The Henson Journals
Thu 27 September 1928
Volume 46, Pages 97 to 98
[97]
Thursday, September 27th, 1928.
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I spent the morning and part of the afternoon at Lambeth in the Bishops' Meeting. There was a curious 'throw–back' to abandoned positions by some of the Bishops, which caused much waste of time: but in the end not much harm was done. I came away at 3.30 p.m. and walked to the Athenaeum, where I had tea, & talked with the late President of Magdalen, who tells me that he is going to live in Oxford. I travelled to Darlington by the 5.30 p.m. express, & was met there by Lionel and the car.
The Dean of Westminster & Mrs Norris had arrived at the Castle during my absence for a brief visit.
Oman has a very interesting article in the Morning Post on the subject of finds of Roman coins in this island. He says that these are mostly of copper coins which are almost worthless. He himself found a hoard of 37,000 coper coins. "Treasure trove" is limited to gold and silver coins. Most commonly the discoverer keeps the matter secret, & disposes of the treasurer [sic] quietly: but local vanity often makes the fact public, & then the find is confiscated. Coins of the 3rd century appear to be very rarely found.
[98]
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The attitude of the bishops was not very dignified nor yet very intelligible. Their minds were plainly dominated by the dread of dis–establishment, though they still used the language of independence. Both the Archbishops–designate were ambiguous and temporising, reflecting very obviously the sentiments of the politicians to whom they owed their preferment. Lang incidentally disclosed the fact that he had been recently talking over the situation with various leading men, & that they had all urged the need of a quiet interval during which opinion might settle on some revision of the existing Establishment. I asked whether any sane man supposed that there was even the slightest probability that Parliament would agree to any revision which would guarantee the Church against a repetition of our recent experience, & there was none to answer. And if we knew that no satisfactory revision of the Establishment was really possible, were we acting self–respectingly in pretending the contrary? But, as in the 13th century, so in the 20th, it is the case that 'Clerici Anglicani semper pavidi' [Anglican clergy always fearful].