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State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State
2005 Book Award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women; Selected by the German Studies Association as one of the top five books of 2004 in early modern history "A fresh, original study of gender roles and religious ideology in the early modern Catholic state. . . . Using a rich array of archival sources, Strasser explores ways in which an increasingly centralized Bavarian government in Munich inaugurated marriage and convent reforms and a civil religion based on the veneration of the Virgin Mary. Her carefully selected case studies show how church and state collaborated to produce a shared discourse and consistent policies proscribing extramarital sex, and excluding those without property from marriage. " ― Choice Ulrike Strasser is Associate Professor of History, Affiliate Faculty in Women's Studies, and Core Faculty in Religious Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
264 pages, Paperback
First published December 11, 2003
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August 19, 2014
For a recent set of exams that I took, I had to read a lot about early modern state building. Everyone seems to agree that this is a really important issue - when you call your field 'early modern' you start to get fixated on how modern institutions got going - but no one seems to agree on exactly what caused it. Confessionalization, military revolutions, and economic causes are all tossed about as possibilities. Ulrike Strasser suggests a less expected one: control of female sexuality and the family. It would be going a bit far to suggest that this was the cause of the development of the modern state (Strasser doesn't argue that) but it is a very intriguing look into how every aspect of life was used as a tool in state development during this time.
Strasser opens her book by noting that Aegidius Albertinus, advisor of Maximilian I and one of Bavaria’s most popular writers, started his treatise of the preservation of public order with a section on the benefits of female virginity. It seems out of place in a political treatise, but Strasser then goes on to explore how "state formation entailed producing the female body as a sexualized body, defined primarily by either sexual reproduction or renunciation of sexuality for the sake of social reproduction. Because the formation of the Bavarian state occurred on the bedrock of economically stable households of monogamous couples, it was politically mandatory to curtail sexuality outside of marriage, in particular, the sexuality of the lower classes."
Her work looks at the legal changes that were put into place that essentially made marriage and childbearing an upper-class pursuit. The 1553 Ordinance of Good Police made premarital sex a civic crime and threatened various levels of disinheritance to young men and women who got married without parental consent. At the same time, there was a crackdown on ‘profligacy,’ which was essentially engaging in sexual relations without having the economic means to deal with the consequences. Servants were prohibited from marrying, as was anyone who lacked property. By 1578 Munich has a centralized marriage bureau and all who wanted to get married were questioned about their income, their social status, and their faith. Marriage became a central part of civic life: "The full male burgher was always a married man; his civic rights included the right to have sex."
This trend, of course, affected women who did not get married. Strasser traces how lack of marriage took two courses in Munich: those of the upper classes were deemed holy virgin protectors of the city, while those of the lower classes were deemed prostitutes and pollutants. Upper class women became brides of a different kind - by joining a religious order (that was now relentlessly cloistered), these women were 'married' to Christ, a metaphor that many took quite literally. Many sisters, when making their vows, were decked out in wedding attire.
The saying went, after the council of Trent, that women had two choices: aut murus aut maritus (roughly translated, 'walls or a wedding'). They could be a cloistered nun or a wife - if not, they're probably be considered a prostitute. In the context of state building, it's fascinating that the one group of women in Munich that was able to avoid this fate was The English Ladies of Munich, led by Mary Ward. They were only able to avoid papal condemnation due to the fact that they were defended by Maximilian I, who declared that there education of young girls to be essential to the stability of the state.
Strasser opens her book by noting that Aegidius Albertinus, advisor of Maximilian I and one of Bavaria’s most popular writers, started his treatise of the preservation of public order with a section on the benefits of female virginity. It seems out of place in a political treatise, but Strasser then goes on to explore how "state formation entailed producing the female body as a sexualized body, defined primarily by either sexual reproduction or renunciation of sexuality for the sake of social reproduction. Because the formation of the Bavarian state occurred on the bedrock of economically stable households of monogamous couples, it was politically mandatory to curtail sexuality outside of marriage, in particular, the sexuality of the lower classes."
Her work looks at the legal changes that were put into place that essentially made marriage and childbearing an upper-class pursuit. The 1553 Ordinance of Good Police made premarital sex a civic crime and threatened various levels of disinheritance to young men and women who got married without parental consent. At the same time, there was a crackdown on ‘profligacy,’ which was essentially engaging in sexual relations without having the economic means to deal with the consequences. Servants were prohibited from marrying, as was anyone who lacked property. By 1578 Munich has a centralized marriage bureau and all who wanted to get married were questioned about their income, their social status, and their faith. Marriage became a central part of civic life: "The full male burgher was always a married man; his civic rights included the right to have sex."
This trend, of course, affected women who did not get married. Strasser traces how lack of marriage took two courses in Munich: those of the upper classes were deemed holy virgin protectors of the city, while those of the lower classes were deemed prostitutes and pollutants. Upper class women became brides of a different kind - by joining a religious order (that was now relentlessly cloistered), these women were 'married' to Christ, a metaphor that many took quite literally. Many sisters, when making their vows, were decked out in wedding attire.
The saying went, after the council of Trent, that women had two choices: aut murus aut maritus (roughly translated, 'walls or a wedding'). They could be a cloistered nun or a wife - if not, they're probably be considered a prostitute. In the context of state building, it's fascinating that the one group of women in Munich that was able to avoid this fate was The English Ladies of Munich, led by Mary Ward. They were only able to avoid papal condemnation due to the fact that they were defended by Maximilian I, who declared that there education of young girls to be essential to the stability of the state.
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