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.
