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LIFE AND TIMES
OF
WILLIAM LAUD
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
BY
C. H. SIMPKINSON, M.A.
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
RECTOR OF FARNHAM
AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER
WITH PORTRAIT
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1894
ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE.
AN apology is necessary when any new writer
attempts to deal with a period which has been so
constantly and so learnedly treated as the first
half of the seventeenth century. But this, I think,
is to be found in the strange misrepresentations
of the career and character of William Laud,
which are prevalent at the present day, and which
are mainly to be attributed to the fierce invective
of Macaulay and to the cold criticism of Hallam.
It is owing to the far-reaching influence of these
two writers that a man who was looked upon as
a martyr by more than half his contemporaries,
and who was revered as a saint by the great bulk
of the generation which restored the Church of
England after his death, is now considered by
many to have been a pedant, a bigot, and a perse-
cutor. I have tried, therefore, to show Laud as
he appeared to himself, and to judge his acts sym-
pathetically. No one, as his correspondence and
his private diaries prove, was more conscious than
he was of his faults and of his mistakes ; but he
knew he had great ideals, and was saddened and
jv PREFACE.
sometimes embittered by the obstinate opposition
which a resolute minority of the nation offered to
his reforms in the administration of the Treasury
and in the development of commerce, to his far-
.rhing schemes for the improvement of educa-
tion, and, above all, to his efforts to make worship
outwardly devout, and religious teaching liberal
and practical.
This opposition prevented his natural alliance
with many of the great men who were working
in his generation for the progress of liberty.
They misunderstood him, and he misunderstood
them ; and this mutual misunderstanding was one
cause, and a very important one, of the great
Rebellion ; but 250 years after his death our
minds are wide enough to comprehend and admire
both sides.
Three statesmen did more for the progress
of Great Britain than any of their contemporaries
in the struggle : Sir Harry Vane, the younger,
first gave practical shape to government by Parlia-
ment ; the Marquis of Argyle moulded with con-
summate skill the Scottish Kirk and the Scottish
character : and William Laud decided the future
the English Church. None of these men are
popular just at present, because they are little
studied ; and Vane's stiffness, and Argyle's
physical cowardice, alienate our sympathies until
PREFACE. V
we grow more intimate with their intentions ;
while Laud is disliked because he has been made,
most unjustly, the scapegoat for the miseries of
the great Rebellion.
The materials for a history of Laud and his
times are very plentiful, though we know all too
little of the early stages of his extraordinary
career. His own voluminous writings tell us
much about him ; and the large collection of
memoirs by his contemporaries, from the stately
picture gallery of Clarendon, where each great
personality stands out in life-like form, glowing
with the colours of his passions and his ambi-
tions, down to the gossiping letters in which
Garrard informs his patron Wentworth of the talk
of London town, renders the period peculiarly
interesting. Unhappily much of this light is lost
in the last and the critical year of Laud's power,
and we have to grope doubtfully among conflicting
shadows, till once more his own full story of his
trials and troubles and the accusations of his
enemies make the closing scenes clear to us.
Professor Gardiner's monumental work on the
first two Stuart reigns is, of course, a guide to
which all less competent students owe more than
they can express.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
READING AND OXFORD, 3
CHAPTER II.
COUNTRY PARISHES; PRESIDENCY OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE;
GLOUCESTER DEANERY, ....... 22
CHAPTER III.
BISHOPRIC OF ST. DAVID'S ; RIVAL PARTIES, .... 35
CHAPTER IV.
UNDER THE MINISTRY OF BUCKINGHAM, 61
CHAPTER V.
ATTEMPTS TO RECONCILE KING AND PARLIAMENT, . . 81
CHAPTER VI.
PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT, 101
CHAPTER VII.
ADMINISTRATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, .... 123
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHANCELLORSHIP OF OXFORD, 157
CHAPTER IX.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE OPPOSITION, 172
CHAPTER X.
LIFE AT LAMBETH, .191
CHAPTER XI.
POLICY IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND ; THE FIRSTDISTURBANCES, 207
vili vn NTS.
rAoii
CHAFTHK XII.
IHI SHORT PARLIAMENT or 1640; FINAL ATTEMPTS TO
TMTE KING AND COMMONS, . ... 230
CHAPTER XIII.
1 ni. CONVOCATION or 1640; THE FALL OK THE ARCHBISHOP, 245
CHAPTER XIV.
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL,
CHAPTER XV.
THE EXECUTION OK THE ARCHBISHOP, .
CHAPTER XVI.
DEVOTIONAL LIFE, . 2 3
NOTES.
A. THE PROJECTS OK THE ARISTOCRACY, . . . -293
B. THE NAVY UNDER CHARLES I. AND LAUD, . 295
C. THE ARMY AT BERWICK IN 1639,
INDEX, 3d
AUTHORITIES FOR THE EARLIER CHAPTERS.
Heylin's Cyprianus Anglicanus ; l Laud's Diary; Wood's Athenae
Oxonienses; Wood's Annals of the University of Oxford; Fuller's
Church History, edit. 1842; Fuller's Worthies; Bp. Andrewes'
Works ; Neale's History of the Puritans ; Eden's State of the
Poor; Isaac Walton's Lives; Sibbes' Works; Racket's Life
of Archbishop Williams; Spelman's Works; Howell's Familiar
Letters; Autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cherbury.
1 This is a life of the archbishop by one of his chaplains;
Heylin was admitted to Laud's intimacy in 1627, and had every
means of knowing the facts of his life and the principles of his
policy; it may be considered the authorised biography.
The references to Laud's Works are in general to Wharton's
original folio edition ; but when volumes vi. or vii., or the
sermons are mentioned, the edition of the Works published in
the Anglo-Catholic Library is referred to.
CHAPTER I.
READING AND OXFORD, 1573-1605.
, '! Great Man Birth at Reading Childhood and its
Impressions St. John's, Oxford State of the Uni-
versity Laud's Dislike of Calvinism Causes of
Success Laud's Projects A Grave Offence.
AMONG those signs which seem to believing men
.to prove the presence of God in history, we must
reckon the appearance at critical opportunities of
.some great man, who, himself imbued with the
.spirit of the age, knows how to give to religious
.and political movements a practical and permanent
shape. The seventeenth century was fertile in such
leaders : John Eliot is still revered as the boldest
orator of English liberty ; John Pym first gave
method to party organisations in carrying the
elections for Parliament ; the course of the Civil
War was decided by the military and civil genius
of Oliver Cromwell ; while Sir Harry Vane, the
younger, found means to supply an executive
such as now rules us, formed by a committee of
the majority in Parliament ; and the Marquis ot
Argyle gave to Scottish politics and Scottish
4 LIFE AND TLMLS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. l.
opinions a form which has lasted almost to our
own days.
All these men were of gentle birth ; they rose
naturally to the front as the requirements of the
time called for their leadership ; but William Laud,
a son of the people, had to make his own way by
his own talents into that class from which rulers
are selected.
He was born on the ;th of October, 1573,
being the only child of his mother's second
marriage, in the town of Reading. There his
father was engaged in the cloth trade, for which
the position of the place, on the banks of the
Thames, between London and Oxford, was parti-
cularly well suited. A single entry in his Diary
refers to this period of childhood and gives us the
clue to that firm, resolute character which we arc
told was already built up when he first appeared
in Oxford life, "In my infancy I was in danger
of death by sickness ; " and it appears that through
his early years he was so delicate that no one
expected him to live. The sense of special pre-
servation by the hand of Providence convinced
his parents, and convinced the boy himself, that
he was destined to some great future, and that a
work was set him which God would help him
to accomplish. This conviction gave him that
extraordinary confidence in his own career which
enabled him in later days to hold his own
among the high-born men of England, and that
I573-8Q. BOYISH SURROUNDINGS. 5
stubborn courage which seemed so astonishing in
a person of such puny frame and feeble constitu-
tion. Delicate health kept the boy from the
sports of his more robust school-fellows and
brought him to listen to the conversation of his
elders, and to think over the reminiscences of the
past and the problems of the present which
were suggested by the town and trade of Read-
ing. His father could remember the days when
the last abbot of the now ruined abbey had been
-dragged away to London and executed for his
opposition to the royal supremacy ; and could tell
of the high hopes which the Reformation had
excited in its early days, for it had seemed to pro-
mise to rid England of an ecclesiastical tyranny
which suppressed freedom of thought, and of rulers
whose covetousness stifled trade. But the Reading
cloth- makers had soon found that the nobles who
inherited the abbey lands were even more rapa-
cious and arbitrary than the Churchmen whom
they had ousted. There had been evil days in
England when greedy regents ruled in the name
of the child King Edward VI. and pretended
to be inspired with a love for pure and Puritan
religion. There had followed days yet more evil
when half-Spanish Mary and Spanish Philip
governed England together and burnt in the
flames of Smithneld and Oxford the most eloquent
of the English bishops, the most pious of the
English clergy, and many of the most upright of
6 LIl-T. AND TIMI'.S ol WILLIAM LAUD. CH. i.
the middle class. Only the nobles had escaped
all suffering, for they changed their religion with the
times willingly enough, so long as their posses-
5 were sale. 1 Freedom of thought and vigour
<>f commerce were little cared for till Elizabeth sat
upon the throne.
Then the great queen, most thoroughly
English by descent and by temperament of all
our sovereigns, had set to work to regenerate her
distracted people. She had been seriously ham-
pered by the nobles, and the heads of the three
haughtiest English houses, Percy, Neville and
Howard, had been found guilty of treason during
the perils of her reign, while Romanist and
Puritan had done their utmost to impede the
wing union of the English nation. With her
two great ministers, the Lord Treasurer Ikirleigh,
and Archbishop Parker of Canterbury, she had
built up a new England out of the ruined materials
ot the old. Nobles and country gentry were com-
pelled to obey the law. Trade was fostered
rywhere, and the spirit of adventure which was
to make England supreme had been stimulated
by the queen's admiration for the rough and
hardy seamen who sailed the seas under her Hag.
In the English Church, the last remnants of
the IOIIM- Roman tyranny, against which clergy
and laity had so often rebelled, had been now
royd : but its immemorial privileges, and its
Parliamentar Ili^tm-v <>r M<n-\ /
1573-Sg- POLICY OF THE QUEEN. 7
ancient traditional organisation, had been diligently
preserved. The queen had never allowed Parlia-
ment to interfere with the Church, and it was her
purpose to use its hierarchy in order to educate
and influence the masses of the people. 1 Because
it was so genuinely English, the Elizabethan
Church system had been accepted by the great
bulk of Englishmen. Little by little the lower
classes who loved the old ritual, and the middle
classes who delighted in the modern innovation of
constant sermons, felt they could combine, and
must combine (if England was to remain free and
once more to grow great), in the worship offered
to them by the Book of Common Prayer.
This was the English history which was being
acted round Laud as he passed his quiet child-
hood in Reading ; and he heard from the sober,
sensible trades-people who resorted to his father's
house that the country was still imperilled by two
extreme parties which would accept of no com-
promise, the Puritans and the Romanists, each a
small minority, but dangerous from their reso-
lution and fanaticism. -
As he formed his opinions, and dreamed his
dreams of ambition, something told all who had
1 Cf. the imprisonment of Peter Wentworth in 1593, which
made a great impression upon Laud (Answer to Lord Sayes Speech
against the Bishops, p. 58).
- See Heylin's History of the Reformation, which gives us the
history of these times written by one of Laud's pupils.
1. 1 IT: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD.
do with him that he would one day play a
at part. His schoolmaster bade his brilliant
pupil never forget his humble birthplace when
he had climbed to be one of the rulers of his
country ; and the charities of Reading attested
in after years the fidelity of the boy's affections. 1
1 1 is relations and friends offered advances of their
hard-earned money to ensure for the clever child
an education worthy of his talents.
But if the politics of England would be the
principal subject of conversation in Reading circles,
the cloth trade had interests also on the continent
Those were the days of the wars of religion.
I ; ranee and Holland and Germany were deluged
with blood shed in civil war. Italy and Spain
groaned under the terrors of the Inquisition.
Most intimate ties of commerce and literature
bound England to France and the Netherlands;
the English people were thrilled with horror at the
news of the murder of William the Silent ( 1 584), tin-
Liberator of Holland, by Balthasar Gerard, and at
the constant plots of other Romish assassins whom
Elizabeth's better fortune somehow baffled ; - while
tin,- murder of Coligny (1572) and thousands of the
noblest of France in the St. Bartholomew massacre
I >ured into London and the eastern counties crowds
<>f refugees who spoke of that horrible night with
! 'rejected, xvi., and Works, vi. 470-474, and vii. i^j,
I he (iiammar School and other charitable institutions v
greatly enriched by him. - See list in Wallington, a contemporary.
1573-89- STRUGGLE AGAINST ROME. 9
curses upon the Roman Pope for blessing the
murderers.
In the chaos of French politics two statesmen
saw the true path for the nation to follow out
of the intricacies of religious strife. Michel de
1'Hopital, Chancellor to Charles IX., had tried
to persuade king and people to build up a strong
free Church, independent of Rome, yet retaining
the ancient ceremonial and the ancient hierarchy,
and which should train men to work and to worship
together with the widest divergences of religious
opinion. L'Hopital died of a broken heart (1573) ;
but Henry of Navarre, more buoyant and more
fortunate, was already fighting and negotiating
to reconstruct a strong monarchy which should
compel the respect of the riotous Romanist mobs
and ambitious Romanist preachers, as well as of
the aristocratic Huguenots and grasping feudal
nobles. These great minds cannot have failed
to furnish suggestions to English statesmen, and
among them to Laud, for the reformed English
Church and State.
Then came the anxious days of the Armada
(1588), while all England hung breathless on the
issue, wondering how towns such as Reading would
fare if Parma and the terrible army who had
sacked Antwerp could secure a footing on English
soil. It was the middle classes which saved
England in those days; a few nobles might
appear fitfully on the scene, but the small gentry
10 UK!-: AND TIMF.S OF \\ILI.I.\M LAUD. en. i.
and trailers of Devon and the south coast were
t'hc real conquerors of the Armada. The lesson
sank deep into the hoy's heart: it fixed the
political opinions of his life.
Laud was always the opponent of aristocratic
rule : and he dreaded the alliance of the nobles
with Papists or with Puritans through the whole
of his career; for it seemed to him that events
had clearly shown that the Crown was the chosen
instrument of Providence for the salvation of the
country. Queen Elizabeth had been anointed ] with
consecrated oil ; she had been endowed by her con-
s-vration with divine powers both in Church and
State ; through those powers she had been enabled
to deliver England from foreign interference: : and
therefore Laud formed an intense dislike for Puri-
tan speakers in the Commons, and for Puritan
preachers like Thomas Cartwright, who. in claim-
ing supremacy over her as "(iod's silly vassal,"
med to him almost to vie in disloyalty with
( 'ardinal Allen and Parsons at Rheims and 1 )ouay,
who were despatching a constant succession of
^ins to butcher her as God's enemy.
It was in 1589, in the year following the defeat
of the Armada, that William Laud was sent up
1 Cf. the expressions of old Acts of Parliament against Papal
encroachments, f.^., 33, Edw. III.. " re.^es sacro oleo uncti spiritu-
alis jurisdictions sunt capaces ". Sir H. Spelman, the greatest
authority of the day on ecclesiastical law, and subsequently a friend
and follower of Laud, considers tin: royal unction to have i;ivrn
ng the -ovcrnment of the Church (U'orks. i. 148-154').
1589- PURITAN RULERS AT OXFORD. II
to the College of St. John the Baptist in Oxford
There his first year's work was so successful that
he was elected to a scholarship; but he felt him-
self out of sympathy with the prevalent party in
the university. If the Elizabethan Church settle-
ment was being sincerely accepted by the mass of
the English people, it was not as yet the religious
profession of the leading men of the university of
Oxford. With all her wisdom in the selection of
ministers, Elizabeth had made many mistakes ;
and the worst blot upon her reputation for saga-
city is the trust which she reposed in Robert
Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Did the queen fancy
that a man who owed her all must be absolutely
loyal ? If so, she was deceived. Leicester was
a man of pleasure and himself no Puritan ; but he
shared the ambitions of his class, and like many
of the new nobles whose fortunes were built upon
monastic lands, saw in the Puritan party a valuable
instrument for future aggression against the Crown.
His influence with the queen had secured for him
the coveted post of Chancellor of the University
of Oxford, which he held till his death in 1588;
and seconded by Elizabeth's clever secretary, Sir
Erancis Walsingham, who unlike his mistress and
Burleigh and Parker looked upon the Puritans as
the most loyal of Englishmen, 1 he had thoroughly
Puritanised the university, until it had lost most of
its Church feeling and was pouring out a flood of
1 Wood's Annals of the University of Oxford, ii. 227.
12 l.II-i: AM TIMKS ()K WILLIAM LAUD. CH. i.
hers and preachers who would in their turn
Puritanise KIT ''land. The vice-chancellor was
o
invariably a Puritan ; the Regius Professor of
I Hvinity, Dr. Laurence Humphry, had been a
refugee at Zurich during the persecution under
Philip and Mary and had become a firm believer
in the Calvinistic doctrine of the Divine decrees i 1
he wished to remodel the English Church to the
shape of that of Geneva. The most popular preacher
in Oxford was Dr. Reynolds, who was shortly to
lead the Puritan party against Bishop Bancroft in
the Hampton Court conference ; while the most
prominent of the younger tutors was Dr. George
Abbot, who afterwards as Archbishop of Canter-
bury did more to stimulate the growth of Puritanism
than any man of his time. All these teachers were
renowned for their personal piety, and were them-
selves learned and capable. But, unfortunately
fur itself, Puritanism had choked the vigour of
university life by its absorbed attention to doc-
trinal questions. The number of undergraduates
was small. Interest in intellectual questions was
ik. Oxford had less than its usual influence
over the country. 2
The Society of St. John's was, however, opposed
to the prevalent tone of Oxford ; and Laud found
1 Wood's Athcnuc, i. 241. 242; Annals, ii. 240.
"Chancellor Hatton complains in i5<;<> of the neglect of
lecturing and teaching, and carelessness about university dress
(Wood's Annuls, ii.
1589-93. THE TUTOR OF ST. JOHN'S. I 3
himself in a college where loyalty to primitive
Church ideas was still in fashion, and where the
principal tutor, Dr. Buckeridge, was an accom-
plished student of the ancient fathers. 1 From
St. John's, guarded by his unfailing loyalty to his
own college, Laud could look out with some con-
tempt on a university in which drunkenness was
prevalent, and was said to be fostered by the
newly-introduced habit of smoking tobacco ; 2 in
which learning was satisfied with the study of
Calvin's Institutes ; and where the Puritan chiefs,
divided into two hostile camps of sublapsarians
and supralapsarians, argued interminably the
question whether the Divine decrees of rigid
election and reprobation dated from before or
after the fall of Adam. About this ceaseless
strife Laud agreed with Sir Henry Wotton, 3 the
keenest observer of the day, that " the itch of dis-
putation will prove the scab of the Church/' or as
George Herbert more melodiously phrased it in
his address to the Church :
But when debates and fretting jealousies
Did worm and work within you more and more,
Your colour faded and calamities
Turned your ruddy into pale and bleak,
Your health and beauty both began to break.
From these unending wrangles he learnt the dis-
like which he showed afterwards to all public
1 Wood's Athenae.
2 Wood's Annals, ii. 290. Cf. State Papers, vol. 182, No. u.
3 Walton's Life of Wotton.
14 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. i,
discussion upon insoluble problems. Stimulated
by the cheers of partisans and eager at any cost
to foil an antagonist, the disputants grew inflated
with pride- and indifferent to truth, while their
listeners lost the calmness of judgment which is
necessary to genuine learning. Here surely, he-
reasoned, were to be found just limits to toleration :
and in the years of his power it became his
principle of government that men might be allowed
to hold what they pleased, and to talk about what
they pleased, but that these high matters ought to
be kept out of the pulpit and the press, else they
would deluge England with blood. 1 For himself,
his interest always lay in practical duties. Aristotle,
the teacher who showed how character was shaped
by habit, at once attracted him and became his
master " in humanities 'V 2 Already a good scholar
and diligent student of the classics, he was guided
by Buckeridge to the study of Church history and
the writings of the fathers and famous Churchmen ;
and he began to equip himself to assail the Goliath
of Puritanism who seemed to him to sit like a
nightmare on the: awakening Church of England,
stifling freedom, art, learning and devotion with
the huge, inert mass of its terrible doctrine of the
1 )ivhi" deep
A as confirmed in these views by the murder of Barneveldt
in i oi<). which he considered a direct consequence of the Synod of
Doit ins).
lo\e of Aristotle continued to the end of his life; Against
/'/'.\//i-r. sect. xvi. o.
15*9-93- IXFLUKNCK OF OTIIKR TKACHERS. 15
Naturally the strongest enemy of Puritanism,
Lancelot Andrewes, became the enthusiastic boy's
model as a student and his hero as a religious
leader. He admired Andrewes for his wide
learning, which extended over fifteen languages ;
and for that eloquence which was now drawing
thousands of Romanists into the English Church, 1
o
while it swayed men's souls to righteous action
and to the exercise of devotion. He cordially
agreed with the indignation felt by the High
Churchmen against the doctrine of election as
the Puritans taught it, "saying almost all of
them that God from all eternity reprobates by far
the greater part of mankind to eternal fire, without
any eye at all to their sin. Which opinion my
very soul abominates. For it makes God, the
God of all mercies, to be the most fierce and un-
reasonable tyrant in the world. For the question
is not here what God may do by an absolute act of
power, would He so use it upon the creature which
He made of nothing ; but what He hath done, and
what stands with His wisdom, justice and good-
ness to do." :
Nor was the little world of Oxford even in
those dull days left unstirred. Foreigners began
to hear of a growing interest in learning among
a section of the students ; and many wandering
1 In the North, where he was chaplain to Lord Huntingdon
(Cassan, BisJiops of Winchester, ii. 82).
- Laud's Works, folio, 5. 503. Motley's Laud, 162.
I. IKK AND TIMKS <)F WILLIAM LAUD. CH. i.
scholars came 1 to visit the once famous university
and to talk of the studies and discoveries of the
it incut in the frank freemasonry of hall and
common room. A special influence on Laud's
opinions must be attributed to the arrival of
Josephus Barbatus, strange and startling figure,
a learned Copt from Egyptian Memphis, who
lectured for a few years on his own mother tongue
and described the ancient Bible lands, and dis-
coursed about the Bible languages, proving to the
men of Oxford that there was a Christianity
beyond Europe, older and more conservative than
that of Rome. 1 Such a revelation of unknown
Churches widened the ideas of Laud, as similar
opportunities had widened the mind of Luther,
and led him to study the methods by which Rome
had made herself absolute mistress of the religious
world in the West.
Under such teaching and with such principles
Laud passed successfully through his Oxford
career. He was elected fellow of the college in
1593, and in 1598 became grammar reader; in
1600 he was ordained deacon and in 1601 priest
by the Bishop of Rochester; for the see of Oxford
was at this time kept vacant in order that the Earl
"f ! mi^ht pillage its revenues. In these
years he had several times to contend against
severe illness which hindered his progress, and
id's Athcnac, l-\isti, i. 166. Cf. Argument against Fisher 9
based on the absence of the Greeks from Trent, sect, xxvii. 3.
1593-1602. A POPULAR LECTURER. 17
had the grief to lose his father and his mother, to
both of whom he was devotedly attached. 1 His
own college had become proud of him for his
classical learning and his remarkable gifts of
oratory ; but he was as yet unknown outside the
university.
Fame was won suddenly and unexpectedly in
1602, when he was appointed divinity lecturer
at St. John's. It had been the fashion of the
Puritan lecturers to speak of Lanfranc and Anselm,
Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas as teachers of
falsehood, while they traced the true Church through
obscure and sometimes dubious sects, the Albi-
genses, the Hussites and the Lollards down to a
sudden new life at the Reformation of the fifteenth
century. Now the magnates of the university
heard with amazement and horror that the new
divinity lecturer at St. John's spoke of the
English Church as having lived one consecutive
life through its succession of bishops, derived
from Roman and British sources ; and that he
was tracing the history of the Visible Church of
Christ through the oppressed Churches of the East,
and in the West through the hated hierarchy of
Rome ; and was even maintaining that the Roman
Church was in essentials a true Church, though
marred by many errors which he unsparingly
denounced.
But when this blow was followed up two years
1 Diary, anno 1594 and 1600.
I. IFF. AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. i.
later in 1604 by two theses for the degree of
H.ichelor of Divinity, in which Laud defended
the positions (i) that baptism was necessary to
salvation, and (2) that there could be no true
Church without diocesan bishops, indignation
knew no bounds. If so, Calvin and Knox were
alike unchurched, and Cartwright had been a
false teacher. The quaint humour, the learning,
the keen dialectic, the vivacity of the man de-
lighted the younger portion of the university.
His teaching, adopted by his pupils, repeated in
many districts, and discussed in widespread
pamphlets, was welcomed by the great mass of
the nation, who, remembering the practical piety
of their parents, refused to believe they were
doomed to everlasting death for differing from
Calvin. But Oxford Puritanism was too strong
to be easily vanquished ; and his opponents re-
solved that so skilful an assailant must somehow
be overwhelmed. They reviled him as a Papist ;
they scorned him as a hypocrite. Under the lead
of Dr. George Abbot, they pelted him with
pamphlets and sermons in which there were no
limits to abuse, until, in the words of one of the
vice-chancellors, "the pulpit and sacred function
of preaching became instruments of private re-
veng
Such a persecution was just what Laud en-
joyed. The point in his character which most
1 Wood's Annals, ii. 276.
1603-5. PURITAN PERSECUTION. 19
surprised men was his confidence in himself.
He was now sure that he had been saved in
infancy for the special work of God. The words
" Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you
and revile you" elated him. His position became
rapidly strengthened, and his tenets took definite
shape. But he was no mere partisan ; the
Church, he clearly discerned, must embrace all
parties, accepting what was true from Rome and
from Geneva alike. The strong personal piety of
Geneva attracted him, because of that inspiring
confidence in the presence of God which had sent
out the heroes against Spain, and had comforted
Cranmer and Latimer at the stake. 1 But the
mass of the people would need a beautiful ritual,
and carefully cultivated habits of devotion ; they
must be stimulated to faith and hope by attend-
ance at the Holy Communion, and by a well-
grounded confidence in the efficacy of their bap-
tism. Hume has given a most just account of his
intentions when he writes : " Laud and his asso-
ciates by reviving a few primitive ceremonies
corrected the error of the first reformers and pre-
sented to the frightened and astonished mind some
sensible exterior observances which might occupy
it during its religious exercises, and abate the
violence of its disappointed efforts ". 2 The gene-
1 Cf. his patronage of Dr. Richard Sibbes, author of two
well-known devotional works, The Bruised Reed and the Smoking
Flax, and the Soul's Conflict. 2 Hume's England, vii. 42.
20 I. IFF. AM) TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. i.
ration which had grown up with him at Oxford
1 to him, and had elected him proctor in 1603,
the first year in which he was qualified, by stand-
ing, for the office. The election was so successful
that his enemies accused him of a well-organised
canvass ; l and long after, when he was in the
. Lord Saye and Sele taunted him as a
skilful organiser of a university faction, and "fit
for factions only ". 2 In reality, Laud had known
nothing of the honour in store for him, and was
much surprised at his election. Every one laughed
at his little stature, lit his confident and somewhat
fussy manner ; but a man who can be caricatured
without becoming contemptible is certain of
success, and his genial, affectionate way of ruling
was favourably contrasted with that of a very
disagreeable colleague who discharged his proc-
torship, they said, " cum parvo ( a) Laude ".' !
Hut at this time he was drawn into an error
which his enemies never forgot, and which he
himself could never forget or forgive. He had
become chaplain to the Earl of Devonshire,' 1
better known as Lord Mountjoy, a soldier dis-
tinguished in the Irish wars, and a man of
that affectionate and impulsive nature which was
iiiently to call out Laud's devoted friend-
ship. Between this nobleman and the divorced
1 Wood's I'\i.\ti. - ,S'/Yi'<7; against the
'Wood's Athcnac, ii. 55. ' Diary, 3rd Sept., 1603.
I
1605. THE DEVONSHIRE MARRIAGE. 21
Lady Rich, he was persuaded, in the festivities of
Christmastide, 1605, to perform the marriage cere-
mony. The king, James I., was incensed. The
party with which Laud was associated was bitterly
annoyed ; one of their leaders, Dr. Howson,
had just published a book on the sanctity of
marriage. Friendship had persuaded Laud to an
action which his judgment condemned, and his
principles declared detestable. The abstemious,
self-controlled, ecclesiastical leader, always a
severe judge of his own actions, felt that he had
condoned sin. St. Stephen's day, the anniversary
of the marriage, was henceforth throughout his life
a day of humiliation and bitter repentance. 1
1 See Devotions.
CHAPTER II.
COTNTRY PARISHES ST. JOHN'S GLOUCESTER, 1606-
1621.
Life and Work in the Country Troubles of the Peasants-
Contested Election at St. John's Revival of Music
and Art Restoration of Ceremonial at Gloucester
Influence icith the King Nomination as llishop.
THK wrong act of unthinking friendship related
at the end of the last chapter ruined Laud's pro-
spects of any high promotion for some five years.
The larger part of this period was spent by him
in country livings, 1 with an occasional return to
Oxford. Bishop Neile of Rochester, a man of
remarkable penetration in selecting capable men, 2
had become- his patron, and was determined to
bring him before the notice of the king directly
the scandal of the Devonshire marriage was suf
I'K i'-ntly forgotten ; meanwhile he employed Laud
( hiVlly in his own diocese. These years of country
retirement proved invaluable for the future ; Laud
iom failed to be interested in the duty which
try.
ie WHS the son of a tallow-chandler, a most able contro-
versialist and attractive preacher, but no ^reat scholar. He was
a trusted counsellor of James I. Godwin: Lc Neve: Heylin.
(22)
i6o6-u. THE PARISH PRIEST. 23
lay to his hand, and spent his time in quietly and
humbly preaching the Gospel to the poor. In his
seclusion he formed for himself some ideal of the
life of a parish priest. There were already some
fine examples in England ; Copinger at Laven-
ham had 900 communicants in his parish. 1 The
generation of Laud's friends and Laud's pupils was
soon to present a series of beautiful models, such
as Herbert at Bemerton, and Sanderson 2 at Booth-
by Pannel, who are instances chosen among scores
of devoted parish priests, many highly born 8 and
magnificently learned, ministering to rich and poor
alike. It. was Laud's custom to set apart each year
a large proportion of his income to provide pen-
sions for the infirm and aged. He preached and
catechised, visited the sick and relieved the miser-
able, formed habits of regular prayer, and continued
his diligent studies. 4 Intercourse with the country
gentry and peasantry showed him how much the
poor suffered from oppression at the hands of local
magnates, and the serious distress under which,
as Acts of Parliament prove to us, large numbers
of the people then laboured. Barley-bread was
their staple food ; 5 meat they seldom tasted ; the
want of fuel 6 in the South of England made cooking
a luxury of the rich and deprived the labourers of
1 Fuller's History. - Walton's Lives, passim.
3 Cf. Barnabas Oley, Preface to Country Parson, p. 131, ed.
1836. 4 Cf. Herbert's Country Parson.
5 State Papers, vol. 187, No. 12, show us buckwheat eaten by
the poor. G Cf. Monson's Naval Tracts, p. 489.
J.j. LIKi: AM) TIM MS OF WILLIAM LA I'D. CH. 11.
all variety of diet. The guilds which had suc-
coured them in sickness, the prototypes of the
modern club, had been pillaged by Henry VIII.,
whose covetousness had involved these in the
ruin which he had wrought on so many institutions
connected with the Church. And while the lower
middle classes were constantly advancing in wealth
and comfort, the poorest grew poorer year by year.
Employment w r as often hardly to be found ; and
the terrible laws against vagrants, framed by the
aristocratic Parliaments of Elizabeth and James,
brought imprisonment, flogging and even the
gallows upon hundreds of poor wretches who
were ready enough to work if they could find any
situations. l All these sorrows of the peasants
Laud kept in his mind till his opportunity should
Vcome. Nor did he fail to comprehend that the
poorer classes, which formed after all the great
bulk of worshippers, needed thoughtful attention
if they were to be trained in the spiritual life.
The elaborate argumentative sermons which the
famous Puritan preachers loved and their disciples
imitated, left the huge mass of the nation, as
George Fox, the Quaker, 2 has so graphical!} told
in the condition of brute beasts/ 5 They heard
1 Sec Baker's ('lirnnicU', 412, for riots among the poor in 1609.
>!tc of the Pour, i. 119, 139, 550, 596, etc. Wheat was
a quarter and wages were about 8d. a day (Eden, i. 152). " The
number of the poor do clailie increase" says a tract of this time,
quoted by Eden, i. 155. Wheat rose to 5us. at Norwich in 1630.
2 Autobiography,
* Cf. appalling description in Sliitc rupcrs, 182, i.
i6n. THE PRESIDENCY OF ST. JOHN'S. 25
unheeding, for the preaching did not touch their
lives. Indeed the preachers themselves said:
'' The ignorant peasants are like Bruits "^
Always resolutely practical and attentive to
the most minute details, Laud made up his mind
that simple instruction in the elements of the
faith and a dignified and reverent worship were
the first requisites in every parish church. When
he had the power he would try to provide these
throughout the country ; and he was soon to be
called to greater offices, in which he could do
more to carry out his projects. In 1611 he was
elected President of St. John's, after a hot contest; 2
and shortly afterwards appointed chaplain to the
king. His influence in the university had been
already restored, and he now became the recognised
leader of a party little inferior in numbers and in
power to the Puritan party. Above all, it was
the party of the rising generation. With it
was associated the revival of beautiful worship
and of learning. Men began to feel tired of
fierce denunciations of Rome, " fuller of railing
than of reason," 3 of severe logical arguments
to prove the eternal ruin of the vast majority
of mankind. 4 A milder religious feeling was
gaining strength. Preachers spoke of the free-
1 Baxter's Autobiography. - Diary and Heylin, p. 56.
3 Laud's Works (folio), i. 160.
4 See a good instance of such Puritan preaching in State Papers,
vol. 280, No. 54.
26 I.I1-T. AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. n.
will of each sinner which Almighty God was
longing to fortify with His loving "race. Careful
catechetical instructions in the moral and the
spiritual life were taking the place of abstruse
sermons on Sunday afternoons. The benefits to
be derived from the sacraments were being
emphatically taught by many of the parish clergy.
The communion-table, which had stood in the
middle of the church, a convenient receptacle for
hats and cloaks while the congregation listened to
a sermon, and often treated as the natural place to
sum up the parish accounts, was in many places
moved to the upper end of the chancel, railed
round and covered with silk or velvet. It was to
worship and not to preaching that attention was
now being directed. Beautiful church music was
sedulously cultivated in cathedrals and the great
churches, especially in London i 1 since experience
med to indicate that it made worshippers more
conscious of the presence of God. The awful
mystery of the Holy Communion was treated
with reverence and solemnity ; for men felt that
i hen- Christ actually approached their souls.
And as they realised the vastness of the love
and power of (iod, they were less willing to
-demn their neighbours, or to conceive it
possible that their personal opinions could form
.mdo Gibbons was at this time organist of Westminster
Abbe-;, tory of M;.
i6n-i6. REVIVAL OF DEVOTION AND LEARNING. 2/
the only narrow ledge on which mankind might
creep into heaven. 1
With this milder and more liberal tone came a
revival of learning. The old fathers were eagerly
studied : Greek and Hebrew were cultivated : and,
as leader of the movement, Laud already cherished
hopes of setting up in England a Greek printing
press, and developing the study of Oriental lan-
guages by founding professorships and accumulat-
ing manuscripts. It was noticed that the discipline
of the university was stricter; more attention was
given to study and less to controversy ; by many
men the wearing of the university dress was con-
sidered desirable and important, and the use of
distinctive clerical attire was becoming the fashion.
The College of St. John's was enlarged, and
increased in numbers. Its services became
stately and musical ; to the horror of the Puritans
an organ was erected in the chapel. 2 But angry
attacks could now be treated with calm indifference.
Everybody praised Laud's administration of the
college ; those who had opposed his election as
president were won over by his conciliatory
manners ; and above all by the generous fashion
in which he promoted them to college offices ; the
fairness of his judgment and his self-sacrifice for
1 For an instance of the highly devout life of earnest Church
laymen of the day read Howell's Familiar Letters, i. 193, 252-4
and passim.
- Diary.
LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. n.
the advantage of tin- society were spoken of on all
sid< The clothmaker's son had become the
:st power in the University of Oxford, and
through Oxford was influencing England.' 2
Still George Abbot, now appointed Arch-
iop of Canterbury by a Court intrigue, held
the ear of the king ; he had taught James I. to
dread Laud as fussy and meddlesome ; as one
who stirred controversy and loved strife : and a
mysterious atmosphere of Arminian heresies and
Popish tendencies gathered round the mention of
his name ; his promotion in the Church was
stopped, lest this incendiary should set all Eng-
land on fire. But the best answer to these charges
was that where Laud was known he was popular,
and was becoming acceptable to all parties ; and
accordingly in 1616," when he was already forty-
two, he was named Dean of Gloucester.
The deanery was poor and obscure ; but it
rded opportunities to extend the rising Church
party. 15 y the Puritans the cathedrals were
in-atcd as remnants of Popery, and were marked
out lor destruction ; or, if this should prove
impossible, they were determined that they should
be used only as convenient halls for preaching.
Hut now Laud was specially commissioned by
the king to restore dignity of worship at Glou-
1 Wood's Alhcnac, ii. 56. Laud's Answer to Lord ,S'<nv and
itlinut the I.itnrxy, 474.
.1 \vas appointed Archdeacon of Huntingdon in Decem-
ber, 1615. ; Diuty, November.
i6i5-2i. THE DEANERY OF GLOUCESTER. 29
cester Cathedral. 1 Supported by his residentiary
canons, he removed the communion-table to the
chancel and placed it altar-wise against the eastern
wall.
Once more the ponderous nave and delicate
lofty choir were brightened with surpliced proces-
sions, while strains of sweet and inspiring music
' filled men's thoughts with anticipations of a
present God. Choristers and clergy were taught
to bow towards the altar as they entered the
chancel, and to do reverence at the name of Jesus.
It was a practice which the new dean very
strongly advocated, as reminding worshippers of
the honour due to their Saviour and of the means
by which He imparted Himself to human souls.
But these innovations, as they called them, were
detestable to the Puritans ; and the old Bishop of
Gloucester, Miles Smith, a learned Hebraist and
one of the most distinguished of the translators
of the Bible, 2 refused to enter the cathedral till
the former arrangements were restored. To him
the change seemed a return to Popery, and the
full horror of that fiery persecution was familiar
enough to his memory, though forgotten by the
younger generation. It was an unavoidable
collision between the new and the old. The aged,
conservative bishop, who felt that he needed no
outward signs and aids to worship when he would
hold communion with the God of his long life
1 Laud's Works, vi. 239, 241. * Wood's Annals, 228.
30 I. IKK AND TI.MKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. n.
and expected all others to meet God as easily as
he did, was irritated and incensed by the more
liberal dean, who in his turn could not give way
because he found the need of music and cere
monial to keep the mysterious presence of God
clear and real to men deafened by the bustle of
the world.
There were fierce Puritan sermons preached
in the city of which the martyr Hooper had been
bishop Hooper who had suffered imprisonment
rather than wear the surplice ; and there appeared
even a danger of ritual riots, but they were
speedily suppressed by the civic authorities, who
welcomed the more beautiful services, were de-
lighted to be free of the interminably long contro-
versial sermons, and were by no means averse to
a religious teaching which seemed more tolerant
of their weakness, and made no sins of merriment
and recreation. Laud's influence at Gloucester
does not however appear to have been very strong,
while the violent preaching of his opponents
kindled that bitter sectarian spirit which was after-
wards to make the town a stronghold of Parlia-
mentary opposition, and then to tear it asunder in
an internecine strife which Baxter describes as
rendering it one of the most unhappy places in the
country. 1 Dividing his time between the Court, the
university and the city of Gloucester, Laud con-
tinued to enhance his reputation ; now defining
1 Autobiography, p. 41.
i62i. TRAINING FOR THE EPISCOPATE. 3!
and defending the position of the English Church
against Rome ; now entering upon vigorous contro-
versy against thepromoters of Presbyterianism; now
explaining the Declaration of Sports by which King
James encouraged recreation and amusement on
Sunday after the afternoon service. Consequently
the shrewd king, intensely fond of clever sermons,
who had almost compelled the eloquent Donne to
be ordained because he was convinced he could
sway London from the pulpit of St. Paul's, 1 be-
came increasingly interested in Laud, and in 1621
had him elected and consecrated Bishop of St.
David's.
Ecclesiastical and political power had been long
deferred ; he was forty-eight, and the first vigour of
his life was gone ; but he had enjoyed a complete-
ness of training such as was the good hap of none of
his chief contemporaries in Church or State. He
had passed through every grade in the university,
had been the familiar friend of great scholars, both
English and foreign, with whom he had studied
the chief necessities of the time in research and in
education. He had learnt how to control subordi-
nates; how to conciliate his equals; and how to hold
his own without disrespect to his superiors. In his
parish incumbencies he had experienced for himself
the difficulties of the country clergy, stripped of
many of the old endowments 2 and thwarted by the
1 Walton's Life of Donne. Baker's Chronicle, p. 427. Both
\vriters were personal friends of Donne.
2 All through his life he did his utmost to improve the miser-
I.IKI-: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. ir.
power of the local magnates in their efforts after
a more refined worship and for more definite
instruction of their people. He had noted the
dull, hard life of the peasants under the despotic
control of Puritan nobles and gentry, 1 who even
on Sunday permitted no brightness or enjoyment
to their dependants. At Gloucester he had been
confronted with the growing indolence of the
cathedral chapters. He had recognised the
various causes which were sapping the power
and influence of the bishops. And he began to
think he saw how the strength and usefulness of
the Church could be restored; and the means by
which Gospel preaching and solemn worship might
become both real restraints upon brutal passions
and inspirations to holiness. At least he would
not fail from ignorance of the people he had to
govern, or want of sympathy with the masses ;
and he was convinced that God Himself had
appointed him to a great career. Nor was he
unsupported by the approval of the nation, for
no one was more definitely marked out by the
popular voice for high office than I )r. William Laud.
able incomes of the clergy, often not 3 a year. ('/. Accounts of
5,54. etc.. and his quarrel with Abbot, who cared nothing
for the clergy, Diury, 2(jth March, 1624. Sir H. Spelmun tells
us that the tithes of 3845 incumbencies had fallen into lay hands,
while 5439 still remained to the clergy (Apology, 35)- Only 144
Benefit cs in Kngland were worth over 40 a year (Stulc /Vf/ur.s,
vol. 27
rbid working people to enter the alehouses, and
dislike shown by Parliament to social guilds (Kden, i. 143, 597).
FURTHER AUTHORITIES IN ADDITION TO THOSE ALREADY QUOTED.
Sir T. Baker's Chronicle of the Reign of James I., continued
for Charles I. by another hand ; Laud's Conference with Fisher ;
Laud's Letters ; Speeches in the Parliamentary History ;
Baxter's A utobiography ; Rushworth's Collections; Harrington's
Works; Herbert's Works; Laud's Diary becomes much fuller
after 1621.
CHAPTER III.
BISHOPRIC OF ST. DAVID'S, 1621-1625.
Laud's Conception of the Episcopal Office The Commons
and the Constituencies The King Laud's Diocesan
Administration Conference with Fisher Royal In-
structions on Preaching The Two Parties in the
Church.
LAUD had long desired a bishopric. He was per-
fectly well aware of his talents for rule. He was
bent upon carrying out in practice the great schemes
which he had dreamed over in youth and steadily
thought out in middle life. More than once in
his letters to his friends he complains that he is
being passed over for inferior men. Frankly
.ambitious, he never assumed that decent or pru-
dish veil of modesty with which so many conceal
their desire for high office. Nothing could have
been farther from his thoughts than to hesitate
about occupying a prominent place in the manage-
ment of Church and State directly he could get
it ; and now he rejoiced that his opportunity was
come.
Elevation to the episcopate completely revolu-
tionises a clergyman's position : at one step he
becomes a ruler, and a ruler invested with a com-
mission from Christ Himself, all the more impres-
ts)
36 LII-T: AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. m..
sive to others, all the more awful to himself, be-
cause it is indefinite. The bishop dares not be
d:s>beyed ; rather true humility of the heart dic-
t.itcs firmness to the most timid will ; since, ruling
as Laud maintained jure divino^ he feels himself
to be under the personal control of God's Spirit in
directing the affairs of the Church.
Every bishop has an anxious responsibility to
see that Church rights and Church privileges are
not diminished under his charge. And at the
crisis of national history in which Laud lived, it
seemed certain to him that he was called upon by
God to vindicate the influence of the Church
against the magnates of the land. Without
acknowledging this fixed idea, whether we call it
fanatical or see in it a real mission, we can never
appreciate Laud's life and character.
But in order to regain her independence the
Church needed allies ; and could there be any
doubt as to the expediency of maintaining the
alliance which had now lasted so many years
between the Church and the Crown? The men
who had helped Laud to his high position, Bishop
Neile and Bishop Buckeridge, were personal
friends of the king : while they were already
against Lcighton, and Speech on the Censure of llurton,
Pry .T/V-. Cf. Diary, January, 1627, where he speaks
of the importance of printing Andrewes' opinion to the same e!
and Answer to Lord Sayc's Speech against the llishops, where Laud
maintains that our Saviour had Himself instituted the episcopal
office (pp. 18, 19).
i62i. THE GENTRY AND THE TOWNS. 37
disliked and distrusted by the great rival power
in the State, which now 7 began to assert itself,
the majority in the House of Commons.
A combination of two important classes, the
country gentlemen and the burgesses of the large
trading- communities, composed this majority,
working at a similar policy under very different
impulses. The country gentry felt and resented
the curb which by the legal system of England
the Grown had placed upon their authority in
their own districts, but they were equally jealous
of the reviving power of the Church. The great
towns, in constant communication with the busi-
ness circles of the City, 1 followed the lead of
London, and in London James I. and Charles I.
after him were personally unpopular. James from
his awkwardness and conceit of wisdom, Charles
from his rehned tastes and stately silence, were
ill-fitted by nature to gain the affections of the
populace of their capital. 2 They did not, perhaps
they could not, resort to those little tricks of
popularity by which their great predecessor
Queen Elizabeth, and their clever successor
Charles II., turned the citizens of London into
a royal bodyguard. In London the two first
1 Baxter's Autobiography. Dr. Stoughton says that in the
first election under Charles II., when London had elected Opposi-
tion members, ministers stopped the post for fear of the effect on
the other constituencies.
2 Heylin's Life of Laud.
I. in-! AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. ill.
Stuart kings seldom showed themselves, and
many of its inhabitants did not even know them
by si^ht. 1 This unpopularity had been increased of
Lite years by the unthrifty administration of Buck-
ingham, which had weakened credit and left the
Channel at the mercy of pirates. Moreover,
London was the stronghold of Puritanism ; in the
early days of King James his Calvinistic bias had
increased the number of Puritan preachers in the
capital ; afterwards foreign intercourse, and the
great immigration from Flanders and from
France, had swollen the Puritan ranks.
Thus the influence of London and of the
country gentry secured successive majorities in
the Parliaments of James and Charles, which in-
sisted on limiting the royal prerogative and
supported the Puritan party in the Church. lUit
men who knew the motives which decided the
elections, and the restricted numbers of the elec-
torate, could hardly regard the opinion of the
Commons as endowed with that semi-sanctity
with which it has been invested by many modern
writers ; while there was certainly some foundation
for the claim of Laud and his associates that they
themselves were the defenders of the people
; nst an overweening aristocracy- and a pur
lin's Life of Land.
I'tilt-rins ami I'lihlicolu : "The people then under
dared not to elect otherwise than as pleased the lords".
The OtctUKi shows how <!i atislied thinking men were with the
i62i. LAUD'S APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. 39
proud plutocracy, which together were able to
manipulate the Lower House. Even to the end,
when he was imprisoned by the triumphant
Commons of the Long Parliament, Laud main-
tained that he represented the larger and the
better part of the people. 1 And already an intense
distrust of the House of Commons, almost amount-
ing to hatred, was growing up in the minds of him-
self and his friends. It was a fatal jealousy, but it
was no unreasoned prejudice. They felt that the
Commons were really intent on stifling all freedom
of opinion in religion and in politics ; hostile to that
growth of art, learning, and literature, which was
to become the glory of the Laudian regime ; in-
sisting on immunity for the vices of the upper
class,' 2 while they deprived the down-trodden peas-
ants of their innocent amusements ; champions of
a bitter persecution even to death of harmless
Romish priests and Popish recusants; 3 while abroad
the so-called popular House cared nothing for a
high policy, such as should make England the
honoured arbiter of the nations. Indeed, too
often their conception of international relations
was that of the free-booter : " We are poor," said
Sir John Eliot in one memorable debate, u Spain
elections. The Parliaments of James I. passed several acts to
keep down wages, evidently in the interests of the rich (Eden, i.
142).
1 Speech in Defence of the Bishops, p. 42, published in 1641.
- See proceedings against Laud for his punishment of Lady
Purbeck and others. 3 Sir R. Verney's Diary, p. 147.
4"> LIFE AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
is rich. There are our Indies. Break with them,
wu shall break our necessities together." 1 And it
seemed to show an incapacity for great affairs when
the Commons, 2 after insisting that the Govern-
ment should declare war to help the Calvinist
cause in Germany, dealt out money with a hand
niggardly that it was never possible to strike
any blow of importance. 3 Indeed in the long
economical reign of Elizabeth they appear to have
lost the conception of generous giving. 4
All men in the nineteenth century are agreed
that the Commons under the Stuarts, in spite of
their shortcomings, were guiding the Constitution
into the course which could best ensure English
greatness and English freedom. But this was
certainly not evident in 1621. Rather it seemed
to very many that the victory of the Commons
meant a tyrannical aristocratic Government, and
that the king was the true protector of the poor.
Therefore Laud naturally allied himself with King
James, and attempted to rebuild the power of the
Church with his support.
The character of James I. has seldom been
fairly treated by historians ; "' the king was a
1 Quoted by S. R. Gardiner, linckin^hum and Charles /., i. 30.
' In 1624. :t ]> ( ,rl. Hist., vi. 103 ff. and 336.
d'Orlcans, viii. 23, shows us the foreign opinion on this
r, Cf. Carte's Ormond, i. 50.
5 See among others, Baker, 426 ; Fuller; Carte's Ormond on
the settlement of Ulster; and most of James's contemporaries, for
i62i. CHARACTER OF JAMES I. 41
learned scholar and fond of ecclesiastical order.
Association with the writers and artists, who
were attracted to the Court by the Prince of
Wales and the Marquis of Buckingham, had modi-
fied his earlier predilection for Calvinism ; and, as
he grew older, he grew more devout. The beau-
tiful services which one of his chaplains, Dean
Williams, had instituted in Westminster Abbey, 1
and which were imitated in the Chapels Royal,
satisfied the cravings of the king, who was as
sentimental as he was conscientious, for comfort
and for rest. He cordially endorsed Donne's
expression: "Oh, the power of church music!
that harmony added to this hymn has raised the
affections of my heart, and quickened my graces
of zeal and fortitude "."
The sermons, at once learned and spiritual,
by Bishop Andrewes, and a galaxy of famous
preachers whom he had appointed to be his chap-
lains, provided him with that intellectual food
and that philosophical support by which he was L .
enabled to resist the enticements of the insinuat-o j*
ing Jesuit confessors who gained over so many (fcL VI
of his less thoughtful contemporaries. It was
Andrewes whom he summoned to preach before
a very high estimate of his abilities : on the contrary, Mrs.
Hutchinson, and Weldon's scandalous Memoirs.
1 See Racket's Life of Williams for the pretty pride with which
the dean exhibited his service to the French ambassadors, as
superior to theirs.
- Walton's Lives, i. 74.
42 LIl-'i: AND TI.MLS <>F WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
him on the great festivals of the Church. It
was for Andrewes' ministration that he called
constantly on his death-bed. The king, therefore,
appeared to Land the safest and strongest ally in
his far-reaching schemes ; and he set himself to
gain over the royal mind such an influence as his
brother-prelates, Neile the Clerk of the Closet,
and Andrewes the Dean of the Chapels Royal,
now enjoyed. He could see nothing inconsistent
in combining the office of a minister of State with
that of a bishop ; and frequently quoted the
example of many great English saints, of St.
Ambrose and St. Augustine, and of the high
priests and prophets among the Israelites. 1
Though he was seldom consulted on political
affairs during the first years of his episcopate, the
new Bishop of St. David's became at once a man
of marked influence in questions which concerned
the Church. And as the rulers of 1621 would
soon vanish from the scene, the prim Oxford
don, whose genial humour and keen sarcasm
<lered him so conspicuous a figure at Court,
and who was possessed of the uncommon gift of
making the gayest courtier think about spiritual
icerns, would shortly rise to the first place in
the State, and have his opportunity to sho\v
whether ecclesiastical rule was possible in Eng-
land in the seventeenth century. Fuller describes
him to i "of low stature but high parts:
1 . l;rs;.vr t<> Lord Snye in Defence of the Hishops, pp. 1-22.
i62i. PROBABLE PRIMATES. 43
piercing eyes, cheerful countenance, wherein
gravity and pleasantness were well compounded,
admirable in his naturals, unblamable in his
morals, .being very strict in his conversation": 1
evidently a person well equipped for the great
task which he believed God had set him.
Before Laud's consecration an untoward event
occurred which had a most serious effect on
the history of the Church. Shooting in Lord
Zouch's forest, Archbishop Abbot let fly his shaft
into a herd of deer, and killed the keeper, who
was driving them towards the huntsmen. Had
he (it was the ecclesiastical excitement of the
moment) by his ugly deed rendered himself
irregular and forfeited his archbishopric ? and if
so, who would succeed him ? It was natural that
this question of the succession should have its
unnoticed influence in forming the opinion even of
the learned as to his offence. Edward Coke, the
greatest of living lawyers, who loved Abbot as
a Puritan, and dreaded some High Church suc-
cessor, pronounced it legal for bishops to hunt,
since by the common law a bishop was to be-
queath to the king his pack of hounds. If he had
hounds he must hunt ; if he hunted such accidents
could not be avoided ; so argued the acute
lawyer. -
Two clergymen stood forward in all men's eyes
as likely to be primates. The Lord Keeper, Wil-
1 Fuller's Worthies, i. go. - Heylin's Life, p. 82.
44 I-H-'K AND TIMKS <>F WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
liams, Dean of Westminster, was on the eve of
consecration to the great and rich see of Lincoln,
lie was a man of decent personal piety, most
a : lent i Ye to the outward decorum of the Church
services, a sagacious administrator, liberal in his
ecclesiastical opinions and gifted with singular
penetration in reading the signs of the times. But
he was not trusted by the clergy : they doubted
his sincerity and questioned his truthfulness.
They believed him capable of any intrigue to hold
his power. It was often remarked that he tried
to keep well with all parties, and that in spite of
his professions of disinterested zeal he had accu-
mulated in his own hands many rich benefices.
Xor did he succeed in his efforts to win the affec-
tions of the Puritans ; Lord Saye said of him :
" Were our Saviour upon earth the Bishop of
Lincoln would betray Him again, if He stood
cross to his ends". 1
The other candidate was the ideal bishop of
the day, Andrewes of Winchester, a man of saintly
and beautiful life, against whom, even in those!
libellous times, none had ever dared to breathe a
breath of scandal : one of the greatest scholars,
and the greatest preacher of his generation ; whose
nous are even now read with enjoyment and
admiration for their piety of reflection, their wise
counsel and their deep theological learning.
< >nce already the. voice of the nation had drsig-
1 Quoted in I)' Israeli's f /;.;;.
i
'
i6;i. APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 45
nated him as the fittest primate, when a Court
intrigue had seated Abbot in the chair of St.
Augustine. He was absolutely free from worldly
ambition, and never sought to extend his influence
beyond the pulpit and the altar. But Williams ^ ^
had the ear of the king and the ear of Bucking-
ham, and Court influence was again likely to out-
weigh personal merit.
Probably this dread decided the question :
High Church bishops and Puritan lawyers alike 1
supported the legality of a royal rescript to remove
Abbot's disabilities. He was restored to his
position, though his authority in Church affairs
was gone. Neither Williams nor Laud would
receive consecration from a primate whose hands,
as they said, were stained with human blood ; and
they were consecrated by a commission of bishops
selected by the king. 2
To the Puritans, who rejected all meaning in
episcopal consecration, these scruples seemed
ridiculous and superstitious. By men who were
engaged in maintaining against Roman contro-
versialists the genuine character of English orders,
and the purity of the apostolical succession in
the English Church, they were felt to be most
serious ; 3 nor were they despised by that wide-
spread class of thoughtful and devout laymen
1 Howell's Familiar Letters, i. 107.
2 Heylin's Life of Laud, 82. Diary, sub anno 1621.
3 See Spelman, Works, ii. 112. Cf. Panzani's Memoirs.
46 LIFi: AND TI.MKS OF WILLIAM LAUD, CH. in.
wiiosi- influence is so conspicuous through these
troubled limrs. 1
At first three great ecclesiastical interests
absorbed the new bishop's attention, and his
treatment of them defined his position before the
watchful eyes of the nation. These were (i) the
condition of his diocese, (2) the growing propa-
ganda of Romanism, and (3) the angry preaching
of the Puritans. As a diocesan bishop Laud did
not distinguish himself until his promotion to the
see of London. Distant St. David's was hardly
a diocese to which in those days an ecclesiastic
full of ambition was likely to banish himself. A
very few months was all that St. David's saw of
her bishop during his five years' episcopate. The
long journey, the rough and miry roads, the
ignorant and scattered population seemed to the
scholar and courtier sufficient excuses for non-
residence. 2 Though later in life he became a
severe disciplinarian in the matter of episcopal
residence, and compelled his suffragans to give
their personal attention to the round of dio-
cesan duties, now he lived in London and the
neighbourhood ; candidates for ordination had to
travel up to the capital to their bishop ; confir-
mations must have been few and irregular, and
1 The lives of men like Lord Derby, the Dukes of Rich-
mond and Ormond, Lord Capel, Lord Falkland, Mr. Hyde,
Herbert's friend Mr. Woodnot, etc., illustrate this.
up. M'orA'.s-. vi. J47> and Diary, ^th Aug., 1625, an( l
Papers, vol. 150, No. no.
i
1621-25. LAUD'S NEGLECT OF ST. DAVID'S.
47
yet the men of his school were perfectly well
aware that in the growing neglect of confirmation
lay one of the most ready handles for their Puritan
opponents. 1 Where was the need of bishops if
baptism was complete without their blessing ?
They were intriguing at Whitehall for better
preferment, men said, leaving any wolves, who
chose, to devour their flocks. And in his latter
years there is nothing which Laud in his reports
to the king notes as a surer proof of the increasing
power of the Church than that people have come
"very thick to receive confirmation, to the numberof
some thousands in the diocese of Peterborough "." 2
None the less the bishop was in constant
correspondence with his officials on matters of
discipline and administration. There is a curious
entry in his Diary of indignation against a salt-
petre-maker who had desecrated the graves at
Brecon in search of saltpetre, 3 which illustrates
how attentive he was even to details. He pro-
vided his house at Abergwilly with a handsome
chapel. He devoted much time and money to
putting the churches of the diocese in order ;
and visited and preached assiduously when his
duties at Court could be conveniently left. There
was very little Puritanism in Wales; 4 the people
1 Heylin, p. 10. 2 Account of Province, 1639.
3 Diary. i3th December, 1624.
4 It will be remembered that Wales was universally on the
royal side through the Civil War.
>
48 I. IFF. AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
were devout and attentive to worship. It was not
hard for a bishop to persuade himself that he was
more wanted elsewhere. But the Church suffered.
Meanwhile Laud was devoting his powers to
what appeared to be the most threatening danger
of the moment. Roman Catholicism w r as again
on the increase in England. The king was
hankering after a Spanish match for his son,
Prince Charles. Under the crafty influence of
the Spanish ambassador, Gondomar, the penal
laws against Romanism had been laid aside to
rust. Roman priests swarmed in England, secu-
lar priests and Jesuits, bitter in dislike towards
each other, 1 and all the more diligently rivalling
one another in making converts. Hundreds of
families who had conformed for a time w^
being reconciled to Rome, especially in the North.
And at Court the Jesuits were very successful.
The Papacy still exercised a magic charm over
people who wished to enjoy all the pleasures and
advantages of this life and yet find heaven's ^ate
open at the last hour : and it was becoming the
fashion for statesmen, courtiers and great ladies
to have a Romish priest smuggled into their
chamber of death. The first hot zeal of the
Reformation, the fierce, irreconcilable detestation
of Rome as the Scarlet Woman and the Crowned
Antichrist, was fast cooling. And just as in
France Protestantism was being steadily ex-
1 Panzani's Memoirs.
1622. THE PRACTICE OF DEVOTION. 49
tinguished since Henry IV. had said the Crown
of France was well worth a Mass, and persuaded
his courtiers to imitate his example ; so the culti-
vated classes of England, who shrank from Puri-
tanism with its professed preference for what was
bare and ugly, its jealousy of music and decora-
tion and ritual as hindrances to the simple meeting
of the soul face to face with God, were likely to
be drawn insensibly into Romanism, unless some
middle way could be attractively set before them.
" I could speak with no conscientious persons
almost, that were wavering in religion, but the great
motion which wrought upon them to disaffect, or
think meanly of the Church of England, was that
the external worship of God was so lost in the
Church (as they conceived it) ; and the Churches
themselves and all things in them suffered to lie
in such a base and slovenly fashion in most places
in the kingdom."
The English religious leaders were meeting
this tendency by elaborating beautiful worship,
by disciplining the religious feeling, by declaring
without compromise the mysterious efficacy of
Holy Communion, by well-reasoned preaching.
Anglicans felt they had by no means the worst of
the arguments. " Where was your religion to be
found before Luther ? " inquired a clever priest at
Rome of Sir Henry Wotton. " My religion was
to be found then where yours is not to be found
1 Laud in Trials and Troubles, p. 156.
4
f
50 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
now, in the written word of God," replied Sir
Henry ; " but do you believe all those many
thousands of poor Christians were damned that
were excommunicated because the Pope and the
Duke of Venice could not agree about their tem-
poral power, even those poor Christians that knew
not why they quarrelled ? " " Monsieur," cautiously
replied the priest in French, " excusez moi." 1
But Buckingham was on the point of being
gained to Rome ; 2 his mother was almost a pro-
fessed convert ; 3 and the king, always a zealous
Anglican, thought it well to organise public con-
ferences for controversy between the courtier
Jesuit confessors, and some of the learned scholars
of the English Church. It fell to Laud's share to
bring out in strong relief the differences between
the Churches. This he did by challenging the
adoration of images ; the invocation of saints ; (
the adoration of the Sacrament; the administra-
tion in one kind only ; the doctrine of purgatory ;
and prayer in an unknown tongue. It was from
the Bible that he derived all his arguments ; it
was the defence of the authority and sufficiency of
the Bible to which he devoted his most careful
dialectic. 4 " Religion," he said, " as it is professed
1 Walton's Lives, i. 187.
a Pere d'Orldans, :x., 240 shows us the Jesuit hopes of gaining
him.
3 Diary, 23rd April, 1622.
4 See the Book against Fisher, and specially pp. 48-58 and So-
95 for the authority of Scripture. It took him so much time to
1622. CONFERENCE WITH FISHER. 51
in the Church of England is nearest of any Church
now in being to the Primitive Church, and there-
fore not a religion known to be false." The con-
ferences were published later, 1 and exhibit the
wide learning and the acute intellect of the Bishop
of St. David's ; his bitterest enemies in religious
opinion admitted it was the strongest book on
the subject. 2 And though the Countess of Buck-
ingham was held back from Rome only for a short
period, her son, now Marquis of Buckingham, was
henceforth a firm and soon a devout Anglican.
Taking Laud as his spiritual counsellor 3 he was
once more seen at the Holy Communion ; he
entered keenly into the English differences with
Rome and with the Puritans, and became a vig-
orous supporter of the great bulk of Englishmen,
both clergy and laity, who refused to break the
links with the past and to destroy the old Church
constitution, while they rejected what they con-
sidered the superstitions of the middle ages and
the usurped power of the Papacy. For the time the
advance of Romanism was stayed ; and Laud was
marked in the Roman archives as a man to be
gained at any cost or to be destroyed. 4
prepare this for publication that he had, most unwillingly, to give
up preaching in his later years.
1 Works, vol. ii., in Anglo-Catholic Library.
' 2 e.g., Sir E. Bering (Wood's Athenae, ii. 65).
3 Diary, gth June, 1622.
4 Testimony of the Roman hatred is given in Wharton's edition
of Laud's Works i. 616, in Laud's Trials and Troubles, p. 338,
52 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
But the Puritan party were only the more
incensed against him. The Jesuits should be
executed, not reasoned with,, they said. 1 The
concession that Rome was a part, though a cor-
rupt part, of Christ's Church, was to them
insufferable. In his later days the heaviest
charges would be those which imputed to him
Romanising tendencies, and made it treasonable
that he had connived at the existence of seditious
Jesuits, who taught that persecuting kings might
rightfully be deposed.
But the Jesuits were not the only teachers
who maintained the right of deposing tyrannical
kings. A sermon preached by Mr. Knight,
Fellow of Broadgate (or Pembroke), at Oxford,
put forth the doctrine that resistance to the king
was justifiable if he turned tyrant, or forced
blasphemy or idolatry upon his subjects-
ominous growlings of distant storms. The vice-
chancellor impounded Knight, and requested
Laud as an Oxford bishop to bring the matter
before the king. Knight escaped with a scolding; 2
but the fierce controversial preaching of the
Puritans against Papists and Anglicans was
considered so dangerous that the liberty of
preaching was curtailed by royal letter issued
to the archbishops. Preachers were to follow
by Sir H. Mildmay, a Puritan M.P., and for Laud's own conviction
of it, see pp. 16 and 162.
1 S. K. Gardiner's History, passim. - Heylin, <ji-
i622. RESTRAINTS ON PREACHING. 53
the articles ; in the afternoon they were to cate-
chise ; l politics in the pulpit were forbidden ;
controversy was limited, and none but bishops
and deans were to handle in public such subjects
as predestination, election, reprobation, and the
universality or irresponsibility of God's grace.
All preachers were exhorted to pay special atten-
tion to the rules of life. 2 Little did the royal
counsellors, among whom both Williams of
Lincoln and Laud of St. David's must at this
time be reckoned, realise how impossible it was
for the passionate Puritan, convinced of his former
sin and his present election by God into a state
of indefeasible grace, 3 to shut up his beliefs in his
own heart. Even hard-working and educated
preachers like Gouge and Sibbes were harassed
by such prohibitions. As for the extreme Puritans
who would not hesitate to wade deep in blood on
their grand but hopeless crusade for erecting on
earth the reign of God's saints, they could not
1 See for the way this was carried out the charges against
Bishop Harsnet, Parliamentary History, vi. 316, and Laud's
Accounts of his Province, pp. 526, 540, 541, 545 and passim.
2 Heylin, 93 and 94. They were issued 4th August, 1622.
See Carlyle's Cromwell, letter ii. Prynne did not hesitate to
say : " Let any true saint of God be taken away in the very act of any
known sin, before it is possible for him to repent ; I make no doubt
or scruple of it, but he shall be as surely saved as if he had lived
to have repented of it ".
And see Bancroft's assertion at the Savoy Conference, in
1605, that the doctrine of predestination was producing much
wickedness of life.
54 LIFE AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. in.
suffer such shackles for an instant. How dull
sounded now the simple moral and religious pre-
cepts of the Sermon on the Mount to the ears
of men who had wrangled over the awful question
of the Divine Fore-knowledge, and who con-
sidered the future of each man as "o'er-ruled by
fate inextricable, and strict necessity ". Certain
that they alone could be saved, what recked the
more fanatical Puritans, who were soon to be
masters in England, of the fate of the bodies or
the souls of the worthless crowd around them !
Toleration of opinion was as yet impossible ;
Laud would try to enforce it and would fail.
Toleration of different forms of outward worship
and organisation was still more impossible and
was detestable to Puritan and liberal Churchman
alike. 1 Fire and steel would have to decide
whether scholar or enthusiast should preach the
Gospel ; and they would settle at the same time
whether king or gentry should control the Civil
Government. There are moments in the life of
nations when a struggle between opposing ten-
dencies is inevitable ; and the sects must either
have been trodden into toleration of other opinions,
or left free to work out to logical limits their tenets
of election. Moderation they could never tolerate ;
and it was no Puritan, but Jeremy Taylor, a pupil
of Laud, and himself soon to be an Anglican bishop,
1 See Bacon, essay De Unitate Ecclesiae ; and the speeches
in Parliament, passim.
J
1622-5. LAUD AND THE PURITANS. 55
who was to plead with the English Government for
" the Liberty of Prophesying".
As we turn from the pages of Milton, com-
pelled to an unanticipated sympathy with the
hero of the epic, the fallen archangel, full
of thoughts of strife and war and wrath, to
the sweet, soothing, spiritual songs of George
Herbert, the saintly poet of the Laudian move-
ment, of whose Temple 20,000 copies were sold in
a few years to be the comfort of 20,000 English
households, we see vividly how irreconcilable
were these two parties. To Marshall or to
Burgess, to Prynne or even to Baxter, the
parsonage life of Bemerton was contemptibly
mean, with its gentle toleration, its simple helpful-
ness of sympathy, its humble self-forgetfulness.
The vision of God which inspired the Ironsides
at Drogheda and Dunbar was not the vision of
God portrayed in Herbert's study :
Then weep, mine eyes, the God of love doth grieve ;
Weep, foolish heart,
And weeping live,
For death is dry as dust. Yet, if we part,
Sad as the night whose sable hue
Your sins express; melt into dew.
In the clash of the strife between Jesuit and
Puritan in England and throughout Europe, the
school of Laud and Andre wes, and Herbert and
Izaac Walton turned their eyes upon that "dear
mother" Church of England, whom they felt to
be truly evangelical.
56 l.Il i: AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. HI.
A fine aspect in fit array,
Neither too mean, nor yet too gay,
Shows who is best :
Outlandish looks may not compare ;
For all they either painted are
Or else undrest.
So the last years of King James passed
stormily along. The Bishop of St. David's had
little part to play in the wild excitement of that
strange Spanish match, which sent Charles on his
madcap journey to Madrid, and seemed likely for
a few months after his return to despatch English
armies in chivalrous career over Germany to
drive back the advancing forces of Rome.
The warmth of Laud's heart flames out in
entries in his Diary, in special prayers composed
for private use, in rejoicings over the safe return,
in watchfulness that the absent duke at Madrid
should not lose his power with the king ; for this
sedate, severe bishop was the most faithful of
friends, and capable of feeling and inspiring the
most sincere affection. But his hand is shown
only in the careful attention paid to the arrange-
ments of Anglican worship in the prince's house-
hold while he was at the Spanish Court ; in order
that his Christian faith might be justified to the
ignorant and scoffing Spaniards, who spoke of the
Knglish as pagans ; and that he himself might
compare it favourably with the sumptuous ritual
of Rome. 1
1 See in Heylin the vessels and linen to be provided for the
altar, and Howell's Letters from Madrid.
1625. DEATH OF KING JAMES. 57
On 27th March, 1625, King James I. died
after a short illness, and the news reached White-
hall while the Bishop of St. David's was preaching
before the Court a Lenten sermon, which the sobs
of the Duke of Buckingham and his own emotions
terminated abruptly. 1
1 Diary, ayth March, 1625.
For the projects of the aristocracy, see note A on p. 292.
FURTHER AUTHORITIES.
The Calendars of State Papers; Laud's Sermons; Memoirs of Sir
Philip Warwick ; Hamond L'Estrange's History of the Reign of
Charles I.; Clarendon's Life; Clarendon's History of the
Rebellion; Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoir of her husband ; May's
History of the Long Parliament ; Macpherson's Annals of Com-
merce ; Lilly's Life and Times.
CHAPTER IV.
UNDER THE MINISTRY OF BUCKINGHAM, 1625-1628.
Character of Charles I. and of Buckingham Points of
Dispute between King and Commons Nicholas Ferrar
Dr. Montague and the Remonstrance of the Three
Bishops Commission of Bishops Sermon on Unity to
Third Parliament of Charles Death of Buckingham.
CHARLES I. ascended the throne under the most
favourable auspices. The people were delighted
at the breach of the Spanish match, and the
preparations for a religious war. The new king
was known to be scrupulously conscientious and
devoutly religious. It was noted that, unlike his
father, at the special request of Bishop Laud he
joined in the prayers of the Royal Chapel, instead
of expecting the sermon to be commenced im-
mediately upon his entrance. 1 They heard with
approval how sternly he rebuked an Irish
Romanist noble who interrupted the royal de-
votions by loud conversation in the anteroom.
Men whispered about the story that the prince
had said to his favourite bishop that he could
never be a lawyer since nothing would induce
him to plead the cause of a rascal. 2
1 Laud's Diary. 2 Ibid., ist February, 1624.
(61)
62 LIFF. AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. w.
Scholars and writers and artists were capti-
vated with a sovereign who was not only a
patron but a genuine admirer of all that was
beautiful and well written ; and who himself was
no mean student in literature, " a competent
judge in music," 1 and in art an accomplished
critic of the styles of the great painters of the
Renaissance. Rubens and Vandyke painted for
him ; Milton wrote masques and pastorals for
his courtiers ; Waller, Davenant, Crashaw and
Herbert were among the band of graceful and
devotional poets who expressed the feelings and
aspirations of the dominant party. Manuscripts
of Greek, Arabic and Hebrew were added to
the libraries ; and the royal collection of pictures
was soon to be the best in Europe ; while the
faultless architecture of Inigo Jones was ready to
construct palaces and porticoes and galleries for
the refined pleasures of an educated society
delighting in the revival of art and learning.
Dignified and silent ; passionately proud of
England ; loving order and decent economy ;
upright in all his dealings, and a pure and dutiful
husband, 2 Charles seemed to be the king exactly
suited to the mind of the serious Englishmen who
formed the bulk of the middle classes. H e had none
of the pedantry and none of the insolence of his
father. He was brave, and intent on making his
country play a chief part in the affairs of the world.
1 Playford, quoted by Burney, iii. 361.
- Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, p. 127.
1625. CHARLES AND BUCKINGHAM. 63
Parliament seemed to him his surest and strongest
ally in the struggle which he now proposed to
undertake against Romanism in Germany.
Why, then, did such a king fail ? Un-
doubtedly because of the mistakes of his early
years, and the undisciplined character of his first
Prime Minister The Duke of Buckingham had
been intoxicated by too facile a success. Magni-
ficently handsome, extraordinarily attractive, quick
at expedients, prolific of great ideas, he had no
patience and no diligence. 1 Having made him-
self necessary to Charles by his assistance in the
Spanish journey and the French marriage, he had
been allowed to treat the new king as his equal,
and felt himself privileged to despise every other
Englishman. He had enriched himself and his
family at the expense of the nation. " Hark how
the waggons creak with their rich lading," said a
shrewd observer, 2 as men who had come to Court
"with the common carrier" were seen driving
home with "a full train of baggage". In so
doing, and by his extravagant wars, he disordered
the finances and left the State loaded with a debt
which all Laud's thriftiness could only gradually
pay off.
Nor was Charles the man to set himself right
with his people. An impediment in his speech
made him dislike speaking in public, and he felt
1 See Clarendon's History, i. 48-64.
2 See Lilly's Memoirs, and Weldon's Court of King James.
64 LIFK AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. iv.
that n few words from the royal pen ought to be
enough to clear up all misunderstandings. But,
as will appear, an explanation of the royal policy
was the last thing the leaders of the Opposition
desired.
Historians and essayists take pleasure in dis-
cussing how the king and the Parliament might
have been reconciled ; in discoursing, as if in
some nineteenth century newspaper, on the value
of responsible ministers, and the advantage that a
king should reign and should not govern ; in
pointing out exactly where the sovereign exceeded
his rights, and where the Parliament overpressed
its claims. Such discussions waste ink. The
king was master ; for 1 50 years the kings of
England had been masters, choosing their own
ministers, and using their Parliaments as a means
sometimes to ascertain and redress the grievances
of their subjects, sometimes to support their own
power by the proof which the easy passage of new
laws afforded that the nation was united in the
decision. By the aid of Parliament, and because
the nation and the king wished it, the power of
the feudal nobles had been swept away. By Act
of Parliament, at the suggestion of the king, the
Papal authority in England had been abolished
and the monasteries destroyed. By the advice ot
Parliament acting under the lead of her ministers,
Queen Elizabeth had set forward England as the
leader of the anti-Romanist party in Europe, and
i62 5 . CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMMONS. 65
had succoured and founded the Republic of the
Low Countries. Yet opposition in Parliament
had been crushed and often punished by the
Tudor sovereigns. Above all Queen Elizabeth
had sternly repressed any interference by the
House of Commons in religion. That was a
matter for the Convocation and herself; it was
the advice of the spirituality which she required in
spiritual affairs.
The sovereign then had so far been supreme.
It was most unlikely that he would allow the cur-
tailment of his power except under compulsion.
Rather he had every intention to increase it after
the manner of his brothers of France, Spain and
Austria. But the country gentry and lawyers
and great merchants who composed the Commons'
House were equally resolved to rule England.
It was calculated that the united incomes of the
members of the House of Commons trebled the
revenues of the peers. Wealthy, powerful, each
in his own little corner of England strong enough
to bully the parson about his doctrines and the
peasant about his pleasures, the English gentle-
men naturally resented a mismanagement which
they felt themselves wise enough to set right ;
and, perhaps it was quite as natural, talked over
the ill-fated precedents of Henry III., Richard II.,
and Henry VI., kings famous alike for their love
of art and for their misfortunes.
The struggle was inevitable. It was by no
5
LI1 L AND Tl.MKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. IV.
means inevitable that victory should be with the
Commons. 1 At present the Crown appeared the
stronger ; and the tendencies of the day in the
European community, which exert such a magical
influence over men's minds, and which are so con-
stantly used as arguments for new movements,
pointed to monarchical victory. Holland was the
one prominent Republic, and there a great family
was monopolising power.
The influence of the Bishop of St. David's was
at once evident on the accession of King Charles.
He was appointed to preach the sermon at the
opening of the new Parliament, to which the king
and Buckingham looked eagerly forward as pledged
by the action of its predecessor to support them
in their championship of the Protestant cause in
Germany. He succeeded his friend Bishop Neile
of Durham as Clerk of the Closet to the king, a
post which at once gave him a confidential relation-
ship to the sovereign ; and soon, on the death ot
Bishop Andrewes, was promoted to be Dean of
the Chapels Royal and to control the ritual of the
royal worship. He was asked to provide the king
with a list of the leading divines in England marked
P. and O., Puritan and Orthodox. He was com-
manded to confer with Bishop Andrewes 2 of
Winchester, " the great light of the Christian
world " as he reverently styles him in his Diary?
1 Pere d'Orleans, ix. 237, 238.
Diary, gth and loth April, 1625.
iit., 2 ist September, 1626.
j
^62 5 . NICHOLAS FERRAR. 67
-as to the government and discipline of the Church,
-and especially to discuss with him the position ol
the Church of England towards the five articles of
the Calvinistic Synod of Dort held in 1619.
It was just about this time that Laud had the
opportunity of assisting an attempt to show the
Roman cavillers against the English Church that
his communion possessed resources for the culti-
vation of a devout life of retirement and self-
recollection. Nicholas Ferrar, soon to be founder
of the community of Little Gidding, came to him
for ordination on Trinity Sunday, 1625, in Henry
VI I. 's chapel at Westminster. Laud gave him
deacon's orders and never ceased to take the
deepest interest in the fortunes of the Little
Gidding family. 1 Apparently Ferrar's character
.and Ferrar's self-denial and asceticism deeply
impressed him ; for we find him recording in his
Diary a few weeks later a dream in which the
saintly Bishop Thornborough of Worcester stood
by him, and invited him to a quiet and simple life
of work within the limits of his own diocese. It
was one of those dreams which Laud noticed and
from which he drew practical instruction. Great-
ness he still sought for ; but pomp and luxury he
put decisively from him. 2
The first Parliament of Charles I. met in
June, 1625. The king welcomed its meeting, and
demanded at once large grants for the war in
1 Ferrar's Life, by his brother. - Diary, Sept., 1625.
68 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. iv.
Germany, which had been undertaken at the
request of the last House of Commons. A bill
was proposed to enforce more reverent observ-
ance of the Sabbath, which the king accepted. 1
A solemn fast was proclaimed at the request of
the Commonsby order of the king and Convocation.
Religious sympathy seemed firmly established
between the king and Commons, and without
religious sympathy in those days political concord
was impossible. But three weeks after the open-
ing of Parliament, the House of Commons, leaving
thequestion of the German war, commenced a fierce
attack on a book of Dr. Montague, Vicar of Stanford
Rivers. Montague had found that some members
of his flock were being stealthily seduced to
Rome. He proceeded to attack the Roman
doctrines, but in so doing disclaimed Puritanism
and the Synod of Dort. The Commons lashed
themselves into fury in a committee on religion.
They accused Montague of Arminianism and of
Popery. They attempted to drive him from the
Church. Thereupon Bishop Buckeridge of
Rochester, Bishop Howson of Oxford and Bishop
Laud of St. David's petitioned the Prime Minister
to protect Montague. 2 They asserted that some
of Montague's doctrines were unquestionably taught
1 Heylin, p. 129.
2 Laud's Works, vi. 244. Andrewes, Mountain of London am
Neile of Durham afterwards supported the former three (\\'nrks,
vi. 249).
1625. FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CHARLES. 69
by the Church of England, and that some were
difficult scholastic questions on which latitude of
opinion must be allowed. They took their stand
on the Act of the Submission of the Clergy in the
reign of Henry VIII., which allowed the king's
supremacy in religious matters, acting by the
advice not of Parliament but of Convocation.
They maintained that the Convocation of bishops
and clergy must remain the judge of spiritual
causes, and that a submission to secular judges
would be disobedience to the ordinance of Christ : l
nor would the Church of England, which had
thrown off the yoke of Rome, bow to the decision
of a foreign synod, like that of Dort, or admit that
the House of Commons could decide matters of
doctrine.
It was a daring act, for it at once brought down
upon these bishops the wrath of the majority in the
Commons ; but Laud's convictions were too strong
to fear the danger. " I could easily," he says,
" have been as gracious with the people as any,
even the worst, of my predecessors. But I have
ever held it the lowest depth of baseness to
frame religion to serve turns, and to be carried
about with every wind of vain doctrine, to serve
and please other men's fancies, and not a man's
own either understanding or conscience."
1 Cf. Spelman's Works, i. 141. "The bishops ought to ex-
clude the temporal Lords," much more the Commons, "when it
cometh to the decision of a question in theology ".
' 2 Trials and Troubles, p. 161.
70 I- 1 IK AND T1MKS 01- WILLIAM LAUD. en. iv
The appearance of the plague adjourned the
Parliament for the moment ; but meeting soon
after at Oxford they proceeded to attack Bucking-
ham and were dissolved on the I2th of August.
From Oxford Laud set out for his diocese.
Sunday by Sunday, during the three months of
his stay, he preached in the principal parish
churches ; he consecrated the chapel he had
built for his own house at Abergwilly, and rejected
as unfit the solitary candidate who came forwarcT
for ordination. In November he returned to
London, preaching in important centres on the
road, for he was zealous for the spread of religion,
and could not be accused either of want of earnest-
ness in duty or of indifference to preaching. In
both these points he took Bishop Andrewes as
his model. The two bishops were accustomed to
attend prayers together before consulting on the
needs of the Church. 1
At the coronation, appointed for 2nd February,.
1626, Laud was directed to act as Dean of West-
minster. By his desire, in order to secure perfect
reverence, the king rehearsed in the abbey his
part of the ritual two days beforehand ; and the
magnificent ceremony was carried through without
a touch of disorder. The king wore white, 2 the
colour of holiness and humility, instead of purple.
A huge crowd filled the abbey and its approaches.
All were impressed with the dignity and the de-
1 Diary, loth April. i(>2=>. - Heylin, p. 138.
i626. SECOND PARLIAMENT OF CHARLES. ;i
vout character of the service. Every detail of
the ceremony was well seen by the congregation.
It is characteristic of the vice-dean that this gave
him the most intense satisfaction. 1 The Ruler of
the world had been served with decency and
order.
Laud was again appointed to preach at the
opening of the second Parliament of Charles on the
6th of February, 1626. The sermon ~ was a bold
and eloquent attempt to persuade members to
avoid the two rocks on which the friendly relation
between king and Commons had previously
been wrecked. Acknowledging the weakness of
the Church, the representative of the spiritual
power, and the growing strength of the Commons
who represented the secular power, he appealed to
them to leave the Church her independence in the
day of her weakness, and not to claim the right of
dictating doctrine. Then he went on to explain
that the authority held by the king was of Divine
origin, and thus " the foundation of his people and
of all the justice that must preserve them in unity
and in happiness ". Therefore they ought not to
treat the king's personally chosen ministers as
enemies. The appeal was passed over by the
new House, nor was this surprising; for the
Government was now becoming embroiled with
France as well as with Germany. Buckingham's
administration had not been successful ; and
1 See Diary, 2nd February, 1626. - IVorks, vol. i.
72 LIFE AND TIMLS OF WILLIAM LAUD. en. iv.
renewed attacks upon him, culminating at last
in impeachment, brought the Parliament to an
unsuccessful close in June of the same year.
The king was resolved not to abandon his
servants, 1 and he had been brought up to look
on Buckingham as a brother.
On the 2Oth of June Laud was appointed Bishop
of Bath and Wells. 2 He now shared much of
Buckingham's unpopularity. He was known as
his intimate friend, as the chief counsellor of the
Government in religious matters, and as the
prominent opponent of Puritanism. Taxes were
being illegally collected ; soldiers billeted in
towns and villages filled England with disorder.
People were saying it was better to be oppressed
by a foreign enemy than to be undone at home.
The King of Denmark and the Palatinate were
far away and aroused little interest. Even the
Protestants of Rochelle were not dear enough to
the English mind for any great self-sacrifice.
The Puritans would rather see the Papists perse-
cuted and executed at home and let the Huguenots
perish in France. Buckingham was a mere child
in the hands of Richelieu, who had now mack-
himself the all-powerful minister in France ; and
the French Court knew how to play upon the
feelings of the Opposition in England, finding in
the Jesuits ready agents for stirring up hatred
against the Anglican bishops, and being thus able
1 Parliamentary History, vi. 430. - Diary.
1626-7. BISHOPRIC OF LONDON. 73
to keep open the breach between king and Com-
mons. Bitter libels written against him at this time
affected Laud's nerves ; one night he dreamt that
he was being overthrown at Court ; another night
that he was reconciled to Rome in spite of earnest
protests. 1 On foreign politics, on the direction of
the war, on ordinary secular administration he had
no influence : the burden of other men's mis-
takes weighed heavily upon him.
Meanwhile in the affairs of the Church his in-
fluence had become supreme. The succession to
Canterbury had been already promised to him, 2 '
and he was appointed Bishopof London on the 1 7th
of June, 1627, and named one of the commissioners
who should administer the affairs of the Church
during the sequestration of Archbishop Abbot/ 1
This sequestration was a high-handed act of the
royal authority, which declared the archbishop in-
capable of properly performing his duties. Abbot's
health had been shaken, his influence had been
destroyed by his manslaughter of Lord Zouch's
keeper. He had thrown down the reins and let
Puritans and High Churchmen run riot in the
Church. To some men this seemed well enough,
for it was a method by which the Church could
include all. To Laud it was intolerable. In one
parish there was a solemn ritual, beautiful music, 4
1 Diary, i4th Jan., 1627, 8th March, 1627.
- Ibid., 2nd October, 1626. 3 Ibid., October, 1627.
4 See Burney's History of Music for attention paid to church
74 UF1-; AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. rv_
and earnest preaching on the moral and spiritual
duties of the people ; so simple that the people often
thought the preachers were men of slight learning :
" Our parson," said the people of Childrey to a
wanderingOxonian." is one Master Pococke,aplain,
honest man, but, master, he is no Latiner". 1 In the
next parish some ill-paid and ill-educated curate
droned through the prayers while the congregation
were assembling : then the rector entered from the
vestry in his Geneva cloak ; with hot and fiery
eloquence he defended the high Calvinism of the
Synod of Dort, dilated on " God's absolute de-
crees," 2 and comforted his followers with the con-
viction that their salvation was indefeasible, however
ill their neighbours might fare. 8 In such churches
the communion table was so ill guarded that on one
occasion while the congregation sat wrapt in atten-
tion to the preacher's eloquence, a dog stole in
and carried off the loaf set ready for the Holy
Supper. The story spread like wildfire, to the
horror of pious Churchmen.
Sadder by far was the utter disorganisation of
the clergy which Abbot's long neglect had allowed
to come about. Sir B. Rudyard in his place in
music, publication of metrical psalms, etc., at this time (iii., 356-
387).
1 Twells' Life of Pocockc, the great Eastern scholar, p. 95.
1J Mrs. Hutchinson, p. 100. Life of a Fifth Monarchy Man, by
Rogers, gives a graphic description by a listener.
.xter's Autobiography complains bitterly that the Puritaa
trachers spoke little nf the love ot (iocl.
1627. CONDITION OF T1IK CHURCH. 75
Parliament complains : k< There are some places in
England where God is little better known than
among the Indians". 1 Round Baxter's home 2 in
Shropshire few of the clergy could preach ; many
of them were addicted to drink, some officiated
with forged orders, several had been ordained
because they were fit for nothing else.
Nor was the work of the Church being
properly discharged abroad. The efforts to
Christianise the Indians in Virginia had been
thwarted by the jealousy of the Puritans, 3 in
spite of the efforts of Ferrar, and the eloquent
hopes which Donne had expressed from the
pulpit of St. Paul's that England would be the
means of the world's conversion. All these
troubles were attributed to Abbot's supineness
and ignorance of parochial duties.
Now under the commission of bishops there
was a still more general removal of the communion
table to the chancel, where it was covered with
rich cloths and guarded by a rail. 4 The reins of
discipline were drawn tighter. Devotional books,
which to many men savoured of Popery, were
prepared and issued, and were much used by the
ever-increasing number who found no near com-
munion with God in the Calvinistic preaching,
but longed for prayer and quiet meditation. 5
1 Parl Hist., viii. 164. 2 Baxter's Autobiography, p. 54.
3 See in Ferrar's Life the fatal influence of the Puritan Earl of
Warwick upon the Virginian Company.
4 Heylin, 162. "' Ibid., Kx|.
76 I. IFF AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. iv.
To soothe the political excitement and give
people's thoughts a fresh direction, instructions
were issued to preachers to point out the terrible
perils which threatened the reformed religion
abroad, and to appeal for help in raising a loan
which should support an army in Germany under
the King of Denmark, and should equip a fleet
to succour the Huguenots in Rochelle. But these
efforts were of no avail. The arrogance and
extravagance of Buckingham had alienated the
people. They could think of little but their own
grievances. Farmers whose goods were plundered ;
peasants whose wives and daughters were not
safe from bands of undisciplined soldiers newly
pressed into the service ; country gentlemen who
\vere smarting from letters under the privy seal
demanding a large loan to the king ; merchants
who were compelled to pay customs' dues without
authority of Parliament, and then found no pro-
tection for their commerce at sea, 1 cared little for
an unfortunate King of Denmark or a landless
elector palatine, or for Duke Soubise and Mayor
< i niton, whose hot-headed rashness had driven
Rochelle into unnecessary revolt.
A Parliament must meet once more, or
England would be bankrupt. And how would
1 See on these points Wentworth's speech, Parliamentary His-
tory, vii. 369, and speeches of Phelips and Seymour, 364, 362, and
Rushworth, i. 449. Cf. the petition of the women, whose husbands
had been imprisoned in Sallee tor years, to the kinj; (State
vol. 306, No. 85 ; cf. 316, No. 52).
1628. THIRD PARLIAMENT OF CHARLES. 77
Parliament act? It was opened on the i;th of
March, 1628, with a sermon from Laud. Taking
for his text Ephesians iv. 3, 1 " Endeavouring to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace,"
he preached on the need of political and religious
unity. "Unity a thing so good that it is never
broken but by the worst of men. Nay, so good
it is that the very worst men pretend best when
they break it. It is so in the Church ; never
heretic yet rent her bowels, but he pretended that
he raked them for truth. It is so in the State;
seldom any unquiet spirit divides her union, but
he pretends some great abuses which his integrity
would remedy." " Now the breakers of the bond
of peace, both in Church and Commonwealth, are
pride and disobedience ; for these two cry one to
another, that is pride and disobedience: 'Come, let
us break the bond'." The exhortation was taken
to heart and the early days of this Parliament
were the most hopeful of the reign. Sir Thomas
Wentworth took the lead in the Commons. 2 His
directness of purpose, moving eloquence and bold
hatred of misgovernment produced the Petition of
Right, in which the old liberties of the subject
were vindicated from arbitrary imprisonment,
from quartering of soldiery, and from illegal taxa-
tion. It was the one session of Parliament in the
reign of King Charles in which any attention was
1 Laud's Works, vol. i., Anglo-Catholic Library.
2 Parliamentary History, viii. 97, 107, 120, 163, etc.
;S Lin-! AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. IV.
given to the condition of the poor, or any laws
framed for their advantage. 1
But the House of Commons would not be
content. It was far more interesting and excit-
ing to enter upon political strife than to devise
methods for the slow progress of the people.
After a few weeks Wentworth lost control of
them. Once more they attacked Buckingham.
Once more they proposed to decide a doctrinal
standard for the Church of England, and accused
the two most prominent bishops, Laud of London
and Neile of Winchester, of making innovations
in religion. 2 Doctrine and the affairs of the Church
the kinof was convinced were, alike by the law of
o J
the land and the law of Christ, outside their control.
On this point he would not yield an inch, though
he allowed Laud to defend his action before the
House of Lords, who absolved him of the accusa-
tions brought against him. As for the proposed
impeachment of Buckingham, Charles claimed
most unwisely that his favourite must always be
above attack ; nor would he sacrifice the meanest
of his servants without proof sufficient to satisfy
himself that they had disobeyed his orders. With
singular want of tact he had promoted and would
1 Helen, Stutc oj the Poor, i. 155.
- These chiefly rested on their supposed support of Dr. Man-
waring, who had preached some very unwise sermons. It was
proved by peers present at the time that Laud had advised the kinj;
to prevent their publication (Parliamentary History, viii. 213).
1628. MURDER OF BUCKINGHAM. -9
continue to promote the ecclesiastics 1 whom the
Commons condemned. Once more king and
Commons were drifting hopelessly apart, and
Parliament had been prorogued for a time, when on
the 23rd of August Buckingham was assassinated
by Felton at Portsmouth. It was a blow which the
king never forgot or forgave to those orators of
the Commons whose furious eloquence had in-
spired Felton's act. 2 And it was a bitter personal
grief to the Bishop of London. But his influence
was not shaken. It was enormously increased.
The king now turned naturally to the guidance 55 of
the man who had always set before him the high
ideal of a Christian Government for the good of
his people, and who had enforced upon him that
he was anointed by God Himself to administer
justice, and succour the poor, and make his
nation great. With Weston at the Treasury,
and Wentworth, just created Lord Wentworth,
President of the North and privy councillor, he
would have henceforth to carry on the govern-
ment of the country. How would the new
ministers fare ? Could they fill the empty
Treasury ? Could they restore order in disturbed
England ? Could they re-assert the mastery of
the seas and protect the injured commerce of
England ? Could they save Rochelle, or patch
Montague and Manwaring especially.
Parliamentary History, viii. 244 ; Baker's Chronicle, 442.
Diary, -zjth August, 1628.
80 I. IKK AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. iv fc
up some peace with France ? Above all, could
they calm an infuriated Parliament ; discover a
modus vivendi between the king and Commons ;
fix the boundaries between the spiritual and the
temporal; establish some new and satisfactory
principle for the relations of the executive and
the legislative ?
It was an appalling task. Laud's affectionate
nature was shattered into ill-health T by the death
of his brilliant friend, whom he had nursed in
illness, and known 2 how to calm in passion, and
whom he had guided from a life of licence to
some yearning for religion. He was unfamiliar
with the State business. He was not well
acquainted with the capacities of his colleagues.
His was the greatest influence in the council, yet
he had no control over the other heads of depart-
ments. It was hardly conceivable that the first
encounter between Parliament and untried min-
isters, unpopular from previous associations and
ill served in the Commons by badly chosen
subordinates, could have any but ill success.
Neither party could be blamed for failure under
such unfavourable conditions. But if, for the
third time in four years, king and Parliament
parted in anger, would the king consider Parlia-
mentary government possible? Would Parliament
ever again be able to repose confidence in the king
and the king's ministers?
1 Diary and Works, vi. 257 (letter to Vossius .
. Diary, i8th May, 1624.
CHAPTER V.
ATTEMPTS TO RECONCILE KING AND PARLIAMENT,
1628-1629.
Laud and his Fellow -ministers Concessions Despised by
the Commons The Commons' Resolutions Dissolution
Laud's Regret His Refusal to adopt Tyrannical
Measures.
THE new Government had a difficult task before
it. Engaged by the king's promises in a hopeless
duty, the deliverance of Rochelle, which was now
held locked in the grip of Richelieu, it could but
send out to certain failure the fleet which lay
at Portsmouth. The peace with France 1 which
followed was necessary and prudent, but could
bring no reputation to those who negotiated it.
At home ministers would be compelled in a
few months to face an estranged House of Com-
mons, with an empty Treasury. They were per-
sonally unpopular with that House, having all,
with the exception of Wentworth, owed their
offices to the friendship and patronage of Buck-
ingham ; and Wentworth the country party
detested as an "apostate".
1 It was not actually published till loth May, 1629 (Rushworth,
ii. 23, 25).
(Si) 6
Sj I. IKK. AM) TI.MKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
\Yas it possible to prove to the Opposition,
without insulting the memory of the kind's dearest
friend, that there was a true desire in the Executive
to work harmoniously with them ? At least it must
be tried. The Earl of Arundel, the most repre-
sentative and the proudest of the great peers, an
attack upon whom had irritated the House of
Lords, was reconciled to the king and called to
the Council Board. Cottington was appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Dorchester
Secretary of State ; both these appointments
might prove popular, as both men had recently
opposed Buckingham.
The resistance to the payment of tonnage
and poundage, which was now justified by some
merchants under the shelter of the Petition of
Right, was very tenderly handled, and the council
refused to proceed to extremities against the recal-
citrants, awaiting a settlement of the question in
Parliament. Weston, the new Lord Treasurer,
was a cautious and prudent minister, averse to
war, and economical in his management. It was
openly announced that the king was willing to
admit that his right to tonnage and poundage
rested upon the grant of Parliament. The abuses
in the quartering of soldiers were checked with a
firm hand ; and no opportunity was given for
accusing the Government of violations of the
personal liberty of the subject which had been so
definitely vindicated in the Petition of Right.
*a8. RELIGIOUS CONCILIATION. 83
The religious question was more difficult to
handle. Montague, so angrily condemned in the
last session, had been appointed Bishop of Chi-
chester ; Abbot and Laud were engaged in his
consecration when they received the news of
Buckingham's death. Montague's elevation to
the bench of bishops was sure to give offence.
But his book Appello Cczsarem. the cause of his
-condemnation, was called in by authority, on the
ground that it was calculated to disturb the peace
of the Church ; so were Dr. Manwaring's sermons
upon the king's prerogative. 1 A staunch Calvinist,
Dr. Potter, formerly tutor to the king, was chosen
for the vacant Bishopric of Carlisle. 2 This was
done that it might be impossible to say that divines
tainted with Arminianism were the only men who
obtained promotion. Archbishop Abbot, who was
even suspected of secretly plotting with the Puritan
leaders, was recalled to Court, graciously received
by the king, and commanded to attend the council
regularly. 2 The leading bishops assured him
publicly that they repudiated the tenets of Ar-
minius, 3 whose name indeed had been brought into
the debates with very insufficient knowledge. At
the same time some laws against the Romanists
were put in force ; a proclamation was issued
1 Parliamentary History, viii. 243, and Rushworth, ii. 43.
3 Baker's Chronicle, 443 ; Life and Works of Charles I.
3 Armmius was a Dutch professor who taught very emphatic-l
the freedom of the human will, etc.
84 LIFK AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
against the Jesuits ; and another for the seizure
of the Titular Bishop of Chalcedon, who was exer-
cising episcopal functions in the Pope's name in
England.
It was hoped that a reissue of the king's
instructions on preaching, which prohibited the
open discussion of burning questions of doctrine,
would calm men's minds before Parliament met in
January, 1629. In fact the king and his ministers
were prepared for wider toleration than had yet ex-
isted in England, and at the same time were most
anxious to meet the Commons half way. They
would repress Popery so far as it was possible
without bloodshed. They would give Puritans
and Calvinists a share in the control of the
Church, so long as they observed the Anglican
discipline and did not refuse to live in peace with
divines of broader views. Actions, not opinions,
were to be controlled by law. The king and the
bishop alike refused to go farther, and they would
not execute Roman priests, nor imprison men who
did not acknowledge the Divine inspiration of
the Dutch Synod of Dort. 1
Laud had established relations with several
members of the House in the previous session ;
he had obtained the king's consent to a new Act
for the observance of Sunday : 2 he had succeeded
in getting an Act for the re-establishment of
c Laud's Epistle Dedicatory of Book against Fisher.
2 Parliamentary History, viii. 243.
i6 2 g. TEMPER OF THE OPPOSITION. 85
Sutton's Hospital at the Charterhouse passed
through both Houses : l he had further persuaded
Sir Benjamin Rudyard, one of the most temperate
and capable members, to introduce a bill for the
better endowment of some of the miserably pro-
vided livings in England, a matter which he always
had greatly at heart. 2 But there still remained an
atmosphere of suspicion, the natural consequence
of the daring and uncertain policy of Bucking-
ham. Laud and Weston had been his followers ;
the king had been his friend. The Commons
would only trust a ministry selected by them-
selves ; and would only feel confidence when they
had inaugurated a policy of persecution against all
who did not agree with them. 3
This temper was shown immediately Parlia-
ment met. Selden, the greatest lawyer in the
House, declared that the Petition of Right had
been infringed by the punishment of Savage
in the Star Chamber. This Savage had acknow-
ledged himself an accomplice in the assassination
1 Cf. Parliamentary History, viii. 243, with Works, vi. 1-4.
- Cf. Sir B. Rudyard's speech, Parliamentary History, viii.
165, and Diary. i2th April, 1626, and Things Which I have Projected,
x. Rudyard's speech is not reported by Rushworth, who is not
always trustworthy in relating matters to the credit of the
Royalists.
3 See the refusal to give a copy of charges (made against him
in the House) to a Roman priest. He had to get them through
a Puritan acquaintance (Parliamentary History, viii. 292). Pere
d'Orleans bitterly asserts (viii. 231) that persecution of Roman-
ists was the only sure means of popularity with the Commons.
LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
of Buckingham, and, according to the brutal
practice of the day, had been sentenced to have
his ears cropped. The impetuous Phel ps claimed
privilege of Parliament for a merchant member
whose goods had been seized an extension of
privilege which was certainly most unusual. The
Government vainly asked the Commons to settle
down to the discussion of supply, promising to
remedy any breach of the Petition of Right, and
to redress all grievances. Sir John Eliot once
more gained the leadership of the Opposition,
and led the House in an eager attack upon the
levying of tonnage and poundage ; on the respite
from execution granted to Romish priests; 1 and on
the innovations, as he styled them, in religion.
Unhappily for England, Eliot was an idealist,
little versed in the business or the practical re-
quirements of the time. In the complications of
foreign affairs he took scanty interest. 2 In
religion he posed as the strictest of Calvinists,
and as the stern persecutor of every opinion
which his party pronounced unorthodox. 3 The
1 He complained fiercely that a priest condemned under the
sanguinary laws of Elizabeth had not been executed (Parlia-
mentary History, viii. 304; cf. 302, 305, 325).
' He had never understood that France was now decidedly
more powerful than Spain (speech in Parliamentary History, viii.
158). For the enfeebled state of Spain as compared with France,
see Hist. den. li'Itspuxnc, vol. viii., and Howell's Letters. Some of
the Puritans realised the danger later. Cf. Ludlow's strictures on
Cromwell's policy, in strengthening France, which he inherited
from Eliot (ii. 559).
3 Yet his religious works published in prison were so broad
1629. SIR JOHN ELIOT. 8/
difficulties of carrying on Government without
money to supply fleet or army, or even to provide
pay for the judges and the other officials, with a
heavy load of debt incurred in wars which had
been undertaken at the wish of the Commons all
these were nothing to him. Passionately earnest,
magnificently though somewhat bombastically l
eloquent, knowing how to stir the feelings of the
House, perfectly careless of danger to himself
and free from self-seeking, filled by study with
a conviction that the Commons had lost many
powers which they had once wielded, Eliot was
the least fitted of leaders to save England from
civil war. Even his friend John Pym, the future
leader of the Long Parliament, shrank from his
extreme measures. But he carried all before him.
At his instigation the House formed itself into
a committee of religion. The king's instructions
to preachers were severely handled. He would
hinder, some members declared bitterly, the
preaching of the Gospel. "Oh, Mr. Chairman,"
said Eliot in speaking of Montague's mild Armin-
ianism, " this breaks the hearts of all, for if God be
God let us follow Him, and if Baal be God let
us follow him, and no longer halt between two
opinions." 2 How could they exist if they might not
in their views that we must believe he was carried away by the
impulse of the hour.
1 See speeches in Parliamentary History, e.g.,vin. 311.
2 Parl. Hist., viii. 296.
88 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
hear Sunday by Sunday that they, the chosen few,
were to be saved, while the preacher fulminated
forth terrible denunciations on the fate which
awaited their ecclesiastical opponents, garnished
with many pointed allusions to Midian and to
Moab ? No doubt such fanatical Puritans were
but a small minority in the Commons, as they
were certainly a small minority of the great and
serious party which is usually described as Puri-
tan. The important point was that for the
moment their influence was supreme. The
numerous supporters of the Court were too
timid for open resistance ; they never attempted
to take a division which would have shown the
existence of differences among the members ; and
the religious fanatics swept along the whole
House in their wake, for all leading politicians
in the Opposition felt it to be their interest to
support them. It was resolved that " we the
Commons now in Parliament assembled do claim,
profess and avow for truth the sense of the Articles
of Religion which were established in Parliament
in the reign of our late Queen Elizabeth, which
by public act of the Church of England, and by
the general and concurrent exposition of tin-
writers of our Church, have been delivered to
us, and we do reject the sense of the Jesuits and
Arminians". 1
The Commons were soon made conscious that
1 I\ir!i(ii>iintttry History, viii. 274.
ibjg. CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARMINIANISM. 89
their resolution was ridiculous. What precedent
could they quote for laying down the rule of faith
in England, so evidently the privilege of Convo-
cation ? What was the public Act of which they
spoke so loudly ? \Yho were the Arminians
against whom they fulminated ? The most pro-
minent High Church preachers always declared
that they cared nothing for the tenets of the Dutch
professor A rminius. The leaders of the Opposition
answered by putting forward as the tests of ortho-
doxy the Lambeth Articles composed in 1595 by
Archbishop Whitgift and a few friends, 1 the Irish
Articles, which certainly could not bind the
English Church, the acts of the Synod of Dort,
and books of Calvinistic professors at the univer-
sities. It was evident that they had got out of
their depth. It was evident also that they were
setting up an intolerable tyranny in England. Tt
was certain that the Church would not submit to an
issembly of country gentlemen and lawyers, elected
ifter all only by groups of well-to-do citizens and
prosperous gentlemen and farmers, and in no
sense representative of that huge inanimate mass
of artisans and labourers, who would one day
Jairn a right to be heard.
Nor was the Puritan party in the House safe
from the charge of inconsistency. Rudyard said
sadly in committee: "I observe that we are
always very eager and fierce against Papistry,
1 Fuller, Church History, sub anno.
90 I.IFK AM) TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CM. v.
against scandalous ministers and against things
which are not in our power ; " but "an adversary
may say that we choose our religion because it is
the cheaper of the two, and that we would willingly
serve God with somewhat that costs us nought ".
" Scandalous livings cannot but have scandalous
ministers." u It will lie heavy upon Parliament,
until somewhat be effected." 1
But all this could not check Eliot ; he was
resolved once more to attack and imprison Mon-
tague, who should be declared no legal bishop.
Prebendary Cosin of Durham should be punished
for his ritual practices at Durham Cathedral, and
for his book of devotions so popular among the
members of the Court, which was now impugned
in the House as savouring of Romanism. Gossip
was quoted against Bishop Neile of Winchester,
that he had forbidden his canons to preach against
the Pope ; and Oliver Cromwell had an old story
from 1617 of some anti-Puritan sayings of this
Popishly-inclined prelate. 2 One of the canons of
Winchester so a member had hc'.ard used to
cross two napkins on his dinner-table and then
humbly do reverence to the cross. Evidently he
was an emissary of the Pope.' Hotter and hotter
grew the debate. Romish priests, it appeared,
had actually been protected by the judges against
1 Parliamentary History, viii.
- Ihiii., .S(j, 293.
:i
Nicholas, Notes, quoted by S. K. Gardiner.
1629. DEBATES IN THE COMMONS. 91
witnesses who swore that ''common rumour"
pointed them out as having celebrated mass in
England.
What clearer evidence could be needed that
the ministers were bringing England back under
the Roman yoke ? They would impeach Weston,
the Lord Treasurer, whom Eliot described as an
oppressor of the deepest dye, ransacking history
to find tyrants ferocious enough to compare with
this cold, accomplished English gentleman, whose
prime ambition was to make himself a competent
fortune. All the ministers, all the officials should
be swept away. In vain the Speaker declared that
the king had ordered him to adjourn the House.
He was held down in the chair by main force,
while resolutions were passed that :
" Whosoever shall bring in innovation in re-
ligion, or by favour seek to extend or introduce
Popery or Arminianism, or other opinions disagree-
ing from the true and orthodox Church, shall be
reputed a capital enemy to this kingdom and
commonwealth ".
" Whosoever shall counsel or advise the taking
and levying of the subsidies of tonnage and pound-
age, not being granted by Parliament, or shall be
an actor or an instrument therein, shall be likewise
reputed an innovator in the government, and a
capital enemy to this kingdom and common-
wealth."
"If any merchant or other person what-
92 I. II T. AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
soever shall voluntarily yield or pay the said
subsidies of tonnage and poundage, not being
granted by Parliament, he shall be likewise re-
puted a betrayer of the liberty of England and an
enemy to the same." l
So it had come to this that any man who dis-
agreed with the religious opinions of a chance
majority of the House of Commons must expect
to pay the penalty with his life.
The intolerant resolutions were carried by accla-
mation ; the House declared itself adjourned ; and
the members poured out to proclaim what they had
done. The breach between king and Commons
was complete. Of necessity the Parliament was
dissolved. It seemed impossible that the two
powers could exist longer in the State. Eleven
years would pass before Parliament would meet
again. Laud notes in his Diary : " The Parlia-
ment, which was broken up this loth March,
laboured my ruin ; but God be ever blessed, for it
found nothing against me". No one was more
conscious than he how terrible was an impeach-
ment by the House of Commons, and that few
men, however complete their innocence, could
hope for acquittal. 2 He was glad that it was
gone and that a breathing space was left for work
1 Parliamentary History, viii. 332, and Baker's Chronicle, 443.
- The impeachment of Cranfiekl in 1624 was considered by
most calm observers to have been very unfairly managed (Parlia-
mentary Hisl<iry,\'i. 132 onwards: <;/'. Hmvell's Letters, etc.).
1629. LAUD'S OPINION OF THE COMMONS. 93
which seemed to him all-important. During the
next eleven years he was to exercise the chief
authority in England.
But before we proceed to describe the adminis-
tration of Laud, let us pause for an instant to con-
sider the accusation brought against him that he
was an enemy to liberty. His letters to the
famous foreign scholar Vossius, 1 to whom he often
poured out his heart, show his sincere sorrow at
the failure of the Government to come to terms
with this Parliament, in which he had tried so
hard to secure unity by every allowable conces-
sion. But to Laud there was an institution, the
interests of which towered above all other interests.
The Church of God had been commissioned to
save the world ; it held its authority direct from
the Lord Jesus Christ; 2 men's temporal needs
could not be weighed for a moment against the
spiritual. Herein lay his strength to influence the
future, but his weakness in winning his way
during his lifetime ; for a devout and scrupulous
Christian seldom becomes successful as a states-
man ; and an ecclesiastical leader too often forgets
in the apparent interest of the Church some impor-
tant principles of political progress.
Next to the Church Laud reverenced the
king. Reading literally the Biblical command to
"honour the king," he looked upon him as com-
1 Works, vi. 265, 278, 294, 300, etc.
2 Speeches against Leighton and Prynne, and Works, passim.
94 I.Il-T. AND TIMK.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
missioned from on high for the work of govern-
ment. 1 The king's solemn consecration by the
^/Church gave him the right to interfere in Church
affairs/ 2 He was its supreme governor on earth,
fbound, however, to rule by the advice of the
bishops and clergy, and having no right of himself
to declare doctrine. 3 But God had given no such
sacred office to the House of Commons. Here
Laud reaffirmed the Tudor theory, 4 that Parlia-
ment was a body intended to represent to the
king the needs and desires of the constituencies ;
and to bring before the king grievances caused by
the misconduct of provincial and central officials,
or by ill-framed or obsolete laws. He had tried to
effect a reconciliation between king and Commons
when he first came to be chief counsellor ; and
every action of his administration had been in-
tended to prove his sincerity. But the Commons
^had flung the king's professions of loyalty to the
constitution back in his face ; they had miscon-
1 It should be remembered that when statesmen spoke of the
king as "absolute," they meant only that he had no rival or
superior, such as pope or emperor. Cf. Sir T. Davys, Solicitor-
General, to the Irish Recusants, in Carte's Ormond, i. 39.
3 See note on page 10.
3 " That God hath entrusted into the hands of His priest "
(Speech for the Liturgy, p. 510, folio).
4 Cf. Works, vii. 631. Answer to the remonstrance of the
Commons drawn up by Laud for the king : " Let us see modera-
tion and the ancient Parliamentary ways and we shall love
nothing more than Parliaments ".
i62g. POSSIBLE COURSES OF POLICY. 95
strued all his acts j 1 they had set themselves up as
rulers of the Church contrary to the law of Christ ;
contrary to the law of the land they had tried to
wrest from the king the reins of civil government ;
and by claiming a right to interpret and administer
laws 2 had invaded also the province of the judges.
In this manner the Lower House had become
Dangerous for the moment to the liberties of
Church and people ; but Laud felt 3 it was desir-
able to restore the regular course of Parliaments so
soon as the confusion of ideas about its functions
had been properly cleared up. And this he might
have accomplished if he had obtained a free hand in
administering the Government, and if he had not
trusted too much to his own honesty of purpose,
forgetting that equally honest men were misjudg-
ing him day by day. 4
Several courses now lay open to Laud in order
to secure a majority in the House of Commons.
He might gain the leaders and make it their
interest to assist the Government. The sincerity
of the Opposition seemed doubtful both to him and
to the king ; and as three of the most prominent
1 There is no real proof that the king had tried to delude the
Commons in his first ill-expressed answer to the Petition of Right.
3 Parliamentary History, viii. 307.
5 Trials and Troubles, 172.
4 See the bitter feeling in Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, p. 129.
'Sir T. Roe writes of him in 1634 as " very just, incorrupt and above
all mistaked by the erring world ". Sir T. Roe was a political
opponent. Cf. the Jesuit historian, Pere d'Orleans, ix. 266 :
"' Laud was a zealous Protestant for his own sect ".
96 i.in-: AND TIMK.S OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v
members of it, Digges, Littleton and Noy, soon
accepted office, there was some cause for this
scepticism. Selden they were sure they could
gain at any time ; Coke's blind love of money would
make him an easy acquisition ; l even Eliot they
believed to be eager for office, but the ghost of the
murdered Buckingham forbade such an alliance.
If this course had been successfully adopted, there
was little question that the Commons, forsaken by
their leaders, would have voted for the king with a
facility equal to their former rugged distrust ; for
it was the practice of the Stuart Parliaments
never to come to a division if they could avoid it,
in order to present at all costs an appearance of
unity. 2 But underhand ways were impossible to
the open-minded probity of Laud.
Or the Government might have manipulated
the elections as Queen Elizabeth's ministers and
Queen Mary's had often done ; and Wentworth
was soon to show in turbulent Ireland how easily
a House of Commons could thus be managed. 3
Or they might have compelled submission by
executions and imprisonments ; there were striking
contemporary examples abroad ; Richelieu taught
his enemies to fear him by the execution of Mont-
1 See instance of Coke's rapaciousness, State Papers, vol. 28o r
No. 12.
2 See Parliamentary History.
3 Cf. Cromwell's management of elections, Ludlow, ii. 498,.
578, and especially 600-602 and 617 ; and for reigns of Edward Vi-
and Mary, Hcylin's Reformation.
1629. THE DUTY OF FORGIVENESS AND MERCY. 97
morency, 1 and the tragic fate of Calderon struck
terror into the opponents of Olivarez ; 2 but severe
punishments became rare under the ministry of
Laud, who prayed several times a day that he might
be enabled to forgive his enemies, and often inter-
ceded for the pardon of libellers. 3
These limitations to his action, set, as he be-
lieved, by the laws of God, caused him to risk failure.
He was thoroughly convinced that his life was in
constant danger from assassins ; and that his exe-
cution must follow the victory of his opponents. 4
But he had no fear of death if by dying he could
secure for the Church freedom of thought and
liberty to work out her constitution and her wor-
ship upon the primitive lines. And if it could so
happen that he should seal his principles with his
blood, it was certain that these would become a
part of the intellectual and spiritual inheritance of
the English race.
In his attempt to free the Church and make it
once more a power in England, now and again
passion blinded his eyes when he found himself
thwarted by an ignorant hatred of learning and
beauty ; and his indignation led him to sanction
some occasional acts of oppression which in his
better moments he sorrowfully reprobated. But
i Howell's Letters, i. 242.
' 2 Hist. Gen. d'Espagne, viii. 76.
3 State Papers' Calendar, 1629-31, p. 362.
4 Letters to Vossius and to Wentworth.
7
98 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. v.
none the less he consistently observed the evan-
gelical command which one of his own Oxford
disciples, Henry Vaughan, has so exquisitely
rendered :
Who with the sword doth others kill,
A sword shall his blood likewise spill ;
Here is the patience of the saints
And the true faith which never faints.
FURTHER AUTHORITIES.
The Strafford Letters ; Laud's Accounts of his Province to the King;
Ludlow's Memoirs ; Panzani's Memoirs, edited by Father
Berington, show us the dissensions among the Roman
Catholics and their efforts at Court.
CHAPTER VI.
PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT, 1629-1633.
Quiet in England Fatal Indifference to the Desire for
Popular Government Protection of the Poor Royal
Instructions for Better Government of the Church
The Feoffees The High Commission as a Court of
Morals Growing Devoutness.
THE passionate proceedings and unmeasured
violence of the Commons at the close of the last
session in 1629 had by no means commended
them to the good sense of the people ; * and
apparently the majority of the members were
heartily ashamed of the conduct of their more
noisy and ambitious colleagues. On the whole it
was felt to be just that Sir John Eliot and other
leaders should be imprisoned for misdemeanour in
refusing to adjourn at the king's bidding, and in
holding down the Speaker forcibly in his chair.
When brought to trial a few months later they
were condemned by the courts and sentenced to
considerable fines.
Eliot evaded payment of the heavy sum im-
posed on him by a transfer of his property to
1 Autobiography of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, a strong Puritan
and member of the Long Parliament.
(101)
IO2 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
trustees, and died a few years later while still in
prison. To the others the king was willing
enough to show mercy. For Eliot, who had led
the assault upon Buckingham, and had, so he
always believed, been the indirect cause of the
assassination, he could feel no pity. A release,
which might have saved the great patriot's life,
was mercilessly refused.
With these proceedings Laud had little to do ;
nor did he exercise any commanding influence
over foreign politics. The king, having no
resources for war abroad, was compelled to look
on while the battle was fought out in Germany
between Romanist and Protestant. He could
only assist the reformed princes with occasional
small grants of money, with the sympathy of him-
self and the nation, and by permitting the enlist-
ment of troops in his dominions. 1 Laud, who had
the most intense horror of war and bloodshed,
and who, even in such a cause as this, refused to
counsel armed interference, 2 did his utmost to
draw the Calvinists and Lutherans of Germany
into one Church, whose numbers might defy per-
secution : it was a great grief to him that this
attempt proved unsuccessful. The nation, in so
far as its voice was expressed in Parliament, had
shown no sincere desire for foreign war. Herself
i There were many English and Scotch regiments in the
army of Gustavus (State Fttpcrs, passim).
- Letters to Wentworth, passim.
1629-30. QUIET AFTER THE STORM. 103
at peace, England attracted to her shores an in-
creasing commerce, partly from her own colonies,
chiefly at the expense of the Low Countries ; and
London was fast becoming the greatest port of
the world. 1 Some of the merchants resisted the
payment of tonnage and poundage ; but their
opposition was gradually overcome because the
judges upheld the king's claim to these customs.
At the same time the law courts proved their
independence by checking any attempts to inter-
fere with the personal liberty of individuals, so
distinctly vindicated by the Petition of Right. 2 The
state of things was unsatisfactory, but not intoler-
able. Society gradually settled down, 3 and after a
time even John Pym accepted office under the
Crown as Lieutenant of the Ordnance; while Selden
wrote books in defence of the foreign policy of
the Government. 4 Charles and his ministers
indignantly disclaimed any projects of military
despotism, and their sincerity was self-evident
since the Court itself remained defenceless and
unguarded. There were no troops to repress a
rising against tyrannical acts ; and the incidents
of the early days of the Long Parliament were
soon to show how completely the royal authority
1 London at this time became the bank for Spanish payments
to the Netherlands (Continuation of Baker's Chronicle, 447, by
Edward Philips). Cf. Howell's Letters.
2 Rushworth, ii. 80. 3 State Papers, vol. 162, No. 18.
4 Wood's Athenae, ii. 36 and 181. Selden's Mare Clattsum
gained him the thanks of Laud and other privy councillors.
104 LIFF ' AX1) TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
was devoid offeree to resist even a well-organised
mnstration by the populace of London.
This want of military force is probably for-
gotten by those historians who speak of the eleven
years which followed as if they were a Reign of
Terror. Indeed, through these years there were
no political executions, and no executions for
religion. 1 The atrocious but familiar punishment
of the pillory, with its accompaniments of
Hogging and ear-clipping and nose-slitting, was
resorted to now and again ; 2 men were accustomed
to see these barbarities constantly employed as
deterrents against ordinary criminals ; but to
state that the name of each 'political sufferer is
still a household word is enough to prove those
sufferers few. Imprisonments which seldom 3 lasted
long, and fines which were constantly remitted,
were the more usual sentences of the courts.
Under the economical administration of
Weston, the firm hand of Wentworth, and the
decided and distinctly liberal policy of Laud,
which fostered trade and encouraged learning,
i The " Romish Recusant" in his Life of Laud (Kegan Paul,
1894) speaks of one priest executed in these years. He admits it
was contrary to the orders of the Government and gives no details
or references.
-The Parliament had used it against its own enemies (cf. Parlia-
Ilistory. vi. no) ; and did again, Carlyle's Cnnmct'll, ii. 487.
:; There were occasional cases of prolonged imprisonments,
at times it would seem because fanatical prisoners refused to be
released. See an extraordinary case, S. P., vol. 427, No. 107.
1629-30. IMPORTANCE OF MINORITIES. 105
the nation prospered, and rose to a height of
wealth and comfort which it had not previously
attained. But this gave men all the more desire
for a share in the Government, and an influence
upon the progress of the State.
And here lay the first error of the administra-
tion. Charles, Weston, Cottington, even Went-
worth and in some degree Laud, fancied the
people would be satisfied with material prosperity.
They forgot that while this absolutely contents
the majority of men, the world is ruled by small
minorities of the active and the restless, and that
if these are not repressed by force, or enlisted by
interest on the side of stability, difficulties are
certain to arise. But at present there seemed an
astonishing ease in carrying on the Government.
Weston found means to meet necessary expendi-
ture. Shortly the revival of an old law was to
provide the State with a powerful fleet and make
England mistress of the narrow seas.
Puritanism appeared to have been flung oft" like
a nightmare with the dispersion of the terrible ma-
jority in the Commons. , The mass of the people
welcomed the festivals and the sports, which the
Laudian bishops and clergy taught to be lawful on
Sundays, 1 after the community had duly discharged
its service to God. When Chief Justice Richard-
son tried to suppress these on the western circuit,
1 The Declaration of Sports was republished in 1632 (Baker's
Chronicle, 454).
106 l.IFK AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. VI.
he was summoned before the council, confronted
with the strongly expressed opinion of the Bishop
of Hath and Wells and his leading clergy, that
village festivals were a source of peace and har-
mony, where mirth seldom degenerated into de-
bauchery ; and, having been sternly scolded by
Laud for interfering outside his province as a judge,
departed weeping, " choked," as he said, "by a
pair of lawn sleeves ".
In every community the country gentry, des-
potic so far, found themselves confronted by the
clergyman who had the Star Chamber at his back. 1
This famous court, composed of judges and privy
councillors, was by statute commissioned to inter-
fere in all those cases where justice could not be
had at common law, and was designed to be the
protector of the weak and the ignorant. In aris-
tocratic Yorkshire, Wentworth, now Lord Presi-
dent of the North, compelled the haughtiest nobles
to obey the law courts, and respect the rights of
the poor, and his mode of action was being copied
by the Government throughout the country. For
it was one of Laud's strongest convictions that, as
all men are equal in the sight of God, so ought
1 See for the nobles' hatred of the Star Chamber Lord
Andover's speech in moving its abolition, March, 1641 (Parlia-
mentary History, ix. 189); for its support of the clergy, V. /'., vol.
325, No. i, etc. ; for its defence of the poor against the great, 6'. />.,
vol. 277, Nos. 45 to 48, and cf. 278, Nos. 26 and 27 and 325, No.
5 ; for oppressions by great men after its abolition, Lilly's Memoirs ;
for its action as a court of equity, its chief duty, .S. /'., vol. 3 13, No. 33.
1629-30. CARE OF THE POOR. IO/
they to be equal in the eye of the law. 1 The care
of the poor he considered to be the special duty
of the king, and during the bad harvests of 1629
and 1630 caused great pains to be taken to pre-
vent the indigent from suffering, by forbidding the
export of corn, and through instructions issued to
the justices and other officials. 2 He himself was
munificently generous at all times ; it was his cus-
tom in every parish and benefice which he held to
allot a large part of the income to the poor, and at
Lambeth in later years he was adored by his poorer
neighbours. 3 Certainly much required to be done
if all Englishmen were to share in the prosperity of
England. Therefore orders poured out from the
Privy Council under the inspiration of the Bishop of
London, sometimes unwise, constantly unsuccess-
ful, but always proving a distinct desire to render
the lives of the lowest class of Englishmen more
comfortable. Men might laugh at a command that
Friday should be observed as a fast day, but they
could not deny the importance of the object when
they were specifically asked to distribute the
1 Instructions to judges, Rushworth, ii. 80, 261, 294.
- See full reports from Norfolk justices in 1630. State Papers,
191, 44 and passim ; Rushworth, ii. 197 ; Strafford Letters, i. 459.
In 1631 a special commission to protect the poor was sent out,
Rushworth, ii. app. 82 and ii. 333, S. R. Gardiner, sub anno. For
the protection given to the poor and to charities by the Star
Chamber, cf. S. P., 6th February, 1635.
3 See also constant allusions in Diary to the weather as affect-
ing the poor, e.g., 2oth March, 1631, and ryth July, 1632.
108 I. IKK AM) TI.MKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH.VI.
money economised among the starving. Or the
builders might be annoyed at a set of directions,
the germ of our Building Acts, that no new
houses should be erected unless they were built
<>f solid materials and provided with larger
windows ; but evidently such a change must
benefit the health of the poorer classes. The
improvement of criminals w r as not forgotten, nor
the due training of children, nor the raising of
rates for the relief of the indigent under the
famous statute of Elizabeth ; and the officials were
specially commanded to watch over the proper
apprenticing of boys when their parents could
not afford them a good start in life. 1 Such ad-
ministrative improvements were evidently the
result of the years spent by the new chief
minister in country parsonages. And as he
knew the ignorance of the officers by whom
most of these changes would have to be carried
out, he obtained a proclamation from the king
ordering the nobles and gentry to leave London
for their own counties, and there to devote them-
selves to the guidance and protection of the poor
under the jealous supervision of the Star Chamber.
Regulations were also issued for the proper
payment of workmen in the employment of the
State,- and of the seamen who were pressed for the
1 Eden, State of the Poor, 1372, 156-164, and loni; reports of"
justices to the Privy Council in the State /\//vr.s.
:tc rn/>crs. vol. 280, No. 17.
1629-30. CHURCH AFFAIRS. 109
royal fleet, 1 while customs were remitted in bad
times on the necessaries of life, so that the poor
might be sufficiently supplied. 2 England was to
be governed with scrupulous economy, strict
justice and diligent attention to the rights and
comforts of all. But these plans of Laud and
Wentworth were often frustrated by the pleasure-
loving nature of the queen, by the irresolute
character of Charles and his expensive delight
in the artistic and beautiful, by the corrupt pro-
ceedings of several of the ministers, and by the
indifference or hostility of the local magnates.
Meanwhile Laud's special province was the ad-
ministration of the Church. Though he was not
yet archbishop, he was the king's most trusted
counsellor, and the king, by the advice of the
bishops, could compel Archbishop Abbot to
execute the law. And if the Bishop of London's
purpose could be accomplished, the Church would
once again be made so rich and so powerful as
to be able to hold its own in political affairs
against any attack which could be reasonably
anticipated, and to guide the destinies of the
nation.
Though Laud's Diary shows us his constant ill-
health in the years 1629 and 1630, during which he
was unnerved by the sudden loss of Buckingham,
no weakness could reduce him to inaction. In
1 State Papers, vol. 285, No. 40.
" Ibid., vol. 285, No. 39.
110 LIFi: AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
December, 1629, the king, at the request of the
Bishop of London, and the new Archbishop
Harsnet of York, issued to the archbishops a
series of instructions, 1 the object of which was to
temper and sharpen the weapon of Church influence
si > that religion might be fostered and the monarchy
find a powerful ally against the authority of the
nobility and gentry. Brought up among the
commercial classes, trained in the free society
of the university, and successful there by the
power of persuasion and the force of moral
influence, Laud was not ignorant that it would be
impossible to govern England unless he could
draw the people to his side ; and this he was
convinced could be done through the pulpit and
the press. But the powers of the Church could
not be effectively used until he had reformed the
bishops. The episcopal appointments had of late
been carefully made, men of strong character
being consecrated to the vacant sees, mostly dis-
tinguished for learning and piety, and trained as
parish priests to understand the difficulties of the
society with which they had to deal. Such experi-
ence was now felt to be essential in a bishop ; for
his want of acquaintance with parochial duties, which
left him ignorant of the people and of the poor,
was often alleged as a main cause of Archbishop
Abbot's failure, 2 and for the relaxation of moral
1 Heylin, 188, and Rushworth, ii. 7 and 30. Cf. State Papers,
v l- I53 No. 41. - Fuller, iii. 473.
1629-30. REFORMS IN "THE CHURCH. 1 I i
and devotional discipline under his administration.
The younger generation of parish clergy for the
most part were set upon improvements in public
worship, and opposed to the discussion of meta-
physical religion; and, as the prominent Calvinist
preachers preferred the independence of the lecturer
who had no cure of souls, it was difficult to find
even an occasional Calvinist for promotion to the
bench, in order to prove that no party would be
passed over, and that the new Government was
determined to practise a strict neutrality with
regard to doctrinal views. 1
But, in spite of what had been done, some of
the older and less devout bishops still looked upon
a bishopric as a worldly advancement, and were
constantly watching for a chance of a richer dio-
cese. The instructions were therefore first directed
to compel the bishops to reside in their diocesan
houses, in order that they might travel through
their dioceses, confirming, conferring with clergy
and laity, preaching, inspecting the condition of
fabrics, and enforcing the reverent observance of
public worship. 2 Laud, who had by no means been
absorbed in the diocese of St. David's, now gave
an example to his colleagues by himself preaching
at Paul's Cross on the anniversary of coronation
day. He also set his face most resolutely against
the evil practice of enriching relations by granting
beneficial leases, and of making a private fortune
i Appointments of Potter, Morton, etc., show this.
" Cf. State Papers, vol. 153, No. 40.
112 LIKi: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
from the revenues of the see; and did all he
could to control his colleagues into a like un-
selfish ness. 1
Hut if it was all-important that the bishops
should become leaders of opinion through the
exercise of personal influence, there was nothing
more disastrous to the progress of the Church than
the condition of the parish clergy. Baxter 2 and
others describe to us the disgraceful character of
large numbers of incumbents, ignorant, avaricious,
often immoral, who had been ordained during the
lax administration of Archbishop Abbot. In
future (such were the directions of the king at
Laud's suggestion) men must be carefully ex-
amined and tested before they were admitted into
holy orders, 3 and, so far as possible, the clergy
should enjoy a university training. A high
standard of self-sacrifice was expected of them ;
Laud was horrified on hearing of a debate at
Oxford as to whether or no the parish clergy
were compelled by their office to administer the
sacraments to those dying of the plague. 4
The independence of the clergy needed also to
be protected. The man who lived in the house
and sat at the board of some great country gentle-
man might enforce penance on an ignorant milk-
1 Works, vi. 389. State Papers, vol. 270, No. 6.
-Autobiography, p. 32, and Rudyard's speech, Parliamentary
ry, vi. 422. Cf. State Papers, passim.
3 Cf. State Papers, vol. 308, No. 39.
4 Cf. Ibid., vol. 174, No. 45.
TREATMENT OF PURITANISM. 113
maid who had been led astray, and might thunder
denunciation against an immoral plough-boy ; the
vices of the squire would go unreproved, and his
high-handed acts might even appear to be sheltered
by Church authority. Laud's own mistake in
earlier life showed him the dangers to which great
men's chaplains were exposed. If the clergy were
to be the champions of the poor, if they were to
be the upholders of the equal laws of God against
vice in high places and in low, the system by
which so many were engaged as chaplains of great
country houses must be repressed. In future no
one under the rank of nobleman was to be allowed
a resident chaplain. 1 ^^
Puritanism would need careful handling. In
many places it had been the custom for years to
disregard the rubrics. These were now to be
strictly enforced. Popular lecturers, paid by
Puritan congregations,- must read prayers in
a surplice and no longer sit by the vestry fire
till the moment was come to ascend the pulpit.
Even the congregation would have to attend
worship if they wished to hear the preaching.
Nor did the instructions forget the necessity
for simple teaching. Disputatious and dogmatic
sermons were leaving no place for the guid-
ance of the Gospel 3 in the duties of ordinary
iHeylin, 191.
-The lecturer could be dismissed at a fortnight's notice
-(Accounts of Province, 527). :: Hobbes' Behemoth.
1 14 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
life. The afternoon sermon was ordered to be
replaced in every church with catechising by
question and answer on the elements of faith and
practice. The Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the
Ten Commandments were once more to take
their old position as the foundation of Christian
instruction. The directions against preaching
controversially and handling the subjects which
divided Calvinist and Arminian were also to be
obeyed. On such dangerous themes, the pulpit
must observe a masterly silence.
f' It was natural that these instructions should be
carried out very irregularly. In many dioceses
the bishops still winked at disregard of the law ;
some bishops enforced them with exasperating
harshness, 1 while in the diocese of Canterbury they
remained a dead letter. It argues well for the
personal influence of Laud that in the diocese of
London there was very little opposition, and that
few clergy needed to be coerced even with censure.
It was the bishop's practice to send for contuma-
cious incumbents, and quietly persuade them to be
silent on the burning controversies. 2 Even Dr.
Gouge, the chief Puritan preacher in London,
acknowledged and appreciated his conciliatory
1 C/. Wren of Norwich later on; speeches against him in
Parliamentary History, ix., and May's Long Parliament, p. 82. May's
authority is greatly discredited by his application for a monopoly
from the Crown, which was refused, to his great indignation.
- Accounts of rrorina', 526.
1630. THE FEOFFEES. 115
treatment. 1 But with the rich citizens of London
Laud was less popular than with the clergy, since
he was determined to enforce the full payment of
the tithes which the great men of the city had
hoped to confiscate to their own use, after the
fashion of many of the country landlords. 2
Meanwhile Laud was dealing in another
direction a strong blow to secure the necessary
elasticity for the Church. 3 In 1626 a body of
clergy and laity had organised a fund for the
buying up of tithe impropriations 4 which had
fallen into the hands of laymen, and restoring
them to religious uses. But these men, called
the feoffees, being of the Puritan school, were
naturally anxious to retain the control of the
clergy whom they provided, and therefore kept
the funds and the appointments in their own
hands. There was a lecturer at St. Antholin's in
the city under this system, paid for by the tithes
of Presteign in Radnorshire, itself a parish very
ill provided with clergy : this lecture became a
great gathering place for those who disliked the
present conduct of Church affairs. 5 Similar
lectures were set up in important centres through
1 State Papers, igth October, 1631, Gouge's letter.
2 Cf. State Papers, vol. 291, No. 101.
3 Heylin, 198; Fuller, iii. 361.
4 Out of 9284 parishes in England, the tithes of 3845 had been
impropriated, chiefly by laymen, after the Reformation (Baker,
45 0-
3 Heylin.
Il6 LIFT. AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
the country. The clergy who held these lecture-
ships were paid servants of the feoffees, and
could only hold office so long as they preached
acceptable doctrine. The Court of Exchequer 1
decided that such a trust was illegal, and confis-
cated the impropriated tithes to the king's use ;
they were restored to the parishes to which they
had formerly belonged. Shortly afterwards, by
Laud's advice, Sibbes, the most eloquent preacher
and most spiritual writer among the feoffees, was
promoted by the Crown to the charge of Trinity
Church in Cambridge : a post in which he exer-
cised immense influence.
Such appointments made it evident that there
was no desire to crush independent thought and
teaching. 2 But if he could effect it, Laud was
determined to rescue patronage from bodies of
trustees, who by their very existence are intended
to hinder those modifications in teaching and
worship which the ever-changing condition of
society demands; and by his determined action he
secured liberty for the Church to advance with the
times. People who only saw the immediate advan-
tage of an increased income for the clergy, and had
no sight for the future, blamed him bitterly ; :: but
the wisdom of his course has been made plain by
irience
1 In if>j2. Cf. Heylin, 200, and Diary.
3 Warwick's Memoirs, 88.
* Garrard to Strafibrd ; Baker's Chronicle; Prynne's \Vorkx;
Hutchinson ; May's Long Parliament.
1630. Till-: HIGH COMMISSION. I I/
At the same time the rights of the clergy
against powerful laymen were vindicated by the
action of the High Commission Court, This
court had been instituted by Parliament 1 under
the Tudors to exercise the royal jurisdiction in
ecclesiastical matters, and was composed of bishops,
privy councillors, and lawyers. Before it, in these
years of Laud's supremacy, were brought cases of
flagrant immorality among that class which was
too great and powerful to be locally dealt with ;
and here, by royal authority, such punishments
were meted out to them as the inferior courts of
the bishops and archdeacons inflicted upon the
poor and humble. Among others Lady Purbeck
(who had forsaken her husband for Sir Robert
Howard) and her paramour were fined and im-
prisoned by the High Commission. 2
This was a cause of some indignation ; but
much more anger was felt some time later when a
severe sentence was passed against a distinguished
lawyer in this court. 3 Sherfield, Recorder of
Salisbury, one of the Opposition leaders in the
last Parliament, being annoyed by a window in
1 Pym admits this in his speeches in Parliament of 1628. Cf.
Parliamentary History.
- Cf. case of Lord Dudley in April, 1635 (State Papers), of Sir
Giles Alington (Baker, 450) ; and of Mr. South of Grantham (Laud's
Account of his Province in 1634 ; and State Papers, passim, e.g., vol.
312, No. 45, and vol. 424, No. 39).
' Laud's Works, vi. 13 ; Heylin, 215, and accusations against
Laud by the Commons.
MS Lin. AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
the Church of St. Edmond, Salisbury, which
represented God the Father, and to which he
thought some of the worshippers did reverence,
persuaded the vestry to order its removal. But
as the Puritan Davenant, then Bishop of Salis-
bury, in annoyance at such open disregard of his
.minority, forbade the vestry to proceed, Sheffield
shut himself into the church, and smashed with
his stick the offending window. He was sum-
moned before the High Commission, fined and
compelled to apologise publicly to the bishop.
Great men could no longer be a law unto them-
selves, and felt and said that England was losing
her freedom. Laud would hear more of his tyran-
nical oppression of Sherfield and of Sir Robert
Howard when the day of retribution dawned..
Such sentences as that on Sherfield might be
brought up with some fair excuse, when the pre-
dominant party had lost its ascendency, as proving
an unfair bias in this court against the Puritans.
But a study of the acts of the High Commission
shows us other causes for its unpopularity. Gentle-
men of ancient name and high repute in their
counties who were sentenced to stand in a white
sheet, and do public penance in their own parish
church for ugly acts of immorality, were not likely
to allow themselves or their friends to forget the
i n measure meted out to them by the Church,
when the opportunity of revenge was come. 1 E vil-
1 State Papers, vol. 324, fol. i and 10, and vol. 325, No. 53.
1630-36. THE CENSORSHIP OF MORALS. 119
doers of every kind who had been imprisoned or
fined ; l comfortable corporations who had been
scolded severely for providing a handsome ceme-
tery for themselves while they buried the poor in
some distant corner of the parish ; 2 husbands
obliged to pjovide alimony for their deserted
wives ; 3 simoniac patrons and clergy who had
been mercilessly reprimanded by the archbishop,
while they lost the fruits of their transactions ; 4
all these cherished a bitter feeling against the
coercion of the High Commission and fed their
animosity secretly ; until at last they began to feel
this well-founded and patriotic as they read in the
public prints the attacks upon the hated court
for prohibiting the circulation of libellous or
unorthodox books, 5 and dispersing conventicles
of Anabaptists. 6
The courts of High Commission and of Star
Chamber became unpopular in the country ; 7
1 State Papers, vol. 261, fol. 314 and 315.
-Ibid., vol. 324, fol. 16.
3 Ibid., vol. 261, fol. 312, 268 and passim.
4 Ibid., vol. 261, fol. 320.
5 Ibid., vol. 261, fol. 257 and 273.
(i Ibid., vol. 261, fol. 264, where the Puritan Dr. Gouge is being
supported in his efforts "to reclaim schismatics".
7 Contrast the usual account of these courts with the tables
given by Dr. S. R. Gardiner; from i8th February, 1634, to igth May,
1636, six clergymen were suspended for preaching against cere-
monies, etc., and five for crimes. A study of the records in the
State Papers shows how little of the business of the court had to
LI1-T. AM> TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vi.
they were specially obnoxious to the lawyers who
formed a large proportion of the House of Com-
mons ; and they were swept away without opposi-
tion in the early days of the Long Parliament.
Happily they were never revived, for they served
to confuse the functions of judge and minister,
because in them ministers were allowed to sit as
judges of their own administration ; and the Long
Parliament itself was to give the best proof, in its
many acts of tyranny, of the injustice which such
a confusion of the judicial and executive is sure
to cause. Yet thoughtful men regretted them as
filling a place else left vacant in the judicature of
I England, and it was some time before a further
development of the judicial system could discharge
their duties. A great judge spoke of the startling
growth of fraud and perjury in the law courts
since the abolition of the Star Chamber ; * and the
chroniclers indicate the ugly increase of immorality
and horrible sensual offences, as well as of bias-
do with the repression of Puritanism. Its work was chiefly for
morals, e.g., State Papers, vol. 147, No. 66. Cf. Clarendon's AV-
bellion, book iii.
The largest receipt in one year for fines in the Star Chamber
was 7375 m I 635, a startlingly small sum when compared with
the fines levied by the Long Parliament. The State Papers show
the general mildness of treatment.
Selden (Table Talk, quoted by "Romish Recusant" in Life of
') reminds his listeners that there were more laymen than
clergy in the High Commission.
1 Sir M. Hale, quoted by Sir P. Warwick, p. 175. The busi-
ness of the Star Chamber was mainly with private suits which
could not be decided in the ordinary courts.
1630-33- PURITAN IRRITATION.
>
phemy and practices of magic, 1 which was coin<
dent with the fall of the Hi;^h Commission Court.
Meanwhile, a spirit of outward devotion and
reverence was growing through England. In the
North especially, where the comparative ignorance
of the people made sermons without worship less
endurable, and where the simple peasantry wel-
comed the renewal of the old stately forms, the
revival of ritual was marked. This was particu-
larly irritating to Puritan travellers. Tracts spread
broad-cast in the South asserted that an ima^e of
o
our Saviour had been set up in Durham Cathedral
for worship. In vain did Cosin, the most influential
of the canons, laughingly point out that it was a part
of Bishop Hatfield's somewhat barbaric tomb which
a traveller's tale had magnified into an image of
the Saviour. Men believed the story ; that was
enough. Evidently the court was fast leading the
nation back to Rome. Was it not years since the
last Jesuit had been hung, drawn, and quartered?
Were not new churches being built in London,
and solemnly consecrated too, as if there were a
special holiness in such places?' 2 Were not the
communion tables being everywhere moved to the
east end and placed " altarwise " ? Was not St.
Paul's Cathedral, that ''rotten relique of Popery,"
being fast repaired and beautified at a cost which
1 Lilly, Memoirs. See in Rogers, A Fifth Monarchy Man, the
strange desire for magic and necromancy felt often by the Puritans.
2 Diary, i6th January, 1631.
[22 I.IH' AND TIMF.S OK WILLIAM LAUD. CTT. vi.
men said was mounting to ,100,000? Had not
Nicholas Ferrar at Little Gidcting founded a com-
munity for devotion and meditation which was
nrarly as bad as a Popish monastery ? Were not
pious men from time to time summoned before the
High Commission and forbidden to preach the
comfortable doctrine of strict predestination ? The
queen was a Papist : the king was a Papist at
heart ; soon a new legate would sail solemnly up
the Thames, as Pole had done seventy years
before, and the fires of Smithfield would be
relighted. l
J Prynne's Hidden Works of Darkness. Ludlow's Memoirs, i. 0.
State Papers, vol. 148, No. 66, and vol. 161, No. 39. The presence
of Panzani, who was commissioned by the Roman Court to come
to England at the end of 1634, seemed to support these accusations.
He was sent by Urban VIII. to settle the angry quarrels between
the seculars and regulars ; to arrange about the appointment of
a bishop in England, much opposed by the Jesuits, but greatly
desired by the laity, whose children were left unconfirmed ; and to
represent the Papal views to the queen. He also interposed in
the disputes about the legality of an oath of allegiance which
most lay Romanists were willing to take, and the refusal of which
exposed them to conviction for high treason ; but which was dis-
liked at Rome, since it acknowledged the rights of a Protestant
king ; see Berington's edition of Panzani's Memoirs.
CHAPTER VII.
ADMINISTRATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, 1631-1637
St. Paul's Cathedral Church Extension The Archbishop-
ric The Project of a Patriarchate and Opposition to
Puritanism The Eastern Counties Going too Fast
The Reform of the Treasury War with Corruption
England Mistress of the Seas Prosperity.
As Bishop of London, Laud had the best of
opportunities for showing to all England what
was his conception of Anglican worship and
Anglican teaching. The grandest of the cathe-
drals of England had been neglected for years.
St. Paul's, the mother Church of the richest city *
in the world, was perishing day by day because
there were no endowments for its repair. Such
a condition of things was insufferable to the man
who now took the lead as champion of light and
beauty, of art and learning. The sight of the
miserable little tenements which the greed and
carelessness of the chapter had allowed to grow
like hideous excrescences upon the walls of the
great building, and which not only hid its beauties,
1 In Charles I.'s reign London seems at last to have outstripped
her rivals, Amsterdam, Genoa and Venice. See Howell, who knew
each city well.
(123)
124 LI1 ' K AND TIMKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
but irritated the reverent and devotional feelings
with which pious men should approach one of the
most ^acred places in England; the turmoil of
buying and selling, of gossiping and news-telling,
which had converted the long, stately nave of
l.ishop Maurice into "Paul's Walk," a noisy
centre of business and dissipation ; the disused
and dilapidated choir, no fit home for the cele-
bration of the most solemn mysteries of Gocl,
filled the new Bishop of London with indignation
and impatience. The king was invited to the
city on a state visit. After service and sermon
he proceeded to inspect the cathedral. In his
train came many a student of architecture, many
a creative artist ; greatest of all that architect
whose severe and faultless method still draws our
sympathies away from the predominant Gothic,
Inigo Jones, English born and Italian bred, the
king's surveyor. 1
The inspection was decisive. Something
must be done, and that promptly. Lord Brooke
and the Puritan leaders might grumble out the
hope that all the cathedrals, so long the homes of
idolatry, would soon be demolished ; but their
vandalism found little favour even with the
puritanically disposed citizens of London, who
could not refuse affection to the church of their
ancestors. It was soon evident to Inigo Jones,
Rush worth, ii. 90-93, for the repair of St. Paul's ; State
A//Y; . vol. [88, Nos. 27 and 37.
1632. THE RESTORATION OF ST. PAUL'S. 1 25
to whom the work was committed, that more
than , 1 00,000, an immense sum in those days,
would be wanted to put the cathedral in order.
Then there would be internal fittings to secure
full dignity of worship ; and further, Laud, ever
attentive to a wise policy which should not
harshly offend those who could not agree with
him, stipulated for a great portico at the west
end ; in which the merchants might meet, and the
newsmongers might gossip, without making the
house of God a house of merchandise.
The Bishop of London, out of his already over-
burdened income, guaranteed ^100 a year, and
would give anything more that he could scrape
together. The work which his predecessors had
only talked over, he was determined to carry
through. By his widespread influence, citizens,
ministers, great nobles, clergy of more fortunate
cathedrals all over England, contributed liberally.
By the i6th of December, 1632, shortly after the
repair had been decided upon, between ^5000 and
^6000 had been paid into the Chamber of London.
The restoration was immediately commenced
at the choir, and so cordially was it taken up
by the nation that in 1641 considerably over
,100,000 had been collected. And this did not
include several magnificent private gifts. When
Inigo Jones brought to the king the plans which
he had prepared for the great western portico,
Charles declared it so beautiful a conception that,
I. IKK AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
lor thr honour of God, and the embellishment of
his capital, he would himself undertake the whole
cost, which amounted to nearly i \ ,000.* A friend
of the bishop. Sir Paul Pindar, expended ,10,000
n the decoration and fittings of the interior ;
other gi'ts followed, and the work was pushed on
so energetically that the cathedral was just ready
for the full i>'lory of worship when Laud fell.
Modern feeling is inclined to stand aghast at
the strange blending of the classic and the Gothic
which Inigo Jones had wrought, but it is noticeable
that there seemed nothing incongruous or in-
artistic about it to the great body of nobles,
scholars and artists who filled the Court of
Charles, and who delighted in the stately cere-
monial services celebrated with all the pomp of
vestment and procession and genuflection which
Bishop Laud now introduced into London. St.
Paul's was crowded with worshippers, and became
the centre of worship in England. The most
rarnrst and eloquent of English preachers might
be h<-anl there, or at the neighbouring Paul's
Cross, Sunday by Sunday. 2 In these sermons
disputation on hard school questions was the only
forbidden ground. The preachers were not ex-
ted to confine themselves to one set of then
logical opinions so long as they instructed their
hearers in the spiritual mysteries, and in the
moral duties. Many distinguished men became
1 Laud's letter to tin- loid mayor, vi. >fx). a Works, vii. 369,
1631-3- CHURCH RESTORATION AND EXTENSION. 127
famous at St. Paul's. It was here that Jeremy
Taylor's eloquence was first heard. 1 The beauti-
ful music, 2 the poetical hymns, :5 the solemn cele-
brations of holy communion, the all-pervading
air of reverence were gradually to train men, so
the bishop hoped, to a religion of the heart as
well as of the mind, a holy habit of intercourse
with God, a strong delight in duty.
While the restored St. Paul's was the most
famous monument of Laud's episcopate in
London, the restoration of other churches was not
forgotten, nor the building of new churches in grow-
ing suburbs. 4 These it was his custom solemnly
to consecrate 5 with a ceremonial, originated or
revived by Bishop Andrewes, which was bitterly
satirised by the Puritan pamphleteers. What
good was done, they scoffingly asked, by these
bowings and scrapings and mutterings ? Did he
imagine that God was only to be found in a spot
over which certain incantations had been used ?
And herein lay indeed one of the chief points
1 Bishop Heber's Life of Taylor. Laud's Works, vi. 437.
3 Burney's History of Music, iii. 356-387, for church music of
the time.
3 See " Hymns " in Howell's Letters ; George Wither's Hymns ;
Sandys' Paraphrases, etc.
4 Similar proceedings went forward in other dioceses. Arch-
bishop Neile reports that, in the diocese of York, 6500 was
expended during 1635 on the restoration of churches (State Papers,
vol. 312, No. 84).
5 Diary, 7th June, 1631, i7th July, 1632, 26th May, 1632.
V
JS LII-I-. AND TIMES OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. \ii.
of difference between the two schools of thought.
To the Puritan the church was a preaching house,
in which some w;>ll-trained speaker pressed upon
the listener's mind a conviction of sin, and the
means to gain the forgiveness of an angry God. 1
! ; <>r this purpose there was no need of beauty:
" I want the chapel cheap," said the Puritan Lord
Bedford, as he conferred with Inigo Jones on the
building of a new church for Covent Garden, "in
short, I would not have it much better than a
barn ". 2 The nobler side of their preference for
ugly churches is brought home to us by Milton :
"Tell me, ye priests, wherefore this gold, where-
fore these robes and surplices over the Gospel?
Is our religion guilty of the first trespass and hath
need of clothing to cover her nakedness? . . .
Ye think by these gaudy glisterings to stir up the
devotion of the rude multitude; ye think so be-
cause ye forsake the heavenly teachings of St.
Paul for the hellish sophistry of Papism. If the
multitude be rude the lips of the prcac/w must
give knowledge, and not ceremonies." But to
Laud the church was the hallowed spot in which
a poor weak human soul came into the presence
1 Prynne : s \\'<>rks. r/". Cromwell, letter i., and Carlyk's com-
ments; Rogers' 1-ifth Monarchy Man; and State rafters, vol. 207,
N<>. yo, where a Puritan preacher asserts that ''preaching is the
ordinary means ordained by (iod to salvation," and therefore
ity of two sermons every Sunday.
'-' Cunningham's Life, 35.
Church (iorernnit'iit, book ii. chap. ii.
1631-3. LAUD'S CONCEPTION OF WORSHIP. 129
of his Maker and his Father for prayer and
praise. His school dwelt on the importance of
having a fixed place for devotion where the train
of spiritual thought could quickly be resumed.
When the worshipper entered, he should bow
reverently to the holy table, collecting his thoughts
in prayer ; not because the Saviour was there
present in the consecrated elements (this was
a distinction from Romanism which Laud con-
tinually emphasised), 1 but because it was the table
of Christ, and symbolised the covenant of grace
which He had made with His people. And this
reverent feeling should be deepened by every
external aid ; by magnificent architecture, by
melodious music, by solemn ritual, by careful
decorum of demeanour, all valuable habits for as-
sisting the worshippers to realise that God Himself
was present. The sermon was to be subordinate.
No one took more pains about preaching, or was
more diligent in finding and promoting preachers
of talent, and most of the great preachers of the
Restoration were first brought forward by him ; but
he would have no one preach who would not pray.
It was a point of principle as much as of discipline
that the lecturers should lead the prayers of the
congregation whom they were about to instruct.
The bare sermon as the only worship of the day
was hateful to Laud. After communion in prayer,
teacher and taught could understand each other.
1 Cf. Book against Fisher, sect. xxxv.
9
l^o I. IFF. AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
This war, therefore, against the Puritan lec-
turers In- carried on by gentle means, but with
iron will. The Vicar of St. Botolph's without
Aldgate had agreed that his parishioners might
appoint a lecturer at their own charges to do half
his work, if they would first increase his vicarial
stipend by ^30 a year. Both parties were con-
siderably surprised to find that the bishop con-
sidered them in this comfortable arrangement to
be buying and selling the charge of souls. 1
On the whole the diocese of London settled
down comfortably enough. A few lecturers were
deprived for nonconformity, and paid out the
bishop for the inconveniences which they endured
by the savage libels which they published against
him. Laud's affectionate nature always suffered
from bitterly expressed dislike : he writhed under
the charges of hypocrisy, dishonesty, and even of
acts of immorality which they did not hesitate to
invent ; but he suffered in silence, for he felt he
was performing his duty to the Church and nation.
Occasionally he considered the libels too serious
to be left unanswered. Sometimes they could be
refuted by his acts, as when he publicly celebrated
the marriage of one of his chaplains in reply to
the accusation that he considered celibacy obliga-
tory on the clergy. 2 Sometimes his chaplains were
instructed to publish books on great questions of
1 Cf. State Papers, vol. 177, No. 34. - Heylin, 212.
1633. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 131
principle. 1 Once and again some specially malig-
nant charge against the Church, which he could
not treat as a mere personal accusation, induced
him, as in the case of Prynne and of the detestable
punishment inflicted on Leighton, 2 to permit trial
and sentence in the Star Chamber, unless the
offender chose to appeal to the more severe justice
of the King's Bench.
The Opposition grew more angry as the success
of the new ecclesiastical policy proved more con-
spicuous, and as Laud's power with king and
people increased.
On 6th August, 1633, he came to visit Charles
at Greenwich. " My Lord's Grace of Canter-
bury," said the king, " you are very welcome."
Abbot was dead, 3 and the long-expected primacy
was vacant. The last obstacle to the reform of
the Church of England had been removed (so both
Charles and Laud felt) by Providence : and their
1 Jeremy Taylor's Works, v., "Episcopacy Asserted"; Heylin,
etc.
2 Young Leighton, son of this savage libeller, was carefully
looked after by Laud ; he was afterwards the saintly Archbishop
of Glasgow. The king would have pardoned Leighton if he had
not broken out of prison. Leighton horrified people by applying
to himself the prophecies of the sufferings of Christ ; he called
the bishops " men of blood," and advised his readers to repeat
Felton's praiseworthy act (Rushworth, ii. 55). I can find no con-
temporary proof of Neale's assertion in his History of the Puritans
that " Laud took off his cap and thanked God for the sentence "
on Leighton ; which seems to be taken from Leighton's Epitome,
published many years later, quoted by Dr. Gardiner, i. 184.
3 See Carte's Ormond for the carelessness of the archbishop
in his latter years in the discharge of his duty, i. 5.
I ;j I. in-! AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
joy was probably shared by the majority of English-
men : cxnltat ccclesia* writes Sir Thomas Roe in
congratulating Laud. 1 For indeed all seemed to
be going well. England had never been more free
from disturbances. Trade had never been so
vigorous. London was becoming more and more
the chief emporium of the world's commerce." The
king had just been crowned in Scotland, and Laud,
after a personal visit to the chief towns and much
conversation with the chief people, had come to
the conclusion that a liturgy might safely be intro-
duced into that country.
The Church had welded England into one in
the old days ; her influence had made Wales a
part of England. Was it not possible that in the
Church life would be found the necessary force of
sympathy to combine the whole population of the
two islands into one nation, with one king, one form
of worship, one legal code, and since Laud and
Wentworth always looked forward to the full
revival of the Tudor Parliamentary system one
Parliament? Could the archbishop help adding in
his own heart that of this magnificent empire,
already extending over the world, he would be
first patriarch ; ; and, as men had said of old about
Anselm (it was a tale he loved to tell), Papa
alter ins orbis, Pope of a second, of an English
-, 2oth August, 1633.
8 Cf. Ranke's England, ii. 55.
*See the Pere d'Orleans, ix. 249.
1633. ATTEMPTS AT A PATRIARCHATE AND REUNION. 133
world ; but no tyrant Pope, rather the constitu-
tional leader of a free, liberal, learned Church,
strong in organisation, dignified in worship,
devout in prayer, champion and deliverer of
the poor, which might do for the West what
Alexandria and Constantinople had failed to do
for the East ? Even wider schemes than this for
a general reunion of Christendom l which would
leave Rome isolated in its corner of south-western
Europe were already being sketched out. Emis-
saries from Canterbury were working to reconcile
Lutheran and Calvinist in Germany, and to
establish some agreement between the German
Protestants and the Anglican community ; while,
at the same time, Pococke, Laud's new Arabic
reader at Oxford, was negotiating on his behalf
with Cyril Lucaris, the learned patriarch of Con-
stantinople, and Graves, his agent in Egypt for
the collection of hieroglyphics and manuscripts,
had opened correspondence for him with the
patriarch of Alexandria. The affection and
admiration felt for Laud by the leading foreign
scholars seemed to promise that at least the
foundations of unity could be laid, and the
1 See letters to Pococke, Works, vi. 521, etc., and T wells'
Life, 49-72. Sir T. Roe's embassy to the Sultan in 1621 had
gained many privileges for the Greek Church, and commenced
that intercourse which brought us the Alexandrine MS. of
the Bible (Athenae, ii. 52). The patriarch, Cyril Lucaris, during
Pococke's sojourn in the East used to attend English worship
(Twells' Life, 49).
AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
historic episcopate, meeting in general council
might yet recover its liberty from the autocratic
Popedom. Schemes for foreign missions to the
I mlians in America, and even to the Mahommedans
of Turkey, floated before his eyes. 1
Wentworth, the strong, decided, clear-sighted
statesman, to whom Laud clung with an affection
not unmixed with such admiration as a shy, sensi-
tive scholar must naturally feel for the man of war
and action, had restored Ireland to order, and was
on the eve of summoning a Parliament. He had
curbed the power of the great nobles, and had com-
menced the reform of the Irish Church, always a most
dear object to the heart of the new archbishop.
The law apparently, so the judges had
decided, would bear out all the king's acts : and
without guards and without police, without exe-
cutions and without wars, 2 Charles seemed to be
growing as potent in England as Louis XIII., his
brother-in-law, was in France ; and to be in a fail-
way to rule his country according to his own
will, unless he preferred the old English custom
of periodical Parliaments. And if the king was
strong, what honour was reflected upon Laud, the
chief architect of his fortunes ? Two years later
thc position of Charles' great minister seemed so
secure and so magnificent that Sir Thomas Roc
writes to the Queen of Bohemia about him: " I>eing
I wells' Pococke, 77.
irespondence of Laud and Wentworth, passim.
i6 3 3-4- THE ARCHIEPISCOPAL VISITATION. 135
now so great he must choose and make new ways
to show he knows and can do more than others,
and this only hath made Cardinal Richelieu so
glorious ". l But it was not fame which the arch-
bishop coveted ; he desired to perfect the English
Church and State according to his own ideals ;
and this could only be accomplished by hard work
at the details of administration and the most dili-
gent attention to the wants of the people. Two
purposes specially interested him at this time : he
was determined to complete the reform of the
r Church, and to purify the administration of the
Treasury from the corruptions which the Lord
Treasurer, Weston, had fostered for his personal
advantage.
The first of these objects could be secured by
: a visitation of the whole province of Canterbury,
diocese by diocese, on his own authority as
metropolitan. For three years, beginning in
1634, the vicar-general, Sir Nathaniel Brent, 2 was
sent to every diocese in the South of England
to reform abuses and to enforce the law. The
clergy were compelled to attend to their duties ;
immoral clergymen were brought before the
High Commission and deprived ; communion
tables were removed to the upper end of the
chancel ; and communicants obliged to receive the
holy sacrament kneeling.
1 State Papers, 5th April, 1635.
2 For Laud's instructions see State Papers, 22nd February, 1634.
L1F1-: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. VII.
Two large dioceses caused the archbishop
special anxiety. Williams, Bishop of Lincoln,
opposed his claim to visit, and, though the courts
supported the metropolitan, it was quite clear that
the directions for placing- the communion tables in
the chancel, and for suppressing such lectureships
as were held at the will of lay patrons, would not
continue to be carried out when the vicar-general
had departed. Worse still, the morality of the
onmty of Lincoln was shown to be in a grievous
condition ; l and, in this diocese conspicuously,
at numbers of people were found by the visitor
to have been excommunicated for neglect in paying
the fees due to the legal officials of the bishop.
Laud directed the excommunications to be taken
off and watched his opportunity to put the diocese
into safer hands. He felt keenly the disgrace:
brought upon the Church by the use of spiritual
penalties for pecuniary gain. 2
The diocese of Norwich was the most difficult
to govern in all England. Large numbers of
foreign settlers had poured into it from France
and Holland, flying from Roman persecution.
So great was the compassion felt for them that
the bishop had given up his episcopal chapel
tor a French service. 3 These new-comers had
added by their industry and technical skill to
1 State Papers. <jth September, 1634, and Laud's Accounts of
9 Accounts of Province, 555.
1634- THE DIOCESE OF NORWICH. 137
the riches which made Norfolk rank next to
Middlesex in wealth among- the counties of
England; 1 but they remained foreigners in a
strange land, with no interest in its religious and
social progress : 2 and they stirred a strong feeling
against ceremonial of any kind. There was a
commercial danger also, for now that Holland had
established her freedom they, and many English
with them, were being tempted across the North
Sea by liberal offers from the rulers of the
Republic. 3 Such departures seriously injured trade
and engendered discontent. At the same time
Puritanic feeling in the diocese was developed by
the close connection between Norfolk and London,
where most of the commercial families had repre-
sentatives. 4 And yet, when the rebellion came,
Norfolk proved to be less Puritan in its sym-
pathies than many writers have supposed. Lynn
was devout in its churchmanship and resolute in
its loyalty. 5 Long lists of malignants were pre-
sented to the Parliament for fines ; and a riot
in Norwich in 1648 could only be extinguished by
numerous executions, while Colchester was the
1 Mason's Norfolk, 303 ; Drayton's Polyolbion, xx. 12.
2 This was probably the chief reason for Laud's attempt to
break up the foreign congregations (State Papers, igth December,
1634, and passim).
3 Mason's Norfolk, 409; Laud's Accounts of Province, 549.
4 State papers, wills, deeds, etc.
5 Mason's Norfolk, 282, 410.
6 Ibid, 304.
I. IKK AND TI.MKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. VII.
last retreat of the conquered Royalists. It was the
military genius and the swift blows of Oliver
Croimvrll which forced the eastern counties into
the famous .Association. For Laud's work had
been carefully done in the diocese of Norwich.
I>ishop Samuel Harsnet, the baker's son of Col-
chester, 1 a good scholar and a hard-working
clergyman, though despised for his low birth by
the country gentry, had enforced the royal instruc-
tions about catechising and reverence in worship.-
Then on Harsnet's elevation to York the Prime
Minister had attempted to win over the Puritans
of the eastern counties by sending them the
witty Bishop Corbett, whose gay humour lights up
many a dull page of contemporary documents, and
whom Wood describes as "a quaint preacher and
therefore much followed by ingenious men" : : ' and
later he hoped to hasten the establishment of Church
ritual by the appointment as Corbett's successor of
the stern Bishop Matthew Wren, of " a severe, sour
nature, but very learned," 4 who proved so strict a
disciplinarian that in 1638 he was moved to Ely,
and succeeded by Montague, the hero of man) a
1 Morant's I:sscx, book ii. 121.
- rtirliiuncntary History, vi. 312-319, for absurd accusations
brought against him by a man who wished to be Archdeacon of
Norwich.
3 Wood's Athenac, and State /^/vr.s, vol. 150. No. So. (iarrard
describes his death-bed: "prayers ended, he gave them all good-
night and died" (State I'u/icrs. Sept. 18, 1635).
4 Clarendon's Rcltcll'wn.
i6 3 4-5- RESISTANCE IN THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 139
Parliamentary debate and the author of The New
Gag for an Old Goose, written against Romanism,
a keen disputant and bright and educated preacher.
The rule about the position of the communion table
was enforced with decision. But Laud's advice to
his suffragans was to be cautious ; and he accepted
the objections urged by many clergy against com-
municating at the rail, as a reason for introducing
the practice gradually and after persuasive instruc-
tion ; though he pointed out that no difficulty had
been experienced in bringing up over 2000 com-
municants at St. Giles', Cripplegate, to the east
end with reverence and solemnity. 1
Upon the mass of the inhabitants the combi-
nation of clever preaching and strictness had had its
effect ; but Wren's severity drove the more deter-
mined men into revolt. Three thousand people, it
was said in Parliament, had fled to Holland, 2 and
though the records prove that only 1350 emi-
grated between 1630 and 1640, and that many of
these went for purposes of trade, 3 evidently others
resented what they felt with justice to be a perse-
cution. At one time, out of the 1500 clergy in
the diocese no less than thirty were suspended for
nonconformity; 4 and one case shows in a most
i Accounts of Province, 557. Cf. State Papers, vol. 417, No. 31.
- Speeches against Wren, Parliamentary History, 1641, and
Clarendon's Rebellion, i. 316.
:{ Mason's Norfolk, 409.
4 Accounts of Province, 542.
I4O Lll'T. AND TI.MKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
unpleasant light the occasional tyranny of the
High Commission Court.
A popular minister, Ward of Ipswich, was
imprisoned for several years for attacking the
Prayer Book. It was an injudicious act, for such
a punishment was startlingly excessive. 1 The
Knglish community, so indifferent to logic but so
impatient of personal wrongs, discussed the harsh
treatment of the pious Ward of Ipswich. Perhaps
he was a little mad, people said, in his melancholy
tits, but he had helped many souls. They missed
his ministrations ; they resented his sufferings.
I )id the archbishop in the vast number of details
which he had to supervise forget Ward of Ipswich
and his indignant congregation ?
Indeed, it is in cases like these that we see the
future peril of the Government. The few years
in which ceremonial Puritanism had been allowed
to conduct the services as it pleased, under Abbot
and Buckingham, had accustomed men to ir-
reverent and slovenly worship. The English race
had formed a dislike to kneeling. To a large
proportion of sincerely religious men, outward
n-verence has often appeared unnecessary, and
even a hindrance to faith.
But to Laud this seemed entirely contrary to
MHl. "I evidently saw," he says, "that the
public neglect of God's service in the outward face
it. and the nasty lying of so many places drdi-
1 State Papers, passim, and Accounts of Province, I^.H-.V'N etc -
1634-5- EXTERNAL HELPS TO RELIGION. 141
cated to that service, had almost cast a damp upon
the true and inward worship of God, which, while
we live in the body, needs external helps, and all
little enough to keep it in any vigour. And this
I did to the utmost of my knowledge, according
both to law and canon, and with the consent and
liking of the people ; nor did any command issue
out from me against the one or without the other
that I know of." 1
But outward reverence enforced by men of
very superficial religion opened the way for
dangerous and natural criticism. The vicar-general
was not the archbishop ; men might ridicule Laud
for his prim manners and small stature ; yet, after
all, they soon found his religion was genuine, and
that he was no self-seeker. Brent followed the
fashion ; high Anglican to-day, he would be furious
Puritan' 2 when Pym and his colleagues ruled in
England. The lawyers, who presided in the ec-
clesiastical courts, and whom the bishops in spite
of every effort could not replace with more spiritual
men, 3 were mostly like Brent, eager to use their
offices for profit ; the Church got the discredit of
1 Trials and Troubles, p. 224. Cf. support given to the removal
of the nonconformist minister of St. Catherine Cree by the con-
gregation, State Papers, vol. 261, fol. 282 and 291 ; a similar case at
Ware, vol. 261, fol. 298, etc., etc.
2 He gave evidence against Laud at his trial (Wood's Athenae,.
i. 161).
3 Cf. the troubles of the saintly Bishop Bedell of Kilmore
(Life).
142 l.IFK AND TIMLS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. VII.
men's acts through no fault of her own. Nor
\\vre the lawyers only in fault, since many of the
clergy imitated the archbishop's ritual without the
archbishop's piety. To the multitude, difference in
outward observances will always seem more im-
portant than doctrinal disputes. The huge ma-
jority, who were not ill-pleased to see Puritan
ministers silenced for dooming them all to ever-
lasting misery because they did not take the
trouble to assent to their teaching, kicked when
they were forbidden to loll in the seats, or to walk
about and discuss crops and prices during the
prayers ; and disliked being obliged to take their
part in worship and to kneel for communion before
the eyes of their fellow-townsmen. 1
The archbishop was asking too much of his
countrymen. To persuade them to decorous
worship would be the work of time and gentle-
ness. He strove to hurry it on; 2 and he would
fail, for the present moment ; until the cold severity
of Puritanism, 3 repressing all bright amusement, and
exacting profession of a profound personal religion
which most men could not feel, would drive the
1 Laud allowed that it was legal to communicate in pews if
the worshipper knelt (Works, vi. 478). He was most anxious that
they should be quietly persuaded to come to the rails (Accounts of
incc, 543). For irreverence in church, cf. .Stale A/yVr.s, vol. 154,
No. g '- Sir P. Warwick, go.
8 In Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs of her husband she tells us
that she, like other godly persons, disliked every kind of amuse-
ment (i. 27, 94).
1634-5- THE KARL OF PORTLAND. 143
nation back thankfully to the gentler teaching of
the Church. Therefore, though the visitors were
usually well received and readily obeyed, 1 a certain
bitter taste remained in several districts, and the
\archiepiscopal visitation was undoubtedly one
cause of the growing unpopularity of the Govern-
ment.
But perhaps the want of careful supervision in
the conduct of the visitation, and the absence
through the province of that conciliatory spirit
which Laud had shown in winning over the
Puritans in his former diocese of London, and
which he still employed in dealing with his own
diocese of Canterbury, was in the main due to the
archbishop's being occupied through these years
in the reform of the administration of the Treasury.
Wentworth, crippled and hampered in his work
of building up Irish prosperity, was continually
denouncing the Lord Treasurer Weston, now
Earl of Portland, to his friend. 2 Laud himself
was perplexed and irritated by complaints of
corruption at the Treasury, bribes taken from
monopolist companies, difficulties put in the way
of merchants who would not offer presents to the
Treasurer. While Weston lived nothing could
be done ; his easy ways and readiness to produce
the necessary money made him agreeable to the
1 State Papers, 1635, etc., passim.
2 Straff ord Letters, passim. Laud's Works, vii. 102, 115, 130,
162, etc.
144 I.II-T' AND TIMFS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
. and popular with the queen. But on the 1 3th
of March, 1635, Weston, the " Lady Mora" 1 of the
Laud and Stratford letters, died; and Laud, fearing
lest Cottington, "the Lady Mora's waiting-maid,"
as they called him, and as unprincipled as Weston
himself, would become treasurer, most unwillingly
accepted a seat on the Board of Commissioners
for the Treasury. 2 Even the active mind of the
primate, indefatigable in his attention to the
smallest matters, could hardly supervise the
details of the visitation, while he superintended
his diocese and the ordinary business of the
Church, reformed the Universities of Oxford and
Dublin, interested himself in the Church affairs of
Scotland and Ireland, watched the religious con-
dition of the regiments in foreign service and the
English communities abroad, attempted to recon-
cile in Germany Lutherans and Calvinists, :: and
settled the necessary reforms of the Treasury.
"To manage all was no better than a glorious
burden. ' The details of the visitation, and these
were all-important since they affected the interests
of great numbers of individuals, tell into the' hands
ot 15 rent, and the consequences we have seen.
1 This was the name j;iven to Weston, Earl of Portland and
Treasurer, because of his dilatory ways, by his two fellmv-
mini^' - Duiry.
3 Laud's Works, vi. 410, vii. 112, and State I'tipem, 3Oth January,
1634.
4 State rafters. Letter from Nicholas on Laud's appointment
to the Treasury.
i
i635- FINANCIAL REFORMS. 145
Laud threw himself vigorously 1 into his new
duties of finance ; he was determined to free the
king from debt ; in the quiet of his palace at
Croydon he took counsel with prominent mer-
chants, whom he admitted to his friendship, as to
the best means of developing trade. 2 For the
Treasury was on the verge of bankruptcy ; each
year closed with a deficit ; an immense floating-
debt crippled any settlement ; and yet a fleet
was necessary to vindicate England's supremacy
over the seas, and to show France and Holland
that she was still a power in Europe. The
Parliament which could so easily supply the
funds the king refused to hear mentioned.
Economy was therefore the first requisite, 3 and
Laud began by securing a thorough investigation
of the royal accounts in spite of the opposition of
Cottington, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The new First Commissioner had a weekly report
of the finances laid upon the Board. He secured
a proper adjustment of the expenditure to the
receipts. His hand was seen in all the dealings
of the Treasury.
But he could not carry his point in all the dis-
putes at the Treasury Board. Windebank, an old
1 See State Papers in March, 1635, for the remarkable stir in
every department of Government.
2 Every year part of the king's debts was paid off (Clarendon,
Life, i. 21-28; cf. State Papers}.
a Fuller, iii. 475. State Papers.
IO
146 i.lKK. AND TIMKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
pupil, and appointed by his recommendation
rctary of State, 1 one of his dearest personal
friends, deserted him in the crucial division on the
rival soap companies," which came about in this
All Englishmen in those days agreed on
the importance of keeping to England the manu-
facture of English soap. But in order to secure
this, Weston had set up a soap company of his
own friends who were to pay the king openly
,20,000 a year, and himself secretly ^"2000.
As this company was largely composed of
Romanists, the soap was called Popish soap, and
was most unpopular in London. The older soap
manufacturers, now Weston was dead, offered to
form a new company, and to pay the Treasury
,40,000 a year ; they were vigorously, even
passionately, supported by Laud ; but Cottington,
suave, full of wise expedients, perfectly self-con-
trolled, carried the day against the archbishop,
whose zeal in insisting upon his convictions was
already making him somewhat imperious in manner
and overbearing in argument. The Popish soap
was not a success, if we may trust the defeated
minister; he told Wentworth that his clothes
washed in it " smelt mighty ill". I>ut these
wrangles over the monopolies were at least
public enough to show the people that individual
1 See letter ccxxxvi. Works, vii. 43.
- Diary, i2th July,
1635-6. TREATMENT OF MONOPOLIES. 147
ministers found in them a source of personal profit,
and that the specious reasons urged in defence of
them, about the improvement of manufactures and
keeping the profits of England for the English,
were not the sole motives in their creation. The
monopolies became continually more discredited
and unpopular. Wentworth often persuaded
Laud that they could only serve to build up
private fortunes for royal courtiers ; but it was
difficult to change the system.
It was still more deplorable to Laud that
other ministers were encouraging the king in
heavy expenditure at Richmond Park. " I am
alone," he writes to Wentworth, " in those things
which draw not profit after them." Hamilton,
Holland 1 and the rest were using their influence
with the king to fill their own pockets. At last a
.specially flagrant case of attempted corruption
brought on a pitched battle between the archbishop
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Cottington
saved the briber from prosecution, but he lost the
treasurer's staff, which by Laud's advice (as Went-
worth could not leave Ireland) was given to Juxon,
Bishop of London, on the 6th of March, 1 636. The
king announced that he chose Juxon as a clergy-
man, because he could trust the clergy; and that
he had selected him among the clergy, because
he had no children, and therefore less private
1 E.g., Lord Ormond paid Holland 15,000 to secure his sup-
port to his marriage with one of the king's wards (Carte, i. 8).
148 I. IFF. AND TIMFS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn..
ends to serve. Laud was delighted. " No
churchman," he writes in his Diary, "had it
since Henry VII/s time. I pray God bless him
to carry it so that the Church may have honour,
and the king and the State service and con-
tentment by it, and now, if the Church will not
hold themselves under God, I can do no more." 1
Juxon proved an admirable treasurer: he was
popular with men of all parties. 2 Now, at last, no
one doubted that every shilling of the taxes found
its way into the national treasury. His modest
diligence is shown by his instruction to a high
permanent official to arrest and criticise anything
which he considered novel and detrimental in the
treasurer's own acts. 3
But his appointment was a fatal success. 4
Forest courts had been set up to compel men who
had encroached upon the forests to pay fines to
the king. As gentlemen and small squatters paid
their fines they cursed the episcopal Lord Treasurer.
Ship money was now being exacted from every
county in England, illegally as many thought,
though the law courts upheld the royal claim.
The tax added to the unpopularity of the bishops.
Was not a bishop treasurer, and the archbishop the
1 Diary, 6th March, 1636.
Stafford Letters, letter from Garrard, ii. 55, and Sir P. War-
wick, pp. 93-95. He was not molested even by the Long Parliament.
* State Papers, and Wood's Athcnnc, ii. 1145.
4 May, Long Parliament, p. 33.
1635-6. DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 149
king's most trusted counsellor? A new book of
rates for customs was brought out and enforced ;
it increased the king's revenue by ,70,000 a year,
.and was far less troublesome to the merchants.
But what right had the Crown to alter the rates
without consent of Parliament ? Everywhere men
complained that power had fallen into the hands
of the Church ; and the scrupulous honesty of the
new administration made no amends to the laity
for the loss of influence. The Church was rising
as a mighty power to suppress wickedness and to
defend the weak ; but it was objected that Christ's
commands were carried out, not as He desired by
persuasion and example, but by force and coercion.
The results which the new energy of the
Government could show were undoubtedly magnifi-
cent. The monopolies were curtailed ; and courtiers
compelled to surrender patents which checked the
free development of trade. l A postal system was
gradually created to carry letters at fixed rates
through England, and even into Scotland, and to
foreign countries ; ~ an invaluable aid to men of
business. New companies were founded to or-
ganise fresh routes for commerce, and to attract
to England the carrying trade of the world. 3 Em-
bassies to distant potentates in the East opened
1 State Papers, March, 1635.
2 Macpherson's/Iwwfl/s of Commerce ; Rushworth, ii. 145; State
Papers, vol. 291, Nos. 114 and 294, No. 62.
3 Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, sub anno 1630, etc.
I ;0 I. IFF. AND TIMF.S OF \VII.II.\M LAUD. CH. vir
opportunities for English merchants in many new
markets.
I) ut if this progress was to be maintained,
it was evidently necessary to make England re-
sprrted abroad. Turkish pirates from Sallee,
and Flemish privateers from Dunkirk, preyed on
English traders, and made the very Channel itself
dangerous to navigation. l France and Spain and
Holland sneered at a kingdom which had no fleet
to protect its ports or to vindicate its claims to the
sovereignty of the seas. It was annoyance at the
refusal of Parliament to support him in foreign
enterprise which had originally alienated the king
from the House of Commons. His pride demanded
that England should again become a great power.
A paper prepared by Secretary Coke at the wish
of the king and Laud in June, i634, 2 a few months
before Portland's death, exhibits the dissatisfaction
which they felt at the feebleness of the foreign
policy of the kingdom. This they were now de-
termined should be gloriously reversed. Noy's
suggestion about ship money supplied them with
the necessary means. In 1635 a great fleet was
equipped ; 3 year after year it put to sea ; the Turk-
1 State Papers, vol. 279, No. 106. - Ibid., vol. 269, No. 51.
3 Laud's Works, vi. 498, 513. Garrard to Strafford. Baker's
Chronicle, 455. Howell, i. 256. A description published at the
time tells us that the j^reat ship launched at Woolwich soon after
and called the Sovereign of the Seas was 1637 tons, 128 feet lon<;
and 48 feet broad. The ship cost 80,000, and carried ninety-six
Cf. Gussone's Relations, i'> ;> quoted by Kanke.
i6 3 5-7- THE NAYAL SUPREMACY. 15.1
ish pirates were driven from the Channel ; the
Dunkirk privateers were severely punished for
their attacks upon the post boats and the coasting
craft ; l finally the pirates were pursued, in 1637, to
the African coast; at Sallee, their dreaded harbour
of refuge, they were obliged to accept the terms
dictated to them, and thousands of unfortunate
captives were restored to their homes in England. 2
The French and Dutch were compelled to strike
their flags to the royal admiral of England, 3 who
had now recovered for his master the sovereignty
of the narrow seas. Behind the fleet the train
bands, now improved in discipline and efficiency by
constant exercise, and well armed from the royal
arsenals, defied foreign invaders, 4 and provided a
force which, being officered by the nobles and the
gentry, could not be dangerous to English liberty,
but could make the king a redoubtable ally to any
of his great neighbours.
1 State Papers, vol. 295, No. 65. For their ravages, cf. vol.
162, Nos. 62 and 83.
- State Papers. Baker's Chronicle. Accounts of Province, 1637.
Laud took special interest in the proper reception of the released
English slaves (Laud's Works, vi. 498, 513).
3 The Dutch were compelled by the new fleet to pay 30,000
for the right of fishing, and to acknowledge the English sove-
reignty of the narrow seas. Cf. Mason's Norfolk, 261, for the pro-
tection given to the commerce of the eastern counties by the
Whelps.
4 There was some fear of a French invasion in 1635 (State
Papers, vol. 298, No. 63). For train bands, see State Papers, vol.
310, Nos. 44 and 45, vol. 287, No. 55.
152 LIFK AM) TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
I ut this unparalleled prosperity l earned for the
Government no gratitude ; rather it gave men
leisure for discontent. It was free play for their
own talents in ruling, and free discussion of their
opinions political and religious, that the gentry and
\ merchants wanted. But the bishops held power,
and the bishops tuned the pulpits, and the bishops
regulated the press. 2 Everywhere men, when they
found themselves in collision with authority, en-
countered ecclesiastics, and these ecclesiastics,
they were taught by nobles like Lords Saye and
Brooke, by angry country gentlemen and sup-
pressed lecturers, had resolved to give them over
tied hand and foot to Rome and the Inquisition.
1 Extract from Roberts' The Merchant's Map of Commerce,
published 1638. "When I survey every kingdom and great city of
the world and every petty port and creek of the same, I find in
each of them some English prying after the trade and commerce
thereof." English traffic used to be confined to the export of the
staple merchandise of the country, " such as are cloths, lead, tin,
some new late draperies, and other English real and royal com-
modities"; now England was become the emporium of the world,
and its ships the world's carriers. England had superseded Venice
and actually supplied that city, and took the traffic of India, Arabia
and Persia to Italy and to France. Manchester and the cotton
trade were rising into importance; Manchester also manufactured
linen. Here we have the first mention of its manufacture in Eng-
land. England rivalled Holland, and supplied Scandinavia and
Muscovy, and its goods were to be found throughout France and
Spain.
The Capuchins write to Italy, 44 England is an abundant
country and hath no taxes" (p. 309 of The Relation <>f Their Mis-
sion). Cf. Clarendon's Rebellion, and even Ludlow, i. 174.
2 Every book had to be licensed by the archbishop, the Hishop
of London, or one of the universities.
1635-7. GOVERNMENT POPULAR WITH THE POOR. 153
Besides, as the Puritan lords and gentry were
always repeating, the bishops and priests were
"' base-born, J>1 and nobles had an hereditary right
to rule England. The clergy were believed to be
grasping at all the great offices ; one was named
as future Master of the Rolls ; another as Secre-
tary of State ; a third as Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer. 2 Nor was the Government popular at
Court ; the courtiers detested its economy, and
longed to dip greedy hands into the money bags
of the State, and persuaded the queen to become
the head of a party opposed to Laud. Only the
working classes rejoiced to find that their oppres-
sors were controlled ; and heard with amazement
and delight that the judges on circuit had special
directions to see them righted ; 3 and that many of
the worst oppressions had been severely punished
in the Star Chamber. But the working men were
not yet a power in England ; and their sympathy
would avail Laud little. 4
It was still possible and most important to
conciliate the professional classes : from their
ranks the clergy were drawn ; they benefited
1 Mrs. Hutchinson, i. 133 ; Lord Saye's Speech against the
Bishops, and Prynne, Cantorburie's Doom.
- Garrard to Wentworth, Strafford Papers, ii. 2.
3 Rushworth, ii. 294, for Lord Keeper Coventry's Instructions
to the Judges on Circuit.
4 See Baxter's Autobiography, p. 30, and Ludlow's Memoirs, i.
121, for hostile testimony to the affection felt for the Government
by the common people.
154 I'II''l-- AND TIMl.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vn.
greatly by the universal prosperity ; many of their
number were promoted to office ; and the Govern-
ment was most diligent in encouraging and
developing education. But they were to be
alienated by some severe and barbarous punish-
ments, which now agitated people's minds ; and
as peace and prosperity afforded leisure for atten-
tion to events which in stirring times pass unheeded,
news writers, and historians after them, have been
compelled to enliven the dull years of quiet progress,
by giving exaggerated prominence to a few legal
sentences ; and thus the uniformly merciful
government of Charles I. gained a name for
cruelty and oppression, while few remember the
executions under Elizabeth, or those in the Reign
of Terror under Harry Vane and Oliver Crom-
well. 1
1 Guizot, blindly following Neale's Puritans, a valuable work,
but one requiring careful handling, has written a description of
these prosperous years of Charles I. in his English Revolution
which is no better than a parody.
For the navy, see Note B on p. 295.
FURTHER AUTHORITIES.
The two principal authorities for this part of Laud's life are
Anthony a Wood, as quoted above; and Laud's Account of
his Chancellorship (Wharton's edition, pub. 1700). The letters
to Vossius are often very valuable.
CHAPTER VIII.
OXFORD, 1630-1641.
Toleration of Opinion The Chancellorship of Oxford
Repression of Indiscipline Cultivation of Eastern
Languages The Learned Press Royal Visit En-
couragement of Mathematics and Science Resignation.
No part of the voluminous Laudian literature is
so interesting or so delightful to the student as the
history of his dealings with the University of
Oxford. Indeed, here and here alone, we can
study the free working of the great archbishop's
will. For in the university he was supreme ; and
in the university he worked with kindred minds,
of whom most loved him as a friend, while all
followed him as their leader. In State affairs the
imperious will of Buckingham or of Strafford
constantly swayed his judgment ; the intrigues
of Cottington and the obstinate delays of Weston
hindered his reforms. Even in Church affairs
bitter and ignorant opposition or the faultiness
of irreligious instruments hampered, as we have
seen, the free play of his far-reaching ideas, and
introduced an intolerance which was foreign to his
nature. Therefore it is to the university that we
see him turn for refreshment ; it is with the uni-
(157)
LIFL AND TI.MLS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vm.
versity officials that he opens his mind in corre-
spondence. To gain privileges for the university
seems to him like a personal victory. His
collections of coins and manuscripts and objects
of interest are for the university. The university
is his "dear mother". When his admirers and
flatterers propose to call the university institutions
after him, he instantly checks the project ; there
shall on no account be alterations in the old
familiar names. And in the busiest and most
anxious weeks he always finds time to plan and
execute schemes and reforms for the prosperity of
the university. At Oxford Laud had raised
himself to be leader of the Liberal party, if that
word may be justly applied to the body of men
which fought for the advance of learning, and the
progress of free opinion. 1 He had never lost
touch with the heads of the university ; and when
the chancellor, Lord Pembroke, died in 1630, the
most influential men at once pronounced that
Laud was the only magnate able to raise the
university to its former high renown as one of the
great centres of European learning, to restore its
discipline, and by his influence with the Govern-
ment secure full scope for its development. The
Puritan party did indeed bring out a rival in the
person of the new Earl of Pembroke, one of the
most empty-headed and self-seeking men of his
time. But the prestige of Laud carried all before
1 Clarendon's Life, i. 55-66.
1630. ELECTION TO CHANCELLORSHIP. 159
it, and the chancellorship was offered to him and
accepted at London House in May, 1630. His
religious policy in the university is well ex-
pressed in a letter which he wrote to Vossius in
the preceding year :
" I have always made every effort that those
rough and difficult subjects should not be discussed
before the crowd ; fearing that under pretence of
truth we should injure piety and charity. I have
always laboured for moderation, so that passionate
minds, to whom religion is far from being the first
love, should not disturb the rest. And this, per-
haps, has not made me popular, but I remember
how earnestly our Saviour commended charity.
How cautiously and patiently the apostle advised
men to deal with the weak ! If the craft of men
destroy me, and I become the prey of the victor
in the strife, my reward is with me, nor shall I
look for comfort outside myself except in God.
" It is better to pray against the self- wrought
ruin of the reformed Church in England and
Holland, which I fear, than to predict its coming.
For I do not wish to be a true prophet on such a
condition. But I will say no more, lest dealing
with the troubles of the time I should utter feelings
which I specially wish no one to know. Only one
thing will I tell you. God helping me, I will do
my best that truth and peace may kiss each other."
The university was intended to be a place of
1 Laud's Works, vi. 265.
160 I.IK!-: AND TIMK.S ()K WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vm.
religious training and of liberal learning, not of
purposeless, dogmatic discussion. How is it, my
lord, he writes to the Bishop of Winchester 1 during
his chancellorship, that while "so many good
scholars come up from Winchester to New College,"
that college breeds " so few eminent men " ? And
he begs him as visitor to see into it : being con-
vinced that the explanation will be found in the
character of their course, in which letters, logic
and mathematics are neglected, while under-
graduates have to find their staple food in Calvin's
Institutes, a very useful book among others, ac-
cording to Laud's judgment, for a divinity student,
but utterly unfit to be a foundation of general
learning.
He at once proved his intention to be com-
pletely neutral as chancellor between the contend-
ing parties of Puritan and Anglican ; for in the first
weeks of his office the vice-chancellor is directed
to censure two preachers ; one for attacking the
Calvinist Synod of Dort, another for denouncing
Anglican ceremonialism in religion. 2 If it can be,
he says, he will not allow the terrible and bloody
scenes 3 of recent religious controversy in Holland
to be reproduced in England : and for this purpose
he forbids heated public discussion : men may
think and hold what they will, but they shall not
1 History of his Chancellorship, p. 82.
* Ibid., p. 8.
3 Lord Herbert's Autobiography.
1630. TOLERATION OF OPINION. l6l
publicly stir popular passions. In pursuance of
this policy, individual Puritans were constantly,
through the eleven years of his chancellorship,
treated with the greatest gentleness. A proctor
who had scruples about wearing a surplice was
advised to find a substitute at the university com-
munion. Even fierce sermons were forgiven to
men who acknowledged their breach of university
good manners. The regius professor, Prideaux, 1
was admitted to Laud's friendship, and invited,
though inclined to Puritanism, to supervise Chil-
lingworth's defence of the Church against Rome,
which was being composed and published at
Laud's instigation. Only when there was a de-
liberate rebellion, and an attempt to pit the vice-
chancellor against the proctors, did Laud grow
severe to the offenders. Then he struck hard,
and quickly quelled opposition.
The University of Oxford became once more
the chief home of learning in England : and
naturally the scholars, writers and poets of the
day took the side from which they received patron-
age and sympathy, while the one notable excep-
tion proved by his own career the blighting in-
fluence of Puritanism on the inspiration of
literature. Those works of John Milton, which we
read and love, were written either during the
government of Laud, or after the Restoration.
1 Cf. State Papers, vol. 174, No. 45. For Prideaux's high opinion
of Laud see Warwick, p. 88.
II
LIFF. AND TIM MS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vm.
I uit few lines are rescued from oblivion in the
mass of his compositions under Puritan rule ; and
a Presbyterian or Anabaptist press censor would
have made short work with Paradise Regained or
Paradise Lost. With much that was noble, ex-
hibiting in many cases a deep sense of duty, and
in many cases evincing an intense devotion to God
and a consciousness of His immanent presence,
the- Puritan party was in its very nature obscur-
antist. 1 It might draw to itself for a moment
the lovers of liberty, because, though it was for
government by a single person in Holland, in
England it happened to be on the side of
government by Parliament ; and some of its
higher ideals might attract noble and educated
minds ; but these were sure sooner or later to find
the uncongenial alliance impossible. There was no
free play for the intellect within the iron-bound
prison of the doctrine of Divine decrees, and the
mind which had enslaved itself to this pitiless fate
would rest content without further progress in
learning ; while all fresh discoveries or speculations
could only upset the comfortable repose of the
soul which had been convinced of its own excep-
tional favour in the sight of God. 2
1 " Ordered that all such pictures at Whitehall as have the repre-
sentation of the Second Person of the Trinity or of the Virgin
upon them shall be forthwith burnt" (Parliamentary Ordinance
of 1645). And the writer in Vldorial History says: "Music must
be considered as having lain dormant in England from the death
of Charles I. till his successor mounted the throne " (p. 566).
refusal of Puritan schoolmasters to teach Latin gram-
1630-6. DISCIPLINE AND LEARNING REVIVED. 163
For many years Puritanism had been dominant
at Oxford ; and though much had been done in
Laud's earlier days for the revival of learning, the
university still groaned in the trammels of the
Institutes of Calvin. Discipline was of the laxest,
and it was a favourite amusement for under-
graduates to poach the king's deer at Woodstock.
There were 300 ale-houses in the town of Oxford ;
university dress had dropped out of use ; the
proctors were treated with contempt. The chan-
cellor set to work in earnest ; l 200 ale-houses were
closed ; drinking in college common-rooms was
checked ; graduates and undergraduates were
compelled to wear cap and gown, " in order that,"
as a distinguished teacher put it, " having these
perpetual monitors about us, we may not be
forgetful of the places wherein we are, and the
end for which we came hither, viz., to grow in
piety and good letters ". The proctors and other
dignitaries were to be treated with respect. A
riding- school which had become a centre of rowdi-
ness was put out of bounds: Mr. Crofts "is to
carry back his great horses as he came ". Candi-
dates were mercilessly rejected at the examinations.
There should be no more ignorant graduates, nour-
ished only on the Institutes of Calvin, sent out to
be blind teachers of the blind, men often "who
could not distinguish quisquis from quisque" as
mar, because it contained the names of pagan gods (Laud's Works,
folio, i. 546). 1 Cf. State Papers, vol. 203, No. 90.
164 I. IKK AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vm.
they sat opposite their examiners on the new
ed seats which the chancellor caused to be
provided, answering the questions amid a crowd
of onlookers, delighted at their helpless flounder-
ing. It became a real distinction to obtain the
B.A. degree. Before they could even qualify for
mination, students had to prove attendance at
lectures in grammar and rhetoric, in the ethics,
politics and economics of Aristotle, in logic,
moral philosophy, geometry and Greek ; while for
the M.A. degree, three more years had to be
spent in studying geometry, astronomy, meta-
physics, natural philosophy, Greek and Hebrew.
Nor were these requirements merely nominal.
Xo one should be excused examination. A
doctor of divinity in those days had to be a
real divine. Young noblemen, who, trading on
their high birth, dared to transgress discipline,
were ruthlessly sent down, for Laud did not can!
how great and proud their fathers might be ;
"the base-born archbishop," as the Puritan press
insolently called him, was for equality.
Upon this foundation of careful instruction he
raised his edifice of deeper learning. The Hebrew
professor was provided with a canonry at Christ-
church, so was the public orator. An Arabic
lectureship was endowed with the archbishop's
own meagre savings. The famous Pocockr, the
first lecturer, was sent to the East to perfect
himself in the language, and to bring home manu-
1630-6. EASTERN STUDIES. 165
scripts. 1 In future, the Bible would be seriously
studied and criticised in its own tongues, with all
the assistance that history and philology could
afford. 2 It was a special direction to the new
lecturer to treat Arabic in its relation to Hebrew
and Syriac. The archbishop could feel that while
ignorant sectaries might draw their reckless
conclusions from phrases in the English transla-
tion, and from dangerous notes in the Geneva
edition, at least they would have scholars at hand
to correct them.
Hundreds of manuscripts in every tongue,
Chinese, Persian, 3 Turkish, Arabic, Armenian,
Russian among them, as well as Greek and
Latin, were presented on various occasions to the
library by Laud. Any one who wanted to find
favour with him knew the sure way was to send
a new and rare manuscript for Oxford ; it was the
weak spot through which unworthy and self-
seeking men could obtain his favour. Time and
money he lavished on the collection. He eagerly
hoped to recover the lost work of Clement of
Alexandria, the Hypotyposes. It was a delightful
recreation to turn from the dry business of the
Treasury or Board of Trade in the company of
1 Twells' Life, 67, 72.
2 Ibid., 38. Syriac was studied by all the leading scholars of
that time.
3 Lord Denbigh's mission to Persia in 1631 opened a connec-
tion between that distant country and England (Lodge's Life).
1 66 1.IK1-: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vm.
\\Vston ind Cottington, Coke or Vane, to discuss
the date and history of some new-found manu-
script. He was constantly regretting that he had so
little time for the diligent study which had been a
characteristic of Bishop Andrewes of Winchester.
But. above all, he had set his heart on what he
describes as a learned press. In 1631 he obtained
from the king a patent for the university to print
books, a privilege already possessed by Cambridge ;
and the university, agreeing with the Stationers'
Company that they would waive their right to
print the Latin grammar and the Bible for three
years on an annual payment of ^200, devoted
this sum at his direction to the manufacture of
type in Greek and Eastern alphabets. Rich
nobles who were admitted doctors of law at the
king's visit to the university were summoned to
read a thesis, or to pay 20 as a fine to the
learned press. Printers were brought over from
Holland ; and special officers appointed by the
university to superintend the work. 1
It was felt to be essential to discipline and to
steady progress that the vast undigested mass of
university statutes should be arranged and pub-
lished under the chancellor's supervision. A short
summary of those affecting the daily life of under-
1 The publication of the Parisian Polyglot Bible in ihjj had
stirred Laud to greater emulation (Works, vi. 337).
Henry Jacob was helped by Laud to retain his Merton Fellow-
ship (Works, vi. 462) because he was an Oriental scholar.
1636. ROYAL VISIT TO OXFORD. l6/
graduates was printed in a little book, and pre-
sented to them at matriculation ; lest, as the arch-
bishop said, they should unwittingly perjure
themselves in their oath to observe the university
laws. His digest of the statutes remained in force
for more than 200 years ; it was considered almost
sacrilege to alter it. The letters about Oxford in
these eleven years give the clearest impression of
the zeal for learning, the patient attention to de-
tail, the calm, clear judgment, the strong, unshaken
will, the indefatigable diligence of the archbishop
chancellor. He corresponded on terms of friend-
ship with all the great foreign scholars, and con-
stantly sought their advice and support.
Perhaps it was the proudest moment of his life
when the Court visited the reformed university in
I636. 1 The king and queen with their princely
nephews of the palatinate lodged in Christchurch.
There plays were performed before them : the
" Persian Habits," procured for one of these plays,
caused special delight : the queen could not be
satisfied without seeing them again at Windsor.
The mornings were occupied in visiting the
city and the colleges, many of which had been
restored and enlarged in these years of learning.
They walked in Lord Danby's new " Physic
Garden " by the banks of the Cherwell, which the
chancellor exhibited as a welcome stimulus to the
scientific studies which he desired to foster. They
1 History of Chancellorship, 102-105. Cf. Evelyn.
168 LIFI: ANI> TIMES OF \VILLIAM LAUD. CH. vm.
noted the handsome marble pavements in Queen's
College Chapel, and its excellently designed wains-
cotting : Magdalen Chapel too had been put in
beautiful order: in the chapel windows the gor-
L;rous new painted glass produced a play of
gemmed colour and reverently subdued light.
But the crowning joy of the archbishop was to
entertain his sovereign in the hall of the splendid
new quadrangle which he himself had added to his
own college of St. John the Baptist, and to show
the artist king the beauty of the architecture and
the careful arrangements for serious study.
The chancellor remained after the king's
departure in consultation with the heads of the
university. There was Dr. Prideaux, soon to be
bishop in the Puritan reaction ; Dr. Duppa, the
future tutor of Charles II. ; Dr. Baily, once the
bitter personal foe of Laud, now promoted by his
forgiving influence to be president of St. John's ;
Dr. Frewen, the vigorous reforming vice-chan-
cellor ; his godson Chillingworth, doubtless, the
threat controversialist ; and many another soon to
!>< distinguished as scholar, saint, apologist, or
administrator through the fiery persecution, or
when the good times returned. The archbishop
was at his best ; genial, full of wit and humour,
entering into learned jokes, and stimulating the
scholars to fresh discoveries. He was delighted
with the good discipline, the studiousness and the
reverence of the university.
1636. MATHEMATICAL STUDIES. 169
In one direction of study he considered Oxford
still somewhat unenlightened, 1 and he urged upon
the authorities of St. John's the pursuit of mathe-
matics and physical sciences, for which he had
provided facilities in his new r buildings. This
zeal for scientific study infected many of his
disciples, who became the founders of the Royal
Society. On leaving Oxford he slept a night with
his friend Dr. Bancroft, the bishop of the diocese,
at his new episcopal residence in Cudclesden,
which he had done so much to secure for the see.
Then making provision (how characteristic it is of
the man's consistent attention to the details of
his duties ! ) that his steward should immediately
pay every item of the expenditure he had incurred
in Oxford, 2 he returned to the busy cares of Lam-
beth intent, all too unsuccessfully, on securing
for the metropolis that same learned peace and
calm liberty which had appeared to him so happy
in the atmosphere of Oxford.
But Oxford was never long out of his thoughts.
Every week he received a report from the vice-
chancellor. Friends wrote on all matters of
importance ; nothing escaped him. The printer
shall be dismissed if the Romanists get hold of
Chillingworth's sheets before they are published.
A Jesuit has seduced an undergraduate and car-
ried him off to St. Omer ; the chancellor will not
1 Laud's Works, vii. 192, 434, 612, etc.
- Chancellorship. 121.
I/O l.IFF. AND TI.MF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. vin.
be satisfied till he has the boy back in Oxford,
and settled in the true faith. An Arian under
the: hypocritical cloak of a private tutor is leading
mm astray ; he must be exposed and expelled.
The Westminster supper at Christchurch ought to
be discontinued, for it is making factions in the
college.
No wonder the university grew and throve.
From 2000 in 1611 the number of students had
increased in 1638 to over 4000, and was multiply-
ing year by year. The care bestowed upon the
grammar schools 1 provided an ever-growing supply
of eager undergraduates who delighted in the stu-
dious atmosphere of the beautiful city. Oxford was
full of learned men, who were carrying their newly-
acquired knowledge through the length and
breadth of England ; flaunting it, perhaps, too
often in the faces of ignorant and powerful squires,
who vowed to pay off the score when they sat
snug and omnipotent in the House of Commons
at Westminster.
I hen, just as the great work is accomplished,
comes the final scene. The chancellor is in the
Tower ; Pym is all-powerful ; the censorship of
the press is practically at the mercy of Prynne.
Learned inquiry is hateful to the majority of the
Commons. Oxford is accused of Popery. Laud's
r Laud's attention to Westminster School, see Stanley's
minster Abbey ; for his foundation at Heading see Heylin ; for
his help to Winborne, State /V/yVr.s, vol. 291, No. 28 (cf. vol. .J
No. 55).
1641. THE PURITAN REACTION AGAINST LEARNING. 17 1
day is done, and he resigns his chancellorship.
Let them elect some other chancellor who can
protect them a little in this deluge of Puritan
narrowness, and pray for happier times. So the
curtain falls on a work which could neither be
destroyed nor forgotten ; Oxford still cherishes
the memory of her great alumnus.
Empty-headed Pembroke becomes her chan-
cellor. War turns her scholars into soldiers. A
victorious Parliament sets to work to reform her ;
and in its reformation almost reforms Oxford and
learning with her off the face of the earth : till
Laud's pupils return to rebuild the edifice he had
so painfully and carefully erected. The history of
Laud's Oxford chancellorship makes it clear
enough why the forces of art and literature, of
learning and scientific research, came to be
marshalled on the side of the Anglican party
and to play so great a part in the Restoration.
CHAPTER IX.
THE OPPOSITION, 1637-1639.
Development of the Opposition New Antagonists Star
Chamber Cruelties Their Failure Laud's Dejec-
tiafi Attack on Bishop Williams The Roman
Propaganda Romanists and Puritans.
WE have seen how successful and how liberal was
the policy which Laud shaped and practised in
educational matters ; and how deeply his religious
ideas had already struck their roots into the
national life ; nor can we withhold our admira-
tion from the stern economy which he had tried
to institute in the management of the Treasury,
and from the vigorous impetus which his sympathy
and patronage had given to trade. But in the
ordinary administration of the Government he had
by 1637 come into dangerous collision with the
most powerful classes and the most thoughtful
political minds in the nation. It was not the
Puritans in particular who desired that Parliament
should take its place as the leading factor in our
English Government. Rather the wiser leaders,
who appeared at this time to be leagued with
(172)
1637. LAUD'S SCRUPLES.
173
Puritanism, were only using that religious move-
ment as a means to arouse the enthusiasm of the
nation against the Stuart system of government.
And there remained but two methods by which
the growing indignation against the king's ministers,
which the memoirs of the time help us to trace
among the thinking minority, could be successfully
abated. One method was a severe policy of re-
pression such as Richelieu had organised in
France, such as Wentworth might easily have
organised in England. It would have required
the creation of a standing army ; but for this
Wentworth felt the means were not difficult to
find. 1
Happily for the liberties of England there were
two insuperable obstacles to such a policy in the
condition of things then existing. One was to be
found in the gentle, placable nature of the king :
" there is a mare pacificum in that breast," 2 says
Laud, more than once, writing to Wentworth ;
and a king who dallied for two years with the
Scottish revolt was hardly likely to consent to a
policy of blood. 3 But the far more serious ob-
stacle lay in Laud's own character. He considered
it a religious duty to forgive his enemies. Even
when he was convinced that his own life was in
1 Strafford Papers, i. 173, ii. 136, 250, etc. Probably he would
have removed the lord-lieutenants and put the trained bands into
the hands of creatures of the Government. 2 Works, vii. 425.
a Cf. Lilly, Life and Death of Charles /., and the king's own
words on the scaffold.
TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. IX.
danger from some "secret Felton," he assures
Wentworth that, though the law of libel and the
precedents of Udal, Penry and others under
Queen Elizabeth would more than justify the
execution of a prominent libeller, "for my part
I desire no blood" j 1 and as a matter of fact the
first marked step towards political toleration in
England was taken by Laud, when, during his
administration, he took care that no man should
lose his life for politics. In this respect the eleven
years of Charles' so-called arbitrary government
contrast most favourably with the fifty years which
followed them.
But if Laud would not suppress the rising
opposition, could he be made willing to conciliate-
it? Edward Hyde, now climbing into promin-
ence as a barrister, seems to have had hopes that
he could persuade the archbishop, and through
him the king, to attempt once more a policy of
periodical Parliaments. 2 But this the king ab-
solutely refused ; he would hear nothing of Parlia-
ments ; and among the artistic pleasures of
Whitehall he never ceased to feel that all was
going well. Nor was Laud himself hopeful of
ing a House of Commons which would allow
religious toleration. Therefore the Government
was still carried on without the assistance of the
king's natural counsellors. But there were no
preparations against a possible rebellion.
1 Jl'fr/i.s, vii. 329. - Clarendon's Life, i. 70.
1637. A DILEMMA. 175
old English system of police and military forces
remained unaltered. A few officers of justice
executed the writs of the courts, and were obeyed
rather from habit than from any fear which they
could inspire. The only serious force at the dis-
posal of Government consisted of the trained
bands of London under the city magistrates, and
the county militia under the gentry and great
nobles, composed of the classes in whom dislike
of the Laudian theology was most prevalent,
and officered by the natural members of the two
Houses of Parliament. 1 Such a system made
tyranny impossible, for it left the king at the
mercy of his people.
Unwilling to repress and unable to conciliate,
the minister, who in spite of all his influence w r as
seldom allowed to work his own will, was placed
in an impossible position. He was obliged to
admit that something must be done : and if the
great leaders, Saye and Brooke, Warwick and
Bedford, Pym and Holies, were left to plot in
peace, the libellers at all events must have their
pens checked ; and severe chastisements must
prove that the Government would not be insulted
with impunity. Hence came about the most start-
ling severity of the period, which is so graphically
related for us in the pages of Fuller, 2 and which,
1 There is an excellent account of the constitution of this
force in Mason's Norfolk, 247.
2 Fuller's Church History, iii. 386.
176 LIFF, AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD, CH. IX.
more than anything else, has made Laud so
unpopular with posterity.
On 3<Dth June, 1637, three pillories had been
ted in Palace Yard. They were for members
of the three learned professions, William Prynne,
a lawyer ; Henry Burton, a clergyman ; and John
IJastwick, a physician. An immense crowd had
mbled to see how these libellers would face
their punishment, for the Star Chamber had de-
creed that, after standing in the pillory for some
hours, each man was to lose his ears by the knife
of the executioner. Burton was the first to suffer ;
the pillory made a good pulpit for the nonce ; and
all felt that a man who was willing to face such
shame and pain for his opinions must at least be
worth listening to. " Methinks," he said, "I sec
Mount Calvary where the crosses were erected.
If Christ was numbered amongst thieves, shall a
Christian think much for His sake to be numbered
among rogues ? " Soon his head was smothered in
blood under the executioner's knife, but he en-
dured manfully and did not flinch. The crowd
*' howled," some with fury, some with compassion
as they saw his sufferings. Bastwick followed
with equal courage. " Indeed," he said, " I wrote
a book against Antichrist the Pope ; and the Pope
Canterbury said it was written against him.
I Jut were the press open to us, we would scatter
his kingdom, and fight courageously against Gog
and Magog." " Mrs. Bastwick got a stool, kissed
1637. THE LIBELLERS IN THE PILLORY. 177
him, his ears being cut oft" she called for them, and
put them in a clean handkerchief and carried them
away with her." l
Pry nne was the last to face the knife. " Rather,"
said he, "than I would have my cause a leading
cause to the depriving- of the subject's liberties,
which I seek to maintain, I choose to suffer my
body to become an example of this punishment."
The words imply that he had deliberately refused
to use his right to appeal from the Star Chamber
to the ordinary law courts, because he either had
no confidence in the soundness of his case, or
distrusted the impartiality of the judges. The
sayings were repeated and remembered. These
men had suffered, it seemed, for religion, for
freedom of opinion, for personal liberty. It is
true that the libels were atrocious, 2 and the punish-
ment the usual reward of libel, but the crowd had
assembled to listen and see, not to reason. 3 The
archbishop, men said, was mean and cruel to use
the law for his own personal revenge ; this was
shamefully inconsistent in a minister of Christ, and
1 Strafford Papers, letter from Garrard, ii. 85.
2 Bastwick had published a blasphemous litany (Baker, p.
457); and he had called the bishops "servants of the devil" (Parlia-
mentary History, ix. 60). He had been cautioned and then fined
previously in the High Commission (State Papers, 261, fol. 97
and 178). Burton and Prynne had used much the same language.
Burton is said to have been made an enemy to the Court by
not getting the high preferment he had expected ; he had been
attached at one time to Charles' household (Sanderson's Life of
Charles /., 218 ; cf. Salmonet, i. 88). 3 Wallington, i. 90.
12
I. IFF. AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. ix.
,lly in one who so vigorously vindicated his
claim to be a successor of the apostles.
Nothing is more dangerous to rulers than
to be thought guilty of a spiteful use of power.
Laud indeed had refused to concur in the sentence
on Prynne, Burton and Bastwick ; ifc because the
business hath some reflection on myself, I shall
forbear to censure them and leave them to God's
mercy and the king's justice ". 1 But these words
prove that he must take his share of responsibility
for barbarous and useless punishments which he
might undoubtedly have prevented. The thought
certainly crossed his mind that Prynne could
legally be sentenced to death for his constant libels.
Such action would have been cruel ; it might
have successfully checked attacks on the Govern-
ment. As it was, the punishments were worse than
useless. To the leaders of the Opposition the
imprisonment of three noisy followers, who could
exercise far more influence by their sufferings
than by their talents, caused no inconvenience.
Such troublesome allies were well out of the way :
and concerning John Lilburne, one of the two
or three other libellers who suffered about the
same time, Henry Marten, the wittiest of the
members of the Long Parliament,- remarked
" that if there were none living but himself,
John would be against Lilburne and Lilburne
1 Laud's speech in Star Chamber. - Cf. Ludlow, iii. 91.
1637. FAILURE TO DETER OPPONENTS. 179
against John "^ When the time came for action
a very subordinate part would be assigned
to these virulent writers. But their punish-
ment and their popular triumph had exposed
the weakness of a Government which had not
guards enough even to drive away a mob from
Palace Yard. 2 Their sufferings, enormously ex-
aggerated, and spoken about as if they were being
inflicted every day by the brutal myrmidons of
tyrannical rulers upon the upholders of liberty,
were described with fullest details in pamphlets
spread broadcast over England ; and became the
topic of conversation in every alehouse where
men met. The punishments inspired no dread
because they were so infrequent and in themselves
not sufficiently terrible ; and the Star Chamber
grew to be hated without being feared. Elizabeth
with her wholesale massacre of Roman priests,
hardly strong enough to mount the ladder after
the constant application of the rack ; 3 Cromwell
with his awe-inspiring scaffolds, where bands of
splendidly equipped cavalry surrounding the con-
demned 4 made patent the strength of the Govern-
1 Forster's Lives, iii. 217, but Wood's Athenae, ii. 174, attri-
butes the words to Judge Jenkins. Cf. Hutchinson, ii. 160.
2 See Relation of Capuchin Mission, 346, "The king hath no
guards," and Ranke's England, ii. 66, " Foreigners were surprised
to see how completely the king was in the hands of his people,
that there were hardly any fortresses to which he could fly for
safety in time of need ".
3 See Howell's contemporary comparison of the policies of
Elizabeth and Charles, iv. 450.
4 Executions of Charles!., Hamilton, Holland, and Capel, pub. 1650.
180 LIFT. AND TLMLS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. IX.
inrnt and the weakness of its opponents, knew
how to evoke a well-calculated terror. The
secret prisons, the tortures, the burnings of the
Inquisition, to which the proceedings of the
Laudian bishops were sometimes absurdly com-
pared. 1 made men's blood run cold with fright. 2
I] ut no Englishman in those rough days 8 feared
the loss of a little blood, or a few minutes' pain
which would leave him active as ever for the future.
And, indeed, no one took the trouble to express
pity for the ordinary petty criminal, or for the
poor Papist Pickering who lost his ears in the
pillory a year later "for saying the kino- was a
Papist at heart and the Protestants devils". 4
Laud seems to have been perfectly conscious
that the policy of the pillory had proved a mistake.
He laments to Wentworth its failure as a deter-
rent ; nor could Wentworth give him any sound
advice as to how he should check the libels. 5 Per-
haps it was the feeling that no one was frightened
1 >y the pillory which caused the Star Chamber to
inllict that horrible cruelty of a public whipping upon
Lilburne in 1637, which blots its usually gentle
list of sentences. The archbishop often speaks,
1 Mussel's Life of Spottiswoode, xliii., quoted by Rankc.
Howell's Letters describe this, i. 218.
3 Cf., e.g., Howell's familiar Letters, i. 25 and 28, and iv.
493 ; Cromwell, Letters, xcix. and ci. ; and the acts of the Scotch
Presbyterians.
4 Garrard to Strafford, July, 1638.
! '.-n fjord /'rt/>m, ii. 119.
1637. DEJECTED CONDITION. l8l
in the constant succession of lengthy cyphered
despatches which he sent to Dublin, of the evil
clays which he is sure must be expected, unless
they could carry "Thorough" through quickly.
His health was becoming more and more un-
certain ; and he felt himself growing old, for at
sixty-four 1 (he was born in 1573) most great men
of those days were worn out ; Andrewes had died
at sixty-one ; Salisbury at forty-eight ; King
James at fifty-eight ; Richelieu would only live to
be fifty-seven ; Pym to be fifty-nine ; Oliver Crom-
well to be fifty-nine. It was time for him to be
retiring, and to spend his last years in devotions
as Lerma had done in Spain ; 2 for his elasticity
was gone, and his endurance was becoming ex-
hausted ; but he had no successor ready to hand.
He had lost by this time that bright, genial
manner which had won the hearts of the young
Oxford Fellows ; had captivated the royal cour-
tiers at Whitehall ; had made him the intimate
friend of Buckingham ; and had even persuaded
the citizens of London to open their money
bags for the restoration of St. Paul's. Men
complained now of the rough impatience of the
primate ; at Lambeth he had become inaccessible
to visitors from the country, or sent them home
offended by his harsh and hurried rejection of their
1 Letters to Strafford prove that he expected his death in this
year.
- Howell, i. in.
[82 LIFI AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. ix.
courtesies. He had mortally wounded by his rude-
ness the self-love of Argyle, 1 who was to repay
him by becoming the most cunning- engineer of his
ruin. He himself felt the change that had come
over him as he spoke with Edward Hyde in the
Lambeth Gardens about the unintentional sharp-
ness of his voice and manner. 2 His letters to
Wentworth lose the quaint humour and the love
of amusing anecdote 3 which are so characteristic
in the early days of their intimacy. Overwork
had strained his nerves. Now the tone at best is
a humorous melancholy. " I prophesied, and it
proves most true, that the old wife of Canterbury
would prove a notorious shrew to me. And I'll
tell you a pretty tale by-the-bye, and 'tis true.
When I first came to Lambeth there were in the
walks song-thrushes which even began to sing in
February, and so continued, and the nightingales
followed in their season. Both of these came my
first year, I think to take their leave ; for neither
of them hath appeared ever since : and I presently
said I should have a troublesome time in that see,
and so it proves." 4
And a few months later he writes in the same
key : "Oh, my lord, I am grown old and extreme
1 Sir P. Warwick, p. 90.
ntrast his reception of the Dutch ministers of Knglish
congregations in September, 1635 (State Papers, vol. 297, No. 21),
with Clarendon's Life, i. 71, and State Papers, vol. 314, No. (>y.
a Laud's Works, vii. 70, etc. 4 Ibid., vii. 41 (>.
1637-8. THE ATTACK ON BISHOP WILLIAMS. 183
weary of this my pen, yet I am willing to endure
all, if not more, than I am able (for very crazy I
was last week, and my frequent letters to my Lord
Marquis of Hamilton by his Majesty's command
lie heavy upon me) to give you a full, true and
real account of all your business. And now, my
lord, I shall conclude sadly. It is not the
Scottish business alone that I look upon, but the
whole frame of things at home and abroad, with
vast expenses out of little treasure, and my mis-
giving soul is deeply apprehensive of no small
evils coming on. Gocl in heaven avert them ; but
I can see no cure without a miracle, and I fear
that will not be showed." l The ill-health of states-
men has often exercised a decisive effect on the
course of politics, and made them fear imaginary
perils so vividly as to leave them blind to their
real dangers. A serious mistake of Laud's at
this time well illustrates his irritable and fatigued
condition.
Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, had been de-
prived of the Great Seal early in the reign of
Charles, and had retired to Buckden, his diocesan
residence. As lord keeper he had used his in-
fluence at the close of James' reign to attempt the
overthrow of Buckingham, who had been the
original architect of his fortunes : disgrace had
naturally followed detection. But the king could
not be satisfied until he was ruined. Williams
1 Laud's Works, vii. 456.
184 I- IKK. AND TIMLS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. ix.
had always been Laud's enemy and Laud's rival :
and entries in the Diary prove how much jealousy
and apprehension Laud had felt regarding him,
till the archbishop had gradually persuaded him-
self that with Williams religion was only a ladder
for ambition. Of this he was so convinced that
when the Bishop of Lincoln became involved in
lawsuits with the Crown he persistently refused
to appeal to the king on his behalf. 1 It is noticeable
that while Charles and Laud forgave their personal
enemies as a religious duty, the enemies of Buck-
ingham could never recover their favour. Eliot
had expiated by his death in the Tower the elo-
quent words which the king believed .were the
cause of Felton's crime. And the treatment of
Williams was certainly unwise ; it was probably
unjust ; for there is no real proof that Laud was
correct in saying: "The Bishop of Lincoln has been
the root of all the mischiefs which have befallen
Church and State for many years past 'Y 2 Con-
sequently they allowed the Opposition at this time
the spectacle of a bishop, learned, diligent, capable,
to all outward appearance devout, imprisoned in
the Tower on a charge of tampering with witnesses
in a lawsuit. Even before this their harshness
1 Laud speaks of many intercessions made by him for
Williams with the king, but they certainly ceased at this time.
There is no proof that he had owed his advancement to Williams
in any way. This rests on a story in Hacket which has naturally
quite a different explanation.
2 Laud's Works, vii. 396.
1637-8. THE INFLUENCE OF BUCKDEN. 185
had driven Williams into the arms of the discon-
tented nobles. 1 At Buckden he had brought up the
sons of several great peers ; at Buckden he had
somewhat ostentatiously set the example of what
a prelate should be who was not cumbered with
the affairs of State, hospitable and genial, affording
to his guests the cheerful refreshment of artistic
and musical services, strict in his ordinations, zealous
in his superintendence of his clergy, broad and
liberal in his ecclesiastical policy, friendly to men
of all opinions and all classes. 2 From Buckden
came the only pamphlets 3 and books which could
in the judgment of the learned answer the weighty
and witty defence of Laud's system which his
chaplains issued at his direction. Thus Bishop
Williams in the Tower seemed to stand forward as
the natural mediator between High Church and
LOW T Church. Men could point to his principles as
the true alternative to the present plan of govern-
ment, and assert their fidelity to the Church while
they assailed the archbishop. It was this prosecu-
tion of the Bishop of Lincoln, following upon
the pillorying of Prynne and his friends, which
seemed to give colour to the charge spread by
seditious tracts broadcast over England that the
archbishop had laid a deep and dark design to
1 Racket's Life of Williams.
Compare his friendship with Nicholas Ferrar.
:i Fourteen hundred copies of Williams' book on the altar were
sold immediately after publication (vide Strafford Papers).
iS6 LIKK. AND TIMKS ()K WILLIAM LAUD. CH. ix.
rcintroduce Popery. Specious evidence was not
lacking ; the Lord Treasurer Weston was believed
to have died a Papist ; Secretary Windebank was
suspected of Popish leanings ; some of the bishops,
notably Goodman and Montague, were accused
of negotiating with the Papal envoys ; l Romanism
was spreading at Court, and had gained many
converts." 2 The queen 3 had even dared to take the
young Prince of Wales to mass. The Papal
envoys were received by the king- ; and instead of
executing Jesuits the Government was doing its
utmost to persuade the recusants to take a modified
oath of allegiance. 4
So far as Laud was concerned, never had he
been so active and so resolute in his opposition to
Rome, though he always refused to persecute the
Roman Catholics. 5 At the council board/' and at
1 See Life of Laud by a " Romish Recusant".
- Capuchin Relation, pp. 314-343.
3 For the bitter hatred felt for the queen by the Puritans see
Ludlow's comment on her death, iii. 226; and cf. Tillieres, p. 205.
4 Clarendon Papers. See the whole question in Berington's
Panxani.
5 Epistle Dedicatory of Book against 1'ishcr. The system
seems to have been this. The priests and Jesuits were arrested
and convicted according to law; but then released on bonds given
by their friends that they would come before the courts for sentence
when required (State Papers, vol. 308, Nos. 66, 68, 69, 70 ; and cf.
Berington's Vunzani).
'' Diary, 22nd October, 1637; Laud's \\'<>rks, vii. 379. The
" Romish Recusant " absolutely acquits Laud of intrigues with
Rome, though he accepts the evidence against Montague. See
Con's Letters.
i6 3 7-9- STRUGGLE AGAINST ROMAN ENVOYS. 1 87
private interviews with the king, he was constantly
demanding that English men and women should
not be allowed to attend the queen's chapel. 1 At
this time he republished his Book against Fisher,
the Jesuit. His efforts to reconcile the recusants
to the English Church and " to break the bonds
which united them to the chairof St. Peter" 2 were at
times so successful as to call out the jealous watch-
fulness of the Roman Curia. 3 He had been deeply
offended when emissaries from the Pope pressed
upon him the offer of a cardinal's hat, 4 pointing
out that in reunion with Rome lay the real safety
in the struggle against the Puritans. The Roman
claim to be the only and the original Church of
Christ struck him as not merely ill-grounded, but
even ridiculous; "there is no greater absurdity
stirring this day in Christendom than that the
Reformation of an old corrupted Church must, will
we nill we, be taken for the building of a new ;
the Catholic Church of Christ is neither Rome nor
a conventicle;" 5 and though he was perfectly con-
1 Englishmen were driven from the chapel by force. Cf.
Lilly, Life and Death of Charles, p. 146.
' 2 Salmonet, i. 226. 3 Evelyn's Diary.
4 Diary, 4th and lyth August, 1633. Pere d'Orle'ans, the
Jesuit historian, is confident that Abbe Siri spoke without evidence
in stating that Laud intrigued with Cardinal Barbarini, ix. 260 ;
while on the other hand the " Romish Recusant " tries character-
istically to throw doubt on the offer of the cardinal's hat to Laud.
5 Epistle Dedicatory of Book against Fisher. Cf. sect, xxvii.
2 of the book, where he comments on the absence of the Greeks
from Trent.
iSS l.IFi: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. IX.
scions that his adhesion was worth any price which
the' Papacy could pay, he always showed the most
profound distrust and dislike of the Papal court.
" So long as the Jesuits write and maintain
that ' faith given is not to be kept with heretics,'
and the Church of Rome leaves their doctrine
uncensured (as it hath hitherto done), A. C.
shall pardon us that we come not to Rome,
nor within the reach of Roman power, what
freedom of speech soever be promised us." Rome
is "a very safe place, if you mark it, for us to
come to ; just as the lion in the apologue invited
the fox to his own den ; safe perhaps for coming
thither, but none for coming thence ; vestigia nulla
retrorsum 'V
Rejected and thwarted by the archbishop, the
Romanists had proceeded to organise an opposi-
tion party in the Court. It was headed by the
queen, 2 who detested Laud's economy, and was
continually urging the king to extravagant building
and to lavish gifts ; all too successfully, since Laud
complains to the Irish deputy: "We will spend on
and not be sensible of our wants till extremities
seize upon us," 3 and again: "As for the king's
coffers, the lock of them is too much at command
and there be many keys ". 4 Cottington sup-
1 i;nk against lusher, sect. xxi. 7.
- Laud's Works, vii. 172, 334, etc. Cf. Hobbes' Hchcmoth,
and Lilly.
' Ibid., vii. 451.
4 Ibid., vii. 511. l ; or royal extravagance see Stutc /'<;/V/'.s,
vol. 288, Nos. n, 51, 100, vol. 289, No. 70, etc.
1637-9- THE COALITION AGAINST THE MINISTERS. 189
ported her with his skilful knowledge of political
life : Holland, Jermyn and Percy, hungry for
grants from the Crown, besieged the ears of the
king with complaints of the archbishop's meanness.
Hamilton had his own interests to serve, and ex-
ercised his preponderant personal influence with
the king on their behalf. Winclebank was afraid
to support the archbishop. And soon a new
Secretary of State, Sir Henry Vane, bringing
about a malign alliance 1 between the party of the
queen and the party of the Puritans, would finally
place the archbishop '' between two factions, very
like corn between two mill-stones," ;: and in so
doing seal his fate. The instability of the king's
character, though he was firm enough w r hen in
the archbishop's company, made him incapable
of resisting the blandishments of his charming
ancl beautiful wife, and the insinuations of some
of his accomplished courtiers ; and added to his
minister's embarrassments. " I believe nothing
in Court but what I see done," 8 Laud writes one
day; and another day: "'Tis a wonder to see
the king so constant ". 4 The ground was slipping
1 The alliance was all the more dangerous because it was not
avowed. Each party was intriguing against the minister. Further
Baxter (Autobiography, p. 76) gives it as his opinion that the Papists
hatched several of the sects, and that there were secret Papists
in the Parliamentary army. Cromwell later on had Jesuits in his
pay ; see " History of Penruddock's Rebellion " in Ludlow, iii. 514,
and cf. Hutchinson, ii. 178.
- Laud's Works, vii. 380. 3 Ibid., vii. 421.
4 Ibid., vii. 181.
190 LIFi: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. en. ix.
from beneath his feet. Jesuit and Puritan
alike were persuading the people that he was
a tyrant. He was detested by the great nobles
and country gentry because he had checked their
oppressions and severely punished their vices; 1
while the Londoners and other commercial com-
munities disliked him because he was opposed to
i 'arl laments, and was levying taxes which they
considered to be illegal.
But the charge of Popery was the most deadly
of all those which were whispered against him ; -
for the hatred of Rome had become by this time
firmly engrained in the character of the whole
Kno-lish people. "I was born in 1588," said the
Earl of Oxford to a Romanist who tried to
bring him over, " and christened on the 5th of
November." 3
1 Lilly's Life and Death of Charles I., p. 162.
- Nehemiah Wallington's Historical Notices. May's Causes of
the Civil War and Hobbes' Behemoth. Foley's Records of tJic
English Province, Society of Jesus, appears to show fewer English
enrolled as Jesuits during this period.
3 Fuller's Church History, iii. 309.
NOTE. The Count de Tillieres, who was for some time inten-
dant of the queen's household, gives us full details in his memoirs
of her political action. He blames her secret alliance with the
Puritan chiefs and her opposition to Laud, and explains it on
p. 201 (ed. 1863) : " Soit qu'elle fut fachee qu'un autre qu'elle
gouvernat son mari, soit qu'il lui donnat les memes sujet de plainte
qu'avait fait 1'autre (i.e., Weston : this refers to the queen's extrava-
gance), soit qu'etant jointe a la cabale des Puritains, ellc voulut
choquer un homme qui n'etait pas dans leurs intercts".
CHAPTER X.
LIFE AT LAMBETH, 1622-1640.
Friendships Neile Buckingham Noy Windebank
Wentworth Hyde The Household The Ferrars.
SINCE the archbishop had no domestic interests to
divert his thoughts at Lambeth from the dangers
which threatened his policy, and no family affec-
tions to console him for the loss of popularity, it
was natural at times that he should be bitterly
depressed by the rising storm of opposition. His
father and mother had died while he was a young
man at Oxford ; of his half-brothers and sisters,
who apparently had settled in London, he saw
little, 1 and most of them died before he rose to
power ; 2 for his nephews and nieces he did as
much as the heavy ecclesiastical calls upon his
purse would allow him, though he refused to
benefit them by his public patronage.
1 This did not arise from his neglect, but from the difference of
interests ; he would now and then drive straight from Whitehall
to visit them (Diary, 3rd January, 1625).
- Letters to Wentworth.
(190
LI1-T. AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. en. x.
He had deliberatel) adopted the celibate life,
ami persuaded his friend Juxon, his successor
in the see of London, and lord treasurer, to follow
his example, because he considered that without
family he- gave no hostages to fortune, and left
himself free to carry out the work of reforming
the miseries of the Church, to which he believed
God had specially destined him. 1 His affections
therefore could only find an outlet in friendships
and in that kindly interest which, as his Diary
shows us, he always took in the affairs of his
servants.' 2
Of his early friendships we know little. From
1608 to 1640 he lived in the closest intimacy with
Dr. Neile; and when that prelate became Bishop
of Durham Laud made Durham House his
London home, until his own elevation to the
metropolitan bishopric. The patronage which
Neile bestowed upon him he repaid with interest,
as his own power increased ; and he persuaded
the king to appoint his friend, first to the see of
Winchester, and then to the primatial throne of
York. But no letters, and only a few bare entries
in his Diary, remain to prove their terms of
friendship.
It is when Buckingham appears on the scene
that we are first admitted to the affectionate
warmth of Laud's heart. That magnificent noble.
1 Fuller, C/innli History, iii. 476; and Trials and Troubles, i(>i.
Diary, 23rd July, 1624; 2 ^th October, 1635, etc.
1622-8. INTIMACY WITH BUCKINGHAM. 193
whose personal beauty dazzled the nation, whose
easy grace made him for some years the darling
of the House of Commons, so calmly self-con-
fident that he could be courteous to the meanest
of the people, and never forgot his politeness 1
under the most savage invectives of Eliot and of
Coke (both at one time his clients and his
admirers), exercised a similar fascination upon
Laud. From the Qth of June, 1622, when, as he
records, u My Lord Marquis Buckingham was
pleased to enter upon a near respect to me. The
particulars are not for paper," until the 24th of
August, 1628, when "the news of the Duke of Buck-
ingham's death came to Croydon, where it found
myself and the Bishops of Winchester, Ely and
Carlisle, at the consecration of Bishop Montague
for Chichester with my lord's grace," Buckingham
is the central figure in his thoughts. Sometimes
we come upon a letter to the duke, as on the I3th
of December, 1625 : 2 " I am heartily glad to hear
your lordship is so well returned and so happily as
to meet so great joy. God hath, among others
His great blessings (and I know your grace so
esteems them), sent you now this extraordinary
one, a son to inherit his father's honours, and the
rest of God's blessings upon both. So soon as I
came to the end of my journey I met the happy
news of God's blessing upon your grace, and it
1 Parliamentary History, vii. 42. Cf. Clarendon's Rebellion.
- Laud's Works, vi. 247.
13
194 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. x.
seasoned all the hard journey I have had out of
Wales through the snow." Sometimes there are
entries in the Diary meant for no eye but his own,
as on the i ith of January, 1623: " My Lord of Buck-
ingham and I in the inner chamber of York
House"; the 1 6th of May, 1624: "I watched with my
Lord of Buckingham. This was the first fit that he
could be persuaded to take orderly ;" and the 22nd
of May : " My Lord Duke of Buckingham missed his
fit"; the 3rd of January, 1625 : "The duke brought
me to the king. There I was about an hour and
a half reading papers and talking about them with
his majesty and my lord duke;" the 23rd of Janu-
ary, 1625, Sunday night: "The discourse which
my lord duke had with me about witches and
astrologers " ; Sunday, the 4th of September : " I was
very much troubled in my dreams. My imagina-
tion ran altogether upon the Duke of Buckingham,
his servants and family ; " the 25th of September :
" I was told that the Duke of Buckingham had a
son born, whom God bless with all the good
things of heaven and earth ".
After Laud's appointment to London, and the
great increase of his power in the State, his letters
have been preserved to us in large quantity.
From these we learn of several very intimate
friendships which cheered the period of his ad-
ministration. Of Noy, the famous attorney-
general, he writes : " I have lost a dear friend in
him, and the Church the greatest she had of his
1628-34. FRIENDSHIP WITH WINDEBANK. 195
condition since she needed such". 1 Sir Thomas
Roe, Sir Henry Wotton and Vossius are in constant
correspondence with him. But two were specially
close friends : the first was Windebank, an old
pupil at St. John's, whom he persuaded the king
to make Secretary of State in June, 1632. He an-
nounces the appointment in a characteristic letter : 2
To Secretary Windebank,
S. in Christo.
MR. SECRETARY, For though you will think
perchance that I am apt enough to jest, yet I know
you will believe these enclosed. And this present
day in the afternoon at council, Secretary Cooke
is by his Majesty's special command to declare it
to the Lords. So now you have a second cure to
attend as well as your son-in-law. The name of
the parish is S. Troubles. And now I return you
your prayers for me : God send you as much
health as you may have business. I have sent
Dr. Ducke to bring you the news, that the women
may abuse him for his last week's knavery. I
pray you make haste up, and follow the directions
of this enclosed. And among other benefits I
doubt not but the very naming you to this place
will make them at Oxford look well to your son.
So in great haste I leave you to the grace of God,
and rest,
Your very loving friend,
GUIL., LONDON.
1 Diary, loth August, 1634. '-' Laud's Works, vii. 43.
196 LI1-T. AM) TIM1.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. x.
But Windebank gradually deserted his patron,
evidently under the influence of the queen's
chaplains, who, in their constant intrigues against
the archbishop so soon as they realised him to be
the strongest barrier against the restoration of
Popery, persuaded the secretary that his only safe
alliance was with the queen's party. Little by
little a coldness grew up between the former
friends, which Laud felt bitterly.
His other most intimate friend was Thomas
Wentworth, afterwards Lord Straftbrd. The
outspoken consistent bishop had for some time
distrusted the new minister who had been so lately
the leader of the Opposition. But on the 2ist
of January, 1631, took place that conversation k< in
my little chamber at London House" which
bound the two men in the most intimate alliance,
only to be severed by death. Laud constantly
requested his friend to burn his letters, but happily
his wishes were disregarded, and from them we
obtain the most distinct picture of the archbishop's
life in the years when he ruled England. The
first portion of a letter to be transcribed shall be
that in which he thanks his friend for con-
gratulations on his appointment to Canterbury :
" Now, my lord, why may you not write as
whilom you did to the Bishop of London ? The
man is the same, and the same to you ; but I
you stay for better acquaintance, and till
1 Diary. - Laud's Works, vi. ji^.
1633. CORRESPONDENCE WITH WENTWORTH. 197
then you will keep distance. I perceive also
my predecessor's awe is upon you, but I doubt
I shall never hold it long ; and I was about to
swear by my troth, as you do, but I remember
oaths heretofore were wont to pass under the Privy
Seal, and not the ordinary seal of letters. Well,
wiser or not, you must take that as you find it ;
but I will not write any long letters and leave out
my mirth, it is one of the recreations I have always
used with my friends, and 'tis hard leaving an old
custom, neither do I purpose to do it ; though I
mean to make choice of my friends, to whom I
will use it." The next 1 shows the overwhelming
character of the work described in chapter vii. :
u I can scarce keep open my eyes, it is so late ;
therefore I end abruptly, and with hearty wishes
for your good, answerable to that you do for God
and His Church, I leave you and yours to His
blessed protection ". The next two extracts refer
to some presents which Wentworth had sent
him : 2
" Therefore truly I suspect that either they
use worse salt to the eels than to other fish, or
less than such great fish require, or else there
is some incorrigible muddiness in the eel while 'tis
fresh. Your lordship sees what a skilful fish-
monger I am grown. But this learning I have
all the Lent long, and a kind of unmannerliness
which accompanies it, contrary to the proverb of
] Laud's Works, vi, 360. 2 Ibid., vii. 331.
198 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAI 1 h. CH. x.
a gift horse, whose mouth should not be looked
into. But now Easter is coming you shall see I
shall be more civil. I have also received the cap
which you sent me ; but I cannot tell you how it
may be to my liking (for that is the thing you
wish) because, to deal truly with you, I have quite
forgotten whether it be to be used for winter
travel in the daytime or for the night. But sure
the perfume is so strong that whether I use it by
day or by night it will fill me with headache, and
if it be for night use, quite mar my sleep. But
your lordship must needs be at the pains to send
me word how I must use it. As for the pad-
saddle and the martin's fur, I will stay your own
leisure for them ; yet this I'll tell you, and you
may be sure of it, I will not use my great horse
till I have that saddle. And if you think that I
will not ride him then neither, the matter is not
great." And again : l
" I thank your lordship for my lamp. I have
not yet had leisure to try it, but I will as soon as
I can, and then give your lordship an account of
it, as now I give you thanks for it. Within two
days after I received the lamp, I received from
you a rich saddle, the Dutch pad which you
spake of to me. And the first opportunity I can
get to step to Croydon, I will, God willing, try
that also, and see how easy it will prove. All the
fear I have of it by view is, that it rises too high
1 Laud's IVorks, vii.
1633-9- CORRESPONDENCE WITH WENTWORTH. 199
before. But it may be that it is my fault of skill
that judges so ; but, however that prove, you have
been at too much cost with me, for the saddle is
too rich, this being not an age for any bishop to
go, or ride, or almost do anything else like him-
self."
Then we come to more serious matters mixed
with humorous comments. 1
" I am sorry to hear you say that the gout will
not leave you. And yet that is no wonder ; for
there is not one of a thousand that once comes to
have it in his feet that can ever shake hands with
it afterwards and bid it farewell. You make a
good use of it when you think of Cosha. But
sure your thoughts would grow wild there. And
more service a great deal may you do at the
council table, so long as the gout hangs in your
heel and lets your head alone. But your next
thoughts please me very well : that you will never
withdraw from the king our master's service in a
storm, though I am not of opinion that any valour
of yours could make anything stir but your tongue,
were you fettered indeed with the gout.
"I'll assure you I was very proud of my justice
in the sentence which I gave concerning the hung
beef. And it was well executed : for it did as
well deserve to be hanged as any beef in England.
And now I see your lordship's approbation of my
sentence given in that very weighty controversy,
1 Laud's Works, vii. 532-3.
2OO
I. IKK AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD.
it doth very much encourage my justice : as I
doubt not you shall find in your cause the next
term, if it prove as good and justifiable as this did,
otherwise you were best look to it. As for your
promise of sending me more, I like it well. And
the condition better, that no Scottish Presbytery
might be permitted to eat of it at my table. For
111 assure you, I will ne'er admit a lay elder of
them all, if I may know him : much less will I teach
any of them the way to your house for more.
Only, I pray, take heed they do not find the way
of themselves, for as yet, to my apprehension, I do
not see ' thorough ' in anything.
"And this last line of mine is answer enough
and too much to the next passage of your letter.
For as for your half a dozen men that would set
their hearts upon the business, you shall do well
to send Diogenes with his lantern to look for them.
Not but that I think there are more than so many
to be found ; but because my eyes are dim and
cannot discern them. And I pray God, you do
not prophesy, that there will be no thinking of
4 thorough ' till things come to greater extremity.
And then, for aught that any man can promise, it
may be too late. As for the trained bands, there
are many disputes raised which you shall have
more at large in my side paper if I can come to
any certainty."
From other letters we see him at Lambeth,
swinging a book in his chamber for exercise ; < >r
1633-9. FRIENDS AT LAMBETH. 2OI
pacing up and down the great stone gallery, and
longing for the company of his friend, Lord
Scudamore ; l or delighted with a present of a cat
which Lady Roe has sent him from Germany ; or
worried with the volume-like letters which he has
got to answer from Scotland and Ireland; or gliding
across in his barge to Whitehall to have a long talk
on business with the king after dinner, or to dis-
cuss deep philosophical questions with him and the
students and artists of the Court.' 2 Then in the
spring he is looking for the reappearance of his
pet tortoise. 3 Or the famous Hales comes to
visit him, and walks with him in the garden at
Lambeth, till they thoroughly understand one
another, and part Hales astonished at the arch-
bishop's learning, and satisfied that the troubled
times require prudence in what is written and
published ; the archbishop planning what he can
clo to reward the philosopher, and make work
easier to him by driving away the res angiista
doini. Or Edward Hyde comes in, and, as they
pace among the shrubberies, tells Laud what a
bad name he is getting in the city of London, and
how the country gentry complain of his want of
courtesy, when he hurries them out of his Lambeth
study on discovering that they have only come to
flatter him. There was little time for pretty com-
pliments in those busy days when he was "late to
1 Works, vi. 367. - Diary, and Works, vii. 283.
" Benson's Laud, p. n.
202 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. x,
U-d," and "extreme weary"; but no one on
reading the Diary and Correspondence can fail to
see the sincerity of the man, the greatness of his
purpose, his keen sympathy with affliction, and
his true attachment to his friends.
Any spare time and attention had to be given
to the supervision of that huge household of
chaplains, gentlemen, servants and friends, who
occupied at this time " the ninety-seven chambers "
in the palace of Lambeth and were organised for
work and prayer, study and public writing in a
manner which evoked admiration and made it
possible for the archbishop to supervise every
department of State business, except the one
which the king jealously withheld from his cogni-
sance, the office for Scottish affairs.
A visit to the archbishop at Lambeth by an
unknown scholar shall conclude the chapter.
We have seen the deep interest which Laud
had taken in the community of Little Gidding :
Nicholas Ferrar had died in December, 1637 ;
but at Easter, 1640, his nephew Nicholas, who
at the age of twenty-one was already master of
twenty-four languages, came to London to present
a polyglot Bible to Prince Charles. Laud intro-
duced him to the king, sent him to Prince Charles,
and then received him and his father at Lambeth,
on the morning of Easter Eve.
After a few words with the young man, he 1
1 See Rev. J. E. B. Mayor's Two Lives ofFerrnr.
1640. VISIT OF YOUNG NICHOLAS FERRAR. 203
"took his father aside and said : ' Let your care
now cease for your hopeful son, or for his future
preferment, or estate, or present maintenance.
God hath so inclined the king's heart, and his
liking to your son, and the gifts God hath en-
dued him with, that having been informed of his
virtuous pious education, and singular industry
and Christian deportment, and of his sober incli-
nation, he will take him from you into his own
protection and care, and make him his scholar and
servant ; and hath given me order that after the
holidays being past I should send him to Oxford,
and that there he shall be maintained in all things
needful to him at the king's proper charge, and
shall not need what he can desire to further him
in the prosecution of those works he hath begun
in matter of languages ; and what help of books, or
heads, or hands he shall require, he shall not be un-
furnished- with : for the king would have this work
of the New Testament in twenty-four languages
to be accomplished by his own care and assistance ;
and to have the help of all the learned men that
can be had to that end. Assure yourself he shall
want for nothing. In a word, the king is greatly
in love with him, and you will, and have cause to,
bless and praise God for such a son.'
" So John Ferrar, being ravished with joy, in all
humble manner gave thanks to my lord's grace.
And they returning to Nicholas Ferrar, my lord
embraced him and gave him his benediction.
204 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. x.
Xicholas Ferrar, kneeling down, took the bishop
by the hand and kissed him. He took him up in
his arms and laid his hand on his cheek, and
earnestly besought God Almighty to bless 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 happiness that can be desired,
and ought to be our chief end in all our actions.
God bless you ! I have told your father what is
to be done for you after the holidays. God will
provide for you better than your father can. God
bless you and keep you.' So they parted from
his Grace."
FURTHER AUTHORITIES.
The correspondence of Laud and Wentworth here becomes in-
valuable. Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond : Baillie's Letters
and Journals ; The Verney Memoirs; Nehemiah Wallington's His-
torical Notices ; The Hamilton Papers ; Sir Ralph Verney's
Diary ; Mentet de Salmonet, Histoire des Troubles de la Grande
Bretagne, ed. 1660 ; May's Causes of the Civil War, Maseres'
edition ; Lilly's Life and Death of Charles /., Maseres' edition ;
Memoir es du Comte Leveneur de Tillieres.
CHAPTER XI.
POLICY IN IRELAND AND SCOTLAND THE FIRST
DISTURBANCES 1633-1639.
Wentworth in Ireland Reform of the Church and
University Ministers for Scotland Laud's Mistake
about the Clergy Secrecy in the Scotch Office The
Army on the Frontier Pacification of Berwick.
LAUD and Wentworth had always realised the
dangerous complications in which the existence
of two semi-independent nationalities within the
empire might at any time involve their system.
If they were to maintain the Tudor plan of govern-
ment, by the king for the people, they must be
free from dependence on the will of Parliament ;
and war or rebellion would necessitate the raising
of funds which Parliament alone could supply.
They therefore turned anxious eyes upon Ireland
mcl Scotland.
Ireland Wentworth took into his own charge.
There to some extent he could carry out his ideal
}f a strong and beneficent executive, drawing to
tself the affections of the people by its financial
3robity, its industrial energy, its sternly impartial
idministration of justice ; and there he never
brgot to listen with attentive sympathy to every
(207)
JOS l.Il-T. AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. XI.
complaint made by Parliament in the name of tint
people ; for Ireland was far from the Court and
from the harpies who fed upon the gentle-natured
Charles. 1 Laud's share of this work had been to
defend the Irish administration at the council
board. Had it not been for his influence the re-
call of Wentworth would on several occasions
have been certain ; and he had brought the Irish
bishops, clero-y and university into alliance with
the lord deputy. 2 As Chancellor of the University
of Dublin, to which office he was elected in 1634,
and by his personal influence with many of the
prelates, the archbishop had materially aided
\Yentworth in the pacification of Ireland. Irish-
men could be made, and were made, contented and
happy by a strict police and by the protection and
development of commerce and industry, such as
secured to every man the fruits of his labour, and
opened to all fresh opportunities of advancement ;
and never were Irishmen less brow-beaten by " the
great ones " a than in those prosperous years. l>ut
neither statesmen considered these measures a
full solution of the Irish difficulty. A rich and
thriving community would agitate for freedom,
and for a share in the government of the empire.
Then the differences of education, of habits, of
1 Carte's (Jnnond, vol. i.
2 Laud's Works, vii. passim, and Carte's Ormond, i.
3 Strafford Correspondence, ii. 95. Carte's Ormond, i. See
Lives of Strafford.
i6 3 4-9- A BRITISH NATIONALITY. 209
religion, would threaten a schism between the two
countries. Prosperous Ireland would become a
peril to the imperial interests of England unless
the Irish could be absorbed in the English race ;
unless the educated classes could be imbued with
English ideas, and English principles, and English
ambitions ; l while the cultivators of the soil, and
artisans, and smaller traders came to practise
English habits and to live with English surround-
ings. 2 Thus it was an article of Wentworth's
political creed that the university and the Church
must mould the future. Romanist Ireland would
never be loyal Ireland ; Laud in the University
of Dublin was to do for the Irish gentry and pro-
fessional men of the new generation what he was
doing so successfully for England through Oxford.
Meantime an able and popular clergy might with
the support of the Government teach the Irish
peasantry to love the Prayer Book and to look to
the Church as their protector ; and thirty years
might see them weaned from Romanism with a
success as complete as that attained in England.
A good deal was achieved in this direction.
The Irish bishops and clergy were compelled to
reside each in his diocese or benefice, and were
allowed on no pretence whatever to hold prefer-
ment in England ; there was no playing with duty
1 Sir afford Papers, i. 299.
3 The Irish children were to learn English (Laud's Works,
vi. 374). Cf. Irish Narratives of 1641, Camden Society.
14
210 I. IKK AND TIMKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CM. xi.
for the coadjutors of Laud and Wentworth.
Pluralists like the Archbishop of Cashel, who held
sixteen livings, were compelled to disgorge. Lay-
impropriators received equally severe treatment ;
one of the greediest of them Laud writes :
44 Dermot O' Dingle hath a mighty swallow,"
" three vicarages at once and not one stick
by the way ". T Everywhere neglected and im-
poverished parishes were being put into working
order. The Irish articles, which were strongly
Calvinistic, were repealed by convocation, and the
English accepted in their stead. The new bishops
were carefully selected at Laud's advice by the
king ; and the lord deputy himself was authorised
to appoint to all inferior dignities. Moreover, as
it was found that the episcopal chancellors were
both ignorant and corrupt, and able to hinder
many of the reforms of devoted bishops like the
saintly Bedell, 2 directions were given by Laud's
desire to the lord keeper Coventry to choose in
England suitable lawyers of repute for these diffi-
cult appointments. Meanwhile the Romanists
were watched with a jealous eye, and their propa-
ganda diligently repressed. 3 Things had gone so
11 that the deputy ventured to assemble a
1 Laud's Works, vii. 69. Carte's Ormond, i. 72.
3 Bedell, with Laud's support, translated the Bible into Irish
it was just ready for print when the Great Rebellion broke out an<
stopped their plans (Heylin's History of the Reformation}.
1 Strafford Papers, i. 187, and passim.
1634-9- THE GOVERNMENT OF SCOTLAND. 211
Parliament and obtained Parliamentary sanction
for all his plans. From Ireland there would be
no danger so long as Wentworth's hand controlled
"it. 1 But if resolute government was withdrawn,
the outbreak would be all the more terrible, since
every evil-doer of every party felt and found his
liberty of action curtailed, and was burning with
regret for the wild anarchy of former times. 2
Scotland required still more delicate handling ;
but this Scotland had not obtained. It was an
axiom with Charles that Scotland must be ruled
] by Scotsmen ; and there were few Scotsmen of
influence likely to endanger themselves for the
plans of a Government which was intent on cur-
tailing the greatness of the local magnates. Two
classes of men stand out prominently during these
years in the history of Scotland. There were the
successful preachers, men usually of noble personal
piety but devoted to the most extreme principles
-of their Reformation, and by the narrowness of
their experience unable to extend sympathy in any
degree to those of different training and of dif-
ferent nationality. Scotland under their guidance
would prove to be her own worst enemy ; and
would fall for the first time in her stormy history
under a foreign tyranny supported by a standing
army which she herself was compelled to pay.
Side by side with these estimable men, and
^employing them continually as cat's-paws to pull
1 Carte's Ornwnd, i. 88. * Wallington, ii. 216.
212 LIFT. AND TIMFS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xi.
out their chestnuts, were the leaders of the
Scottish nobility ; Argyle, whom Laud had per-
sonally offended ; Rothes, whose ruined fortunes
required the chances of a revolution ; Montrose,
who was annoyed by the king's reception of
him at the Court of Whitehall ; Loudoun, and
many others like them brought up in an atmo-
sphere of intrigue, educated to consider the
advance of their personal power in their own
districts the one object worth striving after, and
now discontented because the Crown was seeking
to deprive them of their oppressive privileges. 1
To the nobles the Episcopal Church was most
hateful because they held many acres of the
bishops' lands ; while the Presbyterian preachers
shrank from the bishops and the liturgy because
bishops and a liturgy existed in the Roman Church.
James I. had succeeded in partially restoring
the royal authority in Scotland by skilfully playing
off the preachers against the nobles ; he had
gradually acquired greater power than his pre-
decessors and had set himself to strengthen this
by establishing a new episcopal hierarchy which
he had endowed with some control over the
clergy, and which he employed as a local counter-
poise to the nobles. After his accession to the
English throne he had prepared the way for the
reintroduction of a liturgy. But he died just as
his schemes were ripened.
1 Kushworth, ii. 392. Baillie, i. 7.
1629-37. LAUD POWERLESS IN SCOTTISH AFFAIRS. 213
Charles, who had left Scotland when he was
two years old, knew little of the Scottish character,
and had no sympathy with Scottish habits ; but in
his father's Court he had imbibed strong Scottish
prejudices which induced him to refuse to discuss
at the English council table the details of any of
his Scottish measures. Laud and Wentworth
managed Ireland ; they were almost entirely
ignorant of the affairs of Scotland, and at first
had no conception of the serious nature of the
Scottish outbreak. 1 The part of chief adviser for
Scotland was assigned to the Marquis of Hamil-
ton, a man who shared the tendency of his famous
house toward a tortuous and irresolute policy ; he
had gained the king's affections by his skill in
tennis and in hunting, 2 but he was universally
disliked and distrusted ; " the air of his counte-
nance," said a shrewd observer, "had a cloud
upon it ". 3
But though Laud was never allowed to interfere
with the Scottish administration, his ecclesiastical
1 Laud's Works, vii. 402, 426, 468, prove this. " The secret is
between the Marquis of Hamilton and the king," writes Laud to
Wentworth so late as 3Oth July, 1638 ; cf. Straff ord Papers, ii. 325 ;
Clarendon's History, i. 172. See also the defiance sent to France
in the middle of the Scottish troubles; when Richelieu asked for
English neutrality during his attack on Dunkirk (Pere d'Orle'ans,
ix. 264), Charles answered that he would send a fleet and 15,000
men to defend it. This shows how little ministers dreaded Scot-
tish outbreaks. Cf. Carte's Ormond, i. 88.
- Sir P. Warwick, 104; and Burnet's Hamilton, p. 4.
3 Charles was afterwards convinced of his treachery (Ludlow
iii. 260, letter to the queen).
214 LIFI: AN|) TLMKS <)F WILLIAM LAUD. en. xi,
policy was so cordially admired and accepted by the
king that in the general direction of the Govern-
ment his principles were constantly followed and
his advice occasionally invited. 1 And Laud
\ flattered himself that the king could use the
Church of Scotland as he was using the Church
of England to be the foundation of rule for the
<>d of the people. In thinking the influence
of the Church great upon the life and politics,
of Scotland he was right enough ; but he had
misjudged the feeling of the popular preach-
ers towards episcopacy and towards England..
Anxious to bring the Scottish Church into line
with the Church of England, and thus to draw
more closely the bonds which united the two
countries, on his two journeys to Scotland, once with
James I. and again for the coronation of Charles,
he had allowed his predilections to mislead him as
he visited the towns and talked with the leading
men, and had been too strongly impressed when
at the coronation of Charles no serious difficulty
was raised by the clergy or onlookers about the
^wearing of the episcopal and clerical robes usual
in the English Church. 2 Therefore he had deter-
mined to persuade the king to give the bishops
a share in the administration, and on the first
opportunity the chancellorship had been confer-
red on Archbishop Spottiswoode of St. Andrews.
1 Sec his letters to Scotch bishops, etc., t \j, r ., Works, vi. 438,.
444. - Salmonet, i. 4.
1629-37. ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH CHURCHES. 21$
Several of the great nobles, seeing the direction
in which the wind was blowing, offered to restore
Church lands in Scotland if they might receive in
\ exchange richer properties in England. To this
^klso Laud persuaded the king, and imagined that
it proved a real desire to restore the wealth and
authority of the Church. " Conformity," he knew,
*' must be the work of time ; " l but conformity, he
had no doubt, could be secured by patience. Other
acts of the executive, and new laws passed by
the Parliament of Scotland, tended to check the f
authority of the nobles. And, bitterest of all, the
purified administration of the English Treasury
had stopped the leaks through which so much
English money Lad found its way into the
pockets of the great men in Scotland, who began
to think that the English opposition was not likely
to prove so jealous a guardian of the money-chest. 2
Meanwhile Richelieu was troubled at the
growing power of the King of England ; 3 French
schemes for aggrandisement were frequently
hindered, while a mighty fleet, the product of
ship-money, held the Channel. There is sufficient
.proof that French agents entered into communica-
tion 4 with the discontented in Scotland, France's
1 Laud's own endorsement of State, Paper, vol. 286, No. 16.
a Lord Warwick made a great fortune out of the Rebellion.
According to Walker's History of Independence many others took
large sums for themselves when they got power. Cf. Mason's
Norfolk, 306; Ludlow, ii. 513; Hutchinson, i. 263; Holies' Me-
moirs, and Milton's History. 3 Martin, France, xi. 484, etc
4 Baker, p. 469. According to Andreas de Habernfield, the
2l6 LIKK. AND TIMKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. en. xi.
>ld ally, 1 as well as with the discontented in England
who were chafing at the exaction of ship-money and
the discontinuance of Parliaments. To the cardinal-
minister, the interests of the Papacy were of no
account.' 2 "No Popery" he found would be a
valuable political cry in Scotland ; and it was easy
to put a brave colour on this cry by misrepresent-
ing events in England, or by partially revealing-
some of those secrets of the English Court which
many of Charles' most trusted courtiers betrayed
to France. England should be occupied at home ;
it had been peaceful already too long for the
interests of its neighbours.
Xor did the Scottish nobles and clergy fail to
find sympathisers in England. The leaders of the
English Opposition had kept up correspondence
with them since they had accompanied Charles
on his magnificent journey into Scotland for his
coronation. And when finally it appeared to the
Scottish bishops that the fitting moment had come
for the introduction of a liturgy, preachers and nobles
saw their opportunity to recover political power.
French and the Jesuits were at the bottom of the whole disturbance
(Wharton's edition of Laud's H'or/cx, i. 573). In 1638 Richelieu
was very much troubled at the reception of Marie de Medici in
England, and redoubled his intrigues in England and Scotland
(Hist, de Louis XIII., par P. de Griffet, iii. 155). Cf. Rushworth. ii.
840. Pere d'Orleans, ix. 264. Clarendon, ii. 137. Carte's Ormoiui.
1 See Tillicres, pp. 206-261, for French intrigues in Scotland in
1628, on the ground of the former alliance.
2 See Martin, Histoirc dc 1'rnncc, xi. 51 i, M-./.. lor scheme oi a
(iallican Church under a patriarch and independent of Rome,
considered by Richelieu.
1637- BLUNDERS OF SCOTTISH BISHOPS. 2 I/
The Scottish bishops had given them every
right to protest. The new Prayer Book had been
authorised neither by synod nor by Parliament ;
in spite of Laud's counsel, 1 constantly repeated, it
had been carefully kept from public knowledge
until the day appointed for its first use. 2 All that
was officially known was that it was modelled upon
the English liturgy, with some alterations which
had been approved, slanderous tongues did not
hesitate to say suggested, by the Archbishop of
Canterbury. It was easy enough to go a step
further and assert that the new prayers had been
seen and were full of Popish doctrine ; 3 street
gossip was sure that they were to be used as a first
step to reintroduce Popery. 4 The passions of the
populace were skilfully stirred ; they were in-
flamed by the stupid secrecy of the responsible
men ; every conscientious Presbyterian was made
anxious and filled with alarm. And thus it was
natural that at the very first reading of the Prayer
Book on the 2 3rd of July, 163 7, a riot broke out in the
-cathedral of Edinburgh. 5 Well-informed persons
were confident that the whole thing had been organ-
ised by nobles and great ladies. 6 At all events by
1 Trials and Troubles, 168, etc. 2 Baillie, i. 2.
3 Accounts of Condition of Province, p. 551.
4 Cf. Clarendon, i. 165.
5 Laud's Works, vi. 554; vii. 374, 390 and 490, show his dis-
:gust at the mismanagement in Scotland.
(i Clarendon's History, i. 162-175 ; Straff ord Papers, ii. 264, etc. ;
"Guthry's Memoirs, p. 20. Cf. Salmonet, i. 29.
JMS I.IKI-: AND TLMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. XI.
a clever precaution the women took the lead in
the open assault upon Episcopacy ; it was they who-
disturbed the service by their outcries and missiles ;
it was they who nearly murdered the Bishop of
Edinburgh in the streets ; then as the weakness
and irresolution of the Government became evident,
ministers, nobles, merchants, citizens and farmers
followed in their wake. 1 The Solemn Covenant
was signed in the Grey Friars Churchyard ; the
royal castles were captured ; and the authority not
only of the bishops but of the king himself was
broken in a few weeks.
That the Rebellion originated largely in the
anger of the nobles at the resumption of Church
lands 2 and at the growing power of the bishops
is clearly proved by the articles afterwards ex-
hibited by the Scottish commissioners against
Archbishop Laud ; they prove also how cleverly
national and religious bigotry had been aroused
against the interference of the English bishops
and the supposed intention to introduce Popish
practices. One specimen is enough ; Laud was
seriously accused of directing the Scottish priests
to represent the Deity by turning their backs
upon the people in the communion service, and
the reference was given to Exodus xxxiii. 23. :
1 Guthry's Memoirs, and Baillie's Letters and Journals*
- Cf. Skinner's Life of Monk, p. 15, and Salmonet, i. n, etc.
3 Laud's History of Trials and Troubles, i i(> ; letters in \\'orks t .
vi. 494, 503.
1637- LAUD KEPT IN IGNORANCE. 2I(>
But for many months neither Laud nor Went-
worth anticipated any serious results from the
Scottish disturbances. 1 Negotiations were being
conducted by Hamilton and others who kept the
despatches to themselves ; and it seemed impos-
sible that the Royal Council in Scotland should be
so incapable as to lose control over the kingdom
without a struggle. The English Opposition v ere
better informed, and they were not likely to lose
such a chance of guiding the flames of discontent
into England also. 2 For it began to look as if
the kino- would have no further need of Parlia-
o
ment. Under Juxon's economical management
debts were being fast cleared off; 8 and the ordin-
ary revenue more than sufficed for the expenditure. 4
Only a few months before the riot in Edinburgh
the judges had decided in February, 1637, by a
small majority that ship-money might legally be
collected from the inland counties without the
consent of Parliament ; this would maintain the
fleet. The forest courts under Lord Holland,
the chief justice in Eyre, were continuing their
demands of heavy fines from those who had en-
croached, often scores of years before, upon the
1 This is evident from the little attention paid to them in the
correspondence ; and the first allusion to Scotch troubles in the
Diary is 2gth April, 1638.
2 Wood's Athenae, ii. 30, etc. 3 State Papers.
4 The ordinary revenue and expenditure of these years was
about 600,000 a year. The taxes in France reached 5,000,000;
and debt grew there.
220 LIFK AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xi.
ancient boundaries of the royal forests ; here was
an income for the queen and courtiers. And the
Treasury had resorted to several expedients,
hardly illegal in themselves, but all pointing to
a resolution which the kino- was said to have
o
formed never again to summon a Parliament.
Many conscientious people declared that the king
intended to find laws authorising him to take what
he chose from his subjects with no Act duly dis-
cussed and voted by the representatives of the
people. l And as the power of the Government,
though, as we have seen, it had no armed force
at its disposal, still appeared too strong for open
resistance, the only course the Opposition could
adopt was to persuade men to delay the payment
of ship-money, 2 to resist the removal of the
communion table from the nave, which Bishop
Williams of Lincoln now maintained was its legal
position, and to claim and assert their right to
receive the communion standing. But, after all,
such measures might annoy, they could not oxer-
throw the Government.
How then could the passionately ambitious
leaders, who had always determined to rule
J Simonds cTExves.
The first writ of ship-money issued in 1635 was paid up
speedily (State Papers, vol. 302, No. 45). In later years collection
proved more difficult. It was often unjustly assessed by
sheriff's ; this was one cause of its unpopularity. A few, lil^c
Hair.pden, refused to pay on political grounds, but most of the
complaints were of unfair assessment (Stutc Papers).
i6 3 7-S. THE ENGLISH OPPOSITION. 221
England and who believed that Laud was fast
leading them to Rome, throw away the oppor-
tunity offered by Scotland ? They opened nego-
tiations with the Scottish leaders ; Lord Saye and
Sele, Lord Brooke and others promised the Scot-
tish ministers to establish the Presbyterian system
in England ; they caressed the nobles with the
assurance that they should obtain practical inde-
pendence in their own districts and the sole
influence in the central Government ; they stimu-
lated resistance by their avowed belief that the
king had not popularity enough to raise an
English army, nor money enough to pay it, and
that the English people would support the Scots.
So the months rolled on with negotiation and
intrigue. Laud's voice was raised resolutely for
peace ; not that he had any doubt of the power
of the king to repress the rising ; in England he
was sure that public opinion sided with the
Government ; the press was in the hands of the
Church, 1 and the curtailment of the lectureships
gave the bishops the disposal of the pulpits through
which they would exercise the strongest influence
upon the congregations. In Ireland Wentworth
held ready an army which might at any time
| form the nucleus of a force to be used against the
Scots. But the archbishop detested war ; he says :
" Differences in religion I conceived might better
1 See measures to suppress unlicensed printing in 1637
(Heylin, 341).
\
222 I AW. AM) TI.MKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xi.
nposed by ink than by blood " ; l and " all those
domestic evils which threaten a rent in Church or
State- arc 1 with far more safety prevented by wisdom
than punished by justice ". ' 2 He had always urged
upon the Scottish bishops the importance of!
strictly legal action ; if they had now violated
the law, the new service book, so he advised,
ought to be publicly withdrawn.
But, as we have seen, Laud had little influence
upon the conduct of Scottish affairs. He has no
responsibility for the vacillating character of the
negotiations. And, though, as matters grew
more serious, it became necessary to consult the
Knglish council, he was by no means omnipotent
at Court. The queen desired war ; the courtiers
represented to the king that he was being insulted ;
and as by the advice of Hamilton and other
[/ Scottish counsellors 3 Charles absolutely refused to
make terms with rebels and insisted on an armed
demonstration in 1639, Laud finally recommended
him to call upon his people for an army and for
supplies. This plan was adopted. The nobles
and gentry were summoned to lead their retainers
in person to the North in order to repel the
threatened invasion of the Scots ; the clergy took
1 Trials and Troubles, 167.
- Kpistle Dedicatory of Hook against Wisher.
ne Earl of Lanerick was Secretary for Scotland; In
Hamilton's brother; he was only twenty-one. See list of other
Scotch nobles at Court in Heylin, pp. 354 and 355.
1639. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 223
the lead in contributions of money ; the diocese of
Norwich, which was supposed to be the hot-bed
of Puritanism, sent ^"2000 ; the Archdeaconry of
Winchester gave ^"1300; and money flowed in
from all sides. 1 Only a few of the Puritans held aloof,
and with them the larger part of the Romanists
dissuaded, so it was said, from supporting the
Anglican king by a special letter from the Pope. 2
The action of the Government proved its
complete assurance that it possessed the support
of public opinion ; and that the nation would
place its arms and its money at the king's dis-
posal. And Laud's confidence was justified.
Lord Warwick had long been looked upon as
the head of the Puritan party, in spite of
his dissolute private life ; 3 but even he did not
venture to fail in mustering and despatching to
the front the train bands of Essex, of which
-county he was lord-lieutenant. 4 Only Lord
Saye and Lord Brooke showed any sign of dis-
affection ; they refused the military oath when
they reached York and were sent back con-
temptuously to their homes. 5
Lord Essex, on whom the Opposition thought
they could count, accepted the office of lieutenant-
1 Heylin's Life, 358; Laud's Works, vi. 558; Rushworth, ii.
-819. Rossingham News Letter, ist April, 1639.
- Rushworth, ii. 821. Cf. Rossingham News Letter, ist
April, 1639.
:i Lodge, Life of Lord Warwick. * State Papers, 1639.
3 Heylin, 362.
224 LIFE AX1) TIMi:s ()F WILLIAM LAUD. CH. XL.
general to the new army ; nor was his support
merely nominal ; his rapidity of movement and
skill secured Berwick, 1 though Scottish councillors
flying from Edinburgh assured him, when they
met him as far south as York, that Lesley and his
hosts were close at their heels. 2 He was desirous
to strike a blow at Edinburgh quickly before the
enemy was prepared. A powerful army soon
gathered on the frontiers ; Lord Arundel, the
greatest and proudest of the ancient nobility, was
at its head. The Court favourite, Lord Holland,
had command of the horse, appointed against
Laud's advice to please the queen ; 3 the minister felt
that here lay the weak place, for he dreaded the
intrigues of such courtiers who preferred their own
personal advantage to the interests of Church and
State, and, to gain popularity with the Puritans,
muttered to their confidants that the war was a
bishops' war. But there was a loyal spirit in the
army as a whole ; 4 the men were eager to come
to blows with the ancient enemy ; 5 we see, in the
letters written from the camp by Sir Edmund
Verney, that the troops, insufficient and ill
equipped at first, 6 gradually gre\\ into a compact
1 State Papers, April 3, 1639, Coke to Windebank.
2 Heylin, 363. 3 Laud's Works, vii. 523.
4 State Papers, vol. 423, No. 67, shows some disaffection but
more loyalty.
8 State Papers, vol. 417, No. 65, and Heylin, 360.
6 Verney Memoirs. Court and Times of Charles I. ; letters from
the army. Cf. Baillie and Hamilton Papers.
!6 3 9- STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 225
and powerful force, 1 in which the brilliant feudal
cavalry of the great nobles and wealthy gentry,
numbering some 8000 men, vied with the well-
drilled infantry which Went worth had sent over from
Ireland in order to form the backbone of a some-
what raw mass of soldiers, selected from the train
bands of the counties. The generals and experi-
enced officers were confident that by a vigorous
advance they could drive Lesley's army before them
and restore the royal power in Scotland by force ; 2
while the blockade of the Scottish ports, which
Wentworth and Laud advised as a gentler alter-
native, must soon have compelled the insurgents to
submit themselves to the king. 3 The fleet held
the narrow seas and made it impossible for the
friends of the revolt in Holland and France to
land the arms which they had prepared.
But Charles was surrounded by Scotsmen
who could not be expected to welcome an
English invasion nor to rejoice in the pros-
1 Verney Memoirs. Cf. Warwick, 129; Heylin, 363 to 367; Baker,
466; Hutchinson, i. 175. See State Papers, 4th April, 1639, tne
account of arms, ordnance, and ammunition that day despatched
from the dockyard ; and vol. 422, No. 63 ; and Rossingham News
Letter, ist April, 1639, for the sums of money sent to the army.
2 For comparative strength of armies, cf. State Papers, vol. 424,
No. 50, and vol. 421, No. 60. Col. Monk (afterwards Duke of
Albemarle) always gave it as his opinion that throughout the war
and even after the Battle of Newburn on 28th Aug., 1640, when
the Scots had obtained arms from abroad, the English forces were
decidedly the stronger (Skinner's Life, p. 18). Baillie, i. 210,
puts the Scots at 12,000. Heylin and Baker say " they had not 3000
musquets amongst them ". a Strafford Papers, ii. 234 and 235.
15
226 LIKE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. en. xi.
{u>ct of an English success ; Scottish lords-in-
waiting insinuated excuses into the royal ear ;
Scottish gentlemen of the bedchamber searched
the royal pockets in the night and sent the most
detailed information across the border ; l Scottish
nobles at Court spread rumours of the enormous
force with which Lesley was advancing, and for a
time gained credence, as the Verney papers prove
to us. 2 The Marquis of Hamilton had no desire
that his countrymen should be crushed ; 3 lying in
the Forth with a royal fleet, he carried on nego-
tiations with the popular leaders ; he allowed
Montrose to capture loyal Aberdeen and to
scatter the Gordons ; 4 in a constant flow of letters
he assured the king that the Covenanters would
submit peaceably. Hamilton had probably begun
already that double game of treachery to both
sides which eventually brought him to the block ;
but his younger brother, Lanerick, now Secretary
for Scotland, exercised an influence over the king
all the more dangerous because of his sincere
belief that the Covenanters were genuinely
desirous for peace. Bright, open, sprightly in
conversation, this nobleman had learnt from his
strong-willed mother 5 to be a firm Calvinist as
1 Strafford Papers, ii. 325. Guthry's Memoirs, 47. State Papers,
4'7i No. 85.
- <"/. Rush worth, ii. 909, and Heylin, 363.
* Guthry, 48, and vacillation shown in Hamilton l\ipcrs. Cf.
Burnet's Hamilton. 4 Salmonet, i. 69.
f See State Papers for the part taken by old Lady Hamilton at
this time (vol. 420, No. 121, etc.).
1639. PACIFICATION OF BERWICK. 22/
well as a devoted servant of the throne : per-
suaded himself, he persuaded the king that it was
only the irritating mistakes of his counsellors
which had produced the revolt. 1 His arguments
were supported by Holland ; as general of the
horse he held the command of a reconnaissance
into Scotland and had retreated in disorder at the
news that a strong body of troops under Lesley
was preparing to attack him. The disgrace of
this repulse Essex was eager to blot out by an
advance in force ; but Holland, who in Laud's
absence exercised the strongest influence with the
king, wished to cover his discredit by posing as
the mediator of a successful compromise. Always
Irresolute, Charles gave way ; in spite of the en-
treaties of Laud and Wentworth, necessarily
weakened by distance, he agreed to the Pacifica-
tion of Berwick on the i5th of June, 1639. He
dismissed his troops, who returned home full of
contempt for his vacillation ; Arundel felt himself
discredited ; Essex considered that he was de-
spised, since the king had rejected his advice and
now sent him away without thanks for his services ;
other great nobles like the showy and chivalrous
Newcastle had received personal rebuffs ; it would
be hard indeed to assemble such an army again.
The terms of the Pacification of Berwick
proved the dread which the English army had
inspired ; for the Scots agreed to surrender to the
1 See Lodge, Life of Lanerick.
228 LIFi: AM) TIM MS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xi..
king the principal fortresses, and to restore the
expelled and plundered royalists. But all they
desired was to gain time ; time to supply them-
selves with munitions of war from Germany and
Holland ; time to drill an army ; time to make
themselves friends in England and to organise an
English opposition against a king who had proved
himself irresolute and incapable before the eyes of
the assembled leaders of both nations. 1 In the
friendly meetings with Scotsmen at Berwick
many an English nobleman came to see the profit
he might make by the ruin of the Church and the
pillage of her property. Their strong feelings of
patriotism had been dangerously played with and
weakened in spite of the archbishop's advice.*
Scores of little borough votes would be marshalled
by great landowners against king and bishops at
the next opportunity; and the little borough votes
controlled the Parliament. 3
It was soon made evident that the Scots had
no intention of observing the Pacification of
Berwick ; they refused to keep their promise of
restoring the property of the bishops ; every when
the royal authority in Scotland was still disregarded,
and a powerful Scottish army was assembled on the
frontier where the deluded king had left the English
fortresses ungarrisoned at the mercy of the foe.
1 Heylin, 367; Clarendon, i. 197,
/rials and Troubles, 168.
3 See Verney Memoirs for smallness of constituencies.
1639-40. THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. 229
If there was to be a war under such dangerous
conditions there was only one minister who would
be likely to conduct it successfully. The pacifica-
tor of Ireland must try his hand at pacifying
Scotland. Therefore the long-felt desire of Laud
that the Irish deputy should be summoned to
England 1 and put at the head of affairs was now
gratified ; and Wentworth became Earl of Strafford
.and chief counsellor to the king in January, 1640.
Laud's Premiership was at an end ; the vigour
with which he had arranged the mustering of
the great army and had equipped it with ordnance
and money 2 proved that he held England perfectly
under control ; but nothing would induce him to
imitate Richelieu and take that part in actual
fighting which he considered incompatible with
the clerical office. Therefore he was absent at the
crisis of his career ; the courtiers for the moment
obtained the upper hand ; Charles failed to carry
through his purpose ; and the fatal loss of pres-
tige endangered the settlement of the English
Church, and the unity of the British Empire.
What would have been the change in the course
of history if the English army had crushed Lesley,
had advanced to Edinburgh and dictated peace to
Scotland, with Essex as the king's general and
Laud as the king's counsellor ?
1 Works, vii. 177, 273. ' 2 Hamilton Papers.
For the comparative strength of the armies on the frontier,
see Note C, p. 296.
CHAPTER XII.
THE SHORT PARLIAMENT OF 1640.
The Elections Laud's Hopes Temperate Character of
the New House Pym's Skilful Leadership Hyde's
Compromise A brupt Dissolution Laud's Expectation
of Death.
THE new Earl of Strafford had no hesitation in
persuading the king that it was necessary to
summon a Parliament. He was personally familiar
with the arts by which a majority could be formed
in the Commons whether for opposition or for the
support of the Government; and he was con-
vinced of his capacity to manage both electors 1 and
elected. 2 The archbishop gave him his cordial
support ; 3 they both disliked the doubtful legality
which hung round many of the expedients of the
Treasury, and considered it most important that
1 There is no proof of royal interference in these elections, but
the Government certainly did not leave Pym a free hand as they
did in the autumn.
2 As a rule there was no representation of the minority on
committees, e.g., in Long Parliament (/';/. Hist.j ix. 45,
* Diary, 5th December, 1639.
(230)
1640. HOPES OF PARLIAMENT. 231
these questions should be publicly debated and
settled in the great council of the nation. 1
Nor did the time seem to observers to be un-
favourable. Many of the bitterest speakers of
1628 were dead. The success of the administra-
tion during the last eleven years, which had proved
that the Government could be carried on without
a Parliament, would make members all the more
unwilling to risk another breach with the Crown,
while the revelation of the intrigues detected be-
tween the Scots and France must stir resentment
in every English patriot. To make concessions
in order to maintain the union of Britain under
one sovereign would be creditable to the popular
leaders ; while the minister who could re-establish
good relations between king and Commons would
deserve renown. Laud thought that Strafford was
peculiarly well adapted for this task, on the accom-
plishment of which he had set his heart.
But they both forgot how different the con-
ditions in England were to those of Ireland ; at
the English council table Laud and Strafford
counted for only two votes among many. The
king, vacillating between their advice and the
queen's persuasion, liked at times to show his inde-
pendence of his chief ministers. He obliged them
to share with Hamilton, whom they now distrusted
1 Laud's Book against Fisher, pub. 1639, speaks strongly of the
supremacy of Parliament, p. 211, ."., "The statute laws which must
bind all subjects cannot be made and ratified but in Parliament".
LIFi: AND TIMLS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xn.
and despised, the counsels for the Scottish cam-
paign and the Scottish negotiations. 1 In spite of
their fulsome protestations of affection for Straf-
ford, the haughty Arundel, the mindless ir-
resolute Northumberland, and other great nobles
in the council claimed in their hearts the su-
preme power as the due of their high birth,
and disliked his overbearing manner, while they
ridiculed Laud as a parvenu. Holland and
Cottington were intent on their own interests and
would always cut the shape of their policy to en-
large their pockets ; they were already intriguing
with the Opposition. 2 The most serious point of
all was to decide upon the representative of the
Government in the House of Commons. This
office was left to the new Secretary of State, Sir
Henry Vane the elder, who had been appointed
against the advice of Laud and by the influence
of the queen ; the two leading ministers could not
now succeed in obtaining his removal. Vane had
proved himself an adroit diplomatist on foreign
embassies, but he was without Parliamentary
experience ; he was an hereditary rival of Went-
worth's family, was a dependent of Hamilton and
Holland, and belonged to that Court clique
which they directed against the honest adminis-
tration of the Treasury, and to which the Jesuits' ;
1 They were called the Junto of Three (Lady Carlisle's letter,
quoted by Lodge, vii.). - Stulc /V/x-r.s.
cr, p. 470, asserts that Con had aided kiehelieu's ehaplain,
1640. CHARACTER OF THE NEW HOUSE. 233
hatred of Laud had given substance. His strong-
willed and capable son was the intimate of Pym
and Martin, and combined the Puritanism of the
first with the latter's aspirations for a republic ;
he was already betraying secrets of the Court to
the group of politicians who had promised the
Scots that they would wreck the Parliament.
On the 1 3th of April, 1640, the Commons met.
On the whole the elections had gone well for the
-archbishop's hopes. 1 Though Puritan and Jesuit 2
had had their influence in the constituencies, the
House was mainly composed of moderate men,
vexed certainly at many of the measures of the last
few years, prepared neither to support to the full
Laud's Church policy, 3 nor the system of taxa-
tion constructed by Weston and Noy. and full of
many grievances ; but possessed of a strong
feeling that a compromise between king and
Parliament should be attempted if possible. 4
Laud and Stratford had expected no more than
this ; they were themselves most anxious to
redress the numerous personal and local wrongs
of which an arbitrary Government hears nothing
Chamberlayne, in stirring up the Scotch troubles. Carte, Ormond,
i. 89, speaks of the Jesuits as swarming over from St. Omer at
this time to stir trouble. Just here, when we should have been so
grateful for information as to the proceedings of the Roman party,
'" the Romish Recusant " gives us none, in his Life of Laud.
1 See his fears in Works, vii. 502 and 513.
2 Works (folio), p. 584. 3 Parliamentary History, viii. 397-457-
4 May, in The Causes of the Civil War, speaks indignantly of
*' the obedience and compliance" of this Parliament.
234 Lm: AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xn.
till a storm of discontent breaks out against its.
agents. The redress of private and public
grievances they considered the first duty of every
Parliament. They had also prepared the kind's
mind to surrender ship-money, which the judges
had only justified as a temporary expedient ; to
admit that his right to tonnage and poundage
rested on Parliamentary grant alone ; and to
reform the Earl Marshal's Court. All th<
concessions were promised or implied in the lord
keeper's speech when the king opened Parliament.
But they were determined to insist that under the
critical circumstances supply must for once take
precedence of grievances ; if the Commons would
vote subsidies to replenish the Treasury, so that the
Scottish army could be confronted with a strong
force, and the northern garrisons of Berwick, New-
castle and Carlisle set in order, the king pledged
his word by their advice to continue the session
until Michaelmas, so as to give full opportunity to
discuss necessary reforms in the administration.
The lord keeper was instructed to point out that it
would be disgraceful to leave the northern counties
at the mercy of their ancient enemy, and that the
Scottish nobles had gone so far as to send an invita-
tion to the French king to interfere on their behalf.
The Commons elected Glanvill, a moderate
constitutionalist, as their speaker; they proved
their temperate intentions by a stern rebuke
administered to a member named Pearcl who
1640. PYM'S ABLE OPPOSITION. 235
spoke of ship-money as "an abomination"; 1 the
tone of the speeches 2 contrasted strikingly with
those violent claims to settle the doctrine of the
Church and those savage invectives against the
ministers which had brought about the catas-
trophe of 1629. But Pym and his friends had
promised the Scots that they would break up the
Parliament ; 3 after several speeches from others,
on the grievances of Englishmen and the neces-
sity of keeping well with the king, the great
leader of the Opposition rose in his place ; no one
knew better than he the temper of his audience or
was more capable of varying his tone to suit their
feelings of the moment ; and if he was already
possessed with the idea that to the House of Com-
mons and not to the king belonged of right the
control of the destinies of England, no one had
been more quick to perceive that this House of
Commons was not prepared for so great a revolu-
tion : with measured and temperate utterance he
recalled to their minds their ancient privileges,,
violated, as he maintained, by the law courts in
1629 ; he dwelt upon the hardships imposed upon
men of sincere religion by the Declaration of
Sports, by compulsory kneeling for communion,
and other innovations ; he concluded with those
1 Clarendon's Rebellion, i. 208.
3 See those of Waller and others in Parliamentary History,.
viii. 441.
3 Clarendon, i. 218.
236 LIKK AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xn.
pecuniary grievances which were sure to inflame
the mass of new members ignorant of the neces-
sary expenses of Government and familiar with
the meaningless cry that the king should live
of his own. 1 When he sat down he had taken
captive the imagination of the wavering members;
they had been as sheep without a shepherd ; this
was the man they would follow. All applauded
the mildness and clearness of his principles.
There was no Wentworth 2 in the House to rise on
the other side and to set forward against the long
catalogue of petty annoyances some great concep-
tion of imperial Government. Vane sat silent and
allowed himself to be swept along with the
stream ; suffering the great body of moderate
members to feel that the Crown intended to
insist upon its usurpations, and leaving them to
forget the defenceless North and the public
interests of England.
Under Pym's leadership the votes of the
House began to show that it was resolved to give
precedence to the redress of grievances, and had
no immediate intention of granting supplies.
Still, men like Edward Hyde, who began his
political career in this Parliament, 3 and Ghmvill,
1 The growing expenses of Government had long made this
impossible. There was no separation as yet of the civil list from
the military and civil expenses.
- \Ventworth\s sickness during the Short Parliament kept him
even from giving full instructions to the privy councillors in tin-
House. :: Ser his Life, i. 83.
1640. PROPOSED COMPROMISE. 237
the Speaker, made their influence felt as the days
went on ; and Pym did not venture to throw off
the mask and to open those direct attacks upon
ministers which in the next Parliament were to
make him famous.
After several feebly-conceived efforts to per-
suade the House to vote supplies, Vane was
commissioned to go down with a definite proposal
The king would give up ship-money, allowing
the judgment of the judges to be called up before
the Lords on a writ of error and to be reversed, if
the Commons would vote him twelve subsidies.
We are told that this was done against the advice
of Laud and Strafford, and that they had so far
modified the resolution of the council as to get
Vane authority to accept eight subsidies. Hamp-
den, most popular from his resistance to ship-
money, rose in his place to oppose the motion ;
such a grant, according to him, would crush the
tax-payer to the ground ; but when Glanvill,.
speaking from the floor as the House was in
committee, pointed out how small would be the
sum payable by individuals, even of large estate,
and Hyde interposed with an amendment that
the House would consider the proposal, it became
evident that the Moderate party was likely to
prove the stronger. Many members, while
refusing to throw out the proposal, thought that
the king should make further concessions before
they granted so large a sum. Vane stiffly repeated
J5^ s 1-lKL AM) TIMES OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. XII.
his former statement; the king 1 would take no less,
and grant no more ; but it is said that Herbert,
the Solicitor-General, a persuasive speaker, held
out hopes of conciliation. The second day's
debate lasted from 8 A.M. till 5 P.M., and then
the Opposition could only succeed in securing
an adjournment. What malign influence could
they find to convince the king and his council
that the Opposition would be victorious, and
so make definite the breach between Crown and
people ?
Vane hastened to Whitehall ; he informed the
king- that the House would grant him nothing ; In-
cut-talked the Solicitor-General, who always dis-
trusted his own judgment, and he thoroughly
incensed Charles against the Commons. The
king agreed to summon a council at 6 A.M. the next
morning, the 5th of May, and then declared his
decision to dissolve a Parliament whose members
evidently cared nothing for their country. Vane-
repeated his statement that the Commons "would
not give one penny," and seems also to have per-
suaded the king that they would vote the war with
Scotland to be unjust. 1 Strafford and Laud, who
arrived late, owing to a mistake about the hour,
had no opportunity of forming an opinion on the
possibility of working with the House of Com-
1 The Mate I'tipci-s show that Pym had intended to raise this
question in the hope of confusing the issues.
1640. CAUSES OF THE DISSOLUTION. 339
mons, and found that the king's decision was
already settled without their advice. 1
So strangely does the personal character of
comparatively unimportant men decide the course
of events. In the early days of the Covenant,
Montrose had taken no very high position among
the leaders in Scotland ; his adhesion to the cause
had been short-lived ; yet it was his enthusiasm
and skill which by crushing Aberdeen and the
Gordons had made the rising a success. 2 And
now Sir Henry Vane, hitherto an almost unknown
man, had broken down by his misrepresentations
the last hope of agreement between king and Parlia-
ment in England. Royalist writers accused him
of a deliberate treachery such as that by which he
afterwards destroyed his personal enemy Strafford;
but it is at least possible that he had lost his head
in the debate and had fancied himself peculiarly
well informed, through his son, of the intentions
of the members. Pym had gained the day ; the
Puritan leaders listened with smiles of joy to the
royal speech dissolving Parliament ; Oliver St.
John expressed the thoughts of all his friends
when he said that day to Hyde: " All is well ; and
it must be worse before it is better ; this Parlia-
ment would never have done what was necessary
to be done". 3 For if they could now prevent the
1 Trials and Troubles, 78, 79; cf. Clarendon's Life, i. 84.
a Cf. Salmonet and Baillie.
3 Clarendon's Rebellion, i. 218.
240 LIFK AND TIM MS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xn.
king from assembling the forces of England, and
could bring a Scottish army into the northern
counties before the next elections, the disgrace
and the danger would ensure an irresistible
majority to overthrow Church and State, and
give the Government of England once more to-
the aristocracy.
The Moderate party were overwhelmed with
sadness. Edward Hyde, like many others, had
left the House on the night of the 4th of May,,
without a doubt that he could carry a compromise:.
Now the Government appeared to have cast away
all moderation, and to have embarked on the most
arbitrary course.
It has seemed important to describe so fully
the history of the Short Parliament, 1 because
we see in it the serious effort made by Laud
and Strafford to rule England with a Parliament,
and the reasons which frustrated their attempt.
The Scottish rising had compelled Charles to
listen to counsels to call the Houses together
which he had previously refused to entertain ;
and had afforded the most natural opportunity
for the reconciliation of all classes of English-
men. Now the archbishop's policy had been
defeated, he hardly knew how ; and he felt as a
man groping in the dark. 2 The whole blame of
1 Its history is very difficult to trace, for Rushworth is almost
a blank.
2 Works (folio), p. 579.
1640. EXPECTATION OF RUIN. 241
the dissolution was cast upon him though he had
no hand in it ; l and he was bitterly grieved that
all these moderate men in whom he had felt such
real confidence, and about whose character he
had learnt so much from Hyde, were now going
home to tell the country that the king must be
brought to his knees, or he would take away their
liberties. 2 There were serious riots in London,
culminating in an attack on Lambeth which had to
be repelled with armed force : and the archbishop
felt painfully the libels which were constantly
brought to him. Evidently, to use Laud's own
words, Charles "was a mild and gracious prince
who knew not how to be, or to be made, great ".
Skilful Puritan opposition, and secret Jesuit in-
trigue, had driven him into his present course, in
which he was rushing to destruction.
Laud had always known that his enemies
would be satisfied only with his blood. It now
remained for him to define and strengthen the
Church position which he believed essential for
the future of English Christianity ; and to continue
his life-long strife against ceremonial Puritanism ;
for he was " still of opinion that unity cannot long
continue in the Church when uniformity is shut
out at the Church door. And of all diseases I
have ever hated a palsie in religion, well knowing
that too often a dead palsie ends that disease in
1 See libels mentioned in his Diary.
2 See Heylin, 396, and Barnard's Life of Hey tin, p. 118.
16
24-2 IIKK AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xn.
the fearful forgetfulness of God and His judg-
ments/'
With the second attempt to subdue Scotland.
and the circumstances which compelled the calling
of the Long Parliament, the biographer of Laud
has no special business. The tale of Charles'
vacillation and of Strafford's broken health has
been often told and needs not to be repeated.
The archbishop's share in the Government was
no more than a general support of the policy of
Strafford, and an attempt to satisfy men's minds
that the English Church had no desire to
Romanise ; for which end he directed the publica-
tion of a defence of Episcopacy written by Bishop
Hall, one of the moderate Puritan bishops, and
also of a treatise in explanation of the Scottish
liturgy. He was too great a man to feel the
slightest jealousy of a colleague who had super-
seded him in work for which he considered him
better fitted than himself; and to Strafford he
willingly left the conduct of the campaign, and
the direction of State policy. 2
1 Trials and Troubles, p. 224.
2 Lady Carlisle to Lord Leicester. Lodge, vii.
FURTHER AUTHORITIES.
The Trials and Troubles of Archbishop Laud, by himself (Whar-
ton's folio edition); Laud's Answer to Lord Saye and Sele ;
The Book of Devotions ; Prynne's Canterbury's Doome ; County
Histories.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CONVOCATION OF 1640. THE FALL OF THE
ARCHBISHOP.
Character of Convocation Divine Right of Kings En-
forcement of Conformity Etcetera Oath Church
Policy Defined Electioneering in 1640 Scottish
Army in England Attack on Sir afford and Laud
Impending Reaction.
THE Convocation of Canterbury had been sum-
moned as usual to meet simultaneously with the
session of Parliament; and the archbishop, anxious
at this crisis that the ecclesiastical policy of
England should be more thoroughly defined,
had obtained the royal permission to frame new
canons. But the Lower House of Convocation
was an elective assembly, chosen freely by the
clergy of England. Fifteen years of Laud's
government could hardly have allowed time to
shape even the chapter members and the official
members to a blind conformity with his will ;
while a large proportion of the House was
selected by the votes of the beneficed clergy in
each diocese, who, being presented by lay patrons
(245)
246 LIF1. AND TIMKS 1)1-' WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xm.
lor the most part, were certainly in no danger if
they opposed the bishops.
Laud's own account of the matter is that " no
canon in that convocation was surreptitiously
] Kissed by any practice of mine or without due
consideration or debate. Neither was there any-
thing in that convocation but what was voted
first or subscribed after, without fear or com-
pulsion of any kind. And I am verily persuaded
there never sat any synod in Christendom
wherein the votes passed with more freedom or
less practice than they did in this."
Nor, when we read the story of the resistance
which these same clergy offered to the stern
tyranny of the Presbyterian and Independent
divines, can we imagine that such an assembly of
well-born English gentlemen and learned scholars
would have bowed to the will of an archbishop,
however resolute and imperious. Therefore it
may be assumed that the seventeen canons, which
were passed by them unanimously after careful
debate, represent the reasoned opinions of the
English clergy in 1640. This is confirmed when
we remember that the lead in the Lower House
was taken by such cool-headed men as Sheldon,
now rising into prominence, and that violent
counsels for repression of Puritan opinions were
strongly reprobated by the vast majority.
It was natural that the first place should be
1 Trials and Troubles, p. 155.
1640. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. 247
given in such troubled times to the teaching of
the Christian Church about the civil power ; it
was equally certain that any weighty opposition
to the ideas now prevalent among the bishops
would find sufficient support from the House of
Commons then in session. 1 But the canon on the
supreme power of the king, which was passed
before Parliament was dissolved, caused ap-
parently no displeasure to thoughtful men ; and
indeed its language was studiously moderate.
Kings were declared to be responsible to God
for the right government of the Church, and to
possess the sole right to summon councils.
Subjects were warned by quotations from the
New Testament not to bear arms against their
lawful sovereign ; on this matter the example
and the opinion of the martyrs of old and
of the fathers under the early empire were
brought forward and endorsed. It was pro-
nounced to be the duty of subjects to supply the
king's necessities, and of kings to protect their
subjects' goods. In short, the Divine character of
the office of the king, consecrated by the Church,
accepted as sovereign by the popular shout
according to the old English custom, was here
insisted upon. But the king was declared to
1 Heylin says that Laud attempted to get a conference ar-
ranged between a committee of Convocation and a committee of
Parliament, so that the laity might be thoroughly satisfied about
the doctrine taught by the clergy (Barnard's Life, p. 117).
J4< S 'LIKE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xm.
govern under restrictions imposed upon him by
his coronation oath and the statutes of the realm,
and defined by the decisions of the law courts. If
it was a fair objection that those courts had
recently strained the rights of the prerogative as
they were soon to strain the powers of Parliament,
and Laud himself points out that there was
serious danger in leaving the common law un-
written, 1 the clergy might justly answer that it was
no business of an ecclesiastical synod to dictate to
the judges how they should administer the law.
Thus was solemnly set forth the English
Church principle of the relations between Church
and State. The bishops and clergy acknowledged
that the Government was a Divine institution,
sanctioned by God to administer justice between
man and man ; just as really as the Church could
claim the exclusive right to declare doctrine, to
preach the Gospel, and to administer the sacra-
ments. To emphasise this close relationship,
special services of prayer and praise in every
church were to solemnise the day of his Majesty's
most happy inauguration.
Church and State, being thus bound together,
were to enforce upon all men a certain uniformity.
Here it is evident that the theory of the seventeenth
century and the theory of the nineteenth part com-
pany. Yet few men at this period, certainly not Hen-
derson the Presbyterian champion of Scotland, nor
1 Triuls and '/"roubles, 151.
1640. ENFORCEMENT OF CONFORMITY. 249
Burgess and .Marshall so soon to be the spiritual
dictators of England, nor the leaders of the Long
Parliament, questioned the right and duty of
Church and State to combine in order to secure
conformity. 1
Three excesses in religion, as men felt them,
were to be repressed, but by argument rather
than by force ; Papists were to be summoned
to conferences, conducted by the bishops them-
selves, in which the errors of Romanism should
be exposed ; and all measures short of actual
persecution were to be used to bring back
into the English fold the 150,000 recusants. A
similar method was to be adopted against the
growing Socinianism which had tainted so many
of the Puritans ;' 2 and against the Anabaptists,
Brownists, Familists and other similar sects who
were calling in question the doctrines held uni-
versally by the Church since the days of the
apostles. 8
An oath was to be taken by every clergyman
and member of the universities to give a general
adhesion to the government of the Church by
''bishops, cleans, archdeacons, etc.," and to its
doctrines as set forth in the articles ; this oath
was soon to be represented to the archbishop's
astonishment as an intended instrument of tyranny ;
1 See Bacon's essay, De imitate Ecclesiae.
- State Papers, passim.
3 Cf. Laud's Speech in answer to Lord Saye and Sele.
250 LIFE AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xm.
and the somewhat careless words ct cetera were
supposed to be the veil under which men would
swear away their liberty. 1
The next canon concerned some of the rites
and ceremonies about which there had been such
heart-burnings of late, particularly the position of
the communion table at the east end of the church.
" We declare " said the canon, " that this situation
of the holy table doth not imply that it is or ought
to be esteemed a true and proper altar whereon
Christ is again really sacrificed ; but it is and may
be called an altar by us in that sense in which the
Primitive Church called it an altar and no other."
Unless the bishop should specially direct otherwise,
all communicants were to come up to the chancel
and kneel at the altar rails for the reception of
communion. Bowing on entering the church was
declared to be profitable and edifying, but it was
not to be compulsory.
The remaining articles dealt with the manners
of the clergy, and reformed and restricted the
powers of the ecclesiastical courts which the lawyers
had constantly used as a means for exaction.
Further, the Convocation passed a resolution to
make an improved translation of the Bible into
Welsh, in order to stimulate in that part of the
country a more vigorous spiritual life.
The legality of these canons was at once called
J Viuic Baxter's Autobiography for proof that the oath was
genuinely dreaded, and Nehemiah Wallington.
1640. PREPARATIONS FOR A STORM. 251
in question. Laud had felt grave doubts whether
the Convocation could legally continue to sit after
the dissolution of Parliament; 1 but he had been
overruled by the Crown lawyers, and was doubtless
glad of his opportunity.
Thus did the Church of England under the
archbishop's guidance fortify its position and mar-
shal its powers when the rising storm seemed
certain to sweep it out of existence. " When
the foundations of faith are shaken, be it by
superstition or profaneness, he that puts not to
his hand as firmly as he can to support them
is too wary and hath more care of himself than
of the cause of Christ." Laud, like Strafford,
was convinced that his enemies would not be
satisfied till they had taken his life ; both perceived
that there were secret influences about the king
which would attempt to overthrow the best com-
binations they could arrange by a repetition of
the intrigues which had been so often successful.
Strafford's system was destined to perish with
him. But Laud knew how deeply his principles had
taken root in the country, and he believed they
would survive ; by the promulgation of these
canons he was able to give substance to his ideal
of the Church ; barriers were erected against
Popery, Socinianism and Sectarianism ; the duty of
supporting the established government was set
1 Trials and Troubles, 282.
- Laud's Epistle Dedicatory to Book against Fisher.
252 LIFL AND TIMLS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xiiil
strongly before Churchmen, while they were taught]
to take the lead in reforms of the administration,
to insist upon equal justice for all, and to defend
liberty of opinion so long as it did not overthrow
outward unity.
In the evil days which now came upon the
Church such an authoritative declaration of policy!
could not fail to be eminently useful ; it would
bind together faithful minds, and would keep
before them the ecclesiastical system which they|
ought to strive to restore. By Sheldon, Morley,
Cosin, and Ward, all of them Laud's disciples,
these principles would not be forgotten in the
great Convocation of the Restoration; and while
these bishops of the future did not slight the
warnings given by their master's failure, neither
did they forget the magnificent conceptions which
he had set before them.
The Convocation was closed on the 2Qth of
May ; on the 3rd of November, five months later,
the Long Parliament had assembled. The Scottish
army had invaded England; the king had rejected
Stratford's advice, and, persuaded by some of the
great nobles, had entered into treaty with them.
41 The ancient enemy " remained in the country,
encamped at Newcastle, ready to draw sword at
any time in the service of the English Puritans,
who skilfully combined the disasters of the king
with the success of their Scottish allies to secure a&
majority in the new House of Commons. Great
5 4 o. ELECTIONS TO THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 253
/as the change in the faces and great the change
i the sentiments of the men who now replaced
tie moderate members of the Short Parliament.
There is no matter on which our curiosity is
lore aroused than the conduct of this important
lection ; on no matter has our curiosity been more
ompletely baffled. 1 The State Papers give us
.o help. 2 We know that the freeholders alone
injoyed the franchise in the counties, 3 and that
he country gentry could always have their way in
hese constituencies ; the great Puritan peers did
lot hesitate even to use threats to secure seats for
heir friends. 4 We know that in the boroughs
he franchise was sometimes very limited ; at
Buckingham twelve burgesses could elect whom
hey pleased, and at Aylesbury and Wycombe 5
he voting strength was little greater, while many
mall boroughs were in the hands of great lords
ike the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Bed-
brd, both gained to the Puritans. Leicester
lecided that it was more important to please
1 For Thetford where two Puritans were returned the candi-
late gives no hint of his intentions in his address (Mason's Norfolk,
79)-
' 2 Hardly a single document bearing on this election appears
o exist in the Record Office. So absolute is the dearth of informa-
ion that Dr. Gardiner says nothing about the elections.
3 In the populous county of Norfolk 1500 votes headed the
soil (Mason's Norfolk, 251).
4 See Lord Warwick's proceedings in Essex at the former
election (State Papers, 3ist March, 1640).
5 Sir R. Verney's Diary, p. 3.
254 LIFE AND TIM1 ' :s ()F WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xm.
Lord Stamford 1 than to conciliate the Chancellor
of the Duchy ; 2 and petty local questions often, as
they do to this day, decided the choice of men
who were to sway the destinies of England for
years. The town of Lynn afterwards suffered
severely for its Royalist opinions, but two Puri-
tans represented it in Parliament. 3 Oxford city
was decidedly Loyalist ; but it had private quarrels
with the university, and, rejecting Secretary Winde-
bank, sent two members who long supported the
Opposition. Even the university, though it was
devoted to Laud, elected Selden, the great Op-
position lawyer, to Parliament, evidently quite un-
conscious of the sad consequences to itself. Pym
found a seat for one of Lord Bedford's boroughs ;
he and his friends took the greatest pains to
exclude men who, like Gardiner, the Recorder of
London, were suspected of moderate opinions.
Yet even thus, when both sides appealed to arms,
more than half the county members (and the
county elections best represented the opinions of
the nation) ranged themselves on the side of
Church and king ; while the measures taken by
the majority to invalidate many elections, 4 and
1 For Lord Stamford's Puritan politics cf. State Papers, vol.
424, No. 28.
2 History of Leicester.
3 Mason's Norfolk, 282, where we see its own members attack-
ing it.
4 At least fourteen Royalist members were unseated, and
replaced by extreme men of the other side (see lists in Parlia-
mentary History, vol. ix.). Wallington, i. 221, talks of fifty.
1640. THE HOUSE NOT REPRESENTATIVE. 255
their arbitrary suspension of outspoken supporters
of the Crown. 1 combine with the petitions signed
by thousands of electors against interference in
the Church government to prove how little the
House agreed with the people on Church questions.
Perhaps the consciousness that they did not
really represent the nation was the reason why
the great body of members usually followed with
sheep-like docility the decisions of a few strong-
men. Only gradually did two parties develop
themselves in the Long Parliament, and then
almost for the first time we find divisions taken.' 2
The first object of the Puritan majority was to
ensure the disbandment of the royal forces at
York, and to retain the Scottish army in the
country by a fixed monthly payment. Thus
England lay by the choice of the Commons at the
mercy of a foreign army, 3 ready to march south-
wards if the organised mob 4 of London should
fail on any important vote to coerce the Peers, lay
and spiritual, or the constantly increasing Royalist
minority in the Commons. The king, having no
force to oppose to the city apprentices, submitted
helplessly to the dictates of the Puritans ; and to
the Puritans it seemed that the troubles of Eng-
1 Parliamentary History, ix. 237, 328.
2 There were two divisions on the impeachment of Buckingham
in 1626, but these stand by themselves ; and also one or two in
the Short Parliament of 1640.
:i Baillie, i. 283, and Salmonet, i. 126.
4 Pennington, the Lord Mayor, had a system for marching
down the city apprentices to Palace Yard (see Parl Hist., ix. 24*..
256 LIFE AND TI.MKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xm.
land were due to Laud and Strafford. Hamilton,
who had at one time been the most unpopular of
the three, had deserted his master and made terms
with his enemies; 1 but, as he said himself, "the
carl (Strafford) was too great-hearted to fear, and
he doubted the other (Laud) was too bold to fly"."
These were the two men pointed out by the
popular finger as the counsellors of that final
breach with the last Parliament which, cunningly
or stupidly, Sir Henry Vane, father of one of the-
most eloquent Puritan leaders, had brought about.
On the i ith of November, Strafford was impeached
and sent to the Tower. 3 The attack upon Laud
had to be deferred until the i8th of December ; he
was then accused of high treason by the Scottish
Commissioners, and impeached in the name of
the Commons of England by Denzil Hollis, a
prominent Puritan member, who hoped to save
his brother-in-law Strafford's life at the price of
the abolition of the bishops and the sacrifice of
the primate. Black Rod was ordered to remove
the archbishop in custody until detailed articles of
accusation should be presented.
Thus this great experiment of ruling England
for religion and by religion had been tried and
had failed. Never again would a bishop be
Prime Minister or chief counsellor of the Crown.
1 Baker, p. 470, says he helped Vane to get the Short Parlia-
ment dissolved. Was this the first part of the price of his safety "
- Clarendon, i. 239. a Baillie, i. 275.
1640. FAILURE OF RELIGIOUS RULE. 257
The Church, having been consolidated, would
soon enter on a safer and truer course, exercising
a dominant influence upon the development of the
nation ; exhibiting a power which it was dangerous
to provoke ; stimulating charity, education, devo-
tion, literature ; until the cold hand of the Whig
party nearly choked out its life in the eighteenth
century. But for the moment the public feeling
had been shocked by seeing the coercive power
employed under the direction of ministers of the
Gospel. As Christians the bishops seemed to
have no right to avenge the most atrocious libels ;
as magistrates and rulers they had no choice but
to punish insults or allow the Government to fall
into contempt. Therefore, bishops must cease to
rule the State ; and the animosity against them
carried men away so far that their retention in the
Church became matter of debate. Presbyterian
ministers, sectarian laymen, fanatical soldiers,
were now to try their hands in succession at other
forms of theocracy ; but their attempts would end
in the derisive laughter of the nation over the
ridiculous failure of Barebones' Parliament. The
bishops had at least taken some measure of human
nature : under Laud religious government had
been learned and liberal, bright and artistic ; the
equality of all men had been vindicated by the
law, and freedom of opinion had been jealously
safeguarded ; while the Bishop Treasurer Juxon
had administered the finances with such scrupulous
17
2$8 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xm.
rectitude and good sense that no charge whatever
could be found against him. But in Puritan Eng-
land, learning would be banished from the univer-
sities ; mirth would be suppressed ; the most pious
and the wisest teachers, Barnabas Oley and Cosin,
as well as Hales and Chillingworth, would be
reduced almost to starvation ; and if the Govern-
ment made itself respected abroad it would be
much more dreaded at home, where Presbyterian
Scots and Romanist Irish and Episcopalian Eng-
lish shuddered at the memory of the massacred
and murdered, or longed for news of friends sold
into slavery in the plantations of the West Indies. 1
These two great failures would make it clear
that England must not be ruled by a religious
party ; the second failure would, in addition, make
Puritanism detestable to every class of the people,
and produce the dissolute society of the Restora-
tion.
In politics Laud's failure was now decisive.
He had been led dangerously near an attempt to
make the king autocratic, and therefore it was
fortunate that he had failed. To what extent his
Church ideals would survive depended upon the
immediate future. No doubt the time had come
when Episcopacy might have its wings clipped.
It had always been a principle with the Anglican
divines that each national Church had a right to
1 Ludlow, Memoirs, ii. 553, 559; he speaks of Cromwell trans-
porting "whole droves at a time".
1640. CONDITIONS OF A REACTION. 259
shape its own policy ; but they had so far added
the conditions that each Church must remain
within the traditional lines of episcopal rule and
apostolic succession, of liturgical worship and of
sacramentally imparted grace ; and Laud as a
practical statesman had given this conception its
most distinct form. But would not the theory of
national independence in Church matters now be
pushed further? By the loss of Strafford Ireland
was to become definitely Romanist ; the failure of
Hamilton's Government left Scotland determined
for Presbyterianism. Could the ancient form of
the Church be maintained any longer in England?
Would it not be right and wise to set up presby-
*-eries throughout the whole island ?
The peculiar character of the English people
imposed certain plain conditions. A fair oppor-
tunity would be given to the new rulers if they
were moderate ; but persecution would provoke an
irresistible opposition. Then opinion would swing
back again to the side of the ancient Church, pro-
vided that the chief men of the Church party showed
sufficient endurance, and such faith in their own
principles as to suffer and, if need be, to die for the
cause. I f the leaders of the Long Parliament pushed
their victory to extremes, and insisted on destroying
their rivals ; if the great statesman now in the
Tower would face the block deliberately, rather
than betray Episcopacy ; if the infirm and aged
primate should be ruthlessly martyred ; if the king
2(50 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xin.
should be publicly executed for insisting on the
maintenance of bishops, then a safe future would
be ensured for the National Church.
Laud's behaviour in prison became therefore
a matter of the greatest moment to his followers,
dismayed but not in despair. They were prepared
to face the terrible and searching trial through
which their doctrine of peaceful submission to the
powers that be must now lead them. And just as
Laud had always opposed at the council board
any armed interference for Episcopacy in Scot-
land, so they refused to raise the standard of
revolt so long as the king remained with the
Parliament ; for it would be disgraceful that the
ministers of Christ should hesitate to suffer shame
for their Master's sake. And the Puritans found
it difficult to persecute their opponents at first,
because there was no resistance to the most
violent oppression of opinions and of principles.
The clergy stirred up no war to maintain the
bishops' right to sit in the House of Peers, or to
liberate them from illegal imprisonment in the
Tower, or to alleviate their own constantly in-
creasing wrongs. Only when the Parliament
broke into two parts, and the votes proved less
than a majority to be present at St. Stephen's,
and the king set up his standard at Nottingham
in defence of his divine right, did churchmen de-
liberately take their side in arms. So potent was
the influence of the teaching of Andrewes and
1640. PASSIVE OBEDIENCE. 26 1
Laud against civil war upon the clergy and laity
of the Church of England. It was this teaching
which gave patience to the great mass of the
nation through the oppression of the military
government of Cromwell, when Henry Vaughan
wrote, giving voice to the feeling of his fellow-
churchmen :
But seeing soldiers long ago
Did spit on Thee and smote Thee too;
Crowned Thee with thorns and bowed the knee,
But in contempt as still we see :
I'll marvel not at aught they do
Because they used my Saviour so ;
Since of my Lord they had their will
Thy servant must not take it ill.
FURTHER AUTHORITIES.
The authorities for the last chapters are Laud's own History of his
Trials and Troubles ; Heylin's Life of Laud ; Fuller's Church
History ; and Rushworth's Collections, while details have been
added from the memoirs and histories of the time.
CHAPTER XIV.
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL, 1640-1645.
Leaving Lambeth In Prison Execution of Strafford
Insults from Prynne Meekness of Laud in Prison
Devotions Effect of his Patience Trial and Sentence
Religions Bigotry.
THOUGH committed to custody in the morning of
the i8th of December the archbishop obtained
leave to spend the rest of the day at Lambeth,
arranging his papers and settling his affairs, and
thence, when the short December day was done,
to cross to his prison at Black Rod's residence.
That evening the aged primate knelt at his
devotions for the last time in the dimly-lighted
chapel of Lambeth. The daily services of the
Church had been his constant stay ; and now he
noticed with thankfulness how appropriate was the
consolation of the psalms for the evening. 1 The
chapel itself was alive with memories. It had
been built by a foreign primate, Boniface of
Savoy, the uncle of King Henry III., at the
command of a great Roman Pope. Was the
ruin of the one free Church in Europe now
i The Diary.
(265)
266 LIFF. AND TIMI-.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xiv.
presaged by his own departure ? and would the
colossal figure of Rome, the great enemy of his
lif<\ and now rejoicing in his overthrow, step in as
master ? There, in that same chapel, Parker had
knelt for consecration, and had often thought out
upon his knees the principles which were to steer
the Church through the early storms. There
Whitgift and his friends had asked for God's
guidance before they framed the Lambeth articles,
whose incubus it had been Laud's duty to re-
move from the spiritual life of the nation. Out of
it opened two rooms, simple and dark, which
Cranmer had constructed for himself: Cranmer,
whose martyrdom had destroyed the Roman yoke.
Could his own sufferings and death mark an epoch
like the death of Cranmer, and become a dyke
on the other side walling in the pure stream of
English Christianity from the desolate morass of
Puritanism ? To Laud this chapel had always
been an object of the deepest interest ; he had
restored the beautiful painted glass of the windows
with diligent affection; 1 they were soon to be again
shattered by the now dominant faction. The ex-
quisite architecture had contributed not a little to
the effect of his own devoutly organised services.
Gorgeous copes and altar ornaments, beautiful
music and elaborate reverence of demeanour, had
heightened the dignity of worship on many a
solemn occasion. In the garden outside he had
1 Rushworth, ii. 274.
1640. LEAVING LAMBETH. 267
often walked in counsel with Hyde the lawyer,
and Hales the deep thinker, and Heylin, brip-ht
historian and witty pamphleteer, and the narrow
but capable Neile, and the conscientious Juxon.
Now all this was over ; he had nothing more to
achieve, only to suffer and to die.
! As he stepped down the stairs, under the
so-called Lollards' Tower, to enter his barge, he
was startled by the crowd upon the river shore.
Had the Anabaptists come to hoot and to insult
him ? He was deeply moved and comforted when
he recognised the voices of the poor of Lambeth,
to whom for seven years he had been a father, in-
voking God's protection upon his head, and calling
out that they hoped soon to see him at home again
amongst them. 1 Poor folk ! they would miss the
munificent chanty of the affectionate and self-
denying archbishop.
Prison itself seemed more cheerful after such
a farewell : and in the early weeks of confinement
he was busy and interested with his reply to the
Scottish Commissioners. By these he was accused
as the great incendiary, the schemer for Popery.
His carefully prepared answers penetrate and de-
stroy with trenchant argument their accusations :
they prove the archbishop's vast learning, and the
clearness of his intellectual power, even in old age.
But it was not in the open arena of a struggle
against Presbyterian preachers and grasping nobles
1 Diary.
268 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD.
CH. XIV.
that the archbishop had to fight his last battles.
Week passed after week, and he was not brought
to trial. The victim was safe enough in his
prison until the chosen hour of the sacrifice should
come. There was no law in England which
could override the will of some 160 banded
members of the House of Commons ; no court
would dare to give Laud the benefit of Went-
worth's Petition of Right. The archbishop might
chafe at the illegality of his imprisonment ; he
would have to suffer in patience.
After several weeks he was moved amid the
angry shouts of the London apprentices to the
Tower. He saw his friend Strafford led out to
die : Strafford, whom, as he said, no law could be
found to convict, until a new lawless law l was
framed specially to destroy him. Strafford, being
denied an interview with the imprisoned archbishop,
had sent a message to beg for his blessing as he was
taken to execution. The long imprisonment had
shattered Laud's health, and he fell fainting when
Strafford turned to take his affectionate farewell,
and could hardly extend his hand in benediction
between the prison bars. To him, Strafford was
a martyr for the Church. Archbishop Usher of
Dublin, who had prepared him to die, came to
Laud's cell to relate how Denzil Hollis had pro-
mised to save his brother-in-law's life if he would
help in the destruction of Episcopacy. The great
1 Cf. Mozley's essay on Strafford, and Evelyn in Diary, and
Capd on the Scaffold.
i6 4 i-4- THE IMPRISONMENT. 269
minister had haughtily refused, and had died
resolute: "No enemy," said he, "am I to Parlia-
ments " ; and the Petition of Right and the pacifi-
cation of Ireland seemed to prove his truthfulness.
Then came the long waiting. Month by
month and year by year the archbishop ex-
pected his trial. There was a great comfort to
him in the public service at the Tower ; preachers
might and did apostrophise and insult him ; l but
he was in God's house with God's people, and he
could pray. Again and again he enters in his
Diary his gratitude to God for the patience which
was granted to him. And, indeed, the fierce
outbreaks of temper which were chronicled of him
had never been stirred, so far as can be ascertained,
by personal ill-usage ; it was oppression, or dis-
honesty, or selfishness which made him use hot
words or flame with anger. He was meek enough
in his prison, though resolute not to give way a
jot to the enemies of the Church.
Prynne was allowed to rifle his papers and to
carry off his Diary, of which he afterwards pub-
lished a mutilated and interpolated edition ; and
had even deprived him of his book of private
devotions. The archbishop sat by unmoved, and
helped the search. To Prynne he presented a pair
of gloves which, as he said, "the poor man
evidently coveted". He believed God had put
him there to learn resignation through indignities,
1 E.g., 1 5th May, 1642.
270 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xiv.
so that he should be fit for heaven ; otherwise, in
his busy life he might have been unprepared to
die. Naturally men who loved and followed him.
but who had been ashamed of his occasional out-
breaks of anger, 1 and annoyed at the sometimes
hasty and discourteous manner of his later years,
and troubled by the severe sentences which he
advocated now and again in the Star Chamber,
grew to look upon the prisoner in the Tower as a
hero and a saint. A great downfall, after men
have enjoyed their scornful triumph over it for a
period,' 2 first moves pity, and then admiration, so
long as the fallen magnate is dignified and patient.
The man who had ranked next in England to the
kino- had scanty food to eat ; was meanly clad ; and
confined in one bare room. At times his books
were denied him ; no friend might visit him ;
his very collection of prayers had been carried
off. Such a spectacle gave food for thought
even in those stirring times, and was enough to
move any but the hardest heart. Men told one
another tales of his gentleness and patience, and
of how he had won the affection of his gaolers.
Next to the story of the sufferings of the king as
described in the Eikon Basilike, the sufferings of
the once powerful archbishop stimulated the rising
reaction.
It was in these months that he brought to
perfection that course of private devotions which
1 Fuller's History, iii. 474.
'* Baillie, i. 309, and Wallington, i. 150.
1641-4- PRACTICE OF DEVOTION. 271
he had used at intervals through the day in the
busiest period of his life, always setting apart due
time for the recollection of God. Old, and worn,
and weary, he had now no difficulty in treading
the way of the Cross, and from the Cross to the
Resurrection, and from the empty grave of his
Saviour to the open gates of heaven. The way
had been familiar when he was strong and well,
therefore it was easy now ; every step of it was
already marked with the impress of his feet. The
book was published when he was gone ; and like
the devotions of Bishop Andrewes became a great
favourite for the use of pious souls. The arch-
bishop's sermons had converted many ; this post-
humous work, redolent of his own example, would
prepare many more souls for heaven. He would
teach men and women how to die patiently and
cheerfully.
Several efforts had been made to bring him to
trial, but the accumulated evidence was so insuf-
ficient that it seemed impossible to condemn him.
An archbishop could hardly be executed for
restoring St. Paul's, or for reforming the univer-
sity statutes ; yet these were put forward as
serious charges. Consequently at one time
opportunities were given him to escape, but
with the temper of a Socrates he refused.
" I thank my good friend Hugo Grotius,"
said he to Pococke, "for the care he has thus
expressed of my safety, but I can by no means
272 LIFK AND TIMKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xiv.
be persuaded to comply with his advice. An
escape is, indeed, feasible enough ; yea, I verily
believe it is this that my enemies desire. Every
day an opportunity is presented to me, a passage
being left free, in all likelihood, for this purpose,
that I should take advantage of it ; but they shall
not be gratified by me in that which they appear
to long for. I am almost seventy years old, and
shall I now go about to prolong a miserable life
by the trouble and shame of flying ? And were I
willing to be gone, whither should I fly ? Should
I go to France or any other Popish country, it
would be to give some seeming ground to that
charge of Popery they have endeavoured with so
much industry, and so little reason, to fasten upon
me. If I should get into Holland I should expose
myself to the insults of those sectaries there to
whom I am odious, and have every Anabaptist
come and pull me by the beard. No ; I am
resolved not to think of flight, but continuing
where I am, patiently expect and bear what a
good and wise Providence has appointed for me,
of what kind so ever it may be." l
Another friend who obtained access to his
prison found him reading Galen in the Tower,
and rejoicing that "so learned a man, who was so
addicted to assign all unto nature, should by the
admirable structure of a man be so much convinced
of the God of nature ". Then they fell to talking
1 Twells' Life of Pocnckc, p. 84.
1644. THE TRIAL. 273
of his troubles ; but " God," says he, " will season
me for these and all other trials V
At last the Scots grew impatient ; somehow or
other he must be put to death. His execution
should be the price of their armed support of the
Parliament. 2 How were they to justify their rebel-
lion against the king if his great minister had not
been adjudged criminal ?
In April, 1644, he was summoned again before
the House of Lords. Each day he was brought
through the city to be insulted by the mob ; it
was hoped that the danger of violence would
confuse the archbishop's intellect, or provoke him
to some passionate outbreak. Several of the
Puritan leaders publicly urged the crowd to tear
him in pieces. 3 At the waiting-room of the House
of Lords he was kept for hours exposed to the rude
attacks of the preachers, and of his accusers ; and
this terrible ordeal was continued for three months.
But he had learnt patience in too good a school ;
all were astonished at the calm courtesy of his
demeanour. Few of the peers paid him the com-
pliment of listening to his defence. 4 But, in the
presence of the two or three who sat on the
benches, point by point he met his enemies.
They accused him of introducing Popery ; he
recounted the long list of persons whom he had
1 Warwick's Memoirs, 166.
2 Ludlow's Memoirs, i. 86. Cf. Hobbes' Behemoth.
3 Wood's Athenae, ii. 63. 4 Cf. Baillie, ii. 139.
18
274 LIFK AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xiv.
persuaded to abandon Romanism : the charge of
personal corruption he challenged with his poverty.
The country was searched through for tyrannical
sentences passed by courts of which he was a
member ; they were few enough for so long an
administration, and even these could not be estab-
lished.
Then the wretched Secretary of State, Sir
Henry Vane the elder, was dragged forward to
give evidence that he had advised arbitrary
government ; the charge was too ill-grounded to
be seriously debated. On every occasion men were
forced to admit that his replies were irresistible.
But when it proved impossible to convict him
of treason, an ordinance for his death was passed
by such a remnant of the two Houses as still sat
at Westminster ; only six are said to have voted
in the House of Peers, though apparently some
twenty were present ; but undeterred by their in-
significant number they finally ratified the ordinance
on the 4th of January, 1645; an d the roth of
January was fixed for the execution.
The archbishop was doomed ; for Sir Henry
Vane the younger had pledged his word to the
Scots that he should die ; and his value as a host-
age was gone, now that the king's fortunes in the
war were waning. His condemnation was a proof
that the nobles and gentlemen who had commenced
the revolution had lost the control of affairs to that
little group of determined sectaries who had just
1645. REIGN OF FANATICISM. 275
formed the new model army. 1 These men, with
their masterful conviction that they were the
chosen of God, and that their opponents were
God's enemies, looked upon the old man's execu-
tion as a simple act of justice. Fanaticism was
everywhere casting a cloud of gloom over Eng-
land. Irish prisoners were being murdered in cold
blood ; 2 and Scottish Royalists executed with the
open approval of the Scottish clergymen. Already
the poor victims of ignorance who were accused
of witchcraft, and whom Laud with his bright,
rational ideas of religion had for years defended
from persecution, were being butchered by the
score ; all over the country the revolutionary
tribunals passed sentence upon them ; in Yarmouth
alone sixteen had been put to death in 1644; in
1645 twenty in Norfolk and no less than sixty in
Suffolk would meet the same sentence ; 3 while as
usual superstition went hand in hand with fanati-
cism, and the leaders of the Long Parliament were
rejoicing that Lilly, the chief professor of the black
art, had foretold a victory in the next campaign
for the army of Fairfax and Cromwell. 4 Evidently
it was time for the old archbishop to be gone.
1 Memoirs of Lord Holies.
* Many Roman Catholic priests were also executed in Eng-
land (Berington's Panzani ; Baillie, i. 295).
3 Mason's History of Norfolk, p. 303.
4 Lilly's Memoirs.
CHAPTER XV.
THE EXECUTION OF THE ARCHBISHOP.
Tower Hill Insults The Last Sermon Effect of Laud's
Death Burial.
IN the few remaining days Laud was assailed by
the arguments of two noted and violent Presby-
terian preachers. These he quietly repelled,
and set himself to due preparation for his end,
fully realising the importance of a final public
profession of his patriotism and his faith.
Tower Hill was packed with an immense
throng as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
first and last archbishop publicly executed in
London, was led out from his devotions to die.
In the last days the gibbet, which had originally
been decreed, had been exchanged for the axe ; a
this respect after all being shown to his high rank.
He had slept calmly that night, and had risen
early for prayer ; and his face was bright and
cheerful. The vast concourse was hushed at the
sight of the well-known figure, short and square,
with the hair closely cropped ; 2 the strong, resolute
History, xiii. 373. - Fuller, iii. 477.
(276)
1645- THE SCAFFOLD. 277
countenance, now marked with sorrow, and
furrowed with sickness, but calm and happy.
His enemies had been anxious he should not
be heard. It might be dangerous. They pushed
even upon the very scaffold.
"I thought," said Laud, "there would have
been an empty scaffold, that I might have had
room to die. I beseech you, let me have an end
of this misery, for I have endured it long." He
noticed, when he at last reached the block, that he
could see faces through the chinks of the scaffold
immediately below it, and with something of his
old playfulness he said : " Remove them, lest my
innocent blood should fall on the heads of the
people ".
"What," asked a bitter enemy, 1 " is the com-
fortablest saying which a dying man would have
in his mouth ? "
The archbishop, with much meekness, an-
swered : " Cupio dissolvi, et esse cum Christo ".
"That is a good desire," said the persecutor,
"but there must be a foundation for that Divine
assurance."
"No man can express it," replied Laud; "it
is to be found within."
" It is founded upon a word, nevertheless,"
insisted the other, "and that word should be
known."
1 Rushworth, vi. 835-840, and Wood's Athenae, ii. 69, 70.
2/8 LIFE AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. XV.
''That word," said the archbishop, kt is the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that alone."
Hut there was something in the man which at
last compelled silence ; the preacher who had so
often held thousands hanging upon his lips ; the
clothmaker's son who by strength of will, and
clearness of aim, and power of gaining- affection
had won his way upward, till his aged life seemed
to his enemies a threat of danger to the revolution
they had made, knew how to gain and how to hold
the attention of that huge crowd who had come to
see him die.
Then, from the boards of the scaffold, he
preached calmly his last and most impressive
sermon :
" Good people, this is an uncomfortable time
to preach, yet I shall begin with a text of Scrip-
ture, Heb., xii. 2. ' Let us run with patience the
race w r hich 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 Author and Finisher of my faith, lie
alone knows. I am now come to the end of my
race, and here I find the cross, a death of shame-.
Hut 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
i6 4 5- THE LAST SERMON. 279
the shame for Him. I am going apace, as you
see, towards the Red Sea, and my feet are upon
the very brink of it : an argument, I hope, that
God is bringing me into the land of promise ; for
that was the way through which He led His
people. But before they came to it, He instituted
a passover for them. A lamb it was, but it must
be eaten with sour herbs. I shall obey, and labour
to digest the sour herbs, as well as the lamb.
And 1 shall remember it is the Lord's passover.
I shall not think of the herbs, nor be angry with
the hands that gathered them : but look up only
to Him who instituted that, and governed these:
for men can have no more power over me than
what is given them from above. I am not in love
with this passage through the Red Sea, for I have
the weakness and infirmity of flesh and blood
plentifully in me." He exhorted his hearers to
get themselves also ready for inevitable death.
He denied that he had been hostile to liberty,
or to the Protestant religion established by law.
" But I have done. I forgive all the world, all
and every of those bitter enemies who have
persecuted me ; and humbly desire to be forgiven
of God first, and then of every man, and so I
heartily desire you to join in prayer with me."
After prayer, he addressed a few words to
those who stood on the scaffold, chiefly to his
chaplain, and arranged a signal with the execu-
tioner.
280 LIFi: AND TIMKS OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xv.
Then kneeling- by the block he continued
praying : " Lord, I am coming as fast as I can.
I 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 little
darkness upon nature : but Thou, by Thy merits
and passion, hast broken 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."
There were a few moments of silent prayer as
his head lay ready upon the block. Then he said
aloud: "Lord, receive my soul". It was the
sign, and at one blow his head was severed from
his body.
The huge crowd gazed awestruck on the face,
a moment ago so bright, so ruddy, so instinct with
life and love ; now pale, and blanched, and blood-
less, as the executioner held it aloft. 1 Most were
dissolved in tears ; even his bitterest enemies "
felt as men have felt since, that if Laud had
taught them no other lesson, he had shown them
how to die. Great multitudes followed his body
t > its grave in All Hallows, Barking, to hear the
solemn service of the Prayer Book, so long dis-
continued, read over the primate's coffin ; lor the
1 Fuller's Church History, iii. 472.
I'.akcr, 5 >(), and Salmonct, i. 262-9.
1645. THE BURIAL. 2 8l
astonished Government did not know how to
hinder this. Men comforted themselves as they
returned home sorrowing, that his end had been
so quick and so comfortable, and spoke together
of the resurrection to eternal life.
His memory, treasured in the hearts of the
down-trodden majority, lived green and strong
till freer times allowed the restoration in England
of those devout and beautiful services, and that
old apostolic government for which he had so
willingly given his life.
Thus died William Laud, executed against
the law of England, 1 for his religious principles.
It is impossible to condemn a man as wanting in
patriotism because he preferred the king to the
aristocracy, or as devoid of sincere faith because
he did not love the Puritan creed. He worked
for grand ideals, and his partial failure in politics
was more than compensated by the final triumph
of his principles in Church administration.
An extract from the historian of his beloved
university will fittingly close the story of his
death. After telling how his remains were
finally deposited with reverent affection in July,
1663, near to the high altar of St. John's College
Chapel in Oxford, Anthony Wood concludes his
notice of his hero with these words :
1 In the ordinance by which he was executed it was specially
provided that it should not become a precedent (Parliamentary
History, xiii.).
282 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xv.
"Thus died and was buried the king and
Church's martyr, a man of such integrity, learn-
ing, devotion and courage, as, had he lived in the
primitive times, would have given him another
name ; whom tho' the cheated multitude were
taught to misconceive (for those honoured him
most who best knew him) yet impartial posterity
will know how to value him when they hear the
rebels sentenced him on the same day they voted
down the liturgy of the Church of England ".
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DEVOTIONAL LIFE.
The Duty of Forgiveness Dreams Ceremonialism Pri-
vate Prayers Special Days Reasons for Publishing
the Devotions Last Will.
IT will probably have occurred to the reader to ask
how it was that Laud was able to set himself such
severe limits in his use of power, refused even to
think of organising a permanent military force, and
did not, while he was able, strike terror into his
enemies by such tremendous punishments as those
which overwhelmed the opponents of Richelieu in
France, or even of Strafford in Ireland. This
self-restraint remains inexplicable until we turn
to the pages of that book of devotions of which
it will be remembered Prynne barbarously de-
prived him in the Tower. Here we find the secret
of his life, and are enabled to look into the deepest
recesses of the man's heart.
Writers who have glanced cursorily over
Laud's remains in compiling the history of the
times have been content to set him down as a
(283)
2$4 LIF1: AND TIMF.S OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xvi.
ceremonialist, full of vulgar superstitions. They
have contrasted his merely external religion with
the heart-felt religion of the greater Puritans.
But superstitious ceremonialists do not leave the
impression Laud has left on the religious life of a
great people. Undoubtedly this student of the
Bible attached some importance to the visions of
the night ; now and again he sets clown in his
Diary an account of dreams some which he no-
came true ; others which startled him as confirm-
ing the accusations of his enemies ; others again
which strangely harmonised with his predominant
anxieties at the moment. 1 Nor could this man
as a lover of antiquity help being sometimes im-
pressed in periods of difficulty and danger l>y
omens ; the fall of his picture at Lambeth on the
eve of the Long Parliament seemed to him to
coincide appallingly with his own anticipations of
evil. 2 These were the superstitions (if we must
call them so) of the thoughtful men of his own
day; they differ from the superstitions of the
nineteenth century, which will in their turn move
1 Diary, i4th December, 1623; 3oth January, 3rd July, jist
August, 4th and 26th September, 1625; 2ist December, i(>jf>; 5th,
i4th and i6th January, gth February, 8th and ^yth March, jth
July, 1627; 3ist January, 1628; 6th June, i2th July, 1633; -M>th
October, 1635 ; 3rd August, i4th October, 2oth November, j.jlh
December, 1636; i2th February, 1639; 24th January, i
2nd November, 1642 : loth March, i(>43, seem to be the only
passages; most of them, it will be noted, occur in periods, and
ally at times of ill-health.
; th October,
CEREMONIALISM. 285
the laughter of equally superstitious ages to come ;
they are distinctly marked off from that astrological
superstition which tainted many of the leaders of
the Long Parliament, such as Hollis and Staple-
ton and Whitelock, and even had some influence
upon Bishop Williams; 1 and it must be remem-
bered that Laud entirely refused to believe in
witchcraft. 2 Nor can a man who notes these
for possible warnings sent from on high be fairly
accused of superstition, when, as in the case of
the archbishop, he never allows them to sway
him from what he believes to be the path of duty.
As to ceremonialism, he was convinced, we
have seen, that grand and dignified worship
helped human souls to realise the grandeur and
dignity of God. Outward show he abhorred,
except at the service and in the house of God ;
he rebuked all splendour in clerical apparel and
himself set the example of peculiarly simple and
inexpensive dress. 3 But he saw how careless men
were of religion, and he knew by the experience
of his own busy life how hard it was not to forget
God in the hurry and bustle of affairs. 4
To keep his own soul conscious of his depend-
ence upon God, he made a habit of private prayer
1 See Lilly's Autobiography.
- At his instigation the king delivered witches in Lancashire
in 1633.
3 In this he was a striking contrast to his rival Bishop
Williams (Stanley, Westminster Abbey).
4 See Salmonet, ii. 216, on the value of the English love of
Christmas.
286 LIF1-: AM) TIMKS OF \YILLIAM LAUD. CH. xvi.
seven times every day. For this purpose he
compiled a short service, differing with each day
of the week. These rapid devotions were almost
entirely personal ; he humbled himself in them
before his Maker, and entreated to be guarded
against his unknown sins and against the failings
which he had already detected. Having these
written with his own hand in a small book which
he carried in his pocket, he was able, wherever he
might be, to recollect himself seven times a clay
in the presence of God. By putting them into
writing he ensured immediate concentration.
Gathering them from many saints of the past
and adding to them devotions composed by him-
self, he ensured sufficient variety to lay his whole
heart bare to God.
It was by this practice of continual prayer that
he was able to check mere selfish ambition, to
humble his pride, to keep his mind fixed on high
aims, and finally to endure with patience the trials
of his later life. To be seven times a day quite
alone with God was the safeguard of his soul ; "a
man who so often made up his accounts with his
Maker could not go very far astray ". 1
But besides these short private prayers at
fixed times which, with those of his own model
Bishop Andrewes, became the model of devotion
to many of the great saints of the Restoration,
he regularly attended the public prayers of the
1 Lloyd's Memoirs of I In > . ,231.
SPECIAL PRAYERS. 2 8/
Church ; and further spent a considerable time
every day in intercession for others. His regular
devotions, varied no doubt as to their time by the
press of business, included special prayers for (i)
the Catholic Church and unity, (2) the particular
part of it to which he belonged, (3) the king, the
royal family and the officers of State, (4) his
relations and friends, (5) his servants, to whom he
was always devotedly attached, and who repaid
him with the most unstinted affection, (6) the sick
throughout the Church of Christ, (7) all mankind
and especially his own personal enemies ; for he was
constantly on the watch to subdue personal ran-
cour against the libellers of his character. These
chief private devotions of the day were commenced
with a general confession of sin, a thanksgiving
and a prayer for usefulness, and concluded with a
self-surrender of his life into the hands of God.
He added to them from time to time special
prayers which he felt to be necessary. Now all
his affairs were going so prosperously that he
dreaded pride ; now sickness or adversity was
injuring or seemed to be injuring his usefulness.
Again his hasty temper and quick, passionate utter-
ance were getting the better of him at a time of ill-
health or special difficulty. Then he saw his
flock perishing from some all too frequent out-
break of the plague ; or there was war in England,
or a time of dearth.
It was his custom also to offer special inter-
JSS I. IKK AND TIMKS OK WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xvi.
>ion to God for the poor, so little thought of
in those days by haughty nobles and despotic
gentry, by wealthy merchants and manufacturers :
i4 O Lord, when thou makest inquisition for blood,
remember and forget not the complaint of the
poor ".
Certain days were observed as fast clays for
his own sins and the sins of the people ; some of
them general fast clays of the Church ; two days
on which he himself had grievously sinned and
brought discredit upon the Church of God, St.
Stephen's Day and the 28th of July.
Other days in like manner were observed each
year as days of thanksgiving, such as the day of
recovery from a serious accident, and the day on
which he scarcely escaped from the fire at St.
John's College. On the i ith of April and the 24th
of November, on which his father and mother had
died, he added special prayers for a happy re-
union with them in heaven. The reception of
the Holy Communion was commemorated also
with carefully composed thanksgivings; for how
could he thank God enough for the benefits lie
had done to his soul ?
As the shadows of life close round him the
prayers become naturally more and more pathetic.
Old age is advancing and he has had so little
time for the ^reat work allotted to him. The
kind's ministers are flying abroad from the wrath
of the Long Parliament, and he fears that he too
CAUSE OF PUBLICATION. 289
may be driven from the England which he has
loved so intensely. Then he is carried to prison
and he must ask with insistence for that Divine
patience which has always been so difficult to his
fiery temper and clear intellect. He feels his
complete innocence of the charges brought
against him ; but he has foreseen years ago that
his opponents would be satisfied with nothing but
his death ; he would wish, and God alone can
help him to do it, that he may answer the scur-
rilous accusations of his enemies with none of those
bitter scathing retorts which from his keen under-
standing rose so naturally and so easily to his lips.
The message of condemnation finds him prepared
to spend the last hours of his life in prayer for his
own safe transition through death into life, and
for the many who are in like case.
Probably we owe this beautiful collection of
devotions to the hostility of Prynne. That un-
forgiving enemy had picked out sentences here
and there and published them abroad with com-
ments to stir indignation against his victim. Laud,
who, with all his humility, knew how important
a part his personal character must play in the
future of the Church, was most anxious that it
should be well understood that he had died fear-
lessly, and in the orthodox faith of the Catholic
Church as established in England, and therefore
allowed his chaplains to give the book to the
public.
19
290 LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIAM LAUD. CH. xvi.
The larger part of the devotions was published
as early as 1650, and was warmly welcomed by a
people who lay under the tyranny of the small
remnant of a Parliament elected ten years before,
and of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.
Many who were widows and desolate ; many who
were imprisoned or doomed to grinding poverty ;
many who were longing for devotional guidance,
away from the controversial preaching and still
more controversial praying of the times, into the
very presence of God Himself, welcomed this
collection of prayers, and found therein a comfort
until better days. After the Restoration, the book
of devotions passed through a great number of
editions.
No one who has studied with care the devo-
tions l and the Diary of William Laud can doubt
that his religion was personal, deep and strong ;
that his sympathies were wide and his ideals high ;
that the ceremonial which he advocated was dear
to him only so far as it stimulated a more intimate
knowledge and love of God ; and that his personal
sanctity must have played a notable part in the
events of his disturbed and difficult life.
The last words of a book which has tried not
to conceal his faults, nor the mistakes by which
1 /'-."., 25th January, 1624; 3Oth January, 1625. "Sunday night,
my dream of my blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One of
the most comfortable passages that ever I had in my life" (njth
August, 1636).
LAST WILL. 291
he imperilled English liberty, while it showed his
real greatness and sincerity, shall be taken from
the closing phrases of his will, made on the 13th
of January, 1644.
ik Thus I forgive all the world and heartily
desire forgiveness of God and the world ; and so
again commend and commit my soul into the
hands of God the Father who gave it, in the
merits and mercies of my blessed Saviour Jesus
Christ who redeemed it, and in the peace and
comfort of the Holy Ghost who blessed it ; and
in the truth and unity of this Holy Catholic
Church, and in the Communion of the Church of
England, as it yet stands established by law.
" I most willingly leave the world, being weary
at the very heart of the enmities of it, and of my
own sins, many and great, and of the grievous
distractions of the Church of Christ almost in all
parts of Christendom."
NOTE A.
THE PROJECTS OF THE ARISTOCRACY.
THE great nobles in England had chafed under the strongly
centralised rule of the Tudors and the Stuarts ; this is clear
enough from their frequent rebellions and their own constant
complaints of royal control. Therefore, when, with the as-
sistance of London and other great cities, they had secured
the control of a majority in the Long Parliament, they set to
work to re-establish their power. They began by destroying,
imprisoning and driving into exile the principal royal ministers ;
they coerced their opponents in the two Houses, and secured
by statute the permanence of the Parliament. Then they
demanded that the military control of the country should be
placed in their hands.
On the nth of February, 1642, they drew up a list of men
to whom the government of the militia was to be delivered, with
commissions giving powers so immensely increased upon any
precedent that they left the central Government practically help-
less, and which were only to be revoked by Parliament itself
(see the ordinance). It was this demand of Parliament which
caused the final breach with the king ; he saw in it the ruin
of the monarchy. In this important list we find that some
heads of noble houses were excluded, Newcastle, Southampton,
etc., for their known loyalty to the king; some were left out,
like Arundel, because of their growing disgust with politics ;
some, like Hertford, were entrusted with inferior commands;
but all the more important lord-lieutenancies were allotted to
men who were at once great nobles, and open opponents of
the king. These men were to take the place held by the
(293)
294 NOTES.
semi-independent governors of provinces in P>ance, who had
of late years been the chief danger to French unity, and to
the coercion of whom Richelieu had devoted so much of
his energy.
Northumberland, the head of the Percy house, so famous
for its frequent rebellions, was to have command of the two
great frontier garrisons of Newcastle and Berwick, with the
county of Northumberland and also that of Sussex ; and he
was to control the communications between- England and
Ireland by exercising a similar authority in Anglesea and Pem-
broke. Four counties fell to this great nobleman's share :
while Lord Grey de Wark obtained Carlisle, the other Scottish
border fortress, and the county of Cumberland.
Pembroke, head of the Herberts, the richest noble in
England and possessor of more borough votes than any other
landowner, received Merioneth and Carnarvon, and further
Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which, with the
great fortress of Portsmouth, made him supreme in the south
of England. Philip Herbert was to be master in Glamorgan,
Brecknock and Monmouth, a compact government. Essex,
chief of the Devereux, was to administer Yorkshire with the
all-important arsenal of Kingston-on-Hull, and also Mont-
gomery and Staffordshire.
To the powerful family of Rich was given the rule of tin-
home counties. Warwick, its head, was to be lord-lieutenant
of Essex, and of the wealthy county of Norfolk ; while his
younger brother, Holland, had Middlesex and Berkshire, with
the royal fortress of Windsor. London, and to some extent
Bristol, were to be made independent and to have the charge
of their own train bands.
Salisbury was to rule over Hertfordshire and Dorset ;
while Bolingbroke, Pager., Roberts, Bedford, Suffolk, Leicester,
Sir H. Vane, Chandos, Wharton, Stamford, Lincoln, Sayc and
Sele, Brooke and a number of others became masters each in
his own county.
On i4th May, 1642. a bill was passed b) the House of
NOTES. 2 ,,-
Lords to prevent the creation of peers in the future. This
would have ensured aristocratic mastery.
This well laid scheme was thwarted by the successes of
Charles I. in the Civil War; and finally overthrown by the
genius of Cromwell, whose aristocratic leanings were speedily
modified as power fell naturally into his hands in the new model
army ; but its audacious conception is a sufficient vindication
of Laud's jealousy of aristocratic authority.
See the list of lord-lieutenants in Sir R. Verney's Diary,
p. 153, Camden Society's edition, and Parliamentary History,
vol. x., passim.
NOTE B.
THE NAVY UNDER CHARLES I. AND LAUD.
THE fleet with which Blake and Montague won their
successes was bequeathed to them by the Government of
Charles I. and Laud. James I. had materially strengthened
the navy of Elizabeth; Charles I. added eighteen vessels to
the royal navy. These were larger and better built than their
predecessors. The Sovereign of the Seas, launched at Wool-
wich in 1637, remained for sixty years the glory and the
strength of the British navy. It was nearly double the size of
any of its predecessors. The great naval architects, Phineas and
Peter Pett, trained under Charles, introduced a new style of
shipbuilding which rendered the ships quicker and easier to
handle.
The first ship-money fleet, consisting of nineteen royal
vessels and six merchant ships, left Tilbury on the 26th of May,
1635. Tne French and Dutch fleets " plucked in their horns
and quitted our coasts," as Monson, who was vice-admiral,
relates on p. 263 of his Naval Tracts ; leaving to England
" the ancient sovereignty of the narrow seas ". Monson goes
on to explain the great prestige which England gained and
kept till 1640. The fleet in the following years continued to
hold the mastery of the Channel, while a squadron under
296 NOT IS.
Rainsborough threatened Sallee in Morocco, and put an end
for the time to the pirate descents upon our coasts ; and it
made England once more respected abroad, until the dis-
creditable conduct of the new admiral, the Earl of Northum-
berland, which was attributed to treachery (Warwick, p. 120),
allowed the Dutch to capture a Spanish fleet in English waters,
on nth October, 1639.
The stimulus given by this naval supremacy to English
commerce caused an enormous increase in the mercantile
marine ; " in short, Britain, which had long aspired to the
dominion of the seas, now appeared in earnest as to the
establishment of her claim; and had not those destructive
events intervened which are too well known, there appears
little doubt that the pursuit in question would, long ere it
actually did effect that purpose, have raised her into the first
rank and power" (Charnock). Under the Commonwealth,
Sir R. Slingsby tells us, there was scarcely one good merchant
ship built ; and the mercantile marine was diminished by above
1000 ships, though the navy was much increased (Pepys, Evelyn
and Clarendon).
It must be remembered that Laud was a prominent
member of the Board of Admiralty during the time of the
great shipbuilding.
Cf. State Papers ; Charnock's Marine Architecture ; Mon-
son's Naval Tracts ; Southey and Bell's Naval History.
NOTE C.
THE ARMY AT BERWICK IN 1639.
SOME historians have assumed that the Pacification of Ber-
wick was forced upon Charles by the comparative weakness
of his army. They quote the incidents from the .S/^/V Papers
and memoirs of the time, which prove the disorderly march
of several bodies of soldiers supplied by the train bands;
they bring forward the calculations of Baillie as to the large
NOTES. 097
numbers of enthusiastic Scots in Lesley's army ; and further
they assume a general discontent in the royal ranks, because
they hold that the country was on the eve of a revolt against
the ecclesiastical government of Laud and the exactions of the
Treasury.
Laud's reputation as a capable administrator must to some
extent stand and fall with his power to muster an English army
at Berwick, and in the text I have maintained opinions very
contrary to those often set forward, because the general litera-
ture of that time has convinced me of the superiority of the
king's forces.
I. Several witnesses speak with admiration of the cavalry
which the great nobles gathered on the frontier. New-
castle's troop gained their special praise (Clarendon, Mrs.
Hutchinson, etc.) ; but there is no reason to suppose that
it was exceptional. Many of the nobles were delighted at an
opportunity for action ; they were personally attached to the
king ; and they knew that the war must greatly add to their
political importance. Essex, who was certainly not prepos-
sessed in favour of the Government, acted with a vigour,
admitted on all hands, which proved his eagerness to vindicate
English power ; and refused to listen to any approaches which
the Scottish nobles made towards him.
The infantry was probably not so good as the cavalry ; it
was mainly composed of soldiers selected from the train bands
of the counties. These, as has been shown on p. 151, note, had
been improved of late, and the companies in Yorkshire, where
Wentworth had control, were in a specially high state of
efficiency; over 12,000 men were enrolled, armed and drilled
in that one county (State Papers, vol. 310, Nos. 44 and 45).
But the flower of the infantry was the force which Wentworth
sent over from Ireland (Carte's Ormond, i. 58, 98, 103, and
^trafford Papers), so splendidly drilled and equipped that
people said they ought all to be captains (Strafford Papers).
They were well commanded ; they had been prepared by the
lord-lieutenant with a view to just such a crisis as had now to
NOTES.
be faced. Handled by Essex and other trained generals in
the royal camp, they would have found no Scottish troops fit to
be their match. The soldiers, who had been ill provided and
fed at first, were now satisfied, for ^400,000 was sent down to
the army on the ist of April (see Rossingham, News Letter in
State Papers}.
II. The numbers of the Scottish army have been very much
taken on trust from Baillie, a country minister who had never
seen an army before in his life ; and from the reports given by
Puritan peers like Stamford, who visited the Scottish camp
(State Papers, vol. 424, No. 28 ; their reports were believed
by the king, Vane's Letter in Burnet's Hamilton, p. 139) and
returned with inflated rumours intended to influence English
counsels. Other information speaks of small numbers (State
Papers, vol. 421, No. 60; vol. 422, No. 62; vol. 423, No. 12,
and vol. 425, No. 21) and of a conspicuous want of arms
(State Papers, vol. 420, No. 109; vol. 424, No. 50); we find
in Burnet's History of his own times (and Burnet's father was
a very well-informed and important person at Edinburgh in
1639) a very interesting description of the way in which the
Scots extemporised cannon (cf. State Papers, vol. 424, No.
50) which would be capable of discharging three or four shots
at most. We know that expected supplies of arms were de-
tained in Holland by dread of the English fleet, and that at
least one vessel coining over was captured (Burnet's Hamilton,
III. There is no proof of any dangerous discontent in
England in 1639. Rather society seemed to be better con-
tented than it had been in 1637. Laud reports his province as
thoroughly quiet with very little trouble from nonconformity.
Neile writes a similar experience from York. It would have
been an act of incredible rashness if the minister had ventured
to call up the feudal cavalry and the train bands while the
country was full of disloyalty; in that case, the English army
at Berwick would have been the sure cause of his ruin. In
actual fact, even the nobles showed themselves as a body
NOTES. 2g9
resolutely loyal when there was real danger to the crown and the
country (State Papers, vol. 423, No. 67). Certainly consider-
able dissatisfaction existed among the nobility and gentry and
was prevalent in the City of London at the discontinuance
of Parliaments ; and both had felt the arbitrary power of the
Star Chamber and High Commission ; but the people in
general were not more discontented than people constantly
are under all governments, and a compromise between the
Ministry and the Commons, such as was suggested in the
Short Parliament, would have been thoroughly popular. We
find in the State Papers (e.g., vol. 161, No. E ; vol. 165,
No. 38 ; vol. 303, No. 56) more annoyance at the action
of the saltpetremen than from almost every other cause; the
domiciliary visits of these officials in search of materials to
make gunpowder, for which they often insisted on digging under
outbuildings and even under private houses, caused constant
friction and complaints to the central authority of their insolence
and roughness. Religion, politics, legality of tonnage and
poundage, the exaction of ship-money stirred the opposition of
only a few here and there, who could not enlist the active
sympathies of large bodies of men while the Government
maintained its prestige. Taxation was light ; local government
was very much in the hands of local persons, only restrained from
oppressing the poor by the Star Chamber ; justice was evenly
administered by the royal courts. There was no serious fear
of an influential rising in England, in spite of the promises of
some of the Puritan leaders. But when a local disturbance in
Edinburgh (see Bui-net's Own Times) overthrew the Govern-
ment of Scotland, and the king, who shuddered at bloodshed
according to his own speech on the scaffold, proved too
irresolute to use the great army at Berwick, opinion naturally
swayed round against the dominant policy, and the revolution
began. Then the old aristocratic claims which had been
almost choked by Laud's government sprang up with new
vigour, and threatened to alter the constitution (Note A).
Evidently the administration was making the English people
300 NOTKS.
a laughing stock by its want of decision. It had no confidence
in its own strength. To be despised is the surest source of
ruin to rulers. After all, as Carte says in his Life of Ormond,
" Governments often subsist more by an opinion than by the
reality of their power ".
If the king could have been induced to carry through
the vigorous action, on which he seemed to have determined
when he insisted on having an army assembled at Berwick,
he would probably have found it an easy task to pacify Scotland ;
for his government had not at that time lost its hold upon
England and Ireland, and in Scotland itself he had a large
party. The Hamiltons and Holland were the real cause of
his ruin, when they succeeded in persuading him to prefer
their advice to that of the Prime Minister; and once more
nursed into life the power of the nobles in England and in
Scotland.
INDEX.
INDEX.
Abbot, Archbishop, 12, 18, 43,
73, 83, 109 f., 112, 131.
Abergwilly, 47, 70.
Alington, Sir G., 117.
Allen, Cardinal, 10.
All Hallows, Barking, 280.
Ambrose, Saint, 42.
Anabaptists, 249.
Andrewes, Bishop, 15, 41, 42,
44, 55, 66. 68, 70, 127, 166,
181, 260, 271.
Anselm, Saint, 17, 132.
Argyle, Marquis of, 182, 212.
Aristocratic claims, 6. 37 f., 153,
224, 232, 293, 299.
Aristotle, 14.
Armada, The, 9.
Arminius, 83, 89.
Arundel, Earl of, 82, 224, 227,
293-
Augustine, Saint, 42.
Aylesbury, 253.
B.
Bacon, 54.
Baily, Dr., 168.
Bancroft, Archbishop, 12, 53.
,, Bishop, 169.
Barneveldt, 14.
Bastwick, Dr., 176 f.
Baxter, Richard, 30, 55, 75, 112.
Bedell, Bishop, 141, 210.
Bedford, Earl of, 128, 175, 253.
Bible, The authority of the, 50.
Berwick, Pacification of, 227, 296.
Brent, Sir N., 135, 141, 144.
Brooke, Lord, 124, 152, 175,
221, 223, 294.
Brownists, 249.
Buckden, 183, 185.
Buckeridge, Bishop, 13, 36, 68.
Buckingham, Marquis and Duke
of , 38, 45, 50, 57, 6 3, ^ 70,
72, 78,79, 85,96, 184, 192 ff.
Buckingham, Town of, 253.
Burgess, 55, 249.
Burleigh, 6.
Burton, Rev. H., 176 t.
C.
Calvinism, 13, 14, 18.
Capel, Lord, 46, 179, 268.
Cartwright, 10, 18.
Chalcedon, Bishop of, 84, 122.
Charles I., 37, 61, 173, 189, 227,
241.
Charterhouse, 85.
Childrey, 74 ff., 131.
Chillingworth, 161, 168, 169, 258.
Coke, Sir E., 43, 96.
Secretary, 150.
Coligny, 8.
Commerce, 76, 123 145, 152.
Commons, House of, 37 ff., 64 ff.,
8 5 ff, 9 3ff,23off.,253ff.
Conference with Fisher, 50, 187.
Convocation, 65, 69, 245 ff.
Copinger, 23.
Corbett, Bishop, 138.
Coronation of Charles I., 70.
Cosin, Dr., 90, 121, 252, 258.
Cottington, 82, 105, 144. 145, 188,
232.
(33)
304
INDEX.
Court of Exchequer, 116.
,, High Commission, 117
ff., 140.
Court of Star Chamber, 85, 106,
ng f., 131, 153, 176 f., 179,
270, 299.
Covenant, The Solemn, 218.
Crashaw, 62.
Cranfield, 92.
Cranmer, 19, 266.
Cromwell, Oliver, go, 138, 154,
179, 181, 275, 295.
Cuddesden, 169.
D.
Danby, Lord, 167.
Davenant, William, 62.
Bishop, 118.
Davys, Sir T., 94.
Declaration of Sports, 31, 105,
235-.
Devonshire Marriage, 20.
Devotions of Laud, 285 ff.
Digges, 96.
Divine right of kings, 10, g3 f.
,, bishops, 35 ff.,
258 f.
Donne, 31, 41, 75.
Dorchester, Lord, 82.
Dudley, Lord, 117.
Duppa, Dr., 168.
E.
Eastern Church, The, 16, 133.
Eikon Basilike, 270.
Elections to Parliament, 228,
230, 253 ff.
Elizabeth, 6, 10, 37, 40, 64.
Eliot, Sir J., 3g, 86 ff., gi, 96,
101.
Essex, 2nd Earl of, 16.
3rd Earl of, 223, 227, 294,
297 f.
Essex, County of, 223, 253.
F.
Fairfax, 275.
Familists, The, 249.
Felton, 79, 184.
Ferrar, John, 203.
Nicholas, 67,75, 122,202.
jun., 202 ff.
Fisher, 50, 187.
Foreign Congregations, 137.
Fox, George, 24.
Frewen, Dr., 168.
Fuller, 42, 175.
G.
Galen, 272.
Gallican Church, 216.
Gardiner, Sir T., 254.
Glanvill, Speaker, 234, 236 f.
Gloucester Cathedral, 28 ff.
Gondomar, Count of, 48.
Goodman, Bishop, 186.
Gouge, Dr., 53, 114.
Graves, Dr., 133.
Grey de Wark, Lord, 294.
Grotius, Hugo, 271.
Guiton, 76.
H.
Hales, 201, 258, 267.
Hall, Bishop, 242.
Hamilton, Marquis and Duke
of, 147, 189, 213, 219, 222,
226, 231, 256, 300.
Harrington, 38.
Harsnet, Archbishop, 53, no,
138-
Henderson, 248.
Henry VIII., 24, 69.
Henry IV. of France, 9, 49.
Herbert, George, 13, 23, 55, 62.
Hertford, Marquis of, 293.
Heylin, i, 247, 267.
Holland, Lord, 147, 189, 219,
224, 227, 232, 2g4, 300.
Hollis, Denzil, 175, 256, 268,
285.
Hooper, Bishop, 30.
Howard, Sir R., 117 f.
Howson, Dr., 21, 68.
Huguenots, 72.
Hume, 19.
INDEX.
Humphry, Dr. Laurence, 12.
Huntingdon, 28.
Hyde, Edward, 46, 174, 201,
236 ff., 267.
I.
Ireland, State of, 207 ff.
J.
James I., 21, 28, 31, 37, 40 ff, 57.
Jermyn, 189.
Jesuits, 48, 122, 186, 190, 233.
Jones, Inigo, 62, 124, 128.
Josephus, Barbatus, 16.
Juxon, Bishop, 147 f., 192, 219,
K.
Knight, Mr., of Pembroke, 52.
Knox, John, 18.
L.
Lambeth Articles, The, 89, 266.
Chapel, 265 f.
Laud's life at, 197 ff,
241
Lambeth, Laud's departure from,
267.
Lanerick, Earl of, 222, 226.
Latimer, 19.
Lecturers, The, 113 ff., 221.
Leicester, Dudley, Earl of, n.
Town of, 253.
Leighton, Dr., 131.
Lesley, General, 224 ff.
L'Hopital, Michel de, 9.
Licensing of books, 152, 221.
Lilburne, 178, 180.
Lilly, 275.
Littleton, 96.
Little Gidding, 67, 202.
Liturgy introduced into Scot-
land, 217 f.
London, Feeling of, 37 ff., 241,
255, 293 f., 299.
Loudoun, Earl of, 212.
Lucaris, Cyril, 133.
Lynn, 137, 254.
M.
Manwaring, Dr., 78 f., 83.
Marshall, Dr., 55, 249.
Marten, Henry, 178.
Middle classes, The, 9, 24, 62,
Milton, 55, 62, 128, 161.
Missions to the heathen, 75, 134.
Monson, Admiral, 295.
Montague, Bishop, 68, 83, 87
138, 186, 193.
Montrose, 212, 226, 239.
Morley, Bishop, 252.
Mountj oy, Lord, 20.
Music, Church, 26 ff., 41, 49, 62,
73, 162.
N.
Navy, The, 150 ff., 215, and Note
B, 295.
Neile, Bishop, 22, 36, 42, 66, 68,
78, 90, 127, 192, 298.
Newcastle, Earl of, 227, 293, 297.
New College, Oxford, 160.
Northumberland, Earl of, 232,
294, 296.
Norwich, Diocese of, 136 ff., 223.
Nottingham, 260.
N y> 96, 150, 194, 233.
O.
Oath, The Etcetera, 249 f.
O'Dingle, Dermot, 210.
Oley, Barnabas, 23, 258.
Olivarez, 97.
Oxford University, n ff., 25 ff.,
chap. viii. passim, 254.
Oxford, City of, 70, 254.
, Earl of, 190.
P.
Panzani, 99, 122.
Parker, Archbishop, 6, 266.
Parliament, The Long, 103, 252 ff.
The Short, 230 ff.
TheBarebones',257.
Parma, The Prince of, 9.
Parsons, 10.
20
306
tNDEX.
Peasantry, State of the, 23 ff.,
1 06 ff.
Pembroke, Earl of, 171, 253, 294.
Penry, 174.
Peterborough, Diocese of, 47.
Petition of Right, 77, 82, 85 f.,
103, 268, 269.
Phelips, 8(>.
Pickering, 180.
Pindar, Sir P., 126.
Pococke, Dr., 74, 133, 164, 271.
Poor, Care of the, 22 ff., 106 ff.,
267.
Potter, Dr., 83.
Preaching, Restraints upon, 53,
"3-
Prideaux, 161, 168.
Prynne, 53, 55, 131, 170, 176 ff.,
269, 289.
Purbeck, Lady, 39, 117.
Puritanism, 7, 24 f., 87 ff, 1 13, 128,
i6off, 223, 233, 255 ff, 274.
Pym, 87, 103, 170, 175,181, 235 ff,
239, 254.
R.
Reading, 4 ff.
Recusants, 187, 249.
Reynolds, Dr., 12.
Rich, Lady, 21.
Richardson, Chief Justice, 105.
Richelieu, 72, 81, 96, 135, 173,
181, 215 f,
Rochelle, 72, 76, 81.
Roe, Sir T., 95, 132 ff., 195.
,, Lady, 201.
Romanism, 7, 48 ff., 186 ff., 223,
233, 275.
Rothes, 212.
Rubens, 62.
Rudyard, Sir B., 74, 85, 8<).
S.
St. Antholin's Church, 115.
St. Giles', Cripplegate, i ^<>.
St. John's College, Oxford, 12 ff
25 ff., 168, 281.
St. Paul's Cathedral, 121, 123 ft
St. John, Oliver, 239.
Sallee, 76, 150!'., 296.
Saltpetremen, 47, 299.
Sanderson, Dr., 23.
Savage, 85.
Saye and Sele, Lord, 20, 44, 175,
221, 223, 294.
Scotland, State of, 21 iff.
Scottish army, 227, 240, 252,
255, ^73, 298.
Scottish accusations, 218, 256,
267.
Scudamore, Lord, 201.
Selden, 85, 96, 103, 254.
Sheldon, 246, 252.
Sherfield, 117!
Ship-money, 148, 150, 219, 234,
237-
Sibbes, 19. 53, 116.
Smith, Bishop Miles, 29.
Soap companies, 140.
Socinianism, 249.
Soubise, Duke of, 76.
Sovereign of the seas. The,
150.
Spelman. Sir H., 10, 32, 45, 69.
Spottiswoode, Archbishop, 214.
Stamford, Earl of, 254, 294, 298.
Stapleton, 285.
Stationers 1 Co., 166.
Star Chamber, r. Court of.
Strafford, 229 ff, 256, 2f>8. v.
Wentworth.
Superstitions, 284.
Sutton's Hospital, 85.
Synod of Dort. 14, 07 f., 74. 84,
89, ido.
T.
Taylor, Jeremy, 54, 127.
Thornborough, Bishop. 1)7.
Tillieres, Count of, i<)<>, 216,
Tonnage and poundage, 91, 103,
234
Tower, Laud in the, 2(19 ft.
Hill, 271..
Train bands, The, 151, 173, 175,
225, 2(,4, 297.
Trinity Church, Cambridge, u<>.
INDEX.
307
u.
Udal, 174.
Urban VIII., 122.
Usher, 268.
V.
Vandyke, 62.
Vane, Sir H. (the elder), 189, 232,
237 ff., 256, 274, 294.
Vane, Sir H. (the younger), 154,
239' 256, 274.
Vaughan, Henry, 98, 261.
Verney, Sir E., 224.
Virginia, 75.
Visitation, The archiepiscopal
Vossius, 93, 159' T 95-
W.
Waller, 62.
Walsingham, n.
Walton, Isaac, 55.
Ward, Mr., of Ipswich, 140.
Bishop Seth, 252.
Warwick, Lord, 175, 215, 223,
294.
Wentworth, 77, 79, 81, 96, 105,
132, 134, 143, i47> !73> l8o >
196 ff., 207 ff., 225, 227, 297,
v. Strafford.
Westminster Abbey, 41, 67, 70.
Assembly, The, 290.
Weston, 79, 82, 85, 91, 105, 135,
143, 146, 186, 233.
Whitelock, 285.
Whitgift, 89, 266.
Williams, Bishop, 41, 43, 45, 53'
136, 183 ff., 220, 285.
Windebank, 145, 186, 189, 195,
254-
Witchcraft, 121, 275, 285.
Worship and ceremonies, 25 ff.,
29, 41, 49 f., 70, 126 ff., 142,
266, 285.
Wotton, Sir H., 13, 49 J 95-
Wren, Bishop, 138.
Wycombe, 253.
Z.
Zouch, Lord, 43, 73.
ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY I'KESS.
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