In the end the pressure became intolerable. On November 12th the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigned over his response to a child-abuse scandal. Archbishop Welby had previously insisted he would not go, despite criticism of the Church of England and of him personally in a report published in October by Keith Makin, a former director of social services. It concluded that safeguarding failures meant that “arguably the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England” (CofE) was never brought to justice.