Getting Married in Renaissance England as Presented in the Conduct Literature for Women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/SH.60.2017.02.06Keywords:
marriage in the sixteenth century, conduct books for women, Renaissance women, companionate marriageAbstract
There were two “career paths” open to Renaissance women in England — entering a monastery or getting married. With the introduction of reformation the first option vanished. Getting married opened varying possibilities. On one hand the contemporary promotion of marriage reinforced the patriarchal system of the society (a man is its head and the woman and children are his subjects). On the other, the idea of a “companionate marriage” allowing husbands and wives a certain degree of equality was formulated for the first time also by sixteenth–century thinkers. The traces of the Renaissance debate on which form of life is more pious and pleasing to God – celibate or married – can also be found in the conduct literature for women, on top of other advice referring to marriage.
References
Primary sources:
Agrippa, Henricus Cornelius. (1534). The Commendation of Matrimony, made by Cornelius Agrippa, translated into englysshe by Dauiid Clapam. Trans. D. Clapam. London.
Alberti, Leon Battista. (1844). Quattro libri della famiglia. In A. Bonucci (ed.), Opere Volgari di Leon Battista Alberti, vol. 2. Firenze: Tipografia Galileiana.
Barbaro, Francesco (1513). Francisci Barbari patricii Veneti oratorisque clarissimi de re Uxoria libelli duo, Paris: in aedibus Ascensianis.
Barberino, Francesco da (1842). Del reggimento e de’costumi delle donne di messer Francesco da Barberino Pubblicato per cura di Guglielmo Manzi Romano, Milano: Giovanni Silvestri, [reprint].
Becon, Thomas (1844). The Catechism of Thomas Becon with other pieces written by him in the reign of king Edward the Sixth. Ed. J. Ayre. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press.
Bouchet, Jean (1545). Épîstres morales et familières du Traverseur, Poictiers: Jacques Bouchet et Jehan et Enguilbert de Marnef.
Bullinger, Henry (1849). The Decades of Henry Bullinger, Minister of the Church of Zurich, Translated by H. I. The First and Second Decades. Vol. 1. Ed. rev. T. Harding, A. M. for the Parker Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [reprint form 1577].
Cholières, Nicolas de (1585). Les Neuf Matinées du Seigneur de Cholières. Dediees à Monseigneur Vendosme, Paris: Chez Iean Richer, rue sainct Iean de Lateran, l’enseigne de l’arbre Verdoiant.
Desiderius, Erasmus (1529). A Marriage in Name Only or The Unequal Match. Trans. Louis A. Perraud. In J.W. O’Malley (ed.) (1998). Collected Works of Erasmus: Colloquies, vol. 40 (pp. 842-859). Toronto–Buffalo–London: University of Toronto Press.
Desiderius, Erasmus (1533). An Explanation of the Apostles’ Creed. Trans. Louis A. Perraud. In J.W. O’Malley (ed.) (1998). Collected Works of Erasmus: Spiritualia and Pastoralia, vol. 70 (pp. 231-388). Toronto–Buffalo–London: University of Toronto Press.
Desiderius, Erasmus (1529a). On the Christian Widow. Trans. J. Tolbert Roberts. In J.W. O’Malley & J. Tolbert Roberts (eds.) (1998). Collected Works of Erasmus: Spiritualia, vol. 66 (pp. 177-258). Toronto–Buffalo–London: University of Toronto Press.
Desiderius, Erasmus. The Institution of Christian Matrimony (1526). Trans. M.J. Heath. In J.W. O’Malley & L.A. Perraud (eds.) (1999). Collected Works of Erasmus: Spiritualia and Pastoralia, vol. 69 (pp. 203-438). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gouge, William (2006). Of Domestical Duties. Ed. G. Fox. Morrisville: Lulu.
Guazzo, Stefano (1574). La civil conversatione del Signor Stefano Guazzo, Gentihuomo di casale di Monferrato. Divisa in quattro libri. Nel primo si tratta in generale de’ frutti, che si cavano dal conversare, & s’insegna a conoscere le buone dalle cattive conversationi. Nel secondo si discorre primieramente delle maniere convenevoli a tutte le persone nel conversar fuori di casa, & poi delle particolari, che debbono tenere conversando insieme i giovani, & i vecchi; i nobili, & gl’ ignobili; i prencipi, & i privati; i dotti , & gl’ idioti; i cittadini, & i forestiere; i religiosi & secolari; gli huomini, & le donne. Nel terzo si dichiarano particolarmente i modi, che s’hanno a serbare nella domestica conversatione; cioé tra marito, & moglie; tra padre, & figlivolo; tra fratello, & fratello; tra patrone, & servitore. Nel quarto si rappresenta la forma della civil conversatione, con l’essempio d’un convito fatto in casale, con l’intervenimento di dieci persone. Vinegia: Enea de Alaris.
An Homily of the State of Matrimony (1562). In Certain Sermons or Homilies Appointed to Be Read in Churches in the Time of the Late Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory. (1864). London: Printed for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Sold at the Depository, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 4 Royal Exchange, 16 Hanover Street, Hanover Square, and By All Booksellers, pp. 534-549, [reprint].
Le doctrinal des filles, Angoulême, 1492?, not paginated.
Leigh, Dorothy (1622). The mothers blessing: or, The godly Counsaile of a Gentle-woman, not long since deceased, left behind for her children: Contayning many good exhortations, and godly admonitions profitable for all Parents, to leaue as a Legacy to their children. By Mris. Dorothy Leigh, Printed at London for Iohn Budge, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Greene Dragon in Pauls Churchyard.
Marconville, Jean de (1573). De l’heur et malheur de mariage; Ensemble les Loix connubiales de Plutarque traduictes en François, Par Iean de Marconville Gentilhomme Percheron, reven & augmenté. Lyon: Par Benoist Rigaud.
A praier to be said of a yong married woman, or, a Wife. (1582) In T. Bentley (ed.), The Fift Lampe of Virginite: Conteining sundrie forms of christian praiers and meditations, to bee vsed onlie of and for all sorts and degrees of women, in their seuerall ages and callings; as namelie, of Virgins, Wiues, Women with child, Midwiues, Mothers, Daughters, Mistresses, Maids, Widowes, and old women. A Treatsie verie needful for this time, and profitable to the Church: now newlie compiled to the glorie of God, & comfort of euer woman distressed in child birth or other wife. London: H. Denham.
Taillemont, Claude de (1576). Discours des champs faez a l’honneur et exaltation de l’Amour et des Dames, Par C. de Taillemont, Lyonnois. Lyon: Par Benoist Rigaud.
Tilney, Edmund (1992). The Flower of Friendship. A Renaissance Dialogue Contesting Marriage. Ed. V. Wayne. Ithaca–London: Cornell University Press.
Tiraqueau, André (1515). Andreae Tiraquelli Fontiniacensis judicis ex commentariis in Pictonum consuetudines sectio de Legibus connubialibus: diligenter recognita & tersa erasis videlicet spurcitiis nuper per dolum frauenmque insertis, Vaenemdatur rursus in aedibus Ascensianis.
Tyndale, William (1528). The obedience of a Christen man, and how Christen rulers ought to governe, wherein also (if thou marke diligently) thou shalt find eyes to perceave the craftie conveyaunce of old jugglers. Set forth by William Tyndale. Antwerp, [reprint]. In T. Russel (ed.) (1831). The Works of the English Reformers: William Tyndale and John Firth, vol. 1 (pp. 163-379). London: Ebenezer Palmer.
Vives, Juan Luis (2000). The Education of a Christian Woman, a sixteenth–century manual. Ed., trans. Ch. Fantazzi. Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226858166.001.0001
Secondary sources:
Abbott, M. (1996). Life Cycles in England 1560–1720. Cradle to Grave. London–New York: Routledge.
The Books of Homilies. (2005). In F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingstone (eds.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev.) (p. 790). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001.
Chojnacki, S. (2000). Measuring Adulthood: Adolescence and Gender. In Women and Men in Renaissance Venice. Twelve Essays on Patrician Society (pp. 185-205). Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press.
Cott, N.F. (2002). Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Crawford, P. (1996). Women and Religion in England 1500–1720. London: Routledge.
Duby, G. (1977). Le marriage dans la société du haut moyen âge. In Ch. Verlinden et al. (eds.), Il matrimonio nella società altomedievale (pp. 15-39). Spoleto: Panetto & Petrelli.
Erickson, A.L. (1993). Women and Property in Early Modern England. London: Routledge.
Fairchilds, C. (2007). Women in Early Modern Europe 1500–1700. Edinburgh: Pearson Education.
Fletcher, A. (1994). The Protestant Idea of Marriage in Early Modern England. In A. Fletcher & P. Roberts (eds.), Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson (pp. 161-181). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511585708.009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511585708.009
Hogrefe, P. (1975). Tudor Women: Commoners and Queens. Ames, IA: The Iowa State University Press.
Kelso, R. (1978). Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Lucas, V.R. (1990). Puritan Preaching and the Politics of the Family. In Anne M. Haselkorn & Betty S. Travitsky (eds.), The Renaissance Englishwoman in Print. Counterbalancing the Canon (pp. 224-240). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Margolin, J.-C. (1999). La conception érasmienne du veuvage et du remariage. Rinascimento, vol. 39, Firenze: L. S. Olschki, pp. 37-66.
Noonan, J.T. Jr. (1966). Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Payne, J.B. (1970). Erasmus: His Theology of the Sacraments. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press.
Peters, Ch. (2004). Women in Early Modern Britain 1450-1640. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-21278-7
Rose, M.B. (1988). The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Stone, L. (1965). The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558–1641. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Stone, L. (1977). The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Thirty-Nine Articles. (2005). In F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingstone (eds.), The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev.) (p. 1622). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001.
Turner, J.G. (1987). One Flesh: Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age of Milton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, chapter III.
Wayne, V. (1996). Advice for Women from Mothers and Patriarchs. In H. Wilcox (ed.), Literature in Britain 1500–1700 (pp. 56-80). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wiesner, M.E. (1990). Luther and Women: The Death of Two Marys. In A. Loades (ed.), Feminist Theology: A Reader (pp. 123-134). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Wiesner, M.E. (2000). Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wunder, H. (1998). He is the Sun, She is the Moon. Women in Early Modern Germany. Trans. T. Dunlap. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Youings, J. (1984). Sixteenth–century England. London: Allen Lane.
