The Henson Journals

[101]

4th Sunday after Epiphany, February 2nd, 1930. Purification of B. V. M.

[symbol]

Twelve years ago I was consecrated to the Bishop's office in Westminster Abbey in circumstances which left an indelible impression on my mind. Burge and Ryle, who had magnanimously consented to 'present' me, are both dead: but Davidson still lives, and Ralph Inge, who preached the sermon. I remember that his sermon had been submitted to the Archbishop and heavily bowdlerized before delivery. In the course of that sermon he called me his 'dearest friend', and now I cannot bring myself to stay under his roof! It was a comfortless service, and it inaugurated an embarrassed & difficult ministry. The effect of the shameful agitation against my consecration upon me was lasting, and baleful. From the first, I felt myself an unwelcome and incongruous element in the Episcopate, and this feeling has never left me. It shut me off from community in the counsels & devotions of the Bishops, and I have never been able to persuade myself frankly to join in either. I have tried to 'play the game' by my colleagues, & by the Church, but I have never felt, and do not now feel, comfortable with either.

[102]

[symbol]

The ill effect was not only on my mind, but also on my position. Every element of dogmatic and even ethical crankdom [sic] in the Church of England – and God knows how many there are – claimed me as an exponent & representative: and their inevitable disillusionment caused resentments which have not weakened as time has passed. I suppose there is no living Churchman who more heartily despises and dislikes religious & moral crankdoms than I: yet in the public mind I was wickedly pictured as their embodiment, and to this day am subjected to suspicions and insolences, which assume the truth of the picture. Undoubtedly my influence in the public life of Church & nation has been damaged, perhaps destroyed, by this volume of calumny under which I started, and now that I am ^an^ old man, I have neither the mind nor the strength to attempt everything. There is always a fund of latent suspicion in the public mind which can be drawn upon by my opponents.

[103]

[symbol]

If, from this indestructible memory of my wrongs, I turn to the review of my unmerited blessings, it were equally untrue & ungrateful to deny that they have been many & great. Mainly, my health has been good: and my performance of duty has not been wholly unrelieved by experiences of kindness and appreciation. Some of the protagonists at against my Consecration (e.g. Lord Wolmer & Sir Robert Leighton) have asked my forgiveness for what they said & did: and, though my episcopal brethren have not done so much, they have indicated by many significant actions that they regret their action. My attitude towards Prayer Book Revision tended to reconciliation, and if, as there was every reason for thinking would happen, the Revised Book had been legalized, my position in the Church would have been assured. But the action of the House of Commons not only destroyed this possibility, but drove me into an open advocacy of Disestablishment, which rendered me again, and on a new ground, universally odious.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. There were 10 communicants, including Elland, his wife, and John.

[104]

Ella went with me to Consett, where I preached at Evensong to a large congregation. Save for the sharp coughing of children, the people seemed to be attentive and interested. The Vicar (Briggs) wished me "many happy returns of the day". It appears that an announcement has appeared in some paper informing the public that 12 years ago I was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on February 2nd.

If anyone had told me on that memorable day that within 12 years I should be Bishop of Durham, and an open advocate of Disestablishment, how grotesquely improbable should I have judged the forecast to be! But human life is a strange medley, & no one can have lived 66 years in the world, and not feel that anything is possible for anybody! There has certainly been a considerable re–action in the Anglican mind, & I should not be altogether surprised to see Temple's motion rejected. If somebody of weight were to move 'the previous question', it would attract the support of all the timorous, & of all the fanaticks, both Protestant & Anglo–Catholick. These dread nothing so much as Disestablishment, and _____________ Discipline.

---