The Henson Journals

[92]

Tuesday, March 16th, 1920.

Warde Fowler's Roman Essays & Interpretations contains a very interesting note on the word Religis. He sums up:– "Thus the word has meant successively (1) the natural fear & awe which semi–civilized man feels in the presence of what he cannot explain: (2) the cult by which he strives to propitiate the unseen Powers, together with the scruple he feels if the propitiation is in the least degree imperfect: (3) the whole sphere of worship, together with the all belief in the supernatural, as viewed from the standpoint of the philosopher: (4) the competing divisions of that sphere of worship & belief, each being now a religis, & the Christian faith being for the Christian the vera religis. There is one later stage in the history of the word… It suffered a degradation when it was made to mean the monastic life: the life of men who withdrew themselves from a world in which true religion was not. But even in this degraded form it reveals once more its wonderful capacity to express the varying attitude of humanity towards the supernatural. Outside the monasteries – the homes of the religiosi – were a thousand fears, fancies, superstitions, which the old Roman might have summed up by his word religio, the anxious fear of the supernatural: inside them, for many ages at least, was still something of the vera religis, of the early fathers, the devotion and the ritual combined, the pure life and training, religio Dei". p.15.

All this is excellent, suggestive, & conveniently stated.

[93]

I motored to Byford, and there confirmed 17 candidates. The parish church is interesting. In the North wall of the nave were a deeply– splayed Norman window, a lancet window of the 13th century, & three decorated windows of the XIVth. Two long lancet windows in the west wall were blocked by the tower. The first bore the date 1638. I lunched with the vicar, Rev. H. A. Wadman, who had been absent as a chaplain during the war. Two Church Army officers also lunched: they were in charge of the van, & acted under the orders of Claude Lighton. From Byford I went on to Whitney, & there confirmed 29 candidates in the little parish church, a modern structure with nothing ancient save the font. I had tea in the Rectory, where came also several others, clergy & layfolk. The Rector, Richings, has been 18 years in the parish. I motored to Eardisley, & there left Mrs Montgomery Campbell. Then I went back to Hereford, and reached the Palace shortly before 6 p.m. Wynne Wilson went through the letters with me, & James brought some documents for signature.

One consequence of being so much in the open air is that I become mortally slumbrous at a relatively early hour, go to bed, & after an interval am extensively wakeful. How preposterous a creature is man! Nothing really suits him. If his body wax vigorous: his mind languishes: & the last is voraciously active when the first fails woefully. My wits are never so bright and bustling as in the agonies of mal de mer! When body & mind are moving along very contentedly the spirit lies derelict. So the cycle of waste & fuss proceeds, & mainly one lives on earth as a squirrel in a cage laboriously futile!

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