Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	church_n	let_v	silence_n	2,878	5	10.3040	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81531	A discoverie of six women preachers, in Middlesex, Kent, Cambridgshire, and Salisbury. VVith a relation of their names, manners, life, and doctrine, pleasant to be read, but horrid to be judged of their names are these. Anne Hempstall. Mary Bilbrow. Ioane Bauford. Susan May. Elizab. Bancroft. Arabella Thomas.		1641 (1641)	Wing D1645; Thomason E166_1; ESTC R22543	2,396	8

A DISCOVERIE OF Six women preachers in Middlesex Kent Cambridgshire and Salisbury VVith a relation of their names manners life and doctrine pleasant to be read but horrid to be judged of Their Names are these Anne Hempstall Mary Bilbrow Ioane Bauford Susan May. Elizab. Bancroft Arabella Thomas 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. Let your women keepe silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speake but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the Law And if they will learne any thing let them aske their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speake in the Church Printed 1641. The six women Preachers Anne Hempstall Joan Bauford Elizabeth Bancroft and Mary Bilbrowe Susan May Arabella Thomas IN ancient times have I read of Prophetesses but not untill of late heard of women Preachers their onely reason or cause of preaching was that there was a deficiency of good men wherefore it was but fit that vertuous women should supply their places they were men they did mean good for nothing but to make their texts good by expounding the language of the Beast but they themselves would preach nothing but such things as the spirit should move them The first and chief of this female and Sacerdoticall function was one Anne Hempstall living in the Parish of Saint Andrews Holborne neere London and in the County of Middlesex upon a certain time she having a minde said shee was moved to be zealously affected called an assembly of her bibbing Gossips together whose thoughts were bent more upon the strong water bottle then upon the uses or doctrines which their holy sister ●ntended to expound unto them but being come to the house of this Anne Hempstall zealous Nan spake to them after this manner Beloved sisters this last night I dreamed a strange Dream moreover me thought I saw a vision in which Anna the Prohetesse was presented unto my view the splendour of whose countenance did cast me into a trance wherein I lay untill the next morning and the morning being come I could conceive no interpretation of my Dream but this that I should imitate godly Anna by preaching unto you as shee prophesied to others her speech strook them all into an astonishment at which this prophane Anne cryed out Now doth the holy Ghost descend downe upon you Wherefore give eare unto mee then did she begin to talke and speak unto them that which first came into her minde but the chiefe matter of her Text was this That womans haire was an adorning to her but for a man to have long haire it was a shame unto him which the Scripture it selfe cryed fie upon long did shee preach and longer I dare avouch then some of the audience were willing for some of them had as far home as White Chappell wherefore her longitude might cause a brevitude of her sucking the Aquavitae bottle two houres being expired and the bottom of the stool beginning to look open-mouthed with her furious stamps shee gave them as much peace as in her lay and so concluded Mary Bilbrowe one of the audience being of the Parish of Saint Giles in the Fields desired them to be all with her the next morning and after Sermon they should have a good fat pig to breakfast besides a cup of Sack or Claret to wash it down they all agreed unto it and making use of all the Rhetorick which they were borne unto they gave her thanks and so for that time a Bottle of Ale or two being devoured they departed every one to their owne houses The next morning they met altogether at the house of Mary Bilbrow whose husband was a good honest Bricklayer and so soon as they came within the doores of her house shee brought them all into her Parlour as shee called it and insteed of stools and cushions shee had provided before hand three bricks a piece for them to sit upon her reason was this shee thought they would not fit much because women to good instructions love standing her Pulpit was framed very substantially of brick so high that scarce any thing but her standing up tippet could be seen she began there very devoutly to make an ex tempore prayer but before shee had scarce spoke twenty words her daughter came running in very hastily telling her a Gentleman at Bloomsbury staid to speake with her about urgent occasions which hearing shee lept out of her prayer into this serious meditatiō I think it be the Gentleman I was withall at Salisbury Court whom I promised this day to meet with all whereupon shee left her Pulpit spread the cloth ●nd brought her Gossips in a pig according to her promise who fed heartily and so departed so much at this time for Middlesex female Teachers Now give mee leave to take water and goe to Gravesend and so further into Kent where I shall tell you of one Joan Bauford in the Town of Feversham who taught in Feversham that husbands being such as crossed their wives wils might lawfully be forsaken Then was there one Susan May of Ashford in the County of Kent also which preached in a Barne there that the Devill was the father of the Pope The Pope the father of those which did weare Surplices wherefore consequently the Devill was the Father of all those which did not love Puritans There was likewise one Elizabeth Bancroft in Ely in Cambridgshire where Bishop Wren first going to place Altars there preached behind the minister upon a Saturday that it was fit upon Sunday to Sacrifice the Popes Bird upon his own Altar Then lastly there was one Arabella Thomas a Welch woman which lived in the City of Salisbury which preached and in her Sermon said that none but such painfull creatures as her selfe should goe to Heaven fo● those Ministers which did not preach twice upon every Sabbath day shee said that very shortly the black Raven by day and the white Owle by night should scratch out their eyes Thus have I declared some of the female Academyes but where their Vniversity is I cannot tell but I suppose that Bedlam or Bridewell would be two convenient places for them is it not sufficient that they may have the Gospell truly and sincerely Preached unto them but that they must take their Ministers office from them if there had been such a dearth of the Gospell as there was in the Reigne of Queene Mary it had beene an occasion some what urgent But God bee praysed it was not so but that they seemed to bee ambitious and because they would have superiority they would get upon a stoole or in a tubb insteed of a pulpit At this time I have described but six of them ere long I feare I shall relate more I pray God I have no cause and so for this time I conclude FINIS