Jordan-The-Terms-of-the-Debate

Renaissance Feminism

LIT ERA Y T EX T S AND POLITIC AL M O DELS

C O NS T AN CE JORDA N

CO RN ELL U N IVERSIT Y PRESS ITHACA ANU L ONDON

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I

The Terms of the D ebate

R EN AI SS A N C E literature in de fen se of wo m en is ro ug hly divisible into two genera l categories. The first is mo tivated by th e claims of so ciet y and th e sta te against th ose o f the ch u rch, and insi sts o n th e value of familial as against celibate life. The second-overtly femini st足 is dev ot ed to secur ing for wo m en a status equal to that of m en .! Most w o rks in both cat egories refute (or try to ) authorities assert in g th e moral w eakness of wom an o r her o nto logical inferiority to man , rehearse proofs of h er virtue, and attack mis ogyn y. Works in whi ch the status of wo me n is the chief su bj ect also criticize the att it udes and pr actices of patria rchy, particular! y paternal gr eed and marital brutality.

Some of thi s literature, such as M ario Equicol a's Libra di natu ra d'am ore, may be pr op erl y categ orized as hum anistic; but in general it is dir ected to a popular aud ience that could read fluen tl y and w ith some app reciati on for th e main elem ents of a classical m oral culture th at b y the six teen th

[T hrou g hou t this boo k I refer to " w o ma n " gen ericall y, as th e co m mo n or ideal t ype.

T he practice is genera! th rou ghou t both the literature of defense and mi sogynist satire: la donna , la femme, and " wo m an" or " wo m anki nd " are terms used to refer to th e class of persons w ho are fem ale and deser ve special treatm ent by men. As den oting a type, th ese rerrns are bot h sus tain ed and challenged by fem inists; th ey surv ive part icularl y in femi nist dis cou rse, w here "the w o ma n " acquires heroic (som etim es called "v irile") pr oportio ns an d is endo w ed w ith fem inine virtu es that make h er the equa l of ma n in eve ry respect . Ian Ma clean supposes th at insofar as w riting on wo m en established a co m mo n type, it is larg ely co nserv ativ e; JS a feature of in tellectua l history, it is less con troversial th an oth er kinds of inquiry ; and as an in dex to social pr actice, it is inconsist en t: The Rmaissallce N otion of Wamllll: .1 Sir/ely ill the For/lilies ofScholasticismand Medica! Science ill European lntellectua!

LIf e (Cam bridg e: C am brid ge Uni versity Pr ess, I 98o), r. By contrast, 1 thin k , wo rks spe cifically o f pro tes t, co m m it ted bo th to pro m o ting and ex ploding the idea of " w oma n , " are usually vig orous and heterod ox (if not alwa ys learn ed). and ex hib it a di versity of con cerns t hat vary wit h the circ umstan ces of their w riters and audie nces.

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RENAISS A N CE FEMINISM

centur y alr ead y had a wide representation in contemporary w ork s on socia l an d political topics. M an y w orks are dedi cated to persons of n ote, as is Francois Billori's L e Fort inexpugnable de l'honneur du sex e f b llinin to Catheri ne de M edicis, but apa rt fro m treatises defending the righ t of a particu lar queen to rul e, su ch as John A ylmer's H arhorowefo r FaithjilII and T rew e S ubj ects, they do not press cases for individu al women. T he va ri­ ous audiences for this liter ature are difficult to an alyz e precisely. Be cause certain features of a specificall y urban life often seem to provide a fo cus for a giv en argu m en t, I have generally assumed that th e rea dership for these w or ks was u rban an d o f the b ourgeoisie or " m iddlin g so rt" rather th an lan d ed an d aristo cratic. A few w orks were clearly intended in the first inst an ce for royal women -Jean Maro t's Doctrinal des princesses, for exam ple, an d Vives's D e institutio [o em inae christiana e-s-ira : the fact that the y w er e prin ted (and in the case of Vives also trans late d from an ori ginal in Latin) means that they were also perceiv ed as approp riate for a larger an d m ore socially heterogeneous audience. Works th at are p ri­ marily facetious, such as th e an ony mo us X V ]oi es de mariaye and E dward G os ynhill 's Sch olehouse of Wo men, m ay ha ve h ad a readership that ex­ tended to 'Nage laborers, ar tisans, an d tr adespeople. A mon g obvio usl y serious w o rks, few appear to be con cern ed w ith women w ho are n ot of the gent ry or n obility. Exceptions are catechisms su ch as th at of C lau de Badue1, the Engli sh homilies on obedience and disobedience, an d su ch demonstrably secta rian treatises on m arriage as William G ouge 's D omes­ tical! 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 ex p ressed in these w o rk s, 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 frequ ently at stake is the aut on om y of the woman of the urban bourgeoisie with in her family, especially with respect to h er husb and 's more or less absolute authority an d po w er over her. Her au to nom y- th e independence w ith which sh e can m ake and act up on moral an d political judgments-or lack of it is always considered as in ext ricab ly boun d up w ith econ omic and especially reprod u ctive fun c­ tions that are fulfilled by dom esti c activities designed to be perform ed exclusively at home, and b y the b earin g and nurtu ring of children . 3 T he :21assu me th at so me of th e works I shall discuss wer e kn o w n by having been read alou d .

For a discussion of this kin d of literacy. see N atalie Ze mo n D avis, "Printin g and th e Peop le, " in Society andCHl wre ill Earll' Modern France (Stanfo rd: Stanford Un iversit y Press, 1975). 189- 226.

-The degr ee to w hich any person livin g in early mod ern Europe co uld claim to be "autono mous, " or self-governing, w as de ter mine d by soc ial circumstances sub stantiallv different from th ose th at o btain in Western Euro pe and th e U nited States toda y. Th~ six teen th-cent ury societie s whose ideas on sex an d gender arc the subj ect of this book we re

THE T ERM S O F THE D EBATE

13

ways in w hich a wo ma n's exerc ise o f her own wi ll is m ost fre qu entl y anal yzed sugg est th at th ese writers con fron ted a co m m on social pr ob­ lem : th e wo m an w ho had lost the o ppo rtuni ty to make deci sions for hers elf o r her fam ily, espec ially dec isio ns th at co nce rned the managemen t of p roperty. A s she emerges fr om the pag es of these treatises, the typ ical wo m an almost alw ays appears to be a pe rson wh o is menaced by a kind of red unda ncy. Sh e 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 sub ordi­ n at e or she mu st reje ct the g ro un ds upon which sh e has been assigned he r role and disco ve r o thers th at p ro vide her wi th g rea te r scope .

In the fir st in stance , she is to agr ee to k eep bu sy, to take seri ou sly he r househ old tasks, h o w ev er menial and in certain cases symbolic (as w hen dau ghters of rich gen try are re q uired to spin to take up time), and ne ver to refuse to perform her hu sband' s o rde rs except in th e mo st ex trao rdi­ nar y o f m oral circ ums tan ces. What ev er opportunities fo r autono m y she ma y ha ve are represented as occasio ns in w hich to honor the o blig atio ns th at aris e from the comp lementarity of duties assig ned to m en and wo m en in marriage. H er e th e vir tue of w o ma n is real , deserves respect, an d so fo rt h , but it is alw ays anc illary to that of m an.

In the second in st an ce, she is to reject th e principal features of pa­ tri ar ch y, often by way of a historicist cri tiq ue. In light of co n tem po r ary circu m stan ces, i t is argued, women o ug h t to be allowed to do mo re th an th ey did in th e past , especi ally if that pa st is biblical. Write rs propose gr ea ter de gr ees of au to no my for th e wife vis-a -v is h er husban d ; th ey va lorize qualities th ou ght to be ch ara cteristicall y fem in ine, particularly th ose th at co m 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 distinc­ tions. O nc e ed uca ted, wo m en are to be considered capa ble of exe rcising both domesti cally and publi cly th e ki nds of virtue conventionall y as­ signed to males: justi ce, fortitude, pruden ce . M en, for their part, are to org anized ro p rovide their citizenry w ith a highly de ter mined sen se of " place" or "office," ro whose requirem en ts specific kinds of behavior , designated as social d ut ies, were ro be mod eled. D esp ite presc ribed lim its to m ost activities, how ever, there was for Christians a contin uo us if also am big uo us cha llenge 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 spiritu al duties. The tension between these t wo for ms of ob ligatio n is regi stered through­ out the poli tical literatur e of the period. O ften acute w he n th e du ties of wives and daug h ters are at issue, it is examined exten sively thr oughout th is book. Fo r a br ief su rv ey of th e idea of "place" or "o ffice" as it app lied to w omen in thi s per iod , see Shulamith Shahar, The Fourth Estate: A Hi.,tory oj Women in the Middle Ages (London and N ew Yor k: Methuen , 198 3), r-ro .

THE

TERM~

OF THE D EBAT E

T5

tions on women no t also balanced by a cou nterv ailing 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 m ed ieval wo men of feu dal rank depenJ eJ up on th e assu m 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 so m e wom en o f 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 trust ed not to alter con ven tion al political ohjcetiv es." 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 tran scend in im porta nce all o the r inte rests, in cludin g those that h ad to do with wo men as a group. So m e of the mo tivat ion for denying R enaissa nce w o me n auth orit y and po wer m ay the refo re have been a fu ncti on o f a newly acquir ed ability to articulat e interests th at w ere not d ynastic and in line w ith their duties as w ives and mothers . It w o men could imagine a v ital diff erence bet w een th eir interests and those of m en, if they could sec that o ppo rtu nities CO achieve politi cal (in contr as t to domestic ) vir tue ought not to be granted to the m in ex ceptional circumstances but rather as J. matter o f co urse , the y clearly th reaten ed the status quo , Were wome n to be identified as an underprivileged gro up irres pectiv e of rank , rho justice of patriarchy might be called in question ; a basis fo r a thorou gh reorgani zat ion of so ciety might be imagined , if not im media tely, at least at some future time, These were perceptions both cre ating and created by con te m po rary fem ini st protest. Literature defen ding w om en m ay there­ fore need to be subjected to a do uble int erpretation: fe minis t protest E urope an H istory, cri Re na te Briden rha l an d C lau d ia Ko onz (B os to n : H o ug h ton Mifliin , (977), I\lz- z !6; Kathleen Cas ey, "The C heshire Cat: Reco ns tructin g the Ex pe rience of Me d ie val Wo men , " in LihcrmillJ! l·HlIlI<l II '.' Hi story: Th eoretical aud C ritical Essa )'s, cd , Be­ renic e A . Ca rroll (U rb ana: U niversit y o f Illi n o is Pre ss, 1970) , 224-1, 49 : Mi ch ,1CI Mit­ eerauer J nd Reinh ard Seider, Tile European FilIll il)': Pilirill l"rh )' ami PonnersuipJ iW II IIl f Middle .,-\g cs ill fhe P, m :1lI (C hicag o: Unive rsity of C hicago Press. 19S-t): l.ilh an S. Robinson , " Wo m en und e r Ca pitalism: T he Renaissan ce Lady," in Sex , CI,Jl'S, (1IHI Culture (B lo o m ­ in g to n : Indiana Univer sity Press, 19R7). 150 - 77. For a th eoreti cal over view in cl udin g all ana lysis o f w o m en in m ode rn capiralis m , see H eidi H a rt man n, " C a pitalism . Pa tr iar ch y,

an d Job Segreg at ion by Sex, " in Tile SigHS R eader, eel. Abel and A bel, 193-2 25. O n th e cities of norrher n 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 En g lish case, see Mar y Pr ior. "Women and the U rban E co n om y : Oxford , ! ,00 -1 800 , in WO l1le ll ill Enol ish Socie'!}', 1500-.1800 , ed. Mar y Prior (London New York: Meth uen, r98s), <)3-r r7: fu r a stu dy of urba n women 11l Tus can y, see Ju di th C. Br o w n, "P: Wo m 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 H

and

course, oj'SE.n llll Difference in Earl>, Modrrn Europe, cd . M argJret W. Ferg uson, Ma urecn Quil ligan . an d Na nc y V ickers (C hicag o: Uni ve rsity of C hicago Press. r0 86). 206-44.

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

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RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

records poverty, abuse, humiliation; it also testines to some degre literacy, edu cation, 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 Ren aissance ?" itself a reply to the prevailing opinion that II experi ence 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 su ppo rted b y evidence from eco n o m ic and legal histc Although practices v ar ied considerably according to time and place, m ost cases it appears that wi th the development of more co rn plica economic relations, women we re 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 m en in this period, Susan Mosher Stua w rites that the creation of a commercial econ omy altered the function leg al documents effe cting th e tr ansfer of property, Will s, and simi) instrum ents " 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 ch an ge 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 d isadvantage in cases of intei regional commerce, where their bu sin esses went bey ond the limits of th co m m un ities in which they worked."

These developments presumably had th e greatest effects on women ir the hi gher ranks of society, w h o had substantial am o u nts of property ir their families , either owned in common with a spo use or in the form of : do wry. In various ways, th e conditions of women of lower ranks wert also altered. The thesis of Alice Clark's classic study o f working women in sev enteenth-century Engl and-that their economic position deterio­ rated with the advent of w ag e labor and industrializa tion-is still held to be largely valid .!" T he contributions of more recent historians ha ve 7Joan Kelly, " Did Wo m en Ha ve a Renaiss ance ?" 111 Becomitlg Visibl«, ed . Brid cnth al and Italy. trans .

KOOllZ, t 37- 0 4. For Burckhardt see The C iviu ssation o] tlir Renaissance in S. C; . C. Middlcrnorc (New York : Ra nd om H ou se. 19 54) , 292-96.

RSusan M osh er Stu ard , " D id Wom en Lose St atu s in Late M edieval ,111d Early M odern Times; " in R esturing Womell 10 Historv: Malaial sjilr 1+i?.<I Wt Civiiicntio», ed . Elizabeth Fox­ G en ov ese and Su san Mosh er Stuard (Fund fo r th e Improvement of Post-Seconda ry Edu­ cation ,1n d rhe Lilly Endowment, n .p., u.d.), t :J ~ o. 1 8~ .

"See esp. H o w ell, WOIII CII, Productio», and Pow-i,mil)'. [7 ,1- 8.1 .

1l)Alicc C lark, r·[lo rkillg L :r~ 'l j WOll/ en ill /he Seventeenth C m tll l )' (Lo nJ un: Frank C uss, 1 ~)l 9; Ne w York: Reprints vf Eco nomic Classics, 1\)68).

THE TERMS OF THE DEBA TE

17

modified it in some details; fu rther adjustm ents need to be made if sixteen th-cen tur y w o m en are under consideration. Roberta Hamilton argues that capitalism . not industrialization, was the factor that precipi­ tated cha n ge in the status of women , whether of the peasantry, the mi ddling sort, or the gentry. I I Chris M iddleton describes the relevant for m of capitalism as preindustrial (i. e., characteristic of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), with w ork going on "in the producer's own ho m e through var ious forms of the putting-out system. "12 Women then effec­ tively 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 Levin e: "In addition to her normal chores [i. e., housekeeping, gardening, keeping livestock], the wife of a protoin­ dustrialist or farm lab orer 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 employ­ ment by women in all ki n ds of skilled trades-a fact that must h ave enhanced rather than restricted their economic status .!" B u t as N atalie Zeman Davis notes, "female wage-earners," who formed a large part of the preindustrial econo m y, made up, "together with unskilled males, a kind of preproletariat. " 15 In an y case, much of th e working activities of skilled women did not apparently sh ow up in records other than those of apprenticeships. M ich ael R ob er 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 capitaliza­ tion 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 pro d uction and consumption-s-finds consis­ tent 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 H elm , 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 T hey Are Women, and Deeds They Are Men': Images of Work and Gender in Earl y Modern England, " in Women and f}ork ill Pre-Industria! England, cd. Charles and Duffin, 138-40.

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R EN A I SS AN C E FEMINIS M

ment. There w ives are regul arly scolded for leaving the ho use and con­ sum ing too mu ch of what their husbands bring in. Their own domestic labo r is routinel y discou nt ed, a fact that feminists no te and deplore.

While th eir liter ar y pr ote sts probabl y found few read ers among w age­ earni ng persons, treatises do in fact mention wo me n w orking on farms or ill workshops . O n the whole, th ey claim tha t alth ou gh women do th e 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 co m pa ra ble evidence . To substanti­ ate it, one has to assum e tha t in so me ways, at least, men and women we re equally affected by th e intellectual vigo r and the artistic achieve­ ment that characterized Renaissance culture. 17 In tw o important resp ects, however-education and liter acy- the record sug gests th at w omen did not eve n come near to matching th e achi evements of the men of the same rank mu ch befor e th e end of th e sev ent eent h cent ury. 18 Feminists reg­ ularly complain about th e lack of edu cation for wo me n . We are almost for ced to conclude that the Burckhardtian view of Ren aissanc e wom en wa s wron g. In any case, fem inist ar gum ent is writ ten and published largel y 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 indi­ cates a kind of fre ed om .

Int erpreting fem inist tex ts pr esen ts othe r challenges. Despite the po­ lemical nature of the debate on w o m en, m any texts cannot be charac­ terized as sim p ly for or agains t women . Treatises os tensibly defe nding women are some times ambiguous because th eir int ention is in fact tw o­ \7 As Jo an Kelly rem arks: " O n th e one hand , aristocratic wo men lost co n siderable economic , political, and cul tural power in relati on not only to th eir feudal foreb ear s bu t to men o f their OWI1 clas s. O n the o ther hand , a new clas s o f wo me n w as created accordin g to a new g ender cons tru ctio n of the d o mestic lady. The co n tent s of earl y femin ist th eor y reflec t th e declin in g power o f wo m en o f ran k and the enforced d omesti cati on of m id dl e­ class w o men . Yet it owes irs ve ry being to new po w ers o f educatio n th at so m e of th e w o m en had at their com ma nd ": "Early f em inist Th eory and the Q llerelle dcs je mm es," in W01ll W , History, 411d Th eory: Th e E ssa ys o. f Joall Kelly (C hic ag o: U niver sity o f C hic ago Pre ss, 1986), 67 . S<'<: ~ lso Je an Porterner: " T h at th e tr adi tion en fo rcin g th e dep en dence of w o me n wa s m ad e m ore ex ig ent eve rythi ng go<:s to prove: the sc hedu les o f nota ries an d the recor d s o f arrests , me moircs , d ram a. an d fic tio n. T ha t th e 111 o verncnt [o r the liberation o f wom an ha d a d irect an d unique influ en ce o n ev en ts is also be y on d any dou bt, at least in a high ly d iscree t bu t very important area (beca use it concerned no t on ly th e p resent bur th e fu ture and g uaran teed furthe r d evelop me nt); the ar ea of edu cati on" ; "Le Statut de la femme en fr an ce de pu is la reformation des cou rumes jusqu 'a la re da ction du cod e civil. " in L" Femme, Recucils d e la soci ete Je an Bodin, v ol. !2 (Paris, n .d. ), 470-71 .

1 8D~vid C res sy, Li tem<y (HId the S ocia! O rder: Re'1ding and Writillg jlJ Tudor and Stuart t;"nglmJ(/ (Ca m bridg e: Ca m b rid ge Universit y Press. T9Ro), I J 2 , UI1-29 . Th e n u mber of wom en w ho are rep resented in literature" ' lead ing and w ritin g an d the n u m be r of w o rks sig n r: c1 hy w o m en in r t~l y during this peri od su ggest chat lit erat e women w ere much COl1l ,1\ 0 11e r there rhan Tlort h of the Al ps.

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

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19

fold and to a degr ee cont radicto ry. T he y are desig ned bo th to praise and to bla m e w o m en, to allo w them a dign ified and honored place in society w hile at the same time de mo ns trating that this place is ben eath tha t of men, and to mak e att ractive to w o m en th eir (new) role as social su bordi­ n ates by stressin g its basis in divine and natu ral law. In a more general way, this lit erature is intended to guarantee th at 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 an d women . It att empts to make acceptable th e tr aditio nal (and proba bly reemphasized) subord ination of wo men, both by extoll ing the virt ues required by househ old govern m ent (like n­ ing them to th e civic virtues needed by m en) and by seve rely circum­ scribing th e actual activities in w hich th ese virtues are to be brought in to play. On the o ther han d, dr amati cally misogynist lit erature can have :.1 fem inist d im ension ; by depictin g wo m en as forc eful rebels , it can convey their capa city to think and to act. Here I do no t mea n to underestimate literary mis o g yny as a m eans 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 autho rs. Were it to submit to an ana lys is ofits arg um en ts by refe ren ce to aut ho rial sex, a reade r could safely in sist 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 o r consistent relati on to th e op inio ns of men and w o me n ex presse d. (It is no t even po ssible always to be certain of th e autho r's sex . Treatises signed by men ma y have been written by women and vi ce ver sa. Even w hen the aut ho r of a work is w ell kno wn , some form of collabo ration can not be rul ed out.) While it is usually possible to determine whether or not a tex t p resents a w o m an 's point view, alth ou gh the determination ma y be am biguous in ways I have suggested, there are 110 clear indications tha t men and wo men to ok uni quely di stin ct per spectives on fem inis t questio ns. T h eir disco urse is typ ically cond ucted along philosophical and po litical lin es, con cerned w ith right s, obligations, and duties, w ith relati ons co ncei ved almos t as abstractions. The personal ex perience of women beco m es a feature of th eir argument s on two topics chiefly: first , rape; and second, wom an 's w o rk, because it is either und erp aid or unpaid. On such su bje cts , treatises signed by m en 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 consist ently) in sho w in g no enthusiasm for m arriage; their cri ticism s of th e ma rried sta te are fre­ quen tly expressed in ut opian vision s of a purely fem ale soci et y.

The subject of m en in fem inism , or ma le fem inis ts, not ne v to tw en­ tieth-century critic ism , m ay w ell have been a novelty in th e Renaissan ce.

20

R EN A ISSA N C E FE M I N I SM

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 fu llest sense: "no m atter ho w 'sincere,' 'sym p athetic' o r wha tever, we are always also in a ma le posi tion whi ch brin gs with it all the implications of domin atio n and app rop ria­ n on , everyth ing pr ecisely that is bein g cha llenged , th at has to be al­ tered . " 19 This do es n ot m ean, H eath lat er says, that men cann ot actively su pp ort a fem in ist po sition, Or th at - an d this po in t is ger mane to our under st an ding of Ren aissan ce femi nis m-s uc h a disc rimi natio n between th e ma le an d fem ale fem inist is free from histori cal determinants. Heath poi n ts out that John Stu art Mill's Subjection of Women exem plifies th e w o rk ofa m an w ho interp reted his cult ure from a woman's p oin t of view in a period w h en suc h interpreta tions could re st largel y on im person al factors . So much the more, 1 would then ag ree, does th e feminism o f an Ag rippa of Ne ttesh eim or a W illiam Heale demo ns trate a validity quite ind ependent of th e person al experien ce of \ VOmCll-J vali dity acq uired through the rela ti ve co gency of abs trac t argu me nt s.

But it is also th e case th at some Ren aissance tr eatises sig ned by men express fem inist opin ions based on a sy mpa theti c ide ntifi cation with th e " female posi tio n," a fact th at m ay distingu ish Rena issance from later femin isms. The co m ments of su ch w riters sugges t that in the p osition of woman as th e quin tesse n tial subject- that is, as p olitically su bordina te, econ o m icall y dependent, and legally in capacit ated- m an y Re naissance men saw reflected aspects of their own so cial situa tio ns. For w ha tever his ra nk, a m an of thi s period would have been oblige d to co ntend wi th th e effec ts of a soc ial hie ra rchy. The m ore ri go rous h is experien ce of sub or­ dination and its con sequ ent disem powermen t, the m o re his " m ale posi­ tion " wou ld have resembled th at o f th e " fem ale. " His malen ess and ma sculinity were th erefore suscep tible to a degree of qu alification quite alien to th e exp erien ce of men in less stra tified societies.F? Th is dou ble p osition in g of the man may account fo r the emphasis th at ma n y Renaissanc e feminists plac ed on and rogyn y. Beyond sex an d sex­ ual diffe rence, and mo re 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/ Feminis m, ed . Alice Jard ine and Paul Sm it h (N ew York and Lo ndo n: Me thuen , 191\7), I .

20 lt is ent irely ap pro priate tha t fem inists insist on the primacy of sex ove r class; for the criticism of M ar xist view s of th e op pressi on of women, see , i.a., Ro salind Coward , Patriarchal Precedents: Se xu ality and S ocial R elations (London : Ro utled ge & Kegan Paul, [983 ), and Shu larnith Firesto ne's seminal stud y. Th e D ialectic o.fSe x : T he Cas e jor Fem in ist Revo lu tion (N ew Yo rk: Morro w. 1970). Yet the qu estion Renaissanc e feminis m asks­ " Wha t is sex-specifically in contrast to gend er?" -finds an answ er th at challenges cr itics w ho. like He at h. circumscribe th e fem inism of co nte m po rary me n b y poi nti ng to their inability to experience life as a w o m an . W hile m en obvio usly cann o t be fem ale, th ey can experi ence 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

2I

naissan ce feminists represent men and wo m en as sharin g gende red at­ tribut es, particularly with respect to the w o rk they do: both lab or an d often at th e sam e tasks. Ad mi tted ly, femini st s acknowledge expe rienc es in which phys iology is determina tive: m othe rs who nurse children be­ have in acco rdanc e w ith th eir nature as fema les , altho ug h no t necessarily in response to a fem ini ne disposition; m en engage in hard labor for long periods be cause they are na turally strong, altho ug h ph ysical work is not an inherently mas culine activ ity. Wh at is stressed overall, howeve r, is the decisive part played by a co m m on and essentially human ex perience­ always seen in this period in a dialectical tension with auth orit y no matter wha t the subj ect-in testing an d over comin g rigid cat egorization s of gender th at are based on sex ual difference.

DO CT RI NE

Scripture The rhetor ical and phil osophical terms of th e Renaissance debate o n wo m en are dr awn initially fro m relig io us and philoso ph ical discourse conce rn ing the virtue appro priate to particular categ o ries of persons . T he y become conten tious w hen femin ists reinterpret autho rita­ tive tex ts in order to cha llenge the concep t of virtue as sex- and gend er­ specific. Contemporary social mores w ere based on the assumption that a person 's virtu e wa s to be assessed by referen ce not to a presumed individ­ ualism bu t rath er to the idea of socie ty as a "corporation ."21A person wa s kno wn 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 th e importan ce o f th at o ffice and also of how well he filled it . Q uestions of virtu e th us inevi ta bly allude to a social hier archy that was gener ally accepted as a reflecti on of the hierarchy of creati on, an order in nature or of nature , instituted not fo rt uito usly but pr ovid entially, an d therefore not su bject to alteration by human beings.

An d beca use the hierar chy of creati on was instituted pr ovi dentially, it had a historical dimension ; it was to be per ceived as un foldin g in time , as th e scene upon w hich was pla yed the histories o f individual and co llective

21Ha ro ld j. Berman POil1CS o ut thar jcrisdictional limicarions on au tho rity and power in the Middle Ages w ere conce ive d 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: Harva rd Un iversity Press, 198 3), 215 .

See also Ernst I-I. Ka nro rowi cz, The King's 71110 Bodies: A. Studv hi Medieval Political Theolog y (Prin ceto n: Princeto n Un ive rsity Press, (98 1), 193-232 , on the " m ystical bod ies" of church and state .

22

RE, ' AISSA N CE FEM I N ISM

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

In thi s or der the o ffice o f wo ma n was w hat God had made it at the tim e of C reation acco rding to Genesis 2 and 3. God m akes woman because "it is not go od that man shou ld be alone ," he needs a " helper"; an d God instructs w o man th at her " husband shall ru le" over her. Because w oma n was initially ma de fro m the side of man to be his helper, and afterward, in he r pos tlapsarian state, ordered to be his subject, she wa s do ubly under­ privileged. T he manner of her creation revea led he r ontological in feriority, her punishment aft er the loss of paradise her political subordination in historical time. Bo th limitations are feat ures of patriarchalism and the gross distinction between the worth of men-in-themselves and w o m en­ in- thems elv es, 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 condition s of her office as they were conce ived of in theory. In Genesis I, she, like m an , was crea ted in th e image of God, 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 m an , or, as Erasm us puts it, her "equality as a me m ber [wi th m an] of Chris t."

The spiritual sameness of man and w om an stan ds bo th in opposition to and as a complement of th eir po litical difference, just as the o rde r of grace , the scene of spiritual struggle, is bo th op posed to and co m plemen­ tary of the order of nature an d historical time in w hich the soc ial and pol itical effects of spiri tu al st ruggle are manifest.

The French historian J ean D auvi llier finds th e effects of w hat m ight be called a woman's dou ble nat ur e registered in the church 's early teachin g on ma rriage and on the position of women in the church . " Ch ristianity established the rule of marriage , a rule that covered a collection of rights and reci procal 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 resp ect to th e socie ty of th e fami ly th at the spouses constitute , it estab­ lishes relations of inequ alit y, founded on the husband's rig ht to govern th e fam ily." By the same line of reasonin g, women are prevented fro m holding pos itio ns of authori ty over men within the churc h : " T herefo re, 'while honor in g th e spirit ual equality [of men and wo me n], the hier­ archies of natur e impose a certain inferiority upo n the woman vis-a- is the man and, in the st ructure of the fami ly, of the wife vis-a-vis her h usba nd .. .. She is removed from every function that would give her authority over a man. "22 A woman th erefore acquires a twofold sense of 2~ieJ n Dauviliier,

Les Temps apostoliques (Paris: Sirey, [970), 40 8, 4 8.

1

THE TE RMS O F T H E D EB ATE

:

23

her own identit y and w orth as a human being . As one who possesses an immortal soul, she is the eq ual of m an and sus ceptibl e to th e same salvation and damn ation ; as one w ho lives in this wo rld , she is always his inferi or and his subo rd inate. In th e lan gu 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 co nsidera ble pr oblem to m oralists. H o w is she to be judged b y the sa me m oral stan dard as her m ale su pe rior s? And if she is a political subordinate, can she be blamed for w hat go es wrong? Tradi­ tional ists tended to an swer the first qu esti on by insi sting th at w oman needed more hel p in the pr o cess of salvation th an ma n di d; sh e stood in gr eater need of g race . They answ ered th e seco nd by arg uing th at the w orld 's ev il aro se and con tin ues to deri ve fr om th e disob edience of wo man to her su peri or, man ; sh e 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 foll o w.) Both ans w ers fueled femin ist re­ sp onses and throughout the sixteenth century the significance of wom­ an 's double nature rem ained cru cial to defenses of her virtue and of her right to au to no m y, especially in activities in th e public arena.

The com plexity of w oman's natur e recalls features of the typical sub­ ject in contempo rar y political th ou ght. Throughou t th e R enais san ce the political sta tus of the wo man vis-a -vis th e m ale 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 o f go vernment are im ag ine d ob­ viously di ffer, they are freq uen tl y discussed in similar terms. G ordon Scho chet has des crib ed Rena issanc e patriarchal theory (par tic ularly in Sir 23T he co ncept of w o m an as a creat ure w ith tw o perso nae and th erefo re tw o w ays of resp ond ing to experi en ce is cent ral to all discussio ns of her st atus in thi s peri od. The ex ten t to wh ich she co uld claim an eq uality with m an o n th e basis of her first crea tio n w as first a m att er of th eolo gi cal de bate . Ian M aclean notes th at for both A ugusrine and Aquin as sh e mirror ed di vinit y on ly by virt ue of g race, w hich had endowed her w ith int ell ige nce; in oth er respe cts sh e mi rrors, and hence is seco nd ary to, m an. See Renaissance No tion of fHmletl, r 3-14. and also , on the questio n of equa lity, 2 0 . For all apol og etic view of patr istic co m menta ry o n th e eq ualit y of ma n an d w o m an . see Jo An n McNa ma ra, "Sexual Eq ualit y and the C ult of Vi rg inity in Earl y Ch ristian T hou ght, " Feminist S tudies 3 (1976): 145-5 8.

Fo r a goo d analysis ofall relevant d o ctrin e see Elean or Co m ma M cLoug hlin , " Eq uality o f Soul s, Inequ ality of Sexes: Wo ma n in M edieval Theol o gy, " in R elioion alia S exism: Images of WOn/eli ill the J ewish and Christian T raditions, cd . Ro se mary K. Ru eth er (N ew Yo rk : Tou chs tone, 1974), esp. 2 15-21. For an acute readin g of Gen . 1-3 and their patristic, med ieval. and Renaissan ce glosses, see Jam es G rantha m Tu rn er, a ile Fiesl) : Paradisal Marriaoe and Sexual Relations ill the Age aJ Milton (Oxford: Clarendon, T987), esp. 1-95.

Turner poi nt s o ur h ow variou s we re the wa ys in wh ich Genesi s and rel ated pas sJges in th e Paulme epistles mIgh t be Interprered. For persons no t trained ill rheo1og v h o w eve rI texts we re un derstOod dlr ecrly to support the domestic d 1'· 1" b . f: les e wo m 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 "di­ vinel y ordained fatherl y 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 o rigins of political society. " The authority of the father is therefore at one w ith the authority of th e magistrate; paternal authority is also political authority. For proponents of constitutional form s of govern m en t, the cru cial question to ask of pa triarchalisrn wa s whether persons "w ho were naturally subjected to the authority of their fathers could ne vertheless be politically free eno ugh to establish their own go vern m ents . "2 4 In other words , whether a familial and domestic obe­ dience absolutely ruled ou t the possibility of autonomy in the public arena; whether, in effect, citizen s were always children w ith resp ect to the authority of th e ma gistrate. Constitutionalist though t had denied th e j ustice of this political infantilism by deriving from th e subject'S primary obligation 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 of woman-is gu aranteed by th eir creation in God's image before the institution of household o r civil govern­ ment. 2 S Common to both th e purely political and the specifically antifeminist forms of patriarchalism is an acceptance of w ha t Schochet calls the " teleological doctrine, " an "acceptance of the genetic proposition that origins det ermine development" (I I ). Teleological doctrin e is far easier to j ustify in the case of w 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 pe riod. 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 wh ether 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 w er" (14 ). On the other hand, the ackn owledged differenc es between domestic an d civic patriarchalism w ere perceiv ed to be favorable to feminist protest. The autho rity and power of fathers and particul arl y of .?AG ordon Scho chet, Patriarchalism ill Political T houoht (New Yor k : Ba sic Books, 1975), I , 7·

~3Th e sign ificance of conscie nce to rhe po litica l beh avio r o f a C h ristian has a lon g devel opment. It beco me s a politi cal issu e w ith th e Reformation. For an analy tic surve y of the co nce pr o Ca C h ris tian con science in Reformation poli tics, see Q uen tin Ski nne r, "The Principl es o f Luth eranism ," in T he Foundations of Mo dern Political T ltouoh t, vo l. 2 (C am ­ brid ge : C am bridg e Universit y Pre ss, 1978), esp. [2- [9.

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

.- Ji-.C1S to

)f <11

.JI 1S nr

He _-,c

25

husbands w as alw ays bo und by divine exa m ple. T heir duty, insc ribed in Scriptur e and in voked frequent ly in both learned and pop ular doctrine, wa s to love th eir depe ndents, A com para ble circu msc riptio n o f m onar­ chic po w er had much less subs tan tiation. Scri ptural references to su ch power w ere subject to w ide interpretation: a m onarch was to be to his people as a shepherd to his she ep ; but should his care become lax or abusive, it w as possible to argue, as absolutists suc h as James I actually did, tha t such a gov ern ment neverthel ess cont inued to be legitim ated by divine law.

Beyo nd tele ological doctrine an d ethical imperatives, the use of scrip­ tural author ity to justify m an's auth ority and pow er ov er woman, pa r­ ticularl y in m arri age, is vas t, and nee ds to be noted (if on ly curso rily) because it reveal s the sco pe of w hat feminist writers had to chall en ge. To C hristians w ho read Scriptu re, the Pau line epistles establish for all pract i­ cal pur poses th e nature of C hristian marriage, and wi th it the nature of wo m an. Paul bases his view s 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 w hich celibacy is preferred alth ou gh m arried fidelity is perm issible (1 C or. 7, especially 7- 9.) A wife provides a licit q uenc 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 th at wo ma n, w ho ins tances m an's fleshliness, is ordere d to rem ain in subj ection . Ma n is both the head to her bod y and also, as C hrist is to his ch ur ch, a fIgure of the eternal in relati on to her as an image of the faithful o n earth . Paul directs no m o re em phatic me ssage specifically to w o m an than th at she is to be sub ordi­ nate to and silent before man (1 C or. II :3, 8; 14:34-35; E ph , 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 subj ect as child , is gen etic in ori gin : "I suffer not a w om an to teach, nor to usu rp authority over th e man, but to be in silen ce, For Adam was fir st fo rm ed, then E ve. And Adam wa s no t deceived but th e w oman being dec eived w as in the transgression " (1 Ti m . 2:12-14). This associati ve logi c links the pro hibitio n against speech w ith an o riginary mi suse of lan gu age; as a w ho le the passage im pli es that the spiritual persona of wo m an is in herently defective, that the ima ge of God is seen less clearly in her th an in m an (a point Augustine and Aquinas later m ade ex plicit), Elsewhere in th e Pauline epistle s the spiritual equality of the sex es is asserted : " there is neithe r male n or fem ale: for ye are all one in C hrist Jes us" (Gal. 3 :28). This idea Seem s to have an echo in the doctrine estab lishing a mutual sharing of bodies : "T he wife hath not pow er of her own body but the husband : an d lik ewise also th e h usband hath not power

26

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 lo ve the man owe s th e w oma n is as Christ's for his chu rch , fro m superior to inferior.

The principal Latin Fathers of the earl y church were virt ually unan足 imous in their ag reem en t 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 o calyp足 tic. Observing th at the civilized w o rld is everywhere overrun b y barbar足 ians, J er ome p erceives th at the end of the age is at h and and the injunction "B e fruitful and multiply" no longer cbtains.v" Augustine, apolo gizing for m arria ge , declares th at continence is better; it ma y even hasten th e highl y desirable en d of the world , whi ch, 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, th e history of the gentiles shows th at w o ma n is responsible for the world's evil: "In all th e bombast of tragedy and the overthrow of houses, cities, an d kingdoms, it is th e wives an d co nc ubin es w ho stir up strife. " 28 And Tertullian , m aking the existen ce of wom an a perpetual sign of human error, sees in the original sin of Eve the cause not only o f her political subord ina tion an d obligatory silence but also of a co nt inuin g guilt.

Wom an must attem p t to "ex piate that which she derives from Eve-the ignominy ... of the first sin ... . Do you not kno w [he asks] that you are [each J an E ve ? The sentence of God on thi s sex of your s liv es in this ag e: the guilt must of necessit y live too. You are the devil's gat eway. " 29 Such theolo gical opinions demonstrate how teleological doctrine-th at by Eve's creation and sin the pattern for all subsequent relations bet ween 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 gra ce, 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 o ma n, lik e 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, Lett er 123. in Leiters and Select Wo rks. vol. 6 o f Select Library ofNicene and Post-N icene Fathers oft/Ie Christian Church , ed. Henr y Wace an d Philip Sch aff, zd ser. (Ne w York, 1893), 234.

21St. Au gustine, " O n the Go od of Marri age ," in TI,e Works o] S t. 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 (Edin burgh, r 869), r:3 04 .

- - , . ., e . exan er 0 1erts an

THE TERMS O F THE DEBATE

.;

27

image. ration alit y, \, -,"ich is reflected onl y in m an (vir).30 So mu ch is of cour se also implicit in w hat Christians were taught to und erstand ab out virgin ity. Ele anc r Commo McLaughlin has po inted out th at virginity as a condition o f spiritu al exc ellence functions differently for a w o ma n th an for a man. It was a woman 's nature to bear children and she must den y it in the interest o f her soul. " Fo r th e female, v irg init y is no t an affir m ation of her being as a w o ma n but an assu m p tion of th e nature o f th e m ale, which is iden tified with th e truly human: rationality, st rength, co ur ag e, steadfastne ss, loyalt y.">' 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 accep ted o pini ons on the abs olute value o f 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 of woman which took accoun t of her potential for autonomy and for public life . Their cont radictio ns (are the two stories compatible or not? ) are eventually rep resented as elements of a feminist discourse that draws up on the in creasingly sophis­ ticated political (and primarily Pr otestant ) dis course on co ncep ts of ma g­ isterial authority and representative government. This indebtedness refines contempo rary femini st argum ent . E ven in the most rigidly con­ ceived the ocracies, the au to no my of th e subject is not con sidered negligi­ ble. 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 pro vided a basis initially for deter­ mining the reli gious fr eedom of conscience, and secondaril y 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 an d to her full participation in the drama of salva tion. Be cause she could not be exempt fromjudgment, she could not be denied free will; and be cause she had free will, she had herself to confront, in evitably and notwithst anding an y generic defi­ cien cy, as her own moral authority, the entirely p olitical au tho rity 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 n ot io n 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 t hat only m e n are ma de in Go d 's im age : "The im age of th e di vinity prop erl y u nderst o od is no t inheren t in t he so ul as a unity in which tw o ele ment s participate ; it in he res o n ly in th e m ascu line ele m e nt th at is dedicated to the co nte m p la tio n o f e te rn al truths. By virtue of this exalt ed activit y, the mas culine ele m ent tak es ch arge of th e feminine ele m ent . w h ich is char ge d w ith taki ng ca re of the necessities of dail y life": Subordination etequivalence: Natureet role de la femm e d'apres Augustin et Thomas d'A quiu (O slo and Paris: Uni ver si tet sfo rl ag e t an d M aison Ma rn e, 19 6 8), 137·

31 McLa ughl 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 husb and 's consent in everything, so as never to do anything against his will, with exception of what is reckoned as contributing to virtue and salv ation." The idea that a woman must follow virtue before uxorial duty also find s corr o boration in medieval law. Bractcn , for example, insists th at 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. 3 2 At the same time, su ch a gu arantee of a w oman 's autono my raised the que stion of the appropriate forms of resistance. In po litical disc ourse, thi s qu estion produced a bo dy of literatur e on resistance theo ry, from Luth­ er 's ear ly tr eatises on th e noti on of passive resistance to the bold rein­ terpretatio ns of th e significance of Romans 13 by such constitutionalists as John Po nc t."? In feminist discourse, it produced a literature that sub­ verts not onl y the theor etical basis of patriar chalism but also the concept of a hierarchy of creation which underlies it. One can of course correctly argue that while political discourse affected the conduct ofactual gov ern­ m ents in later centuries, femin ist discourse chan ged 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 assump­ tions supporting it much examined. Whatev er Renaissance feminists claimed as rights for women w ere not term ed n~Rhts, 110r, until th e beginning of the seven teent h century, were they dem an ded except by wa y o f arg uin g for a modification of existing domesti c order. The fact rem ains that the conce pts cru cial to the idea of a society organized acco rding to princip les in im ical to patriarch y-heterogeneity in natu re and its creatures, androg yny as the bigendering of each sex, and the 32S t. Cl em ent of Alexandri a, 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 Esta te, 88; Shahar cites F. Pollo ck and F. M aitland, A H istory of Engli sh La w (Cam bridge, 1898). 2:406 . O n a wo ma n's sub ordin ation to her husba nd in ge nera l and w ithou t specific reference to co nscience. see M aclean, R enaissance No tion of

Women, 18. A useful guideto the history of women 5 legal rightsis still Eugene A. A J~ltort History of Women~ Rights (New York: Putnam, I9 IO).

. . to ;"idmetere« ., resIs~an ce, see, t.s., Quentm Skinner.

For an analytIc survey ofconcepts o[Je T he J)t/ty to Resist" rind "The Rieh: n,o'<r;/I/. 2: ' 89-238 dnd 302-48 . " "

Hecker,

(51St,

both in Foundations of Modem Political

TH E T ER M S O F T H E D EB AT E ·Il

29

equality o f m en and w omen in human so ciety-were enunciated in feminist discourse of the six teen th cen tury.

A ristotle's Biology .i

.­

The single m ost imposin g ch allen ge for a defender of w ome n-a challen ge th at tends to elicit from him or her a guarded acce pt ance of the nec essit y o f a soc iety co n trolled by men and , at the same time, the most paradoxical of arg um en ts rejecting thi s nec essity­ is the nature o f w o ma n's sexualit y. Her p ro creativ enes s is rou tinely giv en a kind of credit . Paul justifies a woman 's existenc e by her ability to have child ren : " no tw iths tan ding [her orig inal sin] she shall be sav ed in child­ bearing" (I T im . 2 :I 5). And defenses re mind men that wo me n are related to them in flesh an d bl ood, that w omen carry in the ir bo dies the next genera tio n and thus th e ver y future . But a wo man's sexu al differen ce is more often a sign of w eakn ess-a point femini sts discuss with gre ater inten sit y and frequency th an do their opponents. Woman , it is gene rally agreed , is not as stron g physically as man and , m ore important, is vulnerable sexu ally as he is not . N ot only be cause pr egn anc y and lact a­ tion make her dependent on other persons, althou gh thi s physical dep en­ den ce is clearly im portant , but be cause 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 pat erni ty, is not a discretionary matter, to be acknowledg ed or not, at w ill. These biolo gical facts un derlie ar gumen ts for restrictin g all wo ma n 's activi ties, particularl y th ose tha t tak e her into th e public arena. M iso gynis ts ten d to perceive her ina bility to cont rol the effects o f her sex uality- preg nancy-as an indication of an in here n t m oral debilit y. 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 m orally cul pable-c-licentiousness.>' The importan ce of the virtue of chas tity was asserted b y 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 foundati on upon w hich pat riarchal soc iety res ted. The exc hange between m en o f w omen an d pr opert y, an d , to a degr ee, of w o men as pr opert y, wa s pr edi cated o n th e value of the w o ma n as a vessel tha t w ould generate legitimate child ren 34The twe n tieth-c en tury interpretation of the effects of this biological difference stresses economics over m orals. On ce again the prej udice is agains t w om en, wh o in this case are poor If not also s.in ful. "Ou r na tional code of accep ted behavio r inclu des th e tig ht o f men [0 pro pa,?ate child ren, and th en desert them"; Stanley Leberg ott , quoted in Andrew Ha cker. Getting Rou gh on the Poor ," New York Review oj Books, O ct. 13, 1988, p. 13.

T H E TE RM S OF THE D EBA TE

-ally . ,.In .

:o ro vho

. ally .sts

.ly, -..:ss de . ~ s足 -:ey .nd l ie .16

Jd -.ot -:: n , at

::d

~'u l

::al

in IS

.n ), ~

c

'.;/

..1

: J

3I

T h ey w ere aw ar e th at according to A risto telian na ture, th ere is in sexua l difference a relation of superio r to in fer io r, and th us that h is biol o gy h ad an o bvious co rr espo nd enc e w ith the view of th e beginnin g of human life in Scrip ture . To Aristotl e, th e m ale is " the first efficien t or m ov ing caus e to which belon g the de fini tion and th e form [of the em bryo] " (it is n ot, he lat er insists, a "mat er ial princ iple" creating mere resemblance [C A 4. I; 76Sb1, p. 11841), and as such the m ale is "bett er and m ore div ine in [his ] nature th an the m at erial on w hic h he wo rks [th at is, than the fema le]."

(As the ma le can in some sen se be said to " fash ion" the embr yo fro m m ere m att er , he approaches a kind of div ine crea tiv ity -a po int surely not lost on readers w ho w ere accus tomed to seein g Go d as th e father o f m ankind an d C h rist as th e husb and of the chur ch. ) The m ale is therefore to b e kept sepa rate fro m th e female "whe rever it is po ssib le an d so far as it is possibl e" and to come together w ith her only fo r th e "wo rk of ge nera足 tion" (G A 2. I; 327a I , p. 1136). Fem ale pass ivi ty an d mate riality ar e by defin it ion cap abl e only of be ing elem ents of recep tivi ty fo r th e m ale fo rmati ve and vitalizi ng seed . Th e matter she contri bu tes to gen eration, th e m enses, lacks "the principle o f so ul"; thi s is co n tribu ted only by th e m ale, an d in this sens e sh e is a "mutilate d m ale" (C A 2.3 ; 737b I, p. I 144)揃 Sh e is he rself the pro duct of a gestation al pr oce ss th at failed to rea ch full potential. Ar istotle w r ites th at a fema le is created when " the first p rinci 足 ple does not bear sway and can not concoc t the nourishment throu gh lack of heat n or bring it into its prop er fo rm , bu t is defe ated in thi s respe ct" (GA 4. 1; 766a1 , p. II8S ). A strug gle th erefore take s pl ace wi thi n th e w o mb as form atte mpts to assert itself over m atter ; a "defeated " fo r m is a fem ale form. Debility char acteri zes the fem ale fo r her en tir e life. As formally less ev olved th an a mal e, sh e is " perfect ed more quickl y, " an d her entire life cy cle is accomplished in a sh o rt er ti me: "females ar e we ak er

gen era tion : ibid .. 32-3 3. In nonscient ific circles , Ga len 's v iew o f h u m an ana tom y as divine ly o rdered ma y hav e been impo rtant to a reasse ssm ent o f w o ma n as perfect in her own wa y: "I n th e De I/ SII poruum (IV, 360 passim) h e [G alen] ca m e to the co n clusio n th at in the st ruc tu re o f an y an ima l w e hav e the m ark o f a w ise workm an o r derni urg e, an d o f a celestial m ind : and th at 't he in vestigati on of t he use of th e par ts of the body la ys the fou n dati on of a tr uly scie n tific theol ogy w hi ch is m uc h g reate r and m o re p recious than all m ed icin e' ": Lynn T horndi ke, T he H istory of Mag ic and Exp erimentai Science (N ew Yo rk : C olu mb ia U n iv ersit y P ress , 1923), r:r 49 . A sim ilar vie w of woman as w ell designed is ex p ressed by Aquinas : " W it h refer en ce to na ture in the species as a w hole , the fem ale is n ot somet hi ng lI!anqlle, b ut is accor din g to the plan ofn atu re [il/tentio /Jatl/rae], and is dire cted to 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 u ra te a read ing of Aristo tle most Re~d isSdn cc femm ls ts had IS un clear fro m th eir defen ses. M ore o ften than not, the V refer to ideas that are attri bu.ted to hi m in contemporar y liter atu re on women . B ut h ow~v e r th ey cite him , the y inv ar iab ly see hun as an exp on 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; 77 sa1, p. 1199).

More important to feminists than Aristotle 's biology w as its impact on his politics. For the female's relativ e coldness and formlessness implied a w ho le set of ch aracteristics that made a w om an radically unfit for any acti vity th at 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 of his understand­ in g of biology an d reflects the same preferential distinction for the soul over the body, the intell ect over th e passi on s. Because the male, exempli­ fyin g the rational element, is su pe 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 an­ kind ."37 Their relations are as between a superior and his inferior or subordinate, and corr espo n d to the natural cha racter of their respective virtues or "excellen ces." A wom an , like a slave or a child, ha s only a part of the soul th at inheres totally in man.

For the slave has no deliberative faculty at all; the woman has, but it is without authorit y, and the child has, but it is immature. So it must neces­ sarily 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 requir ed by each for the fulfilment of his function .... Th e temperan ce of a man and of a woman, or the courage and ju stice of a man and of a woman , are not, as Socrates maintained, the same; the courage of a man is shown in com­ manding, of a wo man in obeying. [Politi cs 1.1 3; 126oa1 , p. 1999] Natural differences eventu ally dictate soc ial functions that follo w rul es o f decorum determined by character. " A m an w ould be th ou ght a co ward if he had no m ore cou rage th an a cou rag eo us w om an , and a w oman w ould be th ought loquacious if sh e imposed n o more restraint on her conve rsa­ tion th an the go od 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 oth er to preserve" (Politics 3.4; I 277b I, p. 2027). If these norms are n ot observed, an d a wo m an rules a m an, ev en within a househ old, she abuses pol itical propriety and, ultimately, biol ogi cal nature. The perfect relation between man and wife is "aristocrat ic" : " fo r the m an rules in acco rdan ce with merit, and in those m atters 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 app rop riately hers, he ignores de corum and creates an 37 Politics 1. 5 , I 254b I , in Complete Wo rks ofA ristotle, 2: I 990 .

38lYicomac!zcall Ethics (hereafter lYE) 8 . 10, I rcob r , in C omplete 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 w as believed , w as endowed with the w orld's goods and therefore the first property owner.) Humanist exemplum history provided feminists with ano ther kind ofstrategy. Against claim s made in the name ofnatural or divine law, the y could represent historical " facts" concern ing virtuo us w o men gathered from Plutarch's Mulierum virtutes as well as Liv y, Tac­ itu s, and Valerius M aximus . Sixteenth-century w rit ers regarded B occac­ cio 's D e mulieribus claris as su ch a source. But fin ally feminists, ado pting th e critical m ethods 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 an d historical time. As lon g as an authority was held to speak the absolute truth, to in voke him was suffi cient to establish the truth or rightness ofa given position or pr acti ce, and no feminist could con ceive of forms of society th at mi ght be alterna­ tives to patriarchy. Their efforts we re therefore directed at disco verin g reasons for ame lio ratin g the condition of w oma n w ithin existing stru c­ tures of fam ily and com m unity life. But w hen such autho rities cam e to be regarded as historically contingent and relevant onl y to the particular situations they addressed (as the y increasingly did durin g the late fif­ teenth and earl y sixteenth centur ies), then feminists could pr opose to leg itimate nontraditional view s of w o ma n which vitiated patriar chal norms .

REPRESENTA TIVE HUMANISTS

Famous Women Humanist writers touched on feminist issues as a con se­ quence 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 civ ic duty, including the obli gation to m arr y and have child ren, w ith his soul 's salv ation. Bo ccaccio, for one , saw that politics could be regarded as providential rather th an a dangerous distraction; moreo ver, because the good rul er pre vailed w hile his evil counterpart became the 40Bur see Clement of.Alex an dria, w ho 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. Jacqu es-Paul Migne (Paris J 8 )

13 0 .57.

'

44 ,

THE T ERM S O f THE DEBA TE

n

r-

35

vi ct im of fortun e, fam e was an in dex of moral status. 41 For o the r writers, the fat e of the indivi dual man was lin k ed to his place in societ y-b oth in th e family, the sea t of d omesti c o rde r, an d in th e state, ex hi biting a civic order. M arr iage, leadin g to the generation and ed ucation of chi ldren, became a prerequisite of good citize nship. The family bec am e politicized , it s members d escrib ed in terms of their duties as governing an d gov­ erned .

The endo rse m en t of m arriage for reason s of sta te entailed both a defense ofand , m o re subtly, an att ack on wo ma n w hich was qualita tively different from any thin g w ritt en earlier. The gr eat m ed ieval source of supposedly mi so gynist diatrib e, Jean de M eun g 's Roman de La rose , cha rg ed w o man wi th a fund amental corruption ; it was answered by liter ature ext olling her p riva te an d m oral qu alities. R enaissan ce hu man­ ist s w ere less direct in their opinio ns. Cons idering ho w a wo man mi ght ben efit the state, th ey praised her for patien ce an d loyalty, qualities th at made the political duties incumbent upon her appear to be consisten t with h er supp os ed n ature . Sh e was chiefl y adm irable as th e faithful lieuten an t to her m ale supe rio rs; he r co n duct reflected th e fact th at sh e had th e vi rtu es in th e m od e no t of co m ma nd but o f su bo rdina tio n, as Aristotle had asserte d. Were she to prov e an exc eption to this rule an d be a Jo an of A re , sh e wa s no longer purely a woman. Her virilit y testified to th e rightness of th e gen eral sche m e privilegin g man and legitimating patriarc hy. In fact, he r virility was gen erally exhibited in action under­ ta ke n at a m oment of crisis th at had as its purpose the preser vation of the sta tus quo- th e d omestic o r politi cal order in w hich sh e w as always inferior and sub ordinate. B ecau se wom en did not (and w ere not su p­ pos ed to) do any thin g to earn them public notice, a fam ou s woman w as almost a contrad iction in ter ms, either actu ally infamous or sim ply fan­ tastic.

In the Proem to his D e mulieribus claris (c. 1380), B occaccio re veals the criteria by which he has cho sen the w o m en w h ose histories he w ri tes .

T he "fame" (claritas) they pos sess is not, h e declares, in eve ry case to b e 41Boccaccio, w riting exe m plum history in orde r to benefit th e state, illustrates the mi sfortunes that justly befall evil ru lers; "What alm igh ty Go d (or For tune, to use th eir [i.e., the rulers '] lan gu age) did to those who we re in h igh office . . . [so that ] they, seeing feeble and defeated princes, king s thrown to earth by God 's judgment , mig ht kno w the powe r o f the M ost High . . . ; mi ght learn to refrain fro m m ere pleasure" ; " Proem ," in De casibus "iro rum ill ustrium , 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 . Petrar ch simply warns against a desire for fam e, w hich is "a stim ulus th at exc ites a generous and modest spirit, raises him up an d spurs him on to sati sfy the aspi ratio ns of citize ns, but it casts down wi cked and pres um p tuous characters": "D e remediis utr iusque for tu ne," I, 92, in Fran cesco Petrar ca, P rose, ed. G. Martellotti (Milan ; Riccardo Ricciardi, 1955), 636.

36

RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

understood in the narro w sense of that term, that is , in relation to " v irt u e " (l'irtll5); but rather more broadl y: "I think famous those women w ho a re w ell kno wn for so m e deed re cognized throughout the world. " 42 Initiall y, h e puts the case for the fam ous woman who is w o r thy rather than reprehensible in what appear to be positive terms. Distinguishing bet w een a characteristi cally Christian virtue that derives from an inner and co n tem p lativ e activity and a cha rac t eris tically pagan virtue that pro­ motes the publi c good, the res publica, he states that he cele b rat es the latter b ecause its female ex po ne n t s, unlike Christian sa ints, hav e as yet had no ch ro n icl er. His ch o ice restricts the st andards by whi ch 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 usu ally co ns id ered to b e worthless, wh ether because naturall y in capable of virtu ous public a ctiv ity or b ecause they w ere legally barred from p articip ating 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 the y to be understood .to provide models for emulation, as his praise of pagan heroines suggests ? Or ar e they to be ta ken as a warning that to co n tem p o ­ r ary Christian w o men th e public arena is closed ?

The ladie s of sacred hist ory, foll owing th e wa y and th e directions of their hol y Teacher, often discipline th em selves to toler ate adv ersity almo st be­ yond human cons ideration. Pagan w omen, by contrast, attain [glory]­ and with what a strength of spirit- either b y a cert ain gift or instinct of nature; o r better, because the y are sp urred on by a desir e for th e fleeting sple ndor [wpidila s .filigoris /H Olllerlla l1 ei] of the wo rld; an d so me times, bat­ tered by fortune , they confront th e heaviest of trials. The first kind o f women .. . is de scribed . . . in the w orks of piou s men . . . . The merits o f th e second kind , unpublished in an y book , I have undertaken to describe, as if to giv e th em a j us t reward . [26J 42Boccaccio, D e mulieribus clans , ed. Vittorio Zaccaria, vol. 10 of Tuite le opere di Gi ovanni Bocea ceio (Milan: Mondadori. 1967). :q . Boccaccio writes that he intended to dedicate this work to Q ueen G io 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 In­ famous Women: Gender and Ci vic 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: Wa yne State University Press, 19 87). 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, S tudii Sil l opere latine del Boccaccio (Trieste, 1879). Ho rtis 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 (Ne w 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).

THE TERMS O F THE DEBATE

37

Few of Boc caccio 's contempor aries, whether men or women , would ha ve un dertaken to ignore "the dire ctions of their hoI y Teacher, " here in explicit o ppos ition to the "desire" that prompts action in th e fleetin gly splendid world, and striven only to secure fame. His women readers wo uld have had cause to reflect even more deepl y, for Scripture tau ght th em to ob ey, not to com m an d. And had the y o verco m e the ir fear of violating custom and po sitive law on the one hand and divine law on the other, and taken Boccaccios text as their guide , the y w ould ha ve dis足 cov ered an am biguity that go es deepe r than me re con tradiction. Not only are his famo us w om en po or examples o f virtue , the y ar e also condem ned, how ever covertly, for ven tur in g into a world reserved for men . 43 Boccaccio 's portrait of D ido dem onstrates his double and contradic足 tor y in tention. Derivin g his account from Pet rarch rather th an Vergil o r Dante, Boccaccio rel ates that his heroine, w hos e n ame is Elissa, is fo rced to flee her native land after her br other, the avaricious king Pygmalion, kill s her husband , Sychaeu s. N o w a w idow, she vows to rem ain faithful to her dead hu sband, and takes the name D ido. She assumes co m mand of her followers , soo n to found C ar th age und er her leadership, throu gh acts of deceit, not conquest. The single exception to this rule -her com m and to her follo w ers (all m en) to get wives by rapin g the virgins of C yprus足 assumes thematic importance in relation to the seco nd and tr agic pha se of 43T his strategy of sub version is alre ad y evid ent in the principal text th at serv ed as Bo ccaccic 's model, Plutarch 's M ul ierum virtutes , the first extende d defens e of wo me n to hav e had w ide cu rr ency in the Ren aissanc e. The classic st atem ent of m iso gyn y in G reek and R om an antiqu ity is H esiod's m yth of Pand or a (T heogoll)' 590-812); Plato and o the rs who engag ed in sop histic debate late r und ertook to defend wo men fro m suc h attacks . See Philip St adt er, Plutarch's H istorical Methods: All Ana lysis oj"1'vlHlie1lJ 11l VirtHles" (Ca mb ridge: C ambrid ge Uni ve rsit y P ress, 1965), 3. Ech oing Plat o' s Men D, Plutarch declares th at th e virtues of m an and woman are th e same ; the y o nly appea r to be different bec ause " they tak e on the liken ess o f the cus to ms o n w hich th ey are founded, and o f th e te mp erament of per son s an d their nurt ure and mod e of livin g" (tra ns. Fra nk Cole Babbitt, in Plutarch's Moralia, Loeb C lassical Librar y (Ca m br idge: Ha rvar d Uni versity Pr ess, 1949),3 :475,479.

Illustr ating his the sis by exa m ples, ho w ever, Plu tar ch qu alifies the virtue of wo ma n so that its nature and sco pe correspo nd to Ari stotl e's rest rictive no tion of sex and gender differ足 ences . Hi s ty pica lly virt uo us woman assists and ins pir es m en; if necessar y, sh.c sac rifices hers elf fo r th eir welfa re o r tha t of th e st ate. See esp. the histor y of Ar eta phila (Lov e of hon o r), w ho , afte r she has freed her o wn city, Cyrene , from the ty ran ny of her hu sb an d, " with d rew at onc e to h er o wn q ua rte rs am on g the w o me n , and, reje cti ng any so rt of m eddling in affair s, spent the rest of her life quietl y at the lo om in the company of her frie nds and fam ily" (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 suc h he roes as C incinna tus, w ho, havin g rescued the republic, retires to live a pri vate life on his far m- no t o nce but twi ce. But o ne needs to note th e d ifference between th e par ticul ar co nd itio ns of freedom du e the men o f Cyren e and th ose th at th eir fema le de liv erer acce pts as appro priate for her as a wo ma n. B y freeing his city, a Ci nc innatus secu res his OI!'I1 libert y; Plu tarch 's Arera phila m ay not be able eve n to en visage suc h a co nd itio n for herself.

38

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her career, when she is a queen regnant. T hi s phase esta blishe s that whatever her virt ues, they are finally irr elevant to he r participation in public life . W hat is decisive is the fact that sh e is a woman . As su ch she canno t govern a people, not because there are laws th at preven t gy neco足 cracy-in fact, she herselfhas made the original laws on which her state is found ed-but because she can never overcome the effects of her crea tio n as th e inferior and su bo rdinate of man.

Bo ccaccio co ncl udes this phase of Dido's history by extolling her virtuo us chas tity - the vir tue th at caused her to commit suic ide rather th an m arr y her barbarous suitor, the ne ighboring ki ng, M assitan us, who pr essed hi s courtship by beseiging Carthage. The poet's trib ute to the wi dowed queen obscures what his history of he r im plies: wo ma n 's rule is a political impossibility. Given the cus tOm ary relation o f hu sb an d (hea d) to his wife (the bod y, or subordina te), Dido , a quee n, canno t take a hu sb and (however civilized) as a kin g can take a w ife. H er su bjects fear destructio n fro m her mar auding suitor if sh e do es not ag ree to his pro足 posal; but th ey co uld reaso na bly fear th e usurper and tyr an t if she did .

She canno t be bo th a q uee n and a wife. W hat eve r its moral significan ce, 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 impo te nce of th eir m arried queen regnant, would succ umb to th e demands of the alien aut ho rity of her male consort. H er tragic en d dep en ds on th e fact tha t she will become politically im po ten t at th e mom ent o f m ar riage. W ha t w e intuitively understand as th e m ean in g of her action- tha t it act ually pro tects her subjects from a dan gerous ru le b y rem ovin g th e 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 m arr y Massita nus, Di d 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 cessar y fo r the de足 fense 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 pr eg na ble wal ls of her city are the correlative of her in violate ph ysical self, and w ha t they p ro tect- the indepen dence of her people-is g uaran teed by her refusal to allow herself to be possessed .

The pr oblem of gynecocracy t hat Boccaccio confronts in his fiction was to require an act ual sol ution later, w hen th e E ngli 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 co n tras t to the amo ro us Dido ofVer gil and Dan te. Accord足 ing to Eus ebi us, Bo ccaccio decl ares, T roy was destroyed long befo re Carthag e wa s bu ilt: "I don' t think A eneas ever saw her [D id o]" : 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.

TH E T ERMS O F TH E D EB ATE

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required that M ar y Tud or become the ano ma ly Did o had avo ided: a married qu een regn ant. Bocc accio 's Di do illus trat es, in an y case, th e essential wea k ness o f the wo rna n rul er-her status as natura lly and lega lly vulne rable ro men. D ido 's m ost im portant suc cess (in th at w itho ut it sh e would have had no people to lead), her au tho rizatio n o f her m ale subj ect s' rape o f fo reig n w o me n. emphasizes th e ine vit abl y mas cu line charact er o f 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 su bject. 45 Bo ccaccios Dido represents his co nce p tio n of th e wo ma n exp ert in go vernment o r "arms " ; his Pope Joan exhibits th e second o f the tw o attributes of th e virtuo us citizen , m aste ry of the "arts." Feminists oft en co m m ended wo me n fo r acco m plish men ts in o rato ry, rhe toric, poe try, philoso ph y, and ev en th eolo gy. Because a w o ma n need not actu ally leave the pri vacy of her famil y to excel in th ese art s, ho w ever m uch su ch a sequestrati on mi ght see m to be at cross - purp oses w ith her ed ucati on, pr aise of her int ellectual achiev em en ts did not appea r to tran sgress pa足 triarchal norms. Yet th e ve ry act o f self-ex p ression was often regarded as a vio lati o n of th e spirit o f domesticity. Sp oken wo rds might be over足 heard; wri tte n spee ch mi ght be published ; wo rds not known to be a w o ma n 's mi ght actually su cceed in persu adin g 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. Bo ccaccio' s acco unt of th e legend ar y Pop e Joan- who se fam e (unlike th at o f Dido) is a kind of notoriet y-illustrates th at int ellectu al acti vit y cann ot be undertaken b y the female br ain , situa ted as it is in the female bod y.

Jo an is incon testa bly brilJi ant . Prevailing over her male co m pe titors, her sex ma sk ed by m asculine clothing, she is elected to th e papa cy.

Inevita bly her in telle ct propels her into the pu blic aren a; inevit abl y too he r political po wer find s expression in lu st. 4 6 W hereas Dido was the obj ect of desire o r, perhap s, its pro vocation , Jo an is an o vertl y de siring subj ect. D ido, reje cting desire, wa s prai sed for her vir tuo us self-sacrifice; Joan wa s punished by God, w ho , " pity ing his peopl e from on hi gh , did not pe rm it a woman to o ccupy such a high place [as the papa cy]. . . .

Ad vised by th e devil ... , elected to th e sup reme offi ce of the pap acy, [jean] was ov ercome w ith a burning lust [ardor libidillis]. . . . She found 45Boccaccio 's subtl y cr itical repr esentation s of virile w o m en elsew he re in thi s text stan d in problematic contrast to his fulsom e prai se of Q ueen Giov an na of N aples, in fact a w o ma n of cons ide rable au tho ri ty and po w er, and th e 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. w hos e " fluent speech ,. indi cated to the Vene tian Nicco lo Barb o th at sh e w as pr o mis cuous. They are quo ted in Lisa Jardin e. " Iso tta N ogarol a: Wom en H umanists-c足 Edu cati on fo r Wha t ?" H istory of Education 12, -+ (J983) : 240 .

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RE N A ISSANCE 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 inten­ tionally, 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. Wo m en 's bodies can and do .

Boccaccio's history of the scandalous Joan conveys his sense that politi­ cal authority and power are maintained through the creation of a persona that compels the allegiance of the public, and jeopardized w hen 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 punished Joan because she assumed the papacy (altho ugh 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 mater­ nity, 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 control­ ling, hiding, or denying. In effect, although I suspect without full aware­ ness, Boccaccio has distin guished between the moral aspects of sexuality (lust as opposed to con tinence) and its am o ral physical manifestation (m atern 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 m ent became more complex . it was logical that humanists discussed the feasi­ bility of observing Christian ethics in various kinds of forums : the mar­ ketplace, 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 fiftee nth cen­ tury; they w ere printed and reprinted in considerable numbers th ro ugh

THE TERM S OF T H E DEBAT E

41

th e beginnin g of the seve n teenth cen tu ry. Vi rt ua lly all ur ge th eir readers to m arr y. alt ho ugh why such enco uragement was n eede d is unclear.

Rel igious scr uples- reflecting a belief in the innate evil of woman an d in th e nec essity of soli tu de for p raye r an d contem plat ion- seem less an issue than do fears co ncerning loss of pe rsonal in dep endence d ue to inc reased respo ns ibilities , especially fin ancial on es. Most argument is di rected at reluctant brid egroo ms , perhaps bec ause th ey were less bo un d by paren tal w ish es th an th eir pros pective b rides . Femin ists' re actions to these treatises w ere sub tle rather th an ex plicit, in part be cause m an y co nceded a go od deal to th e domestic authority an d power o f the w oman as wife or mother. B u t more oft en th an not, they punctuated their des cript ions o f m arit al co m plemen tarity w ith st at em ents of womanly du ties th at frankly in hibi ted th e actual exercise o f a wo ma n's auto no my, and femi nists pro tested these restrict ion s.

Francesco Barbaro 's D e re ux oria (1416) co nv eys wh at were to beco m e th e normat iv e terms of the Ren aissance discourse on the household­ terms tha t subs eque n t discu ssion on the subj ect had ne cessaril y to co n­ sid er. B arb aro describ es th e best means of ens uring dyna stic integrit y (unders ta nda b ly, sin ce his is a n oble Ven eti an family), and insi sts on the importance of women as prop er ty and propert y h older s."? H e believes tha t w ell-orde red fam ilies m aintain the sta bility of the sta te; an d he sees tha t thi s order dep ends ch iefly on co n tro Uing th e acti vities of wo men in relation to th e produ cti on and distribution of wealth.

His th esis ex emp lifies the ki n d of reason ing th at exp on en ts of p a­ tri ar ch y, parti cula rly as it is m anifest in th e m ale co ntro l o f w ealth, co uld bring to bear on contem porary social and econo m ic devel op ments . Re­ strictions on women , th eir beh av ior in private and in public, app ear to have been m ore strin gent in Italy than elsew here in E urope 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 successfull y blocked " fro m becomin g po litically de cisive. These restri ctions foll owed a "crisis" in w hic h a number of factors, par ticularly eco n omic, we re inst ru menta l. U nlike m en, wom en w ho lost the o ccu pa tio ns th ey had foll o w ed under feud al­ ism an d syste m s o f pro duc tion dependent on the h ou seh old and th e guild

·17T he pa rtic ularl y Vene tian characte r o f Barbaro's humanis m is anal yzed b y M arga ret L. King. "Caldier a and the Ba rba ros o n M ar riage and the Family : Humanist Refiectio ns of Venetian R ealities ," J ournal ofM cdieva! alia Re naissance Studies 6, I (1976) : 19-5 0. See also AttiJio Cneso rrc's introdu ct ory remarks detailing the so urces, publication hi st or y, and social backg round to Francesco Barbaro , De re uxoria, ed. Gnesotto, Ani e memorie della A cc~demia d i scienze letr er e ed ar ti in Padova (19 15- 16), n.s, 32 (Padova: Ba ttista Randi, n.d.).

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RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

w ere m ad e economically redundant. The "newer paradigms of so cial structu re . . . did not . .. include am on g th em an active independent wife or female w orker. " 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 co uld affect the stability of families and the patriarchal authority and po wer dire cting them . Writing on the distribution of we alth throu gh dowries an d bequ ests , Stanle y Chojnacki points out th at w om en w h o had property to bequeath commonly did so on th e basis o f affection rather than strict kinship, an d more oft en in favor of femal e th an mal e relati ves. The pattern of inh erit an ce from women therefore tended to undermine the we alth of patrilinear families. To the extent that w o me n could independentl y hold and pass on property, the y represented a poten足 tial perturbation to patrilineage and fmally to patriarchy. 49 Barbaro's fear of allowing women any degree of ind ependence, especially fin an cial, find s real pr o vocation in the testamentary beha vior of contemporary Venetian w omen .

Like many apolo gist s fo r what I have called the politicized m arr iage, Barbaro believes that household gov ernment, like civil govern ment, is supported by system s of law. He in vokes as auth oritative both natural law an d 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 wo men to control wealth, Stanley C hoj nacki obse rves: "T he com pensation that fathe rs and brothe rs tra diti onall y had received for dowry exp en足 ditures was th e acquisition o f econo mic, soci al, and even politi cal allies in the person s of their new sons- and bro thers-in-law." Bu t, he goes on to not e, w o men, as mo thers, aunt s, and co usins, also co ntrib uted to dowri es, and the pattern s of th eir bequests often ran counter to those of me n. T hey contribu ted to the dowries o f w om en w ho we re ou tside th e patriJin eage, to their dau ghters' daug hters as we ll as to th eir sons' daug hters. O ther than dowrie s, bequests by wo me n we re fur ther characte rized by a preferenc e for wom en, apparentl y deter mi ned b y affection rather than close kin ship. Whil e m ates and femal es ben efit "almo st equally" in bequ ests by wo me n to primary kin, "amo ng secondary kin beneficiaries (aunts , uncl es, ni eces, neph ew s, co usins, etc.), fema les outnu m ber males by a cons iderable mar gin ": " D owries and Kinsm en in Earl y Renaissance Venice," in WOllle11 i/ l Medie val Society, ed . Susan Mosh er Stu ard (Philadelphia: U niversity of Pennsy lvania Press, 1976), 173-98. It w as virt ually univ ersal pra ctice to maint ain a w oman's do wry, dos, as her ow n wealth, ind epend ent of her hu sband 's property. The hu sband 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 o f kin. Of com para ble status was the husband 's gift to his w ife at the tim e of marriage, th e donatio propter nuptias. At th e death of her husban d , she had the use of th is pr op erty if she had childre n; other wise it revert ed to his family. See Charles Phin eas Sherm an, Roman Law ill the Modem World (Bo sto n : Boston Book C o., 1917), 2:65-76. For a ge neral assessme nt of attitudes to ward 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 Yor k足 Wdey, 1969), 173- 82. .

THE TERMS OF THE DEBATE

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(held to be th at law honored by all peoples and the basis of all po sitive law). These two concepts w ere epitomized in the biolo gic al even ts of the natural w o rld, and in th e history of classical Rome. To gether "nature" and " Ro m e" provide B arbaro with th e elements of his ide al marriage and perfect hou sehold. In nature , " by which a des ir e of congress for pro crea足 tion sake is communicat ed to every kind of animal," he discovers th e reason for marria ge; in Rome he sees its political function. By taxing bachelors , Rome caused th em to p ay th e debt th ey owed in children , a debt justifi ed by the state's natural right to endure. The unmarried vio足 lated a civ il co de; the legitimatel y married remain ed within the law and benefited the sta te: "It hath been experienced that b y legitimate m arriages children are more dispos ed by birth to honesty, mo re gravely edu cated , 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 u r."

The importance of marriage in turn g uaran tees the status of wives. As Barbaro obser ves, "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 th e violat ors o f th e im ages of the goddesses [sim ulacra deo1'llm)." 50 Both abus es are crime s agai nst the state w hich have symbolic m eaning . 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 transfonna足 tion of th e co m pe titive and potentially hostile energies of men acting among themselves into the coope ra tive and ami cabl e for ces of attractio n br inging men and women together. His opinion rec alls Ari stotle's notion that th e trans gen erati on al stabili ty of a family and hen ce a soc iety de足 pends on treating each woman as the pr operty of an indi vidual m an : "In a state having women and children in common, love [between men] w ill be dilut ed , and the father will certainly not say 'my son, ' or the so n, ' m y

50Fran cesco Ba rba ro, Direaions jor Love and Marriage. I II two books . Written orig ilwlly 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 n ot ed the words o f the original text in instan ces whe re the translation is dubiou s. The treatise, com posed in J41 5, is di vid ed into a preface, " Quid sit conj ugiu m, " and a first and secon d part, "De delectu uxoris" and " D e uxoris o fficio ," respectively; it was de dicated (Q Lorenz o de' Med ici, on the occasion of his mar ria ge (Q Ginevr a C avalcanti. For an editi on with Italian on facing pages, see Prosatori iatini del quattrocent o, ed. Eugeni o 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 . Ko hl and Ron ald G. Witt with Eli zabeth Welles (Ph iladelphia: Uni versity of Pennsy lva nia Press, I97 8), I 79-88.

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fat he r.' "5 1 Fo r B arba r o, m en w ith gen e rati ve wo men as their priv at e p o sse ssio ns can n ego tia te peacef ul co n q ues ts:

By this tve [vinculo, i.e., m arri age] Ca dusius reconc iled th e mo st seditio us Carians am on gst them selve s; by this alliance Cy rus ap peased the Chal足 deans tha t were at enm ity w ith their bo rd erers; and at Ro me in the same day the Sabins we re bo th ene m ies and citizens. . . . An d w hat 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 an d emp ire s, as it is all u d ed t o here, ap p ears to h av e suggeste d t o Barbaro the op erati on o f di vi ne will. Woman are " images" o f d ivinity ina smu ch as they repres ent th e m eans o f pea ceful growth an d a way t o enla rge th e empire without an y correspond ing diminution of res ources .

Yet the ima gery o f ex cha n g e 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 ar g u m en t , simply d iss ip ated in the amorous exch an ge s o f m arriag e. It is actuall y redi r ected to effec t the exchanges o f w o m en in and through which th e g r o 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 mu st ag ree (o r be forced to ag ree) to co m p liance with the terms of ex change, in short, to be come human commodities, o bjects.

B arb ar o 's d es cri p ti on o f a wife 's virtue sug ge sts w hy h e can imagine that she m ight offer n o o bj ection s t o this role.

A w ife' s v ir tue is first of all to b e m oral : she can no t run a house unless sh e can run herself. B eyond th at , she is to be exem pla ry: As a pr ince canno t w ell govern a city unle ss he be expert in the common law, th e custo ms of his ancesto rs, and th e pub lick affairs . . . so neither can domesti ck affairs be rightl y managed un less the excellenc e of th e mistress of the famil y be a sing ular exam ple to the rest . And eve n as souldiers wh ich have an exce llent commander are ashamed to desert th at place w hich is app ointed th em ; so men and m aid-servant s will no t forsake th at part of the fam ily conce rn, th e custody of w hich is co m m itted to the m b y a chas te and prudent mi st 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 analysis of these systems of exchange, see Gayle Rubin, "The Traffi c in Women: No tes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex," in Toward all Alllhl'opology ~rWO l1lell , ed. Rayna R. Reiter (New Yo rk: Monthly Review Press, 197 5),

157-2 ro .

THE TERM S O F THE DEBATE

45

Her sub altern role is defined by an overriding obligation to obey her husban d. She fo llo w s two ru les: th e rule ofself-effacement and the rule of transparenc y. Her actions must be as th ou gh they were her husband's : "Let her be so co n versant with him, that it may be most certain that nothing will be good to her, n o thing 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 ive s should so live with their husbands, that in a m anner they might be of one m ind and if it could be done ... that two should become one" (F2V- 3V) . Her activities are conditioned accordingly. Bar足 baro insists th at hi s 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 hus ban d . She is to be unlike the moon, which shines only in the absence of the su n ; she is to be seen only when by h er husb and , w hose light will ve ry nearl y (bu t no t quite) obscure hers (G v).

In other words, in public a wife is seen as a "pale refle ction" of her husb and . 52 H en ce, too, she cannot ex press herself authoritatively; in fact , Barbaro de nies that she can "kno w" anything: Socrates [IsocratesJ exhorteth men to speak either those things whi ch they certainl y know, or which , with their honour, they cannot conceal. We enjoin w omen to concede the former as proper to men, but they may believe the latt er also common to them selves; in whom loquacity cannot be enough reproved, by the most prudent and learned persons, nor taciturnity sufficiently applauded. (G2] A woman 's eloquence is there fo re, like her public appearance, also para足 doxical: "T hey should think th at th ey shall obtain the glo ry of eloquence, if they adorn themselves with the famou s ornament of silence" (G JV). In short, none of a woman's d uties suggests that she is supposed to have a sense of herself as other than a useful extensio n o f he r husband. B arbaro is able to conceive of his ideal wife in these terms because he can make use of Aristotelian notions of a female n at ure; woman is "naturally weak " in relation to m an , who is naturally strong. Wo m an is "fearful," an d 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 inn ate disposition. Afflicted with a funda足 52The image, proverbial in the marriage literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen足 turies, is Plutarch's: "Whenever the moon is at a distance from the sun we see her conspicuous and brilliant, but she disappears and hides herselfwhenshe comes near him.

Contrariwise a virtuous womanought to be most visible inherhusband's company, andto stay in the house and hideherseJf whenhe is away": A dvice to Bride and Gr oom (Conjugalia pr aecepr a), in Plutarch's M oralia, 1:304-5.

4-6

RE NA I SS AN C E FEMINISM

m en tal we akn ess, his typi cal wo m an 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 po w er neede d fo r su ch activities.

T his picture is refuted, to a de g ree, w hen Barb aro addresses tw o situations in w hich w omen coul d, and o bviously sometimes did, hav e real power: the situation of the w idow and th at of the w o m an of pro p­ ert y. In bo th cases, he sees dan gers that betray his aw areness of a fem ale nature different fro m the on e he has describ ed. Wido w s m ay prove recalcitr ant because experience has given them a sense of th ems elves tha t is different fro m th e sen se that th eir husb ands ex pect the m to have and , in deed , th at they should have, if the y are creatur es who are co m para­ tively weak: "We can scar ce w ith great in geny [sic], elabor ate ind ustry, and sing ular care reduce w idows, fo rm ed both to th eir own and o ther hu m o rs, to our own custornes" (C v). And a rich wife m ay pro ve diso be­ dient: "I thin k the riches of the w ife unprofi table, unl ess the patt ern ofher husban d's discipline sha ll appear easie to her, eve n in penury itself' (D S).

The statem ent can be under stood by infere nce: w ith riches, a wom an m ay have reason to resist her hus band's autho rity. N o t sur prisin gly, Barbaro is concerne d about th e effect of a marri ed w o m an's property on the relationship between spouses. Lycurgus, he asserts , "o rdained th at wives should be esp oused without por tions" in order th at "Spartan w o men m igh t not rem ain unmarried fo r their po verty, nor be m arried for their riches, fo r he for esaw that the Spart anes w ou ld seck vir tue not riche s in w ives, and th at the w ome n w ould be far more diligent in th e acquisition of virtues" (D 6r-v) . Barbaro has earlier stated tha t the virtue proper to w oma n w ould constitute he r as self-effa cing and trans parent ; here he sees riches as reconstituting her as a tru e subj ect, a per son who is in so m e w ay independent of her husband.

Finall y, all Ba rbaro 's stipulations regarding th e conduct of w o m an reflect his con cern that her role as a vessel of generation no t be co m pro­ mised . He values a wo m an's sex uality as essent ial to th e w elfare of the family and ultimately to th e state, but he em phasizes th at it o ught no t to be the basis for any kin d of self- rep resentation: Husbands sha ll accust o m (their w ives] to seem to be helpers, no t of lust, bu t of necessity: , . . [wives] sho uld so eviden ce th eir nuptial honour and modest y, that in th eir cong ress decen cy m ay acco m pan y their em braces, lest by their avidity and imm ode sty, they be both defect ive in their ho nou r, and also less acceptable to their tacite husbands [mariti tacenti; i.e., un co m­ plaining]. [H v]

~ arb aro identifies the expression of sexual desire with speech and makes silence a SIgn of sexual m od est y. A husband 's "t aciten ess" indicates both

T HE TE RM S O F THE DEBAT E

47

his reluctan ce to chast ize his 'wife for her pas sion and his own ind ifferen ce or passivity; th e impli cation is th at she has had g reater pleasure th an he. A woman's " m odesty" is lin ked to her silence , and a m an 's control of her to the forfeit of he r sex ua l and her speaking self. Lack ing exp ress ion for her selfas su bj ect, she be co m es merely an object to be used . At the same time she is an "image" of some highe r power and has symbolic value . W hat must be noti ced is that her tran sformation int o an o bj ect an d symb ol has depended on a kin d of violence . M en ag ree to cease hostilities among themselves becau se th ey can ag ree to ex change w ome n am ong th em­ selves . In the pr o cess women lose their capac ity to sp eak and be heard ; they have value or are virtu o us onl y as the means by w hic h the contin uity of soc iety is guaran teed .

H umanists writing on household go vern me n t did not gen erall y allude to personal ex perience, de spite the int imate nat ure of their su bject. Ba r­ baro'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 un us 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 tim e, th e cir cumst anc es of our evi l fate . "5] The Alberti w ife's part in restoring her fami ly to p rosperity is clear and crucial: she is to m ainta in domes tic or der by conse rving what her husband has acq uired. If she fails to do so , she not o nly hurts her family bu t also affects the fina nci al stabil ity of the state. For goods that are kept w ithin a family do not en ter th e marketpl ace; conversely, those that are lo st or so ld are put back in to competiti ve play. In excessive q uantities , goo ds in the process of bei ng 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 o f an o bject exc hanged bet ween men , as Barbaro does , Alberti sees a wo ma n as one w ho by co nse rving pr opert y limits the nu mber of (real) o bjec ts to be exc hanged among men , and th ereby preven ts rapid shifts in the fortun es of her family and, by ext ension, of tho se of others.

53Leo n Ba tt ista A lbe rti, Tire Falllily in Renaissance Florence: A Translation by Renee N ell HatkillS of "I L ibr! dellajiw 1is lio" (C o lum bia: U niversirv o fSo ut h Ca rolina P ress, 1969),9 4.

For a modern editio n, see Leo n Ba tti sta A lberti, Op ere volga ri, ed . Cecil G rayson , Scritro ri d'I talia "I S (Ba ri: Laterza, 1960). Pre sented to the Florentine Republi c in ! 44! as a co nt ri­ bu tio n to a lite rar y co ntes t o n friendship, Albert i's book wa s circulated widely in manu­ script but no t printed befo re !7}+. The text is divided in ro a pro log ue and fo ur bo ok s; th e sec ond , D,' re l/ x on'a , and the th ir d, ECOII OlllicIL' , contain Alb ert i's disc ussion 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 C astello : S. Lapi, 19!3) . Fo r an excelle nt study of Alberti 's w orks as a whol e. esp , his de velopm ent of th e idea of perspe ctive , see Joan Gadol, L eon Battista Al berti. Universa l Man of tlic Early Renaissan ce (C hicago : U niver sit y of C hicago Pr ess. !9 69)· Watkins pro vides her rransla rion w ith a useful int ro d ucti on and bibliograph y of w o rks in English .

48

RENA ISSANCE FEMI NI SM

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

Al berti 's em phasis on econo mic s, necessit at ed in part by the actua l fmancial str ait s of his family, also reflects contempora ry Florentin e atti­ tu des toward pr o perty and prosperity. H e (like Barbar o) dra ws on Aris­ totle , particularly the E co nomics, a text translated by his com patr io t Lion­ ardo B ru ni in 1420 w ith this apo logy: " If it is a philosop her's task to study th e sta te, th e famil y, and even the administration and increase of pr op­ ert y, then this alo ne pr oves th at possession s and riches should not be re garded by the wi se m an with sovereign contempt. " 54 Restrictions on th e tr ansfer of w omen's property su gges t to w hat extent the preservation of a fami ly's "possessions and riches" depende d on its co ntrol. In legal affairs, a Flo ren tine wom an wa s not allowed to be sine mundio, without th e guardianship (mundium) of her fat her or husband . H er fathe r could clausrrate her, redu ce her in heritance, determine her do wr y, decide whom sh e w ould marry. Sp ecifically designed to pre serve th e w ealth of th e city was the law th at required th e w idow of a non-Flo rentine to retu rn to her patern al home in Florenc e if she w ished to keep her do wry, which other wise reverted to her family. 55 Della famiglia is written as a series of dialo gues in w hic h the principal sp eak ers, all mal e memb ers of the Alb erti family, arg ue for various positio ns on the cond uc t of fam ily life. The famil y's situatio n is pree­ cario us , in that its head, th e mi ddle- aged Lorenzo (Ba tt ista'S father), is dy in g. Hi s place is filled alte rn ately in the cour se of th e dialogues by tw o cou sins, the yo ut hful Lionardo and the age d Giannozzo , but the tempo­ rar y nature of th ese su bstitutions underscores th e fragility of the unit w hose con tinuity the speakers are tr yin g to ensure. In Book II, titled De re uXMia, a dialogue be tween Ba ttista and Liona rdo , the for m er argues for the dignity of romant ic lo ve , the latt er fo r a marriage based on friendshi p.

Ba tt ista's yo uthful asser tio n of th e value of romantic love is clearly un dercut by th e eviden ce he brings to support it . To Batt ista, " lo ve is a for ce an d a law no t altogeth er des erving contempt and blame .. . so me thing imposed by divine na ture on any livin g 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 lo ve of hu sband and wife gre atest of all. " An d it is the basis fo r a society's w ealth: "It rules . .. the whole econom y." So mu ch , however, for th eory-th ese sta tem ents are immediately refuted w hen Batt ista o bse rves: "Ye t somehow, I do not 54 Q uo ted in Baron, "New Attitude toward Wealth," 176.

"E . Rodocanachi, La Femme italien ne a t'epoque de fa Renaissance (Paris: Hach ett e,

292 .

19 0 7),

THE TER M S OF THE DEBATE

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know why, it happens not infrequentl y that a woman prefers a lover to her own husband ." And later he notes that roman tic love can drive a man to kill his ow n child, as "Catiline, w ho for lo ve ofA urelia Orestilla, killed his own son tha t he m ight take her to w ife." Finally, love is opposed to the interests of th e state. Women are generally faithless, Battista admits, and men in love are prone to acts of injustice that have socially and politically devastatin g results. H is description suggests a Senec an trag­ edy: lo ve, he claims, can restrain "the royal will and royal appetite, " raise "an insignificant and m eretricio us creature to glorious dignity and high estate," m ake us "despise fame, forget all honor and noble deeds, and lightly tear even the closest bonds of kinship." His interlocutor, Lio­ nardo, can hardly expect an obj ection when he redefines love as "a limitless foll y," " vile appetite," "brutish desire" (98- 101) .

To clarify what Battista has foun d perplexing, Lionardo insists on the central importance of the fam ily, and claims that a love "free from all lasciviousness" an d characterized as friendship is the onl y basis for mar­ riage (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 anthropological-men wish progeny, women with progeny require pro­ tection, therefore men appropriate and protect women. His principal point, that w o m en are the conduits through w hich male members of a family m ust pass generationally, is made clear in his conclusion: the friendship he has ex tolled is an emotion felt by me n prim arily for men, and it is expressed by agre ements about ho w w o m en are to be shared and exchanged. In practice, it has nothing to do w ith feelings that a husband an d wife have for each o the r. "That Pompey of yours, " he exclaims to Battista, "amorous as he was, did he not always put friendship first?"

Though Pompey was afl ame 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 as always

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

share and give only property [la roba] to a friend, but to deprive oneself and

yield to him in good will and faith even the object ofone's personal and, as

you say, divine affections and desires. [103]

The im plications of this image of male friendship are clear. The silent Flor a w ho is at th e exemplary Po mp ey 's disposal is pro perry; thar she is also the object of Pom pey 's affectio n means onl y that he is able to regard property with affecti on. 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 of public and private duties , and on pursuing them w ithout 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 sub­ ject of Book 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 "th e 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 of wealth 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 undermin­ ing that of another. Giannozzo's answer to the implications of this st ate­ ment, their substantiation in the actual pr actice of family affairs , de­ scribes 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 th at limitations on the social and econo m ic competitiv eness of m ale head s offamilie s within a giv en society can be associated w ith the development of the apparatu s of state control. In her view, such men become "dornesti­ cate~"-tha t is, they compensate for a loss of power and prestige in society byits exercis e within the famil y, and spe cl~cal! y o ver wives and children. If correct, her theory explains at lea:t In par t wh y Albert"! might lmk the control of wives with the COntainment of an1 blt)l.on on the part of husbands. See "The Virgin and the State," Feminist Stt/dies ' 3 (r 97s . 19-3 5. 'h

THE TE RM S OF THE DEB AT E

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h usba n d exerc ises an " hon o ra ble auth ority " (179- 80). " N ature, " Lion足 ard o then observes (ela borating features o f his earli er arg u m en t from nature), concur s in this assig n 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 other hand. are almos t all timid by nature, soft, slow, and the refor e mo re useful when they sit still and watch over our thin gs. It is as tho ugh natur e thus provided for our well- being, arrangi ng for men to bring thin gs home and for wo men to guard them . [207] In fac t, as G ian nozzo 's description o f his rel ati onship w ith his w ife shows, the conduc t he expects fr om her is n o t in the least natural but rather th e result of his own treat m ent of her.

Giannozz o be gins his desc rip tio n o f hi s w ife 's educa tion b y n oting that she kno ws nothing o f h is affairs : althou gh h e has shown h er hi s " trea足 sures, " he keeps h is b ooks an d re cords lo cked in hi s stud y. She " not only co uld not re ad , sh e could not even lay hands o n them . . . . I o fte n u sed to express m y d isapproval o f bold and fo rw ard fem ales who tr y too hard to know abo ut thing s o u tside the hou se, an d abou t th e concerns o f their husband and o f m en in g en era l." H e w arn s husbands n ot to co nfide in the ir w ives: "They are m ad men if th ey thin k true prudence or g ood co u nsel lies in the female b rain " (210). A w ife's ign oran ce is co m po u nd ed by her isolation fr om p ersons in g enera l. Sh e is not to p articip at e in the society of w omen, w hich is d escr ibed as frivol ous: " I shall be trul y g lad if r see that you [his w ife] d isda in . . . the cha tt ering that some little gi rls d o all da y, in th e hou se, at the d o or, and w herev er they go. They talk no w w ith this friend , n o w wi th that one; th ey ask a lot o f questions an d say a lot o f th ings tha t they don't know as well as a lot th at they do." N o r is she to co nvers e with m embers o f her ow n h ou seh ol d . She is to talk as little as possible to h er servants or to listen to their opini ons o r th eir co mplain ts: "Too much familiarity kills re spect" ( 2 I 7- I 8).

M o re crucial than h er ign orance and isolati on is her humiliati on, a st ate of mind indu ced by a pro cess that be gins at th e time of her m arri ag e w ith her ren unciation o f her mother and he r m other 's nurturance: she is to ld she must beh ave as an A lberti gi rl (21 5). Sh e h as to ac kn o w le d ge th at her mother's in struction h as been ins ufficient and that sh e seeks one m ore perfect-"her m ot h er had tau ght her o nly ho w to sp in and sew, and h ow to be virtu ous and o bed ien t. N ow sh e w o uld gl adly lea rn fro m m e [G iannozzo) ho w to rule the family " (218). Sh e h ers elf is made to feel w holly in cap able o f co rrec t judgment. W hen Giann ozzo ask s his brid e h ow she w o uld b egin her houseke eping, she ans w er s n aively that she

52

RENAISSANCE FEMINISM

would arrange to lock everything up. When Giann ozz o points out th at it would be impractical to lock everything up , she is silent and lower s her eyes. He takes pleasure in her reaction: "I wa s no little pleased in w ardl y, seeing that becoming air of repentance on her face." And he cong rat 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. " Whe n she fin ally responds, it is silen tly: "Aft er a little w hile, w ith humble and m od est slowness, she lifted up her eyes to me and, w itho u t speaking, sm iled " (221) . This m oment of instruction clearly aims at dehumanizing th e pupil. Gian足 nozzos w ife (w ho ne ver recei ves a name throu gh out the dialogue) is forgiv en w hen she beh aves like a do g : sco lded, she lo w ers her ey es; after an appro priate int er val, she raises th em aga in in a chaste ned attitu de.

Giannozzo can proceed w ith his lesson .

H o w do es Alberti imagine th at suc h brutal metho ds will be su ccessful?

The ans we r lies in a later passage in w hich Gi ann ozzo inst ru cts his wi fe on the need alw ays to be cheerful. He draws a compa riso n be tween his own life, w hich is full of strife and therefor e naturally con du cive to occasio nal bad temper, and her own, which is utterl y peaceful. His "so ur m ood" is ex cusable because he has "spent the day talkin g and contending w ith mal evolent , scheming persons and with enemies. " She , on the other hand. can experience "drooping spirits" only throu gh " 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 fo r th e accidental mishaps that occur at random in eve ry kind of dom estic situa tio n . She cannot escape blame. If she remains cheerful in th e face ofa do mes tic dis aster, she w ill be blamed both for it and fo r being im perce p足 tive; if sh e beco m es w orr ied or gloo my, the cause wi ll aga in be he r fault , and she wil l have in curred her husband 's displeasure. The suc cess w ith w hic h Giannozzo can hope to tran sform his bride int o his loyal surr oga te in the hou se turn s upon the in culcation o f pervasive feelin gs of guilt.

Give n th e func tion of w o m en as gua rdians o f pr operty, 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 good s th at can be competed for that ho stilities amo ng men are pro vok ed . The w oman w ho thr eatens so cial orde r is th ere fore the one who tails to keep w hat she has been given, a fact th at explains w hy the otherwise secreti ve Giann ozzo rev eals all his tr ea足 sure to his w ife . A careless wife initiates a con fusion of catego ries of belo ngi ng, a flouting of proprieties, that is, of decenc y and o wne rship.

THE TERMS O F TH E DEB A T E

53

Such a woman is in fact d escribed b y G ian n o zz o as an example o f how no t to beha ve. A sking hi s w ife for "o rder and sys tem ", he d eclares It does not befit a wo ma n like you CO carr y a swo rd, nor to do o ther manly things that me n do . N or is it alw ays an d in all places fittin g for a w om an to do eve rything that is proper to a wo man, for instance holding a distaff, we aring go ld br ocade, havin g 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 m onth is not to be used up in a day. [226] This image o f fem in ine d isorde r exempli fies a co n fla rio n o f ca tegories .

Indo ors an d outside ; male and female ; p ast, prese nt , and fu ture are confu sed , and wh at is proper to o n e or the o th er now becomes univer足 sally available . The diso r d erly wom an signifies th e pu tt in g back into co mpetitive pl ay of o bjects th at have alread y been ass ig n ed a use , a tim e and plac e of oper atio n , and an interes t or purpose. If, as Ba rba ro no ted, women k eep the peace by b ein g property that men can exch an ge, prop足 ert y tha t ge n er ates pro pert y, an d if, as A lb erti h as said, fr ee but u n fortu足 n ate fa mi lies are th reat ened b y the am bition of fam ilies in power, then the role of wo men as p re serve rs ac q ui res a d ouble fun cti on . By being ex足 chan g eable prop ert y they all eviate comp etit ive ten sio n among m en ; by pres ervin g property they relie ve m en of the need to be co m p etitive . B oth fu n ctio n s are imp o rt an t to the stability o f society. 57 For the n ext tw o ce ntu ries feminists pro te st ed the imag es o f wo men in such trea tises as thos e ofB ar bar o and Alberti. They saw tha t acco rding to convention a wo m an's role w as b ound up with systems for the all o cati o n of p r o p erty am ong men . H er v ir t ue w as expressed p rin cipally in the absence o r negatio n of act ivity. H er chastity was valuable because it guarantee d the fat h er 's owners h ip of hi s ch ildren an d 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 disernpo we red" whose "unorganized potential for disorder" was frightening to men: Public Life in Renaissance Florence (N ew 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 legal guardianship 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 legal activities ~ hey wished, without the onerous burden of parental and j udicial wardship": Famiglia

ita lian a, 272- 73.

54

REN AI SSAN C E FEMINISM

means by w hich she might be able to gain an easy and surre pn n o us control of socie ty, that is, by selecting whi ch m en would become fat hers 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 objectin g to restric tions on spe ech, public activit y, and th e administration of prop­ erty, 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 per­ sistently and subtly challeng ed, no t to say confo unded, by what on e mi ght call Alberti's " Flora syndrome" -that is, th e condition of the abused w o m an w ho is also loved . Affection itself proved to be an am big­ uous concept. A m an 's devoti on to a w oma n did no t app ear in any w ay to pr eclude her obj ectificarion in his eyes; a w om an 's devotion to a ma n mi ght be assum ed to entail an acceptan ce of this tre atment. The idea of th e compan ionate marriage, so frequently propos ed and extolled by all parties, w as seen event ually to beg the qu estion . To hat exte nt , if at all, can bein g a com panion m ean bein g an equal?

Christian Marriag« Misogyny w as th e inevitabl e by-p rodu ct of th e concept of Christian m arriage as th e uni on of ratio nal m an with passion ate woman ; however fo rceful his control, his asso ciati on w ith her made for a m oral condition less perfect th an that guaranteed by celib acy. The effect s of mi so gynistic attitudes o n m arriag e do ctrine we re mitigated chiefly by the concept of charity. Bey ond em phasizing th e importan ce of a h usban d's lo ve fo r his inferior and subordinate w ife, marriage doctrine emphasizin g charity taught th at she (altho ugh the weaker vessel) w as capable of salvation and th erefore oug ht to be help ed to ach ieve it. By the fifteenth century, how ever, the humanists' concern w ith the welfare of the state had put C hristian m arri age in a new perspective. For them, m arriage and the household w ere political as w ell as sacr amental entities, and relatio ns between spouses and their relatives were determi ne d more by legalistic than reli gious j ustifications. The po w er of th e patriarch-in heory lim­ ited by his ob ligation as a father to "love C hrist more than a son o r daughter" (M att. IO:37) as w ell as by his C hristlike love as a husband­ wa s enh an ced by descrip tions of th e ho usehold as a state o r eve n (as in Barbaro ) a m ilitary establishm ent.

Christi ans co uld and did find reasons to object to th e rigor im plicit in the humanists' idea of m arriage. To regard th e househ old as a political unit w as to diminish the im port ance of the m oral requiremen t of love: it co uld also th reaten. th e ,sacram ental cha rac ter of m arr iag e by giving a {ather the presurnpn ve rig h t to den y his dau ghter her choi ce of hu s band

TH E TE RM S OF THE DEBATE

55

(as Rabelais was later to see). and, in cases in which she acted indep en­ dently o f him, the binding nature of her con sent . The latter issue is ex p ressed in th e co n tro versy over so-called clandestine marriages , per­ form ed without the consent of the parents of bride an d gr oom. The clergy saw such union s as tru e marriages bec ause they w ere based on the co nsen t of the co u ple: consent had to be mutual, but on ce it w as given , a co u ple w as cons idered m arried. Those w ho objected sa w such m arriages as inv alid be caus e they denied the co u ple 's parents the right to intervene on financial, social, or moral grounds. They argued that no de cision as important as marria ge should be left to the very young, and they pointed to the pra ctical hardships that could ensu e in cases in which su ch deci­ sions were for ced or ill con ceiv ed. A marriage without due regard for soc ial st atus and the di stribution of property mi ght place in j eo pard y one if not both of the parental families . 58 A woman h ad rea son to fear both a clandestine and an arranged m arriag e: th e fir st justified if not actually enco ura ged her s ed ~ c ti on or abduction. particularl y if sh e had money or so cial sta tus; the second made her the pa wn of her parents' d ynastic ambitions. B oth therefore denied her the right to exercise her o wn di scretion and co nscien ce 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 marr y. Rich girls were so m etim es married before pub er­ ty ; after menarche, th ey w er e required to live with their husbands. The frequent alle gations of feminists that m arria ge was no mor e tha n a kind of ensl avement of wom en reflect the ex trao rdin ary pun itiveness of m an y marnage s.

B eyond questions re garding what kinds of marriage were valid , Chris­ tians wh o embraced humani stic discipline sough t to discover the role of charity in relation ships that were also m ore o r less rig idl y political.

58T he mo st com prehensive treat ment of all aspec ts of m arri age and sex ual relatio ns in this p eriod is James A. Bru nd age, Lau-, Sex , and Christian Society ill Medieval Europe (Chi cago: Universi ty of C hicago Pr ess, 1987), esp. 487- 575 , on th e late Middl e Age s and Rena issance to th e co nven ing of th e C o uncil of Trent (15.+ 5). For procedures governing m arr iag e as an institution and a sacr am ent befor e Tr ent, see also . i.a., Shah ar, 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 Univ er sity Press. [983), 151-53; and She rma n , Roman L aw, 56- 62. See also, fo r Italy, Rod o cana chi , Femm e italienne , 57- 60: Tarna ssia, FallligUa italiana, 150- 88. For France, see Bea tri ce Go t tlieb , "T he M eanin g of Cla n desti ne M arri age." ill Falllil)' alld S exuality i ll French Hi story, ed . Robert Wh eatOn and Tamara K. Ha reven (Philad elphia: Univer sity of Penns ylvania Press, 1980), '+9- 83; and fo r a different vi ew of clandestine m arriage, see Brundag e, Law, Sex , and Christian Societ» 499-50 3. On farnil v mores in gen eral, see D on ald Kelley. " T he Prim al D ialectic, " in T he Begill17illg ojJdeolog)'.: Conscious­ ness and Society i17 the French RejCmnatio17 (C ambrid ge: C am bridge Uni ver sit y Press, 19 8 3), 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 yn e, Erasmus: His T/l e%~y of /he Sacramenrs (R Ich m ond, Va.: Joh n Kn ox Pr ess, 1970). 109- 2 5. c •

56

REN AISSANCE FEMINISM

Era smus, for example, spe aks of the husband's authority and power, the wife 's subo rdination and weakness, as elements not only in a domestic ord er but rather, and pr im arily, in an interdependence of so uls. As he represents it , the fun ction of m arr iage is not so much to streng then society as to pro vide th e g rounds upon whi ch a personal salva tion may be worked out. 5 9 Er asmus is not, however, consi stent in his opinion of woman, 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 th e significance of woman's first crea tion and her spiritual equ ality to man, he is generally ambig­ uous . In his coll oquy "T he New Mother, " his feminist cha racter, Fabulla, insists th at m en hav e achiev ed their so cial superiority not because they po ssess better souls o r 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 o f the supremacy of m an on two gr ounds . Despite their strength and aggressiveness, men are exposed to less danger in w ar th an w omen in childbirth: "Your kind are stationed in th e middle line ; another man is in th e reserves; ano ther sta ys safely in the rear; and finally m an y are saved by surrender and flight . We mu st enga ge death at close quart ers." And by virtue of the fact th at wo m an, lik e man, is created in the im age of God, which is expressed in " m en tal gifts," not "bodily form," she is the spiritual eq ual of m an . Questioning Eutrapelus, her 59Erasmus is regar ded as reformist larg ely because he places " ma rried chastity " on an ethical par with celib acy and so raises the m ora l statu s of the w ife. wh o no lon ger exists chiefly to ensure th at her husb and's sexuality be not sinful. By th e time of th e conve ning of the C ouncil of Tr ent , such views we re associated w ith the larg er goa ls of the Prot estant wr iters who popularized them. D espite thes e differen ces on the matt er of celibacy, I have not been able to discern much differen ce betw een Pro testant and Catholic attitud es tow ard th e role of the wife. The form al requirem ents for the performa nce of mari tal duti es rem ain th e sam e; the w ife is give n th e sam e restricted rig ht to disob ey in bo th cases. Fo r a differ ent opinion, see Mar go Todd, "Humanists, Puritans, and the Spiri tu alized H ou sehold, " Chu rch H istory 49 (19 80): 18- 34· For images of wo me n in the thought o f Luth er and C alvin, see Jane D emp sey Dou glass, "Wo men in the C ontinent al Reformation ," in Re li­ gioll and S exi sm, ed. Reut her, 292-318. For a discussion of the status of reformed wo men in publi c and private life in France, see, i.a., N atalie Z em on Davis, "City Women and Religious C hange ," in Society and C ulture, 65-9 5; 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- 9 5. For the impact o f Reformation thought on th e activities of wo me n in general, see Sherrin M arsh all Wyn tjes, " Women in the Refor m ation Er a," in Becoming Visible, ed.

Brid en th al and K oon z, r65 -9 1.

60 The Colloquies of Erasmus. tr ans. Craig R. Th ompson (Chicago : Universit y of Chi cago Press, 1965), 27 1. I ha ve noted t~ e wo rds of the o riginal text, quoted (w ith column references) from vol. 1 of Desiderii Er asrn i Roterod arni, Opera omnia (Leiden [7 03) in Instances where the translat ion is dubious . ' ,

THE T ERM S OF T H E DE B ATE

57

m ale antagonist, she asks " w hether it's granted to men onl y to be mem­ bers of C hrist [membri Christi]" (c. 767), and he repli es, " H eaven forbid!

That's g rant ed to all human creatures through faith " (27 1).

Erasmus does not leave Fabull a's position un chall enged . Un derstand­ abl y: it begs the question that most plagu ed co ntem po rary defend ers of women, that is, the extent to wh ich a w o ma n 's spiritual (and intellectual ) equ alit y w ith man co uld san ction beh av ior that discounted altogether the nat ure of her p hys ical bein g. Does th e fact that wo ma n is subj ect to man not as wo ma n (that is, female) but onl y as wi fe mean that she can behave as if the circ ums tances in w hich she find s he rself because of her sex have no mea ning? Fabulla, the "new moth er" of the dialogue, has sent her bab y out to nurse , as is the co m mon custo m with w o men 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, Eu­ trapelus establishes that the practice of wetnursing contrad icts no t only biologi cal nature but also the con nection between mind an d body made sacred in Scripture; "the Lord Jesus himself calls his bod y a 'temple'" (277) . In other words, he sees that a w oman 's spirituality and whatever it implies abo ut her autono my can never be thou ght of as independe nt of her physical being. If Christians are obliged to regard the hum an body as sacred , the nurturin g function s of th e fema le body must enter into any det ermination of a w oman's Christian duty an d by extensi on of th e natur e of her autono m y. Like the wo rks of Boc caccio and Barbaro, Er asmus's "New M other" places a w oman 's sexuality at the center of th e con trove rsy surroundin g the nature of her nature. The effects of her sexua lity do not m ake her cons picuo usly guilty (as th ey do for Boccac­ cio) or merely salable (as they do for Barbaro), but they do exact the sacrifi ce of a cer tain kind ofl iberty. N ot, fo r Er asmus , valued as genera­ tive property, woman is nevertheless boun d by her genera tivity in ways that inevitably affect the conduct of her life.

H ow far di d a wo man 's nature need fulfillment in marri ed sexu ality o r, conversely, how far could her spir itu al requirem ents prevent it ? In the­ ory, a w o man had always been able to elect conv entual ov er married life, alth ough in practice su ch a de cision was often m ade for her by her parents, wh o would not or co uld not suppl y her with a do wry. By th e sixteent h century, monasti c establishm ents for women frequentl y had reputations for lax m orals ; in so me cases, critics termed th em little m ore than brothels, as Er asmus does he re. M ost contem po rary crit icism of this kind comes from w riters w ho do not argu e a feminist line. Feminists, partic ularly those w ho identify themselves as w omen, almost invariabl y prai se the life of the woman wh o sequesters herself from the w orld, w hether formally in an institution o r in respon se to a personal inclina­

58

RE NAISSANCE FEMINISM

tion .v' Erasmus's colloquy "A Girl with No Interest in Marriage" illus­ trates 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 monas­ ter y.62 "Consider how many ad v an rages you lose along with your free­ dom, " he says .

Now you 're free to read, pray, sing God 's praises in your own room as much as you like and whenever yo u like. If you become tired of your 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 b y her conversation; if you see some man endowed w ith unusual virtue, you can learn from him what might im­ prove 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 grow ing laxity in conventual discipline after the middle of the fifteenth centur y 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 of Christian vocation. It is rather a personal cal1ing which rna y 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 Reforma­ tion PO!JtICS under Henry VIII and Edw ard VI (Oxford: Clarendon, 1965 ), 22.

THE TERM S OF THE DEB ATE

59

For a w o m an in Catherine's position, ho w ever, a de cision to remain at home under the auth orit y 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 ig ation to m arry at so m e point in the future, and probabl y to a m an 'w hom her father had selec ted, since she is, as Era smus hims elf no tes, her parents' " po ssession ." Sh e 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 wo uld be required to tr an sfer her obedienc e from her father to a husb an d 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 rit y- whether it is represented by father, br other, or, indeed, civil m ag istr ate-b y imbuing it with a spiritual pres ence. The subordinate is left w ith few reasons to question it .

Such sanctification, o f course, lat er becam e characteristic of Protestant politics. M agistrates bec ame au tho rities in spiritual m atters (Q ueen Eliz足 abeth was th e "supreme go vernor" of the English church); husb ands an d fathers to ok on the role of pri est and co nfessor. The w ife and child ren had no au thority to appeal to outside th e: co ntex 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 unproblem atic either. In his "A bbo t and the Learned Lad y, " Erasmus reveals w ha t a menace she could ap pea r to be. His character Ma gdalia, usua lly identified as M arg aret More Roper, defends her reading of Greek and Roman au thors on the gro und s th at wisdom is the g reatest happiness; the ab bo t Antronius atta cks her on the gr ounds th at w o m en are intended onl y for pleasure: " It's not feminine to be brain y [non est muliebre sapere , c. 745]. A lad y' s bu sin ess is to have a good time" (2 19). Magdalia's unstated pr emise is that women are capabl e of the sam e intellectu al development as me n, and th at w hatever the vo cation to which the y are called , even that of wife, the y can legit足 64Klapisch-Z u be r no tes as th e situa tio n o f fl orentine w o m e n wh at 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 throu ghout Europe at thi s ti m e:

.:.

T he determinati on of a woma n 's ide nti ty th us depended on her mov ements in relat ion to th e " ho uses" of men . ... "Hon orabl e" marriag es w ere w hat regul ated the ent ries and exi ts of wives. and the norma l state, th e state that guarante ed th e hono r of t he wo me n and th e " ho uses, " coul d be no oth er than th e marr ied state . Any w om an alo ne w as suspect. An unm arri ed wom an w as co nside red incap ab le of living alo ne o r in th e absence o f masculine pr ot ection wit ho ut fallin g into sin . Even if she were a reclu se and live d a hol y life, even ifs he retir ed to a room o n 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 er e fact of her celibac y. T he convent w as th e onl y way o ut, altho ug h terrible dou bts abo ut 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 wer e not m arried . r WOn/en , Family, and

Rilllal.1 19)

60

RENAIS SAN CE FEMI NI SM

ima tely acquire an d pr ofit from wisdom. " D o you th ink [a w ife] can m an age 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 tin ue to b e edu cated, th ey wi ll be fit to assu me positions of intellectu al au tho rity - in sho rt, to be in the situation of a Pop e Jo an : "We'll pr esid e in the th eologi cal schools , preach in th e churches, an d w ea r yo ur miter s." And if educ ated w o m en read y th emselves for such offi ces, "it w ill be up to you [m en} to forbid [it]" (223 ; vestru/Il erit hocavertere, c. 746). Ma gdalia's defense of the intellectual vitality of which women are cap able contai ns a veiled critique of th e intellectual slo th afflicting men . Women, she implies, w ill assu m e public and eccl esiasti cal offices onl y as a sign of the co rru p tion of male clerics an d n ot as a consequen ce o f fundamental so cial change . Here Erasmus is con testing not wo ma n 's cap acit y for intellectual life but th e p ropri et y o f givin g it institution al rather th an m erely domesti c sco pe.

The Institutio matrimonii christiani (1526) w as clearl y w ritten for persons in positions o f 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 p opular didactic works as the C olloquies, it reveal s how the issues raised by th e humani sts ' politicization of m arriage affected the interpretati on of the do ctrine of cha rity as it applied to married life. 6 5 6SE ras m us 's m uch briefer and simple r Encomium matrilllo/J ii cha racterizes m arri age as a cond it ion of life both ph ys ical and spiritu al, su perior to celi bacy in th at ic pr o vid es a g ro und for charit ab le actio ns . Marri age is j ust ified by div ine law, which-like tho se "lett ers" that Paul tells C h ristians are eng ra ved fo r th em no t o n tablets o f br ass, as w as rhe o ld law, but o n th e livin g tabl es o f th eir hearts (2 Co r. 3:3)- is known o nl y by lo ve: A

Ryglzt Fnueful! Epystle Dev ysed by the M oste Ex cellent Clerke Erasmus i ll Laude and Prayse of :Hatrymon)' (Lon do n, [5 34), sig. B 2- V. Erasmus em phasizes no t the du ties of the cou ple but th eir pr ofoun d intim acy.

For w hat rhyn ge is sweter then with her to Iyve, wit h w ho rne ye m ay be most str eyght ly copu led, nat onelv in the benevo lence of rhe m ynd , bur also in the con iunc足 tion of the bod y. y f a grea re delectatio n of m ynd e be taken of th e benevolence of ou r ot her kyn smen , 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 conj uncrion of man and wyfe , rhan why ch no rhynge in the u nvve rsall w orlde maybe founde ou rher grea ter or fer mer ; [C6] T his im age o f a ma rria ge of"s rraigh r co u pling" is lefr wi thou t furt he r explanation and so be gs rhe qu estion of domesric order, to be an sw ered at length in th e lnstiuuio. It is o n spiri tua l g rou nds, ho we ver, th at Erasmus argues vigo rously again st clan des tine mar足 riages; he sees them as ins tan ces of ra pe , and invalid beca use th ey can not be fo und ed on an y kind o f relat ion be twe en spo uses o the r t ha n a carnal one . Co m m en ting on a case invol vin g th e abdu ction of a yo un g w o ma n from her father's house b y a " b riga nd, " he writes: "After carry ing her away, th e brigand roo k her w he re he w ished . This crime was applauded by so me co u rtisans as a beautiful ac: t. This is ho w th is luna ti c. this rake, th is thi ef, th is m adman came ro possess a WIfe o t good fam ily, ofex cellent mann er s, w ith a conside rable do w ry, but w ho suffered cons tant ly because ofhis beh avior an d ha d a hard rim e cbserv inz the ru les o f pie ty " : Le Mariage chretien, tra ns. Cl. B os c (Paris , 1714-), 73-74. [ LIse Bo se' 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 of husband 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 hus足 band'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 pub足 lished-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).

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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 sha red: "the wife is not so infe rior to her husband that sh e cann ot 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 ma y excite her husband excessively, and, conversely, that she m ay not be sufficiently receptive: "T he first fault makes a woman de spised b y her husband, th e secon d w ill earn her his hatred" (166). In any case, hi s w ell-being is p ar amount, and to guarantee it is her responsibility. The trul y conflicted nature of the equality he has proposed m ay have driven Er asmus finall y to resort to parado x : "a wife is never more a mistress than w h en she obeys her husb and " (224). He concludes, in an y case, by insisting on the wife's obedien ce in hi ghly orthodox terms . The husband is God's representa足 tive; he ma y not de serve to be obeyed , but Christ, who enjoins a wife's obedience, does so deserve. The husband 's model is Christ, but if h e fails to im ita te his m aster, he does not los e his auth ority on that account. The reason: "good order," the excuse Erasmus attribu tes to Paul, who ar gu es for obedience to secular authority, even wh en unjust , in Romans 13 (297) .

Th e parallel between the family and the state is a rediscovery of humanists, but Erasmus is the fir st of them to link a w ife's obedience to the more general injunction against disobedience to go vern ing au th ori足 ties which appli es 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 ar gu es for the right of Christians to liberty of con足 science. So Erasmus couns els a wife: "If he [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 ish ing to be ob ey ed , rem ember that it is better to obey God than men" (297). This argument presupposes that the wife is edu cated to know do ctrine and morality. Ho w does Er asmu s envis age the education of w o m en, especially in relation to their m arried lives?

He may be unique in conside ring h ow even th ose w o m en w ho wo uld do w ell to have a tr ade ought to be edu cated : "As soon as on e [i. e., a father] has en ou gh 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 langu ag e" (234 ).68 Who her teacher is to be he does not state', in any' case, 68Cf T hom as Becan on imp ro ving the character of wom en: "To brin g this thing [Q pass, It 15 exped ient tha t by pub lic autho rity schools for wom en-children be erected and set

THE TERMS OF THE D EBATE

63

for th e noble o r gentlewo m an , tutors w ere available; for a girl of the " mi ddling sort" w ho mi ght have to do m anual wo rk, elem ent ar y schools existed in some communities. For an education specifically in matters of faith an d m oral s, howe ver, Erasmus is explicit. Lik e Pau l, he insists th at a wo m an be instructed by her husband: " If there is anything the y [w omen] desire to k now [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 introdu ce his w ife 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 the y 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 con­ trary. she must be en couraged with pr aise until she is used to it." After she gains a certain judgment, he can acqua int her with the differen ce between "good and bad proofs," the "utility of examples and comparisons, " and the erro r in "false and co m m o n opinions" (236- 37).

What is reall y extrao rdinary in this educational program is the assump­ tion th at underlies it. D espite his earlier claims con cerning the spi ritual equ alit y of w omen, Erasmus sees that th eir intelligence is inherently defectiv e. In fact, he likens the products of a woman's mind, if not shaped by mas culine instruction. to the menses. Only ifher thoughts are "fertil­ ized " b y the w it of her husband can she bring forth sound and well­ formed "children ": "for, just as in generation a women do es not produce anything perfect w itho ut int ercourse with a healthy m an, an d with out this she produces nothing but unformed m atter th at is no more than a mass of bad humors. so also if a husband does not tak e care to cultivate his w ife's spirit, w hat else can one hope for?" The image (betraying its origins in Aristotelian biolog y) indicates Er asmus's belief that th e ob e­ dience of a woman must in practice extend to that privileged order of grace and affect her equalit y as a m ember of Christ. Pra ctic ally spe aking, it is difficult to imagine a situation in w hich an Erasmian wife could succ essfuUy obey her conscience. One is even at a loss to ima gine w hat kind of conscien ce she could claim. Her dependence seems almo st abso­ lut e. Parad oxically, Erasmus dep icts her as fully human only in th is condition . Her hu sband's education of her has shaped her, given her life: "Where w ould I be if! had not m et him to instru ct m e?" she ask s. " lowe to the care you [her husband] have taken to teach me the fact that 1 ha ve up in every C hr istian commonw eal. and honest, sage, wise, discree t, sober, g rave , and learn ed ma tro ns mad e rulers and mistr esses of the same, and that honest and liberal stipends be app ointed fo r the said schoo l- mistresses. which shall travail in the brin ging up of yo ung maids. that by this me an s th ey may be occasioned the mare gladly and wiJIing ly to take pa ins": The Catcch issn (1560), cd . John Ayre . in The Work,.

Th omas Ba o/1 (Cam bridge. 1844 ), 2:376 - 77. .

or

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become reasonable instead of unreasonable, 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 husb and" (237-39). In the interest of instituting the ide al 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 m arriage 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. Fem inists 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 me aning 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 co uld be both autonomous and dutiful-with little success . Some who felt their dilemma most kee nly (notably Marie de Gournay) would finall y make woman's spirituality paramount and thus also the justification for political and public activi ty.