Possession, witchcraft, and the suffocation of the mother : Edward Jorden's effects on women's spiritual agency in early modern England.
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Date
2013-09-24Author
Clark, Meghan M., 1989-
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This thesis argues that Edward Jorden’s 1603 treatise A Briefe Discourse of a
Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother emphasized the physical weakness that
resulted from women’s unstable reproductive systems and was crucial to the Protestant
desacralization of women’s bodies and subsequent decrease of women’s spiritual
agency. The first body chapter examines possession through four case studies that
compare treatment of men’s and women’s bodies in Puritan possessions. The second
chapter provides a close analysis of Jorden’s text in the context of women’s bodies.
The third chapter analyzes witchcraft through a case study of the East Anglia trials of
1644-1645. The conclusion reiterates Jorden’s role in redefining the relationship
between women’s bodies and spiritual agency in early modern England.