Inactivity of the Church — Dulness of Sunday — Contempt of the clergy — Low estimation of a chaplain — Dress of the clergy — Church furniture — Traffic in benefices — Forged orders — Dr. Sacheverell — 'The modern champions' — Queen Anne's Bounty — Its history — Fifty new churches — Protestant tone of Church feeling — The effigies on Queen Elizabeth's birthday — Oppression of Roman Catholics — Religious sects — Eminent Nonconformists — Daniel Burgess — Dislike to Quakers — Examples — William Penn.
Religious life in Anne's time was not active—at least in the Church of England. Even the dignitaries of the Church, with very few exceptions, were men of no mark, nor were there any among the inferior clergy who could be called to the higher estate, and so help to leaven and wake up the Episcopate. For the Church was asleep, and with the exception of the Sacheverell episode—when the name of the Church was dragged in to serve party purposes—nothing was heard of it. There were priests in the livings then as now, and they duly baptized, married, preached to, and buried their flock; but there was little vitality in their ministrations, little or no zeal or earnestness as to the spiritual state of those committed to their charge, and very little of practical teaching, in the way of setting before them a higher social standard for them to imitate. The Church services had no life in them; with the exception of the cathedrals the services were read, and the soul-depressing parson and clerk duet had its usual effect of deadening the religious sensibilities of the so-called worshippers. Why! Addison seems to think that dear old Sir Roger was acting in a most praiseworthy manner in dragooning all his tenants to Church, otherwise he confesses they would not have come; but what spiritual good this compulsory attendance did them he does not hint at—probably never thought of: 'My Friend Sir Roger being a good Churchman, has beautified the Inside of his Church with several texts of his own chusing; he has likewise given a handsome Pulpit Cloth, and railed in the Communion Table at his own expence. He has often told me, that at his coming to his Estate he found (his Parishioners) very irregular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the Responses he gave every one of them a Hassock and a Common Prayer Book: and at the same time employed an itinerant Singing Master, who goes about the Country for that Purpose, to instruct them rightly in the Tunes of the Psalms; upon which they now very much value themselves, and indeed out-do most of the Country Churches that I have ever heard.
'As Sir Roger is Landlord to the whole Congregation, he keeps them in very good Order, and will suffer no Body to sleep in it besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprized into a short Nap at Sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and if he sees any Body else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his Servant to them.... As soon as the Sermon is finished, no Body presumes to stir till Sir Roger is gone out of the Church. The Knight walks down from his Seat in the Chancel between a Double Row of his Tenants, that stand bowing to him, on each Side; and every now and then enquires how such an one's Wife, or Mother, or Son, or Father do, whom he does not see at Church; which is understood as a secret reprimand to the Person that is absent.'[551]
He then contrasts this parish with a neighbouring one where the squire and parson are at variance—where all the tenants are Atheists and Tithe Stealers. Of course Addison's account is somewhat biassed by his own proclivities; but we may take the tone of Church feeling throughout the country to have been exemplified by the state of Sir Roger's parish before the rather fussy, and certainly eccentric, knight entered upon his high-handed course of compulsory attendance.
How Sunday was spent in London let Misson say: 'The English of all Sects, but particularly the Presbyterians, make profession of being very strict Observers of the Sabbath Day.
'I believe their Doctrine upon this Head does not differ from ours, but most assuredly our Scruples are much less great than theirs. This appears upon a hundred Occasions; but I have observ'd it particularly in the printed Confessions of Persons that are hang'd; Sabbath breaking is the Crime the poor Wretches always begin with. If they kill'd Father and Mother, they would not mention that Article, till after having profess'd how often they had broke the Sabbath. One of the good English Customs on the Sabbath Day, is to feast as nobly as possible, and especially not to forget the Pudding. It is a common Practice, even among People of good Substance, to have a huge piece of Roast Beef on Sundays, of which they stuff till they can swallow no more, and eat the rest cold, without any other Victuals, the other Six Days of the Week.'
Another quotation from Addison shows at all events his feeling as to the state of the Church at that time: 'After some short Pause, the old Knight turning about his Head twice or thrice, to take a Survey of this great Metropolis, bid me observe how thick the City was set with Churches, and that there was scarce a single Steeple on this side Temple Bar. A most Heathenish Sight! says Sir Roger: There is no Religion at this End of the Town. The Fifty new Churches will very much mend the Prospect; but Church-work is slow—Church-work is slow.'[552]
There is no doubt but that the Clergy as a body were but little thought of. Of course there were good and pious men then as now, but there is no disguising the fact that the majority showed an indifference to the spiritual well-being of the people, which could not fail to react upon themselves, and foster a feeling bordering upon contempt. Although those were not the days of deep thought, or scientific speculation, there was a great deal of freethought in existence: and although Atheists were professed to be looked upon, as they are now, as moral lepers, yet still there they were.
Perhaps one of the most curious symptoms of the times was the exceeding popularity of Dr. John Eachard's satire, 'The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion enquired into,' which, in 1705, had reached its eleventh edition. But the butt of all the satirists was the domestic chaplain. He was a member of the household of every person of position, yet he had no social status. Here is a contemporary account,[553] meant as a considerate warning to a friend, putting before him a chaplain's social position:—