A Very Democratic Christmas: Chartism and the Church

Article by Rebecca Arnott. Edited by Ciara West. Additional Research by Helen Midgley.

Much has been written on the Chartist Movement of the mid-nineteenth Century. Many of us learnt about it in school, frantically reciting the six points of the People’s Charter of 1838 before exams; A vote for every man over twenty-one (of sound mind and not undergoing punishment for a crime), secret ballot, abolition of MP’s property qualifications, payment of MPs, removal of rotten boroughs i.e. equal constituencies, and annual Parliaments.

The Chartists’ aims are clear, male equality, democracy and removal of political corruption. They had similar aims to many other political movements at the time. However, unlike many of these movements such as the Owenites, Chartists did not reject Christianity completely. While many did harbour anti-clerical feeling, the majority of Chartist leaders, especially in Scotland and Birmingham, saw their cause and Christian sentiment as inextricably linked. William Hill wrote, ‘if as a citizen he claims rights for himself he refuses to confer upon others, he fails to fulfil the precept of Christ.’

In the early 1840s, Chartist churches, where relevant verses and ‘Christian Chartism’ was taught began to open. Even if there was not a local Chartist Church, Edward Royal has stated that the ‘religious model’ can be applied to Chartist meetings where ‘life cycles of ritual were performed’ such as; naming children, funerals, occasionally marriages (occurring mainly in Scotland), Christmas, New-Year, and Easter. It is clear that Chartists celebrated these festivals and did so firmly in the context of Chartist ideology.

Jones has argued that the Chartist Movement must be seen in its linguistic context rather than simply placed in its economic or political bases. Jones’ argument set out to place Chartist ideology firmly within radical language. However, it becomes apparent from the massive amount of Chartist poetry that perhaps the language of Christianity should also be considered as bringing something to the movement. The very fact that such a large amount of poetry was produced by such a short-lived movement can perhaps be linked to hymns. Also, God is often mentioned, or turned to, even when the church is being criticised. Evocative words such as ‘martyr’ cannot be easily removed from their religious connotation. However, perhaps this is looking too far into it. The use of poetry and certain words could simply be attributed to the culture of the time, there were after all secular forms of poetry.

However, I believe that the extensive references to God and Christian imagery such as Mammon, the Biblical personification of greed, should be seen as a conscious decision on the part of these men to link their Christianity, anti-clerical as it was, with political and economic goals. ‘Hymn For Lammas-Day’ is an example of this link. Lammas was the festival related to harvest where a loaf of bread made from the new harvest was taken to church and landlords traditionally collected their share (or more than their fair share) of the newly harvested wheat from their tenants. This poem illustrates anti-clerical/upper-class sentiment while showing religious and chartist ideas:

‘For God never meant his people to die,

In sight of so rich a store’

This demonstrates that food should be distributed equally.

‘Sharpen the sickle; how full the ears!

While our children are crying for bread;

...

Then sweep down the grain with a thunderstroke,

In the name of humanity’s God!’

Looking specifically at the language, ‘Our children’, highlights the solidarity of the workers who are being hard done by. ‘Humanity’s God’ shows a loss of faith in the church system rather than in God. They are reclaiming God as their own, as a humane God of the people.

In the first part of Thomas Cooper’s ‘The Baron’s Yule Feast. A Christmas Rhyme’, Chartist and Christian concerns of equality can be seen. When Cooper writes ‘Right beautiful is Torksey’s hall’, he is admiring the ruins of a sixteenth-century building that had belonged to a wealthy family. He is, perhaps, also admiring the fact that a piece of land which had once been owned by a wealthy minority could be democratised and enjoyed by all.

The poem goes on that Sir Wilfred De Thorold had:

‘...from fen and woodland wolds,

From Marish, heath, and moor, –

To feast in his hall,

Both free and thrall,

Shall come as they came of yore.’

It continues:

‘The Baron joineth the joyous feast –

But not in pomp or pride;

He smileth on the humblest guest’

The idea of everyone being welcome in the Baron’s hall to feast at Christmas; whether this encompasses the ghosts of the past or the current inhabitants of the surrounding area, or both, is not entirely clear, illustrates Chartist concerns. Is this the ideal Chartist Christmas, where all are fed on an equal basis? This illustration of upper-class charity is especially important in the context of Christmas which traditionally a time for charity. This may well have been written in order to shame the upper and middle-classes as they were not giving to everyone what they desired and had for themselves, a free political voice.

The fact that the doors were open to every part of society in the Baron’s feast may well be a metaphor for opening the doors of political freedom to the masses while incorporating economic and ‘knife and fork’ concerns of the movement.

Therefore, it is clear that Chartist poetry blended religious and economic concerns in its imagery. The political basis of the movement shone through in the message behind it. Christian and church related festivals were sometimes used as the context for such poems to claim Christianity for their cause. They were created to shame the upper and middle-class Christians who were, as the Chartists believed, behaving in an unchristian way by denying the lower-class political power.

*****

Further Reading:

Cooper, T., The Baron’s Yuletide Feast (available online)

Jones, G.S., ‘The Language of Chartism’ in J. Epstein and D. Thompson (eds) The Chartist Experience: Studies in Working-Class Radicalism and Culture, 1830-1850 (London, 1982)

Roberts, S., Radical Politicians and Poets in Early Victorian Britain: The Voices of Six Chartist Leaders (Lampeter, 1993)

Royal, E., Chartism (Essex, 1980)

Scheckner, P., An Anthology of Chartist Poetry: Poetry of the British Working Class, 1830s-1850s (London, 1989)

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