1) sorry, by “flirted with conversion” I mean that at some point they seriously considered becoming Catholic, maybe on multiple occasions, but ultimately didn’t go through with it.AdhiraamBose wrote: ↑June 28th, 2021, 10:35 pmColeen,ColleenMc wrote: ↑June 28th, 2021, 10:03 am In England, Catholics were heavily persecuted into the 18th century and there was still a lot of legal discrimination against them well into the nineteenth century, aside from societal prejudices, which were even stronger. However, by the second part of the nineteenth/early 20th century there was a sort of intellectual rebellion against looking down on Catholicism, and some prominent thinkers and writers converted or began to openly practice and write about Catholicism. For example, John Newman, Evelyn Waugh, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and the poet John Gray. Others were well versed in Catholic thought and flirted with conversion, like Oscar Wilde and Matthew Arnold. This is usually specified and discussed in their biographies.
"Dissenting" Protestants (Methodists, Baptists etc.--Christian but not Anglican) don't seem to have played as big a role in mainstream popular culture/literature. They tended to be more prominent as nonfiction/sermon writers and in general those faiths tended to appeal more to the working and lower middle classes who were less often cultural icons/drivers.
So if someone who was prominent in literature/culture in the late 19th/Early 20th century in Britain and they were described as very religious with no other specificity, it's safe to assume that they were Church of England or Anglican. The fact that he lived for a number of years with an Anglican minister seems to reinforce that hypothesis.
Colleen
Thank You for Your Answers.
I only want to ask two questions to You.
1)What does the phrase 'Flirted With Conversion' mean?English is My third Language so I don't understand it.
2)Is 'Reverend' completely an Protestant Terminology?I mean to say,didn't/don't any Catholic use it?
I am happy we all could learn something about our history by this discussion.
2) I think Reverend is used as an official title for both Protestant ministers and Catholic priests, like that title would be used in formally addressing a letter to them. But as a spoken title in conversation, I think Reverend is only used for Protestant ministers. I’ve also seen the title “the Reverend Mister (name)” used and that’s definitely only Protestant. In conversation with or about a Catholic priest, you would use Father or Monsignor. (Monsignor is a higher ranking, usually the senior priest in charge of a parish but below a bishop.)
Hope this helps!
Colleen