has been ins ufficient and that she seeks one m ore perfect-"her m ot her had tau ght her only how to sp in and sew, and h ow to be virtuous and o bedien t. N ow sh e w ould gl adly lea rn fro m m e [G iannozzo) how to rule the family " (218). Sh e h ers elf is made to feel w holly in cap able of co rrec t judgment. When Giannozzo asks his bride h ow she w ould begin her houseke eping, she ans w ers naively that she

52 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

would arrange to lock everything up. When Giannozzo points out th at it would be impractical to lock everything up, she is silent and lowers her eyes. He takes pleasure in her reaction: "I wa s no little pleased inw ardly, seeing that becoming air of repentance on her face." And he congrat ula tes himself on her humiliation: "I could see th at she wa s inde ed awa re of having been coo quick to answer me and th at she would , in time, become m or e and m or e careful of her words. " When she fin ally responds, it is silen tly: "Aft er a little w hile, with humble and m od est slowness, she lifted up her eyes to me and, w itho u t speaking, sm iled" (221) . This moment of instruction clearly aims at dehumanizing th e pupil. Gian­nozzos w ife (w ho never recei ves a name throu gh out the dialogue) is forgiv en w hen she beh aves like a do g: scolded, she lowers her eyes; after an appro priate int erval, she raises them aga in in a chaste ned attitu de. Giannozzo can proceed with his lesson .

H o w do es Alberti imagine th at suc h brutal methods will be su ccessful? The ans we r lies in a later passage in which Giann ozzo inst ru cts his wi fe on the need alw ays to be cheerful. He draws a compariso n be tween his own life, w hich is full of strife and therefor e naturally con du cive to

occasional bad temper, and her own, which is utterly peaceful. His "so ur mood" is excusable because he has "spent the day talking and contending with mal evolent , scheming persons and with enemies." She , on the other hand. can experience "drooping spirits" only through " the unfortunate results of[her] own mistakes." "You," he declares, "need do nothing but live happily, make sure the household obeys you, and keep th e family w ell. I am doubly grieved when I see you sad, for I kn ow th at by yo ur very unhappiness you are confessing some fault" (228) . In effect, he m akes her responsible for the misfortunes of th ose aro und her, and for the accidental mishaps that occur at random in eve ry kind of domestic situa tion. She cannot escape blame. If she remains cheerful in th e face ofa do mes tic dis aster, she will be blamed both for it and for being impercep­tive; if she beco mes w orr ied or gloomy, the cause wi ll again be her fault , and she wil l have incurred her husband 's displeasure. The success w ith w hich Giannozzo can hope to transform his bride int o his loyal surroga te in the house turns upon the inculcation o f pervasive feelin gs of guilt.

Give n th e func tion of w omen as gua rdians o f property, the need for such guilt and the kind of control it permits is, I think, clear. For it is by releasin g int o the public arena goods that can be competed for that hostilities amo ng men are provok ed. The w oman w ho thr eatens social orde r is there fore the one who tails to keep w hat she has been given, a fact that explains w hy the otherwise secretive Giann ozzo rev eals all his trea­sure to his wife . A careless wife initiates a confusion of catego ries of belo ngi ng, a flouting of proprieties, that is, of decenc y and owne rship.

53 THE TERMS O F TH E DEB AT E

Such a woman is in fact d escribed b y G ian n ozzo as an example o f how no t to beha ve. A sking hi s w ife for "order and sys tem ", he d eclares

It does not befit a wo man like you CO carr y a sword, nor to do o ther manly things that me n do . N or is it alw ays and in all places fitting for a w om an to do eve rything that is proper to a wo man, for instance holding a distaff, wearing go ld brocade, having one's head tied up in a kerchief [all at once] . . . . You shall see that thi ngs are done in thei r prop er time . Wh at is needed in autumn is not be cons umed in M ay. Wha t should be enough for a month is not to be used up in a day. [226]

This image o f femin ine d isorder exempli fies a co n fla rio n o f ca tegories . Indoors an d outside ; male and female ; past, present , and fu ture are confused , and what is proper to on e or the o th er now becomes univer­sally available . The diso rderly woman signifies the pu tt in g back into co mpeti tive pl ay of o bjects th at have alread y been ass ig ned a use , a tim e and plac e of operation , and an interes t or purpose. If, as Barba ro no ted, women k eep the peace by b ein g property that men can exch an ge, prop­erty tha t ge n er ates propert y, an d if, as A lb erti h as said, free but u n fortu­nate fami lies are th reat ened b y the ambition of fam ilies in power, then the role of wo men as p re serve rs ac q ui res a d ouble functi on . By being ex­

chan geable property they all eviate competit ive tensio n among m en; by preserving property they relie ve m en of the need to be co m petitive . B oth fu n ctions are imp o rt an t to the stability o f society. 57

For the next tw o ce ntu ries feminists pro te st ed the imag es o f wo men in such trea tises as those ofB ar bar o and Alberti. They saw that acco rding to

convention a wom an's role w as b ound up with systems for the all o cati on of p ro perty among men . H er v ir tue w as expressed p rincipally in the absence o r negatio n of act ivity. H er chastity was valuable because it guarantee d the father 's ownersh ip ofhi s ch ildren and it pointed to the o ne

37Christiane Klapisch-Zuber reports that women who were married at an early age were often a full generation younger than their husbands- a fact that might account for Giannozzo's attitude cowa rd his wife: Women, Family, and Ri tual in Renaissance Italy, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 20; see also I09 . According to Richard Trexler, Florentine women had "no legally incorporated identity"; like adolescents and adult salaried workers, they were "objects of trade, being locati , 'placed' or rented in countless agreements." As such, women were an element in the "l imina," made up of "the socially peripheral and disernpowe red" whose "unorganized potential for disorder" was frightening to men: Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York: Academic Press, 1980), 15-1 6. Tamassia notes that in those parts of Italy formerly under Germanic law (as Florence had been), the tutela or legalguardianship of women by men was the rule. Women were freer in territories under Roman law. "In these regions women. ciring their ancient Roman privileges. were able to perform all the legalactivities ~ hey wished, without the onerous burden of parental and judicial wardship": Famiglia ita lian a, 272- 73.

54 REN AI SSAN CE FEMINISM

means by w hich she might be able to gain an easy and surrepn nous control of socie ty, that is, by select ing which men would become fathers and w hich not. Her silen ce wa s essential because her status as property, as an object, was injeopardy if she spoke. Feminists responded by objecting to restric tions on speech, public activit y, and the administration of prop­erty, especially property that a wife had br ou ght to the family, either by dowry o r by her own work. On the other hand, the y were most per­sistently and subtly challeng ed, no t to say confounded, by what on e might call Alberti 's "Flora syndrome"-that is, the condition of the abused woman w ho is also loved . Affection itself proved to be an am big­uous concept. A man 's devoti on to a w oman did not app ear in any way to preclude her objectificarion in his eyes; a wom an 's devotion to a ma n might be assumed to entail an acceptance of this tre atment. The idea of the companionate marriage, so frequently proposed and extolled by all parties, w as seen event ually to beg the question . To hat exte nt , if at all, can being a com panion mean bein g an equal?

Chris tian Marriag«

Misogyny was the inevitable by-p rodu ct of the concept of Christian m arriage as the union of rational man with passionate woman; however forceful his control, his associati on w ith her made for a moral condition less perfect than that guaranteed by celib acy. The effect s of misogynistic attitudes on marriage doctrine we re mitigated chiefly by the concept of charity. Beyond em phasizing the importance of a husband's love for his inferior and subordinate wife, marriage doctrine emphasizing charity taught that she (although the weaker vessel) w as capable of salvation and th erefore ought to be help ed to ach ieve it. By the fifteenth century, however, the humanists' concern w ith the welfare of the state had put C hrist ian marri age in a new perspective. For them, marriage and the household were political as w ell as sacramental entities, and relations between spouses and their relatives were determi ned more by legalistic than religious j ustifications. The power of the patriarch-in heory lim­ited by his ob ligation as a father to "love C hrist more than a son or daughter" (M att. IO:37) as well as by his C hristlike love as a husband­wa s enh anced by descrip tions of the household as a state or even (as in Barbaro ) a m ilitary establishm ent.

Christians could and did find reasons to object to th e rigor im plicit in the humanists' idea of marriage. To regard the household as a political unit was to diminish the importance of the m oral requirement oflove: it could also th reaten. the ,sacramental charac ter of m arr iage by giving a {ather the presurnpnve righ t to den y his dau ghter her choi ce of husband

TH E TE RM S OF THE DEBATE 5 5

(as Rabelais was later to see). and, in cases in which she acted indepen­dently o f him, the binding nature of her consent . The latter issue is exp ressed in th e con troversy over so-called clandestine marriages , per­form ed without the consent of the parents of bride and groom. The clergy saw such unions as tru e marriages bec ause they w ere based on the co nsen t of the co uple: consent had to be mutual, but once it w as given , a cou ple w as cons idered m arried. Those w ho objected saw such m arriages as inv alid be caus e they denied the cou ple 's parents the right to intervene on financial, social, or moral grounds. They argued that no de cision as important as marriage should be left to the very young, and they pointed to the pra ctical hardships that could ensue in cases in which su ch deci­sions were for ced or ill con ceived. A marriage without due regard for soc ial status and the distribution of property mi ght place in j eopard y one if not both of the parental families .58 A woman h ad reason to fear both a clandestine and an arranged m arriag e: th e first justified if not actually enco ura ged her sed ~ c t ion or abduction. particularly if she had money or so cial sta tus; the second made her the pa wn of her parents' d ynastic ambitions. Both therefore denied her the right to exercise her own di scretion and conscience as to whom she w ould be required to serve and obey as husband . And as important, it denied her the right to determine when she might marry. Rich girls were so m etim es married before puber­ty ; after menarche, th ey w er e required to live with their husbands. The frequent alle gations of feminists that m arriage was no more tha n a kind of ensl avement of women reflect the ex trao rdin ary pun itiveness of m an y marnage s.

Beyond questions re garding what kinds ofmarriage were valid , Chris­tians who embraced humani stic discipline sought to discover the role of charity in relationships that were also m ore o r less rig idl y political.

58T he mo st comprehensive treat ment of all aspec ts of marri age and sex ual relations in this period is James A. Bru nd age, Lau-, Sex , and Christian Society ill Medieval Europe (Chi cago: Universi ty of C hicago Press, 1987), esp. 487-575 , on the late Middl e Age s and Rena issance to th e conven ing of the C ouncil of Trent (15.+ 5). For procedures governing m arr iage as an institution and a sacram ent befor e Tr ent, see also . i.a., Shahar, Fourth Estate, 81-86; Jack Goo dy, Th e Development of rile Family and Mal'l'iagc ill Europe (C amb ridg e: Ca m brid ge University Press. [983), 151-53; and She rma n, Roman Law, 56- 62. See also, for Italy, Rod ocanachi , Femm e italienne , 57- 60: Tarnassia, FallligUa italiana, 150-88. For France, see Bea trice Go t tlieb , "T he M eanin g of Cla ndesti ne M arri age." ill Falllil)' alld Sexuality i ll French Hi story, ed . Robert Wh eatOn and Tamara K. Ha reven (Philadelphia: Univer sity of Penns ylvania Press, 1980), '+9- 83; and fo r a different view of clandestine m arriage, see Brundag e, Law, Sex , and Christian Societ» 499-503. On farnilv mores in gen eral, see D on ald Kelley. "T he Prim al D ialectic, " in The Begill17 illg ojJdeolog)'.: Conscious­ness and Society i17 the French RejCmnatio17 (C ambridge: C am bridge Uni ver sit y Press, 1983), 70-80. For rwo views of Erasmus's idea of marriage. sec E. V. TeJJe, Erasme deRotterdamet Ie septieme sacrement (Geneva: Droz, 1954), and John B. Pa yne, Erasmus: His T/l e%~y of /he Sacramenrs (RIchmond, Va.: Joh n Kn ox Press, 1970). 109- 25. c •

56 REN AISSANCE FEMINISM

Erasmus, for example, speaks of the husband's authority and power, the wife 's subordination and weakness, as elements not only in a domestic ord er but rather, and pr im arily, in an interdependence of souls. As he represents it , the fun ction of marr iage is not so much to strengthen society as to provide the grounds upon which a personal salvation may be worked out.59

Er asmus is not, however, consi stent in his opinion ofwoman, as either a spiritual or a political creature . He vari es his views with the kind of text he w rites and the audience he add resses. On the significance of woman's first creation and her spiritual equ ality to man, he is generally ambig­uous . In his coll oquy "T he New Mother," his feminist character, Fabulla, insists th at men hav e achieved their social superiority not because they possess better souls or intellects but because the y have and use physical force to get the ir way: w oman obeys a man, she says, "not as a superior but as a more aggressive person."60 In any case, she obs erves, it is only the wife and not the woman who is m ade subj ect to man . And she protests the injustice of the supremacy of man on two gr ounds . Despite their strength and aggressiveness, men are exposed to less danger in war than w omen in childbirth: "Your kind are stationed in the middle line; another man is in th e reserves; another sta ys safely in the rear; and finally many are saved by surrender and flight . We mu st engage death at close quarters." And by virtue of the fact that wo man, like man, is created in the im age of God, which is expressed in "m ental gifts," not "bodily form," she is the spiritual equal of man . Questioning Eutrapelus, her

59Erasmus is regar ded as reformist largely because he places " ma rried chastity " on an ethical par with celibacy and so raises the mora l statu s of the wife. wh o no lon ger exists chiefly to ensure that her husb and's sexuality be not sinful. By the time ofthe convening of the Council of Trent , such views were associated w ith the larger goa ls of the Protestant wr iters who popularized them. Despite these differen ces on the matter of celibacy, I have not been able to discern much differen ce betw een Pro testant and Catholic at titudes toward the role of the wife. The form al requirements for the performance of mari tal duti es rem ain th e sam e; the wife is give n the sam e restricted right to disob ey in bo th cases. For a different opinion, see Mar go Todd, "Humanists, Puritans, and the Spiri tualized Household, " Chu rch H istory 49 (19 80): 18- 34· For images of wo me n in the thought of Luth er and Calvin, see Jane D emp sey Dou glass, "Wo men in the Continent al Reformation ," in Reli­giolland Sexi sm, ed. Reut her, 292-318. For a discussion ofthe status of reformed wo men in publi c and private life in France, see, i.a., N atalie Zem on Davis, "City Women and Religious C hange ," in Society and Culture, 65-95; and N ancy Lym an Roelker, "The Ro le of N obl ewomen in the French Reformation ," Archiv fii r Ref ormationsgeschichte 63 (1972): 168- 95. For the impact of Reformation thought on the activities of wo me n in general, see Sherrin Marsh all Wyn tjes, " Women in the Refor mation Er a," in Becoming Visible, ed. Brid enthal and K oonz, r65 -91.

60 TheColloquies of Erasmus. trans. Craig R. Th ompson (Chicago : Universit y of Chi cago 1965)Press, , 27 1. I ha ve noted t~ e wo rds of the o riginal text, quoted (with column

references) from vol. 1 of Desiderii Er asrn i Roterod arni, Opera omnia (Leiden in [703)Instances where the translat ion is dubious . ' ,

57 THE T ERM S OF T H E DE BATE

male antagonist, she asks "w hether it's granted to men onl y to be mem­bers of C hrist [membri Christi]" (c. 767), and he repli es, "Heaven forbid! That's grant ed to all human creatures through faith " (271).

Erasmus does not leave Fabull a's position un chall enged . Understand­ably: it begs the question that most plagu ed contem porary defend ers of women, that is, the extent to which a woma n 's spiritual (and intellectual ) equ ality w ith man could sanction behavior that discounted altogether the nat ure of her phys ical bein g. Does the fact that wo ma n is subj ect to man not as woma n (that is, female) but onl y as wi fe mean that she can behave as if the circumstances in w hich she find s herself because of her sex have no meaning? Fabulla, the "new mother" of the dialogue, has sent her bab y out to nurse , as is the com mon custo m with women of her rank­"vulgo fit," she declares in the ori ginal text , with obvious irony (c. 768). C hastising her for failing in her natural as we ll as C hristian duty, Eu­trapelus establishes that the practice of wetnursing contrad icts no t only biologi cal nature but also the con nection between mind and body made sacred in Scripture; "the Lord Jesus himself calls his bod y a 'temple'" (277) . In other words, he sees that a woman 's spirituality and whatever it implies about her autono my can never be thought of as independe nt of her physical being. If Christians are obliged to regard the human body as sacred , the nurturing functions of the female body must enter into any det ermination of a woman's Christian duty and by extension of the nature of her autono m y. Like the wo rks of Boccaccio and Barbaro, Er asmus's "New M other" places a woman 's sexuality at the center of the con trove rsy surrounding the nature of her nature. The effects of her sexua lity do not make her conspicuo usly guilty (as they do for Boccac­cio) or merely salable (as they do for Barbaro), but they do exact the sacrifi ce of a cer tain kind ofl iberty. N ot, for Erasmus , valued as genera­tive property, woman is nevertheless bound by her generativity in ways that inevitably affect the conduct of her life.

H ow far did a wo man 's nature need fulfillment in marri ed sexu ality or, conversely, how far could her spir itu al requirements prevent it? In the­ory, a woman had always been able to elect conv entual ov er married life, alth ough in practice such a decision was often made for her by her parents, wh o would not or could not supply her with a dowry. By the sixteenth century, monastic establishments for women frequently had reputations for lax morals ; in some cases, cri tics termed th em little m ore than brothels, as Erasmus does he re. M ost contem porary crit icism of this kind comes from writers w ho do not argue a feminist line. Feminists, partic ularly those who identify themselves as women, almost invariabl y prai se the life of the woman who sequesters herself from the world, w hether formally in an institution or in respon se to a personal inclina­

58 RE NAISSANCE FEMINISM

tion .v' Erasmus's colloquy "A Girl with No Interest in Marriage" illus­trates the main features of the argument against convents and indicates

what such reformist criticism might actually signify. Catherine, a young woman, announces her intention to retire to a

cloister. Eubulus, trying to dissuade her, argues that the cloistered life is not what it appears, that Catherine's perception of the nuns' ideal and charming life is actually mistaken. All the ad vantages she believes she

will have in the cloister she can have at home, under the authority of her

affectionate parents. He claims that she will exchange the freedom she

enjoys by being subject to her parents for the "servitude" of a monas­tery.62 "Consider how many ad van rages you lose along with your free­dom, " he says .

Now you 're free to read, pray, sing God 's praises in your own room as much as you like and whenever you like. If you become tired ofyour room you ma y listen to choir chants, attend divine service, hear sermons. And if you see some lad y or unmarried woman of outstanding moral excellence, you can improve yourself by her conversation; if you see some man endowed w ith unusual virtue, you can learn from him what might im­prove you.

He argues further that her life at home is already a kind of claustration.

She can be obedient by obeying her parents; she is already poor because

"all [she has] is in [her] p arents' hands ." And her chastity is as well (if not

better) preserved at home. A nun's vows, by contrast, are nothing more than "certain rites that by themselves contribute nothing to religion"; h er veil is merely "a linen garment turned inside out" (109- 10).63

61For a summary of the quality of conventual life in the late Middle Ages, including opportunities for the exercise of real power under the rules of various orders for those women in author ity, see Shahar, Fourth Estate, 37-50. For the reputation of growing laxity in conventual discipline after the middle of the fifteenth century in Italy, see Rodocanachi, Femme italienne, 239-42 .

62Erasmus's text has "te pro libera tendis ultro servam reddere": Opera (1703), I:c. 699. Erasmus has earlier qualified the extent to which Catherine is free by having Eubulus remind her that she is to obey her parents except when they command her to violate God's law: "If parents oblige a child to behave with impiet y, their authority is to be held invalid" (si nunc parentes adigerent ad impietarern, conremnerida esser illorum auctoritas, c. 699). Thi s was the form under which the freedom of conscience of women was exercised generally, with respect to either a parent or a husband .

63Erasmus's attitude toward cloistered life for both men and women was generally negative. See, i.a., James Kelsey McConica: "Erasmus will not see the religious life as the highest form ofChristian vocation. It is rather a personal cal1ing which rnay or rnay not be profitable. He will advise nelt~er for nor against it. The real lesson is that piety has no external form or speC1~c vocational apparatus; it IS an inward state. And it is amply clear t~lat Er~smus expects hIS reader to be living in the world": English Humanists and Reforma­tion PO!JtICS under Henry VIII and Edw ard VI (Oxford: Clarendon, 1965), 22.

59 THE TERM S OF THE DEB ATE

For a w oman in Catherine's position, ho w ever, a decision to remain at home under the auth ority of her parents as an alt ernative to the cloi ster w ou ld not nece ssaril y have led to greater freed om. It would alm ost cert ainl y have en tailed an obl igation to m arry at so me point in the future, and probably to a m an 'whom her father had selec ted, since she is, as Era smus himself no tes, her parents' "po ssession ." She can go again st their wishes only if they are "drivin g" her to " w rong doing and infam y" (109). As a wife, she would be required to transfer her obedienc e from her father to a husband w ho would expect to exercise a similar kind of control over her. 64 M oreover, w ha t might be called th e sanctificat ion of secular life actually enhances secular autho rity-whether it is represented by father, br other, or, indeed, civil m agistr ate-by imbuing it with a spiritual pres ence. The subordinate is left w ith few reasons to question it . Such sanctification, of course, lat er becam e characteristic of Protestant politics. M agistrates became authorities in spiritual m atters (Q ueen Eliz­abeth was th e "supreme go vernor" of the English church); husbands and fathers to ok on the role ofpri est and confessor. The wife and child ren had no authority to appeal to outside th e: contex t of familial relations .

The prospect of a wo ma n oflearning-one w ho had the "freedom to read " outside the cloister-was not unproblematic either. In his "Abbo t and the Learned Lad y," Erasmus reveals w ha t a menace she could appear to be. His character Ma gdalia, usua lly identified as M arg aret More Roper, defends her reading of Greek and Roman authors on the gro und s th at wisdom is the g reatest happiness; the abbot Antronius atta cks her on the gr ounds th at w om en are intended only for pleasure: " It's not feminine to be brainy [non est muliebre sapere , c. 745]. A lad y's bu siness is to have a good time" (2 19). Magdalia's unstated premise is that women are capable of the sam e intellectu al development as me n, and th at w hatever the vocation to which the y are called, even that of wife, the y can legit­

64Klapisch-Zu ber no tes as th e situa tion o f fl orentine w o m en what ma y well have been (an d on th e ba sis o f the lit er ature o f feminist pro tes t I sus pect w as) th e case m ore o r less throughout Europe at thi s tim e:

T he determination of a woma n 's identi ty th us depended on her mov ements in relat ion to th e "houses" of men. ... "Hon orable" marriages w ere w hat regul ated the ent ries and exi ts of wives. and the normal state, th e s tate that guaranteed th e honor of the

.:. wo me n and th e "houses, " coul d be no oth er than th e marr ied state . Any woman alone was suspect. An unm arri ed woman was co nside red incap ab le of living alone or in th e absence o f masculine prot ection wit ho ut falling into sin . Even if she were a reclu se and lived a hol y life, even ifshe retir ed to a room on the upp er floor of th e patern al house , she placed the fami ly ho no r in j eopa rd y by the m ere fact of her celibac y. T he convent was th e onl y way o ut, altho ugh terrible dou bts about the securi ty of the cloister continue d to tor ment her parent s. Among the "bes t peop le, " ther efor e, families did not include females over twenty years of age w ho were not m arried . rWOn/en , Family, and Rilllal.1 19)

6 0 RENAIS SAN CE FEMI NI SM

ima tely acquire and pr ofit from wisdom. " D o you th ink [a w ife] can m anage so big a job [as managing a household] without wi sdom?" she asks (22 1). But she also beli ev es that if women con tinue to be edu cated, they wi ll be fit to assu me positions of intellectu al au tho rity -in short, to be in the situation of a Pop e Joan : "We'll pr esid e in the th eological schools , preach in th e churches, and w ear yo ur miters." And if educated w omen ready th emselves for such offi ces, "it w ill be up to you [men} to forbid [it]" (223 ; vestru/Il erit hocavertere, c. 746). Ma gdalia's defense ofthe intellectual vitality ofwhich women are capable contains a veiled critique of the intellectual slo th afflicting men . Women, she implies, w ill assume public and ecclesiasti cal offices only as a sign of the co rru ption of male clerics and not as a consequence o f fundamental social change . Here Erasmus is contesting not woma n 's capacity for intellectual life but th e propriety of givin g it institution al rather than m erely domestic scope.

The Institutio matrimonii christiani (1526) w as clearl y w ritten for persons in positions of authority, esp ecially the clergy, who might have to explain the principles go vern ing a Christian marria ge for the lay public. More precisely th an such popular didactic works as the Colloquies, it reveal s how the issues raised by the humani sts ' politicization ofm arriage affected the interpretati on of the do ctrine of cha rity as it applied to married life.6 5

6SEras m us 's m uch briefer and simpler Encomium matrilllo/J ii cha racterizes m arri age as a cond it ion of life both ph ysical and spiritual, su perior to celibacy in th at ic pr ovid es a g ro und for charitab le actio ns . Marriage is j ust ified by div ine law, which-like those "lett ers" that Paul tells C hristians are eng raved fo r th em no t on tablets of br ass, as w as rhe o ld law, but on th e livin g tabl es o f th eir hearts (2 Cor. 3:3)- is known onl y by love: A Ryglzt Fnueful! Epystle Dev ysed by the M oste Excellent Clerke Erasmus i ll Laude and Prayse of :Hatrymon)' (London, [5 34), sig. B 2- V. Erasmus em phasizes no t the du ties of the couple but th eir pr ofoun d intim acy.

For w hat rhynge is sweter then with her to Iyve, wit h w horne ye m ay be most str eyght ly copu led, nat onelv in the benevo lence of rhe mynd , bur also in the coniunc­tion of the bod y. y f a grea re delectation of mynd e be taken of the benevolence of our ot her kynsmen , syrhe it is an especval l swe rnes to have one with who m ye may savely tru sre, whyche supposethe your chaunces to be his, wha r felycy te (rhynke ye) have the conjuncrion of man and wyfe , rhan whych no rhynge in the unvversall worlde maybe founde ou rher grea ter or fermer ; [C6]

T his im age o f a ma rria ge of"s rraighr co upling" is lefr wi thou t furt he r explanation and so begs rhe qu estion of domesric order, to be answ ered at length in the lnstiuuio. It is on spiri tua l g rounds, ho wever , th at Erasmus argues vigo rously again st clan des tine mar­riages; he sees them as ins tan ces of rape, and invalid beca use th ey cannot be fo und ed on an y kind of relat ion be twe en spo uses o the r than a carnal one . Co m menting on a case invol vin g th e abdu ction ofa yo un g w oma n from her father's house by a " briga nd, " he writes: "After carry ing her away, th e brigand roo k her w here he w ished . This crime was applauded by so me co urtisans as a beautiful ac: t. This is how this luna tic. this rake, th is thi ef, th is madman came ro possess a WIfe o t good fam ily, ofex cellent manners, w ith a conside rable do w ry, but w ho suffered cons tant ly because ofhis beh avior an d had a hard rim e cbservinz the rules of pie ty " : Le Mariage chretien, tra ns. Cl. Bosc (Paris , 1714-), 73-74. [ LIse Bose's

THE TERMS OF THE DEBATE 6r

Erasmus bases his entire representation of the relations in marriage on the Pauline dictum that they are analogous to those between Christ and his church. This analogy transforms the husband's authority to a service of love; more important, it leads to a recognition of a kind of equality between the spouses: "One sees that there is something like this [a service of love] in marriage, where all the authority belongs to the husband, who must nevertheless use it not in a spirit of domination but of love and kindness for the weaker sex and in order to maintain a society of equals between them both" (23).66 This is a union not "according to laws" but between "persons of equal virtue who have the same feelings" (egalement venueuses, 24; pares virtutem, c. 620). Yet in subsequent passages Erasmus gives the authority of the husband so much rigor and scope that an equality between spouses is no longer imaginable in other than purely formal terms. His treatment of the relations ofhusband and wife suggests that while the notion that woman was the spiritual equal of man was mandated by Scripture, he found that its incorporation as a principle of domestic order was simply too alien to prevailing social practice to receive serious consideration.

Erasmus's wife is not only her husband's political subordinate but also his natural inferior. Like Barbaro's wife, she must conform to her hus­band's ways: "Marriage requires that the couple share together pleasures, pains, trials, joy and sadness. It is not enough that a wife be virtuous and honest if she doesn't know how to adjust to the temper of her husband; for one has never said that a mirror is faithful because it is decorated with gold and jewels" (159).67 In subsequent passages, Erasmus continues to

translation-evidently the only one of this extraordinary text ever to have been pub­lished-as a basis for my own throughout this book. Page references for my translations of subsequent brief quotations refer to Bose's translation. A complete version of Erasmus's original text may be found in vol. 5 of Opera amnia ([704). Dedicated to Catherine of Aragon, it was first published in Antwerp and not reprinted before the Leiden edition of the Opera ol1lllia. Wherever possible, [have checked Bose's translation against this text and noted dubious or important words and phrases. Marriages performed without a "sober and godly consent" are in any case invalid and even grounds for divorce in Erasmus's view, according to a later treatise precisely on divorce: "That whiche chyldyshnes, folishnes. want of wyt and ofknoledge and dronkenys hath joyned togyther, that (1 saye) whiche the devil hath joyned togither by baudes as well men baudes as women baudes and by whoars which ar hys mynusters and trewe weyghtyng servauntes, that same doth god verye well separate and undo by hys mvnysters": The Censure and Judgemellt of the Famous Clark Erasmus of Roterodam: "Whyther dyvorsemente betwelle man and w}je standeth with the lawe of God (London, 1550?), sig. f7v-S.

6(,Erasmus actually uses the word "equal" to describe the relations between married persons; theirs is societas aequae vitae: Opera, 5:C. 620.

67 Against ordinary mistreatment, however, a wife has no recourse: "Remember to suffer patiently a misfortune that you brought upon yourself. Ifit is not your fault, tolerate it nonetheless, for this pleases the Lord for reasons that are hidden from you" (65).

62 RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

struggle with th e contradiction implicit in his depiction of the wife as equal to and yet wholly dependent on her husband. He insists that the husband "must retain his authority at all time" (2 14), and also that this authority is shared: "the wife is not so infe rior to her husband that she cannot share his authority" (2 17). She is not to be his servant, but he is not to let her become his mistress . Seein g sexuality as the occa sion of a struggle for authority, he w orr ies th at a wife may excite her husband excessively, and, conversely, that she may not be sufficiently receptive: "T he first fault makes a woman despised by her husband, th e secon d w ill earn her his hatred" (166). In any case, hi s w ell-being is paramount, and to guarantee it is her responsibility. The trul y conflicted nature of the equality he has proposed may have driven Er asmus finall y to resort to paradox: "a wife is never more a mistress than w hen she obeys her husband" (224). He concludes, in an y case, by insisting on the wife's obedience in highly orthodox terms . The husband is God's representa­tive; he ma y not deserve to be obeyed, but Christ, who enjoins a wife's obedience, does so deserve. The husband 's model is Christ, but if he fails to im ita te his m aster, he does not lose his authority on that account. The reason: "good order," the excuse Erasmus attribu tes to Paul, who ar gu es for obedience to secular authority, even when unjust , in Romans 13 (297) .

The parallel between the family and the state is a rediscovery of humanists, but Erasmus is the first of them to link a w ife's obedience to the more general injunction against disobedience to govern ing authori­ties which applies to all Christians . Discussing instances in which a w ife ma y disobey her husband, he follo ws a line of reasoning identical to that of Luther when he argues for the right of Christians to liberty of con­science. So Erasmus counsels a wife: "Ifhe [your husband] orders you to

do something that is contrar y to faith or goo d manners , gently refuse to

ob ey him; but ifhe persists in w ishing to be ob eyed , remember that it is better to obey God than men" (297). This argument presupposes that the wife is educated to know do ctrine and morality. How does Er asmus envisage the education of w omen, especially in relation to their m arried lives?

He may be unique in conside ring how even th ose w omen w ho would do w ell to have a tr ade ought to be edu cated: "As soon as on e [i.e., a father] has en ough property not to need to work, it is appropriate to edu cate a young girl in Greek and Latin letters . If one must do manu al w ork because of lack of funds, then she must be taught to read in her language" (234 ).68 Who her teacher is to be he does not state' in any' case,,

68Cf Thom as Becan on improving the character of women: "To brin g this thing [Q

pass, It 15 expedient tha t by pub lic autho rity schools for wom en-children be erected and set

THE TERMS OF THE D EBATE 63

for the noble or gentlewoman, tutors were available; for a girl of the "mi ddling sort" w ho might have to do m anual work, elem ent ar y schools existed in some communities. For an education specifically in matters of faith and m oral s, howe ver, Erasmus is explicit. Like Paul, he insists th at a wom an be instructed by her husband: " If there is anything the y [w omen] desire to know [of the faith] , let them ask their hu sbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church" (1 Cor. 14:35). Erasmus's husband is to introduce his wife to the subj ect of the sermon, "the text and th e matter of w hich th e pastor is to speak, " before the y go to church. When they return home, he is to examine her on w hat she has learned . "T his must not be done w ith to o much exactitude at first ; on th e con­trary. she must be encouraged with pr aise until she is used to it." After she gains a certain judgment, he can acquaint her with the difference between "good and bad proofs," the "utility of examples and comparisons, " and the erro r in "false and com m on opinions" (236- 37).

What is really extraordinary in this educational program is the assump­tion th at underlies it. Despite his earlier claims con cerning the spi ritual equ alit y of women, Erasmus sees that th eir intelligence is inherently defectiv e. In fact, he likens the products of a woman's mind, ifnot shaped by mas culine instruction. to the menses. Only ifher thoughts are "fertil­ized" by the w it of her husband can she bring forth sound and well­formed "children ": "for, just as in generation a women do es not produce anything perfect witho ut int ercourse with a healthy man, and without this she produces nothing but unformed m atter that is no more than a mass of bad humors. so also if a husband does not take care to cultivate his wife's spirit, w hat else can one hope for?" The image (betraying its origins in Aristotelian biology) indicates Er asmus's belief that th e ob e­dience of a woman must in practice extend to that privileged order of grace and affect her equality as a member ofChrist. Pra ctically spe aking, it is difficult to imagine a situation in w hich an Erasmian wife could successfuUy obey her conscience. One is even at a loss to ima gine w hat kind of conscience she could claim. Her dependence seems almo st abso­lut e. Parad oxically, Erasmus dep icts her as fully human only in th is condition . Her husband's education of her has shaped her, given her life: "Where w ould I be if! had not met him to instruct me?" she asks. " lowe to the care you [her husband] have taken to teach me the fact that 1 have

up in every C hr istian commonw eal. and honest , sage, wise, discree t, sober, g rave , and learn ed ma tro ns made rulers and mistresses of the same, and that honest and liberal stipends be app ointed for the said schoo l-mistresses. which shall travail in the brin ging up of young maids. that by this means they may be occasioned the mare gladly and wiJIing ly to take pa ins": The Catcch issn (1560), cd . John Ayre . in The Work,. or Th omas Ba o/1 (Cam bridge. 1844), 2:376 - 77. .

64 RENAIS SANCE FEMINISM

become reasonable instead ofunreasonable, as I used to be, strong instead of feeb le. a real Christian not a Pharisee," she further confesses. And from that point, she begins to love her husband as the source of all authority-"to love him as her husband , to regard him as a master, to honor him like her father, to speak with in a more Christian manner, to

respect God in her husband" (237-39). In the interest of instituting the ideal of Christian marriage, Erasmus has revived the old myths of a masculine generativity: Zeus producing Athena; Pygmalion creating Galatea.

The most innovative intellectu al programs of the early Renaissance are associated with the efforts of humanists to reconceptualize the terms of moral and political life by referring to classical models and modes of thought. In general they reconceived relations between men and women so that they were more overtly political than they had been earlier. T he advantage to feminists of imagining that women could assume virtues typically masculine (as Boccaccio did ), of stressing the importance o f marriage over celibacy (as Barbaro and Alberti did ), and of insisting on woman's spiritual equality (as Erasmus did) w as vastly reduced by the qualifications surrounding these concessions. Feminists had, however, easier targets in these Italians than in Erasmus, who, more than his precusors, fixed on the difficulty of allowing a woman to experience the meaning of her spiritual equality while restricting her to an inferior and subordinate position in marriage and in society. Feminists struggled to formulate a position from which woman could be both autonomous and dutiful-with little success . Some who felt their dilemma most keenly (notably Marie de Gournay) would finall y make woman's spirituality paramount and thus also the justification for political and public activi ty.