The Henson Journals
Mon 7 December 1925
Volume 40, Pages 9 to 10
[9]
Monday, December 7th, 1925.
It is the heart, and not the place, that worshippeth God. The kitchen–page turning the spit, may have a purer heart to God than his master at Church: and therefore worship God better in the kitchen than his masters at church
v. Tindale "Answer to More's Dialogue["]. p.88.
There was a reluctant thaw with threatenings of fog, and very chilly. I thought it prudent to send a telegram to Wynne–Willson, "crying off" my promise to attend the Pageant in Sunderland tonight. And I was the more inclined to this pusillanimous course since I was afflicted with premonitions of lumbago. So I kept indoors, & read much of, and about Tyndale. Also, I despatched [sic] copies of the "notes" to Bishop Lawrence, Bishop. Mann, Anson Phelps Stokes, Gilbert, & Harold, all in North America.
The Bishop of St E. & I sent me a copy of the report of the Sub.–Commission on Durham Cathedral. My scheme is "dammed with faint praise"! The Dean of Gloucester wrote to me in some perturbation about signing it.
[10]
It is not easy to be fair to the Reformers. All the conditions, under which they were led to frame their great protest, have passed away, & the protest itself stands out in unrelieved crudity & violence. Then it is the case that their governing principle, the sole & sufficient authority of the Scriptures, no longer commands our acceptance. We look back on the Medieval Church from a point distant enough to conceal its scandals, & yet near enough to disclose its amazing achievements. The magnificent courage of the first Reformers is not remembered, only their fanaticism and brutality. In the controversy between More and Tindale [sic], the modern vote is cast on the side of the fascinating & courtly litterateur: & yet when the two men are fairly considered, and the circumstances in which they lived & laboured taken into account, can it be denied that the Reformer merits the greater homage? Both men were heroes. It is hard to say which of the two has left a nobler story of martyrdom: but while More had every secular advantage, Tindale [sic] had to work in the teeth of every obstacle. And, when all is said, the English Bible is a greater achievement than "Utopia".