The Henson Journals

[122]

Saturday, January 21st, 1922.

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A thaw set in during the night. High wind & deluges of rain went on till midday, & the snow disappeared rapidly. The epidemic of influenza is extending, & causing great mortality. It has invaded the Vatican, and struck down the supreme Pontiff, whose condition is described in the morning papers as desperate.

I received a letter from one of Canon Cosgrave's parishioners asking me to intervene in the matter of the monthly choral Celebration, which he desires to introduce. I wrote an answer declining the request on the ground that the matter lay well within the incumbent's discretion, and that no genuine hardship would be inflicted on anybody. I also wrote to Cosgrove telling him that I was sorry he had expressed in his Parish Magazine a desire that there should be few communicants at the Choral Celebration, as it seemed natural to read into his words an approval of solitary masses, or at least "noncommunicating attendance" which is the 'half–way house' towards them. The real difficulty in all these cases is the fact, which nothing can alter, that whatever may be the reasonableness of the immediate plea, the underlying policy is identical with that of the extremest Romanizers in the country. Everything finally turns on the principles implied in the procedure adopted. Probably Cosgrave has not realized fully the significance of his demand, or owned the objective to which he is moving. The Choral Celebration suggests the undesirableness of many communicants: then the desirableness of none: the Sacrament, separated from Communion, becomes a Sacrifice and a Pageant: & these characters have been fully expressed in the ceremonial of the Roman Mass. By rapid stages the assimilation of the English Rite to the Roman proceeds: and soon the Nave also is adopted. The congregations are asked to substitute the very service which the English Reformers rejected for that which they appointed, and this amazing demand is addressed to them by clergymen who specifically hold office & emolument on the condition that they use the service ordered by the said Reformers, & none other!

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