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"Catechisms and Women's Writing in Seventeenth-Century England is a study of early modern women's literary use of catechizing. Paula McQuade examines original works composed by women - both in manuscript and print, as well as women's copying and redacting of catechisms - and construction of these materials from other sources. By studying female catechists, McQuade shows how early modern women used the power and authority granted to them as mothers to teach religious doctrine, to demonstrate their linguistic skills, to engage sympathetically with Catholic devotional texts, and to comment on matters of contemporary religious and political import - activities that many scholars have considered the sole prerogative of clergymen. This book addresses the question of women's literary production in early modern England, demonstrating that reading and writing of catechisms were crucial sites of women's literary engagements during this time"-- "Catechisms and Women's Writing in Seventeenth-Century England argues that the reading and writing of catechisms were crucial sites of women's literary engagements in early modern England. By studying female catechists, we learn how early modern women used the power and authority granted to them as mothers and domestic catechists to teach religious doctrine, to demonstrate their linguistic skills, and to comment on matters of contemporary religious and political import-activities that many scholars have considered the sole prerogative of clergymen. I draw upon recent work that asserts the importance of manuscript circulation in early modern England and introduce the catechetical compositions of six (largely) unremarked seventeenth-century Protestant women writers of diverse social classes: Katherine Fitzwilliam (b. 1579), Ann Montagu (b. 1573), Katherine Thomas (b. 1637), Barbara Slingsby Talbot (b.1633), Dorothy Burch (fl.1646), and Mary Cary (b. 1621). These women were evangelical Protestants and Church of England loyalists. They wrote original catechisms in manuscript for use within the home, tailoring their compositions to the age and abilities of their children"-- Machine generated contents note: Introduction. 'Milk for babes': catechisms and female authorship in early modern England; Part I. Domestic Catechesis and Female Authorship: 1. 'Mother bare me': catechisms and maternity in early modern England; 2. 'A tender mother': domestic catechesis in the household devotional of Katherine Fitzwilliam, circa 1603; Part II. Female Witness and Inter-Confessional Dialogue: 3. 'At Magdalin's house': maternal catechesis and female witness in the manuscript miscellany of Katherine Thomas (b. 1637); 4. Catholicism, catechesis, and coterie circulation: the manuscript of Barbara Slingsbury Talbot (b. 1633); Part III. Print and Polemic: 5. 'A knowing people': catechizing and community in Dorothy Burch's A Catechisme of the Severall Heads of the Christian Religion (1646); 6. Prophecy, catechesis, and community in Mary Cary's The Resurrection of the Witnesses (1648; reprint 1653); Epilogue
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