The Henson Journals

Wed 21 November 1928

Volume 46, Pages 187 to 188

[187]

Wednesday, November 21st, 1928.

[']I believe the superstition of our Bishops (if they have any) is more towards New Moons than Sabbaths. By new moons, I mean new Ministers of State, who, like those, receive their borrowed lustre, from our civil suns; and, like these, have of late been as changeable. I think they deserve a stroke of your animadversion.̶

A Presbyterian is only the caput mortuum of an old Puritan Methodist, which is not less rancorous for being less fiery.

As to the Alliance you speak of between the Cloak and the Rochet, it is not like mine, between Church and State, which is an alliance of Truth and Utility, this is of utility alone, and which is likely to outwit the other, I cannot tell.[']

Bishop Warburton to Dr Stukeley.

Aug. 13. 1763 (v. Nichols Literary Anecdote. Xi. 58.

He would be a very bold man who ventured to defend the present Establishment of the Church of England as "an alliance of Truth and Humility [sic]".

[188]

I motored to Durham, and licensed two clergy in the Castle, as well as instituted Thompson to the vicarage of Heatherycleugh, and P.Y. Knight to an honorary Canonry. Then I lunched with Wilson in the County Club, and afterwards had an interview with that grotesque blend of imbecility and conceit, Glynne, the Vicar of St Cuthbert's Durham. He complains bitterly of his treatment at the hands of certain members of his Parochial Church Council. They seem to have criticized somewhat sharply his finances. I told him that he ought to have nothing to do with parochial finance. When he had gone, I had interviews with two youths, now students at St. John's College, & approved them for grants from the Clergy Training Board. Then I discussed matters with my suffragan. At 4.30 p.m. I received in my rooms at the Castle a deputation from Holy Trinity, Stockton, which desired to inform me as to the needs of that parish, to which I must send a new Vicar. I gave them tea, & then discussed the matter with them. We motored to Firtree (Howden–le–Wear), where I instituted the Rev. E.E. Pearson to the incumbency. There was a crowded, & very attentive congregation.