‘A Peril to the Bench of Bishops’: Sisterhoods and Episcopal Authority in the Church of England, 1845–1908

• Autores: Susan Mumm
• Localización: Journal of ecclesiastical history, ISSN 0022-0469, Vol. 59, Nº 1, 2008, págs. 62-78
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper reflects on the uncomfortable relationship between gender, religion, authority and influence in the Victorian Church of England, using the example of the ecclesiastical response to the rise of Anglican religious communities for women in the second half of the nineteenth century. Anglican sisterhoods occupied equivocal and disputed space within the Victorian Church of England, proclaiming their loyalty to the Church but unfettered by any ecclesiastical legislation or tradition that would have compelled them to obey the bishops. In a society that assumed that obedience to lawful authority was a natural attribute of godly women, their ambiguous and improvised relationship with the church hierarchy created enormous tension as well as considerable hostility.