88 A Short History of Nursing distinct influence on nursing work and hospital organization. While the secular nursing societies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were gaining strength, many of the older, more conventional- Deteriora- tion in hos- ized orders approached a stage of stag- pitals and nation. Certain significant events nursing after the showed this tendency. In 12 12 the thirteenth bishops in council drew up regulations century for the French hospitals, including therein rules for the nursing staffs. It was decreed that all niirsing orders were to take vows of pov- erty, chastity, and obedience, and wear a religious garb. It was further decreed that, to economize the gifts of the faithful, the nursing work in hospi- tals should be performed by the smallest possible number of Sisters. The results of this policy of repression and overwork are clearly shown in the history of the nursing Sisterhood of the Hotel- Dieu of Paris, as it happens that unusually ample records are available dealing with the nursing service of that famous hospital. These records are written from the two opposite viewpoints, the secular and the clerical. The Sisters of the Hotel-Dieu in Paris had evolved from a little group of volunteers who took charge of the sick in the hospital when it was only
