Say Little, Do Much: Nursing, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 4. Behind Enemy Lines: Religious Nursing in England–Conflicts and Solutions

Chaptrr4 Behind Enemy Lines Rdigious LVursingin England -Co?zjlictsand Solutions Like their sisters in Ireland, France, German); and the United States, pious ilineteenth-century Eilglisll tvornen felt the call to serve God through ~voi-k ~vith His needy. The rrlost farnous nurse of all tirne, Rliss Florence Nightingale, Ivas one such tvornail. Nightingale's call to sei-\-e God occurred in 1837, ~vhen she tvasjust set-e1lteeil.lThe extraordinary irrlpact of Florerlce Nightingale on the de\-eloprnentof nursing trairliilg during the second half of the rliileteerltll century has effectively o\-ershadotved earlier e\-ents.To understand how nursing in England became synonymous ~vith Nightingale's otvn project and how it eclipsed all other narratives in the history of nursing, it is necessary to exarrlirle the corlditiorls ~mderlyingthe professionalizatioi1 of the care of the sick. These conditions, it ~vill be argued, are less the product of rrledical and scientific arrarlgerrlerlts of the period than the result of a \-ocational[vat-e of godly tvornen. It is this vocational tvave, its irrlpact on nursing, and the problerrls it caused for Protestarlt Eilglarld that are the su1)ject of this chapter. Xccordirlg to Catholic legend, the first nursing rrlissioil in Eilglarld and Scotlaild Ivas 1)egun by the Irish Sisters of Rlercy in 1838 at their Berrnondsey con\-entin the East End of L ~ n d o n . : ~ Catholic Emancipation in 1829 Ivas the critical event that stirnulated not only the foundation of the first convent in Eilglarld since the Reformation, but the foundation of the Irish Sisters of Rlercy in 1831.l I begin with a disclission of the position of Catholics in Britain, the irrlpact of Catholic Errlarlcipatioil on the Church ill Ireland and England, and the political irrlplicatiorls of a re- \-italizedCatholic Church tvith both English and Irisll elements. T I P rno\-e then to exarrliile the Berrnondsey story ~vhat it tells us about terlsiorls bettveen Irish and Eilglisll Catholic ilotioils almut the place of tvork in the spiritual life of tvornen. The chapter then turns to a distincti\-ely Eilglisll solution to the pro1)lern of Protestant Ivornen called to sei-\-eGod through an active life. The irrlportailce of forrrlal nursing in the rnany Protestarlt sisterhoods that emerged in nineteenth-century Eilglaild tvill Behind Enemy Lines 37 be examined. Finally, the lirrlitatioils of l>oththe Catllolic and Protestarlt nursing cornrnunities tvill be addressed, and the astonishingly successful Niglltiilgale solution to these prol>lernsdiscussed. In 1829 the final Catllolic Errlarlcipatioil Bill reversed a policy that had b. 'uied - - Eilglisll Catholics frorrl puhlic life, from a military career, and from attending university.' In Ireland the Penal (:ode was even more set-ere, affecting iillleritarlce and civil rights." But despite such severity Catholicisrn had been eradicated in ileitller Eilglaild 1101- Ireland. The history of Catholicisrn in each country ill Britain is quite distinct, and here tve car1 only allude to the dorrliilailt issues. In Eilglaild the Catllolic Church existed ill rural pockets, protected by po~verful recusant aristocratic farnilies. Within the estates of these farnilies rrlasses ~vei-e held in private chapels. It Ivas not a public religion. The church had no forrrlal hierarchy -no bishops or parishes. It retained a pre-industrial flavor of aristocratic devotion, strong European links through \-isitingclergy,and a largely rural sense of social ~bligation.~ T'Vith Catholic Emancipation in Britain -that is, the relaxation of prohil >itionsagainst Catllolic religious practice and against Catllolics entering puhlic life -came a Protestarlt panic that three h~mdred years of EilglisllReforrrlatiorl ~vould be slvept alvay ill a Catholic assault. The furor that raged in Parliament, in the press, and from the pulpits clairrled disaster for Protestant England. Fueling these fears tvas the rrlass irnrnigratiorl of poor Irish that follotved decliilirlg coilditioils in Ireland, the influx of foreigil clergy seeltiilg exile from political turrnoil in Europe, and a grotving Protestailt obsession tvith Catllolic life and ritual. In the secoild half of the century, the Catholic Church assumed a far rrlore Rorrlarl cllaracter than had pre\-iouslybeen the case -a trerld that becarrle ltno~vn as Ultrarrloiltarlisrrl.TThe power of Ultramontanism was in its heightened sense of ritual, its opulent European aestheticism, and its pursuit of exterior rrlailifestatiorls of the sacred. Rorrle Ivas in a belligerent and defensive rnood, its increasingly irltrailsigerlt position made clear tvith the papal declaratioil on infallibility in 1870." In England the reestablished Catholic Church cut its path through a s~vath of controversies. Its rrlost disturl>ingpotver to Protestailts Ivas its ability to attract, unsettle, and...