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Reconsidering Catholic Lay
Womanhood

This book offers a new perspective on the often-overlooked lives of lay women
in the English Roman Catholic Church. It explores how over a century ago in
England some exceptional Catholic lay women – Margaret Fletcher, Maude
Petre, Radclyffe Hall, and Mabel Batten – negotiated non-traditional family
lives and were actively practicing their faith, while not adhering to perceived
structures of femininity, power, and sexuality. Focusing on c. 1880–1930,
a time of dynamism and change in both England and the Church, these re-
markable women represent a rethinking of what it meant to be a lay women
in the English Roman Catholic Church. Their pious transgressions demon-
strate the multiplicity of ways lay women powerfully asserted aspects of their
faith while contravening boundaries traditionally assumed for them in an os-
tensibly patriarchal religion. In fact, the Church could be a place for expres-
sions of unconventional religiosity and reinterpretations of womanhood and
domesticity. Connecting together the lives of these women for the first time,
this work fills a lacuna in the scholarship of modern Catholic and gender his-
tory. Drawing from private collections and numerous archives, it illustrates
the surprising range of modes of Lived Catholicism and devotion to faith.
Students and scholars of Catholicism, gender, and LGBTQIA+ studies will
find significant merit in a book that assigns lay women a more prominent
role in the English Catholic Church and offers examples of the flexibility of
Roman Catholicism.

Kathryn G. Lamontagne is a lecturer at Boston University where she teaches

history and social sciences.
Routledge Studies in Religion

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Edited by Thomas G. Kirsch, Kirsten Mahlke and Rijk van Dijk

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religion/series/SE0669
Reconsidering Catholic Lay
Womanhood
Pious Transgressors in Late Nineteenth
and Early Twentieth Century England

Kathryn G. Lamontagne
First published 2024
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2024 Kathryn G. Lamontagne
The right of Kathryn G. Lamontagne to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-032-26770-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-29286-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-30086-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003300861

Typeset in Sabon
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For my parents, who always had faith in me

For Charlie and Rick, who love me the most

&

Providence
Contents

Acknowledgments viii
List of Abbreviations xi
Terminology xii

Introduction 1

1 Catholicism and Lay Womanhood 21

2 Margaret Fletcher: A Middle-Class Convert 56

3 Maude Petre: Modernism, Cohabitation, and Respectability 88

4 The Society Sapphists: Mabel Batten and Radclyffe Hall 124

Conclusion: Making Connections among Lay

Catholic Women 158

Bibliography 164
Index 185
Acknowledgments

This book is the result of many years of research that began when I first
moved to the Southeast of England from New England over 20 years
ago. As a newcomer, later as an ex-patriate, then immigrant, and finally a
naturalised British citizen, I was incredibly curious about the position of
the Catholic faith in my new country. This book is the result of taking the
time to understand the culture and sensibilities of my new home, while
considering the true catholic, or “universality” of the Catholic faith. My
curiosity was nurtured by a great number of academics, archivists, English
Catholics, priests on both sides of the ocean, and, of course, my family and
friends.
Boston University – on both sides of the Atlantic – has been my “home”
since 2005 and provided the impetus for the manuscript research. Par-
ticular thanks must be extended to the staff at Boston University London
(Michael Peplar and Alison Campbell) for offering me a working home
at their campus – which remains a home thanks to Christine Goodfel-
low. My advisor at Boston University, Arianne Chernock, has been a
great support and mentor to me and I am so grateful that we were paired
together at BU. Her never-diminishing patience, kindness, and frequent
feedback have been crucial in moving this project forward to comple-
tion. Weekly conversations with other scholars of religion in the social
sciences at BU’s Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs under
the leadership of Timothy Longman have provided an excellent oppor-
tunity for feedback on drafts of various parts of this book in the past
two years. I am grateful to Jay Corrin, Lynn O’Brien-Hallstein, Deeana
Klepper, Maria Gapotchenko, Cathal Nolan, and Natalie McKnight at
BU for their insights, comments, friendship, and mentorship. The Divi-
sion of Social Sciences at BU’s College of General Studies is an incredibly
collegial place to work. I am grateful to have colleagues in our interdis-
ciplinary teams who are supportive of scholarship and teaching. I think
I have almost taught a generation at BU, and each student remains with
me in some way. Their enthusiasm for the future continues to delight me,
despite that I remain in the past.
 Acknowledgments ix

I am indebted to many, many people in England. In London, Cara Lan-

caster, the great granddaughter of Mabel Batten, kindly allowed me ac-
cess to her home, her kitchen table, and family papers. Even today, when
I pass by her door on a London bus, I am reminded of the importance
of family and memory. My deepest thanks to her and the entire Harris
family.
Institutional support was provided by archivists at the Westminster Dioc-
esan Archives who patiently helped me search through many (many!) boxes
for materials on the case studies. The archivists at the Southwark Diocesan
archive were kind enough to assist me with some of the more difficult hand-
writing in materials located there. This proved to be an infinite help when
going through the reams of primary materials from Maude Petre at the British
Library in Manuscripts.
Other assistance was gratefully received from the Ransom Center at the
University of Texas, numerous Roman Catholic priests in the United States
and Britain for clarification on matters of dogma and doctrine, Cambridge
University Library Services (Manuscripts Reading Room), the staff at the
London Library, Highgate Cemetery, the Daughters of the Heart of Mary,
the Catholic Women’s League, and the Institute of Education Library at the
University of London.
Most recently, the Catholic Record Society and Avril Baigent’s Lived Ca-
tholicism group from the Center for Catholic Studies at Durham have be-
come integral parts of my English Catholic life. I look forward to attending
these conferences. I also would like to acknowledge many helpful conversa-
tions with female scholars of religious studies that I hold in high esteem:
Nancy Ammerman, Maria Power, Pamela Walker, and Joy Dixon. Thank you
for all your comments and urging me on in support of my work. All errors
or moments overlooked and controversial choices made in the manuscript
remain my own.
Other thanks must be extended more widely. First, the brilliant Benjamin
Hannavy-Cousen provided editing support throughout the early stages
of the process – thank you for all your help. Further, Providence Col-
lege’s Dominican Friars educated me in Catholic Social Thought, theol-
ogy, history, and epistemology. This book could never have come to
fruition without this strong, scholarly background in Roman Catholi-
cism. Providence continues to be at the forefront of my heart and mind.
In addition, the Jesuit community at Bishop Connolly High School in
Fall River, Massachusetts must be credited with unlocking the flexibility
of Catholicism while nurturing an academic skepticism of the Church.
The Brothers of Christian Instruction at Connolly offered another per-
spective of the same faith. Combined with regular attendance at diocesan
parishes across the Atlantic World, these viewpoints made me increas-
ingly aware that the Catholic Church was changeable and vibrant; not
one thing, but many.
x Acknowledgments

Finally, I must offer my deepest thanks to my family. They have stood by

me from the first. My husband continues to support my research and the run-
ning of our family single-handedly while I am at the computer, in one library
or another, year after year. Our son has shared me with this book and my
students since he was a baby. You mean so much to me.
Many, many hours, weeks, and days of family life have been lost to un-
covering the lives of my four case studies. It is my distinct hope that this
book will help shed light on the history of the faith in England. Lay Catholic
women have long formed the basis of Lived Catholicism in many families,
and I hope that this study of exceptional women will contribute to the grow-
ing scholarship of Catholic women in England.
List of Abbreviations

BL British Library
CH Cara (Batten) Harris
CL Cara Lancaster
CWL Catholic Women’s League
CWSS Catholic Women’s Suffrage Society
FB Francis Bourne
GT George Tyrrell, SJ
LofC Ladies of Charity
MDP Maude Dominica Petre
MVB Mabel Veronica Batten
MF Margaret Fletcher
RH Radclyffe Hall
SDA Southwark Diocesan Archives
SJ Society of Jesuits
UT/UVT Una Vincenzo, Lady Troubridge
WDA Westminster Diocesan Archives
Terminology

The Catholic Church has long provided a space, albeit a contested one, for pious
women who both accepted and transgressed societal expectations. In this book,
I explore how a century ago in England some exceptional Catholic lay women –
Margaret Fletcher (1862–1943), Maude Petre (1863–1942), Radclyffe Hall
(1880–1943), and Mabel Batten (1856–1916) – who were actively practicing
their faith, while not adhering to perceived structures of femininity, power, and
sexuality, further negotiated non-traditional family lives and womanhood. The
idea of linking this particular cohort of women together was inspired by Martha
Vicinus’ commentary on the life of the religious lesbian Mary Benson, and how
“the atypical” can be used to illuminate the “typical,” regarding the “impact of
religion on 19th century women.”1
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of great
change in Europe. During this era, the Catholic Modernist Movement re-
flected this time of vibrant change when a push was made by the laity and
various members of the Church to recognize contemporary changes in Eu-
ropean society brought about by swift advances in technology and science.
George Tyrrell and Maude Petre, among others, participated in this Modern-
ist movement. Tyrrell and Petre lived together for a number of years but were
not married. Petre battled with members of the hierarchy for the future of
the faith – her gender repeatedly a source of dialogue. For her part, Marga-
ret Fletcher, a convert, was committed to the Catholic family but remained
single, advocating for women to find agency outside the home through work
and education. Her status as middle-class, single, woman and convert forced
her to work twice as hard to prove herself to the old Recusant families. Some
women modified orthodox family life in this period, such as Radclyffe Hall
and her lover Mabel Batten, queer women who shared a life together for a
number of years and were arguably the most pious of all the lay women.

Catholicism and England

It is crucial to begin this work with a short primer on some of the founda-
tional terminology on which I develop and build my argument regarding
gender, sexuality, and Catholicism from c.1880 to c.1930. Catholicism is the
 Terminology xiii

faith-focus of this study and references to faith, spirituality, and religion will
implicitly refer to Roman Catholicism unless specifically noted. Sometimes
these same terms are also used directly to refer to Catholicism and its dogma.
Dogma relates to the authoritative “truths of the Church” which come via
revelation, but also the Pope or Curia and general teaching.2 They form the
basic guiding principles of the religion. The expressions faith, spirituality,
and religion are often used interchangeably, reflecting common usage. Faith
is defined as a deeply held conviction or religious belief, but may also refer
to the institutional church, an implicit belief in its teachings and the public
practice of the religion. Religion is defined here as belief, organized practice,
faith life, social indicators, or a combination of all.
Other terms that I employ are more exacting to highlight clear breaks
from other branches of Christianity in their definitions. Magisterium
is the name and term for the authority that constitutes the teachings of
the Church. Magisterium covers everything from the ancient doctrines to
dogma, the encyclicals, and homilies promulgated at Mass. The Church fol-
lows a sacred tradition derived from the relationship between Jesus and his
12 male apostles as depicted in the New Testament – the Apostolic tradi-
tion. For Roman Catholics, the Apostolic tradition is what links the ancient
beginnings of the Church with the modern day. That original tradition has
since been augmented by other “truths” or dogma as defined over the cen-
turies. These aspects of dogma include, for example, sainthood, the concept
of the Trinity, the Immaculate Conception, and so on. Those “truths” then
become part of the Apostolic, sacred tradition and hence dogmatic. This
means that, theoretically, to be a Roman Catholic, one must believe in a
number of things as basic facts, or tenets. The study of Lived Catholicism
would make the case that to understand yourself as culturally Catholic
is sufficient to be “Roman Catholic,” without a deep need to understand
conceptually all of these nuances of dogma and doctrine. In Lived faith, to
“be” Roman Catholic is a flexible juxtaposition of belief, tradition, migra-
tions, family, habit, and place.3 However, traditionally Catholics sh/would
adhere to the basic tenets of the faith including transubstantiation, the in-
fallibility of the Pope, the Trinity, and participation in the Sacraments.4
Often it is the spirit of Biblical teachings that are followed in Catholicism,
rather than the literal reading of these words. Some aspects of the Bible are
dogmatic while others are not.
I use a large number of formal church documents that are foundational
or explanatory. A Papal Bull is the highest, most formal document written
by the Pope. An encyclical is the next most important: it is a teaching docu-
ment written by the Pope and his advisors (those bishops and cardinals pre-
sent in the Vatican) to counsel on Church teaching. The encyclical would
then be promulgated to the people. Encyclicals may be reminders (as in the
case of Humani Generis Redemptionem, 1917, which advocated better lo-
cal preaching), condemnations (Lamentabili Sane Exitu, 1907), or exhor-
tations on adopting certain stances on issues such as work, peace, or war
xiv Terminology

(for example, Rerum Novarum, 1891 or Amoris Laetitia, 2016).5 A motu

proprio is a document written by the Pope without the aid of anyone in the
hierarchy. As the leader of the Roman Church, the Pope’s writings always
hold special importance, but the style of the writing (i.e. whether it is a Bull,
an encyclical, and so on) tells the reader who the intended audience is – the
hierarchy, a specific state, or the people of the Church.
I discuss the Modernist movement in the Catholic Church and Maude Pe-
tre’s involvement, specifically, as it related to papal encyclicals in 1907. The
Catholic Modernists rejected many aspects of the “man-made” traditions
of the Church, feeling they lacked justification. One such tradition that they
took exception to was papal infallibility, which was officially promulgated
as dogma at the First Vatican Council, 1869–1870. However, it should be
understood that,

The mere fact that the pope should have given to any of his utterances
the form of an encyclical does not necessarily constitute it an ex-cathe-
dra pronouncement and invest it with infallible authority. The degree
in which the infallible Magisterium of the Holy See is committed must
be judged from the circumstances, and from the language used in the
particular case.6

Therefore, the encyclicals are not necessarily “Catholic Law” per se but
are instead either warnings or advice from the Pope. They may also be docu-
ments containing the strongest suggestion that their advice be heeded.7 So,
while it is not forced upon a Catholic to follow a “law” outside of dogma,
one should also not advertise any heterodox opinions, which can result in ex-
communication. The Modernists who rejected infallibility often danced with
excommunication, but those who rescinded their heretical stances remained
in the Church. Disagreeing with anything ex-cathedra can result in accusa-
tions of apostasy or heresy. Ex-cathedra means, literally, “from the seat” and
infers that a decision or writing made ex-cathedra comes directly from the
Pope, with his full authority resting upon it.
Further, I am employing “Modernist movement” or “Modernist” specifi-
cally to refer to the Catholic movement, or active participants. The term
“modernity” will be used in reference to the secular, historical moment.
Modernity, in this case, is defined broadly as the break with the Victo-
rian past. Note, when referring to the Modernist movement in the Catho-
lic Church I have indicated this by capitalizing the term “Modernism/t.”
Catholic Modernism. Modernism was a clash over “the rights and limits”
of “ecclesiastical authority,” but also “the position of the Pope in relation
to bishops and faithful.”8 Modernists sought to engage with historical and
scientific developments in the secular world, in light of their faith. They
sought a Church with room for more opinions, rather than limited to those
from above, i.e. the Pope and the Curia, in a more “democratic” style of
discernment of issues of dogma.
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