The Henson Journals

[523]

Friday, December 10th, 1915.

494th day

I occupied myself today with the volume of Parker's Correspondence. It is full of interesting matter. On the whole one forms a high impression of the archbishop. His genuine modesty inspired a sincere nolo episcopari [I do not want to be a bishop] when the summons came. The transition was a sharp one – from the relative obscurity of a Cambridge headship to the Primacy. And he saw from the first that as Primate he could not but disgust the Protestants, who were almost universally hostile to the public constitution of the Church. Even those who could stomach some kind of episcopacy (e.g. the Lutherans) boggled mightily at Archbishops. Elizabeth was a cruel & exacting mistress. She neither regarded his physical weakness, nor respected his feelings. Her gross insults to the married clergy exposed the married primate to the derision of his ecclesiastical enemies & the ill–concealed satisfaction of the Courtiers. Her ruthless pillage of the bishopricks immersed the new bishops in a poverty so extreme as to compromise their character.

The Headlams took their departure after breakfast. The snow was rapidly disappearing before a steady rain. Gee came to see me in the course of the morning. I attended Evensong in the Cathedral.

The news from the seat of the War in the Balkans and in Mesopotamia is very unfavourable. The Bulgarians are in great force, & under the leadership of German officers are using their strength to the best advantage. It seems doubtful whether we shall be able to maintain our positions alike in Greece & Mesopotamia. The German Chancellor delivers himself of a vainglorious oration to the Reichstag, and so far as we can learn, his vapourings are received with enthusiasm. Meanwhile, there are continual interviews of French & British Ministers & Generals. Nothing effective is done anywhere.

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