Bentley, Thomas, Monument of Matrones

Abstract

Thomas Bentley’s Monument of Matrones (1582) is an anthology of devotional writing by an Elizabethan layman, directed primarily toward women. It gathers prayers and hymns by biblical women and prayers and meditations written by “godlie women in our time” (Bentley 1582, sig. F2r), along with a collection of household devotions, a prayer collection solely for women, scripture directions for women’s conduct, and stories of women found in the Bible. As one of the only Elizabethan printed books particularly for a female readership and as the sole source for some texts written by women, the volume is valuable for the study of women’s piety and the opportunities religion gave for reading and writing. At the same time, as the product of a male compiler, the Monument provides a picture of an elite Elizabethan man’s ideas about women’s nature and social condition. Despite subscribing to a view of women as subject to male authority and propounding a limited range of domestic virtues, Bentley celebrates women writers as heroes and calls upon his readers to emulate their example, evidence that writing had gained a place among the practices characterizing a godly woman.