THE LIBRARY
OF
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OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
Bi. c. . :ETREa.
i 'H HILL,
HIGHGAl
^bc (Breat
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Series
EDITED BY
VERNON STALEY
LIFE OF
WILLIAM LAUD
"Great CliiircliiDeii Series"
Life of Richard Hooker
[Ready.
Life of William Laud
[Ready.
Life of Lancelot Andrewes
[In preparation.
Life of John Cosin
[In preparation.
Archiushop Lauo.
After I 'aiidykc.
{Frontispiece.
Life of -^ ^
William Laud
BV
The Rev. W. L. MACKINTOSH, M.A.,
PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD, SOMETIME CANON-RESIDENTIARY OF
ST. ANDREW'S CATHEDRAL, INVERNESS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON: MASTERS & CO., LTD.
78, NEW BOND STREET, W.
1907
PREFACE
The following biography of Archbishop Laud
has been written for The Great Churchmen
Series by request of the General Editor.
Of the difficulties of writing a biography of
one, who like William Laud, was the leader
of a great religious movement, I am well
aware ; and I am equally conscious of the
imperfections of my work. There is however
one qualification for writing a life of Laud
that I lay claim to possess — though curiously,
nowadays, this qualification is sometimes
denied, — and this is the devotion that I have
ever had towards the subject of this biography.
On my first visit to my Alma Mater, now
many years ago, I well recollect walking
straight from the railway-station to St. John's
College, to behold before all else in Oxford,
the spot most intimately connected with his
illustrious name. After seeing the Chapel,
the Hall, and other features of the College,
I remember being especially pleased with my
64S93'?
vi PREFACE
cicerone, the college Porter, who on my
asking whether the name of Laud .was still
remembered, answered, " Why, Sir, we swear
by him ! "
That a life of Laud is not only difficult to
write, but necessarily involves the treatment
of matters highly controversial, no one will
deny. I wi'ite frankly from the standpoint
of an Anglo-Catholic : at the same time, how-
ever, I trust I have not been unfair to those
who hold opposite opinions. All must admit
that the political Puritan was one man and
the religious-minded Puritan was another.
To a passage of singular beauty in JNIr.
Hutton's History of the English Church from
the Accession of Charles I. to the Death of
Anne, in which he shows that between the
devout Anglo-Catholic and the devout Puritan
there was much in common,^ I subscribe with
all my heart. It is also my opinion that
Abbot, the great Puritan Archbishop, who
looms so large in the early part of Laud's
life, has scarcely received justice at the hands
of Church historians.
Owing to the exigencies of space, I ha\'e
been obliged in a great measure to pass over
the political aspect of Laud's life, i. e. his
attitude to the State. The same may also
1 I have quoted part of tlie passage on p. 1 60.
PREFACE vii
be said of the refining influence and the
culture of the Laudian movement, which the
AngHcan Church has never lost. As to this
aspect of the movement, I cannot help quoting
here from the late JNlr. Shorthouse's intro-
ductory essay to George Herbert's Poems
[^The Temple^ Lond. 1883] which is, in its
way, quite a literary gem. Speaking of that
" exquisite refinement which is the peculiar
gift and office of the Church," he continues :
George Herbert himself is a type of this note of the
Church : the ascetic priest who was also a fine gentle-
man, with his fine cloth, his cambric fall, and his
delicate hands. Just as George Herbert, when on his
way to the music meeting in the close of Sarujn,
hesitated not to soil his hands and clothes, " usually
so neat and clean," in helping the man with the cart
which had broken down, so this exquisite Church
delicate with the scent of violet and Lent-lily, and
with the country places which God made and not man
. . . still holds forth in town precincts, and back
alleys and courts, this gospel of refinement and sacred
culture, apparently so alien to the people among whom
its lot is cast.
I have divided the life of Laud into salient
features, instead of treating it chronologically.
This is doubtless a gain in the interests of
clearness, but it has perhaps the disadvantage
of causing some repetition, and it sometimes
makes the chapters unequal in length. Living,
viii PREFACE
as I do, in the "Far North," I regret that
I have not had access to the great piibhc
hbraries. In conclusion, I have to thank
my friend JNIr. Staley, Provost of Inverness
Cathedral, for much trouble that he has taken
in helping me to look over the proofs.
W. L. Mackintosh.
Inverness,
Eastertide 1907.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
The English Reformation ..... 1
Laud's Life and Work connected with the Refomia-
ation — The English Reformation — Revokition
versus Reformation — Return to old paths under
Hooker — Laud can-ies on this work.
CHAPTER n
Laud at Oxford ....... 25
Laud's Birth and Parentage — Elizabethan Oxford
— Laud at St. John's — The False Step — Laud as
Parish Priest — Laud at Gloucester.
CHAPTER HI
Laud as Bishop ....... 46
Laud, Bishop of St. David's — Abbot and Williams
— Visit of Prince Charles to Spain — Accession of
Charles L — Coronation of Charles L — Laud, Bishop
of London — The Lecturers — Restoration and Con-
secration of Churches.
ix
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
PAOK
Laud as Primate ....... 74-
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbuiy — Moral Refonxi —
Sunday Obsei-v'ance — Metropohtical Visitation —
Foreign Protestants in England — Ecclesiastical
Refoi-m — The Star Chamber — The Court of High
Commission.
CHAPTER V
Laud as Reformer . . . . . .101
Laud's Reformation, a reaction against that of
Cranmer — Laud's opposition to Calvinism — Episco-
pacy, de jure divino — Assertion of Sacramental
Doctrine — Reaction towards Catholic Belief and
Practice — Ceremonial Refomiation — Limitations
in Laud's Reformation.
CHAPTER VI
Laud : Private and Devotional Life . . .129
Portraits of Laud — "Always ailing, never failing"
— Simplicity of his Home-Life — Kindness to
Dependents — Attitude towards Recreations — Pro-
motes Spirituality amongst the Clergy — Laud and
FeiTar the Younger.
CHAPTER VII
Laud and Christian Reunion . . . .142^
Laud's attitude towards Reunion — The Cardinal's
Hat — Missions of Leandcr and Panzani — Negoti-
ations with Windebank — Sanct;i Clara on the
Articles — Failure of the Reunion-Project.
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
Laud and Learning . . . . . .162
Popular Misrepresentations of Laud — His Intellect
and Tolerance — Mr. Gladstone's Vindication of
Laud — Chancellor of Oxford — Incidents in Uni-
versity Reform — Laud entertains Charles I. at
Oxford — Laud's Munificence to Oxford.
CHAPTER IX
Laud and the Scottish Church . . . .178
Fall of the Ancient Scottish Church — Laud accom-
panies King James to Scotland — King Charles
visits Scotland — The Scottish Prayer Book.
CHAPTER X
Laud and the Irish Church . . . . .192
Ireland in the Sixteenth Century — Laud and
Strafford — The Irish Articles and Canons.
CHAPTER XI
Laud : His Troubles 204
Gathering of the Storm — Animosity against Laud
— Convocation and the Canons of l6iO — Laud
accused of High Treason — The Trial — The Im-
prisonment — Piynne — Bill of Attainder — Laud
sentenced to Death.
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XII
PAGE
Laud : His Martyrdom ...... 234
Laud's Execution — His Speech and Prayers — The
End — Laud's Will — Persecution, and Desecration
of Churches — Reaction — The Prayer Book of 1 66 1
— "Laud saved the English Church."
Index 251
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I. William Laud, from a picture by Vandyke Frontispiece
II. St. John the Baptist's College^ Oxford, from an
early French print .... To face p. 33
III. Interior of the Palace Cliapel of Lambeth Palace,
showing Screen and Stalls. The painted vaulting,
executed in lath and plaster, is modern ; previously
there was a flat panelled ceiling. Archbishop Laud,
during his primacy, refitted and adorned the chapel,
and put up the elaborate screen which divides the
building into chapel and ante-chapel ; the stalls also
are attributed to him. The primate's stall is on the
right hand of the entrance at the door of the screen
To face p. 81
IV. Laud blessing StrafFoi'd on his way to execution, from
a picture by Paul de la Roche . . To face p. 193
V. Laud's Trial in the House of Lords, engraved by
Hollar, reproduced from Frontispiece to ' Hidden
Works of Darkness,' by William Prynne, 1645
To face p. 209
xiu
LIFE OF
WILLIAM LAUD
CHAPTER I
THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
laud's life and work connected with the
reformation the english reformation
revolution vevsus reformation re-
turn to old paths under hooker laud
carries on this work
In order to estimate rightly the work and in-
fluence of any leader of men, it is well to sur-
vey the age in which he lived, and to consider
the society, secular and religious, in which he
moved ; and, moreover, it is useful, if not
necessary, to trace the course of events that
immediately led up to the state of affairs that
prevailed when he came upon the scene, in
which he was to become a prominent actor.
This is so in a very marked degree in the case
2 LIFE OF WILLIAjNI LAUD
of William Laud. We must not merely view
his surroundings, but we must hark back to
the stirring events that preceded his times : in
short, we must turn our attention to that great
movement which has been somewhat vaguely
styled the Reformation.
The life and work of Laud were closely con-
nected Avith the English Reformation. Laud
has been described as a counter-reformer, a
reformer of the Reformation, and even as a
conservative reformer ; but still he is closely
connected with the Reformation. It will
therefore be necessary to begin by briefly con-
sidering what the English Reformation really
was.
In the first place, all reasonable men, from
the Papalist to the Puritan, must admit that
at the end of the fifteenth century, or the be-
ginning of the sixteenth, some kind of reform-
ation was absolutely necessary ; some of the
walls of the Church in the Realm of England
needed building up, and there were additions
to the edifice — later additions out of harmony
with the original building — which required to
be removed. Dr. I>iddon, in a remarkable
sermon preached l)efore the University of
Oxford on " the Influences of the Holy Spirit,"
in speaking of the Reformation uses the terse
expression — "a nmch-nccdcd reformation of
THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 3
the Church." ^ Certainly, a reformation of the
Church in England in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries was " much needed." Impor-
tant matters both of doctrine and practice
needed reform. The Church in the Provinces
of Canterbury and York, it is true, held the
Catholic Faith, that sacred deposit of doctrine
handed down to her by her Divine Founder,
and enshrined in the creeds — but she had
overlaid this faith with certain developments,
developments not by way of definition, like
the definitions of the great Councils, but
developments of doctrine some of them out of
harmony with " the faith once delivered to the
saints." There were also developments of
practice unknown in the early ages of Chris-
tianity, which called for reformation. At the
present day, when people complacently ac-
quiesce in the divisions of Christendom, they
do not sufficiently realize the disastrous nature
of the great schism of the eleventh cen-
tury, when East and AVest were separated.
Outward unity being thus marred, it was but
natural that the whole Church should suffer,
and that errors both of doctrine and of practice
should follow. There was, first of all, the
position of the Roman See with regard to the
Church in England that required re-adjustment.
1 Liddou, University Sermons, 2nd series, 1880, p. 89.
4 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
The moderate Primacy of early days had by
degrees developed into a Supremacy, temporal
as well as spiritual. From the Pope being
regarded as the Primate of Christendom, he
eventually claimed to exercise jurisdiction over
the Church in all nations. It was urged that
jurisdiction proceeded from him alone, and this
he was held to confer on JNIetropolitan Bishops,
by the gift of the pallium. His patronage in
England was immense. He appointed his
favourites to some of the wealthiest benefices.^
Amongst other taxes, annates or the first
fruits of bishoprics had to be paid to him.
Even as far back as the reign of Henry III.
it was computed that these Papal nominees in
one year drew from the Church more than
80,000 marks, a larger sum than the revenue
of the Crown.
In the matters of doctrine and practice re-
form was urgently needed, since between the
popular teaching of the later middle ages, and
the authorized teaching of tlie Church of that
period, to say nothing of that of earlier ages,
there was wide divergence. The Church, for
instance, had always taught that Christ gave
her the power to forgive in His name the sins
of the penitent ; and upon tliis belief, and
upon the belief that the Church has authority
' Stubbs, Constitutional Hint. , ii. Hn.
THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 5
to impose penitential discipline, there was
built up in the middle ages a system of In-
dulgences, which in practice often meant
" licenses," obtained at a price, to commit sin.
Pardoners went up and down the country,
armed with Papal dispensations, who invaded
the domain of the parochial clergy, and hawked
their Indulgences at a fixed tariff. This
glaring evil, perhaps more than anything else,
brought to men's minds the necessity of
reform. In the same way the guarded teach-
ing of the earlier ages as to the state of the
soul after death had been developed, almost
past recognition, into the popular mediaeval
doctrine concerning Purgatory : the cleansing
fire was held to be material, and many other
like details were added. So also the doctrine
of the Communion of Saints,with its resultant
practice of asking the saints for their prayers,
which can claim the authority of St. Ambrose
and St. Gregory Nyssen, had, in many cases,
degenerated into a cultus which was undis-
tinguishable from that given to Almighty God ;
justifying the derisive language of Erasmus ^
on the subject. So also a wise use of images
and pictures, sanctioned by the Church as aids
to devotion, had been corrupted in the later
^ Erasmus, Encomium Morice, qu. Perry, The Student's English
Church Bistori/, Loud. 1878, p. 5.
6 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
middle ages into a worship hardly different
from Pagan idolatry. Amongst many church-
people in mediaeval times, a crude and mater-
ialistic conception of the presence of Christ in
the Eucharist prevailed, very different from
the teaching of St. Thomas and other great
schoolmen. The same may be said with
regard to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which had
come to be regarded in the same materialistic
way, its dependence upon, and its identity with,
the Sacrifice of the Cross being ignored. The
aspect of the Eucharist as a feast was largely
overlooked; for most people, yearly com-
munion was deemed sufficient, although recent
researches have shown that in parishes the
proportion of communicants was higher than
it is nowadays. The laity never received the
Chahce, a deprivation unknown in the earlier
ages of the Church, except possibly in cases
where the Sacrament was reserved for the
sick and others. Another matter needinsf
reform was the existing discipline of the
Western Churclies regarding the celibacy of
the clergy. From the earliest times the
Church, relying upon the words of our Lord
and of St. l*aul, held the unmarried state to be
the more excellent way, especially for God's
ministers ; but tliis was a very different matter
from imposing a rigid rule of celibacy upon all
THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 7
the clergy, and forbidding not only marriage
after ordination, but also reftising to ordain
married men unless they consented to live
apart from their wives. The history of the
medijEval Church, witli the moral scandals
attendant upon the enforced celibacy of the
clergy, justified the change eventually made by
the Church of England, which was probably
the best disciplinary reform carried out.
Never perhaps has the public worship of God
been rendered with more outward solemnity
and beauty than was the case in the later
medieval times : the words of the service
enshrined in the liturgical books, the music,
the ceremonial, the instrumenta of worship, the
glorious buildings themselves, everything in
short that devotion and art could desire, was
freely lavished upon the service of the
Almighty. Yet, on the other hand, the ser-
vices were unintelligible to most of the people,
for they were rendered in Latin, a tongue
'* not understanded " by them, and the over-
elaboration of ceremonial needed simplification.
Added to these abuses in doctrine and prac-
tice, there is no doubt that by the fifteenth
century a general lowering of spirituality had
taken place. The Church had become wealthy
and powerful, and the result was spiritual
deterioration. The remarkable evangelical
8 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
movement of St. Francis of Assisi, in the
thirteenth century, had to a great extent spent
itself; so much so, that the Franciscan order
itself had become Avealthy, and the Friars were
more worldly than the INIonks, and less esteemed
in popular opinion. The fine gold had indeed
become dim.
There was of course a bright side to the
later mediseval Church ; there were good and
devoted men both amongst clergy and laity.
In those days the Church was far more the
Church of the people than she is to-day ; for
she embraced the whole English nation, and
not a little more than half. Belief in the super-
natural, and especially in the sacramental sys-
tem, was far more widespread than in the times
that followed. The wife of JNIartin Luther
doubtless stated the truth, when she said that
somehow people prayed better before the
Reformation than they did in her day. Still in
spite of all this, that reformation was required
no fair-minded man can deny. Even those
Churches which remained in commimion with
Rome have admitted this ; for the Council of
Trent, although it stereotyped and strengthened
the claims of the Papacy, yet assuredly re-
formed many of tlie worst errors and abuses of
the mediaeval period witli no light hand ; but
the Council came too late.
REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 9
Having thus shown the need of reform, let
us now proceed to inquire how in England
this reformation was carried out. In all great
movements, the evil and the good are more
or less mingled together, and to this rule the
English Reformation was no exception. In
some movements the evil for a time gets the
mastery of the good, and this was the case in
England. To an impartial mind the result of
the Reformation viewed, say, in the middle of
Elizabeth's reign is, to say the least, disappoint-
ing. Revolution against the ancient system
had to a great extent taken the place of
reformation, and the Church was fast tending
to Calvinism. Happily this course was checked
by a counter-movement, and this movement
was eventually marshalled and led by William
Laud. If the Reformation was completed by
the Elizabethan settlement — as is often held —
it must be pronounced to have been to a great
extent a failure : if it was continued, as we
hold it was, until the Caroline settlement in
1662, when the fruits of Laud's life work and
death were visible, then it was not a failure,
but a success ; though, like all human move-
ments, it had its obvious limitations and
shortcomings.
The best and most impartial historians
have shown how, at the beginning of the
10 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Reformation in England, there were two forces
at work, the one conservative and constructive,
the other revohitionary and even destructive.
Wolsey, Colet, and Gardiner have more right
to be designated reformers, in the true sense
of the word, than Cranmer, Ridley, and
Latimer. Had the Reformation, for instance,
been developed on the lines of AVolsey, Colet,
and Gardiner, had the reforms been more or less
on the basis of A necessary Erudition for any
Christian man, commonly called IVie King's
Book of 1543, a book formally sanctioned by
Convocation, the result would have been very
different from what it was. It is not difficult
for us to picture to ourseh'es a conservative
reformation — a reformation in the true sense of
the term. The monasteries would have been
reformed, some of them might have been equit-
ably suppressed (as had been already done in
the middle ages), and their revenues diverted
into other religious channels, such as the en-
dowment of new bishoprics or of colleges ; tlie
old services might have been translated, and
better adapted to the needs of tlie day ; errors
in doctrine and abuses in discipline miglit have
been taken away ; the attitude of tlic Enghsli
Church to tlie Roman See might liave been
readjusted — a difficult, tliougli pcrliaps not an
impossible matter. A conservative reform-
REVOLUTION FERSUS REFORMATION 11
atioii of tliis kind might have taken phice ; but
we know full well that it did not. The party
that eventually got the upper hand in Edward's
reign was destructive rather than constructive ;
it advocated revolution rather than reform-
ation. This party was moved by two sections ;
or rather, we should say, two forces drove it
forward. The one force was the influence of
a corrupt court and its parasites — creatures of
Henry VIII., many of whom had sprung from
the lowest of the people — upstarts like Crom-
well and others, who, when the monasteries were
dissolved, like vultures battened on the spoil.
The other force was religious, deriidng its
inspiration from abroad, from Wittenburg,
Geneva, or Zurich. Nothing would satisfy
its agents but a root and branch revolution.
They pursued a clear and definite end, — the
substitution of a new religious system for the
old Catholic system. At first this party was
Lutheran, then it became definitely Calvinistic
and Zwinglian. With consummate ability it
carried forward its plans, secretly but surely,
aided, as it was, by the march of political
events and assisted by its allies, the Court-
party. Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer and others
came under the spell of this foreign influence ;
they looked with servile admiration upon con-
tinental Protestantism. They brought over
12 LIFE OF WILIJAINI LAUD
foreigners, such as Biicer, Peter INIartyr, and
John Laski, who were placed in positions of
trust and importance in the Universities and
elsewhere. In this way Lutheran and Calvinist
heresies gradually influenced the nation. The
adherents of this party may be said to have
been anti-national in religion, and anti-demo-
cratic in politics. They imported into England
a religion " made in Germany," or " made in
Switzerland." English Christianity, as it then
existed, was in their eyes a religion beyond
reformation. By the destruction of the mon-
asteries vast numbers of the peasantry passed
from under the sway of the religious houses to
that of the "new men," who crushed them
under foot. INIuch of the common-land was
enclosed, and the kindly, though perhaps in-
discriminate charity of the monks and friars
was replaced by the revolting barbarities of
the Poor Laws of Henry and Edward. I'he
Reformation under tliese kings has been aptly
described as a revolution of the rich against
the poor.^
As to the religious force in the movement,
some writers have held that Cranmer and his
English colleagues were genuine reformers,
whose tlicological standpoint was mucli the
same as that of the " moderate higli-church-
' Dixon, History of the Church of Enylund, Loud. 1886, iii. 250.
REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 13
man" of to-day. It has also been definitely
asserted, that their aim was the adoption of
the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 ; but
that such a settlement was overthrown by the
foreign reformers, and that the result was the
very different book of 1552. Such a theory
is plausible, but it does not represent the facts.
INIost of the Edwardian reformers would, in
these days, be best represented by the Pro-
testant agitators of the baser sort, and it is
open to doubt whether even the comprehen-
siveness of the Anglican Communion would
have been wide enough to include them !
By the time that Edward had ascended the
throne, Cranmer seems to have broken with
the more moderate teaching of Luther, and
to have accepted the doctrines of Calvin.
INlany of his followers went further, and were
avowed Zwinglians. With the Cranmerian
party in the reign of Edward VI. it was not
so much a question of reforming the old Missal
and Breviary ^ — they were in their eyes beyond
any possibility of reformation — as of supplanting
them by another system altogether. This of
course could not be done at once, but necessi-
tated a stay at a half-way house — and this
^ Extracts from the shocking and irreverent language used by
Cranmer, Latimer, Hooper and others with regard to the
mediaeval Eucharistic Service are given in Blunt, Reformation
of the Church of England, Lond. 1882, ii. 399-402.
14 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
htalf-way house was the Prayer Book of 1549.^
This Book is now valued in the Anghcan
Communion, being by some esteemed as an
ideal service-book. Even grantmg all this, it is
impossible to deny the sad circumstances of
its birth. Nay, even the ultra-Protestant Book
of 1552 was not the ultimate goal of Cramner
and his party ; since there is good reason to
believe that a third and more anti-Catholic
book was drawn up by Cranmer himself, the
issue of which was only happily averted by
the timely death of Edward VI. ^ What can
be thought of a Primate of all England who,
under pretext of reforming the Church, did
his best to overthrow it ? Putting aside his
miserable subservience to the will of a tyrant
like Henry VIII., his shameless pandering to
the King's vices, what can be thought of
Thomas Cranmer, who allowed himself to
become the mere tool of those astute wire-
pullers, the foreign divines and tlie self-seeking
Court-party then in power, whose object was
the complete overthrow of the ancient system ?
As a modern writer has obser^'ed, " The only
^ C'raiimer's spoocli to tlie Devonshire rebels, viiidiratiiie: tlic
Prayer liook of 1549, is ol»\ioiisly a liit of jxiliey, and can liardly
l)c tiken as liis sincere o]»inion. See I'rrjxinitioiis for flu- nccond
I'rttijrr liouk uf Jul ward VI., in Ch. IJuar. JU'i'., No. 7'>, 1UU.'3.
'^ Atcliley, Sowe remarks on thr Ediriirdhm I'rai/cr liook in
EnnitjiN on Ci'rrnionutl, Dt'laniore I'l'css, Ijond. 1!>04, p. 27'.). See
also Hint, of the '/'rouhkti iit Fninkjurl, liond. l8lLi.
REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 15
deed for which we feel that we owe any
gratitude to Cranmer is for his unrivalled
liturgical translations, and it may be that this
feeling has in some degree served to obscure
his real character." ^ It must also in fairness
be admitted that his end was not unworthy
of a brave man, for he died for his convictions.
But had the regime of Edward continued, there
is little doubt, humanly speaking, that the
Reformation in England would have been like
that on the continent ; historical Christianity
would have ceased to exist, and the Ecclesia
AngUcana would have been no more.
Never did both Church and State sink so
low as in the gloomy years of Edward's
reign. The nominal ruler of England was but
a sickly boy, a mere puppet in the hands of a
gang of unprincipled self-seekers ; and had he
grown up with ultra-Protestanism on one side,
and Tudor traditions on the other, he mio'lit
have been the author of untold harm. The
discipline of the ancient Church being sus-
pended, a period of general demoralization
set in. It affected all classes, especially those
in the towns.
The sermons preached by honest Hugh
Latimer before the Court are a terrible
indictment on the practical results of the
1 Ch. quart. Rev., No. 62, 1891, p. 457.
16 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Reformation. The picture he draws of the
corruption of morals is truly fearful. It
looked as if the Ten Commandments would
soon share the fate of the medieeval system ;
so much were they set at nought. Traheron
naively wTites to Bullinger, — " Religion is
indeed prospering, but the wickedness of those
who profess the Gospel is wonderfully on the
increase." ^ There were good and upright men
like Latimer, Ridley, and Hooper, who would
have been ornaments to any cause or period ;
but on the other hand there were ecclesiastics
in the very highest positions who were an open
scandal to their profession — men like Holgate,
Archbishop of York, who was forbidden to
come to Parliament until an investigation was
made into his conduct in regard to another
man's wife ; ^ and who, being found guilty, was
sent to the Tower.^ Or Poynet, Bishop of Win-
chester, who lived in open sin with a married
woman, and later had to compound with her
husband, a butcher, by paying a fine."* Or
Voysey and Kitchin, Bishops of Exeter and
Landaff, respectively, who found their sees
amongst the richest in England, and left them
^ Orvfinul Lettcr.% Parker Soc, p. 324.
'^ Dixon, iii. 471 note.
3 Blunt, The Reformation of the Church of England, Load. 1882,
ii. 151 note.
< Grey Friars Chronicle, p. 70. Machyiis Diary, p. 8.
REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 17
the poorest.^ As to the foreign divines, they
seem to have been no better ; the first wives
of JMartin Bucer and Peter JNIartyr were nuns,^
and both men held very loose views about
divorce.^ Ochino, who was made prebendary
of Canterbury, advocated polygamy ; ^ and
Florio, an Italian preacher of some note, was
threatened with banishment for a moral offence,
" which it is difficult to name in plain Eng-
lish."-^
Church-desecration went on apace at this
time. The cathedrals and the churches of
the land were outrageously profaned and
plundered. Reformers, professional and ama-
teur, threw down altars, defaced carvings, and
broke painted windows ; and, acting in con-
junction with the Royal Commissioners, carted
off valuable loot in the shape of gold and
silver chalices and gorgeous vestments, con-
veniently labelled " superstitious," but which
were appropriated by the Royal Treasury.^
Even the coin in the poor-boxes was taken,
nothing in many cases being left ! Never
were the Universities at a lower ebb : the
prevailing w^ork of destruction extended to
1 Dixon, iii. 275.
2 Ibid. ii. 521. Blunt, ii. 166.
'' Luckoek, Hint, of Marriage^ Lond, 1894, p. 176 note.
* Blunt, ii. 163.
' Dixon, iii. 426. ^ jn^^ 449-455.
2
18 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD
the priceless contents of the Hbraries ; not only-
missals and breviaries, but other books were
torn up and committed to the flames.^ In-
capable foreigners, who could not speak a word
of English, were appointed to professorships ;
whilst the number of students steadily
diminished.
It is sometimes imagined that Edward VI.
was a munificent patron of learning ; but this
was not the case. So moderate a writer as
Professor Gairdner has ably exposed the
fallacy of Edward's supposed munificence in
the cause of learning. ^ It is true that he
founded Christ's Hospital and St. Thomas'
Hospital ; but, on the other hand, more than
two hundred grammar-schools were successfully
plundered by Somerset and others.^ Those
schools to which Edward gave his name were
each one of them ancient foimdations. In all
directions — in East Anglia, in the INIidlands, in
the North, in the West country — there were
popular risings, partly in defence of the old
religion, and partly because of the oppression
at the hands of the "new men." These out-
bursts were ruthlessly crushed by the party
* Dixon, iii. 109. G.iirdiicr, The Englhh Church in the Six-
teenth Crntiin/, Loud. r.)0;5, pp. 290, 291.
^ (iainliicr, p. 'U-l.
3 I^cacli, KiKjUxli Sffioo/x lit the RvforDiiitinn, IjOikI. 1890 ; qu.
Wakeniaii and I'ullan, The Jicjbniiution in (Jreut JJrituin, Lond.
1900, p. 30.
REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 19
in power, who imported from the continent
bands of mercenaries, both Protestant and
Popish, and thousands of half-armed EngHsh
peasants were butchered hke sheep. As
Dixon has well observed, — " It is a thing to
be held in eternal memory that the English
Reformation at this great crisis was carried
on by tlie aid of foreign cut-throats, who on
their return to their own countries sought
absolution for the sin of fighting for Heresy." ^
Seldom has the foreign policy of England
been more disastrous, — an ignominious peace
with France and Scotland, the surrender of
Boulogne, and the relinquishment of all rights
and claims in either kingdom.
At home the State had to resort to the dire
expedient of no less than three times debasing
the coinage, and inflicting on the poor misery
past description.^ Is it wonderful, then, that
a change of government was welcomed on the
accession of Queen JNIary ? The " moderate
men " of the day, as well as the thorough-
going mediaevalists, welcomed the new 7'egime
with joy.
To Queen Mary's reign we can only briefly
refer. It began well. To a devout Anglican
Catholic it is pleasant to read of the building
1 Dixon, iii. 49.
2 Gairdiier, p. 294.
20 LIFE OF WILLIA:\I LAUD
up of broken altars, the restoration of the
Eucharist to its true dignity with vestments,
hghts, and incense. The strains of the organ
were heard once more ; for organs were as
much dishked as thuribles by the Edwardian
reformers.^
The restoration of the Papal Supremacy in
the English Church, which took place in 1554,
was however a retrograde step. For this the
Edwardian rule may indirectly be blamed.
INIen of the old learnino^ who desired genuine
reform, like Gardiner and others, had been
so shocked by the iniquities of the reign
of Edward, that they were driven to believe
that Catholicism covdd not be detached from
Papalism ; and the residt was, so to speak,
a triumph of Ultramontanism. The extreme
Romanensian party triumphed in the Church
of England in the reign of JNlary. In 1555,
the persecution of the Protestants began ; a
measure which no one in these days can defend.
It was both brutal and detestable, and it was
besides a huge political and ecclesiastical mis-
take ; for it converted half the nation to
Protestantism, a thing wliich the Cranmcrian
movement had egregiously failed to do.
On the deatli of INIary, Ehzabetli succeeded
to the throne. If slic was a great states-
' Atcliley, The Edwardian P. Bk., p. 273.
REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 21
woman, she was a sovereign singularly lacking
in the virtues of her sex. She was cruel,
unforgi\'ing, imperious, untruthful, with little
personal religion ; and, if* some contempo-
rary reports may be believed, strangely lacking
in feminine morality. In her reign, the Papal
Supremacy was at once abjured, and a return
was made to the Book of Common Prayer of
15.52, but Avith certain alterations in the direction
of the Book of 1549. In 1571, the XXXIX.
Articles were adopted, a reA^ision, m a Catholic
direction, of the XLII. Articles of 1553.
They were not Articles of " Faith " but of
" Religion," — articles to reconcile the more
moderate ^larian clergy, as well as those of
the " new learning," to the existing state of
affairs.
0\Wng to a strange mortality amongst the
Marian bishops, and the Romanensian attitude
of the survivors, added to political reasons, the
Elizabethan episcopate was chosen, with the
exception of Parker and Chepiey, almost ex-
clusively fi'om the extreme Protestant clergy.
Protestantism, thanks to the ]Marian persecu-
tion, had now been acclimatized in England,
and its cause was also furthered bv the return
of the refugees who were ultra-protestants of
the Genevan and Zwinglian ty^e. Of the
Marian clergy, all, with the exception of about
22 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
three hundred, conformed. The old usages
continued in some parts of the country, but
the bishops did their best to suppress them.
The result of a Protestant episcopate and the
return of the refugees, to say nothing of the
Romanist conspiracies against the Queen, and
the enmity of the Papal powers of Europe to
England, tended to make the Church more or
less anti-Catholic during the earlier half of
Elizabeth's reign.
A moderating influence, however, was that
of the Queen, whose religion, as far as it went,
was of a more conservative type than that of
many of her subjects. In her sister's reign it
needed not a great effort on her part to con-
form, and in the Chapels Royal a certain
amount of ceremonial seems to have been in
use. She also directed and supported the
beneficial efforts of Archbishops Parker and
Whitgift in suppressing ultra-protestant, or
as it came to be called Puritan lawlessness,
and in this way tlie good that she wrought
cannot with justice be overlooked. Never-
theless, she can hardly be regarded as a
"good Church-woman," when we remember
her scandalous; rapacity in seizing upon the
patrimony of the Clunx'h, to say nothing of what
we know of her personal character. Her zeal
against Calvinistic Puritanism was evoked by its
RETURN TO OLD PATHS 23
decidedly anti-monarchical character. Toward
the end of her reign, however, a definite reaction
against Calvinism set in, a return to the old
paths, a veering round to the principles of a
constructive Reformation. This return seems
to have been gradual and partial, but the trend
of affairs is shown by the Canons of 1571.
They enjoined the clergy, never to preach
anything to be religiously held and believed
by the people, but what is agreeable to the
doctrine of the Old and New Testaments,
and which the Catholic Fathers and ancient
Bishops have collected out of that doctrine.
In theory, the Edwardian Reformers ap-
pealed to the Primitive Church ; but it was
only so far as its decisions happened to coin-
cide with the opinions of the foreign divines,
— not a frequent occurrence. In 1589, Ban-
croft is found preaching that the Episcopate
is of divine origin.^ In 1594, the first four
books of Hooker's immortal work. The Laws
of Ecclesiastical Polity, make their appearance.
In the following reign we meet with such
Catholic-minded divines as Andrewes and
Overall. James I. had enough of Presby-
terianism in Scotland, and found out that it
was unpleasantly republican ; so his influence
was exerted on the other side. The Hampton
1 Perry, Student's C'h. Hist., Loud. 1878, p. 343.
24 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Court Conference also favoured the new move-
ment ; but it needed some strong man, some
leader, some man of action, to organize the
attack against the forces of ultra-Protestantism,
and to fight a series of engagements which
should culminate in victory.
The man who was raised up for this work
was William Laud. It is true that, like many-
other great leaders, he fell on the field of battle ;
but the victory was won. True Reformation-
principles took the place of false. Humanly
speaking, we can say that if Laud had not
lived, the Ecclesia AngUcana would have
degenerated into a Protestant sect, and Eng-
land would now be like Germany, Holland, or
Switzerland, — Lutheran, Calvinistic, or Zwin-
glian ; and, moreover, beyond a doubt, a flour-
ishing and increasing branch of the Roman
Church would be in our midst, as is the case
to-day in Protestant countries abroad.
We have dwelt long upon the early history
of the English Reformation, for we are con-
vinced that it is not possible to estimate rightly
the work and influence of AVilliam Laud, Avith-
out considering carefully the religious move-
ments which had taken place when he came
into power.
CHAPTER II
LAUD AT OXFORD
laud's birth and parentage ELIZA-
BETHAN OXFORD LAUD AT ST. JOHN's
THE FALSE STEP LAUD AS PARISH PRIEST
LAUD AT GLOUCESTER
Of the early years of William Laud but little
is known ; even Peter Heylin his intimate
friend and chaplain, to whom we are indebted
for many important details of Laud's career
recorded in his Cijprianus AngUcus (as he
styles his Life of Laud), tells us next to nothing
of his boyhood. Laud was born October 7,
1573, in the town of Heading, then as now,
the principal town in the county of Berks.
His ffither, William Laud, was a clothier in
a considerable way of business. His mother's
maiden name was Lucy Webb, a sister of Sir
W. Webb who was Lord INIayor of London
in the year 1591. Her first husband was John
llobinson, a clothier of some standing in Read-
ing. After his death, she married William
o
25
26 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
Laud ; and the only offspring of this marriage
was the future archbishop.
HeyHn narrates how he one day found Laud
walking in the garden at Lambeth, agitated
and distressed on reading a foul libel which
made reflections upon his birth. On seeing
Heylin, he turned to him and said, that
" though he had not the good fortune to be
born a gentleman, yet he thanked God that
he had been born of honest parents who lived
in plentiful condition, employed many poor
people m their way, and left a good report
behind them." To which Heylin reminded the
Archbishop, "that Pope Sixtus V., as stout a
pope as ever wore the triple crown, but a poor
man's son, did use familiarly to say, in con-
tempt of such libels as were frequently made
against him, that he was born of an illustrious
house {domo natus illustri)^ because the sun-
beams passing through the broken walls and
ragged roof illustrated e\'ery corner of the
homely cottage in which he was born."^
Laud tluis sprang from a good middle-
class family — a class which in the sixteentli
century, as in the present day, was in many
ways the backbone of the country.
In the time of VN'^illiam Laud the glories of
lleathng had, to a large extent, passed away.
' Heylin, Cypriunus Anylicuft, Loud. 1G71, pp. 43, 44.
LAUD'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 2T
The magnificent abbey, dedicated to St. JNIary
and St. Jolin, had been laid waste and was no
more ; its wealth doubtless being in the hands
of some worthless favourite of Henry VIII. or
his descendant : but there still remained the
beautiful churches of St. Lawrence and St.
Giles. There was also the Grammar-school
founded by Thorne, abbot of St. JNIary's in the
reign of Edward VI. King Henry VII. en-
dowed this school with £lO a year; and in
the reign of Queen Mary, Sir Thomas White
annexed to it two fellowships of St. John's,
Oxford, the college he had lately founded. It
was at Reading grammar-school that Laud
was educated. As a child, Laud was sickly
and constantly ailing, indeed in infancy he was
in serious danger of death. However, as is not
seldom the case, his will and spirit carried him
through all difficulties ; and, as a school-boy,
he astonished his master by his application to
his studies, and his quickness in acquiring
knowledge. In 1 589, he left Reading grammar-
school and began his career at Oxford ; so that
here it may not be inappropriate to pause for a
moment to consider the condition of the
University, towards the close of the sixteenth
century.
The disastrous i^egime under Edward VI.
had been succeeded by more stable times in the
28 LIFE OF WILLIA:M LAUD
reign of JNIaiy, when benefactors came for-
ward and founded colleges and scholarships in
the cause of sound learning, a thing which
they could hardly have been expected to do in
the revolutionary days of the previous reign.
Amongst the number was Sir Thomas White,
who munificently founded the College of St.
John the Baptist, upon the ruins of an old
Bernardine House. It was not till 1567 that
the college was formally incorporated in the
University. Sir Thomas AA^hite, like many
others of the more moderate Romanensian
party, accepted the changes in the reign of
Elizabeth, and settled down as a " good
churchman," as he doubtless would have been
designated to-day. But men of his school
were in a considerable minority, the prevailing
tone of Elizabethan churchmanship, as has
already been observed, being of a foreign rather
than of a native type. The slavish deference
to Geneva and Zurich, which characterized the
leaders of so-called reform in the reign of
Edward VI., was again manifesting itself.
The reaction in favour of the older paths,
wliich was originated by Hooker and others,
had hardly yet made itself felt, whilst
the followers of Grindal, Cox, and Sandys
carried everything before them. Such bishops
made short work of any Catholic tendencies
ELIZABETHAN OXFORD 29
and usages that remained here and there, while
the greatest violations of the order of the Rook
of Common Prayer were winked at, and even
encouraged. In both the city and university
of Oxford this party reigned supreme, aided as
it was by the powerful patronage of the Earl
of Leicester, a worthless profligate and a
favourite of Elizabeth, who supported this
extreme type of Protestantism from political
and selfish motives. Here and there, no doubt,
faithful men were to be found, like Buckeridge,
Laud's tutor, — men who lay low, and hoped
and prayed for better times. But the religious
tone of Oxford was assuredly that of ultra-
Protestantism, or Puritanism^ as it began to be
called.
AVhen the campaign against Puritanism
was over, and the decisive victory won by the
life and death of William Laud, Heylin, his
biographer, looking back at the past in the
comfortable days of Charles II., could write
the following quaint and racy description of
Puritan Oxford, as it existed in Elizabeth's
days.
By the power and practices of these men^ and the
long continuance of the Earl of Leicester in the place
of Chancellor tlie face of that University was so much
altered^ that there was little to be seen in it of the
1 For the origin and explanation of the epithet " Puritan," see
Dr. Paget's Introduction to Hooker, Book V., pp. 10 If.
30 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Church of England according to the Principles and
Positions upon -\vhicli it was first Reformed. All the
Calvinian Rigors in matters of Predestination, and the
Points depending thereupon, received as the Estab-
lished Doctrines of the Church of England; the
necessity of the one Sacrament, the eminent dignity
of the other, and the powerful efficacy of both unto
man's salvation, not only disputed but denied. . . .
Episcopacy mainbiined by halves not as a distinct
Order from that of Presbyters, but only a degree above
them, or perhaps not that, for fear of giving scandal
to the churches of Calvin's Platform ; the church of
Rome inveighed against as the JV/iore of Babylon, or
the Mother of Abominations ; the Pope as publickly
maintamed to be the Antichrist or Man of sin, and that
as positively and magisterially as if it had been one of
thechief Articles of the Christian Faith. . . . Nor was
there any greater care taken for the Forms and Orders
of this Church than there had been for points of
Doctrine. The Surplice so disused in officiating the
Divine Service of the Church, and the Divine Service
of the Church so slubbered over in most of the
Colleges that the Prelates and Clerme assembled in
Convocation anno l603 were necessitiited to frame two
Canons ... to bring them back again to the ancient
practices . . . the Habits of the Priests by which
they were to be distinguished from other men so
much despised and laid aside, that Dr. Reynolds had
the confidence to appear in the conference at Hampton
Court in his Turkey gown, and therefore may be
thought to have worn no other in the University ;
and in a word the books of Gilvin made the rule by
which all men were to square their Writings, his only
word (like the ip.sc dixit of Pythagoras) admitted for
the sole canon to which they were to frame and con-
ELIZABETHAN OXFORD 31
form their Judgments and in comparison of whom
the ancient Fathers of the Church must be held
contemptible. 1
It is interesting for us to try and picture
William I^aud, a lad of barely sixteen,
entering upon this new world, as it was to
him — a world very different from that of
the Oxford of the twentieth century. In some
ways things have improved, and again in
others the laudator temporis acti may be in
the right when he confesses that things were
better in the past. Life in the university
three hundred years ago was, of course, like
the manners and customs of the age, far
rougher than it is to-day.
What, for instance, would the modern
undergraduate think of rising at 5 o'clock in
the morning, going to chapel, perhaps, at
5.30, and then studying till 10, the hour of
dinner ? — for the meal called " breakfast " was
practically unknown till a hundred years later.
After dinner there would follow more study,
with some recreation interspersed, evening
chapel at 4 o'clock, and supper at 5. Two
meals a day was then the custom, for not long
before the days of Laud, had not such a light
of the medical profession as Dr. Andrew
Boorde, physician to Henry VIII., dogmatically
1 Heylin, pp. 47, 48.
32 LIFE OF WILLIA:\1 LAUD
declared that he who partook of more than
two meals a day doth " live a beestly lyfFe " ?
As to the meals themselves, they cannot
have been of a very recherche character ; from
a sermon preached shortly before Sh* Thomas
White founded his college, we learn that the
students were content " with a penny piece of
beef between four, having a pottage made
with the same beef with salt and oatmeal and
nothing else ... a supper not better than
their dinner."^ After supper, followed more
study till 9 or 10 ; and then, before an early
retirement to sleep, it was the custom both at
Oxford and Cambridge for the undergraduates
to trot briskly round " quad," so as to warm
themselves before getting into bed, sin(?e their
rooms had no fires. It seems also to have been
the usual practice for two students to share a
room. This was certainly so in the case of
Laud, for one John Jones was his " chamber
fellow," a man who later turned Romanist, and
attained some celebrity as Dom Leander of
the Benedictine Abbey of San Martino Cam-
postella, in Spain.
In those days the universities -were no doubt
more democratic than they are now, for the
numerous benefactions and scholarships, tied
to the kin of the founders or to the natiA es of
' Iluttou, «. John Bnptkt College, Lond. 1898, p. 35.
ELIZABETHAN OXFORD 33
their counties and cities, enabled many poor
and deserving men to go to the University.
By a strange irony of fate, both at Oxford and
Cambridge, nineteenth-century hberaUsm has,
on the plea of throwing open these benefac-
tions to all, favoured the rich man's son, who
is able to pay expensive tutors ; whilst the poor
student from Exeter or Yorkshire, for whose
benefit the benefactions were originally in-
tended, is now often excluded. In Laud's
time, the age of the students was consider-
ably lower than it is at present. In his day,
inidergraduates at the universities were treated
more as the fourth-form boys at a public
school, than as men. Again, the intercourse
between undergraduates and tutors was then
much closer than it is now. The fellows and
tutors of a college did not live with their
families in villas a mile away, but were un-
married and lived in college. If a tutor was
unworthy, his example would doubtless have
been very injurious amongst the students with
whom he lived ; whilst the influence of a faith-
ful and devout tutor, who gave himself up to
his important duties, must have been very
great.
It was to this Elizabethan Oxford that Laud
came up in the year 1589, to begin his uni-
versity career as a commoner of St. John's
34 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
College. For him the Puritan system had no
attractions, his religious training at home had
been of a kind more loyal to the Church.
Added to this, he had the good fortune to
come under the influence of Buckeridge, who
was his tutor, a man devoted to the old paths,
as we have already said. Laud is described by
Anthony a Wood ^ as being " esteemed by all
who knew him a ^ ery forward, confident, zealous
person." In stature he was small, and in health
he was delicate, but he was endowed with more
than ordinary strength of character, having
also much affection towards his friends. Such a
character, backed up by the wise guidance of his
tutor, admirably fitted him to swim against the
tide, and to take the unpopular side. With
him the temptations to amusement and idle-
ness that come to young men in vigorous
health, had little force ; and we find that he
persevered in his old habits of study, which
had so pleased his schoolmaster at Reading.
He soon became scholar of his college, and
after three years was admitted to a fellowship.
Laud obtained his B.A. degree in 1504, and
his INI. A. in 1,598. He became Proctor in the
year 1003, and he was noted for his mildness ;
in this he was a contrast to his fellow Proctor.
' iii. col. 121, qu. Le Bas, Z<(/e of Archbishop Laud, Lond. 1836,
p. o.
LAUD AT ST. JOHN'S 35
Anthony a Wood has preserved the amusing
episode of a drunken fellow, who, being sur-
prised by I^aud in his sleep on Peniless Bench,
turned to the somewhat diminutive Proctor,
exclaiming, *' Thou little morsell of justice,
prithee let me alone and be at rest."^
In the year IGOO Laud was ordained deacon,
and in the following year priest. At his
ordination to the priesthood it is related that
Young, Bishop of Rochester, who ordained
him, encouraged him in the following words :
*' that if he lived he would be an instrument
of restoring the Church from the narrow and
private principles of modern times, to the more
free, large, and public sentiments of the purest
and best ages." ^ A true prophecy indeed !
Up to this point the history of Laud had
been uneventful. He lived the quiet yet busy
life of a fellow of his college, devoted to study
and faithful service of God and man, in the
station in which he had been placed. But
events soon happened which were destined to
bring him before the world in a more or less
public character. In 1602, he was called upon
by his college to read the Lecture of JNIrs.
IVIay's foundation. The theme chosen was,
" The constant and perpetual visibility of the
1 qu. Iluttou, -S'^. John Baptist College, p. 97.
2 Baines, p. 18.
36 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Church of Christ " ; in which he maintained
the identity of the Church of England of his
OMTi day with the Pre-reformation Church — an
historical commonplace at the present time,
but in Calvinistic Oxford of Elizabeth's reign,
a proposition regarded as most daring. For a
young fellow of a then somewhat obscure
college to expound such a startling doctrine,
was a bold thing. He assuredly ^ indicated the
truth of Anthony h Wood's saying, that he
was "forward, confident, and zealous." Such
opinions as Laud propounded fell like a bomb
upon the leader of the Puritan Party, Dr.
George Abbot, INIaster of University CoUege,
Dean of Winchester, and in 1603 Vice-Chan-
cellor of the University, to whom Laud ever
afterwards was the special bete noire.
Again, in the year 1604, he came before the
dominant party in the University as the auda-
cious exponent of unsound doctrines. In the
exercise for the degree of Bachelor of Di^dnity,
the subject that he selected was, (i.) the necessity
of Baptism; and (ii.) that there could be no true
Church without bishops ; both of which pro-
positions he earnestly defended. A sermon at
the University Church preached in 1606 had
also a like effect. It was held to contain such
llomish teaching, that he was personally ques-
tioned by Dr. Airay, the Vicc-Chancellor ; and
LAUD AT ST. JOHN'S 37
afterwards it was deemed dangerous to ap-
proach such a heretic or even to sahite him in
the streets ! Laud was now a marked man.
Laud seems to have taken this persecution
with marvellous equanimity. He " sat under "
Dr. Abbot, that redoubtable Calvinist, and
listened to his pulpit fulminations, and even
beheld the audience pointing at him all the
time as the miscreant concerned. " Perfect
coolness and good temper marked Laud's
academical career throughout," says Dr. JNIoz-
ley.^ One is so apt to think of Laud as the
great ecclesiastic only, the leader of a policy,
that as the " small man," the obscure Oxford
fellow, he is liable to be overlooked. " He
was long all but alone, and had an uphill
course. Dignitaries condemned, acquaint-
ances avoided, even friends suspected him : he
endured a humiliating discipline and a severe
succession of rubs."^ And, as in the case of
other men in very different paths of life, it was
this period of isolation and adversity that laid
the foundation of his character, and to a great
extent gave it that strength which friend and
foe alike have admired.
At this point in our narrative it is necessary
to go back a year, in order to record an event
^ Essays Historical and Theological, Lond., i. 120.
'^ Ibid. i. 115.
38 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
which befell William Laud, a sin over which
he mourned to the end of his life. He had
been appointed Chaplain to Lord INIountjoy,
Earl of Devonshire ; and, by the urgent en-
treaties of his patron, he was prevailed upon to
solemnize a marriage between him and Lady
Penelope Devereux, daughter of the Earl of
Essex. This lady had been divorced a inensd
et thoro from her husband, Lord Rich, in con-
sequence of adultery with the Earl of Devon-
shire, who desiring to have the children which
she had borne to him accounted legitimate,
persuaded Laud to solemnize his marriage
with this lady. It appears that in early years
an ardent attachment on both sides had been
formed, and a verbal but unattested contract
of marriage had taken place. For the warmest
admirers of Laud to defend his conduct in this
matter is quite impossible. He sinned griev-
ously, and he knew it. Such a blot stands out
in liis life as a paradox, for it was contrary to
his character. For a man like Cranmer to
have acted in this way would not have aston-
ished us ; nay, to such a dweller " in kings'
houses," it would have been the natural course
to take ; but with Laud it was quite different.
He was made of sterner stufi'. He was essen-
tially a strong man, a man of principle. The
clothier's son, who became Trimate of all
THE FALSE STEP 39
England, was no respecter of persons, even in
an age when sycophants abounded. Besides,
was he not an upholder of the Book of Com-
mon Prayer, and one who walked in the old
paths ? The only excuse that can be made for
him is that even he was influenced by the
loose teaching upon Holy Matrimony of the
Lutheran, Cah inistic and Zwinglian factions.
Had not Luther permitted the Elector of
Hesse to have two wives at the same time ?
and was not Bucer — one of the more moderate
foreigners — notoriously lax on the subject of
divorce ? ^ And not only do we find Heylin
holding a lax view about divorce, but a greater
man than Heylin fell into much the same sin
as Laud. In the case of the divorce of Lady
Essex from her husband, Lancelot Andrewes
at first pronounced decisively against it ; but,
when he took his seat as one of a commission
upon the case, he deliberately changed his
opinion, unable to resist the influence of the
Sovereign. Yet his biographers are unable
to produce any proof of his penitence. Laud
and Andrewes alike took a false step, but Laud
was penitent for his sin to the day of his
death. Year by year, he observed St. Stephen's
day (the anniversary of the event) as a day of
penitence and humiliation before God. Heylin
1 See above^ p. 17.
40 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
concludes his reference to Laud's penitence
witli the words, " A brave example of a peni-
tent and afflicted soul, which many of us will
admire, but few will imitate."^
We must now return to Laud at the Uni-
versity. It is somewhat difficult to divide the
life of Laud into sections, for he held various
benefices and posts at the University at the
same time. This chapter will therefore con-
clude with his resignation of the Presidentship
of St. John's College in 1621.
While still a fellow of his college, Laud was
appointed in the year 1607 to the benefice of
Stamford in Northamptonshire ; in the follow-
ing year another benefice, that of North Kil-
worth in Leicestershire, was given to him. In
1608, he proceeded to his degree of Doctor of
Divinity. At this time, through the influence
of Dr. Buckeridge, he was introduced to Neile,
Bishop of Rochester, who made him his chap-
lain, upon which he exchanged the benefice
of North Kilworth for that of \Yest Tilbury
in Essex, in order to be nearer his patron.
In 1610, Bisliop Neile presented him to the
benefice of Cuckstone in Kent, whereupon he
resigned his fellowship.
In these days we sliould look with astonish-
ment at any man holding so many cures of
' Heyliiij p. 64.
LAUD AS PARISH PRIEST 41
souls .simultaneously ; but we must remember
that, in the early seventeenth century, a bad
tradition existed — a tradition which cannot
be laid to the charge of the Reformation, for
it flourished vigorously in mediaeval times.
Moreover, Laud was a mild offender in the
matter, for on his appointment to Cuckstone,
he resigned his fellowship ; and when made
Dean of Gloucester he resigned West Tilbury.
Also, as we shall see later, on the very day
that he was consecrated Bishop of St. David's,
he insisted on giving up the headship of St.
John's ; although the King had given him
special permission to hold both offices. That
a more wholesome feeling in regard to plural-
ism is now current, is after all largely due
to the true reformation that William Laud
effected in the Church.
Concerning Laud's life as a parish priest,
little account has been preserved. No doubt he
was, to use his own expression, as " thorough "
as pastor as he had been whilst fellow of his
college. Of necessity he was sometimes non-
resident, but it is easy to imagine how, when
he did reside, he would have thrown himself
heart and soul into parochial work. His in-
dustry, activity, single-mindedness, and deter-
mination, would doubtless have been displayed.
We learn that on taking possession of a cure
42 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
of souls, he always assigned an annual pension
to twelve poor persons, laying aside one-fifth
of the income of the benefice for charitable
purposes, putting the glebe-house into good
repair, and taking care that the church was
supplied with decent furniture.^
In the year 1611, Laud was a candidate for
the Presidentship of St. John's College, and
on this occasion a regrettable incident took
place. Bayhe, one of the supporters of
Rawlinson, his opponent, perceiving that the
result would be favourable to Laud, had the
indecency to seize the scrutiny-paper and tear
it in pieces. Owing to this action, doubt was
thrown upon the regularity of the election.
The matter was referred to King James, who
adjudicated in person, and, after a hearing of
three hours, decided in Laud's favour. This
event shows how strong was the feeling in
Oxford against Laud, owing to his open and
candid espousal of an unpopular cause. It
may be mentioned, in proof of his magnani-
mous nature, that he forgave the author of
tliis outrage, and bestowed upon him his
patronage in making him his chaplain, giving
him preferment, and eventually by his in-
fluence obtaining his election to the President-
ship of the college. For the next four years
' Le Bas, p. 17.
LAUD AT GLOUCESTER 43
Laud resided much at Oxford. St. John's,
from being a small and unimportant college,
under Laud's rule became one of the most
famous in the University. Although tolerant,
Laud was a disciplinarian, and the government
of the college improved under his rule. The
material fabric was also added to.
In the year 1G16, Laud became Dean of
Gloucester, the duties of which office were
comparatively easy to combine with the
Presidentship of St. John's College. The
Deanery of Gloucester brought him more
trouble than emolument ; for it was then that
he first came into active opposition with
Puritanism. The income of the deanery was
greatly impoverished, King James humor-
ously designating it, "a shell without a
kernel." The Cathedral church of Gloucester
was at this time perhaps the worst ordered
in the kingdom ; the services were carelessly
and irreverently performed, and the rules of
the Prayer Book ignored. Laud at once set
himself to reform matters, persuading the
chapter to remove the Holy Table fi-om the
middle of the church to the east end, thus
securing it from profanation. He also per-
suaded the chapter to make a reverence on
entering the quire, an ancient custom which
still continued in some other places. The
44. LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Bishop of the Diocese was Dr. ^Miles Smith,
a man whose learning was more ponderous
than gi'eat. He was one of the translators
of the " authorized version " of the Bible, and
the composer of that remarkably grotesque
effusion in which the book is dedicated to
King James I. Dr. Smith, who was a
thorough -going Puritan, was transported with
indignation at the action of the new Dean ;
but not being able to interfere, he ended
by philosophically making a vow which he
carried out, never again to set foot in the
cathedral ! The city of Gloucester seems to
have then been a stronghold of the Puritan
faction ; and, chiefly through the efforts of
Dr. White, the Bishop's chaplain, riots broke
out, which were only suppressed by the
imprisonment of some of the rioters, and a
request to the Court of High Commission for
assistance. Eventually order was restored,
and, through the firmness of the new Dean,
a real reform in the Cathedral-church was
effected.
In the year 1617, James paid his first visit
to Scotland. The chief motive of the journey
was to further his plan of bringing the religion
of Scothmd into conformity with that of
England. He took witli him several English
I.AUD AT GLOUCESTER 45
divines of learning and ability, Laud being
one of the number.
It was about this time that the King seems
to have realized the necessity of taking
measures to repress the powerful Puritan
party in the University of Oxford. Ever
since James had left his native land of Scot-
land, and ascended the English throne, he
had rebelled against the Presbyterian system :
this reaction was due to the fact that the
Church was intensely monarchical ; whilst
Puritanism, in its zeal against Erastianism,
was carried away in a republican direction.
James was no doubt attracted by the Church's
teaching, but it was chiefly the anti-monarchical
tendencies of Puritanism that repelled him.
Shrewd as he was, he discovered in this system
a danger which seriously menaced his dearly-
loved royal prerogatives. He accordingly sent
to the University certain Royal Injunctions for
the restraining of rash preachers, and for the
confining of divinity studies to "the Fathers
and Councils, Schoolmen, Histories and Con-
troversies " in their bearing on Holy Scripture.
These Injunctions caused consternation in the
Puritan camp, and effectually helped to swell
the tide in a direction contrary to that in
which they were intended to lead men.
CHAPTER III
LAUD AS BISHOP
LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID's ABBOT AND
WILLIA3IS VISIT OF PRINCE CHARLES TO
SPAIN — ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. CORONA-
TION OF CHARLES I. LAUD, BISHOP OF
LONDON THE LECTURERS RESTORATION
AND CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES.
Whilst comparatively little is known of Laud
as parish priest, more is known of his life as
bishop. ^luch of his history as a bishop,
however, is concerned with the affairs of the
State. This is especially noticeable in Heylin's
biography, a great part of which reads more
like a History of England, than the Life of an
English bishop. It is a matter for regret that
so little is known about the details of Laud's
episcopal life, sucli as, for instance, the way he
spent his days in tlie different places where he
resided. But neither Heylin, nor any other
contemporary writer, gives us mucli informa-
tion on such points.
Laud was consecrated Bisliop of St. David's
LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID^S 47
on November 18, 1621. He was nominated to
this see by King James I. in June, the reason
wliy the consecration was so long delayed
being an untoward accident which concerned
Dr. Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The archbishop was staying with his friend
Lord Zouch at Bramshill Park, and was one
day persuaded to join a shooting party, and
also to take a crossbow. His complaisance to
his host ended in disaster. As Mr. Le Bas
remarks, " his bad marksmanship, though not
at all discreditable to his sacred profession, was
unhappily fatal to one of the keepers ; for in
shooting at a deer it so chanced that he missed
the beast and shot the man.''^ Of course it
was purely accidental, but as Abbot happened to
be Primate of all England, and also head of a
religious party professing more than ordinary
strictness of life, the incident created a great
stir at the time. To the Puritan party,
especially, the event appeared as a scandal.
The foreign universities at once took up the
matter as a theme of discussion. The Sor-
bonne in Paris, after three disputations, re-
solved that the action amounted to a canonical
irregularity ; in other words, that the Primate
was by this accident incapable of exercising
ecclesiastical authority or jurisdiction. 'Jlie
^ Le BaSj Life of Archbishop Laud, Loud., p. 43.
48 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Archbishop himself felt keenly what he had
done, and did his best to make amends by-
pensioning the widow of the man whom he
had killed, and ever after kept the anniversary
as a day of fasting and penitence.
Considerable agitation was caused through-
out the land, and much erudition was expended
upon the subject both by civilians and canon-
ists. Eventually the King issued a Commission
to Bishop Williams, who was also Lord
Keeper, to the Bishops of London and Win-
chester, the Bishops Elect of St. David's and
Exeter, two Judges of the Common Pleas, and
two Doctors of the civil law. At first the
delegates could not agree amongst themselves,
but finally they acquitted the archbishop. It
has been thought that several members of the
Commission were convinced that if Abbot had
been condemned, Williams, a notorious place-
hunter and unworthy of the post, would have
got himself advanced to the primacy. The
Bishops Elect of St. David's (Laud), Salisbury
(Davenant), Lincoln (AN^ilHams), and Exeter
(Carey) scrupled to have the hands of even an
involuntary liomicide laid upon them. They
were therefore consecrated by the Bishops of
London, Worcester, Chichester, Ely, IJandafF,
and Oxford on November 18, 1021, in the
Chapel of London House.
LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S 49
Land was not able to visit his diocese till
the middle of the following year, being pre-
vented from so doing by matters of urgency
concerning the welfare of Church and State,
the King, depending upon his counsels, de-
taining him. On July 5, he entered Wales,
and four days later began his Visitation of the
diocese, which he completed by the middle of
August. Finding no chapel at the bishop's
house at Aberguilly, he set apart a room for
this purpose, furnishing it with care and at
considerable expense. In 1625, he paid
another visit to Wales, and consecrated the
chapel on August 28, dedicating it to St. John
the Baptist, that day being the eve of the feast
of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. He
specially notes in his Diary the appropriateness
of the festival from its association with his
beloved college at Oxford.
One can imagine Laud's arduous and fatigu-
ing work in going about his Welsh diocese,
assiduously doing his duty as chief pastor, and
travelling often by roads in a state far worse
than they were in England. In the pages of
his Diary we read how, on coming to Aber-
guilly, the episcopal coach was twice over-
turned between that place and Abermarkes.
On the first occasion it contained the Bishop,
but on the second it was empty, I^aud evi-
50 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
dently preferring to trudge along on foot.^
Owing to the neglect of his predecessors,
numberless matters had to be investigated and
set right, abuses to be reformed, and clergy to
be interviewed. We may be certain that
Laud, with his conscientious nature and un-
sparing activity, did his best, notwithstanding
the fact of his inability to be long resident in
his diocese.
On Laud's return to England, after his first
journey to Wales, in the month of August,
1622, the King was forced to take action on
account of the unbridled licence in the pulpit
of certain Puritan clergy, and in particular of
a seditious sermon of one Knight, of Broad-
gate Hall, Oxford. He accordingly issued six
Injunctions, restraining the parochial clergy
from publicly discussing such abstruse questions
as Predestination, Election, Reprobation, etc.,
and enjoining them to preach rather upon faith
and holy living. They were also enjoined to
avoid meddling with matters of State, and "■ not
to fall into undecent railing speeches against
Papists and Puritans." Lecturers were in
future to be licensed by tlie bisliop of the
diocese. Had the six Articles of Henry
VIII. been revised and put in practice, they
would not have created more commotion
» Laud's Wor/c6; Oxford, 1063 (Diary), iii. 170.
ABBOT AND WILLIAMS 51
amongst the Puritan party than was caused
by these Injunctions. At this time Laud
seems to have been in frequent attendance
upon the King, who had the wisdom to dis-
cern and to value both Laud's loyalty to his
person and his single-minded zeal for the
Church's welfare. Although he was thus in
the royal favour, his path was by no means
smooth. It was indeed impossible that one
occupying such an important post at Court
should be preserved from enemies ; especially
was this so in the case of a man like Laud,
whose blunt honesty was not infrequently
devoid of tact. Consequently, we soon meet
with Laud's adversaries in the pages of Heylin,
and similar references occur in Laud's Diary.
Abbot was no friend to Laud. This animosity
was an old story, for it dated from Oxford days
when the young fellow of St. John's in his first
memorable lecture audaciously attacked the
Puritan position. Since that day Abbot re-
garded Laud as a dangerous man. By this
time Abbot had become virtually the leader
of the Puritan party, whilst Laud was the
rising man on the other side, so that Abbot's
attitude was not to be wondered at.
But Laud had another foe, and more to be
dreaded than Abbot, namely, the Lord Keeper
Williams, who had lately been consecrated to
52 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
the see of Lincoln. Abbot, it is true, was a
Puritan of the narrowest type, and so a con-
sistent opponent of Laud's principles, but
there was a good side to his character. He
seems to have been a sincerely honest man, and
indeed a man of high principle, for the stand
that he made in the case of Lady Essex's
divorce was a noble one. He held to what
was right, although Kmg James was against
him. Abbot stood firm when even Andrewes
fell. He also resisted King Charles when he
thought that monarch violated the laws of the
realm, and for this he suffered.
Williams was of a different mould. He had
not Abbot's high principles. He was, it is true,
a man of open-handed generosity, a fairly good
diocesan bishop according to the standard of
the day, and a man of great ability and learning.
But there was another side to his character : he
was de^'oid of principle ; and as an opponent
he was quite unscrupulous. Bitterly jealous of
the favour shown by the Sovereign to Laud, by
every means, fair or foul, he tried to prejudice the
King against him. As a self-seeker, AVilliams
was notorious. In an age of pluralities, he was
reckoned to be a pliuahst from the number of
benefices which he held. Heylin humorously
puts it, " He was a perfect diocese in himself;
as being Bishop, Dean, Prebendary, llesi-
ABBOT AND WILLIAMS 53
dentiary and Parson, and all these at once."^
It did not suit a person of this character to be
extreme in either one direction or the other.
He was in the worst sense of the word a
"moderate man," now posing as a staunch
Churchman, and now as a Puritan, as it suited
his own interest. In one matter Williams
never changed, and that was in his unrelenting
hatred of Laud — a hatred that was all the more
dangerous because it was at times concealed.
The courts of kings have ever been noted for
the man that " privily slandereth his neigh-
bour," for " the deceitful person," and for him
"that telleth lies." The courts of James and
Charles were no exception to this rule, and
courtiers of this type were more dangerous
enemies to Laud than the outspoken Puritan
like Abbot, who opposed him as being, in his
eyes, a Romanizer.
It was at the court that Laud was first
brought into contact with Buckingham, the
fa\'ourite of King James, a man whose char-
acter was very far from perfect. It was the old
story, the spoilt and petted child of his mother
became the selfish and pleasure-loving man.
The friendship that in time sprang up between
Laud and Buckingham was that of a man of
mature years and maturer piety for a young
1 Heylin^ p. 80.
54 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
man, who with all his faults was not without
his good points. It was in short the love of a
pastor for an erring sheep. As his fiiend, as
his adviser, and in the more spiritual office of
confessor. Laud drew out the good traits in
Buckingham's character. That Buckingham
had times of sincere penitence we cannot
doubt ; and Laud's influence over him was
wholly for good. His violent death in 1628
was a heavy blow to Laud, who felt it much
in the same way as David felt the death of
Absalom.
That Buckingham withstood the arguments
of clever and accomplished Roman contro-
versialists, and remained in the Church of his
baptism, was doubtless due to Laud. With
his mother, the Countess, Laud was not so
successful. The result of the polemical tourna-
ment between Laud and Fisher the Jesuit
(how dear such contests must have been to the
theological and sport-loving King 1) was that
she was confirmed in her faith in the Anglican
position ; but later, tlirough no fault of Laud,
she gave way, and joined the Roman Com-
munion.
In the year 1623, the ill-fated journey of
Clinrlcs, the Prince of Wales, into Spain to
win the liand of the Infanta took place. This
scheme of James I. came to nought, and the
VISIT OF PRINCE CHARLES TO SPAIN 55
Prince eventually, in 1625, married a maiden
whom he met at a ball in Paris, on his way to
Spain, Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Henry
IV. of France. It was a true love-match.
Into the story of the proposed Spanish match
we need not enter, except to notice the extreme
care that was taken that the English Church
should be fittingly represented at the Court of
Madrid. Two chaplains were appointed to
minister to the Prince and his suite — Drs.
]Maw and Wren. The latter we know clearly
to have been a faithful disciple of Laud, and a
man who afterwards, as Bishop of Ely, wit-
nessed a good confession.^ Heylin tells us,
" His Majesty was pleased, by the advice of
the Bishops then about him (of whom Laud
was one) to give . . . these instructions follow-
ing." Here follow certain detailed injunctions,
namely, that a room was to be provided as a
private chapel with an altar furnished with
proper linen, frontals, candlesticks, chalices,
patens, and other things. For the chaplains
there were to be four surplices and two copes.
The mixed chalice was to be in use, and "smooth
wafers to be used for the bread." Daily Mattins
and Evensong were to be said, and the Holy
1 He was afterwards described by the Puritans, owing to his
name and the shortness of his stature, as, " the least of these
birds and the foulest" — the latter attribute referring to the
pronounced character of his theological views.
56 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Eucharist was to be celebrated as often " as it
shall please the Prince of Wales to set down."
No controversial preaching, " but only to con-
firm the doctrine and tenets of the Church of
England by all positive arguments.'" Laud's
share in the drawing up of the injunctions is
more than apparent.
Not many years before, the King had sent
four divines by way of representing the Church
of England on the Calvinist side at the Synod
of Dort, almost committing the Church to the
support of Calvinism. Now, however, there
was a complete change : by the advice of the
bishops, the Church was represented as a part
of the Catholic Church, rather than as a
Protestant sect.
In 1024, when the negotiations with Spain
were broken off. Convocation granted a large
subsidy to the King, to be levied from the
clergy. On this occasion, Laud, who had
been a parish priest himself, perceiving how
heavily the tax would press upon the parochial
clergy, manfully espoused their cause. He
devised a plan for bringing relief, which met
with the approval of Buckingham, and even
Williams. Strangely enough, this proposal
was resented by Abbot, who liad ne\'er been a
parish priest.
^ Heylin, j). 100.
ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. 57
The year 1625 witnessed the death of
James I., and the accession of Charles I., who
favoured the Church even more than his father
had done. With Charles, devotion to the
Church was inspired by no mere political
motives, but by genuine -religious convictions.
It is not for us in these pages to criticize the
character of Charles as a monarch. He had
his faults, which have as a rule been unduly
emphasized. He was firm where he ought to
have been gentle, and gentle where he ought
to have been firm ; and, urged by terrible
provocation, he broke his faith on more than
one occasion. Above all there was his false
step in consenting to the condemnation of the
Earl of Strafford. But the other side of his
character, — who can help admiring it ? The
fascination that he exercised is not to be
wondered at. A man of princely bearing and
manners, brave, manly, pure in heart and life,
a patron of art and science, a theologian of no
mean repute, a kind friend, a devoted husband,
a loving father, — such were some of the virtues
of the new king. He was, moreover, a man
of deep personal religion — what else could
have sustained him in his sufferings ? — a loyal
son of the Church, a firm believer in her
doctrines, and a faithful observer of her prac-
tices. One loves to think of those happy
\
58 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
days he spent at Hampton Court in the
company of his wife, whom he almost idohzed,
and of his children to whom he was fondly
attached. What an example the private life
of this king must have been to the nation at
large I It elevated and purified home-life in
the seventeenth century, just as the example
of Queen Victoria did in the nineteenth. But
the attraction of Charles I. reached its culmin-
ating point in his loneliness at Carisbrooke,
and in his martyr-death at Whitehall ; so that
notwithstanding the army of detractors of
King Charles, there are those to-day who still
echo the undying words of John Keble, " Our
own, our royal saint."
That William Laud, the devoted champion
of the Church, the reformer in the true sense
of the word, should have become the trusted
friend of Charles I. is only natural. In
matters of religion their opinions seem to have
been very similar. Laud's influence with the
King soon manifested itself in his being com-
manded to supply him with a list of the
leading ecclesiastics of the day, with *' O," or
"P," i.e.., Orthodox or Puritan, against their
names, so that the King might be guided in
dispensing Church-patronage.^
The day after the assembhng of Charles' first
1 Hcylin, p. 127.
ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. 59
Parliament, Laud preached before the King
and the House of Lords at Whitehall. In his
sermon he set forth the respective duties of
the Church and the State. He animadverted
upon the ultimate political designs of the
Puritan party. The Commons in this Parlia-
ment took upon themselves the role of being
theological experts and inquisitors, and forth-
with proceeded to summon to their bar Richard
Montague, rector of Stanford Rivers, for writ-
ing books containing what they judged to be
Popish doctrine. This clergyman was annoyed
by the proselytizing of certain Jesuits in his
parish, one of whom endeavoured to discredit
the theology of the English Church by a
pamphlet called A Gag for the New Gospel.
JNIontague answered this by A New Gag for
an Old Goose. In this work Montague took
a strong line, and claimed for the English
Church its Catholic position, appealing with
marked success to the Church of the early
centuries. Possessed of considerable learning,
in order that his writings might appeal to the
people, he adopted a racy and caustic style.
This had the effect of calling attention to his
statements. After the first commotion in
Parliament over the matter, he published a
second work, Apello Ccesarem, which was
written from the same anti-Puritan stand-
60 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
point. This added fuel to the flames. The
interference of a lay-assembly in matters
distinctly spiritual was warmly resented by
Laud and other prelates, who were backed up
by the King. Accordingly, the bishops framed
a letter addressed to the Commons, protesting
against a purely lay-tribunal deciding theolo-
gical questions, and defending Montague as a
divine " able in every way to do great services
to God, his JNIajesty and the Church of
England."
On February 2, the Feast of the Purifica-
tion, in the following year, the Coronation
took place in the Abbey Church of West-
minster. Laud was chosen by Charles to
arrange the ceremonial on that great occasion.
From his Diary we learn of his care that
everything should be carried out with order
and reverence. This Coronation is historically
important, in that it was, with the exception of
the hastily compiled form used in the Corona-
tion of James I., the first occasion when the
So\'^ereign was crowned witli the English Rite.
For this occasion the old I^atin Service was
revised by the Archbishop and a committee of
15ishops.' I^aud is said to have caused an
ancient silver crucifix to be placed on the altar
for the service, but there seems to be some
» Ilultoii, p. -28.
CORONATION OF CHARLES I. 61
doubt as to this. Dr. Abbot, the Primate,
would hardly have tolerated such an "image,"
and when Laud at his trial was accused of this
matter, he referred to the unlikelihood of
Abbot allowing it, and said that he himself
did not remember a crucifix being there. ^
Heylin, however, definitely mentions it. ^ Laud
was afterwards falsely charged with altering
the Coronation oath.^ The whole ceremony
of the Coronation was carried out with the
greatest solemnity.* Soon after the Coronation
the King's Second Parliament met, and we
find Laud again preaching, but this time in
the Abbey. His subject was the Blessedness
of Unity in both Church and State. In this
parliament another attack was made upon
Montague, and he was again defended by
Laud and other bishops. In August in
this year, Laud was translated to the see of
Bath and Wells, and in September he was
appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal. One of
his first actions as dean was to put a stop to
the practice of concluding the service if the
King came in late, and going on to the sermon.
When this resolution was reported to the
King, he received it with thanks, and acted
accordingly.
1 Laud's Works, Oxford, 1856, iv. 211. - Heylin, p. 138.
^ See this fully discussed in Le Bas, pp. 82-84.
^ Ibid. (Diary), iii. 181.
62 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Shortly after, a storm was raised by a
sermon preached by Sibthorpe, Vicar of
Brackley, who was somewhat of a "poHtical
parson," in which he maintained that the King
jure divino had power to make laws and
impose taxes. Pressure was brought upon
Abbot to give his iniprimatur to this ser-
mon, but he conscientiously declined, saying
that such doctrine was contrary to the laws
of the realm. On this Laud and other
bishops toned down certain passages, and again
submitted it to the Archbishop, but a second
time he honourably refused to comply.^ In
such a matter every one in these days will
approve of the course taken by Abbot, rather
than that taken by Laud, who, however, did
not go all the way with the sentiments of
Sibthorpe, since a sermon of the same kind
preached by JNIainwaring, Rector of St. Giles,
was not licensed by him, but by JNIontaigne,
Bishop of London, and Laud is said to have
remonstrated against its being printed." Ser-
mons inculcating extreme vieMs upon the
rights of the monarchy were likewise preached
by Bargrave, Dean of Canterbury, and by
Wren, Master of St. Peter's College, Cam-
bridge. These divines were of the school of
1 Lo Has, pp. 103-lOG.
a Wakemaii, The Church and the Pnritam, Loud. 1002, p. IIG.
LAUD, BISHOP OF LONDON 63
Laud, and this shows how wedded the Laudian
movement was to absolutist views which event-
ually did so much harm to the Church's cause.
Through the influence, it is believed, of Buck-
ingham, the courageous Archbishop was for a
time banished from the Court on account of
his action.
In the year 1628, Laud was translated to
the see of London ; this brought him into
more immediate contact with the great events
of the day both ecclesiastical and civil. One
of his first actions as Bishop of London was to
assist at the consecration of Dr. Richard INIon-
tague to the see of Chichester. The policy of
the King in nominating to a bishopric one
who, in the eyes of the Puritans, was an evil-
doer, was, to say the least, exceedingly bold.
Montague, as a learned and spirited contro-
versialist, and a defender of the Church against
both Rome and Geneva, doubtless well de-
served the reward ; but to single out for
promotion the very man whom the House of
Commons had twice condemned, was assuredly
to be taken as an act of retaliation. During
the reigns of James I. and Charles I., the
House of Commons had set itself up as a
kind of Puritan Holy Office, dictating to
the sovereign the religious policy he was to
pursue ; it likewise instructed bishops how they
64 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
were to act, denounced books, and censured
their authors. In short, in matters of doctrine
and disciphne, it constituted itself a sort of
infaUible pope, who moreover always spoke
ex cathedra / Now the Commons had the
mortification of seeing the very man, who had
twice escaped their chitches, dehberately ad-
vanced to the see of Chichester.
The most important event that followed
upon Laud's appointment to the see of
London was the Royal Declaration prefixed
to the XXXIX. Articles in 1629, for the
purpose of guarding them from misinterpreta-
tion. It may be described as part of a series
of entrenchments constructed to defend the
Church from the onslaught of the now active
and militant Puritan faction, who at this time
realized the gathering strength of the Church
party. The XXXIX. Articles of lleligion,
issued in the reign of Elizabeth, were Articles
of comprehension. They were set forth in
the hopes of uniting the Edwardian and
the Marian conforming clergy. They were
not articles of faith, (though some of tliem
contained wluit is of faitli) but "Articles of
lleligion," issued with the object of com-
prehending in one religious body men of
different scliools of tliouglit ; consequently
their wording is ollcn intcntiojially ambigu-
LAUD, BISHOP OF LONDON 65
ous. It has been accurately said, that they
are " not a creed, but a concordat affording a
basis of intercommunion for persons to whose
minds divine truth presented itself under
different forms and aspects." ^ How far such
a course was justifiable and its wisdom has
been proved by subsequent events, is a subject
upon which we cannot now enter. The
dominant ultra-Protestant or Puritan party
m the reign of Elizabeth and James had
attempted, so to speak, "to capture" the
Articles ; and this party taught positively,
that the Articles were a confession of Faith,
definitely and wholly Calvinistic. The Declar-
ation required subscription to the Articles
" only in the natural and grammatical sense,"
and in so doing left a wide and generous
liberty. In this way the original intention of
the compilers of the Articles was preserved —
that they should be regarded as Articles of
comprehension. The anger of the Puritan
party at the Declaration was unbounded.
The air rang with denunciations against the
Arminians,^ as those opposed to Calvinism
were then called. "An Arminian is the
spawn of a Papist ; and if there come warmth
1 Maccoll, The, Reformation Settlement, Loud. 1895, p. 132.
2 So called from Anninius, the great opponent of Calvinism at
the Synod of Dort,
5
66 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
of favour upon him you shall see him turn
into one of those frogs that rise out of the
bottomless pit. And if you mark it well, you
shall see an Arminian reaching out his hand
to a Papist, a Papist to a Jesuit, and a Jesuit
gives one hand to the Pope and another to the
King of Spain," — so exclaimed Routh, who,
under Cromwell, became afterwards Speaker
in the House of Commons.^ The Commons
proceeded to issue a protest against thus free-
ing the Articles fi*om a Calvinistic interpreta-
tion. The Declaration was pronounced to be
a plot of the Jesuits to subvert the Gospel ;
and in order to give colour to this opinion, a
bogus letter was compiled and disseminated,
purporting to be ^\Titten by the Hector of the
Jesuits at Brussels, commending the Declar-
ation and approving of it as a means of
undermining the Reformed Faith ! ^
Shortly after this Laud directed his attention
to an important matter of reform. Tlu'ough
liis influence the King ordered Abbot the
Arclibishop to issue certain "Instructions"
enjoining tlie bishops to reside in their sees,
instead of li\'ing at AVestminstcr as many of
them did, " tliose only excepted whose attend-
ances at Court is necessarily required." It is
true that Laud, wlicn bishop of St. David's
' Le lias, p. 125. " Ilcyliu, i>. 179.
THE LECTURERS 67
and of Bath and A¥ells, had not spent much
time in his dioceses ; but then it must be
remembered that, according to the evil custom
of the age, he had the excuse of Court-
business ; and when he did visit his diocese,
he did as much in a month as most of the
other bishops would have done in a year. In
these " Instructions " there were also regula-
tions as to Chaplains and Lecturers. None
but noblemen and those qualified by law were
permitted to have domestic chaplains. Many
Puritan squires kept " tame Levites " in the
shape of chaplains, who under the protection
of their master were often thorns in the sides
of the parochial clergy. The Lecturers were
enjoined to read the Church-service before
their lectures, and to wear the surplice. These
men were to a large extent the backbone of
the Puritan party. JNlany of them were
ecclesiastical fi*ee-lances, who had no respect
for the laws of the Church as to jurisdiction
and mission. Of Lecturers, in general, there
seem to have been at least two varieties.
There were first the "stationary lecturers,"
whose ministrations were supplementary to
those of the parish priest. They sprang into
existence soon after the Reformation, owing
to the inability of many of the clergy to preach.
There were also the " running lecturers," men
68 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
who bore a remarkable resemblance to the friars
of old, in that they invaded parishes and took
little heed to the rights of the parochial clergy,
being subject to the Puritan party, just as the
friars were to the Pope. These peripatetic
Lecturers were the most fanatical, and they
struck the hardest blows at the Church-
system.
To support this large force of Lecturers,
or " painful ministers " as they were called,
required a considerable outlay ; and the ex-
pedient was hit upon of constituting a trust
'* called the Collectors of St. Antholin's. This
trust consisted of four ministers, four lawyers,
\ and four citizens, all of them pronounced
Puritans ; and it had for its object the buying
up of impropriated tithes, which were applied
to the support of the Lecturers. In this way
a large body of men were maintained in the
pay of the trust, which possessed complete
control over them. These spiritual mercen-
aries penetrated far and wide through the land,
carrying with them the gospel of Puritanism,
political as well as religious. The system
was contrived with remarkable skill and fore-
thought, and was quietly working beneath
the surface, when the conspiracy was exposed
by Heylin in a sermon before the University
of Oxford, based on the appropriate text,
THE LECTURERS 69
" While men slept, the enemy came and sowed
tares amongst the wheat, and went his way."
The exposure caused immense excitement, and
the magnitude of the conspiracy at once became
apparent.
Through the influence of Laud, the entire \
scheme was submitted to Noye, the Attorney- "]
General, who brought it before the Court of /
Exchequer. This court gave judgment in /
February 1G33 against the trust of feoffment, S
which was overthrown, and the impropriations
of the feoffees were confiscated to the Crown.v
The criminal part of the charge was referred
to the Star Chamber, but it was never prose-
cuted further. Thus a deep-laid and insidious
plot for the overthrow of the Church was
nipped in the bud. Of the feoffees. Laud says
in his Diary, " they were the main instruments
for the Puritan faction to undo the Church." ^
In the year 1630, Laud was made Chancellor
of the University of Oxford : to this we shall
refer in detail later.
It was during the time when Laud was
Bishop of London, that the celebrated prose-
cution of Leighton took place. Alexander
Leighton, a Scotch preacher, wrote a book
entitled, Zions plea against Prelates, in which
he counselled the " godly " to slay the bishops,
1 Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 216.
70 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
and ^denounced the Queen as an " idolatress
and a Canaanitess " — it was a vulgar and rabid
work. For this Leighton was punished by the
Star Chamber A\ath a fine of £10,000, and the
severest corporal chastisement, — an instance of
the inhumanity of the seventeenth century.
It was also during Laud's occupancy of the
see of London that Henry Sherfield, Recorder
of Salisbury, was summoned before the Star
Chamber for breaking, in St. Edmund's church,
a painted window, which offended him as being,
in his opinion, superstitious. For this, he was
deprived of his Recordership, fined £l,000,
and made to confess his ftuilt in the Cathedral,
as well as in St. Edmund's church. This
severe sentence, owing to the culprit being an
important man, made a great sensation at the
time ; and, like many other actions of this
Coiu't, the fjiult was laid to Laud's charge.
To blame him for the severity of such punish-
ments, as has been done in later times, is
unjust ; for we know that at his trial, when
the whole coimtry was ransacked to produce
evidence against him, the case for instance of
Leighton was not even mentioned. The story
of Laud pulhng off his cap on Leighton being
condemned, thanking God for the sentence, is
apocryphal, and was originated by a men-
RESTORATION OF CHURCHES 71
dacious and anonymous pamphleteer many
years after/
The event most closely connected with
Laud's occupancy of the see of London is,
perhaps, the effort that he made to restore the
great Gothic metropolitan church of St. Paul.
In the reign of Elizabeth, the ravages caused
by the fire of 1561 were partially repaired.
Under the indolent rule of Montaigne, Laud's
predecessor in the see of London, little seems
to have been done to carry on this work.
But Laud, with characteristic zeal and energy,
threw himself into the plan of restoration.
He not only interested the King in the work,
but he also succeeded in arousing the interest
of men of position and wealth, with the result
that, by tlie year 1040, £100,000, a large sum
for those days, had been expended upon St.
Paul's Cathedral.
The picture of the ancient Gothic Cathedral
with the Grecian Portico added on to it — the
work of Inigo Jones, the first architect of the
day — is familiar to many. It is easy enough
to criticize the violent contrast between the old
work and the new ; but, in considering the life
of William Laud and his work in restoring St.
Paul's, we must remember the great moral and
1 Le Bas, pp. 142, 143.
72 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
spiritual restoration he effected in the Cathedral,
whereby the profanities of " Paul's Walk '
were transferred from the interior to the
portico, and thus the church was rescued from
irreverence. We may well refer to the opinion
of an authority upon architecture, who alludes
to the "magnificent western portico, which
must assuredly have been the most beautiful
of its kind in England."^
When Laud was Bishop of London, he
excited Puritanical wrath by consecrating
churches in the diocese. During the turmoil
of the Reformation period, no translation or
revision of the services of consecration in the
old Pontificals was put forth. This was owing,
no doubt, to the fact that it was then the
fashion to pull down rather than to build
churches, and also because the " reformers "
looked upon churches as preaching-houses,
rather than as houses of prayer, and they
had little reverence for lioly places and things.
But when the tide began to turn, Bishop
Andrewes put forth a form of ser\ ice, which
he used in his own diocese. 'J'liis form was
adopted by Laud with some alterations, and
on one occasion in particular, the consecra-
tion of St. Catlicrine Cree, with considerable
ceremonial ehiboration. The consecration of
' LoftiCj Iniijo Jones and Wren, Load. 1893^ p. 131.
CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES 73
churches being not only against Puritan prin-
ciples, but also in those days an innovation, the
opposition of the I'uritans was at once aroused
— in their eyes the Bishop of London was
marching in a Romeward direction ! In the
year 1633, the King made his first visit to
Scotland, accompanied by Laud. On June 10,
Charles entered Edinburgh, and eight days
later he was solemnly crowned in Holyrood
chapel. After a stay of less than a month in
Scotland, Laud returned home to his epis-
copal house at Fulham. This visit to Scotland,
and the events connected with it, will be more
fully treated later in the chapter on " Laud
and the Scottish Church."
CHAPTER IV
LAUD AS PRIMATE
LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY — MORAL
REFORM SUNDAY OBSERVANCE METRO-
POLITICAL VISITATION FOREIGN PROTEST-
ANTS IN ENGLAND ECCLESIASTICAL
REFORM — THE STAR CHAMBER THE COURT
OF HIGH COMMISSION
A WRITER in the Clmrch Quarterly Review'^
tersely describes Laud's accession to the
primacy by saying, " Laud became actually
what he had long been virtually. Primate of
all Enfjland." Since the accession of Charles I.,
it may be said that the chief ruler of the Church
was William Laud. After the accident in
Bramshill Park, Abbot lay more or less under
a cloud ; and, moreover, his Puritanism was not
acceptable to the King, while Laud was not
only his personal friend, but also one in heart
with him in matters religious and ecclesiastical.
On August 4, 1();3;3, Abbot died, and two
1 1895, No. 80, p. 271.
7't
LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 75
days later King Charles is said to have greeted
Laud with the courtly speech, " INIy Lord's
Grace of Canterbury, you are very welcome."
On August 23, he was formally elected, and
in September, he was translated. Laud was
now actual Primate of all England, and a new
chapter in his life began. Although there
would be no change of policy, since, as we
have noticed the Laudian regime had already
for several years been in force, yet the trans-
ition from George Abbot to William Laud
was remarkable enough.
Abbot was the personification of Puritan-
ism, the lineal theological descendant of the
Edwardian divines. He drew his inspiration
from Calvin and Zwingli ; although, by the
seventeenth century, continental Protestantism
was successfully acclimatised on English soil.
At Oxford, as Vice- Chancellor, and Master of
University College, his power was great, and
he was generally recognized as a leader of the
Puritan party, a position which he held to the
day of his death. Under James I. his influence
as archbishop was considerable, but the accident
in the deer-park and the rise of Laud were the
means of throwing him into the background.
Still he was to the last a power to be reckoned
with, a pillar of the Calvinian faction. Heylin
tells the following anecdote concerning Abbot :
76 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
It is related by a late Writer, Tliat towards his death
he was not only discontented himself, but that his
house was the Rendezvous of all the Mal-contents
in Church and State, that he turned Mid-night to
Noon-day by constant keeping of Candles lighted in
his Chamber and Study ; as also that such Visitants
as repaired unto him called themselves Nicodemites,
because of their secret coming to him by night.^
Heylin also alludes to Abbot's open toler-
ation of Puritan nonconformity to the Church's
laws, to his promotion of divines who were
" Calvinians " ; and he notices how this Puritan
Primate " favoured the Laity above the Clei^gie
in all cases which were brought before him," —
an episcopal weakness not unknown in more
recent days. That Abbot was an avowed
opponent of Laud is not to be wondered at,
since tlie cause that Laud had at heart was
that to which he was honestly opposed.
In the person of Laud, the Church of Eng-
land had a primate of a very different mould.
Instead of being the favourer of Puritanism,
the new archbishop was its strenuous opponent ;
instead of tolerating the defiance of the Church's
laws, he spared no pains to enforce conform-
ity ; instead of promoting Puritan divines,
he favoured those who were loyal to the
Church ; instead of playing into the hands of
the laity, he boldly defended the clerical order
1 Heylin, pp. 229, 230.
LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 77
against lay oppression. In blamelessness of
life and conversation, it may be said with
truth tliat the two men were alike exemplary.
Abbot, like I^aud, followed principle rather
than a policy of expediency. The office of
Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all
England in the year 1G33, was no bed of roses.
Laud spoke but the truth when he exclaimed
in his Diary — " INIethinks I see a cloud arising
and threatening the Church of England." ^ This .
was in the year 1625, during the disputes in
Parliament about Richard Montague : eight
years later, the cloud had become much darker.
The war between the Parliament and the King
may be said to have begun, so far at least as
words were concerned. It is true that during
these eight years the Church had been steadily
growing in power, for the Laudian reformation
was making itself felt, and the evils of the
Edwardian and Elizabethan times were being
remedied. But, on the other hand, Puritanism
had also been concentrating and disciplining
its forces, and consolidating its system. The
gulf between the two rival camps was widen-
ing. To an extent, of which in these days we ;
have little conception, Puritanism had become
synonymous with the popular cause ; whilst
the Church seemed indissolubly coimected with
1 Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 180.
78 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
( the monarchy and absolutism. Matters in
Church and State were then much more closely
connected than they are in our own time. On
this battlefield it was that William Laud was
called to the post of leading the Church's
legions ; and, with signs of coming strife, the
results of which threatened to be momentous,
the position of leader was not one for com-
placent satisfaction and exultation.
^ Besides the new Archbishop's campaign
against Puritanism, he undertook the applica-
tion of the Church's discipline, which from the
Christian standpoint may be called a reforma-
tion of morals. Like St. John Baptist, boldly to
rebuke vice, is a sure passport to the hatred of
those whose vices are rebuked ; and still more
is this the case, when punishment is inflicted
upon the wrong-doers. Laud was not a man
to shrink from consequences ; no wonder, then,
that he was hated with a bitter hatred. JMore-
over, in the eyes and at the hands of I^aud,
there was no respect of persons ; the highest
in the land felt the power of the Church's
discipline, as much as the lowest. JMost men,
who, like I^aud had almost risen from the
ranks to a position second only to the royal
family, would not hiive been proof against the
subtle fascination of high social position. Such
men would discreetly have whikcd at the vices
MORAL REFORM 79
of the wealthy and powerful, and would never
have dreamt of aggressively attacking them :
but Laud acted like the Baptist, and he
suffered for it.
The high-born adulterers and profligates,
who suffered thus the due reward of their
evil deeds, made common cause with the
Puritans in their hatred of the man who en-
forced the Christian moral law ; and this
added to the difficulties with which Laud
was surrounded. Amongst others, there is
the well-known case of Lady Purbeck, who
was condemned by the Court of High Com-
mission for living in open sin with Sir Robert
Howard. The Court issued an order for a
separation, and condemned her to a public
penance. She evaded the penance, and was
imprisoned ; but she escaped through the help
of her paramour. It is a curious comment
on the much vaunted morality of Puritanism,
that afterwards Laud at his trial was ordered
to pay Sir Robert £500 as a compensation
for false imprisonment !
So impartial a writer as Dr. Gardiner has
stated that, " in questions relating to marriage,
the Court struggled against every kind of
opposition to uphold a standard of a high
morality;'" and Mr. Hutton observes that,
1 Hutton_, p. 102.
80 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
although the treatment by the Court of High
Commission was severe, yet it was no more so
than the necessity of the times demanded, and
he continues : "Its conscientious and courage-
ous defence of the purity of the marriage tie,
and of the cause of injured women, shows that
the King's party was at least as much alive as
its opponents to the moral evils of the age." ^
Laud's letters to his friend, the Earl of
Strafford, show how he took things, as also a
letter to Vossius, the learned Dutch philo-
logist, in which he says, " I am resolved to
go forward in the way you have seen me go.
I hope God will give me constancy and
patience, and I heartily desire that you will
commend me to His protection by your
prayers. Thus fortified, I will go forward
whithersoever He shall lead me."^ In such
words we see the undaunted coin*age of the
man, and still more his profound faith and
trust in God. Certainly the office of Primate
of all England in the latter half of the reign
of Charles I. was one that brought with it
considerable responsibility : it was one so beset
with dangers and difficulties on all sides, that
the holder might well shrink back ; but Laud,
as he confessed to A^ossius, was resolved to
go forward ; and go forward lie did.
» Ilutton, pp. 104, 105. ^ Bailies, p. 03.
MORAL REFORM 81
The new Archbishop's first act of import-
ance was to enforce the Canons of 1603,
which enacted that no person was to receive
Holy Orders without a title ; that is to say, '
without the allotment of some definite sphere
of work either parochial or academical. The ^
reasonableness of such a course is beyond
question ; but it at once provoked the hostility
of the Puritans, since it struck a blow at their ,
unattached ministers and lecturers, to whom
reference has been made. By this time,
Laud's action against these men, by means
of the Instructions of 1629 and the suppression
of the Collectors of St. Antholin's, was, as it
were, hammered home. Heylin observes with
his usual quaintness, " From henceforth we
hear but little of such vagrant Ministers and
Trencher- Chaplains (the old brood being once
worn out) as had pestered and annoyed the
Church in those latter times." ^
On the very day that this order was sent
out by Laud to his suffragans, the King's
declaration as to Sunday sports was issued.
In the preceding reign, King James had pub-
lished his famous Book of jSpojis, in which
he maintained that certain sports were not
unlawful on the Lord's day out of church-
hours. James' object in issuing this Book
1 Heyliu, v. 241.
6
82 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
seems to have been to promote concord
amongst his subjects, divided as they were
into two factions — those who clung to old
English games and pastimes, and the narrow-
minded religionists who held that the Christian
Sunday and the Je\\dsh Sabbath were identical,
and who also regarded all recreation as sinful.
One heartily wishes that such a matter as
Sunday recreation had not been the subject
of minute Royal injunctions, and that a broad-
minded tolerance had been applied to the
question. But this was not to be, owing to
the narroAvness of the extreme Puritans, who
held, with dogmatic assurance, that the Jewish
Sabbath was of perpetual obligation in Chris-
tian times. This doctrine had been promin-
ently asserted in a book written in 1G28, by
Theophilus Bradburn, a Suffolk clergyman ;
in which it was urged that the observance of
the Lord's day was binding by virtue of the
fourth Commandment. The book was con-
demned by the Court of High Commission,
upon which the author recanted his opinions.
The Sabbatarian controversy was, however,
set going, and it continued throughout the
reigns of James I. and Charles I. In the
hope of bringing this controversy to an end,
King Charles resolved to interfere ; and there-
upon requested the Archbishop of Canterbury
SUNDAY OBSERVANCE 83
to have the Book of Sports reprinted. To
this document the King added his ratification,
in which he declared that wakes and other
feasts should be observed, and that the magis-
trates were to protect the people in their
lawful recreations on Sundays, provided that
they had first attended divine worship in the
churches. The bishops were ordered to cause
the document to be read in all parish churches.
When we consider the action of the King in
re-issuing the Book of Sports, and virtually
giving it the force of law, it must be remem-
bered that in the seventeenth century the
State of England was face to face with an
organized tyranny in the shape of popular
Puritanism, which was striking a serious blow
at the liberty of the subject, by endeavouring
to fasten upon him the fetters of Jewish observ-
ances. In the opinion of the authorities, this
tyranny could only be met by prompt and
decided measures, such as the promulgation of'
the Book of Sports, which was in reality in-
tended to be a bulwark of personal liberty. /
As there is some misconception as to what the
Book of Sports really was, we here quote the
accurate description of it given by ^Ir. Baines
in his Lfe of Laud, '^ who says "its object
was to make Sunday more attractive to the
1 Loud. 185.5, p. 197.
84 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
poor than Puritanism, which considered the
Jewish Sabbath still in force, permitted. It
therefore allowed the people to join in all
innocent recreations on Sunday afternoons
after Divine Service, while it especially pro-
hibited all brutalizing amusements such as
bull-baiting, etc."
On the other hand, it may be doubted
whether the observance in its true form of the
Sunday was not impaired by such an enact-
ment. Up to a certain point, the Puritan was
right in his strict observance of the Lord's
day. Was there not then a tendency in such
a public document as the Book of Spo7is to
cause the people who accepted it to fly off to
the opposite extreme ? At the present day
we witness the remarkable sight of religiously
minded men of all denominations uniting
in order to bring about a better and a stricter
observance of the Sunday. The joint letter to
the nation (January, 1907) issued by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Westminster, and the President
of the Nonconformist Free Church Council, is
most significant.
In 1634, Laud determined to make a
supreme effort, in his province of Canterbury,
to bring back the Church as a whole to the
old paths from which she had so lamentably
METROPOLITICAL VISITATION 85
strayed — an effort especially connected with
the reformation of her outward worship. In
this, as on other occasions, he had the full
sympathy and approbation of the King. The
means adopted was a Visitation as metro-
politan of all the dioceses of the Southern
province. The Visitation was to last two years.
It was entrusted to his Vicar-general, Sir
Nathaniel Brent, Warden of JNIerton College,
Oxford ; and later to Sir John Lamb, Dean of
Arches. When this Visitation was proceeding
in the Southern province, a similar one under
Neile, Archbishop of York, was taking place
in the Northern province.^ In order rightly
to estimate the need of the Visitation, we
must consider the state of the cathedrals and
parish churches in England in the time of
Laud.
We have already dwelt upon the Zwinglo-
Calvinistic reformation under Edward, with its
profanation and spoliation of churches ; and seen
how, after a brief respite under Mary, the same
spirit manifested itself in the reign of Eliza-
beth. It is true that in her reign a re-action
set in ; this and the labours of Laud and others
had to a slight extent improved matters, but
much remained to be done. IVIany of the
churches were in a condition which even the
1 Diet. Nat. Bioff., xxxii. 190.
86 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
descendants of the Puritans at the present day
would not have tolerated.
One might imagine, for instance, that the
private chapel of Abbot, the late archbishop,
would have been bare, as befitted his Puritan
proclivities ; but we learn that it was actually
in a disgraceful condition of neglect and decay.
Laud's description of it is expressive, though
somewhat blunt and bou?^geois. He says " it
was lying nastily." And if such was the case
with the place of worship of the Primate of all
England, it is not to be wondered at that
many a glorious parish church throughout the
length and breadth of the land "was lying
nastily," too. Into this herculean task of re-
storing the houses of God in the land, the new
V Archbishop threw himself heart and soul.
/ The key of the position, as it were, was
the Altar. It was upon the abolition of the
Altar that the so-called reformers concentrated
their efforts. Ilidley and his followers threw
down the altars and substituted mo\'able
tables, wliich usually stood in the middle of
the chancel, or in tlie body of the cluu'ch.^
Some ardent followers outstripped the leaders
of the movement, and desecrated altar-slabs by
placing them at the threshold of the church, so
1 It is true that in tlic cliajH'ls ntyal and a f»nv other churches
tlic old position of the Lord's 'I'ablc was retaiiiud.
METROPOLITICAL VISITATION 87
as to be trodden under the feet of men. It
even happened sometimes, that the old altars
were more grossly profaned by being put to
uses that cannot be mentioned in print. Laud
and his party on the other hand restored the
Altar, causing it to stand permanently in its
old position, and in some cases the new altars
were made of stone. Heylin gives us a
glimpse of the state of affairs in most parish
churches, when Laud took the matter of the
restoration in hand. He tells us how the
Holy Table — often a very rough wooden
erection on trestles — stood in the middle of
the church unprotected by rails, and thus it
became the place upon which many men
tossed their hats, — though the Puritans did not
always remove them in church. It also served
as a table at which the schoolmaster taught
boys to write, it was defiled by dogs, it was
full of holes caused by glaziers and carpenters.^
It is hardly open to doubt but that most }
of the blame in this desecration must be
laid upon the Edwardian " reformers," rather ^
than upon the often ignorant Puritans, who \
faithfully followed them in doctrine and]
practice.
The main injunctions of the Visitation
Articles were that the Holy Table should stand
1 Heyliu, p. 272.
88 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
altarwise, and permanently at the east end of
the church, and that it should be protected
from profanation by rails. In some places
galleries had been erected over the east end of
the church, — they were ordered to be taken
do^m. As to the Cathedral churches, they
seem to have been in a better condition than
many of the parochial churches, since most of
them had already experienced the movement
in favour of decency and reverence. Worcester
and Durham Cathedrals little needed the Visit-
ation, for in them the holy tables were
made of stone, altar lights were used, and a
considerable amount of ceremonial was in
vogue. Some other Cathedrals were likewise
favoured. The first Cathedral to be visited
was Canterbury, where the altar was found in
its right position at the east end of the quire,
and the custom of bowing towards it was in
use. Thereupon Laud ordered candlesticks,
basins, and altar cloths to be provided. A
new body of Cathedral Statutes was drawn
up. INluch the same was done in tlie case of
tlic other Catlicdrals. Some of them possessed
copes, and in the case of those which did not,
orders were given that they sliould be supplied.
This was done in accordance with canon 24,
of A.D. 1003. Chichester was required to pro-
vide copes " by one a year till they were
METROrOLITICAL VISITATION 89
sufficiently furnished with them." In some
places the Puritan spirit burst forth in its
opposition to the Visitation, but on the whole
matters seemed to have passed off quietly, and a
considerable amount of wholesome reformation
was effected.
The most serious opposition encountered
was at the hands of Laud's old enemy,
Williams, Bishop of Lincoln. As we have
before noticed, in order to gain his own per-
sonal ends, Williams allied himself with the
Puritans and favoured them. The altar in his
own private chapel at Buckden Palace, stood
in its proper place, as also in his Cathedral
Church at Lincoln, and in Westminster Abbey,
of which he was Dean. He also caused the
altar at St. Martin's, Leicester, to be properly
placed ; but in December, 1633, when the visit-
ation had begun, he granted to the vicar and
churchwardens permission to replace the altar
in the body of the church.^ Upon this act of
hostility, the Archbishop proceeded to make
the Diocese of Lincoln the scene of his visit-
ation, inhibiting the bishop and his archdeacons
while the visitation lasted. Williams, being
a man of resource, retaliated by claiming
exemption from the inhibition under certain
Bulls obtained from Pope Innocent IV., and
1 Hoylin, p. 269.
90 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
he also maintained that the inhibition would
act ruinously upon him, by diverting fees and
procurations which then formed the chief
source of the episcopal income. The matter
was referred to the Lords of the Council, and
their verdict M^as in favour of the Archbishop ;
and so the Visitation proceeded. As soon as
the inhibition ceased, AVilliams ^dsited his
diocese in person, and proceeded to curry
favour with the Puritan party. It is related
that, on meeting with Dr. Bret, a Puritan of
some eminence, he burst forth with the words
of St. Augustine, " although a bishop is greater
than a presbyter, yet Augustine is inferior to
Jerome," thus playing to the Puritan gallery,
by implying that even if a bishop is greater
than a presbyter, yet Bret was greater than
AVilliams. He also gratified the Puritans by
orderuig the Holy Table to stand in the body
of the church with a rail about it, and not at
the east end with a rail before it. A paper-
warfare of pamphlets between \A^illiams and
Heylin, Laud's biographer, followed. In
1G27, Williams had put forth his opinions in
a Letter to the Vicar of Grantham. Heylin,
in 1034-, repubhshed this tract, with an
answer appended entitled, A Coal from the
Altar. Williams replied in 1037, by a pam-
phlet called, Holy Tabk\ name and things
FOREIGN PROTESTANTS IN ENGLAND 91
which drew an answer from HeyUn, Antidotum
Lincolniense.
The next event of importance in the primacy
of WilHam Laud was his action with regard to
the Foreign Protestants who were domiciled in
England. They consisted partly of the descend-
ants of foreigners, who were imported in the
reign of Edward VI., in order to leaven the
religion of the country with Protestantism, and
partly of refugees from France and the Low
Countries, who had fled to England to escape
persecution, especially in the reign of Elizaheth,
and who were settled in the chief towns and
cities. These colonies of foreigners were nests
of sedition and heresy, and if it was right for
the authorities in Church and State to restrain
English Puritanism, it was still more right to
restrain the foreign professors of the same
system. It is easy at the present day to pass
judgment upon Laud for his repressive meas-
ures, but one must remember that, in his time,
religious toleration was unknown. All religious
bodies were intolerant in those days, and per-
haps none more so than the Puritans themselves
when they got the upper hand, as is shown by
their actions during the Commonwealth, and
in their New England Colonies. JNIoreover,
the foreigners domiciled in England practised
their own religion and their own form of
92 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
worship, and thus influenced the native
malcontents.
Laud's injunctions were : — First, that all
natives should conform to the English Church
and attend the parish churches ; and Secondly,
that the aliens should use the English Liturgy
in their own language. They appealed to the
King, and a modification was granted, that the
aliens might retain their own discipline, but
that none but aliens might be their ministers.
When we consider Laud's action towards these
people in the light of the seventeenth century,
we must admit that it was not intolerant, and
that he dealt leniently. A fact to be mentioned
is, that the foreigners wrote him a letter of
thanks, which he produced at his trial.
Another matter entered into by the untiring
energy of the Primate was that of the English
congregations abroad. Owing to the influence
of foreign Protestantism, the worship of these
Anglican congregations seems to have become
almost entirely conformed to the ways of
Geneva. As Bishop of London, Laud was,
ea: officio, in charge of tliese congregations ; and
it was then that he first turned his attention to
the matter, and drew up certain regulations
with regard to chaplains — amongst others,
" that every minister or chaplain in any factory
or regiment shall read the Common Prayer and
ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM 93
administer the Sacraments, catechize children,
and perform all other public ministerial duties,
according to the rules and rubrics of the
English Liturgy and Canons." Naturally
much opposition was aroused, but by 1634
the Archbishop had won the day ; and all
English churches and regiments in Holland,
Hamburg, Turkey, India, Virginia, Barbadoes,
and other places, had to conform to the
Church's laws, and were made responsible to
the Bishop of London.
In connection with Laud's spiritual care for
English people abroad and in the Colonies, we
must pass on to consider his action with regard
to the Channel Islands. In the sixteenth
century the Channel Islands were placed under
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester.
Owing partly to their proximity to France,
the religious tone of the islands was affected
by Calvinism ; and, in the reign of Elizabeth,
the Genevan system seems to have been openly
tolerated. James I., however, revived the old
office of Dean, and caused the Prayer Book to
be translated into French. Had Laud been
able to carry out his Archiepiscopal Visitation
in the Islands, much good would have ensued ;
but even his activity had limits, and this had
to be given up. He did what he could by
providing for a more learned clergy. The
94 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
estate of Sir JNIiles Hubbard, who died in-
testate, reverted to the King ; and, through
Laud's influence, part of the estate was used
to endow fellowships at Exeter, Pembroke, and
Jesus Colleges, Oxford.
Another matter which occupied Laud dur-
ing his primacy, was the case of the London
incumbents. In the reign of Henry VIII.
they were, by a decree of the King, allowed
the sum of two shillings and ninepence in the
pound on the rents of houses. This was after-
wards confirmed by Act of Parliament. The
legahty of the grant was never disputed, but
all sorts of artifices were adopted in order to
evade payment. So successful was the plan
. adopted, that the clergy were reduced to a sad
state of penury. In 1618, they appealed to
the Court of Exchequer, and although the
judges ordered payment upon the genuine
rents of houses, the landlords still evaded their
obligations. INIatters became worse in the
reign of Charles I., when steps were taken to
obtain justice ; but they were frustrated by
the political and ecclesiastical troubles that en-
sued. The civic dignitaries and shopkeepers
never forgot Laud's championsliipof his poorer
brethren ; but " the business of the tythes of
London " was brought against him at liis trial.
It was but another instance of the truth that
THE STAR CHAMBER 95
to do one's duty often results in making bitter
enemies.
Here we may turn to consider a series of
prosecutions, some of which took place when
Laud was bishop of London. These prosecu-
tions may, with truth, be said to be more
connected with the general history of England
than with the life of Archbishop Laud ; but as
they took place in the Star Chamber, and
Laud was a member of that court, and the
offences of the prosecuted were partly against
the Church, we must refer to them. The
Star Chamber was a court formed in the reign
of Henry VII. As Mr. Hutton remarks, —
" It was a legal court, contrary though it was
to the true principles of the English Constitu-
tion ; and Laud took it as he found it, as part
of the settled system under which it was his
lot to live, and sat among its members as one
of the ordinary duties which fell to him to per-
form. . . . He sat in the Star Chamber with
as clear a conscience, and as single an aim, as
those with which many clerks have sat in
modern times on the bench of the Petty
Sessions." ^
The three cases chiefly associated with Laud
are those of Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton.
William Prynne was a lawyer of some ability,
1 Hutton, p. 133.
96 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
who from boyhood had been infected with a
Puritanism of the most virulent type. With
a dihgence worthy of a better cause, he had
heaped up a marvellous store of learning,
sacred and profane. The theatre was the first
object that invited his wrath. A large part of
his stock of learning was discharged at plays
and play actors, in the shape of a ponderous
tome entitled Histrioinastix. But his de-
nunciations did not stop at the theatre ; as
Heylin expresses it, " he seemed to breathe
nothing but disgrace to the nation, infamy to
the Church, reproaches to the court, dishonour
to the Queen, and some things which were
thought to be tending to the destruction of his
Majesty's Person." In those days, to attack
in writing the person of the monarch was a
serious matter, since it implied the crime of
High Treason, with its penalty of being hung,
drawn and quartered, the latter sometimes
being performed before life was extinct. Not
long before, during Queen Elizabeth's reign,
this penalty was freely meted out, often on the
very slightest grounds of proof The punish-
ment therefore of Prynne, which consisted in
his being imprisoned, fined £5,000, degraded
from his profession, set in the pillory, with the
loss of his ears, was really moderate when
judged by the cruel laws of the day.
THE STAR CHAMBER 97
In 1635, Prynne was again apprehended,
this time in company with a Puritan minister,
Henry Burton, and a physician, John Bast-
wick. Burton was prosecuted for two Ubellous
sermons, attacking the Laudian pohcy with
the foul-mouthed denunciation of the Puritan-
ism of the day. Heyhn gives us samples of
his eloquence, and concludes, " These are the
principal flowers of Rhetorick which grew in
the Garden of H. B., sufficient, questionless,
to show how sweet a champion he was like
to prove of the Church and Gospel." ^
Bastwick was the author of a parody on the
Litany, which, besides being irreverent, was
also silly without the saving grace of humour.
Prynne's productions were, 2Vie Qiiench-Coal,
The unhishopping of Timothy and Titus ^ and
l^evcs from Ipsxmch, — so gross were his libels,
that Heylin after quoting some of the names
applied to the bishops, says that there were
" many other odious names not fit to be used
by a Christian."
The court condemned Prynne, Burton, and
Bastwick to lose their ears, to be each fined
£5,000, and to be imprisoned in Guernsey,
Jersey, and Scilly. That the sentence was
outrageously severe, none can deny ; and it
was even more impolitic ; for these three
^ Heylin, p. 311.
7
98 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
coarse libellers became, in the popular estima-
tion, saints and confessors, and their persecu-
tion only strengthened the Puritan cause. It
is worthy of note that Laud did not vote,
and also that he said that, under Elizabeth,
Penry was hanged, and Udal died in prison,
for less than was contained in Burton's
sermons. In Laud's eyes, these offenders were
traitors against Church and State ; but towards
them personally he felt no bitterness ; for he
says " I pitied them, as God knows, from
my very lieart." ^ It must also in fairness be
remembered, that the methods of the Court
were not of Laud's making, nor did he select
the punishments, as some writers have seemed
to imply. To the trials of Leighton and of
Sherfield reference has already been made.
A few words must be said about the Court
of the High Commission. This Court was
established in the reign of Elizabeth. It may
be said to have been the creation of Parlia-
ment. Its chief duty was to enforce the
acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. To a
large extent, it took the place of the ancient
ecclesiastical courts. If the bishops had
acted constitutionally, they would have done
so througli their own courts ; but owing to
the influence of the State, and from motives
' laud's Wurks, iii. 389,
THE COURT OF HIGH COMMISSION 99
of practical convenience, the Court of High
Commission became the most important tri-
bunal in which ecclesiastical causes were tried.
Its proceedings, to a great extent directed
against the Puritan party, created much
popular odium against the Church. To quote
Mr. Hutton, "Probably no human institu-
tion has ever been more irrationally or more
untruthfully attacked." ^
The Act Books of the Court, which cover
two years and a quarter, have been preserved ;
and their testimony is that, during this period,
only two clergymen were sentenced to de-
position from the ministry ; one for a grave
moral offence, and the other for teaching that
Saturday should be observed as the Sabbath.
In the latter case, on submission, the sentence
was remitted. Only four clergy were sentenced
to deprivation, and suspension from the exer-
cise of their functions, one of whom was
guilty of dishonesty, and two of reviling their
parishioners.
The cloud overhanging the horizon, to which
we have already referred, had, by 1637, as-
sumed alarming proportions, and every moment
it threatened to burst with tremendous fury.
In that year the carefully laid plans for bring-
ing Scotland into conformity with England
1 Hutton, p. 98.
100 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
in the use of a Service Book, came to nought,
by the insurrection that began in Edinburgh,
and the troubles into which both Church and
State were phniged commenced. The re-
maining years of the primacy of William
Laud are inextricably connected with these
troubles, and they wiU be described in detail
later. The same is the case in regard to
affairs in Scotland and in Ireland.
CHAPTER V
LAUD AS REFORMER
laud's reformation, a re-action against
THAT OF CRANMER LAUD's OPPOSITION TO
CALVINISM EPISCOPACY, DE JURE DIVINO
ASSERTION OF SACRAMENTAL DOCTRINE
RE-ACTION TOWARDS CATHOLIC BELIEF AND
PRACTICE CEREMONIAL REFORMATION
LIMITATIONS IN LAUD's REFORMATION
Reference has already been made in Chapter
I. to the downward course which the Reforma-
tion took in Enghmd. JMen who are commonly-
called " reformers " were really more identified
with revolt than with reform ; since by their
actions they endeavoured to do away with,
rather than to reform, the ancient religious
system. We have already noticed that, in the
reign of Elizabeth, a re-action set in, in-
augurated by such men as Hooker and others.
But this movement was not fully developed
and carried into effect until the advent of
William Laud.
101
102 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
This re-action was a true reformation-move-
ment : whilst rejecting Papal and mediaeval
accretions, it steadily turned its face towards the
genuine teaching of the Holy Catholic Church,
and especially the Church before the disastrous
Schism between the East and West, which
took place in the eleventh century. If this be
admitted, then Laud is to be regarded as the
great constructive reformer of the Anglican
Church ; and in this chapter we are to consider
him as such. When we contrast the proceed-
ings of the Cranmerian reformers in the days of
Edward VL, with the true reformation carried
out by Laud and his followers, it cannot be
denied that the aims of the former were
diametrically opposed to those of the latter.
It is quite possible, so to speak, to canonize
Cranmer and his colleagues ; but, in doing
this. Laud and his party become logically
Romanizers, for in their view the Iloman
Church was part of the Chiu'ch of Christ,
and the Pope was a Christian bishop. In the
eyes of the former party the Iloman Church
was an Anti-cliristian apostacy, and the Pope
was clearly the JNlan of Sin. In the same way,
if we hold the Laudian movement to have
l)een a genuine reformation, then consequently
tliat of Cranmer was a revolution. It is quite
true that in the writings of men of Laud's
LAUD^S REFORMATION 103
school, such as Heyhn and others, we find the
theory advanced that the Laudian movement
was a continuation of the Cranmerian: but such
a theory is most difficult to square with facts,
and one can only think that these men were
driven to write in this strain in order, as they
honestly thought, to strengthen their position.
The monumental work of Canon Dixon ^ gives
a learned and impartial account of the Ed-
wardian reformation ; and if we take this as
our guide, it is impossible to maintain that)
Laud's work was a development of that of)
Cranmer. To take one instance, namely, the»
treatment of the Altar or Holy Table. What )
the followers of Cranmer threw down, Laud and
his party built up. In both cases important/
doctrinal reasons prompted their actions. The
Edwardian reformers, as a body, disbelieved,
whilst Laud and his followers believed, in th(
Eucharistic Sacrifice. It is true that the Laud-]
ian divines protested against certain populai
mediceval theories of the doctrine of the
Sacrifice of the Altar ; but from their writings /
it is easy to see that they clearly believed in \
that doctrine. If, for instance, we compare ';
their statements with those made by a ,^
moderate man of the " old learning," like I
^ History of the Church of England from the abolition of the
Roman Jurisdiction, 1877-1900.
104 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Bishop Gardiner in his celebrated sermon
before Edward VI., it is hard to detect any
doctrinal differences whatsoever.
That Laud was a Romanizer, in the true
sense of that word, is too ridiculous to need
refutation. Such an opinion is the result of
the MTitinsfs of narrow-minded Puritans. Laud
was a Catholic, but of the stoutest Anglican
t}^e. He personally re-converted no less than
twenty-two persons who had strayed into the
Roman fold. In his controversy with Fisher,
and on other occasions, he valiantly defended
the English Church against Roman attacks.
Like all Angio-Catholic divhies of his day, he
called himself a Protestant. But we must
remember that the meaning of this word has
changed ; at the present day even the moderate
school in the Anglican Commimion would
resent its application to themselves. In the
seventeenth century it was different. " Pro-
testant " seems to have connoted all Christians
wlio protested against the Roman claims. In
this sense the Greek Cliurches may rightly be
styled Protestant. Sometimes the term Pro-
testant was applied to English Churchpeople
in contradistinction to Puritan as well as
to Papist. Ilcylin, in speaking of Bishop
AN'illiams not attending divine service when in
the Tower, says : " ^\'heLher it gave the greater
LAUD^S OPPOSITION TO CALVINISM 105
scandal to the Protestants, Pioritans or Papists,
it is hard to say."^
The first thing to notice in tlie work of Laud
as a reformer, is his conflict with the system of
John Calvin. In the reign of Henry VIII.,
the reforming movement may be said to have
been I^utheran in character ; but Lutheranism
was far too conservative to please the "new
learning" in England, and the Lutheran
influence came to an end at Henry's death.
During Edward's reign, the prevailing tone
was Zwinglian, mingled with Calvinism. By
the time of Elizabeth, Calvinism had got the
upper hand ; though, no doubt, Zwinglian
teaching on the sacraments prevailed.
Lutheranism, in its history, soon showed its
weakness : it became divided into parties. It
had little or no organization, for Luther was
no organizer. It was wanting as a religion in
completeness and logical precision ; and it
tended towards Erastianism. In some parts of
Europe, the ground occupied by Lutheranism
was captiu'ed by the followers of Calvin.
Calvinism was, in many respects, the opposite
of Lutheranism. The master-mind of John
Calvin had constructed a system which was
clear-cut and definite, and it attracted men by
its severe logic. Even the terrible dogma that
1 Heylin, p. 324.
106 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Christ died only for the elect, and that the
greater part of mankind were irrevocably pre-
destmated to eternal damnation, failed to repel
them. At Geneva, Calvin ruled as dictator,
possessing more authority than any pope.
After his death in 1564, there was no weaken-
ing of the system that he founded. Strange
though it may appear, there is a resemblance
between Calvin and Loyola. Their systems
appealed to a certain type of mind, both men
possessed a sternness and a narrowness which
fascinated, both were intolerant, and both were
anti-Erastian. Against Calvinism, and a for-
tiori against Zwinghanism, Laud made a stand ;
and, so far as the English Church is concerned,
eventually conquered. It is true that the XV.
Lambeth Articles were rejected in Elizabeth's
reign, largely, it is said, through the influence of
Andrewes ; but Laud repelled a perhaps more
insidious onslaught of Calvmism, when, by the
Declaration before the Articles, which was
drawn up through his influence, he freed them
from a purely Calvinistic interpretation. We
have already referred to the consternation that
this caused amongst the Puritan party, and
how it added to the animosity with Avhich they
regarded him. He also in Ireland delivered
the Chiu'ch from the Lambeth Articles.
Having spoken of Laud's attack upon
LAUD'S OPPOSITION TO CALVINISM 107
Zwinglian Calvinism as a whole, which was
the main principle of the Edwardian reforma-
tion, we may now turn to the details of his
constructive reformation, and see how it was a
re-action against, rather that a development of,
the teaching of Cranmer and his party. The
study of " the Catholic Fathers and ancient
Bishops " had now been going on for some
time. The leaven of Anglo- Catholicism had
been surely but slowly permeating the Church.
When men studied those ancient wi'iters, the
radical difference between the Patristic stand-
point and that of the "reformers" became
evident, and the "inspiration" of Calvin's
Institutes was first questioned, then disbelieved,
and the book was finally displaced from its
position as chief text - book of English
theology.
The teaching of the Edwardian divines upon
the constitution of the Church was conspicu-
ously at variance with that of the Fathers.
Episcopacy was indeed retained ; but this
seems to have been more for politic reasons
than from any belief in the grace of Holy
Order. Cranmer and others held but hazy
views as to the spiritual character of ecclesias-
tical jurisdiction. The ministry of Lutherans
and Calvinists, and other non-episcopal com-
munions, was regarded by them as valid. In
108 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
the reign of Elizabeth, even so Catholic-minded
a ^\Titer as Hooker taught that, in cases of
extreme necessity, the grace of Order might
be conferred by presbyters. He says "there
may be sometimes very just and sufficient
reason to allow ordination made without a
bishop."^ In Hooker's day, and even later,
cures of souls were held by men who had
received merely Presbyterian ordination.
Bancroft, in his famous sermon of 1589,
seems to have been the first English divine to
dogmatically assert that bishops were neces-
sary to the esse of the Church. The foreign
Protestant bodies were deemed by many
churchmen in Elizabeth's time, and even later,
to be " sister churches," on an equality with
the Church of England : by some, they were
moreover held to be purer, in that they came
nearer to the Genevan ideal. But when the
Fathers and the Schoolmen came to be studied,
a different conception of the Church of Christ
was the result. Then the Catholic doctrine of
the grace of Holy Order — with all that de-
pends on that doctrine — was accepted. Then
it was realized that episcopacy was of the esse,
and not merely of the bciie esse of the Clnn*ch.
I^ess than twenty years after the death of
Laud, his disciples, who revised the Prayer
^ Eccles. Vol., VII. xiv. 11.
EnSCOPACY, DE JURE DIVINO 109
Book, added to the Preface of the Ordinal the
significant words " no man shall be accounted,
or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or
Deacon in the Church of England, or suffered
to execute any of the said functions, except he
be called, tried, examined, and admitted there-
unto, according to the form hereafter following,
or hath had formerly Episcopal Consecration, or
Ordination." This addition to the Preface in
1G62, effectually put an end to erroneous
views upon the subject ; but up to that date
these ^'iews to some extent survived. Owing
to the dread of political Romanism, the Pro-
testant Communions of the Continent were
looked upon as Churches — though no doubt
imperfect — by some writers of the Laudian
school. The adoption of the added paragraph
may be well compared to a brilliant feat of
arms, a dash forward, unlooked for by the foe,
by which a strategical position is captured.
Doubtless it was this objective which Laud
and his followers had long in their minds.
We now have a stereotyped, authoritative de-
claration of the Anglican Church that the grace
of Order is only to be obtained through the
episcopate. The Roman and the Greek
Churches, however far they may in certain
points have departed from primitive practice,
are officially declared by the Anglican Church
110 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
to possess a valid ministry, whilst the ministry
of Presbyterians and other Protestant bodies is
plainly implied to lack Divine warrant. This
is no mere opinion of a school of thought in
the Anglican Church, but her official teaching,
in accordance with the words of St. Ignatius,
that " without these three orders (bishops,
priests, and deacons) no Church has a title to
the name."^
Following upon the assertion of the Divine
constitution of the Church, as depending upon
the episcopate, a return was made to the
[Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy
I Eucharist and other sacramental ordinances.
The teaching of Overall and Andrewes on the
Sacraments was confirmed by Laud. The
real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist
was believed and taught by him. Space per-
mits only a few quotations upon this point. At
his trial he spoke the following words : " The
Altar is the greatest place of God's residence
upon earth, greater than the pulpit ; for there
it is. Hoc est Corpus Meum, This is My Body,
but ill the other it is at most but. Hoc est
Verhum Mcum., this is My AVord : and a
greater reverence is due to the 15ody, than the
VV^ord of the I^ord.'-^ In liis conference with
Fisher, he wrote, " For the Church of England
1 Ad. Trail. 'A. ^ Worku, iv. 284.
SACRAMENTAL DOCTRINE 111
nothing is more plain than that it beUeves in and
teaches the true and real Presence of Christ
in the Eucharist. ^ From the doctrine of the
real Presence of Christ, adoration of his Per-
son follows as a consequence. This is clearly-
taught by Bishop Jeremy Taylor, a disciple of
Laud — " But if He be present to us not in
mystery only, but in blessing also, why do we
not worship ? But all the Christians always
did so from time immemorial. ' No man eats
this Flesh, unless he first adores,' said St.
Austin : ' For the wise men and the Bar-
barians did worship this Body in the manger
with veiy much fear and reverence. . . . But
thou seest Him, not in the manger, but on the
Altar, and thou beholdest Him, not in the
Virgin's arms, but represented by the Priest,
and brought to thee in sacrifice by the Holy
Spirit of God.' So St. Chrysostom argues."^
Jeremy Taylor and others even set forth the
propitiatory character of the Eucharistic Sacri-
fice — " It follows then that the celebration of
this sacrifice be in its proportion an instrument
of applying the proper sacrifice to all the
purposes which it first designed ; it is minis-
terially and by application an instrument
propitiatory." ^ Bishop William Forbes, also a
1 Works, ii. 328.
2 The Worthy Communicant, Loud. 1853, p. 383.
3 The Great Ejcemplar, Loud. 1841)^ iii. 715.
(
112 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
follower of Laud, held that not only is the
Eucharist propitiatory, but that "the Lord's
Body can be offered in the aforesaid manner
for the forgiveness of the sins which are daily
committed by us ; " ^ and he adds that the
Eucharist is " also in a sound sense propitiatory,
and is profitable not only to very many of the
living, but of the departed also."^ In short,
the teaching of the Laudian reformers may
be summed up in the words of Bramhall, who
asserted that, " Abate us Transubstantiation,
and those things which are consequents of
their determination of the manner of Pre-
sence, and we have no difference with them
(the Romanists) in this particular.^ In other
words, the scholastic eajplanation of the doc-
trine excepted, England and Rome are at
one in their belief concerning the doctrine of
the real Presence. On the other hand, it is
but fair to state that, in the re-action from
Scholasticism, certain of the Caroline divines
were at times somewhat \'ague, and in their
laudable desire to emphasize the virtus sacra-
menti, or benefit of communion, they tended
in the direction of the virtual theory of the
Presence, l^ut if we contrast the teaching of
many of the " reformers," and above all their
' ConHidcrntiones Modrsia', Oxford^ UJ.'iG, ii. 007.
^ Ibid. p. 013. ' Works, iii. 1G5.
RE- ACTION TOWARDS CxVTHOLIC BELIEF 113
actions, with those of the followers of Laud,
the difference is fundamental.
The Church's claim to forgive, in God's \
name, the sins of the penitent— the power of
Absolution committed to her by Jesus Christ
— was openly preached by the Laudian divines ;
and, fi'om contemporary accounts, we gather
that the practice of private confession to the
priest was fairly widespread. Confession is
mentioned in the Visitation Articles of Mon-
tague, Juxon, and other bishops of the
period ; and it is frequently referred to in
contemporary biographies.
With a fuller apprehension of the Mystery
of the Incarnation, as the result of a deeper
study of ancient Catholic theology, there of
necessity followed a great appreciation of the
person and office of St. Mary in the economy
of grace — greater perhaps than we find in the
Anglican Communion at the present time.
To-day her image uncTOtv?ied is set up in St.
Paul's cathedral ; in the days of Laud it was
set up crowned over the portal of the Uni-
versity church of Oxford, and this with the
approval of the Archbishop himself, who was
then Chancellor of the University. The rever-
ential devotion towards the JNIother of oiu*
I^ord is a striking attribute of many of the
writers of the seventeenth century. Even a
8
114 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
divine so moderate in his theological views as
Bishop Hall exclaims : " O blessed JVIary ! he
camiot bless thee, he cannot honour thee too
much, that deifies thee not."^ Henry Burton,
a sturdy Puritan was, from his point of ^dew,
consistently scandalized by the publication of
a book. The Femall Glory , or the life and
death of our Blessed Lady, the Holy Mary^
God's own Immaculate Mother. This remark-
able book is an original Anghcan work, and
not an adaption from Roman sources, and its
author was a layman, "Anthony Stafford,
Gent." as he styles himself, a member of the
University of Oxford. He begins with several
panegyrics in verse upon St. JNIary, and then
goes on — not without some learning, pagan
and Christian — to give a history of her life.
In the quaint and florid language of the seven-
teenth century, he enlarges upon her unique
glory, and the lionoiu* due to her. There is a
chapter upon her Assumption ; and, of the
men of his day, he says, "till they are good
JNIarians, they shall never be good Christians." ^
For assailing this work in a sermon. Burton
was censured by the Star Chamber ; whilst
Laud commanded Heylin, his chaplain, to
answer Burton's bitter criticism. The con-
' Contcmplatlnns, iii. 2.^, 24.
2 The Femall Glory, Loud. 18G9, p. 170.
RE-ACTION TOWARDS CATHOLIC BELIEF 115
demritation of Burton for attacking the book
formed one of Prynne's charges against the
Archbishop. It is also not to be wondered at
that the Puritan party condemned Bishop
INlontague's Apello Cccsarem, a clever, though
perhaps satirical attack upon their system, and
a setting forth of wliat would nowadays be
called " advanced High Church " doctrines.
This book was submitted to Laud and four
other bishops, and their verdict was that
Montague "had not affirmed anything to be
the doctrine of the Church of England,
but that which in our opinions is the doctrine
of the Church of England, or agreeable there-
unto."^ Another important Laudian book of
considerable research and learning is the post-
humous work of William Forbes, Bishop of
Edinburgh, Considerationes Modestoe, in which
he did his best towards healing the divisions
then existing amongst Christians. Its theo-
logical position is even more pronounced than
that of Montague's book.
Cosin's devotional handbook, A Collection of
private devotions in the practice of the Ancient
Church called the Hours of Prayer, published
in 1627, must not be passed over. At the
beginning of the reign of Charles I., when the
French ladies-in-waiting in the train of Queen
^ Maccoll, Lawlessnesa . . . , Loud. 1875, p. 319.
116 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Henrietta INIaria formed part of the English
Court, it was noticed that some of their number
were provided with books of Hours, and other
w^orks of devotion, which they used at cer-
tain times during the day. The example of
these ladies stimulated a desire on the part of
the more devout English courtiers for similar
books of an Anglican type. This want was
supplied by John Cosin, a prominent figure
amongst Laudian divines, by the publication
of his book of devotions, which seems to have
been taken partly from the Primer issued in
Elizabeth's reign, and partly from ancient
sources. This book is interesting as a popular
manual of devotions of the seventeenth cen-
tury, and it passed through many editions. It
gave considerable offence to the Puritans, who
called it, " Cosins Cousimng Devotions." ^ Its
author, they commonly styled " Popish master
John."
The divine precept of fasting, and its eccle-
siastical applications, appears to have been
widely kept in the seventeenth century. This
was also the case in the reign of Elizabeth and
James, though the State reason of the en-
couragement of the fisheries largely helped the
a))stincnce from flesh-meat on days of fasting.
The fast before Communion was, from con-
1 Evelyn's Diary, Loud. \^1\i, \). 214.
RE-ACTION TOWxVRDS CATHOLIC BELIEF 117
temporary evidence, well observed ; no doubt,
far more strictly than it is at the present day.
Fasting Communion is constantly inculcated
in Caroline books of devotion, and other similar
writings. Until the end of the seventeenth
century the meal called breakfast, as already
mentioned, was almost unknown ; the first
meal in the day (except in the case of the
deUcate and infirm) being dinner, which was
eaten at 10 or 11 o'clock. This fact caused
the observance of the fast before Communion
to be an easy matter.
The mischievous heresy of Solifidianism, pro-
pounded by Luther, was ably refuted by the
Laudian divines ; and the teaching of St. Paul
was balanced by that of St. James. To depre-
ciate good works was admirably consistent on
the part of some of those whose good works
were a negligible quantity ! But now that a ,
return was being made to Catholic doctrine
and practice, a corresponding increase in godli-
ness and piety took place. The bishops and
clergy of the Laudian era doubtless had their
faults, but in vain do we look for a Poynet or
a Holgate amongst them. A different concept
tion of the Christian ministry was set forth,
the Protestant idea of the mere Preacher giving^
way to the Catholic idea of the Priest. Whilst I
the wise permission to the clergy to marry.
118 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
" as they shall judge the same to serve better
to godUness," ^ was maintained ; yet, at the same
time, the teaching of the Church as to the
virgin-state being the more excellent way
was not lost sight of, and the voluntary celi-
bacy of ilie_j^ergy_jw^^sencoura^ Laud's
own views are relatedto usHby Heylin, who
says : —
" He was a single man himself and wished
perhaps as St. Paul once did, That all men
else (that is to say, all men in Holy Ordei^s)
would remain so likewise. And some occasion
being offered at that time to speak about the
conveniences or inconveniences of a married
Clergy, he made some declaration of himself
to this effect, that in disposing of all Ecclesias-
tical Promotions he would prefer the single man
before the married, supposing the abilities of
the persons were otherwise equal." ^ On the
other hand, he was quite loyal to the Article,
and on one occasion officiated personally, in
the Chapel of London House, at the marriage
of one of his chaplains.
Tlie Laudian movement seems to have
raised the whole tone of the ecclesiastical state.
Tlie ordinary parochial clergy since the Reform-
ation appear to have been a despised order in
the eyes of tlie laity — the bishops " made
» Article XXXII. 2 Heylin, p. 212.
RE- ACTION TOWAUDS CATHOLIC BELIEF 119
priests of the lowest of the people," but now
in the ranks of the clergy all classes were
represented. IMen of birth, learning, and
wealth were to be found, who sought the
priesthood in response to a divine vocation.
For instance, we have tlie spectacle of a
cultured and refined gentleman like George
Herbert, voluntarily surrendering the prospects
of a brilliant career at Coin^t, in order to become
the humble parish-priest of a Wiltshire village.
It was Laud's personal influence that finally
decided him to take this step.^ We must also
not omit to mention how Nicholas Ferrar, a
prosperous city merchant, gave up all worldly
hopes and interests, and retired to an obscure
Huntingdonshire manor-house, where he
founded a semi-monastic society, consisting of
his mother, his nieces and other relatives. Here
he acted as chaplain to this little community,
in which a holy life of prayer and devotion,
blended with practical philanthropy, was spent,
till the place was sacked by Cromwell's brutal
soldiery, and the inmates dispersed. Little
Gidding is to-day familiar to many, from the
exquisite account of the place and its inmates
given in the pages of that great historical
romance John Inglesant.
1 Izaak Waltoii;, Life of Mr. George Herbert. Lond. 18GG,
p. 274.
120 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Such examples of self-surrender are the fruits
rather of a Catholic, than a Protestant type of
piety ; and, from what we know of the Laudian
reformation, a remarkable ourpouring of the
spirit of the heroic virtues seems quietly to
have taken place in England at this time, both
amongst the clergy and laity ; opposite to the
rapacity and godlessness which was common in
the preceding age.
In the matter of theological learning the
Movement produced a school of divines in
the English Church that has, perhaps, never
been surpassed. If we take the period, roughly
speaking, as beginnmg wdth Hooker, and ex-
tending through the seventeenth century, it
includes such masters as Andrewes, Overall,
Laud, Hammond, Forbes, Thorndike, Cosin,
Bramhall, Jeremy Taylor, Sparrow, Sanderson,
Pearson, and others. Never perhaps has such
a galaxy of theologians existed together, so that
a foreign divine was compelled to exclaim,
Clerus AngUcanus stupoi' mundi!
We have already alluded to much of Laud's
reforming work in a preceding chapter. The
JMctropolitical visitation, witli its reverent
ordering of the worship of God in cathedrals
and parish chin-ches, and the efforts which
were tlicn made to raise the tone of the lives
of the clergy, was distinctly a work of relbrm.
CEREMONIAL REFORMATION 121
The same may be said of Laud's endeavours to
improve Anglican church-services abroad, in
the colonies, and in the army and navy. The
action of the Court of High Commission
in punishing open and notorious evil-livers,
however closely we may criticize the means
employed, was certainly a work of moral re-
formation. These matters have been already
referred to.
We must now pass on to describe in more
detail the reformation in the ceremonial of the
Church, which was carried out under Laud.
When a return was made to the " old paths "
in doctrine, it necessarily followed that a
return should also be made in ceremonial
which is the outward expression of doctrine.
The Holy Table, as we have seen, was
removed to its ancient site at the east end
of the church, and placed altar-wise, and
commonly described as the Altar. The use i
of altar-lights, wafer-bread, and the mixed
chalice, seems to have been fairly widespread,
and incense was not uncommon. In some
churches, an altar-cross was to be seen.
Sacred pictures and statuary were again set (
up in churches. The use of the surplice be-
came universal. Copes were worn in nearly all
cathedrals, and in some parish churches. As
to the Eucharistic vestments, we have no
122 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
explicit evidence that they were actually used,
although one of the copes at Durham Cathedral,
which had upon it " the story of tlie Passion,"
may possibly have been a full-shaped chasuble.^
^The reverent custom of bowing towards the
j altar was widely observed, and the primitive
usage of making the sign ot the cross in daily
life seems to have been common. At Durham
we hear of the Eucharist being chorally rend-
ered 2 and of non-communicants being present.^
An extract fi'om a scurrilous sermon preached
by Peter Smart, prebendary of Durham, may
be quoted to show what a militant Puritan of
the day thought of the ceremonial of the
Church —
Before, we had ministers, as the Scripture calls them,
we had Communion-tables, we had sacraments ; but
now we have priests, and sacrifices, and altars, with
much altar furniture and many massing implements.
... If religion consist in altar decking, cope
wearing, organ playing, pijiing and singing, cross-
ing of cushions and kissing of clouts, oft sbu'ting up
and squatting down, nodding of heads, and whirling
about till their noses stand eastwai'd, setting basins on
tlie altar, candlesticks, and crucifixes, burning wax
candles in excessive number when and where there is
' JTierurffin Aru/linnut, Loud. 1003, cd. Staley, Pt. 11.229,230.
^ Arliclrx of tlii' CiDuinons . . . Kjiim flic ronijihiint of I'rtcr
Smfiff,iii/iiiiis/ John Cosin, pp. 7-10, qii. Ilirr. Ann/if., I't. 11. p. 225.
See also Tvntimonji of li. Ilntvlunsnn . , . qii. Hiid. p. 227-
•' vl rfiftt/otpif of xuiirrxtifioiix in}} ovations In'oiiijlit info DiO'ham
cat heel )-ul, pp. 10^ 2», (ju. Ihid. Vt. III. p. 317.
CEREMONIAL REFORMATION 123
no use of lights ; and what is worst of all^ gilding of
angelsj and garnishing of images^ and setting them
aloft ... if, I say^ religion consist in these and such
like superstitious vanities^ ceremonial fooleries^ apish
toys, and popish trinkets, we had never more religion
than now.i
This worthy seems naturally to have been a
thorn in the flesh to the Chapter, and the
result of this pulpit eloquence was that he was
summarily deposed from his office.
It is interesting also to note the return
that was made to mediaeval architecture. All
students of architecture are familiar with the
excellent examples erected in Laud's time,^
such as parts of the chapel of Jesus College,
Oxford, and the chapel of Exeter College,
the latter now, alas, no more, thanks to the
vandalism of the Victorian era — an age, it has
been said, more destructive than the ages
of the " reformers " and Puritans combined.
What is even more interesting is that in
many of the churches of this period, a return
was made to ancient usage in dividing the
chancel from the nave by a rood-screen, and
erecting stalls in the chancel for the clergy
and other ministers.
^ Sermon by Peter Smart, pp. 11, 23, 24, qu. Hier. Anglic, I. 75.
2 It must not be fori^otteu however that in the reij^-n of James
1. there was a revival of Gothic architecture, which produced such
exquisite buildings as those of Wadham College, Oxford.
124 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Looking back upon the Laudian Reform-
ation, when we read the records of the theo-
logical beliefs of the leaders of the movement
which are preserved to us, and the somewhat
scanty accounts of the ceremonial revived by
them, we must bear in mmd the numbers of
clergy and laity who doubtless followed them in
instances of which we have no record.
Before bringing this chapter to a close,
reference must briefly be made to what may
be called the limitations or imperfections of
Laud's reformation. In the first place, when
we consider the ^\Titings of Laud and his
school, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact
that they often fail to take a Catholic view
of the English Church. Her sad isolation
from the rest of Catholic Christendom was
hardly realized. Not much in those days was
known about the Eastern Church, and owing
to the comparatively recent excesses of the
Romanensian party in the Church of England
in INIary's reign, and such horrors as the
massacre of St. Bartholomew's day abroad,
English Churclimen in the seventeenth century
were apt to magnify the differences between
England and Rome. The result was that
their conception of tlic English Church was
ollcn one of the narrowest insularity.
In the matter of the relation of the Church
LIMITS OF LAUD'S REFORMATION 125
to the State, Laud made immense use of the
Crown in causing it to issue Proclamations for
the due ordering and reformation of the Church.
The Regale, in those days when a devoted son
of the Church happened to occupy the throne,
was a powerful weapon to fight the Church's
battles ; and Laud used it to the full. He
acted much like the modern vicar, who rehes
upon the power of the squire of his parish,
who happens to be a good Churchman. Yet
Laud was no Erastian, no one held stronger
or clearer views on spiritual authority than he
did. " JNIy order as a Bishop, and my power
of Jurisdiction is by Divine Apostohcal right,
and unalterable, for aught I know, in the Church
of Christ."^ Dr. Bright has very accurately
stated Laud's position in this matter, when he
writes, " Although the very reverse of an \
Erastian, he exaggerated the royal supremacy '
in Church matters as a convenient instrument i
for his purpose. " ^ We cannot approve of Laud's /
pohcy of conferring upon prelates great offices/
of the State, as he did, for instance, in causing
Juxon to be made Lord Treasurer, and Spottis-
woode Chancellor of Scotland. One is certainly
astonished at the exclamation that he made in
the former case, " Now, if the Church will not!
1 Laud's Works, iii. 406.
2 Bright, Waymurka in Church History, Loud. 1894^ p. 349.
126 LIFE OF WILLI AIM LAUD
hold up themselves under God, I can do no
more."^
Another serious fault in the Laudian Re-
formation was that, to a great extent, it came
from above ; the mo\'ement was furthered by
bishops and dignitaries, rather than by the
rank and file of the clergy, who were largely
on the Puritan side.^ JNlozley, in criticizing
this fault in the movement, points out the fact
that Laud had to deal with a superhuman
difficulty, a Church that was thoroughly
Puritanized ; and he says, " the age was set
one way, and he took perhaps the only engine
there was for him." ^ Another matter in which
fault may be found is that Laud's movement
was largely centralized in himself It can
hardly be said that he was primus inter pares
in relation to his brethren in the episcopate ;
but here again the exigencies of the time
must be taken into account, for had he acted
as a modern English Primate his reforms could
never have been carried out. Again, owing to
the upheaval of the Great Rebellion, the pro-
gress of Laud's work was suddenly checked,
' L;iU(l'.s Works (Diary), iii. 220.
^ For a comparison between the Laudian and the Oxford
Movements, see Dr. Neale's interestinf^ article on the subject
in Jiis lA'cturrs on Church Difficulties, \)yi. 1(;[J-18(». It must ho
confessed, liowevor, tiiat the iearned writer soems hardly fair as
regards the Laudian Movement.
^ Esisuys Uidorical and Theological, Lond. 1878, i. 22G.
LIMITS OF LxVUD'S REFORMATION 127
and although it was carried on at the Restora-
tion, yet much was left for the Oxford JNIove-
ment to effect. For instance, the Laudian
divines taught that the Eucharist was the
great Christian service,^ and they longed for
more frequent, and even for daily celebrations
of the Eucharist.2 So again the full ceremonial
of the Church, implied in the Ornaments
Rubric, w^as left for the nineteenth century to
restore.
The history of the English Church in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may per-
haps be best described as similar to that of an
unfortunate sufferer, subjected to the treatment
of various quack physicians. Eventually, how-
ever, these persons are sent about their business,
and a skilled and qualified doctor is called in.
The patient greatly improves ; but so grievous
are the results of his former treatment, that
restoration to perfect health is not to be
attained. The evils of the Edwardian and
Elizabethan days were so serious, that even
Laud could not effect a complete cure.
1 Thonidike, Works, Oxford, 1844, i. 274.
2 See Bishop Jeremy Taylor's passionate yearning for the daily
celebration expressed in The Great Exemplar, Lond. 1849, iii. 725.
AVliilst Hayward, Bisliop Overall's chaplain, said, " Better were
it to endure the absence of tlie peo|)le, than for the minister to
neglect the usual and daily sacrifice of the C'hurch, by which all
people, whether they be there or no, reap so much benefit ; and
this was the opinion of my lord and master, Dr. Overall." — Qu.
Cosiu's Works, V. 127.
128 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Such is a brief account of Laud's work as a
Reformer, — a constructive work of which the
foundations may be said to have been laid by
Hooker and others, but which needed a man
of Laud's strong personality, fearless courage,
and higher position to carry into full effect.
CHAPTER VI
LAUD: PRIVATE AND DEVOTIONAL LIFE
PORTRAITS OF LAUD — " ALWAYS AILING, NEVER
failing" SIMPLICITY OF HIS HOME-LIFE
KINDNESS TO DEPENDENTS — ATTITUDE TO-
WARDS RECREATIONS PROMOTES SPIRITUAL-
ITY AMONGST THE CLERGY LAUD AND
FERRAR THE YOUNGER
Whilst we know much about the outward
life, aims and opinions, of historical characters,
not SO much is known of their inner life
and personal religion. William Laud is no
exception to this rule. But thanks to certain
passages in his Diary, and History of his
Troubles, and to Heylin's account of his life,
and also to Laud's Devotions, we can gather
some fragments, and, so to speak, piece them
together.
Like most men of mark who have lived
during the past three or four hundred years,
Laud's portrait remains to show what manner
of man he was outwardly. There are several
9 129
130 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD
paintings of undoubted excellence existing,
the work of Vandyke and other great masters.
Laud seems to have been short of stature,
with almost delicately-made features. His
eyes are keen and piercing, his forehead is
good. He wears the trim pointed beard and
moustache of many great prelates of the day,
not only in England, but also abroad, as the
familiar pictures of Riclielieu and others re-
mind us. His hair is closely cut. He wears
a rochet and scarf, and upon his head the
soft square cap of the period. His face shows
energy, activity and determination, there is
an intellectual acuteness about it, and it is
not without an expression of kindliness.
As has been already observed. Laud suffered
as a child from delicacy of health, which never
left him. In after life he was constantly
unwell ; and yet his pluck and spirit were so
great, that the amount of work he accom-
plished would have done credit to the strongest
of men. Of him, it has been well said that
he was " always ailing and never failing," that
he had in short, " a vigorous, obstinate, indoors
constitution."^ When we consider that, in
addition to his episcopal duties, he combined
the office of being Chancellor to two uni-
versities with that of being virtually Prime
' Moziey, Exfidi/.s- Jlhtoricul and Thcoioyicul, Loud. 1870) I. 111.
' ALWAYS AILING, NEVER FAILING ' 131
Minister ; and when we remember that his work
as bishop, and afterwards as archbishop, was
carried out with conscientious thoroughness ;
it must be confessed that his hfe had much
of the busy character of a hardworking
twentieth century bishop of London or arch-
bishop of Canterbury. If we compare Laud's
Hfe and work with that of many of the bishops
of the age preceding him, who unblushiugly
sought the advancement of themselves and
their relations, who carefully feathered their
own nests with the patrimony of the Church,
who were conveniently servile and complaisant
to those in authority — if we compare Laud's
life and work with theirs, the contrast is great.
However mistaken Laud's opponents may
hold him to have been, they are constrained to
acknowledge his unselfishness and the loftiness
of his character. Even though men may hold
Laud's beliefs to have been erroneous and his
aims mistaken, they must admit his single-
mindedness. For the advancement of the
Church's best interests Laud surrendered much
that this world counts dear, he led a life of
incessant labour, and followed a course that
exposed him to enmity. While he was muni-
ficent in his charities and benefactions, he
seems to have spent little on himself He chose
the unmarried state with its freedom from
132 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
domestic cares and its greater opportunities
for self-surrender, but with its often accom-
panying loneliness and isolation. His liome
life was singularly simple, and his mode of
living was almost ascetic. The Church's
ordered round of worship was carefully ob-
served in his chapel. The fasts and festivals
were faithfully observed. He laboured on
without ceasing, under stress of continual
bodily sickness and infirmity. With the ex-
ception of a small number of personal friends
and followers, there were few around him
upon whom he could rely. As to his recrea-
tion, it seems to have centred chiefly in his
books ; and like many a man his diary was
a solace to him. His life though very busy
was largely sedentary, and we find him swing-
ing books by way of exercise. He appears
to have spent much time in fine weather in
his garden. Riding on horseback was more
common in the seventeenth century than it
is now, and at times he used to ride. Every-
thing about his life, one may say, was arranged
in subservience to the advancement of a great
cause. And, as is often the case, this single-
mindcdness liad its reward in the remarkable
change whicli largely througli his efforts
passed over the English Church, — a cliange
affecting not only lier outward appearance,
KINDNESS TO DEPENDENTS 133
but her very soul, a cliaiige, moreover, which
survived the Great llebeUion and has its
fruits in the present day.
Yet we must not look upon Laud as a
man of cast-iron rigour, or a mere dictator of
an ecclesiastical policy, as has sometimes been
done by those who have not fully understood
him. The human side of his character was
indeed no negligible quantity. His affection
for his sovereign was very real, so was also
the friendship that he bore to the Duke of
Buckingham and to the Earl of Strafford —
characters very different from his own. The
treatment that a man bestows upon his de-
pendents is good indication of his disposition.
To his servants Laud was ever a kind master.
In his Diary we meet with ample proofs of
this. Adam Torless, his steward and right-
hand man, is mentioned several times, and
his death is touchingly referred to — " Thursday,
September 23, 1641, INIr. Adam Torless my
ancient, loving and faithful servant, and then
my steward, after he had served me full forty
and two years, died to my great both loss
and grief. For all my accounts since my
commitment were in his hands ; and had he
not been a very honest and careful man, I
must have suffered much more than I did ;
yet I suffered enough besides the loss of his
134 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD
person who was now become almost the only
comfort of my affliction, and my age."^ On
October 26 (1634) when staying at Hampton
Court, Laud dreams that his servant William
Pemiell is ill at Croydon. He at once rises,
orders his coach, drives off, finds the dream
to be true, and is just in time to commend
the poor man's soul to God.^ Where Laud
was intimately known, he appears to have been
sincerely beloved, as he was by the poor who
lived near him at Lambeth. Laud's kindh-
ness is also shown when a young man, JNIr.
Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon), ventured
to call upon him, and with youthful presump-
tion to act the part of the " candid friend "
towards the aged Primate ; informing him,
as they walked in the garden, how he was
evil spoken of throughout the land, and how
his blunt speech was causing him to be dis-
liked. Laud listened patiently to all that
the young man had to say, and then with true
hinnility admitted that at times he was hasty
and often spoke in a way that he afterwards
regretted. Dr. Gardiner speaks of Laud's
personal kindness, which sometimes underlay
his official severity in the Star Chamber.^
1 Laud's Worloi (Troultlcs), Oxford 11J53, iii. Ud.
2 Jhuf. p. 224.
3 Gardiner, in JJid. Xat. Biog., xxxii. 190 sub "Laud."
LAUD'S CHARACTER 135
That he was quick tempered and spoke im-
pulsively is indeed true — and no one grieved
over this fault more than himself — but it by
no means follows that he was cruel and
unfeeling, as some writers have striven to
maintain. When Prynne wrote a libellous
letter to Laud after his condemnation in the
Star Chamber, Noye the Attorney General
wished that he should be forbidden pen and
ink in his imprisonment ; but Laud would
would not hear of such a proposal, and insisted
also that his books should be given to him.
His magnanimity towards his great opponent,
Williams, is noticeable. Of all Laud's foes
Williams seems to have been the most danger-
ous, because he was the most unprincipled. At
one time Williams got into a serious difficidty
in a matter concerning the State. He was
charged before the Star Chamber with reveal-
ing secrets, contrary to his oath as Privy
Councillor. Laud had his foe at his feet, but
instead of taking advantage of this, he went,
as he says in his Diary, " five several times
on my knees to the King my Master " in
order to obtain his pardon.^ A harsh and
narrow-minded man, as some have imagined
Laud to have been, would certainly not have
taken such a tolerant line on the Sunday
1 Laud's Works (Speeches), VI. i. 73.
136 LIFE OF WILIJAM LAUD
question as he did, and countenanced harmless
recreations on Sundays after divine service.
Laud stood up against a gloomy Puritanism
which hated to see people enjoying themselves,
just in the same way as in a later age the
same Puritan spirit is said to have tabooed
fox-hunting, not so much because of the suffer-
ing that it caused to the poor fox, as of the
enjoyment that it afforded to the sportsmen !
At Oxford, when executing the office of
Chancellor of the University and entertaining
royalty, the gi-eat Prelate could unbend and
"rejoice with them that do re'joice." In like
manner, in his correspondence with Strafford,
we constantly come across touches of quiet
humour, and Heylin was right when he said
of him that he was " one that knew as well
how to put off the gravity of his place and
person, when he saw occasion, as any man
living whatsoever." 1 Laud's attitude to the
Stage shows the same liberal spirit, in that
he desired its reformation, and not, as the
Puritans did, its abolition.
Of Laud's position as a theologian much
has been already said in tlicsc pages. It now
remains to speak of his devotional life. To
regard him as merely a great character in the
history of the English Church, is to take
1 Heylin, p. 608.
PROMOTES SPIRITUALITY 137
a very imperfect view of his life. The
pubHcity to which he was necessarily exposed
has doubtless tended to throw the private
aspect of Laud's life into the shade, yet that
inner life was very real. His well-known
book of Devotions reveals what manner of
man he was, and even if this work did
not exist his Diary and the History of his
Troubles afford ample evidence that, in the
midst of a round of ceaseless and strenuous
public activity, he was a man of prayer, whose
life was "hid with Christ in God." No stress
of business, or pressure of work interfered
with this inner life : seven times a day did he
poiu* out his heart to God in those prayers
which are preserved to us. In his book of
Devotions there is even provision made for
the silent hours of the night. We also find
intercessions for all manner of persons and for
divers occasions — for the Church, the State,
the Khig, the sick and others. There are also
prayers as to his own faults and shortcomings,
especially for the bridling of the tongue ; and
above all there are the penitential prayers for
the amiiversary of his great fall in solemnizing
the " marriage " of the Earl of Devon, to
which allusion has already been made. Some
of the devotions are taken from ancient sources,
and some from the Book of Common Prayer.
138 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Nearly all are compiled from Holy Scripture.
JNIany of the prayers, such as the prayer " for
enemies," breatiie the very highest Christian
spirit, and show how unjust is the accusation
that Laud was of an unforgiving nature. The
prayer " for servants " has the touching petition,
" ]\Iake me ever willing, and in some measure
able to repay unto them the time and the
strength which they either have or shall spend
to do me service " ^ — another proof of Laud's
consideration of his dependents.
Even Heylin, his faithful disciple and
biographer, to a great extent overlooks this
inner devotional life ; but it was this that
supported Laud in his trials and difficulties.
The dangers, for instance, which surrounded
liim at the Court of Charles I. were con-
siderable. Few of those in authority possessed
either his single-heartedness, or his probity.
Windebank sadly lacked principle, whilst
Cottington was a self-seeker. There was also
the strong Roman influence, of which the
Queen was the leader, with AValter JNIontague,
Hamilton and others as her heutenants. Above
all the King liimself, who was sincerely devoted
to J^aud and justly valued his loyalty, was
easily influenced by others, and was not always
to be relied upon. Amongst these dangers,
* The Devotions of Abp. Laud, Oxfd. and Loud. 10G4, p. 11.
LAUD AND FERRAR THE YOUNGER 139
some of them beneath the surface, it needed
much circumspection to walk, and this could
only be done by one who continually relied
upon divine grace.
It was also Laud's personal piety which
made him labour not merely for an orthodox
and a learned clergy, but for a spiritually-
minded clergy. That, by God's help, he did
raise the tone of the bishops and priests of his
day, no one can deny. His influence is to be
seen in the lives of such men as Nicholas
Ferrar and George Herbert. He himself laid
his hands upon Ferrar, ordaining him deacon,
and he ever continued to show his interest in
and sympathy with the religious house at
Little Gidding, where the voice of prayer
and praise never ceased. He brouglit the
community to the notice of King Charles,
who visited it more than once in person. To-
wards young Nicholas Ferrar, the nephew of
Ferrar, the King showed great kindness, and
promised to take upon himself his mainten-
ance at Oxford. The story of the interview
which young Ferrar had with Laud is pre-
served to us. We are told, how, kneeling
down, he took the Archbishop's hand in his
and kissed it. Then the Archbishop took him
in his arms, and " laid his hand on his cheek,
and earnestly besought God Almighty to bless
140 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
him and increase all grace in him, and fit him
every day more and more for an instrument of
His glory here upon earth and a saint in
heaven, 'which,' said he, 'is the only hap-
piness that can be desired and ought to be our
chief end in all our actions. God bless you !
God bless you ! . . . God will provide for
you better than your father can. God bless
you and keep you ! ' So he parted from his
Grace." ^
This took place on Easter Eve. On Easter
Day young Nicholas made his communion,
took ill of a fever, and a few days after
Ascension Day he passed to his rest. This
simple narrative written by the sorrowing
father of a youth of extraordinary attainments
and piety, strikingly brings out the spiritual
side of Laud. In the case of George Herbert,
it was Laud's earnest entreaties that finally
influenced him to become a priest, and to
accept tlie cure of souls of Bcmcrton.
Had Archbisliop I^aud's lot been cast in the
more peaceful paths in which I^ancelot An-
drewes walked, his piety would have stood out
still more prominently. But the best proof of
the reality of his inner religion is to be sought
and found in the closing years of his long life ;
' qu. from a MS. written ])v .Toliii Ferrar, liis father. Nicholas
Form; ed. Carter^ Loud, iyit.% i-p. 2yO-:'<JO.
LAUD AND FERRAR THE YOUNGER 141
when, tried as by fire, his cliaracter pre-emin-
ently shone forth— a character moulded by
constant communion with God, a character
purged and sanctified by sufferings, patiently
and heroically endured, even unto death. For
it was this that enabled him, by the grace of
Him Whose he was and Wliom he served, to
meet his end with a fortitude which called
forth the admiration even of his enemies.
CHAPTER VII
LAUD AND CHRISTIAN REUNION
laud's attitude towards reunion — THE
cardinal's hat MISSIONS OF LEANDER
AND PANZANI — NEGOTIATIONS AVITH WIN-
DEBANK SANCTA CLARA ON THE ARTICLES
— FAILURE OF THE REUNION-PROJECT
It has been said by a great English theologian
that " the Reformation cost much. It broke
up, at least in the AVestern Church, visible
unity, so dear to all Christians who believe
that our Lord uttered the intercessory prayer
in St. John, and that the Epistle to the
Ephesians is the word of God."^ To put it
shortly, the much needed reformation, when
it did take place, effected a break in the unity
of Christendom— the external union between
tlie Church of England and the rest of the
AVestern Church was broken. By the time
of Laud this rent was an accomplished fact :
' Liddon, Univfrsih/ Sermons, " Gro\vtli in tlie apprehension
of truth," Loud. 1880, p. 116.
142
ATTITUDE TOWARDS REUNION 143
and, alas I to this day, the familiar words of the
psalmist, " Jerusalem is built as a city that is
at unity in itself," have ceased to express the
truth. Yet in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, when party-spirit ran high, many
a devout soul on both sides must have
yearned for a restoration of unity and brotherly
love.
We may dismiss from our consideration
those men who firmly held it as a dogma that
the great Latin Church was the Babylon of
the Apocalypse, and that the first bishop in
Christendom was the Man of Sin. Such
persons regarded the broken unity as a clear
gain ; but what was the attitude of William
Laud in regard to this great question ? Did
he take any practical steps to bring about
reunion ?
In the opinion of the present WTiter, some
modern biographers of Laud have minimized
his attitude in this matter, and have portrayed
him as taking but little interest in the cause
of Reunion. It is perfectly true that at the
beginning of his episcopate there is not much
of the reunionist to be seen. Owing to the
persistent aggressions of Rome, champions
were needed in those days to defend the
Anglican position, and to confirm waverers
in the English Church ; and one of such
144 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD
champions was Laud. In his controA ersy with
Fisher the Jesuit, his sohd learning and his
skill in maintaining the Catholic character of
the Church of England are remarkable. This
was then a more difficult task than it would
have been at the present time ; for the un-
Catholic teaching and actions of many in the
reigns of Edward and Elizabeth had compro-
mised the English Church as to her Catholic
claims, to an extent of which we ha\'e little
conception. The cruelties of the JNIarian
persecutions had also the effisct of steadily
drawing her towards foreign Protestantism.
Even in Laud himself we find traces of this
ultra-Protestant influence, and it is not to be
wondered at. All this helped to increase the
difficulties of his defence of the Catholic
position of the Anglican Church. But a few
years after his controversy with Fisher, when
the English Church began to reap the fruits
of the I^audian Ileformation, and when,
through the teaching of her great divines and
the restored dignity of her worship, a closer
resemblance to tlie rest of Catholic Christen-
dom was attained — then on both sides there
arose yearnings for lleunion, or at least for
reconciliation of some kind.
.Tust at tliis time, however, dark and threat-
ening clouds were beginning to gather, and
ATTITUDE TOWARDS REUNION 145
the Archbisliop had his hands full in navigating
the ship through dangers which abounded on all
sides, to say nothing of the fulfilment of his
secular and political duties, which, according
to the evil custom of those days, were heaped
upon great ecclesiastics. Another reason that
prevented Laud from entering into the work
of Reunion, was the growing anti-Roman
feeling of the nation. No man cared less for
mere popular sentiment than he did ; his
courage in the midst of difficulties was
remarkable ; but to have identified himself
with those who were actively promoting
Reunion might have brought disaster upon
his immediate plans. Although the course
of events conspired to prevent Laud from
acting in favour of reconciliation, yet on the
other hand he earnestly deplored a divided
Christendom and wished for a restoration
of outward union. His attitude towards
Roman aggression was defensive rather than
offensive. He could protest against those
doctrines in which he conceived the Roman
Church had departed from primitive and
Catholic teaching, but yet he heartily desired
and prayed for the reunion of Christians in one
fold. His speech at his trial in reference to
Panzani has been quoted to show his indiffer-
ence to Reunion ; but then, it must be
10
146 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
remembered, he was standing as a prisoner
at the bar, with the prospect of death before
him. The movement m the direction of
Reunion to all intents and purposes had
failed ; and the English Church herself was
in serious danger. It is therefore not sur-
prismg that Laud then referred to the
movement with some coldness, especially in
view of the assiduous attentions of the Papal
agents.
The episode of the Cardinal's hat, in Laud's
history, is a strange one. It occurs quite
suddenly in his Diary. Under Aug. 4, 1633,
the very day of Abbot's death, we read —
" That very morning at Greenwich there came
one to me seriously, and that avowed ability
to perform it, and offered me to be a Cardinal :
I went presently to the King, and acquainted
him botli with the thing and the person."^ A
fortnight later, tlie same mysterious personage
appeared upon the scene, and repeated the
offer. Laud again informed the King, and
also reported in his Diary the answer that he
made — " Somewhat dwelt within me which
would not suffer that, till Rome were other
than it is."^
Who was this man who thus approached the
archbishop ? was his offer bojid fide ? and was
' Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 210. " Ibid.
THE CARDINAL'S HAT 147
he really able to perform his promise ? A
satisfactory answer has never been given to
these questions. Was it a genuine move on
the part of the Court of Rome to approach
the leader of the English Church, and see
whether something could not be done to bring
back those provinces which were separated
into communion with the rest of the Western
Church ? Or, was it again an artifice of the
Jesuits, the determined foes of Reunion, to
discredit the Archbishop in the eyes of the
powerful Puritan party, and so to bring disaster
upon the reformation and consolidation of a
schismatical communion ? No explanation of
the affair has yet been given, but Laud's
answer in a few words sums up his own atti-
tude. His strong and honest belief in the
truth of the Anglo-Catholic position, — this was
the " somewhat " that dwelt within him, which
would not allow him to unite with the Latin
Church till " Rome were other than it is," — in
other words, till it ceased to impose unlawful
terms upon those who sought reunion. He
was against unconditional surrender to Rome ;
but he desired reconciliation on Catholic as
opposed to Papal terms. His speech at his
trial clearly brings this out. He said — " And
surely I may not deny it : I have ever wished
and heartily prayed for, the unity of the whole
148 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Church of Christ, and the peace and reconciha-
tion of torn and divided Christendom. But I
did never desire a reconcihation, but such as
might stand with truth, and preserve all the
foundations of religion entire . . . and there-
fore I did never desire that England and Rome
should meet together, but with forsaking of
error and superstition ; especially such as grate
upon and fret the foundations of religion. But
were this done, God forbid but that I should
labour for a reconciliation ; if some tenets of
the Roman party on the one side, and some
deep and embittered disafFections on the other
had not made it impossible, as I much doubt
they have."^
We may now turn from the personal actions
and sayings of the leader of the Caroline re-
formation as to Reunion, and briefly consider
what really did take place in the direction of a
reconciliation between the Englisli and Latin
Churclies.
In the third decade of the seventeenth cen-
tury tliere were several things that appeared
favourable to such a scheme. It is not too
mucli to say, that the face, and indeed the
lieart of tlie Englisli Church was greatly
changed by the cllbrts of T^aud and his
followers. As we have pointed out in the
' Ljiud's Works, iii. 412.
ENGLAND AND ROME 149
last chapter, a return was being made to the
" old paths," whilst the doctrines of Calvin and
other foreign Protestants were steadily losing
ground. The description of a Laudian divine
of the period, with the exception of the reflec-
tion upon his intellect, from the scurrilous pen
of a Puritan, is probably not far from the
truth. He says — "An Arminian, or ^lonta-
guist is an animal scarce rational, whose study
is to read (and applaud) Peter Lombard and
John Dun before Peter INIartyr and John
Calvin. . . . His religion is like a confection
compounded of many, the least ingredient
being Protestantism."^ A modern writer has
not exaggerated the attitude of the English
Church at that time, in saying—" Puritanism
was now the extreme which was to be specially
avoided : and union with Rome was not only
conceived as possible, but openly talked of.
The points of doctrine in which we differed
from Rome, appeared under the gentle euphem-
isms of ' inferior questions,' ' secondary points,'
* things from which offence was taken,' ' logo-
machies,' 'scholastic subtleties.' . . . Anglican
divines and Roman Catholic dignitaries
mingled with each other in familiar inter-
course, compared notes, and devised plans
1 An appeal against Richard Montague, late Bishop of Chichester y
and now Bishop of Norwich, p. 36.
150 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
for reconciliiig and re-uniting the Churches."^
JNIoreover, England was then ruled by a king
who at heart fa\'oured Reunion, whatever his
enforced outward attitude may have been. On
the other side, Pope Urban VIII. was well
disposed to the English nation, and inclined
towards a rapprochement. Lastly, it must not
be forgotten that, in the seventeenth century,
the influence of Ultramontanism was not what
it is at the present day. Gallicanism, or the
religion of the "moderate Papists," as they
were called, was far more widespread than it is
now. Hindrances to Reunion, such as the
imposition of the dogmas of the Immaculate
Conception and the Infallibility of the Pope,
did not exist in those days.
In the year 1632, Father I^eander, an Eng-
lish Benedictine, was sent by Urban VIII. on
a mission to England, to report upon the con-
dition of tiie Roman Catholics in the country,
and to investigate the general state of affiiirs,
ecclesiastical and civil. Leander, originally by
name John Jones, was a " chamber fellow " of
Laud at St. .John's College, Oxford. He
seceded to the Roman Comnumion, and
eventually took the Benedictine habit at the
abbey of S. JMartino Campostella, and was
' Maccoll, Lawksi-ness, Sacerdoialhm and Ritualism, 2u(l edit.,
p. 2yy.
LEANDER AND PANZANI 151
afterwards known as Dom Leander of S.
JNIartino. Notwithstanding his secession, he
continued on friendly terms with Laud. Of
him Antony a Wood says that he was
" beloved of all that knew him, and hated
by none but by the Puritans and Jesuits." ^
On the matter of Reunion, he reported
that —
''It seemeth possible enough if the points were discussed
in an assembly of moderate men, without contention
or desire of victory, but out of a sincere desire
of Christian union." He added ''that in the greater
number of the articles of faith the English Protestants
. . . are truly orthodox. . . . They admit the four
first General Councils, the three authentic sjoiibols of
the apostles, Nicaea or Constantinople, and of St.
Athanasius, as they are received in the Roman
Church ; they reverence the primitive Church and
unanimous consent of the ancient Fathers, and all
traditions and ceremonies which can be sufficiently
proved by testimony of antiquity ; they admit a
settled Liturgy taken out of tlie Roman Liturgy,
distinction of orders, bishops, priests and deacons in
distinct habits from the Laity and divers other points
in which no Transmarine Protestants do agree." ^
*»'
In 1634, a somewhat similar mission was
carried out by Father Gregorio Panzani, an
Oratorian. He was especially commissioned
^ Athena Oxoniennis, ed. Bliss, II. 604, qu. Diet. Nat. Biogr.
XXX. 124.
2 Clarendon, State Papers, I. 207, 208, qu. Oxenham, An
Eirenicon in the Eighteenth Century, Loi\d. 1879, Introd. p. 10.
152 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
by the Pope and Cardinal Barberini to com-
pose the bitter strife that had long been going
on in England, between the regular and
secular Roman clergy, and their lay followers,
as to the necessity of having a bishop and
as to the oath of allegiance ; and that they
(the Pope and Barberini) might inform them-
selves "of the true state of affairs amongst
the Catholics (Roman), and to feel the pulse
of the nation with regard to other concerns."^
In one of his early letters, he sets forth the
change that of late years had come over the
English Church, and his words are interesting
as showing how such things would strike a
foreigner at the time. He said —
that botla the Avritings and discourses of Protestants
were in a different key from what formerly they
had been^ that the King's preachers often took
occasion to run into the praises of the moderate
papists ; that they recommended the use of auricular
confession, extolled the beautifying and adorning of
churches, and paying a respect to tlie name of Jesus
by bowing, «S:c., tliat they disclaimed many popular
calumnies fixed on the Church of Rome, owning her
to be the motlier church, and author of haji))iness
to many naWons. Altiu-s, images, &c., were mentioned
with respect ; and many, in common conversation,
wished for a reunion. -
The l{cv. J. Berington, adds in a footnote,
' Horiiifrton, Memoirs of Gregorio Panxani, IJirniiiinhani, 1793,
WINDEBANK 153
" The truth of these observations is confirmed
by all contemporary writers."
In a later letter, Panzani refers to the ani-
mosity of the Jesuits to reunion. Eventually he
had an interview with the King, who received
him with favour. The matter of Reunion
seems first to have been mentioned to Sir
Francis Windebank, Secretary of State, and
a friend of Laud, who was eager for a recon-
ciliation between the two communions. On
Windebank declaring that, " if we had neither
Jesuits nor Puritans in England, I am con-
fident an union might easily be effected,"
Panzani answered, that "though the Jesuits
were regarded as a learned body, and very
serviceable to the Church of Rome, yet it is
not improbable but his Holiness would sacrifice
their interest on the prospect of so fiiir an
acquisition." 1 That the two extremes did
eventually wreck the work of the peacemakers
is confirmed by Heylin's statement — "It
was the Petulancy of the Puritans on the
one side, and tlie Pragmaticalness of the
Jesuit es on the other, which made the breach
wider than it was at first ; and had those hot
spirits on both sides been calmed awhile,
moderate men might possibly have agreed
upon such equal terms, as would have laid a
1 Berington^ p. 1G3.
154 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
sure foundation for the peace of Christendom." ^
As to Reunion, AVindebank further assured
Panzani that " all moderate men in Church
and State thirsted for it." On Windebank
mentioning as obstacles to union, communion
in one kind, the Latin liturgy and the
compulsory celibacy of the clergy, " Panzani
judging these points too big for him, only
answered that he hoped such obstacles might
be removed."^
About this time there appeared a very
remarkable work, Paraphrastica Eojposltio
Articulorum Cojifessionis AngUcanae. It
was ^\Titten by a devout and learned -Roman
Catholic, Dr. Christopher Davenport, a Fran-
ciscan, known in religion as Francis a Sancta
Clara. The book was a commentary upon
the XXXIX. Articles ; and its author, with
considerable success, endeavoured to show that
the Articles were not contrary to the autlio?^-
ized teaching of the Latin Church. He even
supported his position from the writings of
Andrewes, Montague, Bramhall, and other
learned Anglican divines. The work was
formally dedicated to King Charles I., wlio, so
far as he was able, favoured the Reunion move-
ment. 'I'hc book created a great sensation.
The Puritans naturally denounced it in most
' Cyprianus Aiujlkits, p. 388. ^ BeriugtoUj p. 1(54.
SANCTA CLARA 155
scathing terms. The Archbishop, as we gather
from his speech in the History of Ms Troubles,
was hardly prepared to go the length of all
its teachings ; though, as a whole, he pro-
bably approved of it. Some of his followers
took the same line. INIany of the English
Romans did not like the book, as it appeared
in their opinion to concede too much to the
Anglican Church. But we may be sure that
many an earnest-minded Anglican or Roman,
who prayed for the peace of Christendom,
blessed the book and the charitable spirit
which it breathed. The Jesuits and their allies
moved heaven and earth to get it condemned
at Rome, and " the work was far from being
liked at the Roman Court, where it was con-
sidered a very dangerous production, far too
condescending to schismatics and heretics." ^
These efforts were successful, and the book
was censured, though the decree was not made
public. It is interesting to note that the
King did his best, through his agent in Rome,
to prevent the censure. Sancta Clara's book
is said to have been the basis of Dr. Newman's
celebrated Tract XC, and it was doubtless
largely made use of by Bishop Forbes of
Brechin in his famous work on the XXXIX.
Articles. On the Anglican side, it must not
1 Berinjftou, p. 1G5.
156 LIFE OF WILIJAM LAUD
be forgotten that such works as those of
Bishop INIontague and others were quietly-
promoting peace, where not long before strife
existed.
On Panzani reporting to Barberini the
informal conferences with Windebank, the
Cardinal proceeded to bid him keep to the
chief objects of his commission, and not to
busy himself so much with Reunion ; showing
plainly that while Panzani earnestly yearned
for peace and reconciliation, the Court of
Rome was then of a different mind. The
censure of Sancta Clara's book was a severe
blow to Windebank and to others who
thought with him. Sancta Clara himself
appears to have been much esteemed, not
only amongst his own Communion in England,
but also by the King and many Anglicans.
After this, we read of an interview between
Bishop Montague and Panzani, in which the
bishop assured him that both tlie archbishop
and the bishop of London (Juxon), several
other bisliops, and a great number of learned
inferior clergy were faAOurable to reunion.
Montague added that these men were ready
to concede to Rome " a supremacy, j';//7'tV//
sj)i?'ifu(il'\- and that there was no other
nictliod of ending controversies than by
liaving "recourse to some centre of ecclesi-
SANCTA CLARA 157
astical unity," and he proposed " to choose
moderate men deputies on both sides " to
confer on the subject, and that such a con-
ference should be held in France, since the
Churches of that country and of England
"came nearest to one another, both in
doctrine and discipline."' On reporting this
to Cardinal Barberini, much satisfaction seems
to have been expressed in Rome, and a far
more appreciative spirit as regards reconcili-
ation was manifested, especially by Barberini
himself, who bade Panzani assure the English
bishops that the Pope " would make no un-
reasonable demands, but content himself
with the essentials of his Primacy, and such
privileges as were annexed to it jure divino.''"^
Panzani then had another interview with
JNlontague, who assured him that at heart
the Archbishop was with him in his desire
for union, although he had to act cautiously.
On this occasion, Montague, while declaring
that he yearned for a genuine and corporate
union, staunchly maintained the validity of
Anglican Orders, and so the conference ended.
At the third conference, INIontague declared
that all the English bishops with but three
exceptions (Morton, Davenant, and Hall),
were more or less in favour of union. The
1 Beriugton, pp. 238, 239. ^ Ibid. p. 240.
158 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
subject of Anglican Orders, Panzani seems,
naturally, to have avoided. INIr. Berington
adds that, the Earl of Arundel, a Roman
Catholic, and some of the laity of that Com-
munion supported the project ; but he adds
that " several thinking persons speculated, not
much amiss, that it would be retarded by the
regulars . . . and the Jesuits were chiefly
apprehended in this respect."^ In 1636,
Panzani was recalled to Rome, and in one
of his last letters he makes the touching
confession to the Cardinal that "he is con-
tent to grow grey in the drudgery towards
accomplishing it," i. e., the union. ^
One cannot help thinking that all along the
worthy bishop in his zeal for Reunion painted
the feeling in England on the subject in
brighter colouring than it really possessed,
and also that Panzani was hkewise carried
away by zeal for peace. Such were the
efforts that were made in the days of Laud
to restore visible Reunion between England
and Rome, and repair the gaping wound in
the mystical Body of Christ. We have
already explained why I^aud was not more
closely connected with tliese efforts ; but, on
the other liand, in the opinion of the present
writer, it is impossible to dissociate them from
' Berington, p. 249. » Ibid. p. 236.
FAILURE OF REUNION rRO.JECT 159
his name. They were part and parcel of the
movement of which he was the undoubted
leader. Some writers on this period have
rather depreciated these efforts in behalf of
peace ; but when the matter is fairly con-
sidered, the importance of the negotiations
and friendly intercourse must be admitted,
although it is true that unfortunately the
object in view was not obtained.
Another rappi'ochement, followed less than
a hundred years after, in Anne's reign under
Archbishop A¥ake, a worthy successor of
Laud. Then a reunion between the Anglican
and Galilean Churches seemed possible, thanks
to the noble efforts of Wake on the one side
and of Du Pin on the other ; but here again,
the fair work was ruined chiefly through the
action of the infamous Cardinal Dubois.
Since that time other, though minor attempts,
have been made, all alike being, alas ! doomed
to failure.
Dr. Gore,^ the present Bishop of Birming-
ham, has ably and impartially drawn out the
fact that at the separation in the sixteenth
century there were faults on both sides — the
Roman spirit of schism with its unreasonable
claims on the one side, and the English spirit
of schism with its impatience and intolerance
^ Roman Catholic Claims, 1889, pp. 129, 130.
160 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
on the other. These faults have more or less
existed ever since, and have hindered that
"godly union and concord," for which all
Christians ought to pray.
As to reunion with the Eastern Church,
not much was done in Laud's time, although
chaplains, stationed in English factories in
the Levant and elsewhere, in some instances
cultivated friendly relations with the native
bishops and priests, mutually enlightening
one another as to the doctrines held, with
the natural result that they were drawn
nearer together. Laud, in his controversy
with Fisher, and other writers also, refer
with approval to the Greek Churches ; but,
in those days of slow and painful travel,
Eastern Christendom was situated too far
off for projects of union to be hiitiated.
AVhat is nowadays called "• Home Reunion,"
or reunion with Protestant English Christians,
was j^hardly needed in the first half of the
seventeenth century ; for the Puritans, who
afterwards formed themselves into Presby-
terian and Independent bodies, had not yet
separated from the English Church. JMr.
Uutton, in his History of the Englislt Church,
lias pointed out the nearness existing between
the best men in the Church and amongst the
l*uritans, and liow nuich closer they were
FAILURE OF RE-UNION PROJECT 161
than the noisy and blatant partisans would
have admitted. Gentle souls like George
Herbert and the Ferrars on the one side,
and JNIary Rich and the Hutchinsons on the
other, were doubtless much nearer to each
other than they themselves thought. "It is
not hard for us now," says Mr. Hutton,
" when the stern simplicity of the Calvinist
creed has lost its power, to discern how close,
but for it, the pious spirits in both parties
were to each other and to God.^ "
^ Hutton, History of the English Church from the accession of
Charles /. to the death of Anne, Lond. 1903^ p. 120.
U
CHAPTER VIII
LAUD AND LEARNING
POPULAR MISREPRESENTATIONS OF LAUD — HIS
INTELLECT AND TOLERANCE MR. GLAD-
STONE'S VINDICATION OF LAUD — CHANCEL-
LOR OF OXFORD — INCIDENTS IN UNIVERSITY
REFORM LAUD ENTERTAINS CHARLES I. AT
OXFORD — laud's MUNIFICENCE TO OXFORD
It has fallen to the lot of hut few men
prominent in English History to be more
misrepresented than the subject of this bio-
graphy. Although much has been done in
recent years to correct unfortunate misrepre-
sentations of Laud's character, still it is to be
feared that even in this present day his life and
his work are but imperfectly estimated. That
the prime mover in a great cause should be the
object of dislike and the subject of injustice at
the hands of opponents, is quite natural. Ac-
cordingly, AVilham I^aud has suffered from the
Puritan trachtion whicli lias attached itself to
his name, and whicli owes a great deal of its
MISREPRESENTATIONS OF LAUD 163
force to the unscrupulous enmity of the
notorious Prynne, I^aud's relentless foe. 15ut
probably the greatest detractors in more modern
times have been Hallam and Macaulay. In
the graceful style and fascinating language of
JNIacaulay's Critical and Historical Essays, the
average Briton has unconsciously imbibed as
untrue, and, in some respects, as libellous an
account of Laud as that furnished by Piynne
himself Nothing but the strange narrowness
of early Victorian Liberalism can account for
this. Laud's Diary, which certainly was not
intended for the public eye, with its quaint
references to dreams and portents, is made the
basis of this unfair attack. As the writer in the
Church Qiiarterh) Revieiv upon Laud, whom
we have already quoted, justly says, " It is
easy enough for British Philistinism, of which
that very superior person, Lord Macaulay is
the incarnation, to make merry over Laud's
dreams and omens and conjunction of planets ;
but the proceeding is about as reasonable, as if
one who had been accustomed to the Maxim
guns were to make merry over those who used
the bow and arrows with such deadly execution
on the field of Senlac." ^ The most charitable
estimate of Macaulay 's diatribes upon Laud is
that they are somewhat amusing ; but history
1 Church Quurter/y Review, 1895^ No. 79, p. Go,
164 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
they are certainly not. The point in Laud's
character that happens to be chiefly singled
out for ridicule is the supposed weakness of
his mind, and the limitations of his aims and
sympathies. " The imbecility of his intellect."
" His mind had not expansion great enough to
comprehend a great scheme, good or bad."
" A superstitious driveller." " A ridiculous
old biffot " — such are some of the choice ex-
pressions bestowed upon Laud by INlacaulay.^
But what can be more contrary to ftict ?
Certainly Laud had his imperfections, but his
intellect was of no mean order. That a poor
scholar of St. John's should become head of
that society, that in time he should rise to be
one of the foremost men in the kingdom, to
say nothing of his being the leader of an
ecclesiastical school, argues considerable in-
tellectual power. And, moreover, it must be
remembered that Laud, at the beginning of
his career, was not able to coimt much upon
patronage, and all through life he was no self-
seeker, nor was he in any way a coin-tier. It
is therefore absurd to disparage liis intellectual
power. An a])le and careful writer like JNIr.
Hutton is loud in liis praise of T^aud's contro-
versial work with Fisher the Jesuit. He speaks
of it as " the classic presentation I'rom the
' trUirnl <ui(l Historical Emiys, Loud. 1877^ pp. 70, 77, 201.
LAUD'S INTELLECT AND TOLERANCE 165
English side of the theological differences
between England and Rome. . . . The re-
sult of forty years' contention was to leave it
the strongest expression of the Anglican
position." He justly condemns a modern
writer for calling it "a nearly unreadable
folio." ^ Perhaps the true interpretation of this
particular expression is, that tlie solid learning
of the seventeenth century is too deep for a
shallow and superficial age like the present.
From whatever point of view Laud's Con-
troversy wdth Fisher be looked at, whether
Roman, Anglican, or Puritan, it must be ad-
mitted that the author was a man of no mean
intellectual calibre. Again, JNIacaulay's de-
scription of Laud as bigoted and narrow, is
equally absurd. While it is true that I^aud,
in the spirit of his times, was forced to take
decided steps to repress Puritan Noncon-
formity — for then liberty of worship was un-
known hi all countries — yet withhi the English
Church he exercised a wise tolerance. John
Hales, a Latitudinarian, and AVilliam Chilling-
worth who certainly was not of the Laudian
school, were amongst his personal friends.
Laud's " wide philosophic mind " '^ could throw
itself into the intellectual difficulties of the
1 Huttou, William Laud, Loud. 1895, pp. 145, 140.
2 Wakeman, The Church and the Furitans, Loud. 1902^ p. 1G7.
166 LIFE^OF WILLIAM LAUD
former; and we learn that, on one occasion, a
whole day was spent by the busy Archbishop
patiently discussing matters, and finally con-
vincing him.^ Afterwards he promoted both
of these divines to posts of honour in the
Church. INIoreover, it is interesting to note
in passing, that the first in England to broach
the theory of complete liberty of conscience
was Jeremy Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesy-
ing ; and he was a disciple of Laud, and his
follower in theology. That seventeenth century
Puritanism had its special virtues, no one will
deny ; but religious toleration was certainly
not to be found amongst them.
To a great extent it was left for the great
Liberal statesman and devout churchman, INIr.
Gladstone, in his Romanes Lecture of 1892, to
point out and emphasize that Wilham Laud
was a man of great mental power, and that
" he was the first Primate of all England for
many generations who proved himself by his
acts to be a tolerant tlieologian.'"" Canon
JNlaccoll has referred to this in the following
words —
There was one admirable feature in Laud's character
which lias never received recognition, and to which
Mr. (Gladstone was Ihc first to call my attention.
' Ileyliii, ('yprmnuK Angliciis, p. 340.
■•2 Church quarterly Review, 181)3, No. 70, p. r)2i).
GLADSTONE'S VINDICATIOxN OF LAUD 167
Laud was the first Bishop since the Reformation
who exercised liberality and toleration in the dis-
tribution of patronage. He promoted, or obbiined
promotion for, good men who differed from himself on
important theological questions — men who would now
be called good Evangelicals. So long as they rendered
a decent obedience to the Prayer Book, and abstained
from railing, and showed themselves diligent and
devout pastors, he promoted them as readily as those
who were docti'inally in closer agreement with himself.
Bishop Hall is one out of many examples.^
Mr. Hiitton in the same way speaks ot
Laud's intellect, his tolerance, and his love ot
learning. He says —
He had indeed many of the characteristics of the
great prelates of the Renaissance with just that
change which its ideas underwent on English soil.
He was a great builder and a patron of art, a scholar
and a politician, a priest with a love of comely order
and the seemly dignities of public worship. He
delighted to read and to control the literature of the
day ; he would accept dedications and encourage
struggling writers.^
Laud seems to have been a great lover and
collector of books. He was what especially in
those days was called a virtuoso, being inter-
ested in pictures, sculpture and music. But
with that unselfishness which ever characterized
him, he bestowed the treasures he collected
1 The Reformation Settlement, Loud. 1899, p. 118.
2 Huttou, p. 47.
168 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
upon societies and personal friends before his
death.
In the year 1630, on the death of the
Earl of Pembroke, Laud was elected Chan-
cellor of the University of Oxford. Whilst
naturally gratified by such a mark of con-
fidence on the part of his beloved Uni-
versity, he seems to have shrunk from accept-
ing the post. His devotion to his work as
bishop, and his conscientious misgivings as to
whether he could faithfully carry out the
duties of the office, made him hesitate : event-
ually, at the urgent desire of the King, he
accepted the post.
And here it may be mentioned that even
before his admission to the office of Chan-
cellor, it was through his influence that an
important reform was carried out, whereby the
turbulence and disorder at the annual election
of Proctors was suppressed. In future they
were chosen by their own colleges, each college
havmg so many turns, in proportion to its size
and importance. In his History of the Chan-
cellorship, Laud describes how he entered upon
a reformation of the University. To quote his
own words —
The first tiling I tliouglit fit to do was to lay a
command upon tlu- Vice-Chanccllor for the time
being that he sliould give me an account by letters
CHANCELLORSHIP OF OXFORD 169
every week of all necessary occurrences which hap-
pened in the University pertaining to exercise or
manners ; with a promise that he should weekly,
without failj receive a letter from me expressing what I
disliked or approved, and with directions what should
further be done for the good of that place. ^
The next matter connected with this reform-
ation of the University was the codification
of the old statutes, and the addition of new
ones. This work had previously been taken in
hand by Cardinal Wolsey and others, but it
had not been completed. Laud, in a shrewd
and statesmanlike way observes, " I did ever
foresee that it was not possible to make a
reformation, or settle that body, unless the
statutes were first perfected."'-^ Here the
difficulties and obstacles incident to reforma-
tion beset him, but with his usual perseverance
and determination they were overcome, and
the University of Oxford flourished under his
rule. The letters he received from the Vice-
Chancellor and other officials, as well as his
letters to them, have been preserved, and they
throw important light upon his work of Uni-
versity reform. Much of the spirit of Oxford
was the same in the seventeenth century as it
is to-day. The undergraduates were, it is true,
younger than they are now-a-days, and the
1 Laud's Work^ (History of his Chancellorship), V. 13.
2 Ibid. 14.
170 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
discipline exerted over them was consequently
stricter ; but still the same boyish nature
existed, and this had to be duly kept within
bounds. Thus we find the new Chancellor
writing, "And particularly I pray, see, that
none, youth or other be suffered to go in boots
and spurs or to wear their hair indecently long,
or with a lock in the present fashion, or with
slashed doublets or in any light or garish
colours." ^ Laud's sturdy independence and
disregard of high social position is brought out
when he adverts to the " extreme liberty given
and taken by young noblemen and gentlemen
of the better sort in the University." Sub-
servient tutors are reported to make things
easy for them. They are allowed to keep
horses, and so, when restrained from frequent-
ing taverns in the city, " they ride forth to the
neighbouring places both to drink and perhaps
to do worse." All this is to be firmly repressed. ^
We also hear how a certain professor of horse-
manship, Mr. Crofls with his " gi'eat horses "
appears on the scene, to teach all the mysteries
of " school " riding. Laud admits that " the
exercise in itself be exceeding commendable,"
but that the undergraduates "are most part
too young, and not strong enough " for such
' Atttohiogmphij of Lmid, Oxford, 1839, p. 101.
2 Lau(l'H'iror/f'*/V. 269, 260.
CHANCELLORSHIP OF OXFORD 171
severe exercise, and he adds "where one
scholar learns, you shall have twenty or forty
to look on, and there lose their time so that
. . . that place shall be fuller of scholars than
either schools or library. Therefore I pray give
Mr. Crofts thanks fairly for his good inten-
tions, but as thus advised I cannot give way to
his staying there for the purpose he intends."^
More than one reference is made to the pre-
sence of mysterious strangers, who are deemed
to be Jesuits. They are to be seen to, and
questioned as to their intentions.^ In a letter
to the Vice- Chancellor there are interesting
injunctions about the Latin prayers and cele-
bration of the Eucharist at St. Mary's Church,
with directions as to the singing-men practising
their parts. ^ Laud emphasizes the fitness of
the Latin tongue for the worship of the Uni-
versity, and points out how this was provided
for in Queen Elizabeth's reign by a Latin
Prayer Book.
No detail of University life seems to have
been too trifling for his attention. He laboured
unreservedly to make his alma mater worthy of
her best traditions by reforming what was
amiss, and by confirming what was good.
And all this was the work of a man already
1 Laud's Works, V. 173, 2 n^i^^ 242.
» Ibid. 156-158.
172 LIFE OF WILLIAIVI LAUD
over-burdened with work ecclesiastical and
secular. And if the welfare of his University
in general was prominent in Laud's mind, the
welfare of his college in particular was, if any-
thing, more prominent. He never forgot his
beloved college of St. John the Baptist, taking
a deep interest in it to the day of his death.
Soon after he was elected Chancellor, he set
about building the inner quadrangle. This he
did — with the exception of a royal gift of
timber — entirely at his own expense. Canter-
bury Quadrangle and the "garden front," as
the new buildings are called, are an exquisite
blend of the Pointed and Renaissance style of
architecture, and have long been considered
amongst the architectural gems of Oxford. In
the year 1G36, the glory of Laudian Oxford
may be almost said to have reached its zenith,
when the formal visit of the King and Queen
to the University took place. Dr. Baylie the
President of St. John's, had been appointed
Vicc-Chancellor, so that St. John's occupied a
higher position than ever.
In his history of the chancellorship, Laud
has noted a detailed account of the speeches
and festi\'itics that took place. On the day
after Charles and his Queen arrive at Oxford,
they drive in their coacii to St. John's, and
view the new buildings and other beauties of
LAUD ENTERTAINS CHARLES I. 173
the college. On entering the lihrary they are
greeted with a speech in verse by one of the
fellows, written in the quaint and humorous
style of the day. After this follows a sumptu-
ous banquet, at which the baked meats appear
fashioned as bishops and other dignitaries,
according to the curious custom of the time
on such great occasions. Later, a play is acted
in the Hall, and then they repair to Christ
Church, where they sup and witness another
play, " Upon a piece of a Persian story," in
which the players wear Persian habits, " which
gave great content." The following day their
majesties return thanks to the University for
the loyal welcome which they have received,
and so they depart.^ It is interesting to notice
the great prelate on this occasion, acting en
grand seigneur as he welcomes his beloved
Sovereign to the University and to his own
college ; and it is almost strange to behold the
grave ecclesiastic unbending as he takes part
in the mirthful college festivities, and patronizes
a pure and refined drama. No narrow-minded
bigot could have acted thus. With his usual
generosity towards his college, he insists on
defraying the entire cost of its entertainment
of the King, which came to the sum of £2,606
— a large amount in those days.
1 Laud's Works, V. 148-155.
174 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
One would fain linger over Laudian Oxford
during that quarter of a century when the
University rose to such eminence, the days
when she was graced by many great names,
when her fair outward appearance was em-
bellished by new buildings in all directions —
the Oxford whose memories have been espe-
cially chronicled by Anthony A. AVood, — let it
suffice to quote from that writer. He says —
" Certain it is, it fell out very happy (Laud's
election to be Chancellor) not only for the
encouragement of learning, but the great good
of the University, as the following times made
it manifest. Had he continued in his prosperity
seven years longer, and not been molested by
the restless faction of the Presbyterians, he
would witliout doubt have made this University
more famous for buildings, books, rarities, dis-
cipline, privileges, kc, than many, put together
in the learned world." ^ But Laud's efforts
were not confined to his own University. As
Primate of all England, he determined to
exercise his Metropolitan rig] its in carrying
out a visitation of the University of Cambridge,
notwithstanding the opposition of the Earl of
Holland, the Chancellor. Tn June 1()3G, an
appeal was made to the King, who decided the
case in favour of the Primate ; but, owing to
' t|U. Autubhxjruphy of Laud, Oxford, 1U39, p. IIC.
LAUD'S MUNIFICENCE TO OXFORD 175
the Scottish troubles, the Visitation of Cam-
bridge University never took place. However,
there is no doubt that Cambridge was influ-
enced by the Laudian Movement in regard to
learning as well as religion. On the day after
the royal decision had established the metro-
political right of visiting the Universities, Laud
promulgated the new code of statutes for the
University of Oxford. Afterwards he procured
for Oxford a new charter, which confirmed the
ancient privileges of the University.
In the year 1G33, Laud was elected Chan-
cellor of the University of Dublin ; and here
again we notice his reluctance to undertake so
weighty an office, and also his reforming zeal
and energy. He was instrumental in obtaining
a charter for Trinity College, and later he drew
up statutes for its good government.
INIention must also be made of Laud's
munificent patronage of Oriental learning,
particularly in the University of Oxford. To
him the University is indebted for the encour-
agement of the study of Hebrew and Arabic.
For the chair of Hebrew, he caused the
perpetual annexation of a Canonry at Christ
Church ; the professorship of Arabic he him-
self founded, and also endowed it in perpetuity.
Year by year he presented valuable MSS. to
his own college and also to the University. In
176 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
the year 1634, the King had issued an order
that every ship from the Levant was to bring
home an Oriental ]MS., and that the Archbishop
of Canterbury was to have the disposing of it.
In later years Laud's gifts consisted partly of
these JNISS. In the year 1634, Laud presented
to the University fourteen Hebrew, fifty-five
Arabic, seventeen Persian, four Turkish, six
Russian, two Armenian, twelve Chinese MSS.,
besides forty-four Greek, three Italian, three
French, forty-six English, and more than two
hundred Latin JNISS. In 1635, he gave four
hundred and sixty -two INISS. In 1636, he gave
one hundred and eighty-one JMSS. and five
cabinets of coins. In 1639, he gave nearly six
hundred JMSS. and many books, amongst which
was one on the hberties of the GaUican Chiu'ch
which had been suppressed in France. It is
interesting to note Laud's comment, that the
opinion the French Church entertained of the
Papal claim to supremacy ought to be put
on record. He also mentions that Cardinal
Richeheu had connived at its publication.^
I^aud's first gift of books and JMSS. took place
in 1610, when he was fellow of St. John's, and
this generosity continued to the end of his life.
Altogether it is estimated that he ciu-iched
the University of Oxford with over thirteen
' Laud's iVorlcn, V. 22G.
LAUD'S MUNIFICENCE TO OXFORD 177
hundred JNISS. in twelve languages — a truly
munificent gift. William Laud, patron of
literature, of science as it was then under-
stood, and of art, with his open-handed
generosity in the cause of learning, secular
as well as religious, with his broad-minded
sympathy with men who differed from him,
is a very different person from the distorted
personality described by JNIacaulay and other
writers who have followed in his train.
12
CHAPTER IX
LAUD AND THE SCOTTISH CHURCH
FALL OF THE ANCIENT SCOTTISH CHURCH
LAUD ACCOMPANIES KING JAMES TO SCOT-
LAND — KING CHARLES VISITS SCOTLAND
THE SCOTTISH PRAYER BOOK
In considering I^aud's connection with the
Scottish Church, it is necessary to refer to
the events in that country which immediately
preceded his day. In Scotland the great up-
heaval of the sixteenth century differed from
that in England in several respects. In the
first place, the racial enmity which existed
between the two nations, which dates from
the reign of Edward I., resulted in drawing the
Scottish Church into a closer union with the
Court of Rome, than was the case south of the
Tweed ; and during the later middle ages the
Papacy was in every respect at its lowest ebb.
The wealth of the Scottish Church was great,
and this fact attracted the covetousness of
kings and nobles. Had they laid sacrilegious
178
THE ANCIENT SCOTTISH CHURCH 179
hands upon her riches and phmdered her, tliey
would have crippled her energies, while possibly
purifying her ; but they did her infinitely more
harm in thrusting their sons, often bastards,
into important and lucrative ecclesiastical posts.
In this way the rulers of the Church were
often mere hireling-shepherds ; who, instead of
feeding the flock, lived upon it. JNIoreover,
the Scottish kings at times seem to have been
in league with popes like Alexander VI., and
thus to their mutual profit such abuses con-
tinued to flourish. Again, whilst in England
the monasteries to a great extent were libelled
in order that Henry VIII. might confiscate
their wealth, in Scotland there can be no doubt
that they were in a corrupt condition. If a
reformation was called for in England, it was
far more needed in Scotland. So bad was the
condition of affairs in the old Scottish Church,
that when the storm came, it carried away
everything with it. Its vehemence was greater
even than that with which it raged in England
hi the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI.
In the year 1560, the ancient Church
of Scotland was proscribed by Parliament,
and its endowments were seized. As has
been described : " On the morning of
August 25, 1560, the hierarchy was supreme;
in the evening of the same day, Calvinistic
180 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Protestantism was established in its stead." ^
The leader and prime mover in this revolu-
tion was John Knox, a brave but unscrupu-
lous fanatic, whose manly independence and
unselfishness are indeed refreshing, when com-
pared with the cringing and self-seeking of
many of the reformers in England. In the
turmoil of this coup d'etat, much of the wealth
of the ancient Church was " grabbed " by the
nobles, and thus lost to religious uses.
In 1572, the superintendents, who took the
place of the old line of bishops, were abolished,
and titular " bishops " and " tulchan bishops " ^
took their place. These "tulchan bishops"
consisted of priests who had renounced the
old Church, and of laymen who had received
some kind of Calvinistic ordmation. The
" tulchan bishops " were mere nominees of
noblemen, who secured for their own use the
revenues of the Church, and paid the so-called
*' bishop " a stipend. This system came to an
end in 1592, when, through the influence of
Andrew Melville, the complete Presbyterian
system was set up. The animosity of James
I. (of England) towards Presbyterianism has
already been noticed. It began to show itself
' Iluttoii, The. Church in dreat Britain, Loud. 1809, p. 40.
So called from a ''tulchan," or calf's skin .stuffed with
straw, which was .sometimes placed before a cow, in order that
she might give her milk.
THE ANCIENT SCOTTISH CHURCH 181
while he was still in Scotland. The frank and
honest boldness of some of the Presbyterian
divines — for they were no respecters of persons
— aroused his royal displeasure, as did also their
anti-monarchical tendencies. This, and his
desire to bring Scotland into unity with Eng-
land in matters of religion, caused him to take
steps to this intent. In 1610, seven years
after the death of Beaton, archbishop of
Glasgow, the last of the old pre-reformation
bishops, Spottiswoode, Lamb, and Hamilton,
who were mere " titular bishops " came to
England, and received valid episcopal con-
secration. On their return, they consecrated
ten more bishops ; and thus the episcopate was
re-introduced into Scotland. In the year
1G17, James paid his first visit to Scotland ;
one of the chief objects of the journey being
the furtherance of a scheme for conforming
Scotland to England in religious matters. On
this occasion he brought with him several
divines of learning and ability. Laud being
among the number. The chief result of this
visit seems to have been that, in the following
year, the celebrated Articles of Perth were
issued. They consisted of the following : 1,
The Holy Communion to be received kneel-
ing : 2, Private Communion to be allowed
in cases of sickness : 3, Private Baptism
182 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
to be permitted in cases of necessity :
4, Certain Holy Days — Christmas, Good
Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Whit-
sunday — to be observed : 5, Children over
eight years of age to receive Confirmation.
Considerable opposition was at first aroused
by the King's desire that these Articles should
be accepted. Having tried persuasion and
argument to no purpose, he at length gained
his point by the simple expedient of suspend-
ing the allowance that he made to the clergy.
Heylin, with all the southerner's dislike of the
Scotch, — a dislike Avhich lasted for more than
a century after his day, — humorously de-
scribes the result thus — " Which Pill so
wrought upon this indigent and obstinate
People, that the next year, in an Assembly
held at PaiJi, they passed an act for ad-
mitting of the five Ai'ticles, for which his
JNIajesty has been courting them for two
years together." ^
The same ecclesiastical policy was carried
on by Charles, but without his father's
caution and timidity, and also without his
shrewdness. In the case of Charles, it may
be said there was less "kingcraft," but more
religious conviction. His first action was a
courageous one : he attempted to make the
1 Heylin, Cyprianus Any/icus, p. 00.
LAUD IN SCOTLAND 183
nobles disgorge the Church lands and the tithes
which they had seized. This action at once
raised such a storm, that he was obliged to
resort to a legal process. The result was that
eventually a considerable amount of Church
property was restored to the Church. The
Scottish nobility never forgave the King,
and afterwards they joined with the Presby-
terian party in opposing him. In 1033,
Charles' memorable visit to Edinburgh took
place. He was attended by Laud, then bishop
of London. On Sunday, June IG, the King
attended service in state in the chapel royal at
Holyrood ; and on the following Tuesday, the
solemn Coronation took place in the same
building. The outward demonstrations of
popular loyalty were great. Laud remarks
" 1 never saw more expressions of joy than
were after it.^ Heylin, looking back upon
the event many years later, says — "the
concourse of people beyond expression, and
the expressions of their joy in gallantry of
Apparel, Sumptuous Feastings and Acclam-
ations of all sorts nothing inferiour to that
concourse." Then he pathetically adds —
" But this was only the Hosanna of his first
Reception ; they had a Crucifie for him when
he came to his Parliament." ^ Laud stayed
1 Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 217. ^ Heylin, p. 22G.
184 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
barely a month in Scotland ; during which
time he appears to have gone as far as
to Stirling and Dundee. His Diary sheds
little light upon his doings during his sojourn.
The following brief, but graphic touch, shows
the difficulties with which travellers in Scot-
land in those days were beset. " July 8,
JNIonday — To Dunblain and Sterling. My
dangerous and cruel journey, crossing part
of the Highlands by coach, which was a
wonder there. July 9, Tuesday — To Lithcoe,
and so to Edinburgh."^ On this journey it
is related that Laud, on visiting the ruined
Cathedral of Dunblane, remarked that it was
a goodly church, but when a bystander added,
" Yes, my Lord, this was a brave kirk
before the Reformation," the bishop corrected
him by saying, " What, fellow, Deformation
not Reformation " ^ — an episode very similar
to that related by Dr. Johnson one hundred
and forty years later. In July, Laud left
Edinburgh for England, reaching Fulham on
the 2Gth of the month. The King returned
to England about the same time.
During the King's stay in Scotland, several
important events took place. Edinburgh was
> Laud's Works, iii. 218.
2 Row's Jlhsloni, (ju. SU'itlicn's Ilhtory of the Scottish Church,
Ediii. 1«!)4, ii. 2;jy.
KING CHARLES VISITS SCOTLAND 185
raised to an episcopal see, the first bishop
being Wilham Forbes of ^Vberdeen, a scholar,
a theologian, and a saint ; and the author of
Consider ationes Modestiv, to which we have
already referred. Bishop Forbes only lived
three months after his consecration, dying in
1634, an inestimable loss to the Scottish
Church. Bishop Burnet, the antithesis of
Forbes in his religious opinions, speaks in the
highest terms of him.^ Another event was
St. Giles' being constituted the Cathedral
Church of the new diocese. Archbishop
Spottiswoode was appointed Chancellor of
Scotland, and nine bishops were placed on
the roll of the Privy Council.^ As has
been already shown in these pages, the ap-
pointment in England of ecclesiastics to high
posts in the State was detrimental to the best
interests of the Church ; but it was even worse
policy in Scotland, since it excited the jealousy
of the Scottish nobles, and also the anger of the
Presbyterian ministers, who were far sounder
on this point than the Church divines. Since
at this time the influence of Laud was almost
1 It is sad to think that (as far as the author knows) there is
no memorial erected to liis memory in Scotland hy his own
Comnnmion, while the Preshyterians — to their honour be it
said — have caused his statue to be set up on the west front of
St. Giles' Cathedral.
2 Luckock^ The Church in Scotland, p. 179.
186 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
supreme in ecclesiastical affairs, this bad policy
must be laid to his charge.
Durmg the reign of James I. (of England),
the Book of Common Prayer was not used in
Scotland, except in Holyrood Chapel during
his visit to Edinburgh in 1G17. He gave
orders that this should be continued, but
Bellenden, the Dean, seems to have been
remiss in obeying this command, and was
consequently admonished by Laud in 1G33,
with the result that he complied. Thus it
may be seen how cautious and gradual was the
policy of James, and likewise for a time that of
Charles, in introducing the Prayer Book into
the northern kingdom. Although in 1610 the
episcopate was restored, it was more than a
quarter of a century later before an attempt
was made to introduce the Prayer Book. In
1G29, Maxwell, a divine of considerable ability
and learning, who afterwards became bishop
of Ross, was sent to England by the Scottish
bishops to confer with those in authority on
this matter. He first applied to I^aud, then
bishop of London, who with his love of
uniformity expressed himself in favour of the
Enghsli book. Maxwell, in the spirit of a
letifitimatc nationalism as to things non-essen-
tial, pleaded for a native rite.^ In this he was
' Iloylin, p. 223.
THE SCOTTISH PRAYER BOOK 187
speaking for the rest of the Scottish episcopate.
His argument, that a service-book compiled by-
Scotsmen would be more acceptable in Scot-
land, eventually carried the day. The Scottish
Book of Common Prayer was mostly the
work of ^laxwell, and Wedderburn bishop of
Dunblane.^ When completed, it was sub-
mitted to Laud, who called in the assistance
of Juxon and Wren. This Prayer Book has
often been called Laud's Liturgy — an incorrect
title, inasmuch as it was not compiled by him ;
but it is correct so far as his influence is to be
traced in its revision. Of the two bishops,
AVedderburn, a ritualist and liturgiologist of
some mark, seems to have had most to do with
the compilation of the book, although Maxwell
was also learned in liturgiology. Both bishops
were men who in our own day would have
been designated High Churchmen ; and both
were men of exemplary life. It is also worthy
of note that King Charles, a devout son of the
Church and no mean theologian, took part in
the work, making some alterations and emend-
ations. The Scottish Prayer Book, from a
Catholic point of view, was undoubtedly
superior to the book then in use in England,
and also to the present English Prayer Book ;
^ Cooper, Book of Common Prayer of 1637^ Ediu. 1904,
Introd. xvi.-xx.
188 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
notably in the Communion service, where in
many ways a return was made to the " Order
for Holy Communion or Supper of the Lord,
commonly called the Mass," in the Prayer
Book of 1549.'
However much we may approve of this
ser\qce book, the " Popish-Enghsh-Scottish-
JVIasse-Service Book," as it was called by the
Puritans, no one can overlook its lamentable
and tragic history. Its short hfe was in truth
a chapter of "regrettable incidents." Both
Charles and Laud never realized the true
state of ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland.
Their policy, when viewed from the present
day, is quite inexplicable. They were con-
fronted with a powerful nobility, smarting
under the deprivation of their ill-gotten gains,
and with a fanatical populace swayed by a not
over-scrupulous Puritan ministry. Two fatal
flaws in the royal and ecclesiastical action
exasperated the Scottish nation — Erastian-
ism and a disregard of Scottish nationality.
.Tames I., in his ecclesiastical dealings with
Scotland, was frankly Erastian and despotic;
and this policy was unfortunately carried on
by his son. the herald of the Prayer Book
'For fuller (k-tails see Professor Coojjer's rilile work on the
subject, written in a j,a'iier()us ami appreciative spirit— a remark-
able testimony from a Presbj^terian.
THE SCOTTISH PRAYER BOOK 189
of 1637 were the Scottish Canons of 1G36, an
excellent and moderate body of laws ; but
they were promulgated solely on the authority
of the King. They contained, moreover, the
extraordinary statement that those who refused
to use the Scottish Prayer Book, which was
not then even in existence, were to be excom-
municated ! The Prayer Book itself was
issued upon royal authority, neither the
Church nor the people being in any way
consulted. Laud's aim was to unite Scotland
with England in religious belief, to put the
Scottish Church on the same firm historical
basis as that on which the English Church
rested. As to the measures adopted to carry
out his desire, he was not able to control them,
since one can hardly think, from what we know
of his opinions, that he acquiesced in the bold
Erastianism of this measure. The difficulties
that he had to contend with in converting a
people definitely Presbyterian to the old ways
of the Church were immense. Another factor
which caused the failure of the plans of Charles
and of Laud, was the clever dissimulation and
perfidy of men like Traquair and others.
Details of policy were purposely arranged
by such counsellors in order to bring about
disaster. It seems only too likely that the
putting off of the introduction of the Prayer
190 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Book from Easter Day till Whitsunday,
through the influence of Traquair, was simply
done for the purpose of giving more time to
the opponents to mature their plans.^ It is
not necessary here to enter into the story of
the f7ricas at St. Giles', when the Prayer Book
was used for the first and only time, and that
apparently mythical personage, Jennie Geddes,^
is said to have flung her stool at the dean's
head. It was the outbreak of a carefully pre-
pared conspiracy, the details of the riot showing
signs of elaborate " stage-managing " on the
part of the leaders, in order to move the
populace. The influence of the worst side
of Presbyterianism at that time, combined
with the covetousness of the nobles, who were
anxious to recover their plunder, resulted — as
far as the cause of the Church was concerned —
in disaster. But like Laud's work in England,
disaster in due time was followed by victory ;
for, after the vicissitudes of the Common-
wealth, the State-made ecclesiastical prosperity
of the Restoration, and the persecutions under
William, the Scottish Church emerged, a
"remnant" indeed, despoiled of her churches
and endowments, from a worldly standpoint
a religious body beneatli contempt, but a
communion that produced such bishops as
' Heylin, p. 329. - Stephen; ii. 264.
THE SCOTTISH PRAYER BOOK 191
Falconer, Fullarton, Sage and others, and a
laity strengthened and purified by persecution.
A learned liturgical writer has, moreover, with
great force pointed out that the Scottish Prayer
Book of 1G37 was not such a failure as is often
imagined, for it was largely made use of by
the revisers of the Book of Common Prayer in
1602.^ It was also used by the compilers of
the Scottish Communion Service of 1764,
which is the service at present in use in some
parts of the Scottish Church.
1 Luckock, Studies in the Hidory of the Book of Common
Prayer, Loud. 1882, p. 230.
CHAPTER X
LAUD AND THE IRISH CHURCH
IRELAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY — LAUD
AND STRAFFORD THE IRISH ARTICLES AND
CANONS
In considering the work of William Laud in
Ireland, it will be well, as in the case of that
in Scotland, to refer to the condition of the
Church in that land as he found it. By the
beginning of the sixteenth century, Ireland
could no longer claim to be considered " the
Island of saints ; " the fine gold had indeed
become dim. Upon the land lay the iron hand
of English oppression, whilst strife and warfare
between the rival chieftains prevailed. As a
modern historian has aptly expressed it, " The
ancient glory of civilization and religion had
long departed from her : an universal barbarism
overspread and covered all."^ JNIany of the
monasteries and churches were falhnff into
ruin. Church services were infrequent, the
ministry of preaching was neglected ; altogether
' Dixon, History of the Church of England, ii. 169.
192
^
2
D
b
'J
1
■^ s
'J .2
2 «v
IRELAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY 193
religion was at a low ebb. The rule of Henry
VIII. in Ireland was harsh and tyrannical. To
a gi'eat extent the country .""as exploited for
what could be got out of it. A gang of royal
commissioners went up and down, fleecing the
land on behalf of the King's treasury. Henry's
plan of reformation does not seem to have had
even as much religion about it as was the case
in England. If the leaders of reform in Eng-
land were inferior men, they were even more
inferior in Ireland. Browne, archbishop of
Dublin, in some respects resembled Cranmer ;
but, if reports be believed, he did not even
resemble Cranmer in decency of life. During
the reign of Edward VI., amid the continued
turmoil and strife in Ireland, this so-called
reformation made but little progress, although
it was helped by the inftituation and weakness
of Dowdal, archbishop of Arinagh, the leader
of the old learning, who refused to meet his
opponents at the ecclesiastical assembly at
Dublin ; an action which strengthened the
hands of Browne and his followers. In
England, Cranmer experienced the greatest
difficulty in getting some of the lights of his
party to adxenture themselves into this tur-
bulent land, in order to occupy the vacant
sees of Armagh and Ossory, Dowdal having
vacated the former.
13
194 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
At length from the household of the notor-
ious Poynet, two divmes consented to go —
Goodacre and Bale. The latter, a man of
some eminence in his party, an advocate of the
extremest Protestantism, a writer ot consider-
able learning ; but in whose pages scurrilous
and foul-mouthed buffoonery abound. To
him we are indebted — in his narrative of his
brief tenure of the see of Ossory, which lasted
till the accession of Mary — for a graphic picture
of the religious state of Ireland. If the reform-
ing party were as a rule mere tools of the
English monarch, the adherents of the old
system were mostly ignorant and unspiritual
men. We search in vain for a Latimer or a
Fisher in Ireland. The Book of Common
Prayer was introduced in 1550 : but being in
English, it was no more understood by the
people than the old Latin service. Not imtil
1G08 was the Prayer Book translated into the
Irish tongue. The same delay marked the
translation of the Bible, for the New Testa-
ment was not translated until 1G()2, and the
Old Testament in Irish was not issued until
1G85.
In the reign of James I., colonists were im-
ported from Scotland, bringing with them the
rankest Calvinism, together with open hostility
to the Prayer JJook. Sir iVrUuir Chichester,
IRELAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY 195
the Lord Deputy, was a pupil of Cartwright,
and thus additional weight was given to
the Puritan cause. In 1562, the XXXIX.
Articles were accepted by the Anglo- Irish
Church; but in 1015, partly through the
ascendency of Puritanism, and partly through
a desire for a native confession, a new series of
Articles was drawn up, in which were incor-
porated the celebrated Lambeth Articles
containing the five points of Calvinism. The
compiler of these articles was James Ussher,
a man of gi'eat ability and erudition, who in
1620 was consecrated bishop of JNIeath, and in
1024 was raised to the archbishopric of Armagh.
By accepting the new Irish Articles, the Irish
Church formally committed herself to Calvin-
ism ; a thing which the English Church has
never done. Such was the position of the
Irish Church during the earlier portion of
Laud's episcopate, when his influence in the
English Church was making itself felt.
In the year 1028, William Bedell, provost
of Trinity College, Dublin, an Englishman of
learning and cultin*e, and an opponent of
Puritanism, through the efforts of Laud, was
consecrated bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh.
This was the beginning of a better state of
things. One of his letters to Laud describes
the sad state in which he found his diocese,
196 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
and the fearful depredations in the tem-
porahties of the see, committed by his
predecessor : the cathedral of Ardagh and the
bishop's house were in ruins, the parish churches
were most of them falling to pieces, unroofed
and unrepaired ; while the Roman Communion
in that part of the country was in a flourishing
condition/ In 1633, Laud's power was much
greater, since at this time he was archbishop
of Canterbury ; and also, in this same year,
his personal friend, Sir Thomas Wentworth,
afterwards the Earl of Strafford, arrived in
Ireland as Lord Deputy, attended by his
chaplain John Bramhall, one of the most
learned theologians of the Laudian school.
Another thing that increased Laud's power in
Ireland was the fact that he had been elected
to the Chancellorship of the University of
Dublin. In Bramhall, he possessed a lieu-
tenant of ability, and one who had a whole-
hearted devotion to the Church. In a few
sentences of a letter which he wrote to Laud
after his arrival in Ireland, he conveys a
forcible description of the condition of affairs
— " It is hard to say whether the churches be
more ruinous and sordid, or the people irre-
verent, even in Dublin. . . . To begin the
' Maiit, Irhli Church, i. 435, ([U. IJaines, Life of Laud, pp.
164, 155.
LAUD AND STRAFFORD 197
inquisition where the reformation will begin,
we find one parochial church converted to the
Lord Deputy's stable, a second to a nobleman's
dwelling-house, the quire of a third to a tennis-
court, and the vicar acts the keeper ! " At
Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin he describes
how " the table used for the administration of
the Blessed Sacrament in the midst of the
quire, made an ordinary seat for maids and
apprentices."^
Assuredly, the Church in Ireland was now
entering upon a reformation in the true sense
of the term, very different from the plundering
and sacrilege that prevailed during the reigns
of Henry and Edward. At the outset of this
genuine reformation, we find King Charles
nobly coming forward and restoring all the
Crown impropriations, and his generous
example was followed by Wentworth and
others of the nobility. I^aud himself advanced
£40,000 for buying up the alienated tithes.
One of the first steps that he seems to have
taken was the reformation of Trinity College,
Dublin, the training school of most of the Irish
clergy. In this work he was heartily assisted
by the Lord Deputy. New statutes were
drawn up, and eventually he procured the
appointment of Chappell, dean of Cashel, a
1 Maut_, Irish Church, i. 448.
198 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
man of learning and ability as provost. Dublin
flourished under Laud's chancellorship, as was
the case with the University of Oxford.
It is not within the scope of this work to
enter into the political actions and aims of
Lord Strafford, nor have we the space to do
so. Sufficient to say, that he acted, to a great
extent, as a rough soldier of the seventeenth
century. To his lord and master, the King,
he was devotedly loyal ; to the enemies and
opponents of the King, he was harsh and
severe. He was no respecter of persons. In
a turbulent and unsettled country, this kind of
rule is often best, and indeed at the present
day to wage war " in kid gloves " has often
ended in a longer campaign and more blood-
shed, than if stern measures had been taken
at the outset. That Ireland prospered, from a
material point of view, under the iron rule
of Strafford caimot be denied : manufactures
and agriculture were fostered, and he was
the means of introducing the cultivation of
flax into the country. From previous Lord
Deputies he differed in being an ardent sup-
porter of the Church ; and, in consequence,
the aims of I^aud were furthered. Tliere is the
hinnorous story of how tlie site of the high
altar in St. Patrick's Cathedral was occupied
by a costly and florid monumental tomb erected
LAUD AND STRAFFORD 199
by the Earl of Cork. Here was a gross scandal
to be remedied : how was the great man to be
dealt with ? To Strafford there was no diffi-
culty whatever. In spite of the noble owner's
indignant expostulations, he was made to take
the cumbrous structure to pieces, and to remove
them. Afterwards, in a letter to Laud, Straf-
ford jestingly alludes to the episode. He
wi'ites — " How he means to dispose of it I
know not ; but up it is put in boxes, as it were
marchpanes and banquetting stuffs going down
to the christening of my young lord in the
country."
The friendship of Laud and Strafford was
remarkable : both men pursuing their policy of
" thorough," as they called it, in Church and
State, both were devoted servants of the King,
and alike regardless of their own personal
interests. In their correspondence, as has been
already noticed. Laud, who had " the care of
all the Churches " upon his shoulders, would
unbend ; and at times a vein of liomely humour
is to be seen ; and the same may be said of
Strafford. The old rivalry between the two
great universities of Oxford and Cambridge is
sometimes the subject of a little banter : both
men were Johnians, and upheld their respective
universities. In these letters we find Laud,
who was no friend to those of his own order if
200 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
they walked unworthy of their ^^ocation, waxing
warm in the condemnation of some of the
sorry specimens of the episcopate who were
then to be found in Ireland. Strafford is asked
to keep them "from their sacred alienations";
reference is made to " trouncing a bishop or
two in the council chamber " ; certain bishops
are "to disgorge their sacred pelf." Laud is
severe with these spiritual miscreants, and they
richly deserved his severity.
But the piece de rcsistcuice in the work of
reformation was undoubtedly the suppression
of the Irish Articles of 1615, in favour of
the XXXIX. Articles. To bring about this
appeared at first an impossible feat. Of the
bisliops, only two could be relied upon, Bedell
of Kilmore, and Bramhall who was now bishop
of Derry ; while their opponents were led by
such an able champion as Ussher. Ussher was
persuaded by Laud of the advisability of the
change, but he seems to have had some diffi-
culty in converting his colleagues, wliose
nationalism hindered them from repudiating
the Irish vVrticles. At this juncture Strafford
stepped in, and managed tlie matter moix siio
in a rough and ready military fashion. He
summoned the Primate, some of the bishops
and otlicr divines to the Castle, and told them
his wishes. On Usslicr (h-awiiig out a canon
THE IRISH ARTICLES AND CANONS 201
^ibout receiving the English Articles, Strafford
pronounced it unsatisfactory, and seizing a pen
forthwith proceeded to write one out himself.
This canon was accordingly all but unanimously
passed by the Irish Convocation, and thus the
victory was gained. Bramhall afterwards, with
more zeal than wisdom, proposed that the
English Canons should be submitted to the
Irish Convocation ; but Strafford wisely vetoed
such a suggestion. Like a wise ruler, he knew
when to stay his hand. The drawing up of a
new code of Irish Canons was entrusted to
Bramhall, who compiled a body of a hundred
canons. Two of these canons are worthy of
notice, as showing a return to "old paths," — a
prominent feature in the Laudian reformation.
Canon XIX. directs the parish priest, on the
afternoon before the celebration of the Holy
Communion, to tarry in the church and toll a
bell, so that those of his people who wish to
make their confessions may resort to him, and
obtain " the benefit of Absolution." Canon
XLIX. forbids marriages in Lent, or on any
public fast, and during the festivals of Christ-
mas, Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost.
The Irish Articles of 1(315 were not foriu-
ally repealed ; they were suppressed by the
XXXIX. Articles, and so died a natural
death. This course was wise. One feeble
202 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
effort, indeed, was made for the restoration
by authority of Parhament of the Articles of
1615 ; but the Lord Deputy thereupon coolly
suggested their consignment to the common
hangman for a public auto da fe! After this
nothing more was heard of the matter. At
the end of Strafford's rule in Ireland it is said
that the Church was more wealthy by £30,000
a year, than when it commenced.
Such is a brief account of the Laudian
reformation m Ireland. Certainly it was not
perfect, and it is impossible to defend Laud's
methods, but of their success, in those days at
least, there can be no question. The plan of
usinff the Crown as an instrument for reform-
ing the Church invites adverse criticism,
inasmuch as it identified salutary measures of
reform with the despotism of Enghsh rule.
As in the case of Scotland, it must nevertheless
be remembered that almost insurmountable
difficulties existed, and that Laud's course was
perhaps the only one that could be adopted.
It may be said that Laud was like a great
general with but a small force at his command.
With that force he worked wonders. He
checked the advance of Puritanism. Doubt-
less also the fact that the Lord Deputy
liappcncd to be a man whose sympathies were
on tlie side of the Church, caused Laud thus
THE IRISH ARTICLES AND CANONS 203
to depend unduly upon the power of tlie
Crown.
It is a strange picture, the soldier and the
bishop working hand-in-hand, with but a small
body of coadjutors, for the regeneration of the
Church. They both did great things, and
humanly speaking they both failed. Not many
years after they met as condemned men : Straf-
ford went his way to the block, and Laud was
soon to follow him. The story of that pathetic
meeting is well known. The gallant soldier,
w^ho had served his King so faithfully, kneels
outside the grated window of his comrade's
prison, and requests his prayers and parting
blessing. Laud gives them, and Strafford
answers, " Farewell my Lord, may God pro-
tect your innocence," and so he passes to his
tragic end.
CHAPTER XI
LAUD : HIS TROUBLES
GATHERING OF THE STORM ANIMOSITY
AGAINST I.AUD CONVOCATION AND THE
CANONS OF 1640 — I.AUD ACCUSED OF HIGH
TREASON THE TRIAL THE IMPRISONMENT
PRYNNE BILL OF ATTAINDER LAUD
SENTENCED TO DEATH
In the previous chapters of this biogi-aphy,
we have traced the hfe of Laud from his
birth till about the year 1639 ; ^ followed by
an account of his work of reform,^ his private
and devotional life,^ his attitude towards the
cause of Reunion,^ and learning,'' and of his
work and policy in Scotland and Ireland.^
We now take up the narrative of his life as
Primate, and enter into the story of his
Troubles, which include his imprisonment
and trial.
The ominous presentiments of a mighty
' Ch. i. ii. iii. iv. 2 (jh. V. ••' Ch. vi. < Ch. vii.
" Ch. viii. "C'li. ix. x.
204
GATHERING OF THE STORM 205
conflict between the forces of the Church and
Puritanism have been ah-eady referred to.
After the tumult in Edinburgh in the summer
of 1G37, these presages became still more
obvious. The rumbling of the coming
eruption was heard by all men. While it
is true that Laud himself was singularly
incapable of grasping the state of affairs,
there is no doubt that at times he felt un-
easy. The great flaws in the Laudian Re-
formation were manifesting themselves. The
dependence of the Church upon the arm of
the State to carry out her work, her alliance
with absolute power — such a policy was about
to recoil upon the Church and for a time to
cause her fall. Now-a-days it is quite possible
for us to conceive a man holding the political
views of Pym, and at the same time the
religious views of Bishop William Forbes, —
such opinions are not necessarily inconsistent
with one another, and such men are not un-
common at the present day ; but in the days
of Laud, they do not seem to have existed.
This union of the Church with Absolutism!
made her unpopular in the eyes of thousands \
of Englishmen, and the fact was eagerly made I
use of by political Puritanism. '
On April 13, 1640, what has been called the
Short Parliament was summoned, and according
206 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
to custom Convocation also assembled. The
Scottish Rebellion was now in full force, and
Convocation showed its loyalty by voting
the King subsidies for the war, after which it
proceeded to formulate certain Canons. Mean-
while matters were going from bad to worse
with the Royal cause. Strafford, weighed down
by ill-health, was making a gallant struggle in
the north against tremendous obstacles. There
were difficulties in the way of pro^ isioning and
paying the troops, and dissensions and intrigues
were rife amongst the King's party. To add
to these troubles, a Popish Plot was fabricated.
One Habernfeld professed to have discovered
it at the Hague, and the story was sprung
upon the nation e\'idently at the psychological
moment. Some of those nearest to the King,
of the Roman faith and of undoubted loyalty,
were said to be implicated ; and this so-called
plot was evidently concocted in order to detach
them from his person. Later, as we shall see,
the unscrupulous A\^illiam Prynne made use of
it in order to ruin the Archbishop. Even Laud
seems to have thought it credible, but one nnist
remember that all this took place in days less
than half a ccntiny removed from the time
wlien the Britisli nation lost its head over the
" I'opish Plot" of that infamous scoundrel
Titus Oatcs, with the result that numbers of
GATHERING OF THE STORM 207
innocent men were judicially murdered. Thus
the credulity of people on this occasion need
not surprise us. There can be little doubt that
the so-called plot was manufactured in Puritan
quarters.
In the midst of these confusions, Charles
made things worse by impulsively dissolving
Parliament : an act which distressed his sup-
porters and angered his opponents. This step
was falsely laid to the credit of Laud, and
popular feeling against the Archbishop was
still further increased by Con\'ocation, at the
desire of the King, and on the advice of the
Crown lawyers, continuing to sit after the
dissolution of Parliament, contrary to pre-
cedent. In the month of May, Charles and
Strafford being absent from the capital, an
organized assault was made upon Lambeth
Palace by the rabble five hundred strong, who
evidently thirsted for the blood of the Arch-
bishop. Fortunately Laud was aware of their
plans, and slept that night at Whitehall ; and
Lambeth, being well defended, withstood the
attack. According to the harsh usage of the
day, on the ringleaders being apprehended, one
of them was executed.
The animosity against Laud in London and
throughout the country at this period appears
to have been widely spread, owing to the fact
208 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
that he was the great leader of the Church, and
also, as has been noticed, because the Church
seemed inseparably connected with the Crown.
This feeling was cleverly taken advantage of by
the wire-pullers of the Parliamentary party,
and it was accordingly engineered for political
purposes. In no way was this more skilfully
done, than by the system ot printed libels
which now flooded the country. Thus the
minds of the populace were effectively poisoned,
especially as truth was of little account in such
publications. Most of these libels were en-
riched with crude pictorial embellishments,
which tended to carry further weight, and
appealed even to those who were unable to
read. As early as the year 1629, the Ubels
against the Archbishop made their appear-
ance ; about 1640, they seem to have reached
their height, and were distributed broadcast.
A considerable ninnber of these publications
have been preserved to this day. They exhibit
most of them a coarseness and virulence, to-
gether with what passed for wit, but which
dou})tless was extremely telling in the esti-
mation of their readers. Such publications
may be perhaps described as corresponding
to the " gutter-press " of the present day.
This flood of venemous libels was indeed an
ominous sign of the rising liatrcd of the
Laud's Tkiai- in the Housk ok Lords.
(A) Laud. (I!) f'icntlem.in Usher. (C) Lieutenant of Tower. (I)) liishops. (E) Clerk
reading evidence. (!•') Talile where books and papers lay. ((
of Commons. (H) Mr. Henry Hurton. (I) Witnesses. (K
and Auditors. (I.) The Lords
) Nl embers
(k) IVople
{To face p. 209.
THE CANONS OF 1610 209
dominant faction. T^aiid, with his sensitive
nature, felt intensely the insults and calumnies
heaped upon him, but he bore them as a
Christian : "I thank God, He made me
patient," " God forgive them," are the words
in his Diary ; and, in the true spirit of an
ecclesiastic, he continues, " It grieved me
more for my calling, than for my person."
Convocation, guarded by a force of the
trained bands, meanwhile courageously con-
tinued its labours and compiled and pro-
mulgated a body of Canons, commonly called
the Canons of 1G40 : some of them were
remarkable. The first canon contained an
exaggerated statement of the Royal preroga-
tive, which no one could possibly accept
now-a-days, and which at the time was more
than injudicious. Another canon for " sup-
pressing " Romanism, and " reducing Papists
to the Church," in the harsh and ruthless
fashion of the seventeenth century, is as little
capable of defence. It is however interesting
to observe that this canon was the work of
Laud himself, and to all fair-minded men is
a proof that the popular accusation of his
being " Popishly affected " was not only
malevolent, but also manifestly unjust. An-
other canon enjoined and temperately defended
the ancient custom of bowing towards the
14
SIO LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Holy Table. This canon is important in
authoritatively confirming the truth, which the
Edwardian divines and the Puritans denied,
that the Lord's Table is also the Christian
Altar, the upholding of which truth was part
of the life-work of William Laud. But what
is perhaps the most important feature of the
Convocation of 1640 was the imposition of an
oath upon all ecclesiastics, causing them to
approve of the doctrine and discipline of the
Church of England, and making them promise
never to bring in Popish doctrines, nor consent
to the alteration of the government of the
Church by Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Arch-
deacons, &c. The termination of the clause
with tiie words et ccetera, a trifling and innocent
device in order to seciu'e brevity, was at once
seized upon by the enemies of the Church ;
and with an ingenuity that is prodigious, they
interpreted the et ccetei^a to include the entire
Romish system I It is difficult to say whether
the ingenuity of the commentators or the
gullibility of the rank and file was tlie greater.
On Novembers, 1G40, the Long Parliament
assembled — an ominous day, for it was the anni-
versary of the meeting of the Parliament that
voted for tlic dissolution of the monasteries.
The populace of I^ondon was in a ferment, and
serious riots took place. The Court of High
THE CANONS OF 1640 211
Commission had been invaded by a mob of
fanatics, who tore up the benches, and yelled,
" No Bishops ! no High Commission ! " The
libels upon Laud were being disseminated far
and wide. From a person unknown to him,
who had just returned from the north, he re-
ceived warning that, amongst the Scots the
hope was expressed that he might come to
his end in the same way as did the Duke of
Buckingham.
At Lambeth, on October 27, Laud found
his portrait which hung in his study lying on
its face, the cord that suspended it having
snapped. He notes this in his Diary. Many
would have done the same under the cir-
cumstances of the time. Yet Laud was made
of stouter stuff than to quail in those days of
trouble, when everything seemed to be point-
ing to disaster. He manfully took his place in
Parliament, and preached before Convocation.
New forms for the consecration of churches
and churchyards, a form for the reconciling of
those who had lapsed to JNIohammedanism, a
Welsh translation of the Bible, a new Latin
Prayer Book — such were some of the matters
which were to have been taken in hand.
Many of the brethren must have doubted the
accomplishment of these schemes.
On November 11, the blow fell: Strafford was
212 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
accused by Pym in the name of the Commons
of England of High Treason, and was removed
to the Tower. About a month after this, the
new canons were condemned by the House of
Commons, and it is not wonderful that some
of their political statements should have been
so treated. On December 18, Laud was
violently attacked in the House, Sir Grimston
Harbottle, in the refined language of political
Puritanism, describing him as " the sty of all
the pestilential filth which had infested the State
and government of the Commonwealth." ^ On
the same day Denzil HoUis accused William,
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, of High
Treason praying that he might be committed
to safe custody, and promising later on to
specify the charges. Laud craved leave to
speak, and expressed his sorrow that such a
charge should be brought against an innocent
man. He was rudely interrupted by Lord
Essex, and browbeaten by Lord Saye and
Sele, and finally committed to the charge of
INIaxwell, Usher of the Black Hod. With
considerable difHculty he obtained leave to go
to Lambeth to collect his papers, and a few
books to read diuing his imprisonment.
'I'he story of this visit to Lambeth, the last
time he ever set foot there, is one of the most
' Cobbctt, ISlate Triak, iv. 317.
LAUD ACCUSED OF HIGH TREASON 213
touching and pathetic scenes in EngHsh History.
In the history of his Troubles he has preserved
to us an account of it.^ Diu-ing the course of
his business on that sad December afternoon,
he shpped away to the chapel, where Evensong
was being sung, and took part in that service
in which he was never again pubhcly to join
upon earth. One may well imagine what he
must have felt in that beautiful building where
he had so often worshipped, and which he had
restored to something like its pristine glory.
The sortes liturgicce were strangely appropriate
to the occasion. The choir chanted the psalms
for the 18th evening of the month, in which
the following words occur :
The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods have lift up
their voice : the floods lift up their waves.
The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly :
but yet the Lord who dwelleth on high, is mightier. . . .
In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my
heart : thy comforts have refreshed my soul. . . .
They gather them together against the soul of the
righteous : and condemn the innocent blood.
But the Lord is my refuge : and my God is the
strength of my confidence. ^
The words of Isaiah in the first lesson were
likewise appropriate :
For the Lord God will help me ; therefore shall I
not be confounded : therefore have I set my face like
a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
* Laud's Works (Troubles), iii. 270, 277. ^ I's. xciii. aud xciv.
214 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
He is near that justifieth me ; who will contend
with me ? let us stand together : who is mine adversary ?
let him come near to me.
Behold the Lord God will help me ; who is he that
shall condemn me ? Lo, they all shall wax old as a
gannent ; the moth shall eat them up.
Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that
obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in
darkness and hath no light ? let him trust in the name
of the Lord, and stay upon his God.^
The second lesson was equally befitting the
occasion, in which St. Peter speaks of shortly-
putting off this tabernacle.^ As the service
concluded and the organ ceased, we can picture
the aged Primate on his knees in his stall,
looking up at the fair altar that he himself
had reared, with its goodly hangings and
ornaments, saying in this chapel a last prayer
to God. Later, in the cold winter's evening,
Laud stepped into the boat which was to
convey him to the charge of the Usher of the
Black Rod. It is remarkable to note that on
this occasion hundreds of his poorer neighbours
crowded to the water-side to see him off, —
men and women who had doubtless been
helped })y liim both temporally and spirit-
ually, who had watched his blameless life and
conversation, who refused to believe the vile
calumnies circulated against him. These people
prayed aloud for his safe return, which, alas.
' Isaiah 1. 7-11. ^ 2 S. Peter, i. U.
LAUD ACCUSED OF HIGH TREASON 215
was never to be. Having given them his
blessing, the boat pulled out into the stream,
and ^^^illiam Laud had left I^rambeth for ever.
That memorable afternoon of December 18,
1640, the quiet service in the chapel, the com-
fort and help of the Scripture message seem to
have been ever present in his mind during the
remainder of his life, and day by day he would
repeat Psalms xciii. and xciv.
Laud remained ten weeks under the charge
of Maxwell, during which time he was put
to ruinous charges for his maintenance. By
his gentleness and resignation in his cap-
tivity, he quite converted Mrs. Maxwell to a
belief in his innocency : she reported him to
one of her friends as one of the " goodest men
and most pious souls " that she had ever met. ^
During his sojourn with Maxwell, Sir Robert
Howard, smarting under the punishment that
he had received from the High Commission
Court for his adultery with Lady Purbeck,
applied to the House of Commons. This
body, in their hatred of Laud and in their
sympathy with the profligate, ordered the
Primate to pay damages of £500, and his
officials to pay £250 each !
At length on February 2G, 1G41, fourteen
articles of impeachment of High Treason
1 Heyliu, Cypriunus Anylicun, p. 436.
216 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
were brought against Laud by the House of
Commons, and he was compelled to go to the
House of Lords to hear them. The fourteen
articles set forth that he had endeavoured to
subvert the laws of the realm, encouraged by
sermons and otherwise assertions of arbitrary
power, perverted justice in the law-courts,
published a pernicious book of canons without
authority, assumed a tyrannical power both in
temporal and spiritual matters, laboured to
introduce Popish superstition, nominated to
benefices men who were popishly affected and
corrupt in morals, committed the licensing of
books to his chaplains who were inclined to
Popery, confederated with Jesuits and the
Pope, silenced many " godly ministers," en-
deavoured to cause dissensions between the
Church of England and " other reformed
Churches," laboured to introduce innovations
in religion especially in Scotland, stirred up
strife between the two kingdoms and between
the King and Parliament. In order to give
additional horror to these accusations, the
word "traitorously" was inserted in each of
them. To these charges, most of tliem
preposterous as well as untrue, some of them
almost ludicrous, I^aud gave his answer wliich
was full, precise and clear, especially to those
articles which accused him of sub\'erting the
THE TRIAL 217
religion of the country. So convincing was
it, that " it ought to have covered his accusers
with confusion " ; ^ but it did not. The Lords
committed him to the Tower. On March 1,
1641, he started off at noon in IMaxwell's
coach, accompanied by his warden, to the place
of his long and last imprisonment. At first
he passed on unmolested, but in Cheapside one
or two apprentices created a disturbance, and
by the time that the coach had reached the
Exchange, he found himself in the midst of a
howling mob, M^hicli followed him, as he
expresses it, " beyond barbarity itself " to the
very gates of the Tower. Even Maxwell was
moved with grief and indignation at this
spectacle of ferocity. ^ Had the journey been
much longer the Archbishop would very likely
have been torn to pieces by this "confused
Raskal Rabble," as Heylin describes the mob.
When Laud was securely lodged in the
Tower, his enemy AVilliams came to the fore.
Parliament had liberated him from the im-
prisonment that he was justly enduring
for the serious political offence of divulg-
ing State secrets. At once he became the
popular prelate in the eyes of the Puritan
party. He returned to residence at tlie
1 Le Bas, Life ofLntuI, p. 287.
2 Laud's Worka (Troubles), iii. 48G, 437.
218 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Deanery of Westminster ; and the King, at
the instance of those in power, nominated him
to the Archbishopric of York. True to his
character of a man without principle, he
trimmed his sails to catch the most favourable
wind, and assumed his favourite rdle of
" moderate man," so that we find him pre-
siding over a committee of religion for the
purpose of enquiring into all innovations
of doctrine and discipline, — in other words,
undoing the Laudian Reformation. This
committee was nominated by the House of
Lords, and consisted of ten earls, ten barons
and ten bishops, Avhose labours were soon
overwhelmed by the more thorough -going
and more consistent measure of abolishing
deans and chapters. Thus the " committee
of religion " suffered ignominious dissolution 1
Later, Williams was brought into unenviable
notice by the part he played with regard to
Strafford, openly defending him in the House
of Lords, while secretly persuading the King
that he had a private conscience and also a
public conscience, and that in matters of public
import he could disregard the former and obey
the latter. This innnoral piece of casuistry, as
is well known, turned the scale and caused
Charles to sacrifice tlic Earl. The Conunons
were uidecd wise in their generation in keeping
THE TRIAL 219
Laud, the King's straightforward counsellor,
in the Tower at that time. On JNIay 12, 1G41,
Strafford was executed. We have already
described how nobly he went to his death with
the blessing of his old friend and comrade
upon him.
The next step of Williams was one of base
vindictiveness towards Laud. Chiefly at his
instigation, an order of sequestration was
agreed to in the House of Peers, an order
which consigned the jurisdiction of the Pri-
mate of all England to obscure officials, and
placed his patronage in the hands of those
who were compassing the ruin of the Church.^
The hist move of this unscrupulous self-seeker
was one fatal to himself. He made a false
step which brought about his fall. Changing
his tactics, he prevailed upon eleven of the
bishops to join him in a protest against the
validity of all that the House of Lords had
done since December 27, 1640 — the day on
which the bishops had been kept out of the
House by the violence of the mob. It was a
bold move, but on this occasion the Puritan
party showed themselves to be more clever
than even this astute schemer, and the entire
1 Tliat tins action was flac:rantly illegal need hardly be stated.
The Peers could neither bestow, uor take away ecclesiastical
jurisdiction.
220 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
band of bishops were promptly committed to
the Tower. Thus did this unhappy man
overreach himself.
We must now return to Laud and his im-
prisonment in the Tower, which began on
INIarch 1, 1641, as already noticed. Soon after
this date the work of vengeance and confisca-
tion was vigorously pressed forward. Burton
was rewarded with a solatium of £6,000, and
Prynne and Bastwick each received £5,000.
A fine of £20,000 was imposed upon Laud, as
a punishment for his work in the late Convo-
cation, he being in every way treated as one
whose guilt had been conclusively established.
Of the history of Laud's captivity, not
much has been preserved to us. For what
we know of that sad time in his life, we are
indebted chiefly to the History of his Troubles,
which he then began to write, and certain
facts are handed down to us in his letters.
Some of his faithful servants were permitted
to accompany him to the Tower. He himself
" was in a prison-lodging, void of all comfort
and company."^ At first he was allowed to
walk every day for a short time alone, but
afterwards there came an order forbidding him
to take the air without the company of his
warder. iVt times news from the outer world
' Laud's Workis (Troubles)^ iv. 11.
THE IxMPRISONMENT 221
would filter in to the captive, and is duly
chronicled by him in his Troubles. He refers
at considerable length to the trial of Strafford,
he notes the movements of the King, the
proceedings in Parliament, the rising tide of
hatred against the Church, the campaign of
libels against himself, and other events of the
day. He refers to the decree " that all rents
and profits of archbishops, bishops, deans and
chapters and other delinquents should be
sequestered for the use and service of the
Commonwealth."^ By this action not one
penny was allowed him for his maintenance.
Henceforth the Primate of all England in his
harsh captivity was constrained to petition
Parliament " that somewhat may be allowed
him out of his estate to supply the necessities
of life ; assuring himself that in honour and
justice you will not suffer him either to beg or
starve."^ He had to depend on the alms that
the faithful contrived to send him. JNleanwhile
Lambeth Palace was seized by the Parliament-
arians and turned into a prison, the chapel
being desecrated, the painted glass of the
windows broken, the altar overthrown, and the
altar-steps torn up. Some old halberts, pikes
and muskets were found on the premises,
which Laud had "taken over" from his
1 Laud's Works (Troubles), iv. 10. ~ Ibid. iv. 23.
222 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
predecessor, doubtless as part of the sundries
amongst the furniture. This formed the basis
of a report, industriously circulated by his
enemies, that arms for ten thousand men were
found at Lambeth — an indubitable proof, of
course, with the populace of a vast scheme for
" bringing in " Popery ! ^
At the beginning of Laud's incarceration
it has been thought that the enemies of the
Archbishop desired to simplify matters by
giving him an 02)portunity of escaping.
Williams had already made his escape, and
Secretary AVindebank had fled to France. It
is difficult to find conclusi\ e proof that such
was the wish of those in authority ; in fact
their yearning later at any cost to compass his
death makes this appear unlikely. Yet he
himself seems to have believed it, for he says
in a letter to his friend, Pococke the orientalist,
" An escape is feasible enough, yea, it is I be-
lieve the very thing that my enemies desire."
But the stout-hearted prelate scorned flight.
To fly to France might ha\'e given colour to
the accusation that he was " popishly affected,"
while to fly to Holland would \vdve put him
under the power of the sectaries there. " No,"
he resolutely exclaims, " I am resolved not to
think of flight ; but patiently to expect and
' Laud's Wo7'kii (Troubles), iv. 9.
THE IMPRISONMENT 223
bear what a good and wise Providence has pro-
vided for me, of what kind soever it shall be." ^
On one occasion while in the Tower he
relates how he broke the tendon of his right
leg, which prevented his walking for two
months. His first attempt to get about
was when, by the help of his servant, he
went to church ; and, as an example of
the barbarity of his persecution, for it was
nothing less, an individual called Jocelin in
his sermon openly made a violent attack
upon him. Laud describes the incident
in these words : "To pass over what was
strangely evil throughout his sermon, his
personal abuse of me was so foul and so palp-
able that women and boys stood up in the
church to see how I could bear it : and this
was my first welcome into the church, after
my long lameness. But I humbly thank God
for it, I bare his virulence patiently, and so it
vanished : as did much other of like natin-e,
which 1 bare both before and after this. God
forgive them." So he describes the event.^
It was during his captivity that Laud, in a
dignified and pathetic letter to the Uni-
versity of Oxford, resigned his Chancellorship,
pleading for the election of an " honourable
^ Twells' Life ofPococke, p. 74, qu. Le Bas, p. 290.
2 Laud's Works, iv. 9.
224 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
person " in his place. It must have added to
the Archbishop's many troubles when he
learnt that the "honourable person" thus
elected was the Earl of Pembroke, of whom it
has been said, " his understanding was mean,
his spirit malicious, base, and dastardly."^
A contrast, indeed, to the munificent patron,
who had neither spared himself nor his means
to benefit his Alma 3Iater.
In INIay 1643, a proposition was solemnly
made in the House of Commons by a
notorious fanatic, Hugh Peters, of transport-
ing the Archbishop unheard and untried to
the colony of Ts^ew England, at that time a
stronghold of ultra-Puritanism. This proposal
was not carried into effect, whether because
such a plan was too brutal even for the
enemies of Laud, or because they wished to
have the gratification of punishing him them-
selves, it is difficult to say. About this time
Laud was subjected to perhaps the most out-
rageous of all the many insults endured by
him during his captivity. On JNIarch 31, his
implacable enemy, William Prynne, appeared
at the Tower early one morning, armed with
full power to search and seize. Accompanied
by three musqueteers, with their pieces at full
cock, he forced himself into the I'rimate's
' Lc Bas, p. 295.
THE IMPRISONMENT 225
bedroom before he had risen from his bed.
Prynne at once set himself to rifle the pockets
of the Archbishop's clothes of their contents,
leaving however some money, but carrying off
the papers which the poor man had prepared
for his defence ; he also confiscated his Diary,
a copy of the Scottish Prayer Book, and lastly
his IMS. book of private devotions. I^aud
says, in describing the event, "Nor could I
get him to leave this last ; but he must needs
see what passed between God and me : a thing
I think scarce offered to any Christian."^
After even peering into each one of the Arch-
bishop's gloves, in his eager lust for papers
containing evidence, the miscreant took his
departure. The object of this search and of
the seizure of the Archbishop's papers was in
order to manufacture evidence against him.
In this occupation Prynne and his satellites
were soon busy at work. The so-called
" popish plot " discovered by Habernfeld was
now dished up by Prynne as Romes Master-
piece, in which he ingeniously proved that
Laud was really a fellow worker with certain
Romish conspirators ! The Archbishop's diary
was a perfect godsend to the faction who were
compassing his ruin, for this was in due course
"edited" by the astute but unscrupulous
' Laud's Woi-ks, iv. 2(5.
15
226 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Prynne. The "editing" consisted of sup-
pressing passages that were in Laud's favour,
and interpolating statements calculated to
blacken his character in the eyes of an un-
critical and implacable multitude. After five
months of steady work this person and his
hirelings had manufactured a large body of
" evidence " ; and the Commons, on their part,
produced ten additional articles against the
Archbishop.
On November 13, 1643, the trial began.
After three years of wearisome and painful
imprisonment, the aged Prelate, now seventy
years old, was brought to the bar of the House
of Commons. He of course pleaded. Not
Guilty. Counsel was allowed him, and also
at his OA\ai expense copies of the papers that
Prynne had secured. On this particular
occasion, tlie proceedings were to a great
extent formal. He was not brought to the
House of Lords till January. Before this great
event, however, in order that *' he might not
rust," as he himself terms it, a little pre-
liminary baiting took place in the House ot
Commons. He was called upon, together with
Cosin, to answer to the trumpery charges of
Peter Smart, a divine who was deposed by the
Dean and Chapter of Durham for a profane
PRYNNE 227
tirade in a sermon preached against the Cathe-
dral-worship, and who was now having his
revenge. At length, on January 22, Laud
appeared before the Peers to answer the first
general articles brought against him. On that
day, the Thames being frozen, he drove along
the streets to Westminster and back, through
frost and snow ; while the people like a pack
of hungry wolves howled after him, and in-
sulted him. It was not till March 12, 1G44,
that the actual trial began. It was indeed a
fearful strain for a man advanced in years :
what he suffered in body and soul it is im-
possible to describe. Often, fi'om early in the
morning he stood at the bar of the House till
two in the afternoon, and then on from four
till half-past seven. Even during the interval
he was hard at work at his papers preparing
his answers. In bitter winter weather he was
almost frozen to death going there and back
on the river, and in the blazing days of that
summer he used to return by boat to the
Tower " full of weariness, and with a shirt
as wet to my back with sweat, as the water
could have made it, had I fallen in."^ How
he was able to endure it all, for he was often
ailing, is a marvel. Doubtless the hoj^e that
1 Laud's WorkSf iv. 50.
228 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
his vindication from the unjust charges would
convince even his enemies, to a large extent
sustained him.
Prynne was of course a prominent figiu-e at
the trial. That untiring sleuth-hound never
gave up the pursuit of his prey, being fully
determined to track his victim to the death.
He accordingly managed the case for the
Commons, and supplied counsel with volu-
minous notes ; he even " kept a kind of school
of instruction " for witnesses I
Laud on his part, — though every circum-
stance was against him, from his old age and
infirmity to the cowardly and brutal conduct
of his opponents, — conducted his vindication
with consummate abihty and courage. He
certainly proved that he, the leader of a great
religious movement, was a man of no ordinary
power. Even Prynne, his implacable enemy,
breaks out into genume admiration at the spirit
of the Archbishop. " To give him his due,"
he says, " he made as full, as gallant, as pithy
a defence of so bad a cause, and spake so
much for himself as was possible for the wit of
man to in\'ent. ..." But what is perhaps
even more noticeable than his ability, is his
high Christian virtue of gentleness, and the
way he forgave his enemies, a sure sign that
he was trained in the school of Him " \A'ho
PRYNNE 229
when He was reviled, reviled not again ; when
He suffered, He threatened not." Laud by-
nature was hot-tempered and hasty, but by
grace he had become gentle and patient.
Once, and only once, did he break out into
vehement indignation. One of his accusers, a
foul-mouthed ruffian called Nicholas, amongst
other filthy abuse, called him " a pander to the
whore of Babylon." Laud was much moved
at these words, and he says, " I humbly desired
the Lords, that if my crimes were such that I
might not be used like an archbishop, yet I
might be used like a Christian." ^
At last, in the month of August, 1644, the
trial came to an end, with the result that, not-
withstanding all the efforts made, it was not
possible to prove against him the charge of
High Treason. On September 2, he was
allowed to deliver a recapitulation of his im-
peachment and defence before the Lords. On
that morning the instant he came to the bar
of the House, he noticed that every peer was
provided with a thin folio "in a blue coat."
This was none other than his own diary, which
was now published after the indefatigable
Prynne had subjected it to his *' editing "
process. Again the Archbishop made an able
defence, which produced confusion, but not
1 Laud's Worlcs, iv. 309.
230 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
justice amongst his hearers. The result was
that a new course was adopted. Since Laud
could not be proved guilty of High Treason,
Parliament must somehow or other assert that
he was guilty, and then condemn him accord-
ingly. On the first day of November, he was
therefore summoned to the House of Commons,
and informed that a bill of Attainder was
brought in against him. He was refused the
help of counsel, and on November 11, he had
to answer to the charge of trying to " alter
the true Protestant religion into Popery," and
endeavouring " to subvert the laws of the
Kingdom." The answer that he made was
very similar to that made in the House of
Lords. His reference to his old age and to
his broken health was so touching, that it
might have melted hearts of stone. At the
end of that terrible day, the courageous old
man physically broke down for a time. " I was
exceeding faint with speaking so long," he says,
" and I had a great pain and soreness in my
breast [heart] for almost a fortnight after." ^
Two days later he was again summoned to the
House to hear counsel repeat the charge. He
was not allowed to reply, and, to the ever-
lasting disgrace of the Connnons, he was
attainted of High Treason and condemned to
' Laud's ^For/i-ff (Troubles), iv. 413.
BILL OF AITAINDER 231
suffer death. On November 16, the bill was
taken up to the House of Lords, and in a
blustering way the Peers were given to under-
stand that they Avere to agree to the ordinance,
or else the multitude would force them to do
so. I^ike Pontius Pilate they began by re-
coiling at the infamy of passing the bill, like
him they sought in vain for a compromise,
and like him they finally gave way : " and
Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they
required."
Only six peers voted ; the rest absented
themselves, either through fear or shame ; and
thus it came to pass that William, Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all
England, was condemned to death by being
hung like a felon. So ended one of the most
remarkable trials in English History, remark-
able because of its brutality, its illegality and
its injustice. INIr. Le Bas says with truth,
" The victory obtained by the Liberators of
England over all that is usually held sacred
among Englishmen was now complete."^ On
this occasion the new Chancellor of Oxford
disgraced himself by insulting his predecessor
by the coarsest scvu-rility, calling him to his
face a rascal and a villain. The matter of the
Archbishop's sentence was debated on foiu-
1 Le Bas, p. 317.
232 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
occasions in the Lords. As late as December
24, they confessed that they were unable to
detect High Treason in the prisoner. On
January 2, they wavered, and on January 4,
the ordinance of Attainder was carried— a
veritable triumph of satanic malice against an
innocent man.
The trial itself was a sorry exhibition of
flagrant injustice and petty spite against a
defenceless old man, who under natural cir-
cumstances was not far from the grave. In
the case of another archbishop of Canterbury,
Thomas Cranmer, the treatment meted out to
him in his trial and at his death cannot be
defended by the most ardent Papalist, but
Romanensian cruelty was like that of a fierce
tiger, while the cruelty of the Puritans to
William Laud resembled that of a pack of
contemptible curs.
On January 4, Laud received the news of
his sentence. He received it in the true spirit
of a Clu'istian bishop. The King had sent liim
a formal pardon, the only thing Charles could
do in the hope of saving his life ; but this was
of no avail at the hands of those who had
firmly resolved to shed liis blood. Laud was
neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die, yet
he petitioned that his penalty might be altered
to being beheaded — a more honourable mode
LAUD SENTENCED TO DEATH 233
of death, and that his chaplains Dr. Sterne,
Dr. Heywood or Dr. Martin might be allowed
to attend him. The Commons brutally re-
fused both requests, but the Lords acceded.
Eventually the Commons agreed to his being
beheaded, but they would not permit Dr.
Sterne to attend, unless accompanied by
Dr. Marshall or Mr. Palmer, both violent
Puritans.
CHArXER XII
LAUD : HIS MARTYRDOM
laud's execution — HIS SPEECH AND PRAYERS
THE END — laud's WILL PERSECUTION,
AND DESECRATION OF CHURCHES — RE-
ACTION THE PRAYER BOOK OF 1G61
"LAUD SAYED THE ENGLISH CHURCH "
When Laud learnt the verdict that had been
passed upon him, he at once broke off writing
the story of his " Troubles," and gave himself
up wholly to prepare for death. In this work
there is not space to quote the touching and
beautiful prayers that he wrote and used
during the last few days of his life : it is suffi-
cient to say that they amply reveal his faith
and his resignation. They also shoAv his
Christian magnanimity in forgiving his enemies.
Laud spent the time remaming to him hi close
communion with God. So calm and peaceful
was his last sleep on earth, that his attendants
liad to wake him wlien the fatal morning
arrived ; and when Pennington, the alderman
of the Tower, came to summon him to his
234
LAUD'S EXECUTION 235
execution, he was found upon his knees. Then
he arose, and passed out of his prison on that
January morning, walking to the scaffold on
Tower Hill with firm step, and calm counten-
ance. It was indeed " like a scene out of Primi-
tive times." ^ The soldiers of the Parliament,
horse and foot, were drawn up to keep order, and
to prevent a possible rescue. Crowds lined the
way and surrounded the scaffold, a " confused
Raskal rabble" thirsting for his blood. But
may we not believe that there were some who
came to revile, but returned in tears ? There
would be also amongst the crowd the faithful,
who— just as we read in the Acts of the
martyrs of old — had come to see their chief
pastor " witness a good confession." The
poet's words are doubtless not overdrawn when
he says —
But as he went there were hands stretched out ;
If they might but touch his side ;
And strong men turned their heads about.
And like Uttle children cried.
When the Archbishop reached the scaffold,
the poet continues —
And there the great axe, in the winter sun
Was glittering like to gold ;
And the block was there, and the men in masks.
Right fearful to behold. ^
' The Autobiography of William Laud, Oxford, 1839, p. 432.
2 Neale, ^4 Mirror of Faith, p. 119.
236 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
Then standing up before the vast multitude
the Primate of all England played the man,
and spake words which must have carried
conviction to many a heart —
" Good people, this is an uncomfortable time
to preach ; yet I shall begin with a text of
Scripture, Hebrews xii. 2. ' Let us run with
patience the race that is set before us ; looking
unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our
faith, Who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the Cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God.'
" I have been long in my race ; and how I
have looked unto Jesus, the Autlior and
Finisher of my faith, He best knows. I am
now come to the end of my race, and here I
find the cross, a death of shame. But the
shame must be despised, or no coming to the
right hand of God. Jesus despised the shame
for me, and God forbid that I should not
despise the shame for Him."
Then he spoke of " this people," liow they
were " miscra})ly misled " out of the way of
truth, and he asked God to open their eyes.
After acknowledging himself to be a grievous
sinner, he declared that yet he had not com-
mitted any sin " which deserves death by any
known law of this kingdom," and continued,
HIS SPEECH AND PRAYERS 237
" though I am not only the first archbishop,
but the first man, that ever died by an ordin-
ance of Parhament, yet some of my prede-
cessors have gone this way, though not by this
means : for Elphegus was hurried away and
lost his head by the Danes ; Simon Sudbury
in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellows.
Before these, St. John Baptist had his head
danced ofJ' by a lewd woman ; and St. Cyprian,
archbishop of Carthage, submitted his head to
a persecuting sword. Many examples great
and good and they teach me patience."
After this, he defended himself against the
accusation of " bringing in Popery," and like-
wise defended the King from the same accusa-
tion. He also upheld the Anglican part of the
Church in which God had placed him. " I
do therefore, here in the presence of God and
His holy Angels, take it upon my death that I
never endeavoured the subversion either of law
or religion. ... I have done. I forgive all
the world, all and every of those bitter enemies
which have persecuted me ; and humbly desire
to be forgiven of God first, and then of every
man."
He then knelt down and prayed fervently :
he prayed for himself, for the assembled multi-
tude, for the distracted nation, for the King,
for the persecuted Church. Rising from his
238 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
knees, he gave his papers to Sterne his chap-
lain, and approached the block. Seeing chinks
in the flooring of the scaffold, he asked for sand
to fill them up, lest his blood should fall on the
heads of the people. Even at this moment his
enemies would not let him die in peace, for Sir
John Clotworthy, a brutal Irishman, pestered
him with questions, " What is the comfortablest
saying which a dying man would have in his
mouth ? " To which the martyr answered,
Cupio dissolvi, et esse cum Christo. " That is a
good desire, but there must be a foundation
for that divine assurance," urged Clotworthy.
" No man can express it, it must be found
within," was the gentle answer. " It is founded
upon a word, nevertheless, and that word should
be known," continued the persecutor. " That
word is the knowledge of Jesus Christ and that
alone," he replied : and, wishing to put an end
to further questioning, he turned to the execu-
tioner, and giving him some money, said,
" Here, honest friend, God forgive thee ; and
do thine office upon me in mercy." ^
Again he knelt down and prayed, using these
words —
" Lord I am coming as fast as I can. I
' The Autnhiogrfiphi/ of William Land, pp. 432, 433. A similar
account witli verbal difforeiict'S is frivoii by liaiues, Life oj
Abp. Laud, pp. 2b\^, 251) ; also in Laud's Wurh, iv. 438.
THE END 239
know I must pass through the shadow of death
before I can come to see Thee. But it is but
umbra mortis, a mere shadow of death, a httle
darkness upon nature : but Tliou by Thy
merits and Passion hast broke through the
jaws of death. So, Lord receive my soul, and
have mercy upon me ; and bless this kingdom
with peace and plenty, and with brotherly love
and charity, that there may not be this effusion
of Christian blood amongst them, for Jesus
Christ His sake, if it be Thy will." ^
Then he bowed his head upon the block,
" down, as upon a bed," and prayed silently
awhile, after which he gave the signal, " Lord
receive my soul " • and then, all was over.
Then he knelt by the block and he gave the sign
That should carry him home to his rest;
And that same moment the great axe fell
And his spirit was with the blest.^
And thus on January 10, 1645, William
Laud was added to the noble army of martyrs.
The faithful Peter Heylin thus comments upon
the fact : " His death was the more remarkable
in falling on St. William's day, as if it did
design him to an equal place in the English
Calendar with that which William, Archbishop
of Bourgeois, (Bourges) had obtained in the
^ Autobiography, p. 434.
2 Mirror of Faith, p. 121.
240 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
French^ who being as great a Zealot in his
time against the spreading and increase of the
Albigenses, (as Laud was thought to be against
those of the Puritan Faction, and the Scottish
Covenanters) hath ever since been honoured as
a Saint in the Gqlliccm Church ; the tenth of
January being destined for the solemnities of
his Commemoration, on which day our Laud
ascended from the Scaffold to a Throne of
Glory." ^
Heylin concludes ^vith a c[u?i\ni ova p7'o nobis
in an elegy which follows the account of the
martyrdom —
And thus, though murthered, thou shalt never die
But live Renovrn'd to all Posterity.
Rest thou then happy in the Sweets of Bliss,
Th' Elyzian, the Christian's Paradise,
Exempt from Worldly Cai-es, secure from Fears,
And let us have thy Prayers, as thou our Tears.
When the martyrdom was over, as in the
case of the Protomartyr, " devout men carried
Laud to his burial." They buried him in a
vault in the church of All Hallows, Barking,
where he rested " till the tyranny was overpast,"
and the Church again raised her head. Then
his body was translated with much quiet
solemnity to Oxford, and there, under the
altar of the Chapel of his beloved college,
' Ileyhu, p. 508.
LAUD'S WILL 241
together with the mortal remams of his dear
friend Wilham Juxon, and of the pious
founder of the college, all that is mortal of
William Laud, Archbishop and Martyr, awaits
the general resurrection at the last great day.
About a year before his death Laud made
his will, in which he stated that he died as he
had lived, " in the true and Orthodox profes-
sion of the Catholic Faith of Christ ... a true
member of His CathoHc Church, within the
Communion of a living part thereof, the present
Church of England, as it now stands by law
established." Of the remains of his property —
it is said that he died poorer than any other
archbishop of Canterbury, before or after him,
— he left bequests in money to St. Paul's, to
his old college, to the King and others. There
were also bequests to his servants, whom he
specially mentioned by name. To his chap-
lains he left some memorial, such as a rino: or
a watch. To his birthplace, Reading, he be-
queathed some land for the purpose of
benefiting the clergy, scholars, and appren-
tices, and towards providing marriage-portions
for deserving maidens. Benefections were left
by him for the poor in all the parishes with
which he had been connected.
If we survey the state of the Church in
16
242 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD
England on that 10th of January 1645, when
the great Prelate and Reformer yielded up his
hfe, it is impossible, to all human appearance,
to conceive a greater disaster. The Laudian
era with its revival of Catholic doctrine and
practice, with its learning and its culture,
appeared like a chapter in past history. INIaster
Barnabas Oley, an enthusiastic follower of
Laud, in his preface to Herbert's Country
Parson, looking back forty years afterwards
upon that period, rapturously exclaims :
" What a halcyonian calm, a blessed time of
peace, this Church of England had for many
years, above all the Churches in the world
beside, when the King St. Charles of blessed
memory, and the good archbishop of Canter-
bury with others, were endea\ ouring to perfect
the clergy in regularity of life, uniformity of
officiating, and all variety of learning."
With the death of Laud, this true construc-
tive lleformation seemed as if it had been
effectually crushed under the iron heel of
Puritanism. The dark days which began
about 1040 were very different from the
*' halcyonian calm." At this time nearly all
the bishops of tlie Churcli were under watch
and ward in the Tower. Neile and Montague,
prominent men in the movement, were dead.
The Committee for the rcmoNal of " scandal-
PERSECTTTION AND DESF.CRATION 24li
ous ministers" was now busy at work, with the
result that hundreds — eventually over two
thousand — of faithful English clergymen of
blameless lives were turned out of their dwell-
ings and their benefices. JNIany were thrown
into prison, while others were shipped off' to New
England to work as slaves in the plantations.
The Book of Common Prayer was proscribed
by law. By an order of the Commons in 1G41,
and by an act passed by both Houses in 1643,
the holy tables were removed from the east
end of the churches, and all crosses, crucifixes,
candlesticks, alms basins, images, and pictures
were ordered to be taken away. The parish
churches all over the land were desecrated by
functionaries like William Dowsing, " Parlia-
mentary Visitor," who in his Journal has left
us a truthful account of his iconoclastic exploits
in which he naively glories. So revolting in
their coarseness were the proceedings of the
" baser sort " amongst the Puritans in the
churches, that Walker in his Sufferings of the
Clergy ^ for decency's sake is obliged to veil the
narrative in Latin !
Between 1640 and 1645, the Cathedrals, one
after another, were subjected to sacrilege ;
chiefly at the hands of the Puritan troops,
who found them convenient as barracks. The
1 i. 26.
244 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
treatment of Lichfield Cathedral affords an
example ; the Puritan soldiers " demoUshed all
the monuments, pulled down the curious carved
work, battered in pieces the costly windows,
and destroyed the evidences and records ; they
stabled their horses in the body of the church,
kept courts of guard in the cross aisle, broke up
the pavement, and polluted the quire with
their excrement ; every day hunting a cat with
hounds through the church, and delighting
themselves with the echo from the goodly
vaulted roofs." ^ Copes and surplices, Prayer
Books and even Bibles were torn into pieces,
candlesticks and crosses were broken up and
altars overthrown.
Now they break down all the carved work thereof :
with axes and hammers.
They have set fire upon Thy holy places : and have
defiled the dwelling-place of Thy Name, even unto the
ground.
Yea, they said in their hearts. Let us make havock
of them altogether : thus have they burnt up all the
houses of God in the land.^
As time went on the persecution of the
Church became more rigorous, and her services
had to be carried on secretly in private houses.
Almost the only Anglican place of worship
' ^V;ll(•()t, Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals, Loud. 1872,
PI), fit), 70.
^ I's. Ixxiv. 7, 0, 0, r.B.v.
REACTION 245
then in existence was Sir Thomas Browne's
cliapel at the embassy in Paris, which was
attended by nimibers of refugees, both clergy
and laity. In those days it looked indeed as if
the Anglican Church was doomed to die out.
Some of her members — a very few — lost hope
altogether and sought refuge in the Roman
Communion. By the time of the Restoration
only six of the bishops remained. The bishops
and priests who then emerged from obscurity,
and came to the fore as restorers of the old
system, had served under Laud. They knew
what Calvinistic Protestantism really meant.
They knew also that compromise in matters of
principle was fatal. They deliberately rejected
the indefinite policy of a so-called " statesman-
like " archbishop like Williams, and chose the
definite policy of a " thorough " archbishop like
Laud.
The very moment that the leader was
struck down, the signs of a reaction began to
show themselves — a reaction which gradually
gathered in intensity. Thus the funeral of
Laud took place according to the rites of the
Church, although the use of the Prayer Book
was illegal. Soon after this, several tracts in
his favour appeared. In the following year a
Captain George Wharton was reported to
Parliament as having brought out an almanack
246 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
in which Laud was commemorated as a martyr.
But Laud's old adversaries were implacable, for
we find Henry Burton producing a tract entitled
The Grand Impostor unmasked, in which in a
frenzy of unseemly and venomous abuse, equal
to his former style, he attacked the deceased pre-
late.^ The reaction, nevertheless, slowly but
surely worked its way throughout the days of
the Commonwealth. By bitter persecution the
sons and daughters of the Church were purified
and refined ; and when the reign of terror came
to an end, the mighty tide set in carrying
everything before it. In lOGl the Book of
Common Prayer was revised, and the next
year came into use. In every respect, with a
few trivial exceptions, the new book was a
return to the old paths, the changes testified
definitely to the Catholic spirit of the revision,
and what Laud had lived and died for was
more clearly expressed. The revision of 1661
all along the line was a vindication of the
Laudian Reformation.
In one point it must be confessed the dis-
ciples were better than their master. In the
time of adversity they had learnt the lesson of
discretion, a virtue which Laud often lacked.
In the Prayer Book of 1661, alterations again
and again are to be noticed, veiled under such
1 Hutton, p. 225, 226.
THE PRAYER-BOOK OF 1601 247
cautious phraseology that they escape casual
observation. An acute, although unfriendly
critic, has even enlarged upon what he calls the
*' insidiousness " of the revisers of the Prayer
Book of 16G1, in bringing in important changes
which verbally appear trifling.^ In any case it
must be admitted that they were cautious — and
for this we must be thankful, for had they acted
otherwise, the Protestant and Hanoverian in-
fluences would have swept away their labours.
Happily, under a somewhat meagre phrase-
ology. Catholic truth has been preserved to us.
Mozley may be said to sum up his brilliant
essay upon Archbishop Laud in the words
"Laud saved the English Church." ^ Fully
allowing for the imperfections of Laud's work |
of reformation, his insularity, his dependence
upon the Crown to carry out his aims, his
advancement of ecclesiastics to secular posts,
his centralization of authority, and the fact that
his plans were cut short by the Puritan Re
bellion — fully admitting these facts, in the/
opinion of the present writer, Mozley 's dictuml
is true.
In some quarters there is a tendency to exalt
Andrewes at the expense of Laud. We are
^ Fisher, Liturgical Purity our right fid inheritance, Lond. 1857,
pp. 395, 39G.
"^ Essays Historical and Theological, Loud. 1878, i. 227.
/
248 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD
led to infer that the gentle Andrewes would
have advanced Church principles where the
imperious Laud failed. But without in any-
way depreciating that great and illustrious
divine, it must be remembered that the teach-
ing of Andrewes needed a Laud to carry it out,
|and so to give it permanence. Before Laud
jcame upon the scene, the forces of Puritanism
were overwhelming the English Church. The
new movement, it is true, had been commenced
by Hooker, Andrewes, and Overall, but it re-
quired a great ecclesiastic of a more militant
type to decide the question in a conflict,
whether the Church was to turn to Geneva
and break with the past, or to continue a por-
tion of the historic Catholic Church. Laud
led the Church in this conflict, and though he
fell on the field of battle, his cause in the end
triumphed. As far as one can see, if Laud had
not been raised up, the Church would have
succumbed to Puritanism, either by surrender
or by compromise ; and the theological works
of Hooker and Andrewes would have reposed
on bookshelves with a merely academic interest
surrounding them, since the English Church
would have been a thing of the past.
Humanly speaking, there can be no doubt that
had it not been for Laud we should now have
to choose between Protestantism pur ct simplcy
LAUD SAVED THE ENGLISH CHURCH 249
with its increasing tendency to Unitarianism,
and Roman Catholicism with its Papal Claims
and many additions to the ancient faith.
Without Laud the Oxford Movement would
have been an impossibility. Laud preserved
the via media — the Anglo-Catholic Church, with
her unbroken line of bishops, her valid sacra-
ments, her witness in doctrine and discipline to
the faith and practice of the undivided Church
of the first ten centuries. As Catholics of the
Anglican Communion, fully admitting the im-
perfections of the great Archbishop, we must
confess in Mozley's words that " Laud saved
the Enghsh Cliurch."
INDEX
Aberguilly, 49
Abbot, 36, 47, 51 ff., 61, 62, 66,
74, 75, 86
Absolution. 4, 113, 201
All Hallows, Barking, 240
Altar, 43, 55, 86 ff., 103, 121,
197
,, lights, 55, 121
,, rails, 90
,, reverence towards, 43,
122, 209, 210
Andrewes,23, 39, 110, 120, 140,
154, 247, 248
Annates, 4
Antholin's, St., 68, 81
Anthony k Wood, 34 fiF., 151,
174
Ajiello Cocsarem, 59, 115
Architecture, 123, 172
Arminians, 65, 149
Articles, XXXIX., 21,64, 154,
195, 200, 201
„ XLII.,21
,, Irish, 195 ff.
,, Lambeth, 100, 195
Atchle}% 14, 20
AutoMography of Lcmd, 170, 238
Baines, 35,83, 196, 238
Bale, 194
Bancroft, 23, 108
Barberini, 152, 156, 157
Bargrave, 62
Bastwick, 95, 97, 220
Baylie, 42, 172
Bedell, 195, 200
Berington, 152 S.
Blunt, 13, 16, 17
Book of Common Prayer, 13, 14,
29, 92, 137, 186, 187, 194,
243, 245, 246
Book of Sports, 81 ff.
Boorde, 31
Bradburn, 82
Bramhall, 120, 154, 196, 200
Breakfast, 117
Brent, 85
Bret, 90
Bright, 125
Browne, Abp., 193
Browne, Sir T., 245
Bucer, 12, 17
Buckeridge, 29, 34, 40
Buckingham, Duke of, 53, 54,
133
BuUinger, 16
Burton, 95 ff., 114, 115, 220,
246
Calvinism, 11 ff., 22, 23, 56,
105 ff., 245
Canons of 1571, 23
1603, 81
1640, 209 if.
Irish, 201
Celibacy, 6, 7, 117, 118
9>
251
252
INDEX
Ceremonial, 7, 22, 121 flf.
,, ,, reformation, 121 ff.
Channel Islands, 93, 97
Chappell, 197
Charles I., 57, 74, 75, 115, 172 ff.,
182 ff., 242
„ IL, 29
Charles, Prince, 54 ff.
Cheyney, 21
Chichester, Sir A., 194
Chillingworth, 165
Church, unity of, 3, 142
Churches, consecration of, 72
,, desecration of, 17, 86,
87, 243, 244
„ restoration of, 71
Church Quarterly Review, 74,
163, 166
Clotworthy, 238
Cobbett, 212
Colet, 10
Cooper, 187
Cope, 88, 121
Cork, Earl of, 199
Cosin, 115, 116, 120
Court of High Commission, 79,
80, 82, 98 ff., 121
Cox, 28
Cranmer, 10 ff., 102, 103, 232
Crofts, 170
Cromwell, 11
Cross, sign of, 122
JOictionanj of Nat. Biog., 85, 134,
151
Dixon, 16, 17, 19, 103, 192
Dort, Synod of, 56
Dowdal, 193
IJowsing, 243
Dubois, 159
Du Pin, 159
Edward VI., 14, 15, 18, 27
Elizabeth, Queen, 20 fl".
Episcopacy, 23, 107 ff.
Erasmus, 5
Essex, Lady, 39, 52
Eucharist, tiie, 6, 13, 56, 103,
llOff., 117, 121, 122, 127, 201
Evelyn, 116
Fasting, 116, 117
Femall Glory, the, 114
Ferrar, 119, 139
Fisher, 110, 144, 160, 164
Florio, 17
Forbes, Bp. W., Ill, 115, 120,
185
Francis of Assisi, St. , 8
Gaiedner, 18, 19
Gardiner, Bp., 10, 104
Dr., 79, 134
Gladstone, 166
Gore, 159
Grindal, 28
Habernfeld, 206, 225
Hales, 165
Hall, Bp., 114
Hammond, 120
Hampton Court Conference, 23,
24, 30
Havward, 127
Henry VIII. , 14
Herbert, G., 119, 139
Heyliu, 25, 26, 29, 31, 39, 40, 46,
52, 53, 55, 58, 61, 68, 76, 81, 87,
89, 90, 97, 104, 114, 118, 136,
153, 166, 182, 183, 190, 215,
217, 239, 240
Hiericryia Anglicana, 122, 123
Holgate, 16
Hooker, 23, 28, 101, 108, 120, 248
Hooper, 16
Howard, 79
Hubbard, 94
Hutton, 32, 35, 60, 79, 80, 95,
99, 160, 161, 165, 167, 180,
246
Hyde, 134
Ignatius, St., 110
Incense, 121
Indulgences, 5
Irish Church, 192 ff.
.1amesI.,2.3, 44, 45, 57, 81, 93
Jesuits, the, 66, 147, 153
John Intjleaant, 119
INDEX
253
Jones, Inigo, 71
Jones, John, 32
Juxon, 113, 125, 156, 241
Keble, John, 58
Kitchin, 16
Knight, 50
Knox, 180
Lamb, 86
Lambeth, 2G, 212 ff.
Laski, John, 12
Latimer, 10, 11, 15, 16
La0d, William —
birth, 25
parentage, 25
false step, 38, 39
character, 135, 228
as parish priest, 41
as bishop, 46 ff.
bishop of St. Davids, 46 ff.
,, ,, Bath and Wells,
61
,, ,, London, 63, 95
archbishop of Canterbury,
74 ff.
at St. John's College, 31 ff.,
42
at Gloucester, 43
chancellor of Oxford, 168 ff.
,, ,, Dublin, 175
and the Irish Church, 192 ff.
and the Scottish Church,
178 ff.
home life, 130 ff.
ill health, 130
imprisonment of, 217 ff.
kindness to servants, 133
misrepresented, 163, 208,
212
munificence of, 175 ff.
portraits of, 129, 130
tolerance of, 165
trial of, 215 ff., 226 ff.
and learning, 162 ff.
and recreation, 136
Devotions of, 137.
opposition to Calvinism, 105
and the Reformation, 1 ff.,
24
Laud, William —
and Reunion, 142 ff.
his refornuition, lOl ff.
"Cardinal's" liat, 146
ceremonial reformation,
121 ff.
moral reformation, 78 ff. ,
121
Mctropol. visitation, 85 ff. ,
120
Bentonoed to death, 230, 231
his death, 2.34 ff.
his last speech, 236 ff.
his burial, 240
his will, 241
Leach, 18
Leander, 32, 150
Le Bas, 34, 42, 47, 61, 66, 217,
223, 224, 231
Lecturers, the, 67 ff., 81
Leicester, Earl of, 29.
Leighton, 69, 70
Liddon, 2, 142
Little (lidding, 119
Loftie, 72
Loyola, 106
Luckock, 17, 185, 191
Lutheranism, 11 ff., 105
Macaulay, 163 ff.
Maccoll, 65, 115, 150, 166
Mainwaring, 62
Mant, 196, 197
Marriage seasons, 201
Martyr, Peter, 12, 17
Mary, B.V.M., 113, 114
Mary I., 19, 27, 28
Maxwell, Bp., 186, 187
James, 212 ff.
May, Mrs., 35
Melville, 180
Mixed chalice, 121
Montague, Bp., 59, 61, 63, 77,
113,115,149, 154 ff.
Montaigne, 62
Mountjoy, 38
Mozley, 37, 126, 130, 247
Neale, J. M., 126, 235, 239
Neile, 40, 242
254
INDEX
Newman, J. H., 155
No}-e, 69, 135
OCHINO, 17
Oley, 242
Organs, 20
Overall, 23, 110, 120, 127, 248
Oxenham, 151
Oxford, 29 ff., 94, 113, 123, 168 flf.
Paget, 29
Panzani, 145, 151 flf.
Parker, 21, 22
Parliament, the Long, 210
the Short, 205
Pearson, 120
Pembroke, Earl of, 224
Pennell, 134
Peters, 224
Pococke, 222
Poynet, 16, 194
Presbyterianism, 23, 180 ff.
"Protestant," 104
Protestants, foreign, 91, 108
Prynne, 95 ff., 135, 220, 224 ff.
Pullan, 18
Purbeck, Lady, 79
Puritans, 22, 29, 45
Rawlinson, 42
Reading, 25 ff.
Reformation, the, 1 ff.
Reunion of Church, 142 ff.
Reynolds, 30
Rich, Lord, 38
Ridley, 10, 11, 16,86
Roman See, the, 3, 10, 20, 102,
150 ff.
Rood-screen, 123
Row, 184
Sancta Clara, 154 ff.
Sanderson, 120
Sandys, 28
Schism between E. and VV.,
102
Scotland, 44
Scottish Churcli, 178 ff.
Sherfield, 70
Sibthorpe, 62
Sixtus v., Pope, 26
Smart, P., 122, 226
Smith, Miles, 44
Solifidianism, 117
Somerset, Earl of, 18
Sparrow, Bp., 120
Spottiswoode, 125, 185
St. Catherine Cree, 72
St. Patrick's Cathedral, 198
St. Paul's Cathedral, 71
Stafford, A., 114
Star Chamber, 70, 95, 114, 134,
135
Stephen, 190
Sterne, 233
Strafford, 57, 80, 133, 136, 196 ff.,
211, 218, 219
Sunday observance, 81 ff.
Surplice, 30, 55, 121
Taylor, Bp. J., Ill, 120, 127,
166
Thorndike, 120, 127
Torless, 133
Traheron, 16
Trent, council of, 8
Twells, 223
Universities, the, 17, 27
Urban VIII., 150
Ussher, 195, 200
Vandyke, 130
Vestments, 121
Vossius, 80
Voysey, 16
Wafer-bread, 55, 121
Wake, Abp., 159
Wakeman, 18, 62, 165
Walcot, 244
Walker, 243
Walton, 119
Webb, Sir W., 25
Wedderburn, 187
Wharton, 245
White, Dr., 44
INDEX 255
White, Sir T., 28, 32 Wren, Bp., 55, 62
Whitgift, 22
Williams, 48, 51 ff., 89, 90, 104, Young, 53
135, 217 ff.
Windebank, 153, 154, 222 Zouch, Lord, 47
Wolsey, 10 Zwinglianism, 11, 13, 105, 106
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