ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the concept of consecrated virginity found particular expression among certain mystical and millenarian groups, during a period of British history which historians have characterized as increasingly narrow in terms of formulations of sexual difference, and increasingly obsessed with gender transgressions. It analyses the Protestant and rationalistic critiques of female celibacy, which placed an increasing emphasis on the ethics of sociability, always harnessed to anti-Catholic sentiment and English patriotism. The chapter focuses on political discourse in Protestant England, which linked sexual purification with national godliness and apocalyptic fulfilment and heightened the tension between anti-ascetical currents and utopian reform. It examines ventures to revive celibacy in London, in the context of the religious societies which emerged in the 1680s and 1690s. The chapter offers female virginity and celibacy in England, as these anxieties about sexual identity and public morality heightened.
