The Henson Journals

[23]

Friday, August 24th, 1928.

[symbol]

Why is it that "Anglo–Catholicism" has failed so completely to attract the general body of English folk? It has certainly 'captured' the best of the English clergy. "Protestantism" is strong neither intellectually nor socially nor even morally. Even the clergymen who begin their career as "Protestants" rarely end it as such. The frantic opposition to the Revised Prayer Book, so far as the clergy are concerned, has been an affair of half–educated and obsolete zealots. "Anglo–Catholicism" is congruous with the Prayer Book, & finds itself at home in the magnificent medievalism of the Cathedrals & parish churches. The revival and popularisation of historical studies favour it, the fashion of continental travel disgusts men with ecclesiastical insularity, & there is nothing intrinsically attractive about Protestant Religion. Why, then, is 'Anglo–Catholicism' so generally disliked and distrusted? Perhaps, the answer lies in two facts. First, the older Anglicanism, of which Laud was the Martyr, led to Dissent & No Popery, the one entrenched in the Sects, the other embodied in a national tradition. Next, the evangelisation of the English middle & lower classes was almost wholly the work of Protestants – Methodists &, later, Salvationists. Tractarianism was never, and is not now, a popular movement.

[24]

We left the Vicarage about noon, and motored to Bamburgh, where we visited the parish church, a spacious building with a fine early English chancel and a crypt. Here there is a monument to Grace Darling. Then we lunched with Mrs. Neville Chamberlain. There were also present her son, Frank, a fine boy of 14 now at Winchester, and her daughter somewhat older, another lad named Lloyd, & two relatives of Mrs. Chamberlain. I was interested to find that Mrs. C. had been studying a Bohn translation of Bede, & was astonishingly well–informed about the Northumbrian antiquities. After lunch we motored to Alnwick, & had tea with Archdeacon & Mrs. Mangin, who took us into the Park, & shewed us the remains of a Prœmonstratensian Convent and a Carmelite Friary. Little survives of the first, which must have been on a large scale, but of the last, there is much remaining, including the walls, inner and outer. On our way we fell in with the Duke & Duchess with whom was another lady, & had some friendly conversation. I was much impressed by the beauty and extent of the Park. Its circumference is said to be no less than 16 miles. We got back to Wooler about 6.45 p.m.

---