The Bishop's Mantle - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Hilary struggles to be a worthy replacement of his High Church predecessor, yet bring new meaning to his ministry, and cope with a persistent attempt of various persons to involve him in scandal, owing to the prominence of Lex's family. At one point he delivers a striking mid-week sermon to young men (who could not ordinarily attend services on Sunday since they have not rented pews!), and begins to read the following passage from Proverbs Chapter 7 (selective, some verses left out):

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. That they may keep the from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, and beheld among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, pasing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night; and behold there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot and subtil of heart. So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning. Let us solace ourselves with loves. For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey.

This passage, which seems to say there is a place, after all, for romance in the life of a pious man, was revolutionary to read aloud, even though it is straight from the King James Bible.

While Hilary deals with his pastoral issues at home, events on the world stage are darkening by the hour. His brother Dick, in particular, even though the American involvement has not started, volunteers for ambulance service in Europe, and late in the novel four fateful things come together

• Dick's death in the war zone
• Reconciliation of Hilary with Lex after a period of conflict
• Lex's pregnancy
• Pearl Harbor, bringing in turn
  • gradual disappearance of the young men inspired by the sermon from Proverbs into the Army
  • Hilary's final prayer where he admits out loud, at least to God, what has been troubling him ever since Pearl Harbor and his brother's death: "The young men of the church are going. The young men of the Parish House (orphanage) are going. I too am a young man .... I will be leaving ... my wife, ... it may be my unborn child. I will be leaving my work ...." but this is not a gloomy thought:

The sadness, the strain and the fear went out of it. It was though he had arrived at peace.

But few readers today will be able to sustain that attitude: it a moment of consummate sadness, not only for Hilary but for a whole generation of men.