Author Interview | Brenda S. Cox on Fashionable Goodness

Donna: I am delighted to bring Brenda S. Cox to Australasia today as part of her official blog tour for the launch of her wonderful new book Fashionable Goodness, Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. Brenda, what led you to write a book on this subject?

Brenda: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in England, exciting developments and fascinating people were impacting the church and the world. Many of these could yield stories or provide background for novels. I learned this when I set out to write a historical novel based on one of Jane Austen’s wonderful novels. As I began to research that period, I got caught up in the intriguing events happening in the Church of England at that time, and ended up writing a nonfiction book instead! I call it Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England, because Christians at this time were working to bring “goodness” into fashion in an age when immorality was more fashionable than morality.

Donna: I am so grateful that you did, Brenda. I found it incredibly informative and inspiring  to read, and I know I will return to it in the future as a reference work as well. What are Seven Things Historical Fiction Writers and Readers Should Know about the Church of England?

Brenda: If you’re reading or writing about the church in this period—Georgian and Regency England—here are some basics you’ll want to know.

1. In the late Georgian era, the Regency (1811-1820), and the following years, Christians were working to transform their society. Women and men led campaigns for animal rights, prison reform, and laws protecting laborers. They worked for the abolition of the slave trade, then slavery, and called society to moral behavior.

2. Within the church, hymns were just being introduced, enlivening worship. The Evangelical movement was growing and would have a huge impact. Christians of all denominations began providing basic education for the poor, teaching them reading and other skills, through the Sunday school movement. They also sent missionaries to the world and strove to provide Bibles for everyone

3. The clergy of the Church of England were supported by mandatory tithes from their parishes. Each parishioner owed the clergyman 10% of his income, which was usually agricultural produce. The clergyman’s “living” might also include farmland, called glebe, which would provide some income, and small fees paid to him for services such as baptisms and funerals. A patron for each parish appointed the parish clergyman when the previous one died. The patron was usually an individual, a college or university, a bishop or cathedral, or the Crown.

4. Whether a clergyman was called a rector, vicar, or curate depended on the tithes they traditionally received in a given parish. In parishes where the clergyman got all the tithes, he was called a rector. Mr. Collins of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a good example. If most of the tithes went to the patron, a vicar got the rest of the tithes. Mr. Elton of Austen’s Emma needed a rich wife since he was only a vicar. A curate got a salary, usually £50 a year or less, paid to him by the rector or vicar. The curate might be the main clergyman, if the rector or vicar served a parish elsewhere. Or a curate might assist or substitute temporarily for the regular clergyman.

5. Church of England parish clergymen were all men until the 20^th  century. Methodists and Quakers, though, had some women preachers during this time. Women were first ordained as Church of England priests in 1994, though women were ordained somewhat earlier in the Anglican Communion overseas.

7. The Church of England is a state church. For a new church to be built, Parliament had to pass a law allowing it. Bishops and archbishops sat in the House of Lords, as they still do today.

8. All Church of England services followed the Book of Common Prayer, which can give writers an exact picture of Sunday services as well as marriages, funerals, and much more. You can find it at the Church of England’s website.

Donna: Brenda, I know you wrote your book to provide one comprehensive resource on the church in this time–which it certainly does. Can you give us some more details on what you cover?

Brenda: I invite readers to explore the church between 1750-1850 with me. Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England will give you insight into many areas of that era’s church and culture. You’ll also find inspiring stories of the great leaders of the time, including, among others:

• Preachers John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield;
• Methodist leader Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon;
• Writer and culture-changer Hannah More;
• Parliamentary leader William Wilberforce;
• Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry; and
• Baptist pioneering missionary William Carey.

I explore the transformational campaigns led by these great Christian leaders. Christians at this time succeeded in bringing “goodness” into fashion, leading to the following Victorian age.

Donna: And where can we find more resources?

Brenda: To find online resources about this period, check out Jane Austen’s World (see link categories at the top of the Home page) and my blog, Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen, to give you a start.

Donna: And where can we can buy Fashionable Goodness?

Brenda: Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England is now available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

Donna: Thank you, Brenda. It has been lovely to have you as my guest today. I know many readers will be as grateful as I am to have this book. Fashionable Goodness has received rave reviews from the top writers about Christianity in the Regency period. Let me add my own praise:

Fashionable Goodness is to the subject of Christianity in Jane Austen’s England what Deirdre Le Fay’s edition of Jane Austen’s Letters is on the subject of Jane Austen’s life—simply the indispensable resource. Cox’s breadth of subject matter and depth of research are breath-taking. Everything the reader or writer needs to know to understand the established and dissenting churches, religious leaders and movements, Christianity in Jane Austen’s novels, and much more is available in this wide-ranging volume. Brenda S. Cox, thank you for writing it.

Your turn: Share with us

What or who do you find most intriguing about the Church in Georgian England?