ABSTRACT
Mary Astell was famed as a devoted member of the Church of England, who went on to write several explicit defenses of the Church's position during the period of transition when it no longer came to have a monopoly on English spiritual life. The Serious Proposal to the Ladies can be read as both reflecting Astell's anxieties over the future of the Church and as a product of the mounting Anglican concern with the vice and irreligion of society. In her proposals, Astell had predecessors, for there existed considerable concern amongst the Anglican clergy and laity about the piety and morality of the female elite, and the lightness of what passed 'in the Language of this loose age' as 'a Lady's Religion'. Like the Serious Proposal, the Ladies Calling was the work of an Anglican missionary. Like Astell, Allestree wanted to 'acquaint women with their own valu' and to inspire them to form 'higher thoughts of themselves'.
