His output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction, children's stories, plays,
apologetics, devotional works and articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed through the hierarchy to become a
Chamberlain to
Pope Pius X in 1911, and gain the title of
Monsignor before his death a few years later.
Benson made his profession as a member of the community in 1901, at which time he had no thoughts of leaving the Church of England. As he continued his studies and began writing, however, he became more and more uneasy with his own
doctrinal position and, on 11 September 1903, he was received into the
Catholic Church. Benson was
ordained as a Catholic priest in 1904. As the son of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, his conversion, and his subsequent ordination, caused a sensation.[4]
His first assignment was as a college chaplain. He had a stutter and is said to have had a 'reedy' voice. Benson was a popular preacher, attracting large audiences wherever he spoke. In 1914, he visited the
University of Notre Dame and gave an address on the papacy. Both Confessions of a Convert (1913) and Lourdes (1914) were serialized in Notre Dame's Ave Maria magazine, before appearing as books.[5]
Benson continued his writing career along with his ministry as a priest. Like both his brothers,
Edward Frederic Benson ("Fred") and
Arthur Christopher Benson, Robert wrote many
ghost and
horror stories, as well as children's stories and historical fiction. His horror and ghost fiction are collected in The Light Invisible (1903) and A Mirror of Shallott (1907).[1]
His novel, Lord of the World (1907), is generally regarded as one of the first modern
dystopian novels.[1] In the speculative 2007 he predicted there, the
Anglican Church and other Protestant denominations have crumbled and disappeared under a rising tide of secularism and atheism, leaving an embattled Catholic Church as the sole champion of Christian truth. Nations are armed with weapons which can destroy a whole city from the air within minutes, and
euthanasia is widely practiced and considered as a moral advance. The
Antichrist is depicted as a charismatic secular liberal who organizes an international body devoted to world peace and love under his direction.
In his next novel The Dawn of All (1911), Benson imagined an opposite future 1973 in which the Catholic Church has emerged victorious in England and worldwide after Germany and Austria won the "Emperor War" of 1914; this book is also notable in its fairly accurate prediction of a global network of a passenger air travel.[6][7]Come Rack! Come Rope! (1912) is a historical novel describing the
persecution of English Catholics during the Elizabethan era.[8] The bibliography below reveals a prodigious output.
Among his historical novels is the Reformation Trilogy: By What Authority (1905), The King’s Achievement (1905), and The Queen’s Tragedy (1907).[9]
As a young man, Benson recalled, he had rejected the idea of marriage as "quite inconceivable".[11] He had a close friendship with the novelist
Frederick Rolfe, with whom he had hoped to write a book on
St Thomas Becket, until Benson decided that he should not be associated (according to writer
Brian Masters) "with a Venetian pimp and procurer of boys". Nevertheless, he maintained his friendship with
Lord Alfred Douglas, the friend and lover of
Oscar Wilde, and when an acquaintance protested that the connection with Douglas was inappropriate for him, he replied: "Lord Alfred Douglas is my friend, and he'll come down when he likes!"[12]
Death and legacy
Monsignor Benson died of pneumonia in 1914 in Salford, where he had been preaching a mission; he was 42. As he had requested, he was buried in the orchard of
Hare Street House, his house in the Hertfordshire village of Hare Street.[13] A chapel, dedicated to St Hugh, was built over the site. Benson bequeathed the house to the Catholic Church as a country retreat for the
Archbishop of Westminster. The Catholic church in the nearby town of
Buntingford, which he helped finance, is dedicated to St Richard of Chichester, but is also known as the
Benson Memorial Church.[14]
In 2019, the house was put up for sale. Benson's body was exhumed and moved to the crypt of
St Edmund's College in Old Hall Green.[10]
The King's Achievement, Burns Oates & Washbourne, Lrd., 1905. Republished in 2022 by The Cenacle Press with a foreword by
Joseph Pearce and new illustrations by Jerzy Ozga.[17][18]
Monaghan, Sister Mary Saint Rita (1985). Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson: His Apostolate and Its Message for Our Time. Brisbane, Qld.: Boolarong Publications.
Parr, Olive Katherine (1915). Robert Hugh Benson: An Appreciation. London: Hutchinson & Co.
Shadurski, Maxim (2020). The Nationality of Utopia: H. G. Wells, England, and the World State. London; New York: Routledge.
ISBN9780367330491. (Chapter 3 features an in-depth discussion of The Dawn of All.)
Shuster, Norman (1922).
"Robert Hugh Benson and the Aging Novel." In: The Catholic Spirit in Modern English Literature. New York: The Macmillan Company, pp. 208–228.
^
abBridget Stice.
"Save Hare Street House". www.facebook.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Hi All, I apologise for the lack of posts and for the delay in this one, I've been moving house and it's chaotic. Back on 26 Sept I had a second article published in the Hertfordshire Mercury about HSH. This one focuses on past residents. There should also be something in the Buntingford Journal October edition. I hope you enjoy it