Joannes Andreae

Joannes Andreae wrote the Novella in Decretales Gregorii IX in 1338 AD

Translation from the latin by John Wijngaards

The female sex cannot signify pre-eminence

“Regarding the ordination of women . . . it is clear that the sacrament requires both substance (res) and sign (signum) . . . . But in the female sex a pre-eminence of degree cannot be signified since she occupies a state of subjection: (1 Timothy 2) ‘I do not allow a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man’.
For because she had made a bad use of her equality, she was put into subjection: (Gen 3) ‘you shall be under the power of your husband’.
Therefore she does not receive the character of the sacrament which possesses pre-eminence.”

Novella V, fol. 125v.

Source: Ida Raming, The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen 1976, pp. 49-50.

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