ENGLISH

Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval and Early Modern England

By Diane Watt

Book information

Year
1997
ISBN
0859915247, 9780859915243, 9780585253909
LCC
BR750 .W38 1997
Open Library ID
OL673056M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (2864729 bytes)
Pages
198\257
Topic
History
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

The author aims to set aside the conventional hiatus between the medieval and early modern periods in her study of women's prophecy, following the female experience from medieval sainthood to radical Protestantism. The English women prophets and visionaries whose voices are recovered here all lived between the 12th and the 17th centuries and claimed, through the medium of trances and eucharistic piety, to speak for God. They include Margery Kempe and the medieval visionaries, Elizabeth Barton (the "Holy Maid of Kent"), the Reformation martyr Anne Askew and other godly women described in John Foxe's "Acts and Monuments", and Lady Eleanor Davies as an example of a woman prophet of the Civil War. The uncertainties surrounding their words and their dissemination are analyzed, and the strategies women devised to be heard and read are exposed, showing that through prophecy they were often able to intervene in the religious and political discourse of their times; the role of God's secretary gave them the opportunity to act and speak autonomously and publicly.

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