Reformation Reading Group

Information

Join us to discuss all aspects of Reformation culture! We are hoping to get together a mixed group of people interested in various different fields including but not limited to gender studies, book history, theology, material culture, literature and art history.

As a running project for the group we hope to dissect and analyse the Monument of Matrons compiled by Thomas Bentley (1582). Whilst this eclectic text has been an invaluable resource for many scholars in the field of Reformation Studies, the Monument has gained little scholarly interest as a work in its own right. We want to ask the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ and see this text as a treasure trove of information that can hopefully benefit all our research whilst giving it a firm place as a scholarly recognised work of reformation writing!

We hope that the reading group can also form a platform for people to openly discuss their ideas and research in a constructive and welcoming environment.

Please join us if you are interested and have a peek at the Monument of Matrons, available on EEBO.

http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99837371

Members: 5
Latest Activity: Apr 13, 2015

Meeting 10.06.2015 [Room 322, 43 Gordon Square]

Come along to our next meeting of the Reformation Reading Group on the 10^th June, at 18.30 in room 322, 43 Gordon Square!

For this session we are focusing on a section titled ‘Certaine praiers made by godlie women Martyrs’ in the Monument of Matrons. The fully transcribed version can be found on EEBO under the following link:

http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:citation:99837371

Through these short passages and the last moments of the famous and not-so-famous martyrs they invoke we want to discuss the role of martyrs in the Monument of Matrons, a work which was evidently designed for women’s private and communal prayer. What are the specific functions of contemplating the prayers of female martyrs? How are these prayers linked to the accounts given in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments? How are the loud and insistent voices of these women to be negotiated with the need for women’s silence and obedience?

For further reading see Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, especially the detailed account of the persecution, trial and martyrdom of Anne Askew. There is a fantastic digital resource, John Foxe’s The Acts and Monuments Online [http://www.johnfoxe.org/index.php] with the transcribed texts and high resolution images of four editions of the text. The Anne Askew account (1563 edition, Book 3, p. 725 onwards) can be found here:

http://www.johnfoxe.org/index.php?realm=text&gototype=modern&edition=1563&pageid=725

As always, there will be wine and nibbles, see you there!

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Comment by Lou Horton on April 13, 2015 at 15:13: In a very timely way, Diarmaid MacCulloch discusses 1 Corinthians 14:34 and the role of women in the early church on BBC 2's Sex and the Church:

Sex and the Church - iPlayer

Comment by Eva Lauenstein on March 22, 2015 at 11:49: Anyone interested in print culture, theology and hearing Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch (author of Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490–1700, amongst others). Anyone fancy joining?

God’s Word: Printing the English Language from William Tyndale to King James (Stationers' Company Annual Archive Evening)

This event, which will take place in the Company’s 17th century Hall, will feature talks, introduced by Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, discussing the religious and political upheavals of the period, and the legacy of Tyndale’s language. In addition, there will be a display of printed and archival material from St Paul’s Cathedral and the Company’s own collection. There will also be a finger buffet and wine. (Student tickets are £15).

Details are here:
http://events.history.ac.uk/event/show/14139