Chapter 10
The Workers and the Church by Charles Summer from Topics of Today, Busy Man's Canada, June 1912. Read by Balauna Times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
The Workers and the Church by Charles Summer. The session has just witnessed a remarkable midnight procession. Five hundred Anglican Church socialists, headed by Mr. George Lansbury, MP, bearing a cross, and with the Rev. Conrad Knoll and the Countess of Warwick prominent in the ranks, marched from Westminster to the Archbishop's Palace at Lambeth to lay before his grace a memorial
expressing surprise and regret that the bishops had failed to take the side of the workers in the recent industrial troubles. The Archbishop was away and the memorial was accepted by his chaplain. The demonstration in front of the Grand Old Pile, which has, for seven centuries, been the official home of the head of the Anglican Church, was on this occasion a peaceable one,
but Lambeth Palace, in its time, has had to be defended from very hostile attacks. It is no new thing for the working classes to entertain the idea that his grace of Canterbury has but little in common with the toilers. Lambeth Palace entertained with magnificent hospitality Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart Kings.
Queens Mary I, Elizabeth, Mary II, and Victoria visited the Archbishop and were received with great pomp. Let In the Poor The grand gates of Morton's Tower were gladly open to those who could smile royal favors, but only a very few years ago, since the days of Archbishop Benson, have the spacious and
beautiful grounds of the palaces been open for the enjoyment of the poor of crowded and squalid Lambeth. The great library of Lambeth Palace, the great hall, the noble guard room, have been the scenes of many historic gatherings, councils, and trials. Hard-fought battles over such questions as a priest's genuflections in front of an altar,
the decoration of a vestment, or the position of a candlestick. But how comparatively seldom has Lambeth Palace, the home and office of the head of the church, been the scene of a conference for bettering the condition of the toiling poor. Garden parties for the dwellers of the West End have been many under the shadow of the Lollards Tower.
But it took years of agitation to convince the head of the church that the green and broad acres of Lambeth Palace, seldom used by his grace of Canterbury, who had another beautiful palace at Addington, would be a boon and a blessing to the children of those who toiled in the potteries, the ironworks, and soap factories of murky Lambeth. Take the long line of archbishops from L'Enfranc in 1070 to Benson and the courtiers who have
held sway at Lambeth, who have far outnumbered those who have followed the master as a friend of the people. Names spoken reverently. Lambeth has had a Stephen Langton, a Henry Chichley, a Whitgift, a Tillotson, a Howley, and a Tate, names to be spoken with love and reverence.
But some of these had hard work in doing good to atone for the mischief wrought by a lot who saw eye to eye and worked hand in hand with those who tried to murder English liberty. The terms of the memorial to the present archbishop are not before me, but it will not surprise any student of history to find the head of the English church reminded of his duty to those who toil.
Lambeth has been the scene of a very peaceable demonstration, but there have been episodes of violence in its history. Archbishop Boniface, quote, who had committed an outrage, unquote, on the prior of St. Bartholomew's Smithfield had to repel a regular siege by excited Londoners. The followers of Watt Tyler, who was not such an awful rebel as some historians have painted
him, attacked the palace and, to their honor, some 500 London apprentices held a very hostile demonstration at Lambeth against the obnoxious Lod. In 1780 Lambeth Palace suffered from the followers of the fanatic Lord George Gordon, and the archbishop and his family had to beat a hasty retreat across the river. The present head of the church has but recently read the clergy a lecture on the signs of
the times. He has the wisdom to see that the church, to hold its position, must take cognizance of the problems of everyday life, and that fact will certainly be brought home to him by the midnight visit of a band of people who, although their methods are unconventional, must have the excuse and be given the credit of being deadly in earnest.
Give me the money that has been spent in war, and I will clothe every man, woman, and child, and an entire of which kings and kings would be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to the gospel of peace." End of The Workers and the Church by Charles Summer
