Four Prayer Books Addressed to Women during the Reign of Elizabeth I

Abstract

T_ Vhough women in the sixteenth century were always considered to be subordinate to their male counterparts, they were not regarded as all that different spiritually. Their religious concerns, like those of men, focused on sin and redemption, how best to worship and serve God, and how to attain heaven and avoid hell. For this reason, women's devotional material in the sixteenth century was for the most part the same as men's: the Bible first and foremost, the Book of Common Prayer for public worship, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs and Thomas Becon's Works for home reading, as well as various general devotional books, such as Henry Bull's Christian Praiers and Holie Meditations (ca. 1566) and Richard Day's A Booke of Christian Prayers (1578). Many of these works only acknowledged the concerns of women by including one or two prayers for childbirth. Even among the four books discussed here, The Monument ofMatrones (1582) is exceptional in addressing conditions specific to women other than childbearing. Suzanne Hull's now classic study of printed books directed to an Englishspeaking female audience, Chaste, Silent, and Obedient: English Booksfor 1475-1640 (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1982), lists 163 titles on her Basic List of for Women, of which eighteen are classified as devotional. Of these, nine were religious treatises, sermons, and the like; four mixed prayers with other materials; and five were actually prayer books. The first three she lists are [A Tabletfor Gentlewomen] (1574; STC 23640), Anne Wheathill's A Handfull ofHolesome Hearbs ( 584; STC 25329), and Nicholas Breton's Auspicante Jehova (1597; STC 3632). Thomas Bentley's The Monument ofMatrones (1582; STC 1892-93), chronologically second on Hull's list, mixes prayers with biblical extracts and other devotional material, but as its collection of prayers is comprehensive, we have included it here. Hull's chapter Devotional Books and her list provide little more than bibliographical description and some suggestion of content. A closer look at these four books reveals them as rich sources for the