The Henson Journals
Mon 11 August 1930
Volume 50, Pages 211 to 212
[211]
Monday, August 11th, 1930.
'There have been few more vital errors in historical perspective than to imagine bibliolatry as a product of the Reformation, and as having flourished only in the creeds which proclaim themselves as "evangelical". Biblical infallibility is explicitly asserted in the first volume of the Corpus Juris Canonici.'
Coulton 'Romanism & Truth' p. 30
This is at best a half–truth: for the Reformers did give a near, that is, an unique authority to the Bible, when they set it above the Church, & made even the Creeds subordinate to Scripture. So long as the interpretation of the Bible belonged to the Church, and the Church recognized in Tradition, of which one alone was the voucher & mouthpiece, an authority equal to the Bible, there could never be such Bibliolatry as prevailed & still generally prevails, within the sphere of the Reformation. It is the dead weight of an infallible text, unmitigated by any authoritative Interpreter, & disconnected by any authoritative Interpreter, & disconnect from the living Society of the Church which makes Protestant Bibliolatry so degrading and repulsive.
[212]
Ella and I left the Castle shortly after 11 a.m. and motored by way of Durham, Lanchester, Riding Mill, and Corbridge to Wallington where we lunched with George Trevelyan and his wife. The house, which he inherited from an aunt two years ago, is a pleasant 18th century house, delightfully situated in a well–wooded dene, & with a southern aspect. After lunch we strolled in the garden, & talked for an hour, & then set out on our journey home. We called on Lady Rayleigh, but she was away. We found the Hensons at home in their house at Hexham, and had tea with them. Then we continued our journey by way of Blanchland and Tow Law, reaching the Castle about 10 minutes before 7 p.m. The weather was delightful, & the fine scenery seen to great advantage.
Trevelyan told me he was engaged on a history of Q. Anne's reign, & that he hoped to get it published this autumn. His daughter – a rather terrifying "blue–stocking" – is to be married on Michaelmas Day.