The Henson Journals

[539]

Saturday, December 18th, 1915.

502nd day

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I presided at the meeting of Chapter. We voted £10 to Turner's project of a Dictionary of Patristic Greek. I listed to the Organ Recital in the Cathedral, sitting alone at the very end of the nave. There was a considerable assembly of people. Here I picked up two young soldiers, & took them round so much of the Cathedral as could be seen in the brief interval between the Organ Recital and Evensong. They belonged to the 16th (S.) Bn Highland Light Infantry, and came from Glasgow. The one had assisted his father in a draper's shop; the other had been an elementary school teacher. Both were now officers. They gave me their names: the first was J. R. C. Philips, the last Thomas Neilson. I showed them the Library, & the Deanery. Ella arrived in time to give them tea. Cruickshank came to see me about School matters: then Fawkes arrived, & kept me at talk until dinner time. He shewed me a very interesting letter which he had just received from Loisy. It dealt trenchantly with the attitude of Benedict XV. I asked what manner of man to look at was this M. Loisy: & he said that before he grew his beard, Loisy bore a curious facial resemblance to the Holbein portrait of Erasmus. His cold detached manner, however, went along with a heart capable of profound emotions; he had to the full the French love of humanity. We spoke of the recent meeting of the Churchmen's Union. He said that there were evident signs of a disposition to capture that association for the "Catholic" party: that the President, Percy Gardner, inclined this way: and that this explained the suggestive acquiescence which the Union had exhibited towards the Archbishop's most unhappy pronouncement on 'Kikuyu'.

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Issues and controversies: Kikuyu