[No surviving envelope]
Your letter of the 11th arrived very promptly last night. Although the tone of your previous letters had prepared me for it, the letter gave me a shock. Forgive me if I seemed peremptory: it was because I was deeply distressed and hurt, and now of course I am more so.
IHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1the issue of communion;a8 hadChristianityUnitarianism;d9the issue of communion;b4 tried very carefully to avoid making any appeal on personal grounds, or on any grounds which would be à priori unacceptable to you. I took my main stand on what I thought would appeal to you: the question of good taste. I also asked the minimum possible: simply that you should assure yourself, on each occasion, that the vicar or celebrant has full knowledge of your beliefs and associations, and that he is willing to give you communion. Naturally, you would not have to consult the same man twice: all that is involved is that you should do so on any occasion where you have not previously made yourself known to the clergyman. This you decline, on what I must suppose to be religious principle. But I ought to point out, that this principle also asserts that your beliefs and religious affiliations are no business of the clergyman, and that you have the right to communicate wherever you choose, whether the clergyman in charge likes it or not. And this I cannot accept.
We both, I must now say, have much to be tolerant of. In you, my dear, I have long thought I noticed an inflexible determination of will, a certain self-righteousness also, which can lead to your riding rough-shod over other people’s convictions and sensibilities. My own faults may be much more serious, but the question of how much greater a sinner I may be is not one which admits of any exact estimate, and is not immediately relevant. IHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1unclear to TSE;b7 only think that there is some call for tolerance on your part also.
IEliot, Henry Ware (TSE's father)religious beliefs;a7 am still wholly unable to see your point of view. IEliot, Charlotte Champe Stearns (TSE's mother)her religious beliefs;a2 was myself brought up as a Unitarian, as you know. IEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister)devoutly Unitarian;e7 am sure that to my mother and father, the suggestion of their attending an Episcopalian place of worship for the purpose of making their communion there, would have been astonishing and abhorrent: I cannot believe that it would appeal to my sister Marion, who is the most, indeed the only devout Unitarian in my generation. ItHügel, Friedrich voninvoked against the idea of conversion;a6 is difficult for me to believe that you were brought up otherwise; I must assume that you have come to your present position under different influences. IChristianitybelief;b1and conversion;a3 have never tried to influence you towards a change of faith: I believe, after Von Huegel, that people should first be encouraged to practise with all their heart and soul the religion in which they have been brought up. Thus, I cannot understand you from the Unitarian point of view any better than from the Episcopalian point of view: and if you are a Socinian, be a Socinian with all your might and main.1
Now, my dear, it is no use avoiding the fact that this refusal is going to make a serious difference to our relations. I shall no longer be able to feel the same confidence and truthfulness, the same ease, the same readiness to expand in your presence and in correspondence. Only a few weeks ago, I was happier than I have ever been: the new situation seems grotesque. I am not defying you: I am simply telling you something which I cannot help. I shall always love you – that is something which I cannot help either. On everything which was solely a personal difference, I think I should be prepared to give way to you. But here we are up against something which is much bigger than I, and much more important.
Perhaps I had better say no more now.
1.Deriving from the sixteenth-century teachings of the Italian theologians Laelius Socinus and his nephew Faustus Socinus, Socinianism – which Christian orthodoxy considers heretical – rejects the divinity of Jesus and the divine being of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), along with the concept of original sin.
6.CharlotteEliot, Charlotte Champe Stearns (TSE's mother) Champe Stearns Eliot (1843–1929): see Biographical Register.
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.