“To Give Like a Priest”: George Herbert, Dearth, and the Transformation of Charity in Caroline Wiltshire

Abstract

This essay re‐examines George Herbert's poetic and pastoral career in the rural parish of Bemerton, Wiltshire in light of the county's social history during his arrival in 1630, shedding new light on a location that scholars have often characterized as peaceful and isolated. It shows that Wiltshire experienced significant economic distress and subsequent riots during the dearth years of 1629–1631, and documents local and national innovations in charitable giving that were designed in response to the crisis. The essay argues that Herbert's observations about charity in both his pastoral manual A Priest to the Temple and in his famous lyric “The Collar,” though often considered as abstract theological meditations, can also be read as localized responses to the secularization of charity and the attendant attrition of ministerial prerogatives.