Lesson 8
Post-medieval Theologians and
‘Women Priests’

Lesson eight
Post-medieval Theologians and ‘Women Priests’

• * read the narration column first
• * then do the exercises

Read the following chapter in our Textbook, The Ordination of Women, etc.,

• chapter 14, ‘Not man enough to represent the Groom?’, pages 113-121.

Quiet and universal acceptance . . .

After the Middle Ages, the dominant status of men was taken for granted in the Church. Massive prejudice against women prevailed everywhere.

The CDF states: ‘Since the Middle Ages and up to our own time, it can be said that the question [of the ordination of women] has not been raised again, for the practice has enjoyed peaceful and universal acceptance.’ Inter Insigniores § 7.

Response: What may look like a ‘peaceful and universal acceptance’ has actually been massive suppression through an aggravated social and religious anti-feminine climate.

Issue ignored by the major theologians

For many of the major theologians in this period, the issue of the ordination of women seems so ‘obviously a closed chapter’ that it is hardly discussed at length. When the question is mentioned, the arguments against women’s ordination turn out to be the classic combination of misunderstood Scripture texts and crass theological prejudice.

A typical example of this is Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542 - 1621 AD). For him women cannot be ordained because they are inferior by nature and subject to men. That is why Paul forbade them to teach.

Online Readings:

• Review of ‘The Inquisition’, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.
• Mistakes by Popes

Exercise 1

• Was the position of women in Protestant Churches better than that of women in the Catholic Church?
• And what about the Orthodox Churches?
• How do witch hunts fit into this period?

Hatred, and even persecution, of women

A good sample of the misogynist theology of post-medieval times may be gleaned from ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet’ by John Knox (1514 - 1572 AD).

He was the best known protestant theologian during the time of the Reformation after Luther and Calvin. The main contention of ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet’ is that the exercise of authority by women is contrary to both natural law and religion. The interest of this lengthy treatise for us is that Knox's arguments reflect the beliefs of the day, both among Catholics and Reformers. Here is just one excerpt:

“ . . . God has pronounced sentence in these words: "Thy will shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall bear dominion over thee" (Gen. 3:16). As [though] God should say, "Forasmuch as you have abused your former condition, and because your free will has brought yourself and mankind into the bondage of Satan, I therefore will bring you in bondage to man. For where before your obedience should have been voluntary, now it shall be by constraint and by necessity; and that because you have deceived your man, you shall therefore be no longer mistress over your own appetites, over your own will or desires. For in you there is neither reason nor discretion which are able to moderate your affections, and therefore they shall be subject to the desire of your man. He shall be lord and governor, not only over your body, but even over your appetites and will." This sentence, I say, did God pronounce against Eve and her daughters, as the rest of the scriptures do evidently witness. So that no woman can ever presume to reign above man.”

The hatred against women did not remain with words. The actual persecutions that followed are beyond belief. To demonstrate this, consider a ‘Catholic’ book, the Hammer of Witches, written by two theologians, Jakob Sprenger OP and Heinrich Kramer OP.

The book was endorsed and recommended by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 AD, and was used for centuries. It caused thousands of innocent women to be burnt at the stake. It is these publicly honoured, uncontradicted, widely quoted “theologians” who wrote:

“What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours.”
“It should be noted that there was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent rib, that is, a rib of the breast, which is bent as it were in a contrary direction to man. And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always deceives”.
“(When Eve answered the serpent) she showed that she doubted and had little faith in the word of God. All this is indicated by the etymology of the word; for Femina (Latin for "woman") comes from Fe (=faith) and Minus (=less) since she is ever weaker to hold and preserve the faith”.

The Malleus Maleficarum , p. 43. It continues for page after page of vitriolic hatred of women.

The classical theological handbooks and a large part of the ordinary “traditional” interpretation of Scripture against women was an inheritance of this kind of theology.

Exercise 2

• What were the forces that gradually began to liberate women from social oppression in western Europe?
• Do the Christian Churches owe a debt to these forces?

Betrayed by theologians

During the last few centuries there have been few original theologians. Most just repeated the treatises of the past, quibbling with colleagues about details. The inferior position of women was taken for granted by all.

As to scriptural passages, a critical understanding of literary forms was lacking and commentaries were filled with standard social prejudice. Cornelius A Lapide who wrote in the 17th century, but who remained very popular well into the 19th, may serve as an example.

Cornelius a Lapide explains why women are forbidden to speak in church by giving six reasons:

1. it follows from woman’s nature and God’s positive command in Gen 3, 16;
2. silence is more suitable to woman’s humble status in the presence of men;
3. man possesses better reason and judgement and more discretion than woman;
4. by speaking woman may be tempted to lure man to sin;
5. it is better that women remain ignorant of what is not necessary;
6. by asking stupid questions in Church (1 Cor 14, 35) she would give scandal to others.

As to the ordination of women to the priesthood in dogmatic treatises, see the example of Francesco P. Solá, who devotes just two pages to the topic and whose arguments, both from Scripture and Tradition, are utterly pathetic.

In popular writings, the disdain of women led to the socalled ‘Querelle des Femmes’, the ‘Quarrel about Women’ that produced a long drawn out series of tracts attacking or defending women. The most infamous of these was A Thorough and researched description .... on Whether Women are Human Beings or Not?!

Conclusion

Rome’s statement that the tradition of not-ordaining women to the priesthood ‘enjoyed peaceful and universal acceptance’ sounds cynical against this background.
During the post-medieval period women lay in a graveyard, as far as Church leaders and theologians were concerned.

What is at stake

Authentic Tradition

Early Church

Women Deacons

The Fathers

Middle Ages

Church Law

Post-
medieval

Spurious tradition

Latent tradition