3 - Living Stones and Faithful Masons: Women and the Evangelical Church during the Early English Reformation

Summary

On August 8, 1554, reformer John Bradford wrote Joyce Hales from prison to thank her for her letters and for the ‘tokens’ she had sent him. After his arrest in 1553, she and other women made him gifts of money, shirts, and handkerchiefs. Bradford described Hales as one of the ‘lively stones’ who formed the foundation of Christ's church. Katherine Willoughby adopted the analogy when she spoke of a reformer's duty to build the church securely upon the ‘sure cornerstone’ of Christ. Together, their metaphors suggest women's understanding of themselves as both the building blocks and the builders of the evangelical church. This chapter examines the two aspects of women's activities alluded to by Bradford and Willoughby. It argues that women saw themselves as critical workers in constructing and sustaining a cohesive religious community. Further, as we shall see, these women often collaborated with each other to achieve their goal. This study begins with a brief discussion of women's understanding of themselves as members of the evangelical community. Then, it considers their attempts to build unity within their religious community and investigates the conflict within the church that accompanied their efforts. Finally, it shows how women and their experiences contributed to evangelical discourse.

This analysis of women's participation in reform broadens our understanding of their contribution to the construction of the evangelical community. Studies of women and the early English Reformation primarily emphasize their domestic relationships or their individual friendships with clergy. Scholars such as Eric Carlson, Anthony Fletcher, and Margo Todd have focused on the impact of the English Reformation on women's marital relationships and have explored the contention that evangelicalism, and later Protestantism, restricted their domestic roles. Other historians have examined how women supported the church through their material and political resources. Patrick Collinson first suggested the importance of women's lay patronage in his pioneering study of Anne Locke and her friendship with John Knox. Other studies of women's relationships with individual reformers followed. Susan Brigden, Eric Ives, and John King demonstrate the contributions of aristocratic patronesses to religious change through their educational pursuits and financial support of theologians and writers. Susan Wabuda's work stresses the importance of women's roles as ‘nurses’ who fed, housed, and nurtured reformers. This chapter builds on these studies and examines the key role of female networks in the construction of the evangelical church and the collective aspects of women's evangelicalism.