Her Masculine Strength of Mind: The Influence of Desiderius Erasmus Upon the Education of Women in Renaissance England

Abstract

This research discusses the transition in the thinking of the sixteenth-century monk Desiderius Erasmus on the education of women. At first he regarded women as intellectual inferiors, but eventually he recognized that women could be fit companions to men as well as intellectual equals. By studying his works, especially his New Testament paraphrases on the role of women, this paper discusses why his thinking changed and how it led him to write his controversial colloquies (i.e., dialogues used as educational texts, that were banned in many parts of Europe.