Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735 Author(s): Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 20-40 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712475 . Accessed: 07/11/2014 16:37
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VERTUOUS WOMEN FOUND: NEW ENGLAND MINISTERIAL LITERATURE, 1668-1735
LA UREL THATCHER ULRICH University New Hampshire of

preachedor sat in a deacon's bench.Nor did theyvote or attendHarvard. women,did theyquestionGod or the because theywerevirtuous Neither, at read the Bible through least once a They prayedsecretly, magistrates. preachevenwhenit snowed.Hopingfor year,and wentto hear theminister on an eternalcrown,theyneverasked to be remembered earth.And they women seldom make history;against Antihaven't been. Well-behaved nomians and witches,these pious matronshave had littlechance at all. have irrelevant, the domestic by definition Most historians,considering of simplyassumed the pervasiveness similarattitudesin the seventeenth Others,notingthe apologetic tone of Anne Bradstreetand the century. thatNew Englandsohave been satisfied banishment Anne Hutchinson, of in whileit valued marriageand allowedwomenlimitedparticipation ciety, in economic affairs, discouragedtheirinterest eitherpoetryor theology. For thirtyyears no one has botheredto question Edmund Morgan's assumptionthat a Puritanwifewas considered"the weakervessel in both bodyand mind"and that "herhusbandoughtnot to expecttoo muchfrom of famousletteron the insanity bookishMistress her."' JohnWinthrop's source: ". . . if she had attendedher Hopkins has been the quintessential as and householdaffairs, such things belongto women,and notgone out of
'Edmund S. Morgan,The PuritanFamily:Religionand DomesticRelationsinSeventeenthNew England(New York: Harper and Row, 1966),p. 44. Recentworkscontinue to Century whichwas first in relyon Morgan's study, published 1944. See, forexample,JohnDemos, A LittleCommonwealth: FamilyLifein Plymouth (New York: OxfordUniv.Press, 1970),p. 98. a Morgan's description male dominancewithin lovingmarriage consistent of is withdescripliterature Louis B. Wright, in tionstaken fromEnglishprescriptive Middle-Class Culturein ElizabethanEngland(Chapel Hill, N.C.: Univ. of NorthCarolina Press, 1935), chapterVII, and in Charles H. and KatherineGeorge, The Protestant Mind of theEnglishReformation, 1570-1640(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1961),chapter7.

COTTON

MATHER CALLED

THEM

"THE

HIDDEN

ONES. "

THEY

NEVER

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as herway and callingto meddlein such things are properformen,whose etc.,shehad keptherwits."2 minds stronger, are these to documents undermine in Yet thereis ample evidence traditional centuries. and at conclusions, least forthelate seventeenth earlyeighteenth lists For the years between1668 and 1735, Evans' AmericanBibliography sermonsforfemalesplus 15 otherworks and 55 elegies,memorials, funeral of practical pietyaddressedwhollyor in part to women.3Althoughhistorianshave looked at such popularworksas Cotton Mather's Ornaments the Thus,New England's haveignored rest.4 of for theDaughters Zion, they ministry. of daughtersremain hiddendespite the efforts her publishing cannottellus whatNew England literature of True, a collection ministerial werereallylike.Nor can it describe women,evenof themorepiousvariety, of what "most Puritans"thought women.It can tellus onlywhatqualities groupof men.Yet, in a timeby a specific werepublicly praisedin a specific of fromso littledata, thereis value in that. A handful fieldwhichsuffers the quotationshas for too long defined status of New England'svirtuous deservesa closerlook. collection women.Thisinteresting Although27 of the 70 titlesare by Cotton Mather (who wrotemore of 43 in everything theperiod),theremaining are theworkof21 authors.They work,to rangefroma singlesermonby Leonard Hoar, his onlypublished elegist overa 25-yearperiodbyubiquitous thesix poems forwomenwritten in JohnDanforth.They includefourEnglishworks republished America. Only 12 of the titleswere printedbefore 1700, but two others,Samuel fromhis CompleteBodyof Divinity, Willard'sshortdiscourseon marriage in published 1726, and Hugh Peter'sA DyingFather's Last posthumously earlier.Peter'streatise, in reprinted Bostonin 1717,originated Legacy,first
of quote appears in Morgan(p. 44) as in manylesser summaries Puritanat2TheWinthrop titudes towardwomenfromThomas Woody,A Historyof Women'sEducationin the United States, Vol. I (New York: Science Press, 1929),pp. 106-07,to Lyle Koehler,"The Case of the DuringtheYears of Antinomian and Female Agitation AmericanJezebels:Anne Hutchinson 3rd Turmoil,1636-1640," Williamand Mary Quarterly, Ser., 31 (Jan. 1974),p. 58. Koehler's women. the articleexemplifies commonimbalancein favorofdeviant of A Dictionary all Books, Pamph3CharlesEvans,AmericanBibliography: Chronological in lets and PeriodicalPublicationsPrinted the USA, 1639-1820 (New York: P. Smith,1941); Va.: (Charlottesville, Roger Bristol,Supplementto Charles Evans' American Bibliography 1970). Univ.PressofVirginia, America (New York: Columbia 4MarySumnerBenson,in Womenin Eighteenth-Century usingit as evidencethathe fromMather's Ornaments, Univ. Press, 1935),quotes extensively believedin the "proper submissionof women." Page Smith draws the oppositeconclusion fromthe same documentin Daughtersof thePromisedLand (Boston: Little,Brown,1970), ethicsbeof Two ofthethreemainsourcesforEdmundMorgan's description marital pp. 47ff. and Wadsworth'sThe long to thisgroup of materials:Willard's Complete Body of Divinity fromthem. William Andrews, Well-Ordered Family, althoughhe quotes ratherselectively 5 "The Printed FuneralSermonsofCotton Mather,"EarlyAmericanLiterature, (Fall 1970), some analysisofthe of pp. 24-44, notesthe highpercentage sermonson femalesand attempts literature. relating to thewidercorpusof ministerial it but materials without

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written before execution, especially just his is interesting a linkto thefirst as generation New Englanders. of In spite of personalidiosyncracies and the acknowledged predominance of Mather,thisliterature remarkably is consistent. Thus, a crudewoodcut decorating broadsidepublishedfor Madam Susanna Thacher in 1724 is a identicalto thatornamenting elegyforLydia Minot published 1668. an in Nor are doctrinal distinctions anyconsequence.BenjaminColman could of differ with his brethren over the precise meaningof New England, for example,yetsharewiththema commonattitude Because towardwomen.5 theseworksare so muchof a piece,however, in subtleshifts emphasisbetweenauthorsand across timebecomesignificant. patient A examination of thisseemingly static and formulaic materialrevealsnuancesin ministerial of thought considerable interest, that forwomen'shistory, demonstrating as forso manyaspects of social history, real drama is often thehumin the drum.
* * *

In ministerial as literature, in publicrecords, womenbecamelegitimately visiblein onlythreeways: theymarried, theygave birth, theydied. In the written is materials, dying by farthebest documented a activity. Although ministermighthave had a specificwoman in mind as he prepared an idealizedportrait thegood wife a wedding espousal sermonor as he of for or tract for parishioners it composed a comforting approachingchildbed, is literature thathe is freeto name names and praiseindionlyin the funeral vidual accomplishments. Not that a funeralsermonis ever veryspecific. even a certain coyness in referring "that excellent Circumlocution, to personnowdepartedfrom us," is therule.Still,itis a raresermonthatdoes not contain a eulogy, however brief. Some append fullerbiographical of sketchesoftencontainingselectionsfromthe writings the deceased.6 Fromthesematerials compositeportrait a emerges. A virtuous woman soughtGod early. Hannah Meigs, who died in New London at theage of 22, was typical.She beganwhilestilla childto pay attention church, in at when acquiringthehabitof readingand praying night the rest of her family was asleep. Becomingpreoccupied withher own sal5In his study of prescriptive literaturein late seventeenth-century England, Levin L. Schuckingnoted a similarphenomenon. See The PuritanFamily: A Social Studyfrom the Literary Sources (London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1969),p. xiii.I have made no attempt to define "Puritanism"of the authors.Althoughmost of thembelongedto thecongregathe tional majority, Samuel Myles was an Anglican.His eulogyforElizabethRiscarrick, though less detailedthanmany, follows typical the pattern. 6The funeral sermonwithits accompanying biographical "lean-to"was a venerable formby thistime.See WilliamHaller, TheRise of Puritanism (New York: Harper,1938),p. 101.

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vation,she bewailedher sinfulness, last receiving assuranceof God's at an mercy.In the sicknesswhicheventually claimedher,she submitted will her to God, fromher death bed meeklyteaching and sistersand her brothers other "Relatives, Acquaintances,& Companions." Praise of early piety was not confined sermonsfor youngwomen. In his eulogyfor Mary to Rock, whodied at theage of80, CottonMatherdevotedconsiderable space to her early religiosity the wise educationof her parents.8 and The women eulogizedtypically foundGod beforemarriage, havingbeen,in Danforth's phrase,first "Polish'd and Prepar'd" bypiousparents.9 A virtuous womanprayedand fasted.JaneColman was said to have lain awake whole nightsmourning sin, callingon God, praying.10 for Mrs. Increase Mather regularly prayedsix timesa day. Afterher death her husband wrotea tribute her fromhis study,a spot whichhad become ento deared to himwhenhe discovered some ofherprivate in papersthatduring his fouryears absence in Englandshe had "spent manywhole Days (some Scores of them)alone withGod there"in prayer and fasting his welfare for and that of her children.11 Thomas Foxcroft characterizeda praying motheras "One that stood in the Breach to turnaway wrath" and concludedthatthedeath of such womenwas a bad omenforthecommunity.12 Cotton Mather was fondof sayingthatgood motherstravailedtwicefor their children, once fortheir physical birth, again forthespiritual.13 A virtuous womanloved to go to church.On theday of her death ailing Sarah Leveretwentto hear thesermoneventhough weather the was bitter. Whenher friends triedto dissuadeher,she answered:"If theMinisters can it go abroad to Preach, certainly, becomes the People to go abroad; and 14 hear them." Sarah was not alone among New England'spious matrons. The ministers who preachedthefuneral sermonsforAnne Mason and Jane Steel bothcommented thefactthattheycame to church on evenwhenthey
7John Hart, The Natureand Blessednessof Trusting God (New London,1728),p. 45. in 8CottonMather,NepenthesEvangelicum A Sermon Occasion'd by theDeath of a Re... ligiousMatron,Mrs. Mary Rock (Boston, 1713),p. 41. 9JohnDanforth,"An Elegy upon the much Lamented Decease of Mrs. Elizabeth Foxcroft,"appendedto Thomas Foxcroft's Sermon Preach'd at CambridgeaftertheFuneralof Mrs. ElizabethFoxcroft (Boston,1721),p. 53. "0Benjamin Colman, Reliquiae Turellae,et LachrymaePaternae. Father's Tears over his Daughter'sRemains . . . to whichare added, some Large Memoirs of her Lifeand Death by herConsort,theReverend Mr. EbenezerTurell(Boston, 1735),p. 116. " Increase Mather,A Sermon Concerning Obedience& ResignationTo The Willof God in Everything (Boston, 1714),p. ii,p. 39. 12Foxcroft,SermonPreach'd,pp. 14-15. 13This is a common themethroughout Mather's funeralsermons.A typicalexampleis in Virtue its Verdure. Christian in A Exhibited a GreenOlive Tree ... with characterof the as a Virtuous Mrs. AbigailBrown(Boston, 1725),p. 23. 14Cotton Mather, Monica A mericana,A Funeral-Sermon Occasioned by Death of Mrs. Sarah Leveret(Boston, 1705),p. 27.

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were ill.'5 Jabez Fitch said of Mrs. Mary Martin: "The feetof those that the brought glad Tidingsof the Gospel, werealways beautiful her Eyes, in and itwas hergreatDelightto attendon theMinistry theWord."16 of A virtuous is womanread. Throughout eulogiesreading mentioned the as oftenas prayer,and the two activities are occasionallylinkedas in John Danforth's praiseofHannah Sewall: down their Observing Ladysmust keep Vail, 'TillThey're FullofGrace, Freefrom as & Gall, As Void Pride, High Vertue of as in Rare As much Reading, as much Prayer. in in and 17 Afterher childrenwere grown,Maria Mather took renewedinterestin readingthe scriptures, more thandoublingthe prescribed pace by reading the Bible through twicein less than a year.18 Her daughterJerusha was a great readerof history and theology well as scripture, as havingbeengiven so eyesight excellentshe could read in dim light.'9KatharinMather,Cotton's daughter, wentbeyondhergrandmother her aunt. She mastered and music, penmanship, the needlework, usual accomplishments a gentleof woman,"To whichshe added this,thatshe became in herchildhood Misa tressoftheHebrewTongue."20 A virtuouswoman conversed.Mourningfor Elizabeth Hatch, Joseph Metcalflamentednothing muchas theloss of herpious discourse.21 For so John Danforth,Elizabeth Hutchinson'sconversation was "sweeter than Hybla's Drops," while for Cotton Mather, the "fruitfulness" Mary of Rock's "Religious Conferences" made her sick room "A little AntiChamber of Heaven."22James Hillhouse said his mothercould converse "on manysubjectswiththeGrandeesoftheWorld,and theMasters ofEloquence" yet she was not haughty."Her incessantand constantReading, withher good Memory,and clear Judgment, made her expert(even to a degree)in the Bible. Insomuch,that she was capable on manyoccasions,
15James Fitch,Peace theEnd of thePerfect and Upright (Cambridge,1672),p. 12; Benjamin Colman, The Death of God's Saints Preciousin His Sight(Boston, 1723),p. 23. "6Jabez Fitch,Discourse on Serious Piety.A FuneralSermon ... upon theDeath of Mrs. Mary Martyn(Boston, 1725),p. 18. "7John Danforth, "Greatness & Goodness Elegized,In a Poem upon the Much Lamented Decease oftheHonourable& VertuousMadam Hannah Sewall" (Boston, 1717),Broadside,p. 1. 33ff. '8IncreaseMather,A Sermon Concerning Obedience, ii. p. "9Cotton Mather,MemorialsofEarlyPiety(Boston, 1711),pp. 3-4, 13. 20"AnAccountof Mrs. KatharinMatherby AnotherHand," in Cotton Mather,Victorina: A SermonPreach'don theDecease and at theDesireof Mrs. KatharinMather(Boston, 1717), p. 50. 21 [JosephMetcalf,]"Tears Dropt at the Funeral of . .. Mrs. Elizabeth Hatch" (Boston, 1710), Broadside. 22John Danforth, "Honour and VertueElegizedin a Poem Upon an Honourable,Aged,and GraciousMotherin Israel" (Boston, 1713),Broadside;CottonMather,Nepenthes, 45-46. pp.

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and veryseasonablyand suitablyto apply it, and that withgreat facility themselves."23 aptness,to the various Subjects of Discourse, that offered Weighty, JamesFitchsaid thatifhe wereto "rehearsethe manySpiritual, and NarrowQuestions& Discourses" he had heardfromAnne Mason, "it praisedBridgetUsher wouldfillup a large book."24BenjaminWadsworth for promoting"pious and savoury Discourse."25Godly matrons were meantto be heard. was properto a A virtuouswoman wrote. A quill as well as a distaff in lady's hand. Despite eightpregnancies ten years,KatharinWillardwas the thatshewas "hindred from not sucha good managerand so industrious One formofwriting simply was Use ofherPen, as wellas ofherNeedle."26 takingnotes in church.Mary Terrywrote down the main pointsof the later fromher notes,a habit preacher'ssermon,recallingthewhole thing time,forhe comwhich had apparently becomeless commonby Foxcroft's thataged Bridget Usher and herassociates had "practiced(evento mented Theywereswiftto afterthe Minister. thelast) thegood old way of writing Method,took care to hear; and bythislaudable (butnot too unfashionable) Speaks."27 hearforthetimeto come, as theProphet In preachinga funeralsermonCotton Mather oftenincludedexcerpts In fromthe woman's writings. ElizabethCotton's, for example,he drew at his fromwritings several stages of her life,telling audiencethatone of and that theseselections was "so expressive so Instructive, it maywellpass the fortheBest partof mySermon,ifI nowgiveto youall, and particularly and published them he editeda selection thewritings his sisterJerusha of of withan introduction Memorialsof Early Piety.Such a practicewas not as uncommon.In 1681, Sarah Goodhue's husbandpublishedThe Copy of A a Valedictory and MonitoryWriting, letterof "sage counsel" and "pious for and having had a instructions" whichshe had written herfamily hidden, Grace Smith's legacy to her of premonition her death in childbirth.29

it In 1711 of of you."128 Daughters ourZion,theBenefit hearing Readunto

23James Hillhouse,A Sermon Concerningthe Life, Death, and Future State of Saints in (Boston, 1721), pp. 112, 117. AlthoughHillhouse's sermonwas published Boston afterhe preachedin Ireland. it there, was originally had settled Fitch,Peace, p. 11. 24James 25Thomas Foxcroft,The Character of Anna, The Prophetess Consider'd and Apply'd p. Wadsworth, ii. the (Boston, 1723),from Prefaceby Benjamin Essay ... ProducedbytheDeath of That Virtuous Mather,El-Shaddai ... A brief 26Cotton (Boston, 1725),p. 22. Mrs. KatharinWillard Gentlewoman, ... In 27Thomas Reynolds,Practical ReligionExemplify'd The Lives of Mrs. Mary Terry Anna,p. 14. and Mrs. Clissould(Boston, 1713),p. 4; and Foxcroft, King Opened 28Cotton Mather,Ecclesiae Monilia. The Peculiar Treasureof theAlmighty Exhibitedin the Characterof Mrs. Elizabeth Cotton one is moreparticularly Whereof ... (Boston, 1726),p. 25. ... and MonitoryWriting Directed to her 29Sarah Goodhue, The Copy of a Valedictory in otherNear Relationsand Friends,reprinted Thomas Franklin with Husband and Children,

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of was supposedly "taken fromherlips by the Minister thatTown children where she died," a strange statementsince it included in addition to two proverbs, longpassages predictable paragraphsof adviceand motherly rhyme in witha rathercomplexinternal in versewritten iambic tetrameter her Like the others,she had obviously been sharpening pen after scheme.30 thespinning done. was A virtuouswoman managed well. Increase Mather said his father's was was the death of his wife,"Which Afflication the greatestaffliction more grievous,in that she being a Woman of singularPrudencefor the from Husband all Secular Cares, her of had Management Affairs, takenoff so that he whollydevoted himselfto his Study, and to Sacred ImployWomen were praisedin the funeralsermonsnot only forbeing ments.'"3' Oliverwas not above Jerusha godlybutforbeingpractical.Even thesaintly "When she sent(as nowand thenshedid) herLittle in dabbling investments. she Ventures Sea, at the return would be sure to lay aside the Tenthof to hergain,forPious Uses."32 Anne Eliot's talents, which included nursing,were so valued that her holding theworld: up almostcredited with Danforth Soul! Haile!ThouSagacious& Advant'rous to Haile,Amazon Created Controll Foes,& T'takeher part, WeakNature's of Thou, thecommand (till TheKing Terrours, Hand,) Irrevocable cametoStaythy Art: Didst Repel, thy oft by Choice ByHigh Decree stand Longdidst thou in AnAtlas, Heav'n'sHand To th'World be.33 to was no less piousas an "Atlas." Mrs. Eliot,likemanyofhersisters, A virtuous to womansubmitted thewillofGod. IncreaseMathertoldthe storyof a "Person of Quality" whose only son contractedsmallpox.She called in the ministers prayforhim. Whentheyprayedthatif by God's to to she willthe childshoulddie the mother wouldhave the strength submit, "If crying: He will Take him away; Nay, He shall thenTear interrupted, him away." The childdied. Sometimelater the motherbecame pregnant,
Water,Ipswichin theMassachusettsBay Colony(Ipswich,Mass.: IpswichHistoricalSociety, 1905),pp. 519-24. 30GraceSmith, The Dying Mother's Legacy, or the Good and HeavenlyCounsel of that Eminent and Pious Matron(Boston, 1712). 3' IncreaseMather,The Lifeand Death ofRichardMather(Cambridge,1670),p. 25. Mather,Memorialsof EarlyPiety,p. 45. 32Cotton "A Translationof a Motherin Our Israel," 33John Danforth, Poem Upon theTriumphant to appendedto Kneeling God (Boston, 1697),p. 64.

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but whenthe timefordelivery arrivedthe childwould not come and was consequently"ViolentlyTorn fromher; so she Died."34 For the godly woman rebellion was not worththe risks.She learnedto submitto God, meekly acquiescingto thedeathsofhusbandand children ultimately and to herown as well.Onlyone minister suggested thata departedsisterwas less than patientin her finalsicknessand Samuel Myles cautionedhis reader lest he "Uncharitably, and Unchristianly imputethatto thePerson,which was justlychargeableon theDisease."35CottonMather'swomenweretypically terrified death untilit approached,thentheytriumphed of over the "King of Terrours."Jerusha Oliversang forjoy and senta messageto her sisterin Roxburytelling notto be afraidto die.36 her RebeckahBurnet, age 17, expiredcrying, "Holy, Holy, Holy-Lord Jesus,Come unto Me!"37 In herillness,Abiel Goodwinheardvoices and musicand was transported by thetolling funeral of bells. In herquietermoments exhibited wrysense she a of humor,agreeing witha visitorthat,givenher hydropical condition, she was "A goingto Heaven by Water" and mightsoon sing that song with Read directly,the qualities attributedto these women have little meaning.It is easy to concludefromthelavishpraisebestowedupon them that theyenjoyedan exaltedposition thePuritanethos. It is even more in temptingto conclude the opposite, that the limitednature of theirintellectual achievementand their continually lauded meekness and submissiondocumenta secondaryrole. It is helpful, then,to compare this of womanwitha contemporary portrait a virtuous of portrait a godlyman. RichardMather,according theeulogywritten his son Increase,found to by God early,prayedoften,read the scriptures, and thoughhe was learned "was exceedinglow and littlein his own eyes." Thoughwell-educated, he was carefulnot to displayhis learning, and he alwayspreachedplainly.He loved to listento sermonsand in his last monthscontinued attendlecto turesin neighboring untilhe was too sick to ride."Yea and congregations usuallyeven to his old Age (as did Mr. Hildersham)he took notes from thosewhomhe heard,professing thathe found in profit it." He was patient in affliction, is to The submitting thewillof God in death.39 inference clear. Whilea godlywomanwas expectedto act appropriately all the relations in in whichshe found herself, be a dutiful to an and faithful daughter, obedient
35SamuelMyles,Sermon Preach't At the Funeral of Mrs. ElizabethRiscarrick(Boston, 1698). 36Cotton Mather,MemorialsofEarlyPiety,p. 49. 37Cotton Mather,Light in Darkness, An Essay on the Piety Whichby Rememb'ring the Many Days ofDarkness, WillChangeThemInto a MarvelousLight(Boston, 1724),p. 20. 38Cotton Mather,Juga, 31-32. pp. 39Increase Mather,RichardMather,pp. 33, 34.
34Increase Mather, SermonConcerning Obedience, 34. p.

Jesus.38

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in and neighbor, a wife, wiseparentand mistress, kindfriend, a charitable a her relationship withGod she was autonomous.The portraitof Richard publishedin America,is dupliMather, the firstspiritualautobiography in in cated in miniature dozens of funeralsermonsprinted Boston. But it didn't originatethere. It is a patternof godliness basic to the English with This reformed tradition.40 muchshouldbe obviousto anyonefamiliar in yet Puritanliterature, it bears repeating a timewhenqualitiessuch as to "meekness"and "submissiveness" presumed havea sexualreference. are in as In a veryreal sensethereis no suchthing female piety earlyNew Engused the universally sermonsforwomen,the ministers land: in preaching theirthemes,even when the texthad genericmale pronounsin enlarging bearing Bathshebaor Mary; the same Christ-like reference a scriptural to was required bothmale and female. of rather thana social act, it is in thefuneral Because dying an individual is thatwe see most clearlythe equalityof men and womenbefore literature whether thisacknowledged God. It is important, then,to tryto determine social roles describedin the on spiritual equalityimpinged the prescribed generalworksofpracticalpiety.
* * *

In 1709thereappearedin Bostona reprint a wedding of sermonpreached named John at Sherbournin Dorsetshireby a nonconformist minister Called The Brideignored the Woman's Counsellor,it virtually Sprint. groom. Marital troubles,the author concluded,were mainlythe faultof thatMen can learnto com"You womenwillacknowledge womenanyway. mand,and rule fastenough,whichas Husbands theyoughtto do, but tis veryrare to findthat Women learn so fastto Submitand obey,whichas Wives theyoughtto do."'4' Like Sarah, womenshouldcall their husbands to of name lest they in "Lord," neverpresuming thefamiliarity a Christian time usurp his authority and place him underthe discipline an Apronof to String.Althoughwomen mightmake lightof thisinstruction obey,he "I to continued, knownotof anydutybelonging any Men or Women,in the
40Seeforexample,Cotton Mather,A Good Man MakingA Good End (Boston, 1698),on the death of a minister; and Thomas Foxcroft,A Brief Display of Mordecai's Excellent For the Englishtradition (which Character(Boston, 1727), on the death of a publicofficial. p. placed less emphasis on early piety),see Haller, Rise of Puritanism, 93ff.Robert Midquality RichardMather'sbiography. of See dlekauff David Hall bothstresstheprototypal and The Mathers: Three Generationsof Puritan Intellectuals,1596-1728 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1971), p. 101-02, and The FaithfulShepherd:A Historyof the New England Ministry theSeventeenth in Century (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Univ.ofNorthCarolina Press, 1972), p. 179. at 4'John Sprint,The BrideWoman's Counsellor,BeingA Sermon Preachedat a Wedding in Sherbourn, Dorsetshire (Boston, 1709),p. 2.

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This is a remarkable document,all the more remarkable because in the wholecorpusof materials printed Bostonthere nothing in is remotely it like in contentor in tone. It makes a usefulreference pointforlookingat three otherworksprinted about thesame time:Benjamin Wadsworth's The WellOrdered Family, 1712; William Secker's A WeddingRing, an English pamphletreprinted Boston in 1690, 1705, 1750, and 1773; and Samuel in Willard'sexposition thefifth of in commandment A CompleteBody of Di1726. vinity, Wadsworth'streatise must be looked at structurally. Like Sprint he reminded wivesto "love, honourand obey," but his entireessay was organizedaroundthenotionof mutualresponsibility, mutualcaring.He listed sevendutiesof husbandsand wives.The first are reciprocal: cohabit, to six to love one another, be faithful one another, helpone another, be to to to to patientwithone another, honorone another.It is onlywiththe seventh to dutythatthereis anydifferentiationall: thehusbandis to govern at gently, the wifeto obey cheerfully. was thuswithin ethicof mutualconcern It an and sharing that Wadsworth developedtheobediencetheme,and he maintained the parallel structure the essay even in these paragraphs.Both of mates were scolded if theyshouldliftup theirhands againstthe other.A woman who struckher husbandusurpednotjust his authority thatof but God. A man who twitted wifeaffronted just a Woman but God.43 his not Wadsworth the thusundercut subjection womento theirhusbandseven of as he upheldit. The same tendency apparentin Secker.A Wedding is Ringis a frothy bit of writing, tiny a littlebook whichwouldhave fitted pocketor pouch. Its a intention notso muchinstruction celebration, it appropriated was as and attractive quotationsand metaphors random,regardless inconsistency. at of Althoughthere are traditional proverbsenjoiningsubmission, the great weightof the imageryfalls on the side of equality.Eve is a "parallel line drawnequal" withAdam. A husband and wifeare like two instruments like makingmusic,like two streamsin one current, a pair of oars rowing a boat to heaven(withchildren and servantsas passengers),like two milch kinecoupledto carrytheArkofGod, twocherubims, tablesofstoneon two which law is written." the Willardaccepted thistwo-sided viewof the marriagerelationand in his
42lbid., 16, 11. pp. 43BenjaminWadsworth, The Well-OrderedFamily. or, Relative Duties, Being The Substance of Several Sermons About FamilyPrayer,Duties of Husband & Wives,Duties of Parents& Children, DutiesofMasters & Servants(Boston, 1712),p. 28. 44William Secker,A Wedding Ring(Boston, 1690),unpaged.

himself."42

Whole Book of God, thatis urgedwithmorevehemency." Authority had beengivento thehusbandas "absolutelyand as peremptorily untoChrist as

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shortdisquisition the family on attempted harmonize "Of all theOrto it. ders whichare unequals," he wrote,"thesedo come nearestto an Equality, and in severalrespectstheystanduponevenground. These do make a Pair, whichinfersso far a Parity.They are in the Word of God called YokeFellows, and so are to draw together theYoke. Nevertheless, in God hath also made an imparity between them, theOrderprescribed His Word, in in and forthat reason thereis a Subordination, and theyare rankedamong unequals." Yet, referring the dutiesof the wife"as inferiour," cauto he tioned that "the word used thereis a general word, and signified be to orderedunderanother, to keep Order,beinga Metaphorfroma Band of or Souldiers,or an Army."Further explained he that"the Submission hererequired,is not to be measuredby theNotationor importof theWorditself, but by theQualityof the Relationto which is applied."The husband-wife it relationmust neverbe confusedwiththe master-servant child-parent or relation.A husbandoughtto be able to back his counselswiththewordof God "and lay before a sufficient her of Conviction herDuty,to comply with him therein;for he hath no Authority Compulsion." While in any or relationit is the dutyof inferiors obey superiorsunless a commandis to hath greaterlibertyof debatingthe contraryto God, "a wife certainly Prudenceof thething."Thus, theemphasisthroughout on discussion, is on on reasoning, mediation. Wivesas well as husbandshave theresponsibility to counsel and direct.Each should "chuse the fittest Seasons to Reprove for each other, things which their Love and Dutycalls for."45 command The to obedience, Willard, for was primarily principle order. a of withassertive Sprint'ssermon, femalesand outragedhusbands, bristling is an oddityamongthe ministerial literature. not authority, was Harmony, the commontheme.Thus, themarriage discoursessupporttheimplication of thefuneral literature thatwomenwereexpectedto be rationalas wellas righteous, capable of independent and as judgmentas well as deference, responsible their as the spousesforknowing wordofGod and forpromoting A woman was espoused to Christbethe salvationof the family. virtuous foreshewas espousedto anyman.
* * *

That fewtractsand sermonson childbirth survive probably is evidence in of itself thereluctance theministers stress"feminine" "masculine" of to or on themesover a commonChristianity. limitedwriting parturition The is for worth authorshad an opportunity examining, however, hereifanywhere of to expounduponthepeculiarfailings virtues theweakersex. or
45SamuelWillard, CompleteBody of Divinity Two Hundredand Fifty A in Expository Lectures(Boston, 1726),pp. 609-12.

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A pregnant womanin New England'sgodlycommunity twopreparahad tionsto make forthe day of her delivery. the one hand she had to arOn range for a midwife, ready a warm and convenient chamber,prepare childbed linenforherself and clothing herinfant, plan refreshment for and forthe friends invited attendher. But she knew,even without ministo a terialreminder, thatthesethings could prove"miserablecomforters." She might "perchanceneed no otherlinenshortly a winding but sheet,and have no otherchamberbut a grave,no neighbors but worms."46 Her primary duty,then,was preparing die. Female mortality the most pervasive to is themeof thechildbirth The literature. elegists lovedto exploitthepathosof death in birth-the ship and cargo sunk together, fruit the and tree both felled,the womb became a grave. In his poem for Mary Brown, for example,Nicholas Noyes dweltat length thefruitless on pangsofherlabor: "A BIRTH of One, to Both a Death becomes;/A BreathlessMotherthe Dead Child Entombs."47 Thus, it was oftenin a veryparticular sense that the ministers spoke of the "fearfulsex." In stressing need for a husthe band's tenderness,for example, Willard had singled out those bodily infirmities associated with the "breeding, bearing, and nursing" of Yet thesegrimrealities had their joyous side.CottonMatherwas fondof sayingthatthoughan equal numberof both sexes wereborn,a largerproof He werereborn.49 wondered portion females had more why.Perhapsthey timeto spendin godlyactivities, tis other"althoughI mustconfess, often wise." No, he concluded, was probablybecause in childbirth curseof it the Eve had turnedinto a blessing.50 Given the spiritual equalityof men and in women,the only possible explanationfor a disparity religiousperformancehad to be physical. in Colman resolved same problem a the Benjamin similarway in a prefaceto one of his sermons.Writing laterin theperiod thanMather,he could toywiththeidea of a "naturalTenderness Spirit" of givento womenthrough electionof God, yethe too focusedupon their the female thoughts bodilyexperience.Pregnancyand childbirth, turning by frequently "towardstheGates of Death, bywhichWe all receiveour Life," increasedwomen'ssusceptibility thecomforts Christ.Pregnancy to of was superiorto regularhumanills in this regard,thought Colman, because it
American Women(Boston, 1694),p. 3. This was an for Teeming 46John Oliver,A Present is in printed London in 1663. The Evans film veryshort Americaneditionof a pamphletfirst includes just thepreface. and probably 47NicholasNoyes, poem for Mrs. Mary Brownin Cotton Mather,Eureka the Vertuous Woman Found, 1. 15; see also "Upon the Death of the Virtuousand ReligiousMrs. Lydia broadside. Minot" (Cambridge,1668),an anonymous p. CompleteBodyof Divinity, 611. 48Willard, An 49Seeforexample,TabithaRediviva, Essay to Describeand CommendThe Good Works Woman(Boston, 1713),p. 21. ofa Virtuous the Mather,Ornamentsfor DaughtersofZion (Cambridge,1692),p. 45. 50Cotton children.48

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for thansurprising victim continued months rather the withan acute attack as forgotten soon as itwas over.5' Evenheretheministers werereadyto stresssimilarities menand between women.Though JohnOliverurgedhusbandsto be kindto theirpregnant wivesbecause of theirincreasedvulnerability "hysterical to vapours," his argumentreallyrestedon an analogy,not a contrast,betweenthe sexes. Husbands shouldbe tolerant their of wives, insisted, he because they "desire or expect the like favourto themselves theirown sickness,wherein in all men are lyable to manyabsurdities, and troublesome humours."52 Eve in hertroubles was no moreunstablethanAdam. Thus, the ministers were able to acknowledgethe reproductive role of women withoutgivinga sexual content to the psyche and soul. They stressedthe experience childbirth, of ratherthan the natureof the childbearer.It is significant theone place wheretheyopenlyreferred the that to "curse of Eve" (ratherthan the more generalized"sin of Adam") was in dealingwiththe issue of birth.In such a context,Eve's curse had a particularand finite and meaning, it could be overcome.Stressing redempthe tivepowerof childbirth, a theytransformed traditional badge of weakness into a symbolof strength. Locating the religious of responsiveness women in their bodilyexperience rather thanin their eternal nature, they upheldthe spiritualoneness of the sexes. The childbirth literature,though fragis withthemarriage mentary, consistent and funeral sermons.
* * *

When New England's ministers down to writeabout women,they sat were all interested promoting same asexual qualities:prayerfulness, in the industry, charity, modesty, seriousreading, and godlywriting. From 1660 to 1730 the portrait the virtuous of woman did not change. Her pietywas the standardProtestantpiety;her virtueswere those of her brothers. Although childbearing gave her an added incentive godliness, possessed to she no inherently femalespiritualqualities,and her deepest reality was unrelated to hersex. Yet an examination theministerial of is literature notcompletewithout of consideration an important subtleshift, in content but not but in attitude.This beginsaround the turnof the century theworkof in Cotton Mather and continues,thoughless strikingly, the sermonsof in and Colman. Mather's elegyforMary Brownof Salem, "Eureka Foxcroft theVertuousWoman Found," marksthetone: no Monopolizing HEE's, pretend more and Ofwit worth, hoard all thestore. to up TheFemales grow too wise Good& Great.53 &
51 Benjamin Colman, The Dutyand HonourofAged Women(Boston, 1711), pp. ii-iii. 52John Oliver,TeemingWomen, 4. p. 53Cotton Mather,Eureka,p. 1.

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Everything Mather said about Mary Brownhad been said beforeby other ministers about otherwomen. But his open championship her sex was of new. All of the ministers believedin the inherent equality of men and but women, forsome reasonfirst Mather,thenothers, seemedcompelledto say so. If we turnto the earliestof the advice literature, Hugh Peter's A Dying Father's Last Legacy, written hisdaughter 1660,thissubtleshift for in becomes immediately apparent.The researcher who combsits tightly-packed pages looking for specificcommentson women will come away disapworkis a profound pointed.Yet theentire commenton his attitude toward the subject.That he would writea long and detailedtreatiseto Elizabeth without reference hersex is evidence itself to in thathe considered basic her responsibilities same as his. Know Christ,he told her. Read the best the books. Study the scriptures,using the annotations of divines. Pray constantly. Keep a journal; writeof God's dealingswithyou and of yours withhim.Discuss theworkings salvationwithable friends. of Seek wisdom. Speak truth.Avoid frothy words. Do your own business;workwithyour own hands. The one explicitreference feminine to meeknessis inextricable from the general Christiancontext: "Oh that you mightbe God-like, his Moses-like.Michael contesting withtheDragon,maintained Christ-like, Meekness;and Paul says, it is the Woman's Ornament."For Peter,virtue had no gender.In putting thewoman's ornament, on Elizabethwas clothed in thearmorof a dragon-fighter well. In a shortparagraphon marriage, as his he reminded daughter thatwhileit was thehusband'sdutyto lead, hers to submit, theseduties"need mutualsupports."Husbands and wives"need to observeeach othersSpirits;theyneed to Pray out,not Quarrelout their first Grablings; Theyneed at first dwellmuchin their to own duties,before theystepintoeach others."Whenhe toldherto staymuchat home,he was a "For to careerand troubled applying judgment his own stormy marriage. my Spirit it wanted weight,throughmany tossings,my head that comnor and too careless,but nevermischievous posureothershave, credulous, malicious:I thought workwas to serveothers, and so mineownGarden my not so well cultivated."54 Thus, Peter's treatiseepitomizedthe central sermontradition. the Thirty yearslaterCotton Matherwas promoting same qualities-but worthand public witha difference. Clearly, a contrastbetweeninherent was at theheartof his attitude towardwomen."There are People, position who make no Noise at all in the World,People hardlyknownto be in the
54HughPeter,A DyingFather's Last Legacy (Boston, 1717), pp. 22, 34, 83. Lyle Koehler quotes merelythe phrase "Woman's Ornament" in attempting show that Hugh Peter to shareda generalPuritan belief thesubjection women.See "The Case of theAmericanJein of zebels," p. 59.

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World; Persons of the Female Sex, and underall the Covers imaginable. But the world has not many People in it, that are fullerof the Truest That women made no noise botheredMather,and he was conGlory."55 tinually devisingmetaphoricaldetours around the Pauline proscriptions. does our GloriousLord Em"Yes, thosewho maynotSpeak in theChurch, ploy to Speak: to Speak to us, and Speak by what we see in them,such He to Thingsas we oughtcertainly take muchNotice of."56 made muchof the fact that Abiel Goodwin,a littledamsel halfhis age, had taughthim pleasurethatshe muchof salvation, and in herfuneral sermonhe expressed "without Disorder"speakin theChurch.57 couldfinally any But therewas a route to worldly honor open to women,one whichno Sin, lead the Life whichold epistledenied. "They that mightnot without stories ascribe to Amazons, have with much Praise done the part of A in the Scholars in theWorld."58 longsection Ornamentsfor Daughtersof of Mathercombed the Zion was devotedto thepromotion femalewriting. of scriptures theclassics forprecedents and and applaudedtheefforts near whose such as Anna Maria Schurman,a Dutch feminist contemporaries his tractThe Learned Maid probably influenced decisionto teach Katharin in piety, would Hebrew.Schurman'sargument, deeplyimbedded traditional have been congenialto Mather. She excludedfromdiscussion"Scriptural Controversie so belongs Theology, properly named,as thatwhichwithout comto all Christians,"directing attention that widerscholarship her to she monly deniedwomen.If you say we are weak witted, wrote,studieswill to let sweetness helpus. If you say we are notinclined studies, us tastetheir teachers. and youwillsee. If you say we haveno colleges,we can use private private; we If you say our vocationsare narrow, answertheyare merely we Plutarch:"It becomes a are not exempt fromthe universalsentenceof perfect Man, to knowwhatis to be Known,and to do whatis to be done."59 thatyoungwomenbe exposed fromtheirinShe concludedby suggesting of to the"encouragement wise men" and the"examplesofillustrious fancy Matherenthusiastically provided women." In his tractsand in his sermons, both. It is important understand thatwe are not dealingwitha newconcept to of women in Mather's work,but a new visibility. Though in 1660 under a sentenceof death,Peter could hardlyhave recommended publicrole for Elizabeth,thereis evidencethathe was as readyas Matherto value female
55CottonMather,Bethiah.The Glory WhichAdorns the Daughtersof God and thePiety, Zion Wishesto see herDaughtersGlorious(Boston, 1722),p. 34. Wherewith (Boston, 1720),p. 26. 56Cotton or, Certainties, PietyEnlivened Mather,Undoubted Mather, Juga, 24. p. 57Cotton 58Cotton pp. Mather,Ornaments, 5-6. a 59AnnaMaria Schurman,The LearnedMaid. or, Whether Maid maybe a Scholar?A LogickExercise(London, 1659),pp. 1,37.

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In a letterto a scholarship and writing. 1651 he had contributed Prefatory revolutionary tract by Mary Cary, applaudingher clear openingof the scriptures and her rejectionof "naked Brests,black Patches" and "long Trains" in favorof a pen. He referred "Two of thisSexe I have metwith, to very famous for more than their mother-tongue, for what we call and Learning,yet living." One of these women, "the glory of her sexe in Holland," was apparently Anna Maria Schurman,whom Peter may have metin Utrecht.60 As important Mather'spromotion increased as of intellectual activity for womenwas thelusterhe gave to theirmoretraditional roles. In beginning his funeralsermonforhis own mother, exclaimed: "Oh! The Endearhe mentsof our God! Beyondall theEndearments theTenderestMotherin of the World!" Taking forhis text Isaiah 49:15, "Can a Woman forget her Sucking Child, that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Bowels?Yea, They may forget: willnot I forget yet thee,"he drewout the parallels betweenthe love of God and the love of a mother."The Dispositionwhichthe Glorious God has to providefor the Comfortof His People, has Two Resemblances,in His Two Testaments;And in both of them,'tis Resembledunto the ProvisionwhichFemale-Parentsmake for theirYoung-ones." Mothers comforttheirchildrenthroughtheirgood instructions, through their good examples,and through their piousprayers. These, however, temporary are comforts.Mothersfeedus, but God does more. Mothersclotheus, but God does more. Mothersguideus, but God does more. Mothers keep us out of harm's way, but God does more. Mothers conferornaments upon us, but God confers upon us the lasting ornament. Thus God is a bettermother thanour earthly mothers. this At point, Mather drew back somewhat from his metaphor,assuring his audience that God was also our father."What is the best of Mothers weigh'din the Ballance withSuch a Father?Our Fatheris now the Infinite God." Buthe wenton: It has beena little unto Thatin someof thePrimitive Surprising me to find Writers, HolySpirit called, Mother. the is The Tertullian this uses Denomination with Father the for HolySpirit; Mother, is Invocated the the the who and Son.61 Instead of recoiling fromtheheresy, Matherexplainedthe reasonableness of the metaphor.It is through Holy Ghostthatwe are bornagain. The the is as Holy Ghostis spokenofin thescriptures a comforter. Surelynothing ofgreater thana good mother. comfort
60The entireletter is quoted in Doris Mary Stenton, The English Woman in History (London: G. Allenand Unwin,1957),pp. 136-37. 6 CottonMather,MaternalConsolationsof God (Boston, 1714),pp. 5, 8, 24, 25.

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femaleas well as male Mather did not mean to deify women.In finding the equalityof virtues the Godhead,he was simplyreasserting spiritual in menand womenand theessentially asexual natureofgodliness.But he was bolstering the doingsomething else as well. He was openlyand generously publicimageof Boston'swomen. If a person believesin the inherent equalityof the sexes yet notes an inequity the way theyare regardedin society,he can resolve the disin them crepancyin threeways. He can tryto changewomen,encouraging to enlargethose activities whichmight bringthemhonorand recognition. and He can tryto changesociety, urging recognition praise fortheunsung activities women already excel in. Or he can dismiss the whole problem, and turnhis attention the to deny the importanceof status altogether, the spiritual realm.Mathertriedall three.In praising worksofAnna Maria Schurmanand in teaching daughter on his Hebrew,he put himself theside of enlarged opportunity.In eulogizing his mother, he gave public he recognition a specifically to feminine role. But as a good minister could not commit himselfcompletelyto any worldlyactivity.His real comthen,one of the atmitment had to be to thegloryof God. Paradoxically, tractions womenforMatherseems to have beentheir of very lack ofstatus. theirgood works,he was In praisingthem,he was not only encouraging demonstrating own superiority earthlystandards. Thus he withhis to withtheother. drewwithone handwhathe had given in inherent worthand Mather's work pointsto a difficulty reconciling mostof theperiodthis through earthly position.For most of the ministers or had been no problem.Eithertheyhad seen no discrepancy they wereunwithquestionsof status.The reasons forMather's positionare concerned On notentirely severalexplanations suggestthemselves. the clear,although in one hand,he mayhave been influenced European feminist thought; a by not who in letterto his sister-in-law, was living England,he mentioned only Anna Maria Schurman but Marie de Gournay.62Yet even with an of allowance for the Atlantic,the writings neitherwere new. Gournay's essays were publishedin the 1620's, Schurman's in the 1650's. Nor was as Schurman unknownto earlier ministers, the Hugh Peter friendship Matherwas dealingwithchangesin his ownprovinshows.More probably, cial society.It is a commonplacethatbytheend oftheseventeenth century, The New Englandwas becomingmoresecularas wellas moreprosperous. In of presumed threat leisurehangsovermuchof Mather'swriting. hisfirst booklet,he notedthat whilewomenoftenhad a greatdeal to do, "it is as oftenso, that you have little more Worldly Business, that to Spend (I shouldrathersay, to Save) whatothersGet,and to Dress and Feed (should
62Diaryof Cotton Mather, 1709-1724, Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 7th Series, VIII (Boston, 1911), p. 325.

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I not also say, to Teach) the Little Birds,whichyou are Dams unto. And those of you, that are Womenof Qualityare Excused fromverymuchof thisTroubletoo."63He pickedup thesame themein his tractformidwives, urging mothersto suckle theirown infants. "Be not such an Ostrichas to Declineit, merely because you wouldbe One oftheCareless WomenLiving at Ease."64 Clothingand jewels are pervasivemetaphors onlyin Ornanot ments theDaughtersof Zion butin Bethiah, similar for a written pamphlet thirty years later. In both, women are told that if they will resist the temptation worldlyadornmenttheywill be "clothed withthe sun."65 to Perhaps changesin the provincial lifestyle gave new impetusto the traditional Puritan distrust of leisure. Such an explanation accounts for Mather's injunctions pietyand his warnings to but againstworldliness, it does nottotally withstatus. explainhispreoccupation Cotton Mather'swritings womenpointto a muchmorefundamental on problem, paradox inherent the ministerial a in positionfromthefirst. This paper began by noting obvious-that New England'swomencould not the preach, attend Harvard, or participatein the government the conof gregation commonwealth. wenton to argue that thiscircumscribed or It social position was not reflected thespiritual in sphere, thatNew England's ministers continued upholdthe onenessof menand womenbeforeGod, to that in theirunderstanding the marriagerelationship of theymoved far toward equality,that in all theirwritings they stressed the dignity, intelligence, strength, and rationality womeneven as theyacknowledged of thephysical limitations imposedbytheirreproductive role. CottonMather maynothave beenfully consciousof thisdoubleview, all hiswritings yet on womenare in one wayor another response it. Such a position a to requires a balance (ifnot an otherworldliness) is verydifficult maintain. the that to In workof his younger contemporaries, BenjaminColman and Thomas Foxthis croft, is evenmoreclearlyseen. Colman's daughterJanewas apparently fondof the sermonsof Cotton Matherforshecomposeda tribute himon hisdeath.Certainly herown to in lifeshe exemplified teaching, his spurning balls, black patches,and vain romancesforgodlyscholarship. had therunofherfather's She which library,
63Cotton Mather,Ornaments, 45. p. 64Cotton Mather,Elizabeth,p. 35. James Axtell,The School Upon a Hill: Educationand Societyin Colonial New England(New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1974),pp. 75attitudes 83, surveys English towardwet-nurses speculateson colonialpractice. and 65Cotton Mather,Bethiah,p. 37. Declensionis of course a familar theme.The sex ratioof churchmembership worthfurther is in study thisregard.RobertPope, "New EnglandVersus theNew EnglandMind:The Mythof Declension," Journal Social History, (1969-70), 102, of 3 arguesthatwomenwerebecoming less rather thanmoredominant after1675.This wouldundercuttheeasy assumptionmade by Andrews, "Funeral Sermonsof Cotton Mather," p. 32, that women were gettingmore attention from ministers because men had abandoned the churches.

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included,in additionto edifying tomes,the poetryof Sir Richard Blackmoreand of Waller.At elevenshe begancomposing of rhymes herownand as a youngbrideshewroteletters herfather versewhich sometimes to in he she answeredin kind.Althoughintensely religious, began to measureher own writing as againsta worldly well as a heavenly scale, a tendency that musthave contributed herown self-doubts frequent to and headaches. In a letterto her father, expressedthehope thatshe had inherited gifts. she his His answerepitomized possibilities thelimitations theministerial the and of position: My poorGift inthinking writing a little is and with Eloquence, a Poetical and turn Thought. of This,in proportion theAdvantages havehad,under to you the necessary useful and Restraints your of Sex,youenjoy thefull what have to of I donebefore you. WiththeAdvantages myliberalEducation School& of at I College, haveno reason think that to but in your Genious Writing would have excell'd mine. there no greatProgress Improvement madein any But is or ever thing byUse andIndustry Time.Ifyoudiligently but and improve stated your and somevacant hours every orWeek readyour Day to Bible other and useful Books, you will insensibly grow in knowledge Wisdom,finetho'ts and good & Judgment.66 Both the "usefulRestraints"and theencouragement studyare familiar of themes.If Colman saw no possibility a university for education, neither did he denyher ability profit it. Like theotherministers, made no atto by he temptto extrapolatea different spiritual naturefroma contrasting social role.Buthe fully acceptedthatroleand expected Janeto fulfill it. In 1735,JaneColman Turreldied in childbirth. her father's In sermons and in thebiography written herhusband, by thereis little distinguish to her fromKatharinMatheror evenJerusha Oliver.But in a poem appendedto thesermons, there a fascinating is crackin theportrait. The Reverend John Adams wrote: FairwasherFace,butfairer herMind, was Where theMuses, theGraces all all join'd. Fortender Passions and turn'd, soft please, to With the all graceful Negligence Ease. of HerSoulwasform'd nicer for Arts Life, of To show Friend, most grace Wife.67 the but to the Negligence, softness, ease! These are conceptsaliento thevirtuous woman. Jane Colman had been invited into her father'slibraryas an intellectual equal, butto at least one ofhermale friends had becomeonlythatmuch she more attractive a drawing-room as ornament.It is tempting conclude to that by 1735, even ministers were seducingthe Virtuous Woman with
67Ibid., p. v.

66Colman, Reliquiae Turellae,p. 69.

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to was standards.But thenewprosperity notentirely blame. As an worldly outlet scholarship its limits.Withno otherearthly had of instrument piety, had conversation to do. available,dinner-party role withthe intellectual Thomas Foxcroftwas eitherless comfortable than Mather or Colman or more concernedabout its limits.In Anna the of to he Prophetess wentto greatlengths denytheimplications hisowntext, and of worthy thetitleofprophet on arguing theone handthatwomenwere be thattheycertainly shouldn't allowedto speakin church.His on theother of choiceof a textand titlewereverymuchin thetradition Mather,buthis When neveracknowledged. his a of handling it betrayed discomfort mentor his of however, defense womenblossomed. of he came to write motherhood, womenas preachedin 1721,he described In his sermonforhis own mother, "At in thebastionsof religion thehomeand thecommunity. theGap, which theDeath of a wise and good Mothermakes,does manytimesentera Tortoo were simply good forthis rentof Impietiesand Vices." Some mothers world: God mightgatherthem home to preventthem seeingthe "Penal praiseoverlaya moreconFoxcroft's Evils" about to befalltheirchildren. be might a punishbase. He cautionedthatthedeathof a mother servative her her mentforloving too muchas wellas forloving too little.Buthisown sermon is evidence of where he felt the greater danger lay. "Indeed Children'sLove and Regard to theirParents livingor dead, commonly As needa Curb."68 a good Puritan, needsa Spur,Tho' theParentstoo often love or any otherformof humanlove as an he could not embrace mother thatBoston's mothers good, but like Matherhe was concerned unqualified receive properrespect. the This is a crucial point. In the funeralliteraturetherehad been little conceptof of mention "motherhood"as opposed to the moregeneralized "parenthood."Even Colman, who publisheda baptismalsermonentitled Mothersin Is"Some of theHonours thatReligionDoes Unto theFruitful muchbeyondthetitle. the rael," was unable to maintain sex differentiation is If a distinction betweenmothers and fathers ever made in theliterature, feltthat "persons are it however, is over the issue of respect.Wadsworth most moreapt to despisea Mother,(theweakervessel,and frequently often than a Father."69Despite its text,JohnFlavell's A Discourse: indulgent) ShewingthatChrist'sTenderCare of His Motheris an ExcellentPattern for all Gracious Childrenis about parents rather than about mothers But the one directcommenton women echoes Wadsworth: specifically. is and "[S]he by reasonof herblandishments, fondindulgence mostsubject Thus Boston's ministers and contemptof children."70 to the irreverence
68 Foxcroft, Sermon,pp. 14,20. Family,p. 92. 69 Well-Ordered Wadsworth, Flavell,A Discourse(Boston, 1728),p. 5. 70John

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or showed a concern for neglect of women well before theyidentified virtues.Foxcroftbuiltupon this concern,but elaboratedany sex-related Althoughhis mother'spietywas the traditional witha subtle difference. out. thatshe was singled thanas a Christian rather piety, was as a mother it and Witha new set of values,a focusupon tenderness love ratherthanon would be indistinguishable Foxcroft'seffusiveness godlinessand strength, sentimentality. from nineteenth-century of tradition rootedin thereformed Thus,in New Englandsermonsfirmly both the as we the seventeenth century, can see developing, if in embryo, and the "tendermother"of the century "genteellady" of the eighteenth Adams' poem for JaneTurrel shows the shortstep fromPunineteenth. Foxcroft's eulogyforhis mother sensibility. to ritanintellectuality feminine all obliterate others.If how praise fora singlevirtuemight demonstrates in upheldtheonenessof menand women,Puritanpolity large Puritanpiety mercantile worldofearly partdid not. Nor, we assume,did theincreasingly Boston. Unwilling or unable to transferspiritual eighteenth-century ministers beginto shift understandably might sphere, equalityto theearthly to earthlydifferences the spiritualsphere,gradually developingsexual of definitions thepsycheand soul. deals witha It is important remember to herethatthe sermonliterature not relatively small groupof people,thatit revealsattitudes practices.Presumably, few women experiencedthe conflictsof Jane Turrel. Most in Bostonwereprobablytoo occupiedwiththedaily housewives provincial round to consider the nature of their positionin society. Yet when a tone,telling of minister the statureof Cotton Matherassumes a defensive us that "those Handmaids of the Lord, who tho' theyly verymuchConceal'd fromtheWorld,and maybe called The Hidden Ones, yethaveno litwe tle sharein theBeautyand theDefenceoftheLand," as historians ought in both to listento him.71Attitudes important. are Subtle shifts perception social practice.Mather's advocacy of womensuggestsa reflect and affect century New England betweenpresumed real tensionin early eighteenth the worth and publicposition.It demonstrates needforcloserstudy private of the actual functioning womenwithin of congregation and community. But it has ramifications beyondits own time and place. Mather's work might notionsof "femininity" confining showshow discreteand ultimately grow out of a genuine concern with equality. Finally, the ministerial it of literature which belongsillustrates importance thenarrowstudy, to the the need to move fromstaticconceptslike "patriarchalNew Englandsoof questionsabout theinterplay valuesand practice ciety"to moreintricate overtime.Zion's daughters havefortoo longbeenhidden.
7ICottonMather,El-Shaddai,p. 31.

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