Haute Église
A variety of religious beliefs are represented among the novel's characters. Jacob Brattle is an unbeliever. Puddleham is a Primitive Methodist. The Stowte family, to which the marquis belongs, are Low Church Anglicans, and Fenwick is High church and latitudinarian. Their charity is tested by their response to Carry Brattle, and it is Fenwick who passes the test. As William Cadbury expresses it, Puddleham has been hardened by too much doctrine, Jacob Brattle by too little.