“I wish I were a young man,” said the Dean, moving from the door and inviting them to sit, “and could take part in these strange hardships. This question of night attire, for instance, has never struck me before. The whole thing is of amazing interest. Ah! what it is to be old! If I were young, I should be with you, cloth or no cloth, in the trenches. I hope both of you know that I vehemently dissent from those bishops who prohibit the younger clergy from taking their place in the fighting line. If God’s archangels and angels themselves took up the sword against the Powers of Darkness, surely a stalwart young curate of the Church of England would find his vocation in warring with rifle and bayonet against the proclaimed enemies of God and mankind?”
“The influence of the twenty thousand or so of priests fighting in the French Army is said to be enormous,” Oliver remarked.
The Dean sighed. “I’m afraid we’re losing a big chance.”
“Why don’t you take up the Fiery Cross, Uncle Edward, and run a new Crusade?”
The Dean sighed. Five-and-thirty years ago, when he had set all Durdlebury by the ears, he might have preached glorious heresy and heroic schism; but now the immutability of the great grey fabric had become part of his being.
“I’ve done my best, my boy,” he replied, “with the result that I am held in high disfavour.”
“But that doesn’t matter a little bit.”
“Not a little bit,” said the Dean. “A man can only do his duty according to the dictates of his conscience. I have publicly deplored the attitude of the Church of England. I have written to The Times. I have published a pamphlet—I sent you each a copy—which has brought a hornets’ nest about my ears. I have warned those in high places that what they are doing is not in the best interests of the Church. But they won’t listen.”
Oliver lit a pipe. “I’m afraid, Uncle Edward,” he said, “that though I come of a clerical family, I know no more of religion than a Hun bishop; but it has always struck me that the Church’s job is to look after the people, whereas, as far as I can make out, the Church is now squealing because the people won’t look after the Church.”
The Dean rose. “I won’t go as far as that,” said he with a smile. “But there is, I fear, some justification for such a criticism from the laity. As soon as the war began the Church should have gathered the people together and said, ‘Onward, Christian soldiers. Go and fight like—er——’”