The Henson Journals
Mon 12 January 1920
Volume 26, Page 108
[108]
Monday, January 12th, 1920.
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[Reading: Rashdall's Atonement.]
I wrote to Abp Söderblom, to Professor Bacon, and to J. G. Wilson. Also I returned the page proofs to the Press. I called on James, & instructed him to give £10 to old Croft, as a present from me: and I paid £7.4.0 for my taxes.
After lunch Ernest & I worked at sawing wood, as the rain made a walk uninviting.
I read Bp. Wordworth's Hale Lectures on "The National Church of Sweden" with the notion in my mind of drawing a parallel between the Reformation in Sweden and in England. There is a rather remarkable resemblance but, perhaps, the difference is even more remarkable. Gustaf Vasa had many points in common with Henry VIII, but there were at least 3 important differences. 1. He was not a theologian. 2. He was, so far as he has had any definite personal convictions, a Reformer. 3. He had no personal quarrel with the Papacy. Cranmer was more than Laurentius Petri. He added the qualities of Olaus Petri. There was never in England any such dominating influence as that which in Sweden was exercised by German Lutheranism. The foreign influence was intermittent and secondary.