  There are several early Quaker texts that challenge these nature and scripture-based arguments against women’s spiritual authority. In doing so, the authors continue a tradition that began in the fifteenth century with the querelle des femmes, an ongoing debate about the moral and intellectual status of women in continental Europe (cf. Kelly 1984, 68). In this debate, defenders of women protest against the contempt and defamation of women in the works of their male-biased peers. To support their cause, they repeatedly cite scriptural arguments for women’s spiritual equality with men and put forward long lists of female worthies. The Quakers partake in this tradition by explicitly addressing the subject of women’s natural or divinely-ordained subordination to men, as well as those problematic biblical passages about Eve’s transgression and women “learning in silence”.