The Henson Journals

[82]

Wednesday, July 30th, 1919.

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After breakfast I was visited by the Rev. R. O. Roberts, Rector of East Down, Barnstaple, who is negotiating with the Vicar of Leominster for an exchange. He said that he was 48 years old: that he was married, & had two children; that he had private means; that he wishes for more work than his present parish of 300 souls cd provide. All this was not unsatisfactory & I spoke encouragingly of his purpose to come to Leominster; also I told him the situation there as fully & frankly as I could, and made him understand the manner of man the present incumbent was.

The Archdeacon (Winnington–Ingram) came to see me. He advises me to summon Rushton for some private conversation.

I recd a large and unexpected bill from the King's Acre Nurseries, & this circumstance caused me to lose my temper, & behave contemptibly in fretting & fuming beyond measure. It is a woeful side–light on my competence to be what is called "a successor of the Apostles" – the oddest conceivable description of a modern English bishop, respecting whom it might perhaps be justly said that of all varieties of the Christian minister known to history he is the least like the Apostles as they are pictured in the New Testament. Only on an ample theory of legitimate development could he decently claim to be a Christian Minister at all.

[83]

The 'Thirty–nine Articles' hold a more important place in the Anglican system than is often remembered. When an incumbent is appointed to a parish the final step in the process by which he enters on his office is "reading in", that is, the public reading in the Church on the Lord's Day of the 39 Articles, & if this duty be wilfully omitted, he absolutely forfeits his benefice. This obligation is not only part of the Reformation arrangements, some of which might be fairly discounted as being properly described as obsolete, but it is imposed by the Clerical Subscription Act, 1865, which revised the form of subscription. Having read the Articles the Incumbent is required to declare his assent in the following terms:

"I assent to the Thirty–nine Articles of Religion, and to the Book of Common Prayer, & to the Ordering of Bishops, Priests & Deacons. I believe the Doctrine of the Church of England as therein set forth to be agreeable to the Word of God; & in public Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments I will use the Form in the said book prescribed, & none other except so far as shall be ordered by lawful authority".

What meaning ought to be attached to this assent? How far can the parishioners fairly hold their clergyman to the doctrinal statements of the 39 Articles?

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