The Henson Journals

[18]

Monday, December 16th, 1918.

To my surprise I received a letter from my godson, Herbert Nicholson, dated Syria, 28th Nov: 1918. He has gone through the whole course of the war without either wound or illness. I wrote to him forthwith.

Mr James sent over a volume of tracts by Bishop Croft from the Free Library. It contains the following pieces:

1. A second call to a farther Humiliation, being a Sermon preached the 24th of Nov: last past. London. 1678
2. A short Discourse concerning the Reading of His Majestie's Late Declaration in the Churches set forth by the Rt Revd Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bishop of Hereford. London. 1688
3. The Legacy of the Rt Rev: Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bp of Hereford, To his Diocess. Or a short Determination of all Controversies we have with the Papists by God's Holy Word. London. 1679
4. A Letter written to a Friend concerning Popish Idolatry by the Rt Rev: Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bp. of Hereford. London. 1679

Mr James sends me also a curious piece in his own possession. "A short Narrative of the discovery of a College of Jesuits at a Place called Come in the County of Hereford, wh. was sent up unto the Rt Hon: the Lords[19] Assembled in Parliament at the end of the last sessions, by the Right Rev: Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bp. of Hereford, according to an Order sent unto him by the said Lords, to make diligent search, & return an Account thereof. To which is added a true relation of the Knavery of Father Lewis, the pretended Bishop of Landaffe: now a Prisoner in Monmouth Gaol.

London. 1679

The impression these writings give of their author is not very attractive. Croft was past 70 when he wrote, and is entitled to such excuses as the fact may fairly justify. He was dominated by two fears, that of the Roman Church on the one hand, & that of the Puritan sectaries on the other. I suspect that the Popish Plot went far to make him crazy on the subject of Popery, & he evidently believed that the Papists were out for his blood! Probably he was rather specially obnoxious to them as having been formerly himself a Papist: & this fact may go some way to explain & excuse his own bitterness. It was less Christian charity than a dread of Papistry that moved the Bishop to seek a modus vivendi with the Nonconformists, that and his knowledge of the miserable incompetence of the rural incumbents, who formed the bulk of the clergy in the diocese of Hereford.

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