The Henson Journals
Tue 11 December 1928
Volume 47, Pages 23 to 24
[23]
Tuesday, December 11th, 1928.
Hamilton Thompson belongs to an old–fashioned type of Anglo–Catholick, which hates impartially both Popes and Dissenters, speaks respectfully of the "Via media", & waxes almost enthusiastic over the Church of England as "the bridge Church", uniquely qualified to bring Christendom into ecclesiastical unity. But he is too good an historian to accept the time–honoured Anglican fiction about Anglican independence of Rome before the Reformation. He was at the pains of emphasizing the true reference of the clause in Magna Carta, Ecclesia Anglicana libera set, but he compensated himself by some severe strictures on papal corruption. He hardly appreciates the religious significance of the English Reformation, which was essentially the repudiation of a conception of the Catholick Church, even more than a revolt against the Papacy. By what authority was the Church of England made a completely autonomous & independent unit, & the traditional system of doctrine and discipline drastically revised & re–cast?
[24]
The report on the King's illness is distinctly bad. A great fear begins to grow in the public mind.
I worked at the Charge most of the day. It will be mortally dull, & not particularly useful! In the afternoon I walked for an hour in the rain, and then wrote to Rudd of Trimdon Grange offering him nomination to Evenwood: and to Petrie of S. Barnabas, Sunderland, to offer him Holy Trinity, Stockton.
That foolish youth, Herbert Crozier–Smith, writes to me from the Mirfield Hostel at Leeds, saying that he is now persuaded that he has no vocation to the clergyman's life, and asking for advice! I could not but counsel him not to be in too great a hurry, and to consult his relations.
I set my mind on what I should say to the School in Durham tomorrow, when I go to the Cathedral for the annual Confirmation. The range of suitable material is narrow, but the occasion is one of unique interest, and, perhaps, of unique. Importance: for "the thoughts of a boy are long, long thoughts".