Read Letters to a Sister Online
Authors: Constance Babington Smith
68
H. H. Milman,
History of Latin Christianity
(6 vols., 1854-5).
69
Giovanni Miegge,
The Virgin Mary: The Roman Catholic Marian Doctrine
(trans. W. Smith, 1955).
70
The possibility that a doctrine of Mary Mediatrix of all graces would be defined became remote after the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958.
71
Mary Anne O'Donovan.
72
An Anglican Society for prayer in association with the Church's ministry of healing.
73
After it was announced that the Soviet Prime Minister, Marshal Bulganin, and Mr Krushchev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, would visit Britain in April 1956, Malcolm Muggeridge led an attempt to stage a protest meeting at the Albert Hall. This meeting was not permitted, but another was held in Manchester on 26 March.
74
This Leech cartoon âThe Latest Arrival of the Zoological Gardens' was re-published in
Punch
of 18 April 1956.
75
When Nicholas I of Russia visited England in June 1844 he was not mobbed, but in general was received with enthusiasm. There was, however, a minority attempt to arouse opposition to him. Handbills, calling him âa much greater tyrant than Nero or Caligula' were distributed, and a protest meeting, attended largely by foreigners, was held in London on 6 June.
76
Georgi Malenkov, Soviet Minister of Electric Power Stations, had arrived in Britain on 15 March. During his subsequent tour he received a very favourable reception and press.
77
The expulsion of G. Malenkov from the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party did not take place till July 1957.
78
Rev. M. A. P. Wood, Vicar and Rural Dean of Islington, was writing apropos of relations between Methodists and the Church of England.
79
No one did.
80
In the 1928 Prayer Book the reference to the canonical scriptures in the Bishop's question is qualified thus: âas given of God to convey to us in many parts and in divers manners the revelation of himself which is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ'.
81
The Trial of Thomas Cranmer
by Anne Ridler.
82
On 13 March it had been announced that Sir Eugene Goossens had been temporarily relieved of his duties as conductor of the Sydney Orchestra, and the next day that he had been served with a summons for importing âprohibited goods', later stated to be obscene films and photographs.
83
P. N. Waggett's
The Heart of Jesus
(1902), a series of Holy Week addresses.
84
Since becoming a regular worshipper at both St Paul's, Knightsbridge and Grosvenor Chapel.
85
Rev. Raymond Raynes, C.R., Father Superior of the Community of the Resurrection.
86
Rt Rev. B. C. Roberts.
87
In his first major speech since returning from South Africa, Fr Huddleston denounced âwhite supremacy'.
88
Dr Anthony Barker, author of
Giving and Receiving: An Adventure in African Medical Service
(1959).
89
Since Marshal Bulganin and Mr Krushchev arrived in London on 18 April, they had not been received with any public enthusiasm.
90
âDialogues of Mortality' in
The Towers of Trebizond.
91
He had been Rector of St Mary's, Bedford (1945-55).
92
See above p.
61n.
93
R.M.'s sister Eleanor (1887-1952) had devoted much of her time as a missionary in India to the translation, editing and production of books and magazines, all into Hindi. The book mentioned here is
Din-Ba-Din
(âDay by Day'), a translation of Bible notes.
94
Grace Macaulay had taught her children to pause, when saying their prayers, so as to remember their sins. When away she left them prayer-cards, with rows of dots meaning âstop and think'. Jean, a very literal-minded child, took the usual six dots to mean that she had to remember six sins.
95
The Towers of Trebizond.
96
A letter from Canon Charles Smyth was published in
The Times
on 10 July in a correspondence on the ordination of deacons. Some correspondents maintained that many deacons were troubled in conscience at having to reply âI do believe them' to the Bishop's question âDo you unfeignedly believe all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament?' Canon Smyth. pointed out that these words raise no difficulties when interpreted in the light of the Thirty-nine Articles.
97
See above p. 185
n
.
98
Brigadier Hanbury Pawle, in a letter to
The Times
(9 July) had stated that âthe congregations of our lovely churches are now reduced to a mere handful of old people'.
99
Violet Markham was then aged 83.
100
âUtopia' is derived from the Greek
ou
(not) and
topos
(a place), thus literally meaning an imaginary country.
101
R.M. was assisting at a London Congress of the International P.E.N.
102
On 11 July
The Times
published a letter from Rev. J. A. Ainger of Penrith, affirming that his congregation contained as a rule no elderly people, and included 50 per cent of the younger generation.
103
The question as phrased in the 1662 Prayer Book was taken over verbatim from the Prayer Book of 1549.
104
The equivalent question in the Prayer Book of the Protestant Episcopal Church is worded as follows: âAre you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all Doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?'
105
In the Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church of Scotland the question is identical to that in the 1662 version.
106
The House of Lords had rejected the second reading of the Death Penalty (Abolition) Bill by 238 votes to 95.
107
Sheila Davies.
108
In October R.M. and C. S. Lewis were to discuss âSome Difficulties which keep people out of the Christian Church' at the Cambridge house of the Society of St Francis.
109
In her
Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day
(1922).
110
Canon Fenton Morley, broadcasting in the âLift up your Hearts' programme during the previous week, had taken as his theme the question âWhat's wrong with the Church?' Discussing Phil. 4.2 (âI beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord'), he suggested that St Paul made mention of a private feud between the two women, hoping they would realize that their own attitude was the real answer to the question âWhat's wrong with the Church?'
111
R.M. had been planning a holiday cruise in the Aegean.
112
See Jer. 38. 6-14.
113
This account of the experiences of Dr Donald Mcl. Johnson, M.P. in 1950 was published in
Reynolds News
(15 and 22 July, 1956) when he was campaigning for the reform of the Mental Health Service. For his own account of the events in question see his
Bars and Barricades
(1952).
114
See âReligious Writing', an article by R.M. in a special issue of
The Times Literary Supplement
on âThe Frontiers of Literature' (17 August, 1956).
115
Rev. John Stott, Rector of All Souls', Langham Place; see below p. 252.
116
After the death of Cardinal Griffin, Abp of Westminster.
117
Rt Rev. E. B. Henderson, formerly Vicar of St Paul's, Knightsbridge.
118
Dorothea Conybeare had been partly paralysed since an accident in 1954.
119
By P. Wyndham Lewis (1956).
120
See
Last Letters to a Friend,
pp. 229-32.
121
Jean Macaulay was to receive her M.B.E. at a Buckingham Palace investiture.
122
This was four days after the outbreak of the revolutionary movement against the Communist regime in Hungary.
123
See
Last Letters to a Friend,
p. 23.
124
R.M.'s Christmas card had been printed in black and white, and she was planning to colour it herself.
125
i.e. Anthony Eden and his Cabinet.
126
In deciding on Suez intervention.
127
Hugh Gaitskell, Leader of the Opposition, had called for Anthony Eden's resignation in a broadcast speech on 4 November.
128
Anthony Nutting, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, had resigned on 3 November because of the Government's Suez policy.
129
On R.M.'s 1956 Christmas card a castle fortress, with one large star above it, was accompanied by this verse:
Urbs ad montem,
wearing as a crown
Castrum in rupe,
the walls falling down;
Portae sine clavibus,
the gates swing wide;
Turbae jucundissimae
throng inside
In Nativitate Domini,
the dark of Christmas Day,
And
Oriens, splendor Lucis,
lights their way.
130
Very Rev. W. R. Matthews.
131
Rev. Leslie Tizard had spoken on âDealing with our Doubts: Finding the cause' in the âLift up your Hearts' programme.
132
Jean Macaulay insisted on continuing work after her retirement (at the age of 74) until the District Nurse who was to replace her had actually arrived.
133
Jean Macaulay had forfeited her District Nursing pension when she went to do missionary nursing in South Africa in 1936.
134
Graham Hough, Anthony Quinton, and Alan Pryce-Jones discussed
The Towers of Trebizond
in a broadcast on âRecent Novels' on 26 December.
135
A series of articles by well-known people of different beliefs, giving their views on Immortality, began in the
Sunday Times
on 6 January, 1957. The first article, âThe Great Mystery about Heaven and Hell', was by Dorothy Sayers.
136
Rev. S. C. Carpenter (1877-1959).
137
The Fountain Overflows.
138
Pope Pius XII had stated the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the use of anaesthetics, hypnosis, and other pain-killing methods.
139
Helmut Rueckriegel and a friend.
140
Rev. D. B. Harris.
141
Since this letter was written he has in fact introduced Ash Wednesday ashes. There have been no complaints from anyone, and much appreciation has been expressed.
142
âLent Habits',
Time and Tide,
2 March, 1957.
143
R.M. was trying to give an hour a day to devotional reading and prayer.
144
Probably a broadcast talk by Minnie Pallister in the âHome for the Day' programme on 3 March.
145
âThe Reality of Self, by Arabinda Basu, see
Sunday Times,
17 March.
146
Frank Tilsley, author and broadcaster, was found dead at his home, with a breadknife nearby, on 16 March.
147
âThe Purpose of Punishment', a âMedieval Disputation' between Rev. Laurence Bright, o.p., and Very Rev. Ian Hislop, o.p., was broadcast on 14 March from the Aquinas Centre at the Priory of St Dominic, Haverstock Hill.
148
J. A. Kensit (1881-1957) was the son of John Kensit, founder of the Protestant Truth Society. He took over the Secretaryship of the society on the death of his father in 1902.
149
Jean Macaulay's general practitioner.
150
A series of four broadcast talks for Lent entitled âThe New Man'.
151
A new B.B.C. policy of providing âmore relaxation and entertainment' had just been announced.
152
âNetwork Three' was being planned to cater for âspecialized interests', among which pigeon-fancying was specifically mentioned.
153
âLet's face it, Madam, you're a Mess!' by Solveig Peters,
News Chronicle,
9 April, 1957.
154
Cranford, Middlesex.
155
Helmut Rueckriegel.
156
The
News Chronicle
had commissioned the Gallup Poll to enquire into the religious beliefs and practices of the British. Their findings were summarized in three articles (15-17 April), the first headed âPagan Britain? Nonsense*. The second stated that âthe Church of Rome is holding on to its members to a far greater extent than is any other church; it is making more converts than any other church⦠About the Church of England only one conclusion is possibleâit is in a parlous state.'
157
John Osborne's
The Entertainer
at the Royal Court Theatre.
158
Anthony Eden had just undergone a serious operation.
159
A service said on the last three evenings of Holy Week.
160
See
The Times,
27 April, 1957: â⦠Survival of death, if it be a fact, is immeasurably more likely to be a God-given attribute of man's nature than either a reward of his virtue or dependent upon acceptance of any form of orthodox beliefâto be a fact no more determined by such considerations than is birth into this life. Herein the Christian tradition, as against theories of “conditional immortality”, is sound in insisting that it is not survival but the nature of the life which survives that is determined by earthly probation.'