Lavengro · Chapter
LXXIX explained
The narrator prepares to depart from Peter and Winifred, who urge him to join them in Wales.
What happens
The narrator prepares to depart from Peter and Winifred, who urge him to join them in Wales. Peter recounts a harrowing encounter with a mysterious stranger who tempted him to abandon his ministry, first for the Church of England, then for the Roman Pontiff, and finally denied Christ entirely—revealing himself as an evil spirit. Peter and Winifred each take turns offering spiritual counsel, warning of hell and the joys of heaven, while the narrator remains resolute in his own path.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Priestcraft
Peter's account of the tempter and his own ministry highlights the tension between authentic faith and institutional corruption, as well as the dangers of diabolical temptation.
Freedom vs. Convention
Peter's choice to preach in the open air, free from church ceremonies, reflects the theme of personal religious freedom versus established ecclesiastical norms.
Characters to notice
- Lavengro
Declares his intention to depart, resists joining Peter and Winifred in Wales, and listens to their spiritual discourses.
- Peter Williams
Urges the narrator to join him in Wales, recounts his encounter with a diabolical stranger, and delivers a sermon on the soul, heaven, and hell.
- Winifred
Supports Peter's invitation, confronts the evil spirit in Peter's story, and later sits with the narrator to offer her own spiritual counsel.
Key passages
“that there is no harm in a sermon by the roadside, or in holding free discourse with a beggar beneath a hedge, or a tinker,” he added, smiling; “it was those superfluous ceremonies, those surplices and white neckcloths, and, above all, the necessity of strictly regulating his words and conversation, which drove John Wesley out of the church, and sent him wandering up and down as you see me, poor Welsh Peter, do.”
Peter defends open-air preaching and informal discourse, attributing John Wesley's departure from the established church to its rigid ceremonies and constraints on speech.
Peter aligns his own wandering ministry with Wesley's break from ecclesiastical formality.
“‘If it be he,’ said I, ‘I can have nothing to do with him; I will serve no one who is an enemy of Christ.’ Thereupon he drew near to me and told me not to talk so much like a simpleton; that as for Christ, it was probable that no such person ever existed, but that if He ever did, He was the greatest impostor the world ever saw.”
Peter refuses to serve the Roman Pontiff, declaring him an enemy of Christ, at which the stranger blasphemously denies Christ's existence and calls Him an impostor.
The tempter's denial of Christ reveals his diabolical nature, reinforcing the theme of spiritual warfare.