Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be submissive, as also says the law.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 14:34 Go To 1 Corinthians 14
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Let women keep silence in the churches. Ambrose, and after him Anselm, say that even the prophetesses are to keep silence: (1.) Because it is against the order of nature and of the Law, in Genesis 3:16, for women, who have been made subject to men, to speak in their presence. (2.) Because it is opposed to the modesty and humility which befits them. (3.) Because man is endowed with better judgment, reason, discursive power, and discretion than woman. (4.) She is rightly bidden, says S. Anselm, to keep silence, because when she spoke it was to persuade man to sin ( Genesis 3:6). (5.) To curb her loquacity, for, as it is said, "when two women quarrel it is like the beating of two cymbals or the clanging of two bells." This might readily enough happen in the church if they were allowed to teach. About this silence enjoined on women, see notes on 1 Timothy 2:9. How much is it then against the command of S. Paul, against all law, right, and seemliness, for a woman to be the head of a church!
Tropologically woman stands for passion and lust, man for reason. Let the first then be silent and obey the reason. Cf. S. Chrysostom (Hom37 in Morali.). Aristotle (de Nat. Animal. lib. ix. c1) says: "Woman is more pitiful and more inclined to tears than man; also more envious, more ready to complain, to utter curses, and to revenge; she is besides more anxious and desponding than Prayer of Manasseh , more pert and untruthful, and more easily deceived."
