Topic : Impact of 16th century Reformation on Women and the Church.

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Introduction:

The Reformation was the greatest religious movement which appeared in Western Europe in
the 16th century, aimed at an internal renewal of the Church, and which led to the great revolt
against it. The Reformation officially began in 1517 when Martin Luther challenged the
Roman Church on the matter of indulgences. The Reformation of sixteenth century is next to
the introduction of Christianity. It marks the ends of the middle Ages and the beginning of
modern times. The object of reformers was to secure amendment of errors and abuses in the
medieval church, which they claimed to submit to the judgment of Holy Scripture and to the
usages of the early church.

The causes of the Reformation:

There had been numerous attempts to reform the Roman Church before the 16th century, but
they had always been squelched by the Inquisition. There were also groups outside the
Roman Church, such as the Albigenses and Waldenses. Men such as John Wycliffe (1320-
1384), John Huss (1360-1415), and Gerolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) spoke out against the
papacy, auricular confession, purgatory, pilgrimages, worship of saints, relics, etc.
God appointed the 16th century to be the time of reformation, and had pre-pared the Church
in many ways for this reformation. Religious, economic and political factors that had been
preparing for centuries set the stage for the Reformation. The Renaissance brought
humanism, but the Reformation brought true Christianity.

“There are two leading aspects in which the Reformation, viewed as a whole, may be
regarded; the one more external and negative, and the other more intrinsic and positive. In the
first aspect it was a great revolt against the see of Rome, and against the authority of the
church and of churchmen in religious matters, combined with an assertion of the exclusive
authority of the Bible, and of the right of all men to examine and interpret it for themselves.
In the second and more important and positive aspect, the Reformation was the proclamation
and inculcation, upon the alleged authority of Scripture, of certain views in regard to the
substance of Christianity or the way of salvation, and in regard to the organization and
ordinances of the Christian church”.

Impact of Reformation on Women:

Women had a most significant impact upon the Reformation, and the social changes that
came about in turn changed the place and role of women in the centuries to follow. Two
groups of women had decisive impact upon the Reformation – the royal women, and the
wives of the Reformers. In 16th Century Europe, 85% of the population were peasants living
in villages of less than 100 people, 10% were Middle Class: merchants, tradesmen,
townsmen, and the remaining 5% were either the Nobility or Clergy. The average life span
was 30 for men and 24 for women; anyone who reached 40 was considered old. Women had
an average of 6 or 7 children, if they survived childbirth in an unsanitary age, and 40-50% of
the children would die before the age of 12. About 10% of the men would never marry.
About 12% of the women found themselves in convents and often unwillingly as that was a
good way to get rid of unwanted female children. Apart from marriage or orders, there was
little else for a woman than prostitution, though many nuns were treated as such by the so-
called “celibate” clergy. Illegitimacy was frequent. In the upper classes though, a mistress
often had a much better lot in life than a wife. In Northern Europe family units were centered
on one married couple; in the South the household would often include a couple, and their
married children and grandchildren as well.

Women had to care for children, houses, make clothing and tend livestock (which usually
shared the house) and whole families slept in common beds. Women were subject to much
abuse. Girls were marriageable at 12 and boys at 14. Among the middle classes, a woman
needed a dowry, and that would often provide the start for a young man of ambition to
establish his own business. Royal women had much to do with shaping the events of the
Reformation era. But there were some area where women were oppressed and not given
equal rights with men, these areas are: Marriage, education and domestic work, women not
allowed preaching, and no more female convents etc.

Marriage:

A wife was expected to be a companion to her husband, but she was always his subordinate.
Obedience was demanded by husbands, and women were restricted in their actions. A
divorce was practically impossible to get. This was true under the Protestant churches as well
as under the Catholic Church; however the Reformation benefited women in that they gained
more rights such as they could file for divorce as much as husbands could.

Education and domestic work:

Women were to be silent, obedient, and to perform household tasks. The purpose of women's
education was the development of an accepted concept of marriage and training in domestic
skills. Women were taught how to look after children, care for their homes, make clothing for
her family, and tend livestock. The change was that women were now encouraged to study
the bible in vernacular language, to be a biblical influence for children and with husband. By
allowing women to become educated and read the bible they found passages suggesting
women were equal to men in the presence of god.

Women not allowed preaching or publishing:

Women's preaching or publishing material stood in direct opposition to the words ascribed to
St. Paul (1 Timothy 2: 11-15) which ordered women not to teach or preach, so that all women
who published felt it necessary to justify their actions. Even the sole alternative role for
women which had existed outside of marriage, to join a convent, was no longer available in
Protestant areas. Unless the women were Anabaptists. Then they could preach in church.

No more female convents:

The Protestant Reformation, by shutting down female convents within the movement,

effectively closed off the option of a full-time religious role for Protestant women. Martin
Luther himself taught that "the wife should stay at home and look after the affairs of the
household as one who has been deprived of the ability of administering those affairs that are
outside and concern the state" John Calvin agreed that "the woman's place is in the home."

The sixteenth century did produce a large number of notable women who were heads of state
and made a notable impact in the public sphere. These include Queen Elizabeth of
England, the Queen Mother Catherine de' Medicis of France, Queen Jeanne d'Albret of
Navarre, Mary Queen of Scots. All had to deal with being both a sovereign and a woman, and
each chose to solve it in her own way. Elizabeth remained a Virgin Queen (politically,
anyway), using her marriage prospects as a diplomatic tool, and retaining England's (and her
own) independence in the meantime. She was certainly one of the key shapers of the national
character of England.

Catherine de' Medicis was a quiet queen during her husband's lifetime, fading into the
background as Henry II devoted himself to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. When Catherine
inherited the kingdom as regent for her sons, she maintained a strict public image of the
proper, severe, widow protecting her children. She was widely hated for her deviousness in
spite of this, but she managed to balance the crown of France between three powerful factions
for 30 years. However, the lives of these famous women in history do not necessary reflect
the experiences of the average woman. As always, a woman's life experience varied by social
class. Among the nobility, a woman's chief duty was to make dynastic marriages, serving as
the vehicle for her family's political and social ambitions.

Women were also an integral part of the armies of the day. Not as combatants (at least not in
the role of women), but as the support services necessary for any army. There were no field
hospitals soldiers depended on these camp followers to take care of them when they were
sick or wounded. The fighting men counted on their women to help carry their gear while on
the march, to put up a tent and cook a meal at the end of the day, and to provide the usual
sorts of comfort that men expect from women.

Catholic women of the counter-reformation had opportunities, too, choosing either the path of
mystical devotion or social service. Although the contemplative and the active life seem like
they could not be more opposed, they still offered a woman scope for a larger identity. The
internal war of the mystic was no easier and no less glorious than conquest of the world. And
the women who took to the streets to save foundlings and orphans were also on a mission for
God, acting to make the here and now the kingdom of God.
Women were generally less literate than men. Those that were literate often probably put
their pens to use keeping the family accounts and writing letters to keep up the web of social
fabric. A few prominent women wrote memoirs, and someone like Catherine de' Medici had
a voluminous correspondence that has been preserved. So these are the impact or status of
women in the period of Reformation.

Impact of Reformation on Church:

Reformation consisted of changes for the better made in the church. Every church teaches
certain doctrines, and of worship and of life. The Reformation brought about certain changes
in the church. The church deals with what is most fundamental in life. The Reformers
condemned the sole aim of papacy and the priesthood which was to make the Pope supreme
over all nations and subordinate the state to the church. Luther was there to reform the
church, not break the church. Luther knew the church was corrupt, but he stayed in the
church to reform it. Luther stressed the Word of God and the centrality of the Word of God as
constituting the true church. The visible church must comprise the proper preaching of the
Word, and yet, at the same time, proper preachers to preach the Word. Luther’s
understanding of the church was more functional than historical in attempting to regain
ground lost by the historical nature of the Catholic Church. It was more important at the time
to preach the doctrine of the Apostles than to be successive drawn from them. Luther, then,
stressed the preaching of the Word over the succession of apostolic right. During
Reformation, many in England had turned against the church. Poets and writers denounced
the worldliness of churchmen; statesmen wished to lighten the heavy burden of Papal
taxation. One of the reformers Wyclif declared that the church consisted, not of the Pope and
of those to whom he delegated authority, but of the whole company of believers. He also
attacked the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church by affirming that Christ and the Bible
were the only authorities for the believers. Zwingli pointed to the Bible rather than to the
Pope as the sole authority of the Church.

Reformed Churches:

Reformed Churches are those European Churches which during the Reformation undertook
to reform their faith and life. The reformed Churches represent one general type or pattern of
reform which emerged in this period. Various names are used for the Reformed group of
Churches: Reformed, Presbyterian and Calvinistic. The name reformed is that most
commonly used on the European continent. Originally however, all the Reformed Churches
used this name to distinguish themselves from the “unreformed” or unchanged Roman
Church. The name reformed became widely used of the other Reformation Churches
including the Church of England in the 16th century. The Reformed Churches insist that
whatever is not commanded in the Scriptures must be forbidden and that salvation though not
by works is unto works.
Conclusion:

One of the most heartrending aspects of the Reformation is the brutal persecution that was
everywhere the lot of the religious radicals. The important role played by women in the
sixteenth-century Reformation should not surprise us, for they had been equally significant in
supporting earlier heresies that challenged the established order and at times the gender
hierarchy, too. Many medieval anticlerical movements that extolled the virtues of lay men
praised lay women as well. The idea of a voluntary church, separate as far as possible from
the state; the idea of a religion of the spirit, unhampered by form, creed, or ritual; and the idea
of the application of rational thought to religious issues without these, we should be poorer
indeed. The intensity of the persecution makes us realize the wide appeal that radical ideas
actually had; it would be interesting to know how many people would have been converted to
them if they had been free to do so. The churches were stronger then than they are now, and
the problem of salvation more urgent; those whose religious beliefs challenged the
orthodoxies of the time might very well seem to cast doubt on the eternal destiny of those
who disagreed with them.
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