Women’s involvement in the Reformed Church

by oatmulk

Hi,

I’m currently doing a thesis on the Scottish witch-hunt and am wondering if anyone could point me to some research regarding women’s participation in early modern Protestant ritual, particularly in the reformed sacraments?

The reason I ask is that I’m aware of women’s role as gatekeepers of life’s rights of passage, particularly birth and death, and would like to expand this further into church sacraments.

I also know that the Reformed church, in removing the cult of the Virgin Mary and many devotional roles that women would typically have a primary role in (monastical aspects for example), may have decreased female participation in church ritual but nonetheless I’m wondering if there’s any research out there that argues otherwise.

Thanks for your help!

historiagrephour

You may be able to find some examples of women participating in the liturgy or in preaching, particularly if you look into the Anabaptists, but unfortunately, the particular brand of Protestantism adopted in Scotland remained very patriarchal and I can't think of any examples of women being active participants in Kirk services in any other capacity than that of parishioner and attendee.

Scots Presbyterianism was heavily influenced by the writings and teachings of John Calvin, and although later Scots puritanism in the era of the National Covenant did create a space for women's religious writings, particularly their conversion stories and their own spiritual biographies, sixteenth-century Scots Protestantism did not permit women to take a very active prominent role in the Kirk.

I've listed here some books that will provide you a very good overview of the Reformed Church in Scotland and the everyday practice of faith by Scots in the early modern period as well as a few articles about Anabaptist women. I hope this helps!

  • D.E.R. Watt, "Scotland: Religion and Piety" in A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages, ed. S.H. Rigby (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd., 2003), 396-410.
  • Audrey-Beth Fitch, The Search for Salvation: Lay Faith in Scotland, 1480-1560 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2009).
  • Mairi Cowan, Death, Life, and Religious Change in Scottish Towns, 1350-1560 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017).
  • Ian B. Cowan and Duncan Shaw, eds., The Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland: Essays in Honour of Gordon Donaldson (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1983).
  • Alec Ryrie, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013).
  • Michael Lynch, Edinburgh and the Reformation (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1981).
  • Jane E.A. Dawson, John Knox (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015).
  • James Kirk, ed., The Church in the Highlands (Edinburgh: Scottish Church History Society, 1998).
  • Michael F. Graham, The Uses of Reform: Godly Discipline and Popular Behaviour in Scotland and Beyond, 1560-1610 (Leiden: Brill, 1996).
  • Margo Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).
  • David George Mullan, Scottish Puritanism, 1590-1638 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
  • John McCallum, Reforming the Scottish Parish: The Reformation of Fife, 1560-1640 (London and New York: Routledge, 2010).
  • Sigrun Haude, "Anabaptist Women - Radical Women?" in Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture, ed. Max Reinhart (Kirksville, MO: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1998), 313-28.
  • Sigrun Haude, "Gender Roles and Perspectives Among Anabaptist and Spiritualist Groups," in A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1700, eds. John D. Roth and James M. Stayer (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 425-66.