Background
LAUD, WILLIAM, English, archbishop, only son of William Laud, a clothier, was born at Reading, United Kingdom, on the 7th of October 1573.
(William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45), remains...)
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45), remains one of the most controversial figures in British ecclesiastical and political history. His rise to prominence under Charles I, his contribution to the framing and implementation of highly contentious religious policies, and his subsequent and catastrophic downfall remain central to our understanding of the coming of civil war. This book presents Scotland as a case study for a fresh interpretation of Laud, his career and his working partnership with Charles I. This approach throws much needed light on the depth of Laud's engagement in kirk affairs and reveals the real reasons for his ostensible abandonment by the king in 1641, enabling a better understanding of Anglo-Scottish politics in the early Long Parliament as well as developments connected to religion and the 'British Problem'. Importantly, the book demonstrates that Laud's involvement in Scotland was broadly consistent with, although differing in detail from, his approach in England and Ireland. It represents a major contribution to key debates on the nature of religion and politics in the 1630s and early 1640s and to current thinking on the role of Charles I and William Laud in the formulation of ecclesiastical policy, the 'British problem', and the causes of the British Civil Wars.
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(Excerpt from William Laud The uncritical impetuosity whi...)
Excerpt from William Laud The uncritical impetuosity which a generation ago overwhelmed with contumely, sarcasm, and unhistorical rhetoric the name of William Laud has, it is to be hoped, now spent itself. There still lingers among those whose historical knowledge is based upon the obiter dicta of the partisans of fifty years ago a curious survival of prejudice which is due to ignorance as much as to sectarian bigotry; but the calm and judicial investigation of writers more informed and less biassed is teaching us to read the history of the seventeenth century in a spirit very different from that of some of our predecessors. Those who value the teaching of the past owe a deep debt to the luminous and judicial work of Leopold von Ranke. Beside that great and honoured name students of the Stewart age will gratefully place that of Samuel Rawson Gardiner. It is impossible for any one who works at this very difficult and complicated period adequately to acknowledge the enormous obliga tion under which he stands to Mr. Gardiner's knowledge and patience and fairness. It is not the least of his services to the cause of truth that he has done more than any other living writer to enable men to critically examine and justly estimate the career of Laud. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from A Relation of the Conference Between William...)
Excerpt from A Relation of the Conference Between William Laud, Late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Mr. Fisher the Jesuit, by the Command of King James, of Ever Blessed Memory: With an Answer to Such Exceptions as A. C. Takes Against It Wilkins, Concilia, vol. Iv. P. 377. We acknowledge our selves personally so much beholding to the now bishop of Rome clement VIII. for his kind offices and private temporal carriage towards us in many things. Comp. Rushworth, vol. I. P. 166. Hallam, Const. Hist. Vol. I. P. 437, note. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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( The most powerful man in England during the so-called "...)
The most powerful man in England during the so-called "Eleven Years Tyranny" from 1629-1640, archbishop of Canterbury William Laud was thrown from power in 1640 and executed on Tower Hill during the Civil War. He remains a controversial figure in English history, either denounced as a tyrant and bigot or extolled as a statesman and martyr. An esteemed scholar uncovers the social ideal that lay behind Laud's political and religious conservatism--an ideal fatally obscured by the archbishop's human limitations. "A book that is, by any standards, brilliant."--New Statesman.
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LAUD, WILLIAM, English, archbishop, only son of William Laud, a clothier, was born at Reading, United Kingdom, on the 7th of October 1573.
He was educated at Reading free school, matriculated at St John's college, Oxford, in 1589, gained a scholarship in 1590, a fellowship in 1593, and graduated B. A. in 1594, proceeding to D. D. in 1608.
Laud early took up a position of antagonism to the Calvinistic party in the church, and in 1604 was reproved by the authorities for maintaining in his thesis for the degree of B. D. " that there could be no true church without bishops, " and again in 1606 for advocating " popish " opinions in a sermon at St Mary's.
In 1601 he took orders, in 1603 becoming chaplain to Charles Blount, earl of Devonshire.
If high-church doctrines, however, met with opposition at Oxford, they were relished elsewhere, and Laud obtained rapid advancement.
In 1607 he was made vicar of Stanford in Northamptonshire, and in 1608 he became chaplain to Bishop Neile, who in 1610 presented him to the living of Cuxton, when he resigned his fellowship.
In 1621 he became bishop of St David's, when he resigned the presidentship of St John's.
In April 1622 Laud, by the king's orders, took part in a controversy with Percy, a Jesuit, known as Fisher, the aim of which was to prevent the conversion of the countess of Buckingham, the favourite's mother, to Romanism, and his opinions expressed on that occasion show considerable breadth and comprehension.
On the accession of Charles, Laud's ambitious activities were allowed free scope.
Laud defended Richard Montague, who had aroused the wrath of the parliament by his pamphlet against Calvinism.
He supported the king's prerogative throughout the conflict with the parliament, preached in favour of it before Charles's second parliament in 1626, and assisted in Buckingham's defence.
In 1626 he was nominated bishop of Bath and Wells, and in July 1628 bishop of London.
His rule at Oxford was marked by a great increase in the number of students.
Elsewhere he showed his liberality and his zeal for reform. On the 12th of April 1629 he was made chancellor of Oxford University. In the patronage of learning and in the exercise of authority over the morals and education of youth Laud was in his proper sphere, many valuable reforms at Oxford being due to his activity, including the codification of the statutes, the statute by which public examinations were rendered obligatory for university degrees, and the ordinance for the election of proctors, the revival of the college system, of moral and religious discipline and order, and oi academic dress. He founded or endowed various professorships, including those of Hebrew and Arabic, and the office of public orator, encouraged English and foreign scholars, such as Voss, Selden and Jeremy Taylor, founded the university printing press, procuring in 1633 the royal patent for Oxford, and obtained for the Bodleian library over 1300 MSS. , adding a new wing to the building to contain his gifts. In his own college he erected the new buildings, and was its second founder.
He was an active visitor of Eton and Winchester, and endowed the grammar school at Reading, where he was himself educated.
In London he procured funds for the restoration of the dilapidated cathedral of St Paul's.
He was far less great as a ruler in the state, showing as a judge a tyrannical spirit both in the star chamber and high- commission court, threatening Felton, the assassin of Buckingham, with the rack, and showing special activity in procuring a cruel sentence in the former court against Alexander Leighton in June 1630 and against Henry Sherfield in 1634.
His power was greatly increased after his return from Scotland, whither he bad accompanied the king, by his promotion to the archbishopricof Canterbury in August 1633.
"As for the state indeed, " he wrote to Wentworth on this occasion, " I am for Thorough.
"In 1636 the privy council decided in his favour his claim of jurisdiction as visitor over both universities.
He proceeded to impose by authority the religious ceremonies and usages to which he attached so much importance.
His vicar-general, Sir Nathaniel Brent, went through the dioceses of his province, noting every dilapidation and every irregularity.
The pulpit was no longer to be the chief feature in the church, but the communion table.
The Puritan lecturers were suppressed.
He tried to compel the Dutch and French refugees in England to unite with the Church of England, advising double taxation and other forms of persecution.
In 1634 the justices of the peace were ordered to enter houses to search for persons holding conventicles and bring them before the commissioners.
He took pleasure in displaying his power over the great, and in punishing them in the spiritual courts for moral offences.
He urged Strafford in Ireland to carry out the same reforms and severities. He was now to extend his ecclesiastical system to Scotland, where during his visits the appearance of the churches had greatly displeased him.
Laud continued to support Strafford's and the king's arbitrary measures to the last, and spoke in favour of the vigorous continuation of the war on Strafford's side in the memorable meeting of the committee of eight on the 5th of May 1640, and for the employment of any means for carrying it on. "
Laud's infatuated policy could go no further, and the etcetera oath, according to which whole classes of men were to be forced to swear perpetual allegiance to the " government of this church by archbishops, bishops, deans and archdeacons, & c. ," was long remembered and derided.
His power now quickly abandoned him.
He was attacked and reviled as the chief author of the troubles on all sides.
In October he was ordered by Charles to suspend the etcetera oath.
The same month, when the high commission court was sacked by the mob, he was unable to persuade the star chamber to punish the offenders.
On the 18th of December he was impeached by the Long Parliament, and on the 16t of March imprisoned in the tower.
On the 12th of May, at Strafford's request, the archbishop appeared at the window of his cell to give him his blessing on his way to execution, and fainted as he passed by.
For some time he was left unnoticed in confinement.
On the 316t of May 1643, however, Prynne received orders from the parliament to search his papers, and published a mutilated edition of his diary.
The articles of impeachment were sent up to the Lords in October, the trial beginning on the 12th of March 1644, but the attemptto bring his conduct under a charge of high treason proving hopeless, an attainder was substituted and sent up to the Lords on the 22nd of November.
Laud now tendered the king's pardon, which had been granted to him in April 1643.
This was rejected, and it was with some difficulty that his petition to be executed with the axe, instead of undergoing the ordinary bru. tal punishment for high treason, was granted.
He is described by Fuller as " low of stature, little in bulk, cheerful in countenance (wherein gravity and quickness were all compounded), of a sharp and piercing eye, clear judgment and (abating the influence of age) hrm memory. "
His severities were the result of a narrow mind and not of a vindictive spirit, and their number has certainly been exaggerated.
In particular it is clear that the charge of partiality for Rome is unfounded.
At the same time the circumstances of the period, the fact that various schemes of union with Rome were abroad, that the missions of Panzani and later of Conn were gathering into the Church of Rome numbers of members of the Church of England who, like Laud himself, were dissatisfied with the Puritan bias which then characterized it, the incident mentioned by Laud himself of his being twice offered the cardinalate, the movement carried on at the court in favour of Romanism, and the fact that Laud's changes in ritual, however dearly defined and restricted in his own intention, all tended towards Roman practice, fully warranted the suspicions and fears of his contemporaries.
The hostility to " innovations in religion, " it is generally allowed, was a far stronger incentive to the rebellion against the arbitrary power of the crown, than even the violation of constitutional liberties; and to Laud, therefore, more than to Strafford, to Buckingham, or even perhaps to Charles himself, is especially due the responsibility for the catastrophe.
The emigration to Massachusetts in 1629, which continued in a stream till 1640, was not composed of separatists but of episcopalians.
The chief feature of Laud's administration is attention to countless details, to the most trivial of which he attached excessive importance, and which are uninspired by any great underlying principle.
His- view was always essentially material.
The one element in the church which to him was all essential was its visibility.
This was the source of his intense dislike of the Puritan and Nonconformist conception of the church, which afforded no tangible or definite form.
Hence thenecessity for outward conformity, and the importance attached to ritual and ceremony, unity in which must be established at all costs, in contrast to dogma and doctrine, in which he showed himself lenient and large-minded, winning over Hales by friendly discussion, and encouraging the publication of Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants.
He was not a bigot, but a martinet.
The external form was with him the essential feature of religion, preceding the spiritual conception, and in Laud's opinion being the real foundation of it.
Indistinguishable from his personal ambition was his passion for the aggrandisement of the church and its predominance in the state.
's time, and now if the.
church will not hold up themselves under God, I can do no more. "
Spiritual influence, in Laud's opinion, was not enough for the church.
Its power must be material and visible, embodied in great places of secular administration and enthroned in high offices of state.
He was buried in the chancel of All Hallows, Barking, whence his body was removed on the 24th of July 1663 to the chapel of St John's College, Oxford.
( The most powerful man in England during the so-called "...)
(Excerpt from William Laud The uncritical impetuosity whi...)
(William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45), remains...)
(Carlton puts Laud in the context of his times, showing ho...)
(Excerpt from A Relation of the Conference Between William...)
In 1637 Laud proposed to implement the program in religious terms within Scotland, the bastion of Presbyterian Church government and aristocratic power.
While refusing to acknowledge the Roman Church as the true church, he allowed it to be a true church and a branch of the Catholic body, at the same time emphasizing the perils of knowingly associating with error; and with regard to the English Church he denied that the acceptance of all its articles was necessary.
A list of the clergy was immediately prepared by him for the king, in which each name was labelled with an О or a P, distinguishing the Orthodox to be promoted from the Puritans to be suppressed.
Though at first opposed to the sitting of convocation, after the dissolution of parliament, as an independent body, on account of the opposition it would arouse, he yet caused to be passed in it the new canons which both enforced his ecclesiastical system and assisted the king's divine right, resistance to his power entailing " damnation. "
He suffered death on the 10th of January on Tower Hill, asserting his innocence of any offence known to the law, repudiating the charge of " popery, " and declaring that he had always lived in the Protestant Church of England.
Equally disastrous to the state was the identification of the king's administration with one party in the church, and that with the party in an immense minority not only in the nation but even among the clergy themselves.
Thus the church, descending into the political arena, became identified with the doctrines of one political party in the state-doctrines odious to the majority of the nation-and at the same time became associated with acts of violence and injustice, losing at once its influence and its reputation. Laud so emphasized religious discipline as the business of the Star Chamber that a court which had been popular for its expeditioussettlement of civil suits now became the dreaded instrument of religious repression and arbitrary government. Laud also sought to restore church lands held by laymen since the Reformation.
Thus what Laud grasped with one hand he destroyed with the other. Passing to the more indirect influence of Laud on his times, we can observe a narrowness of mind and aim which separates him from a man of such high imagination and idealism as Strafford, however closely identified their policies may have been for the moment.
In his last words on the scaffold he alludes to the dangers and slanders he had endured labouring to keep an uniformity in the external service of God; and Bacon's conception of a spiritual union founded on variety and liberty was one completely beyond his comprehension. This narrow materialism was the true cause of his fatal influence both in church and state.
He was all- powerful both in church and state.
He was greatly delighted at the foolish appointment of Bishop Juxon as lord treasurer in 1636. "
Though intelligent, energetic, and courageous, he was also domineering, sometimes vindictive, and lacking in political judgment.
Laud never married.