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Faith Matters in Jane Austen

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Faith Matters in Jane Austen FAITH MATTERS IN JANE AUSTEN The Clergy, the Church, and Christian Life JANE AUSTEN’S FAITH AND FAMILY The clergy she knew and evidence of her faith Jane Austen knew a lot of clergymen, both Jane Austen’s Clerical Connections socially and through her family. This list is likely not exhaustive. Relatives Friends and Neighbors ◦ Father: George Austen ◦ Godfather: Samuel Cooke ◦ Maternal Grandfather: Thomas Leigh ◦ Suitors: Samuel Blackall, mystery man at the seaside (family legend) ◦ Maternal Great Grandfather: Theophilius Leigh ◦ Various Neighbors: James Digweed, George ◦ Great Uncle: Thomas Leigh Lefroy and 2 of his sons, Terry family, Peter ◦ Brothers: James and Henry Debary, Fulwar Craven Fowle, Henry Rice, Tom Chute, Charles Powlett ◦ Cousins: from the Leigh and Austen families (also with the surname Cooke) ◦ Acquaintance: James Stanier Clarke (librarian of the Prince Regent) ◦ Uncles: Thomas Leigh, Henry Austen, William Cooper ◦ Parson’s Wives: Martha Lloyd and her daughters Martha (Jane’s eventual sister-in-law) and Eliza, Anna (Jane’s niece) Austen’s Clerical Characters ◦ Edward Ferrars, Sense and Sensibility ◦ Mr. Collins, Pride and Prejudice ◦ Edmund Bertram, Mansfield Park ◦ Dr. Grant, Mansfield Park ◦ Mr. Elton, Emma ◦ Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey ◦ Charles Hayter, Persuasion ◦ Rev. Dr. Shirley, Persuasion ◦ Mr. Watson, The Watsons Steventon Rectory ◦ Jane Austen was born at Steventon Rectory, where she lived the first 25 years of her life. ◦ Her father, George Austen, held the position of rector at Steventon and the neighboring Deane ◦ At Steventon, in Northern Hampshire, the Austens enjoyed a good community of neighboring villages and relatives, from whom they enjoyed friendships, intellectual companionship, and gentility ◦ When George Austen retired in 1801, he gave the living to his eldest son James, who had served as curate at Deane (also given to him by his father). It was incumbent on relatives to supply livings to their family members, if they could. Edward Austen Knight, Jane Austen’s brother who was adopted by the Knight family, supplied a curacy to his brother Henry at Chawton. Jane Austen’s Prayers ◦ We have three prayers attributed to Jane Austen in family manuscripts. Each was intended for reading in the evening for devotion with the Lord’s Prayer to follow. The Austen family often enjoy reading together before bedtime from novels, poetry, sermons, and from pieces Jane wrote. Before bed, they would likely do family prayers. ◦ Jane’s prayers closely echo the Book of Common Prayer in their format and petitions. Each evening prayer expresses reflections on the day, gratitude for blessings, and offers petitions for safety, health, travel, and comfort. ◦ Jane’s prayers indicate a deep and devout faith, and it is possible that she considered religion too serious a matter to have her characters talk about continuously (though there is certainly religious feeling in her novels). Her sincere religious faith manifests in her novels, especially in her emphasis on her heroines’ self-reflection and self-knowledge, as well as the strengthening of their moral fiber through crises. ◦ Bruce Stovel notes that Austen’s prayers share a theme of “the struggle for Christ-like forbearance and charity,” much like Jane Bennet exemplifies and Elizabeth Bennet acquires in Pride and Prejudice (167). Stovel also labels Pride and Prejudice as a “drama[] of self-discovery,” much in line with the language of the prayers (177). Mr. Darcy’s reflections on thinking “meanly of the world” at the end of the novel closely matches sentiments in Austen’s third prayer about thinking too severely of others (177). Copies of the prayers, like this one, hang on the walls at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, UK. Jane Austen’s Devotional ◦ One of the devotionals Austen is known to have owned is William Vickers’s A companion to the altar: shewing the nature & necessity of a sacramental preparation in order to our worthy receiving the Holy Communion, to which are added Prayers and meditations (1793). ◦ Her great-niece Florence Austen states, “this book of devotions always used by Jane Austen, we used to be told by Aunt Cassandra.” ◦ Vickers’s text offers prayers and meditations that advises detailed self- examination prior to every occasion when Holy Communion was taken (communion was usually only offered a few times a year for very special occasions). ◦ The Companion places extreme emphasis on the need for a candidate to thoroughly examine their own lives and deeds and to be truly penitent before taking the sacrament. Irene Collins calculates that it would take several hours to fully carry out Vickers’s advice. Where Jane Worshipped: Steventon Plaque in St. Nicholas, Steventon Interior of St. Nicholas Church, Steventon Where Jane Worshiped: Bath St. Mary’s Chapel, where Austen is thought to have Spire of Walcot Church, 1790. This is the only church worshipped in 1799 named in Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen uses the word ‘church’ or ‘churches’ 45 times in her novels, but The Octagon Chapel, where it is thought Jane Austen worshipped Walcot Church is the only one ever named. Walcot while living in Bath. There are, of course, other possibilities, since Church is also where George Austen’s funeral was held; she and her family lived in different areas of Bath. Jane could not attend, as per the custom that ladies not attend. Where Jane Worshiped: Kent Church of the Holy Cross, Goodnestone, St. Laurence-the-Martyr Church, Godmersham, Near Jane’s sister-in-law’s family estate where Where Jane would worship when visiting her brother Jane and Cassandra would visit. Edward Austen-Knight’s Kent estate Godmersham Park. Where Jane Worshiped: Chawton Exterior of St. Nicholas Church Interior of St. Nicholas Church Jane Austen’s Cross Necklace ◦ Jane and Cassandra Austen received the gift of topaz crosses on gold chains from their naval brother Frank in 1801. ◦ Austen writes in her letters on the necklaces: “He has received 30£ for his share of the privateer & expects 10£ more—but of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce in presents to his Sisters. He has been buying Gold chains & Topaze Crosses for us;— he must be well scolded” (26–27 May 1801). ◦ Jane was well-pleased with the gift, though she teases about scolding Charles for his generosity. ◦ The topaz cross is one of the few pieces of jewelry Jane owned. ◦ Likely inspired by the gift of the topaz cross necklace, Jane Austen has her heroine Fanny Price receive a similar gift from her sailor brother William in Mansfield Park. ◦ Fanny receives an amber cross, which is not as expensive as the topaz cross Jane received. William Price would not have been able Topaz cross necklaces belonging to the Austen sisters. to afford a topaz cross, and the amber cross is comparable with his On the upper left is Jane’s cross; on the lower right is income. Cassandra’s. Austen’s Faith & Her Novels ◦ While biographers and scholars focus on Austen’s later novels as having a more overt religious valence, there is a pervasive sense of Austen’s faith throughout all of her novels even if there aren’t many specific references to religion. The values her characters hold stem from her religious beliefs; her novels espouse self- examination, self-improvement, forgiveness, repentance, forbearance, a belief in the transformative power of love, reason, care for neighbors, appreciation for nature/creation, and morality. ◦ Laura Mooneyham White notes, “The world of her novels is a Christian one in which worldliness competes against traditional orthodoxy and moral precepts. Living in the real world, Austen shows, is the best test of one’s Christian values, and the novels rest on this foundation of Christian purpose” (66). ◦ Michael Giffin observes that Austen’s novels participate in the idea of salvation, noting that the Greek root of salvation is soteria; soteria has a variety of meanings, including wholeness, health, preservation from disease, and self-knowledge. Giffin contends that Austen’s novels seeks the physical and emotional sense of soteria for the characters and communities. Giffin writes, “Austen’s primary theme is social being and social becoming, with a focus on the potential of maturity and the consequence of immaturity. For Austen, interpretation is the key to maturity and the soteria that maturity confers. Maturity depends on a character interpreting self, Watercolor of Jane Austen, world, and other “correctly”; and on arriving at a ‘proper’ understanding of their painted by her sister Cassandra dependent and interdependent social context.” Where Jane is Buried: Winchester Cathedral A statue of Austen at one of her three memorials in Winchester Cathedral. She died in Winchester in July 1817, and her modest funeral was held before services one Sunday morning. She lies Austen’s gravestone. under the floor of the north It honors her virtues, but aisle of the nave. The exterior of Winchester Cathedral, a building does not mention her Jane admired. writing. CLERICAL MATTERS Clergy in Jane Austen’s England Education for the Clergy ◦ Oxford and Cambridge Universities supplied the clergy for the Church of England. ◦ These universities were deeply committed to defending the established faith, which the government and society were believed to rest upon. ◦ The undergraduate course of study consisted of the classics (Latin and Greek) and the ‘sciences’ (logic, rhetoric, Euclid, morals, and politics). 19th Century Oxford Clergymen received a general education, rather than a theologically specific one; caring for the souls of the parish involved so many things besides the conduct of public worship that a general course of study was considered more valuable than narrowly professional study. ◦ There would be some divinity lectures one could attend, but the university student was there more for general professional training (becoming a clergyman was a profession in Austen’s day more so than a calling as we understand it now).
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