“For as we all differ in face, so do we differ in the manner of our exercises that are interior” Gertrude More's, Catherine Gascoigne's and Barbara Constable's religious writings through a feminist perspective on religious women’s agency and mysticism

This thesis examines the religious writings of three seventeenth-century English Benedictine nuns: Gertrude More (1606–1633), Catherine Gascoigne (1601–1676), and Barbara Constable (1617–1684) through a feminist perspective on religious women’s agency and mysticism. More, Gascoigne, and Constable have already attracted the attention of several historians and literary critics for their determination in expressing their religious ideas and for their leading roles inside their community, the Benedictine monastery of “Our Lady of Consolation” in Cambrai (today’s France). However, their religious texts had never been analyzed from a feminist perspective, and hence this thesis offers an original contribution to the fields of history and literary criticism of early modern English women religious. It will be argued that More, Gascoigne, and Constable expressed their agentic capacity neither against nor despite, but rather through their religious belonging. This I believe they did in two ways: on the one hand, they rejected blind obedience to domineering superiors, albeit never rejecting their religious Rule, while, on the other hand, building on medieval and contemporary contemplative life teachings, they developed their own spirituality and mystical path. More, Constable, and Gascoigne each had, albeit in different ways, a close spiritual relation with their male spiritual instructor, David Baker, religious name Augustine (1575–1641), who was appointed spiritual director at the monastery of Cambrai for nine years, from 1624 to 1633. Baker thus played a significant role in the lives of the three nuns, both in their personal and spiritual development. This dissertation also investigates if More, Constable, and Gascoigne blended their own spiritual perspectives with that of Baker and how this impacted on their agentic capacity. I will argue that Baker and the three nuns mutually influenced each other, in a positive way, leading to their joint personal and spiritual empowerment.