The Henson Journals

[170]

Friday, May 2nd, 1919.

The line to be taken in Convocation is not easy to determine. I shall plead the fact that I have no seat in the House of Lords as an excuse for "taking up my parable" in the Convocation. I shall add that certain circumstances indicated that the crucial decision of the R.C.C. on the baptismal franchise was not very secure, e.g. Lord Hugh Cecil's language at the time, Bp. Gore's resignation. Then I shall develope such points as the following:

α The methods by which the Scheme has been advocated are unprecedented and misleading. A delusive unanimity is being manufactured. The action of the Abps. has made the expression of dissent very difficult.

β Emphatic disclaimer of any desire for Disestablishment. If the Bill goes to Parlt securities must be taken that the essential points of Establishment are preserved, e.g. The baptismal Franchise, the appellate jurisdiction of the Privy Council, the Crown Patronage of the Bpks &c. These shd be "reserved" i.e. placed outside the action of the new "National Assembly".

I must say something about the anti–National temper wh. marks the agitation, & examine the case of the German Church. The worst outrages on the Christian [171] conscience have been the work of Churches, not of Nations. The Establishment cannot be maintained if the ideas which it presupposes are banished from the minds of Churchmen.

We are witnessing the consequence of the Tractarian dominance within the Church (i.e. the clergy) Keble favoured the separation of Church and State on the ground that the State was no longer Christian" [sic].

I shall emphasize the spiritual value of the Establishment, and its large possibilities: the evident risk, even the probability, of provoking Disestablishment by this attempt to secure the plausible but delusive advantage of "self–government": and I shall insist that only a clear prospect of securing an escape from our present evils could justify taken [sic] a course which imperils our present position. Is there any such prospect?

Knight (erstwhile Kirschbaum) came to see me. He has decided to accept Bridstow, and I arranged provisionally to institute him on Sunday, July 6th. He will be a great acquisition to the diocese if he can settle down to the life of a country parson, and his wife will be more serviceable in the country, which she likes, than in the town, which she has never liked. The Archdeacon expresses himself as pleased with the prospect of having him as a successor, and Compston will be glad to have him within reach. He hopes to write books.

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