Josephine Butler (pictured above) the Christian feminist and social reformer, died today in 1906. In 1864, her youngest child, Eva, five years old, fell in the stairwell of the family home and died. The tragedy deeply affected Butler, and seeking to ‘find some pain keener than my own’ began attending a local workhouse where she sat with the women, many of them sex workers, praying and reading the Bible with them. In the 1870s, she campaigned against the forced medical examination of women suspected of being involved in sex work, which she characterised as ‘steel rape’. In the 1880s, she worked for an end to child prostitution and trafficking to Europe, which led to the age of consent in Britain being raised from 13 to 16 years, as well as for the right of women to vote and to have a better education. Her compassion for the plight of working women, and her courageous political activism helped shape the pursuit of women’s rights long after her time.
‘I dropped on the floor to be nearer and in the midst of them, and spoke words which I cannot remember, but to this effect: “Courage, my darlings! Don’t despair; I have good news for you. You are women, and a woman is always a beautiful thing. You have been dragged deep in the mud; but still you are women. God calls to you, as He did to Zion long ago, Awake, awake! Thou that sittest in the dust, put on thy beautiful garments.”’ Josephine Butler, Autobiographical Memoir
Bernard Gui, infamous as a medieval inquisitor – partly thanks to his cameo appearance in the novel The Name of the Rose – died today in 1331. Gui was chief ‘inquisitor of heretical depravity’ (as he styled himself) of Toulouse, France, at a time when alternative religious movements were growing in the Languedoc region of France. Over his 16 year career, he punished heretics by sending some on pilgrimage; forcing others to wear yellow heretic crosses sewn into their clothes; committing some to perpetual imprisonment; tearing down the houses of others and turning them into rubbish heaps. He sent 41 people to be burned alive for following beliefs that were condemned by the Church.
It is the feast day of Frances Joseph-Gaudet in the Episcopal Church of the United States. Born the child of an enslaved father, Joseph-Gaudet began visiting prisoners in New Orleans, where she prayed and sang hymns with them. She soon started writing letters, supplying clothes, shoes, books and newspapers, and advocating for prisoners before judges. She is honoured as a prison reformer, missionary, advocate, and educator.
‘I have a few critics among my own race, who have tried to discourage me by saying it is not a woman’s place to visit prisons and courts; but, as St. Paul says, “None of these things move me,” for I love my people. I am trying to lift fallen humanity, to raise the moral standard higher, and above all, to please God.’ Frances Joseph-Gaudet, He Leadeth Me
Grigori Rasputin died in bizarre circumstances today in 1916. A dissolute Siberian monk, he gained control over the family of Tsar Nicholas II by ‘healing’ their son Alexei of haemophilia. Authenticated accounts of his assassination agree that he consumed enough poisoned gateaux and wine to kill a regiment, and when that had no effect, his assailant emptied a revolver into him. The gang who plotted his death wrapped up the corpse and started celebrating, when he leapt up and tried to strangle one of them. He was shot four more times, wrapped up again and thrown into the river. The police autopsy found that he had died of a combination of the cold and drowning.
Heinrich Bünting, a German pastor and map-maker, died today in 1606, in his hometown of Hannover. In his 30s, he produced a bestselling book, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (A Journey Through the Holy Scriptures) with woodcut maps of the Holy Land picturing the journeys of the patriarchs, prophets and kings of the Old Testament, and of Jesus, Mary and the apostles in the New. Three of the maps picture Europe as a robed queen (Italy is her right arm), Asia as a winged horse, and the continents of the world as a clover leaf.
Image: National Portrait Gallery under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DEED