Kolloquium

In the last decades of the fourteenth century, prophecy had become a means for women to instruct, speak out, and exert authority both in their local communities and more widely. Female prophets pronounced on the righteousness of kings, bishops, and popes, and some dared speak on the coming of Antichrist and the mysteries of the Book of Revelation. As women gained prominence among a new wave of prophets, discussions about women’s voices and their access to public authority followed. While many scholars have emphasized the increased misogyny of the late Middle Ages, this paper demonstrates the existence of the opposite—a campaign explicitly in favor of female prophets. I will discuss an influential network of supporters of prophetic women at the end of the fourteenth century and trace pro-female arguments as they became increasingly radical in the 1390s.