Yep, according to TulipGirl. Apparently while Luther was thinking about tippling, Calvin was writing about, er, nippling.
". . .the Lord does not in vain prepare nutriment for children in their mothers' bosoms, before they are born. But those on whom he confers the honor of mothers, he, in this way, constitutes nurses; and they who deem it a hardship to nourish their own offspring, break, as far as they are able, the sacred bond of nature. If disease, or anything of that kind, is the hindrance, they have a just excuse; but for mothers voluntarily, and for their own pleasure, to avoid the trouble of nursing, and thus to make themselves only half-mothers, is a shameful corruption."
This was big fun for TulipGirl. If she'd been around in the 16th Century, there would have been a sixth 'sola' for the Reformation -- Sola Mammaries.
Posted by Discoshaman at décembre 5, 2005 07:23 AM | TrackBack
My Calvinist wife, who found breastfeeding difficult but is a master of the art of spin, points out that, in Calvin's time, "not nursing your child meant that you turned it over to a 'wet nurse' -- someone else nursed the baby. So you did give up the care of the child, as the baby often lived with the other mother while it nursed -- sometimes longer than a year. Kind of different than a bottle from mom -- but not so different from day care!"
Posted by: at décembre 5, 2005 02:05 PMSeventeenth century Anglican divine, Jeremy Taylor, wrote an essay titled, ""The Christian Mother's Duty to Nurse Her Own Infant."
Posted by: Tim Bayly at décembre 5, 2005 02:46 PMAnon-
Yeah, I know. But I do think you can extrapolate the point. And even if not, the post amused me. :)
Tim-
Thanks so much for letting me know. I'll pass that on to TulipGirl, she'll be eager to read that...
Posted by: Discoshaman at décembre 6, 2005 01:27 AM