. Westminster Abbey : its memories and its message . reat rage about it—rather than walk delicately down some narrow middle path,balancing oneself precariously between fun and fury. It would,for example, be quite amusing to reflect that it was Henry IIIwho created alike the incomparable Chapter House and theHouse of Commons which met in it. That is to say, histireless zeal in finding money to erect his Abbey was, inanother aspect, a pestilential tyranny which pulled down theroyal power and set up the power of the people; and thatSimon de Montfort, at the very moment when he called thefirst nat
. Westminster Abbey : its memories and its message . reat rage about it—rather than walk delicately down some narrow middle path,balancing oneself precariously between fun and fury. It would,for example, be quite amusing to reflect that it was Henry IIIwho created alike the incomparable Chapter House and theHouse of Commons which met in it. That is to say, histireless zeal in finding money to erect his Abbey was, inanother aspect, a pestilential tyranny which pulled down theroyal power and set up the power of the people; and thatSimon de Montfort, at the very moment when he called thefirst national assembly of 1265, had our prodigal church-builder safely under lock and key in the Tower of , at the other extreme, one might reflect on the ruinedabbeys up and down the land, and, walking in our own Abbey,stand before the ravaged shrine and fulminate against thoseauthors of the Dissolution who, meeting in this lovely building,had yet no sense of the sacredness of Beauty. But neither course is open at this time of day; for some-112. THE HOME OF FREEDOM thing constrains the modern weakling along that middle it one gets a view of the historical prospect which isprovocative neither of laughter nor tears, but is a steady succes-sion and fulfilment. Thus the one order grows naturally outof the other, helped by occasional catastrophe, in Naturesway; but the two are seen to be mutually dependent, withprofound gratitude due to the old monks and immenseadmiration to the Parliament-men, and honours about equallydivided. To the monks the debt stands of foundation-laying;of establishing, with their single tool of Religion, a materialbasis for civilization: the creation, so to speak, of the body ofthe State. To the Parliament-men belonged the task of advanc-ing from that material basis: of building upon it the houseof the Constitution which is not made with hands: ofkindling a conscious mind within the nations body: of theperception of ideals ; and of a long, ster
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectwestmin, bookyear1921
