mr. cuthbert
who was to be mr. woodward’s successor? for some weeks we had lived in a state of agitated expectancy. one morning, soon after breakfast, a card was brought to me—the rev. cyril cuthbert. i went down to the drawing-room and found my mother talking to a young clergyman, who rose at my entrance, and informed me that he had been offered the living, and that he had ventured to call and consult me, adding that he had been told i was all-powerful in the parish. i was distinctly prepossessed by his appearance, and perhaps by his appreciation, however exaggerated, of my influence; he was a small man with thin features, but bronzed and active; his hair was parted in the middle and lay in wiry waves on each side. he had small, almost feminine, hands and feet, and rather a delicate walk. he was entirely self-possessed, very genial in talk, with a pleasant laugh; at the same time he gave me an impression[137] of strength. he was dressed in very old and shabby clothes, of decidedly clerical cut, but his hat and coat were almost green from exposure to weather. yet he was obviously a gentleman. i gathered that he was the son of a country squire, that he had been at a public school and oxford, and that he had been for some years a curate in a large manufacturing town. as we talked my impressions became more definite; the muscles of the jaw were strongly developed, and i began to fancy that the genial manner concealed a considerable amount of self-will. he had the eye which i have been led to associate with the fanatic, of a certain cold blue, shallow and impenetrable, which does not let you far into the soul, but meets you with a bright and unshrinking gaze.
at his request i accompanied him to church and vicarage. at the latter, he said to me frankly that he was a poor man, and that he would not be able to keep it up in the same style—“indeed,” he said with a smile, “i don’t think it would be right to do so.” i said that i didn’t think it very material, but that as a matter of fact i thought that the perfection of mr. woodward’s arrangements had had a[138] humanising influence in the place. at the church he was pleased at the neatness and general air of use that the building had; but he looked with disfavour at the simple arrangements of the chancel. i noticed that he bowed and murmured a few words of prayer when he entered the building. when we had examined the church he said to me, “to speak frankly, mr. ——,—i don’t know what your views are,—but what is the church tone of this place like?” i said that i hardly knew how to describe it—the church certainly played a large part in the lives of the parishioners; but that i supposed that mr. woodward would perhaps be called old-fashioned. “yes, indeed,” sighed mr. cuthbert, looking wearily round and shrugging his shoulders. “the altar indeed is distinctly dishonouring to the blessed sacrament—no attempt at catholic practice or tradition. there is not, i see, even a second altar in the church; but, please god, if he sends me here we will change all that.”
before we left the church he fell on his knees and prayed with absolute self-absorption.
when we got outside he said to me: “may i tell you something? i have just returned[139] from a visit to a friend of mine, a priest at a——; he has got everything—simply everything; he is a noble fellow—if i could but hope to imitate him.”
a—— was, i knew, a great railway dep?t, and thinking that mr. cuthbert did not fully understand how very rural a parish we were, i said, “i am afraid there is not very much scope here for great activity. we have a reading-room and a club, but it has never been a great success—the people won’t turn out in the evenings.”
“reading-rooms and clubs,” said mr. cuthbert in high disdain; “i did not mean that kind of thing at all—i was thinking of things much nearer the heart of the people. herries has incense and lights, the eucharistic vestments, he reserves the sacrament—you may see a dozen people kneeling before the tabernacle whenever you enter the church—he has often said to me that he doesn’t know how he could keep hope alive in his heart in the midst of such vice and sin, if it were not for the thought of the blessed presence, in the midst of it, in the quiet church. he has a sisterhood in his parish too under a very strict rule. they never leave the convent, and spend whole[140] days in intercession. the sacrament has been reserved there for fifteen years. then confession is urged plainly upon all, and it is a sight to make one thrill with joy to see the great rough navvies bending before herries as he sits in his embroidered stole, they telling him the secrets of their hearts, and he bringing them nearer to the joy of their lord. some of the workmen in the parish are the most frequent at confession. oh! he is a noble fellow; he tells me he has no time for visiting—positively no time at all. his whole day is spent in deepening the devotional life—the hours are recited in the church—he gives up ten hours every week to the direction of penitents, and he must spend, i should say, two hours a day at his priedieu. he says he could not have strength for his work if he did not. his sermons are beautiful; he speaks from the heart without preparation. he says he has learnt to trust the spirit, and just says what is given him to say.
“then he is devoted to his choristers, and they to him; it is a privilege to see him surrounded by them in their little cassocks while he leads them in a simple meditation. and he is a man of a deeply tender spirit—i have[141] seen him, dining with his curates, burst into tears at the mere mention of the name of the dear mother of christ. i ought not to trouble you with all this—i am too enthusiastic! but the sight of him has put it into my heart more than anything else i have ever known to try and build up a really catholic centre, which might do something to leaven the heavy protestantism which is the curse of england. one more thing which especially struck me; it moved me to tears to hear one of his great rough fellows—a shunter, i believe, who is often overthrown by the demon of strong drink—talk so simply and faithfully of the holy mass: what rich associations that word has! nothing but eternity will ever reveal the terrible loss which the disuse of that splendid word has inflicted on our unhappy england.”
i was too much bewildered by this statement to make any adequate reply, but said to console him that i thought the parish was wonderfully good, and prepared to look upon the clergyman as a friend. “yes,” said mr. cuthbert, “that is all very well for a beginning, but it must be something more than that. they must revere him as steward of the mysteries[142] of god—they must be ready to open their inmost heart to him; they must come to recognise that it is through him, as a consecrated priest of christ, that the highest spiritual blessings can reach them: that he alone can confer upon them the absolution which can set them free from the guilt of sin.”
i felt that i ought not to let mr. cuthbert think that i was altogether of the same mind with him in these matters and so i said: “well, you must remember that all this is unfamiliar here; mr. woodward did not approve of confession—he held that habitual confession was weakening to the moral nature, and encouraged the most hysterical kind of egotism—though no one was more ready to listen to any one’s troubles and to give the most loving advice in real difficulties. but as to the point about absolution, i think he felt, and i should agree with him, that god only can forgive sin, and that the clergy are merely the human interpreters of that forgiveness; it is so much more easy to apprehend a great moral principle like the forgiveness of sin from another human being than to arrive at it in the silence of one’s own troubled heart.”
mr. cuthbert smiled, not very pleasantly,[143] and said, “i had hoped you would have shared my views more warmly—it is a disappointment! seriously, the power to bind and loose conferred on the apostles by christ himself—does that mean nothing?”
“yes, indeed,” i said, “the clergy are the accredited ministers in the matter, of course, and they have a sacred charge, but as to powers conferred upon the apostles, it seems that other powers were conferred on his followers which they no longer possess—they were to drink poison with impunity, handle venomous snakes, and even to heal the sick.”
“purely local and temporary provisions,” said mr. cuthbert, “which we have no doubt forfeited—if indeed we have forfeited them—by want of faith. the other was a gift for time and eternity.”
“i don’t remember,” i said, “that any such distinction was laid down in the gospel—but in any case you would not maintain, would you, that they possessed the power proprio motu? to push it to extremes, that if a man was absolved by a priest, god’s forgiveness was bound to follow, even if the priest were deceived as to the reality of the penitence which claimed forgiveness.”
[144]
mr. cuthbert frowned and said, “to me it is not a question of theorising. it is a purely practical matter. i look upon it in this way—if a man is absolved by a priest, he is sure he is forgiven; if he is not, he cannot be sure of forgiveness.”
“i should hold,” i said, “that it was purely a matter of inner penitence. but i did not mean to entangle you in a theological argument—and i hope we are at one on essential matters.”
as we walked back i pointed out to him some of my favourite views—the long back of the distant downs; the dark forest tract that closed the northern horizon—but he looked with courteous indifference: his heart was full of catholic tradition.
we heard a few days after that he had accepted the living, and we asked him to come and stay with us while he was getting into the vicarage, which he was furnishing with austere severity. mr. woodward’s pleasant dark study became a somewhat grim library, with books in deal shelves, carpeted with matting and with a large deal table to work at. mr. cuthbert dwelt much on the thought of sitting there in a cassock with a tippet, but i[145] do not think he had any of the instincts of a student—it was rather the mise-en-scène that pleased him. a bedroom became an oratory, with a large ivory crucifix. the dining-room he called his refectory, and he had a scheme at one time of having two young men to do the housework and cooking, which fortunately fell through, though they were to have had cassocks with cord-girdles, and to have been called lay brothers. on the other hand he was a very pleasant visitor, as long as theological discussions were avoided. he was bright, gay, outwardly sympathetic, full of a certain kind of humour, and with all the ways of a fine gentleman. the more i disagreed with him the more i liked him personally.
one evening after dinner, as we sat smoking—he was a great smoker—we had a rather serious discussion. i said to him that i really should like to understand what his theory of church work was.
catholic tradition
“it is all summed up in two phrases,” said mr. cuthbert. “catholic practice—catholic tradition. i hold that the reformation inflicted a grievous blow upon this country. to break with rome was almost inevitable, i admit, because of the corruption of doctrine[146] that was beginning; but we need not have thrown over all manner of high and holy ways and traditions, solemn accessories of worship, tender assistances to devotion, any more than the puritans were bound to break statues and damage stained glass windows.”
“quite so,” i said; “but where does this catholic tradition come from?”
“from the primitive church,” said mr. cuthbert. “as far back as we can trace the history of church practice we find these, or many of these, exquisite ceremonies, which i for one think it a solemn duty to try and restore.”
“but after all,” i said, “they are of human origin, are they not? you would not say that they have a divine sanction?”
“well,” said mr. cuthbert, “their sanction is practically divine. we read that in the last days spent by our lord in his glorified nature on the earth, he ‘spake to them of the things concerning the kingdom of god.’ i myself think it is only reasonable to suppose that he was laying down the precise ceremonial that he wished should attend the worship[147] of his kingdom. i do not think that extravagant.”
“but,” i said, “was not the whole tenor of his teaching against such ceremonial precision? did he not for his sacraments choose the simplest and humblest actions of daily life—eating and drinking? was he not always finding fault with the pharisees for forgetting spiritual truth in their zeal for tradition and practice?”
“yes,” said mr. cuthbert, “for forgetting the weightier matters of the law; but he approved of their ceremonial. he said: ‘these ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone.’”
“i believe myself,” i said, “that he felt they should have obeyed their conscience in the matter; but surely the whole of the teaching of the gospel is to loose human beings from tyranny of detail, and to teach them to live a simple life on great principles?”
“i cannot agree,” said mr. cuthbert. “the instinct for reverence, for the reverent and seemly expression of spiritual feeling, for the symbolic representation of spiritual feeling, for the symbolic representation of divine truths is a depreciated one, but a true one; and[148] this instinct he graciously defined, fortified, and consecrated; and i believe that the church was following the true guidance of the spirit in the matter, when it slowly built up the grand and massive fabric of catholic practice and tradition.”
“but,” i said, “who are the church? there are a great many people who feel the exact opposite of what you maintain—and true christians too.”
“they are grievously mistaken,” said mr. cuthbert, “and suffer an irreparable loss.”
“but who is to decide?” i said, a little nettled.
“a general ?cumenical council would be competent to do so,” said mr. cuthbert.
“do you mean of the anglican communion?” i said.
“oh dear, no,” said mr. cuthbert. “the anglican communion indeed! no; such a council must have representatives of all churches who have received and maintain the divine succession.”
“but,” said i, “you must know that the thing is impossible. who could summon such a council, and who would attend it?”
“that is not my business,” said mr. cuthbert;[149] “i do not want any such council. i am sure of my position; it is only you and others who wish to sacrifice the most exquisite part of christian life who need such a solution. i am content with what i know; and humbly and faithfully i shall attempt as far as i can to follow the dictates of my conscience in the matter to endeavor to bring it home to the consciences of my flock.”
i felt i could not carry the argument further without loss of temper; but it was surprising to me how i continued to like, and even to respect, the man.
he has not, it must be confessed, obtained any great hold on the parish. mr. woodward’s quiet, delicate, fatherly work has gone; but mr. cuthbert has a few women who attend confession, and he is content. he has adorned the church according to his views, and the congregation think it rather pretty. they do not dislike his sermons, though they do not understand them; and as for his vestments, they regard them with a mild and somewhat bewildered interest. they like to see mr. cuthbert, he is so pleasant and good-humoured. he is assiduous in his visiting, and very assiduous in holding daily services,[150] which are entirely unattended. he has no priestly influence; and i fear it would pain him deeply if he knew that his social influence is considerable. personally, i find him a pleasant neighbour and highly congenial companion. we have many agreeable talks; and when i am in that irritable tense mood which is apt to develop in solitude, and which can only be cleared by an ebullition of spleen, i walk up to the vicarage and have a theological argument. it does neither myself nor mr. cuthbert any harm, and we are better friends than ever—indeed, he calls me quite the most agreeable erastian he knows.
