The Renaissance, which began in Italy in the late 1300s, may be summed up as a time when intellectual and artistic thought turned from a focus on God to a focus on human beings and their place in the world; from the sober and serious theology of the Middle Ages to a renewed sense of joy in life; from asceticism (ah-SET-ah-siz-um) to sensuality; from religious symbolism to a focus on naturalness; and from a belief in tradition to experimentation in the pursuit of knowledge (New, 1969). Part of the cultural shift of the Renaissance was new views of sexuality and, to some degree, the roles of women in society.
During the Renaissance, women made great strides in education and began to become more prominent in political affairs (Bornstein, 1979). Antifemale tracts still had wide circulation, but they gave rise to profemale tracts, and a lively debate arose on the worth and value of women. Henricus Cornelius Agrippa published a tract in 1532 arguing that each of God’s creations in Genesis is superior to the one before, and because the human female is the last thing God created, she must be his most perfect creation. In the Bible, Agrippa continues, a male is the first sinner; men introduce polygamy, drunkenness, and murder into the world; and men are aggressive and tyrannical. Women, on the other hand, are more peaceful, chaste, refined, and faithful. Agrippa concludes that what holds women back is the tyranny of men and that women should be liberated and educated (Bornstein, 1979).