A vessel of sins full of virtues: the ideal image of the female in the occasional writings of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

the ideal female image in occasional literature of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the analysis of the wife's place in the family, her relations with her husband and children, her place in the religious community and her behaviour in the face of death, the author discusses the main social roles of the noblewoman as obedient wife, devoted mother, pious churchgoer and generous patron of the poor. Attention is also paid to training for these social roles and how they are described in the sources. The issues raised in the paper are investigated against the general background of European Christian culture. In 1615 Nicholas Breton wrote: A quiet w o m a n is like a still wind, which neither chills the body nor b lows dust in the face. Her patience is a virtue that wins the heart o f love , and her w i s d o m makes her wil l wel l worthy regard. She fears God and flieth sin, showeth kindness and loveth peace. Her tongue is tied to discretion, and her heart is the harbour o f goodness . She is comfort o f calamity and in prosperity a companion, a physician in sickness and a musician in help. Her ways are the walk toward heaven, and her guide is the grace o f the Almighty. She is her husband's down-bed, where his heart l ies at rest, and her children's glass in the notes o f her grace; her servants' honour in the keeping o f her house, and her neighbours' example in the notes o f a good nature. She scorns fortune and loves virtue, and out o f thrift gathereth charity. She is a turtle in her love, a lamb in her meekness , a saint in her heart, and an angel in her soul. In sum, she is a jewel unprizcable and her j o y unspeakable, a comfort in nature uncomparable, and a wife in the world unmatchablc. 1 1 The Cultural Identity of Seventeenth-Century Woman (London New York, 1994), p. 98. 24 JOLITA SARCEVIČIENĖ In these words one English writer of religious and pastoral works succinctly but precisely expressed the ideal female image, her so­ cial role and the main features of her character. Although Christianity offered the same moral code and hope of salvation to men and women alike, it was commonly considered that woman was morally weaker by nature. Consequently she was more liable to vices than a man, and therefore only certain virtues were required of her. A comparison of sets of virtues, considered peculiar to men and women, shows that dynamic virtues were pronounced fit for men, and passive ones for women. Courage, magnanimity and domination were treated as male features, while modesty, submissiveness and self-denial were female traits. Con­ temporaries clearly distinguished between male and female models of behaviour as depending on their respective differing natures. It went without saying that male and female virtues were different, and it would have been not only unjust but also godless to ignore them. 2 In the analysis of the ideal female image, recorded in the occa­ sional writings of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an attempt is made to determine private and social spheres where a woman was treated as an example to be followed, her social role, the patterns of her char­ acter and way of life to be imitated, and what factors formed the norms and values conditioning her social significance. The choice of occasional writings as a research source was not accidental. This is literature that encompasses panegyrics, didactic treatises and documentary sources. The authors instruct and/or give advice on how to behave and how an individual should seek the ideal, and propose normative suggestions, which might prove useful in various situations in one's life. It is a very significant part of public life, exhibiting certain social practices, the system of val­ ues, moral norms, etc. Occasional writings record the ideal model of the woman in the GDL, which at the same time is an expression of the collective consciousness of that period. The ideal model of the woman, presented in it, allows the reconstruction of the female image, formed in the understanding of the social elite. The main aim of this model was to offer society an example worth imitation, which in the period under investigation had to perform two func-