A Woman with Saint Peter's Keys?: Aemilia Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611) and the Priestly Gifts of Women

Abstract

PART OF THE COMPLEX ecclesiastical and social restructuring that took place in England following the Reformation involved the articulation of new religious roles for women. As the Protestant church dissolved female Catholic communities and adopted Luther's doctrine of the "spiritual priesthood" of all believers, it exhorted women to embrace new religious activities and ideals. A wide range of genres contributed to the emergence of normative values associated with the ideal Protestant woman, genres including funeral sermons, exemplary biographies, conduct manuals, fictional texts, and panegyric poetry. A survey of works written between 1560 and 1625 reveals that educated, wealthy women were typically praised for dispensing charity, reading the Bible and devotional works at home, attending public religious exercises, providing religious instruction to their households, displaying exemplary piety in their communities, and remaining humble and obedient to their husbands.

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