"They Are But Women": Mary Ward, 1585-1645

Abstract

There is a certain irony in regarding Mary Ward as a religious radical. The main motivation for her activity was the desire to restore the status quo ante for the Catholic Church in England, but the means by which she chose to pursue what might almost be called a reactionary aim were seen by that Church as dangerously innovative and subversive. In this chapter, the author suggests that this anxiety arose from a perceived threat to traditional views of gender roles, posed by Mary’s attempt to establish a religious congregation of women who could engage in educational and other charitable work without being confined by convent and habit. The author also examines Mary’s most detailed discussion of what we might today call the gender question. This discussion is found in a series of ‘Instructions’ to her companions and is forthright in its rebuttal of any suggestion of women’s inferiority. Keywords: catholic church; Mary Ward; religious radical; women’s inferiority