Poetry and Mysticism : Women’s Catholic Activism under Habsburg Rule

Mostaccio, Silvia [UCL]

Between 16th and 17th century, despite the Trent’s decrees on women’s religious life, the very Catholic European domains of the Hapsburgs of Spain welcomed many life experiences of semi-religious women, inspired to the beguines’ model. With this paper I would like to go back on these experiences from two case studies that allow us to highlight continuity and innovation within a long duration model. These are the cases of the mystic Isabella Berinzaga (Milan, 1551-1624) and of the school teacher and poet Anna Bijns (Antwerp, 1493-1575), with her active Catholic militancy in the Spanish Netherlands. Both of modest origins, these two women used their skills for the deployment and the renewal of Catholicism by the written word. This approach is testified by the Compendio di perfezione christiana written by the jesuit Achille Gagliardi from Isabella’s experience and Anna’s Dutch and Latin ballades, printed with the Franciscans’ aid. School teacher and poet, Anna fought the new protestant culture teaching and writing. In the same period, Isabella contributed to the debate on spiritual and individual experience within catholic religious orders, planning a new female semi-religious congregation dedicated to female monastic reformation. In both cases, the mystical experience will be the basis of their own identity.