# Monsignor Talbot — Eminent Victorians character guide

> Monsignor Talbot in Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Dear Monsignor Talbot

**First appearance:** 0003-cardinal-manning

## Snapshot

The Roman chamberlain and gossip whose letters to Manning reveal the Vatican's taste for intrigue and his own talent for flattering the right people.

## Who they are

Talbot is the well-connected monsignor who serves as Rome's eyes and ears in England, a man whose piety is inseparable from his appetite for influence. His tension is between genuine devotion and the worldly pleasure of being the one who knows what the Holy Ghost is up to. He matters because his correspondence exposes the machinery of ecclesiastical politics that Strachey delights in dissecting.

## Relationships

### [John Henry Newman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/john_henry_newman)

_rivalry_

John Henry Newman and Monsignor Talbot were adversaries, with Talbot scheming against Newman within the Catholic Church hierarchy.

### [John Henry Newman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/john_henry_newman)

_rivalry_

John Henry Newman and Monsignor Talbot were adversaries, with Talbot scheming against Newman within the Catholic Church hierarchy.

### [John Henry Newman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/john_henry_newman)

_rivalry_

John Henry Newman and Monsignor Talbot were adversaries, with Talbot scheming against Newman within the Catholic Church hierarchy.

## In the story

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/chapters/v)

Talbot is mentioned as a personage of the Papal court with whom Manning became acquainted.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/chapters/vi)

Manning's ally in Rome, Talbot actively works to undermine Newman, calling him 'the most dangerous man in England' and advocating for his spirit to be crushed.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/chapters/vii)

Mentioned in the context of Manning's correspondence and influence at the Vatican.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/chapters/viii)

Manning's old friend and loyal adherent; removed to a sequestered home at Passy; his name disappears from Manning's records after his misfortune.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters/monsignor_talbot
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/eminent_victorians_se/characters