The Henson Journals

[361]

Monday, May 30th, 1921.

"The time has come to say that no one is rightly qualified to deal successfully with the problem of Christian origins who has not his mind open to the world's need of God & to the possibility that that need has been met as it purports to have been in the Gospels."

Anderson Scott. J.T.S. Ap. 1921.

This is the conclusion of a careful and severe review of Lake's recent book. How far can it be justified?

The Parish Books of Chester–le–Street contain some interesting entries. Two referring to Confirmations arrested my attention. They are printed in Blunt's "A Thousand Years of the Church in Chester–le–Street".

"1833. Confirmation held at Chester–le–Street by Dr Sumner, Lord Bishop of Chester, when there were confirmed 900 young persons. The girls occupied the south side of the church, the boys the north. The Bishop delivered a fatherly admonition both before & after confirmation, & reprimanded some for improper conduct during the discourse. The girls went to the altar by 12 in one tally, the boys by 14. The service commenced at 20 minutes after 2 o'clock & finished a little before 5 o'clock."

How could so many have been crammed into the church?

[362]

"October 28th, 1836 ̶ A confirmation held at Chester by Dr Maltby, the new Radical Bishop of Durham. He was wigless, & the dignity of the bishop was lost. He admonished the parents & guardians of the children as well as the children themselves. The girls occupied the south side of the church, & the boys the north. They went to the altar in tallys of 12 each: the service commenced at 3 o'clock, & finished at half–past four. After the ceremony was over & the clergy had left, the bishop sent for the churchwardens to the vestry, & passed a very high compliment on the order & regularity of our arrangements: it was the first of the kind I ever had from any bishop on the like occasion. He then left the church, accompanied by his chaplain & mace–bearer, & walked to the Head Inn, where his carriage awaited. There were upwards of 500 confirmed. At night there was a snow–storm to the depth of nine inches.

E. W. Maxwell, Churchwarden.

This half–contemptuous reference to the "new Radical Bishop of Durham" may be supposed to reflect the political prejudice of an old–fashioned churchman, who was not to be reconciled by compliments to the absence of the episcopal wig. It is note–worthy that both these entries refer to the Lord's Table as "the altar". Was this a survival of the Laudian fashion which sustained the copes in regular use in the Cathedral until the days of Warburton?

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