The evangelical spirituality of a victorian feminist: Josephine Butler, 1828-1906

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Volumn 52, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 282-312

  Mathers, Helen ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33847003237     PISSN: 00220469     EISSN: 14697637     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022046901005966     Document Type: Review

References (104)

1. For Josephine Butler's role in the campaign see Glen Petrie, A singular iniquity: the campaigns of Josephine Butler, London 1971
2. Paul McHugh, Prostitution and Victorian social reform, London 1980
3. Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian society: women, class and the state, Cambridge 1980, 90-147
4. Her own account is J. E. Butler, Personal reminiscences of a great crusade, London 1898
5. For Josephine Butler's life and work see Barbara Caine, Victorian feminists, Oxford 1992, 150-95
6. Jenny Uglow, 'Josephine Butler: from sympathy to theory', in Dale Spender (ed.), Feminist theorists: three centuries of women's intellectual traditions, London 1983, 146-64
7. Margaret Forster, Significant sisters: the grassroots of active feminism 1839-1939, 2nd edn, London 1986, 168-202
8. There is a full-length biography, E. Moberley Bell, Josephine Butler: flame of fire, London 1962, but this is now outdated
9. Edited extracts from some of her autobiographical writings were published by George W. Johnson and Lucy A. Johnson as Josephine Butler: an autobiographical memoir, Bristol-London 1913
10. See F. Prochaska, Women and philanthropy in nineteenth century England, Oxford 1980, 182-221
11. The day is 30 December, the anniversary of her death. The campaign to declare her an Anglican saint was started by an Anglican priest, Joseph Williamson. He wrote two accounts of her spirituality and achievements, In honour bound, London 1971
12. and Josephine Butler: the forgotten saint, London 1977
13. Particular examples are discussed in the concluding section of this article. Alison Milbank, 'Josephine Butler: Christianity, feminism and social action',J. Obelkevich, L. Roper and R. Samuel (eds), Disciplines of faith: studies in religion, politics and patriarchy, London 1987, 154-64, criticises this undervaluing of religious conviction
14. Although the word 'feminist' was not used until 1897, its application to the Victorian context has been legitimised by recent women's historians, for example Jane Rendall who uses 'feminism' to denote 'the way in which women came... to associate together... to reorganise and to assert their common interests as women': The origins of modern feminism: women in Britain, France and the United States 1780-1860, Basingstoke 1985, 1
15. See also Caine, Victorian feminists, 4-7
16. J. E. Butler (ed.), Woman's work and woman's culture, London 1869, p. lvii
17. Nancy Boyd, Three Victorian women who changed their world: Josephine Butler, Octavia Hill, Florence Nightingale, New York-Oxford 1982
18. Walkowitz, Prostitution, 115
19. Boyd, Three Victorian women, 53, 54
20. University of Liverpool, MSS Butler, JB 1/4/5
21. David Bebbington, Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s, 2nd edn, London-New York 1993, 1-19
22. Mark A. Noll, 'Revolution and the rise of evangelical social influence in north Atlantic societies', in M. A. Noll, D. W. Bebbington and G. A. Rawlyk, Evangelicalism: comparative studies of popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles and beyond 1700-1900, Oxford 1994, 113-36
23. Boyd Hilton, The age of atonement: the influence of evangelicalism on social and economic thought 1795-1865, Oxford 1988
24. Noll, 'Revolution', 129-30
25. Sept. 1869, quoted in Johnson and Johnson, Autobiographical memoir, 91
26. Bell, Josephine Butler, 65
27. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in modern Britain, 133
28. Quoted in Johnson and Johnson, Autobiographical memoir, 100
29. For the Evangelical battle against the AntiChrist see Prochaska, Women and philanthropy, 208
30. She attended many different forms of Protestant service during her life. In 1874 she wrote to her sons from Paris 'we were rather far from Protestant church so we did not go today': 13 Dec. 1874, Butler correspondence, Fawcett Library, London, microfiche sheet 43. In 1893 she refused an invitation to meet the pope, saying 'if only to sit in a corner and look on while the Pope elevated the Host, I would not mind, but to take the Sacrament from him, I could not. It would probably mean, from their point of view, the first step to my becoming a Roman Catholic, and from my point of view it would be wrong, for I think their doctrine erroneous': J. E. Butler to her sons, 23 Dec. 1893, Butler correspondence, Fawcett Lib., MS file
31. Hilton, Age of atonement, 12
32. Quoted in J. E. Butler, Memoir of John Grey of Dilston, 1st edn, London 1869, 88
33. In this she was typical of a number of activists in the women's campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts. Clare Midgley cites Judith Walkowitz's calculation that one-third of them had some link with the women's anti-slavery movement and points out that both campaigns focused on the suffering of 'less fortunate sisters' who were the 'innocent and passive victims of male lust': Women against slavery: the British campaigns 1780-1870, London-New York 1992, 182, 172-4
34. John Grey's sister, Mrs Lundie Duncan, quoted in Butler, Memoir of John Grey, 13
35. J. E. Butler, Recollections of George Butler, Bristol 1892, 209
36. Anti-slavery was a perception, common in British and American Evangelical circles at mid-century, that slavery was a social and moral evil which should be gradually removed. Abolitionism, not part of the Evangelical mainstream in England or the USA in the 1830s and '40s, was a conviction that slavery was a personal sin to be confessed and expiated at once as part of a programme of immediate emancipation. For the USA see Richard J. Carwardine, Evangelicals and politics in antebellum America, Yale 1993, 139-43
37. Doreen Rosman, Evangelicals and culture, London 1984, 97-118
38. Idem, Recollections of George Butler, 156-7
39. Josephine Butler's attitudes to death are discussed in Boyd, Three Victorian women, 85-8. In view of the probable source of her name, it is a sad irony that the fictitious Eva also died young
40. See M. G. Jones, Hannah More, Cambridge 1952, 236
41. Boyd, Three Victorian women, 30
42. See, for example, Elizabeth Jay, The religion of the heart: Anglican Evangelicalism and the nineteenth century novel, Oxford 1979, 60-4
43. Butler, Recollections of George Butler, 63
44. George Butler's friend Froude was an Evangelical in his youth, but in later life rejected Christianity for ethical reasons: J. A. Froude, The nemesis of faith, 2nd edn, London 1988
45. and Herbert Paul, The life of Froude, London 1905
46. In later life Josephine commented that Froude and her husband seemed to have few beliefs in common, but shared a passion for outdoor pursuits, especially fishing: Recollections of George Butler, 264-5
47. Mill wrote a letter of support for the campaign in 1870: The later letters of John Stuart Mill: 1849-1873, IV: 1869-73, ed. F. Mineka and D. N. Lindley, Toronto-London 1972, letter 1513
48. Ralph Butler, writing about 1960, quoted by Beverley Grey: 'Sin is contagious: Josephine Butler's mission to reform', unpubl. MA diss. Bristol 1997, 31
49. Ralph's branch of the Butler family clearly did not like Josephine or her campaign and felt sorry for the long-suffering George who 'throughout his marriage...had had to provide a sense of humour for two'. A sympathetic family portrait is A. S. G. Butler, Portrait of Josephine Butler, London 1954
50. The marriage of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill may be seen as another example, as was the liaison of George Eliot and G. H. Lewes. In the latter case, Lewes formed the supportive side of a partnership which allowed George Eliot to write her novels. George Butler provided similar support for Josephine in her public campaigns. The Mill and Eliot/Lewes partnerships are described in Phyllis Rose, Parallel lives: five Victorian marriages, London 1983
51. 'Private Thoughts', Dilston, 22 July [1856], ibid
52. J. E. Butler to B. Jowett, n.d. (c. 1865), Butler correspondence, Fawcett Lib., microfiche sheet 2
53. Quote from Faber's Life of Jowett, in Bell, Josephine Butler, 79
54. 'Private Thoughts', 10 Mar. 1865, Northumberland CC, MSS Butler; ZBU E3/A2
55. J. E. Butler, The hour before the dawn, 2nd edn, London 1882, 95-7
56. The length of the spiritual journey is worth emphasising in the light of comments by both Glen Petrie and Barbara Caine, which suggest that Josephine's only spiritual crisis took place in her teens. The account of this crisis is well-known, since it is contained in Johnson and Johnson, Autobiographical memoir, but later crises are only detailed in the far less accessible 'Private Thoughts' journal: see Petrie, A singular iniquity, 27-30
57. 'Private Thoughts', letter to hersons, n.d. [after 1865], Northumberland CC MSS Butler, ZBU E3/A2
58. 'Josephine Butler: Christianity, feminism and social action', 157. Barbara Caine quotes a Butler prayer from their Oxford days, 'that a holy revolution might come about and the Kingdom of God might be established on the earth': Victorian feminists, 166-7
59. W. T. Stead, Josephine Butler: a life sketch, London 1887, 91
60. Butler correspondence, Fawcett Lib., microfiche sheet 2
61. J. E. Butler to Mrs H. J. Wilson, 8 Oct. 1873, n.d. (c. 1865), Butler correspondence, Fawcett Lib., microfiche sheet 37
62. Josephine had a meeting with Gladstone in 1872 at which she tried to convince him of her case but concluded, 'hope nothing from Mr Gladstone as Prime Minister in respect of our cause': J. E. Butler to H. J. Wilson, 23 Dec. [1872], quoted in 'Josephine Butler has her say about her contemporaries'
63. and Caine, Victorian feminists, 154. Caine emphasises Butler's liberal background and her commitment to the Gladstonian party even after the split in 1886
64. That the fight was against the institution and not just the regulation of it is clear from as early as 1871, when Josephine writes 'It only very gradually dawned with perfect clearness on my own mind, that it is the old, the inveterate, the deeply-rooted evil of prostitution itself against which we are destined to make war': J. E. Butler, Sursum corda, London 1871, 5 (consulted at the Fawcett Library)
65. Woman's work and woman's culture, p. lix
66. Eileen Yeo has recently used this quote to emphasise Butler's prophetic role: Radical femininity: women's self-representation in the public sphere, Manchester-New York 1998, 137
67. See Prochaska, Women and philanthropy, 14-17, 201-2
68. For Hopkins see S. Morgan, 'The power of womanhood: religion and sexual politics in the writings of Ellice Hopkins', in A. Hogan and A. Bradstock (eds), Women of faith in Victorian culture: reassessing the 'angel in the house', London 1998, 209-24
69. Luke vii. 50 (Authorised Version). The four examples of 'liberated' women are described without biblical reference, but can be identified as: the woman taken in adultery, John viii. 1-11; the Canaanite woman, Matthew xvii. 22-8; the 'woman in the city, which was a sinner', Luke vii. 36-50; and the woman with an infirmity, Luke xiii. 11-17: Woman's work and woman's culture, pp. lviii-lix
70. 'Private Thoughts', Feb. 1856, Northumberland CC, MSS Butler, ZBU E3/A2
71. The quotation is from J. Seeley's Ecce Homo (1866). Butler mentions the 'beauty' of the pages in this book describing Christ's dealings with women in Woman's work and woman's culture, p. lvi. In other respects she is critical of the book
72. Rendall, Origins of modern feminism, 73-107
73. Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, Family fortunes: men and women of the English middle class 1780-1850, London 1987, 148
74. Nancy Hardesty, in an American study, states that '19th century American feminism was deeply rooted in evangelical revivalism': Women called to witness: Evangelical feminism in the nineteenth century, Abingdon 1984, 9. This study is written from an Evangelical viewpoint, but makes a convincing case and notes the important link with a postmillennial world-view. It argues that once premillennialism (with its emphasis on the impossibility of human action to change the world) took over Evangelical thinking in the late nineteenth century, the nascent feminism within the Evangelical churches withered on the vine
75. Olive Anderson, 'Women preachers in mid-Victorian Britain: some reflexions on feminism, popular religion and social change', Historical Journal xii (1969), 467-84 at p. 484
76. Idem, Prophets and prophetesses: some thoughts for the present times, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1898, 5 (consulted at the Fawcett Library). The Joel text was also linked to prophecy of the 'last days', a recurrent theme in her writing at this time
77. Olive Anderson describes other examples of these 'inspired women', including Quakers, in 'Women preachers in mid-Victorian Britain'
78. J. E. Butler, Catharine of Siena, 4th edn, London 1885
79. Beverley Grey concludes that this biography, of all her works, seems 'most clearly to guide the reader into her own inner spirituality': 'Sin is contagious', 32
80. This part of Bell's biography contains some perceptive comments on Josephine's own mysticism. In relation to Catharine's Catholicism, Josephine Butler was unable to resist commenting that 'There can be little doubt that, had she lived two centuries later, in the midst of the convulsion which rent Christendom, she would have stood firm on the side of evangelic truth, and joined her protest to that of the Reformers': Catharine of Siena, 239, and also pp. 240-1
81. Eileen Janes Yeo has recently analysed the attraction of Catholic saints to Protestant feminists: Radical femininity, 127-48
82. Butler, Catharine of Siena, 47
83. Catherine Booth became the pioneer of the Army's work in France (as well as Switzerland) and was known as 'la Marechale' (the Marshal): Glenn Horridge, The Salvation Army: origins and early days 1865-1900, Goldalming 1993, 177
84. J. E. Butler, The Salvation Army in Switzerland, London 1883, 5
85. See also J. E. Butler, Une Voix dans le desert, Paris-Neuchâtel 1875
86. Idem, The Salvation Army in Switzerland, 201-5. In this passage she even suggests that the challenge was enhanced by Catherine's being young, of an age with the girls who had been degraded. She draws the analogy (pp. 202-3) with the Bible story of King Herod, whose conscience returned to condemn him when he believed he saw John the Baptist 'whom I beheaded! It is his ghost! He is risen from the dead!'
87. For the Holiness Movement see Bebbington, Evangelicalism in modern Britain, 151-80. Josephine's 'Private Record' diary (14 Sept. 1874), mentions that George went to hear Pearsall Smith speak 'and heard his prayers': Northumberland CC, MSS Butler, ZBU E3/A4
88. Butler, The Salvation Army in Switzerland, 7
89. Idem, The Salvation Army in Switzerland, 10
90. Butler, Sursum corda, 39
91. For the Purity Movement see Lucy Bland, Banishing the beast: English feminism and sexual morality 1885-1914, London 1995
92. J. E. Butler, Truth before everything, London 1898, 7-8 (consulted at the Fawcett Library)
93. Idem, Social purity, London 1879, 6-7 (consulted at the Fawcett Library). The woman referred to is, once again, Mary Magdalene. The same story is also quoted at length in Une Voix dans le desert (pp. 37-8) to shame the Parisian authorities who 'cast stones at the woman of immoral life'
94. During the same period she also published a Life of J. F. Oberlin, London 1882. Oberlin was a Protestant pastor from Alsace who defied the government, was arrested and maintained his faith through prayer
95. J. E. Butler, The lady of Shunem, London 1895, 33. The story is taken from 2 Kings iv
96. Idem, Silent victories, London 1900, 80-2. Many of the accounts of conversions are quoted, but 'winning Harry for Christ' is in her own words at p. 37
97. Another example is her article on 'St Agnes', written in 1893, which extolled the virtues of a young Roman girl who allowed herself to be martyred for her faith: University of Liverpool, MSS Butler, 11.58
98. Message from Mrs Butler to her 'praying friends', sent by Miss Forsaith from the London office of the Federation for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice, 13 May 1896, Butler correspondence, Fawcett Lib., MS file
99. Milbank, 'Josephine Butler: Christianity, feminism and social action', 154
100. Uglow, 'Josephine Butler: from sympathy to theory', 151
101. Beverley Grey sharply criticises Dale Spender, the editor of Feminist theorists, for, in another publication, 'dismissing her [Butler's] whole religious raison dêtre in four lines': 'Sin is contagious', 5
102. D. Hempton and M. Hill, Evangelical Protestantism in Ulster society 1740-1890, London 1992, 129
103. Another valuable volume, although its focus is wider than feminism or Evangelicalism, is Gail Malmgreen's Religion in the lives of English women 1760-1930, London 1986
104. Yeo, Radical femininity, 8, 127-48