British Library, Day Twenty-Two

Today featured opposing views on baptismal regeneration and ecclesiastical government, along with a temperance novel that had nothing to do with the temperance movement. In addition, there was a grumpy book review about non-stealthy Catholicism in a novel.

Rev. S. Blyth, Enfield: A Religious Novel (Westfield & Davis, 1831). Methodist novel featuring lengthy discussions about baptismal regeneration, the morality of war, ecclesiastical government, and so forth. Considerable time is spent outlining a paternalist Christian utopian community, supported by private contributions from the wealthy. There are sermons. In the end, the good people die happily and the bad people don't. BODY COUNT: Three.
Miss S. Bridges, The Priest in the Family (Washbourne, 1898). Catholic novel about the evils of evangelical parenting. Two girls, Kate and Clara Mompesson, are raised in a family that resembles the one in Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh. Both girls rebel, but Clara finds her way to God via the eponymous Catholic priest, Theophile, whereas Kate flaunts religion, morals &c. In the end, Kate marries a French nobleman but discovers he only wants her fortune (which, because she married him while under 21, she no longer has), while Clara lives happily ever after and their nasty father, despite losing much of the family's money, repents and is on the way to conversion. BODY COUNT: One.
Mabel Wynn Tetley, His Last Will (Church of England Temperance Society, 1891). An Anglican temperance novel that spends exactly one paragraph on temperance. Gilbert Deverell was disinherited by his father for becoming a clergyman ("and driven to alcohol?" says the reader. No). Sad that he and his father were never reconciled ("and so that drives him to drink?" No again), he returns home to his disappointed family ("and so they drink?" Still no). Eventually, a wealthy officer, Hugh Fretherne ("he's a drinker?" Uh-uh), buys the property, and, by a twist of fate, Gilbert becomes the new rector. Meanwhile, Hugh falls in love with Gilbert's daughter Cecily, they marry, and she accidentally discovers proof that her grandfather wanted to reconcile with his son after all. Everybody lives happily ever, and nobody discusses teetotalism or anything else of the sort. BODY COUNT: Zero.
Ambrose Ward; or the Dissenter Reclaimed. A Tale for the Times (W. J. Cleaver, 1844). Tractarian novel. Ambrose Ward, a left-wing Bryanite, gets caught up in a poaching incident in which someone is almost killed. As he recovers, the local Anglican priest converts him to Anglicanism via rather wearisome discussions about baptismal regeneration, ecclesiastical polity, Biblical interpretation, and so on, and so on, and so on. This works (on Ambrose, if not the reader), and he winds up becoming a conservative Anglican priest. Primarily notable for the narrator refusing to indulge in deathbed narratives. BODY COUNT: Two.
Agnes Allan (Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, n.d.). Young Agnes is suddenly orphaned and goes off to live with her Uncle Joshua in Yorkshire. There, being a sweet and angelic girl, she manages to bring good order to her uncle's home and, even more importantly, reconcile him to his brother, Ralph. She even persuades her uncle to engage in some vaguely High Church church restoration. In the end, everyone is more Christian, and they all live happily ever after. BODY COUNT: One.
Aubrey Luson; Or, the Field of Sedgemoor. An Historical Tale of the Dissenters (W. J. Adams, 1848). An adventure tale varnished with Protestantism. Aubrey Luson, who fought on the side of the Duke of Monmouth, escapes death, only to have a series of unpleasant adventures sparked by his eeeevil rival, Rivers, who wishes to marry Aubrey's beloved, Apphia. Various unpleasant things ensue, including a run-in with Judge Jeffreys, burning at the stake, and attempted enslavement, before everyone somehow manages to show up in the same room at the end and expose Rivers as the eeeevil man that he is. Finally, the king declares in favor of religious toleration at the end, so nobody else dies. There's some surprisingly graphic gore. BODY COUNT: One.
Three novellas by Gertrude Parsons: Emma's Cross, The Muffin-Girl, and Lent Lilies (Burns and Lambert, n.d.). Emma's Cross: A young servant is wrongfully accused of stealing a marble cross from her employer; eventually, after she suffers for months, all is revealed, and she wins a prize for being an outstanding servant. The Muffin-Girl: Our narrator becomes intrigued by the story of a young Catholic girl, Margaret Cleaver, who turns out to be one of her relatives, now orphaned. Margaret dies to save the soul of her sister, Bessy, who is accordingly saved; in the end, the narrator reveals Bessy's existence to her father's second wife and reconciles her to her dying grandfather. Lent Lilies: Frank saves the life of the local aristocrat's son, and receives patronage and a wife for it; alas, he's an alcoholic who abuses his wife and child. Eventually, his wife dies, but Frank, after being rescued from a shipwreck, manages to die penitent. BODY COUNTS: Zero; three; three.