Female Education in 16th & 17th Century

Influences, Attitudes, and Trends

In fact,, it appears that in England, prior to the 16th century, the start of Christianity there in the late 6th century through the 15th family and community structures of the localized preindusmal century, at least some members of all classes of society were society of those many years allowed for a wide range of activities taught to read. While in those years literacy was the prime tool in which women could quite easily participate, though to a lesser for religious and leamed scholarship, literacy was also a very extent than men. For poorer women, that participation included pragmatic instrument for personal communication and for the both learning and teaching to read at the early levels when males other written necessities of economic and social functioning, of similar station did. For high-born and for convent-situated including household and estate record-keeping (Clanchy, p. women, a certain amount of advanced religious and advanced 198). In the many years that women were empowered with secular learning was also available. household and ecclesiastical responsibilities - which included The picture was changed by events of the 16th century, a much of the Middle Ages -reading and writing, on some level, century that, in England, started with the era of humanism - was needed by them as well as by men. roughly, the forty years between 1500 and 1540 -was followed

VOLUME 9, NUMBERS 3 & 4 in mid-century by the twenty years of the humanist, Roger Ascham (1515-1568) stand Latin, but was to be available to Protestant Revolt or Reformation, and was tutor to Princess Elizabeth and then anyone who mastered the rudiments of ended with forty years of the reign of Latin secretary to her cousin, Mary of reading. Elizabeth I. All three periods affected the Scotland. The Protestant groups and their leaders subsequent course of female education. Thus, by the year 1540, the idea of a varied, however, on the question of broad classical education, moving be- women's education. John Knox (?1505- Sixteenth Century Humanism in yond the religious focus of the past, had 1572), for example, the founder of Scot- England become accepted for the upperclass tish Presbyterianism, took a vehemently women, and through most of the century anti-female stance in his treatise. The In contrast to the purely religious scho- many such women did indeed become First Blast of the Trumpet Against the lasticism that preceded them, the human- learned. By 1540, however, a new major Monstrous Regiment of Women (?1558). ists advocated a liberalizing of thought force entered the picture- the Protestant Yet, Luther himself was very supportive and attitude, as well as an emphasis on Reformation -and set the stage for sub- of women's education, insisting on com- classical Greek and Latin scholarship. sequent changes in the education of pulsory schooling for all boys and all girls Most pertinent for our discussion was the women. on primary and secondary levels, and humanists' urging that the Scriptures be advanced education for qualified girls as read in the vernacular rather than solely in The Protestant Reformation well as boys. Luther also noted the need Latin, and their strong recommendation for female teachers (Green, p. 97). Those that women be given advanced education. The Protestant Reformation may be ideals regarding women's education took Such humanists as Leonardo Bruni of traced to the year 1517, when Martin hold in the Germanic regions of continen- Italy (c. 1370-1444) and Juan Luis Vives Luther cast off the authority of and tal Europe to an extraordinary degree with (1492-1540) of Spain were especially inspired the establishment of a host of the establishment of many schools that clear in their advocacy of women's lem- Protestant denominations and sects. The girls attended and a solid acceptance of ing. new Protestant groups had doctrines that female education. In England, among the most prominent differed from each other in many respects, In England, started in proponents of humanism in the early 16th but all shared the ideals of using the ev- 1534, when Henry V111 established the century was Sir , the man eryday vernacular language instead of Church of England after Pope Clement for all seasons (1478-1535), closely allied Latin in the religious services and of call- V11 excommunicated him for marrying with Desiderius of Holland ing upon all members to study the Scrip- Anne Boleyn without receiving a papal (1467-1536), and Sir Thomas Elyot tures in that vernacular. This meant that divorce from . Henry (1490- 1546). More is held responsible direct contact with the Scriptures was not declared himself the head of the new for a decided advance in the 16th century to be limited to the clergy and to upper- church, and dissolved the convents and in the education of upperclass English class scholars who could read and under- monasteries, and confiscated for the king women - in such subjects as classical and state all of the former church's prop- literature, philosophy, mathematics, as- erties. As a result, the convent and other tronomy, physics, logic, and rhetoric. church and monastic schools were closed More himself educated a number of and most of them never reopened. young women, including his three daugh- To take their place, a great number of ters, in his own home, and their classical privately endowed schools arose through- education was a model for other noble out England, well-subsidized by the families of the time. members of newly-rich mercantile Adding to the effects of More's leader- classes. The new schools were staffed by ship was the fact that Catherine of Aragon a class of scholarly schoolmasters, gener- (1485-1536), daughter of Isabella and ally male, many of whom replaced less Ferdinandof Spain and first wife of Henry well-educated local clergy and other V111 of England, was very much in favour teachers left over from the generation of humanism and had close contact with before. outstanding humanists. She inspired Erasmus to write his On Christian Matri- The Elizabethan Influence mony, one of the works strongly suppor- tive of education for women, and brought Henry VLII was succeeded by his Vives to the English court to be in charge daughter, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), of her daughter Mary Tudor's education. whose learning both reflected and fos- Vives' treatise, The Instruction of a tered the scholarly values of the human- Christian Woman (1523), dedicated to ists as well as of the early Protestant re- Catherine, was perhaps the foremost formers. By the latter part of the 16th work on women's education in 16th cen- century, the impacts of humanism, Prot- tury Europe, with great influence in Eng-c estantism, and Elizabeth's reign had coa- land (Stock, p. 51). Another eminent lesced. The view of the time on women's

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESLES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME education includes those expressed by ally available to females barely reflected Richard Mulcaster. even those limited ideals. For women Mulcaster (c. 1532-1611) was perhaps who were too poor to hope to preside over the most influential of a group of school- a domestic domain, there was practically masters/spelling reformers of the Eliza- no provision. For the middle classes, bethan era, and he had an immeasurable though there is little data on the precise effect on reading and spelling in England extent of primary school education for and America (Balmuth, p. 126). On the girls, the picture that emerges is one of question of female education, Mulcas- very limited resources. On the secondary ter's position was consonant with the cli- level, girls were rarely permitted into the mate of the late 16th century, although he grammar schools, nor were they sent as went somewhat further than his contem- often as boys even when they might have poraries in advocating formal education been welcome. Thus, even the Quakers, for more than just upperclass women. who believed in female education, only In a chapter entitled "Education of provided two female and two co-educa- Girls" in his book Positions (1581). tional boarding schools out of a total of Mulcaster makes this case for educating fifteen that they had established by 1671 girls: "Our country doth allow it; our duty ing so much of the grassroots schooling of (Stock, p. 70). There were some female doth enforce it; their aptness calls for it; the latter half of the 16th century in Puri- boarding schools for a limited number of their excellency commands it" (De- tan hands was the dissemination of Puri- the well-to-do, but their curricula, with Molen, pp. 125-126). Yet, though he ob- tan values which, ultimately led to a new rare exceptions, were aimed at de- viously felt that women were capable of family structure. In the new structure, the veloping socially acceptable rather than acquiring learning, Mulcaster also cau- wife was a help mate to her husband, with learned women. For women's higher tioned that a woman's being learned circumscribed duties. This prescriptive education, the possibilities were even could not ovemde the practical effects of family, headed by an authoritarian hus- more closed off. Dissolving the convents her being of a low social status; for ex- banqfather, served a religious need: the had eliminated those institutions as sites ample, there was little chance of her mar- Catholic practice of group worship cen- for any kind of women's scholarly ad- rying upward (DeMolen, pp. 140-141). tered in the church was replaced by the vancement; nor were women permitted The fact that Mulcaster's monarch, ideal of each family household becoming into the secular centers of higher learning Elizabeth was a learned woman, as- a center for worship, with daily services, - the universities. suredly helped the cause of advanced ed- Scripture reading, and other practices that How women reacted to such limitation ucation for women, as reflected in this depended upon a clearly defined family of opportunity is a natural question. The statement by Mulcaster: model with responsibility for education as answer for the 17th century is equivocal: well as religion. In the realization of the on the one hand, women in general be- That young maidens can learn, nature model, the aspirations of the initial hu- lieved that a woman's social life, as well doth give them, and that they have manists and Rotestant reformers regard- as her morality, could be endangered by learned our experience doth teach ing women's education were changed too much learning. Yet, there are indica- us;... what foreign example can more and in the changing, became intellectu- tions that such caution did not mean that assure the world than our diamond at ally lower with the effects felt in the 17th women considered themselves innately home;...if no example did confirm it century. In contrast not only to the stated inferior. In Elizabeth Jocelyn's treatise, that young maidens deserve the train- liberalism of the previous century but to The Mothers Legacie, to her unborne ing, this is our own mirror, the majesty the practices of many of the years prior to Childe (1624), she hints at an inner pride of her sex, doth prove it in her own the 17th century, more and more lirnita- covered over with self-protective diffi- person, and cornmends it to our reason. tions were placed on all women. The dence: We have besides her highness, as Elizabethan ideal of a rich classical edu- undershining stars, many singular la- cation for upperclass women was sup I desire (ifthe child be a daughter) her dies and gentlewomen (DeMolen, p. planted by one that addressed a broader bringing up may be learning the Bible, 133). population of women, but called for much as my sisters do, good housewifery, less erudition. That is, a new ideal arose writing and good works: other learning The Influence of Puritanism of women of all classes becoming literate a woman neeah not: though I admire it enough to read the Bible for themselves in those whom God hath blest with and perhaps to teach it to the children and discretion... But where learning and The newer teachers and members of the servants of the household-but not much wisdom meet in a virtuous disposed new education-supporting classes men- more. For high-born women, the prevail- woman, she is the Ftest closet for all tioned above often were Puritans, op ing ideal was more secular, and included goodness. She is like a well-balanced posed to the Church of England. Many of the graces required of a socially accom- ship that may bear all her sail. She is- them, too, were followers of John Knox, plished wife -the Cavalier values of the indeed, I should but shame myself, .$I whose antagonism to women's education 17th century left their mark in this respect. should go about to praise her more. has been noted earlier. One effect of hav- In practice, the formal schooling actu- (Watson, 1906, p. 118).

VOLUME 9, NUMBERS 3 & 4 'Lhe picture, then, that emerges of fe- Green, Lowell. "The Education of male education in 17th century England Women in the Reformation." History is, on the whole, rather dismal. Never- of Education Quarterly, Spring, 1979, theless, that century also helped set the pp. 93-116. stage for the education of succeeding Hogrefe, Pearl. Tudor Women: Com- 3e years. Although it is beyond the province monersand Queens. Ames: Iowa State of this paper to detail the ways that the University Press, 1975. 17th century had impact on later years, it Labalme, Patricia A. Beyond Their Sex, kfsft may be said that, from the very start of the Learned Women of the European Past. 18th century, certain aspects of theeduca- New York: New York University tional picture began to brighten for Press, 1980. women, helping to set into motion a series Rogers, Katharine M. Feminism in Eight- A of processes that resulted ultimately, eenth Century England. Urbana: Uni- new feminist newspaper though laboriously, in the much more versity of Illinois Press, 1982. distributed nationally cheerful image presented by the English Stone, Lawrence. Family, Sex, and Mar- 6 issuesbear: female education of today. riage in England, 1500-1800. New $5-$10individual $25 sustaining $1 5 institution

The Womanist P.O. Box 76, Stn B, Ottawa, Ont K1P 6C3 (61 3)230-0590 WOMEN IN GENERAL BELIEVED THAT

F A WOMAN'S SOCIAL LIFE, AS WELL AS HER

MORALITY, COULD BE ENDANGERED BY

Tk,&' TOO MUCH LEARNING. --->%S References York: Harper & Row, 1977. Watson, Foster. English Writers on Edu- Balmuth, Miriam. The Roots of Phonics: cation. 1480-1603. Gainsville, Fla.: A Historical Introduction. New York: Scholars, 1967. (First published as McGraw-Hill, 1982. (Reissued by Notices of Some Early English Writers Teachers College Press, 1986.) on Education, with Descriptions, Ex- Bridenthal, Renate and Claudia Koonz. tracts, and Notes, compiled from the Becoming Visible: Women in European Annual Reports of the U.S. Commis- History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, sioner of Education between 1902 and 1977. 1906.) Buck, Lawrence P. and Jonathan W. Woodward, William Harrison. Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist More than four million adult Canadians can't Zophy (eds.). The Social History of the read well enough to fill out a iob application Reformation. Colurnbus: Ohio State Educators. Cambridge University or understand the directions on a medicine bottle. You can help. Give money, volunteer Press, 1972. Press, 1897. (Reprinted by Teachers with a literacy group, write to your MP, and Caspari, Fritz. Humanism and the So- College Press, New York, 1963.) read to your children. cial Order in Tudor England. University For more information, contact: of Chicago Press, 1954. (Reprinted by Miriam Bal~nuthis Professor and Co- Canadian Give the Gift ordinator of the graduate reading pro- of Literacy Foundation Teachers College Press, 1968.) 34 Ross St., Suite 200, Clanchy, M.T.From Memory to Writ- gram in the Department of Curriculum Toronto, Ont. M5T 129 ten Record, England, 1066-1307. Har- and Teaching at Hunter College of the (416) 595-9967 City University of New York. She is the The Canad~anClve the Clft of Llteracy Campaign IS vard University Press, 1979. a project of the book and per~od~callndustty of DeMolen, Richard L. (ed.). Richard author of The Roots of Phonics: An Canada In partnership wlth Telephone Ploneers of Arner~caReg~on 1 Canada Mulcaster's Positions. Classics in Historical Introduction and other writ- Education No. 44. New York: Teach- ings in thefield of literacy and the history ers College Press, 1971. of literacy.

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