[34]:] From a general privilege is woman secluded.
[35]: She that is, subject to one may not rule many.
The apostle taketh power frome all woman to speake in the assemblie[[36]]. Ergo he permitteth no woman to rule aboue man. The former parteis euident, whereupon doth the conclusion of necessitie folowe. For he that taketh from woman the least parte of authoritie[[37]], dominion or rule, will not permit vnto her that whiche is greatest: But greater it is to reigne aboue realmes and nations, to publish and to make lawes, and to commande men of all estates, and finallie to appoint iudges and ministers, then to speake in the congregation. For her iudgement, sentence, or opinion proposed in the congregation, may be iudged by all, may be corrected by the learned, and reformed by the godlie. But woman being promoted in souereine authoritie, her lawes must be obeyed, her opinion folowed, and her tyrannic mainteined: supposing that it be expreslie against God, and the prophet [profit] of the common welth, as to[o] manifest experience doth this day witnesse. And therfore yet againe I repete that, whiche before I haue affirmed: to witt, that a woman promoted to sit in the seate of God, that is, to teache, to iudge or to reigne aboue man, is amonstre in nature, contumelie to God, and a thing most repugnant to his will and ordinance. For he hath depriued them as before is proued, of speakinge in the congregation, and hath expreslie forbidden them to vsurpe any kinde of authoritie aboue man. Howe then will he suffer them to reigne and haue empire aboue realmes and nations? He will neuer, I say, approue it, because it is a thing most repugnant to his perfect ordinance, as after shalbe declared, and as the former scriptures haue plainlie geuen testimonie. To the whiche, to adde any thing were superfluous, were it not that the worlde is almost nowe comen to that blindnes, that what soeuer pleaseth not the princes and the multitude, the same is reiected as doctrine newelie forged, and is condemned, for heresie. I haue therfore thoght good to recite the mindes of some auncient writers in the same mater, to the end that suche as altogither be not blinded by the deuil, may consider and vnderstand this my iudgement to be no newe interpretation of Goddes scriptures, but to be the vniforme consent of the most parte of godlie writers, since the time of the apostles. Tertullian[[38]] in his boke of womens apparell, after that he hath shewed many causes why gorgious apparell is abominable and odiouse in a woman, addeth these wordes, speaking as it were to euery woman by name: Dost thou not knowe (saith he) that thou art Heua? the sentence of God liueth and is effectuall against this kind, and in this worlde of necessity it is, that the punishment also liue. Thou art the porte and gate of the deuil. Thou art the first transgressor of goddes law. thou diddest persuade and easely deceiue him whome the deuil durst not assault[[39]]. For thy merit (that is for thy death) it behoued the son of god to suffre the death, and doth it yet abide in thy mind to decke the aboue thy skin coates? By these and many other graue sentences, and quicke interrogations, did this godlie writer labour to bring euerie woman in contemplation of her selfe, to the end that euerie one depelie weying, what sentence God had pronounced against the hole race and doughters of Heua, might not onely learne daily to humble and subiect them selues in the presence of God, but also that they shulde auoide and abhorre what soeuer thing might exalte them or puffe them vp in pride, or that might be occasion, that they shuld forget the curse and malediction of God. And what, I pray you, is more able to cause woman to forget her owne condition, then if she be lifted vp in authoritie aboue man? It is a thingverie difficile to a man, (be he neuer so constant) promoted to honors, not to be tickled some what with pride (for the winde of vaine glorie doth easelie carie vp the drie dust of the earth). But as for woman[[40]], it is no more possible, that she being set aloft in authoritie aboue man, shall resist the motions of pride, then it is able to the weake reed, or to the turning wethercocke, not to bowe or turne at the vehemencie of the vnconstant wind. And therfore the same writer expreslie forbiddeth all woman to intremedle with the office of man. For thus he writeth in his book de virginibus velandis[[41]]: It is not permitted to a woman, to speake in the congregation, nether to teache, nether to baptise, nether to vendicate to her selfe any office of man. The same he speaketh yet more plainly in the preface of his sixte boke writen against Marcion[[42]], where he recounting certain monstruous thinges, whiche were to be sene at the sea called Euxinum, amongest the rest, he reciteth this as a greate monstre in nature, that women in those partes, were not tamed nor embased by consideration of their own sex and kind: but that all shame laide a parte, they made expenses vpon weapons and learned the feates of warre, hauinge more pleasure to fight, then to mary and be subiect to man. Thus farre of Tertullian, whose wordes be so plain, that they nede no explanation. For he that taketh from her all office apperteining to man, will not suffre her to reigne aboue man: and he that iudgeth it a monstre in nature, that a woman shall exercise weapons, must iudge it to be a monstre of monstres, that a woman shalbe exalted aboue a hole realme and nation. Of the same minde is Origen, and diuers others. Yea euen till the dayes of Augustine, whose sentences I omit to auoide prolixitie.
[36]: A strong argument.
[37]: NOTE.
[38]: Tertullian de habitu mulierum.
[39]: Let women hearken what Tertullian an olde Docto saith.
[40]:] NOTE
[41]: Tertull, lib 8. de virginilis verlandis.
[42]: In proæmio 6. lib. contra Marcionem.