THE VEXING VICAR OF WREXHILL: FRANCES TROLLOPE'S VINEGARY DISTASTE FOR EVANGELICALISM

Abstract

Champion for the pariah, clarion against social injustice, and righter of wrongs, Frances Trollope seemed to find much amiss in the world that required the attention of her pen. However, there was a group of outcasts that agitated angst and ire in her instead of sympathy—namely, the evangelicals. Her 1837 novel, The Vicar of Wrexhill, addresses numerous issues that plagued many Anglicans like herself as they watched the plunging decrease in their ranks and the soaring conversion to evangelicalism, to nonconformist denominations, and, most alarming of all, to Catholicism. They also grew increasingly disturbed that many evangelicals remained on the Anglican rolls, intent upon reforming the established Church. Numerous evangelical Anglican clergy strayed from the Book of Common Prayer and the Articles of Religion, as portrayed by the novel's zealous, hypocritical, and villainous Reverend Cartwright. On behalf of the High Church, Trollope's novel acrimoniously denounces and berates evangelicalism and casts in relief the conflicts that most Anglicans feared were not only tearing apart their Church but also destroying their country.