Religious life in England

Front matter

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Preface

Of all the Christian systems, Protestantism is the one which is best suited to constitutional government. On the one hand, it possesses enough of the principle of authority to shed its hallowing influence over the monarchy ; and on the other, it leaves sufficient room for the liberty of thought, so as to admit the right of discussion, the principle of independent enterprise, and the intervention of the country generally in the affairs of state.

As every nation is to some extent restricted by its history, its traditions, and its peculiar genius, it has a good right to have an ideal of its own. Thus it has in no way entered into my thoughts to propose for France that type of religious or political institutions which Great Britain has thought proper to choose for herself. But I can fearlessly recommend the wise example which the English have presented to the world at large in tlirowing aside beforehand, as regards questions of faith, all those obstacles which in material affairs might oppose the development of liberty.

Whilst this book was being written, some grave dissensions have lately broken out amongst the ministers of the Church of England. It is not, on any account, expedient for us to enter into this sacred arena, or to mix ourselves up with the

PREFACE.

learned combatants. But perhaps a foreigner may be permitted to offer to both sides a few words of sincere and disinterested advice. If England is tired of her political liberties, if she recoils affrighted from the requirements of modern intellect, simple means are at her disposal to cut the matter short : let her go back to the bygone rites and bygone dogmas which she threw off three centuries ago. In them only, will she find an anchor against the waves of progress. If, on the contrary, she has faith in herself and her future; if she wishes to preserve intact that spirit of free inquiry, and of free individual action, which has been her source of strength in manufactures, science, and political economy; if the contest with the opinions of the age does not intimidate her, — she will take good care not to retrace her steps towards an obsolete system of religion, which, in spite of the disguise under which they seek to cloak it, is, after all, but the spirit of moral servitude.

ALPHONSE ESQUISOS.

Chapter I. Page

Religious life in the country — An English parish — The difference between an English and a French village — The parsonage — Why the clergyman's residence is sometimes in a state of dilapidation — What is a living? — Origin of the right of patronage — How it happens that the advowson, or right of presentation, is a saleable property, and purchaseable by auction — Who exercises this right? — How does a man become a clergyman? — The Curate's life — Whom does he marry ? — Are the English Clergy paid by the State ? — When and how the tithes were commuted — Various sources of income — Poor livings — Sydney Smith — The Clergyman's wife — Various plans for bettering the condition of country Incumbents — Difference between the Rector and the Vicar — Influence of Curates on the agricultural classes — Relations between the Incumbent and the Bishop — Parochial duties of the Clergyman — Life in a parsonage i

Chapter II

The Church — The Sunday services — System of seats — Why there is no Altar in Protestant churches — Morning service — Why the English can call themselves Catholics — The Funeral Service — " Harvest-Home" — Church-rates and Vestry Meetings — The parish officers — Churchwardens — Village clubs — The Incumbent who is liked by the parishioners, and the Incumbent who is not liked — Charities and parochial visiting 41

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Page

The schools — Infant school — National school and Sunday-school — Andrew Bell — Joseph Lancaster — The system of mutual instruction — The National Society — The British and Foreign Schools Society — Reasons for the antagonism of these two institutions — The Revised Code — Objections to which it has given rise — Causes for the complaints and grievances of the Clergy — General views of the Government — Who nominates the Schoolmaster ? — Progress of education in England since the commencement of the Nineteenth Century— Bond of union between the Church and the school 67

Chapter IV

Religious life in towns — Lambeth Palace — The Chapel, the Great Hall, and the Guard Room — The prison in the Lollards' Tower — Dungeon of detention — Organisation of the Church of England — The two Primates — The Archbishop of Canterbury — Annual visit of the Stationers' Company to Lambeth Palace — The archiepiscopal city of Canterbury — The "Tabard" Inn — Chaucer and Shakespeare — Palace Street — St. Martin's Church — Origin of Christianity in England — St. Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury — External appearance of the cathedral and cloisters — Sunday service in a Protestant temple — Thomas a Becket — Nature of a cathedral chapter — Organisation of deans and canons — The chapter of Canterbury 93

Chapter V

Convocation ; its origin, and what it has become in course of time — Way of convoking and assembling this ecclesiastical assembly — Proctors — Act of Subscription — The Church Congress — Brother Ignatius — High Church and Low Church — Electoral reform in the Clerical Parliament — The Tractarians — Latitudinarians — The Broad

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Church — Dr. Arnold — Arguments in favour of a free interpretation of the Bible — Essays and Reviews — Dr. Maurice and Byron's Giaour — Eternity of punishment rejected as an impious doctrine — Influence of Clergy in the State — What are their political opinions ? — The Liberation Society — Ragged churches — Why the working classes will not go to the Established churches . . .130

Chapter VI

The Dissenting denominations— Their origin and cause — The Independents — Religious persecutions — Heretics judged and condemned by heretics— Chief tenets of the Congregationalists — One of their chapels — The Baptists — Mr. Spurgeon and his Tabernacle — Baptism of adults — The Society of Friends, or Quakers — Simplicity of their worship — Character of Quakers — Quakerism is decreasing, and why? — Methodists — John Wesley — Class meetings — Itinerant preachers — Ministry of women — The New Church — Swedenborg — How his doctrines came to be introduced into England — Unitarians — Their way of looking at Christianity — Open-air preachers — The prophetess interrupted by a donkey — Respect paid to liberty of speech — The Evangelical Alliance — One of the glories of Protestantism 158

Chapter VII

Those who go to Church and those who go out of Town — Nature's festivals — The Crystal Palace — Why we call it a temple — How it originated — Has it answered the end for which it was built ? — The amusements which frustrate the good intentions of its founders — Services which it might render to the education of the people . . .190

Chapter VIII

Geology the preface of history — The Island of Monsters — Races of men and their climates — Pythagoras' dream realised in the Crystal Palace — India badly represented — Ancient Egypt and its principal historical characteristics

CONTENTS.

PAGE

— A temple the production of imagination — Symbolical . architecture — Where is the mind of a people to be sought for? — Causes of the decay of primitive civilisations — The Assyrian Court — The Priest-Kings — Sensations on passing from the monuments of primitive Eastern communities to ancient Greece — Arrival in the modem world — A Eoman dwelling-house — The Alhambra — The dogma of Fatalism connects the Moors with the other quiescent communities 207

Chapter IX

Infancy of modern civilisations — Primitive forms of Christian art — The Byzantine period — The Middle Ages — Memorials of Catholic England — The Eenaissance — Its characteristics in England — The Elizabethan style — Connection between tbe Eenaissance and the Reformation — Services rendered by Henry VIII. to England in separating it from Eome — Why has Cromwell no statue in the Crystal Palace? — History of Manufacture poorly shown at the Crystal Palace — Alliance of the Useful and Fine Arts — The love of utility distinguishes modern communities — Conclusions to be drawn from the ensemble of this Temple of History — New system of education — To communicate ideas by means of external forms — The Crystal Palace a school of democracy . . . .238

CHAPTEE X.

Eeligious life in foreign missions — Ubiquity of England — Her moral conquests in the regions not under her sway — The Bible Society — Stereo-typography — The confusion of tongues — Difficulties met with in translating the Bible into the ancient Eastern dialects — William Wilberforce — Colporteurs — The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts — The Church Missionary Society — The Baptist Missionary Society — Museum of the London Missionary Society — A god eaten by rats — A new idol, manufactured by Christians — The Wesleyan Missionary Society 260

CONTENTS.

Chapter XI. Page

The John Williams — The Duff— History of the South-Sea missions — John Williams the missionary — His Messenger of Peace — Cannibal tribes — W. Ellis — Man-eating gods, even where their worshippers have ceased to eat one another — The savage's idea as to the religion of the English — Polynesian legends — It is easier to change the gods of a nation than the heart of man — Native agents — Story of Elekana — The missionaries teach the savages the use of the alphabet — How can a written message speak when it has no mouth ? — Introduction of domestic animals — A pair of shoes stolen by rats — An Englishwoman weeping because she had ceased to like beef — The savages' wives in bonnets and crinoline — The proselytism of fashions — Alteration in manners — Missionary life — Their houses — Their wives — Hurricanes — Man-stealers . 281

Chapter XII

A female missionary enthusiast — William Moister — Sally the African nursemaid — Departure for Africa — General appearance of the coast — The dead man's house — Journey through the desert — Waggons drawn by oxen — Travelling incidents and impressions — A black sovereign — Results of his sneeze — Have Englishwomen any finger-nails ? — Local fevers — Want of water — Opinions of the Negroes as to Christianity — Robert Moffat — Slavery and the slave-trade — A few words from Livingstone — Landing of a cargo of slaves rescued by English sailors — Opinions of the missionaries as to Negroes — The Madagascar mission — Itsmartj'rs — Ranavahona the bloodthirsty — Radamall. and. the Rev. W. Ellis — Why the present Queen of Madagascar defends and preserves her idols . . . .309

Chapter XIII

China opened to the English missionaries — How little we must believe in the intolerance of the Chinese — A mandarin's eulogium on the Gospel — Have the Chinese

CONTENTS.

PAGE

any religion ? — The small value they set upon their gods . — Why they will not change them — Material prosperity of idolatry — Has it, on this account, more enduring vitality ? — Plan of action necessary to convince the Chinese — Why they preserve their religion without believing it — Effects of the appearance of Christianity in India — Colenso and the Hindoo controversialists — Decline of idolatry — A god at the bottom of a well — Influence of education on the decline of the national religion — Associations of free-thinkers — Various prophecies announce a change of religion — Obstacles to the spread of Christianity — The system of caste — Answers of the Hindoos to the Christian missionaries— Hindoo plans to appease a restless soul — Itinerant missionaries — Women of India, and their so-called seclusion — Mrs. Cooper — Stationary missionaries — Mr. Joseph Higgins — A merry Christmas in the Bud wail Valley — New system of universal writing — Services to civilisation rendered by missionaries . .33°

RELIGIOUS LIFE IX EXGLAND.

Chapter I

Religious life in the country — An English parish — The difference between an English and a French village — The parsonage — "Why the Clergyman's residence is sometimes in a state of dilapidation — What is a living \ — Origin of the right of patronage — How it happens that the advowson, or right of presentation, is a saleable property, and purchaseable by auction — Who exercises this right? — How does a man become a Clergyman ? — The Curate's life — Whom does he marry 1 — Are the English Clergy paid by the State ? — When and how the tithes were commuted — Various sources of income — Poor livings — Sydney Smith — The Clergyman's wife — Various plans for bettering the condition of country Incumbents — Difference between the Rector and the Vicar — Influence of Curates on the agricultural classes — Relations between the Incumbent and the Bishop — Parochial duties of the Clergyman — Life in a parsonage.

One of the characteristic features of England since

the sixteenth century has been the possession of a

National Church, commonly supposed to have been

established by Henry VIII. A great many of our

neighbours, however, do not admire the conduct

of this king much more than we do, and question

B

EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

his right to the honour of having uplifted the banner of their faith. Henry VIII. caused a schism, but he did not found a religion. On the contrary, his violent passions, his persecutions, and his selfinterested views, only served to injure the cause of the Eeformation in Great Britain. The English are wont to turn to more ancient and a thousand times purer sources, when they try to seek out the origin of their system of worship. They will willingly trace up the commencement of their Protestantism to Wycliff, the reformer before the Reformation, the humble priest who was — after his death — judged and condemned for his religious opinions, whose very bones the Council of Constance ordered to be dug up. WyclifFs doctrines spread, like seed carried by the wind, among the Lollards and Hussites in England; and two centuries later, these germs were again blown over to the shores of England by the tempest raised by Luther over all Europe. It would certainly be rash to deny that the triumph of these new ideas was not assisted, on the other side of the Channel, by various political circumstances and by state policy ; but would it be right to say that it was a movement impelled by the higher ranks ? Every thing, on the contrary, leads us to believe that the religious reformation in England proceeded mainly from the clergy and from the people.

The first divines who revolted against Rome de-

EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

termined above every tiling to abolish the principle of absolutism in the government of the Church. In its tardiness, and in the long period of its development, their work much resembled the grain of mustard-seed spoken of by the Evangelist. At its

beginning it was next to nothing ; but as it increased and grew this germ became a great tree,

on which the fowls of the air — that is, the liberal

thinkers of the period — came to take their rest.

After the death of Henry VIII., in the too short

reign of Edward VI., these new doctrines much

overstepped the limits which a misty policy had laid

down for them. All know how much this growing

Church was afterwards troubled by the sanguinary reaction under Mary Tudor, the restless despotism of Elizabeth, and the fervid controversies in Charles I.'s time. Next, the transient triumph of the Puritans changed the form of the liturgy, abolished the episcopate, and made over the direction of spiritual matters to the Westminster Assembly, composed of one hundred and twenty divines and thirty laymen. The Restoration, however, soon revived the former Protestant hierarchy ; but the Established Church was again rent asunder by terrible divisions. The English too have had their St. Bartholomew's day, when two thousand ministers persisted in abandoning their livings, because of their unwillingness to accept the Prayer-book imposed upon them by authority ; and the anniversary of this event, which took place in 1662,

KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

is still celebrated with some bitterness in the Nonconformist cbapels.

The Church can hardly be said to have rested on an altogether firm foundation until after the revolution of 1688. The name of the National Church, which she still preserves, is intended to intimate that she is held as orthodox by state authority, and that to her alone is legally granted the right of levying tithes and other imposts ; also that she is partly maintained out of the public revenue, and subject also in part to state control. Any who refuse to ally themselves to the doctrines and the formularies of this State Church have full and free liberty to embrace any other mode of worship ; but they are bound, to a certain extent, to contribute pecuniarily towards the expenses of carrying on the divine service established by law. For a long period besides they were harassed with various civil disabilities, which have nearly all been abolished or modified by various acts of parliament, mostly since the commencement of the present century.

Religious sentiment has lost none of its vigour in England since its separation from the Church of Rome ; one would, on the contrary, compare it to a tree which only shoots out the more sturdily for having been lopped. The great movement of the Reformation, while simplifying the external ceremonies of worship, and relaxing in some respect the trammels of dogmatism, has, on the contrary,

RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

tended only to concentrate the aspirations of men towards the ideal. This Church, the child of Protestantism, is firmly based both on the Bible and on definite civil authority, and it occupies no inconsiderable position in the state ; but it is in the rural districts, where religion has a more decided influence on the daily life, that we shall find it best to study the organisation of the English parish. The cure of souls, the interests of the national worship, and the education of the people, are all committed to the rector's or vicar's charge ; and he therefore exercises a high moral authority in his own house, in the church, and in the schools, and his active influence is considered by all as one of the chief supports of the monarchical government. They are also helped in their labours by certain laymen, who in every thing bring to bear a system of local influence quite worthy the attention of any one seeking to penetrate into the real spirit of English institutions. The parish may be said to bear the same relation to the general construction of the Church as the cell does to the bee-hive.

Several favourable circumstances enabled me to study some of the aspects of religious life in an English village. The hamlet I am speaking of is composed of a group of scattered houses, some standing by the road-side, and some mounting the summit of a little hill, whilst many lie half hidden in the deep and shady lanes. Every thing wears a completely rural

EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

aspect; the clumps of trees, the orchards filling up the intervals between the cottages, and the hawthorn hedges (the resort of the robin), all seem a kind of link between the villa and the farm. As it is a cider country, the apple-trees are weighed down over the fences, covered all over with fruit made rosy on one side by the ripening sun. Few of the inhabitants are to be seen in the village : the men are in the fields ; and as to the women, they are far too busy in their cottages to sit and talk at their doors, as our labourers' wives in the south so readily do. The birds round the corn-stacks are more noisy than the women, and their twittering fills up the blank caused by the want of the children's voices, who are shut up during the day in the quiet school. To any one coming from London, the transition from all the noise and smoke to the rural quiet of a scene like this is full of a peculiar charm and soothing sweetness.

One thing which especially distinguishes English villages from ours is, that the former combine all classes of society within a limited circuit. The manor-house of the squire stands by itself, an ancient and venerable edifice, surrounded with lofty trees of a hundred years' standing, on which the rooks love to hold their nightly meetings, and to fill the air with their tumultuous cawing. A good rookery, be it remarked, is a great subject of pride with every English gentleman. On the top of the

EELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

liill stands a large stone house, inhabited by two ladies of good family, from the windows of which a thoroughly English landscape opens out to the view — the dark-green meadows, whose wavy outlines contrast well with the silvery mist of the evening sky. Other elegant villas, scattered over the neighbourhood, point out by their external appearance the refined habits of those who live in them. This Foliage is situated at more than a hundred miles from the capital, and seems at first sight to realise the ideal of one of the idyls of Gesner; but it is, on the contrary, nothing but a miniature of London set down in the midst of the country.

It is the habit in England of the most important families, instead of shutting themselves up in towns, to distribute themselves in little groups over the country districts. The constant dream of men of business who have made their fortunes is to settle themselves down in some rural neighbourhood, there to lead the lives of country gentlemen, and thus to swell the class of what are called the county families, — a rather numerous class, holding a middle place between business people and the nobility. The descendants of these 'parvenus generally continue to live on their estates, which are cultivated and beautified at great expense ; and the more fortunate among them very often marry into some of the oldest families of the country, infusing in this way fresh blood into the veins of the landed aristocracy, — so called on

RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

the other side of the Channel because they more belong to the land than the land belongs to them. The church occupies the centre of the village, a symbol, as it were, of the English pastor, who serves as a bond of union between the various elements of a society so imbued with religious influences. In his education and manners he is one of the upper classes ; in his evangelical character he is especially the property of the poor ; by the whole nature of his sacred charge he belongs in common to all men.

The vicarage, surrounded by walls and gardens, is naturally at a very short distance from the church; the entrance is through a gateway opening on to a lane, which, beginning among the dwellings, soon loses itself among the trees and fields. It is a building which certainly never proceeded, as a whole, from the brain of any one architect, but which has been formed by successive additions, just as the needs of domestic life became more extended and refined. An epitaph inscribed on one of the mossy gravestones in the churchyard tells us that a vicar of this parish, long since deceased, had added to his other merits that of building a kitchen to the parsonage at his own expense. The domestic offices, half hidden by a screen of foliage, the stables, and the coachhouse, all seem to indicate a rather later origin than that of the main body of the house. Be that as it may, the whole of the dwelling seems to breathe a quiet air of comfort — nay, even of sober luxury —

KELIGIOUS LIFE IN ENGLAND.

which presents a striking contrast to the humble and slovenly abodes of our cures cle campagne. Clusters of climbing plants cover nearly half of the front of the house ; and in the course of time they have shot up so high, so thick, and so vigorously, that it takes all the exertions of an old gardener, perched up on a ladder, either to prune them, or to nail their luxuriant branches to the wall. The other side of the house is fitted up with a long greenhouse, full of beautiful flowers, under the transparent roof of which twine the festoons of the vine, supporting here and there bunches of Muscat grapes.

The centre door opens into the hall, a sort of square vestibule, communicating on one side with the drawing-room, and on the other with the dining-room. The vicar works during the day in his library, also on the ground-floor. Folding-doors hide the staircase, which, divided into two branches, leads up to the bed-chambers. The latter are all separate, although joined by a long corridor, and are quite sufficient in number to accommodate the family, and at the same time to enable all the duties of hospitality to be fully exercised. From the windows of the first floor we can see a green lawn by the side of the flower-garden, bordered by lofty trees, among the summits of which the gray church-tower stands out in bold relief; its summit was formerly topped by a weathercock, which has been destroyed by lightning. There is also belonging to the parsonage an excellent kitchen-garden surrounded by walls, and a couple of large fields, the property of the church, where some sheep are peaceably feeding. On the clay I arrived there, these meadows were the scene of a rural fete ; flags were floating in the wind, tied at intervals to the branches of the apple-trees ; the ah' resounded with the joyous shouts of the children in the midst of their games ; and the grass was, as it were, all blooming with rosy faces animated by activity. They were celebrating the school feast.

It must be confessed that all the English parsonages are not like this. There are some which have fallen into a state of dilapidation and decay, which has latterly called forth the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities. In principle, a parsonage is bound to last for ever ; it is a spiritual property, which the new incumbent receives as a life-tenant at his induction to the living, and which he is bound to transmit in as good, condition to his successor. Spiritual property, however, when it consists of bricks and mortar, is not safer than any other from the injuries §f time ; and it must at least be often repaired if it is expected to be everlasting. There are some parishes where the income of the incumbent is not at all in accordance with the dimensions of his parsonage ; keeping up the house is then a heavy charge upon him ; and unless his religious character brings resignation with it, I can easily imagine he would not bless the costly residence that only makes

KELIGIOUS LIFE IX ENGLAND. 11

him the poorer. Is it not an every-day occurrence that the clergyman grows old. ? — it is the common lot — and unable even to watch over his own interests, he neglects those of his successor. The stones mve way by degrees, like the declining strength of the master; the floors tremble under even his uncertain step ; the roof sinks over his bowed head ; and the whole edifice seems to share the sad decrepitude of its inhabitant.

In a case like this, the successor has a right to bring an action against the last occupant, if he be still alive, or, if not, against his heirs ; kindly feelings, however, often prevent such measures being taken. Supposing that he enters upon them, a surveyor is named by each of the interested parties to examine into the state of the premises, and a third is appointed to reconcile any difference of opinion between them. The arbitrator's task, in the present state of the English law, is far from being so easy as one would imagine. A law-suit sometimes follows, which lasts for years, during which two advocates dispute over the ground — or rather over the house — foot by foot, and, by their successive efforts of eloquence, carry by assault the staircase to-day, the windows to-morrow, and then the roof. In any case, it is necessary that the last occupant should have left behind him sufficient means to cover the expenses of repairs; and this is not always the case. In this way, certain parsonages in Great

Britain have fallen into a state of great dilapidation, as has been proved by several official inquiries.

The parsonage forms a part of the clerical emolument, or, as it called, the living. To whom, then, it will be asked, do these livings belong ? They are generally the property of patrons, as they are called here.* It is not very difficult to get at the origin of this right of patronage. Formerly , the nomination of the ministers of worship belonged to the bishop of the diocese ; but afterwards, the lord of the manor, or any other great landowner, not satisfied at having built a church at his own expense, would perhaps set apart a portion of his estate, and encumber it with tithes in perpetuity, for the maintenance of a resident priest. The close union of the aristocracy and the clergy is nowhere more strongly marked than in Great Britain, as we may judge by the number of villages in which the church stands within a gunshot of the castle. Still, the fate of the two buildings has often been very different ; the castle is in ruins, and almost hidden