The Henson Journals

[58]

Wednesday, January 11th, 1928.

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Dibdin is dominated by the question how to placate the House of Commons. The Bishops, by the very different question, How to hold the Church together. And, in this connection, the Church is almost equivalent to the Clergy. For even the laity who are on the electoral rolls are mainly Erastianly minded Protestants, who would welcome an accommodation with the Commons, with whose action they sympathise. It is remarkable that hardly a flicker of resentment is apparent among the Anglican laity. They do not appreciate the gravity of so frankly subordinating the Church as a spiritual society to the vote of the secular legislature: nor are they much impressed by the paradoxical position into which the Bishops have been brought. In fact, the very conception of a Church has perished out of English minds, & as to any spiritual authority inhering in the Bishops by virtue of their Apostolical Office, they simply don't comprehend or admit it. The whole situation is, from some points of view, almost Gilbertian, & how to get out of it with dignity is almost inconceivable.

[59] [symbol]

I spent the day in the company of my brethren save for the morning hours for our session began at 2.30 p.m. & went on until 5 p.m. We had a general discussion of the subject, in the course of which the Bishop of S. Edmundsbury & Ipswich indicated quite clearly that he would back away, & join the dissentients. I think that the Bishop of Bradford will go with him. The Bishop of Norwich spoke with something more than his usual (futility) discretion. He was uncommonly civil to me.

The Grosvenor Road is closed on account of the flood damage. The sand–bags built up as a parapet attested the recent disaster.

The papers give prominence to the Pope's new Encyclical on Unity. His Holiness speaks with brutal frankness. This ought to make an end of such essays in peace–making as went on at Malines. Poor old Lord Halifax must be bitterly disappointed. On the whole, I am disposed to think that this pronouncement will assist us. In the teeth of so clean a statement, only a man who accepts a definite repudiation of the Pope's authority could continue to profess himself an Anglican.