The Henson Journals

[63]

Thursday, August 24th, 1922.

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[^written in Greek, Luke 20:25^]

These words must have been anxiously weighed by many English incumbents in 1662, as the fatal 24th August, S. Bartholomew's Day, appointed by the Act of Uniformity, approached. Was there a conflict between Caesar's claim & God's? I doubt if most of those who finally refused obedience to the Law did so because of the revised Prayer–Book, offensive as it was to them in many particulars: but the requirements that they should be re–ordained by the bishops if they were in non–episcopal orders, and that they should repudiate the Solemn League & Covenant if they had subscribed it, must have made obedience impossible to sincere & high–minded men. These requirements had nothing to do with religious settlement, & could only have been defended as political precautions. How far can ecclesiastical claims be rightly identified with the Claims of God? It is surely evident that the conflict which will demand the decision of the Christian's conscience may be rather between ecclesiastical rules & God's Law than between secular rules & God's Law: and the martyrs of conscience have in the history of Christendom been more often the victims of "spiritual" than of "temporal" authority. Hence the futility of the common but largely unmeaning talk about "Erastianism".

[64]

We left Sauchieburn a few minutes before 10 a.m., and motored to Blelack, near Dinnet, in Aberdeenshire, where we arrived about 6 p.m. The distance is more than 140 miles, and we made pauses for lunch by the road–side, a few miles beyond Dundee, and for tea in a pretentious hotel at Stonehaven. We conscientiously obeyed the direction not to exceed 10 miles an hour through towns & villages. Both car and chauffeur must be allowed to have done creditably. The weather was dull and chilly, but there was neither wind nor rain, so that we were able to travel with the car open. There were no distant views, and nothing was seen to much advantage.

The papers are filled with accounts of Michael Collins's death, and with speculations as to the consequences of that untoward event. Certainly the Fates are unkindly to the Irish Free State. Within a fortnight both the outstanding Figures have perished, and there seems nobody to take the vacant leadership.

Capercailzie are found in this part of the country, & there are some on this property. They are not regarded with much favour by sportsmen since they drive away the black–cock. Capercailzie are not regarded as game–birds, but are reckoned as coming under the Wild Birds' Protection Act. An old cock distinguished itself recently by displaying a fierce antipathy to horses, whom it would attack with much fury as they approached this house. The hen lays as many as 8 eggs, but she is an indifferent mother, and a brood of 4 is accounted to be satisfactory.

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