(Un)plain Jane: A Legacy of Rhetoric and Faith

Our discussions in class and our readings regarding the Reformation have mostly focused on the personal religious expressions displayed in sermons, theses, etc. by disgruntled men with religious authority. However, as a lady myself, I must ask the question; where the ladies at??

Though the role of a woman was often muted on the subject of religious uprisings and formations of new institutions during the Reformation, there were several contributions made to the world of rhetoric by the women, albeit they were often only granted publishing opportunity because of their social or political status. Nonetheless, there is some fascinating literature by these Reformation women that add to the concept of freedom to personal religious devotion and that ultimately influenced the type of relationship Latter-day Saints seek with God in the restored Church. 

Jane's Rhetoric of Adversity and Faith

Lady Jane Grey experienced an incredibly difficult life when she was forced (beaten) into marrying some duke of somewhere when her cousin Edward VI didn’t want to marry her, forced to the position of successor to her cousin King Edward VI after his death, and forced to the execution block for accepting (unwillingly) that position which her cousin Mary believed was rightfully hers and revolted for. Cue awkward family reunions…

However, the legacy of rhetoric that Lady Jane Grey is too beautiful to overlook. This written prayer of hers titled “A Certain Prayer of the Lady Jane in the Time of Her Trouble” speaks profoundly of her spiritual maturity (by the way, she was only 15 when she was executed): “I, being defiled with sin, encumbered with afflictions, unquieted with troubles, wrapped in cares, overwhelmed with miseries, vexed with temptation, and grievously tormented with the long imprisonment of this vile mass of clay, my sinful body, do come unto Thee, O merciful Saviour, craving Thy mercy and help, without the which so little hope of deliverance is left, that I may utterly despair of my liberty.”

Jane & Joseph: Under the Same Divine Pavilion

This excerpt from Lady Jane Grey reminds me of another well-known declaration of faith in the Church of Jesus Christ: “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries? Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them? let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us."

This scripture from Doctrine and Covenants section 121 is a plea from Joseph Smith when he is imprisoned in liberty jail. Similar to Lady Jane Grey, in their adversity they only had faith, a concept that Christian Rounds and Peter Cables both described in their blogs: “ I may not live to see all of my questions answered either, but I can[…]proceed with what I do have: Faith.”

The rhetorical legacy of Lady Jane Grey and her written relationship with God is only a small part of the profound influence that the Reformation era concept of Christian humanism had on the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Image Credit: Lady Jane Grey (Public domain image via WikiCommons)

Christian Rhetoric and Authority: A Boxing Match

The difficult part of modern society is finding the right authority to follow. Every study that comes up is debated back and forth by a myriad of people who all claim to be and know better than the other. And we don’t have many ways of saying one way or another who is right.

Reading the letters of Martin Luther and looking into other writings of Christian leaders and thinkers, their appeal to authority is much more simple and direct. They borrow it. They juxtapose their weakness with the greatness and perfection of God and point towards Him as the source of truth in the message they’re sharing. This isn’t a bad thing. Although some people go to a particular preacher because of how they speak, they’re still looking to be taught a message from the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of the preacher. It’s a vital part of Christian rhetoric to present humility even when you feel an assurance that you are carrying a message from a perfect authority.

But, the interesting part that I noticed was that another common practice of Christian rhetoric is, when disagreements come up, to directly attack the authority of the speaker. You have a man who stands up in a conference of priests and talks about how unworthy he feels before God, but that he has a message to share, only to have him called a fool and booed off the stage. Both attacker and defender will claim to be supported by perfect authority despite their weaknesses, while crying that the personal weakness of the other makes them unworthy to be supported.

If that’s how arguments went, it isn’t hard to see why priests began to gather power and secular authority. It didn’t matter how accomplished they were, but it also very much did.

"Up Close and Personal" under the watch of the benevolent referee.

Image credit to Jay Peeples from flickr.

Revolutionizing the Weapons in a War of Ideas

Prior to the printing press, knowledge had but one mode of mass distribution; word of mouth. These words could arrive through the whispered gossiping of a neighbor, the passionate preaching of a secular or religious orator, or a public decree recited by some royal emissary. The limitations of the spoken word, however, make it virtually impossible for the original speaker's ideas to remain pure as it is spread through society. Only the written word can keep the author's own ideas accurate.

The advance of the printing press in the 15th century revolutionized the way that wars of ideas could be fought. Before, ideas might be put forth as excuses or causes, but their wars could only be waged by those in power. All it took to Christianize the Roman Empire was a simple decision by Constantine. On the other hand, fire and bloodshed were required for Charlemagne to convert the pagan Saxons in the 8th century.

With the printing press, even a simple scholar (such as William Tyndale) could turn the whole world on its head. With the written word able to be produced en masse, ideas could spread quickly and precisely. Suddenly, a conflict of ideas couldn't just be resolved by the decision-making powers of a monarch. Suddenly, everyone got involved.

It seems to me that prior to the advent of the printing press, "cultural revolutions," at least in the modern sense, never really existed. Religions prospered or died under the thumb of empires, and cultural idiosyncrasies never challenged an established political order, they merely squirmed underneath it to try to get more comfortable. Real change was wrought only by the wars or whims of those in power.

Since the written word has become widely available, we have seen the rise of personal religion, the rise of democracy, the rise of identity equality; these are all ideas that, whether for better or worse, no Dark Ages despot would ever embrace. As more individuals in a society become important, the balance of power shifts. In fact, I'm even tempted to think that without the printing press or subsequent advances in the technology of communication, maybe our world today would function much the same as it did a thousand years ago. What do you think?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Savonarola-preaching-against-prodigality-ludwig-von-langenmantel-1879.jpg