The Bishop's Mantle is a novel by Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Agnes Sligh Turnbull was a bestselling American writer, most noted for her works of historical fiction based in her native Western Pennsylvania.-Biography:...

 about the grandson of an American Episcopal bishop in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in the early years of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Plot introduction

Hilary Laurens, young Episcopal priest, about 1939, has recently returned to his hometown, somewhere in the American heartland (we don't know quite where), upon receiving sudden word that his grandfather, the Bishop of that diocese, and the only father he's known, has suddenly taken ill and is dying, and after pressuring the taxi driver to make haste, Hilary arrives just in time to talk briefly with "Grandy" just before the Bishop's death. But Hilary is able to give the Bishop some good news on his deathbed: Hilary has just been "called" (appointed vicar of) St. Matthews, a large church in a "great eastern city", and thus can perpetuate the Bishop's calling.

In course of the book, Hilary, at a time whem the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 was, for the time being, neutral in the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 raging in Europe, needs first to cope with the multiple challenges of becoming a vicar of a major church himself just at the moment his grandfather dies (the Bishop's Mantle has fallen to him), dealing with the twin callings of a priest to keep his church financially viable, up to date, and yet in keeping of his duty to serve the poor, falling in love with the daughter of a wealthy church patron, and yet provide pastoral service to women in his flock, not all of whom want a priest so much as male company, and then finally deal with the odious consequences of the events of December 1941. The book was clearly written during the war but not published until shortly afterwards.

The book offers a sublime combination of religious piety combined with realism of the church's place in modern society rarely found in American literature, and which perhaps only the recent books by Jan Karon

Jan Karon

Jan Karon is an American writer and novelist, who has written for both children and adults. Karon was born in Lenoir, North Carolina, in 1937, as Janice Meredith Wilson. She retired from a career in advertising and moved to Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to write...

 about an Episcopal priest's life in modern day North Carolina can match.

At the same time, one or two things about the book show just how much the world has changed in the relatively short time since the book was written; for instance parishioners at that time needed to rent pews, and that was a major source of income for the church, and a bit of intrigue over that in the book is very puzzling until that point is grasped.

Plot summary

Hilary struggles to be a worthy replacement of his High Church predecessor, yet bring new meaning to his ministry, and cope with a persistent attempt of various persons to involve him in scandal, owing to the prominence of Lex's family. At one point he delivers a striking mid-week sermon to young men (who could not ordinarily attend services on Sunday since they have not rented pews!), and begins to read the following passage from Proverbs Chapter 7 (selective, some verses left out):

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. That they may keep the from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, and beheld among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, pasing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night; and behold there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot and subtil of heart. So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves. For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey.

This passage, which seems to say there is a place, after all, for romance in the life of a pious man, was revolutionary to read aloud, even though it is straight from the King James Bible.

While Hilary deals with his pastoral issues at home, events on the world stage are darkening by the hour. His brother Dick, in particular, even though the American involvement has not started, volunteers for ambulance service in Europe, and late in the novel four fateful things come together

• Dick's death in the war zone
• Reconciliation of Hilary with Lex after a period of conflict
• Lex's pregnancy
• Pearl Harbor, bringing in turn
  • gradual disappearance of the young men inspired by the sermon from Proverbs into the Army
  • Hilary's final prayer where he admits out loud, at least to God, what has been troubling him ever since Pearl Harbor and his brother's death: "The young men of the church are going. The young men of the Parish House (orphanage) are going. I too am a young man .... I will be leaving ... my wife, ... it may be my unborn child. I will be leaving my work ...." but this is not a gloomy thought:

The sadness, the strain and the fear went out of it. It was though he had arrived at peace.

But few readers today will be able to sustain that attitude: it a moment of consummate sadness, not only for Hilary but for a whole generation of men.

Characters in The Bishop's Mantle

• Hilary Laurens, Episcopal priest and protagonist of the novel
• Dick Laurens, Hilary's brother, who pursues a different life direction from his brother, sometimes challenging his brother's path, and sometimes asking for his help.
• Lexa (Lex) McColly, a woman of striking beauty that Hilary has met while visiting his brother in Maine
• Alex McColly, Lex's wealthy father, a self-made millionaire
• Eunice McColly, née Breckenridge, from old money stock, whose parents disowned her when she married Alex (who was not yet wealthy).
• Stephen Cole, vestry man at St Matthews, Hilary's new church, whose son has committed suicide
• Miles Anderson, Stephen Cole's brother-in-law
• Dr Partridge, Hilary's predecessor as vicar of St Matthews

Major themes

The novel, although it has a plot, and is written by a woman (and women were not permitted be Episcopal priests at the time the book was written), is something of an exploration of inner and outer life and moral conflicts of a dedicated Episcopal priest (no existential crises of faith as in books by non-religious authors, but many shadows of the temptations of the world, to which Hilary never permanently succumbs). However, Hilary is conflicted by the number of poor working class people in his parish in desperate need of his care, despite the presence in his own vestry (church governing body/board) of powerful men who may be responsible for some of that misery.