THE FAILURE OF ORGANIZED RELIGION IN
LAURENCE STERNE'S TRISTRAM SHANDY
A Thesis Presented to the Faculty
of
California State University, Hayward
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in English
By
David Dobbie Tull
May, 1991
THE FAILURE OF ORGANIZED RELIGION IN
LAURENCE STERNE'S TRISTRAM SHANDY
By
David Dobbie Tull
Approved:
Date:
/
ii
2t<acr
/ f 71
Table of Contents
Page
Introduction .
The Clergy
The Laity
Notes
.
1
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....•.
27
.
42
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Works cited
. ••
9
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iii
43
Introduction
Few critics would disagree that human loneliness
is an important theme in Tristram Shandy.
Its characters
are often isolated from each other because of their
eccentricity and their different understandings of
language.
In addition, since throughout the novel
Laurence Sterne is concerned with mortality--a preoccupation that he expresses through the deaths of Yorick,
Bobby, and Le Fever and later through the death flight of
Tristram--the reader is continually reminded that,
however we try to make connections with others, we will
always be singled out by death.
Because loneliness and death are so evident in
Tristram, it is interesting to consider whether organized
religion provides consolation for these unavoidable and
related conditions.
Organized religion, after all, is a
built-in part of the society Sterne presents in Tristram.
For example, baptism, excommunication, and Catholicism
get much attention in the novel; the Shandeans are an
audience to both a sermon and a visitation dinner; and
two major characters, Yorick and Dr. Slop, are priests.
Therefore, since religious matters and characters are so
prominent in Tristram, I believe it is reasonable to
consider whether Sterne regards organized religion as a
potential source of strength, inspiration, solace, and
1
2
communion.
Or is organized religion yet one more cause
of alienation, a mere hobbyhorse for some and a source of
power for others?
Or is religion merely a perfunctory
social ritual taken for granted by many of its practitioners?
Most critics who address the important subject of
sterne and organized religion ignore these questions,
preferring instead to comment on sterne's private
convictions.
critics long have questioned his morality
and debated exactly what sort of Christian he was.
Some
Victorians, for example, could not believe that a ribald
novelist like sterne could be devoted to God.
William
Thackeray called sterne a "delicious divine" (180), a
"wretch" (184), and a "foul satyr" (190).
Walter Bagehot
also called him a "pagan" (98).
Although most recent critics have correctly taken
a more moderate view of Sterne's religious feelings--the
prevailing view seems to be that his sermons are proof of
his devotion to God--the debate about his Christianity
continues.
John Traugott, for example, takes the
position--incorrectly, I think--that Sterne was a nominal
Christian, lukewarm in his devotion to Anglicanism.
Traugott describes sterne as jester who used the pUlpit
to practice the rhetorical tricks that he would later
employ in Tristram.
Despite Traugott's confusing
insistence that sterne was also serious about religion
3
(106), he makes it clear that sterne was more of a comic
rhetorician than he was a parson.
Lansing Van Hammond also presents sterne as an
uninspired churchman.
He notes the paucity of theology
in sterne's sermons, arguing that "the doctrinal,
educational, historical, and polemic aspects of Christianity found no expression in Mr. Yorick's Sermons"
(94).
Van Hammond's argument seems weak when one
considers the sermon Sterne includes in Tristram, "Abuses
of Conscience, Considered."
In this sermon, sterne
offers some orthodox Anglican advice, urging his audience
to consult scripture whenever moral questions arise.
Such advice, consistent with Anglican tradition,l shows
Sterne's allegiance to his church.
If Traugott and Van Hammond underestimate
sterne's religious feelings, Melvyn New probably exaggerates them.
New argues that Tristram is an
authoritarian tract that Sterne intended "to stem the
eighteenth-century's ever increasing enthusiasm for human
self-sufficiency" by providing "the more traditional view
of man as a limited creature, dependent upon authority
and order for a meaningful existence" (2-3).
The
authority to which New refers is the Anglican Church.
According to New, Sterne uses Anglicanism as a norm
throughout Tristram; and the deviations of Tristram and
other characters from it show their need for order and
4
authority, in particular the authority available to them
through the Church of England.
New's argument has two weaknesses.
First, I
find it curious that he regards Tristram as a religious
tract when there is not a single Anglican in the novel to
admire.
The norm that New makes so much of is not upheld
by any of the novel's Anglicans.
Didius, Phutatorius,
and Gastripheres, Anglicans all, are no better than their
Catholic counterparts whom sterne repeatedly derides as
obnoxious doctrine-mongers.
Even sterne's beloved Yorick
is a questionable representative of the church, mainly
because--as I shall presently explain--he is too much of
a Christian.
Second, the fact that the characters of
Tristram can be said to deviate from the Anglican norm is
not convincing evidence in itself that Sterne is promoting the Anglican Church, especially when there is another
explanation for their conduct besides the probable fact
that they could use a good dose of religion.
That is,
sterne presents them as unreceptive to Anglicanism--or
any religion for that matter--because their attention is
focused elsewhere--namely on themselves.
Anglicanism, in
sterne's view, is simply not a compelling enough force to
correct their self-absorption.
As interesting as the arguments of these critics
are, I believe that the truth about Sterne's religious
feelings lies somewhere between Traugott's idea that
5
sterne was a nominal Christian and New's idea that he was
a didactic tract writer.
The truth is that sterne held
conventional Anglican beliefs, a view that is supported
by James Downey,2 an authority on eighteenth-century
sermons, and Norman Cash,3 sterne's biographer.
However,
in spite of his devotion to Christian principles, sterne
had some serious misgivings about the ability of the
Anglican Church to carry out these principles.
As early
as A Political Romance, sterne was attacking Anglican
politicians.
His satire of Dr. Francis Topham and other
local figures in A Political Romance indicates that
sterne was not under the illusion that the Anglican
Church was only in the business of saving souls; he
regarded it also as a political enterprise run by
ambitious men, a fact that also concerns him in Tristram.
This skepticism about his fellow Anglicans is not
confined to the clergy by any means.
Through such
characters as Uncle Toby, Trim, and Walter Shandy, Sterne
expresses his doubts about the religiousness of the laity
as well.
In particular, he questions their suitability
for fellowship with others and with God.
For if as
sterne would have us believe people are prisoners of
their eccentric interests and Lockean associations--as
Uncle Toby, Trim, and Walter often are--it follows that
they cannot easily commune with others or with God.
How
can one have a spiritual bond with other people when one
6
is preoccupied with his hobbyhorse or captivated by his
stream of thought?
And just what is the meaning of one's
relationship with God--if God is to be defined as a power
greater than the self--if one is governed by his
eccentricity?
I do not mean to suggest, however, that the
characters of Tristram are always isolated from each
other, even if they are frequently self-absorbed.
On the
contrary, Uncle Toby--with his sublime sensibility--is
capable of considerable sympathy, as he shows with his
concern for the Le Fevers.
Nonetheless, it is interest-
ing to note that it is sentimentality rather than a
religious impulse that takes Toby away from his hobbyhorse and brings him close to others.
This is not to
imply that Toby's bond with the Le Fevers is false in any
way or that it is a lesser bond than one based upon
religious feelings; I merely wish to point out that
organized religion is not the stimulus of Toby's closeness with the Le Fevers nor of any similar communion in
Tristram.
Bearing in mind that eccentricity and "Lockean
sUbjectivity" (Byrd 146) usually prevail in shandy Hall,
it is difficult imagining a Shandean praying or intently
listening to a church service.
It is easier imagining a
Shandean lost in a digressive meditation or getting
snagged on a word with distinctly personal associations.
7
Indeed when Trim reads Yorick's sermon, Walter gets
caught up in the sermon's rhetoric and Toby thinks of
fortifications.
A Shandean attempt at prayer would probably
resemble Jake Barnes's effort in Ernest Hemingway's The
Sun Also Rises, in which Catholicism is not compelling
enough to maintain his attention.
Barnes tries to pray,
but the objects of his prayer prompt a stream of as sociations that are far removed from Catholicism:
I wondered if there was anything else that I might
pray for, and I thought that I would like to have
some money, and then I started to think how I would
make it, and thinking of money reminded me of the
count, and I started wondering about where he was,
and about something funny Brett told me about him.
(97)
Aware of his thoughts and realizing that he is indifferent to Catholicism, Barnes walks out of the cathedral.
Barnes' dismissal of organized religion adds to
his loneliness in The Sun Also Rises.
In a similar way,
the failure of religion in Tristram adds to the loneliness of its characters.
Religion--even though it is a
common part of human affairs as the novel presents them-never seems to improve social interaction, which is
limited and fragmented nor does it provide strength or
solace for Tristram, who is acutely aware of his mortality. It does not improve one's basic lot: as Sterne sees
it, one remains stuck with his hobbyhorse and his cough.
I will show, then, that Sterne's fundamental
8
concern with loneliness and mortality in Tristram
significantly involves his belief that institutional
religion--desiccated, corrupt, and ineffectual--is
unable to help.
Instead of providing strength, solace,
inspiration, and communion, churches are decidedly human
institutions comprised of the eccentric, the stupid, and
the venal.
Many references in the novel make it clear
that religion--as sterne sees it practiced by Anglicans
and Catholics alike--is no remedy for one's loneliness or
fear of death.
The Clergy
with the possible exception of Yorick, who may be
benevolent to a fault, all of the clergy whom sterne
presents in Tristram are flawed in some way.
Their
affectation of gravity fails to conceal their cruelty,
pedantry, and debauchery; and none shows any of the
compassion that any clergYman should possess.
However before I present the hypocrisy of such
churchmen as Heinrich Van Deventer, Ernulphus, Dr. Slop,
and Didius, I wish to discuss two issues which I believe
are further evidence of Sterne's disillusionment with the
clergy.
The first is sterne's distaste for Catholicism,
which Barbara Lounsberry examines in her excellent
article, "Sermons and satire: Anti-Catholicism in
Sterne."
The other issue is the character of Yorick, who
might be regarded as a priestly ideal in Tristram.
with regard to Sterne's feelings about the Roman
Catholic Church, Lounsberry correctly identifies a
"strong strain of anti-Catholicism" (40) running
throughout Tristram, a prejudice that is not surprising
considering that sterne in real life was a Yorkshire
clergYman who lived in close proximity to the Jacobite
threat.
However, Lounsberry limits her discussion to
Sterne's sectarian prejudices instead of showing his
misgivings about clerics of any kind.
9
By concentrating
10
on his dislike of Catholics, she fails to observe that
what he finds pitiable, laughable, and alarming in
Catholicism--for example, its pedantry, cruelty, tyranny,
superstition, lechery, and venality--he considers usually
true of Anglicanism as well.
Although it would be
stretching the point to argue that every flawed Catholic
in Tristram has an Anglican counterpart, I will show that
the novel's Anglican characters are not greatly different
from its Catholics.
The basic problem with clerics--Catholic and
Anglican--as sterne presents them in Tristram is that
they are impostors.
There is no real substance to their
quibbling and scholarly appearance, for these churchmen
are poseurs who rely on "great wigs, grave faces, and
other implements of deceit" (202) to gain authority.
They maintain power through their affectation of gravity,
which sterne--borrowing from La Rochefoucauld--defines as
"a mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects
of the mind" (26).
In this way, the clergy are little
different from the many other pedants and bogus philosophers who turn up in Tristram.
Yorick, whom I mentioned as deserving special
attention, is of course an exceptional priest.
He is--
among other things--generous, kind, and good-natured; and
it is no exaggeration to say that he is the only true
Christian in the entire novel.
But while these virtues
11
make him a refreshing contrast to the other churchmen of
Tristram, his compulsive whimsy and his lack of "ballast"
(25)--more precisely, his lack of authority, stability,
and jUdgment--make him an ineffective priest.
In the
end, he is no more inspiring than the many overly grave
priests of Tristram.
To be sure, Yorick is in a difficult position,
and one could easily argue that he is a good priest in a
bad society.
His predicament is somewhat similar to that
of the village preacher in Oliver Goldsmith's poem, The
Deserted Village.
Goldsmith's preacher, a kind and
dedicated priest, is driven out of business by a society
which prefers luxury to God and rural virtues.
Yorick, a
dedicated priest himself, also faces a society of
Philistines.
He has to contend with parishioners who are
"fools" and "knaves" (29).
They are provoked by "CRUELTY
and COWARDICE" (29) into a veritable lynch mob, a "grand
confederacy" (30) that destroys his ministry.
Since Yorick faces such a hostile aUdience, one
might ask just what, if anything, he could do as a priest
to make Christianity appealing to it.
Perhaps there is
little that he can do: Sterne makes it clear throughout
Tristram that people are difficult to reach, let alone
persuade.
If the benign characters of the novel are
self-absorbed and eccentric and therefore unreceptive to
religious instruction, influencing those who are cruel
12
and foolish might be doubly difficult.
However even if Yorick's parishioners were more
receptive to instruction, Yorick would probably fail to
inspire them.
Yorick makes some serious mistakes in
judgment when dealing with his parish and therefore it is
difficult to imagine him inspiring any group of people.
Most notably, he fails to heed the wise Eugenius, who
repeatedly advises him to let up on his humor and appear
more serious so as to gain respect from his parishioners.
Eugenius knows that Yorick's jocularity will bring him
trouble, and indeed it does: Yorick ignores the wiser
Eugenius and persists in laughing at those who are not as
self-effacing as he.
Instead of getting his parishioners
to laugh at their own shortcomings and become humble in
the process, which is what he naively expects, Yorick
merely brings out their belligerence and malice, qualities which they have in spades.
As a result, Yorick
loses whatever chance he has of influencing them, and he
only succeeds in making bad parishioners worse.
Yorick's deficiencies as a priest become evident
when he is compared not only with Goldsmith's village
preacher of The Deserted Village, along with Dr. Primrose
of The Vicar of Wakefield.
Interestingly, both are
similar to Yorick in certain ways; yet unlike Yorick,
they enjoy a measure of success even though circumstances
are sometimes difficult for them.
The village preacher--
13
for example--is kind, dutiful, self-sacrificing, and
unworldly, and with his annual stipend of forty pounds
and his ignorance of how "to fawn, or seek for power"
(145), he easily could be mistaken for Yorick.
Primrose
is kind, sentimental, foolish, and naive; and he is very
much a comic victim himself, facing disaster after
disaster.
However, the similarities stop there: both
Primrose and the preacher are beloved clergymen who have
ameliorating effects on their parishioners even though
their tasks are not always easy.
Important to Primrose's success is his perseverance.
He has a resilience equalling that of any
eighteenth-century picaro, a fact that becomes increasingly apparent after he survives one calamity after
another.
Primrose's final test is the dismal debtor's
prison, where he remains as cheerful and determined as
ever.
By acting as a leader in prison, Primrose shows
that a good priest can endure in a bad society and even
have some influence on it.
survive his crisis.
Yorick, by contrast, cannot
Worn down by parishioners who have
risen against him, he dies broken in spirit, his ministry
lost.
The village preacher, although not as charismatic
a leader as Primrose, is nonetheless impressive for the
soothing effect that he has on his parish.
He is
vigilant and devoted; and he succeeds in comforting the
14
wretched instead of highlighting their vices, as Yorick
inadvertently does.
Such devotion and compassion make
the preacher beloved, a man whom Goldsmith describes as
"dear" to all of the country (141).
Even so, this
priest's influence is decidedly limited, for he cannot
stop the powerful monied class which resides far from the
village and whose pursuit of luxury ultimately destroys
it.
In general, Sterne's clergymen are questionable
leaders.
with the exception of Yorick, who is a misun-
derstood jester, they are either tyrants or pedants.
Nowhere in Tristram is there a cleric who manages to
strike a balance between seriousness and levity or who
exerts a gentle but firm authority.
There is no figure
like Martin from Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub who
serves as a norm of clerical conduct.
Instead, Sterne
presents a parade of flawed individuals who display those
attributes that he disapproved of in the clergy.
It
might be possible to deduce a positive norm from such
comic caricatures, as New seems to imply.
However, one
would be left with the difficulty of reconciling contradicting traits.
The ideal priest, as Sterne appears
to suggest, would have to be benevolent and generous
while simultaneously possessing a manner intimidating
enough to win respect.
He would have to be worldly like
Didius and Christian like Yorick.
15
Yorick certainly comes closest to sterne's
implied ideal; but, as I have shown, his lack of ballast
is a significant drawback.
Moreover, the feelings which
Yorick evokes in his friends (Eugenius and the members of
Shandy Hall) and in the reader probably are not so much
religious as sentimental.
That is, Yorick--as one of the
cronies at Shandy Hall--evokes feelings of affection and
nostalgia more than anything spiritual.
After the tale of Yorick, which appears near the
beginning of Tristram, various representatives of
institutionalized religion turn up in the novel, the
first being the Catholics Heinrich Van Deventer and the
doctors of the Sorbonne.
Van Deventer is the Dutch
physician/theologian who issues a memorandum on baptism
which the doctors of the Sorbonne approve.
In this
proposal, Van Deventer considers the problem of baptizing
unborn babies in order to save them from damnation.
He
concludes that the sacrament of baptism indeed can be
administered to the unborn provided the priest inserts an
injection pipe, or "squirt" as Tristram derisively terms
it, into the womb and anoints the fetus with holy water.
Van Deventer's memorandum as well as the lengthy
reply from the doctors of the Sorbonne establish Catholic
scholars and the Catholic hierarchy as silly doctrinemongers.
Both documents solemnly consider the importance
of fetal baptism and the various issues that come up in
16
connection with it.
They consider among other points
whether the child has to be visible to the priest
administering the sacrament, whether the unborn is to be
regarded as "among men" (59), whether the unborn is
capable of damnation and salvation, and whether a
surgical pipe is an acceptable way of administering a
sacrament.
That sterne views this debate as mere
pedantic nonsense--the very sort of pseudo-scholarly
quibbling which will later obsess Didius and his Anglican
colleagues--is evident in his inclusion of the squirt in
Dr. Slop's obstetrical bag, along with the other tools of
Slop's trade.
One has to wonder about the sanctity of a
church edict (as well as the worth of the hierarchy which
issues it) when a priest as vile as Slop is allowed to
administer it.
Furthermore, Sterne shows his amusement
at what he regards as the crazy business of fetal baptism
by proposing that all of one's sperm--or Homunculi as he
calls them--be baptized "at one, slap-dash" (62).
Why go
to the bother of fetal baptism, Sterne seems to ask, when
the agents of conception can be blessed beforehand?
These documents also show how religious law may
be based on the edicts of powerful men who lack common
sense and divine inspiration.
Indeed, the reply from the
Sorbonne exposes a typically spiritless bureaucracy, one
that seems more concerned with the whims of its leaders
than the worth of its decrees:
17
In authorizing the proposed practice . . . the
Council believes that he who consults it ought to
address himself to his bishop and to whomsoever it
appertains to jUdge the utility and the danger of the
proposed means, and since, with submission to the
pleasure of the bishop, the Council deems that it
would be necessary to appeal to the Pope, who has the
authority to interpret the rules of the church--the
council cannot approve the practice without the
confirmation of these two authorities.
(61)
Never mind that the idea of inserting a squirt to baptize
the unborn seems silly, grotesque, and compulsively
ritualistic or that the priest becomes a sort of
obstetrician who administers the sacrament through an
"external object" (59), thus making the intended blessing
two times removed from the divine.
The squirt gains
legitimacy only because it is presented in a suitably
grave and scholarly manner and because it wins the
approval of the church hierarchy.
After Van Deventer and the Doctors of the
Sorbonne, the next representative of organized religion
to turn up is Dr. Slop.
Slop, of course, is sterne's
broadest caricature of the clergy; and he is generally
associated with Sterne's anti-catholicism.
Not surpris-
ingly, Slop is an important sUbject in Lounsberry's
article.
Since she has already catalogued his various
blasphemies, obscene puns, and cruelties and has done so
in an impressive fashion, I will devote little space to
Slop.
However, I do wish to expand on her discussion of
Slop's excommunication of the Protestant Obadiah with
18
Ernulphus's curse.
Lounsberry makes the mistake of
limiting the curse's significance to Catholics.
As she
puts it, "The Action [Ernulphus's Curse] has no meaning
except to reflect disparagingly on Slop and the Catholic
church" (414).
As an invocation of damnation, isolation, and
suffering, the curse is a vehicle of hatred--antithetical
to all Christian purpose--which seems to express the
malevolence of the clergy, both Anglican and Catholic.
Just as Sterne confirms this through Trim, whose brother
Tom is imprisoned in the Inquisition, we also see this
side of the clergy at the Anglican visitation dinner when
Didius and his colleagues try to shout each other down.
In their way, they are as oppressive as Ernulphus for
they too seek to stifle the self-expression of others.
Furthermore, the curse exposes the irrationality of some
clergYmen, another quality which I will show is the
characteristic of Didius and his friends.
Note the
insane thoroughness of the curse and how it heaps damn
upon damn until each of the heretic's atoms are
condemned:
"May he be cursed in eating and drinking, in being
hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in
slumbering, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in
lying, in working, in resting, in pissing, in
shitting, and in blood-letting.
May he [Obadiah] be cursed in all the faculties
of his body.
19
May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly.--May he
be cursed in the hair of his head.--May he be cursed
in his brains and in his vertex," (that is a sad
curse, quoth my father) "in his temples, in his
forehead, in his ears, in his eye-brows, in his
cheeks, in his jaw-bones, in his nostrils, in his
foreteeth and grinders, in his lips, in his throat,
in his shoulders, in his wrists, in his arms, in his
hands, in his fingers."
(176-77)
and so on.
Ernulphus compiles a virtual anatomy of the
human body, listing each part so it can be individually
damned.
One is tempted to suggest, as Tristram does with
the baptizing of the Homunculi, that the rite--if it must
be done at all--be done slap-dash with one blanket
damning.
Ernulphus's preoccupation with the human body is
hardly unique in Tristram; other clerics in the novel
have anatomical or sexual obsessions themselves, which
suggest that their interests are more corporeal than
spiritual.
Van Deventer, for example, is preoccupied
with obstetrics.
The clergy in The Slawkenbergius Tale,
like everyone else in the Tale, are obsessed with the
stranger's penis.
The stranger, as we learn in the Tale,
makes "such rousing work in the fancies of [the nuns of
Strasbourg] they cannot get to sleep" (253); and a
Catholic priest argues with a Lutheran over whether God
has the power to create such a phenomenal phallus.
Their
discussion becomes a blasphemous tribute to divine power
when it is agreed that God is indeed capable of such
20
creation.
Finally, there is the Anglican Phutatorius,
whose name means "copulator, lecher" (193).
As the
author of the famous treatise on concubines, de
Concubines retinedes, Phutatorius is arguably the most
debauched character in the novel.
Phutatorius is one of the figures in the next
major episode which involves church leaders, the Anglican
visitation dinner where Didius hears Mr. Shandy's request
that Tristram's baptism be annulled.
the table are a number of authorities.
Joining Didius at
Prominent in this
supposedly distinguished group are the surgeon
Gastripheres, whose name means "paunch-carrier" (193),
and the hypocritical Phutatorius.
The brutishness that
is evident from their names shows that Sterne has no
special regard for Anglican authorities; and as the
visitation episode goes on it is clear that Anglicans can
be just as pedantic, stupid, and rude as any Catholic in
the novel.
If anything their shortcomings are all the
more intolerable, considering that Anglicans, as I shall
shortly explain, long have advocated reason as an avenue
to truth.
The Anglicans whom Sterne presents at the
visitation dinner certainly are not reasonable men.
Phutatorius incorrectly blames Yorick for his singed
crotch, ignoring the fact that he was sitting at the
table with his fly open and a waiter fumbled some roasted
21
chestnuts onto it.
Didius and Kysarcius are illogical
when they rule on the baptism, and presumably they have
considered the matter carefully (and without the distraction of a burning chestnut).
Even so, they refuse to
annul the baptism for the absurd reason that the
priest's blunder did not fallon the first syllable of
Tristram's name.
Furthermore they decide, after a
spirited discussion with Triptolemus, that Mr. and
Mrs. Shandy--Tristram's own parents--are not related to
Tristram.
Such irrationality is hardly surprising, for
Didius and his colleagues are poseurs who are scholarly
in only the most superficial of ways; that is, they
create the illusion of importance through their beards,
seriousness, and Latin gibberish.
are pretentious.
Even their gestures
Didius on two occasions rises dramati-
cally: once "to remove a tall decanter, which stood in a
direct line betwixt him and Yorick" (317), and later, in
what could be termed an anticipation of Napoleon, to
stand before the gathering with "his right fingers spread
upon his breast" (326).
Such gestures are stagy and
grandiose, and they fail to obscure Didius's manic need
for power and his ineffectiveness as a churchman.
Fittingly, the visitation ends with an inane
pronouncement: Triptolemus states that Tristram is
unrelated to his mother.
The rUling follows a nasty
22
free-for-all where Kysarcius interrupts Uncle Toby and
Didius tries to shout everyone down.
One has the sense
that an intolerant collection of egos has assembled, and
each is trying to shut the others up.
Such aggression
and intolerance bring to mind Ernulphus, who also uses
his ecclesiastic authority to silence others.
The foolishness of Didius and his colleagues has
important implications.
First, it suggests the faulti-
ness of hierarchal religion, which grants authority to
undeserving human beings.
As the visitation dinner
shows, a church decree is only as worthy as the person
issuing it.
An edict from Didius and Kysarcius, who are
fools, only can be ridiculous.
Second, Didius's
irrationality is an ironic comment on the Anglican
religion.
That an Anglican lawyer and an officer of the
church would be so unreasonable is ironic indeed for
Anglicanism, much more than most faiths, emphasizes
reason.
Reason is one of three basic Anglican beliefs,
the other two being tradition and scripture.
Reason is
arguably the most important of the three, for it permits
a fruitful interpretation of scripture, and it prevents
the church from being dominated by tradition.
Further-
more, reason was highly valued by eighteenth-century
Anglicans.
G. R. Cragg notes the importance of reason in
Latitudinarianism (71), and he speaks of a "cult of
reason" in eighteenth-century theology that persisted
23
until mid-century (157-73).
Also, John R. H. Moorman, an
Anglican historian, says that Anglicans of the period
brought a "rational" temper to theology (130).
So with
the characters of Didius and his friends, Sterne serves
up a pretty snide portrait of Anglican authorities,
presenting them as deficient in what their church values
most.
Of course a critic such as Melvyn New can argue
that, since Sterne is writing satire, therefore Didius
(or any other cleric in Tristram) is not meant to be
taken seriously as a representative of the church: he is
intended only as a caricature of everything a true
Anglican should not be, and therefore he indirectly
serves as an affirmation of Anglicanism by demonstrating
the absurdity of religion without reason.
I am tempted
to agree with New, who offers a very fine argument
indeed.
One of the points of Tristram, which I will
address more fully in the following chapter, however is
that passion usually prevails over reason.
As in the
case of Didius, one's thought is generally controlled by
one's passion or hobbyhorse.
After the visitation dinner, Sterne gets in one
more jab at the Anglican clergy.
In the story of Le
Fever, Trim complains about the local priest, who prefers
smoking a pipe by the fire to praying for the dying Le
Fever.
The priest is right in line with other churchmen
24
in the novel who never seem to do anything sacramental.
His enjoYment of sensual pleasures--the warm fire,
his pipe--possibly links him to Phutatorius and
Gristripheres, although their vices are far more blatant
than his.
The final episode in the novel that involves
organized religion occurs in Volume VII when Tristram
encounters Catholicism while traveling through France.
He repeatedly comments on the ways of French Catholics,
who seem to spend most of their time crossing themselves,
rattling beads, and waving rosaries.
Typically ritual-
istic is the abbess of Andouillets, who unsuccessfully
tries to cure her knee--which has grown stiff from
excessive kneeling--with religious rites:
The abbess of Andouillets • . . being in danger of
an Anchylosis or stiff joint (the sinovia of her knee
becoming hard by long matins) and having tried every
remedy--first, prayers and thanksgiving; then invocations to all the saints in heaven promiscuously-then particularly to every saint who had ever had a
stiff leg before her--then touching it with all the
reliques of the convent, principally with the thighbone of the man of Lystra, who had been impotent from
his youth--then wrapping it up in her veil when she
went to bed--then cross-wire her rosary--then
bringing in to her aid the secular arm and annointing
it with oils and hot fat of animals--then treating it
with emollient and resolving fomentations • . . was
prevailed on at last to try the hot baths of Bourbon.
(504)
The failure of such cures shows the emptiness of religious rituals as well as the stupidity of Catholics for
continually using them.
Although some readers may view
25
the French Catholics as evidence that man is capable of
religious feelings, their bead-rattling compulsiveness
would not appear to be sterne's idea of true religiousness.
They certainly do not inspire Tristram--he is only
amused by them--and there is nothing personal about their
religious feelings.
These Catholics show no evidence of
having been moved by God.
Not all of Tristram's attacks on the Catholic
clergy are as broad as his account of the Abbess.
On at
least one occasion--when he rolls into Avignon--Tristram
gets his point across more dryly.
He takes stock of the
city and remarks that there is nothing to see (533).
Describing Avignon as barren of worthwhile sights,
especially religious sights, is almost tantamount to
describing Rome as devoid of churches. 4
There are many other instances in Volume VII of
sterne's anti-Catholicism; and as she has done with
Slop, Lounsberry seems to have cited each one.
She lists
references to clergy lust, excommunication, Catholic
architecture, church treasure, stigmata, and the
Eucharist.
As she makes clear, this portion of Tristram
is an impressive collection of anti-catholic jabs, with
Sterne repeatedly attacking Catholic opulence, rites, and
tradition.
But as thorough as Lounsberry is in catalog-
ing Catholic excesses, she overlooks one other failing of
the Catholic clergy that I believe as serious as any
26
plundering or sexual shenanigans.
Simply put, these
ministers of the church fail to inspire faith.
They have
nothing meaningful to offer Tristram, who is dying of
consumption.
Partly for this reason and partly because
his fellow Anglicans are equally uninspiring, Tristram
dismisses religion when arguably he needs it most.
Tristram certainly cannot expect much help from
the clergy--either from the Anglicans in Yorkshire or
from the Catholics in France.
with the possible excep-
tion of Yorick, none of the novel's clerics is
sUfficiently sensitive or charitable to provide any sort
of meaningful solace.
Most of them are self-obsessed in
one way or another--whether through mad, self-glorifying
pedantry or tyrannical demonstrations of authority; and
therefore they are incapable of either assisting or
inspiring others.
The Laity
As I noted earlier, the characters of Tristram
are lonely people.
Their hobbyhorses cause different
understandings of language, making communication difficult if not impossible.
Uncle Toby, for example, is
preoccupied with military fortifications, an obsession
which causes him to misinterpret the phrase "covered
parts" when Walter attempts to explain female anatomy to
him (Iser 38).
Toby puts the phrase in the context of
his hobbyhorse rather than anatomy, and therefore he
misunderstands Walter.
This example, typical of many in
Tristram, illustrates that a hobbyhorse limits one's
understanding of the world and isolates him from others.
Wolfgang Iser, in his discussion of Lockean
psychology, affirms the idea that the characters of
Tristram are prisoners of their eccentricity.
Iser
argues that the novel's characters represent a
"radicalization" (15) of Locke's theory of associations.
According to Iser, the mental processes of the characters
bear out Locke inasmuch as they associate specific ideas
with a given event.
However the associations made by
Toby, Walter, and others are not rooted in human nature-as Locke theorized; they are not universal.
Instead,
associations are determined by the "habits of the self"
(15), meaning they are idiosyncratic responses rather
27
28
than universal ones.
In fact, the responses are so
idiosyncratic in Iser's view: he believes the characters
are "manic" in their sUbjectivity (24) and therefore
necessarily isolated from each other.
Given that human loneliness is a significant
theme in Tristram, the implications for institutional
religion are enormous.
The church, based upon a shared
system of beliefs and rituals, cannot influence those who
are wildly sUbjective or habitually lonely.
In other
words, how can eccentrics have a common faith?
How can
those who talk at cross purposes celebrate anything
together?
Indeed, when one examines certain scenes in
the novel where religion ought to be present but is
not--Trim's reading of Yorick's sermon is one such scene
and the catechizing of Trim is another--it is obvious
that the church is not a compelling force in the lives of
the Shandeans, the laity of Tristram.
The church is not
powerful enough to break down their loneliness nor does
it overcome their eccentricity.
It is only through
sentiment that the Shandeans are able to break out of
their isolation and draw close to each other.
The reason that the Shandeans can be sentimental
is due to sentimental feelings coming from within.
Unlike religious doctrine, which is imposed upon the
individual by clerics and society, sentimental feelings
are personal and natural; they are a product of one's own
29
sensibility.
Toby, for example, is tender with the fly
because he is naturally compassionate, not because
someone in his church has instructed him to value life.
For this reason and also because of their extravagant and
involuntary nature, sentimental feelings are somewhat
similar to hobbyhorses--which also originate in the self
and cannot be controlled.
Even though sentimental feelings are decidedly
personal, however, they have a contrary effect in
Tristram: they break the Shandeans of their selfabsorption and create fellowship among them.
Probably
the best example of sentimentalism in Tristram and
certainly the novel's most famous is the episode where
Toby is moved by the plight of Le Fever and his young
son, who is about to be orphaned.
Toby's sympathy for
the Le Fevers causes him to forget about his hobbyhorse,
and he devotes his attention to them.
The Le Fevers,
responding to Toby's innate goodness, draw close to him:
There was a frankness in my uncle Toby,--not the
effect of familiarity,--but the cause of it,--which
let you at once into his soul, and showed you the
goodness of his nature; to this, there was something
in his looks, and voice, and manner, superadded,
which eternally beckoned to the unfortunate to come
and take shelter under him; so that before my uncle
Toby had half finished the kind offers he was making
to the father, had the son insensibly pressed up
close to his knees, and taken hold of the breast of
his coat, and was pUlling it towards him.
(426)
Seldom in Tristram are characters as close to each other
and as understanding as they are in this scene.
30
If sentimentalism can inspire fellowship,
compassion, and charity among the Shandeans--as it does
in the episode with the Le Fevers--Anglicanism, by
comparison, stands out as uninspiring to them.
Yorick's
sermon does not bring about communion nor does it
interest any of the Shandeansi it does not prompt the
introspection or inspiration that one would expect from
those engaged by a sermon.
Instead, the Shandeans are
merely absorbed with private reactions, and these
reactions isolate them from others.
That is, elements of
the sermon which are personally suggestive trigger
associations which cause them to ignore both the sermon
and other people.
For example, Toby and Trim go off on
their hobbyhorse when they hear the word "fortified":
"Here Corporal Trim and my uncle Toby exchanged looks
with each other.--Aye,--aye, Trim! quoth my uncle Toby,
shaking his head,--these are but sorry fortifications,
Trim" (130).
Later, Toby associates "tower" with
military defenses when a passage from Ecclesiastes is
read: "A tower has no strength • • • unless 'tis flank'd"
(133).
The same passage, with its mention of "seven
watch-men," prompts Trim to launch a digression on army
sentinels:
I think, answer'd the Corporal, that the seven
watch-men upon the tower, who, I suppose, are all
centinels there,--are more, an' please your Honour,
than were necessarYi--and, to go on at that rate,
would harrass a regiment all to pieces, which a
31
commanding officer, who loves his men, will never do,
if he can help it; because two centinels, added the
Corporal, are as good as twenty.--I have been a
commanding officer myself in the Corps de Garde a
hundred times, continued Trim, rising an inch higher
in his figure, as he spoke,--and all the time I had
the honor to serve his Majesty King william, in
relieving the most considerable posts, I never left
more than two in my life.
(134)
Finally, Walter shows that he too is a prisoner of his
own associations.
When Yorick mentions human laws in the
sermon, Walter immediately thinks of the Temple in
London--forgetting that Yorick is discussing the connection between law and conscience.
As these examples demonstrate the Shandeans have
no interest in spirituality, meditation, communion with
others, and knowledge of God--the usual purpose of a
religious gathering.
The sermon does not stimulate
anything among them except eccentric reactions which,
with the exception of Trim's and Toby's interest in
fortifications, they do not share.
Therefore, it is not
instructive in the way that Yorick intends.
As Max Byrd
has observed, "None of [the Shandeans] learns from the
sermon: each reacts only in his hobbyhorsical way, Slop
commenting defensively on Catholic doctrine, Walter on
rhetorical effects, Toby and Trim on military images"
(101) .
In fact, such reactions almost prevent the sermon
from being read.
Hobbyhorses are so compelling to the
Shandeans that Trim, the reader of the sermon, is
32
bombarded with reactions before he can finish the first
sentence.
Walter, who is concerned with rhetorical
effects, interrupts Trim to correct a misplaced accent;
and Dr. Slop accuses him of Protestant snappishness:
[Certainly, Trim, quoth my father, interrupting him,
you give that sentence a very improper accent; for
you curl up your nose, man, and read it with such a
sneering tone, as if the Parson was going to abuse
the Apostle.
He is, an' please your Honour, replied Trim.
Pugh! said my father, smiling.
Sir, quoth Dr. Slop, Trim is certainly in
the right; for the writer (who I perceive is a
Protestant) by the snappish manner in which he takes
up the Apostle, is certainly going to abuse him,--if
this treatment of him has not done it already . . . . ]
(123-24)
Obviously, neither Walter nor Slop (or any of the
Shandeans for that matter) is receptive to the sermon.
Instead, they impose their hobbyhorses on it by making
hobbyhorsical remarks throughout the sermon.
Walter, for example, continually comments on "the
stile and manner" (141) of the sermon.
language is "good" (126).
He notes that its
He studies Trim's delivery,
and he wonders about the sermon's authorship.
He finally
establishes a priori that the sermon is "Yorick's and no
one's else" (141), a fact that is proved a posteriori the
following day when Yorick sends a servant to Toby's house
looking for the sermon.
Never does Walter comment
directly on Yorick's lesson, a somewhat surprising
development since he is usually fascinated by ideas and
33
theories.
Slop, as expected, uses the sermon to promote
Catholicism.
Like Walter, he largely ignores Yorick's
lecture on conscience, preferring instead to present
Catholics as innocent of the charges which Yorick levels
at man.
After hearing the various ways in which man can
be unconscionable, Slop remarks that "All this is
impossible with us" (128).
Slop argues that Catholics
who deviate from the moral norm are either punished-their eyes may be scratched out (124)--or they are denied
the sacraments at death (129).
Mention of the sacraments
takes Slop further from Yorick's sermon, for it prompts
him to lecture Toby on the significance of the number
seven in Catholic theology.
This sermon within a sermon
is quickly ended by Walter, who urges Trim to continue
reading.
Later Toby falls asleep.
Trim too is moved by the sermon, but not in the
way that Yorick intends.
That is, he is not prompted to
consult scripture and scrutinize his conduct as Yorick
urges.
Instead, he personalizes Yorick's description of
the Inquisition, imagining that Yorick has his brother
Tom in mind.
When Yorick describes the sUffering of
victims, Trim believes that each groan and cry comes from
Tom himself:
"To be convinced of this, go with me for a moment
into the prisons of the inquisition."--[God help my
poor brother Tom.J--"Behold Religion; with Mercy and
34
Justice chained down under feet,--there sitting
ghastly upon a black tribunal, propp'd up with racks
and instruments of torment. Hark!--hark! what a
piteous groan!"
[Here Trim's face turned as pale
as ashes.]
"See the melancholy wretch who utter'd
it,"--[Here the tears began to trickle down] . . .
(138)
Obviously, Trim is taking Yorick's words seriously, but
he applies them too personally.
He gets carried away
with his grief as a result, and he cannot comprehend
Yorick's message.
Trim's reaction, like those of the other
Shandeans, seems particularly incongruous, if not ironic,
when one considers the point Yorick is trying to make in
the sermon.
Yorick cautions his listeners against
passion and selfishness by advising them to use reason
and scripture.
According to Yorick, they should care-
fUlly measure their actions against the "law of God" for
the purpose of exposing any dishonesty or partiality.
"Consult calm reason and the unchangeable obligations of
truth and justice," he says (132).
Shandeans do nothing of the sort.
Of course, the
While they are being
lectured on the necessity of reason, self-understanding,
and scripture, they succumb to their individual passions.
Moreover, they do not even seem to recognize God's law.
Walter confuses it with the Temple, and Toby turns
Ecclesiastes into a description of fortifications; and,
of course, scripture is meaningless to Slop who is loyal
to the Catholic Church rather than its ideals.
35
An even more explicit dismissal of scripture
occurs during the catechizing of Trim.
In this brief
scene, which takes place towards the end of Volume V,
Yorick gently tests Trim's understanding of the Bible.
Trim responds by showing his allegiance to his hobbyhorse
instead of the Bible; he obeys military commands rather
than God's Commandments:
--The fifth Commandment, Trim--said Yorick, speaking
mildly, and with a gentle nod, as to a modest
Catechumen. The corporal stood silent.--You don't
ask him right, said my Uncle Toby, raising his
voice, and giving it rapidly like the word of
command;--The fifth-- --cried my Uncle Toby.--I must
begin with the first, an' please your honour said the
corporal . . . .
"Join your right hand to your firelock," cried
the corporal, giving the word of command, and
performing the motion.-"Poise your firelock," cried the corporal, doing
the duty still of both adjutant and private man.
"Rest your firelock,"--one motion, an' please
your reverence, you see leads into another.--If his
honour will begin but with the first---(392)
Once again, a hobbyhorse has proven more compelling
than Christianity.
Trim probably could recite the
Commandments provided he began with the first, but he has
obviously learned them as if a manual of arms.
This example, along with the sermon scene, raises
the question of whether Trim, or any of the Shandeans for
that matter, is even capable of religious feelings.
If
religion is defined as the experience of a divine power,
one that is greater than the self, it follows that a
36
person who is obsessed with himself as Trim is cannot be
religious.
He is only able to experience himself and his
hobbyhorse, and therefore he cannot know a power greater
than he.
But one should recognize that Toby and Trim are
capable of some religious feeling, if in a limited way.
During the Le Fever episode, Trim explains to a curate
how every soldier prays when in battle:
A soldier, an' please your reverence, said I, prays
as often (of his own accord) as a parson;--and when
he is fighting for his king, and for his own life,
and for his honour too, he has the most reason to
pray to God, of anyone in the whole world--'Twas
well said of thee, Trim, said my uncle Toby . . . . I
believe, an' please your reverence, said I, that when
a soldier gets time to pray, he prays as heartily as
a parson,--though not with all his fuss and hypocrisy.
(421)
Along with taking a poke at the clergy, Trim points out
that there are no atheists in foxholes.
The problem with this sort of spirituality, if
spirituality is the right word for it, is that it is
inspired more by fear than it is by God.
As soldiers,
Trim and Toby pray out of desperation; they hope God will
save them from death or humiliation on the battlefield.
Once the dangers of war have passed, as the scenes in
Shandy Hall reveal, Trim and Toby feel little need to
pray.
This impulse to turn to God while in battle or
when the life of a friend, such as Le Fever, is threat-
37
ened may be only natural.
For this reason, it seems
strange that Tristram does not turn to God when his
consumption worsens and his life is endangered.
One
would think that, with his prospects so bleak, Tristram
would turn to God just as Toby and Trim did in battle and
Le Fever did on his deathbed.
pray, why isn't he?
If they were driven to
It is not that Tristram is calm,
assured, and self-sufficient and therefore not in need of
the church.
On the contrary, he is so frightened that he
resorts to flight.
In spite of his desperation, Tristram rejects all
of the usual rites of the dying man.
He shows no
interest in reflecting upon his life (which is probably
just as well considering his digressions and endless
ruminations on the actions and causes that precede the
event).
He has no apparent interest in religion or
philosophy; he does not attempt to place death within
some system of belief which will comfort him.
He does
not seem to develop "the peace of meekness, or the
contentment of resignation" (511) which is perhaps
characteristic of Christian acceptance.
As for comfort from other people, which is
another way of dealing with the approach of death,
Tristram wants no part of them.
The thought of dying
before friends and family is much too painful: "The
concern of my friends, and the last services of wiping my
38
brows and smoothing my pillow, which the quivering hand
of pale affection shall pay me, will
soul" (492).
. crucify my
It may be that the failure of organized
religion to inspire Tristram undercuts any desire he
has to die at home before friends.
Interestingly, there
are no religious rites included in his "last services" as
he describes them.
Perhaps if the services included
religious rites--for example, community prayer or absolution--Tristram would find the idea of dying more
appealing.
For whatever reason, Tristram does not turn
to others or to the church for strength and solace.
Instead, Tristram tries to resolve his crisis by evading
it.
He tries to give Death the slip.
He figures that,
if he moves fast enough or maintains a low enough profile
or is simply uninteresting, Death will leave him alone.
In addition, journeying to France is a distraction which
takes his mind off his illness.
He is absorbed by the
brightness of France and the novelty of its cities; and
as long as they remain bright and novel, he can ignore
the grimness of his situation.
"There's FOUNTAINBLEAU,"
Tristram writes excitedly, "and SENS; and JOIGNY; and
AUXERRE, and DIJON the capital of Burgundy, and CHALLON"
(510).
Perhaps, too, Tristram feels that he can evade
Death in yet one more way--through exercising his
authorial privilege.
If Tristram can write Death out of
39
his story or at least leave Death suspended somewhere,
just as he left characters in a stairwell earlier in his
story, he never has to die.
However, if Anglicanism were a real source of
meaning and community for Tristram, instead of an
uninspiring doctrine overseen by obnoxious power brokers,
he would not have to resort to such desperate measures as
flight or authorial gimmicks.
He would gain strength and
support from the church, and he would not have to seek
the distractions and protection of France.
Instead of
attempting to escape his condition, which of course is
futile, Tristram would be able to confront it.
The truth, however, is that Anglicanism has no
such meaning for Tristram; and it is fitting that in this
novel of hobbyhorses and self-imprisonment Tristram
should decline the comforts of religion and community.
Tristram does what is natural to most characters in the
novel: he remains solitary and preoccupied, the novelty
of France providing the distraction that a hobbyhorse
normally would.
Institutional religion, as sterne presents it in
Tristram, is neither a source of inspiration or a source
of communion.
other than providing a platform for
doctrine-mongering pedants such as Didius and the Roman
Catholic hierarchy and for tyrants such as Ernulphus,
40
Slop, and Kysarcius, churches seem good for very little.
Churches are run by inept and pompous priests.
They
preside over a laity which is mostly eccentric and
abstracted.
The laity is so abstracted, in fact, that it
is incapable of comprehending a good sermon--if indeed it
is lucky enough to get one.
Because churches fail to provide comfort,
meaning, and fellowship, they help perpetuate the
loneliness of the Shandean world.
In a society that has
so many barriers to meaningful human relations--eccentricity, sUbjectivity, language, and mortality to name a
few--and such a need for an institution which will bring
people together, the absence of an effective church is a
serious deficiency indeed.
It therefore might be tempting to view Tristram
as a forerunner of the modern novel of despair.
Indeed,
I have likened Tristram in at least one way to
Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises,a novel which takes a
very jaded view of human institutions, churches included.
Nonetheless an assessment of Tristram is inaccurate, for
Sterne never reaches Hemingway's degree of pessimism nor
does he question the existence of God the way many
moderns have.
On the contrary, Sterne holds conventional
Anglican beliefs--valuing both scripture and reason.
he does question God in Tristram, he does so only by
If
41
implication.
That is, sterne may wonder why God gave man
a mind that tends to be affected by manic sUbjectivity,
particularly if He desires man to be religious.
If
sterne is indeed raising this question, it follows that
God Himself is partly responsible for man's irreligion.
Whether sterne would blame God in this way is
uncertain.
However, what is clear in Tristram is man's
unsuitability for organized religion.
As numerous
examples throughout the novel show, man is simply too
self-absorbed to practice religion, whether as a priest
or as a layman.
NOTES
1For a discussion of the Bible in the Anglican
spiritual tradition, see Moorman 210-12.
2Downey describes Sterne as a dutiful and
compassionate clergyman who held typical Latitudinarian
sentiments. In addition, Sterne was influenced by the
sermons of the great Anglican divine, James Tillotson
(126-30) .
3Cash acknowledges that Sterne was not an
academic theologian; but even so, Sterne "accepted
without question the teachings of the church and presumed
the tenets of the Latitudinarianism typical of Anglican
leaders during the first half of the eighteenth century,
especially in the doctrine of the perfect correspondence
between 'natural' (i.e., rational) religion and revealed
religion" (Later Years 42).
4James Work's gloss on Avignon is helpful. He
describes Avignon as being famous since the fourteenth
century for its great papal palace (533).
42
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