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‘Let Your Women Keep Silence in the Churches’. How Women in the Dutch Reformed Church Evaded Paul’s Admonition, 1650-1700
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
- ’Tis not a woman’s place
- To say a word of grace
- In Church or in the street:
- Behind the spinning-wheel is her proper seat.
- Ioh. van Beverwiick, Van de wtnementheyt
- des vrouwelicken geslacht.
It was beyond dispute what the place of women in the Church ought to be. According to the commandments of the Apostle Paul (I Timothy 2. 11-12, I Corinthians 14. 34-5) the weaker sex should remain silent. However, it remains to be seen if women have always heeded this admonition. Does not the text of the quoted rhyme already show otherwise?
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1990
References
1 Beverwiick, Ioh van, Van de wtnementheyt des vrouwelicken geslachts, 2nd edn. (Dordrecht, 1643), bk. ii, p. 107 Google Scholar. The Dutch text is: “T en is geen Vrouwen werck, Te spreken in de kerck, Of elders in ‘t gewoel: Haer vought alleen de spoel’.
2 Calvin’s idea was at first followed in the Netherlands, see the stipulations of the Convention of Wezel (1568). At the Middelburg Synod of 1581, however, it was argued that ‘for the sake of various inconveniences which might result from it’ it was better not to reinstate the office of deaconess. See Acta van de Nederlandsche synoden der zesttende eeuw, ed. Rutgers, F. L. (’s-Gravenhage, 1889), pp. 26, 417, 437 Google Scholar. Nevertheless there would still be deaconesses appointed in some churches, e.g., in the Dutch Reformed Church of Deventer, see Spiertz, M. G., ‘Die Ausübung der Zucht in der IJsselstadt Deventer in den Jahren 1592-1619 im Vergleich zu den Untersuchungen im Languedoc und in der Kurpfalz’, in Rheinische Vierteljahrsblalter, 49 (1985), pp. 139’72 Google Scholar.
4 Thomas, K., ‘Women and the Civil War sects’, PaP, 13 (1958), pp. 42’62 Google ScholarPubMed. Higgins, P., ‘The reactions of women, with special reference to women petitioners’, in Manning, B., ed., Politics, Religion and the English Civil War (London, 1973), pp. 179’222 Google Scholar. Mack, P., ‘Women as prophets during the English Civil War’, Feminist Studies, 8 (1982), pp. 19’45 Google Scholar. Ludlow, D. P., ‘Shaking patriarchy’s foundations: sectarian women in England, 1641-1700’, in Greaves, R. L., ed., Triumph over Silence. Women in Protestant History (Westport and London, 1985), pp. 93’123 Google Scholar.
5 Cross, Cf. C., ‘“He-goats before the flocks”: a note on the part played by women in the founding of some Civil War churches’, SCH, 8 (1972), pp. 195—202 Google Scholar.
6 So far, Dutch Church History has paid remarkably little attention to the conventicle phenomenon in the seventeenth century. It is striking that the word ‘conventicle’ has not even been included in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche laal. See Schram, P. L., ‘Conventikels’, in Vlijm, J. M., ed., Buitensporig geloven. Studies over randkerkelijkheid (Kampen, 1983), pp. 50—69 Google Scholar.
7 These case-studies form part of my doctoral research into the involvement of women in dissenting religious movements in the United Provinces, 1650-1725.
8 Nevius, Sara, Een aendachtig leerling van den Heere Jesus, door Hem zelf geleert / zonder hulp van menschen, 3rd edn (Rotterdam, 1725), pp. 3’4 Google Scholar.
9 ‘For Nevius, see van Lieburg, F. A., ‘Vrouwen uit het gereformeerde piërisme in Nederland (4): Sara Nevius (1632-1706)’, Documenlatieblad Nadere Reformatie, 12 (1988), pp. 116’27 Google Scholar.
10 Before her marriage to à Brakel, Sara had lived in Utrecht for some years, where she probably became familiar with the conventicle. Lieburg, Cf. F. A. van, ‘De receptie van de Nadere Reformatie in Utrecht’, De Zevenliende Eeuw, 5 (1989), pp. 120—8 Google Scholar.
11 In 1675 his colleagues pressed charges against him before the ‘Classis’ because of the conventicles he had held in Leeuwarden, see van Veen, S. D., Voor tweehonderd jaren. Schetsen van het leven onzer gereformeerde voorvaderen, 2nd edn (Utrecht, 1905), p. 40 Google Scholar.
12 It is interesting that à Brakel himself in another place mentions ‘six or eight daughters’ in his congregation at Harlingen, who ‘gave themselves over to the service of the Lord as prophetesses, and who roused to knowledge and conversion anyone they could get through to’. Brakel, Wilhelmus à, Logikè lalreia, dal is Redelyke Godtsdienst, 17th edn (Rotterdam, 1757), 1, P. 437 Google Scholar.
13 Nevius, , Leerling, p. 6 Google Scholar.
14 In all probability Sara and her women friends circulated their own manuscripts among a small company. Cf. Leiden, University Library, MS, Collectie Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde 397, Juffrouw Braekel, Stichtelijke verzen of meditatiën op rijm. Afschrift van 1694, 48 pp. This manuscript does not come from Miss Braekel (Sara Nevius), but from a woman friend who copied passages from one of the manuscripts borrowed from Sara.
15 See the bibliographical survey of Haar, J. van der, Schatkamer van de gereformeerde theologie in Nederland (c. 1600-c. 1800) (Veenendaal, 1987 Google Scholar). Systematic research into the publications of women in the early modern period has not been conducted for the Netherlands. From research for seventeenth-century England it appears that religious writings make up the greatest part of the total number of publications by women, in so far as these works have been registered in catalogues of printed books: see Crawford, P., ‘Women’s published writings 1600-1700’, in Prior, M., ed., Women in English Society 1500-1800 (London and New York, 1985), pp. 211’82 Google Scholar.
16 For the background of van Schurman’s religious development, see Irwin, J., ‘Anna Maria van Schurman: from feminism to pietism’, ChH, 46 (1977), pp. 48—62 Google Scholar. Baar, M. de, ‘“En onder ‘t hennerot het haantje zoekt te blijven”. De betrokkenheid van vrouwen bij het huisgezin van Jean de Labadie (1669-1732)’, in Jansz, U., et al., ed., Vrouwenlevens 1500-1850. Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis, 8 (1987), pp. 11’43 Google Scholar.
17 For de Labadie, see Saxby, T.J., The Quest for the New Jerusalem. Jean de Labadie and the Labadists, 1610-1744 (Dordrecht, Boston, and Lancaster, 1987 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).
18 Labadie, J. de, Traite eclesiastique propre de ce lams…l’exercice prophétique selon St. Pol au chapitre 14. Je sa le letre aux Corinthiens (Amsterdam, 1668 Google Scholar).
19 The Hague, Gemeentearchief, Archief van de kerkeraad van de Nederduits Hervormde Gemeente, Repertorium, inv. nr. 11, 21 July 1669. Acta der particuliere synoden van Zuid-Holtand 1621-1700, ed. W. P. C. Knuttel, 4 (1657-1672) = Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën, kleine serie nr. 11 (’s-Gravenhage, 1912), 1669, art. 5, pp. 484-7.
20 Ruether, Cf. and McLaughlin, , Women, p. 18 Google ScholarPubMed; Thomas, , ‘Sects’, p. 45 Google Scholar; Mack, , ‘Prophets’, p. 24 Google Scholar; de Baar, , ‘Hennerot’, pp. 38’41 Google Scholar.
21 Pensēes d’A. M. de Schurman sur la Reformation necessaire à présent à l’Eglise de Christ (Amsterdams, 1669).
22 Utrecht, Gemeentearchief, Archief Ned. Hervormde Gemeente, Acta, inv. nr. 9, 19 Sept. 1670, see also, 18 July, 8 Aug., 15 Aug., 22 Aug., 5 Sept., 12 Sept., and 26 Sept. 1670. Duker, Cf. A. C., ‘Briefwisseling tusschen den Utrechtschen kerkeraad en Anna Maria van Schurman’, Archief voor Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedenis, 2 (1897), pp. 171—8 Google Scholar.
23 Printed at the private press of the Labadists in Altona. In 1684 the Dutch translation was published in Amsterdam by Jacobus van de Velde.
24 Their marital status and professions are not mentioned in the protocols. They were probably unmarried and partly made a living by teaching the children of burghers.
25 Leiden, Gemeentearchief (hereafter GAL), Archief kerkeraad Ned. Hervormde Gemeente, Afd. 1, Actenboeken, inv. nr. 7, 15 Dec. 1684. Incidentally, a more-or-less similar petition had been submitted by Jacob van Pene, and signed by twenty men. That women members submitted a collective petition to the consistory is an interesting phenomenon which needs to be investigated further.
26 GAL, Actenboeken, 2 June, 4 Aug., 1 Sept., 17 Nov., 24. Nov. 1684.
27 On 24 November 1684 the consistory decided, among other things, that ‘those wenches that are disciples’ would be contacted by the neighbourhood ministers, because ‘else perhaps her zeal might provoke more commotion’. See also, 19 Jan. 1685: ‘Whether Theophylactus van Schoor does not have certain females continue to conduct his meetings?’
28 Ibid., 9 Feb. and 23 Feb. 1686.
29 Ibid., 25 Jan. 1686.
30 Ibid., 12 March and 26 March 1688.
31 Ibid., 20 Oct 1690.
32 See for her works, Bie, J. P. de, et al., ed., Biographisch Woordenboek van Prolestantsche Godgeleerden in Nederland, 2 (’s-Gravenhage, n.d.), pp. 675—8 Google Scholar.
33 Spiertz, , ‘Ausübung der Zucht’, pp. 150—2 Google Scholar.
34 Koelman, Jacobus, Der Lahadisten dwalingen grondig ontdekl en wederlegt (Amsterdam, 1684), p. 210 Google Scholar.
35 See, e.g., Mülhaupt, E., ‘Anna Maria von Schürmann, eine Rheinländerin zwischen zwei Frauenleitbildern’, Monalshefte für evangeliche Kirchengeschkhte des Rheinlandes, 19 (1970), p. 158 Google Scholar. Stone, L., The Crisis of the Aristocracy (Oxford, 1965), p. 739 Google Scholar. Thomas, , ‘Sects’, p. 50 Google Scholar. Weber, M., Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie, 3rd edn (Tübingen, 1972), pp. 298, 364 Google Scholar.
36 The education in the Republic was also geared to this. See, e.g., Booy, E. P. de, ‘De weldaet der scholen. Het plattelandsonderwijs in de provincie Utrecht van 1580 tot het begin der 19e eeuw’ (The Blessings of Schooling. Rural Education in Utrecht from 1580 to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century) (with a summary in English) (Utrecht D.Phil, thesis, 1977)Google Scholar.
37 Nevius, Leerling, p. 4v.
38 GAL, Actenboeken,25 Jan. 1686.
39 Vrouwen Spreecken gerechtvaerdight, beweesen ende geeygent door de Schriftuer (1668, n.p.). Signed ‘M.F.’.
40 In 1641 she published a tract with the title Dissertalio de Ingenti Muliebris ad Doctrinam, el meliores Lilteras aptitudine [in English: The Learned Maid, or Whether a Maid may be a Scholar. A Logick Exercise (London, 1659)].
41 Womens Speaking Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures (London, 1666), p. 7 (repr. Pythia Press, 1989). The text was translated by Paul Hulsman. I would like to thank the STEO (Promotions Committee for Emancipation Research) for its financial support.