The Henson Journals

[112]

Saturday, December 13th, 1924.

I believe Bishops have produced more mischief in the world than any class of officials that have ever been invented.

J.A. Froude, in 1872

In so far as this belief was justified, its justification springs from the fact that Bishops, probably more than any other officials, are the bond–slaves of the system which they administer. And inasmuch as the system which Bishops administer claims to be religious, and by that title to push itself into the holy places of personal conviction & the intimate relations of life, the dehumanising of its officials is particularly offensive and calamitous. Nothing is now more common than the denunciation of Bishops for their absorption in the trivialities of ceremonial because they have to insist, as officials responsible for enforcing the law, on the law being obeyed. What wonder, therefore, that many of them prefer to declaim windy platitudes such as the world loves instead of doing their duty, & accept being complimented as 'large–minded Christians' in lieu of being respected as honest men? There is no longer any public support for the Bishop who attempts to do his primary & most invidious duty: all the public sympathy is with the law–breakers.

[113]

Sure I am the most informative histories to posterity, and such as are most highly prized by the judicious, are such as were written by the eye–witnesses thereof – as Thucydides, the reporter of the Peloponnesian War.

Fuller. Dedn of Bk x. 'Church Hist. of Britain'.

I spent the day in writing a lecture on 'Preaching' for the Ordination Candidates, and in reading. Also I walked in the Park, though it was raining hard all the time.

Butler "had decided to conform to the Church of England, and persuaded his father, after a little trouble, to allow him to enter at Oriel March 1714–15, to pursue the necessary studies. He expresses to Clarke his dissatisfaction with Oxford. He regrets that he is obliged to quit his divinity studies by the want of encouragement to independent thinkers. He had made up his mind (30 Sept. 1717) to migrate to Cambridge to avoid the 'frivolous lectures' and 'unintelligible disputations' by which he is 'quite tired out'. Meanwhile he had become intimate with Edward Talbot, son of the bishop of Salisbury. In 1717 Talbot became vicar of East Hendred, near Wantage; & from entries in the parish registers it appears that Butler helped him in some of his duties.

L.S. in Dict; of N.B. 'Butler'

---