Robert Southey pp 161-179 | Cite as
Eve of Emancipation: The Quarterly and Ireland
Abstract
Among the significant deaths of 1826–7 was that of John Milner. Writing in the Quarterly Review for March 1826, Southey derided the Catholic bishop for describing Vie et Révélations de la Soeur Nativité (1817) as “very wonderful for its sublimity, energy, copiousness, learning, orthodoxy and piety.” Milner had assured the French nun’s confessor (who edited and published the revelations) that no one could “have a greater veneration for the Revelations of his spiritual daughter than I have; or be more anxious to see them in print, for the edification of the good and the conversion of the wicked” (QR 33: 375). Southey allows the nun’s account of her visions to speak for itself—thus condemning herself in Protestant eyes—but he seizes this new opportunity to censure the ascetic practices of monasticism, “borrowed from eastern superstition, for the misery of their poor votaries, the corruption of Christianity, and the degradation of human nature.” Noting that “watching and fasting, haircloth and self-flagellation, formed a part of this spiritual regimen,” Southey records that Sister Nativity was known for “laying thistles and nettles in her bed; and one day she was surprised in the act of sipping gall mixed with other things equally loathsome” (QR 33: 377).
Keywords
Quarterly Review Parliamentary Committee Irish People Catholic Bishop Political ExpediencyPreview
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