The Henson Journals

[220]

S. Matthew's Day, Friday, September 21st, 1923.

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The Ordination in the Chapel was very solemn & I trust, sincere. Cunningham preached an excellent sermon, though his delivery clearly reflected his deafness. Why is it that so many good clergymen are deaf ? The only fault was the consecration of too much bread and wine. This arose from the unforeseen circumstance that the voluntary choir of clergymen, having already celebrated in their parishes, did not communicate. The company at lunch reached, if it did not exceed, 40.

I received from Lord Halifax a substantial pamphlet, "Further considerations on behalf of Reunion". It discloses a frankly Roman attitude of mind. He formulates the Anglo–Catholic canon of interpretation thus: "Are Anglican formularies, especially in view of the facts of history, entitled absolutely to control & determine the whole teaching & practice of the Church of England, or are the general teaching & laudable customs of the Catholic Church to determine the meaning & obligation of Anglican formularies? He adds that 'the question is surely one which answers itself'. He has now persuaded himself 'that when our Lord bestowed the keys on St Peter He bestowed on him a prerogative which was to provide the Church for all time with a visible head or centre?' And yet he can hold that the English Church is "to be judged by its authorized formularies". The fact is that these Anglo–Catholics live in a world of their own, in which a language is spoken unintelligible to ordinary Englishmen, & all accepted standards and measures are different.

[221]

The Bishop of Peterborough is translated to Winchester . I shall now be condemned, in all episcopal assemblies, to sit between Ingram, a foolish and head–strong sentimentalist, and Wood a pertinacious wind–bag! What can be the future of a church which is generalled by men of this type? The last conspicuous public appearance of the Bishop of Peterborough was in the Anglo–Catholic procession to St Martin's !

Lord Halifax's tractate caused me to turn to Barrow's "Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy', and "Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church'. It is regrettable that the Anglican divines are now no longer read by the clergy. Canon Cunningham confessed himself ignorant of these admirable compositions. If we are to be carried back to the old controversies about the Papal claims, we may do worse than have recourse to those writers, who were at closer quarters with the Papacy than ourselves.

After dinner I had some talk with Cunningham. His description of the religious situation in Cambridge is disconcerting. The Anglo–Catholics are carrying all before them among the youth. Wood, the Bishop of Peterborough's brother, is said to be the strongest force on the other side. I pressed on him the duty of emphasizing the moral obligation implicit in subscription of the Anglican formularies. It surely ought not to be impossible to bring the conscience of the candidates for Ordination into action against the miserable sophistry by which the evident meaning of formularies is contradicted, & the whole purpose of subscription defeated.

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