Victoria (TV Series)

Faith, Hope & Charity (2017)

Michael Maloney: Bishop

Quotes 

• [Dr Traill has written a letter to the newspaper, imploring the government and the Church of Ireland to help the Irish peasants who are suffering in the potato famine. He is praying at the altar in church when the bishop bursts in, incandescent with rage] 

  Bishop : [yelling]  Have you lost your wits, Traill? Do you understand what you are saying? That we ought to feed a gaggle of potato-eating papists because they have broght this misfortune upon themselves through their own improvidence and fecklessness?

  Dr. Traill : It's not *their* fault the harvest failed, my lord.

  Bishop : [yelling]  But it is not the church's responsibility to feed them. Let them find work. If we were to start supporting them, there would be no end to it. They must learn to live within their means!

  Dr. Traill : What means? A loaf of bread now costs ten shillings. That is a year's rent, my lord. The people of this parish are already starving. Soon they will be homeless as well.

  Bishop : [yelling]  That is not our concern, Traill.

  Dr. Traill : "For the poor shall never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee say, 'Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother and to thy needy in thy land.'" Deuteronomy 15:11.