The Henson Journals

[363]

Tuesday, February 15th, 1927.

["]An English Churchman cannot, & ought not to try to, write a Church History in the tone of a heathen. His tone ought to be that of a Christian, "rejoicing not in iniquity, but rejoicing in the Truth", never sparing the heresy, however much he may sympathize with the good points or feel for the misfortunes of the heresiarch. The infallibility of the sceptic is worth little, either in Divinity or in History.["]

William Stubbs in Editor's Preface to Mosheim's E. H. dated Navestock, Aug. 23rd 1863.

Stubbs was only 38 when he wrote thus: but it discloses an attitude of minded [sic] which persisted throughout his life. He died in 1901. In questions of archaeology, or constitutional history, or the handling of documents, he was impartiality incarnate: but his historical judgments when they impinged on issues of religion were those of a callow Tractarian.

I began to prepare the lecture on "A National Church" which I foolishly promised two years ago to give in Glasgow, and which was postponed on account of my illness.

Ella & Fearne went with me to Newcastle, where I had my hair cut in preparation of the lecture next Thursday! On the return journey, we stopped in Durham in order that I might go through some diocesan business with the Bishop of Jarrow.

The Bishop of Exeter has a short letter in the Times joining himself to the Bishop of Norwich in opposition to the Revision. William Cecil is a muddle–headed person who none the less carries weight with the country gentlemen and Conservatives. The dissentient Trinity – Pollock, Cecil, & Barnes – are certainly a very odd combination.

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