The best facts are often the least known. Here is an example: Most are unaware that the late and renowned atheist Christopher Hitchens had a great-grandfather who defended religion! Revd Edward Athanasius Hitchens (1839-1906) was curate of St. Guinefort the Holy Martyr, an Anglican parish in Gloucester, England. He was also an active participant in debates on religion as publisher and editor of the Anglo-Catholic newspaper The Invincible Aspergilium.
The Rev. E.A. Hitchens
In September 1897, The Invincible Aspergilium received a plaintive letter form a ten year old girl in Birmingham. Her plea sparked one of Revd Hitchens’ most memorable essays on atheism.
Alice said her radical socialist stepfather, a member of the Workingmen’s Association for Free Thought and Abolition of the Opiate of Labour, denied the existence of God. He would do this frequently and vehemently, often whilst munching on pasties during lunch and complaining about the newly imposed pasty-tax. This paternal atheism troubled Alice, and she began having doubts herself. She asked the newspaper whither she should turn. Revd Hitchens penned the following reply:
Alice, your stepfather is wrong. He has been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Alice, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Alice, there is a God. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no God. It would be as dreary as if there were no Alice’s. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in God! You might get your stepfather to hire astronomers to continually scan the heavens, but even if they did not see God, what would that prove? Nobody sees God, but that is no sign that there is no God. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Alice, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No God! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Alice, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
(Note: This piece is satire!)
Oh, tricksy Mr. van Boom.
I went as far as looking to see whether there is a church dedicated to St Guinefort. April Fool, me! I should have spotted that the pasty tax was all too unlikely an echo of present events. But Jason, what lovely things you say about God. And the story of ‘Saint’ Guinefort is one I’ll save and share. Lovely!
what they told about – Saint Guinefort the Greyhound Martyr to Love and Loyalty
The tale comes to us from near Villeneuve. As it is told, Guinefort, a greyhound, the highly prized and trusted companion of a tenant knight holding lands in fief from the Sieur de Villars-en-Dombe, was left to guard the knight’s heir, still a babe in the cradle. In the noble’s absence a snake came into the room to attack the child but was bloodily dispatched by the loyal hound. When the noble returned to find the room and the hound covered in blood and Guinefort seated beside the cradle he leapt to the wrong conclusion and slew the hound out of hand. On discovering the dead snake and the live child, the knight realized his tragic error. In remorse he buried the dog in a well and planted a grove above the hero’s grave. When the knight’s castle was subsequently destroyed, this was taken to be an act of divine retribution for the slaying of the hound. When the tale was retold in the region the slain hero became a martyr, and the martyr became a saint. Parents prayed and left offerings at Guinefort’s grave on behalf of sickly children. But the hound’s “sainthood” had been improperly conferred by ignorant villagers and, worse, the church was receiving no revenues from the pilgrims at Guinefort’s shrine. Guinefort’s cult was discovered by the inquisitor Etienne de Bourbon during a sweep through the region around Dombes, and it was promptly suppressed by the Holy Inquisition.
The tale of idiots not seeing God – IN all things – I have a little Mini-Pin – “Sassy” – One day I opened the door – to be meet by a large mean Pit bull – Sassy a quarter of it’s side ran past me and jumped on it – as it lunged at me – I ended up having to save the Pit Bull – I don’t call her a saint – But I still treat her like she did save me that day – and not one deoubt she wouldn’t do it again. If she did not save me that day – I would be full of doubt – Thus I would be a Atheists of dogs being mans best friends – Same with religion – when it is full of perverts and a manidesto policy – based on the writtings of a pervert – who would not doubt – they are holy????
I noticed a very close similarity between Rev. Hitchens letter and the one written by the editor of the New York Sun in reply to the young girl asking about the existence of Santa Claus. Perhaps its a coincidence but both letters were written in September 1897.
Tom, kudos for catching the main part of this 1 April post. Rev. E.A. Hitchens is completely made up, and for his letter, I just tweaked the famous “Yes, Virginia” editorial. Before Mr. Christopher Hitchen’s death, I noticed a fundamental similarity between “Yes, Virginia” Santa Claus-ology and some modern attitudes towards religion. In fact, I’d say the two fundamental texts for understanding modern views of religion are Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and the “Yes, Virginia” editorial. I’ll discuss this some more in my follow up post “Atheists, Kant, and Santa Claus: A Reply to Rev. Hitchens.”
Revd. Graham: St. Guinefort’s is pure fiction, but Gloucester is not. I recently had the good fortune of touring Gloucestershire and its environs with my fiancee. Perhaps it was due to her intoxicating charm, but I fell in love with this spot in England. I also met an oral historian who had researched the history of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Gloucester, including its pre-history as a C of E church going back to the late 19th century. I would place St. Guinefort’s there.
As an aside, I think English Christianity has a lovely poetic character. “And did those feet in ancient time/Walk upon England’s mountains green?” Why, of course they did! Where else would they go?