The Henson Journals

[71]

Monday, January 11th, 1926. Lambeth Palace.

I came away from Farnham with my colleagues after breakfast, and travelled to Waterloo, getting to Lambeth in good time for the Session at 10.45a.m. We worked at the Collects, Epistles, & Gospels all day with much harmony, & made good progress. Just at the end, Frere raised the question of the Calendar, & then for the first time a controversial issue disclosed itself. Barnes told me that he had been asked to deliver the Gifford Lectures, & professed to be doubtful as to his accepting the proposal. I urged him strongly to do so: "You are the only bishop now on the Bench to whom the invitation could have been reasonably sent. You will add distinction to the Episcopate by giving these lectures, & we shall all be indebted to you. I think you will win through at Birmingham, and in ten years [sic] time, you will be spoken about as a second Thirlwall. Set everything else aside, & give these lectures." These were my words as clearly as I can recall them. The Evening Papers reproduce a ill–tempered canard vented from Birmingham to the Sunday Journals to the effect that Barnes was about to institute legal proceedings against the rebel clergy in his diocese!

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