Authority and Instability : Investigating Jane Austen ’ s View of the Church and Clergy in Pride and Prejudice

| ABSTRACT The Church of England, the greatest Anglican establishment and the symbol of Great Britain's imperialism, has been the juncture of English history and literature throughout history. Although, after industrialization, the British society went toward a religious reformation in the Victorian era, some historians consider the early nineteenth century England as the 'Golden age' of England's ecclesiastical imperialism. Jane Austen, in her six published novels, has scrutinized the true essence of the Church of England from her specific glasses of sharpness. So, with reference to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this paper engages in questioning whether her works, as famous literary works of the nineteenth century which satirically depict the original social context of the time, influenced the social mind toward the Victorian reformation. In Pride and Prejudice, Miss Austen doubts the power and real position of the church and shows her disdain for religion through the foolish narrow-minded characterization of the story's clergyman: Mr. William Collins. The present study aims to illuminate the true essence of The Church of England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century according to what Jane Austen has depicted in her novel Pride and Prejudice. Hence, this paper first probes into the religious climate of the pre-Victorian era, then it investigates Jane Austen's role, as one of the greatest writers of the age, in Victorian religious reformation, and lastly, the study aims to conclude how the British society led to the decline of religion and ecclesiasticism in the modern age.


Introduction
It is an evident truth that history and literature are the two principal elements in shaping a nation's culture. Having a glimpse into English history from Anglo-Saxon England to the Victorian era, The Church of England may be said to have always been the juncture of English history and literature. If we look back at the old English literature, we see that "the earliest records in the English language produced at monasteries and other religious establishments, [and] literacy was mainly restricted to servants of the church" (Simpson & David, 2012, p.7)-some early religious works like Beowulf, which clearly "reflects well-established Christian tradition," (Simpson & David, 2012, p.37) are the clear evidence of this fact. So, by surveying the history of English literature, we find out that from the old English literature to "the middle years of the [nineteenth] century, sermons were the most popular forms of reading" (Davies, 1962, p.282). However, literature changed its direction to the secular way of writing novels from the beginning of the nineteenth century and continued the way, more intensely, to the end of the Victorian era.
"Nineteenth century Britain, also known as Victorian Britain [from 1837 to 1901], was the age of prosperity, advancement, the dominance of the British Empire, liberality, and enhancements in diverse social grounds" (Poorghorban, 2020, p.213). Consequently, English literature, too, as the mother of the nation's culture, found a new direction for continuing its way during this period. So, maybe that's why it can be said that "Mass culture or popular culture is primarily rooted in this period" (Poorghorban, 2021, p.21).
Literary works of an era, capturing the spirit of the age, reflect the historical events and social evolution of that time. So, reviving an old time's spirit, one had better go to "its songs, poems, and stories" (Cook, 2015, p.41). In this regard, to study the early Page | 86 nineteenth century's literature, Jane Austen's novels are among the boldest works of pre-Victorian literature for one to refer to. Jane Austen, however, was not a historian, but as a satirical critic of her age, she has captured the spirit of the social context of the early nineteenth century in her novels. Although Jane Austen was from the late Georgian era and the early nineteenth century, her works widely flourished after her death and had a significant impact on the social mind in the Victorian era. "Jane Austen was born on the 16 th of December, 1775, at Steventon, in the country of Hants. Her father was Rector of that parish upwards of forty years" (Austen, pp. v-xvi) So, as a daughter of a clergyman of a church of England, Jane Austen may have been well acquainted with the religious community of the time. She has depicted the position of the church of England from her own standpoint by characterizing clergymen as symbols of the religious identity in her novels. Therefore, despite the controversy among critics as to whether or not Jane Austen was a religious writer, "religious themes infiltrate the characters and plots of [her] novels" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.4). Although Austen's works do not reflect a religious theme, "her novels' attention to practical morality but reticence toward explicitly religious subject matter raises conjecture concerning the religion behind her values" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.1). Austen's comedies of manners satirically depict the problems of nineteenth-century society through romantic fairytale-like plots. Her "six published novels depict characters of the English landed gentry of the late eighteenth century, giving readers a glimpse into her time through stories now well-known and beloved both in academia and outside it" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.4). Her most popular novel Pride and Prejudice (1813), like her other works, "though infused with biblical principles and guided by moral standards, invites questions regarding her view of religion" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.4). Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "published in three volumes by Thomas Egerton, appeared in January 1813" (Littlewood, p.V).
Although Sense and Sensibility are recognized to be Austen's first novel, Pride and Prejudice "was also, in a sense, the first [novel of her] to be composed. The original version, First Impressions, was completed by 1797, but was rejected for publication" (Kalil, 2022). After the publication of Pride and Prejudice, "Jane Austen, [just before she died in 1817], had the satisfaction of seeing her 'darling child' become an immediate success among the fashionable novel-reading public" (Littlewood, p.V). Pride and Prejudice is a novel of secular practical manners, "Containing so little overtly religious content" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.4). And it is aloof from many critics' opinions, naming it some sort of 'fairy-tales.' Of course, although "as in all Jane Austen's novels, the main business of Pride and Prejudice is the disposal of young women in marriage," (Littlewood, p.VII) taking us to the heart of the social life from the late eighteenth century till the early nineteenth century-the twenty-two years of Austen's living experience from the writing of First Impressions till the publication of Pride and Prejudice, it, also, "exhibits Anglican belief and worldview and reveals Austen's Christian foundation" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.4).
"In spite of the fact that the continuing and increasing influence of the Church in national affairs gave a singularly religious atmosphere to Victorian England, few studies have been made of this phenomenon" (Bowen, 1962, p.8). Therefore, this paper tends to present a case study probing the social position of the church and clergy in nineteenth-century England with references to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This study points out Jane Austen's religious viewpoint, as an author who was much ahead of her age and looked over her impact on the Victorian social mind towards new horizons, by, first, analyzing the religious climate of the pre-Victorian era, secondly, investigating Jane Austen's impact on social mind toward the Victorian religious reformation, and lastly, the study aims to conclude how the British society led to the decline of ecclesiasticism in the late Victorian era.

Literature review
This section, by receiving help from various sources, endeavors to acknowledge a true piece of information about the social and cultural mission of the church during eighteenth and nineteenth-century England. All the reviewed sources mentioned here will give us something of the thought of the ordinary role of the Church during this period. However, numerous researches have been conducted about Jane Austen's religious stand-point; this article attempts to assess the religious themes of her popular novel: Pride and Prejudice; and its relation to the 'religious climate' of the nineteenth century. So, in order to be familiar with the position of the church of England and the religious climate of Austen's time, we must first be well acquainted with the role of the church and the status of Christianity from when the French Revolution in the eighteenth century took place to after Jane Austen's death and the emergence of the Victorian Reformation in the middle of the nineteenth century. Victorian Reformation did not take place at once. It was a constant slow process during the nineteenth century. The first sparks of the process, though, started in the late eighteenth century when The French Revolution began in 1789.
However, some critics assert that "the association of the Anglican Church with the governing class has never been more intimate and binding than it was during the eighteenth century." (Lawrence & Hammond, 1927, p.193). Raymond A. Cook in an article entitled ''Jane Austen Saw the Clergy'' delineates a totally diverse idea of Christianity in eighteenth-century England. He sees the unsatisfactory qualifications of clergymen in Austen's novels as symbols of the position of the church in the society of the time; he also adds that "much of the apathy of the English Church of the eighteenth century may be accounted for by the vicious 'system' of Church preferment" (Cook, 2015, p.42). Cook's assertion, although, contradicts the critics' description of the eighteenth century's Christianity status; maybe, if we, too, like Cook, observe the position of The Church of England through the eighteenth and early nineteenth century from Austen's glasses of sharpness, the reality would be just like what Austen has depicted of clergy in her novels.
An archbishop of Austen's time, through a lengthy lament, in a book named Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford, clearly describes the condition of the Church and clergy on the verge of the nineteenth century: "An open and professed disregard of religion is become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing character of the present age…Christianity is now ridiculed and railed at, with very little reserve: and the teachers of it without any at all" (p.306).
On the other hand, despite what "The writer Louis-Sebastien Mercier complained in 1782 that Paris was 'full of priests and tonsured clerics who serve neither the church nor the state' and who were occupied with nothing but 'useless and trifling' matters," (Betros, 2010) Desmond Bowen (1962) in The Idea of the Victorian Church suggests that "in the final decades of the eighteenth century no fundamental changes were demanded in England's social order." (p,3) He, then expressing the contradictions between the religious atmosphere of the French society and The Church of England, adds: "for the English bishops though they were not libertines like the French never learnt so to be Christians as to forget to be aristocratic, and their religious duties were never allowed to interfere with the demands of scholarship or of pleasure" (p.62).
Nevertheless, in accordance with Bowen (1962), "This social complacency disappeared with the outbreak of the French Revolution" (p.4). The French Revolution awakened the storm of reformation not just inside the French borders but had affected Christianity all around Europe. In this book, Bowen contends that "The privileged orders dreaded Jacobinism, and realized that their conventional light attitude towards religion might weaken the moral fibre of the nation during this time when the traditional order throughout Europe appeared to be threatened" (p.4). The main argument of this book, however, is that "the church saw the great danger in class warfare in England," (Briggs, 2016, p.231) and introduces the years from 1833 to the early years of 1840, coinciding with the beginning of the industrial revolution, as the years of development and reformation within The Church of England.
On the contrary, however, "the prelates of the Church relaxed to enjoy the preferment that was theirs in the best of all possible churches" (Bowen, 1968, p.3) in the early years of the nineteenth century, as the time went by to the middle of the period-better said Victorian era-the English society was going toward the Industrial Revolution, The Church of England, as well, saw itself going toward a complete reformation. In this regard, J. H. Y. Briggs (2016) explains that "As other English institutions were reformed in the nineteenth century in terms of new standards of professional excellence, so too, the Church was called upon to conform to the new utilitarian values and social realities of the new age" (p.223). Professor Bowen (1968), too, in The Idea of the Victorian Church, contends that the "Church was in need of reform when it still tolerated nepotism, sinecures, pluralities, non-resident clergy, ecclesiastical courts which were complex and inequitable, and Church rates which were a genuine grievance to Nonconformists" (p.7). It was in 1833 that Church saw itself in a "dire peril," (Bowen, 1968, p.6) and, therefore, a subtle future had been awaited Christianity in the middle years of the Victorian era. Hence, "As public attitudes became more menacing, churchmen began to demand that the Church reform itself before the legislature could act" (Bowen, 1968, p.7). This article seeks to probe into Jane Austen's world, as the world of an author who was much ahead of her time, to investigate the social position of the church in her stand-point mainly based on her Pride and Prejudice novel. This paper attempts to reveal the true essence of the church 40 years before the Victorian reformation and analyze Jane Austen's influence on nineteenth-century society as one of the significant, influential ones in leading the social mind toward evolution, and analyze the portray of an awkward clergyman as a symbol of the church and religious thoughts of the time.

Jane Austen's Role in Victorian Religious Reformation
Although Jane Austen is considered one of the most effective writers of the nineteenth century, rarely any research has directly studied her influence on British society. Nearly most of the studies have investigated the influence of her novels on the feminine society of the time-which, indeed, is the most remarkable issue regarding Austen's novels. In her novels, Austen, "influencing women attitudes toward education" (Haper, 2020, p.3), attempts to enhance the female individuals' lives. Furthermore, showing the result of educational negligence, Austen often showed double standards between men and women (Harper, 2020, p.1). Hence, the research that has been conducted based on her novels evidently "confirms her centrality in the late nineteenth-century definition of womanhood" (Lopez, 2014, p.257). Of course, keen Austen's wide vision and her influence on British society, to be sure, are not limited to identifying the position of women and the issue of marriage; for instance, in Mansfield Park, Austen criticizes and condemns the issue of slavery in nineteenth-century Britain. In general, we can say Jane Austen's novels "are conditioned by doctrines, conceptual devices, and social changes that were constant or variable over [the nineteenth century]" (E., 2006, p.121). By referring to the restricted religious, traditional society of the early nineteenth century and by citing the text of Pride and Prejudice, so too, we approach a wide vision of the ordinary texture of nineteenth-century life, and we can recognize the contradictions between what Jane has depicted in her novel and the real society of the age. It is through these contradictions that Austen brings about new values of social life and induces the social mind to go toward these values throughout all the future years after she dies.
Austen's famous Pride and Prejudice, although influenced by the Georgian society, broke from the traditional Victorian values and moved toward the gates of the new age. In this book, taking a different look at traditional British society of the time, Jane Austen offers a new perspective on what society should move toward. "The meanings that "pride" and "prejudice" acquire are related to the central theme of all of Jane Austen's novels-the limitations of human vision" (Zimmerman, 1968, p.65). Through this novel, Jane Austen, according to G. H. Lewes, "the greatest novelist of the age," has shown diverse aspects of social matters by characterizing the fiction's characters. For instance, Mrs. Bennet, who unknowingly has undergone the traditional norms of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century society, is a symbol of a traditional illiterate woman who sees the development of her daughters in a good marriage. "This view [of womanhood] was communicated to young women through their families, churches, and schools" (Cruea, 2005, p.188) at those times. It is clear to recognize that by depicting the character of Mrs. Bennet and later lady Catherine, Austen may want to show the readers how charmless it is to be an unlettered short-sighted nineteenth-century version of the woman.
On the other hand, Jane Bennet, Elizabeth's sister, being pure, submissive, selfless, and full of good senses, represents the real standards of a Victorian woman. In return, her sister Elizabeth, as if she is Jane herself, represents a wise woman who does not go with the flow of the nineteenth-century restricted feminine society. Elizabeth, as a woman, through her conversations, expresses some social and political concerns which were considered totally masculine issues at the time: "I always say that nothing is to be done in education without steady and regular instruction, and nobody but a governess can give it" (Austen, 1813, p.140) This is what exactly Austen has conveyed regarding the double standards between men and women in the society of dominant masculinity of more than 200 years ago. Austen tries to show Elizabeth as a high-standard woman who attempts to "learn to avoid the limitations imposed by pride and prejudice" (Zimmerman, 1968, p.71). So, By the portrayal of Elizabeth, not only has Austen invited the female society to follow her wisdom in their lives but also has opened new horizons toward a new society in the Victorian era.
Mr. William Collins may be considered a clear representative of the Church of the early nineteenth century. According to Jane Austen (1813): Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance. (p.61) So, at a time when "very little knowledge was required of an aspirant to a curacy" (Cook, 20015, p.42), little qualification of Mr. Collins is not surprising. Mr. Collins' careless attitude, as well, reflects the condition of the Church of England in the nineteenth century. According to Archdeacon of Salop, "the clergy [of the time] had to defend their position by making effective use of their social position in the nation" (Bowen, 1968, p.8). This is what has been clearly shown through Mr. Collins' speeches throughout the story. As he owned no valuable qualification except being a foolish uncouth character, he used to defend his position repeatedly throughout the story by linking himself to his benefactor Lady Catherine de Bourgh. In addition, Mr. Collins' pompous loquacity through the fiction and the lengthy letters he wrote to the Bennet family, I argue, represents the meaningless sermons that clergymen of the time used to preach. Mr. Collins' meaningless speeches represent the "common reaction of conservative clergymen confronted with staggering problems they feared to contemplate" (Briggs, 2016, p.225).
Mr. Collins' vague missions as a clergy represent the parson's lack of responsibility at the time. And some of his assertions reveal the secular stances of the Church during the nineteenth century: I do not mean, however, to assert that we can be justified in devoting too much of our time to music, for there are certainly other things to be attended to. The rector of the parish has much to do-In the first place, he must make such an agreement for tythes as may be beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron; he must write his own sermons; and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties and the care and improvement of his dwelling, which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable as possible (p.87).
All of Jane Austen's novels, in some way, illustrate "the condition of the churches of the period, the general disinterest of the people and the careless attitude of the clergy" (Cook, 2015, p.41). Of course, in Pride and Prejudice, Miss Austen does not directly acknowledge her secular thoughts and her disdain for the church and clergy. But as in her other novels, the principal point of Pride and Prejudice can be said to be "a reticence toward religion that relegates Christianity to the inner conflicts of the heart rather than public practice and that manifests itself in the endeavor to know oneself and to practice probing self-examination" (Swallow et al., 2017, p.20). Although Miss Austen's religious stances are somehow conservative in Pride and Prejudice, in Mansfield Park, for instance, she has stated her secular thoughts directly in Mary Crawford's words: "Men love to distinguish themselves, and in either of the other lines distinction may be gained, but not in the Church. A clergyman is nothing!" (Austen, 1814, p.79).
J. H. Y Briggs (2016), in his article Church, Clergy and Society in Victorian Britain affirm the irresponsibility and aimlessness of the clergy of the time by saying that: "such men as those who became bishops in this period were not by inclination interested in either scheme for social reform or even the theory of society" (p.223).
Mr. Collins' narrow-minded characterization and the restrictions on his thoughts and behaviors display the shaky position of The Church of England in Austen's time. The palatial estate of Rosings Park and Lady Catherine de Bourgh's position as a daughter of an earl and wife of a wealthy knight in Pride and Prejudice shows that in nineteenth-century England, "the bench had become very much an aristocratic preserve" (Briggs, 2016, p.223). Through the characterization of Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine, Austen shows her disdain for the ecclesiastical issues and religion. These two characters, in fact, question the basis and the true essence of The Church of England as the greatest establishment in British imperialism through the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. So, we can consider Miss Austen's characters as "prototypes of the supremacy of reason; they are 'vehicles for discursive rhetoric,' or 'tropes in a discourse, rather than literary approximations of 'real' people" (E. & Jr., 2006, p.121).
However, other depictions of clergymen in Austen's novels surely, have had a significant role in influencing the social conception of the church, its power toward the Victorian reformation, and finally, the rejection of the church in the twentieth century. According to Michael Jackson: Austen sets before us provided the soil out of which the Evangelical and High Church movements grew. These movements in accentuating aspects of religion began a process of separating it from society and broke up that unity expressed in and maintained by the office of a clergyman so wittily sketched in the novels. (p.536) Although Austen's Pride and Prejudice take the readers to the heart of nineteenth-century society, as a text of social criticism, it satirically criticizes the social issues of the age to invoke the motivation of a social change in the social mind. Since no change has been made in one day, and the best way of changing the social mind toward reformation is through education, in an age in which no regular school, especially for women, had existed, we can consider Jane Austen's novels as new gates toward the twentieth century's rejection of religious matters and the modern age.

Conclusion
In all that has been argued in the preceding sections, this study sought to point out the true essence of the Church in nineteenthcentury England. The main idea of this paper was to investigate how the peaceful ecclesiastical state of England led to the religious reformation in the Victorian era and how Jane Austen, with a vision beyond the horizons, succeeded in showing the true essence of the church and clergy many years before anyone else could do. Jane Austen has attempted to question the real position of the church and doubt the firm fundament of Christianity in England. In Pride and Prejudice, Miss Austen has depicted her thoughts on the church and clergy through the character of a narrow-minded clergyman who obviously is the symbol of the position of the Church and Christianity in the society of the time. On the other hand, the French Revolution had a great impact on England's religious climate, yet along with it, the coming of the machine and explosive industrial and economic growth during the nineteenth century created the new working class. Therefore, the spiritual preaching of the Church was no longer helpful for the industrialized society. All these new social changes, in addition to the shaky foundation of the Church itself, which Austen had depicted in her novels long before, led to the social and religious reformation till the end of Victorian Britain. In closing, Jane Austen's view of the church and clergy, as the first revealing depictions of England's greatest establishment, can be said was of the influencing literary works that succeeded in setting a foundation for the Victorian religious movements which ended up in the fall of the Victorian church and separation of law and religion in the modern society. Of course, it should be noted that in order to elaborate more on the dominance of the English church, further investigations of Jane Austen's works are required.