The Henson Journals

[213]

Saturday, July 15th, 1922.

The "Church Times" has an article on "Frederick Denison Maurice" which begins with some uncomplimentary references to me. "The Bishop of Durham, unlike Maurice, has in him nothing of the mystic & the prophet. He takes the world as he finds it, & riducules, sometimes justly, sometimes unjustly, the dreams of those who wd set it right. A parallel to the two men is suggested, greatly to the disadvantage of the younger:–

"Maurice fought his way in the track of a divine light as he passed from the black negation of Unitarianism to a faith in the Incarnation & the Sacraments. Bishop Henson began as a professed Catholic. He has become an Erastian & an undenominational Protestant. The Bishop might fitly pay a posthumous tribute to men like Archbishop Williams and Hoadley, he might be not altogether out of place as a panegyrist of Jowett or Archbishop Tait, but what has he in common with a mystic & a prophet like Maurice"

What is there in my career that can justify the statement that I "began as a professed Catholic"? I certainly was never what is called a "Ritualist": and I always had a strong sense of the wrongfulness & ill consequence of law–breaking. I never belonged to the E.C.U., or any other "Catholic" society: I was always an earnest supporter of the Establishment: I always took a "liberal" attitude towards Biblical criticism. In 1895 I was concerned with "suppressing Ritualism" in the Hospital Chapel at Ilford: & nothing that I have published from my first book in 1897 to my last in 1921, can be called "Catholic".

[214]

I wrote letters most of the morning. After an early lunch I motored to Durham, and admitted to office a large number of diocesan readers. I gave an address in the cathedral on Sunday observance, & afterwards presided at the conference in the Cosin Library. Knight introduced the subject of preparing addresses. His treatment of it struck me as more suitable for an assembly of clergymen than for one of lay readers. It is hardly reasonable to suppose that such men, mostly illiterate and of the humblest type, social & even intellectual, would buy the books he recommended, or would be able to get profit out of them if they did. However, they listened with attention, and applauded with energy. Ella had showed the Murrays over the Cathedral and the Castle. We all got back to Auckland about 6.45 p.m.

This is S. Swithun's Day and the ominous rain fell heavily soon after six o'clock!

Headlam and his wife came to dinner. Our conversation was not, perhaps, quite commensurate with my expectations or with his abilities, but in his case one has always the feeling that one is playing with a lion, which may be complaisant, but as probably may turn and rend you. He has taken up gardening, & thus provided a territory in which conversation may proceed with a minimum of risk. They attended the service in Chapel, & then returned to Whorlton. The rain was still falling at 10.15 p.m. when they took their leave.

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