V.New Roles in Uncertain Times(2):Mystics and Prop...
It is well known that the English Civil War,as well as allowing an unusual breadth of political opinions,witnessed the flourishing of a wide variety of religious sects.In some cases,these groups had long predated the Civil War but had been effectively suppressed by the Church of England authorities.Others,such as the Quakers,were new,but were enabled to gain support and circulate their ideas because of the breakdown of religious and publishing controls during the Civil War period.Some(though of course,not all)of these religious movements allowed women to take a more prominent role than had been available to them within the Church of England.Many of the sects were millenarian—that is,they believed that the return of Christ,and thus the end of the world,was imminent—and they stressed the visionary and prophetic side of Christianity more than the mainstream Church was apt to do.This millenarianism was key to the greater prominence of women in the dissenting sects,since the Bible—central to many of the sects in their interpretation of the world—included numerous examples of prophesying women and was consequently read by many sects as justifying the authority of women prophets in the contemporary world.[27]One Biblical passage which was often supported in support of such views was from the Old Testament book of Joel.This passage represented the voice of God promising that‘in those days’—a period which the sects took to refer to present-day England—women as well as men would receive the gift of divine inspiration:
And it shall come to pass afterward,that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,your old men shall dream dreams,your young men shall see visions:And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.[28]
Women prophets were not a wholly new phenomenon in England,but it is striking that they often tended to come to public prominence during periods of civil unrest and uncertainty.Before the Civil War period,the best-known female prophet in England was probably Elizabeth Barton,also known as the Holy Maid of Kent,who during the reign of Henry VIII prophesied against the king's religious reforms and his divorce from Catherine of Aragon.[29]In the seventeenth century,the first female prophet to win widespread attention seems to have been Lady Eleanor Davies,who began publishing her prophecies in 1625 and accurately predicted the death of the Duke of Buckingham in 1628.[30]Davies,who lived until 1652,continued prophesying until her last years,engaging with both religious and political topics.She claimed,for instance,that the Virgin Mary should be seen not only as an intercessor but as a redeemer for mankind;and she denounced the reign of Charles I and supported the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.But although Davies’religious and political preoccupations are typical of the many female prophets who came to prominence in the 1640s and 1650s,in some important respects she is quite unlike most of the other eminent prophets of the time.The sister of the Earl of Castlehaven and wife of the Attorney-General of Ireland,Davies was upper-class and well connected;she was even called in to advise Queen Henrietta Maria about her first pregnancy.By contrast,many of the other female prophets of the period are comparatively obscure figures,who surface in the historical record only by virtue of and for the period of their prophecies;little is known of their earlier lives,and they fade back into obscurity once their prophecies were at an end.Davies is also unusual in that she seems to have been a somewhat lone figure as a prophet:she was not associated with any sect or religious movement,and was actively opposed even by her own first husband(then Attorney-General).Unlike Davies,most of the female prophets of the period were members of one or other of the emergent sects,or were supported by male sponsors or associates.[31]It is often precisely because of the support they received from male allies that their activities received public attention in their own time and are known to scholars today.
One of the most interesting female prophets of the Civil War period is Elizabeth Poole(born about 1622,died in or after 1668).[32]As with so many of the lower-class female prophets of her time,little is known about Poole's earlier life,although she was probably born in London,and seems to have joined the Particular Baptist sect during her late teenage years.She came to public prominence at a particularly fraught political moment:the winter of 1648-9.At this time,the army had gained power,and both the fate of Charles I and the future government of the country as a whole were under intense discussion.In the midst of these discussions,Elizabeth Poole made two appearances before plenary sessions of the Council of Officers.On her first appearance,on 29 December 1648,she described a vision she had received which showed a healthy young man curing a sick woman.According to Poole,the young man represented the army and the woman the nation,and the import of the vision was that the army's strength came from God and should not be surrendered.This vision,which obviously corresponded closely
Gender and the English Revolution,76-77,Mack,Visionary Women,78-79,M.Nevitt,‘Elizabeth Poole Writes the Regicide’,Women's Writing,9,2(2002),233-248 and S.Wiseman,Conspiracy and Virtue:Women,Writing,and Politics in Seventeenth-Century England(Oxford,2006),143-175.to the army's view of its own interests,was well received by Poole's military audience.She had a less favourable experience during her second appearance before the council of officers,on 5 January 1649.This time Poole,no longer claiming the inspiration of a vision,argued against the execution of the king,citing the conventional metaphor of the king as husband to the nation.This message was evidently less welcome to the council,which questioned Poole rather aggressively and then sent her away.Poole later defended herself in three pamphlets published in 1649:A vision:wherein is manifested the disease and cure of the kingdome,An alarum of war given to the army,and to their high court of justice and Another alarum of war.In her pamphlets she attributed her prophetic powers to direct divine inspiration:‘the babe Jesus in me’.After these three publications,little is heard of her again.Her one subsequent intervention in public affairs occurred in 1653 when she forced her way into the pulpit of the chapel at Somerset House and preached in support of John Lilburne.
The example of Elizabeth Poole is instructive for several reasons.Most importantly,it shows that in this period—when traditional structures of authority had broken down,and the customs and assumptions that had operated for centuries were being challenged—opportunities existed for at least a few women to gain a public voice.Not only was Elizabeth Poole able to publish no fewer than three pamphlets—initially setting out her vision,subsequently defending herself against public criticism—but she also,at least briefly,gained the attention of one of the most influential groups of men in the country;Brod calls her a‘consultant prophetess’to the army.Poole's claims to have received direct inspiration from God were evidently taken seriously in the highest echelons of power.However,it is equally important to note the limits of Poole's influence.The army was,apparently,willing to listen to her only for as long as her message suited its interests.After it became clear that her view of public events diverged from its own,Poole was sent away from the council and never again appeared at one of its meetings.It is also highly unlikely that Poole gained access to council meetings entirely through her own efforts.The probability is that Poole's first appearance at the council was organised by one or more men whose views stood to gain support from her intervention.[33]When,in her second appearance,Poole showed that she was willing to take an independent line,not merely rearticulating the council's own opinions,she was,first,challenged and then simply set aside.A woman might briefly contribute to public debate and the political process,but men still held all the positions of power.
In some other instances,however,it is less clear that the men who promoted women visionaries did so merely for purposes of exploitation.One example where the evidence is more mixed is the case of Sarah Wight.[34]In 1647 the fifteen-year-old Wight—who had already been suffering for several years from spiritual depression and had received counselling from numerous ministers of religion as well as lay-people—stopped eating and fell into a trance.During this trance,she quoted from the Bible and expounded its significance.People flocked to her bedside:some merely to witness the phenomenon that she had become,others to receive spiritual counsel from her.Wight offered advice,for instance,to women who had undergone bereavement or who were carrying unwanted pregnancies.She remained in her trance for over 60 days,and then—following a prophetic dream—resumed eating and gradually returned to active life.[35]
A preliminary account of Wight's visions,The Exceeding Riches of Grace,was published while her trance was still underway,and a revised version,detailing the end of the trance,appeared later in the year.The author of The Exceeding Riches of Grace was Henry Jessey,an Independent who was minister of the congregation Wight attended.Scholars disagree as to whether Jessey,in publicising Wight's experiences,was straightforwardly recording what had happened to her,or was seeking to use her to promote his own religious ideas.(No doubt,in Jessey's view,there would have been no contradiction between these two explanations.)However,since Wight did not leave her own version of events,readers cannot now know whether Jessey distorted his own account in any way,manipulating it in accordance with his own views and priorities,or whether his version can be trusted as an honest(if inevitably partial and biased)description of Wight's trance.[36]The question of what really happened to Wight during her trance is now,realistically,unanswerable.[37]So too is the question of whether Wight herself welcomed the publication of Jessey's text.
It is,however,clear both from the text of The Exceeding Riches of Grace and from the popularity of the pamphlet itself—three subsequent editions of The Exceeding Riches were published in the 1650s and 1660s—that Wight's visions attracted considerable public interest,both at the time and in the following two decades.Her claims to spiritual authority were evidently taken seriously,by both Jessey himself and the many people who came to witness her visions and even ask her advice.Interestingly,one of Wight's visitors,as recorded by The Exceeding Riches,was Hannah Allen.Whether Allen was among those who asked Wight's advice is not on record,but it was she who published the first five editions of Jessey's pamphlet.If there was an interest to be served by the publication of The Exceeding Riches of Grace it was one that Hannah Allen,as well as Henry Jessey,was willing to promote.