Sir Roger at Church

 

Discuss how the churchmen influenced the life of the eighteenth century village people of England as reflected in Sir Roger at Church.

 

The essay Sir Roger at Church offers a fair picture about how the churchmen influenced the life of the eighteenth century village people of England. In the then society the church and the landed gentry were two influential pillars of authority that exercised tremendous authority over the lives of common people. Although the first portion of the essay portrays the absurdities and oddities of Sir Roger at church to keep order among the ordinary parishioners, the later part of the essay throws a significant light on the relation between the churchmen and village people. In fact, the whole essay can be reexamined in the light of tensed relation between the parson and the squire that was too frequent in the country.

 

The fair understanding and mutual cooperation between Sir Roger and his chaplain has set a remarkable example of how good relation between the clergy and the landed gentry influences the ordinary people's religious life. Sir Roger maintains a good relation with the parish priest. He has decorated the church at his own expense. The knight has added five pounds a year to the clerk's place. He encourages the young fellow to make them perfect in the church service. He promises the post of the clerk upon the death of the present incumbent according to merit. He encourages the parishioners to attend the Sunday congregation regularly by giving every one of them a hassock and a Common Book of prayer and at the same time he hired a travelling musician to teach the villagers rightly in the tunes of the Psalms. In fact all his benevolent acts to serve the church and the parish priest ooze out from his genuine intention to strengthen the tie between the parishioners and the priest. He frequents the church on Sunday and attend congregation regularly: He also maintains strict discipline at church. Thus, the fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain creates an ideal religious climate in the parish.

 

Their mutual cooperation and amity has significantly influenced their lives. Country people are now regular church goers. They are more confident about themselves. They wear their cleanliest dresses and appear pleasant on Sundays. Being regular in church service they refresh their religious notion. Besides being good Christians, they distinguish themselves to give them a figure in the eye of the village. Most of all they boast of themselves and outdo most of the country churches in singing Psalms. All these positive changes in the lives of the villagers were possible due to the harmonious relationship between the churchmen and Sir Roger.

 

In contrast to the fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, Addison paints an unpleasant picture of the antagonism between the squire and the parson. The neighboring village of Sir Roger is infamous for the enmity and quarrels between the Squire and the parson. They live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching against the squire and in revenge the squire never comes to the church. He has made all his tenants atheists and tithe-stealers. The parson highlights his position on every Sunday. The enmity has come to such an extremity that the squire has completely stopped religious practice in private or in public for the last six months and the parson threatens the squire to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation if he does not mend his manners. The essayist tells us that feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are very fatal to the ordinary people who are easily influenced by the wealthy landed class. The common people are easily dazzled by the riches and have little wisdom to differentiate truth from falsehood. They pay much importance to the man of estate than a man of learning.

 

Thus, it is clearly seen that the churchmen exert a significant influence upon the ordinary village people of England. We see that their influence emanates from the state of their relation with the landed class, the most influential people of the eighteen century England. A genial relation positively influences while an unfriendly relation negatively influences the lives of the country fellows.