Browning and Dogma Part 6

BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY

LECTURE III

BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY

In _Bishop Blougram's Apology_ we are afforded yet another striking ill.u.s.tration of Browning's methods of working by means of dramatic machinery. On some occasions we have already found him relying on the arguments of his imaginary soliloquists to support an apparently favourite theory, on others we have noticed him employing these arguments to expose the weak points of a system of which he personally disapproves. More rarely two conflicting theories are placed side by side, the decision as to the author's own relation to either being left to the judgment of the reader. Thus with the Bishop and the Journalist of the present instance--who may a.s.sert with confidence to which side Browning's sympathies incline? How are we to judge of his actual feelings in the case? Would he hold up to severer opprobrium the representative of honest scepticism or the advocate of opportunism? Does he intend us to accept the scepticism of the Journalist as genuine, the justification of the Bishop as offered in entire good faith? Do his sympathies indeed belong wholly to either side? To hold that he necessarily sets forth a direct expression of his own opinions is to misunderstand the spirit in which he is accustomed to approach his subject. As well believe Caliban to give utterance to his conception of a Supreme Being as the personification of irresponsible and capricious power; and Cleon to estimate his recognition of Christianity as "a doctrine to be held by no sane man."

This and the two foregoing dramatic poems have been chosen as leading step by step from the earlier and cruder forms of religious belief, to the later and more complex: before approaching the debatable ground of _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, and the unquestionably personal expression of feeling in _La Saisiaz_. A wide gulf seemed indeed, at first sight, to be fixed between Caliban and Cleon, but yet wider is the actually existent distance dividing Cleon from Blougram. Less marked the change in outward circ.u.mstances, the inherent difference becomes the more striking. The beauties of Greek art and culture are but replaced by the nineteenth century luxury surrounding a dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Greek busts, Venetian paintings, Roman walls, and English books ... bound in gold"; the central figures, the Bishop and his companion dallying with the pleasures of the table, discoursing of momentous truths over the wine and olives. Surely the distance between this and Cleon is less to traverse than that between the Greek, surrounded by the proofs of the munificence of Protus, and Caliban revelling in his mire. The superficial difference less, the inherent difference so wide that the idea at first suggested itself of taking as an intermediate and connecting link the poem immediately preceding this in the collected edition of the works, _The Bishop orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church_. On more mature consideration it would seem, however, that the prelate of the nineteenth century sufficiently approaches the type of the Renaissance churchman to render the added link unnecessary. All, therefore, that remains for consideration before a.n.a.lyzing the Bishop's Apology, is a brief survey of the changes effected in the outlook of the civilized world, in so far as they relate to the subject before us, during the eighteen centuries which had elapsed between the letter of Cleon to Protus and the monologue of Blougram addressed to the unfortunate owner of the name of Gigadibs. In the first century of the Christian era in which Cleon wrote, the Greek world had, as we have noticed, come into contact with Christianity only at its extreme edge: to Cleon, student and representative of Greek philosophic thought, its tenets were impossible of credence. The difficulty of faith _then_ was that involved in the acceptance of any formulated theory which should include an a.s.sertion of the immortality of the soul and its future state of existence. The difficulties which demand the defence of Blougram are of a character wholly different. Christianity has become the creed of the civilized world: during the intervening centuries the simplicity of the mediaeval faith has given place to the more logical reasoning following the freedom of thought which accompanied the Renaissance; whilst this has, in its turn, been superseded by the more purely critical att.i.tude of mind, resulting in the scepticism, and consequent casuistry, attendant on the dogmatism of the earlier years of the nineteenth century. The Bishop's definition of his position is sufficiently descriptive of the situation. He is put upon his defence, in truth, solely on account of the peculiar conditions of the environment in which his lot has fallen. Three centuries earlier who would have questioned the genuineness of his faith? Twice as many decades later who would require that his acceptance of the creed he professes should be implicit and detailed? His defence is made merely before the tribunal of his fellow men; the character of this tribunal having changed from the warmth of unquestioning faith to the barren coldness of scepticism, the nature of the attack has likewise changed.

Your picked twelve, you'll find, Profess themselves indignant, scandalized At thus being unable to explain How a superior man who disbelieves May not believe as well: that's Sch.e.l.ling's way!

It's through my coming in the tail of time, Nicking the minute with a happy tact.

Had I been born three hundred years ago They'd say, "What's strange? Blougram of course believes;"

And, seventy years since, "disbelieves of course."

But now, "He may believe; and yet, and yet How can he?" All eyes turn with interest. (ll. 407-418.)

I, the man of sense and learning too, The able to think yet act, the this, the that, I, to believe at this late time of day!

Enough; you see, I need not fear contempt. (ll. 428-431.)

In short, the Bishop's is a figure claiming the interest of his contemporaries in that his position is one not readily definable: he may be a saint and a whole-hearted churchman; it is yet more probable, so says the world, that his conventional orthodoxy may be but the cloak of an underlying scepticism.

The ident.i.ty of Bishop Blougram with Cardinal Wiseman was, as every one knows, established from the first. That this should have been so was inevitable from the various external indications introduced with obvious intention into the poem; to the unprejudiced student it does not, however, appear equally inevitable that the character sketch thus outlined should be commonly estimated as conceived in a spirit hostile to the original.

Yet such would seem to be the case. In his _Browning Cyclopaedia_, Dr.

Berdoe quotes from a review contributed to _The Rambler_ of January, 1856, "which," he adds, "is credibly supposed to have been written by the Cardinal himself." This article referred to the Bishop's portrait as "that of an arch-hypocrite and the frankest of fools." Apparently accepting this criticism, the author of the _Cyclopaedia_ not unnaturally observes that "it is necessary to say that the description is to the last degree untrue, as must have been obvious to any one personally acquainted with the Cardinal." A similar opinion is expressed by no less an authority than Mr.

Wilfrid Ward, who characterizes the portrait as "quite unlike all that Wiseman's letters and the recollections of his friends show him to have been. Subtle and true as the sketch is in itself, it really depicts someone else."[52] Is this so? May it not rather be the case that the true character of Browning's prelate has not been fairly estimated? Does the Bishop occupy the position a.s.signed him by Mr. Ward when he continues, "Blougram acquiesces in the judgment that Catholicism and Christianity are doubtful, and yet that they are no more provable as false than as true; that in one mood they seem true, in another false; that either the moods of faith or the moods of doubt may prove to correspond with the truth, and that in this state of things circ.u.mstances and external advantage may be allowed to decide his vocation, and to justify him in professing consistently as true, what in his heart of hearts he only regards as possible?"[53] Again, "The sceptical element which had tried Wiseman in his early years was something wholly different from Blougram's scepticism."[54] Is there not something more than this to be said for the Bishop's Apology? It is, indeed, the main difficulty of the poem to decide to what extent the speaker is, or is not, serious in his a.s.sertions; but if we come to the conclusion that he is either "an arch-hypocrite," or "the frankest of fools," we shall a.s.suredly be very far from having read the defence aright. Browning himself has, according to report, had something to say on this subject.[55] When accused by Sir Charles Gavin Duffy and Mr. John Forster of abhorrence of the Roman Catholic faith on the grounds of the then recent publication of this poem, containing, as was alleged, a portrait of a sophistical and self-indulgent priest, intended as a satire on Cardinal Wiseman, Browning met the charge with what would appear to have been genuine astonishment; and, whilst admitting his intention of employing the Cardinal as a model, concluded, "But I do not consider it a satire, there is nothing hostile about it." And, looked at more closely, it is questionable whether much of the alleged hostility is to be detected. At least our feelings towards the Bishop contain no element of either aversion or contempt as we conclude our study of his defence!

The external indications of ident.i.ty are scattered, as if incidentally, throughout the poem, according to the method habitual to Browning. (1) Cardinal in 1850, Wiseman had been already consecrated bishop in 1840, and sent to England as Vicar Apostolic of the Central District in conjunction with Bishop Walsh. The year of his appointment as Cardinal was also the date of the papal bull a.s.signing territorial t.i.tles to Roman Catholic bishops in England, a measure, rightly or wrongly, attributed popularly to the influence of Wiseman. His episcopal t.i.tle from 1840 had been that of "Melipotamus in _partibus infidelium_," hence

Sylvester Blougram, styled _in partibus Episcopus, nec non_--(the deuce knows what It's changed to by our novel hierarchy). (ll. 972-974.)

(2) The reference in lines 957-960 to the Bishop's influence in the literary world, in particular with the editors of Reviews, "whether here, in Dublin or New York," recalls the fact that _The Dublin Review_ had been founded by Cardinal Wiseman in 1836.

(3) Again, in the opening lines, the allusion to Augustus Welby Pugin, the genius of ecclesiastical architecture of the last century. When Wiseman, in 1840, became President of Oscott College, Pugin was alarmed for the results of his influence in architectural matters; since the Cardinal's tastes had been formed in Rome, whilst the design of Pugin included a Gothic revival in ecclesiastical architecture and vestments, as well as the universal adoption of Gregorian chants in the services of the Church.

In spite, however, of the architect's fears, and some preliminary collisions, the two men subsequently succeeded in preserving amicable relations. Hence the Bishop's tolerant, but half-satirical comment,

We ought to have our Abbey back, you see.

It's different, preaching in basilicas, And doing duty in some masterpiece Like this of brother Pugin's, bless his heart!

I doubt if they're half-baked, those chalk rosettes, Ciphers and stucco-twiddlings everywhere. (ll. 3-8.)

(4) Any considerations of internal evidences, especially those touching the question of scepticism, will necessarily be repeated in following the Bishop's arguments: but it may be well to refer briefly in this place to the most noted characteristics of the Cardinal as estimated by the contemporary world.

(_a_) By some, even among his own clergy, he is reported to have been opposed on account of his ultramontane tendencies and innovating zeal, in particular with regard to the introduction of sacred images into the churches, and the adoption of certain devotional exercises not hitherto in use amongst English members of the Roman Catholic community. Thus we find the Bishop a.s.serting, "I ...

... would die rather than avow my fear The Naples' liquefaction may be false, When set to happen by the palace-clock According to the clouds or dinner-time. (ll. 727-730.)

Browning thus suggests the fact obvious to the world at large,--the apparently implicit acceptance by the Cardinal of miracles which to the average mind are impossible of credence; at the same time he allows opportunity for an explanation of the position: the prelate fears the effect upon the main articles of his faith of questioning that which is least.

First cut the Liquefaction, what comes last But Fichte's clever cut at G.o.d himself? (ll. 743-744.)

(_b_) Whilst, however, preserving these extreme views with regard to the position and tenets of the Church, the Cardinal, with statesmanlike wisdom, recognized that, in accordance with its genius as implied in the attribute Catholic, it must likewise keep pace with the intellectual advance of the age, not holding aloof from, but, where possible, a.s.similating the highest results of contemporary thought. Now it is easy to perceive that the onlooker of that day may have found these apparently conflicting tendencies in the Cardinal's mind difficult of reconcilement, and only to be accounted for by the supposition already suggested that the man capable of a.s.suming such an att.i.tude towards his creed must be, if not a fool, then an arch-hypocrite. It has been the work of Browning to show how, without detriment to his intellectual capacity, the Bishop may justify his position. To what extent, if at all, his moral character is affected thereby must depend upon the degree of sincerity which we allow to the entire exposition.

It is no part of the present plan to attempt a vindication of Browning's treatment of the character of Cardinal Wiseman; the issues suggested by the Apology lie deeper, and are far broader than those involved in such a discussion. One object, at least, of the design would appear to be that of a defence of belief in those tenets of a creed which transcend the powers of reason; the particular religious body to which the speaker belongs being of little import to the real issue. It seemed, however, that any treatment of the poem would be incomplete which did not contain some brief comparison such as has been here attempted. And even now there is danger lest the attempt may prove misleading. Whether or not Browning has given us the true character of the Cardinal is not the question; the only fact in that connection which we shall do well to bear in mind is that, working from the materials at his command--the outward and visible manifestations afforded by Wiseman's life as known to his contemporaries--the author of the Apology has given what may be a possible interpretation of character, sufficiently reasonable, at any rate, to account for, and to reconcile seeming inconsistencies, without laying its owner open to the charge of either folly or knavery.

In approaching a more detailed examination of the poem we must not neglect to take into account the peculiar conditions of religious life and thought prevailing in England at the time of the publication, 1855. Fourteen years earlier had appeared the celebrated No. 90 of _Tracts for the Times_.

After an interval of six years, in 1847, had followed the secession of J.

H. Newman to the Church of Rome, in 1853 that of Cardinal Manning. It was a time of anxiety and sorrow amongst all those most deeply attached to the Church of England, and of general unrest and uneasiness throughout the country. Sufficient evidence of the universal unsettlement and anxiety is afforded by the alarm, amounting almost to panic, excited by the Bull of 1850 announcing the territorial t.i.tles scheme. In a letter to Dean Stanley on the question of the Oxford University Reform Bill of 1854, Mr.

Gladstone wrote, "The very words which you have let fall upon your paper 'Roman Catholics,' used in this connection (_i.e._, of extending full University privileges to students other than members of the Church of England) were enough to burn it through and through, considering we have a parliament which, _were the measure of 1829 not law at this moment, would, I think, probably refuse to make it law_."[56] Such was the spirit of the times in England at the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century, and the existence of this spirit must not be left out of account in dealing with Bishop Blougram and his Apology.

That Browning did not wholly escape its influence, even though removed from direct contact, is readily conceivable. And in spite of his own expressed surprise at the suggestion that he did not favourably regard the Roman Catholic creed, his natural sympathies would certainly appear to have inclined towards a Puritanic form of worship rather than to a more ornate ritual; setting aside questions of doctrine of which these may be the outward manifestations. This being the case, ample reason is at once discoverable for the resolve to examine the position more thoroughly, ascertaining how far it was possible to make out a case for the other side. For, whilst on the one hand, we have every right, despite his cosmopolitanism and his Italian sympathies to claim the author of the _Apology_ as a genuine Englishman, with a fair proportion of the Englishman's characteristics, on the other hand, we may exonerate him, if not wholly, yet to a very large extent, from insular prejudices and narrow-minded judgments. Had he designed to present Blougram either as fool or hypocrite, he might a.s.suredly have attained his object with equal certainty by writing something less than the thousand and odd lines devoted to the work of psychological a.n.a.lysis: for, in making his defence, the Bishop is likewise revealing himself--to him who has eyes to see.

Here, as elsewhere, it is Browning's intent to present to his readers not what man sees but "what _this_ man sees"; to lead them to judge of cause rather than of effect, of motive rather than of action, or of action by the recognition of motive. We may attempt to cla.s.sify his characters, if we will: a Browning society may write and read papers on the "villains" or the "hypocrites" of Browning as distinguished from his saints. Such a cla.s.sification is perhaps fairly possible in the case of a character delineator such as d.i.c.kens, whose lines of demarcation are stronger and broader, purposely so, than those of actual life; but it is questionable whether Browning himself could have thus labelled his people and separated them into distinct compartments. For if the complexity of human nature and character is fully recognized by any writer whether poet, novelist, or biographer, it has surely been so recognized by the author of _Paracelsus_, of _Sordello_, of _The Ring and the Book_. It has been so frequently remarked that it seems but reiterating a truism to repeat the a.s.sertion that he writes of the individual, not of the race, not of _man_ but of _men_; of men with much indeed which is common to the race, but with peculiar attention also to those idiosyncrasies which establish individuality. Hence the choice of soliloquists for the dramatic poems is most frequently made amongst those the interpretation of whose actions has presented special difficulty to the world at large. Thus to Browning was left the vindication of Paracelsus, and for the bombast, the quack, the drunkard, of contemporary biography has been subst.i.tuted the pioneer and martyr of science, failing, but on account of the magnitude of his designs; recognizing even in defeat the divine nature of the mission entrusted to his charge. For an Andrea del Sarto--to a less profound student of character appearing as "an easy-going plebeian" satisfied with a social life among his compeers, as an artist "resting content in the sense of his superlative powers as an executant"--is offered the Andrea of the poem bearing his name; a sometime aspiring nature, now embittered by the struggle, wellnigh ended within the soul, between yearnings towards future greatness and the desire for present gain; a nature of insight sufficient to realize that the bonds of materialism are galling, of moral force inadequate to effect their rupture. The more subtle, the more outwardly misleading the character, the stronger the attraction it would appear to have borne for Browning. It is no matter for surprise that in _Prince Hohenstiel Schw.a.n.gau_ he should have devoted over 2,000 lines to a study of that mysterious, if disappointing, figure in European politics of the middle of the last century--"at once the sabre of revolution and the trumpet of order." And if conflicting elements of character const.i.tuted the main attraction of the personality of Napoleon III, a similar cause of fascination, as we have already noticed, exists in the instance before us; viz., the possibility of reconciling the extreme opinions professed in matters of Church ritual and doctrine, with the erudition, the political ability, and width of intellectual outlook notably characteristic of Cardinal Wiseman.

I. For avoidance of misunderstanding as to the intention of the Apology it is well to read the Epilogue as Prologue, although, even with this introduction, it is not easy to decide how far the speaker is serious in his a.s.sertions--a definite answer to the question would probably have presented (so Browning would suggest) some difficulty to the Bishop himself.

For Blougram, he believed, say, half he spoke.

The other portion, as he shaped it thus For argumentatory purposes, He felt his foe was foolish to dispute.

Some arbitrary accidental thoughts That crossed his mind, amusing because new, He chose to represent as fixtures there, Invariable convictions (such they seemed Beside his interlocutor's loose cards Flung daily down, and not the same way twice) While certain h.e.l.l-deep instincts, man's weak tongue Is never bold to utter in their truth Because styled h.e.l.l-deep ('tis an old mistake To place h.e.l.l at the bottom of the earth) He ignored these--not having in readiness Their nomenclature and philosophy: He said true things, but called them by wrong names.

"On the whole," he thought, "I justify myself On every point where cavillers like this Oppugn my life: he tries one kind of fence, I close, he's worsted, that's enough for him.

He's on the ground: if ground should break away I take my stand on, there's a firmer yet Beneath it, both of us may sink and reach.

His ground was over mine and broke the first." (ll. 980-1004.)

II. Thus the Bishop believed himself to realize the weakness of his opponent; his superficiality in spite of his appeal to the ideal; the worldliness which would esteem this hour of intercourse with the prelate the highest honour of his life,

The thing, you'll crown yourself with, all your days.

An incident which he would not fail to turn to

Capital account; "When somebody, through years and years to come, Hints of the bishop,--names me--that's enough: Blougram? I knew him"--(into it you slide) "Dined with him once, a Corpus Christi Day, All alone, we two: he's a clever man: And after dinner,--why, the wine you know,-- Oh, there was wine, and good!--what with the wine ...

'Faith, we began upon all sorts of talk!

He's no bad fellow, Blougram; he had seen Something of mine he relished, some review: He's quite above their humbug in his heart, Half-said as much, indeed--the thing's his trade.

I warrant, Blougram's sceptical at times: How otherwise? I liked him, I confess!" (ll. 31-44.)

Just or unjust, such is the Bishop's estimate of his companion--(if the opportunist is "quite above their humbug in his heart," not so the would-be idealist!) And, accepting this view, the futility of casting pearls before swine restrains him from a free expression of those deeper thoughts which rise to the surface only here and there throughout the monologue, evidence of the man beneath the prelate. There are problems which do not admit of discussion "to you, and over the wine." Hence Blougram holds himself justified in exercising that "reserve or economy of truth" recognized[57] by a contemporary writer of his own community as permissible under given conditions, within one cla.s.s of which he may reasonably account as falling, his interview with Gigadibs; viz., that in which the listener is incapable of understanding truth stated exactly, when it may be presented in the nearest form likely to appeal to his comprehension. The journalist is thus from the first accepted by the Bishop as representative of his world--that portion of the lay world to which the position of this particular prelate of the Roman Catholic Church is one requiring justification. Scepticism is so easy to this special intellectual type of man, faith so difficult, that it is to him incomprehensible that the Bishop may be genuine in his profession. On these grounds Blougram bases the necessity for his defence.

III. Taking himself then at his critics' estimate, _i.e._, as a sceptic masquerading in the garb of an ecclesiastical dignitary, he opens his exposition by a comparison of his life as actually lived with the ideal life advocated by the critic and his compeers. Pursuing the subject--having attained even to the supreme honour to which his calling admits, having ascended the papal throne, the position would yet be but one of _outward_ splendour, incomparable with "the grand, simple life" a man _may_ lead; grand, because essentially genuine--"imperial, plain and true." Nevertheless, he would submit, it is better for a man so to order his life that it may be lived to his satisfaction in Rome or Paris of the nineteenth century, rather than to dissipate his powers in the evolution of some ideal scheme, impossible of practical execution. As ill.u.s.tration, follows the incident of the outward-bound vessel in which are provided cabins of equal dimensions for the accommodation of all pa.s.sengers. One would fain fill his "six feet square" with all the luxuries which the mode of life hitherto pursued has rendered essential to his comfort. His neighbour, meanwhile, has limited his requirements to the possibilities of the s.p.a.ce allotted; with the result that the man content with little finds himself satisfactorily equipped for the voyage; whilst he of great, but impracticable aspirations, is left with a bare cabin, one after the other the articles of his proposed outfit having been rejected by the ship's steward. Hence the deduction, that the man of moderate requirements is better fitted for life, as life now is, than he of the "artist nature."

Later on (l. 763) the speaker again reverts to the same simile, pa.s.sing to the further ill.u.s.tration of the traveller providing his equipment in advance, in each case adapting it to a climate to be subsequently reached, rather than to that in which he is at the moment living.

As when a traveller, bound from North to South, Scouts fur in Russia: what's its use in France?

In France spurns flannel: where's its need in Spain?

In Spain drops cloth, too c.u.mbrous for Algiers! (ll. 790-793.)

The question not unreasonably follows, "When, through his journey, was the fool at ease?"

Thus, according to the Bishop, he who can most completely accommodate himself to the exigencies of the present life, evinces his capability for adapting himself to that which is to come. A theory, in direct opposition, it would appear, to Browning's usual doctrine, repeated in so many of the familiar poems. It is difficult to imagine a figure affording more striking contrast to the prosperous prelate than that of the Grammarian, once the "Lyric Apollo, electing to live nameless," occupied with the pursuit of an abstract good; only paving the way for the attainment of his successors; and in death throwing on G.o.d the task of making "the heavenly period perfect the earthen," that incomplete phase of existence, full of unsatisfied aspirations, of unfinished attempts. Of him the poet gives us the a.s.surance that he shall find the G.o.d whom he has sought: whilst for the worldling who