The new members eventually become the old guard, by which time their learned silence has become an entitlement protecting them against collegial expressions of moral concern.
In The Woman Learning in Silence (1656), George Fox likewise challenges those who would limit the spirit of God to "learned men, old books, and authors" (Fox 1656, 4).
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".
These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.
But as first lady she has learned that silence is usually the best course.
Having struggled to fend off his domestic critics after coming to power last summer, Mr Ahmadinejad has learned to silence them by beating a nationalist drum.
The Democrats have learned that silence is not a virtue, and the Obama campaign is quick to repudiate false charges and clarify distortions.
And that, too, is Modiano the writer, at home at last in the "clear and limpid language" so despised by his own Schlemilovitch before he had learned that silence was a medium more conducive to mystery than noise was.
Some have argued that the anxiety caused by women's voices, which were considered inherently erotic, was the decisive factor; others have pointed to evidence taht St . Pauls injunction "Let the women learn in silence" was invoked to exclude women from church choirs.
"They have no modesty; they are bold enough to teach, to engage in argument, to enact exorcisms, to undertake cures, and, it may be, even to baptize!" By the year 200, Christian feminism was clearly brought to an end by the text known in the New Testament as Paul's First Epistle to Timothy: "Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness.
