32 - The publishing and distribution of religious books by voluntary associations: from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge to the British and Foreign Bible Society

Summary

I could say much concerning the good effects of this most excellent charity upon thirty years’ experience: that whereas at first there came many young men and women in hopes of the Bibles, that, at sixteen or seventeen years of age, could not say (though perhaps the Lord’s Prayer) the Commandments, and much less the Creed, there are now numbers that can, both these and the entire Catechism, at six or seven years of age,…and many other people’s children have been taught to read in hopes of getting Bibles.

Writing of the charity that Philip, Lord Wharton (1613–96), established formally in July 1692, the Yorkshire antiquary Ralph Thoresby (1658–1725) expressed several of the most important characteristics of the voluntary distribution of religious literature during the long eighteenth century. Charity was a gradual and incremental process. Its purpose was not simply to increase the circulation of Bibles and devotional literature, but rather to promote a particular vision of Christian behaviour, in which reading and the practice of piety helped to construct an image of virtuous poverty. The recipients of charity earned the spiritual benefits that were eventually bestowed upon them, in the form of religious books and tracts, through their labour in learning to read and, especially, in the missionary work of converting their unlettered family and neighbours. The individual’s small reward of a Bible, prayer book, catechism or devotional tract might thus become an investment towards the moral transformation of an entire society. Private generosity, however, carried with it something of the stigma of Popery and ran the risk of encouraging idleness or rewarding cunning. The careful rules with which voluntary organizations circumscribed the freedom of their collaborators and subscribers helped to guarantee the seriousness of their purpose. The enthusiasm for the giving of time and money that was displayed by the burgeoning membership of charitable societies helped to maintain the independence as well as the virtue of the respectable members of a state whose interference in the daily lives of its citizens remained for the most part local and consensual. Although involvement in religious charity appeared at first to smack of excessive zeal, by the middle years of the eighteenth century it had become the polite pursuit of gentlemen and ladies. There were moral and social benefits to giving, as well as to receiving.