The Henson Journals

[209]

Thursday, April 1st, 1926.

Robertson of Brighton preached to a generation which possessed a homogeneous culture. His congregations had passed through the same intellectual & moral discipline, & viewed the world & themselves from the same point of view. The preacher in the 20th century has lost this supreme advantage. Ours is a generation, of which the culture is so heterogeneous, that mutual intelligibility can no longer be prudently assumed.

In the first half of the XIXth century education was still universally organized on the traditional lines. The classics, mathematics, and an orthodox philosophy were the foundation, and a working knowledge of Christianity was the concomitant of a thorough education. Robertson died in 1853, and the 1st University Commission had reported in favour of abolishing subscription & the opening of fellowships & scholarships to all in 1850. The almost bewilderingly wide choice of subjects which now confronts the undergraduate did not then exist. It is impossible to be sure what manner of moral & intellectual training is certified by an University [sic] degree. The "new learning" of Science bisects the educated world as sharply & decisively as the "new learning" of [210] the Humanists bisected that of the XVIth century. The fact has affected the congregations not less than it has embarrassed the preachers. There has been gained a harmony between the two by exiling from the churches all but those who are, morally & intellectually, the preachers' kindred. A process of quiet continuing alienation has matured in an almost complete severance between the non–ecclesiastically minded, and the public worship of the churches. The preacher, of broad culture and liberal sympathies, is more welcome outside the membership of the churches than within: & certainly he is more intelligible. In Robertson's day it was otherwise. Apart from the organized parties, whose internecine strife was immitigable, & whose united rancor was provoked by any display of intellectual independence or reasonable charity in the case of clergymen, there was the general body of educated laity who, if alienated from religion, were not either incredulous of Christian doctrine or openly hostile to Christian morality. They formed the constituency to which such a preacher as Robertson of Brighton appealed.

[211] [symbol]

Gadd writes:– "I must tell your Lordship a delightful story I heard of an old Evangelical clergyman in Yorkshire the other day. His son had turned an extreme ritualist in London, and asked his father to come & preach in his church. The old man went, but was so puzzled with the service that he was unable to follow. He had his revenge, however, when he came to preach, startling his son as well as the congregation by giving out the text, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic!"

I bought the following books from Bishop Ryle's Library, which was on sale by Sotheran:

1. Bede's Works in Migne's edition. 6 vols.

2. Epistoloe Obscurorum Viroram. Londini. 1710

3. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology

4. Schaff's The Creeds of the Greek & Latin Churches.

5. " History of the Creeds of Christianity.

6. Scudamore. Notitia Eucharistica

7. Froude's Nemesis of Faith.

Most of the books are adorned with his book–plate, which gives central prominence to the badge of the Garter. The date, 1903, would indicate that he adopted a book–plate on becoming Bishop of Winchester.

[212]

I spent yet another day comfortlessly in my study, writing some necessary letters, and reading promiscuously. Among other thing's [sic] I read Pastor's account of the Conclave which followed the death of Paul iii. It was unusually numerous, and protracted. The cardinals began this business on November 29th 1549, and ended it on February 8th 1550. Nothing could have been more shameless than the wire–pulling. Pole came within a single vote of being elected, but the French would have none of him. "The Papal vestments had already been laid out for Pole, & he had himself composed an address of thanks which he had shown to several persons." But he was too young, being only 45: too austere: and, as an Englishman, unwelcome. He seems to have carried himself with dignity. Carafa suggested that he had sympathy with the Lutheran doctrine of justification, & this suggestion was, of course, equally damaging and difficult to disprove. In the end, more by exhaustion than by any better motive, the Cardinals agreed on del Monte, who took the name Julius iii. It is not surprising that Charles V is reported to have observed that for one Protestant at the beginning of the Conclave, there were many at the ending.

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