By Laine Wood
JASNA-NC hosted speaker Brenda S. Cox, from JASNA-GA, for the March meeting to discuss the clergy in Jane Austen’s novels. Cox’s knowledge of Georgian clergy was informed by extensive research and its representation in Austen’s works. Building on the foundation of the role of the clergy in Austen’s life, Cox discussed the role of the Church of England, as well as the influence of other spiritual paths (e.g., dissenters and non-conformists, Baptists, Quakers, and Methodists).
Delving into specifics and nuances of the clergy, we learned the differences between rectors, curates, and vicars; how they were compensated; what salaries they earned; and how those salaries compared in social status. To help put the latter in perspective, Cox used annual salaries as well as familiar characters and families from Austen’s works to illustrate salaries of the clergy, even including how many servants each salary range would employ. Bishops earned the highest salary and were compared to having a standard of living like Mr. Darcy, whereas the Elton’s of Emma were more middling in income.
According to Cox, the most common wage bracket was £500 per annum, which netted three servants (two female and one male), and is the yearly income range Jane, her mother, and sister lived on following Mr. Austen’s death. For character comparison, this is the situation that the Dashwood’s found themselves in following the death of Henry Dashwood. Clergymen were further discussed in terms of status, roles served in the parish beyond clerical duties, the process by which one becomes a clergyman (including educational requirements), how clergymen would be addressed, and the availability of livings and church positions.
We were pleased to also have with us Farther Martin, Vicar and Warden of Edenham Regional House in Lincolnshire, England. Father Martin was gracious enough to answer questions by attendees and augment information provided by Cox. Most interesting was Father Martin’s response to questions regarding changes in the clergy since the Georgian Era, including an anecdote about how he became appointed vicar at Edenham by a patroness, much like Mr. Collins was appointed by Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Father Martin also answered questions about clerical behaviors and procedures in Austen’s works, such as how, or if, church services were held in Emma during Mr. Elton’s absence.
Brenda Cox presented her research in a way that many members communicated was most interesting and helped elucidate the role of the clergy in our beloved stories. It is the details of these men – their education, their appointments, and their roles – that qualify their prominent place in Austen’s works. With Austen’s father, as well as two of her brothers, being clergymen, Austen pivoted much of the moral principles that existed in her works and story arcs based on her own knowledge, experience, and faith. The clergy did more than just hold space in her novels. Just as they did in real life, the clergy in Austen’s works were intimately, politically, spiritually, and financially tied to the ebb and flow of the society about which she wrote.
To learn more from Brenda, check out her blog, Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen; her website features many engaging articles and posts. You can also contact Brenda through her website with any questions you may have. We all look forward to Brenda’s upcoming book Fashionable Goodness; it is sure to be packed with so much wonderful context on the church and Christianity in Austen’s time!
The nothing of conversation has its gradations, I hope, as well as the never. A clergyman cannot be high in state or fashion. He must not head mobs, or set the ton in dress. But I cannot call that situation [being a clergyman] nothing which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind, individually or collectively considered, temporally and eternally, which has the guardianship of religion and morals, and consequently of the manners which result from their influence. No one here can call the office nothing. If the man who holds it is so, it is by the neglect of his duty, by foregoing its just importance, and stepping out of his place to appear what he ought not to appear.
Edmund Bertram explains the importance of the clergy to Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park