The Henson Journals

[110]

Monday, January 10th, 1921.

"Never can morality without religion penetrate from good form to goodness, from manners to morals."

Oman

The approaching vacancy of the relatively rich living in Houghton–le–Spring is evidently stirring appetites, and kindling resentments. There is not much sign of Bernard Gilpin's spirit among the aspirants. They catalogue their "charms" with much confidence, & press them with much persistence, but they disclose no perception of the awful character of the spiritual charge, nor of its vast & growing perplexity. I refreshed my mind by looking up the 'Apostle of the North' in the Dict: of Nat: Biog. He was evidently a "cross bench" man with an intense spirituality and love of souls: but he was far too conscientious to be intelligible to his contemporaries. His learning must have been considerable, & it had been acquired in the earlier period when the influence of Erasmus was dominant in Oxford. It is suggestive that he was put forward to dispute with Peter Martyr in Edward VI's reign. He was nearly burned under Mary & nearly evicted under Elizabeth. His relationship with Tunstall and Sandys probably stood him in good stead. It is to Pilkington's credit that Gilpin was intimate with him, and tells against Barnes that 'he was not congenial with Gilpin'. He was a curious blend of the medieval and the Reformed conceptions of pastoral duty – munificently charitable and an ardent preacher – while his zeal for education points to the Renaissance. He died 1583.

[111]

The Gilpins must have been a singularly vigorous & intellectually able stock. All the seven persons of that name mentioned in the Dictionary evidently belonged to the same Westmoreland house. They are the following:–

1. Bernard Gilpin (1517–1583)	–	–
2. George Gilpin (1514?–1602)	diplomatist & translator.	Bernard's brother
3. Randolph Gilpin (d–1661)	divine.	–
4. Richard Gilpin (1625–1700)	nonconformist divine & physician.	–
5. Sawrey Gilpin (1733–1807)	animal painter.	} Brothers
6. William Gilpin (1724–1804)	miscellaneous writer.	} "
7. William Sawrey Gilpin (1762–1843)	water–colour painter & landscape gardener.	Son of Sawrey Gilpin.

Fuller has a notice of Bernard Gilpin whom he includes in the "Worthies of Westmoreland". He was wont to commend the married state in the clergy: howbeit himself lived and died a single man." If he had been married, he could hardly have been "the Apostle of the North", nor could he have "in his own house boarded & kept full four and twenty scholars". If, moreover (like his friend, Bishop Pilkington) he had been the father of a numerous family, he could not have "bestowed in the building, ordering & establishing of his school, & in providing yearly stipends for a schoolmaster & an usher, the full sum of five hundred pounds". Certainly the poverty of the clergy is making the notion of a celibate clergy very attractive. But the old moral difficulties remain, and probably determined Gilpin's precept, though not his practice.

[112]

The tempest continued with frequent rain–storms all day, only subsiding at sun–set. Ernest and I walked for an hour in the Park, & were rewarded by a fine rainbow. Canon & Mrs Gouldsmith called. He speaks with energy against that poor creature, Dowson. I felt so tired today that, save for tidying up my study & writing a few letters, I did nothing.

Shall I permit a "Retreat–House" for the clergy, with a resident clergyman at the head of it, to be set up in this diocese? It is obvious enough that such an institution might easily develop into a very mischievous factor. The "Anglo–Catholics" have become very aggressive recently, and they might well use the "Retreat–House" as a centre of propagandism. What would be the status of the resident clergyman? What control should I have over his appointment, conduct, and removal? The donor, Lomax, is an eccentric clergyman, regarded by his brethren as a saint, and evidently attracted to "perfectionist" opinions. My predecessor, Bishop Moule, gave great encouragement to the latter, which in the hot house of the Keswick convention developed into actual heresy of a mawkish and disabling kind: but Lomax is saved from the worst extravagances by his preference for the "Catholic" modes of thinking and acting. Still, there is obvious danger in having a home for these distracting fancies actually established in the diocese.

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