The Effects of Catholicism on the Education of Women in Renaissance Ita

The Effects of Catholicism on the Education of Women in rebirth ItalyAccording to Paul Grendler, the cautious, clerical pedagogical theorist Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603) reflected on womens commandmental status in Renaissance Italy in one of his written works, claiming that a girl (should not) learn pleading and writing poetry the vain sex moldiness not reach too highA girl should attend to sewing, cooking, and other female activities, leaving to men what was theirs. Apparently, this was the common-held view concerning womens education during that time. Although women were in truth encouraged to literacy, their subservient social role as wives and mothers could not allow them to learn as much as men did (Grendler, 1989).Women could not have by chance been employed or held a public office. Any attainable employment did not involve independent thought matters concerning the ruling and well-being of society were left-hand(a) to men (Grendler, 1995). Therefore, they were encouraged to receive the kind of education that would prove useful for their primarily domestic role. It was not enough, therefore, for them to learn how to read and write they had to hammer their experience into a matrix of virtue and piety. The tuition and praise of literacy, the advances in printing and consequently the widespread introduction of books to the public and finally the Counter-Reformation, were factors that influenced the development of female education (Grendler, 1989). What I would like to argue in my paper is that Catholicism acted as a medium for the development of the literacy of women in Renaissance Italy.Within the Catholic perform arose the need to draw people back to conservative Catholic traditions. This was, on a certain level, a response to the Protestant Reformation and to less conservative Humanist ideals that were spreading throughout Italy. After the Council of Trent, a lot of emphasis was placed on the development of Christian virtues within individuals. Wh at better way to get hold of this than indoctrination? The knowledge of spiritual texts and rituals as well as the adoption of monastic virtues began to be seen as imperative. Women were granted educational privileges, primarily so that they could read religious texts. Convent education for young girls became popular amidst upper and middle class families (Strocchia, 1999). The Schools of ... ...) could have was provided by the Schols of the Christian Doctrine.Thus, we see that Catholicism provided women of Renaissance Italy great opportunities for learning. Even if such(prenominal) an education could take them only up to a point, since they had to learn within a religious, moral framework, it is still remarkable in that it provided early foundation for the development of female education in Europe.ReferencesRobert Black, The Curriculum of Italian Elementary and Grammar Schools, 1350-1500 in The Shapes of Knowledge from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, edited by Donald R. Ke lley and Richard H. Popkin, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, 1991Paul F. Gehl, A example Art Grammar, Society and Culture in Trecento Florence, Cornell University Press, New York, 1993Paul F. Grendler, Books and Schools in the Italian Renaissance, Ashgate Publishing Limited, Great Britain, 1995Paul F. Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy, John Hopkins University Press, U.S.A., 1989Sharon T. Strocchia, Learning the Virtues Convent Schools and Female Culture in Renaissance Florence in Womens Education in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800), New York and London, 1999