Workshops: Faiths

Workshop 21: Communities of Faith

Conveners:

• Elaine Beilin (E), Framingham State College
• Amy Leonard (H), Georgetown University
• Susanne Woods (E), Wheaton College

The conference theme, "Faiths," includes the question: how did gender affect the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and the religious revolutions of early modern Europe? We examined the connections between women of faith as they challenged or changed religious politics in the sixteenth century. How did nuns deal with the Reformation? How did reformation women affect the direction of Protestantism, and, in England, how did they handle the Marian years? What connections can we find among women that suggest active "faith communities"?

Dr. Leonard's area of research is nuns in reformation Germany, while Dr. Woods and Dr. Beilin have worked with early and later Tudor communities of women, the former centered around the circle of Queen Catherine Parr and including Anne Askew and then Ann Vaughan Lock, the latter around Countess of Pembroke and Cumberland. We were interested in exploring continental parallels with English experience, and parallels and contrasts between the experiences of Catholic and Protestant women. How, too, do historians and literary scholars read the evidence of faith communities? We hoped to continue a dialogue between the two disciplines, using this very interesting and elusive world of religious community, particularly as it connects, endures, and affects religious thought under the influence of suppressive regimes.

Readings will be selected from (translated) letters and other writings of German nuns; portions of Anne Askew's examinations; Lock's dedication to Countess of Suffolk; and poems and letters of the Pembroke and Cumberland circles.