The Henson Journals

[135]

1st Sunday in Lent, February 18th, 1923.

A heavy fall of snow began as Clayton and I left the Castle at 9.35 p.m, and continued until the afternoon. We motored to Ushaw Moor, picking up Wilson in Durham on the way. Here I instituted the Rev. J. Holbertson Pugin Welby to the Vicarage in succession to Wreford Brown whom I have sent to South Hylton. In spite of the severe weather there was a fair congregation, and the communicants numbered nearly 100. I was particularly pleased to notice the relatively large proportion of men and lads. The singing was unusually good, and an Anthem was negotiated very creditably. We returned to Auckland after the service.

I read much of Wilfrid Ward's Life of Cardinal Newman . The strange exstacy with which he literally wallowed in superstition when once he had crossed the Rubicon suggests the outbreaking of a long pent–up flood of emotion. His doubts had become conscious as early as 1836, and they had gathered strength continuously for nine years. In resisting them he had done violence to himself, and when at length he yielded to their relentless and cumulative pressure, he prostrated himself abjectly before the conquering Church. Gradually, as the emotional crisis passed, he recovered his intellectual self–respect, and then his relations with that Church ceased to be pleasant.

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