| Summary: | This thesis investigates the role of print culture
in the re-definition of English midwifery practice during
the seventeenth century. The printed representations,
both visual and textual, of the Catholic midwife
Elizabeth Cellier in The Popish Damnable Plot (BM 1088,
1680), The Solemn Mock Procession (BM 1085, 1680), and
The Happy Instruments of England’s Preservation (BM 1114,
1681) will serve as a basis for my analysis.
As part of a larger body of Whig imagery produced in
London during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679—81, Cellier’s
representation consistently referred to her alleged role
in a ‘popish plot’ perpetrated by Catholics to kill King
Charles II. In defining Cellier as part of a treasonous
threat to the nation, this representation not only
targeted her supposed involvement in criminal activities,
but also focussed on her midwifery as being an integral
aspect of her criminality.
Licensed by the Church of England since 1534,
midwifery practice was exclusively the province of women.
Cellier’s representation as a ‘criminal midwife’ occurred
at a time when the traditional societal role and
organization of midwifery were being questioned.
Increasingly, midwives during this period were criticized
both by nonconformist groups critical of the Anglican
rituals of birth, and by medical practitioners interested
in controlling the supervision of childbirth.
My aim in this thesis, then, is to explore how
Cellier’s representation, while purporting to report a
crime quite separate from her profession, would in fact
serve to represent midwifery as a potentially criminal
and dangerous practice. In Chapter One, I will examine
both the political motivations behind her representation,
and the conditions in London for the production and
distribution of this type of printed imagery. Chapter
Two will deal with how the genres representing Cellier
were used to construct her as a ‘popish’ threat to
English national unity, while addressing nonconformist
audiences over the issue of exclusion. Finally, in
Chapter Three I will analyze how this criminalized
representation of Cellier as ‘popish’ involved and
coincided with both nonconformist critiques of Anglican
birthing rituals and attempts in medical discourse to
transform previous childbirth practices into a written
form of ‘professional’ medical knowledge. The overall
aim is to show how Cellier’s representation was part of
the process whereby traditional midwifery practice in
England was re-defined, a process which ultimately
resulted in the marginalization of women from midwifery
practice.
|
|---|
