The Henson Journals

[141]

Wednesday, July 18th, 1928.

The fine weather continued, but the sky was overcast, & the temperature fell.

Lady Eden, & Ella went with me into Durham, where a great gathering of G.F.S. girls had been organized. I presided at meetings of the Finance Board and the Conference Committee, having tea with the Bishop of Jarrow in the interval. Then I went to the Cathedral, and preached to a congregation of G.F.S. girls which filled the nave & chancel, presenting an impressive (impressive) spectacle. After the service we returned to Auckland.

My personal appeals to the local plutocrats have not being very fruitful. Lord Melchet (Sir Alfred Mond) has returned a blank refusal to give anything beyond his good wishes unctuously expressed. – an Israelite indeed! Sir John Ropner, a millionaire, gives nothing beyond the paltry sum (£250.) which he originally contributed! His son, Major Ropner, who pleads lack of means, sends £26:5:0. That is all so far!!

The Times prints on its front page, the letter for Durham Castle which I wrote last Saturday, setting in a dramatic contrast the poor widow's gift of the socks which she had knitted, and the vast fortune (more than £15,000,000) left by Sir David Yule.

[142] [symbol]

Dick Sheppard's letter headed 'The next Primate – Lambeth and the Nation' is a summary of his extremely foolish book, "The Impatience of a Parson", and reads quite fatuously, so much so, indeed, that I wonder the Editor published it. After the usual fulsome laudation of the present Archbishop, & a description (which in the light of recent events is ludicrous) of the vast importance attached to the pronouncements of the Occupant of Lambeth, the requisites of the next Primate are set out. He is to promulge "a greater edition of Christianity, more simple & more sincere" He must possess "singular gifts of leadership & the faith that knows the world's 'desirable but impossible' can always be beaten by the power of Christ": his method is thus prescribed:–

'A summons from the next Archbishop of Canterbury broadcast from his Cathedral to this generation to forget the quarrels of its grandfathers and to give the values of Jesus Christ the primary place that they should hold, together with a statement of what he believes his Church should forgo intellectually, and sacrifice materially, to that end, would meet with a response that would stagger those who do not know how the more thoughtful and virile are thinking today.'

We are bidden to pray for an "immensely brave & wise leader".

[143] [symbol]

Mutatis mutandis Dick Sheppard expresses the mood which induced the election of the hermit–pope in 1293. I turned up Milman's account of ^Peter Morrone^ Coelestine V, the Pontiff who lives for ever in Dante's bitterly scornful line:–

Che face per vilta il gran rifeuto

'who through his coward's shrinking soul the great refusal made

and ever more the bitter price of Shame eternal paid.

The pitiful incapacity of the saint was speedily demonstrated.

"A few month showed that meekness, humility, holiness, unworldliness might make a saint: they were not the virtues suited to a Pope.....

His utter incapacity for business soon appeared: he lavished offices, dignities, bishoprics, with profuse hand: he granted & ^revoked^ grants, bestowed benefices, vacant or about to be vacant. He was duped by the officers of his court..... He shrank from publicity, & even from the ceremonial duties of his office: he could speak only a few words of bad Latin.

In spite of this his popularity was immense, & his abdication was bitterly resented. Dante condemned him to that circle of hell where are those distained alike by mercy & justice, on whom the poet will not condescend to look.

v. Latin Christianity vol vi p. 454 f.

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