Description
Book SynopsisIn Parish Clergy Wives in Elizabethan England, Anne Thompson shifts the emphasis from the institution of clerical marriage to the people and personalities involved. Women who have hitherto been defined by their supposed obscurity and unsuitability are shown to have anticipated and exhibited the character, virtues, and duties associated with the archetypal clergy wife of later centuries. Through adept use of an extensive and eclectic range of archival material, this book offers insights into the perception and lived experience of ministers’ wives. In challenging accepted views on the social status of clergy wives and their role and reception within the community, new light is thrown on a neglected but crucial aspect of religious, social, and women’s history.
Trade Review“Thompson's book will prove of immense value to scholars of the Reformation and of early modern marriage, but its treatment of sixteenth-century gender expectations, interpersonal relationships within and outside of marriage, and charitable giving in a time of profound religious and economic change is deserving of a wider, non-specialist audience.” Jennifer McNabb, University of Northern Iowa. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 73 , No 4 (Winter 2020), pp. 1405–1407.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures and Tables List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 Better to Marry than to Burn? Attitudes to Clerical Marriage among the Elizabethan Clergy 2 The Making of Clerical Marriages 3 ‘As Common as the Cartway’? The Social Status of Clergy Wives 4 ‘A Mirror of Virtue and Integrity’: Expectations of the Elizabethan Clergy Wife 5 Clerical Marriage and Charitable Giving 6 The Reception of the Clergy Wife: Reactions to a Religious and Social Innovation Conclusion Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Bibliography Index
