The Henson Journals

[208]

Monday, November 27th, 1916.

847th day

The Post brings a friendly note from Lord Durham, expressing his "humble tribute of admiration and approval of your letter in the Times".

"You are perfectly correct in saying that the action of the Archbishops may alienate popular feeling – I consider myself 'one of the people' as regards Church matters. I am not going to support locally a church which blindly obeys orders from Lambeth & Bishopthorpe. Those orders may be distinctly contrary to the interests & prejudices of the people among whom I live. We got rid of the interference and dictation of the Pope, and have no intention of allowing our private lives and economic & political affairs to be ruled by Archbishops."

This no doubt expresses very effectively the mind of the laity as whole. It blends together a legitimate resentment against central interference, with a dangerous repudiation of religious control. "Our private lives" are not so private as to be exempt from the censures of public opinion, or beyond the control of the Gospel. The crux of the Christian Minister's practical problem is so to express the last that it is clearly distinct from every ecclesiastical pretension, so clearly distinct that the individual conscience even of a jealously independent man acknowledges its Divine authority. The problem of pastoral duty is enormously difficult, and, because of this, the clergy are always tempted to abandon its solution as beyond their power, & to make shift with the squalid caricature of so much external direction as they can cajole or hoodwink individuals into accepting. But the individuals best worth having won't look at this!

[206]

Miss Anson writes to me about sources for the Warden's "Life".

Eton.

Dr Warre

Mr Francis Le Marchant. 2 West Eaton Place. S.W.

H. W. Hamilton–Hoare. Oxford & Cambridge Club. Pall Mall

Colonel Lockwood

Mr Adolphus Liddell

Undergraduate Life at Oxford

Dr Sanday

Mr V. Stuckey Cole [Coles]

Mr Ernest Myers

Sir Courtenay Ilbert

The day, though cold, was so invitingly bright that I could not remain indoors, but took Knowling for a walk. Beyond attending Mattins & Evensong, and writing some letters I did nothing. Two correspondents – Mr Edward Clodd the agnostic, and Mr Mackail the litterateur – wrote to me with reference to my letter in the "Times", & both reminded me of Selden's scornful reference to the clergy of his time:– "They talk (but blasphemously enough) that the Holy Ghost is President of their General Councils, when the truth is, the odd man is still the Holy Ghost". It is certainly the case that we have not moved forward an inch in the ecclesiastical world, & that the levels of knowledge & intellectual power are much higher in the controversy of the XVIIth century than in that of the XXth. Then the best minds of the nation were concerned with religious discussions, now we are mainly limited to the groundlings!

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