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The Bishop's Mantle
A novel about the rector of an Episcopal church. Hilary Laurens, grandson of a bishop, tries to live his faith, his idealism, his enthusiasm for his chosen profession. A book which fulfills the demand for a worthwhile story which is also inspirational.
314 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1947
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About the author
Agnes Sligh Turnbull
50 books37 followersNovelist Agnes Sligh Turnbull was born in 1888 in New Alexandria, PA. After a dozen years as a short story writer, Turnbull wrote her first novel, The Rolling Years, published in 1936. In the 14 additional novels she wrote over the next 40-plus years, Turnbull built a thorough chronicle of the Scots who settled and farmed rural Westmoreland County. Turnbull died in 1982.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 27, 2022
A little boring but i manage to finish it.
November 21, 2022
This is my third book by Agnes Sligh Turnbull and I have loved them all…yes it is dated, yes it centres around a church and it’s congregation but the writing and plot is something I just crave…it is gentle and decent, virtuous and kind, and in today’s world it calms me.
September 10, 2020
I rarely read romance anymore, but I found this in a box of freebies, and was pleasantly reminded that a well written romance novel can still bring a smile to my face. This was the kind of book that would make a great movie. Great character development, believable plot, full of emotion, and it felt familiar throughout, as though the people in the story were people I knew well . I'll be looking for more from this author.
October 14, 2022
Such a strange book. All about “religion” and “Christianity” but absolutely nothing about a personal relationship with God and nothing about Jesus. And yet the story of a young priest in a very rich and tradition-filled Church of England parish in a clearly “old money” eastern city was fascinating. I loved reading about the various people in the congregation, the ups and downs of caring for a church of people, trying to serve the very well-to-do and social elites—“those who pay for pews” and the tenement house dwellers who live nearby. This was such a strange contrast and a very different view of “Christianity” to what I have known. And all of this takes place during the 2-3 years leading up to Pearl Harbor as war is building up in the background. I probably would have given it 4 stars if I hadn’t found some of the theology and ideas of Christianity and moralism so appalling. And yet, the priest at the center of the story tries so hard to serve his congregation well and lovingly and according moral uprightness (but without Jesus).
Not having much experience with the Church of England outside of books like Jane Austen it was an interesting read just for that, though this book does take place in America.
I have read one other book by this author that I just loved but it was so different even though it was also about a pastor of a church.
Not having much experience with the Church of England outside of books like Jane Austen it was an interesting read just for that, though this book does take place in America.
I have read one other book by this author that I just loved but it was so different even though it was also about a pastor of a church.
June 16, 2023
(I probably take these vintage pop novels way too seriously, but here goes)
Turnbull novels had always sold well but this one was one of the top 5 bestsellers of the 1948 year. It’s set prewar and obviously resonated with readers, maybe because its characters are navigating their changing world, but Turnbull’s treatment of the two main women characters is… disturbing. You expect mid-century, postwar sex roles and attitudes, but these women can do no right while their saintly priest husbands can do practically no wrong.
Young priest Hilary, the new hire as rector of an old high society Episcopal church, circa 1939, is in love with society girl Lex. They spend almost half the book deciding whether marrying is a good idea, or rather, she does. She’s more of a realist than he is about whether she’s cut out for the role.
His thoughts, as he mulls it over (historically accurate but it made me shudder) :
But in a church such as St. Matthews the main requirement in a rector’s wife would be that she must be socially eligible, and Lex qualified for that. Even old Hettie [snobbish parishioner], however disapproving, could not deny that on one side of the family at least, she was of the city’s blood royal.
Let me repeat : “the main requirement.”
Hilary is a good man with strong faith. He risks his job going up against a wealthy vestryman who’s a notorious slumlord. He helps the orphanage, the shut-ins, the hurting. He wants to serve the poor in nearby tenement neighborhoods, to whom St. Matthews has paid little attention. He wants to hire a downtrodden priest as his assistant rector, though the man has a problem - more later.
We hear often how in love with Lex he is, but he keeps expecting the worst from her. Parties in her world are mixed-drink events, but when he tells her a big parish reception absolutely cannot have them, she happily adapts the menu. She really loves him, loves putting her skills to use as clergy spouse, she’s great with people and a great organizer and is quite an asset.
He wants to start up a farm/camp place out in the country, where kids in the tenements can go for a break in the fresh air, get acquainted with farm animals and gardens. He dreads telling Lex this, expecting her to recoil from involvement in a rural, farming project. Instead she loves the idea, fixes up dormitories, plans activities. Her going out in the evenings with old friends sparks gossip and she sadly but willingly bows out, even giving up being a friend’s Matron of Honor and all the round of parties that go with a big wedding. Over and over she proves her learning curve is going well, she’s willing to sacrifice, to adapt, to put Hilary and the parish ahead of her wants. Her worst fault - presented as such - is that she doesn’t want to get pregnant right away. Bad wife, no biscuit.
The flip side of the couple is Hilary’s assistant rector, Sam and his wife, Samantha. He’s noble and self-sacrificing and tragic, because Samantha is the countrified opposite of Lex. She loves him and works hard for their parishes, but his career is stunted because of her. “While she can run a mother’s meeting or a cake sale with one hand, she wouldn’t be socially acceptable to St. Matthews….He’s grown, she hasn’t,” warns Hilary’s friend when Hilary’s thinking over hiring Sam. Hilary asks if she’d be amenable to church work, and gets this earful from the friend :
“Good heavens, yes! That would be just the trouble. She’s the hearty, efficient kind, born to run country-church suppers and pack missionary barrels. But as you know, St. Matthews doesn’t need just those qualifications.”
To Hilary’s credit, he sees possibilities for both Sam’s and Samantha’s talents, and hires Sam. Sam and Samantha thrive at St. Matthews, in their different spheres. Cool, except Sam still finds Samantha a burden and embarrassment.
Lex is supposedly an inadequate wife, but hasn’t been shown to be very bad at all, so okay, for plot’s sake she has to do some truly awful thing. The climactic scene, if you could call it that, has Lex feeling such a failure that she gets very drunk and sobs to Samantha that they both are wrong for their husbands and cause the men grief. Samantha had no clue and it breaks her.
But the reader is, I guess, not supposed to notice that Hilary IS STANDING RIGHT THERE IN THE DOORWAY LISTENING, has plenty of time and opportunity to shut Lex up before much of the damage is done. And does nothing. Her first drunken sentence should have spurred him to interrupt. I’d like to see him in pain of regret for that, not to reduce her blame but just because “Why didn’t I stop her?” seems like a normal thing to wonder. But nope. All we get is Lex not remembering what she said, Hilary coldly telling her, and Lex bottoming out on how dreadful she is and promising to “grow up.”
It’s hard to say what the author’s point of view is, but Sam, at least, is knocked off his martyrdom pedestal by Samantha’s stunned and broken pain, and Samantha is deeply loved by the parish, if not by the husband she loves. Readers who like traditional values and faith can’t help but like Samantha, and hopefully Turnbull wanted us to know Sam’s a jerk. But she gives Hilary too much of a pass and Lex too little, in my opinion.
A delightful salty old lady who runs the coffee shop across the street, says to Hilary, “Women are always gettin’ the worst of it in this world. The men they get ain’t fit for them an’ the ones they want they can’t have. There’s no justice for women in this life and I’ll bet it’ll be just as bad in the next. Will you have the apple pie today? It’ll melt in your mouth.” That’s the Turnbull I like.
Turnbull novels had always sold well but this one was one of the top 5 bestsellers of the 1948 year. It’s set prewar and obviously resonated with readers, maybe because its characters are navigating their changing world, but Turnbull’s treatment of the two main women characters is… disturbing. You expect mid-century, postwar sex roles and attitudes, but these women can do no right while their saintly priest husbands can do practically no wrong.
Young priest Hilary, the new hire as rector of an old high society Episcopal church, circa 1939, is in love with society girl Lex. They spend almost half the book deciding whether marrying is a good idea, or rather, she does. She’s more of a realist than he is about whether she’s cut out for the role.
His thoughts, as he mulls it over (historically accurate but it made me shudder) :
But in a church such as St. Matthews the main requirement in a rector’s wife would be that she must be socially eligible, and Lex qualified for that. Even old Hettie [snobbish parishioner], however disapproving, could not deny that on one side of the family at least, she was of the city’s blood royal.
Let me repeat : “the main requirement.”
Hilary is a good man with strong faith. He risks his job going up against a wealthy vestryman who’s a notorious slumlord. He helps the orphanage, the shut-ins, the hurting. He wants to serve the poor in nearby tenement neighborhoods, to whom St. Matthews has paid little attention. He wants to hire a downtrodden priest as his assistant rector, though the man has a problem - more later.
We hear often how in love with Lex he is, but he keeps expecting the worst from her. Parties in her world are mixed-drink events, but when he tells her a big parish reception absolutely cannot have them, she happily adapts the menu. She really loves him, loves putting her skills to use as clergy spouse, she’s great with people and a great organizer and is quite an asset.
He wants to start up a farm/camp place out in the country, where kids in the tenements can go for a break in the fresh air, get acquainted with farm animals and gardens. He dreads telling Lex this, expecting her to recoil from involvement in a rural, farming project. Instead she loves the idea, fixes up dormitories, plans activities. Her going out in the evenings with old friends sparks gossip and she sadly but willingly bows out, even giving up being a friend’s Matron of Honor and all the round of parties that go with a big wedding. Over and over she proves her learning curve is going well, she’s willing to sacrifice, to adapt, to put Hilary and the parish ahead of her wants. Her worst fault - presented as such - is that she doesn’t want to get pregnant right away. Bad wife, no biscuit.
The flip side of the couple is Hilary’s assistant rector, Sam and his wife, Samantha. He’s noble and self-sacrificing and tragic, because Samantha is the countrified opposite of Lex. She loves him and works hard for their parishes, but his career is stunted because of her. “While she can run a mother’s meeting or a cake sale with one hand, she wouldn’t be socially acceptable to St. Matthews….He’s grown, she hasn’t,” warns Hilary’s friend when Hilary’s thinking over hiring Sam. Hilary asks if she’d be amenable to church work, and gets this earful from the friend :
“Good heavens, yes! That would be just the trouble. She’s the hearty, efficient kind, born to run country-church suppers and pack missionary barrels. But as you know, St. Matthews doesn’t need just those qualifications.”
To Hilary’s credit, he sees possibilities for both Sam’s and Samantha’s talents, and hires Sam. Sam and Samantha thrive at St. Matthews, in their different spheres. Cool, except Sam still finds Samantha a burden and embarrassment.
Lex is supposedly an inadequate wife, but hasn’t been shown to be very bad at all, so okay, for plot’s sake she has to do some truly awful thing. The climactic scene, if you could call it that, has Lex feeling such a failure that she gets very drunk and sobs to Samantha that they both are wrong for their husbands and cause the men grief. Samantha had no clue and it breaks her.
But the reader is, I guess, not supposed to notice that Hilary IS STANDING RIGHT THERE IN THE DOORWAY LISTENING, has plenty of time and opportunity to shut Lex up before much of the damage is done. And does nothing. Her first drunken sentence should have spurred him to interrupt. I’d like to see him in pain of regret for that, not to reduce her blame but just because “Why didn’t I stop her?” seems like a normal thing to wonder. But nope. All we get is Lex not remembering what she said, Hilary coldly telling her, and Lex bottoming out on how dreadful she is and promising to “grow up.”
It’s hard to say what the author’s point of view is, but Sam, at least, is knocked off his martyrdom pedestal by Samantha’s stunned and broken pain, and Samantha is deeply loved by the parish, if not by the husband she loves. Readers who like traditional values and faith can’t help but like Samantha, and hopefully Turnbull wanted us to know Sam’s a jerk. But she gives Hilary too much of a pass and Lex too little, in my opinion.
A delightful salty old lady who runs the coffee shop across the street, says to Hilary, “Women are always gettin’ the worst of it in this world. The men they get ain’t fit for them an’ the ones they want they can’t have. There’s no justice for women in this life and I’ll bet it’ll be just as bad in the next. Will you have the apple pie today? It’ll melt in your mouth.” That’s the Turnbull I like.
August 18, 2019
Probably a 3.5
July 4, 2022
This book was absolutely lovely! I came across a copy that was printed in 1947. The storyline, morals and the manner in which the story was written were so enjoyable. As for the style of writing it was something between classic literature and modern fiction. Highly recommend if you are interested in tasteful writing with a great story.
September 9, 2023
This is a story about an Episcopal clergyman from the late 1930's into the early days of World War II. He has all the idealism of a young pastor, hoping to change the world for the better and in the story he does. He has the issue of women being attracted to him with a lovely, vivacious wife, an adoring secretary and a "Jezebel" parishioner. He has a showdown with his biggest contributor and discovers the parish does not fail after this person leaves. Having been a pastor for over 40 years, it is all familiar, and have struggled with some of these problems myself as well as seeing my colleagues do the same. A good read, a bit idealistic, a bit over dramatic, but it all makes for a good story.
July 18, 2021
This book was very interesting from a religious point of view with lots of discussion of Christianity throughout including some different viewpoints. Also interesting to read about perceptions of the Second World War from a US POV (I'm in the UK) being published soon after and set then.
I did find the racism (patronising writing of the Morris and his "inherent" subservice, phrases like "with the pathetic acceptance of his race") and classism rather galling but it was also interesting as an insight to the views of people at the time the book was written.
As for the storyline it was slightly unsatisfying but also still emotional.
I did find the racism (patronising writing of the Morris and his "inherent" subservice, phrases like "with the pathetic acceptance of his race") and classism rather galling but it was also interesting as an insight to the views of people at the time the book was written.
As for the storyline it was slightly unsatisfying but also still emotional.
August 16, 2024
I can only guess at how long this old book had been on my shelf in the "antique" section, perhaps a 2nd or third edition. As a newly minted pastor myself, I felt Turnbull described Hilary's dilemmas, commitment tension and family life tension extremely accurately. The mentoring from the grave of the old Bishop was also stunning. Of course it's antiquated from a 21st century perspective, so don't go off about gender roles or Turnbull's treatment of women. And it's also tremendously accurate from an ecumenical perspective (paid pews, cultural Christianity vs. intimate spirituality). The characters and friendships of Hilary of delightfully depicted.
April 1, 2021
An idealistic ministers marries a socialite. Good story, moves very slowly
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2024
The characters are engaging, but the story moves along quite slowly. I admit I called it quits before finishing the book.
December 23, 2012
I read this book many years ago and remember it as a story about an ambitious, self-seeking, ego-driven young vicar who alientates his wife and causes trouble all around, from which he has to be rescued by an enemy.
I don't recall any pleasure in reading it.
A product of it's generation.
I don't recall any pleasure in reading it.
A product of it's generation.
Read
October 23, 2008F Tur
March 28, 2013
Read this book as a teenager.
November 6, 2013
Quite enjoyed this book about the cultural mores of a society into which the main character at first fits, but then finds he is drowning
March 14, 2014
thanks to Mary Jane Noerr for introducing me to this book.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews