The Henson Journals

[122]

Saturday, January 12th, 1918.

1258th day

A letter from Fawkes tells me that there is a prayer leaflet being circulated with the collect for St Matthias' Day! This is a mode of suggesting that I am the modern equivalent of "the traitor Judas"!

Ernest Pearce sends me Geoffrey Dawson's reply to his letter: he writes:

"My own feeling, quâ journalist, is that the public at large are becoming slightly bored by the discussion, but that they will be overwhelmingly on the side of Henson if the higher authorities were in any sense to make a martyr of him."

It is , however, not the "public at large" which really counts in the affairs of the Church, but that small, fanatical "religious" public, whose tastes & ideals are expressed by the "religious" press.

Canon Glazebrook, as Chairman of the Council of the Churchmen's Union, sent me the following resolution of the Council:–

"The Council of the Churchmen's Union welcome the appointment of Dr Hensley Henson to the Bishoprick of Hereford, for they believe it will advance the cause of true religion in England."

Bishop Mercer wrote to me in kindly terms. Episcopal letters are now important. I have now received no less than 45 but of these at least 7 must be marked as doubtful, & of the remaining 38, I doubt whether many represent any genuine sentiment of support for me and what I stand for. I wrote to the Archdeacon of Hereford saying that I hoped to carry through the programme of confirmations arranged.

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