"Truth for its own Sake"Anti-Catholicism in Charlotte Bronte's Villette (1)

Ultramontane aggressiveness of the newly-appointed Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Nicholas Wiseman drove the Protestant Kingdom into near frenzy in 1 850,when the Catholic hierarchy was restored for the first time since the Reformation in England. The purpose of this paper is to show how the Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Victorian England was reflected in Charlotte Bronte's last completed novel, Villeule (1853). Ultramontane aggressiveness was manifested in 1) its emphasis on the temporal as well as the spiritual powers of the Pope; 2) its extravagant Romish rituals and novel devotional practices; 3) its efforts to make numerous and highly influential Anglican converts to the Roman Catholicism. The first two sections deal with those three aspects of triumphant Ultramontanism and demonstrate how they are evidenced in various passages in Villette, by comparing with the contemporary literatures by Lord John Russell, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Kingsley and Catholic John Henry Newman For Charlotte "Truth" was construed with the essence of the Protestantism in England, as we can see in one of her letters written at the time of the "Papal Aggression" in 1850. Part I of this essay explores "Falsehood" of the Roman Catholic Church as described Protestant critics, especially in its triumphant Ultramontanism