The Henson Journals

[7]

Tuesday, April 24th, 1928.

If the Establishment in England is the most complicated, that in Scotland is the simplest which Christendom includes. In Scotland a 'clean sweep' of the medieval system was effected. The Church was equipped with a new polity and, in the course of history, acquired an unprecedented independence. As its constitution is declared in the Church of Scotland Act, a.d. it provides the model of 'a free Church in a free State', such as Cavour projected in the middle of the XIXth. Century. Partly this independence was due to the Presbyterian polity which, while magnifying the ministry, gave comparatively little importance to any section of it. There was nothing in Scotland parallel in political function to the Episcopate in England. Partly, it was a consequence of the Union, first personal & then parliamentary, with England. When the centre of national government had been removed to London, and Scottish business became a comparatively subordinate element in British politics, the Church of Scotland ceased to move the anxious concern of statesmen, while it acquired in the popular regard an ever greater prominence as the principal almost the only witness of Scottish nationality. In more recent times the general secularisation of society in Scotland as elsewhere has stripped all ecclesiastical concerns of their former importance.

[8]

The State exercizes no control over legislation, or ecclesiastical courts, or patronage. Beyond the tenure of the ancient endowments and certain honorific or complimentary arrangements, of which the appointment of a High Commissioner to represent the Sovereign at the meeting of the General Assembly is the chief. Establishment in Scotland has no practical significance, though unquestionably its sentimental importance as a solemn recognition of national Christianity is still great, & its abolition would be regretted by a large majority of Scottish people.

I breakfasted with Lord S., & then walked with my robes to the Athenaeum. I travelled comfortably to Tadworth having a compartment reserved for my use. There I was met at the station by the "best man", a pleasant, helpful fellow, whose name I have forgotten (!). I lunched with Ernest in his little parsonage, & then went to the Mission Church, where the marriage ceremony was to be performed. A large congregation of relatives, friends, and neighbours assembled, & witnessed a service which was decorous & devout. I gave an address as well as tied the knot. Then we went to the Vicarage for the reception, which was numerously attended, and were afterwards photographed in the garden. Then I returned to London, wrote to Ella, and dined in the Club, having Graves as my table–companion.

[9]

I had some interesting conversation with Athelstan Riley, Oman, Jenkins, and the Archbishop of Wales. Riley tells me that he will be 70 this year, & adds (what is indeed apparent) that he is growing very deaf. He asked me to visit him in his Chateau in the Channel Islands, but I told him that the sea–passage was prohibitive. Oman gave me the impression of being semi–penitent for his abstention from the division of Dec: 15th. I did my best to persuade him to vote for the Prayer Book, when it comes again before the House of Commons. The Archbishop of Wales is as snaky as ever, but cunning and with a glorying tongue. He professes hostility to the Prayer Book, and withal an unshaken confidence in the stability of the English Establishment.

I saw the Bishop of Norwich in the Club, but I avoided him, for his behaviour has offended me so deeply that I cannot be confident that I should be decently civil if we came into conversation!

Fleming was present for a few minutes, & spoke of the situation in the Church of England with the patronising sympathy which is the deadliest of insults! He said that he had been told from several quarters that it was my speech in the House of Lords which was decisive of many votes. I should like to believe that this was the case, but I ever distrust compliments, & never really get any comfort out of them!