| Description | The Sword of the Spirit was a Catholic initiative intended to unite Christian churches in mutual defiance of totalitarianism. Inaugurated on 1 August 1940 by Cardinal Arthur Hinsley (1865-1943), Archbishop of Westminster, the movement took its title from Ephesians 6:17: 'And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God'. Given its wartime beginnings, the initial focus of Sword of the Spirit was on the Nazi regime in Germany.
The aims of the movement were set out in a letter to The Times on 20 December 1941. The letter was signed jointly by Cardinal Hinsley, Cosmo Gordon Lang (Archbishop of Canterbury), William Temple (then Archbishop of York) and Walter H. Armstrong (Moderator of the Free Federal Council). Their overall aim was to promote Christian social teachings as an effective alternative to totalitarian ideologies. For the Catholic Church, this would be through the adoption of the five Peace Points proposed by Pius XII soon after his election as Pope in 1939, namely the defence of small nations, the right to life, disarmament, a new version of the League of Nations, and a plea for the moral principles of justice and love.
Although formally established by Cardinal Hinsley, the Sword of the Spirit was intended as a lay organisation, reflecting its origins within the Catholic laity. The movement was initiated by Manya Harari (1905-1969), a Russian Jewish convert to Catholicism, who had been inspired by a broadcast given by Cardinal Hinsley on 10 December 1939 on the re-establishment of Christian values. The first vice-president was the eminent Catholic historian, Christopher Dawson, but much of the practical organisation was dealt with by Richard O'Sullivan QC, Barbara Ward (later Baroness Jackson of Lodworth), Professor A C F Beales, and his wife, Freda, who acted as administrative secretary.
Cardinal Hinsley initially intended to make the Sword of the Spirit an ecumenical movement, and this led to enthusiastic support from many leading non-Catholics, including Bishop George Bell of Chichester, culminating in two inter-denominational mass meetings held in London in May 1941. However, this approach drew criticism from within the Catholic Church and when the Constitution was finally published 3 months later, full membership in the Sword of the Spirit was restricted to Roman Catholics. The Anglican and Free Church communions consequently set up a parallel organisation, Religion and Life, which was linked to the Sword of the Spirit by a Joint Standing Committee chaired by Geoffrey Fisher (later Archbishop of Canterbury). A Joint Statement was published at a reception held at the Waldorf Hotel in London on 28 May 1942 which inaugurated the Joint Standing Committee of the Sword of the Spirit and Religious and Life.
The Joint Committee held 17 meetings between 1942 and 1944, and succeeded in publishing a Statement on Religious Co-operation in May 1942. However, attempts at promoting further ecumenical activities highlighted irreconcilable differences between Catholic and non-Catholic participants, hindering further progress and development within the movement. The Sword of the Spirit suffered a further blow when its founder, Cardinal Hinsley, died in March 1943. His successor, Cardinal Griffin, did not share the same vision for the movement as his predecessor, and by 1947 there were proposals to shut it down. In an effort to revitalise it, Cardinal Griffin encouraged the movement to focus on a broader range of activities, including support for the United Nations and representing Pax Christi in Britain. The Sword of the Spirit subsequently became involved with international aid and developing nations.
In 1965, Sword of the Spirit was subsumed into the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR). On 1 January 2006, CIIR changed its name to Progressio and functioned as an international development charity supporting and lobbying on behalf of poor communities world-wide. It closed in 2017.
PROFESSOR A C F BEALES
The majority of the Sword of the Spirit collection comprises the archives of Professor A C F Beales, an educationalist and author based at King's College, London. Parts of the pamphlet collection were contributed by Rev Herbert Keldany.
Professor Arthur Charles Frederick Beales was born in 1905, and was educated at Latymer Upper School before going on to study history at King's College London. It was during his time as a student that Beales acquired the nickname 'Rudolph', by which he remained universally known to his friends, because of a perceived likeness to the silent film screen actor, Rudolph Valentino.
Awarded a BA in 1925 and an MA in 1927, Beales went on to become a school teacher and spent a year teaching at University College Swansea before returning to London where he became in turn Lecturer, Reader and finally - from 1964-1972 - Professor at King's College London.
Beales was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1935, and remained keenly interested in the education of English Catholics, writing many books and articles on the subject. He was also involved in the work of teacher training at Strawberry Hill.
In 1940, he became the Joint Secretary of the Sword of the Spirit, and his wife Freda would later become its administrative secretary. In this capacity, Beales organized the Sword's most famous and successful meetings, which were held at the Stoll Theatre in 1941. Much of the day-to-day running of the Sword was done by Beales and his wife, and many of the documents (in particular his personal correspondence) give a key insight into the thoughts and ideas of the most forward-thinking Catholic intellectuals and public figures of the time, including Cardinal Hinsley, Christopher Dawson, Letitia Fairfield, Barbara Ward and Douglas Woodruff, amongst many others.
He edited the British Journal of Educational Studies from 1952 when it was co-founded by Professor Val Judges. Judges was the first person to be appointed Professor of the History of Education in the UK and in 1965 Beales succeeded him in the post as Chair of the History of Education at King's College London.
Beales died on 16th August 1974. There is a memorial tribute to him in Volume 23 of the British Journal of Educational Studies, Issue 1 1975. It is believed that his widow, Freda, bequeathed the archives to Westminster Diocesan Archives.
The organisation of the archive follows Beales' original file arrangement and file titles.
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