Friday, April 1, 2011: Women, Gender, and the Family; The Religion ...

OUTLINE
Friday, April 1, 2011: Women, Gender,
and the Family; The Religion of the
Laity
A. NOTIONS ABOUT WOMEN AND THE QUERELLE DES FEMMES
B. THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN AND THE ROLES THAT WOMEN
PLAYED
C. THE PROBLEM OF EVIDENCE AND ACCESSING THE RELIGION
OF THE LAITY
D. EVIDENCE OF STRONG LAY SENTIMENTS 1660S-MID
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
E. CHANGES IN RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURYEIGHTEENTH CENTURY

A. NOTIONS ABOUT WOMEN AND THE
QUERELLE DES FEMMES
-chief texts used by traditional writers: Bible,
Aristotle
-arguments used by proto-feminists
--issues of gender constructions, education, inner
natures, specific examples of “women worthies”
--the cartésiennes

Gislebertus, Eve
c. 1130
Stone
Musée Rolin, Autun
Source: Web Gallery of Art

Source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/e/el_greco/el_greco_st_paul.jpg
ARISTOTLE

Two of Simon Vouet’s images of the Virgin Mary
Sources: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/images/viergelouvre05.jpg; http://www.thearttribune.com/local/cache-vignettes/L238xH290/Vouet_Vierge-a6ec5-e8339.jpg

Artemisia GENTILESCHI, Judith Beheading Holofernes
1612-21 Oil on canvas, 199 x 162 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence; source: Web Gallery of Art

Simon Vouet, Judith avec la tête d'Holopherne
Source: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/41/86159980_9226b7b8c3.jpg?v=0

René Descartes
Frans Hals
c. 1649
Oil on panel, 19 x 14 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
Source: Web Gallery of Art

François Poullain de la Barre, On the Equality of the Two Sexes

B. THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN
AND THE ROLES THAT WOMEN
PLAYED
-differences in marriage and widowhood
(minor/major)
-séparation des biens; séparation des corps -the
material from Loudun
--prosopographic dataset of 216 widows
-non-domestic roles that women played: midwives,
revendeuses publiques, marchandes publiques
-the salons

Widows Prosopographic Dataset:
Socio-Professional Distribution of the Deceased Husband
Row Protestant Catholic
Socio-Professional Category Summary # % of total # % of total
officiers: level one 6 5 3.5% 1 1.3%
officiers: level two 34 26 18.4% 8 10.5%
officiers: level three 21 18 12.8% 3 3.9%
officiers: level four 16 10 7.1% 6 7.9%
doctors/principals/pastors 4 4 2.8%
other medical personnel 7 6 4.3% 1 1.3%
"sieur de" 29 26 18.4% 3 3.9%
merchants 35 25 17.7% 10 13.2%
artisans 32 7 5.0% 25 32.9%
laboureurs 1 1 1.3%
lesser agricultural workers 3 3 3.9%
undetermined 28 13 9.2% 15 19.7%
Totals: 216 140 76

Remarriage of Catholic and Protestant Widows
Data Summary (sample)
Husband's Date of Date of Aprox. Widowhood
Widow's Name Husband's Name Profession Relig'n Marriage Husband's Death Remarriage Data Period (yrs)
GENEBAULT, DE CERISAY, Bailli in the Bailliage cath. 1614 1651-1652 still widowed in 1674 12
Madeleine Guillaume
DUMOUSTIER, AMONNET, Élu in the Élection prot. 1630 betw. 1662+1663 still widowed in 1676 13
Marthe
Mathieu
DECERISIERS, BASTARD, Pierre Élu in the Élection prot. bef. 1621 betw. 1630+1636 still widowed in 1665 29
Elisabeth
DE BURGES, BRITAULT, Tristan Élu in the Élection prot. around 1591 betw. 1608+1620 still widowed in 1630 10
Guillemine
CESVET, Suzanne SASSERIE, René Élu in the Élection prot. bef. 1624 betw. 1629+1631 still widowed in 1669 38
DUMOUSTIER, OLLIVIER, Jacob Élu in the Élection prot. 1611 betw. 1654+1656 still widowed in 1672 16
Catherine
DESIRÉ, Françoise BONNEAU, Pierre Avocat du Roi cath. bef. 1593 betw. 1615+1621 still widowed in 1622 1
(Élection)
DE BROU, Renée ROGIER, Charles Councillor (Bailliage) cath. bef. 1609 betw. 1629+1631 still widowed in 1645 14
AUDEBERT, CHAUVET, King's Procurator cath. bef. 1596 betw. 1608+1612 dies in 1628, still
16
Marguerite Auguste
(Élection/Gren. à Sel)
widowed
MARIETTE,
Marguerite
GAULTIER, Pierre Lawyer cath. 1629 betw. 1641+1644 still widowed in 1669 25
ROBIN, Jeanne
DE SAINTE-
MARTHE, Irenée
CHASTON, Claude BELHOMME,
Jacques
MESMIN, Louise AUBIN, Paul Secretary to the
Queen
Mother/Huissier des
Ordres du Roi
Receveur des tailles cath. bef. 1610 betw. 1634+1638 dies betw.
1658+1662, still
widowed
24
Receveur des tailles cath. betw. 1626 remaries in 1638 12
1596+1604
cath. 1630 betw. 1648+1654 still widowed in 1679 25

Table 2: Period of Widowhood
Number of Approximate Years between Husband's Number of Catholic Protestant
Death and Widow's Death or Remarriage cases # % # %
0-2 years 51 17 24% 34 26%
3-5 years 36 16 23% 20 16%
6-9 years 26 5 7% 21 16%
10-14 years 32 16 23% 16 12%
15-19 years 16 6 8% 10 8%
20-29 years 23 7 10% 16 12%
30 and above 16 4 6% 12 9%
200 71 129

Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Jean-Marc_Nattier_-_Madame_Geoffrin.JPG
Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin

Source: http://www.wga.hu/art/l/lemonnie/geoffrin.jpg

Catholic-Protestant
relations
French Catholicism and the
slave trade
Catholicism in France and New France
Proselytization and
confrontation with
non-Christian religions
Moderate and militant
Popular
religion and
elite religion

C. THE PROBLEM OF EVIDENCE AND
ACCESSING THE RELIGION OF THE LAITY
-difficulty involved in the documentation
-the different phases of a the religious life
of a French Catholic

D. EVIDENCE OF STRONG LAY
SENTIMENTS 1660S-MID EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY
-the apogee of the confraternities
-“the triumph of the clergy”

COUNCIL OF TRENT
Source: http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t970/T970379A.jpg

Philippe de Champaigne,
Annunciation (1644)
Source: http://www.oceansbridge.com/oil-paintings/section.php?xSec=1193

http://jeanmichel.guyon.free.fr/monsite/histoire/metiers/resu3.jpg
Sanctuaires à répit

E. DECHRISTIANIZATION IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
-changes in religious sentiment
-evidence
i) changing attitudes towards death
ii) decline in priestly vocations
iii) the decreased recruitment of confraternities
-impact of the Enlightenment?
-struggles within the French Catholic Church, i.e.
over Jansenism

Source: http://gallery.euroweb.hu/art/r/ramsay/d_hume.jpg
VOLTAIRE
DIDEROT
Source: http://www.deism.com/images/Voltaire.jpg
Source: http://www.french-ital.ucsb.edu/classes/images/diderot.jpg

Change in printed matter,
1720-1780
Religious works: declines from 35% to
10% of all printed matter
Works on science and the arts: increases
from 20 to 33%
That’s the material that could be published legally…

Phiippe de Champaigne, Still-Life with a Skull
Oil on panel, 28 x 37 cm
Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, source: Web Gallery of Art

Philippe Champaigne, Ex Voto 1662

MOOGK CHAPTER
• OUTLINE
• A. THE ROLE OF THE NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT IN THE RELIGION
OF NEW FRANCE
• B. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CLERICS
AND LAYPEOPLE
• C. CHRONOLOGICAL CHANGE

http://homepage.mac.com/lynnoel/crosscurrents/_Media/Scan20026_medium.png
La Chasse-Galerie

A modern group of voyageurs seen en route on their homeward journey
Source: http://www.pc.gc.ca/voyage-travel/voyagistes-traveltrade/itm3-/images/qc04_e.jpg