Sick cows and the Archbishop

In 1866, cattle plague was seen as a sign from God. Matthew Cragoe looks at the ensuing spiritual crisis

Cattle plagues in this country are nothing new. Exactly 130 years ago, in the early months of 1866, the nation was gripped by panic as rinderpest cut a deadly swathe through the kingdom's horned population. Within eight months, three times as many cattle had died from the disease as did all the human beings claimed by the cholera outbreak around the same time.

The affect upon counties like Cheshire, the dairying capital of England, was catastrophic: approximately 140,000 of 200,000 head of cattle in the county were either killed by the disease or compulsorily slaughtered when suspected of carrying it.

A crisis of these dimensions naturally raised serious questions. What was responsible for the disease? Why had it been sent? In seeking answers, the Victorians turned not only to science, but also to religion.

In the middle of the last century, people inhabited a world still deliberately constructed by an omniscient Creator. Thus it seemed perfectly natural that the government should ask The Archbishop of Canterbury to compose a prayer "For Relief from the Plague now existing amongst Cattle", even as it set in train a scientific investigation. The prayer was read in all churches for the duration of the outbreak.

Six months later, when science had still not found an answer, the Church went a step further, and appointed public "Days of Humiliation" where a proper display of communal penitence could be made. In towns like Ipswich and Canterbury, even in London itself, businesses closed and people hurried to the Services. The hope of those who attended was not simply relief from the plague, but enlightenment as to its moral dimensions.

The cattle plague was interpreted as part of a continuing dialogue between the Almighty and His fallen children. As one Herefordshire church warden remarked, he wanted to know "whether in this AD 1866, the Almighty dealt with His people as He did with the Israelites of old".

People also wanted to know why God had chosen to afflict the cattle. What message was it intended to convey? Here, many answers were forthcoming. Dean Close, in Carlisle, identified the vice of drunkenness as the one "more especially calculated to provoke the Divine displeasure". In Birmingham, Dr Miller blamed non-observance of The Sabbath. Within weeks of the churches in England sending up their prayers, the cattle plague also began to abate.

In the more secular 20th century, the connection between prayer and miraculous intervention seems more tenuous. Yet as a community, we have indulged in considerable public soul-searching as we seek to develop a moral framework within which to understand BSE. And while few might identify drunkenness or non-observance of the Sabbath as the chief causes of our plight, good old-fashioned sins such as greed and love of lucre have been frequently highlighted. Perhaps in 1996, as in 1866, to quote the Archbishop of Canterbury, "we worthily deserve by chastisement, and our Sin is ever before us".

The writer is senior lecturer in British History at the University of Hertfordshire.