"To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally, it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice."

John Knox's classic treatment of the authority of women in the civil sphere has been freshly typeset for the modern age. Setting out his position that female rule was ordinarily contrary to nature, Knox brings in Scriptural and historical proofs in order to make his case forcefully and powerfully.