In 1611, Aemilia Lanyer published Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, one of the first substantial books of original poetry by an Englishwoman. The volume reimagines Christ's Passion while defending Eve and addressing a community of female patrons. It is peculiar for placing women at the moral centre of sacred history.

Lanyer's book challenged male religious interpretation and gave English devotional poetry a bold female counter-voice. Later feminist critics recovered her as a key poet whose work complicates the supposedly male story of Renaissance English literature.