Monday, November 26, 2007

John Knox's (1510-1572) First Blast of the Trumpet is one of the most thorough expressions of misogyny in western history. It was directed primarily at Mary Tudor of England and Mary Queen of Scots, two Catholic monarchs whose reigns, as we know, were deeply troubled. The third target was Mary of Guise, mother to Mary Queen of Scots.

We might begin assessing Knox's aversion to female monarchs by looking at his personal experience with them. He had been in the process of assisting the young king Edward VI in the English Reformation when he found himself in exile on the occasion of that king's premature death and the accession of Mary Tudor (r. 1553-1558). Certainly the persecution of Protestants under Mary fueled his outrage, leading him to refer to her as a Jezebel and a cruel tyrant. Mary Queen of Scots (r. 1542-1567), as we also know, did little to justify the rule of women to a man like John Knox, given her Catholic faith and her bad judgment in choosing her husbands. His antagonism could only have been compounded by a 19-month stint as a galley slave in a French ship.

Knox composed his First Blast in 1558 in Geneva, where he went to live after leaving England. While he staunchly maintains in the pamphlet that a true prophet must speak the truth no matter what the cost personally, he may have had reason to regret his outspokenness when Elizabeth, both a Protestant and an astute ruler, came to the throne. Certainly he lost any chance he may have had of receiving support from her. Not only would she be understandably offended by his pronouncements against women, but also she would be aware that to support his argument would be tantamount to allowing any man to rebel against her as a false usurper.

Here are some questions to think about:

• What authorities in the ancient world does Knox evoke?
• How does he argue that woman is inferior to man by nature, even without revelation?
• What scriptural support does he marshal?
• The Fathers of the Church are those theologians of the first few centuries who were the architects of Christian belief. What is the substance of their teaching about women?

More specifically, I want you to address the following:

• What kind of language does Knox use to describe the governance of women?
• What analogies does he draw?
• How does his theory of gender fit into his concept of universal principles of order?
• How well does he respond to counterarguments?

Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: November 19, 2007

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