The Venetian ladies of Moderata Fonte discussed the value of women while frolicking in their imaginary garden in 1605; Tempel Anneke met her unhappy fate in the 1660s. The seemingly enlightened and forward-thinking feminist attitudes articulated in Fonte's text were absent in the Brunswick courtroom where the charges against Tempel Anneke ultimately led to her death. The two accounts illustrate the differences in attitudes towards women between European states during the 17th century. The differences are technically based on religion, however they involve differences in regional factors specific to the areas discussed. The differences explain why the attitudes of Fonte's ladies and Tempel's persecutors coexisted at more or less the same time. Fonte's ladies are Italian Catholics and Anna's neighbors are German Protestants, so the women's ideals vary based on religious experience. Furthermore, the theory of reason of state born with the consolidation of authority consisted in centralization and secularism which subordinated the social role ...