University of Alberta Marketing Salvation: Devotional Handbooks for Early Modern Householders by Amie Lynn Shirkie A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English English and Film Studies ©Amie Shirkie Spring 2014 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Dedication To my parents, with love. Abstract My doctoral dissertation examines early modern English devotional handbooks, which were designed to instruct the laity on the tenets of the Protestant religion and help them navigate the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century. As part of their wide-ranging efforts to educate the laity, reformers collaborated with printers to create vernacular books of private prayer and doctrinal instruction. Although many devotional handbooks were composed by members of the clergy, the affordability of print and the accessibility of vernacular scripture empowered laymen and women to transform themselves into authors, as they selected prayers and marked their favorite passages, even composing devotional handbooks of their own. Adapting the model of a communications circuit, I explore the production, circulation, and use of devotional handbooks, tracing the connections between authors, who were also readers and sometimes directly involved in the printing of their prayer books, printers, and readers, who, in the act of using and marking their books and composing prayers of their own, fused the circuit by becoming authors. I expand my analysis of the sociology of devotional handbooks by taking into account early modern expectations of gender and performance. In chapter one, “Abraham Fleming and the Development of a ‘Godly’ Rhetoric,” I examine the collaboration between Abraham Fleming, prolific translator, author, and ‘learned corrector’ and Henry Denham, one of the period’s most renowned printers of devotional material. In chapter two, “Thomas Bentley and the Feminine ‘Face of the Church Militant,’” I explore the political and religious agenda of Thomas Bentley, author and compiler of The Monument of Matrones (1582) and the performative possibilities his prayers open up to his women readers. Chapter Three, “Anne Wheathill’s Spiritual Medicine from ‘the garden of Gods holie word,’” demonstrates how Anne Wheathill used her devotional reading to create prayers of her own in A handfull of holesome (though homelie) hearbs (1584). In my final chapter, “The Practice of Piety,” I expand on my theoretical analysis of early modern reading and writing practices in a survey of readers’ marginalia in devotional handbooks. Acknowledgements As my graduate research draws to a close, I am humbled by the huge debt of gratitude I owe to my mentors, friends, and family members, whose kindness, patience, and support have sustained me these many years. I have been extremely fortunate to work with a group of talented and wise scholars over the course of my graduate career. I thank my supervisor, Dr. Sylvia Brown, for her sharing her expertise and encouragement. Her excellent advice and sensible approach to teaching and research have served as my model for emulation and have furthered my intellectual and personal growth. I could not have conceived of this version of my dissertation without her guidance. I am deeply grateful for the wisdom and kindness of my PhD committee members, Dr. David Gay, whose excellence as a scholar is equaled by his compassion and generosity as a friend and mentor, and Dr. Patricia Demers, who introduced me to Anne Wheathill and has been an inspiration to me for many years. I thank my external examiner, Dr. Edith Snook, whose work has had an important impact on my own research, and whose stimulating questions and judicious insights made my PhD defence a rewarding and exciting experience. Many thanks to my examiners Dr. Rick Bowers and Dr. Beverly Lemire for sharing invaluable suggestions and enthusiasm, and to Dr. Stephen Reimer for ensuring that my defence ran smoothly. Finally, I thank my M.A. supervisor, Dr. Ronald Cooley, who inspired me to study devotional handbooks and encouraged me to pursue graduate research. I am grateful to the University of Alberta and the Department of English and Film Studies for providing financial support throughout my studies and a challenging, collegial environment in which to learn. Many thanks to the helpful, knowledgeable staff of the University of Alberta’s Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, as well as the Folger Shakespeare Library, for allowing me to make use of their collections. I am profoundly grateful to my support network of friends and colleagues who have shared with me joy, food, laughter, and crucial advice: Jessica Antonio Lomanowska, Mary Chan, Theo Finigan, Joel Fonstad, Bonnie Hughes, Janis Ledwell-Hunt, Tram Nguyen, Matthew Rea, Laura Schechter, Melissa Stephens, and Kevin Ziegler. Above all, I am thankful for the unconditional love and unwavering support of my family: my parents, Debbie and Andy Shirkie, my sisters, Camille and Janice Shirkie, and my partner, Dean Ziegler. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Old Forms and New Traditions: The Production of Orthodoxy 5 The Role of the Reader 17 The Imprint of Gender 22 Chapter One: Abraham Fleming and the Development of a Godly Rhetoric 26 Fleming, Denham, and the Circuit of Communication 27 Educating “new Schollers in the Schoole of Christianitie” 38 Transforming The Footepath of Faith into The Diamond of Deuotion 47 “Profitable” Prayers: The Economics of Piety 62 Chapter Two: Thomas Bentley and the Feminine “Face of the Church Militant” 72 Instructing Elizabeth: Prayers “to be properlie vsed of the Qveenes most excellent Maiestie” 90 “Giue thanks secretlie to your self”: Private Prayers for Public Worship 101 “Weake, fraile, and earthen vessels”: Disciplining the Female Body 125 Chapter Three: Anne Wheathill’s Spiritual Medicine from the “garden of Gods most holie word” 140 “To all Ladies, Gentlewomen, and others”: Anne Wheathill’s “Epistle dedicatorie” 146 Herbs “gathered out of the goodlie garden of Gods most holie word”: Composition and Commonplacing 161 “Gouerned by thy holie word”: Wheathill and the Geneva Bible 169 For the “common benefit”: Community and Common Prayer 181 Coda: The Practice of Piety: Tracing the Readers of Devotional Handbooks 193 Conclusion 226 Works Cited 230 List of Figures Figure 1: The Footepath of Faith ………………………………………………...52 Figure 2: The Diamond of Deuotion ……………………………………………..53 1 Introduction My doctoral dissertation examines early modern English devotional handbooks as instruments of spiritual and communal socialization and vehicles for the development of an authorial voice for the emergent Protestant laity. Devotional handbooks are artifacts of a developing juncture between print and piety, stimulated by the English Reformation and the growth of England’s printing and bookselling industry. As reformers worked to make vernacular scripture available to readers across the social spectrum and the printing press lowered the cost and quickened the pace of book production, sixteenth-century men and women were offered access to an unprecedented variety of English devotional materials: Bibles, commentaries, paraphrases, concordances, Psalters, liturgies, sermons, catechisms, treatises on godly living and dying, biographies of exemplary Protestants (as well as cautionary tales), and a host of religious printed ephemera. As part of their wide-ranging efforts to educate the laity about the reformed religion and to foster adherence and, ideally, attachment to its tenets, reformers composed books of private and household prayer as supplements to the public worship prescribed by Church and state. On the principle that “use can...change the stamp of nature” ( Hamlet 3.4.158), devotional handbooks directed the laity’s habits of worship in the hopes of transforming their readers’ inner natures. Many of these devotional handbooks were composed by members of the clergy to ensure continued reformation in every aspect of their readers’ lives; yet even as devotional handbooks served as instruments of ideological discipline, they also empowered laymen and women to position themselves as spiritual leaders, guiding their households and communities with their knowledge of prayer and doctrine. Readers transformed themselves into authors as they selected prayers and marked their favorite passages, forging personal connections to the divine and even composing prayers of their own. As Ian Green’s study Print and Protestantism in Early Modern England demonstrates, the market for Protestant print was extremely lucrative and devotional handbooks made up many of the period’s best-sellers. Yet, despite their popularity and influence, devotional 2 handbooks have rarely been the subjects of sustained critical attention. This is an unfortunate omission, as devotional handbooks