Deviating Voices

The strongest voices in Christian history regarding the place of women in religious and secular society gave them only a very limited role, but there have always been those who disagreed with that view and with much other church orthodoxy. Often reviled by the Church, many of these women nevertheless had significant influence in their times. Some of them were considered to be heretics - unsurprisingly since they made great claims for themselves and their written and spoken words: Maximilla, a Montanist, announced that 'After me there will be no further prophets', while Joanna Southcott later claimed to be 'The Greatest Prophet that ever came into the world'. As this demonstrates, they did not speak with a single voice, but included Montanists, Jansenists, Pelagians, Antinomians, Spiritualists and Theosophists as well as Saints. This book describes the lives of twelve such women, outlining their beliefs, their attempts to make themselves heard, their clashes with the spiritual authoritRead less