Reference code: GB-0033-BBB
Title: Bishop Basil Butler Papers
Dates of creation: 1929-2006
Extent: 1 box
Held by: Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections
Origination: Correspondence collected and initially sorted by the then literary executor of Bishop Butler, the Very Reverend Dom. Daniel Rees O.S.B., and by Arthur L. Wells.
Language:
English
The prominent Catholic theological scholar and ecumenist Basil Edward Butler was born 7 May 1902 at Reading, Berkshire, and took the name Christopher as his name in religion upon his novitiate at Downside Abbey in 1929.
He was the second of four sons and the third of six children of William Edward Butler and his wife Bertha Alice Bowman. He was educated at Reading School, and then St John's College, Oxford, ultimately holding a tutorship at Keble College as a
clerical don in 1925. (He was made an honorary fellow of St John's in 1966.) He went on to teach classics at Brighton College (1927-1928), and then at Downside School, Somerset (1928-1929).
During these latter years Butler's faith increasingly moved toward Catholicism, in which Church he became a communicant in 1928. Entering the Benedictine community at Downside the following year, he was ordained on 10 June 1933. Butler remained
at Downside for many years, serving as headmaster of the school from January 1940 until his election as abbot on 12 September 1946, an office he held until 1966. He was president of the English Benedictine congregation from August 1961-1966, and in
this pre-eminent role his was an influential voice at each of the four sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). At this Council he was a member of its commission for doctrine, and also participated in the debate on war and peace, with
particular reference to nuclear deterrence.
In 1966 he was appointed auxiliary bishop to Cardinal J. C. Heenan, being consecrated bishop of Nova Barbara in Westminster Cathedral on 21 December 1966. As auxiliary he became the first area bishop of Hertfordshire, last resident president of
St Edmund's College, Ware, and vicar capitular of the archdiocese in the
sede vacante between Cardinals Heenan and Hume. Latterly he served on the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), and was
co-chairman of the English Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee (1970-1981). From 1972 he was a member of the editorial board of the
New English Bible. In February 1980 he was appointed an assistant to the pontifical throne by Pope John Paul II.
Butler's writings and thoughts were widely published and broadcast from the 1950s onwards. He died in London on 20 September 1986.
Cuthbert H. Butler, later preferring his second name Hilary, was born on 8 March 1913. He followed his brother to Reading School, and then studied History and Theology at St John's College, Cambridge, where he held the Naden Studentship in
Divinity, the Burney Studentship and a Gladstone Studentship. He spent some time studying in Germany in 1938-1939, before his ordination as deacon at Chichester in 1940. He entered the priesthood a year later. He was curate of [St Matthias],
Preston, Brighton, 1940-1942; chaplain of the R.A.F.V.R., 1942-1946, serving in England, Normandy, Holland and Germany; curate-in-charge of St Matthias, Preston, 1946-1947; vicar of St Matthias, Preston, 1947-1951; rector of Crawley with West
Crawley, 1951-1958; rector of Oliver, British Columbia, Canada, 1958-1961; lecturer and canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, British Columbia, 1961-1977; examiner chaplain to the archbishop of British Columbia, 1966-1968; archdeacon of
Columbia, 1977-1979; and archdeacon (emeritus), from 1979. Butler also maintained a long association with the University of Victoria, serving as its chaplain and later on its senate for many years, as well as being a John Albert Hall lecturer. He
married Josephine Mary Stubbs in 1942; they had six children. C. Hilary Butler and his wife returned to England from Canada in 1984, settling in the West Country. Josephine Butler died in 1995. C. Hilary Butler died on 18 December 2007. Both are
buried at Winsford, Somerset.
Mary Alice Butler (1907-2009)
Mary Alice Butler was born at Reading, Berkshire, 14 June 1907. Her professional career was spent as a teacher. She died at St Mary's Home, Oxford, on 15 May 2009.
The Butler family
William Edward Butler and his wife Bertha Alice Bowman had six children: four sons, Bernard (1897-1981), Basil (1902-1986), Felix (1905-1997) and Cuthbert (1913-2007); and two daughters, Margaret (1899-1986), and Mary (1907-2009). William Butler
was a partner in Butler & Sons, a wine-merchant business (founded 1830) in Chatham Street, Reading; he was, with his brother, the fourth generation of Butlers to run the business. His sons Bernard and Felix also became partners in the firm,
which was sold to Fuller, Smith & Turner in 1976, with the premises to be operated as a public house named The Butler.
The collection is principally made up of manuscript and typescript letters and postcards from Bishop Christopher Butler to his brother Cuthbert Hilary Butler and to his sister Mary Alice Butler. The correspondence from Bishop Butler to his
brother dates from 1929 until the autumn of 1985 (items
BBB 1/90,
93 and
101 are the only letters present in this series from Cuthbert H. Butler to
Bishop Butler); there is also one letter from Bishop Butler's mother to Cuthbert H. Butler (
BBB 1/174). The letters to his sister date from 1946 to 1983; there is also a small number of letters to Mary A. Butler from
Dom. Daniel Rees O.S.B. and Arthur L. Wells. A picture postcard of the Second Vatican Council, 1962, and two newspaper cuttings from the 1970s-1980s are also present. The letters are occasionally annotated, either by the correspondents themselves,
or latterly by Arthur L. Wells.
Donated by Jeremy Butler (Misc.2009/10:67) and the estate of Mary A. Butler (Misc.2009/10:83).
The letters in the main represent Bishop Butler's side of the correspondence over many years, being collected and provisionally arranged by Bishop Butler's then literary executor, the Very Reverend Dom. Daniel Rees O.S.B., the librarian of
Downside Abbey, and by Arthur L. Wells. Bishop Butler's literary executor is now the Right Reverend Dom. Aidan Bellenger O.S.B., abbot of Downside.
Open for consultation, excepting three items, access to which is limited by the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist
where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.
The papers are arranged in three series:
1. Correspondence of Basil Christopher Butler and Cuthbert H. Butler, otherwise Hilary Butler, (includes one letter from their mother, Bertha Alice Butler to CHB);
2. Letters to Mary A. Butler, chiefly from Basil Christopher Butler, but including some letters from Dom. Daniel Rees O.S.B. and Arthur L. Wells;
3. Newspaper cuttings.
A number of letters are undated, or incompletely dated: such items, judging from their contents, are placed either in the main sequence or letters (if the exact date can be inferred with confidence), or at the end of the year in which it was
written, or at the end of the relevant decade.
Copies of some of Bishop Butler's published works are in the collections of Durham University Library: search the library catalogue.
Westminster Diocesan Archives
Papers of Bishop Basil Christopher Butler, from 1960s, including correspondence to BB from Cuthbert Hilary Butler and Mary A. Butler.
Papers of Bishop Basil Christopher Butler, particularly relating to the Second Vatican Council.
By the kind permission of its author, Sr Anne T. Flood, S.C., a bibliography, compiled in 1981, of works by Bishop Butler, and of a selection of reviews of some of these works is available
http://palimpsest.dur.ac.uk/pictures/Butler_Bibliography.pdf. In addition to this, the following works have been published about Bishop
Butler.
Abbot Butler and the Council: a special commemorative issue celebrating the centenary of the birth of Basil Christopher Butler, Abbot and Bishop, and fortieth anniversary of the opening of the second Vatican Council:
papers given at a symposium at Heythrop College, Kensington, London, on 12 October 2002, (Bath: Downside Abbey, 2003).
Ceredig [Rees, Dom. Daniel]
Bishop Christopher Butler, seventh Abbot of Downside and Bishop of Nova Barbara, (1986).
Flood, Anne T.
B. C. Butler's developing understanding of the Church: an intellectual biography, (Ph.D. thesis, The Catholic University of America, 1981).
Rice, Valentine “Dom. Christopher Butler, the abbot of Downside”, no. 15 in the series
Men who make the Council, series editor Michael Novak, (University of Notre Dame Press,
1965).
Correspondence of Basil Basil Christopher Butler (BB) and Cuthbert H. Butler, otherwise Hilary Butler (CHB)
1929
BBB 1/1 Tuesday 19 November [1929]
BB at Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, to CHB [at Reading School, Reading, Berkshire]
Welcomes news of [Reading] School, CHB and his negotiation and progress with religious issues. Defines two requisites for fruitful enquiry into religion: “conscience, the deliberate conviction that we are not dealing
with mere mathematical or academic truth, but are dutifully trying to find the course in life which we are <morally> bound to pursue” ; and “the realization that religion is the most important thing in
life”. Encourages CHB to pray for himself and a friend, [?Norman] Gash (NG), noting the certainty of God “answering all good prayers made with faith”. While acknowledging the contemporary existence of
non-Christian great thinkers, critiques the over-estimation of the work of H. G. Wells who, when more objectively compared to “Plato, St Paul, Plotinus, St Thomas Aquinas, Darwin, Newman & Einstein ... appears as a
populariser of <rather> crude scientific ideas and an amateur (a
mere amateur, I assure you) in philosophy & theology”. Engages by proxy in a theological argument with CHB's friend NG, wishing first to
establish an understanding of the intellectual
status quo: “[i]f you can conceive the solar system without the sun, you have a picture of the Universe without God”. Answers the suggestion
that evolution disproves Christianity, stating, “you can't produce from anything (except a conjuror's hat) what was not in it to be produced. Therefore you cannot produce conscious life from inanimate matter”.
Ridicules the concept that the “most primitive forms of inanimate matter held within themselves the highest achievements of Plato, Shakespeare and the Saints”, and the failure [of the theory of evolution] to explain
the origin of such “marvellous qualities”. Against close textual criticism of the synoptic gospels without the requisite scholarship, he counsels reading the texts as a whole, and summarises the main points of an
argument for their authenticity, concluding with a statement of the centrality of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ: as such, [Christianity] “has best fused morals & religion, and it has best fused religion and
philosophy; it has shown itself capable of satisfying men's intellect, conscience & emotions at their highest, and <also> of giving support to the unlearned simple etc.” Recommends: G. K. Chesterton's
The everlasting man; [Douglas] Edwards'
The shining mystery of Jesus; [Joseph Hugh] Beibitz's
Belief, faith and proof.
2p
BBB 1/2 Sunday 24 November [1929]
BB to CHB
Conveys his best wishes, as a former White Scholar himself, to NG for his examinations [for a Thomas White scholarship to St John's College, Oxford]. Revisits his recommended reading list, qualifies his assent to the work of Church of England
writers, withdraws Beibitz as perhaps inappropriate, and favours Edwards and Chesterton. Compares NG's reported position with that described in H. G. Wells'
God the invisible king, and directs CHB to a relevant critique in Henry Scott Holland's Creeds and Critics and works by John Neville Figgis, “both C. of
E.!”. Felicitates CHB on his friendship with NG, while emphasising the serious responsibilities of such an apostolic and influential role, and recommending he sustain throughout an absolute fidelity to religious practice. Counsels above all
against disputatiousness between them - temporarily set aside rather than deny what can not yet be proved, and be encouraged by the certainty proffered by surrender to the will of God. Insists on the indivisibility of faith and doctrine, describing
the moment of personal acknowledgement of the moral obligation of belief in a religion as requiring the acceptance, if not immediate complete understanding, of that religion's doctrines, and aligning this certainty with the concreteness of the
incarnation: “we are invited not to a vague aspiration towards a possible Infinite, but to concrete union with a real Infinite bought down into time and space”. Discusses, in relation to the reported opinions of NG,
the ‘problem of evil’, monotheism, the unity and trinity of God, the necessity of deriving Creation from a moral rather than non-moral and independent cause: “the purer and stronger religion
becomes the more insistent it is on the absolute goodness and justice and the irresistible power of God”. “As a soul develops and becomes deep and sincere and humble, it can find no ultimate satisfaction in wealth, or
honour, or worldly success, or learning, or art, or human affection - in any of these or all - unless behind and above them all it can realize its own highest possibilities in the worship love and service of a unique and infinitely good &
powerful God.” Rehearses the doctrine of the Fall for CHB's use with NG.
3p
BBB 1/3 8 and 10 December 1929
BB to CHB
CHB's priestly vocation. Islam, monotheism and truth. Programme of apostolic preaching and authority outlined. Faith preceding doctrinal conviction: doctrinal detail “a consequence” of accepting the Christian
mission, and vigorous insistence on such points “one of the great arguments for the truth of Christianity”. “Religious truth is not merely what
is true, but also comes to one with an obligation to accept and act on it: i.e. it is intimately concerned not only with the intellect but with the will.” Discourses freely on the devil - a creature of God and
so “essentially good” - and human degradation of the natural world, complementing the resurrection with a “renovation” of the natural world; and, citing
Einstein, positing a “'new time'” as well as a “'new world'”. BB's vocation; and monasticism: the imitative path of a Christian need not mirror the life of Christ in all external
aspects; and “each faithful member of the Church constitutes something to His fullness”, Christ having been “the germ of the true human life”. The influence of intellectual work not to
be underestimated, even on the unintellectual. Relaxed monastic life. Wales Relief Fund. Conversion of NG. Lightening damage to Downside Abbey church tower.
3p
1930
BBB 1/4 2 January [1930]
BB to CHB
Christmas gifts. J. W. S. and Debating Society “fracas”. The subconscious: favours decisiveness and action over introspection. The process of conversion, and creedal authority. Development of Christianity: more
complex, subtle, morally experienced, tactful. Visit of Felix [Butler]. Provides further material on the sacrament of Holy Communion and the action of grace for NG. Practical role of Benedictine religious in the world: BB's intellectual
development.
3p
BBB 1/5 23 February and 4 March 1930
BB to CHB
NG informed of the correspondence, and his consent obtained. The incarnation. Quakerism, and ceremonial religion. Argues against the “'philosophy of the pure spirit'”: experience of the physical world and
religiously expressed emotions complete worship. Child-like faith counters risk of that which is merely “'high-brow'”. Directs CHB to his studies.
3p
BBB 1/6 Friday 9 May [1930]
BB to CHB
CHB to apply for scholarships. Neither BB's reputation nor Sugar's [? see
BB/1/136] support to be relied upon. Deprecates
sortes Biblicae. Reviews an essay on Napoleon by NG. The role
of tradition in the Church, a link to the Incarnation. Corporate nature of Christianity. Recommends Thomas à Kempis'
The imitation of Christ; G. K. Chesterton's
Orthodoxy and
The everlasting man. Against an individualistic attitudinal origin for faith, detected in CHB's
correspondence, BB argues for a more objective view grounded in the community: notes the intrinsically social nature of all religious groups in all cultures, and membership of the Church - the Body of Christ - as “the
divine answer to this human craving for fellowship in religion”; and counsels “the way to have a deeply personal religion is not to cut away from the religious group, but to enter right into the group-religion ... a
member or unit is most itself when it most completely coheres with the body in its functioning”.
2p
BBB 1/7 Trinity Sunday [?15 June 1930]
BB to CHB
Contrasts sortes Biblicae with saints “chancing” upon personally significant texts. Counsels CHB to continue to widen his horizons and cultivate an intimacy with God:
“big ... difficult” books recommended, and lives of saints,
The imitation of Christ etc., and prayer.
1p
BBB 1/8 Sunday 31 August [?1930]
BB to CHB
CHB's visit to Caldey Abbey, Pembrokeshire, and Cistercian monasticism. Reacts to a negative report of NG's visit to Germany: “terribly pagan” character of non-Catholic German intelligentsia,
“influenced in some of its strata by Bolshevism - which is much closer to them than to you and me”. The “jungle growth of chaotic fertile variegated knowledge” distracts young
intelligent persons from moral and religious truths. The voice of conscience: modern intellectual world loth to consent to its power; and inhibited from doing so by outmoded intellectualism of organised religion - promotes divergence and opposition.
Modern thinkers “need the ethico-religious ballast, support, and grace of Christianity”. Short reasoned attack on “irreligious [intellectual] culture”, which is
“doomed to corruption and disintegration”: “in practice man can not keep his moral grasp on [the] supreme value without the help of religion”. Recommends to CHB the sermons preached by
John Henry Newman before the University of Oxford [
Fifteen sermons preached before the University of Oxford between A.D. 1826 and 1843], “containing ... some most fruitful and helpful ideas tending towards a 'philosophy of religion'”,
and to persevere with attentive reading of the New Testament and the spiritual classics. Suggests CHB make NG a gift of Solovyov's The justification of the good, but which BB has not yet himself read: exemplifies
Solovyov's life amidst then prevailing anti-religious intellectual currents in Russian culture.
2p
BBB 1/9 Sunday 21 September [?1930]
BB to CHB
Subject to the permission of the novice master, promises to read CHB's paper on Benedictinism. Distinguishes the Cistercians from the Cassinese of Subiaco: influence of St John Cassian on St Benedict. Counters inferred critique by CHB of monastic
obedience, and the fallibility of the Holy Church: supplements doctrinal infallibility with, outside this area, “the sort of unquestioning submission with which a young child 'takes its mother's word for it'”; a
qualified expert may differ, privately; no obedientiary may obey a sinful command; “a matter of practical loyalty etc.”; monastic obedience akin to military discipline. The English [Benedictine] Congregation
“more like a federation of states than a simple state”, and this might, BB hopes, admit both Cistercian “'die-hards'” and the “plastic adaptible [sic] 'moderate' (if sometimes unhappily rather lax)” English [Benedictine] Congregation.
Dorse: draft poem [?by CHB], 'The heaving ocean's green-stained sombre pit / Swells dolefully not for her to sigh in it'.
2p
BBB 1/10 Sunday 5 October [?1930]
BB to CHB
Responds to CHB's paper on [history of] Benedictinism: preference for “mental prayer” to the general term meditation; the purpose of monasticism, and mortification; love of fellow brethren; humility; unnecessary
extra-mural field-work discouraged; non-priority of education of boys not intended for the monastery; suggested class origins of St Benedict's community. Monasticism an end in itself, contingent social benefits merely incidental.
2p
BBB 1/11 Feast of Christ the King, [23 November] 1930
BB to CHB
Proposes two counsellors at Oxford for NG, if he is in earnest: Father Martin Cyril D'Arcy S.J., “possibly the most brilliant of the younger religious intellectual forces in Oxford today”; and his
“great friend” Dr Kenneth Escott Kirk, “a bit of a philosopher ... and a very able and 'sympathetic' man.” Also proposes a Dr James of St Thomas's. Responds to CHB's raising the
question of the competing claims to priority made by other religions: defines religion, and, comparatively, religions essentially as claiming a revelation of the truth; the true (Roman Catholic) religion admits no compromise; recruits Voltaire's
dictum “écrasez l'infâme” [crush the infamous] against the “abominable deception of the human spirit” that is false religion; religious claims to veracity climax with Christianity,
“where it is explicit, logical, insistent and exclusive”, complete and final; prior claims at best “preparatory, or divinatory, 'validities'”; Christian incarnationalism sealed by the
miracle of the resurrection; in the final analysis, Christians absolved from further searching for the true religion by recourse to God-given reason - “it is more reasonable to be a Christian than not”. Such arguments
transcend culture and race; specific historicity of Christian revelation and religion designed to prevail in the differentiating cultural/racial milieu of its creation; Christianity appeals not necessarily to man as he is “in his average outlook” but to “what he has it in him to become”.
3p
Undated [?1930]
BBB 1/12 Sunday [?1930, probably before 31 August]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] On Newman: “he exercised an unusual fascination on Oxford ... His English style, too, is one of the glories of English literature”. Concerning CHB's connection with NG, BB provides a consideration
of its benefits to CHB, with an appreciation of CHB's intellectual system. Citing J.S. Mill, offers a critique of NG's position, both in its unsustainable remedies and its analysis that the existing “great
politico-intellectual ethico-religious and social complex which is full Christianity” requires replacement. Emphasises the adaptability and assimilative power of Christianity as the best of humanity: “[t]he element of
criticism never has the right of ousting the element of positive certainty in human history (at least at this stage, where human history has realized itself in superhuman Revelation & grace), but should be a
purgative element within the positive system.” Positive conviction judged to be a pre-requisite for human happiness, which conviction has never been found outside revealed religion, certainly not in
intellectualism alone. “There is no hope of religious progress except in Christianity, and in Christianity the essential point (thank God) has already been attained; for something (God) has come from superhuman regions into
human history to impart the element of permanence without which not growth, but only flux, is possible.” Convictions rooted in tradition alone “tend toward fanaticism (which is the substitution of practical &
emotional violence for intellectual certainty) or to the dreariest, (anti-rational one might almost say: Plato has a nice word that means ‘haters of reason’) agnosticism or scepticism, not to say apathy and
indifference.” Urges NG “to carry [his] enthusiasm up and out into the love of God.” Recommends
Progress and religion by Christopher Dawson, with summary, and Arnold's Culture and anarchy. Engages CHB to lead NG to a realisation that a programme of secular intellectual progress
alone is incommensurate with human nature and experience, and that “the desire to create good conditions on earth is by itself futile, but is a valuable ideal within the wider desire for the
kingdom of God & His righteousness”. CHB is to purchase [Vladimir] Solovyov [?The justification of the good].
3p
BBB 1/13 16 November [?1930]
BB to CHB
Consoles CHB re his current failure to convert NG, and counsels CHB's duty is only “to do what He shows us here and now to be right”, not to give up hope, and to pray; quotes Thompson's ‘The hound of heaven’. Continues a discussion of the “moral divergence” problem re the conversion of non-European unbelievers, the slow growth of ‘moral
appreciation’ and consequent slow process of conversion. Nevertheless, Christianity has an appeal to Asian and African unbelievers, “attracted by the moral personality of Christ”, and contrasts these with
Europeans, plenty of whom “will say that Christian ethics are unpractical”. Beside such arguments, a more objective intellectual proof - “[t]hat clinching argument” - is found in
miracles, “objective fact[s] irrespective of moral tastes”.
2p
1931
BBB 1/14 3 January 1931
BB to CHB
Wishes CHB luck at Oxford [?entrance examination]. Agrees with CHB's point about the impossibility of real union between “two ordinary human beings”: another human being can not offer complete satisfaction; St
Augustine's restless heart; A.E. Housman's poetry “superbly artistic rather petulant” sourness indicative of a loss of faith or hope in union with absolute good. God the ultimate answer and supreme source of all
reality. Against “faint and hesitating relations”: “abandon yourself utterly to Him ... and then in Him love your fellow creatures with a supernatural charity
which He bestows ... above all in the sense that you are devoted to the cause of their salvation and their deeper union with God”. The way of the cross or Thomas à Kempis' regalis via [regia
via]: “I don't think one could conceive a more magnificent 'philosophy' in the actual condition of our human life on earth than this Christian one that seems to accept, approve, deepen, establish the philosophy of
despair - only to make it an essentially transitory prelude to a song of triumph”. Commends the all-out, lived, willed profession of Christianity, and with that '... all excellence, and all that is praiseworthy' [Philippians 4: 8].
2p
BBB 1/15 Mother's birthday [24 February] [?1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Thanks CHB for his criticisms of an unidentified published review; avows “respect and appreciation” for the scholarship of Anglican theologians. Provides an essentially Thomist philosophical
analysis of evil, alongside recommending a practical programme of reading the Gospels and prayer: denies existence of any thing “substantially evil”; “God did not ‘create’ evil, in the strict philosophical sense ...”; “[e]vil is the absence of a good which ought to be present”; the necessity of defects or failures - allowed but not directly
willed or caused by God in “a manifoldly graded totality of more or less perfect creatures” so that such creatures “would conspire to reflect the inimitable unity of divine perfection”,
and which failures are “the cost of the success of the whole universal work”; beside Julian of Norwich's ‘All shall be well ...’ insists in the “abiding
consequences” of evil; a [Manichaean] dualistic doctrine “morally and religiously abhorrent [and] intellectually absurd”.
2p
BBB 1/16 Thursday 5 March 1931
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Invites CHB's reflections upon BB's previous remarks on evil. Discusses the application of philosophy to the investigation of Christian origins, to precede (and preclude) a scientific investigation of the facts. The latter
approach often partially adopts philosophical positions, e.g. against miracles, and is an unsuitable first method to investigate Christianity. The historical evidence in the Bible for Christian tenets is of a limited quality, but such that matches
that of evidence typically employed to support modern scientifically investigated 'facts', and all of which evidence must tolerate an irreducible uncertainty answered ultimately only by an appeal to common sense. “And an
honest thinker, who believes he thinks miracles impossible, will prefer to look a fool than to assert what to him seems an impossibility.” A Catholic's certainty, nevertheless, is less dependant upon such fallible investigations than upon
“'philosophic' systematization”. Reading
Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, by Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C.
3p
BBB 1/17 Low Sunday [12 April 1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] BB clarifies an earlier statement defining evil as without “substantial existence”, offering instead “‘positive’ existence”. Affirms
God created all substantial matter (inherently good), all that exists, and also affirms the contingency of qualities of matter: however, “[e]vil is not a substance, and is not to be defined as a mere quality, even, without
further qualification. Rather, it is a lack of a quality which ought to be present ... Evil doesn't then ‘exist’, yet evil ‘is’”. Against the accusation of indifference to
suffering: “[i]t is no true kindness to sufferers to surrender <through sentimentalism> the austere purity of the Truth that liberates”. Re the relation of Christianity to modern thought and future civilization,
recommends Christopher Dawson's
Christianity and the new age. Steers CHB from a desire for a more spiritual environment toward a (joint) reading and writing programme: Letters to a niece by Friedrich von Hügel, to whom
BB acknowledges a great debt; the unitary content of the original Gospel-teaching, which interests BB at present; Plato; English literature - “the great Victorians” - namely Arnold's Culture and
anarchy, possibly Ruskin (BB professing his unfamiliarity), Newman, Carlyle, Shorthouse's John Inglesant, William Morris, [Robert] Browning.
2p
BBB 1/18 Ascension day [14 May 1931]
BB to CHB
Congratulates and commiserates CHB on being appointed Captain of the House. Defends a printed sonnet by BB against criticism that it does not conform to the traditional scheme/form. Discussion of Plato, “one of the
unaging good things”, and recommends the
Apology and Crito. Suggests also Lowes-Dickinson's dialogue on The meaning of good. Analysis of “the ‘romantic feeling’”: affirms the incomparable nature of the All-good and the “will-union” realisable through direct intentional love of God and prayer, while nevertheless,
“we come into <full> relation with the All-good precisely by doing our duty by the things that are good”. With some confessional sympathy, reassures CHB that his “two romanticisms are
capable of synthesis”: “[t]o want to love the love-worthy - that is what matters”.
1p
BBB 1/19 Sunday 30 August [1931]
BB to CHB
Looks forward to time at home when BB and CHB might “really get down to things in conversation”. Answers CHB re concern for and personal relevance of the suffering of others. Cites contemporary social deprivation,
godlessness, divorce, the experience of a year working in Brighton, World War I, Russia, the economic and political crisis, the East “passing from the frying pan of pure paganism to the fire of a pagan reaction from
Christianity”: “I tend to believe in the coming 'Downfall of the West' [Spengler]. There is a breath of October in the air of Europe, and the leaves are whirling down our macadammed roads.” Either way, modern
culture is condemned. Counsels CHB that sober objectivity and greater “emotional and practical detachment” is required to answer its appeals. Quotes William Johnson Cory's poem 'Mimnermus in church'. The universal
hunger for worldly love, a gift, when given, from God that ultimately leads to and may be fully satisfied only by God: in this sense, God is not an abnegation of humanity from which to shrink, but a “plenissimum”. The
“care of reality”, or concern for all humanity, is such an invocatory love. [Downside] School is “one real opportunity for [love's] exercise in the potentialities of whatever person or
community comes within its range”. Human suffering best understood as a corporate rather than individual condition, to which only a divinely incorporated humanity might answer - “we need the City of God over against
the City of Babylon, not in mere opposition to it, but to redeem it”. The Catholic Church a rock of truth in a sea of uncertainty: “[t]here is something wrong with a man's conscience if he can't believe in orthodox
doctrine ... the kind of acceptance God wants of him is that of a child learning by heart truths which it can't yet comprehend”. Quotes Father Martin Cyril D'Arcy S.J. BB counsels CHB in perseverance, sympathy for others and an openness to the
opportunities these will engender. Subscription of suggestions for papers for 'Seekers' [?confirmation class].
6p
BBB 1/20 27 September 1931
BB to CHB
Discussion of sexuality, the unique chosen individual and a personal God: personal trials another means of surrendering to and converging with the will, the love of God, in one's life and actions. “Porro unum
necessarium” [only one thing is necessary], (Luke 10:42). “There is a sense in which we are kindly seeking God when we seek our fellow creatures. But when God is 'found by them who sought Him not' [Isaiah 65:1], then
in Him we find all that is worth having in others too.” Recommends reading poetry, in particular Ralph Waldo Emerson ‘Give all to love’, Robert Browning ‘Abt Vogler’ and
‘Life in a love’, Francis Thompson ‘The hound of heaven’. Identifies poetry's truth as springing from a soil of sound philosophy, as “the Church's liturgical
worship blossom[s] on the stem of dogmatic truth”. BB's Spenglerism neither a faith nor a pessimism, a tentative suspicion only. Against CHB's observation of the narrowing influence of BB's [new] faith: BB's attitude less a reaction against
the past, than a consequence of Catholicism's essentially liberating and expanding influence; “[it] has put me into possession of myself intellectually”. Disclaims the gift of prophecy and recommends Mark 13 in one
sitting. The counselled emotional detachment likened to self-psychoanalysis: to choose self-adaptation to the love of God rather than adaption of the world to one's needs. Against apathy and scepticism quotes Walter de la Mare
‘Awake!’. Responds to CHB's report of his classical studies.
2p
BBB 1/21 Postmarked, 29 September 1931
BB to CHB at 19 Downshire Square, Reading, Berkshire
Recommends the
Gorgias as an introduction to the moral principles of Plato and Socrates. Intends writing to Margaret [Butler].
1p
BBB 1/22 19 November 1931
BB to CHB [at Reading School]
Encloses rough notes on general knowledge to aid CHB's preparation for the General paper [Oxbridge entrance examination], including the topic of evolution: “[m]y general impression is that the scientists have done
practically nothing to alter the philosophical problem presented by the phenomenon of living things especially in their great complexity”; questions the placement of man within an evolutionary process. Wishes CHB luck for the impending
exams.
1p
BBB 1/23 22 November 1931
BB to CHB
Recalls BB's Oxbridge entrance examination, without competitors. Passes on his greetings to [William] Costin, Powell, Pullan and [John David] Mabbott.
1p
BBB 1/24 Monday [after 22 November 1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Commiserates CHB on failure to win a [Sir Thomas] White scholarship [to St John's College, Oxford]. Offers advice for preparation for entrance examinations. Encloses notes from [James T.S. Barnes']
Fascism (Home University Library), with comments by BB. “The writer ... is a Roman Catholic, and gives an amusingly idyllic picture of Fascist ideas. ... Fascism seems to me to have a far more
satisfactory case than Communism - it is less restricted to the merely economic outlook and has a more tolerable philosophy; but in practice it is another matter - and even in theory the neo-idealist Fascists are bad; they leave no real place for
revealed religion, and I for one am convinced that no stable society cen [sic] be built on foundations which are not consistent with Catholicism”. Warns CHB against “this appalling
liberalistic, fundamentally agnostic ‘much good in everything but don't commit yourself to anything’ attitude that is the gran rifiuto of the modern intellectual”.
1p
BBB 1/25 23 December 1931
BB to CHB
Commiserates with CHB on failure to win a scholarship, as yet; St Catharine's [?College, Cambridge] an option. Christmas offers a useful perspective on career plans.
1p
BBB 1/26 Christmas Day [25 December] 1931
BB to CHB
Congratulates CHB on winning £40 exhibition (scholarship) to [St John's College,] Cambridge. Advises against destroying draft letters, rather “to try without anxiety to write what is sincere and desirable, and then shoot
the thing into a pillar-box without afterthought”. Requests copies of the Latin and General Knowledge examination papers.
1p
Undated [?1931]
BBB 1/27 Tuesday [?1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Replies to CHB's question on evil: finitude appears to contradict the concept of an Infinite, but both must be sustained, such that freedom seems to deny divine omnipotence; moral evil the worst evil, but incumbent with man's
freedom of action to choose God as the supreme good; evil permitted (but not done) for the elicitation of good, as the Fall is answered by the redemption by Christ. Offers to aid CHB's “reflective considerations” in
any programme of his to strengthen his present grounds for belief, and emphasises that decisions on belief and un-belief require rational grounds.
1p
BBB 1/28 Sunday [?1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Welcomes uninhibited criticism of his [published] writings. Places moral failures against the context of a preponderant good, using the example of individuals' sins contingent upon the Incarnation. Consideration of pain's
relation to evil. Places CHB's statement that God is “supremely personal” against the limitation of the concept of human personality: “God is supremely intelligible but quite ‘inconceivable’”. Cites Dame Julian of Norwich. BB has completed reading the
Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, [by Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C.]: counsels CHB rather than desire to have been his contemporary to accept this present time as “the one moment, in all the ages
past present & to come, for you and your union in Christ with God”.
1p
BBB 1/29 Tuesday [?1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Returns book by [Christopher] Dawson - “[an] interesting thinker”. BB's admiration for Solovyov remains strong; his collection of modern Christian thinkers grows, names also [Peter] Wust and
[Maurice] Blondel. Dante. Recommends CHB read a
Times article on the gold standard, a possible topic in the scholarship examinations. Also recommends the Home University Library volumes, Fascism and Communism.
1p
BBB 1/30 Sunday [?late 1931]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Encloses notes based on Harold Joseph Laski's
Communism, to aid CHB's preparation for a viva or Cambridge University entrance examination: comments negatively on Laski's characterisation of the Christian Church as initially a “‘prophet of equality’” - “the existing powers are ordained by God”. “Our citizenship is in heaven; and therefore we are not essentially revolutionaries on
earth.” Notes also [Christopher] Dawson's four constituent elements of culture.
1p
1932
BBB 1/31 3 January 1932
BB to CHB
Offers thanks for the examination papers, and CHB's remarks. Comparisons of Oxford and Cambridge: “[w]hat I care about is culture and religion, and the former specifically for the sake of the latter”. [Charles
William] Previté-Orton “a very useful person”. Advice for excelling in his studies and friendships. Counsels against dwelling on past regrets and imagined failures. Thoughts on religion and career during the coming
varsity years: prioritise the application of moral conscience and real attentive prayer over academic analysis.
2p
BBB 1/32 17 January 1932
BB to CHB
Comments upon a philosophical article by CHB, [perhaps upon great persons in history]: epistemological criteria; Christ's “absoluteness in the human plane” against man's potential and realised nature; argues
against solipsism. Encourages CHB to develop a habit of study and prayer in his final months at [Reading] school and preparations for Cambridge 'Littlego' [Previous examination], with a regime proposed: “... if you make
every fragment of your life an act of love to Him, your prayer and your activity interlock to form one sacrifice of love and praise”. Recommending perseverance, quotes and critiques part of ‘Life in a love’ by
Robert Browning. God “is yet never 'removed': and not to rest in failure, here, is to succeed”. Proposes joint reading programme of Shakespeare, A.C. Bradley's
Shakespearean tragedy. Critiques CHB's grammar.
2p
BBB 1/33 21 February 1932
BB to CHB
Defends accurate grammar and syntax as encouraging clear thought. Discusses some scientific reading suggested by CHB: the Thomistic outlook of [James Hopwood] Jeans' idealism, quoting Fr Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges; Sir Arthur Stanley
Eddington's
The nature of the physical world. Invites discussion of Macbeth. Comments on Friedrich von Hügel. Admits the spiritual utility of philosophy, poetry and the love of our fellow-men, as
“we cannot live without relaxation on the heights of an actual pre-occupation with God”, but at the same time “we should be foolish to try to satisfy ourselves finally with anything short of
[God]”. Describes a detailed, daily process and practice of “mental prayer”, summarised as “[q]uite simple, you see: humility, faith, hope, love”. “Prayer is your love-offering to your heavenly Father - to the divine lover of your soul. He is unspeakably pleased by our efforts, poor though they seem in our eyes.”
2p
BBB 1/34 6 March 1932
BB to CHB
Birthday greetings, and wishes luck for Littlego. Suggests
Othello, and again A. C. Bradley. Critique of Shakespeare's work “lacking the deepest life”, but shows that “if a man's will is out of joint with the right the
whole universe is out of joint with him. And that is profoundly true”. Deprecates an incident connected with the Long Run at Reading School. BB prevented from writing to Reading School Magazine about ghosts, a topic about which he feels
“very strongly”. “The [Reading] school's welfare interests me deeply.” Encloses “a sort of motto for mental-prayer”, or mantra [not present].
1p
BBB 1/35 18 April [1932]
BB to CHB
Discussion of
Othello, and responding to CHB's critique of selfishness: “[i]t is desirable to be unselfish; to know that one is, is less
important. ... I should reject without hesitation the idea that men always love selfishly”. Review of James Hopwood Jeans' The mysterious universe: BB queries if neither “Mind” -
“a stage nearer God than ‘Matter’” - nor, by extension, an infinite God are comprised within Jeans' finite universe. Short discussion of evil, defined as “shallow and local and short-sighted”. Requests longer loan of Jeans' book, finding its meaning still obscure. Discussion of time: BB's confidence “that every body has its own time and
time-direction ... [and] if there are undulations or any sort of movements, there must be some thing or things, whether ‘material’ in the old-fashioned sense or not, to be the subject to which these motions are
attributed. The motion of nothing seems to me to be no motion.” Presents a Thomist view of Jeans' “‘pre-established harmony’ between mathematics and the external world”. Suggests
CHB read BB's (now dated) critique of mechanistic materialism. Restates the eternal aspect of God, the divine “‘Now’” contrasted with the human sense of the term. BB currently inspired
by the religious writings of an unidentified Frenchwoman (d. circa 1918). CHB to spend a week at Bournemouth. Postscript: CHB advised against a course of Pelmanism. BB bows to CHB's reluctance to read [A.C.] Bradley
[Shakespearean Tragedy].
1p
BBB 1/36 Thursday [after 7 May 1932]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Thanks CHB for his [birthday] presents. Deters CHB from inferring from “the ‘mental’ quality of the physical universe” its identity with God; with discourse on the
limitless infinitude of God. Encourages CHB to continue reading [A. C.] Bradley; BB busy, but will try to keep pace. Responds re intellect damping emotion: what passion is not wasted on superficial goals is channelled towards the worthwhile.
“Amor intellectualis Dei is only less flashy than lesser loves because it has fused the colours of their rainbow into the piercing whiteness of a pure flame.” BB denies he is bored by [James Hopwood] Jeans, pleading
lack of time.
1p
BBB 1/37 Tuesday [1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Discussion and definition of functional aspects of being. Comment on BB's respect for scholasticism (Thomism) against Oxford university's former aversion to it, and predicting a synthesis of Kantian philosophy within Thomism:
“[it] seems ultimately to be the best claimant to the position of backbone of human philosophy”. BB addresses CHB's points on moral evil and the existence of God, using explicitly
Thomist arguments. Refines CHB's use of the term selfishness. BB comments on locations of Ripon Hall and Pusey House, relative to Oxford, and cautions CHB on the attractions of intellectual life: “one must distinguish
between an atmosphere of healthy enquiry and an atmosphere which encourages what is technically‘doubt’”. In the context of CHB's decision for the next year,
“keep a grip on the main thing, that religion and all our life are for the triumph of the reign of God in our souls and those of others - for the indwelling of
the Holy Trinity so that we live a ‘divine life’. ‘I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me’ [Galatians 2:20]. Nothing else matters; nothing”.
Requests CHB read BB's unpublished and unfinished “‘book’”. Postscript request for an estimate of per annum term-time living costs at Cambridge, for a Downside school pupil.
2p
BBB 1/38 17 May [?1932]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Wishes CHB luck for his trip. Accepts CHB's functional description of matter, tracing antecedents in Aristotle, St Thomas and perhaps Plato. Addresses pantheism and CHB's critique, citing the existence and activity of that which
is not God, giving as an example morally evil activity. Recommends Thomas Aquinas'
Summa theologica, part I, translated into French and edited by Fr Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges. Refines, following Thomist criteria, his definition of the functional aspect of being: “essence
is expressed or perhaps represented in function - or perhaps that function corresponds to essence”. Distinguishes such “function[ing] for one's specific purpose” from selfishness: “his [fallen man's] function w'd be realised just in the preference of
God to self. The fact that love gratifies desire may enable us to love, but need it therefore be the predominant motive of our love?” CHB has met Fr Mark [?Pontifex] and Br Julian. Postcript: advises CHB against
Ripon Hall, deprecating its “abominable” liberalism.
2p
BBB 1/39 25 June 1932
BB to CHB
Wishes luck for H. C. Responds to CHB's anxiety regarding BB's approaching solemn profession, and future life in the monastery: “I should like you to think of my solemn profession as you would of a proposed marriage
between one of the family and someone else”. A holiday at home is likely this year. Against 'God' as an abstract noun, posits God as “the most positive of all realities”; an unlimitable finitude. Comment upon
CHB's realistic appreciation of the merits of Reading School leads to a gloss on 'Oderit vitia, diligat fratres' (“Let him hate the vices, but love the persons
of the brethren”), from the
Rule of St Benedict. Anticipates CHB finding “heart-piercing beauty; and friendship; and truth” at university, but, “less ... according to your demands, than in
God's way, and at His time”. Warns of the superficialities of the pleasantries of life, and that below this “[life] is - nearly always perhaps <for us men> - bitter”; but, directs CHB to the core of
reality, where the individual may access, through faith, “an anticipatory joy possible here in the certainty that the source of that final joy is already attainable by faith”.
2p
BBB 1/40 Thursday, 4 August 1932
BB to CHB at 19 Downshire Square
CHB and family take a holiday in Cornwall. Invites CHB's private impression of Dr William Temple [Archbishop of York], whom BB met once, a friend of his former tutor [at St John's College, Oxford] [John Leofric] Stocks.
1p
BBB 1/41 Tuesday [?September] [1932]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Leaves to CHB the decision whether to donate two books to Reading School library. Informs CHB Martin [Hancock] is to loan him, via Felix [Butler], a book by Fr Leslie Walker on science and religion [?
Science and revelation], much of which BB enjoyed. BB's “‘book’” awaiting the abbot's approval. Comment on a [hand-]coloured photograph of a Florence
scene. Regards to G. H. K. CHB's imminent move to Cambridge. BB wishes to discuss his scripture lectures: “I think of pointing the contrast between abstract reason and its objects on the one hand, and the concrete
‘historical’ bent of Jewish-Christian religion”.
1p
BBB 1/42 3 October [1932]
BB to CHB
BB's part in arrangements for establishing and endowing a scholarship prize at Reading School in his name. Recent visit of [Hugh Wharton] Gatty of St John's College, Cambridge, to Downside. Offers advice to CHB for his first term at Cambridge.
Requests loan of Berdyaev.
1p
BBB 1/43 Sunday [?October 1932]
BB to CHB [at St John's College, Cambridge]
[Date uncertain.] Acknowledges receipt of book [?Berdyaev]. CHB has been given Felix [Butler]'s old rooms [at St John's College, Cambridge]. BB leaves preliminary arrangements of the Reading School scholarship prize to CHB and Felix. Offers his
thanks for CHB's congratulations [?on BB's solemn profession]: on the “monastic ideal”, “once it is conceded that there is one object supremely worthy of attainment, it seems reasonable, for
others' sake and for one's own, to concentrate on the attaining of it”. Criticism of Marxism's elevation of the “necessary but unimportant economic aspect of life” over “culture and
religion and the human values generally”; refers to Berdyaev's contentions approvingly, and recommends his
Un nouveau moyen âge. BB qualifies how far within his “scheme” he wishes to argue the historicity of the New Testament. Provides summary list of objections to various Christian and Roman
Catholic beliefs and doctrines, and citing W. H. Turton's The truth of Christianity as an apologetic text used in Downside School. Recommends Friedrich von Hügel's Essays and addresses on the
philosophy of religion, but warning it may be too demanding: “he was a man who knew the intellectual side of things well, and knew the claims of the intellect and intellectual sincerity, and yet was a convinced
believer”. Also recommends, though with more reservations, Essays Catholic and critical (S.P.C.K.). Argues, firstly a doubting Christian's duty to remain faithful to its teachings up until the moment of
renunciation of that faith; and secondly, against the necessities of actions and choices in life, and the various other transient theories of reality that these have involved, Christianity is “the only one that can
ultimately hold its ground in face of reason and its rivals .... where revelationism reaches what would seem to be its deepest form for men, since here revelation is expressed in a human life, and the inner Being of the revealing is identical with
the Being of the Revealed”. Cites also miracles and “the moral miracle of the actual history of true Christianity” as proofs.
2p
BBB 1/44 Tuesday [?October 1932]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Comments upon Friedrich von Hügel's writing and BB's first acquaintance with it aged 22, then finding it “stiff”. BB's respect for CHB's intellectual honesty and acuteness, against CHB's perceived
lack of confidence: cites Bosquanet's requirement for sincerity in philosophy. Defines a “healthy and right” scepticism: argues no individual intellect, however powerful, is sufficient to discover truth without divine
aid; considers agnosticism. Responds to CHB's friend's creed and its simplicity, querying its authorities. Characterises Christianity in history as “a central stream, or rather an organic society, whose creed has been
dogmatic and ‘exclusive’ - anything but ‘broad-church’”; cites anathemas and prohibitions in Galatians 1 and Romans 14, and argues New Testament revelation is announced through
authorities rather than via private judgement. John Henry Newman's fourth Oxford University sermon recommended: “he is one of ‘my men’ and he thought this book - I believe - contained some of
his best stuff”. Comforts CHB “that it was through an arctic winter of obscurity that I was carried by God to the faith of the Church, there finding that certainty that is above human opinion and that can therefore
rescue us from the abyss of black uncertainty into which, when we rely merely on self, there is always the fear of falling”.
3p
BBB 1/45 13 November 1932
BB to CHB
Coaches CHB to persevere with his mental prayer, despite its “apparent futility”, admitting to having experienced similar difficulties and uncertainties: “He does not demand
impossibilities”. Identifies in the intellectual honesty that compels CHB to explore metaphysics the manifestation of a “‘law’ so acutely proportioned to the human personality that it
is latent in every human situation ... infinite in its potentialities, absolute in its demands”; and which imperative “will surely take one up to the confines of Theism, if not into its actual territory”.
Persistent uncertainty upon profound points should encourage the appreciation of the Revelation as a divine means of rescue from such a predicament; but, neither should CHB abdicate his responsibility to look for the solution: rather than
intelligence, this requires “moral integrity + sincerity + (real) humility ... + a deep desire for truth + prayer”. CHB's reading of history: “in the history
of western Europe you can watch the tragi-comedy of ‘le fait chrétien’ in one of its external aspects”. Quotes St Teresa of Ávila's ‘Truth Itself, in Itself’.
2p
1933
BBB 1/46 Tuesday, 3 January 1933
BB to CHB
Relating to a paper proposed by CHB, recommends Christopher Dawson's
Progress and religion and The modern dilemma: the problem of European unity (broadcast recently); the first series of Von Hügel's Essays and addresses on the
philosophy of religion; and Nietszche.
1p
BBB 1/47 24 January 1933
BB to CHB
In commiserating with CHB, recalls that at Keble College illness once prevented his watching a varsity rugby match. BB playing fives. Reading Henri Bergson's
Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion, “some good stuff in it, though on one matter he is w= [?too Jewish].” Relates anecdote on the eccentricity of [Charles] Waterton, from
the Times Literary Supplement.
1p
BBB 1/48 31 January 1933
BB to CHB
Encourages CHB to persevere with his uncongenial studies, hoping he does “by degrees discover where [his] real interests lie”. Admits to particular difficulties in addressing CHB's intention to become an Anglican
clergyman, in light of the obligation “the true religion” places on BB to be a Roman Catholic, an obligation considered binding on all but the ‘inculpably ignorant’, such as, by his
youth, CHB doubtless is: BB's arguments in the past have been open rather than leading in consideration. Addresses CHB's disappointment and disorientation, counselling “a fundamental change of will”, by which the
individual may then begin “to comply with every grave demand that is made to [him] through [his] conscience”, and so begin to quiet the fear of loss of, and satisfy the desire for God that is, he suggests, the cause
of his discontent. Against CHB's observation of man's natural credulity, suggests what they both must “guard against is our temperamental or acquired incredulity”. Discusses “‘oughtness’”, contrasting the real obligation of a categorical moral imperative with duty, and accepting ultimately the principal “conscientia (the
judgement, not the feeling) semper sequenda est [conscience is the only thing that matters]”. Describes the voice of conscience experienced more as a momentary stream of absolute precepts than a written law, always
adapting to the subject's circumstances, whilst always admitting the individual's free will: a supreme value, even over that of humanity itself, but which, nevertheless, perfects the human personality. Accepting the personal nature of this
“Absolute Reality”, “one is halfway to Christian Theism”. Beside this “philosophic
journey” to God through conscience, recommends the better, more basic, route through an appreciation of the multiplicity and plenitude of Creation. Recommends A. E. Taylor's ‘The vindication of religion’ in
Essays Catholic and critical, § II ‘From man to God’; The unrealists by Harvey Wickham; and Orthodoxy and
Heretics by G. K. Chesterton. Urges CHB not to allow his current intellectual difficulties to impede his participation in “the Christian heritage with its richness of mysticism and its bracing
‘via crucis’”. Encloses part of an article by BB on ‘The teaching and claim of Jesus’, written for the Downside Review
[Issue 51 (April 1933): 251-65]: “it is more mature than the lectures began by being”. Asks for CHB's prayers.
5p
BBB 1/49 [Feast of] St Thomas Aquinas, [7 March] 1933
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes: CHB to meet their parents in London. Recommends
Heralds of revolt by William Barry, and that CHB view the Codex Bezae at Cambridge. BB is to review Professor [Albert C.] Clark's analysis of the codex's version of the Acts, [published
in his The Acts of the Apostles]. Asks if CHB still reads Robert Browning, recommending particularly the final section of ‘Bishop Blougram's apology’. Relays news of BB's ordination as a
deacon on Sunday next [19 March 1933].
1p
BBB 1/50 19 March 1933
BB to CHB
Denies possessing a “particular brand of Catholicism”, quoting remark on the faith of a ‘paysanne bretonne’ attributed to Louis Pasteur, and stating “[t]he
approach to the true religion may differ greatly from man to man, but the religion itself, once arrived at, is the same for all”. Defends the Church against charge of expediency: discusses lies and mental
reservations, moral evils and physical evils. “[A]ll is not flux ... ‘the end justifies the means’ ... is not a Catholic idea”. Moral feelings
participate in forming a moral judgements, but such feelings must sometimes be overridden, citing example of Anglo-Catholic converts' common feelings of guilt at the first confession. Tolerating an irreducible core of mystery, Catholic thinkers
nevertheless “cannot abide inconsistency or self-contradiction; and we like to locate obscurity at its right spot on the map”. A remark of Fr K [?Fr Ronald Knox] addressing this subject
is indicative of “one who stands outside the developing and accumulating tradition of Catholic Christian thought”.
1p
BBB 1/51 2 April 1933
BB to CHB
Answers CHB on the physical properties of matter, and proposed types of causality, and rejoins “a man's fully deliberate acts of choice are not <fully> necessitated by any created thing, not even his own nature:
they are, indeed, ‘caused’ by God”. Discusses terms catholic, Roman Catholic and papist. To CHB's proposal that BB's argument for the probability of divine Revelation be added to the arguments of Fr [Ronald]
Knox [?for the existence of God], BB retracts the concept of such an intrinsic antecedent probability, proposing such a possibility instead. Tentatively finds in man's ‘divine discontent’ across history a preparation
for the reception of the Revelation; “[a]t least one can be sure that there is nothing in human nature that makes it impossible for God to reveal Himself to man”, as a rational
creature. BB's belief in the demonstrability of the existence of God, as a philosophic truth; but that the Trinity and the Incarnation do not admit such natural demonstration, but rather demand faith: “I believe them
because the general credentials of Christianity impose themselves on my conscience, and Christianity says these mysteries are true”. Thanks CHB for his good wishes [on BB's ordination], and reaffirms his vocation.
2p
BBB 1/52 Easter Day, [?16 April 1933]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Enquires of P. H. N. Look, author of an “imaginative” article in the [Reading] School magazine; and suspects CHB of the authorship of “the Cambridge letter”.
Recommends [J. Arthur] Thompson and [Patrick] Geddes' book on evolution [?
The evolution of sex], and, by repute, an unidentified S.P.C.K. title by Richards on the same topic. Wishes CHB luck with the new term at Cambridge, and the Preliminary examination.
1p
BBB 1/53 Sunday [?May 1933]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Wishes CHB luck in the Mays [inter-collegiate competitions]. Nightingales at Purley. BB dissatisfied with his progress with a pamphlet on the early Church and his lectures on St John's Gospel. Requests CHB's prayers for BB's
ordination.
1p
BBB 1/54 7 May 1933
BB to CHB
Received CHB birthday telegram, and one from Shanklin. Archbishop Goodier's retreat concluded; BB not attending, in view of his impending retreat prior to his ordination [as a priest]; Goodier has returned to Bristol. Goodier's opinion that the
contemplative orders are best suited for the conversion of India. Visit by BB's parents to the monastery. BB's intention to lecture on the Gospel of St John this term: “I fear it is not going to be easy”.
1p
BBB 1/55 9 May 1933
BB to CHB
Offers thanks for CHB's birthday present; critiques CHB's letter and [perhaps sardonically] CHB's averred “‘difficulty’” in writing to BB.
1p
BBB 1/56 18 June 1933
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for his congratulations [?upon BB's ordination as a priest on 10 June 1933]. Looks forward at their meeting to discussing Cambridge: the Master of Benet House [Cambridge; Dom. Mark Pontifex] regales BB with account of Cambridge summer
terms.
1p
BBB 1/57 21 December 1933
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for his present; when he has time, asks for a letter. Excuses his brevity, quoting “‘cor ad cor loquitor ...’” [John Henry Newman / Francis De Sales]; and a pious wish (in
French) that they might meet at Bethlehem.
1p
1934
BBB 1/58 5 January [1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Presents arguments concerning CHB's choice of vocation - “‘bourgeois’” commerce or the Church, and suggesting a middle course. Advises against allowing
“sentimental arguments” undue weight. “If Western civilisation is in the melting-pot (communism, Fascism, Hitlerism, Rooseveltism, Catholic Social Movement ..., disarmament and international
armament-manufacturers, reformed League of Nations ... oh, the fascination, the dangers, the potentialities of the time we live in), is there no way, for one who is not going to become a priest or a parson, of serving humanity more directly than by
Chatham St., a family, and a little ‘philanthropy’ in his leisure moments? Don't you feel the needs of men, like a pain inside you, like a fire in your bones, like the pain-contracted features of an infant who can't
express its want?” Corrects CHB's interpretation of what is required of him, substituting a “peaceful and blissful surrender” for CHB's “‘absolute and
agonizing’” one. BB acknowledges CHB might best serve God as a married man or a business man. Diagnoses a lack of confidence. Counsels prayer “of the heart & the will”. “Be
sure that if you are persevering & regular in your mental prayer and live up to the light you get in it, you will reach the goal you were made for.”
2p
BBB 1/59 Friday [?12 January 1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Sends good wishes on St Hilary's feast; and for the new term. CHB's visit to the opera.
1p
BBB 1/60 Saturday [17 February 1934]
BB to CHB
Has written to Felix [Butler] and J. W. S., passing on, to the latter, BB's criticism of the bias towards scientific subjects [?in an examination paper].
1p
BBB 1/61 Sunday [?February/early March] [1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Declines CHB's invitation to his [21st] birthday party on 8th [March], noting an increased work-load since the foundation of Worth [Priory], [in September 1933].
1p
BBB 1/62 5 April [
recte March] 1934
BB to CHB
Twenty-first birthday wishes; BB unable to attend his party. BB bed-bound with a cold, and “enjoying the rest”, and proof-reading a Catholic Truth Society pamphlet. Intends to say mass for CHB. Draws distinction
between the non-moral goodness of things and the “
moral goodness which belongs primarily ... to an act of will which is in harmony with the will of God so far as apprehended <as> such
by the agent”. Defends BB's use of the word ‘surrender’. “The mental attitude of surrender seems to me incumbent on is at all times: the actual material surrender of
this or
that should wait on His Will.” Quoting Shakespeare's Sonnet 57 (‘Being your slave, what should I do but tend’), and St Augustine's
‘Fecisti nos ad te, Domine ... [You have made us for yourself, Lord ...]’ [Book I.1], counsels against feverish impatience, emphasising the ultimate Peace in God. “The strong irresistible
Life, that is the ocean on which all things float, is too deep for anything to disturb its repose.” Concludes, “I could wish you nothing better in this life than that your will and His should be one in motive act and
end - that you may live, no longer you, but Christ in you.”
2p
BBB 1/63 19 March [1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Commiserates CHB on his recent illness and admittance to a nursing home. BB has written to Felix [Butler], and awaits a result with interest. Names CHB's visitor as Br Julian Stonor, also studying at Cambridge:
“a good person”. Reminds CHB of his feast day on 20th March.
1p
BBB 1/64 Holy Saturday [31 March 1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] BB numerates non-moral goods; opines actions may not be non-moral; defines a morally good action as that which “tends to realise the end for which we were born”; acknowledges some morally good
actions are not concerned with the good of others - “indeed, the highest simple act of which we are capable here is I suppose one in which, so far as in us lies, we forget all creatures in an act of complete self-donation
to our heavenly Father”. Qualifies CHB's thesis that self-expression is the goal of life: the possession of the goal extinguishes desire and identifies the self in the goal, such that self-expression terminates in deification. Remarks against
the accidental character of man's path to truth, likening it to the course of a mountain spring and gravitation. Provides three questions to CHB for response, explicitly designed to lead to an affirmation of the doctrines of the Incarnation and the
Trinity and to elucidate CHB's “basic religious ‘problem’”. BB finds CHB's list of “insurmountable difficulties” in Catholicism
“faintly amusing”, querying his dogmatic skepticism and inferring unobjective prejudice. Emphasises that CHB “ought to accept some one of the possible answers to the religious
question”, which acceptance will meet CHB's requirement for a “‘practical’ certainty ... which will justify a certain act and habit of will”; and
the necessity that the truth of Christianity be evident to those of normal intellect. Via John Henry Newman's historical facticity of Christianity, urges CHB to seek to “discern the central, typical and historically normal
Christian ‘phenomenon’”.
2p
BBB 1/65 Friday [?6] [April 1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] BB addresses various points in CHB's letter. Agrees with CHB that “our goal will entail the perfection of self-consciousness” but also that “‘absorption in the beloved’” aids this process - “love stings a man into a deeper awareness of the world and himself”. Refers to [Francis Thompson's] ‘The
hound of heaven’. BB clarifies his religious profession: “[w]hat I wanted was: the true religion; not a matter of this or that doctrine but, where, if at all, was one to find that way of life which was God's will for
man?” BB refers back to his three questions [
BBB 1/64], arguing CHB defer his consideration of the divinity of Christ until after he accepts Jesus as God's envoy to mankind. BB contradicts CHB's statement that
no normal type of Christianity can be discerned. BB's health almost restored. BB has directed Felix [Butler] to an article on Evil by Father [Martin Cyril] D'Arcy, published by the Catholic Truth Society. Proffers four further points of discussion:
the demonstrability of God by “careful thinkers”; God as
ens a se [a being in itself]; the inference and origin of absolute moral obligations; the reasonableness of
“the concept of [the] absolute & infinite Desirable”. BB to spend a week at Worth Priory, until Monday 16 April.
2p
BBB 1/66 8 April 1934
BB to CHB
Account of BB's early struggles with faith, developing Christian beliefs, conversion to Roman Catholicism and subsequent spiritual growth. Quoted below in full.
8 - 4 - 34.
My dear Cuthbert,
It would not be easy to give the whole history of my conversion, and of course my mind did not stop working when I became a Catholic, so that I might stress individual arguments in different proportions now
from then.
‘Intellectual difficulties’ about Christian doctrine had been with me I suppose from the age of 13 or thereabouts. As for ‘Rome’ I read Gore's ‘Claims’ [
Roman Catholic Claims] when about 16 (?) and was so well satisfied that I did not then look back at Dom John Chapman's reply to it. At Oxford, in my last years before Keble! my
problem was still rather whether Christianity was true or not than whether The Anglo-Catholic position was tenable against Rome - though I had consciously felt it improbable that
all that I had accepted by
‘tradition’ should turn out true; and though also I had felt <then or later> that the line of argument from ‘corporate religious experience ’ which had appealed to me as
justifying ‘Catholic ’ Christianity might be pressed to justify ‘Roman ’ Catholicism.
I became an Anglican deacon in 1926, being at the time, as regards Biblical criticism,
extremely ‘liberal’; and not consciously accepting any ‘Infallibility’ whether of Pope, episcopacy or Church or, I fear - God forgive me - of our Lord's human intellect. One of my
difficulties in connection with ordination was that the C. of E. expected me to accept the Creeds including <presumably (?)> our Lord's Virgin Birth and Resurrection yet without backing them by any claim to infallibility in her teaching - or
as it seemed to me: she held that the Churches of Rome, Alexandria and Constantinople had erred - then why not also Canterbury? On the other hand, I did not believe in my personal infallibility, hence my difficulty in tying myself to detailed
credial assertions - my intellect was rather attracted by A. E. J. Robinson's theory that the general trend of the Church's mind was ‘indefectible’ (by which he meant that if a false step were taken on one side here,
it would be redressed by another later there, and
on the whole truth's area was increasing or at least
could not eventually disappear) rather than that any particular formula was to be
accepted because ‘infallible’.
But I had already met Fr Vernon, and had been profoundly impressed by him as a spiritual force, as one devoted to God and on fire with God. I remember putting to him a difficulty I
had about the personality of the Holy Spirit, and pointing out that on my principle of ‘indefectibility’ the Church might have gone wrong here - I think I felt a little as though the suggestion were absurd, and I
remember he took the line that if we could trust her anywhere we might on such a point. You see the complications, the unsolved difficulties of
principle, under which I laboured at that time? <Long> before any
ordination, I am pretty sure, I knew that Vernon was in ‘Roman difficulties’, and I was probably aware that ‘unity’‘authority’ and the evidence of
supernaturalised lives (i.e. Ste Thérèse of Lisieux) were ‘tempting’ him to go towards Rome. Moreover, just before becoming a clergyman I had my weeks in Germany with Martin [Hancock], and was there faced by a
Catholicism that held the
population as I had never been conscious of religion doing elsewhere where I had been. This helped to bring the Church before my mind as an actual reality.
At the time of my ordination,
then, I was divided between my purely intellectual liberalism and non-acceptance of infallibility <on one side>, and, <on the other>, deep spiritual ‘instincts’ pointing me to Rome along with of course the
superficial attraction of swimming with the stream of ‘advanced’ Anglo-Catholicism. I held that, in
practice, Roman methods etc. were preferable, so far as loyalty & sincerity
allowed of them. I was impressed by the ‘Sarum’ usages of Fr. Hancock's church at Muswell Hill, but I held that the Anglo-Catholic movement's most significant element had rejected Sarum for Roman usage, and that it
was [a] waste of time to question that decision. This sounds trivial, but man is not
in concreto a merely rational animal, and I would have you see me at that time as an ‘extremist’
with a liberal mentality that was as yet <more or less perhaps> conscious of unsolved problems and issues deeper than those of Biblical criticism. About now I had made friends with the ‘modernist’ J. S. Beggart
of Ripon Hall and if I helped to bring him temporarily in the Anglo-Catholic direction, he made it perhaps harder for me to acquiesce in Anglo-Catholic ‘revolt’ against the bishops.
When I had been a clergyman for
a few months, a St John's man I knew fairly well, and respected without liking, a
very extreme A.-C., became a Catholic; and about the same time I found that Martin [Hancock] was having Roman difficulties. It was
about now that I really began to face up to the thing. A little later, Vernon put before me a possibility of my joining him in a certain project, and I told him that my consent must anyhow depend on my Roman trouble being settled. As the year wore
on, I decided not to be ordained priest in my then frame of mind, and I felt that the danger of my becoming a R.C. was so real that I had better resign from Keble. Then came my first visit to Downside and a decided tilt Romeward, but I was hung up
for a long time by historical difficulties, and difficulties about the truth or/and inspiration of the Bible, besides the root spectre of sheer disbelief in Christianity and even in God which I found still required to be laid. In the following March
(?) I stated the case, in effect, thus: personally religion is a valid factor of human experience; but religion has always, except per accidens, been the religion of a society; and no religious society can rival the claims of the R.C. Church (you
note, that the phantom of a ‘society’ that included ‘Rome’, ‘the East’ & C. of E. had by now faded from my mind). On the strength of this I got my
‘reception’ fixed up, but hesitation centring in the Church's teaching about the Bible led me to put it off, and it was not till some time later that, convinced as I was that the thing required decision one way or the
other, I was received in mental suffering and spiritual blankness. On the whole, I did not get much ‘satisfaction’ out of my Catholicism till after I had come here as a postulant - but will, not feelings, is what
counts before God.
That is a very inadequate account, but it may serve to set the ball rolling; I have sporadic notes (not unfortunately dated for the most part) which record ideas in my mind <at times> in the 2 or 3 years before my
reception or the months or more succeeding it. So fire away with your questions. My hope of course is that you will see the im-probability of the C. of E. position and that God will lead you on as He led me. As I look back I <ought to be> so
profoundly thankful to the Wisdom and Providence that guided me by the paths I knew not and ‘accidents’ outside my control, in spite of my own perhaps excessive caution, to ‘This Way’
as <in>
Acts Christianity is described. May He lead you to the same Way and to that union with Him which is a reason for its existence.
Love. Basil.Superscribed: with pencilled direction to return the letter, with CHB's address.
3p
BBB 1/67 24 April 1934
BB to CHB
Parents' visit. Dr Holden's encouraging report on CHB's health. CHB and Mary's [Mary A. Butler] intended visit to Oberammergau in the summer. BB writing a short notice on the third volume of an English translation [by Douglas Carter] of Léonce de
Grandmaison's
Jésus Christ. Sa personne, son message, ses preuves. [Jesus Christ. His person, his message, his credentials.], “of which I think a great deal”; and
reading notes by Martin [?Hancock] on Waldemar Gurian's Bolshevism: theory and practice. Presence in Stratton-on-the-Fosse of a proposed convert to Roman Catholicism, taking up some of BB's time. BB has spent a week at
Worth Priory: a positive appreciation of its situation, the community and the prior.
1p
BBB 1/68 Monday [28 May 1934]
BB to CHB
Wishes CHB luck. Regrets he can not visit Cambridge: his only visit, to see Felix [Butler] there, dating from when BB was at Oxford.
1p
BBB 1/69 Monday [?18 June 1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Commiserates CHB on the result of his Tripos [Historical Tripos, Part I: class 2, division 2], suggesting CHB's ill-health and lack of motivation were factors. Reports Br Julian's Tripos result. Invites CHB to Downside. CHB's
health good.
1p
BBB 1/70 Monday [3 September 1934]
BB to CHB at 19 Downshire Square
Proposes CHB stay [at Downside Abbey] from Monday 10 to Thursday 13 September. Dom. Julian not present.Subscription in CHB's handwriting: itinerary and directions to Downside.
1p
BBB 1/71 30 September 1934
BB to CHB [at Cambridge]
Apologises for over-emphasising Thomistic arguments in their discussions: “remember, as I ought to do, that our Lord and His Church are religious teachers, not university Professors”. Advocates an argument for the
historicity and divinity of Jesus Christ, and also the Catholic Church's role as a “divinely guaranteed teacher”, leading from the Gospels to the fulfilment of prophecy and to “the fact of
miracles”, including “the ‘moral miracle’ of the Church and her achievements, specially the Saints”. Quotes a paragraph from BB's own lay-master teaching notes, emphasising
“[n]ow the body is essential, but it is not the important part ... the overwhelmingly more important part is the moral and religious teaching, influence and new inspiration tha(t) has spread through the world”: yet
from this un-prioritised but essential incarnational element derives the authority of the visible Church, and sacraments, a “marvellous marriage of the soaring spirit and the concrete ‘matter-of-fact’”. “Christianity lives in and by this great society and members organism.” Recommends again Von Hügel's
Essays and addresses on the philosophy of religion. Identifies in CHB's reluctance to concede the Church's duality his resistance to [then unsubstantiated] historical elements in the Gospels and Catholic doctrine, and
notes that the Christian's progress in knowledge generally concerns the deeper apprehension of a few propositions “recited perhaps almost mechanically from childhood”, rather than in the accumulation of fresh ones.
Attributes the [inferred] strengthening of CHB's convictions when in discourse with BB not to a temporarily disarmed critical faculty but to a sympathy of mind and stronger intuition of truth when allied with BB's “more
vigorous security on ‘intuitions’”: in such a surer intuitive state BB questions if CHB is not himself more authentic. Rejoices in CHB's avowed rationalism, reassuring him that “[t]o
want Him is so great a step on the way to finding Him: to will His will <fully> even when we don't know <fully> what it is, this is already to be doing His will, to possess Him”; and while stating that this will be fully realised
once within the Roman Catholic Church, suggests such a realisation might also precede this “if [one has] this full will”.Endorsement in CHB's handwriting: “You can't say that X is a complete revelation of God until you have apprehended that revelation fully. But having got that full apprehension you have got as far as X. But if you have
got as far as X you have denied the uniqueness of X.”
4p
BBB 1/72 28 October [?1934]
BB to CHB
BB busy learning and teaching VI form classics. Asks after CHB's Anti-Christian Thought [event]. Christopher Dawson's
Progress and religion admired by CHB. Advises CHB to postpone any decision as to a career in the [family] wine-merchant trade at Chatham Street, [Reading], until his final term at Cambridge; deters him, privately, from
sentimental family arguments in this direction - “family traditions were made for man, and not vice versa” - and suggests his education at Cambridge will make him unsuited for such work; Considering the all-pervading
role of Providence with CHB's luxury and responsibility to make such a choice, urges “I would not have anything else much besides the ‘eternal’ considerations weigh with you in deciding your
future”. “I admit that I think more of how, if you choose the best way, God's glory will be increased by a fuller outpouring of His love on one of his creatures, than of the blessedness that this means for you. But
you would wish me to put things in this order.” Warns of risk of engrossment in empty “‘worldliness’”, and, while acknowledging “sanctity is possible in
any legitimate walk of life”, maintains “everyone who grows up mentally as well as physically, and who lives the normal span, has a vocation to sanctity”.
3p
BBB 1/73 26 November 1934
BB to CHB
Provisionally accepts invitation via CHB from the President of the Theology Society to deliver a talk, but hints an impending appointment may prevent his acceptance. Interprets CHB's difficulty with papal infallibility as a superficial one with
infallibility per se, and cites authorities of Friedrich von Hügel, John Henry Newman and [on mere report] Arnold Lunn: the latter's trust justified, in distinction to CHB's distrust, “because
it coincides with a vast and morally miraculous consensus”. Emphasising the importance of infallibilism from the earliest time in the Church's history, earnestly urges CHB to abandon a sophistic and childish argument “for the light and fuller grace of Catholicism”. Postpones a defence of Thomism; warns against placing too much reliance upon [?Frederick Robert] Tennant: “I refuse a Christianity that can be
individualist as opposed to corporate”. Extols, finally, Jesus' death on the cross: “all will be well if you will plunge deeper into [this] mystery”.
1p
BBB 1/74 21 December 1934
BB to CHB
Christmas wishes, and offers thanks for gift. Again defends papal infallibility; calculating machine analogy. Reduces the rhetorical question, Can and do sufficient grounds exist to support this doctrine, even in the face of rational
contradiction or logical uncertainty? to one essentially concerning the authority of the Catholic Church; and pleas with CHB that he accept this is where the crux of his difficulty lies, [deterring him from engagement in inessential logical
disputes]. Deprecates the remark “I see brothers where you see heretics”.
1p
Undated [?1934]
BBB 1/75/1-3 Sunday [?1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] BB thanks CHB for his restatement of his difficulty [i.e. papal infallibility], categorising it as
ultima resolutio[ne] actus fidei, and enclosing two pages of notes [marked A and B]. BB denies CHB's
assumption that man's faculties remain “in the act and habit of faith what they were before” [such act], distinguishing two “‘planes’ or (non-temporal)
‘moments’”, and metaphorically comparing man's natural reason to the wooden support work of an arch once the keystone - of faith - is in place, persisting but redundant. Directs CHB to the authorities of St John
and St Paul.
3p
BBB 1/75/2 [1934]
Enclosure A: BB develops his argument concerning papal infallibility. “In the act of faith it is God's own light that enables my intellect to cling to God the Revealer and all he reveals - but He and his
‘light’ remain darkness to my natural judgement.”
1p
BBB 1/75/3 1934
Enclosure B: consideration of reactions to the 1870 definition of infallibility.
1p
BBB 1/76 Saturday [?July 1934]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Apologies for missed rendezvous on 29 June; BB also missed a meeting with Fr David Knowles. BB notes that, so little have they seen each other in the last few years, he pictures and may sometimes address CHB as though he were
still aged 17.
1p
BBB 1/77 Undated [?1934]
[Date uncertain.] Notes, [perhaps in the hand of CHB], for a logical refutation of papal infallibility.
1p
BBB 1/78 Undated [?1934]
[Date uncertain.] Notes, [perhaps in the hand of NG], for a logical refutation of papal infallibility.
1p
1935
BBB 1/79 1 February 1935
BB to CHB
Likens errors of reason, as urged by CHB, to “‘imprudent doubts’”, and which, contrary to CHB's suggestion, should not be allowed to deflect one's action or, latterly, to invalidate
the belief of a Catholic convert. Explores the limits of grace in the operation of the moral duty to believe in the Catholic Church: “real grace does come in to help a man to the point of
saying ‘I ought to and do believe’ , but up to and including ‘I ought to ...’ the operations of the intellect are not transformed by grace; in the act
‘I do believe’, when made by a soul in a ‘state of grace’ the intellect is not only helped but elevated to a higher plane
by grace”; but this does not amount to a special personal revelation. Recommends John Henry Newman's sermons on faith in
Discourses to mixed congregations.
1p
BBB 1/80 7 March 1935
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Recounts his habit of telling bedtime stories of Saints' lives to the school boys - Père [Charles] de Foucauld, St Philip Neri, St John [Jean-Marie] Vianney, St Francis of Assisi, St Francis Xavier, St John Bosco:
“they clamour for [them], and if I let more than about two nights go by without an instalment it is almost a nuisance to calm them down”.
1p
BBB 1/81 Easter Monday [?22 April 1935]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Request that CHB befriend S. T. Keong, a Catholic Chinese freshman at St John's College, [Cambridge]. Recommends Paul Claudel's
Ways and crossways.
1p
BBB 1/82 Wednesday [?24 April 1935]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Offers thanks for CHB's treatment of S. T. Keong. BB recovering from influenza. BB visited yesterday by their ‘M[other] and F[ather]’. Term begins tomorrow: BB to acquire a longer cane, two having
been purloined by the boys.
1p
BBB 1/83 Thursday, 9 May 1935
BB to CHB at 10 Park Street, Cambridge
Thanks for gift.
1p
BBB 1/84 26 May [1935]
BB to CHB
Offers best wishes for CHB's examinations. Title of an otherwise unidentified work changed to ‘Leisure’. Offers congratulations on the canonization of St John Fisher.
1p
BBB 1/85 6 August 1935
BB at Worth Priory, Crawley, Sussex, to CHB
Refers to an intervening letter, temporarily abandoned in anticipation that CHB would find it “harsh and angular”. Implores CHB, during his time at university, to study the history of Christianity, and which is
unfamiliar to “your philosopher-johnnies Berkeley, Kant ... and Tennant”: “[w]hat have they known of its native idiosyncrasy, of its attitude to nature and supernature, of its doctrinal
organisation, of its synthesis of ‘institutionalism’ and interiority, of faith and reason, of detachment and apostolate?” Recommends: critical biography of St Jean-Marie Vianney, the Curé d'Ars; St Augustine's
Confessions; [Blessed] John Henry Newman's Essay on the development of Christian doctrine; Karl Adam's The spirit of Catholicism; Brother Lawrence's
[Nicholas Herman of Lorraine] The practice of the presence of God; The life of the Church, by Pierre Rousselot, S.J., L. de Grandmaison, S.J., V. Huby, S.J., Alexendre Brou and M. C.
D'Arcy, S.J. (editor). Even for its critics, Christianity as a religio-historical phenomenon alone is worthy of serious study: “[s]ee, and marvel at, even if you cannot yet assent to, its sublime yet humble certitude of
mission, of truth possessed, of divine protection and divine indwelling”, and contrasting its revelatory roots with its “coolly intellectual” philosophy. Critical of [?CHB's prioritising of]
“laboratory theorizing ... academicity ... [and] scientific thinking”, and tolerant doctrinal pragmatism, (citing Paul's conversion), counsels “prayer and charity, docility and self-surrender
”.
2p
1936
BBB 1/86 Friday [6 March 1936]
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Birthday wishes. BB visits Clifton Zoo on Thursday [12 March].
1p
BBB 1/87 Good Friday [?10 April 1936]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] BB disappointed with CHB's arguments [concerning papal infallibility unreasonableness] in his latest letter. Compares his conversations, when in a similar mental state as CHB, with [Mark Rodolph] Carpenter-Garnier at Pusey
House, Oxford, and the latter's riposte that specious arguments are inadequate with regard to degradation and poverty - “‘Nothing except the Cross can meet their
case’”. Challenges CHB on his imputed bad faith, his shameless impertinence, and the characteristic flimsiness of his varsity “quasi-philosophic structure”. Against CHB's insistence on personality, BB
presents St Paul's “second Adam”: “this process is not just the placid evolution of natural potencies, but the hyper-tragic sanative and elevative transformation of fallen nature by the grace
won on the Cross”. “They say Hell is paved with good intentions; well, it is carpeted with bright ideas.”
2p
BBB 1/88 17 April 1936
BB at Erdington Abbey, Birmingham, to CHB
CHB's reference to anti-intellectual currents in his last letter has attracted great interest from BB and Fr Mark [Pontifex]; and which BB finds reflected in CHB's illogical rejection of papal infallibility. Counters that the intellect's desire
to know and its “vital action” does not end with the discovery and acceptance of truth, but is on the contrary fertilised by it: cites Aristotle's observation on the conjunction of the present and perfect tense verb
forms in Greek [
Metaphysics, Book IX, 6]; “a thing of beauty ... its loveliness develops my capacity to appreciate it”. Encloses a copy of the [Downside] Review,
containing an article by Fr Mark [Pontifex]. Tentatively arranges a meeting at Cambridge, where BB is to give “‘conferences’” at Fisher House in late April-early May. On Providence -
“a magnificent subject” - recommends: the appendix on the propria causa in Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange's Dieu, son existence, et sa nature; Archbishop Richard
Downey's Providence; relevant sections of St Thomas Aquinas' Summa; and The pain of this world and the providence of God by Martin Cyril D'Arcy S.J.
1p
BBB 1/89 7 May 1936
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Accepts, provisionally, CHB's invitation to address his [Theological] Society at Cambridge next term. Commiserates CHB on his failure to win a Reading Prize. Thanks CHB for his company [at Cambridge], and welcomes the acquaintance with his
friends Strickland and Hart. Requests CHB's prayers for BB's former dormitory boys, the care of whom has been delegated elsewhere to enable BB more time to focus on his classicists.
1p
BBB 1/90 24 May 1936
CHB at 10 Park Street, to BB
Provides a précis and comment upon Max Planck's
The philosophy of physics, as reviewed in the
Times Literary Supplement, and finds in Planck's statements on faith echoes of BB's critiques of scientific methodology. Also comments upon
the article in the
Downside Review by Fr Mark Pontifex, characterising his certainty as immutable and as such psychologically and philosophically impossible: “it is positively immoral to agree
never to doubt again”. Identifies in BB's statement, “though one may and must resign oneself, in this life, to mysteries, no-one
can really accept contradictions” [see
BBB 1/88], a justification for his insistence on retaining his intellectual autonomy in the face of papal infallibility, and uses Hitlerian analogy: “[i]t is thus I only who am infallible for
myself, and then only for the moment in which I am living and not for future moments ... I may stake my life [with the decisions of experts], but I can never stake my mind”. Defends a scientific incrementalism, and a growing body of evident
scientific principles against which the concept of infallibility errs.
[Note: BB enclosed in
BB 1/91 the page(s) now lacking from this letter, annotated, for CHB's reference purposes, and which is/are no longer present.]
4p
BBB 1/91 26 May 1936
BB to CHB
Re Planck, clarifies his own position on free will. Restates the terms of his own belief in infallibility - or to any doctrine - in terms more acceptable to CHB, reserving his future free will by logical necessity, and his intellectual autonomy
by logical delegation: “‘I have and now believe that the Church is, has been and will be divinely preserved from error in religious fundamentals’ ... not ...
‘I shall still be believing that tomorrow’” ... “trust is the only reasonable course”. Calculating machine analogy. Accepts that such beliefs are
more than transitory, but defers discussion. Accepts Theological Society's invitation [approved by abbot and headmaster]: offers “Super-history” or “Metachronics” as titles, and sketches a theme bringing out the essential quality of Christianity in the New Testament. On divine providence, directs CHB to St Thomas Aquinas'
Summa, part I, Question 22, with the notes and appendix of [Antonin-Gilbert] Sertillanges; [Réginald Marie] Garrigou-Lagrange's God [God. His existence and His
nature.] ; by repute, Fr Martin Cyril D'Arcy's The pain of this world and the providence of God; and [Richard] Downey's essay on the same topic; and deprecating limited deity theologies as per Wells'
God the invisible king as “idolatry”. Looks forward to a visit by CHB and Hart.
3p
BBB 1/92 Friday [17 July1936]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square, Reading
Agrees to speak [?to the Theological Society] on the subject of war, but regrets “it should be such a live issue”.
1p
BBB 1/93 28 July 1936
CHB at 10 Park Street, to BB
Offers his thanks for BB's hospitality at Downside. Criticises BB's definition and defence of infallibility, to which BB adds marginal comments. BB contradicts CHB's contention that the doctrine is a meta-belief: CHB writes,
“[i]nfallibility ... is a doctrine that a <specific> authority can give certainty: I can only assent to the doctrine that in particular instances it can give certitude”. (Marginal
note: BB makes the distinction between acting on best available but incomplete criteria “rightly” while yet erroneously, and, using judicial analogy, implies a duty to act despite
such risk.) Drawing upon his own experience, CHB defines beliefs as mutable and pragmatic, and finds the [?Anglican] Church “worth backing” having “on the whole ... made a good job of
religion”. Addresses calculating machine analogy.
4p
BBB 1/94 31 July 1936
BB to CHB
BB returned from Reading; news of family. Corrects CHB's definition of the doctrine of infallibility: rather than papal authority imbuing certainty in others, “[i]t means simply that, in defining issues of faith or
morals, and when he speaks as Pope to the whole Church in so defining, the Pope does not declare to be true (or right) what is false (or wrong). ... It is a doctrine about divine Providence”, rather than
“a belief about my own or another's mind”. As such, CHB's certitude is not transgressed; his distinction certitude/certainty anyway questioned. Suggests (and solicits) the admission
that the doctrine may be true “implies no certainty either in your mind or the Pope's or anybody else's, except indeed such certainty as is implicit in every act of human affirmation, even
the most problematical”. Hints the source of CHB's misunderstanding and resistance to such “a very simple point” is the presence of another undeclared “antagonist” in the debate;
and if the resistance is CHB's alone “I should take it as a clear indication of the appalling proportions of the misunderstandings with which Catholicism has to contend.” Suggests ‘What is
Christianity?’ as title for his talk to the Theological Society - an historical analysis of Christianity as revealed in the documents of its earliest period; diary conflict. CHB travels to Brittany on Wednesday. Promises to send an article by
Brother Illtyd [Trethowan]. Makes psychological observation on CHB's unrestrained, dogmatic negativism; a censor seems to prohibit affirmatives. Comments on “anxious business” of Spain: “if
it becomes Bolshevistic, I wonder whether France will follow suit.” Requests the enclosed
Review be sent on to Felix [Butler], who is to read [article titled] ‘Some hidden hands’.
3p
BBB 1/95 22 August 1936
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
In light of an invitation from Fr Ronald A. Knox [to speak at] Oxford on the same date, seeks confirmation that his Theological Society paper is to be delivered on 24 October. Probably remains at Worth Priory until 28th August.
1p
BBB 1/96 Tuesday [25 August 1936]
BB to CHB
Reminds CHB of M[ichael] Pearson, a Downside boy coming up to St John's College next term.
1p
BBB 1/97 Thursday [1 October 1936]
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Requests CHB arrange his [accommodation at Cambridge]. BB's last “controversial” letter to CHB was probably influenced by his “end-of-termish” mood. Again reminds CHB of fresher
Michael Pearson.
1p
BBB 1/98 15 November 1936
BB to CHB
Thanks for CHB's hospitality and company: “[i]t was a joy to get in some real talks with you”. Wishes CHB luck with his essay. Wishes CHB might join DD Mark and Illtyd's philosophical debates on space and time.
Comments on
Songs in the night by a Poor Clare Colettine: “not verse, but a sort of series of mystical outpourings that seem to me to have behind them something more than an abstract knowledge of the
theory of prayer and the life of faith”. Clarifies BB's understanding of the relations between faith and reason: faith vivifies reason; “fidelity to reason will lead the unbeliever beyond reason to faith” and
stabilise and give “poise to all his rational activity”. Contends, “we have not to choose between reason and faith; nor even between reason plus faith and reason without faith; but between
UNREASON, and a faith that reason prescribed and by which reason is reinforced”; and, quoting Swinburne and Marx, models this dynamic relation on that of the Incarnation and the Resurrection, the natural finding its “subsistence” in the supernatural. This is reflected in the Roman Catholic Church's perceived otherworldliness and pragmatism - “it may be that it has really found a higher principle of synthesis
than that proffered wither by Protestantism or by secularism”. BB exploring the subject of Lewis Carroll or the topic of Nonsense for a fifth form Literary Society talk; requires Emile Cammaerts' The poetry of
nonsense. BB contradicts CHB's description, via Storer, of his argument to him for the existence of God as indeed one from the necessity of a First Cause: “I am inclined to think the argument of causality is the one
and only rational argument for God”. Requests CHB send to their mother articles by BB published in the Downside Review.
1p
BBB 1/99 Monday [7 December 1936]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square
Invitation to CHB to visit BB at Downside; Fr Mark “in fine fighting philosophic form”.
1p
BBB 1/100 23 December 1936
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Christmas wishes. Awaits the announcement of the Essay Prize, [and CHB's fortune]. Ridicules the solemnity of
The Times editorials. Regrets CHB unable to visit Downside.
1p
1937
BBB 1/101 Beginning on 18 January 1937
CHB at St John's College, Cambridge, to BB
Incomplete summary of the controversy upon papal infallibility, postponed until now, with a view to renewing the argument.
2p
BBB 1/102 Feast of St Thomas Aquinas, 7 March 1937
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Birthday wishes. University and school holidays approach - “the boys will forget all they ever knew”. BB in discussion with Br Bernard about the latter's article on the Epistles to the Thessalonians and the
Synoptic Gospels, intended, with Henry's [?Henry Hart] approval, for publication in the
J.T.S. [Journal of theological studies]. BB reading an English paraphrase of a French priest's [?Maurice Nedoncelle] study of Friedrich von Hügel: “a little
trying to get von Hügel's vagueness multiplied ...”.
1p
BBB 1/103 12 March 1937
BB to CHB
Invitation to CHB, or Storer, to attend four “meetings-for discussion” in early April on the subject ‘Is metaphysics possible?’. Other attendees: Fr Mark; Br Illtyd; perhaps [Austin]
Farrer; BB's “old rival” W. F. R. Hardie; perhaps [Stanley Victor] Keeling and Fr Gervase Mathew O.P. If successful, to follow-up with a larger group on ‘Bridge-building’.
1p
BBB 1/104 Monday [15 March 1937]
BB to CHB at 10 Park Street
Offers thanks for CHB's “magnum opus”, [anticipating the projected philosophy conference].
1p
BBB 1/105 4 April 1937
BB to CHB
The philosophy conference cancelled. The invitation to CHB to visit Downside and debate nevertheless repeated. BB and Fr Mark's debates continue - on substance and accidents, and movement and material reality: “my mind
works with difficulty at these rarefied levels”. BB's Synoptic studies of Q and Mark “fascinating”: against Streeter BB contends with “the theory that Mark is based on Matthew, while
Luke is based on Mark and (in parts) Matthew”. The
J.T.S. [Journal of theological studies] has rejected Br Bernard's article, due to his unorthodox dating of St Matthew's Gospel and 1 & 2 Thessalonians, though [?Henry] Hart has been
kind: the Revue biblique an alternative. BB addresses some of CHB's arguments in his essay: derivation of all significance from God; Thomist First Cause.
2p
BBB 1/106 6 April 1937
BB to CHB
CHB's visit postponed. Acknowledges hypothetical nature of CHB's arguments, and readdresses First Cause Thomism. Fr Mark recruited to expand on BB's explanations. CHB resistant to the paradox in “the freedom of (caused)
action” of “free created agents”, but BB insists Aquinas intended to sustain this - “[i]f he was wrong, he was wrong with his eyes open”. Finite-infinite analogy:
“authority participated by a subordinate without diminution of the authority of the superior from which it derives” ; i.e. “what God gives is really given, yet
leaves God as rich as he was ‘before’ the gift”.
2p
BBB 1/107 15 April 1937
BB to CHB
Further addresses points in CHB's essay: exclusion of uncaused events; disqualification of non-action as an event, resistance or act; motivation as the criteria for free will rather than objects; duty implies freedom of action. Rejects CHB's
analysis of moral action and denial of the moral category: via Homer's Achilles, Shakespeare, Juvenal and Kant, the moral judgement of conscience, of praise or blame, “(the kind of which our Lord was speaking when he said
‘Judge not and ye shall not be judged’)”, “is not an illusion created by the Jewish-Christian tradition; it is a universal ‘natural’ conviction”.
“You are like an inquisitor with Galileo; and Galileo will still say ‘E pur si muove’”. BB finds CHB guilty of attempting to place basic practical moral principles into the category of
contradictions - an attempt in itself a contradiction of philosophical enterprise; a consequence of CHB's treatment of God “as real and active only in the same sort of way in which finite things are real and active”.
BB departs for Rome this evening.
3p
BBB 1/108 Tuesday [April/May 1937]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Offers congratulations on CHB's success [?essay prize]. Requests a copy of CHB's essay. Sends greetings to Keong, H. H., D. S. and Boys Smith. BB to give a conference at the week-end at Oxford on The Mystery of the Holy
Trinity.
1p
BBB 1/109 7 May 1937
BB to CHB
Notes announcement of CHB's prize in the school magazine. Keong's visit to Downside; CHB has his “appalling sound-box” [?wireless].
1p
BBB 1/110 Sunday [23 May 1937]
BB to CHB
Wishes CHB luck for his Tripos. Comments on Hart's success.
1p
BBB 1/111 21 June 1937
BB to CHB
Commiserates CHB on his Second class degree [Theological Tripos, part II: Philosophy of religion and Christian ethics]. Quoting Emerson's ‘When half-gods go, the gods arrive’, counsels CHB to
“grasp the substance instead of the shadow” and accept it as God's will. Discusses CHB's future career: argues against entering the Anglican clergy without careful thought. “It might do more
harm than good if I gave my full reasons, but there is at least this that I can say: you will feel the seductive temptation of indeterminate intellectual compromise strongly, but you are intellectually alive enough - quite! - to know that compromise
is reason's hell. If you won't mistake my meaning, I may say that you won't find what you know your reason demands except in Catholicism or (per impossibile) in something as positive and logical as Catholicism is. A position which is
‘just not’ Catholicism is intellectually far worse - or may be - than a diametrically anti-Catholic but thought out position may be. ... Remember the difference between deliberately adopting a position you know
can't be right, and not adopting a position you do not yet know to be right”.
2p
BBB 1/112 Wednesday [23 June 1937]
BB to CHB at 10 Park Street, redirected to 25 Downshire Square
Offers CHB congratulations on a compensatory success.
1p
BBB 1/113 Wednesday [14 July 1937]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square, redirected to 21 St John's Road, Cambridge
Invites CHB to visit the following week. At the abbot's request, BB to officiate at Newbury in the temporary absence of its priest, from late July to early August.
1p
BBB 1/114 Thursday [16 September 1937]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square
Thanks CHB for a book and a certificate. Requests news of progress with ‘The analogy’.
1p
Undated [?1937]
BBB 1/115 Monday [?1937]
BB to CHB [?at Cambridge]
[Date uncertain.] Congratulates CHB on the result of an examination.
1p
BBB 1/116 Sunday [?before December 1937]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Christmas wishes. Invites resumption of exchange of ideas.
1p
1938
BBB 1/117 6 March 1938
BB to CHB [at Cambridge]
Birthday wishes. Answers CHB's enquiry re the purchase of a medal of St Francis of Assisi and St Anthony of Padua by an unnamed woman [?Ronnie]. Enquires as to CHB's relationship with Ronnie; and for further news of CHB's choice of career. An
article - “(not to my mind very good)” - by Fr Mark based on his and BB's debates on the existence of God to be published in the
Downside [School magazine]. Summarises his [and Fr Mark's] proof: from the principle of existence and essence being the dual criteria of all matter is inferred the existence of this principle's referent, a unified
concept of the essentially-existing, “where existence means and is all that it can be - the infinite Ens”.
2p
BBB 1/118 17 March 1938
BB to CHB
Takes up CHB's reference to ‘the raptures of the mystic’, but warns “the goal of the ‘mystic’ is outside this life, and ... the road to it is an extremely
dark, painful and bitter one. It is the road our Lord took ... a dangerous road.” Advises CHB that thought is an austere discipline, which, while autonomous within its own limits, must lead from analysis to synthesis and action:
“[thought] teaches us that there is a place for authority, and that to reject authority, in matters of truth, where authority is legitimate, is to be unfaithful to the autonomy of thought itself”. Makes reference to
Aquinas'
Contra gentiles, and his insistence of God as “uncaused”. Counsels CHB to accept his current romantic suffering: “if one does not contract into one's shell at
the approach of suffering, if one accepts it with open arms, and without being soured or discouraged or ham-strung by it, it is a supreme privilege, and can be made a means of much deeper and more fruitful union with our Lord and his Cross.”
Reminds CHB of the possible benefit to his beloved derived from his suffering, and that his ultimate partner will profit by “the power of understanding, sympathy and tenderness that this experience will have built
up”. Redirects CHB's thoughts concerning his unemployment, to consider the true vocation of affirming the will of God as one's own. “The core of existence is there, and God forbid that we should miss it because we
want to see some outward expression or some fruit of our labour. We only exist in order that our natural relation of dependence on God and orientation towards Him should be re-stated freely by our will, and that free re-statement then eternalised by
God who both comes before, and comes after, our free activity.” In considering this, CHB advised to trust his deeper self, which deeper reason is preferred to the
idola scholae [academic fetishism] of CHB's “theories and anti-theorism”: “some people are liable to let what their superficial ... self presents to them as their
rational tenets, to obstruct the perfectly reasonable, though less articulate, reaction of their self to the situation as they really, deep down, see it”.
4p
BBB 1/119 Easter Day [28 March] 1938
BB to CHB
Glad of their [recent] meeting. Requests a letter or a visit.
1p
BBB 1/120 8 May 1938
BB to CHB
BB visited by their parents yesterday, on his birthday. BB requests details of [Charlie Dunbar] Broad's critique of the demonstrability of the existence of God, which, it has been reported, CHB regards as unanswered - more for CHB's welfare than
on the intrinsic merits of Broad's argument. “(To me, the principles of identity and contradiction, and the ideas of necessity and analogy are all valid, and together give me an intellectually secure Theism).” BB
enjoying working on an article on “the Synoptic problem”. Sends greetings to Henry Hart.
1p
BBB 1/121 22 May 1938
BB to CHB
Referring to both BB's own theosophical (as against [Charlie Dunbar] Broad) and [?John] Chapman's synoptic arguments, regards their poor reception to date as due either to misunderstanding or novelty. BB hopes Adcock will debate with Fr Mark -
“a philosophical arguer with a real zest for the game”. BB rejects CHB's comment that BB “was educated in an essentailly [sic] apologetic tradition”:
“I have allowed my intellect to go forward on its task of discriminating truth from falsehood and accepting the former, and you have not yet got to the stage of positive results. ... I suggest that agnosticism is at least
as good a subject for criticism as belief”. Concern that CHB is currently in a - probably only superficial - intellectual position incompatible with religion. Aiming for the goal of “‘considered experience’”, counsels CHB refer his personal thinking to an “outside tribunal” of other minds, which tribunal, formulated correctly, should lead CHB
“not only to theism but to Catholicism”, as they did BB in his time. Such considered experience the criteria for true reasonable judgement on such matters, and as such this is more truly reasonable than any academic
conclusion stemming from [CHB's] “faith based on reason”: “for man is not an animal with a reasoning faculty located inside him; he is a reasoning animal, and he thinks - to use a metaphor
which you will make allowances for - with his whole self”. Criticises CHB's apparent identification of conviction with apologetics, and that “one can [not] be at once fully convinced and fully critical”:
“[t]hat seems to me to mean the pessimistic and not obvious notion, that the human intellect is a priori doomed never to see its native impulse come to fruition.”
1p
BBB 1/122 Friday [15 July 1938]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square
BB expects to visit his parents' home, and hopes to see CHB there. BB's pupils' performances in the current examinations have him wishing “escape from this schoolmastering business”.
1p
BBB 1/123 22 August 1938
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB [in Germany]
Questions CHB on his recent visit to Marburg and its environs. BB has visited their parents, and then Martin [Hancock]; returns to Downside on 29th August. BB learning squash, taught by a Downside boy staying at Worth Priory. Relays England test
match score; and comments on Franco's reply about the evacuation of foreign fighters. Queries quality of news reporting within Germany against English weekly digests sent from home. Reading
Barchester pilgrimage and Brave new world, the latter “unnecessarily coarse (or worse), but appears to have a good moral”: “I
think we need to work at the preparation of a sound philosophic basis for some future society if and when the ‘modern’ post-Renaissance ‘culture’ really breaks. I should think you might
find your time in Germany really enlightening in this connection”. Smoking a pipe - a gift from their father. BB hopes to continue his intellectually stimulating synoptic studies; anticipates “schoolmastering for
several years yet”. Recommends CHB visit the “splendid” Worth Priory. Downside [pupil] numbers increasing, “which is a great comfort”.
2p
BBB 1/124 1 September 1938
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
CHB's description of Marburg reminds BB of Freiburg and Baden: contrasts “the ordinary Englishman's idea of ‘Germany’ to the old Germany still precariously alive beneath the surface of
industrialism and modern politics”, and considered against modern times finds in medieval culture, despite manifest “evils and imperfections”, much that would have been better retained than lost. CHB with
“a good German family ... near the roots of a healthy natural life”: while admitting to nostalgia, BB notes “a corporate change of heart and a new vision” is needed in order to achieve
a synthesis of the pre-modern and the modern. Sympathises with CHB's embarrassment over his poor German; recalls BB's European travels: dislike of Italy; the qualities of England. CHB's thesis continues satisfactorily: BB welcomes this original
element in his course of education - “man is essentially a ‘creator’” - and contrasts this freedom with the modern mechanisation of the economy and society at the expense of individual
freedom and mastery. BB clarifies his characterisation of philosophic endeavour in the cultivation of humanity, noting as secondary the distractions of both dogmatism and flux, in settled and unsettled times respectively, that can deflect sound
philosophic principles. “I think an age of agnosticism may make life ‘nasty, short, brutish and intolerable’” [misquoting Hobbes'
Leviathan]. Huxley's Brave new world reviewed: “unnecessarily (in my view) beastly in places but ... a fundamentally right-minded critique of the modern
idolisation of comfort-through-material-progress ... altogether it is revolting, and Huxley means that it should seem so”. Considers Felix and Mary [Butler]'s outlook, work and, with regard to Felix in particular, milieu. Account of the annual
meeting of the League of Christ the King, with a description of its members and mission: BB recommends CHB visit one of the groups of this “incipient” movement on his next Downside visit.
2p
BBB 1/125 8 September 1938
BB to CHB
Contrasts CHB's sensible approach to learning the language with the experiences of BB and Martin [Hancock] when travelling in Germany together. BB occupied in issuing examination results and reports; compared to those of Reading School. BB's
article on St Cyprian sent in for the October
Downside Review [‘Catholic and Roman: the witness of St Cyprian’, 56 (April 1938): 127-44]: B. J. Kidd's opinion desired, but dispatch of a copy deferred until he might respond to an
earlier article. BB to lead a retreat for lay professionals at Bristol. Playing squash - “a very pleasant game” - with another monk. Martin [Hancock] in Italy, bound for Rome.
1p
BBB 1/126 20 September 1938
BB to CHB
Offers his thanks for and comments upon a photograph of their mother. Annual Chapter meeting just concluded. BB's hopes for “a morally good, a peaceful and a wise” resolution of the “present international difficulties”. Invites CHB to expand on the theme of the Catholic Church helping those outside [the Roman Catholic Church]: cites the encyclical
Divini Redemptoris, and Pope Pius XI's invitation “that ‘all those who still believe in God and pay Him homage may take a decisive part’ in the conflict raised
against theism” [i.e. atheistic communism].
1p
BBB 1/127 24 September 1938
BB to CHB
Term has begun, with sixty new boys: “I shall find it a bit of a business getting to know them”. Advises CHB to return to England, in view of the political uncertainty and “before the
crash comes”. Relays the British prime minister's statement that the initiative is now with Prague.
1p
BBB 1/128 27-28 September 1938
BB to CHB
Relief and anxiety at the prime minister's broadcast statement from Downing Street. BB's anxiety that Chamberlain's toleration of a limited local conflict against a wider unlimited one “involves a failure in any
obligations we have assumed towards Czechoslovakia”, anticipating clarification through parliamentary debate. BB “rather impressed by Hitler's speech yesterday”. CHB reported to be in contact with the British
Consul. BB open to, and willing to promote, ecumenical “prayer-hymn-teaching” services in Catholic churches, citing such a service held near Berlin, and the pope's epithet ‘the common
Father’: “his paternal character surely extends in some sense to all his contemporaries”. Assures CHB, “whatever you feel”, he has “a friend against the world in the pope”. Explains how a non-Catholic theist is both close to the Catholic Church and against it, and relays a witticism on the beliefs of
Lord Halifax and Cardinal Bourne. BB sure that many non-Catholics' belief is in fact founded not just in their autonomous reason but “in the authority of God self-revealed in Christ ... and is therefore, despite his surface-mind, at heart one with the Church against the world”; and expounds briefly on the distinction between speaking “a word against the Son of Man” and
“against the Holy Ghost” [Luke 12:10]. Urges CHB “to hear His voice pleading in hers [the Catholic Church's]”, and allow his will to “follow where the
intellect's light had pointed the way”. Consoles CHB for his spiritual suffering, but counsels that the sanity and balance he seeks is best found through the Passion, by which one suffers not alone but with Christ. In two postscripts, requests
CHB to continue to write, and to read the Bible, specifically the New Testament. BB does not anticipate immediate war between Britain and Germany, “unless Herr Hitler does something un-called for beyond merely marching into
Czechoslovakia and crushing resistance”; CHB therefore still has time to continue his studies.
4p
BBB 1/129 Friday [?October 1938]
BB to CHB
BB welcomes CHB back to Germany.
1p
BBB 1/130 18 November 1938
BB to CHB
BB enquires about CHB's lectures and the quality of the philosophic teaching at the university [of Marburg]. Counters CHB's statements on renunciation, including friendships, with advice that while a Christian is given grace to bear what is taken
away, it is dangerous to self-renounce “because man needs these supports; it is not good to live alone”. Assures CHB his current quest for a direction in life will be answered. Comments on school business:
“I find the School pretty interesting, though it is a sort of dope interest, faute de mieux. The training of boys on the moral and religious side is I suppose pretty interesting, but the purveying of Greek particles and
Latin verbs is of rather more limited scope!”
1p
BBB 1/131 22 December 1938
BB to CHB [?in Germany]
Christmas and new year wishes: CHB will be at home [in England]. Acknowledges receipt of CHB's letter from Munich.
1p
1939
BBB 1/132 3 March 1939
BB to CHB [?at Munich, Germany]
Letter to be forwarded from home. Birthday wishes. BB impressed by CHB's progress in learning German. Comments on CHB's report of a fasching [carnival]. Suggests a meeting could be arranged with Cardinal Faulhaber at
Munich. Accepts CHB's congratulations on his appointment as a junior master, downplaying its significance. Invites CHB to Downside to catch up properly; notes he and Martin [Hancock] are his closest confidantes. BB on the late Pope Pius XI:
“his was a very great reign, and he a great ruler and Pastor-of-souls”. BB reading
Vice versa [?Vice versa: a lesson to fathers] to the boys in the dormitory.
2p
BBB 1/133 Good Friday [7 April] 1939
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for the third of his German [language] letters. Anticipates a peaceful time once the term ends. BB recalls a visit to a synagogue at Basel: “I felt all goose-fleshy about it”. BB's article arguing the
non-existence of the Synoptic text Q, to be published in the
Harvard Theological Review. BB requests CHB visit Downside School on his return from Germany to give a talk on his impressions, particularly for the benefit of one pupil who is pro-Hitler and pro-Mosley -
“up to a point at least”.
1p
BBB 1/134 Friday [5 May 1939]
BB to CHB [abroad]
[Date uncertain.] Sympathises on CHB's failure to secure a fellowship at St John's College. Boys returning to the school today.
1p
BBB 1/135 14 May 1939
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for confiding his thoughts on his ordination in the Church of England. Envies CHB's meeting with [?Karl] Barth [?at Basel, Switzerland]: “there must be something great about him”. Responds to CHB on the
“usefulness of Christianity for saving men's souls”; and the personality of God - “not per se a limiting concept”, in contrast to impersonality. BB
half-heartedly suggests schoolmastering, university extension lecturing and W.E.A. work. Again invites CHB to Downside Abbey to visit. Acknowledges CHB's congratulations on BB's [unidentified] article: “I am sure of my
position”.
2p
BBB 1/136 10 July 1939
BB to CHB [?in Britain]
Congratulates CHB on his being awarded a Gladstone Studentship. Mocks the “‘liberal’” views of a certain ‘Sugar’ alias Julius.
1p
BBB 1/137 16 July 1939
BB to CHB [?in Britain]
BB expresses desire to meet [Alexander Roper] Vidler: comments on CHB's broad - “weird” - circle of acquaintances. Responds to CHB's refutation of Kant with a brief four point logical argument, and refers him to
[Joseph] Maréchal's
Le Thomisme devant la philosophie critique. Wishes he might write on the subject himself, but held back by his not being a “professional philosopher”, and schoolmastering:
“I build a foolish day-dream of getting back to the things of the mind when I am about 52!!”
1p
BBB 1/138 1 September 1939
BB to CHB [in Britain]
War probable. Specially glad to have seen CHB. BB, drawing from Providence, confident in CHB's obedience to his conscience “both in general and in detail”: “[a]nd I trust that you will
keep your will from resentment against any individual or society”. Requests CHB pray for the boys BB has helped to educate.
1p
BBB 1/139 5 September 1939
BB to CHB
Notes, perhaps in sympathy with CHB, the Butler family has “the fear emotion ... in an exaggerated form”; but reminds CHB of the usually quite tolerable realisation of what has been intolerably anticipated.
Compares his fear of hell as ‘liquefying’, but “at a level, I hope, just not as deep as the final determinants of character and action”. BB not prepared to criticise [Anglican]
theological colleges as unfairly as CHB: “[o]f course I dislike a system which implores beliefs whose truth it is not prepared to guarantee”. Counsels CHB be “tranquil deep and
persevering” in his prayers, rather than “passionate”; and consoles him in his “helpless” circumstances to follow Christ's example on the cross
“to transmute this ... into victory”. “This strange dream + nightmare of life will soon be over, and then we can talk heart to heart.”
2p
BBB 1/140 8 September 1939
BB to CHB
BB provides the criteria for a just war, and analyses the current war against these criteria. Emphasising the government as the moral actor, with authority in the State, to which “we owe it obedience where higher
loyalties don't conflict”, BB distinguishes a war-time volunteer from a conscript. The former has to justify his choice by himself proving the just-war criteria are met. Concludes that if the just nature of the conflict is still uncertain, a
person “must at least wait till an order from the government puts him in a fresh moral situation” - trusting then to a “‘benefit of
the doubt’” principle. BB doubtful the third criteria is met in the current conflict, fearing “the breakdown of Western ‘civilisation’ in Europe, and a vast increase in
communism” will result. Cites (second-hand) Baldwin speaking on the same topic in 1936 [to the Guildhall on 9 November, and reported in
The Times the following day]: “degradation of the life of the people ... in the end anarchy and a [sic] world revolution”. BB argues the justification of the
[Polish-British Common Defence] pact, and therefore any obligation thereto, is contingent on the “outcome of the pact” and “the present single moral situation”; but does not conclude
the war is unjust. “We might have done better for the world in general to let the toad go on puffing itself up till it burst spontaneously.” BB notes these arguments apply more to Felix [Butler] than CHB's
circumstances. “I don't think it's specially uncharitable to suppose that Hitler is mad or unbalanced. Madness is not a sin.”
2p
BBB 1/141 Tuesday [3 October 1939]
BB to CHB
BB to raise a pressing [family] matter with their father. BB at Cambridge on 1 November.
1p
BBB 1/142 29 November 1939
BB to CHB
Offers thanks for CHB placing a copy of Chapman's book in Hawarden library, and for promoting BB's article [‘St Luke's debt to St Matthew’] in the
Harvard Theological Review, enclosing a copy. Expresses interest in Reverend Roberts. Anticipates CHB will soon be busy writing [his thesis].
1p
BBB 1/143 22 December 1939
BB to CHB
Christmas wishes; anticipates meeting on 28th December.
1p
Undated [1930s]
BBB 1/144 Thursday [December, 1930s; after July 1932]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Christmas wishes. CHB at O[ld] R[eadingensian] dinner.
1p
BBB 1/145 24 December [1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Christmas wishes. Re CHB's paper on Ethics in Christianity, BB references Ernst Troeltsch. BB to visit their parents soon.
1p
BBB 1/146 Friday [1930s]
BB at Bonham House, Stourton, Zeals, Wiltshire to CHB
BB writes from my “demi-semi-hermitage”. CHB has permission to visit Downside in September.
½p
BBB 1/147 Good Friday [?1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Advises that one may accept a particular position whilst still acknowledging unsolved difficulties, citing analogy of scientists' attitude towards the theory of evolution, and that the ‘light’ be
sufficient to lead the enquirer to its source. Draws CHB's attention to John 16:33 - ‘I have overcome the world’ - preceding the account of the crucifixion.
1p
BBB 1/148 Sunday [?1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Requests information concerning Hebrew grammatical exercises.
1p
BBB 1/149 Sunday [?1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Counsels CHB against spiritually enervating “‘moods’” - “[o]ptimism and pessimism are delusions” - while accepting the value in
objectively considering “the whole blackness of human history”: “[it is] only per crucem [one] see[s] the transfiguration of everything in the
Resurrection”. BB identifies in CHB a lack of “a deeper knowledge of the central message of the Gospel”, and, modestly, offers drafts of his synoptic lectures. Encloses family letters for distribution.
1p
BBB 1/150 Monday [?Spring], [late 1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Congratulates CHB on being awarded a studentship. BB hoping to spend some time at their parents' home this summer.
1p
BBB 1/151 Undated [1930s]
BB to CHB
[Date uncertain.] Assures CHB that his advice was not intended to direct CHB to become an Anglican clergyman: “I hold the C. of E. to be in schism, riddled with heresy, and without valid orders”.
“I merely want you to choose the career which you think it w'd please God best that you sh'd choose.”
1p
1940
BBB 1/152 6 March 1940
BB at Downside School, to CHB
Birthday wishes. Influenza. Comment on a headmaster's role: “war on four fronts”, governors, parents, staff and school, BB most confident with the latter. Discipline case; the boys “on the
whole ... behaving well”.
1p
BBB 1/153 11 March 1940
BB to CHB
Agrees with CHB's decision to pursue ordination and avoid military service, noting such is his advice to young Catholics who wish to be priests. Awaits K. E. K.'s [Dr Kenneth Escott Kirk, Bishop of Oxford] opinion on the matter with interest.
1p
BBB 1/154 Wednesday [13 March 1940]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square
Offers thanks for gift of a chess board, noting Carmelite nuns' habit of using ‘our ’ to stress all property is held in common by the community. Defines Kenneth [?Dr Kenneth Escott Kirk, Bishop of Oxford] -
“being difficult” - as an Edwardian “and a man of principle, which makes things awkward for us Georgian opportunists”.
1p
BBB 1/155 9 July 1940
BB to CHB
BB's subject suggestion - Adventure - for a book of [?prize] essays forwarded to Felix [Butler]. Professor Cook. BB challenges the unordained CHB's qualification to act as temporary chaplain. Some Downside boys to remain at the school through the
holidays, others to attend a harvest camp.
1p
BBB 1/156 7 October 1940
BB to CHB at [37] Withdean Crescent, Brighton
BB notes CHB follows in his footsteps. Hopes CHB will not suffer overly from air raids; Downside “enjoying a rather peaceful period” in this regard. BB notes the two year hiatus in their discussions, and questions
“how you formulate your position as regards the doctrinal statements you have to make”. Echoes approvingly CHB's statement that he works “directly for the honour of God and the good of
souls”, and assures him of their parents' pride. BB has time for a little teaching this term. Downside pupil numbers maintained, despite the times.
1p
BBB 1/157 25 December 1940
BB to CHB
Christmas and New Year wishes. BB has attended the headmasters' conference at Haileybury. CHB stays some nights at their parents' home; BB also hopes to visit, and to stay with Martin [Hancock]. Enquires for a Classics teacher, available for a
term: G. H. K. may take up the post.
1p
1941
BBB 1/158 6 March 1941
BB to CHB
CHB recovering from illness. Downside boys sleeping on the ground floor; fire-watchers on duty from 19:30-20:00 or later if an air-raid is in progress; central heating unreliable. BB reading only
The Times and PGW, and an elementary general science book. BB proposes inviting Professor Jeans - now living in the vicinity - to deliver a talk for the students. Air-raid warning.
1p
BBB 1/159 10 May 1941
BB to CHB
Regrets they did not talk properly on their latest meeting at their parents' home. BB met Eric Phillips at Cambridge. News of old boy named Pearson. No air raids at Downside yet. Account of a land-mine at Hove or Brighton. Comment upon united
intercession services - “a big problem to us Catholics” unless what is intended is “that Catholic services were to be attended by non-Catholics”. The Sword of the Spirit movement:
“I am told that Rome's approval or permission is behind this, and it is an interesting development”. Notes recent papal pronouncements have recruited the support of all believers in God “in
the attempt to defeat antireligious tendencies of the present age”.
1p
BBB 1/160 8 June 1941
BB to CHB
Recommends Jean Pierre de Caussade's
L'abandon à la divine providence and Traité sur l'oraison du coeur, the former as more typical.
1p
BBB 1/161 15 September 1941
BB to CHB
Congratulates CHB on his intended or impending engagement. CHB's operation successful.
1p
BBB 1/162 23 December 1941
BB to CHB
Christmas and New Year wishes. BB just returned from the headmasters' conference at New College, [Oxford], where he met Hett, [known to CHB] and formerly a housemaster at Brighton College during BB's time as a master there. Martin [Hancock]
expected to stay in the village at the end of the month.
1p
1942
BBB 1/163 6 March 1942
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Cases of influenza and mumps in the school; general state of health otherwise has been satisfactory. BB contributed a letter to the debate in
The Times on the education of character and intelligence [Discussion initiated by A.L. Rowse, 10 March 1942; page 9; Issue 49180; col. E]. Reading Henry James - The awkward age,
The portrait of a lady: “most satisfying, on a somewhat rarefied plane”. Hett.
1p
BBB 1/164 8 May 1942
BB to CHB
Best wishes for CHB's marriage. R.A.F. Anxious to meet Josephine [Mary Stubbs], but no opportunities to visit Brighton or Paignton presently. [Dr William] Temple [Archbishop of Canterbury from April 1942] - “has a lot in
him” - and his links “with the Labour people”. BB's correspondence with Cambridge academe. Welcomes Felix [Butler]'s presence at their parents' home, “unmilitary if also fairly
un-pedagogic”.
1p
1943
BBB 1/165 5 March 1943
BB to CHB [in Lincolnshire]
Birthday wishes.
1p
BBB 1/166 9 May 1943
BB to CHB
CHB in lodgings; will visit Reading. BB engagements: headmasters' Conference in London, 25 May; to give a paper on Mysticism to “a society run by C.S. Lewis” [?The Inklings] at Oxford, 31st May; probably visit a
Devon preparatory school in June. BB uncertain whether a windmills (and music) expert suggested as a speaker by CHB would draw many attendees at the school. Old boy Pollen, sculptor and now R.A.F. Film
Pastor Hall: “I don't imagine it would be too Protestant for me. Niemöller must have been a hero, and conscientious resistance to tyranny over conscience is always admirable.” Suggests
Niemöller converted to Catholicism before he died [sic]. Felix [Butler]'s airgraph received, the first since he left England.
1p
BBB 1/167 16 July 1943
BB to CHB
Congratulates CHB on his wife's pregnancy. CHB and Felix [Butler] to supply BB's share of an essay prize on the topic Reconstruction. Asks CHB to relay to his Commanding Officer BB's concerns re R.A.F. discipline, referring particularly to
“the stink we have raised about low-flying”. Hopes to meet CHB and Josephine [Mary Butler] (JMB) at Reading in August.
1p
1944
BBB 1/168 7 April 1944
BB to CHB [at Hornchurch]
Josephine and [son] Jeremy well; to occupy part of Alison's house. Downside school sent home [early], the new term to begin at an [earlier] date to “escape the period when travel will be practically impossible for
civilians”.
1p
1945
BBB 1/169 6 January 1945
BB to CHB
BB returned from Reading; news of their mother's health. Describes CHB's “difficulties” about papal infallibility concern the idea of infallibility itself. BB considers the existence of a final authority in matters
of doctrinal dispute, “in the first instance as a practical necessity”. “I think that if one thinks together the two propositions ‘The church is the society of
believers (societas fidelium)’ and ‘The church has divine authority’ one gets a glimmering of why the doctrine of infallibility is (not so much ‘reasonable’, for it is a mystery,
but) necessary.” Quotes from and recommends [Fr] Ronald A. Knox's
Caliban in Grub Street. Jeremy reputed “an excellent child”.
1p
1946
BBB 1/170 21 March 1946
BB to CHB
Congratulates CHB on news of a [second] pregnancy. Recommends
Infallibility by Vincent McNabb O.P., aimed at non-Catholics; but can recommend only the treatise de Ecclesia [?Van Noort's Tractatus de ecclesia Christi]
with regard to CHB's interest in papal authority on non-doctrinal non-ethical matters. Restates Catholic doctrine on papal infallibility, emphasising the qualification ‘ex cathedra’, noting “it is doubtful whether he has so defined anything since 1870”, and also stating assent to lesser papal dictums may be withheld without risking categorisation as a heretic. States the primacy of papal authority over the
episcopate - “but the ‘proof’ of such puddings is of course in the eating”.
1p
BBB 1/171 8 May 1946
BB to CHB
Anticipates birth of CHB's [second] child. CHB to be released [?demobilised] in September; enjoying some academic work. BB's wishes to publish more on the Synoptic Problem, but lacks time. Reading Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie. Recounts a
Downside pupil's foiled plan to sell insurance to fellow pupils against disciplinary punishments. BB to speak at Cambridge on 9 June on “the Church as a pillar of truth and source of strength”.
1p
BBB 1/172 2 June 1946
BB to CHB
Birth of CHB's daughter Raphaelle. BB admires and envies CHB's ability to lecture in German to a German-speaking audience. On reforms proposed by Ellen Wilkinson [Minister of Education], echoes comments by [Alexander Ross Wallace] the headmaster
of Sherbourne, that the removal of the School Certificate Examination would demotiviate masters and pupils.
1p
BBB 1/173 27 September 1946
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Accepts CHB's congratulations [on BB's election as abbot of Downside on 12 September]: “[t]he burden of responsibility is very heavy, though I'm almost ashamed to say I am enjoying it at present”. BB has visited
London (for an interview), Worth and [their parents'] home. CHB on holiday. Anticipates CHB's struggle to get “a minimum of financial adequacy and also an attractive ‘sphere of
work’”.
1p
BBB 1/174 22 November 1946
Bertha Alice Butler at 25 Downshire Square, to her son, CHB
CHB now settled in [new home]. Illness of [sister] Mary [Butler]. Recounts their visit to Downside and the investiture of BB as abbot. Other attendees mentioned: Martin Hancock, Canon Kernon, Fr Johnson.
2p
BBB 1/175 23 November 1946
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Comments on the ceremony [of investiture as abbot of Downside]. Holiday plans: Worth Priory for a few days; then Ipswich, visiting aunt Thyrza; then Beccles and Bungay.
1p
BBB 1/176 18 December 1946
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Comments on the text of a “very interesting” sermon by CHB: “I particularly noticed your insistence that nothing but an invitation to total self-surrender will cut much ice in post-Nazi
Germany”. CHB considering [working in] Germany.
1p
1947
BBB 1/177 6 March 1947
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. CHB's Germany plans frustrated; BB queries his future plans. Fuel and power shortages. BB enjoying working since Christmas on the Synoptic Problem: an article for a single volume Bible commentary; a
Downside Review article; a paper for a Catholic Higher Studies conference after Easter; a book. “I am very confident of the validity of my main contentions, but very apprehensive when I
consider the mountain-range of prejudice that I shall be challenging”. Comment on the continuing decline of the West: “[h]ow people who are not Christians keep up any sort of courage I don't know. For us it is
different: ‘When these things begin to come to pass, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh’” [Luke, 21:28].
1p
BBB 1/178 8 March 1947
BB to CHB [at Brighton]
Defends intellectual pursuits and particularly Synoptic exegesis alongside the prevailing importance of the “conversion and sanctification of individuals”; priority of St Matthew's gospel. CHB's position at St
Matthias, [Preston, Brighton] possibly permanent.
1p
BBB 1/179 11 March 1947
BB to CHB
CHB's immediate future settled. BB convinced CHB's “difficulty with the quality ... in the Church's authority” might be surmounted by further discussion. BB considering Oxford [University] Press as publishers of
his book.
1p
BBB 1/180 3 April 1947
BB to CHB and Josephine Mary Butler (JMB)
Easter wishes. Childrens' health. Encloses “‘popular’” [writings by BB] - “statement rather than proof”. BB's book progressing.
1p
BBB 1/181 10 April 1947
BB to CHB
Responds to CHB's comments on BB's article: the greater logical economy of BB's thesis; rejects hypothesis that Mark drew upon an incomplete text of St Matthew's gospel; the imputation of prejudice BB risks when arguing to non-Catholic scholars
in the context of the pronouncements of the Bible Commission - “if the B.C. decree had not agreed with my own critical convictions I should just not have written on the Synoptic Problem”; St Mark valuing his material
as “Petrine reminiscences”. Oxford [University] Press open to a convincing minority opinion work. Engagements: Reading; Cambridge; and Ampleforth [Abbey] to preside at the [re-]election
of abbot [Herbert Byrne]. CHB presumed now the vicar of St Matthias, [Preston].
1p
BBB 1/182 8 May 1947
BB to CHB and JMB
BB's visit to CHB at Brighton; and to their parents' home - meeting also their siblings Mary, Bernard and Felix.
1p
BBB 1/183 18 May 1947
BB to CHB
Requests loan of [Charles Harold] Dodd's
Parables of the kingdom, in preparation for an address to Church of England clergy at Bath on [4] June. Reading and reviewing Christus und die zeit by [Oscar] Cullmann; brief summary of
its thesis.
1p
BBB 1/184 Wednesday [21 May 1947]
BB to CHB at 363 Ditchling Road, Brighton
Note of thanks.
1p
BBB 1/185 5 June 1947
BB to CHB
Returns Dodd's
Parables of the kingdom: an “interesting and important” book; Dodd “far too radical in his treatment of the sources”; criticism of formgeschichte [form
criticism] as “a highly subjective game”; noting nevertheless “how often radical criticism goes hand in hand with (relatively) orthodox conclusions as regards the character of Christian
revelation”. Weekend at Worth Priory. BB's book progresses; apprehension as to its reception.
1p
BBB 1/186 26 September 1947
BB to CHB
BB to visit Worth Priory from 30 September to 3 October. Arrangement to meet.
1p
BBB 1/187 4 October 1947
BB to CHB
Offers thanks for visit. Comments on the education of a boy with a Catholic mother, suggesting Worth Priory. Encloses latest review article. BB awaits decision of Cambridge University Press concerning his book.
1p
BBB 1/188 11 December 1947
BB to CHB
Health of Josephine. Awaiting response from [?Robert] Speaight on a manuscript of CHB's. Cambridge University Press' acceptance of BB's
The originality of St Matthew, scheduled for publication in June 1949. BB reading From the stone age to Christianity by [William Foxwell Albright], “a
magnificently learned & masterly expré [sic; ?exprès]”. BB considering writing a study of “the teaching of Christ in the Synoptic Tradition”, with summary of main points, and
contrasted with C.H. Dodds' thesis. Christmas wishes.
1p
BBB 1/189 23 December 1947
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes. BB visited their mother at Reading, 21 December. Fr Brooks returned from St Michael's in Germany; Goodchild. BB contemplating an article on Jewish history contemporary to St Matthew's gospel, countering [George Dunbar]
Kilpatrick's [
The origins of the gospel according to St Matthew]: “... I date the book about half a century earlier!”
1p
1948
BBB 1/190 1 January 1948
BB to CHB
Comments on CHB's letter to
The Times vis-à-vis marriage and children [‘The purpose of marriage’, 1 January 1948; page 5; issue 50957; col. D: a correspondence initiated in the wake of a Law Lords (divorce)
decision], and describing the State as “practically pagan”. Notes a letter from [Arthur T.] Macmillan, [on the same subject]. BB has written to [?Robert] Speaight mentioning CHB's manuscript.
1p
BBB 1/191 6 March 1948
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. London meeting. Enquires about CHB's lectures to school teachers. Comments on C. H. Dodd article positing a common source behind St Paul's writings and St Matthew's gospel; BB working on similar lines, has detected links in St
Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Visits Worth Priory briefly the week after next.
2p
BBB 1/192 25 March 1948
BB to CHB
CHB short holiday planned in April. BB spent the time of his recent visit to Worth Priory with the community; visits again around 20 May, and hopes to see CHB then. Reports death of Syriac scholar Fr Hugh Connolly, “a
great loss”. Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/193 6 May 1948
BB to CHB
Proposes a meeting on 20 May, following a stay at Worth Priory.
1p
BBB 1/194 9 May 1948
BB to JMB and CHB
Arrangements for 20 May meeting. Departs for Ireland on Tuesday [11 May].
1p
BBB 1/195 Wednesday [19 May 1948]
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB and JMB
Further arrangements for 20 May meeting.
1p
BBB 1/196 [postmarked 5 October 1948]
BB at [25 Downshire Square], Reading, to CHB
BB at Reading for three days, then Worth Priory: proposes meeting at Worth.
1p
BBB 1/197 7 October 1948
BB to CHB
Regrets [not meeting at Worth Priory]; declines visit to Brighton, “despite the very real added attraction of [George Bell] the B[isho]p of Ch[ichester]”.
1p
BBB 1/198 22 December 1948
BB at Downside Abbey, to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes.
1p
1949
BBB 1/199 24 January 1949
BB at [25 Downshire Square], Reading, to CHB
BB on holiday, and thus “able to give small presents”, and sends 2 oz tobacco.
1p
BBB 1/200 5 February 1949
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Congratulates CHB on the birth of another child.
1p
BBB 1/201 6 March 1949
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Birthday wishes. Visit to see CHB and two [eldest] children yesterday. Expresses interest in CHB's decision concerning his future career [?and ecumenism]: “it would be interesting if you took the offer and were thus
forced into a consideration of the basis of ecclesiastical unity. I think it is important to realise that though the Church will in heaven be coincident with the order of charity, a facile identification is not possible in this world; and that yet,
for the sake of charity, one must do one's best to attain full ecclesiastical membership. It is true that we shall be judged by charity. But charity itself, properly understood, involves the Christian institution, i.e. all that goes to make up the
visible Church; and unity. We have to maintain both charity & the Church, rather as we have to believe both in Christ's divinity and in His manhood.”. BB met [Dr Geoffrey Fisher] the Archbishop of Canterbury after a meeting of the
Governing Bodies Association [of Public Schools].
1p
BBB 1/202 27 March 1949
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
BB to address a local Church of England clerical group on Anglican-Catholic relations in April: “[t]hey have been warned!” Suggests [John Henry] Newman, in attempting to become an “Anglican Aquinas”, “in consequence became a R.C.”. Makes invitation to Downside.
1p
BBB 1/203 15 April 1949
BB to CHB
Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/204 7 May 1949
BB to CHB
Commiserates with CHB on childrens' illness. BB's book not yet printed. Intends reading Syker's article. Wilfred Knox's article “immensely learned as usual, and perhaps a trifle
perverse”. Grateful that CHB's first son was not named Mark; suggests name Papias for the next son.
1p
BBB 1/205 8 October 1949
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
BB at Worth Priory, with interruptions, until 21 October. Proposes visit to Brighton.
1p
BBB 1/206 10 December 1949
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Concern for health of CHB's family. Expansion of BB's thoughts expressed in a letter to
The Times re Matthew 16:[13-20] and the authenticity of Petrine texts [‘Rome and divided Christendom’, 8 November 1949; page 5; issue 51533; col. E]. Comments on this
Times correspondence and its conclusion, and to which CHB also contributed an unpublished letter. Welcomes CHB's good review of BB's radio broadcasts; the remaining two talks recorded on 9 December, for transmission
on the 3rd and 4th Sundays of Advent. BB to read a paper at Oxford in January, on the visible unity of the Church.
1p
BBB 1/207 23 December 1949
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes.
1p
1950
BBB 1/208 7 March 1950
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Election result: appointment of Richard Stokes [as Minister of Works] - a Christian first and a ‘labourite’ as a poor second - welcomed; loss by Ivor Bulmer-Thomas of his seat at Newport,
[Monmouthshire]. BB reports correspondence with an Anglican clergyman unable to deny his Anglican Orders but otherwise with Roman Catholic beliefs.
1p
BBB 1/209 9 March 1950
BB to CHB
Revisits the subject of the corresponding Anglican clergyman, noting the Pope's decree on Anglican Orders is not a definition of faith - infallible - “but the determination of a ‘historical’ point or (if you like) ‘dogmatic fact’”; and suggesting this clergyman's continuance to function with his beliefs within the Church of England draws upon himself the
charges of schismatical worship and disobedience [to the Pope].
1p
BBB 1/210 6 April 1950
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Thanks CHB for his letter in
The Times [‘The purpose of punishment’, 6 April 1950; page 7; issue 51659; col. D]: “[t]he moral nature of civil punishment is, I think, most vital to
emphasize, since if it is once allowed that the guilty don't deserve their punishment (and unless punishment is by nature retributive, I don't see how they can), then I don't see what is to stop the state inflicting
suffering on the innocent, if for ‘reasons of state’ it is judged convenient to do so.”
1p
BBB 1/211 7 April 1950
BB to CHB
Clarifies certain points re the Anglican clergyman: firstly, that as the papal decree against Anglican Orders is not understood as an infallible one, such a clergyman could convert without denying the validity of his Orders and risk
“‘acting a lie’”; secondly, his acceptance of lay status would be an act of obedience but “not an implied assertion that [he] is only a layman. I.e. ... converts aren't bound to believe or to affirm on this matter anything that other Catholics don't believe or affirm”. BB unable to visit during his short visit
to Worth Priory: “I wanted to be available for the monks as much as possible”.
1p
BBB 1/212 12 April 1950
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for (unspecified) literature: “how awful to think that one may be as mad as that oneself, and not know it!!” Comments again on CHB's letter to
The Times: “I must say I'm horrified at the growth and encroachments of the a-moral state”. Congratulates CHB on his parish's Easter offerings and his parishioners'
“due gratitude” [£76 Easter offerings recorded in 1951/2 Crockford's Clerical Directory, an increase from £27 in 1949/50]. BB on retreat.
1p
BBB 1/213 18 April 1950
BB to CHB
Discusses suitability and character of various schools for CHB's son Jeremy: Monkton Combe School; St John's School, Leatherhead; Brighton College; Woodard Schools. Visits Worth Priory in May, hoping to see CHB then. Reports other family
news.
1p
BBB 1/214 28 April 1950
BB to CHB
Admires CHB's second contribution to the debate on the ‘Purpose of punishment’ in
The Times [26 April 1950; page 7; issue 51675; col. D]. Sending a paper by BB recently published in a magazine [“The Unity of the Church.” Blackfriars 31 (April 1950): 156-71].
1p
BBB 1/215 4 May 1950
BB to CHB
Comments on recent correspondence initiated by CHB's contributions to the debate on the ‘Purpose of punishment’ in
The Times. “The vocal element of the population (e.g. the Dean of St Paul's) seems extraordinarily vague about fundamental moral principles, the moral authority of the state, the sanctity of
human life, the marriage-law etc. etc. etc.” BB at Worth Priory on 16 May; proposes meeting at Brighton.
1p
BBB 1/216 7 May 1950
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for his comments on the [
Blackfriars] article. Meeting arrangements at Brighton for 17 May. Explores BB and CHB's disagreement on [Church] unity, locating the difficulty not in the nature of such unity but in “the
nature of the Church herself”. “Is the Church militant a Society, or is it something else? If it is a society, then I think my inferences in the article hold good.” Brief justification of BB's belief in the
doctrine of Infallibility. Compares CHB's attitude toward this doctrine - “so great a difficulty as to render inacceptable, for this reason alone, any religious system that claims it” - to the attitude of 19th-century
scientists toward miracles, and who “were then prejudiced against historical arguments in favour of miracles alleged to have actually happened”.
1p
BBB 1/217 21 May 1950
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Thanks for CHB's hospitality at Brighton. Summarises CHB's position on Church unity and authority.
“We agree that the Church is the means by which the individual makes contact with God in Christ, and that the Church
re-presents Christ in history and in the contemporary moment. You - to my surprise and delight! agree that before 1054 (and apart, I suppose, from the frequent periods before that date when the East was temporarily separated from the West), the
Church was able to define doctrine, and that such definitions are to be believed on her authority (derived from Christ).
But you question in what sense the Church is a ‘society’, and you maintain that she can
exist on earth without actual unity of government and communion. And you also ask whether it is possible to commit oneself beforehand to possible future definitions, as one does and should commit oneself to past definitions; you ask this not only in
respect of the Church, but of Christ in his historical life, supposing that one were contemporary with his original disciples.”
Challenges the logicality of suspending assent from future definitions when, “because they carry the [unified] Church's guarantee”, past definitions have been assented: in this way the (recovered) ‘defining power’ of the (restored unified) Church has
already been admitted.
“My view is that the Church of the N.T. and of the first millennium was a society in the sense indicated in my Blackfriars paper ... It seems to me quite obvious and not really controvertible
that two bodies that lead parallel independent lives, neither subordinate to the other or to any superior contemporary historical unity, are not one society but two. It seems clear that, for those who believe that the separated Eastern communion and
the R.C. Church are one‘church’, the Church must be not a society, but a movement, a tendency, a supernatural race.”
Returns to Downside tomorrow.
1p
BBB 1/218 20 June 1950
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Informs CHB about Knoyle School, Brighton.
1p
BBB 1/219 22 June 1950
BB to CHB
Family news. Doubts the value of [George] Salmon's book
The infallibility of the Church, and its conformity with CHB's current views.
1p
BBB 1/220 27 September 1950
BB to CHB
BB at Worth Priory for ten days from 5 October; proposes meeting in Brighton. Recommends the “fascinating”Revelation and the modern world by L. S. Thornton.
1p
BBB 1/221 30 September 1950
BB to CHB
Meeting arrangements.
1p
BBB 1/222 12 October 1950
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB and JMB at 25 Downshire Square
Visit of BB, and Martin Hancock (en route to Rome), to Jeremy [Butler] at school.
1p
BBB 1/223 20 October 1950
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Owing to a death at Worth Priory BB unable to meet CHB. Encloses pamphlet on J.'s W. [?Jehovah's Witnesses]: “[w]e certainly pay a high price for the principle of toleration”. Suggests CHB pray for
“light on the Church issue, and the grace to follow it”. Reading [John Henry] Newman on the certainty of the Assumption.
1p
BBB 1/224 18 November 1950
BB to CHB [at 363 Ditchling Road]
Notes CHB impending move to Crawley in February, its proximity to Worth Priory and Jeremy [Butler], and the financial consequences.
1p
BBB 1/225 14 December 1950
BB to CHB
BB's concern re CHB's net income at Crawley compared to that [at Preston] - “which can't be much more than at present”. BB in Exeter on 24 January to address a Church Union meeting, presided over by (Anglican)
Bishop [Robert Cecil] Mortimer of Exeter; hopes of a Russian [Orthodox] and a Nonconformist speaker. Declines invitation to CHB's induction [to Crawley] on 25 January. Queries CHB's duty to teach transubstantiation and Church unity as, respectively,
“a blasphemous fable and [a] dangerous deceit”. Urges CHB to befriend the Franciscans at Crawley. Responding to the prospect of [Crawley] parish numbering 60,000, hopes CHB will be a Roman Catholic well within twelve
years. Christmas wishes.
2p
BBB 1/226 20 December 1950
BB to CHB
CHB's improved financial position: Crawley net income of £650. BB re-reading [Fr] Ronald A. Knox's
A spiritual Aeneid, “certainly makes a certain life of ‘Anglo-Catholicism’ very vivid”. In the context of the Lateran Council's definition of the effect
of consecration as transubstantiation, notes this is no commitment to the truth of Aristotelianism, “rather, that the truth of the Real Presence, if expressed in Aristotelian language, is ‘Transubstantiation’. What is really insisted on is that ‘This is my body ... my blood’ means what it says; while at the same time nothing can be two different things at once”.
1p
1951
BBB 1/227 8 February 1951
BB to “Hilary” (CHB) at [The Rectory], Crawley, Sussex
CHB and family in new home [at Crawley]. BB visits Worth Priory from 17 to 21 February; proposes visits to Crawley and the Priory. Encloses a magazine article by BB on the Church militant.
p
BBB 1/228 7 March 1951
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Poultry at Worth Priory. Death of CHB's friend Dr Richards. Responding to CHB's dislike of papal infallibility: CHB's objections located in the concept of infallibility itself, and the consequences of which, if valid, would be
very serious - “‘Modernism’ would be a pale word to describe [them]”. BB invited by his old friend Rex Wright (O.R.) [?Old Readingensian] to address the next Church Unity Octave.
1p
BBB 1/229 Maundy Thursday [22 March 1951]
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/230 19 April 1951
BB to CHB
BB due at Worth Priory on 24 May for a few days; proposes meeting. An unidentified work by Morrison “seems doomed to be misapprehended”, and was once mis-categorised as fiction in the school's library by a lay
assistant librarian.
1p
BBB 1/231 23 May 1951
BB to JMB and CHB
Health of CHB's family.
1p
BBB 1/232 11 June 1951
BB to CHB
To counter CHB's pragmatic defence of the Church of England as a Church that “‘works’”, imagines a surviving son of Henry VIII and Catharine of Aragon, no English Reformation, and an
English Roman Catholic Church as strong as that in Ireland; and finds the Church of England “immensely weaker” than the Irish Roman Catholic communion: “however much the C. of E.
‘works’, the R.C. ‘works’ far better”. BB enjoying his work on St Cyprian, and which may develop into a book.
1p
BBB 1/233 6 October 1951
BB to CHB
Interest in CHB's letter to
The Times [‘Punishment of the young’, 6 October 1951; page 7; issue 52125; col. E].
1p
BBB 1/234 22 December 1951
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes. Enquires after Raphaelle [Butler's] concert. Account of a children's concert BB attended, culminating in “an unrehearsed impromptu fight between two urchins”.
1p
1952
BBB 1/235 16 February 1952
BB to CHB
BB due at Worth Priory, leaving Downside on 20 February; proposes a joint trip on 24 February to see their mother at Reading on her birthday.
1p
BBB 1/236 Sunday [17 February 1952]
BB to CHB at 25 Downshire Square
Cancels planned [Reading trip].
1p
BBB 1/237 25 February 1952
BB to CHB [at The Rectory, Crawley]
BB at Reading on 24 February for mother's birthday party, missing CHB. Notes an item in that day's
The Times [?‘United Sunday school in new town’, 25 February 1952; page 8; issue 52244; col. E], and refers to “reunion from the bottom upwards at
Crawley”. BB notes he may now drive himself in future, easing meeting arrangements.
1p
BBB 1/238 6 March 1952
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB in London tomorrow for meeting. BB's driving. Fr Victor visit to Downside.
1p
BBB 1/239 10 March 1952
BB to CHB
BB qualifies his ‘reunion’ remark on events in Crawley. Appreciates CHB's “brigandish” picture of the Franciscan friars [at Crawley], [using old-fashioned straight razors]:
“[i]t always seems to me that if you want to make a radical challenge against the bases of modern life you had much better observe all the unessential conventions.” CHB present at a Requiem [service]; sorrow for
[?widow] Ronnie.
1p
BBB 1/240 25 March 1952
BB to CHB
Comments and guidance on an apostate Roman Catholic priest who has applied to marry within the Anglican communion.
1p
Note: access to this record will be limited under the terms of the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
BBB 1/241 11 April 1952
BB to CHB
Easter wishes. BB at Worth Priory on 16 and 17 April; proposes meeting.
1p
BBB 1/242 27 April 1952
BB to CHB
Apologises for briefness of their last meeting. Encloses an open note, which with CHB's approval, might be passed to the previously discussed apostate priest (see
BBB 1/240).
1p
Note: access to this record will be limited under the terms of the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
BBB 1/243 30 April 1952
BB to CHB
BB reviewing for the
Tablet an abridged edition of [George] Salmon's The infallibility of the Church: “a very inaccurate book”.
1p
BBB 1/244 9 May 1952
BB to CHB
Encloses proof of BB's
Tablet review of Salmon's The infallibility of the Church.
1p
BBB 1/245 7 July 1952
BB to CHB
CHB family's health.
1p
1953
BBB 1/246 30 January 1953
BB to JMB and CHB
Congratulations on birth of another child. Encloses an article for CHB.
1p
BBB 1/247/1-2 25 February 1953
BB to CHB
Recommendations to a Mr Timworth for paid employment in London, with BB's reference.
2p
BBB 1/247/2 Undated [after 15 February 1953]
GBP [?G.B. Timworth]
Returns BB's letter, with thanks.
1p
BBB 1/248 28 February 1953
BB to CHB
Mother's illness. Reaction of the debated apostate priest to an unidentified article by BB [?‘St Cyprian on the Church, I’,
Downside Review 71 (Winter 1952-53): 1-13], (see
BBB 1/240 and
BBB 1/242). Promises to send CHB next and concluding instalments.
1p
Note: access to this record will be limited under the terms of the UK Data Protection Act 1998.
BBB 1/249 5 March 1953
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB meeting in London tomorrow. BB recounts news of CHB's birth being reported to him by their father. BB attempting to answer George Salmon's
The infallibility of the Church in book form.
1p
BBB 1/250 12 March 1953
BB to CHB
BB answering an abridged edition of George Salmon's
The infallibility of the Church due to reports from a Catholic publisher that the work was “doing harm”. Counters CHB's argument against papal infallibility per
se, resisting the exclusion of its past history from the evidence: denies any individual possesses sufficient objectivity or evidence to undertake such judgements; offers counter-examples of the positive products of Roman Catholic communions,
namely in the Black Forest, Germany, and in Glasgow; warns against being swayed by the circumstances surrounding the apostate priest. “And taken in the broad, I think that the verdict of history is that Christianity has
survived as a world-force because it has been carried by and in an infallibilistic society. How else did it survive the Dark Ages?” Thanks CHB for his suggestions.
2p
BBB 1/251 16 March 1953
BB to CHB
Apologises for any “touch of asperity” in his last letter; acknowledges his gratitude for CHB's advice and help.
1p
BBB 1/252 2 April 1953
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Family health.
1p
BBB 1/253 [?April 1953]
BB to CHB
Encloses second instalment of BB's article on St Cyprian [‘St. Cyprian on the Church, II.’Downside Review 71 (April 1953): 119-34].
1p
BBB 1/254 25 April 1953
BB to CHB
Declines invitation to [?birthday] celebrations for [CHB's son] Andrew, and regrets not meeting the bishop. BB's satisfaction with the article on St Cyprian [‘St. Cyprian on the Church, II.’Downside Review 71 (April 1953): 119-34]. BB's answer to George Salmon's The infallibility of the Church progressing: “I've been quoting [Adolf von] Harnack
against him - a rather amusing game”. Family health.
1p
BBB 1/255 14 July 1953
BB to CHB
Arrangements for BB to address CHB's group, but declines speaking inside his church itself for fear of any ensuing misunderstandings; requests a title for the talk.
1p
BBB 1/256 17 July 1953
BB to CHB
Accepts CHB arrangements and title for the talk [at Crawley]. BB intends to stay at Worth Priory on 22 July, and pay his “usual visit” to St Leonards the following day, returning to Downside on 24 July. BB not
mentioned [?Kenneth Needham] Ross's book in his answer to Salmon on Infallibility: “apart from the question of the Assumption, it was probably mostly already in Salmon”. Refers in footnote to
“an interesting book” by Canon [Edward Charles] Rich,
Spiritual authority in the Church of England. BB's manuscript at the publisher.
1p
BBB 1/257 1 August 1953
BB at St Bernard's Convent, Slough, Buckinghamshire, to CHB
Compliments CHB's group [at Crawley]. BB leading a retreat at the convent, part of a girl's school. Returns to Downside on 3 August; at Belmont Abbey on 4 August for quadrennial General Chapter.
1p
BBB 1/258 12 August 1953
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Linking its contents to his recent talk at Crawley, BB encloses proofs of an article [‘Mystical Prayer.’Clergy Review 38 (August 1953): 450-64].
1p
BBB 1/259 1 October 1953
BB to CHB
Encloses cutting from the
Tablet, apologising that CHB's name as the originator of the proposal for a Joint Committee is not mentioned. BB returned from Rome.
1p
BBB 1/260 8 November 1953
BB to CHB
Health of their mother. Refers to an article of BB's offering CHB no surprises as to his position on the nature of the Church.
1p
BBB 1/261 21 December 1953
BB to JMB, CHB “and all”
Christmas wishes, enclosing card manufactured at Downside.
1p
BBB 1/262 30 December 1953
BB to CHB
BB supplies evidence from various authorities to CHB, in aid against an unidentified ‘opponent’, on the subject of the composition of wine served at the paschal supper, and particularly its alcoholic content.
1p
1954
BBB 1/263 6 March 1954
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB at Worth Priory from 5-11 March; invitation to sup at Worth. Visit of Martin [Hancock] on 8 March; and, with Prior, to St Leonards on 9 March.
1p
BBB 1/264 12 March 1954
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Thanks CHB for the
Chronicle. BB's book [The Church and infallibility, New York: Sheed and Ward] published today: CHB to have received a copy.
1p
BBB 1/265 1 April 1954
BB to CHB
BB has written to the representative of the English Benedictines in Rome requesting a ticket [to a papal audience], and to John.
1p
BBB 1/266 15 April 1954
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/267 10 May 1954
BB to JMB and CHB
Thanks CHB for his congratulations [on BB's re-election as abbot of Downside]: “[t]o tell the truth, there was a bit of me that was looking forward to leisure to write more books ... but it is perhaps not surprising that
God has his own idea of how we may best serve him”. Comments on Raphaelle [Butler] having learnt the sign of the Cross and on its Ambrosian origin. Notes that the
Church Times has not yet reviewed The Church and infallibility, nor any non-Catholic paper. Anticipates higher North American sales, and the contribution book's royalties might make to
projected building works at Downside. BB spent his birthday at with their mother and sister at home. Enquires whether John met the Pope.
1p
1955
BBB 1/268 7 March 1955
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Invitation to lunch at Worth Priory on 15 March. BB visits Douglas, 8-9 March, anticipating “an orgy of chess-playing”.
1p
BBB 1/269 7 April 1955
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. BB last week at a ‘Biblical Theology’ conference at Oxford.
1p
BBB 1/270 7 May [?1955]
BB to JMB and CHB
Birthday of Raphaelle [Butler]. BB's liking for the Bishop of Stepney. BB to Oxford tomorrow to “‘preach’” on the ‘Age of the great Hercules’.
1p
BBB 1/271 12 May 1955
BB to CHB
BB at Worth Priory from 17 May; proposes meeting.
1p
BBB 1/272 20 November 1955
BB to CHB
BB at Worth Priory from 25 November; proposes a lunch at the Priory. CHB's family health.
1p
BBB 1/273 26 November 1955
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Reaction to the fire at Downside.
1p
1956
BBB 1/274 6 March 1956
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB preaching a “‘quiet day’” tomorrow. BB at Worth Priory on 16 March; hopes for a meeting. Spent two nights last week with Douglas; chess.
1p
BBB 1/275 22 March 1956
BB to CHB
Returns a copy of a press profile of CHB. BB returned today from a meeting of the “‘mixed bathing’ [ecumenical] Society for the Study of Theology”, and reports on a paper given by
the Dean of St Paul's.
1p
BBB 1/276 8 May 1956
BB to CHB
CHB's satisfaction on visiting Marlborough; reference to a past “disastrous” intelligence test there. Suspense over the quadrennial visitation, beginning 11 May: “[you] never know what may
‘blow up’ on these occasions”.
1p
BBB 1/277 26 June 1956
BB to CHB
Raphaelle [Butler]'s birthday letter. CHB's visit to Cambridge and friends there: Hart. BB anticipates a baby sister for Raphaelle.
1p
BBB 1/278 5 September 1956
BB to JMB and CHB
Reaction to birth of another daughter to JMB and CHB, discussing name Veronica. BB's hopes for Jeremy Butler's acceptance at St John's, Leatherhead. Favourable comment on Gordonstoun School, referencing the part the school played in searching for
a missing lay-brother of Fort Augustus Abbey earlier in the year.
1p
Undated [1951/1956]
BBB 1/279 Tuesday [8 May] [1951 or 1956]
BB to CHB
BB at Douai Abbey on 7 May for a discussion; spending an hour at home on his birthday - “the first time, I imagine, for very many years”.
1p
1957
BBB 1/280 7 March 1957
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Asks after the result of Jeremy [Butler]'s examination. BB to play chess with a retired 80-year-old Church of England Canon living at Shepton Mallet - “plays formidably (by my standards!)”.
1p
BBB 1/281 Maundy Thursday [?18 April 1957]
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/282 8 May 1957
BB to CHB
Enquires about the outcome of CHB's visit to Chichester.
1p
BBB 1/283 20 June 1957
BB to CHB
Declines CHB's invitation to an unspecified discussion group event in July, citing adverse reaction to BB's recent attendance at a presentation ceremony for Karl Barth at Lambeth Palace, and insufficient time for an official Roman Catholic
response to the proposal to be enquired for and formulated. Visits of Desmond Pocock, and Ted Luny.
1p
BBB 1/284 18 November 1957
BB to CHB
BB awaits approval of the Apostolic Delegate, then the (Roman Catholic) Bishop of Southwark and the Friar Guardian at Crawley, prior to accepting CHB's invitation; suggests Fr Victor as an alternate, should BB's participation be opposed.
Arrangements. Jeremy [Butler] at St John's, [Leatherhead]. CHB settling in to new home. Comments on an “enjoyable” [BBC ‘Brains Trust’] panel discussion; distinguishes
“between certainty (when one knows) and the psychological condition when one ‘entertains no doubt’”, locating [A. J.] Ayer's concession as to his
certainty of the war in the latter category.
1p
BBB 1/285 28 November 1957
BB to CHB
Reports the approval of the Apostolic Delegate for acceptance of CHB's invitation to an event on 17 December, and awaits decisions from the [Cyril Conrad] Cowderoy, Bishop of Southwark and the Friar Guardian [at Crawley].
1p
BBB 1/286 19 December 1957
BB to JMB
Thanks JMB for her hospitality, especially given the turmoil of moving [to a new rectory]. Reports a minor traffic accident on his return to Downside Abbey.
1p
1958
BBB 1/287 6 March 1958
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB in London tomorrow; then to Staffordshire to lead a retreat for Mother Superiors. JMB and family now living in the new rectory. Prior of Worth visits Downside Abbey later in March. Recounts conversation with [?Margaret]
Knight, following a [BBC] broadcast: if the existence of an object is admitted to presuppose its conditions, its existence presupposes something unconditional; linguistic analytical riposte; BB's counter “we were living in
a C3 era of philosophy”. BB re-reading
Insight: a study of human understanding by Bernard Lonergan, S.J.: “I think it is a book of the century. It locates physical science within a general theory of
intelligent cognition, and within theistic metaphysic”.
1p
BBB 1/288 3 April 1958
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Anticipates a visit to Worth, and to see CHB, before August.
1p
BBB 1/289 16 April 1958
BB to CHB
Proposes a meeting at Worth on 6 May. BB's reaction to CHB's decision to move to British Columbia: “wasn't quite unexpected of course, but I suppose I had been hoping ‘against’ hope that,
after all, you would stay in England”.
1p
BBB 1/290 26 April 1958
BB to CHB
BB's “great joy” on seeing CHB and family. “I find it hard to bear the thought that meetings are not likely to be so easy in the future.” BB calls on CHB to resolve finally his
intellectual justification of the Anglican Church. [The following relevant paragraphs are quoted in their entirety.]
“There is one other thing that I have it on my mind to put to you - though, in all the circumstances, it may seem rather ironic to you, but, thank God, you have a sense of humour: I still have the feeling that you have
never really faced up to the legitimacy of the Anglican position; the thing I had to face thirty years ago, when of course it was much easier for me to do so than it can be for you now. I remember you saying to me once that you could not justify the
Anglican case on intellectual lines, but ‘it worked’. I cannot think that pragmatism at this particular level is really satisfactory; and in point of fact, as I wrote once in a letter to you, I don't think that even
on its own merits it applies to a form of religion which has had such a field for action in England for 400 years and has left the country in the religious state in which it is at present! But I admit that no-one can prove how much of the irreligion of England today is due to the schism.
What does seem to me to be an overwhelming consideration - granted, as we both grant, that the ‘gift of God’ in Christ
was for all men and for all ages ‘until the consummation of the world’ - is that the one society, an actual historical thing, as real and concrete as the Incarnation itself, is of the essence of that gift of God.
Anyone who denies this has the massive witness of Christian antiquity against him; and he has also to face the insolubility of the ideal of Christian reunion on his premisses - it is idle dreaming, it seems to me, to hope that one day the Roman
communion will renounce this idea of the single society, at the same time turning its back on the Christian past.
I know that what has always stuck in your throat is the Catholic belief that dogmatic decisions are irreversible (what is meant by
the spectre-word ‘infallibility’). On this I would say that, again granted that Christianity is what we believe it to be, a divine intervention to remedy the humanly incurable mess (both moral and intellectual) into
which we had got ourselves, we should expect it to function in some ways differently from a merely human discovery and device. We should expect it to demand a sort of faith which, while not unreasonable (since Christianity has adequate credentials)
would yet go beyond reason in the sense that not all we were required to believe would be transparent to the light of our reasoning power. Whatever one thinks of the historicity of the Fourth Gospel (and I'm not quite an obscurantist on N.T.
matters), I do think there is profound Christian truth in that incident in ch. vi where ‘many of his disciples walked no more in his company’ because the teaching about the bread of life etc. was
‘strange talk’, and Jesus asks the Twelve: ‘Would you too go away?’‘Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.’ Christ, in his
incarnation and in his Church, has, it seems to me, the right to ask us to accept his word as true and therefore irreformable.
Please don't think that this letter requires an answer. I only ask that, as you pray for light to decide the question
of Canada correctly, so you would ask for light about the Church; a little thought, but completely surrendered prayer, are what both problems require, I think.”
Reports, via a former resident of Canada, the virtues of [Oliver], British Columbia. Also reports another minor traffic accident.
1p
BBB 1/291 6 May 1958
BB to CHB
Notes the Bishop of Kootenay's eagerness to appoint CHB. CHB awaiting immigration permits. Considers best means of informing their mother of CHB's plans. Reacting to CHB's response to BB's call to reflect on the legitimacy of the Anglican Church,
does not doubt CHB's sincerity: “I'm sure that if you saw things as I see them you would take the practical steps that would follow from such ‘seeing’. If that moment comes, I only hope I can
help you all in some way”.
1p
BBB 1/292 12 May 1958
BB to CHB
Reaction to news of a decision against CHB's immigration, and counselling acceptance of God's providence and attending to the sacrifices no longer required of him. BB preparing three lectures on the Bible and the Church, to be delivered at
Edinburgh in October. “I gather that it will be as well to keep a weather eye on Presbyterian thought and prejudices - there are still Scotsmen, it seems, who love a theological argument.” Anticipates his ideas on
‘the word of God’ will be well received.
1p
BBB 1/293 27 June 1958
BB to JMB and CHB
Referring to a report in
The Times on 26 June, offers his sympathy. BB missed CHB's visit last week, being at Wolverhampton leading a retreat at a Carmelite convent. BB at London wedding, 28 June; then flies to Ireland.
1p
BBB 1/294 3 July 1958
BB to CHB
BB with their mother on 30 June. Comments on a photograph of CHB and Queen Elizabeth II: “both of you looked very pleased with life!” Martin [Hancock] staying at Downside for a few days.
1p
BBB 1/295 8 August 1958
BB to CHB
BB visit to see Joyce. Their mother's pessimistic thoughts on CHB's Canadian plan, now settled upon, weighed against the benefits to the children.
1p
BBB 1/296 13 August 1958
BB to CHB
Reacts to news of a letter sent to CHB [?on blood sports]. BB to lead a retreat at [The Priory of Our Lady], Hayward's Heath on 9 September; proposes meeting at Crawley to say goodbye.
1p
BBB 1/297 5 September 1958
BB to CHB
BB at Reading from 17 to 20 September; proposes alternate meeting arrangements.
1p
Undated [1951x1958]
BBB 1/298 Friday. Postmarked, 11 March/May [1951x1958]
BB to CHB
Arrangements for a meeting at Worth Priory.
1p
1959
BBB 1/299 18 May 1959
BB to CHB at Oliver Rectory, British Columbia, Canada
Contrasts CHB's new parish, its population and extent, with his last; and the differences in culture in a “‘young’” country: “[a]s Aristotle put it (in
somewhat different words!): though the worth of society consists in the good life, its generative cause is mere living”. BB's interest in CHB's thoughts on Confucius; suspects a general over-estimation of Oriental philosophers, excepting
“the Indian tradition”. BB's
Why Christ? delayed due to the departure of Michael Longman from the publisher Longmans - “mainly, it seems, because Longmans have decided to cut down heavily on their religious side” -
and foundation of a new company [Darton, Longman & Todd]; BB expects his book to follow him. Again recommends Insight by Bernard Lonergan S.J.: “about the most exhilarating piece of
thinking that I've struck for years. He ends up with a sort of interiorised, epistemologised, Thomism; but he takes the mode of thought of modern science into his scope, has exciting evolutionary ideas, and seems to me to offer a unification of
one's intellectual ranges which one has hankered after ever since one began to think”. Conveyed some of Lonergan's thought in a recent broadcast to 6th-formers on ‘Neo-Thomism’ [BBC Radio.
‘Philosophical Revival: The Neo-Thomists.’ May 15, 1959]. BB at Worth Priory for a few days last week. Reports the projected foundation of Worth senior school in September; and the opening of Downside School's two new
boarding houses and theatre. Reports the birthday of Bertrand Russell - “88 today, God help him”. CHB's Canadian photos viewed at Reading. Announces visit to Seattle by Fr Brendan Lavery in August; suggests a
meeting.
1p
BBB 1/300 8 July 1959
BB to CHB
Fr Lavery meeting in doubt. CHB holiday in prospect. Welcomes news of [A.C.] Bouquet, noting his adventurousness and longevity. Notes CHB's return to the “thinking poets”, specifically Robert Browning -
“the 19th century at one of its peaks”. BB recently read his ‘Caliban upon Setebos’, and ‘One word more’; considering ‘Bishop
Blougram's Apology’ as a topic for a school society talk next term. BB's interpretation of the
Instruction to Local Ordinaries on the ecumenical movement [1949] as cautiously “meant to give a ‘boost’ to ecumenical interest and endeavour”. Encouraged
by Pope John XXIII's talk of Unity re the General Council. Notes the latency of such ideas to permeate distant regions such as CHB's, and, inferring from a suspected predominance of Irish-influenced Catholics, anticipates anti-British and therefore
anti-Protestant resistance, also coloured by Canada's “peculiar national Catholicism”. Deprecates [CHB's report of] the Group Life Movement: “[a]ll this sort of thing makes me feel that
perhaps there is some justification for spending a lot of time on the intellectual presentation of Christianity. Br Butler, yes; also von Hügel”. Reports on two talks given by BB to staff members of Essex Technical Colleges, and to Armed
Services officers at Greenwich. Speaks tomorrow to an Association of Catholic Managers and Employers on the subject ‘Justice, charity and the employer’, chaired by Lord Pakenham. BB has agreed to write
“a short book on prayer for the non-specialist”; and a series of popular articles on the New Testament. BB notes he has the ear of the public on these subjects, and the paucity of other such Catholic voices. Reports
on a “fascinating” correspondence with a “Methodist (?) theologian” from Bristol on the subjects Inspiration and Criticism: “... of course he rejects both the
infallibility of the Church and any sort of ‘inerrancy’ of the Bible ... whereas I want to keep the former and, in some sense (you might say, a rather Pickwickian sense, but you mustn't be rude) the latter”.
Reports decision to build a new gymnasium at Downside School.
1p
BBB 1/301 11 July 1959
BB to CHB
Arrangements for a possible meeting between Fr Lavery and CHB. Reports meeting with CHB's “old friend” Sir Griffith Williams at a meeting of the Committee of the Governing Bodies Association [of Public
Schools].
1p
BBB 1/302 19 December 1959
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes. Reports BB's participation on 16 December at Bristol in an ecumenical day of discussion of the Bible. Recommends
The phenomenon of man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J., recently published in an English translation, introduced by Julian Huxley: “an attempt to read the evolutionary process as exhibiting
purpose and as a setting for the Incarnation”.
1p
1960
BBB 1/303 27 February 1960
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes; CHB's holiday plans attractive. BB to speak to the Catholic Society at Reading University, 3 March. Reports he has spoken to both Oxford and Cambridge Union Societies since Christmas: at Oxford “failed
(badly)” to carry “the R.C. Church is not a menace to freedom of thought and conscience in the Western world”; at Cambridge defeated the motion ‘Belief in a Personal God is not
conducive to the good life’, noting strength of Christianity there, and a weak opposing speech. At the request of Sir Griffith Williams, BB is to propose a vote of thanks to [Dr Geoffrey] Fisher [Archbishop] of Canterbury upon his
relinquishing chairmanship of the Governing Bodies Association of Public Schools - a task which “amuses” BB. BB notes only one review so far of his new book, in the
Catholic Herald. Attempting to write something on prayer. BB at Fort Augustus Abbey on 25 February for the blessing of the new abbot.
1p
BBB 1/304 14 April 1960
BB to CHB and JMB
Easter wishes. The second part of CHB's “education book” complemented; publishers Darton, Longman & Todd suggested. Thanks CHB for
Brother Sebastian [?by Chon Day]: “quite a contradictious sort of monk”.
1p
BBB 1/305 8 May 1960
BB to CHB
Interest in CHB's Lenten course, with sympathetic comments on Existentialism.
“I ‘discovered’ Kierkegaard for myself about a quarter of a century ago, and I thought him great. As afr
[sic] as I can see, existentialism, provided it realises its function, is doing something rather different from the classical philosophy; or rather something that the classical philosophy only did as a prelude - for
there was, wasn't there, something a bit Existentialist about the ancient Protrepticon [?Aristotle], books like the lost Hortensius of Cicero which intoxicated St Augustine as a young
man? A great danger of the old ‘liberal’ tradition in which we grew up is, that men tend to adopt a ‘point of view’ which falls short of self-committal in a personal judgement;
‘this (or that) is true, and I take the consequences’. I note that in his recent book on Yoga [Mircea] Eliade says that ‘for India, truth is not precious in
itself; it becomes precious by virtue of its soteriological function’ - which sounds to me both rather existentialist and rather Christian.”
Reassures CHB on his literary style. Further comment on a highlight of Lonergan's
Insight. Thanks CHB for his comments on BB's paper on education: notes a national preoccupation with the reform of education at the neglect of investigating its ultimate purpose; noting also The
search for values by J.R. Coleburt, a former pupil of BB. BB's Why Christ published in North America; notes only moderate UK sales. Anticipates visit from Fr Victor; news of Worth School.
1p
BBB 1/306 10 July 1960
BB to CHB, forwarded c/o Ted Laver, Snow White Deluxe Cottages, Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, Canada
BB to Malta for a week; takes CHB's manuscript; submitted to Darton, [Longman & Todd], with the publisher Bles the next option. Refers to a work on education their cousin [S.J.] Curtis [
An introduction to the philosophy of education]. Governing Bodies Association [of Public Schools] meeting on 8 July. Ill-health of mother. BB reassured Mr and Mrs Stubbs are with CHB.
1p
BBB 1/307 30 August 1960
BB to CHB at Oliver Rectory
Copies of CHB manuscript sent on to the publisher Geoffrey Bles and Dr [A.C.] Bouquet.
1p
BBB 1/308 2 September 1960
BB to CHB
Clarifies statements on Logos: agrees that “Christ as the Logos is behind all creation and within the human ego”, while the Logos incarnate is known “only by tradition and its vehicle, the
Church (for the Church also gives us the New Testament)”. Identifies CHB's difficulties with the doctrine of papal infallibility stem from “the practical uses made of it, e.g. in 1854 and 1951” and in principle;
and asserts that the Church's authority has been infallibilistic time out of mind, citing the Council of Nicaea's anathematization of Arianism. BB writing [
The idea of the Church].
1p
BBB 1/309 17 December 1960
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas and New Year wishes. Death of their mother. BB preaches at Fisher House, Cambridge University. Reports a talk on the relationship of the gospels of St Matthew and St Mark by BB given to the Hort Society, Cambridge University; meeting
with Alec Vidler. [
The idea of the Church] not progressing; book on the practise of prayer scheduled for Easter publication. BB's uncertainty over which of many requests for talks and writings ought to be refused. Praises the Archbishop
of Canterbury Dr [Geoffrey] Fisher's recent activities: “[r]eunion, humanly speaking, is almost a mirage, but charity is always worth while - and what they now call ‘dialogue’”.
Responds to the death of the Bishop of Kootenay, and enquires after his successor. Reports publication of BB's Didache article in the Journal of Theological Studies [‘The literary relations of
Didache, Ch. XVI’, (1960) XI(2), 265-283], and welcoming the return to learned rather than popularising activity. Anticipates holidaying at Reading and Worth in January. Plans of their sister Mary Butler.
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1961
BBB 1/310 2 March 1961
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Influenza - Downside spared as yet. Book progress [
The idea of the Church]. Publication of [Prayer in practice] anticipated soon. Sales of “the little Bible book” [Why Christ]
disappointing. BB corresponding with Arthur Adcock on ecumenism. BB has spoken at Christian Unity events at Romford and Malvern Link. Comments on “good psychological effect” of the visit to Rome by Dr [Geoffrey]
Fisher, former Archbishop of Canterbury; and on his successor [Arthur] Ramsey's theological convictions. Account of holiday at Reading and Worth. Should BB be appointed President of the English Benedictine Congregation later in the year, anticipates
the possibility of a visit to see CHB in Canada.
1p
BBB 1/311 4 May 1961
BB to CHB
Awaits news of a job offer to CHB from his Archbishop. Unfamiliar with an unidentified work by [Jacob] Bronowski, critical of his philosophy, and recommends again [Bernard] Lonergan. Manuscript of
The idea of the Church completed: “my conclusion is that she is a single Christian communion; but I don't prove that she's the R.C. communion”.
1p
BBB 1/312 11 June 1961
BB to CHB and JMB
Responds to news of CHB's children. Congratulates CHB on his appointment [as Lecturer and Canon at Christ Church Cathedral] in Victoria. Awaits result of CHB's submission of his “‘fantasy’” to [the publishers] Mowbrays. Can make no knowledgeable reply to CHB's enquiry re chaplains in state schools. Defends Bernard Lonergan's
Insight from the criticism of [A.C.] Bouquet; hopes to send CHB an unidentified article by BB, “partly inspired by Lonergan”. Hesitant accepting [F.L.] Cross' invitation to address the
[Second International Congress on New Testament Studies] meeting at Christ Church, Oxford, in September, the text to be published by Mowbrays [Spirit and institution in the New Testament]: “I'm trying ... to argue that Christianity has been ‘institutional’ab initio and as it sprang from our Lord's own ministry”. Manuscript of The idea of the Church submitted to Darton, Longman & Todd, and who await sale of the U.S.A. rights prior to their agreement to publish. Detects “anti-Popery” in a review of
The Church and the Bible in Theology [?]. Family news. Welcomes CHB's report of his approachable new bishop. Reports news of the Oxford [Summer Eights]. Further correspondence with Arthur
Adcock on ecumenism. Reports participation in a “rather fun” BBC radio programme, recorded at Winchester College.
1p
BBB 1/313 27 August 1961
BB to JMB and CHB at 2684 Seaview Drive, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Reports reluctant appointment as President of the English Benedictine Congregation; and anticipates a visit to U.S.A., and perhaps CHB. BB to speak at a Pauline conference at Rome [‘The Object of Faith According to St.
Paul’s Epistles.’,
Extractum ex Studiorum Paulinorum Congressus Internationalis Catholicus, 1963]. Fears his presidential duties will curtail his reading and writing. A paper on ‘The Matthean tradition’ in
preparation for the Bristol Theological Society. Anticipates “a minor and unimportant place” in the coming General Council [Second Vatical Council]. Comments on friendship and common ecumenical outlook of Archbishops
Heenan and Ramsey, and hopes for a Westminster appointment for the former.
1p
BBB 1/314 10 September 1961
BB to CHB
Re meeting arrangements, notes a second more planned visit to the U.S.A. scheduled in 1963.
1p
BBB 1/315 1 November 1961
BB to CHB
BB schedule for his American trip; with option to meet CHB this year or 1963. CHB's ethics lectures a success, citing a writer unknown to BB, [W.G.] Maclagan: “I suspect tha[t] many of these people are confused about the
‘formal’ aspect of moral decision - the pure ‘Kantian’ ought - and the content of the good which moral decision chooses”. CHB reading Lonergan. BB has preached at an academic high
mass at Manchester.
1p
BBB 1/316 11 November 1961
BB to CHB
CHB's bishop agrees to pay BB's travel expenses to meet CHB in Canada. Meeting arrangements. BB travels today to Dublin, then Liverpool. Proposes ‘The Second Vatican Council and the ecumenical movement’ as a title
for a lecture [at Victoria].
1p
BBB 1/317 20 November 1961
BB to CHB
Travel and meeting arrangements. Anticipates visiting the [Benedictine] Westminster Abbey, British Columbia, and Vancouver. Introduction offered by Sir George Rendel to the Governor-General of Canada. BB to address the students of Southampton
University this afternoon on the subject of miracles.
1p
BBB 1/318 25 November 1961
BB at St Anselm's Abbey, Washington 17, D.C., U.S.A., to CHB
Reports arrival in New York, and journey to St Anselm's Abbey. BB met with the Catholic Archbishop of Washington [Patrick O'Boyle], and the British ambassador [David Ormsby-Gore]; press. Positive view of the country and its people.
1p
BBB 1/319 1 December 1961
BB [?at St Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.], to CHB
Telegram reporting arrival time at Victoria.
1p
BBB 1/320 9 December 1961
BB at Downside Abbey, to JMB and CHB
Offers thanks for their hospitality. Uneventful return journey. Promises to send on an article on Catholicism and education.
1p
BBB 1/321 20 December 1961
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for his report of BB's visit, disputing its accuracy in one minor point. CHB preparing a series of evening lectures. Communication initiated between BB and the Bishop of Rochester re ecumenism, via
The Times letters page: “I ... suggested that it would make things easier for R.C.'s if it was agreed to use the phrase ‘recovery of Christian unity’ in
preferenc[e] to ‘reunion of the Church’” [14 December, 1961; page 13; Issue 55264; col. D]. [James Michael] Hill, Roman Catholic Bishop of Victoria, commended. Anticipates a short Vatican Council, and another
North American visit in 1963. Christmas wishes. Records the result of votes for the new monastic library at Downside, not one option swaying a majority: the least unpopular choice to be selected.
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1962
BBB 1/322 3 March 1962
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB's holiday at Reading and Worth in January. Reports recent activity: lectured in English on Anglicanism and Reunion at Fribourg, Switzerland; two talks in London; a discussion in Somerset with Anglican clergymen on Hans Küng's
The Council and reunion, reporting their attitudes and questions; lunches with the Bishop of Bristol and with the Bishop of Bath and Wells; a talk about obstacles to reunion at St Mark's [North] Audley Street. Future
engagements: visitation of the college-monastery at Badia Primaziale Sant'Anselmo, Rome. “If all this travelling around leads my commu[n]ity to elect a new abbot in May, it will not have been in vain.” Travels to the
Second Vatican Council on 4 October; anticipates little influence upon proceedings. Little time for reading.
1p
BBB 1/323 17 April 1962
BB to CHB and JMB
Reaction to the death of Bishop [James Michael] Hill. CHB's book offered to S.P.C.K. CHB's lectures a success; on CHB's television appearance(s) BB notes “[i]t's a wonderful short cut to becoming a public figure”.
Reviews
Worship in the New Testament by Gerhard Delling. BB's visits to Germany and Rome enjoyable. Writing a combative article on “‘the historical Jesus’”, the
modern consensus being determined by a collective bias as unbelievers and believers are bound in a positive feedback loop of radical and empirical conclusions, respectively: “[b]ut history is not a matter of demonstration -
at least not wuite [sic, recte quite] like that - but of accumulating probabilities, which can lead you to something like certitude”. [?Review:
‘Collective Bias and the Gospels.’Review of a new way of looking at the Gospels, by D. E. Nineham.] Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/324 16 May 1962
BB to CHB
Visit of CHB's son Jeremy to England; response to news of other CHB family. Congratulates CHB on an unspecified academic success. Recommends Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J., “if you don't try to force his statements into
traditional conceptual thinking”; and welcomes more inter-disciplinarity. Weighs synoptic arguments on the accounts of the Virgin Birth; recommends [J. G.] Machen's
The virgin birth of Christ. Responds positively to CHB's invitation to attend an ecumenical conference during his prospective visit to North America in 1963. BB notes growing ecumenical movement in England; BB to
address Warminster Theological College. Thoughts on re-election as abbot of Downside.
1p
BBB 1/325 28 May 1962
BB to CHB
Family news.
1p
BBB 1/326 6 July 1962
BB to CHB
Family news; visit of Jeremy and his ship to Portsmouth. Notes visit of [A.C.] Bouquet to CHB. Recommends various works on the history of education: [Werner] Jaeger's
Paideia, and [S.J.] Curtis' An introduction to the philosophy of education. CHB to visit Ontario. Approves of the presence of Anglican observers at the Second Vatican Council. Notes the
likelihood that the Second Vatican Council will continue over two sessions, and the benefits that may follow from this extension. BB travels to Ireland at the weekend. Visit of Martin Hancock on 9 July.
1p
BBB 1/327 30 July 1962
BB to JMB and CHB
Visit of Jeremy Butler. Reports appointment of a new Prior, Novice master, and Head master at Downside: “I feel rather like a little Macmillan, and I don't think my exodus to Rome will be at all premature!”
1p
BBB 1/328 1 October 1962
BB to CHB
Travel plans to Rome [Collegio Sant'Anselmo]. Family news. CHB article on compulsory education. CHB's liking for BB's
Prayer in practice; BB awaits CHB's reaction to The idea of the Church. The article ‘Collective bias’ to be published in the Downside Review. Comments cautiously on glossolalia and its alleged instances: “I suspect that [it] is a kind of religious Surrealism - an upsurge from the unconscious through temporary weakiening
[sic] of rational control”. Notes an invitation from a Dr Farmer, a synoptic scholar, to address his students at a Methodist university in Texas. Lunch meeting with the Bishop of Ripon, an Anglican observer at the
coming Council. Notes Dr [Geoffrey] Fisher's insubstantial comments on BB's The idea of the Church.
1p
BBB 1/329 13 December 1962
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas and New Year wishes. BB returned from Rome on 10 December, departing for there again on 8 September 1963. BB's report on the first session of the Second Vatican Council is quoted below in full.
“... I went to Rome with considerable foreboding. I knew there was much promising new life in the Church, but I feared that the tender growths would be crushed by the conservatism of a Council of elderly prelates. But
to my surprise and delight I found that the new life was immensely stronger that I had supposed, and had penetrated into the ranks not only of younger bishops but of the college of Cardinals. I expect the papers have given you a pretty fair account
of the Council. Every major act in the drama was satisfactory. First, there was the refusal to be hurried into voting members for the conciliar commissions before we had got our bearings and made some contacts. Then there was the vote of more than
half the Council in favour of withdrawing the schema of the Constitution on the Sources of Revelation [Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation – Dei Verbum]; the majority was however less than 2/3, and by the rules
of the game we should have had to go on to discuss the details of the schema, but the Pope intervened here on the side of common sense. Lastly, there was a proposal to discuss a schema on Our Lady and postpone that on the Church; this was turned
down by the Presidents of the Council - I had been afraid that the one concrete result of our first period in Council would have been a docuemtn [sic] on Our Lady which, good as it was, might have seemed like a rebuff to
Protestantism. As it is, we have no concrete results to show the world so far. But what has really been accomplished is tremendous. We have seen that the forward-looming forces in the Council are stronger than those that look defensively backwards;
and a large number of bishops have had an education which they can hardly entirely forget for the rest of their working lives. I spoke on four occasions (and accidnetally [sic], I was the last speaker last week before
the Pope's two closing addresses. My general aim, so far as my influence goes, is to avoid all dogmatic definitions, and all non-infallible but in fact scarcely reformable declarations about ‘open’ theological
questions; and I have specially been watching the subject of Scripture; during the last two years there has been a discreditable unofficial campaign going on in Rome against the ‘liberal’ Biblical Institute. There
have been some anxious moments, and of course few bishops came with up-to-date information about NT scholarship, but so far no disaster has occurred in this field.”
Notes the ill-health of Pope John XXIII and the modalities of the Council's suspension and reconvention: “... there was a feeling in Rome that so many hares had been started that any Pope
would feel almost obliged to continue the Council”. Consideration of the likely character of a new pope, should John XXIII die. BB probably to make his official visitations of Washington and Portsmouth, U.S.A. in June. BB's relief at the
temporary release from his “domestic” responsibilities, noting the good management of Downside under the new Head master and Prior in BB's absence: “it seems far easier to help rule the
universal Church than it is to manage one's own monastery!”. Notes the appointment of a new Roman Catholic Bishop of Victoria, and his presence at Rome.
1p
BBB 1/330 21 December 1962
BB to CHB
Notes their shared controversial tendencies. BB's indicates willingness to accept Lowe's invitation to give a series of talks to the Anglican Theol. Alumni. Reaction to CHB's positive comments on his book [
The idea of the Church] in the wake of an unfavourable review in the Times Literary Supplement; relays suggestion of Eric Mascall, “that
‘a society’ is an analogical term ...!”. Answers CHB on the position of Our Lady in the “Christian complex”, and dogmatic definitions of the immaculate conception and the
assumption, analysing the latter in the context of the resurrection. “I think that there is no necessity - at least that I can fully see - of a material continuity in order to constitute the identity of a human body (the
identity is given by the continuity of the identical soul). But why demand belief in things so peripheral?” At the time of his conversion to Roman Catholicism BB a sceptic of Marianism, but an appreciation of its importance followed its
acceptance: “it does justice to the bisexuality of the human race and it neatly ‘answers’ Genesis ii and the ‘motehr [sic] of all
living’; it balances to some extent the otherwise excessive masculinity of Christianity”. Discourses on the teaching authority of the Church. On “‘pure liberalism’”:
“I myself suspect that the answer to liberalism is that a really HUMAN union of men can only be on the basis of a common faith partially expressible in dogmatic formulae. A union based on common sentiment only would be
something less than fully human.” Places the book's arguments alongside those made by Bernard Lonergan. Notes the inadequacy of such letters to fully debate such points, and anticipates a meeting in person.
1p
1963
BBB 1/331 18 January 1963
BB at Worth Priory, to CHB
Thanks CHB for corrigenda. BB holidaying at Worth, and Downshire Square, [Reading]. Countering [A.C.] Bouquet and [William] Temple's placement of the [one holy Catholic] Church in a post-historic era, argues “the N.T.
represents the Church as already a fact in history”. Responding to CHB's comments on Jung, supposes [Jung's] view of Christianity is that it is the “explicitation of potentialities in human nature”, and while
acknowledging the truth of this also insists upon a supernatural complement, citing the axiom “materiae dispositae advenit forma” [form accrues to rightly-arranged matter].
1p
BBB 1/332 28 January 1963
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
Discusses corrections to
The idea of the Church. Notes support expressed by Cardinal Montini, “who may well be the next Pope”, for Hans Küng's book. Regrets the death of Archbishop William Godfrey, and discusses
Rome's choice of candidates for Westminster. The death of Hugh Gaitskill also regretted - “might have been a great P.M.” - and anticipates a hung parliament.
1p
BBB 1/333 2 March 1963
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Annual meeting yesterday of the Governing Bodies Association [of Public Schools] in London. In London again today to deliver two “‘spiritual’” talks and a
sermon-lecture “on the Gospels as historical documents”. Bemoans time consumed in administrative tasks.
1p
BBB 1/334 6 March 1963
BB to CHB
BB's participation in Lowe's Anglican Theol. Alumni conference in Vancouver confirmed for 21-24 May. North American travel itinerary.
1p
BBB 1/335 11 March 1963
BB to CHB and JMB
North American travel itinerary under modification due to: short-handed at Downside; Second Vatican Council; English Benedictine Community presidential duties; meeting on 10 May of the Governing Bodies Association of Public Schools (BB now
elected an ordinary member rather than a co-opted one as formerly); prospective meeting with Archbishop Ramsey at a private dinner-party at Clergy House on 16 May (“I think the Ramsey contact might be important”).
Emphasises desire to see CHB for as long as possible, but “my first duty is to Downside”.
1p
BBB 1/336 30 March 1963
BB to CHB
BB's relief that his North American tour curtailed: new itinerary; a Knights of Columbus engagement in [Victoria] added; requests CHB arrange for BB to say Mass. BB to stay at St Mark's College in Vancouver during the Anglican Theol. Alumni
conference. Compares the stipend of a British Columbian canonry with that of a deanship at Canterbury.
1p
BBB 1/337 7 April 1963
BB to JMB and CHB
North American itinerary modified to accommodate a meeting in San Francisco. BB preparing six short ‘Lift up your hearts’ BBC radio broadcasts, and the first of his talks on ecumenism for the Vancouver
conference.
1p
BBB 1/338 Good Friday [12 April 1963]
BB to CHB
Travel arrangements.
1p
BBB 1/339 8 May 1963
BB to CHB
Travel arrangements; requests Mass. Welcomes meetings arranged with Bill Bowman, [George Randolph Pearkes] the Lieutenant governor [of British Columbia], [Remi Joseph] De Roo the Roman Catholic Bishop of Victoria, and [Harold] Sexton the Anglican
Archbishop of British Columbia. Archbishop Ramsey now unable to attend the anticipated dinner at Clergy House. BB's conclusions as to Ramsey's beliefs from reading two of his works: “he seems to be a
‘high’ Anglican, affirming the irreformability of the dogmas of the first ecumenical Councils, and in fact holding the sort of position from which I was driven by the hard logic of thought and fact over 30 years ago.
I think we may have fun, and I shall have to try and remember that the ‘line’ is dialogue, not controversy!!”. BB reading a pre-publication copy of a series of talks [
The living Church] given by Hans Küng during the first session of the Second Vatican Council: “extraordinarily good”. BB also giving talks on the Council, so far at Ampleforth, Wells
Theological College and Didsbury Methodist Theological College. Awaits draft schemata for the next session of the Council and the work to follow, and notes the “immense improvement” of a partial draft he has seen of
the new schema De Revelatione [Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation – Dei Verbum]. Notes Archbishop Ramsey's campaign against the Bishop of Woolwich and his book [Honest to God]:
“[o]bviously, a case for [Cardinal Alfredo] Ottaviani”.
1p
BBB 1/340 28 May [1963]
BB at Canterbury Hotel, Sutter near Taylor, San Francisco, U.S.A., to JMB and CHB
Offers thanks for their hospitality, and for arranging BB's participation in the Symposium. Account of journey from Victoria to San Francisco, and meeting arrangements there. Mass and breakfast with the Paulist fathers; St Louis Priory
tomorrow.
1p
BBB 1/341 21 September 1963
BB at Downside Abbey, to JMB and CHB
Departs for Rome on 26 September. Comments on visitations: a convent in North Wales this week. Enquires if CHB attended the Anglican Congress at Toronto. Welcomes Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger Roman Catholic Archbishop of Montreal's participation at
an [ecumenical] meeting in Montreal [?Fourth World Conference of the Faith and Order Movement, Montreal], and has consulted with Oliver Tompkins Bishop of Bristol in preparation for the coming Council. Notes his friend John Heenan's appointment as
Archbishop of Westminster, and the experience of having been considered a candidate for the role: “[h]e is a man who ‘sees’ with his intellect that ecumenism is right, but all his instincts
and upbringing are against it. He will be a good diocesan; and a bright, but not great, national leader of the Church”. Family news. On the appointment of Pope Paul VI: “I think the new
Pope was the right choice. He is on the progressive side. Of course he hasn't got the personal attraction of his predecessor. But he is a practised man of affairs. I'm not certain that he will have the strength of will to clean out the Augean
stables of the curia”. Notes the presence of Arnold Toynbee at a talk BB gave on the Second Vatican Council to a lay group at St Louis Priory, [Missouri], and his comment “that in his view [Pope] John [XXIII] had
transformed the whole Christian situation simply by his charity”. Reports BB's pleasure at the award of an honorary fellowship at St John's College, Oxford; and the retirement of WIlliam Costin. Anticipates the Council being
“a very long affair”: notes improvement of circulated papers on matters discussed in the first session, but dissatisfied with other schemata - “I hope the Council will insist on a lot of
redrafting”.
1p
BBB 1/342 7 October 1963
BB at Collegio Sant'Anselmo, Rome, Italy, to CHB
Congratulates CHB on family news. Reports meeting and liking Bishop De Roo, and commends a “college plan”, the success of which “may help our little plan re Bristol University”. BB
addressed a meeting of English-speaking Canadian bishops on the current draft ‘On the Church’ [
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church - Lumen Gentium], “a vast improvement on the horror” presented last year, and noting changes BB is seeking, particularly on ‘separated brethren’. Notes dissatisfaction with current draft of a document on Our Lady, and possibility of incorporating this within [Lumen Gentium]: canvassing support for a draft by Fr
Ralph Russell, a Downside monk, to win the consideration of the Council. “It of course maintains (quietly) the full dogmatic position about Our Lady, but the sources to which it refers are (a) biblical (b) the Fathers,
specially Eastern ones, and mainly before 1054”. Commends Pope Paul VI's opening address: “I think there can be no doubt that he is ‘progressive’, but I think he will be perhaps more
cautious, more at least of a tactician, than John XXIII”. Discounts talk of BB succeeding Cardinal [Augustin] Bea [?to the Presidency of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity], of whom BB thinks highly; BB's good relations with the
English bishops in Rome. BB's intention to lobby Archbishop Heenan for the establishment of an “‘ecumenical institute’” in England. “Of course you know my
views about ecumenism: that it seems to me there is only one way for union to be achieved. But charity and dialogue must be good things; and we certainly need a lot of both in England.” Looks forward to CHB's article in the
“RC magazine”.
[Note: the “college plan” referred to above, and which is mentioned in subsequent 1960s correspondence between BB and CHB, is probably the foundation of an Anglican and Roman Catholic College at the then newly
established University of Victoria. This is inferred from the title of a file binder, for the Working Committee Log, found among CHB's papers.]
1p
BBB 1/343 9 November 1963
BB to CHB
Read CHB's article with interest. At Bishop De Roo's invitation, BB to address the students at the Canadian College on ‘Love, law and latinism in the Council’: with discussion of the principal arguments; the
relative priorities of charity and law; the intention of the “‘progressives’” on the Council “to redress the balance (as the Council of Ephesus needed to be
redressed by that of Chalcedon) by emphasising the authority of the ‘college’ of Bishops”; BB's caution against such a group being drawn by the nature of the debate into an appeal to potestas rather than to a more profound auctoritas. BB defends as factual the description of non-Roman communions as “founded on (incomplete) gospel principles”, and
qualifies as incomplete, erroneous and insubstantial such communions' supernatural reality: “‘...the social and visible nature of the Church reflects itself, in a way, outside its own limits in
these communions’ [quoting from BB's own speech on the subject] ... these communions are compromise-positions; in so far as they look towards the full position, they are good; in so far as they refuse to be absorbed in the true position, they
are false. Those who, in good faith, find grace in them are finding it in virtue of what is good in them, i.e. ultimately from the unique communion of the visible Church towards which that good is as it were dialectically orientated”.
Recommends writers and comments on four topics raised by CHB. (a) Original unity and early divisions: S. L. Greenslade [
Schism in the early Church] and BB [The idea of the Church]. (b) The Elizabethan Settlement: Philip Hughes' The Reformation in England, vol. 3. (c) (i) The
First and Second Vatican Councils: Cuthbert Butler O.S.B. and Hans Küng, respectively; (ii) the “new spirit in Rome”: Maurice Villain's Unity: a history and some reflections; notes
“a growing sense that scholasticism is a good servant but a bad master”, and the work of Karl Rahner - “one of our greatest contemporary thinkers” - and
Jean Pierre de Caussade; Cardinal Bea and Fr Buckley on the liberty of conscience. (d) Doctrinal authority: koinonia [communion] is sustained by a common mind of understanding and of judgement, and conceptual expression;
Kantian moral authority - “[o]bedience to it has got to find existential expression, and - since the content of the ‘moral law’ is love - this expression will be in koinonia”;
recommends Y. Congar's After nine hundred years on the East-West schism, and Pierre Batiffol. Encloses a copy of a letter with news of the Council.
Note: annotated in pencil [?by CHB] and blue ink.
1p
BBB 1/344 16 December 1963
BB at Downside Abbey, to JMB and CHB
Christmas and New Year wishes. Returned to Downside on 5 December. Short illness. BB has promised to contribute to Bishop De Roo's journal. Comments on BB's election to the Commission on Faith and Morals [de Rebus Fidei et Moribus], and notes its
strongly progressive complement, despite the number of conservatives amongst its executive - Cardinals Ottaviani and Browne, and Father Tromp S.J., and attributing largely to the latter “the dreadful draft on the Church
which we massacred in 1962”. Notes the Commission's responsibility also for the chapter on Our Lady, “a special source of fun for me”; has received from Hubert Box a book [of essays] on Our Lady in the Anglican
tradition [?
The Blessed Virgin Mary. Essays by Anglican writers]. Anticipates numerous visits to Rome on Commission business prior to the Council's reconvention in September. BB spoke three times in Council, and notes in his last
speech alluding to the Anglican Communion during a debate on the draft Decree on Ecumenism [Unitatis Redintegratio]. Hopes to holiday briefly at Reading. Family news. Recounts that Cardinal Léger was present at BB's
talk to the students of the Canadian College, Rome, [on ‘Love, law and latinism in the Council’].
1p
BBB 1/345 24 December 1963
BB to CHB
CHB's lecture at Nelson, British Columbia, postponed; BB notes his meetings in Canada and Rome with the bishop there. Awaits news of CHB [and Bishop De Roo's] proposal for a “joint college” to the [?University of
Victoria] Senate, and of his manuscript submitted for publication. Family news. Returns to the issue of separated Christian bodies, characterising BB and CHB's differences as merely verbal, and reiterating arguments made in
The idea of the Church; affirms “[t]he positive values and status - however that status is to be defined - of the separated Christian bodies rests basically upon the abnormal foundation of an
erroneous good faith, whereas the status of the Church rests upon a good faith which assents to the fullness of the objective revelation; this seems to make a radical difference between them”; agrees
“so far as the separated body in fact rests upon the good faith of its members, it is in an organic relationship with the true Church; but it is a contingent, non-covenantal,
relationship”, nevertheless reserving to the members of such bodies access to covenanted graces, “as such graces derive from the same Covenant that is the true Church's, and so we say that these separated brethren are
saved per Ecclesiam - extra ecclesiam nulla salus”. Again notes Hubert Box's essays on Our Lady, presented by the author “as not indeed articles of faith but reasonable theological opinions”; planning also to
read an essay in the same volume by A.M. Allchin on ‘Our Lady in Seventeenth-century Anglican Devotion and Theology’, and commending [William] Fairweather on the same period.
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1964
BBB 1/346 27 February 1964
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Flies to Rome on 28 February to attend a session of the Theological Commission, a revised version of the Constitution on the Church [
Lumen Gentium] being requested to be completed by the end of the month; with broad details of revisions to the schema. Expects to return by Easter [29 March]. Commends CHB's paper on ‘Christianity and education’, noting his unfamiliarity with [Henri Irénée] Marrou's work, and the paper's utility as regards CHB's negotiations with the University [of Victoria]. Summation of BB's aims on Episcopal
Collegiality [re Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops - Christus Dominus], with regard to the next session in Council: “I am in the predicament that by instinct I am
‘progressive’ but theologically I am cautious”. BB's enjoyment attending the subcommission on chapter IV of De Ecclesia schema [Lumen Gentium] earlier in the year. BB to lecture at
Manchester on Good Friday (27 March) on ‘Belief in science, criticism in theology’ [Belief in the sphere of science, and criticism in religion], with brief summary of the main arguments, citing Lonergan, concluding:
“the deposit of fiath [sic] has a function in theology analogous to that of sense data in science: as indisputable ‘raw material’ for thought”. Notes
resistance of English bishops to proposed liturgical reforms, doubting their ability to convey or even appreciate themselves the “basic renovation” of “an unchanged traditional Latinism and
Westernism”. Reports no progress of “our Bristol University project”, inferring the disapproval of the bishop.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/347 24 March 1964
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Has reluctantly refused an invitation to speak at U.S. Benedictine monasteries, due to lack of time. Notes the Pope's desire to conclude the Council this year. Manchester lecture delivered [‘Belief in the
sphere of science, and criticism in theology’], “of course almost all cribbed from Lonergan, with just a touch of Aquinas thrown in”.
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BBB 1/348 7 May 1964
BB to CHB
Notes the realisation of CHB's college project, alongside, in England, the agreement of the local bishop to BB's Bristol University scheme, with some denominational hesitation from Low Church Anglicans. Awaits CHB's thoughts on
Theology and the university, particularly Laurence Bright's paper on the curriculum, the fruit of a conference at Downside after Easter in 1963. Hopes Toronto University Press will take CHB's manuscript; and noting
BB's hopes for the wholesale reform “if not abolition” of the seminary system, and which might be addressed in Council. Family news. Abbots' Conference next year may be stormy, “since
reaction and progress are locked in conflict among us as throughout our Communion”. Council now expected to outlast the year. “For me this [Council] has been a wonderful experience, after feeling myself for nearly
thirty years as a sort of ‘odd man out’.” Reports his attendance at a subcommission revising the draft of [Dei Verbum], now “improved considerably”;
the full Commission on Faith and Morals meets 30 May, with the chapter on Our Lady for [Lumen Gentium] on the agenda. “Our English bishops don't seem yet to have got the hang of the present
situation in the Church; I'm afraid there's a lot of discontent among our educated laity.” BB to repeat his talk ‘Belief in science, criticism in theology’ at Eton, noting reports of the influence among the
intelligent boys of a “‘humanist’ master” there, and Richard Robinson's An atheist's values, unfamiliar to BB.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/349 14 December 1964
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes. News from Council: “excellent” speeches of Bishop De Roo; postponement of vote on Religious Liberty beneficial, allowing some improvement of the draft - “[n]othing but a
veto from the Pope (which will not occur) could prevent a strong declaration on this subject being passed nest [sic] session”. Two recent papers completed on the topic of the Constitution on the Church [
Lumen Gentium], “on the whole a fine document”: ‘Belonging to the Church’ (for an unidentified joint-publication); ecumenical possibilities [‘The Constitution on the Church and Christian Reunion.’Downside Review 83 (April 1965), 103-117]. Notes the fortunes of the “‘progressives’” against a “dwindling conservative wing” on the Council. BB appointed to the subcommittee on the Church in the World Today [Gaudium et
Spes, 1.4 The Role of the Church in the Modern World], “on which I have remarkably vague ideas”. Enquires after CHB's negotiations with the University [of Victoria]; and after Valentine Rice, a lay theologian
suggested to Bishop De Roo. Family news.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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1965
BBB 1/350 6 March 1965
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Visitation of Worth Priory - “in great form”. Reports outcome of Rome sessions of the subcommission on the Church in the World Today [
Gaudium et Spes, 1.4 The Role of the Church in the Modern World]: morality of the married state, and particularly peace and war - “[w]e have avoided condemning outright the deterrent policy,
but have emphasised that the interval it provides must be used to search for a more stable basis of peace”. Flies to Switzerland on 29 March, part of a group appointed by the Secretariat to confer with the World Council of Churches on the
topic of the Church in Society; the to Rome on 1 April to join the Doctrinal Commission and the Commission on the Lay Apostolate, reviewing the draft schema on the Church in the World Today [Gaudium et Spes]. BB finds
inaccuracies in a manuscript of Valentine Rice “somewhat naive”, and will propose corrections. Reports acceptance of an invitation to deliver the (six) Sarum Lectures at Oxford University in autumn 1966 on
‘The Second Vatican Council: theological aspects’; a book to follow. BB's worries over apparent non-alignment of Pope Paul VI's attitude and intentions with those of “the real mind of the
Council”: “provided the Council does its work well, its Acts will be ‘on the statute book’, so to speak, to be implemented by some more progressive Pope”. Reports progress with
the Bristol University scheme, its vice-chancellor to nominate two members of the Council of the Downside Centre for Religious Studies. Archbishop Ramsey to address a Catholic-Anglican conference in 1965, sponsored by Downside, on Cardinal Newman at
Oxford.
Note: annotated in blue ink, by CHB.
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BBB 1/351 30 April [1965]
BB to CHB and JMB
Reaction to Olympia earthquake of 29 April, comparing its impact to that “on some RC's of the aggiornamento going on in our body at present”. BB to speak during a week-long [conference] on the Second Vatican
Council at the University of Notre Dame in March 1966. Identifies birth control as “the really BIG problem” facing Roman Catholics, and anticipates crisis whichever way Rome proceeds; asks for CHB's views.
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BBB 1/352 5 May 1965
BB to CHB
Commiserates CHB on college proposal setback. Suggests Bristol University Theology faculty, or better, the World Council of Churches as alternate employment. CHB family news. Notes CHB's occupation with his radio programme:
“I am a great believer in getting the Gospel into the mass media. I have the impression that even my occasional part in the frivolous Any Questions programme has some effect for good”. BB's worries concerning the
“brash” outcome of Valentine Rice's manuscript. BB drafting the Sarum Lectures. BB corresponding with [Reverend Professor] E.O. James.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/353 31 October 1965
BB at Collegio Sant'Anselmo, Rome, Italy, to CHB
CHB attended Faith and Order conference. Prospects for CHB at the World Council of Churches in Geneva; notes controversy over Archbishop Ramsey's stance on Rhodesia. [Valentine] Rice's booklet draws upon material supplied by BB. Reports reaction
to BB's one speech this session in Council, on lawful provision for conscientious objection in debate on peace and war. Commends “excellent” speeches of Bishop De Roo. BB's interest in his commissions and
subcommissions work, particularly the Doctrinal Commission, noting its luminaries and BB's latitude as “a mad Englishman”. Hopes [
Dei Verbum] will be promulgated without alteration on 18 November: “I ho<p>e it will strike you as ecumenically helpful. Apart from saying that the limits of the Canon are made known by
Tradition, we have firmly avoided any suggestion that Scripture does not in some way ‘contain’ the whole of revelation”. BB dissatisfied with the document The Church in the World of Today [
Gaudium et Spes], the commissions [Doctrinal; Lay Apostolate] having “lacked time to ripen and polish it” - the chapter on peace and war [2.5], while “quite good in
intention”, may not engender the right “psychological effect”. Pope Paul VI's speech to the United Nations “splendid”. Revisits and defends
The idea of the
Church: would “lay more stress on valid baptism as giving permanent sacramentla cinorporation [
sic,
recte sacramental incorporation] into the Church”;
and that, “since the non-Catholic Christian communions are built on (incomplete) gospel principles and are made up of men of good will, they have, as communions, a positive function in the divine order of things ...”;
and treat more positively “the Holy Ghost working in
all the Church's members to give her her dynamic aspect (hierarchy giving the static aspect)”. The document [
Lumen Gentium] - “one of the masterpieces of this Council”, echoing Dr [E.L.] Mascall's praise. BB's preference for “
real theology ... facing present questions” rather than “copying the past”; cites the new journal
Concilium. BB to participate in two conferences on
the Council: University of Notre Dame in March [1966]; and Toronto in August 1967. Meeting arrangements with CHB. Anticipates the Council concluding on 8 December; notes the promulgation of The Relation of the Church to the Non-Christian Religions
[
Nostra Aetate], and The Pastoral Function of the Bishops [
Christus Dominus] (“may lead to some episcopal tyrannising”); and the likely value of Liberty of
Religion [
Dignitatis Humanae]. Welcomes the new Synod of Bishops as a check to curial power.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/354 20 December 1965
BB at Downside Abbey, to JMB, CHB “(and all)”
Christmas and New Year wishes. Attends enthronement of George Dwyer Archbishop of Birmingham on 21 December; notes television appearance of BB and Dwyer on the subject of the Second Vatican Council. A paragraph reflecting on the Council is quoted
below in full.
“The last session of the Council had its measure of excitements, but the over-all result is very good indeed. The Holy Ghost has certainly spoken to us through the Council; I do hope we shall respond as fully as we
ought - though doubtless we shan't. One of the outstanding features is that, almost for the first time since before 325 A.D., an ecumenical council representing the whole Church, has turned decisively away from condemnations (except of hatred,
racial discrimination, etc., and of ‘ahteism’ [sic] though not of atheists) and has adopted a positive attitude both to other Christians, to other religions, and to mankind at large. There
were of course warnings that we were encouraging indifferentism, muting the Church's message; but in the end charity won the day. It will take some time for this new ferment to spread throughout the People of God.”
Commends Bishop De Roo's contribution. Recommends - “for pure enjoyment” - [
Dei Verbum], “the occasion for the ‘first decisive battle’ of the Council”.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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1966
BBB 1/355 1 March 1966
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB to give three lectures at Portland, Oregon, probably on The Church in the World Today [
Gaudium et Spes], in April 1967, [Robert] McAfee Brown possibly also lecturing; suggests meeting arrangements with CHB. Notes coming general election, fearing an over-mighty Labour majority, steel nationalisation and
schools policy: “[i]t's odd that just when the Catholic Church has been giving massive support to ideas of human freedom, a radical party in England is moving towards an Anglo-Saxon version of totalitarianism”. Lists
[March] engagements: to address the Parliamentary Group for World Government on the encyclical Pacem in Terris, 3 March; Annual meeting of the Governing Bodies Association [of Public Schools], 4 March; ecumenism talk
at Lancaster, next week; visitation of S. Badia Primaziale Sant'Anselmo, Rome; University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Concern post-Council at the latent conservatism at the papal curia, “with no clear progressive lead from the
Pope himself”. Family news.
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BBB 1/356 3 April 1966
BB to CHB
Commends CHB's (unspecified) lecture, recommending publication; and his Sunday School teachers scheme. Family news. Comments upon an unrewarding lunch party hosted by the Apostolic Delegate for Archbishop Ramsey on his return from Rome; talked
briefly about CHB with Bishop [Ralph S.] Dean [Bishop of Cariboo, British Columbia]. Conference at the University of Notre Dame “exhilarating”, noting the presence of “conciliar
friends” Karl Rahner S.J., Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac and “the Pope's friend” Archbishop Colombo. BB speaking engagements since Notre Dame [beginning 20 March]: Heythrop [College, London], Oxford and Edinburgh;
leaving little time to prepare the Sarum Lectures. Comments on British political outlook, steel nationalisation, independent education; and Rhodesia. Anticipating a Community discussion on the role of Downside in the renewed Church, wonders at the
ideas of the younger members of the Community, noting “Heythrop are similarly baffled by the young Jesuits”.
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BBB 1/357 5 April 1966
BB to CHB
Arrangements for BB's visit to Victoria, liaising with Bishop De Roo. BB gratefully ignorant of the Universal Temple of Revala. Encourages efforts towards De Roo and Sexton's University project, but reports doubts (from Notre Dame conference)
over De Roo's funding. Contrasts the “amateurish history of doctrine” prevalent in the Church of England theological colleges in BB's youth with systematic Thomist approach. German edition of
De Ecclesia [Lumen Gentium].
Note: annotated in blue ink by CHB, regarding BB's dates in Victoria.
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BBB 1/358 12 April 1966
BB to CHB
Meeting arrangements for Victoria. Speaking engagement at Saint Paul, Minnesota, 24 April. Worries over completion of the Sarum Lectures. Cardinal Heenan to nominate BB to the Roman Catholic panel of a joint committee with the British Council of
Churches, “to discuss ecumenism in practice in this country”. Meeting of abbots tomorrow in preparation for September Congress.
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BBB 1/359 24 October 1966
BB to CHB
North American itinerary, including: Yale University, 21 April; Saint Paul, Minnesota, 24 April; Portland, Oregon, 25-27 April; Victoria, 28 April-5 May. Two of the Sarum Lectures delivered, the second less satisfactorily; expects re-writes will
be required prior to publication. Reports his experience of presiding at the General Chapter of a convent at Broadstairs, Kent.
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BBB 1/360 29 November 1966
BB to CHB
Declines further engagement for North American trip. Last Sarum Lecture on 1 December; rewrites.
Note: annotated in blue ink by CHB.
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BBB 1/361 22 December 1966
BB at St Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire, to CHB
BB consecrated Bishop of Nova Barbara in Westminster Cathedral, 21 December 1966; describes apartments at Ware, and jurisdiction. Confirms North American tour commitments, and Toronto in August. Anticipates delay to Sarum Lectures publication [
The Theology of Vatican II]. BB's appointment credited to Cardinal Heenan's wish for his counsel, rather than any Roman influence. BB's feelings on resigning the abbacy; and gratification at Prior Wilfrid Passmore's
succession. Looks forward to an episcopal meeting in January. Greets Bishop De Roo.
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1967
BBB 1/362 4 March 1967
BB to CHB
Welcomes CHB's agreement with a publisher. Family news. Sarum Lectures “‘passed’” by Oxford; submitted to publishers [Darton, Longman & Todd]. Comments -
“as I gradually make acquaintance with our clergy and people in this country” - on the loyalty of silent majority of English Catholics underlying the dissent of a minority, noting particularly Charles Davis and
[Herbert McCabe], editor of the journal
New Blackfriars. BB “remain[s] extremely anxious about the line which the Pope will take over birthcontrol [sic], and ... deplore[s] the hardly changed aspect of
his Curia”.
Note: annotated in blue ink by CHB; and in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/363 16 March 1967
BB to CHB
CHB's publication deal miscarries due to the publisher's requirement for a “guarantee sum”. Congratulates CHB on his election to the Senate [of Victoria University]. Further arrangements for Victoria visit:
engagement at Nanaimo, British Columbia, 1 May.
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BBB 1/364 13 May 1967
BB to CHB
Passes on a recommendation from Mark Hamilton of Heath & Co., literary agency, to CHB to contact Brandt and Brandt publishers, New York. Thanks CHB and family for their hospitality.
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BBB 1/365 24 June 1967
BB to JMB
Congratulates CHB on family successes. Sends apologies for missing an opportunity to meet with Mrs Bristowe in London. CHB now represented by a literary agency.
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BBB 1/366 19 December 1967
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas and New Year wishes. Considers retirement at 70 rather than 75 years of age. Reviews of
The Theology of Vatican II delayed due to publisher error; [Eric] Mascall's very kind comments. BB's duties as Cardinal Heenan's auxiliary: visit of Athenagoras Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople to Archbishop
Ramsey. BB flies to Malta on 30 December for next round of Anglican/Roman Catholic [Joint Preparatory Commission] theological meetings. Admiration for Albertan scenery - Banff, Calgary, Edmonton - and hopes against political splits [?Québec].
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1968
BBB 1/367 3 March 1968
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Imminent ‘Encounter’ - “a quasi-mission” - to Liverpool University. Flies to Moscow on 16 March, thence to Zagorsk [Sergiyev Posad] monastery [Trinity Lavra of St
Sergius], for a joint World Council of Churches and Roman Catholic conference on the theological bases of Christian action: BB to give a paper - “a poor one” - on the concept of Imago Dei. BB to be an observer at the
Lambeth Conference [1968]; Bishop De Roo also suggested by BB. Reports his review of Charles Davis'
A question of conscience in the February Clergy Review: “Davis deprecates psychological explanations of his defection, so I tried to examine some of his
arguments”.
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BBB 1/368 8 March 1968
Father Richard More Sutherland, chaplain and private secretary, at St Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire, to CHB
BB away lecturing. Acknowledges receipt of CHB's article ‘Tomorrow is already here’.
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BBB 1/369 11 April 1968
BB to CHB
Reaction to news of the retirement of CHB's [Arch]bishop [of British Columbia, Harold Sexton]. Bishop De Roo also to attend Lambeth Conference. BB corresponding with Arthur Adcock, discussing theology. Family news. Flies to Rome for ecumenical
conference on ‘Faith and Salvation in Paul’ at Rome on 16 April. Returns on 21 April in time for [Roman Catholic] bishops' conference in London.
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BBB 1/370 18 June 1968
BB to CHB
Questions the ability of the Lambeth Conference to complete its “immense” agenda in the short time available, anticipating controversy over the Church of England-Methodist proposals. Awaits a copy of
The theology of renewal [Proceedings of the Congress on the theology of the renewal of the Church, centenary of Canada, 1867-1967]. Hopes CHB's adult Christian education scheme will de
replicated elsewhere, noting particularly the work of the sexual morality group: “I am at the moment very doubtful whether Church authority can issue definitive guidance about the DETAILS of the natural law. Such details
seem to me to fall outside the range of revelation and its necessary implications”. Their sister, Mary Butler, holidaying [with CHB in Canada]. BB joined the London Society for the Study of Religion, attending a talk on the historical Jesus by
Archbishop Ramsey: “good of its kind, but a bit elder-statesmanlike. We needed a young professor of NT to bring us into the modern atmosphere”. Commends The death and resurrection of the
Church by Leslie Paul, also attending the Ramsey's talk to the Society. Reports death of cousin Monica; requiem at [?St Joseph's Convent], Reading. Hopes that a recently concluded series of twelve Tablet
articles will be published in book form. Writing “pot-boiler” article on theology after “Vatican II” for the Dublin Review [‘Thoughts on Theology After Vatican II.’Dublin Review 242, no. 516, (1968), 106-13].
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells] and pencil by unknown hand.
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BBB 1/371 14 December 1968
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas and new year wishes, offering thanks for the gift of a magnifying glass, “useful for a bishop who h[a]s to search out the small beginnings of abuses which may grow large later on”. Notes lack of news of
the Anglican Church in Victoria, and progress on “an Anglican-Uni[t]ed Church merger” in Canada. Commends the statement of the Canadian bishops on the encyclical [
Humanae Vitae], and the “helpful line” presented by Cardinal Heenan in an interview with David Frost - “but I think he rather consistently shirks the problem of
the reformability of th[e] doctrine contained in the Enc.”. Notes divergent opinions of BB's interview in the Sunday Times, noting particularly suppressive agreement from a fellow bishop. The twelve
Tablet articles to be published in book form [Christians in a new era]. Reports the publication of an article by BB, “pointing out that the
‘magisterium’ has to get its knowledge of the faith which it teaches and defines from the whole body of the faithful”. Notes the commercial distress of Felix [Butler] vis-à-vis recent changes to import duties.
BB presented prizes, including that for the Butler Essay, at Reading School. Commends the [Malta] Report of the Anglican/Roman Catholic [Joint Preparatory Commission]. Critical of British foreign policy towards Nigeria [Biafra conflict], noting an
ecumenical letter to The Times, signed by Archbishops Ramsey, Cardinal Heenan, [Edward Rogers] the Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, A. J. Ayer as president of the British Humanist Association and BB as
president of the Social Morality Council [‘United action needed in Nigeria’, 11 December 1968; page 9; Issue 57431; col. G]. Arthur Adcock's view on post-conciliar Roman Catholic Church “interesting and - sometimes - caustic”.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/372 19 December 1968
BB to CHB
Family news. Reaction to resignation of Harold Sexton, Archbishop of British Columbia; CHB a possible replacement [as bishop]. Reports in more detail reaction to BB's
Sunday Times interview [on Humanae Vitae]; notes BB's profile in the left-wing press as “a sort of pin-up bishop for the liberal priests”. Qualifies Bishop
De Roo's chances as dependant upon a good pope succeeding Paul VI. Commends Cardinal [Leo Joseph] Suenens and his work Coresponsibility in the Church: “sees things just as I do - but I [d]oubt
whether he really knows what to do next. I suppose the tussle with Rome will take decades rather than months”. Recommends a Cardinal Newman graded reading programme: Apologia pro vita sua (“light-weight”); An essay on development of Christian doctrine; An essay in aid of a grammar of assent (“tough and dry, but
basic”).
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1969
BBB 1/373 18 January 1969
BB to CHB
Sympathises with CHB's anxiety re the election of the new Bishop of British Columbia. Family news. Cardinal Suenens to preach at Westminster Cathedral on the evening of 19 January; BB hopes to discuss with him the extraordinary general session of
the Synod of Bishops called by the Pope [on Collegiality].
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BBB 1/374 15 February 1969
BB to CHB
Acknowledges receipt of ‘Norms of judgement’, [a paper by the adult Christian education group on sexual morality], commenting on its findings re extra-marital sex, “‘unnatural’” sexual practices, and “the wider social implications of hetero-sexual acts”; and commending the value of this ecumenical study group evidenced in such a paper.
“I so warmly agree with the recommended change of stance ... from jurisdictive advocacy to pastoral advocacy.” Engagements: consecration of the Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool, today; speaks on The Church and the Future
to the Theological Society at Sheffield; addresses Anglican clergy on Roman Catholicism after Vatican II, at Manchester, 18 February. Social Morality Council lobbying re Biafran conflict: “[w]hat will posterity say about
the British supply of arms to the N. government and the results in starvation?”.
Note: annotated in pencil [?by CHB], with references to sections of the text ‘Norms of judgement’.
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BBB 1/375 2 March 1969
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Enquires after CHB's position under the new Bishop of British Columbia. A projected American tour not now happening, some time is now liberated for writing and reading. Reports further lobbying of the Social Morality Council re
the Biafran conflict. Another letter sent to
The Times answering a mythologizer of Christianity [Ray Billington, ‘Breaking the barriers of an argument without end’, 1 March 1969; page 10; Issue 57498; col. D]. Report of address to
one hundred Anglican clergy at Manchester, [18 February]. Reacts unfavourably to an “intransigent” letter from the Vatican Secretariat of State on clerical celibacy: “I hold that, whatever
the correct answer might turn out to be, there must be open ‘dialogue’ on this issue amongst us today. A Moscow-type repression just won't work - especially as we have no tanks to back it up.”.
Note: annotated in red ink [?by A.L. Wells].
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BBB 1/376 15 March 1969
BB to CHB
Commiserates CHB on not being elected bishop, but welcomes the new Bishop of British Columbia [John Anderson's] outstanding qualities and ecumenism, as reported by CHB; hopes for good relations with Bishop De Roo. “Someone ought to write a book on the way in which the First Cause operates by allowing Second Causes their full scope. One used to watch this process in Vatican II.” Compares CHB's comments on Central America with events
at Anguilla. BB doubts in accepting an invitation to participate in a conference on Bernard Lonergan in the West Indies [St Leo College, Florida], speaking on the suggested topic, ‘Lonergan's thought and
ecclesiology’. Reports a meeting arranged in London on 21 March on ‘Nigeria: Peace or War’, sponsored by the UNA[-UK], the British Committee for Peace in Nigeria, the British Humanist Association and the Social
Morality Council. BB anticipates, with regret, episcopal anger over a recent
Tablet article on collegiality - “that the Church is still being run on pre-Vatican II lines, and that we haven't yet found out how to do better”. Sending [separately] an offprint of
BB's contribution to a festschrift for Bishop André Marie Charue of Namur.
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BBB 1/377 1 April 1969
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. BB's Easter activities at St Edmund's College. Writing a new foreword and corrections for a paperback edition of
The Church and infallibility, reviewing its thesis in the light of Vatican II. Further comment on Tablet article on collegiality, “in which I suggest that since
400 A.D. Rome has been exploiting her divinely-given prerogatives in a way which does less that [sic; recte than] justice to the episcopal college and/or the local bishops”. Notes the
qualifications and character of appointments to the College of Cardinals since the Council: “[o]h, for the patience of Newman”.
1p
BBB 1/378 14 April 1969
BB to CHB at The George Inn, 2684 Seaview Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Forwards letter from CHB to the publishers Sheed & Ward in hope they will reconsider their plan to issue
The Church and infallibility in paperback. BB's hopes for a speedy settlement of CHB's position.
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BBB 1/379 10 October 1969
BB to CHB at 2323 Greenlands Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Acknowledges receipt of
Man to man: a frank talk between a layman and a bishop, by Bishop De Roo and Douglas Roche. Reports meeting with and naive ecumenical views of Canon [Charles Stephen] Dessain. Reports Anglican/Roman Catholic
International Commission (ARCIC) meeting at Windsor Castle, inviting CHB's views.
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BBB 1/380 21 December 1969
BB to CHB
Reaction to the death of John Anderson, Bishop of British Columbia. CHB appointed to the General Commission [on Church Union]; BB wary of the danger that such local movements might weaken ties to the wider Anglican communion and risk reinforcing
rather than speaking against secular nationalism. Notes suitability of a regional or theological college for CHB; awaits appointment of a new bishop. BB and Henry Chadwick, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, each to deliver a paper on
‘Authority’ to ARCIC. BB at Reading for a Christmas holiday. Reports his attendance at a meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, noting his “ironical
amusement” at his membership; the good sense of Cardinal Franjo Šeper, its new Prefect; and right-wing lobbying in Rome against Vatican II revisions to the liturgy - “rather fun to find the ringht [sic] wing as insubordinate as the left”. BB preached at Trinity [College], Cambridge, at the invitation of Bishop John Robinson, fellow and dean of chapel, and where he met A.C. Bouquet “in
great form”. Christmas and new year wishes. A bishops' meeting in April prevents BB visiting CHB after the International Lonergan Congress in Florida.
1p
1970
BBB 1/381 5 March 1970
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Awaits election of next Bishop of British Columbia. Family news. Reports content of a
Tablet article by BB, selectively quoted in The Times, “suggesting something like Uniate status for the Anglican communion after corporate reunion”, and
worries concerning recent North American Anglican plans. Flies to Miami, 11 March; anticipates meeting Bernard Lonergan and Leslie Dewart at the International Lonergan Congress. Critical of Dewart. Complaint at burden of his correspondence, and the
quality of the correspondents.
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BBB 1/382 24 March 1970
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Queries appointment of a new Bishop of British Columbia. Departs for Florida tomorrow. BB disseminating idea of a Uniate Anglican communion through sermons, the print and broadcast media; little adverse reaction yet, excepting in
the
Tablet - “I fear there is much indifference on the R.C. side in this country”.
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BBB 1/383 30 May 1970
BB to CHB
Family news. Good report of the International Lonergan Congress; refers CHB to an article written for the
Tablet. Defends pragmatism of BB's Uniate Anglican Church proposals: “might serve to concentrate attention on what really matters - the doctrinal and dogmatic issues. There is a danger of
irrealism, I think, in ecumenical dialogue, if one never tries to envisage what the shape of things MIGHT be in a united Church.” Advises CHB to consult with Canterbury earlier rather than later re the Canadian [Church union] plans. Not yet
read Growing into union, but relays Bishop Graham Leonard's accusation of misrepresentation in a “severe”Church Times review. “I
confess I don't see my way very clearly when there is no agreement (doctrinally) about Orders, and no very clear sense of doctrinal authority. In fact, at the human level I should feel despondent; but it seems so clear that the Holy Spirit is in the
ecumenical movement, that one goes on in ‘blind trust’”. Departs on a South African lecture tour at the end of [?]June, speaking on ‘The Church’; wary of political questions.
British election “ferment”.
1p
BBB 1/384 17 December 1970
BB to JMB and CHB
Commends CHB's role in the General Commission [on Church Union]; awaits Lambeth's reaction. Commends also Archbishop Ramsey's South African tour. Comments on the published
Report of the Commission on Church and State, at which commission BB was an observer, noting points of disagreement. Family news. BB writing two Tablet articles in answer to (an Italian
edition of) Hans Küng's Infallible? An Inquiry, “in which he seems to bring into question the infallibility of ALL dogmatic prepositions”. Family news. Plans Christmas holiday at
Reading. Meets in January at Oxford with members of the Social Morality Council, among them Ian Ramsey, Bishop of Durham. Christmas wishes and the new year.
1p
BBB 1/385 23 December 1970
BB to CHB
Offers thanks for Christmas present.
1p
1971
BBB 1/386 8 December 1971
BB to JMB and CHB
Christmas wishes. Family news. Awaits reactions to the
Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine by ARCIC; Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, president of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, “v[e]ry pleased” with it. Completed a
biographical work, “a sort of History of my Religious Opinions”. Notes Cardinal Heenan's recently published biographical volume.
1p
1972
BBB 1/387 2 March 1972
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Welcomes news of CHB's visit to England in the summer. BB interviewed, (in French), by the Canadian Broadcasting Company on “the crisis in the Church today”. Notes the continuing scope of BB's
ecumenical activity; hopes a public response will soon be made by the Roman Catholic bishops' Theological Commission on the [Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission's]
Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine. Notes also the Agreed Statement is echoed in that made by an unofficial group of French Catholics and Protestants - “at work ever since the days of
[Père Marie-Alain] Couturier”. BB's “‘spiritual-intellectual pilgrimage’” with his publisher. Eagerly awaits Bernard Lonergan's new book. Comments on a dissatisfactory [BBC]
television broadcast debate with A. J. Ayer on the question ‘Does God exist?’; reassures BB “that [he] no longer feared the intellectual case of the Oxford men against theism”. Relays
A. J. Ayer's report that Gilbert Mabbott resigned from the electoral board in protest at his election [to the Wykeham chair of logic at Oxford University] [?]. Family news.
1p
BBB 1/388 30 March 1972
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Meeting with Canon [Charles Stephen] Dessain, “still wildly pro-Anglican, and ... delighted with our Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine”. Family news.
1p
BBB 1/389 12 May 1872 [recte 1972]
BB to CHB
Family news. Plans for CHB's visit to England in August. Changes since CHB left England: “I am now seventy, and I don't think I have as much energy as I used to have. I trust however that my mind is still fairly clear;
not quite so sure about my memory”. Reaction to the failure of the scheme to unite the Methodist and Anglican Churches: minor setback, which may usefully focus attention on “ministry issues; and also at the
distinction between objective and subjective factors in historical Christianity”.
1p
BBB 1/390 9 August 1972
BB to CHB c/o 21 Downshire Square [sic], Reading, Berkshire
Meeting arrangements in London.
1p
BBB 1/391 25 August 1972
BB to CHB at 2323 Greenlands Road
BB's joy at their meeting on 22 August in London. Encloses an [Eyewitness] paper prepared for ARCIC meeting at Gazzada, Italy, the following week, drawing CHB's attention to comments on the episcopate.
1p
BBB 1/392 9 September 1972
BB to CHB
Family news. Thanks CHB for his comments on the ‘Eyewitness’ Gazzada paper, which had little apparent impact on discussion there. Locates the essence of ministerial continuity in “expressed intention”, rather than manual contact; suggests, in carrying an undefined point about numerus and laos, the “answer to the
(Lutheran?) notion that ministry is nothing more than delegation by the congregation for certain functions”. Welcomes further comments from CHB or his bishop. Bishop De Roo expected at Christian Leaders Conference later in the month. The
Gazzada meeting's moderate success not a surprise given “we are only half way through such a subject as ministry”; plenary session in August 1973; comments on participant Father Jean Tillard, known to CHB,
“able and amusing; I wonde[r] a bit whether he is not TOO radical, but I think he is educated enough to be able to defend himself”. BB preaches the following day in Coventry Cathedral.
1p
BBB 1/393 9 November 1972
BB to CHB
Family news. Reports frank discussion with Bishop De Roo, about the state of the Catholic Church. In reference to Peter Rudge, notes the Church's need in its organisation for professional management. BB's book
A time to speak published this month: “an untidy sort of book, and I am apprehensive about the reception it may get - not that it is a revolutionary manifesto, by any means”. BB in Rome
next week for a meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Comment on the economic outlook of the United Kingdom. BB the guest of honour at the Old Readingensian dinner in December.
1p
1973
BBB 1/394 1 March 1973
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Recollection of wheeling CHB in his pram on Armistice Day 1918. Sketches the economic predicament and political mood of the country. Family news. BB considering a book to dispel current popular confusion about the [Catholic]
Church. Meeting with Snell of the Christian Organizations Research and Advisory Trust (CORAT); project to aid economic planning of houses of contemplative nuns in England.
1p
BBB 1/395 3 April 1973
BB to CHB at The Anglican Synod of the Diocese of British Columbia, Synod Office, Memorial Hall, 912 Vancouver Street, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Commends CHB's
Submission on religious education, its line permitting “fruitful collaboration between believers and agnostics of good will”; forwarded to the Social Morality Council. Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 1/396 10 May 1973
BB at Wood Hall Pastoral and Ecumenical Centre, near Wetherby, Yorkshire, to CHB [at 2323 Greenlands Road]
BB at Wood Hall, as chair of an in-service training course for clergy from Leeds diocese: an Irish lecturer in dogmatic theology (“a cunning choice, as Ireland reassures some of our backwoods men”); a broadcaster
teaching communication skills; a seminary scripture lecturer. The Pastoral and Ecumenical Centre at Wood Hall a model for a similar centre soon to be established in Westminster diocese. Family news.
1p
BBB 1/397 19 December 1973
BB at St Edmund's College, to JMB and CHB
Family news. Christmas and new year wishes.
1p
1974
BBB 1/398 4 January 1974
BB to CHB
BB at Reading after Christmas. Family news. Comments upon the political outlook in England: trades unions activity exacerbating the oil crisis. Notes the low impact of the publication by ARCIC of the Statement
The doctrine of the ministry; the next dialogues, on Authority, anticipated to be “a very tricky affair!”
1p
BBB 1/399 2 March 1974
BB to CHB
Enquires after the progress towards Church unity in Canada. Notes the unpopularity of ARCIC's Statement
The doctrine of the ministry with some English Roman Catholic bishops; but also its approval by the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome. Sketches the political situation following the election and the
ensuing hung parliament; welcomes, as a political “moderate”, the balance of power resting with the Liberal Party. Gloomy economic outlook nevertheless. Notes Reading School has escaped amalgamation into the
comprehensive school system. BB to visit Washington [?D.C.] in September.
1p
BBB 1/400 13 August 1974
BB to JMB and CHB
Apologies at missing CHB and JMB on their approaching visit to England. BB preparing for the next ARCIC meeting.
1p
BBB 1/401 22 December 1974
BB to CHB
CHB disheartened about progress towards Christian unity in Canada. BB identifies conservatism and some real theological and doctrinal differences as the impediments, questions re ordained ministry being fundamental “when
one is aiming at full communion or ‘organic unity’ (whatever the latter phrase means)”. Notes BB's presence on the Churches Unity Commission, and not expecting obvious progress given “the range of actual or implied ecclesiologies is so enormous”, advocates taking a long view. “The greatest question of all is what you yourself mention: the ‘battle for
charity’.” Recalling Arnold Toynbee's comment to BB on the death of Pope John XXIII, BB sees their task as helping foster the desire for unity, which will then come slowly. Pessimistic view of political outlook,
“paying danegeld to the powerful Trade Unions ... fearful that our political structures may break down”.
1p
1975
BBB 1/402 1 March 1975
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Took lunch with Norman St John-Stevas, Conservative Shadow Spokesman on Education, “a warm supporter of Mrs Thatcher”; pessimistic economic outlook. The latest meeting of ARCIC on 27-28 February
included “an interesting discussion on evangelising our post-Christian society”. Notes the publication of
Searchings: essays and studies by B. C. Butler, with material dating from 1927 to 1966. Death of BB's secretary, in November; qualities of the new appointee.
1p
BBB 1/403 8 May 1975
BB to CHB
Reflects on their unselfconscious undefined class origins, noting their father's progression to a partnership in the firm, [a wine-merchant at Chatham Street, Reading]. Family news. Economic and political outlook: doubts [North Sea] oil will pay
off the country's debt; standard of living rising; “elements in the Trades Unions and in politics who positively wish for a breakdown of our existing order of things, to make way for a marxist ‘solution’”; calculates the Trades Unions might only be confronted by a politically unlikely coalition or centre party; desire for proportional representation; lack of confidence in the “leadership potential of the conservative party”. Family news. Cautions CHB on committing his pension and assets to “our very fluid situation” [England]. On his retirement:
“I don't like leaving my fellow bishops in England to get on with the job without me to prevent them becoming too reactionary”.
1p
BBB 1/404 31 December 1975
BB to JMB and CHB
BB at Reading over Christmas. Family news. BB deferring most business in Westminster diocese until the appointment of a successor to Cardinal Heenan. “In [Westminster] I find myself surrounded by a sort of obsequious
court; they cannot be absolutely CERTAIN THAT [sic] I shall not be their new archbishop.” BB's (unidentified) dark horse candidate. Notes an encounter at ARCIC meeting with Eugene
Fairweather, an opponent of CHB's on union with the United Church in Canada. Reading School to become a comprehensive school; Downside determined on independent status.
1p
1976
BBB 1/405 4 March 1976
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. BB frustrated at the length of his tenure as the locum tenens of the archbishop; his pleasure and surprise at the appointment of Basil Hume, a Benedictine abbot. “I think he
really believes in Christian unity and is prepared to act on that belief.” Family news.
1p
BBB 1/406 21 October 1976
BB to JMB and CHB
Family news.
1p
1977
BBB 1/407 1 March 1977
BB to CHB, redirected to 5310 Rocky Point Road, RR6 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Birthday wishes. BB's gives two talks on Prayer and Meditation to an interdenominational group of ministers at Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Meeting of the Hertfordshire-Bedfordshire Ecumenical Consultative Committee, 2 March, to discuss the
ten propositions of the Churches Unity Commission; but noting the Catholic Church's inability to enter into the proposed covenant, and doubts over the Church of England's and the Baptists' involvement. Also meets the Bishop of Panama, Marcos
Gregorio McGrath, tomorrow - “a valued friend of mine in the Theology Commission of Vatican II”. Draws CHB's attention to ARCIC's Statement
The authority of the Church [I]: “more likely to please the Ang[l]o-Catholics than the Evangelicals in the C. of E. In Canada perhaps the polarisation is on a somewhat different basis.”
Notes the publication of Bishop John Robinson's Redating the New Testament and Can we trust the New Testament?, noting the conservatism of his New Testament scholarship. Greets Bishop De
Roo.
1p
1979
BBB 1/408 27 February 1979
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Family news. Comments on the strikes affecting the country, and which were tolerable when limited only to local employers: “I feel that we are living in wonderland”. BB reviewing an English
translation of Edward Schillebeeckx's
Jesus: an experiment in Christology: more progressive than suits BB, but “basically orthodox”; regrets its unavailability in English at the time of the publication of the
The myth of god incarnate (1977). Family news. A good ARCIC meeting in January; another meeting proposed for late August. Speculates on the ecumenical policy of the new Pope, John Paul II.
1p
BBB 1/409 26 July 1979
BB to CHB
Family news.
1p
BBB 1/410 9 December 1979
BB to CHB
Family news. Notes the publication of BB's
The Church and unity, and three polite but unengaged reviews, and drawing attention to other themes, such as Christology, present in the argument besides that of visible unity. Proposes the collective creation of a
family memoir: “[h]ow lucky we were to grow up in such a family”. CHB's emeritus status. Christmas and new year wishes.
1p
BBB 1/411 December 1979
BB to CHB
Christmas and new year wishes. Hopes for CHB's continued employment by his bishop. Greets Bishop De Roo.
1p
1980
BBB 1/412 1 March 1980
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Describes a week-long consultation on Authority (in the Church and the world) at St George's House, Windsor; attended by Anglican suffragan bishops “and suchlike of other denominations”; speakers
included BB, the head of the Anglo-Dutch Oil Corporation [Shell], Enoch Powell (“who gave a brilliant logical exposition based on highly disputable premisses; he infuriated the liberal-socialist bishops!”), David
Edwards, Nicholas Lash, a rabbi and a French speaker on the Third World. “It was a good idea to bring the world and the Church together, though the world on the whole said its say and then disappeared.” Family news.
Asks after Bishop De Roo. Worries at Pope John Paul II's conservatism, and which is viewed as an expected “backlash”; England “lucky to have Hume” at Westminster. Welcomes the
appointment of “my friend” Dr Robert Runcie as Archbishop of Westminster; BB to be present at his enthronement.
1p
BBB 1/413 3 April 1980
BB to CHB
Family news. Engagements for August, when CHB will be visiting England: Yorkshire conference, 18-23; ARCIC meeting in Venice, 26 August into September. Family memoir. BB unable to attend Archbishop Runcie's enthronement, and so watched on
television. Notes the national emphases on the Protestantism within ecumenism in England and Canada, while internationally the East-West schism predominates. Notes also Archbishop Runcie's concern with this latter issue, while
“I don't know that he is uninterested in the Protestant one”. McQuarrie's twin strands continuity (Catholicism) and critique (Protestantism), as formulated in his
Christian unity and Christian diversity: “... we need both these elements in one communion, not polarised by schism”. Doubts CHB will agree with
The Church and unity, but requests his engagement with its arguments.
1p
BBB 1/414 11 May 1980
BB to CHB
Family news. New Bishop of British Columbia. Greets Bishop De Roo; perhaps to be present at the Synod of Bishops in Rome in the autumn, Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Warlock attending from England. Working on a proposed revised and enlarged
edition of
The theology of Vatican II. BB offered to the publishers Collins a draft book provisionally titled Approach to Christianity, “for intellignet [sic] people who are not commit[t]ed Christians but have a sort of ‘void’ in their hearts and might be interested to see how a Christian copes with ‘modern
thought’ and new knowledge”; doubts his style is sufficiently popular, but shrinks from rewriting, drawing solace from Horace's ‘vitae summa brevis spem ...’ [Odes, 1.4:
‘The shortness of life forbids us from entertaining far-off hopes’]. Report of the National Pastoral Congress at Liverpool, 3-4 May. Pope John Paul II is “quite alaraming [sic]; he seems to be taking us back to the bad old days before Vatican II, despite his insistence that he is a Vatican II man. I wish I could give him a very straight talking-to”.
1p
BBB 1/415 28 December 1980
BB to CHB and Josephine [at 936 Klahanie Drive, RR1, Victoria, British Columbia]
CHB and JMB settled in new home. Reaction to a report by Bishop De Roo on a Central American tour: Nicaragua, and liberation theology - “it makes a valid point, but it is also a partial view (and what account isn't?) of
le fait Chrétien”. Family news.
1p
1981
BBB 1/416 1 March 1981
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Family news. Fears direct involvement, as an Assistant at the Pontifical Throne, in the visit of Pope John Paul II to England. “I feel uncomfortable in the present state of world affairs, with
conservatism rampant in the persons of Thatcher, Reagan and the Pope.” BB's contact with Shirley Williams and his hopes for the positive impact of the prospective new party [Social Democratic Party], acting in alliance with the Liberal Party.
Notes the covenant between the Church of England and four free churches [Churches of Christ; Methodist Church; Moravians; United Reform Church], but infers a move toward recognising presbyterian ordinations, fearing a consequent divergence from the
Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. BB's
An approach to Christianity accepted by Collins; the second edition of The theology of Vatican II published this month. Greets Bishop De Roo. Postscript: “I hope
you are a unilateral nuclear disarmer”.
1p
BBB 1/417 14 April 1981
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. BB sorry that Canada's “last direct link with Britain is [to be] broken” [?patriation].
1p
BBB 1/418 13 May 1981
BB to CHB
Family news.
1p
1982
BBB 1/419 30 May 1982
BB to CHB
Family news. Anxiety over papal visit to England; strong media interest. BB to holiday at Downside and Reading in June.
1p
1983
BBB 1/420 28 February 1983
BB to CHB
Birthday wishes. Sketches political outlook: approaching election; dissatisfaction with bellicose Conservatives, Alliance's policy towards independent schools' charitable status, Labour party's socialism; leans to Labour due to its unilateralist
policy [on nuclear disarmament]. Family news. Welcomes the formation of the second phase of ARCIC. BB's doubts about the reformist credentials of John Paul II date from the Pope's inaugural homily. Greets Bishop De Roo.
Note: annotated in pencil in an unknown hand.
1p
BBB 1/421 26 March 1983
BB to JMB and CHB
Easter wishes. Plans a holiday at Reading in the summer. Addressed a joint meeting of Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy at Portsmouth before Christmas. Family news. Maintains the immorality of nuclear deterrence; notes resurgence of the C.N.D.,
led by a Catholic priest, Bruce Kent.
1p
BBB 1/422 3 May 1983
BB to CHB
Family news. Makes extended case against nuclear deterrence, and invites CHB's comments. The following three paragraphs are quoted below in full.
“There is a Christian theological tradition about the ethics of war, dating back to St Augustine. The tradition is not purely pacifist - it acknowledges the possibility of a ‘just war’.
But it stresses that a just war must be legitimate in its aims and moral in its practice. (I think that both non-pacifism and these prerecited ethical limitations can be based on natural ethics, though they take on a
higher horizon for a Christian believer).
Belligerence ceases to be morally acceptable if there is (1) no reasonable hope of victory or (2) a disproportion between the injuries done by war and the good that is aimed at.
I hold that an
‘all-out’ nuclear war between the super-powers could be immoral, because the extent and quality of the harm inflicted would be out of proportion to the good that would be achieved by ‘victory’. There has been powerful medical comment on the inability of doctors to cope with a nuclear holocaust (you may have read an eye-witness recollection of the effects of the atom bomb at Nagasaki - and that bomb was
not much more than a toy compared with modern nuclear capabilities).”
The sustained attainment of the explicit goal of the policy of deterrence, the prevention of war, is “impossible to prove”. The following three paragraphs are quoted below in full.
“So the question arises: what do we intend to do if deterrence fails? Our government is not able to assure us convincingly that, in that case, we should not proceed to an all-out nuclear war. And by and large those who
invent, manufacture and distribute nuclear weaponry (at the expense of the tax-payers), and those in the armed forces who are being trained for nuclear warfare, have to accept the possibility that they will have been, and will be, co-operating
towards a (perhaps conditionally intended) nuclear holocaust.
Away back at Vatican II I made a speech to the R.C. Council pointing out that a conditional intention to do something immoral is itself immoral (even
if the intention is not subsequently carried into effect). For example, if a ‘penitent’ in the confessional confessed to having committed murder; and if, in the course of discussion with him, it emerged that he was
intending, if ‘necessary’ (though perhaps hoping that it would not be necessary) to commit murder again, one could not give him absolution - because he
was voluntarily entertaining the prospect of committing murder again.
I don't think that this is abstract reasoning. On the contrary, it is ethical reflection upon the very concrete fact of a policy of nuclear deterrence actualised in
manufacture of weapons, training of the armed forces, ‘civil defence’ policy, etc.”
2p
BBB 1/423 7 June 1983
BB to CHB
Thanks CHB for his response on nuclear deterrence. Agrees that the policy of states subsequent to the failure of deterrence may not be determined. BB's worries at “the inscrutable but perhaps wicked
‘conditional intentions’ of Reagan and Thatcher”; and at the moral state of those at all levels of the nuclear weapons complex, from invention to deployment. Queries the (assumed) obedience of military
commanders, and suggests a democratic deficit. Cites Solly Zuckerman's “convincing”Nuclear illusion and reality.
1p
BBB 1/424 24 June 1983
BB at Downside Abbey, to CHB
BB holidaying at Downside, then to Reading. Recommends Kenneth Slack's “perceptive and very ‘sympathetic’” memoir of George Bell, Bishop of Chichester.
1p
BBB 1/425 20 July 1983
BB at St Edmund's College, to CHB
CHB and JMB have sold their house. Invites CHB's opinion of Slack's memoir
George Bell. Family news. Recounts celebrations on the jubilee of BB's ordination. Acknowledges receipt of a newspaper article on [limited tactical] nuclear warfare, acknowledges proving the immorality of such
(prospective) limited weapons is more difficult, but urges re-attention upon the principles of the current deterrence policy, the unknown intentions of super-power governments to a break-down of deterrence. Notes again Zuckerman's argument that
ongoing weapons development increases the likelihood of deployment. “One would be less hostile, perhaps, to deterrence if our Governments proceeded to ABOLISH their monstrous strategic weaponry. ... what concerns me
immediately is the current armaments of our Governments and their failure to make it clear that in no circumstances would they resort to massive civilian destruction.”
1p
1984
BBB 1/426 1 March 1984
BB to CHB [in temporary lodgings, Canada]
Birthday wishes. CHB and JMB in temporary lodgings; to visit England later in the year. Notes the imminent retirement of the Fr Michael Garvey and the appointment of a married layman [?Donald McEwen] as head master of St Edmund's College. BB's
plans to return to Downside in 1985. Reading the second volume of David Edward's
Christian England: from the Reformation to the 18th century. Nuclear deterrence public debate continues; BB has submitted letter to The Times [‘Just war in an
altered light’, Saturday, 3 March 1984; page 9; Issue 61772; col. E]. Family news. Notes Pierre Trudeau's impending resignation.
1p
BBB 1/427 25 March 1984
BB to JMB
Family news. Anticipates their visit to England. Notes the building of a house for the new head master of the school, “at frightening expense”. Cardinal Hume has suggested that BB, a governor of the school, remain
to bridge the transition between the head masters; BB anxious to return to Downside.
1p
BBB 1/428 30 September 1984
BB to JMB and CHB [in England]
Welcomes them back to England. Family news.
1p
1985
BBB 1/429 2 March 1985
BB to CHB [in Devon]
Birthday wishes. CHB and JMB settled in Devon. Family news.
1p
BBB 1/430 1 July 1985
BB to CHB at Fairings Cottage, Off West Lane, Doulton, Winkleigh, Devon
Family news.
1p
BBB 1/431 6 September 1985
BB to CHB
Desire to visit CHB at Winkleigh. BB “reserved” about David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, “because I think that he is a pure Protestant”. Welcomes CHB's contacts with Martin [?Hancock].
CHB to visit Vancouver.
1p
Letters to Mary A. Butler (MAB)
1946
BBB 2/1 14 September 1946
BB at Downside Abbey, to MAB at [25 Downshire Square, Reading]
Accepts MAB's congratulations [on being elected abbot of Downside, on 12 September 1946]; presents his attitude toward the appointment, and his regret at giving up the school [headmastership]. Invites MAB to the blessing [and investiture] at
Downside, to accompany their mother.
1p
1962
BBB 2/2 1 October 1962
BB to MAB
Anticipates some friction at the Second Vatican Council, agreeing “there might be difficult local problems; Rome is sometimes more reasonable than a local bishop”. Itinerary to Rome, leaving 3 October, and pausing
to celebrate a mass at Genoa. Benedictine Presidents' Synod opens on 5 October; Council on 11 October. “I hope the bishops will really get their teeth into things, and not just accept whatever has been prepared for
them.” Family news. BB will take a light typewriter to Rome to “keep some sort of record of the Council”. New high altar at Little Malvern [?Priory], Worcestershire, consecrated by BB, 28 September.
1p
BBB 2/3 Sunday, 14 October 1962
BB at Collegio Sant'Anselmo, Rome, Italy, to MAB
Account of the opening of the Council; BB positioned with a group of abbots. The Pope's address “was good and charitable and, somehow, breathed hope”. First General Congregation curtailed due to a procedural
difficulty; comments on slow pace. BB attends meetings of the English bishops at the English College. Difficulty electing commissioners from a body of more than two thousand Council members, unacquainted with each other. Describes the role of the
Commissions, anticipating that on Faith and Morals in particular “may well be of crucial importance”. Rome proliferating rumours. Has not yet encountered again [John Moorman] the Bishop of Ripon.
1p
BBB 2/4 18 October 1962
BB to MAB
Family news. Comments favourably on prayers given in Anglican churches for the Council, and, in particular by [Oliver Tomkins] the Bishop of Bristol, for [Joseph Rudderham] the Bishop of Clifton and BB; “a sort of
assurance for me that God will overrule the Council for His own good ends”. Short account of the Vatican City's relations with the Italian state since the late 19th century. Voting procedures for commissioners; awaits election result.
Discussion begins on Monday with the Liturgy: BB submitted amendments, among a number by monastic councillors, “I am keen about ... a greater liberty for local experiment and variety - this sounds a bit like the Church of
England, I know, but whereas you may suffer from too much licence, we have groaned under too rigid uniformity”. BB's decision to refuse all social engagements during the Council, declining therefore Douglas Woodruff, editor of the
Tablet. Reports the death of a bishop from the USA, noting the high average age of councillors. The Abbot president of the Bavarian Benedictine Congregation “very nice”, a student of the
Byzantine church with poor spoken Latin. Meeting with The Times correspondent.
2p
BBB 2/5 29 October 1962
BB to MAB
Report of Council business. BB himself not elected a commissioner, but the [Benedictine] Abbot Primate is elected to the “most important” Commission on Faith and Morals. Liturgical discussions continue:
“[t]here is very great freedom of speech, and some very ‘advanced’ views are expressed - to my great pleasure”; BB's expectation that the canon will remain in Latin, with concessions to
the vernacular elsewhere, “[t]here is much to be said for this solution, especially as people travel abroad a good deal nowadays”. Account of BB's first speech on 26 October, and his surprise to be so invited.
Describes the General Congregations and the attendant masses; monastic councillors' preparatory meetings, and submission of amendments. Daily routine, with offices. Meeting with John Moorman, Bishop of Ripon. Letter received from [Dr Geoffrey
Fisher], former Archbishop of Canterbury. Anticipates the Council session to break up in December.
1p
BBB 2/6 30 October 1962
BB to MAB
Vatican issues commemorative postage stamps. Family news. Contrasts the instruction of secrecy as regards Council discussions - “no oath has been imposed on us” - to their reportage in the press. Also contrasts the
wide engagement with concrete Liturgical matters to attention paid to “far more important” theoretical subjects.
1p
BBB 2/7/1-2 17 November 1962
BB to MAB
Family and Chatham Street business news. Describes the constitution of the Collegio Sant'Anselmo, and the role of its Abbot Primate. Summary of balance of opinions in the Council, and outcome, the paragraph quoted in full.
“It seems to me that the real struggle in the Council is between the backward-looking and the forward-looking people. On the whole, the latter are from N. Europe, the former from Italy and Spain. The missionary b[isho]ps are also
on the whole progressives; America may come to hold the balance - and oddly enough, S. America may turn out to be more progressive than the USA. About medicine etc., the ‘high-ups’ in Rome do seem to be suspicious of
Freud-Jung-etc. On medicine otherwise I think they are reasonable, if you allow for the fact that we are radically opposed to the killing of the innocent and of unborn babies.”
Account of BB's second speech, 16 November, within the new
topic of Fontes Revelationis [Sources of Revelation] [
Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation – Dei Verbum], and BB's strong dissatisfaction with the current schema: “intensely
interesting” to BB, “the whole Council has ‘brightened up’ now that we have got off Liturgy and are on to questions of immutable truth”. BB to return to Downside on 10 December.
Encloses picture [postcard] of the Council's opening session, “when we were in cope & mitre. We don't wear these garments at ordinary meetings!”.
1p
BBB 2/7/2 October 1962
Picture postcard of the Second Vatican Council congregated in St Peter's Basilica, Rome, on 11 October 1962 at the opening mass and declaration of the council.
1p
BBB 2/8 29 November 1962
BB to MAB
Family news. Reports on Council: Fontes Revelationis [Sources of Revelation] returned to a committee whose composition BB commends. Against apprehension at burgeoning “Protestant ‘liberal’” views on the New Testament, suggests a greater latitude for scriptural interpretation may be sanctioned, considering the more authoritative role of the Church itself in teaching the faith; accepts the
legitimacy of the Church censoring publication of scholar's “alarming views”; hopes to “avoid defining about the truth of some modern ways of tackling the
NT”, exemplifying formgeschichte (form criticism). “When I became a R.C. over 30 years ago, I had to make an act of almost blind faith that there must be some reconciliation between
what the Church basically teaches about Inspiration etc. and the general drift of the best modern scholarship. A great step towards meeting this point was made when the late Pope published his great Encyclical on Scripture [Divino Afflante Spiritu]. But at the moment a die-hard ‘wing’ in Rome itself is on the war-path.” BB surprised by the strength of the “forward-looking
wing” within the Council. Council discussions moved on to the topics of media, and ecumenism (Eastern Churches), the latter BB would prefer as part of a document on the Church. Account of BB's third speech to the Council, 21 November, on
Fontes Revelationis [Sources of Revelation], but subsequent to the Pope's decision on the document; BB's English pronunciation of Latin favoured by the English speakers over that of the Latinate speakers. BB withdraws from speaking on the Unity of
the Church [
Unitatis Redintegratio], making a written submission to the Commission instead, and noting, “I think one must be careful, especially when one is only an abbot, not to speak too often”.
Anticipates speaking on Our Lady and/or the Church [Lumen Gentium]. Archbishop Heenan friendly, assuring BB against the chance of the Council defining new dogma. Lunch engagement today, with Sir Peter Scarlett the
British [Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary] to the Holy See, other guests included: a Canadian cardinal [?McGuigan], [Francis Grimshaw] the Archbishop of Birmingham, [George Dwyer] the Bishop of Leeds, an Irish bishop, two African
prelates, Canon Pawley of Ely (Anglican liaison with the Secretariat for [Promoting Christian] Unity.
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1963
BBB 2/9 23-24 September 1963
BB at Downside Abbey, to MAB
BB at enthronement of John Heenan, the Archbishop of Westminster, 24 September, perhaps meeting [Fr] Martin [Hancock] for lunch; leaves for Rome, 26 September. A new monastic timetable at Downside will enable boys to take Holy Communion at Sunday
High Mass, as “a sort of ‘parochial communion’ service”. BB spoke on the Second Vatican Council at Douai Abbey, 20 September. Discounts Roman rumours reported in the
Sunday Times of BB's appointment to succeed Cardinal [Augustin] Bea [?to the Presidency of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity]; Archbishop Heenan jokes about the same. BB has added MAB to the list to receive
his open [news]letters on the Council. BB's delight at the Pope's intention to reform the curia - “this was one of the crucial issues, which only the Pope could face, not the Council”.
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BBB 2/10 9 October 1963
BB at Collegio Sant'Anselmo, Rome, Italy, to MAB
Family news. Confirms the death of Fr Richard, “a good and helpful friend for so many years”. Discusses BB's contributions to [
Lumen Gentium], [his first speech of the session]: BB defines the Church as the kingdom of Christ, rather than of God, as against his preferred (minority opinion) “that the Church is the
people of the Kingdom”; argues that non-Roman Catholic communions be recognised as supernatural societies, “based on gospel”, rather than separate individuals. Aims to speak again, against a too dogmatic
definition of episcopal consecration as a sacramental act: “I don't greatly object to the notion ..., but I don't want any new definitions of dogma”. BB also part of a concerted action to
revise the document on Our Lady “more scripturally and according to ancient tradition”; spoke on the subject at a hall near St Peter's Basilica to a group of African bishops. BB again meets [Remi Joseph De Roo] the
Roman Catholic Bishop of Victoria, known to CHB. Joins twice-weekly with the English bishops' discussions and Commonwealth bishops' receptions at the English College. Gives Irish radio interview, on increased participation of the laity in the life
and work of the Church. This Council session calmer than the last, perhaps because “the new Pope is clearly and publicly himself on the ‘progressive’ side, though with all the precautions and
‘impartiality’ which his position requires”. “There is a very strong determination to do something to ‘redress the balance’ between Pope and bishops
which, it is thought, the 1870 Council somewhat disturbed. But the way to do it isn't altogether clear (at least to me).”
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BBB 2/11 20 October 1963
BB to MAB
Identifies and expands on two crucial issues in the discussions towards [
Lumen Gentium]: the sacramental nature of episcopal consecration; collegiality, and a shift in power towards the Curia since 1870, such that hinders active ecumenism. BB suggests the best hope for the adoption of
collegiality is that such a college base its authority not merely upon points of legal jurisdiction, invoking instead a “‘college of love’”, “[bishops] are
intended by Our Lord to be such”. BB prevented from speaking on episcopal consecration by the closure of that debate. Extra-conciliar activity regarding the document on Our Lady; describes two streams of thought regarding Church teaching on
the subject, one incrementalist the other, BB's inclination, revisionist - “to go back to the early patristic tradition and to the Bible to reflect again on the foundations of our theoretical and practical attitude to Our
Lady”. Anticipates the great dislike of the “pushers-on” for the “English document” in its current form. Consideration that further development would deter ecumenism.
“I want to suggest to the Council that it would be a way of doing very great honour to Our Lady, and of showing our love for her, if we determined to make it not more difficult but easier for our fellow-Christians to
understand, sympathize with, and perhaps in the end adopt, our ‘vision’ of her and our devotion to her.” Canvasses MAB's opinion. Describes the episcopal consecration of the new Apostolic Delegate to England
[Igino Eugenio Cardinale]. Commends Pope Paul VI's speech to non-Roman Catholic observers. Family news. BB's concern, despite a progressive majority on the Council, at their lack of progress, and notes the desirability of deciding important issues
in Council rather than consigning such matters for subsequent papal consideration: detects the Council wishes to demonstrate “that the bishops have a real role in the government of the Church”.
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BBB 2/12 2 November 1963
BB to MAB
Reports the publication of an article on the Council by CHB in a Victoria, British Columbia, magazine. Decrease in Council business. Trip to Frascati with two Downside students. Reports the vote to treat Our Lady within [
Lumen Gentium]; deprecates the “dangerous” evolution of a discrete Mariology; welcomes the negative effect which BB's prime involvement in obtaining this decision, and the consequent
dislike of “the Italians”, may have on his future appointment to the Vatican. Anticipates more of a spectator's role in the discussion of Bishops and the Rule of Dioceses, and the likelihood of the bishops being
granted greater autonomy of the Vatican. Account of the life and the beatification mass for Blessed Dominic Barberi, sung by Archbishop Heenan, and with a sermon “in Lancashire English”: “[t]he music was so ornate, and so brutal to the words of the Mass, that it confirmed my support of the liturgical revival!” Meeting with Br Max Thurian, an Observer; and Cardinal Döpfner, “warmly
sympathetic to the sort of views I want to see prevail”. Account of the language difficulties during extra-conciliar discussions, BB conversant in French, and with some Italian. School news.
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BBB 2/13 16 November 1963
BB to MAB
MAB visit to Coventry Cathedral. Disagreement concerning the document on Our Lady: resolution uncertain, and not expected before Christmas. BB to preside at Ealing's abbatial election, 8 January. Plans to holiday [at Reading]. Family news. Relays
Roman rumours on Pope Paul VI's radical plans for reform, and a hiatus of Council business in 1964.
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BBB 2/14 4 December 1963
BB to MAB
Travel arrangements for his return from Rome. Expands on
The Times' report of BB's speech on 2 December, on the subject of the Anglican Communion and separated bodies.
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1964
BBB 2/15 25 January 1964
BB to MAB
Council meetings commence 27 January. Family news. BB at Worth Priory until 21 January; and then Cardiff for a Christian Unity meeting, 22 January, Fr Allchin of Pusey House another speaker.
1p
BBB 2/16 1 March 1964
BB to MAB
Arrived 29 February. [Theological] Commission session commences, 2 March; expecting a fortnight's work. Commission work forces BB to decline dinner invitation from [Igino Eugenio Cardinale] the Apostolic Delegate, the Archbishop of Canterbury to
be a guest.
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BBB 2/17 15 March 1964
BB to MAB
Family news. Commission session concluded, 14 March; intends to return to Downside 16 March. BB appointed to a subcommission on revising the document On Revelation [
Dei Verbum]; meeting in April. Summarises Commission work on [Lumen Gentium]: chapters [The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church] and Religious, prepared by BB's subcommission,
“had a fairly easy run”; chapter on Our Lady at preliminary stage, “passable”, “it is desirable to find a solution that can be accepted by a
‘moral unanimity’ in the Council, and with the minimum of public discussion; it is a very sensitive subject”. Commends “spirit of mutual respect and collaboration” prevailing in
the Commission. Lectures at Manchester on Belief in the sphere of science, and criticism in religion, [Good] Friday (27 March). Convent visitations begin after 5 April. Notes long absences from Downside Abbey. Uncertainty on when the Council will
conclude.
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BBB 2/18 21 April 1964
BB to MAB
First [subcommission] meeting, 20 April: describes daily business schedule, meeting in the Vatican. BB in a section to discuss Revelation and Tradition, the other section discussing the Bible and Inspiration: comments on section chairman and
members.
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BBB 2/19 2 June 1964
BB to MAB
Arrived, 1 June. Family news. First meeting of the [Commission on Faith and Morals], 1 June; hopes to conclude business in time for a Downside Chapter meeting, 12 June. Reports a “major crisis” already threatening
the Commission session [?perhaps the chapter on Our Lady for
Lumen Gentium, see
BBB 1/348], and regrets the tardiness of some allies among the commissioners.
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BBB 2/20 3 October 1964
BB to MAB
Notes the positive coverage of the Council in
The Times. Family news. Reports an experimental concelebration of bishops and abbots, with the Abbot Primate, at the College - “one of the things allowed for in the new Liturgical
reform”. Expanding on comments made at a press conference, BB defines his understanding of Church renewal or aggiornamento; the paragraph is quoted in full.
“At the press conference on Thursday I gave some idea
of what I mean by ‘renewal’ (aggiornamento) in the Church. I said that ever since the second century the Church has been adapting herself to her age. In the second century she Europeanised herself, having started as a
Jewish thing. She learnt to think and express herself according to Greek philosophy. Then she Romanised herself, and imperialised herself. (I might have added that, later still, she feudalised herself). She trails along with her remnants of these
past adaptations (I might have added, since the Reformation she has frozen herself into the decadent mediaeval attitudes which she took up against the Reformers). For me, renewal means not just a few changes in window-dressing, but a radical return
to her origins - not so that we may all become first century Palestinian Jews, but so that we may then ‘translate’ the fullness of the Gospel into terms relevant to our own age. (The Council can only of course take
one or two tentative steps in the required direction; it will be for the Church to explore it further[.])”
Plans for a book about the Council.
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BBB 2/21 Saturday, 17 October 1964
BB to MAB
On his return, BB to deliver an informal talk on the Council to undergraduates at St John's College, Oxford. Encloses cutting from the
Guardian [not present], quoting and naming BB. “It was a bit unfair to the Spanish bishops, who don't ‘run’ the central government here, but some of them do
make highly ‘traditionalist’ speeches.” MAB read report of BB's speech on the Gospels: BB encloses a redacted copy [not present]. Reassures MAB on other speeches on the Bible that she found
“awful”, such speakers being “voices in the wilderness”: “I am moderately hopeful that the final text of the De Revelatione will be sensible about Gospel
criticism”. Three meetings of the Commission [on Faith and Morals] this week, revising the chapter on Our Lady [in Lumen Gentium]: BB “theologically content” but
“practically ... dissastisfied [sic]” at the document's current state, admitting to resisting the Commission's attempts to find a compromise. Expands further on his press conference
comments, on “the fullness of the Gospel”: “[m]y idea is that the mediaeval and even great patristic expression of Christianity was narrower than the original deposit of faith, which yet the
Church has preserved in her - partly unexpressed - mind”. Notes the election of a Labour Government in the United Kingdom. “The news from Russia may be serious.”
1p
BBB 2/22 14 November 1964
BB to MAB
MAB at Ipswich. Family news. Reacts to imposition of imports tax; effect on Felix [Butler]'s business. Expectation that [
Lumen Gentium] or [Unitatis Redintegratio] are to ratified when Council meets in public session tomorrow. Two emergency meetings of the Commission [?on Faith and Morals], 12 November;
“the fruits of our recent labours on The Church” [Lumen Gentium] distributed to the Council today.
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1965
BBB 2/23 12 September 1965
BB to MAB
Reports election of Dom. Victor Farwell as abbot of Worth, as BB “hoped and expected”. Arrived in Rome, 11 September; preparing for Council, and reading [Birger] Gerhardsson. Long interview with a
Tablet journalist; shown the new encyclical Mysterium Fidei on the Eucharist. Illness of the Abbot Primate, recently returned from Switzerland. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/24 26 September 1965
BB to MAB
MAB to receive BB's latest open letter, via Downside. Council quiet. Reports Council vote on [
Dignitatis Humanae], at the Pope's insistence, and against Central Commission agenda, 21 September; the Central Commission “does not fairly represent the mind of the Council”. Currently
debating draft document on The Church in the world today [Gaudium et Spes, 1.4 The Role of the Church in the Modern World]: “a long, somewhat rambling, effort, and really needs another year to
get it mature and satisfactory”. BB hopes to be [re-]appointed to the revising subcommittee on Peace and war [Gaudium et spes, 2.2.5 The Fostering of Peace and the Promotion of a Community of Nations]. BB
delivered talk this morning on nuclear deterrence and conscientious objection to a group of English-speaking Canadian bishops and others, Bishop De Roo and a priest from Victoria, British Columbia, known to CHB, among them. Doctrinal Commission to
meet in the coming week, to debate final revisions to the document on Revelation [Dei Verbum]: BB pragmatic concerning the final document, given that “we are in a transition from the old to
the new”, and relieved at the Council's disinclination to infallibly dogmatise. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/25 10 October 1965
BB to MAB
BB suggests one grows out of teaching: “[w]ild horses would hardly get me back into it again!” Family news. Council speedily concluding: expectation that remaining documents will be promulgated late in October.
Commends the Bishop of Victoria, British Columbia, Remi De Roo's speech on marriage; directs CHB to obtain a copy from De Roo's chancellery. Clarifies reported comments of BB in
The Times [‘Vatican Council Asked To Outlaw Nuclear Arms. Abbot Of Downside Denounces 'Immoral Defences'’, 7 October 1965; page 9; Issue 56446; col. A]: “ ... I
am not a pacifist. I did not deny a State's right to defend itself, in certain circumstances, by warlike acts. But I suggested that the Church herself should not wish to have her interests and mission thus
defended”. Highly commends Pope Paul VI's speech to the United Nations. Council currently debating [Ad Gentes]; [Optatam Totius] to follow. Commission work: BB involved with
revising the “ticklish” document The Church in the world today [Gaudium et Spes]; prefers its production by the Council, rather than by the mooted later episcopal synod.
“I think it must be viewed as a tentative and imperfect first step along what, for us, is a new path, of direct dialogue with the modern world.” Recounts a lunch with a former Downside pupil and his family. Family
news. Roman Electricity strike threatens. Notes an admiring report in Time magazine on the modern presses of the Reading [?Evening Post].
1p
BBB 2/26 18 October 1965
BB to MAB
Encloses English text of BB's Council speech on nuclear deterrence [not present], a fuller version that that delivered on the day; and further clarifies his reported views in
The Times (see
BBB 2/25). Family news; notes long silence from CHB. Council business: subcommission today on Culture [
Gaudium et spes, 2.2.1: The
Circumstances of Culture in the World Today]; Commission meetings tomorrow and Wednesday. Notes temporary absence of many Council Fathers. Details three specific points of concern in the text of [
Dei Verbum], fearing
rumoured late amendments by the Pope: (1) “...to avoid committing us to a formal statement that there is anything in the deposit of faith that is
in no sense in the Bible”; (2) desires
a “very
moderate” definition of inerrancy; (3) exclusion of content prejudicial to “legitimate critical questions”. Laments the slow process of closing
the Council; and notes his need for rest. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/27 26 October 1965
BB to MAB
Family news. CHB's uncertain future plans; bishopric hypothesised. Regret at death of [Jonathan] Graham, Father Superior of the Community of the Resurrection. Plenary Joint Commission revising work last week, while Council in recess, and
continuing this week; subcommission work the preceding week, on Culture, and Peace and war [
Gaudium et spes, 2.2.1 The Circumstances of Culture in the World Today; 2.2.5 The Fostering of Peace and the Promotion of a Community of Nations]. Council voting today on revised text on [Dignitatis Humanae]; the document “says all that is necessary in its short compass”; anticipates its ratification. Doctrinal Commission meeting made three revisions to [Dei verbum]. Offers further view of [Gaudium et spes]: “...will be quite good, but not really ‘ripe’ ... I don't think it will close
doors - except to atheism, divorce, infanticide, indiscriminate warfare, and suchlike. Indeed, on matters like freedom of research and publication (for priests as well as laity) it should be good. It will not be pacifist!” [Optatam totius] “will be worth consideration of other Christian bodies”: both this and [Gravissimum educationis] “reasonably
‘modern’ in [their] outlook.” BB's concern regarding the speed and completeness of the implementation of conciliar decisions. “The Roman Catholic people in England have, so far, only a
very shadowy and imperfect idea of what it all means - they are preoccupied with little changes in Mass ceremonies etc. To me, the Council is potentially one of the biggest things that has happened in the Church since 1054. But so many people, even
if they have been memebrs [sic] of the Council, don't seem to see it.” Notes the appointment of BB's friend Derek Worlock as Bishop of Portsmouth, formerly a secretary to the English bishops and an expert on the
Council.
1p
BBB 2/28 6 November 1965
BB to MAB
Family news. Re his speech on Peace and war, again acknowledges states' right to self-defence. Comments on unspecified remarks by Dr Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury; and commends Prime Minister Harold Wilson's performance. No Council or
Commission business this last week has allowed time for writing. Visit to Grottaferrata Basilian monastery: notes their Greek Rite “sadly Latinised”, and their rich library. Anticipates the Council closing on 8
December.
1p
BBB 2/29 5 December 1965
BB to MAB
Family news; travel plans for return to England; Christmas holiday plans. Reports the schedule of closing business of the Council, anticipating “one of [Rome's] splendid shows” at the final session. Recounts an
audience with Pope Paul VI on 4 December; presenting a copy of [
In the silence of Mary (1964)] a life of Prioress Mother Mary of Jesus, [Madeleine Dupont], and raising a point of concern in the text of [Gaudium et spes], the Pope taking some notes.
The Pope blessed the Downside community, the English Congregation, the Notting Hill Carmel community, and BB's family; makes BB a gift of a facsimile edition of the Codex Vaticanus New Testament. “He asked for prayers for
himself, and struck me as one who knows a good deal about suffering.” Notes “American” [?councillors] deprecation of [Gaudium et spes, 2.2.5 The Fostering of Peace and the
Promotion of a Community of Nations] as too pacifist, while BB considers it “unfavourable to the unilateralists”. American Presbyterian observer visits this afternoon for discussion. Reports on, but did not attend, a
joint service at the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls for councillors and observers; notes English hymn and litany.
1p
1967
BBB 2/30 5 March 1967
BB at St Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire, to MAB
MAB's work at the school handed over to a successor; retirement. BB's “vast relief” on handing on his responsibilities at Downside, [upon his appointment as Bishop]. Responds to MAB on the immaculate conception
and, by implication, the assumption: Mary latently suggested in Luke I and II as the second Eve, “preveniently graced by God”, and cites Cardinal Newman's answer to Dr Pusey's
Eirenicon. Parochial visitation completed, and confirmations, at St Albans South. Sarum Lectures “‘passed’” by Oxford; submitted to publishers [Darton,
Longman & Todd]. “I should like it to be published soon, as a bit of a contribution to our present intellectual ferment in England.” BB preached at opening of Fr Martin [Hancock's] church, and which is
“good for our reformed liturgy”. BB engagements: MP's questions at Westminster, then dinner speech in London, 6 March; lunch with the Apostolic Delegate, then delivers a paper on Eschatology and metaphysics at MAB's
old college, 7 March; speaks on Ecumenism, 8 March; visitation, 9 March; interview with the Bishop of London to discuss a proposal for an Institute on Disarmament, 10 March; presides at Catholic Women's League meeting, 11 March. New car.
2p
BBB 2/31 23 March 1967
BB to MAB
Easter wishes. Contrasts his Easter schedule at St Edmund's with that at Downside when abbot. Departs for the U.S.A., 20 April; two days with CHB and family at the end of his tour. Publishers [Darton, Longman & Todd] accepted BB's Sarum
Lectures. U.S.A. talks incomplete: notes his lack of time, energy, and the weight of correspondence. “But the great thing is that (so far) I haven't felt my new job as a great emotional burden.” Report of a
performance of Henri Ghéon's
Way of the Cross at the Poles Convent, [Ware]; records his repugnance at viewing another more explicit passion play performed by children. “Somehow, I can't ‘take’ that sort of realism”.
1p
After 1967
BBB 2/32 After 1967
BB's answers to questions 1--6, 8, 10-11, [probably of a questionnaire of MAB's, see
BBB 2/33], on the following subjects: (1) intercession of and gratitude to the Saints; (2) gratitude to Mary, with discussion of
her titles Mother of God and mediatrix; (3) the prime role of the Church in teaching the gospel, and infallibilism; (4) reasons for [?Cardinal Newman's] conversion to Roman Catholicism; (5) transubstantiation; (8) indulgences; (10) clerical
celibacy, an alterable rule in Western Christianity, defended; (11) cremation.
1p
BBB 2/33 After 1967
BB to [MAB]
Refers to earlier answers made to MAB's questionnaire. Concerning a question on the reunion of the Church: notes Anglican and Roman Catholic non-negotiable tenets; “[b]ut one may distinguish between the essence of
R.C.-ism and R.C.'ism as it currently exists. In the latter great changes are possible”. Turns the question from a bipolar debate toward a consideration of “what will be the essential structure of the future one
Church. I personally think it might be far more diverse in its local forms than the picture normally formed of contemporary R.C.-ism - e,g, [sic] I can conceive of a ‘Uniate Church of
Catnerbury’ [sic] with its own liturgy, a married clergy, etc.; and of a papacy playing a role more like that of a modern British monarchy than that of the mediaeval English king”.
1p
1968
BBB 2/34 13 October 1968
BB to MAB
Family news. Reading holiday arrangements, 27 December-2 January 1969. Notes “furore” occasioned by an interview with BB published in the
Sunday Times: defends the orthodoxy of his comments, and anticipates “a lot of trouble at our hierarchy meeting which opens tomorrow afternoon”; “some of our
troubled priests and others were helped by it”; but notes also conservative anger, “some of the strongest critics ... are on the teaching staff in the seminary here”. St Edmund's College quadricentennial
celebrations successful, 30 September. Reports Cardinal Garrone now in Rome as Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education; first encountered by BB at the Second Vatican Council. BB addressed a large meeting at Croydon on 9 October, arranged
by the local Anglican Deanery, on the subject of the Church in the future; following an earlier address on the same topic by Archbishop Ramsey. Preached to the magistrates at St Laurence Jewry, Guildhall, 11 October. Commends Bishop De Roo's role in
the issuance of “a magnificent [Winnipeg] statement about the Encyclical business from the Canadian bishops. This I think is very important.”
1p
BBB 2/35 25 October 1968
BB to MAB
MAB Samaritans work. MAB and Felix Butler's approval of BB's
Sunday Times interview: BB detects a loss of his personal influence among [British] bishops, weighing this against its positive effect on “some of our worried people”, and its ecumenical
value. Regarding Church policy toward priests publicly opposing the Pope, “I personally think that the time comes when one has to decide between public silence and ‘resigning from the
cabinet’ - not ‘from the party’”. Notes the release of a statement by Scandinavian bishops echoing that of the Canadian bishops. Reports imminent publication in the Tablet of
a series of articles by BB, noting particularly one on conscience [‘Conscience and authority’, Tablet 222, 21 September 1968: pp934-35]. Abbot Wilfrid Passmore leading a retreat with the
Ware Carmel, and is to visit BB: “[h]e is a great talker”.
1p
1969
BBB 2/36 17 January 1969
BB to MAB
Enquires after MAB's Samaritans work - “a splendid thing - a very practical expression of Christianity” - and her dress-making classes. Family news. BB meets Cardinal [Heenan], holidaying locally [Hare Street
House]. Dined with Harman Grisewood and family. Reading St Augustine, and Evelyn Waugh's
A Handful of Dust. In his role presiding over the Social Morality Council, BB coordinating with Archbishop Ramsey to lobby the Archbishop of Paris [François Marty] and the French Church to bring pressure to bear on
Charles de Gaulle re the Biafran conflict (see
BBB 1/371). BB's chaplain-secretary returned from holiday. [Father] Martin [Hancock] visits, 20 January. Will meet Cardinal [Leo Joseph] Suenens at Westminster, where
the Cardinal will preach, 19 January. Book review. Declining number of [Church] Unity engagements. Notes deaths of Austin Farrer, Leslie Cross and Frederick Cockin Bishop of Bristol.
1p
BBB 2/37 2 February 1969
BB to MAB
Thanks MAB for her comments on BB's BBC Third Programme broadcast [? ‘The Pope’s Encyclical and Its Consequences’. 26 January 1969]; noting Monsignor Clark and other conservatives' dismay at the failure of the
papal encyclical
Humanae vitae to close the debate, and also its complexity. Notes also, following a meeting of the English Theological Commission on 28 January, the calming effect “theology, and general
discussion” is beginning to have on the debate. Reports Cardinal Suenens' appreciation of the historic and ultimately unitive role a dissenting cardinal might play, drawing a parallel with the consequences of the lack of such a voice on
vernacular liturgy and two-kind communion at the Reformation. No response yet received to Archbishop Ramsey's letter to the Archbishop of Paris; notes delayed mails. Reading St Francis de Sales Treatise on the love of
God, “a Christian masterpiece”, but finding its “honeyd [sic] style rather tiresome”. Departs [to Yorkshire] tomorrow to deliver three talks to
priests on ‘Collegiality’, ‘Authority’ and ‘Conscience’.
1p
BBB 2/38 9 February 1969
BB to MAB
In Yorkshire, spent two nights with the Bishop of Leeds, [Gordon Wheeler], recounting his conversion and subsequent reception at Downside. Attended meeting in London on 8 February re the Abortion Act 1967 and the position of medical attendants at
such operations, noting the relative conservatism of the doctors compared to the moral theologians at the meeting. Cardinal [Heenan] visits/inspects St Edmund's College tomorrow. Meeting of the London Society for the Study of Religion at the
Athenaeum, 11 February; BB to give a paper to the Society later in the year, though has little time for such work. Contributions to MAB's stamp collection.
1p
BBB 2/39 31 May 1969
BB to MAB
MAB approves Cardinal Suenens' interview in the
Tablet; BB to stay with the cardinal at Malines during a symposium at Louvain, 7-8 June. Family news. Briefly reports on the first Diocesan Synod. Holiday plans at Downside and Reading, and intervening engagements in
July: Social Morality Council AGM, 2 July; Swiss conference. Engagements: visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 1 June; Anglican/Roman Catholic conference on Spirituality at Leeds, the Archbishop of York and Cardinal [Gordon] Gray's attendance noted,
2 June. MAB to receive paperback copy of In the light of the Council, intentionally a popular work. Increase in BB's work load during Cardinal [Heenan]'s tour of South America and the temporary illness of Bishop
[Patrick Joseph] Casey. Enquires after MAB's Samaritan work.
1p
BBB 2/40 13 June 1969
BB to MAB
Birthday wishes. Account of successful ecumenical Spirituality conference [at Leeds]; hopes it may spur a national ecumenical mission. Account of a small Roman Catholic conference on Authority and the person at [Louvain] 6-9 June, staying with
Cardinal Suenens, and giving a paper on the theology of Church structures. Visit to Cardinal Mercier's tomb at Malines. Delivers paper on ‘Ontology and history in the New Testament’ to the London Society for the Study
of Religion, noting attendance of Archbishop Ramsey, Dean Matthews and [Sydney] Evans, 10 June. Holiday arrangements. Engagements: this afternoon meets [Immanuel Jakobovits] the Chief Rabbi [of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth] on
Social Morality Council business; then to White City for confirmations, Cardinal Heenan still being in the Americas.
1p
BBB 2/41 13 July 1969
BB to MAB
Family news. Account of Synod at Chur, Switzerland, recorded in
Tablet article [ ‘The Significance of the Synod’. Tablet 223, 20 September 1969: pp919-20]: heavy press attendance; disrupted by coincident priests'
conference; dissatisfaction with result. BB relieved at deferral of Methodist/Anglican [unity], in view of unresolved important doctrinal differences, analogous to the current status of Roman Catholic/Anglican relations: “my own view is that the growing friendship and co-operation between the churches is itself a triumph of grace, and that we must not be too rash in moving on from that to organic union”. Engagements: stays with great friend
the chaplain of a convent near Stafford, 14-15 July; meeting of English/Welsh bishops, 17 July; prize-giving ceremony at [St Edward's Prep School], Reading, 24 July.
1p
BBB 2/42 2 August 1969
BB to MAB
Family news. Retreat at St Edmund's concluded last week. Interviews. Meetings: Monsignor Tracy Ellis of the U.S.A., “a distinguished old Church historian with a very nodern [sic]
outlook”, 29 July; Father Scott James, an “old friend ... who much disapproves of my present ‘avant garde’ views and activities”, 30 July; unidentified young rabbi, 1 August,
“interested in contacts not only with Christians but with Moslems, [who] feels that religion might conceivably be a reconciling force in the Near East. ... He pointed out that the Talmudic legal system was magnificent as a
scheme for an inward-looking persecuted group, but was not adapted for Judaism in a context of genuine toleration”. Lunch with Norman St John-Stevas [M.P.] in Hampstead. BB struggling to find Lonergan writings relevant to an ecclesiological
subject for a conference paper [in 1970]. Family news. Agrees “the Papacy should become disentangled from excessive Italian and Western influences”, noting previous Eastern [European] popes, and citing Hans Küng's
analysis of the Reformation. BB in discussion with Dr Geoffrey Fisher about the Structure of the Church, describes Fisher's desire for full communion and complete local autonomy as impractical, but notes “there are strong
pressures among us for a greater local freedom of action than has been the custom since, I suppose, the High Middle Ages or before”.
1p
BBB 2/43 11 October 1969
BB to MAB
Family news. CHB “at a loose end”; BB lunched with Canon [Charles Stephen] Dessain, who met CHB in Victoria, British Columbia. Reacts to Pope Paul VI's opening speech of the Extraordinary Synod of bishops, supplied
in snippets by a journalist: “fairly moderate, but typically Roman in his warning against too much devolution to the local churches”. Theological Commission meeting at Oscott, 6 October. Attended funeral of a fellow
novice at Downside, latterly a parish priest near Slough, then tea with [Wilfrid Passmore] the Abbot of Downside at Reading, 8 October. Delivered two talks to priests at Exeter, 9 October. Engagements: celebrate the golden jubilee of a priest friend
of [Father] Martin [Hancock]'s at Canvey Island, 13 October. Reports BB's appointment to the permanent Anglican/Roman Catholic [International] Commission (ARCIC); first meeting at Windsor Castle in January 1970, awaits agenda.
1p
BBB 2/44 19 October 1969
BB to MAB
Family news. Canvey Island, then a Watford meeting, 13 October. Deanery Meeting at Hertford, 14 October. Addresses teacher trainees (“fierce questioning”) at Brough Road College, Isleworth, 15 October. Social
Morality Council executive meeting, then [Roman] Catholic dinner(-dance) at Watford, 16 October. Parochial visitation of Harpenden, then an ecumenical religion and education symposium near St Albans, 17 October. Engagements: visitation at Welwyn
Garden City, today; addresses, this week, clergy at Southampton on Authority, noting the currency of the topic in the wake of the Council and
Humanae vitae; and, later in the week, attends meeting of the Central Religious Advisory Committee (“there seems to be a great deal of dissatisfaction about religious broadcasting - are we too
shy to speak the truth to the public?”). Notes Cardinal Suenens “forthright” contributions at the Extraordinary Synod; “the practical conclusions [of the Synod] will be the things to
examine”. MAB attending tailoring classes.
1p
1970
BBB 2/45 17 January 1970
BB to MAB
Family and health news. Reports on Windsor “very friendly” meeting of ARCIC; to meet again in September. BB and [Henry] Chadwick, [Dean of Christ Church, Oxford], to prepare a draft paper on
‘The Church and authority’, “which I hope will begin with the notion of the Church as a ‘communion’ in the sense of 1 John”. Commission also considering
moral theology, BB identifying three crucial dogmatic issues: infallibilism; Our Lady; Anglican Orders. On the latter point, “it was suggested that modern R.C. ways of understanding the priesthood might undermine the
arguments adduced against the CofE Ordinal. Personally, I think that the easy practical way would be to implement the 1920 Lambeth Declaration ... [Regularisation] could be done by conditional ordination, which would involve no concession by
Anglicans”. Records two broad points of consensus: a “‘special relationship’” exists; the urgency of union, “for the sake of the Christian mission to the
world”. Met Canon Bentley. Notes the belief in transubstantiation “seems to have made great strides in the C. of E. during the last forty years”. Account of life inside Windsor Castle. Attended funeral at
Liverpool; then a conference on religious education at Rugeley. Engagements: Confirmation service at [Westminster] Cathedral, 18 January, (BB's colleague Bishop Patrick Casey having been appointed to [Brentwood]); Unity week, [January].
1p
BBB 2/46 23 January 1970
BB to MAB
Loans [?Charles] De la Rue book on to Bernard [Butler]. Notes under-representation of the evangelical Anglican movement at the Windsor meeting of ARCIC. Preached a “uniate arrangement” at Westminster [Cathedral],
seeing Felix [Butler]; and at St Dunstan[-in-the-West], 21 January, meeting Dr [Eric] Mascall and Father Brandreth: notes his suggestion echoes a sermon delivered by Cardinal [Johannes] Willebrands' at Cambridge (18 January), and would, according to
Canon Satterthwaite, have won the approval of Archbishop Ramsey. Family arrangements. Engagements: preaches at Evensong at Bournemouth for Colin James, 25 January; addresses Southampton University Christian Societies, 26 January; and the Civil
Service Catholic Guild in London, 27 January; two meetings in London, 28 January; meeting of the Theological Commission at Birmingham, 29 January. With regard to a popular Catholic movement against clerical celibacy in Holland, registers his anxiety
that a breach should occur. “One asks what we are all about in this week of prayer for unity and regret for the hasty decisions of the 16th century.”
1p
BBB 2/47 7 May 1970
BB to MAB
BB's presiding role on the Social Morality Council has repercussions at [English/Welsh] bishops' meetings, particularly regarding a report on religious and moral education in County schools; a report on mixed marriages better received. Warns
against the possible inaccuracy of a report about Bishop John Moorman and the uniate idea; notes Archbishop Ramsey and Dr Geoffrey Fisher's support, and perhaps also Cyril Easthaugh the Bishop Peterborough's approval. BB preached an academic sermon,
on conscience and God, at Leeds, 3 May, staying with William Wheeler the Bishop of Leeds, “an old friend”. Theological Commission meeting at Birmingham, BB staying with Archbishop Dwyer, 5 May. Meeting of Diocesan
Administration Commission at Westminster, 6 May. MAB in Hampshire. The Bishop of Buckingham, Christopher Pepys, lobbies BB for support for the Samaritans; Cardinal Heenan a warm supporter. Bernard [Butler] visit to Lyme Regis.
1p
BBB 2/48 23 May 1970
BB to MAB
Family news. MAB Germany holiday plans; BB remembers a tour with [Father] Martin [Hancock] to Freiburg im Breisgau and the Black Forest in 1926, “a very Christian part of Germany”. Reports the appointment of two
new (auxiliary) bishops, Gerald Mahon and Victor Guazzelli, to Westminster diocese, to be consecrated this afternoon, BB in attendance; with positive appraisal of each. Seeks MAB's reaction to Graham Leonard the Bishop of Willesden's proposals for
church unity, noting a poor reception in the
Church Times and querying his (hypothetical) acceptance of unordained Methodist ministers as full-fledged priests. Commends Cardinal Suenens' bravery, recorded publicly by BB in a Tablet
letter (“measured support”). “The Pope was quick to rebuke him in public for this last venture - not quite the last, since Suenens came back to the subject after the Pope's rebuke, and
defended himself.” Plan to meet Robert Runcie, the recently appointed Bishop of St Albans. Cardinal Heenan's willing support for the Samaritans. BB with time to prepare his lectures for South Africa (tour).
1p
BBB 2/49 [Early June] 1970
BB to MAB
MAB to Germany. Birthday wishes. Departs for South Africa, 26 June: Johannesburg then Pretoria. Four lectures (Pretoria, 29 June-2 July; ?Lesotho; Cape Town; Durban). Hopes to stay with Archbishop Hurley, “a friend of
mine whom I greatly admire”. Returns around 3 August. Graham Leonard, Bishop of Willesdon, sending BB his co-written work,
Growing into union (1970), and which Leonard considers has been unfairly reviewed in the Church Times. Commends Professor Mitchell's essay on ‘Indoctrination’ in The fourth R. The report of the Commission on Religious Education in Schools (The Durham report): “answer[s] very well the objections of humanists
to definite Xtn teaching in schools”. Visit and holiday plans of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. Received CHB letter.
1p
BBB 2/50 25 June 1970
BB to MAB
BB welcomes change of government; favouring a shift away from the two-party hegemony. BB's South African lecture tour in doubt following Cardinal Heenan's illness. BB departs 26 June, returns 3 August. Notes MAB's information re Anthony Moletske
at Alice, [Eastern Cape]. First reaction to
Growing into union - “has some interesting theology in it”. Family news. Notes the appointment of a former Downside pupil well-known to BB, Peter Rawlinson, as Attorney General:
“I hope that one day he will be Lord Chancellor”.
1p
BBB 2/51 29 June 1970
BB at National Seminary, Waterkloof, Pretoria, South Africa, to MAB at 25 Downshire Square, Reading
BB's “fellow-lecturer” the moral theologian Father Enda McDonagh. Notes racial segregation extends to Seminaries. Programme consists of lectures in the morning and afternoon, with open symposia in the evenings.
Meets Anglican Archbishop Knapp-Fisher, known from ARCIC, 1 July. Description of Johannesburg and Pretoria; visit to a maternity training hospital in a formerly black area of Pretoria. BB meeting many Irish priests, “with
open minds and very critical of apartheid”, some from Rhodesia [Zimbabwe]. Stays next at St Augustine's Seminary in Roma, Lesotho.
1p
BBB 2/52 10 July 1970
BB at University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, Roma, Lesotho, (as from Maris Stella Convent, Essenwood Road, Durban), to MAB
Family news. Fears his lectures in Lesotho have been unsuccessful, failing to connect with the audience, “largely African priests and Sisters, together with white missionary priests from Canada (French-Canadian)”.
Flies to Durban, 13 July. Plans visit to the Priory of the Masite Mission at Maseru [Priory of Our Lady, Mother of Mercy, of the Society of the Precious Blood], on MAB's information. Description of Roma, and an outline of the valley's missionary and
varsity history. Notes exceptional drought. Brief description of Lesotho, noting poverty, 80% Christian population, state of education, black/white ratios of Catholic and Anglican bishops.
1p
BBB 2/53 17 July 1970
BB at 408 Innes Road, Durban, South Africa, (as from St Bernadette's Hall, Walmer, Port Elizabeth) to MAB
BB staying at the house of the Archbishop of Durban, Denis Hurley. Lunched with the Archbishop of Maseru, 13 July; visits a community of Anglican Sisters at Maseru, but not that founded by the Burnham Abbey Sisters known to MAB. Family news.
Description of Durban. Notes “lively questioning” of lecture audiences. Appreciation of Archbishop Hurley, a friend of BB's from the Second Vatican Council: “a powerful man, aged 54 or 55,
and a very outspoken opponent of apartheid - too outspoken for many of his fellow-bishops in the Republic”. Dines this evening with two old (c. 1942) Downside boys, brothers. Preaches tomorrow at the cathedral, and again on Sunday, 19 July;
surprise at custom of Saturday evening masses. “The whole country seems obsessed with the apartheid problem. It is sad that the Reformed Church officially supports the government, which of course is Boer rather than
Anglo-Saxon.”
1p
BBB 2/54 20 August 1970
BB at St Edmund's College, to MAB
MAB in Scotland. Family news. BB holidays with [Father] Martin [Hancock] at Ilford, playing chess and touring in the car, 10-15 August. Notes correspondence generated by BB's letter to
The Times [‘Dilemma in South Africa’, 10 August 1970; page 7; Issue 57940; col. C], and a Tablet article on the subject [‘South
African Alternatives.’Tablet, 22 August 1970, pp804-5]: “[t]he question is a fascinating one; but the fact of apartheid and the way in which it is imposed is terribly tragic for very
many people”. Plans for a new book, “ideas about Christianity as starting not precisely from ‘faith’ but from ‘conversion’”. Engagements: three
talks on prayer to a meeting of Sisters at St Helens [Carmel of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour], 21 August; then to spend some days at Windermere at the home of Thomas Pearson, Auxiliary Bishop of Lancaster. Reports meeting Canon Goldie at Durban, a
former Keble pupil of BB's, and, at Cape Town, the Anglican Dean. Notes good Anglican/Roman Catholic relations in [South Africa]; but the complete isolation of the Dutch Reformed Church, to the concern of some of its members. Supports proposal by
Professor William [R.] Farmer, a friend of BB's, for an international congress on the synoptic problem; notes Farmer's consideration of BB's critique of the Two-Document theory as “decisive”, but wary of Farmer's
“rather absurd” theory subordinating Saint Mark's gospel to those of Saints Luke and Matthew. Cardinal Heenan back in health, at [Hare Street House], and writing a book.
1p
BBB 2/55 20 September 1970
BB to MAB
Family news. Account of foundation and activities of the Mill Hill missionaries. Agrees a “realisation of sin” is inherent in conversion, “but not merely of personal sin but of the moral
evil that seems to be built into the structures of our human living”, exemplifying the slow amelioration of housing. A week of meetings: at London, 14-16 September; New Towns Ministry in Buckinghamshire, 17 September; St Edmund's College
governing body, and Old Boys Committee,18 September; [?St Edmund's College] Administration Committee, 19 September. Blessed a new wing in old people's home at Letchworth, 19 September. Engagements: bestows Minor Orders on some St Edmund's College
students, today; second meeting of ARCIC at Venice, 21-27 September. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], pleased with new administration of his diocese. The new Bishop of Oxford, Kenneth Woollcombe, known to BB, and an alumnus of St John's College,
Oxford. Reports road accident and injury of Father Harris; hospital visit frustrated.
1p
BBB 2/56 8-10 October 1970
BB to MAB
Family news. Account of Venice meeting of ARCIC at San Giorgio Maggiore; Venice itself “didn't enrapture”. Beneath official ‘success’, BB fears “that
underneath the growing mutual understanding, the basic difficulties remain almost as stubborn as ever”. To meet again at Windsor, in a year. Uncertain parochial future of MAB's church of St Mary's. BB invited by the new Bishop of Oxford to
attend his consecration or enthronement. Visit to Father Harris in hospital. CHB family news. Birmingham meetings: Theology Commission, 5 October; discussion on future of St Edmund's House, Cambridge. Engagements: Hertfordshire annual ecumenical
meeting, today; visitation of Bushey parish, 11 October; autumn [English/Welsh] bishops' conference, 12 October, anticipating areas of difficulty on mixed marriage and a proposed statement on moral issues.
1p
1971
BBB 2/57 27 March 1971
BB to MAB
Strike an excuse for delay replying. Family news. BB “getting old and lazy and a bit tired”. Engagements: confirmations at Hertford, then flies to Scotland, 28 March; lectures on Infallibility, 22 March, noting
Hans Küng's recent “pretty revolutionary suggestion(s)” on the subject; Scottish broadcasts. Spoke at a meeting on ecumenism, chaired by the Bishop of Hereford, at Belmont Abbey, 25 March. Attended consecration of the
Bishop of Oxford. Delivered four talks at St Mary's College, [Mile End], one on ‘A permissive society’, to be published in the
Tablet [‘Permissiveness - Pros and Cons.’Tablet 225, 20 March 1971: 278-80]. The Tablet also to publish BB's infallibility lecture and two articles on
Hans Küng's Infallible? An Inquiry (1971). Commends Malcolm Muggeridge's Something beautiful for God, summarising the work of the Missionaries of Charity; notes Muggeridge is not yet a
communicant of any church, though a believing Christian. “He is plainly fascinated by Mother Teresa.” Holiday plans. Has begun autobiographical work.
1p
BBB 2/58 23 April 1971
BB to MAB
Trades
Tablet articles. Family news. Holiday plans: Worth Abbey, [Father] Martin [Hancock], Reading, Downside Abbey, Staffordshire. Meeting of [English/Welsh] bishops, 19-22 April, with discussion of a document about the
[Ministerial] Priesthood intended for the Synod of Bishops in Rome [September-November, 1971]. Reception at St Edmund's College, 20 April; meets Sir Peter Rawlinson, Attorney General. Attended a conference in Kent, at which Cardinal Suenens spoke,
between 4-11 April, meeting him again at [Hare Street House]. Met the Bishop of Reading, [Eric Knell]. Letter from Tibble, an Old Readingensian.
1p
BBB 2/59 22 May 1971
BB to MAB
Holiday arrangements. Eppstein family. BB's mother had been a member of the Guild of the Love of God. Notes the death of Cecil Chisholm. Chapman family. MAB's parish recently visited [?visitation] by the Bishop of Oxford. Family news. Records
Cardinal Heenan's decision to defer the transfer of the St Edmund's College seminarians nearer London; consequent anxiety concerning the debt to be incurred, the college being compelled to build sufficient capacity to house the expanding school.
Theological Commission meeting at Birmingham. Diocesan pastoral meeting, 15 May. Doubts the powers of a Roman Catholic national synod would match those of the General synod: “[w]e are not yet really very good in this
country in the matter of devolving power from the bishops to the priests and then the laity. ... We are learning all the time”. BB hosts informal meeting between Charles Curran, BBC Director General, and Mary Whitehouse:
“fascinating experience ... It wasn't exactly a meeting of two minds!”. BB lends his support to Lord Longford's Commission into Pornography.
1p
BBB 2/60 18 September 1971
BB to MAB
MAB returned from holiday in Italy; BB last in Florence in 1922. Family news. Favourable report on Windsor meeting of ARCIC [1-8 September], citing BB's article in
The Times [‘Progress towards agreement on eucharist doctrine’, 15 September 1971; page 14; Issue 58277; col. A] and a forthcoming article in the Tablet
[‘The Catholic and Anglican Eucharist.’Tablet 225, 18 September 1971): pp899-900]. “Although we had one Protestant among the Anglicans, we reached an agreed
statement in which we affirmed the real presence, and also really (though without a clear use of the word) the eucharistic sacrifice. ... Reservation, Benediction etc. would appear to follow logically, but obviously
one cannot force the pace in that field with the Protestants - who still seem to me to move, to a large extent, in the atmosphere of the old mistaken controversies.” Anticipates difficulties at the next meeting of the Commission discussing the
ministry. “There are some R.C. theologians today who appear to me to be in danger of ‘selling the pass’ about the Apostolic Succession - despite what we said in Vatican II and what is said in
the Anglican/Methodist proposals.” St Edmund's College school and seminary both very full this year. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 13 September. Meeting in London of the English[/Welsh] bishops, 20 September; to meet again after the Rome
Synod of Bishops.
1p
BBB 2/61 18 October 1971
BB to MAB
Any difficulties at the next ARCIC meeting expected “from ‘radical’ thinkers against traditional, not between Anglicans and R.C.'s”. Family news. BB to be interviewed by the
Church Times tomorrow, re Unity Week. Progress of plans for joint Anglican/Roman Catholic/Protestant churches at Stevenage, Grove Hill in Hemel Hempstead and Welwyn Garden City. Successful Hertfordshire ecumenical
meeting at St Albans, 16 October; the Bishops of Buckingham and St Albans attending, on the latter BB noting, “I like him very much and he is much admired”. Family news. Local Deanery Council
“(largely lay)” meeting and mass, this evening: “[w]e are still learning this sort of game - here too some of our clergy are very old-fashioned and don't really want to hand power over to the
laity”. BB ordains at Oxford an old Downside boy, a Dominican.
1p
1972
BBB 2/62 22 January 1972
BB to MAB
BB's hopes that MAB's new vicar will do well: “it must be very hard for any parish to depend, as it must, so greatly on the personal qualities of a single person (even if he is a married ⅜erson [sic]!)”.
Church Times article proved uncontroversial. Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine by ARCIC: analyses reaction, particularly of the Catholic Priests Association; reports the, as yet
unannounced, concordance with the statement by the English/Welsh Roman catholic bishops' Theological Commission, the Commission noting a need to expand upon “the relation of the Eucharist to Christ's atoning work”,
and regretting no reference was made to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; delight at the Archbishop of Canterbury's approval of the statement. Provisional agreement to debate [the existence of] God with A. J. Ayer for Thames Television, early
March.
1p
BBB 2/63 30 March 1972
BB to MAB
Easter wishes. Engagements: preaches tomorrow at an ecumenical service at Harrow Weald; four talks at a “theological refresher conference” for the Ampleforth [Abbey] community, 3 April, expecting divergence of
views between those with parochial duties and those living at the abbey; meeting of [English/Welsh] bishops, 10 April. Lunched with Canon Dessain, “a great admirer of [Cardinal] S[eunens], and also of the Anglican
Communion”, noting his approval of the
Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine. Uncertainty concerning broadcast date of Ayer/BB Thames Television debate. A discussion of “violence in revolutionary efforts” between BB, Paul
Oestreicher and a Methodist was broadcast yesterday. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. Next ARCIC meeting in August at [Gazzada Schianno], Italy. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/64 15 April 1972
BB to MAB
Family news. BB “most kindly treated” at Ampleforth Abbey, 3-7 April, engaging in lively discussions with about eighty monks on the subjects: ‘Is it the same Church?’;
‘Conscience and authority’; ‘Crisis of the priesthood’; ‘the Eucharist’. Meeting of [English/Welsh] bishops, 10-13 April: commends the innovation of
setting aside an evening for meeting religious Orders' representatives; the concordance of the Theological Commission with the
Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine confirmed. BB submitted an article to the Tablet, replying to a “rather foolish”Tablet review of an unidentified work analysing the trial of Jesus. Reading appreciatively Bernard Lonergan Method in theology, to review in the Clergy Review.
Family news. Reading holiday arrangements; visit planned to a convent near Stafford, Fr Aidan Trafford the chaplain.
1p
BBB 2/65 29 April 1972
BB to MAB
CHB to visit England. MAB in Belgium. Family news. BB and Abbot of Downside present at the consecration of the auxiliary Bishop of Clifton, [Mervyn Alexander], known to BB, 25 April. Diocesan administration meeting; then lunch at Broadcasting
House, discussing with Charles Curran, Director General, a proposal that the Social Morality Council contribute towards the next BBC Charter review; then a meeting with Cardinal Franz König at the Austrian embassy, 26 April. Meeting of St Edmund's
College school governing body; then a Confirmation service at Berkhamsted, 28 April. Father Richard Sutherland alerts BB to the Thames Television broadcast of his debate with A. J. Ayer on [the existence of] God; poorly publicised, and little
correspondence generated. Summarises and commends Raymond Brown S.J.'s thesis in his work
The gospel according to John [?1971, Anchor Bible series], “written very lucidly, and the author ... seems to have good judgement”. BB has written a pamphlet The
Resurrection for the Catholic Truth Society [1972]. Notes new vicar at MAB's parish.
1p
BBB 2/66 29 October 1972
BB to MAB
MAB holiday at Burford; BB last there with [Father] Martin [Hancock] and Raymond Irwin in 1924. BB's distaste for marketing [
A time to speak]. Family news. Father Richard Sutherland's health; car accident. BB reading briefing papers for November meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. Father Deane, and chess. BB
chaired (open) meeting at Letchworth, organised by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and addressed by Guy Clutton-Brock, formerly of Cold Comfort Farm, Rhodesia [Zimbabwe]: “[he] struck me as a very spiritual Christian,
serene and hopeful in spite of everything”. Proposes the creation of an affiliated membership of the Church, for persons in general sympathy, those unable to fully profess, or who are prevented from full participation in the sacraments:
“[t]hey would be like ‘fellow-travellers’ of communism, or second-line troops; and conversions might be multiplied through their closer association with us”.
1p
1973
BBB 2/67 17 September 1973
BB to MAB
MAB to visit Wellingborough. Family news. Reports on ARCIC meeting on Ministry and Ordination at Canterbury, [28 August-6 September]: statement agreed, despite difficulties over the apostolic succession and the “‘priestliness’” of the ordained ministry, “... I think some of our Scripture scholars are too ready to accept the Protestant re-reading of the historical evidence as though it were really
impartial and quite trustworthy - though those of us who have been in the game a long time realise what fashions succeed one another in biblical and historical scholarship”; publication upon the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Pope. Engagements: leads Roman Catholic group at United Reformed Church churches representatives meeting, 19 September; meeting of the [English/Welsh] bishops at Liverpool, 20 September; Ecumenical Commission national meeting at London, 21
September. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], returning BB papers submitted for his opinion, 10 September. Notes “quite violent abuse from extreme ‘right-wing’ Roman Catholic sources”
stemming from the (unpublished) ARCIC statement
The doctrine of the Ministry. Regrets the disturbance of the returning students and seminarians.
1p
BBB 2/68 27 October 1973
BB to MAB
Family news. Rumours of papal approval of ARCIC statement
The doctrine of the Ministry. Engagements: speaks on ‘Deviation in Lucretius’ to graduates at St John's [College], Oxford, 31 October. Dismisses theory of Father Bernard Orchard, a
former pupil of BB's, re Synoptic Problem; no time to assess his manuscript. Visit of Cardinal Suenens, 23 October; “apparently made a great impression in Cambridge”.
1p
1974
BBB 2/69 6 February 1974
BB to MAB
MAB visits to Stevenage and Bristol. Health and retirement plans of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. Report on the [English/Welsh] bishops' conference: their intention commended, but cautious about the permanent effect of the lectures; absence of
Cardinal [Heenan]. Ill-health of Cardinal [Heenan]: “[p]robably, he ought to resign, but I don't expect him to do so yet, unless he has a second attack. I think he would like to be present when, after the death of the
present Pope, a new one is elected”. Attends performance of the play
Crown matrimonial, [by Royce Ryton]. Attended talks about talks between the English churches, 4-5 February: proposal that the goal of “visible unity” be announced by the participating
churches authorities; and the establishment of a secretariat or commission. “We would want efforts to be made to get plenty of evidence from the ‘rank and file’, especially areas where
‘ecumenism’ has made marked progress.” Notes varying attitudes of churches towards institutional union and visible union. Some Anglican sympathy to BB's uniate union suggestion. Expectation of the calling of a
general election: “surely we must have one now, to see whether the people are behind the government in what looks like an appalling trial of strength. I wish we had a man like [?Dr Frederick] Temple or [?Henry] Manning to
speak a Christian word to the nation at this juncture”.
1p
BBB 2/70 22 May 1974
BB to MAB
Family news. Holiday arrangements. Disappointment at the appointment of Dr Donald Coggan as Archbishop of Canterbury: “I know him and I think he is a very good man. But he comes out of an evangelical stable and I don't
think he could enter into the dialogue between Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism with the same zest as Ramsey. On the other hand, we may need his leadership in the field of morals”. Training course in Yorkshire, concludes 17 May. Since
attended: Pastoral Synod; Social Morality Council executive committee meeting; overnight meeting of the diocesan senate of priests; [?St Edmund's College] Council of Administration meeting. Engagements: hosts a lunch at the Athenaeum for [Reg]
Prentice, Secretary of State for Education and Science; then confirmations in Hertfordshire, 23 May. Reports on a talk given by Cardinal [Raúl] Silva [Henríquez] to the meeting of the diocesan senate of priests: “the Church
walking the tight-rope between Allende in the last few years and the military junta at present, and getting criticised both for socialism and favoruing [sic] dictatorship”. BB likely to move to All Saints
[?Pastoral Centre], London Colney, once the seminary exits St Edmund's College.
1p
BBB 2/71 29 June 1974
BB to MAB
Account of a course for priests at All Saints, [?London Colney], with commendation of Dick Sutherland and Audrey Andrews' management: good lectures; ‘Question Time’ panel (Kenneth Woollcombe, Bishop of Oxford; a
Methodist; Lord Longford; Patrick O'Donovan; Frank Muir, chairman); Peter Mumford, new Bishop of Hertford, visits; assessment session; short refresher course; to repeat course next year. BB leads a retreat for Dublin diocese priests, 23 June; meets
auxiliary bishops [of Dublin], and the “young” Archbishop, [Dermot Ryan]; the archbishop's understanding of ecumenism questioned. “The people I met in Dublin seemed just heart-broken and
completely at a loss about Northern Ireland. I didn't notice any bitterness towards the ‘Unionists’; just a great wish that some solution could be found that would bring peace and
harmony.” BB preached at St Edmund's College school mass, today. Visitation at Watford, 30 June. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/72 26 August 1974
BB to MAB
Travel itinerary: Italy, from 27 August, [for ARCIC meeting at Grottaferrata, 27 August-5 September]; Germany [for a conference], from 6 September; returns, 10 September. [Father] Dick Sutherland returned from holiday. Family news. Visit [to
England] of CHB, seeing MAB, and Margaret [Butler]. BB visits Cardinal [Heenan] at [Hare Street House], 22 August: anxious reaction to the prospect of a book by Heenan on the Eucharist. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 22 August.
1p
BBB 2/73 14 September 1974
BB to MAB
Reaction to ill-health of Cardinal Heenan; BB fulfils his engagements in Germany; expects Heenan's resignation. Reports progress on some easier issues at ARCIC meeting [at Grottaferrata] on Authority: “I think one or two
of the Anglicans may find it difficult to agree that ... we are dependent on the Church for what we believe about Scripture; and that, if you trust the Church so far, you must surely trust her further”; papal address, and private audience.
Report on conference in Germany: “high-powered” guests included an American ambassador, a British diplomat, a Lutheran bishop, a U.S. military officer, “also some clever younger men”.
Family news. BB consecrated church at Welwyn Garden City, today. Engagements: Holy Year service at Watford, 15 September; departs for U.S.A., 25 September. Regrets appointment of evangelicals to York as well as Canterbury. Archbishop Ramsey's new
book reviewed by Heenan, the Cardinal “very kind and appreciative”. BB reading second volume of Cardinal Heenan's autobiography: “I very strongly disagree with him in his estimate of
religious affairs since the beginning of Vatican II. He does not seem to realise the real problems that theologians are trying to deal with, or why it is important that they should”. Ill-health of [Father] Dick Sutherland. School term begun.
BB healthy.
1p
BBB 2/74 6 October 1974
BB to MAB
Account of BB's tour of the U.S.A.: lecture appreciated; conferred with an honorary doctorate in laws; lunched with [Jean Jadot] the Apostolic Delegate; dines with Old Downside boys; gave a “less formal talk” to
the monks of [St John's] Abbey, Collegeville, MN; visits St Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA; returns £400 in profit. “One hears much criticism of American catholicism [sic], but I found them
sensible and open and moderate.” Engagements: speaks at a clergy course in Shropshire, 7 October. Cardinal Heenan still in hospital.
1p
BBB 2/75 16 November 1974
BB to MAB
Reports the death of Father Dick Sutherland, “a great loss to me and of course to the Church at large”. Recruiting a new [priest-]secretary. Autumn meeting of the English/Welsh bishops, chaired by George Beck,
Archbishop of Liverpool, 11-14 November. MAB and Professor Macquarrie. Four Monday evening lectures on the [ARCIC]
Agreed statement on Eucharistic doctrine, at All Saints, [?London Colney], throughout November, the speakers all ARCIC members: BB, Julian Charley, Professor Root, and another. Holiday plans. Family news. [Father]
Martin [Hancock] recovered. Cardinal Heenan discharged from hospital. Engagements: visitation in Potters Bar, 17 November; short in-service clergy training at All Saints, [?London Colney], begins 19 November; lectures on ecumenism at Dublin, [?21
November].
1p
1975
BBB 2/76 2 January 1975
BB to MAB
Family news. Comments on retirement of [Wilfrid Passmore], the Abbot of Downside. Has not read John Taylor's
The go-between God[: the holy spirit and the Christian mission]; notes Taylor's current prominence. Reading The Jesus myth, by Andrew Greely: “very good and very
readable”. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock]: chess and talk. New priest-secretary appointed. BB written pamphlet on the Eucharist for the Catholic Truth Society, for a series on the “great truths”. Ill-health
of Cardinal Heenan, at [Hare Street House]. BB celebrating mass at Furneux Pelham. Meets Shirley Williams, [Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection]. MAB to make a retreat at Burnham [Abbey].
1p
BBB 2/77 29 July 1975
BB to MAB
BB retreat at All Saints, London Colney, week to 25 July; officiates at ordination, 26 July; parochial visitation, 27 July; Cambridge meeting, 28 July. August set aside to prepare for ARCIC meeting at Oxford, [27 August-5 September]. Comments on
the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity's [recent] statement on ecumenism [?
Ecumenical Collaboration at the Regional, National and Local Levels]: not a final statement; an advisory; slow progress due to the unfamiliarity of a large proportion of the Roman Catholic Church's members and priests
with ecumenism; admits Rome is “going through a somewhat reactionary phase”. Re exceptionalist claim of the truth of the Roman Catholic Church: emphasises the Formula of Hormisdas, with its advowal of the necessity of
episcopal communion with Rome, and notes the Formula's neglect by Anglicans; reiterates Vatican II teaching concerning the incorporation of all validly baptised persons into Christ, and thus the Church, and noting, moreover, the Council's
acknowledgement that “separated churches” mediate grace. BB compares the task of integrating these aspects into a logical synthesis to that of [quantum] scientists' confronted by the wave-particle paradox.
“I think I would add that it is my private view that, if corporate reunion is to occur, it may be necessary at some point to make a ‘jump’ of decision that outstrips strict logic. I think
that the movement to Christian unity is a ‘movement’ and a growth-process, and it is very difficult to make logical sense of growth, though we all know that it occurs.” Visitation
at Hatfield, lunching with Lord and Lady Cranborne; then dines with [Robert Runcie,] the Bishop of St Albans and other members of a subcommission of the Anglican/Orthodox Commission [?Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Discussions], reporting the
suggestion of Archbishop Athenagoras that there be tri-partite discussions including the Roman Catholics, 27 July. Re Runcie's opposition to women priests at the General Synod: “I was glad about this, as I had had the
impression that he was on the other side”.
1p
BBB 2/78 21 August 1975
BB to MAB
Consents that MAB share BB's comments on [
Ecumenical Collaboration at the Regional, National and Local Levels] with her vicar; the document not anticipated by BB to create dismay within ARCIC. Family news. Visits Cardinal [Heenan] at Hare Street House,
“in good form”. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], and his family's news. Notes the Bishop of Ripon John Moorman's imminent retirement; fears his resignation also from ARCIC; BB the eldest member of the Commission.
Comments on a paper by Father [Jean] Tillard on papal primacy: “[it] argues - very truly, I think - that the papal primacy can only be seen as an aspect of episcopal government. There is no
sacrament to make a bishop into a Pope, so if the papacy were not episcopal it would be a complete anomaly in the Church which seems to be built up on and around the sacraments”; cites his own The Theology of Vatican
II. Reading Peter Fleming: a biography; Fleming's travel books were much read by BB's father. Lunches tomorrow with [Bruno Heim] the Apostolic Delegate at Wimbledon, probably to discuss candidates to succeed
Heenan.
1p
BBB 2/79 7 September 1975
BB at Oxford to MAB
Report of ARCIC meeting (Authority in the Church, Primacy, Infallibility), at St Stephen's House, Oxford, and which concluded yesterday. “I think we have more or less agreed about Scripture, the Creeds, and (in
principle) general councils. In other words we have excluded ‘pure Protestantism’ and Modernism. Most of us, I think, would also agree that there would be a place for the papacy in a future ‘united Church’. But there is still disagreement about the divinely-guaranteed role of such a papacy.” Notes the disquiet of one of the more Protestant Anglican commissioners at the direction of travel. Notes a short
visit and “very friendly” speech at an ARCIC session by Dr Donald Coggan, the Archbishop of Canterbury. ARCIC next meets in a year, perhaps at Venice.
1p
BBB 2/80 21 September 1975
BB at St Edmund's College to MAB
MAB at Bridlington and York. Assessment that publication of ARCIC deliberations, as against concluding agreed statements, would be detrimental; suspicion that toleration on central issues may be the end result, and the exclusion of
“pure Protestantism and also Modernism”. Engagements: speaks on Revelation at All Saints, [?London Colney], 23 September; speaks on ‘The Church and its mission’ to SPCK, 24 September.
Reading
Teach yourself calculus. “I still keep my ignorant interest in astronomy, fundamental physica, and theories of the origin of the world and evolution. Life is too short for all the things that
one would like to learn.” Encloses an article by BB written for an American magazine, much influenced by Bernard Lonergan. Notes presence at Oxford ARCIC meeting of Eugene Fairweather from Toronto, and known to CHB, but who did not share CHB's
support for the failed scheme to unite with the United Church of Canada.
1p
BBB 2/81 24 October 1975
BB to MAB
Account of the Service for Seafarers at St Paul's Cathedral, at which BB preached; dined afterwards with Sir Thomas Devitt and family. BB satisfied with his interview for a programme
Dilemma for Scottish television, despite earlier fears he had been indiscreet. Engagements: speaks to a Quaker group at Harpenden, Hertfordshire; then prize-giving at St Edmund's College, 25 October; delivers talk at
St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, City of London, for an adult Sunday School formerly run by Ivor Bulmer-Thomas and now by Father Coleman, on ‘Is the Sermon on the Mount a sermon’, 26 October. BB's secretary Alan O'Connor on
pilgrimage to Rome. Draws MAB's attention to an article in The Times responding to [Professor Hick's article ‘Changing views of the uniqueness of Christ’], [‘The living master of history’, 22 November 1975; page 12; Issue 59559; col. G]; hopes his fury did not engender a bitter response. BB contacted by a former classics pupil from Brighton College. BB declines invitation to
preside at the election of a Mother General of the Faithful Companions of Jesus Sisters at Rome; and a small lecture tour of Australia.
1p
BBB 2/82 9 November 1975
BB to MAB
Family news. H.G. Wells' settee. Publication of BB's
The Times article deferred, in the wake of a public disagreement between Dr Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark: “the ... readers probably cannot
stomach more than a little religion”. Comment on credulity: “I always find it hard enough to believe what makes sense, let alone what is obviously fantastic rubbish”. Family news. Christmas holiday plans
provisional, as the extent of BB's duties as Vicar Capitular, or locum tenens of the archbishop, since the death of Cardinal Heenan is still unclear. Funeral of Cardinal Heenan, 14 November. BB hopes to reside at
Archbishop's House, Westminster, only part of the week, otherwise living at St Edmund's College. Account of the last illness and death of Cardinal Heenan. Informal meeting at Cambridge; then attends speech day at Hayes secondary school, 6 November.
Visits Cardinal in hospital, 7 November. Election as Vicar Capitular at diocesan chapter meeting, noting confusion over oath, 8 November. Visitation of Tring, today. Notes the absence of any obvious candidate for the archbishopric, and discounts his
own appointment on grounds of radicalism (as perceived at Rome), poor administrative capacity, and age. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 3 November.
1p
BBB 2/83 29 November 1975
BB to MAB
Family news. Arrangements for Christmas visit to MAB, following mid-morning mass at Westminster. Declined Boxing Day
Any questions? appearance. Reports illness death and funeral, 28 November, of Reggie Butcher at St Edmund's College, one of its former presidents. Visited [Allen Hall] seminary in its new home at Chelsea, 27 November.
Notes the publication in The Times of [‘The living master of history’, 22 November 1975; page 12; Issue 59559; col. G]. Engagements: visitation of Welwyn Garden City, 30 November. Fears
appointment of new archbishop will not be made before the new year.
1p
1976
BBB 2/84 11 January 1976
BB to MAB
MAB visit to Caversham: family news. Storm damage. Diocesan business: notes difficulty of replacing four priests who have died since Cardinal Heenan's death; disagreements concerning Cathedral choir school administration deferred for the incoming
archbishop to resolve. Engagements: in-service training course for priests, Lancashire, 12 January. Anticipates a growing number of parochial visitations, Christmas having been a quiet period. Refers MAB to BB's third and last article in a series in
The Times [‘What is religion without its mythology?’, 10 January 1976; page 12; Issue 59598; col. A]. Commends The eucharistic words of Jesus by Joachim
Jeremias, “a splendid book ... If he is right, the ‘claim’ that Jesus was Messiah goes right back to Jesus himself”. Compares his current circumstances to those of Cinderella.
1p
BBB 2/85 28 February 1976
BB to MAB
Reaction to the appointment of Basil Hume as Archbishop of Westminster: surprise, despite his currency; delight. “It will bring a breath of fresh air and new horizons into the closed shop of our hierarchy; and it will
put ‘contemplation’ and prayer in general into the centre of the picture for us.” Notes Hume's friendship with Dr Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his ecumenism. Acknowledges his own preference for
the archbishopric, Father Patrick Barry the headmaster of Ampleforth College, was an unlikely choice. First meeting between Hume and the Westminster bishops a success. Hume in Rome, returning 4 March for a royal concert to launch an appeal for
Westminster Cathedral; BB hands over government of the diocese, 12 March; consecration and enthronement, 25 March. Other engagements: enthronement of Derek Worlock, the [Arch]bishop of Liverpool. Gratitude at his and his siblings' [cultured]
upbringing; remembers the
Church Times journalist T. A. Lacey. June holiday plans. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. Funeral of Wilfrid Passmore, Abbot of Downside, 26 February; meets among the abbots congregated there a former pupil (John
Roberts), and two fellow novices.
1p
BBB 2/86 2 May 1976
BB to MAB
Easter holiday with [Father] Martin [Hancock] at Ilford. Meeting of [English/Welsh] bishops at Westminster, last week: dull, missing “the sparkling if exasperating leadership of Cardinal Heenan”; pleasure at
election of George Dwyer, the Archbishop of Birmingham, as chairman, with a summary of his qualities. Welcomes Basil Hume's being made a cardinal, and thus an English presence at the next papal conclave. BB's “very great
respect and even some affection” for Hume. Assessment of Hume's qualities: “[h]e is thoughtful. He listens to arguments and doesn's [sic] pretend to consult when he has already made up his
mind irrevocably. In the end, he is prepared to take a firm decision. Basically, he seems to be very simple and very spiritual. I think he will be most eager to pursue better relations between your Church and ours”. In light of a three-year
experimental period during which auxiliary bishops within Westminster diocese will enjoy more independence and “powers of initiative”, with a view to the creation of new dioceses, BB has offered to step down,
disqualifying himself on grounds of age from heading a new diocese. Other roles mooted. Engagements: two confirmations, this week; ecumenical pilgrimage at St Albans Abbey, noting very good relations with the Bishop and Dean, 8 May. Commends C. S.
Lewis' religious writings.
1p
BBB 2/87 8 August 1976
BB to MAB
Family news. [Father] Martin [Hancock] to visit, 9-10 August. Diocesan re-organisation begins in September. Engagements: meeting at St Edmund's College with Cardinal Hume and two bishops, 23 August; ARCIC meeting at Venice, 24 August. Comments on
an unspecified television programme that BB participated in, commending Lord Hailsham's statement on the grounds for believing in God. Reading: Virgil; Browning's plays, recommending
Pippa Passes, “it exemplifies Browning's fascination for the ‘crucial moment’ of enlightenment, love or saving action”; and, for review,
Jesus and the language of the kingdom by Norman Perrin. Commends Perrin's work, and, “if these moderns [scholars] are correct, the parables have been chronically lisunderstood [sic] from even before the Gospels were written!”. Comments on a television discussion on ‘Heaven’, led by Don Cupitt of [Emmanuel College,] Cambridge, and suggests academics and clergy
should converse more often, trading theological thinking for “the circumstances and needs of ordinary people ‘in the pews’ - or, alas, still not in the pews”. “Incredible summer”.
1p
1977
BBB 2/88 6 February 1977
BB to MAB
Holiday plans. MAB welcomes the ARCIC statement
The Authority of the Church [I]; BB gauges other reactions from the Church Union, the Pope, and the Bishop of Norwich, the latter in The Times [‘Canterbury and
Rome’, 24 January 1977; page 13; Issue 59915; col. E]. BB addresses Westminster clergy on the document in March. BB's thoughts on women priests, in the context of the imminent meeting of Archbishop Coggan and Pope Paul VI in Rome, (the
paragraph is quoted in full).
“It would surprise me if the Pope and Dr Coggan met without any mention of the women priests business. I find it difficult to satisfy my mind that there is any definite theological case
against women priests. But I should have thought that any sensible person could have seen that the innovation would have such enormous psychological and social effects that one must, at the very least, go extremely slowly about it. And it does seem
to me obvious that neither you nor we nor the Orthodox ought, at the present juncture, to ‘go it alone’ in this matter; since each of us claims to have an ordained ministry that is valid throughout the universal
Church, and ecumenism is at a stage when separate decisions must be painfully and tragically divisive. I have some sympathy with your Bishop Marshall, who observed that a Church would look pretty silly if, bowing at the moment to a fashionable
craze, it began ordaining women as priests, and then in twenty years found that the craze had died and the respective roles of the two sexes were seen again in the traditional way.” MAB visit to Cheltenham theatre; BB's very rare visits to the
theatre or cinema. Commends the balanced performances of Shirley Williams and Norman St John-Stevas in a BBC 2 television programme on schooling. BB dissatisfied with his Drawbridge Lecture at St Andrew-by-the-wardrobe, City of London; notes
presence of Ivor Bulmer-Thomas. Reviewing for the Tablet: Can we trust the New Testament? by Bishop John Robinson - “[a] very good piece of scholarly
popularisation, and ‘on the side of the angels’”; The Jesus of Calvary; Jesus in contemporary historical research by Gustaf Aulén -
“sets a lot of store by Jeremias and Dodd, as I do”. “It looks as though, at last, scholarship is mvoing [sic] back behind the primitive Church to a real and
discoverable ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ ; and the results seem to me to tend towards orthodoxy.” Reports the illness of Canon Parsons, BB's confessor for ten years. Visits of [Father] Martin [Hancock].
1p
BBB 2/89 26 February 1977
BB to MAB
Holiday arrangements. BB's Drawbridge Lecture printed, and to be published in the
Downside Review. Notes that their ecumenical impact was not considered when the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption were promulgated: “I think they can be considered
‘inopportune’ without casting doubt on their authority”. MAB visit to Burnham Abbey. Further comment on Robinson's Can we trust the New Testament?. “The
real figure of Jesus seems at last to be becoming more discernable through the mist of Form Criticism etc. For too long, the scholars seemed to suggest that we could not find Jesus, only the primitive Church.” Delivered lunchtime talk [at St
Botolph's, Aldgate] on ‘The Church Today’; then filmed a segment at Westminster Cathedral for a BBC programme by Peter Armstrong on the historical Jesus, 24 February. Received letters from Hans Küng and his
translator, BB's review of Küng latest work having been published in the Catholic Herald in January. Engagements: visitation of a Stevenage parish, 27 February; Theological Commission meeting at Birmingham, 3
March.
1p
BBB 2/90 24 April 1977
BB to MAB
Family news. English/Welsh bishops conference, last week, included a discussion “on the teaching role of bishops”. Reviews television programmes,
Who was Jesus? (infuriating), and Jesus of Nazareth; a response to the former, featuring BB, to be broadcast this afternoon. Attended installation of Michael Bowen, Archbishop of
Southwark, and a former pupil of BB's at Downside, 23 April. Engagements: ordination of two new auxiliary bishops [of Westminster diocese], 25 April. Cardinal Hume agreed in principle to BB's retirement from diocesan work, in order to concentrate on
theology, “which, than[k] God, he thinks is important”. [Father] Martin [Hancock] French holiday, having given up his parish to become curate of Upminster. Draws MAB's attention to an article of BB's in the
Tablet prompted by Tom Torrance's Space, time and resurrection: “[t]he book is robustly orthodox ... a good theologian and not too obsequious to modern scholarly
radicalis[m]”. Working on The Church and unity, and a chapter on the Church in the New Testament, his interest growing in the historical Jesus and New Testament theology. “If I were an
unbeliever, I should find it extraordinary that the Christian movement, so humble in its origins, produced so soon such a wealth of works of literary genius as we have in the NT.” Commends the “depth and
splendour” of St John's gospel, setting aside its historical reliability.
1p
BBB 2/91 29 May 1977
BB to MAB
Confirmation at St Edmund's College chapel, today. Recent talks on ARCIC's statement
The Authority of the Church [I] to meetings of priests in Cheshire and Cardiff. Engagements: pessimistic regarding the Churches Unity Commission, a meeting of which he is to attend at Manchester, 29-30 May. Admits his
lack of sympathy and theological differences with the non-conformists, and favours tri-partite engagement (Roman Catholic/Anglican/ Orthodox). Cardinal Hume's approval for BB to retire from diocesan work in Hertfordshire in September, favouring a
move to Clergy House “where at least I can keep an eye on him!” Holiday reading. [Father] Martin [Hancock] moves to Upminster. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/92 11 June 1977
BB to MAB
Birthday wishes. MAB visit to Devonshire. Prospects of BB's staff at the College. Family news. Invites MAB's thoughts on Hans Küng's book: “I am sure he is well meaning - but I'm not at all sure he is orthodox!”.
At the instigation of the vicar of St Aldate's, Oxford, BB has written essay for [
The truth of God incarnate], a book-form riposte to Maurice Wiles and others' The myth of God incarnate: “I think I would prefer a man decently to give up his
position as an ordained minister of the Church of God, if he really cannot subscribe to the proposition that Jesus is God”. Notes approvingly of R. P. C. Hanson's opposition to Wiles in his Mystery and
imagination, “though he go[e]s on to offer an alternative theology to that of Chalcedon which I don't think works”.
1p
BBB 2/93 25 July 1977
BB to MAB
MAB visit to Durham and Whitby. Family news. Attended a retreat led by Cardinal Hume (“very good but ... very tired”) at All Saints, London Colney, last week. London accommodation arrangements. Publication of [
The truth of God incarnate] delayed until August 18. Meets with Bishops [Eric] Kemp and [Robert] Runcie and Archbishop Athenagoras at Cambridge, 30 July; uncertain of Runcie's, if not of Kemp's, opinion as to the
desirability of establishing tri-partite ecumenical contacts, “as some sort of counterpoise to the Protestant bias that ecumenism in England tends to have”. Further engagements: conference at Mill Hill in August;
ARCIC meeting at Chichester, [30 August-8 September].
1p
BBB 2/94 8 August 1977
BB to MAB
Family news. Criticises
The myth of God incarnate, as “obnoxious” and “pressure-propaganda”; surveys its reception in the Tablet and the
Jesuit Month; reiterates the role of a historical Jesus in inaugurating “a transfiguration of the human scene”, and the authority of the New Testament and “accredited representatives” to conduit divine doctrine, “[i]f you reject the whole of that position, how can you pretend still to be a Christian - as the authors of the book seem to do?”.
Engagements: gives five talks at a summer school on ‘Education for freedom’ at Mill Hill, 8-13 August. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. London accommodation arrangements: Clergy House, or [Archbishop's House].
Preparations for ARCIC meeting at Chichester. Met in London with the Bishops of St Albans (Robert Runcie), Chichester (Eric Kemp) and Truro (Graham Leonard) and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop (Athenagoras); notes the intention to establish a Roman
Catholic/Orthodox [International] Commission, and the danger of proliferating contradictions across the three commissions; favours a tri-partite liaison commission. “Also I am keen that the Anglicans the Orthodox and the
R.C.'s should become more conscious and united in their distinction from the Protestants.” Has received advance copies of The truth of God incarnate.
1p
BBB 2/95 24 August 1977
BB to MAB
MAB visit to Cheltenham. Family news. Returns to a critique of
The myth of God incarnate, detecting a trend toward Unitarianism or liberal Judaism. Dismisses German Protestant theologians' use and understanding of the word mysticism, citing [Werner] Kümmel and an essential aspect
(wesen). “But some mystical writers, and some who write about mysticism, have appeared to suggest that in mysticism one approaches total self-annihilation - which is of course absurd. It seems to me that mysticism will
reach its crown in the beatific vision in heave[n] and by the same token shall be even more ourselves - since we ‘were made for God and are restless till we come to rest in Him’, as Augustine would say.” Will
propose tri-partite talks at the ARCIC meeting at Chichester; cavils at Dr Michael Ramsey's optimism, considering his persistent rejection of papal infallibility. Engagements: BBC interview re The truth of God
incarnate. Commends talks given by Father Enda MacDonagh at the Mill Hill summer school (‘Education for Freedom’).
1p
BBB 2/96 18 September 1977
BB to MAB
Family news. Reports on ARCIC meeting at Chichester Theological College: considered criticisms of three previously published agreed statements; no new statements to be released at present; four “difficulties” in
The authority of the Church [I], VI.24; devotion to the Blessed Sacrament outside mass. “We really seem to be securing the truth of the Real Presence, which is of course vital - and won't be
liked by some Low Church critics.” BB glad to remain at St Edmund's College, rather than move to London. Engagements: preaches at consecration of his successor, [auxiliary Bishop James O'Brian], at Westminster Cathedral, 21 September;
[O'Brian] to reside at All Saints, London Colney. Continues work on [The Church and unity]. Visitation of Hoddesdon, BB's last such duty, today. Future employment of priest-secretary Alan O'Connor. New portrait of BB
at St Edmund's College considered “a good likeness”. BB's liking for Eric Kemp, Bishop of Chichester, noting his leadership in the Church of England's Catholic Renewal. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 19
September.
1p
BBB 2/97 7 October 1977
BB to MAB
MAB holiday with Felix [Butler] in Wales. Family news. Continued residence at St Edmund's College will allow for more undisturbed study. Work on
The Church and unity progresses: his treatment of the Church in the New Testament an improvement on that in The idea of the Church; “my guiding line the idea
that the Church is a ‘communion’ ... [i.e.] a community of persons related by sharing in the same ‘holy things’, pre-eminently, of course, Christ and the Holy Spirit”; debates on
Roman authority neglect this aspect of the unity of the Church. Engagements: short week-end retreat for personnel of the diocesan marriage tribunal at All Saints, London Colney, 7-9 October. Notes retirement of Kenneth Woollcombe, Bishop of Oxford;
liked by BB. Relief at relinquishing diocesan work in Hertfordshire. Attended farewell service of local parish priest, 6 October.
1p
BBB 2/98 30 October 1977
BB to MAB
Family news. Unexpectedly busy: meetings, lectures, reviews, articles, book [
The Church and unity]. Library at St Edmund's College inadequate; access granted to Heythrop College's library, although BB's habit of smoking a pipe while working may be a hurdle. Details the plan and argument of
The Church and unity; returns to “fascinating” St Cyprian. “One has to sympathise with him, because it seemed to him that his most basic conviction of all - the
reality of the ‘communion’ as the very and exclusive ark of salvation - was being denied by the occupant of the ‘Chair of Peter’. The thing was an agony for him; an agony of the spirit.
And he reacted like a child in pain. I think the death of Stephen relieved the pressure towards the end, and finally his own martyrdom must have been almost a relief for him.” Commends the Roman Catholic Church episode of the television series
The long search. Engagements: farewell lunch with St Albans diocese officials; then presents a talk on ‘Ministry and ordinations’ near Pinner, 31 October; lectures on unity and
uniformity at Westfield College, 1 November; meeting of diocesan bishops, 2 November; London, 3 November.
1p
BBB 2/99 6 November 1977
BB to MAB
Research progressing for [
The Church and unity]. MAB attends John Saward talk at a Church Union meeting. Discusses Catholic revival movement with [Professor] Howard Root, of Southampton University and ARCIC; appreciation of Root's views on
[Anglican] unity. Reaction to Anglican-Orthodox dialogue, including the [Moscow agreed statement ] (1976) of the Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission: draws out divergent
re-unitive strands within the Anglican communion; welcomes Eastern and Roman moves; concluding, “I am convinced that the Protestant Reformation was an appalling catastrophe and left its
adherents with a greatly diminished Christianity”. Reports Father Alan O'Connor's move to Westminster. Christmas holiday arrangements: Reading and MAB; Upminster and [Father] Martin [Hancock]. Family news: MAB known as the
‘holy ghost’ when a pupil at the Abbey School, Reading.
1p
BBB 2/100 18 December 1977
BB to MAB
Christmas and new year wishes. Holiday at Reading postponed, to work on [
The Church and unity]: “[a]t present I am trying to establish that one can accept Greenslade's view that ‘churchness’ is found in a variety of Christian
denominations, without accepting his inference that therefore the Church herself is something other than just one denomination”. Visit to St John's [?College, Oxford], and Archbishop's House, London. Notes, but
has not read, [James] Barr's [Fundamentalism] critique: “I am satisfied myself that the Bible is not a piece of revelation, but a record of revelation and its fruits”, and including the
Creeds in that definition. Reacts to [MAB's information re] Gerhard von Rad's interpretation of [ancient Hebrew] notion of time, [i.e. participative remembrance]: “[i]n a way, it would fit in well with what we said in the
Windsor Statement about the Eucharist as the Memorial of the redemptive action of Christ; as you say, it throws light on the sacrifice of the Mass”. Family news: CHB considering retirement; invitation to MAB to visit Canada. BB addressed, with
Professor Howard Root, the Federation of Catholic Priests, discussing ARCIC's The Authority of the Church [I]; and met Ted Lury, 12 December. BB considering an invitation to attend the 1978 Lambeth Conference as an
Observer, and noting uncertainty re women priests. A Norwegian lecture tour in August also proposed.
1p
BBB 2/101 30 December 1977
BB to MAB
Account of Christmas at St Edmund's College, alone with Canon Parsons. Has not read James Barr's [
Fundamentalism], “[b]ut the Old Testament is rather outside my scope”. “[F]ascinated and annoyed” with Ephesians:
“I feel sure that Paul envisaged the Church as a flesh-and-blood reality of actual human beings in association in historical time. But I suppose a theology of the (merely) invisible Church could just come to terms with what is actually said in the Epistle. However, I think that the notion of a Christianity that was merely of the souls and not also of the body is one that would not
have occurred to the primitive believers”. Engagements: delivers talk to a (?national) union of Roman Catholic university students at Bradford, week beginning 2 January; attends in-service training course for bishops at Mill Hill, week
beginning 9 January. New colour television: recent Charley's Aunt broadcast performance not as good as the original stage production, “too farcical”.
1p
1978
BBB 2/102 15 January 1978
BB to MAB
Family news; chess and bridge. Progressing with [
The Church and unity]: “Christologically it is fully orthodox but a bit modern, investigating the human consciousness of our Lord as he advanced in ‘wisdom and
stature and in favour with God and man’”. Commends Eric Mascall's Theology and the gospel of Christ. Engagements: lectures on ‘Church and kingdom’ to recently ordained
clergy, at Leicester, 18 January. Effects of bad weather on the school. Attended in-service training course for bishops at Mill Hill, 12 January, commending a talk on urban problems given by David Sheppard, Bishop of Liverpool -
“[a] charming and good man”. Begs loan of [Edwyn] Hoskyn's work on the gospel of St John, to inform a chapter in BB's manuscript on the Farewell Discourse(s), “to try and extract from it the
notion of the Church as a ‘communion’ based on our common ‘possession’ of God's Word incarnate.” Notes Michael Richard is also working on a book on the Church, and welcomes the
opportunity for comparison. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], two weeks ago.
1p
BBB 2/103 4 March 1978
BB to MAB
Postpones holiday at Reading, to complete [
The Church and unity]: rewriting first chapter, following criticism of [Father] Martin [Hancock]; offered a contract by publisher. MAB to visit Vancouver Island, British Columbia, [and CHB] in May. BB makes positive
assessment of his own health. Intends a visit to Downside Abbey, next week; to consult library there, relying at St Edmund's College upon little more than his own theological library. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/104 9 April 1978
BB to MAB
Thanks MAB for soliciting the prayers of Burnham Abbey for a friend, visited in his last illness by BB. Holiday arrangements: Reading, then Downside Abbey. [
The Church and unity] passed by theological censor; BB's new editor at his publisher encountered at an Archbishop's House reception. “I find it difficult to judge the book's merits. It can be
criticised from so many different points of view.” Meeting of English/Welsh bishops, last week. Engagements: meeting with a “sympathetic” Shirley Williams, [Paymaster General], concerning the funding of a Social
Morality Council project for moral education, 12 April - “of course it is not easy to squeeze money out of this government, unless you are a Trade Union”. MAB imminently departs for Canadian holiday. Comments on
Church Times report of Loughborough Congress, noting participation of an evangelical speaker and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and comparing a “loss of nerve” among Christians
unfavourably with General Foch's reaction to imminent disaster at the first battle of the Marne. Intends to write another book “on Christianity itself”, should [The Church and unity] do
well. Canon Parsons recovering from illness.
1p
BBB 2/105 28 May 1978
BB to MAB
Acknowledges MAB letter from Victoria, British Columbia. BB's preference for and fifty-years spent in rural surroundings. Reports concerns of John Ainslie, senior editor, concerning [
The Church and unity]: “fears that ... the book may seem too dogmatic (but then I wanted to smphasise [sic] that Christianity is not just a subjective idea but the
apprehension of supreme objective reality). And he seems to think that I have not done justice to the non-Roman-Catholic Christian bodies”. Suspects U.S. reception of the text is the cause of these concerns. Draws MAB's attention to letter in
The Times, and subsequent correspondence, [‘Unity warning by Roman Catholic bishop ’, 10 May 1978; page 18; Issue 60297; col. B]. Notes also, citing the Tablet, Bishop John Moorman's shared appreciation of a crossroads having been reached by the Church of England: “is it going to veer towards Protestantism, or will it prefer to maintain what it
inherits from historical Catholicism?”. Family news. St Edmund's College appeal (school improvements); half (of £150,000) raised.
1p
BBB 2/106 17 July 1978
BB to MAB
Family news. Visit to [Father] Martin [Hancock], last week. Comments on a work [?
The Holy Spirit (1978)] by [C. F. D.] Moule, “solid”, and commends Eric Mascall's [Theology and the gospel of Christ (1977)]. Comments on the treatment of
“the Covenant matter” at [Loughborough] Synod: “I think the amendments are in the right direction, and I am relieved that they were passed. They leave it open to the Church of England to
maintain that it insists on the ‘historical episcopate’ and that its doctrine is in agreement with the ARCIC's Statement on Ministry and Ordination [The doctrine of the ministry]. I am
very pleased about them, and I hope that what they stand for will not be ‘traded away’ in subsequent negotiations towards covenanting. (But I fear that, indirectly, the Resolutions will have committed the CofE to some
sort of recognition of women priests).” Reading, and for review in Christian World, Karl Rahner's Foundation of Christian Faith - “a masterpiece”;
Sermon on St Thomas More. St Edmund's College appeal (school improvements) target increased to £200,000, £150,000 already having been raised.
1p
BBB 2/107 29 October 1978
BB to MAB
Family news. Welcomes the “original” appointment of Pope John Paul II, noting media interest, his inevitable international role, his nationality, and his suitability considering his familiarity
“with Communist strategy and tactics”, state communism being “one of the major world issues”. Remembers the Pope as a very young listener on the Second Vatican Council [sub]commission
on The Church in the World Today [
Gaudium et Spes, 1.4 The Role of the Church in the Modern World]; anxiety at Cardinal Hume's report of his conservatism. Also concerned that the Pope is not informed about or disapproves of the contemporary
“immense theological development”; but welcomes his interest in theology and philosophy. Encloses sponsorship cheque for a Samaritans fundraising walk. Family news. Regrets the defeat of Viktor Korchnoi at the World
Chess Championship, noting distracting external factors; wishes for Karpov-Fischer match, “provided they would behave themselves”. Delivered talk to Roman Catholic undergraduate society at Oxford [University], 22
October. Engagements: addresses Dominican theology students on Vatican II's teaching on the Church, [at Oxford University], 3 November; substitutes for Cardinal Hume at Wesley's Chapel, London, 1 November, reminding MAB of their
“DEEP disapproval” of the Oxford Road Methodist chapel in Reading when they were young.
1p
BBB 2/108 [November x early December] 1978
BB to MAB
Family news. Preached at a YMCA service at Newcastle, staying with the Bishop [of Hexham and Newcastle], and meeting the provost of Newcastle's [St Nicholas] Cathedral. Lectured at All Saints, London Colney, on The Church in the World Today, part
of an extra-mural Cambridge University lecture course. Expecting book proofs. Reports on joint conference of bishops from London and Westminster dioceses: “a very satisfactory occasion”; a Lenten series of weekday -
‘What I believe’ - sermons at St Lawrence Jewry scheduled. Christmas to be spent at St Edmund's College, with Canon Parsons. ARCIC meeting at Salisbury Theological College, January 1979: relief at the General Synod's
decision not to proceed further on women priests; the three ARCIC Statements, with answers to criticisms, to be published in one volume. Notes the “tragic” death of the head master of Reading School, a friend of
BB's.
1p
1979
BBB 2/109 21 January 1979
BB to MAB
Family news. A Lonergan article submitted for publication. No proofs yet received of [
The Church and unity]. Not yet read John Macquarrie's The Humility of God: “he has what one might regard as the Oxford gift of understating his case”.
Report on Salisbury ARCIC meeting, [12-20 January]: “[w]e have est[a]blished reservation and devotion to the Reserved Sacrament as legitimate options, though admitting that some people see dangers in such devotions; and we
have been fully realistic about the Real Presence. We haven't been as clear as I should have wished about the sacrifice of the Mass, but the evangelical member had a great ‘blockage’ about this - fear of repeated
‘immolation’ seems to have overflowed for him into fear of continued offering.” Engagements: meeting of Westminster diocese bishops, 22-23 January.
1p
BBB 2/110 18 February 1979
BB to MAB
Family news. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 7 February. Effects of snow on the College. Reviewing for the
Catholic Herald Edward Schillebeeckx's Jesus: an experiment in Christology: “fascinating ... seeks to penetrate behind the primitive Church to the actual
‘historical Jesus’ ... I think he is orthodox in his own christology [sic] - which is a relief, and something I wish I could say about Kung [sic].”; but
the author “quite astray” and out of date on the Synoptic Problem. Recounts meeting Schillebeeckx prior to an audience with Pope Paul VI, during the Second Vatican Council: “a very good
theologian and has had great influence among Catholic thinkers”. A second of four talks on prayer, delivered at Bishops Stortford, 13 February. Watches Measure for measure on television this evening. Pessimistic
political outlook.
1p
BBB 2/111 31 July 1979
BB to MAB
MAB visit to Cheltenham; and genealogical research. Birth of a grandchild to CHB; other family news. Delivered talk on ‘Prayer and the Teacher’ at a Roman Catholic catechetical conference at Loughborough
University, 29 July; “encouraging atmosphere”. Visit of an unidentified Roman Catholic priest, leading a Christian mission to the Ummah, from Fribourg, Switzerland, today. Engagements: Norway [lecture tour], 20
August; Venice ARCIC meeting, [28 August-6 September]. Notes sorrowfully Graham Leonard the Bishop of Truro's advocacy of the Church of England covenanting, with recognition of ministries, with the free churches, and with regard to women priests;
argues any recognition of women priests should be deferred until the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches are also ready to do so. Negotiation with editor of the
Clergy Review, to withdraw a paragraph in an unidentified article suggesting “that the non-Christian Jewish people is still in the old covenantal relationship
with God. ... St Paul would be horrified!”. Highly commends Hamilton's The people of God: “a masterpiece ... One of the finest conspectuses I know of the
whole ‘salvation history’”. BB pleased with his article on the philosophical ‘proof’ of God to be published in the October Heythrop Journal.
Encounter at Loughborough with a member of Broad Oak [Convent], Reading, an admirer of MAB's work at The Abbey School.
1p
BBB 2/112 10 August 1979
BB to MAB
Butler genealogy. Family news. MAB's philately. Summer school at St Edmund's College, for young English language students, mostly Greek and Orthodox; BB concern that his offer of a mass may not include, for them, holy communion. Visit of [Father]
Martin [Hancock], 14 August; Norway lecture tour on ecclesiology, 20-23 August. Notes an invitation from Gerald Ellison, the Bishop of London, to preach at St Paul's [Cathedral] one Sunday next year. Lord Mayor of London dinner for London bishops
(Roman Catholic and Church of England) in prospect.
1p
BBB 2/113 23 September 1979
BB to MAB
Family news. Attended Westminster diocese bishops meeting, 20 September. Felicitates MAB on a friendship: “I think a lasting friendship is one of the greatest of earthly blessings”. Delight at the appointment of Dr
Robert Runcie as Archbishop of Canterbury: uncertainty over Runcie's “‘radical’” Catholicism; “he has a very open mind; but his convictions seem to me to be
firm. ... I think he has a very difficult task ahead, partly owing to the irresponsible steps taken about ordaining women in USA etc.”; welcomes his knowledge of the Eastern Orthodox Church vis-à-vis ecumenism, exemplifying issue of women
priests. Report on Venice ARCIC meeting, [28 August-6 September]: arguments with fellow Roman Catholic attendees; “[w]e have not reached full agreement over the role of the Pope. One or two of the Anglicans would apparently
see their way to admitting nearly all that we RC's hold (as of faith) about the Pope - if and when full Christian reunion occurred. But of course it never will occur. Broadly speaking, ever since the first Epistle of
St John was written, there always has been schism”; intention of ARCIC [I] to conclude next year, and then report to Rome and Canterbury; expectation of the appointment of a new commission with fresh instructions [ARCIC II]; suggests Pope John
Paul II unfamiliar with “issues that are special to the Anglican/RC dialogue”. Engagements: jubilee celebrations at Downside Abbey of BB's intake to the novitiate, five attendees including [Aelred Sillem] the Abbot of
Quarr (“a very holy man”), 28 September; ordains two monks as deacons; opens/blesses a comprehensive school at Bath; returns to St Edmund's College, 30 September. Discussion of the audience for a proposed new work,
An approach to Christianity: “[i]ssues like freedom/determinism and knowledge/faith arise - at least in my mind! I don't want to frighten people off by being too ‘high-brow’ nor to ‘scandalise’ people by seeming to overlook what seem to them to be real problems”. Concern for the safety of the Pope during his visit to Ireland. Attended the
memorial service for Archbishop Athenagoras, noting the participation, in choir robes, of Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Coggan, 19 September.
1p
1980
BBB 2/114 6 January 1980
BB to MAB
Family news. Quiet at St Edmund's College. Engagements: lunches with Graham Greene in London; then to an ARCIC follow-up meeting at an Anglican conference centre in Kent/Sussex, 7 January; enthronement of Archbishop Runcie, 25 March. Anticipating
the conclusion of ARCIC's work the following year, “[i]n one way I shall be glad: I am getting old, too old for this sort of thing; but I suppose there is something to be said for the fact that the membership of the
Commission has remained unchanged for so long. We want now to compose a statement on ‘the Church’, to be prefixed, I think, to a one volume presentation of the three Agreed Statements and the Elucidations, and also
some attempt to deal with the points of non-agreement which we listed in n. 24 of the Authority Statement”. Reading Stephen Sykes'
The integrity of Anglicanism. Preparing a talk on ‘The spirit of Vatican II’, to be delivered to the community of Ampleforth Abbey, August; desire to revisit the topic in book form.
Notes “quite a hullabaloo” concerning the Church's “relatively mild” disassociation of itself from Hans Küng: “though he is a friedn [sic] of mine, I think he has been ‘asking for trouble’ for years past”; notes also the conservatism of Pope John Paul II.
1p
BBB 2/115 8 May 1980
BB to MAB
Thanks MAB for her gift of tobacco, highly taxed. MAB visit to Exmoor with Felix [Butler]. Report on [National Pastoral] Congress at Liverpool: “excellent” spirit and mood; “I got the
feeling that the delegates were fully loyal to the Church and her ‘dogmas’, while rightly and constructively critical of some of her recent attitudes. There was a strong wish for
Christian unity”; contraception “treated very sensibly”. “I don't know what your views on this subject are. Personally, I think that the late Pope and the present one have got it wrong
and that in consequence much harm has been done and is being done. To put my view shortly! it is easy to say ‘Thou shalt not kill’ but Christianity has interpreted that as meaning: ‘Thou
shalt not murder’, and then proceeded to distinguish murder from justifiable homicide. Similarly, it is easy to say ‘Thou shalt not interfere with the natural process of conception’, but we need to interpret
that as meaning: ‘Thou shalt not abuse sexual intercourse for the purpose of irresponsible pleasure-seeking’ - and that would leave room for the responsible use of contraception.” Publishers Collins likely to
accept an improved version of BB's
An approach to Christianity. Family news.
1p
BBB 2/116 27 July 1980
BB to MAB
MAB and [card game] Senior Wrangler. Holiday visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. [English/Welsh] bishops' meeting, drafting a response to the National Pastoral Congress, 21-23 July; “a marathon affair, with a good deal
of fairly tense discussion”. Consecration of [Thomas McMahon] the Bishop of Brentwood, 24 July; notes his youth, and [Father] Martin [Hancock]'s delight at the appointment. Attended meeting of Religious Education Group at Strawberry Hill
College of Education, staying overnight at the house, 24 July, BB “less pessimistic about the work of our Group that I was”. Recorded interview on Vatican II for BBC series (?)‘Religion
today’: wondering a bit whether I have given the impression in it that I am a ‘disloyal Catholic’. Actually, I am not; but I do think that Catholicism has got to “change in order to
remain the same”. Engagements: jubilee celebration of the investiture [Aelred Sillem] the Abbot of Quarr, 5-6 August, though notes a growing reluctance to travel to such ceremonies now. Hopes to meet with CHB during his visit to England.
1p
BBB 2/117 17 August 1980
BB to MAB
Greatly regrets inability to meet CHB during his visit to England. Engagements: departs for Ampleforth Abbey [to deliver a talk on ‘The spirit of Vatican II’ to the community there], 18 August. Advice for MAB on
her visit to Rome; ARCIC to meet the Pope following the conclusion of their meeting at Venice, [26 August-4 September]. Family news. BB preparing briefing notes for Cardinal Hume for the Synod of Bishops, ‘On the role of
the family’: “I want the Cardinal (and I hope many others) to speak out plainly on this subject [birth control]. Almost the only strong argument in favour of our present stance is that the Church has been
traditionally against contraception; and I have been anxious to help Hume to sustain the opinion that this does not settle the matter for ever and ever. I remember that Bishop Gore was said to have retired because he could not stomach the policy
being adopted by your bishops on the subject almost half a century ago.” Reviewing Eric Mascall's forthcoming work [
Whatever Happened to the Human Mind?]: “very good indeed, and quite a counter-blast to the Myth of the incarnation school of ‘thought’. he [sic] attacks - devastatingly - the position of Dr Lampe (who of course has unfortunately died before the book's publication)”. The bishops' response (advance copy) to the National Pastoral Congress
“rather good, though it won't satisfy everybody”. Enjoyed long one-to-one talks with Abbot [Aelred Sillem] at Quarr, “a very nice and extremely intelligent person”; BB's fondness for
the Isle of Wight and Shanklin there.
1p
BBB 2/118 7 September 1980
BB to MAB
Visit of CHB and JMB to MAB; telephone conversation between CHB and BB. Other family news. Comments further on Eric Mascall's [
Whatever Happened to the Human Mind?]: “has some of his dry humour as well <as> of his indignation at woolly unorthodoxy. He is remarkably lively for his age”. Relief and regret
for MAB at her withdrawal from Samaritans work. Report on Venice ARCIC meeting, [26 August-4 September]: completed their further study of the problems listed in n. 24 of
The authority of the Church [I]; some progress;
summarises differing positions of BB, Archbishop [Henry] MacAdoo and Julian Charley; BB's intellectual friendships with Anglican members, Bishop Knapp-Fisher, Henry Chadwick, Howard Root; luncheon visit and ecumenical speech of [Marco Cé] the
Patriarch of Venice; extra meeting scheduled (?Liverpool) prior to a winding-up meeting at Windsor in a year; Rome visit, the Commission staying at the Irish College, and audience with Pope John Paul II at Castel Gandolfo -
“I think he is genuinely ecumenical, though I doubt whether he knows much about Protestantism, still less Anglicanism”. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 10 September.
2p
BBB 2/119 28 September 1980
BB to MAB
Reading Anthony Thiselton's
The two horizons: “immensely erudite ... and has much to say about Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer and Wittgenstein”; a “delightfully lucid” lecture by John
Macquarrie, ‘Tradition, truth and Christology’. Further to Macquarrie's definition of revelation being activated by its reception, and thus Christianity having begun at the moment a disciple first identified Jesus as
the Christ, BB has written to him to suggest, “that one might rather say that revelation began when Jesus, as man, first recognised that God is his Father (in prayer: Abba)”. Concerning the Synod of Bishops in Rome,
‘On the role of the family’, “[w]e are all a bit on tenterhooks ... I hope the Pope will really listen, not just hear, what men like Hume will, I hope, be saying”. Engagements: BBC talk
on ‘Man without God’; and a BBC interview “on being old”, 1 October. Family news. Hopes for a cease fire between Iran and Iraq, and noting the strategic importance of the area:
“one feels that we are permanently sitting on a volcano which might erupt at any moment - the next ten years nay [sic] be crucial”. Questions MAB on Church of England and covenanting for
unity, and anticipating great difficulty in its reconciling such divergent movements as those towards Protestantism and towards the Roman Catholic and Easter Orthodox Churches; notes also the fury of the monks of Mount Athos at any rapprochement
with the Roman Catholic Church.
1p
1982
BBB 2/120 3 April 1982
BB to MAB
Family news. Qualifies
The Times' report of ARCIC [‘Anglican-Catholic Commission report. The limits of pastoral power’, 30 March 1982; page 6; Issue 61195; col. A], as not comprehensive. The following
paragraph is quoted in full.
“I don't remember what I expected when ARCIC began its work all those years ago. But I do remember my delight when we reached
agreement on our Eucharist Statement. It will take some time for the Final Report to be ‘digested’ far and wide. Meanwhile, I see that the Bishop of Norwich, in a letter in today's Times takes a poor view of the
prospect for ‘full organic communion’. In ARCIC we worked on the assumption that such communion is clearly the will of God for believers. So we had to hope!” [see
The Times, ‘Report of proposals on move to unity’, 3 April 1982; page 7; Issue 61199; col. D]
BB concerned over the visit of Pope John Paul II to England. Holiday arrangements.
Attended the consecration of Maurice de Murville as Archbishop of Birmingham, and his Downside education. Also attended a thanksgiving service for Bishop Gresford Jones at St Albans, meeting there Dr Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
Peter Mumford, the Bishop of Truro. Easter wishes.
1p
BBB 2/121 25 July 1982
BB to MAB
Statement of BB's views on the validity of Anglican Orders: 1896 (non-infallible) papal statement nullifying such orders respected but not assented to by BB; notes Cardinal Heenan's openness to a review; ARCIC II “will
have to tackle the subject”; but notes extreme reluctance of “Roman bureaucracy” to admit error, exemplifying the Second Vatican Council's treatment of Galileo; finally, counsels
against despair, noting the Pope John Paul II's critical independence, and the presence of Old Catholic bishops at the consecration of so many of the Church of England's bishops. Dismay of Anglican personnel at the outcome of the Synod of Bishops;
ameliorative effect of a review. “(Personally, I think that too many C. of E. people are too much preoccupied with unity in England. But ecumenism is a world-wide concern, and the Anglican
Communion is itself world-wide[)].” Engagements: leads a retreat for priests, 26 July.
1p
BBB 2/122 12 December 1982
BB to MAB
Notes the imminent publication in English of a German article on ARCIC's Final Report. Notes deep involvement of Julian Charley in pastoral work. Commends W. H. Vanstone's “remarkable” works
Love's Endeavour, Love's Expense (1979), and The Stature of Waiting (1982). Family news. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock]. BB's deafness and failing eyesight.
1p
1983
BBB 2/123 6 February1983
BB to MAB
Anticipates the General Synod debate on ‘The Church and the bomb’, expressing regard both for Graham Leonard, the Bishop of London, a proponent, and John Baker, the Bishop of Salisbury, an opponent.
“I feel that most of the supporters of the bomb miss the heart of the moral argument.” Commends a “splendid” Quaker work on “the heart of spirituality”
[?Thomas Kelly's
A Testament of Devotion (1941)]: “excellent on God, infinite Love, as the indwelling focus of human existence”. Visit of [Father] Martin [Hancock], 3 February. Family news. Engagements:
delivers a talk on ARCIC and the future to a meeting of Hertfordshire Roman Catholic priests, 8 February; emphasises the importance of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Robert Runcie's Common
declaration [of 29 May 1982].
1p
2002
BBB 2/124 26 July 2002
Dom. Daniel Rees O.S.B. at Downside Abbey, to MAB at [St John's, St Mary's Road, Oxford]
Reports the Archbishop of Canterbury designate Dr Rowan Williams' tribute to BB's work on prayer and its influence in his spiritual life, made both in a
Tablet interview, and at a talk given at a recent lecture series in memory of BB at Downside; a similar tribute was paid by Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor at the same event. Informs MAB of a symposium on BB and the Second
Vatican Council at Heythrop College in October, Rees and Bishop De Roo taking part, “a connection that [BB] clearly still valued”.
p
2006
BBB 2/125 19 January 2006
Arthur L. Wells
to MAB
Explanation of draft for website on BB and the Second Vatican Council [http://vatican2voice.org].
1p
BBB 2/126/1-6 20 January 2006
Arthur L. Wells
to MAB and CHB
Christmas wishes. Sending separately a copy of a work by Cardinal König; and enclosing: (a) a copy of a 2000 letter from Cardinal König to Wells concerning BB; (b) a copy of a 1970 letter from BB to Wells concerning an article by Wells on BB's
thinking concerning the Church and authority; (c) printouts of the “flourishing” website, http://vatican2voice.org; (d) the text of BB's speech to the Second Vatican Council on freedom of scholarship [not present].
The website at present concerned with more widely publishing, “non-controversially, recollection of the Council teachings and Bishop Butler's role in formulating and disseminating them”; and moving on, upon
“serious consideration”, “to deploy more critical opinions, including Bishop Butlers' [
sic]”. Hopes the “forward-looking but
orthodox” views of BB and Cardinal König, and their online publication, might support and foster work by other critics of the slow implementation of the teachings of Vatican II. Acknowledges the receipt from Downside Abbey of letters from BB
to [Father] Martin Hancock; and the loan by MAB and CHB of other BB letters. Relays Bishop De Roo's recommendation to make BB's speech on freedom of scholarship the “lodestar” of the website.
1p
BBB 2/126/2 5 March 1970
BB at St Edmund's College, to Arthur L. Wells
List of suggested corrections and clarifications to the text of a proposed article by Wells, [‘Authority in the Church today. Bishop Butler in Wimbledon, 17 February 1970’, republished at
http://vatican2voice.org/8conscience/authority.htm].
1p
BBB 2/126/3 25 February 2000
Cardinal Franz König at Vienna, to Arthur L. Wells
Encourages Wells in his undertaking of “a biographical and theological sketch [of BB] against the background of the last Council. Even if this will not be a long book, even a shorter work would be of significance for the
Roman Catholic Church in England and post-Council history”; promise of the contribution of a foreword to Wells' work.
1p
BBB 2/126/4-6 30 September-3 October 2005
Drafts of the content of the website http://vatican2voice.org, annotated by Wells.
3p; 3p; 3p
BBB 2/127 12 December 2006
Arthur L. Wells to MAB and CHB
Christmas wishes. News of website, and other initiatives towards wider dissemination. Trial digital conversion of BB letters [to CHB and MAB] underway, to aid the production of [Wells'] book.
1p
Newspaper cuttingsBBB 3/1 1970s
[
Toronto Star]: “The Unexplained” (column) by Allen Spraggett, “Foxes gather in death watch.” Quotes story featuring BB.
1p
BBB 3/2 10 February 1980
The
Telegraph: “Bishop's rare honour.” Appointment of BB as an Assistant to the Pontifical Throne, by Pope John Paul II.
1p
