The Henson Journals

[336]

Saturday, January 22nd, 1927.

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The land is covered with snow, and there was a bitter frost last night. January goes out like a man–eating tiger, most dangerous in its last days.

Beyond writing the necessary letters, I did nothing but "browze" on the subject of the Inquisition. These Papists affect to believe that the general horror of the institution is no more than (to use Father Knox's words) "a hearty British tradition, instilled into us not so much by the history as by the swash–buckling novels of our boyhood", whereas in truth the sentiment runs back far into the past, and is indeed coeval with the Inquisition itself. The distinctive methods of the Holy Office – secret delations, secret trial, torture, infamy – created from the first such an abhorrence of the Institution, that violent popular protests were provoked, & many Inquisitors murdered. It is idle to pretend that the lynching of Negroes in America, or the rough handling of "conscientious objectors" during the War provides any real parallel to the "terrific system" which the cold fanaticism of Spain fastened on Christendom. The moral obtuseness of modern Roman Catholics is very significant. They do not really see the horror of the paradox which the Inquisition presents.

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