PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

New Zealand Tablet, 24 January 1918, Page 37

PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

; ; r The ;v ßev., Ronald ; ; Arbuthnott; Knox, the youngest son" of | the','' Bishop 'ofy Manchester, has ". been received I into the * Catholic'Church. ". He, is one of,' three sons of Dr. Knox, and as a scholar of Balliol College in 1908 he' won the Gaisford Prize. ; The same year he was an Ireland arid Craven scholar. - In 1910 he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, and took Orders the following J year. />' In . 1912 : he was- appointed 5 Chaplain at Trinity College. \ The announcement is unusually interesting, '-" for Bishop . Knox stands foremost ' in - the Anglican episcopate as an uncompromising opponent of Rome and of all the nibblings and leanings towards Catholic practices which so many pious Anglicans like to indulge. "! ''A correspondent gives the following interesting details to the Glasgow Observer ' The Rev. Ronald Knox, B. A., Chaplain-Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, who has been making a fortnight's retreat at Farnborough Abbey, Hants, was received into the Catholic Church there on Saturday last, September 22. Mr. Knox, who is the only son of the Protestant Bishop of Manchester, had a distinguished University career, graduating with double first-class honors in the classical schools. He soon afterwards was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College, Oxford, and was also appointed "chaplain. He was one of the founders and principal directors of the "Anglo-Catholic" publishing corporation known as the Society of SS. Peter and Paul, and is himself the author of a number of brilliant and incisive books and pamphlets, in which the inconsistencies of Anglicanism are mercilessly analysed. The new convert, who is not yet thirty, is a man of remarkable personality, and his, influence in one section, at any rate, of the Church of England has been very considerable. His father, the Bishop of l Manchester, is staunchly Protestant in his views, and is said to have declared that he would resign his see should his son submit to the Roman Church. Recent Anglican prelates (including an Archbishop of Canterbury and a Bishop of Winchester) have had the same experience ; and a previous Bishop of Winchester (Wilberforce) lived to see most of his nearest relatives converted to Catholicism; but none of these dignitaries thought it necessary to doff their mitres in. consequence. Count George F. von Hertling, Prime Minister of Bavaria, has been appointed Imperial Chancellor and Premier of the German Empire, succeeding George Michaelis, made Prime Minister of Prussia. Von Hertling is the leader of the Catholic Centre Party in the Reichstag, a philosopher and scholar of international reputation, arid one of the leading statesmen of the Empire. His selection was resisted by the Reichstag by a unanimous vote because of his violent and reiterated opposition to all rule on the part of the people, and this was the-first time in its history that that body has tried to impose its will on the Kaiser. It is said Von Hertling's appointment is looked upon as a revolution in the political life of Germany and causes a shift of the movement for peace from the Prussian military circles toward Munich and. Vienna, arid consequently, it is considered tremendously significant for the rest of the world. Count Hertling, the- new German Chancellor, was born at Darmstadt in 1843, and, though he nleaded age and frequent ill-health | when invited | to succeed Dr. Bethmann Hollweg,. he has given proof of late that he still possesses considerable mental and physical vigor. As a. man he is universally esteemed. fl He is earnest and eminently conscientious, arid has achieved notable successes in the domains of statesmanship and science. His years of experience as one of the leaders of the Centre r Party ; : in the Reichstag have also made .him thoroughly conversant with Parliamentary practice and * procedure. ' Count Hertling * r is opposed by J the Pani; Germans and by the Socialists, by the former because he ? does not uphold , Pan-German plans of annexation arid' favors a v peace based v on i "understanding, and : ' by

the latter because! he;: is a > Centre i man. A striking feature of the situation is that Count Hertling is not a Prussian. Since the foundation of the Empire the Chancellor has also been Minister-President of Prussia, a circumstance which has, ’ of course, had a great influence on the'history and development of the Empire. Count Hertling is a'Hessian by. birth, but has -been associated during most : of his life with Bavaria, and since his appointment as the Bavarian Minister-Presi-dent in 1912 he has been regarded as a Bavarian.