The Dark Period in Nursing 91 toward women. Luther was narrow in his views on women's sphere, and the controversial temper of the time was accountable for a prolonged loss of interest in things charitable and humane. The altered conditions in nursing brought about by the suppression of the monastic orders were especially striking in England, where, d^anges in under the violent Henry VIII., the dis- English solution of the monasteries was carried nursing out in a very drastic manner. There, it is believed, considerably more than one hundred hospitals were summarily wiped out of existence, with their parent orders, and no alternative provisions were made for the sick poor. Nor had secular nursing orders, such as the Flemish Beguines, developed in English life. The records and history of monas- tic orders of women in England indicate that, whatever their faults as a system may have been, there were great sweetness, charm, and usefulness found in the interior life. Fifteenth century mon- asticism remained there at its best. In buildings and gardens of the utmost beauty an activity of an idyllic character went on, full of gracious cul- ture, kindness, and loving charity. The nuns practised housekeeping, horticulture, agriculture, teaching, and nursing. This English Benedictine monasticism gave the example of many of the
