William Laud

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The English prelate William Laud (1573-1645) was archbishop of Canterbury and architect of Charles I's personal government. He was executed by the Long Parliament.

William Laud was the son of a Reading clothier. He was educated in the town grammar school and received a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford. He became a fellow and then was president of the college from 1611 to 1621. As an undergraduate, he had become aligned with the anti-Puritans, or Arminians, who opposed the doctrines of predestination and Presbyterianism. Instead, they believed in the continued manifestation of divine will in the historical development of the Church and therefore in the divine basis of episcopacy. Laud subscribed in theory to Arminian tolerance of doctrinal differences, but in action he was a believer in rigid enforcement of outward uniformity in worship, and he found strength in institutional authority.

Laud's beliefs about theology and church government were not popular at Oxford, and he was spurred to achieve higher authority in the Church. In 1616 he was appointed dean of Gloucester Cathedral. Five years later he was made bishop of St. David's in Wales. But he was denied further advance in the Church, ultimately by King James I, who believed that Laud's precise reforms endangered the hard-won authority then exercised by the bishops.

Favor from court flowed in Laud's direction with the accession of Charles I, who sympathized with Laud's goals. He became bishop of Bath and Wells and dean of the Chapel Royal in 1626, privy councilor in 1627, and bishop of London and chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1628. He at once set about dignifying the church buildings and conduct of worship in the diocese of London, enforced uniformity of academic dress at Oxford, and, as a member of the Star Chamber, began his persecution of Puritans. On Archbishop Abbot's death in 1633, Laud was appointed to the see of Canterbury, and from then until 1637 he carried out a rigorous program of decorousness, uniformity, and adherence to the Book of Common Prayer in the conduct of church services. The program was epitomized in the reconstruction of the facade of St. Paul's Cathedral according to the classical design of Inigo Jones. In the Star Chamber and High Commission many Puritans lost their church livings or were forbidden to preach, and laymen like William Prynne and John Lilburne were mutilated and whipped. Laud so emphasized religious discipline as the business of the Star Chamber that a court which had been popular for its expeditious settlement 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. This further led to anxiety among the laity, even among those who might have supported a hierarchical episcopacy. Finally, Laud strove to reintroduce churchmen into the seats of political power. His martinet's mind was constantly frustrated by the corruption and dilatoriness of many privy councilors. In 1636 Bishop Juxon was made lord treasurer to the delight of Laud but to the increased consternation of lay politicians.

Laud was in correspondence with Thomas Wentworth (later the 1st Earl of Strafford), the King's deputy lieutenant of Ireland. They shared the ideal of a strong and efficient royal government, an ideal policy they referred to as "Thorough." Wentworth was already realizing the program in the secular government of Ireland, which had been notoriously weak and inefficient. In 1637 Laud proposed to implement the program in religious terms within Scotland, the bastion of Presbyterian Church government and aristocratic power. But Laud failed, and a unified Scots aristocracy and Church brought down the whole edifice constructed by Laud, Straf-ford, and Charles.

A month after the Long Parliament met in order to cope with the Scottish crisis, a gigantic petition was presented calling for an end of episopacy, root and branch. A week later Laud was impeached of treason. In 1641 the High Commission and Star Chamber were abolished. But Laud was not immediately proceeded against. He could be a bargaining counter with the King; furthermore, Parliament did not as yet wish to define a church system. With the Scots alliance of 1643, however, the trial of the enemy of Presbyterianism became a necessity. The long trial began on March 12, 1644. Laud successfully proved that he had not committed treason under known law. Therefore, as with Strafford, his total conduct of government was held to have subverted the constitution, and he was condemned by bill of attainder. He was executed on Jan, 10, 1645.

The now powerless old man became a martyr to his religion. His blood and that of his royal master watered the restored Episcopal Church, and the disciples of Laud dominated the church settlement of 1660-1662.

Further Reading

Laud's diary, The Autobiography of Dr. William Laud, was published in 1839. H. R. Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645 (1940; 2d ed. 1962), is the best study, although it is mainly a political biography and unsympathetic. See also A. S. Duncan-Jones, Archbishop Laud (1927). For background consult J. E. Christopher Hill, Economic Problems of the Church from Archbishop Whitgift to the Long Parliament (1956).

Additional Sources

Carlton, Charles, Archbishop William Laud, London; New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

Trevor-Roper, H. R. (Hugh Redwald), Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press, 1988.

Laud, William (1573-1645). Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud has always been a controversial character. Born at Reading, a graduate of St John's College, Oxford (1594), he was successively chaplain to the earl of Devonshire (1603), president of St John's (1611-21), dean of Gloucester (1616), bishop of St Davids (1621-6), Bath and Wells (1626-8), and London (1628-33), and archbishop (1633-45). Historians have regarded his use of the Court of High Commission and especially his supposed attempt to enforce the English Prayer Book on Scotland (1637) as the watershed of the reign. Impeached by the Long Parliament December 1640), committed to the Tower (1641), and tried (1644), Laud was beheaded on 10 January 1645. Past historians have evaluated him either as a secret papist who corrupted the church or as the martyr of true Anglicanism. Modern research, however, based on his own writings reveals a different picture; Laud aimed not to provoke, but to heal, controversy. Not a theologian, he was unconcerned by doctrinal minutiae; far from encouraging popery his one known theological work was a stout defence of the church against catholicism. The Scottish Prayer Book was not the work of Laud, but of the Scottish bishops, backed by Charles. Laud enforced Arminianism neither through the High Commission nor through influencing Oxford to create an Arminian clergy.

Laud, William (1573–1645), English clergyman and archbishop of Canterbury. The only son of a master tailor in Reading, Laud was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1593. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1601 and rapidly became controversial, being criticized by the vice chancellor of Oxford, Henry Airay (d. 1616), in 1606 for preaching sermons that were regarded as containing popish opinions. He was strongly opposed to the prevailing Calvinist trend in the Church of England and hoped to restore some of the pre-Reformation liturgy. Laud was closely associated with the Arminian tendency within the Church of England. Arminianism, an anti-Calvinist doctrine that attacked the rigid Calvinist views on predestination, was prevalent both in the Church of England and among its Puritan critics in the 1610s, and gained even more influence in the 1620s when Richard Neile, bishop of Durham, became principal church adviser to James I (ruled 1603–1625). A protégé of Neile, whose chaplain he became in 1608, Laud advanced rapidly. He was elected president of St. John's College, Oxford, in 1611, and became dean of Gloucester in 1616 and bishop of St. David's in 1621. His influence grew under Charles I (ruled 1625–1649), and he was promoted to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1626 and to that of London in 1628. He also became dean of the Chapel Royal and, in 1629, chancellor of the University of Oxford. In 1633 he became archbishop of Canterbury.

Once he became archbishop, the preaching of Calvinist doctrine in England was limited, as Laud sought to enforce uniformity on a church that had been, in many respects, diverse for decades. In 1633, at Laud's prompting, Charles I wrote to the bishops instructing them to restrict ordination to those who intended to undertake the cure of souls, an action that resulted in the suppression of Puritan lecturers. He was unwilling to offer to Puritan clerics the possibility of only occasional compliance with the regulations, and he insisted that parish churches should match the more regulated practice of cathedrals.

This authoritarianism compounded what was regarded by the Puritans as the offensive nature of Laudian ceremonial and doctrine—not least its stress on the sacraments and church services that emphasized the cleric, not the congregation, and made the altar rather than the pulpit the center of the service. As dean of Gloucester, Laud had moved the communion table to the east end of the choir, a measure seen as crypto-Catholic. He also bowed whenever the name of Jesus was pronounced and bowed toward the east on entering a church. Arminianism was seen as crypto-Catholic (and thus conducive to tyranny) by its Puritan critics. Although Laud rejected claims that he was a crypto-Catholic, he was widely referred to by Puritans as the "pope of Canterbury."

Laud was an active opponent of Puritan views, opposing, for example, Puritan strictures on the staging of plays and on activities on Sundays. He responded harshly to Puritan criticisms and writings. Laud was also active in government and was added to the Commission of the Treasury and to the Committee of the Privy Council for Foreign Affairs in 1635. He supported the promotion of clerics in the government and was delighted in 1636 when his friend Bishop William Juxon of London was made Lord Treasurer. Laud's attitude toward the Scottish church played a major role in the breakdown of Charles I's position in Scotland, and thus in the eventual collapse of royal authority. Laud actively backed a new prayer book and new canons for the Scottish church, and, when opposition was voiced in 1637, he persisted in enforcing his reforms. In 1639–1640, he was also a supporter of war with Scotland, a war that was to prove disastrous.

Laud, who had introduced new canons proclaiming divine right kingship in 1640, was to be a victim of the reaction against Charles I. He was impeached by the Long Parliament in December 1640 and committed to the Tower of London the following March. His trial for treason did not begin until March 1644; members of the House of Lords were hesitant about the charge, which they felt had been forced on them by the Commons. As a result, proceedings were brought against Laud alleging that he had tried to subvert the fundamental laws, to alter religion as by law established, and to subvert the rights of Parliament. After his request that the harsh character of the execution for treason be commuted was finally accepted, Laud was beheaded on Tower Hill on 10 January 1645.

An obstinate and difficult man, Laud bore part of the responsibility for his own downfall; he failed to comprehend the growing trend toward Puritanism and the intense hostility aroused by his treatment of those who disagreed with him, both of which contributed to the crisis of trust that led to the outbreak of the Civil War. He became a martyr figure for the "high" tradition of the Church of England.

Bibliography

Carlton, Charles. Archbishop William Laud. London and New York, 1987.

Duncan-Jones, A. S. Archbishop Laud. London, 1927.

Trevor-Roper, Hugh. Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645. 3rd ed. Basingstoke, U.K., 1988.

Tyacke, Nicholas. Aspects of English Protestantism c. 1530–1700. Manchester, U.K., and New York, 2001.

—JEREMY BLACK

William Laud
Archbishop of Canterbury
William Laud
Enthroned	1633
Reign ended	10 January 1645
Predecessor	George Abbot
Successor	William Juxon
Personal details
Born	7 October 1573(1573-10-07) Reading, Berkshire
Died	10 January 1645 (aged 71) Tower Hill, London
Signature

William Laud (7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism. This and his support for King Charles I resulted in his beheading in the midst of the English Civil War.

Contents 1 Clergyman 2 High Church policy 3 Bibliography 4 References 5 External links

Clergyman

Laud was born in a house on Broad Street in Reading, of comparatively low origins, his father, also William, having been a cloth merchant (a fact about which he was to remain sensitive throughout his career). He was educated at Reading School and, through a White Scholarship, St John's College, Oxford. He was baptized at St Laurence's Church in Reading.^[1]

Laud was ordained on 5 April 1601 and his Arminian, High Church tendencies and antipathy to Puritanism, combined with his intellectual and organisational brilliance, soon gained him a reputation. At that time the Calvinist party was strong in the Church of England and Laud's affirmation of apostolic succession was unpopular in many quarters. In 1605, somewhat against his will, he obliged his patron, Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, by conducting his marriage to a divorcée, Penelope Rich, Lady Rich. In 1609 he became rector of West Tilbury in Essex.

Laud continued to rise through the ranks of the clergy, becoming the President of St John's College in 1611; a Prebendary of Lincoln in 1614 and Archdeacon of Huntingdon in 1615. He was consecrated Bishop of St David's in 1621 and was translated as the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1626 and the Bishop of London in 1628. Thanks to patrons, who included the king and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, he reached the highest position in the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and with it the episcopal primacy of All England in 1633. As Archbishop of Canterbury he was prominent in government, taking the king's line and that of Thomas Wentworth, 5th baron Wentworth in all important matters. It is believed that he wrote the controversial Declaration of Sports issued by King Charles in 1633.

In 1630, Laud was elected as Chancellor of the University of Oxford and became much more closely involved in the running of the university than many of his predecessors had been. Laud was instrumental in establishing Oxford's Chair of Arabic and took an interest in acquiring Arabic manuscripts for the Bodleian Library. His most significant contribution was the creation of a new set of statutes for the university, a task completed in 1636.^[2] Laud served as the fifth Chancellor of the University of Dublin between 1633 and 1645.

Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, Laud being tried for treason, with several people present labelled.

High Church policy

The famous pun "give great praise to the Lord, and little laud to the devil" is a warning to King Charles attributed to the official court jester Archie Armstrong. Laud was known to be touchy about his diminutive stature.

Whereas Strafford saw the political dangers of Puritanism, Laud saw the threat to the episcopacy. But the Puritans themselves felt threatened: the Counter-Reformation was succeeding abroad and the Thirty Years' War was not progressing to the advantage of the Protestants. In this climate, Laud's high church policy was seen as a sinister development. A year after Laud's appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury, the ship Griffin left for America, carrying religious dissidents such as Anne Hutchinson, the Reverend John Lothropp and the Reverend Zechariah Symmes.

Laud's policy was influenced by his desire to impose total uniformity on the Church of England. This was also driven by a sincere belief that this was the duty of his office but, to those of even slightly differing views, it came as persecution. Perhaps this had the unintended consequence of garnering support for the most implacable opponents of the Anglican compromise. In 1637, William Prynne, John Bastwick and Henry Burton were convicted of seditious libel and had their ears cropped and their cheeks branded. Prynne reinterpreted the "SL" ("Seditious Libeller") branded on his forehead as "Stigmata Laudis".

The Long Parliament of 1640 accused him of treason and named him as a chief culprit in the Grand Remonstrance of 1641. Laud was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he remained throughout the early stages of the English Civil War. In the spring of 1644 he was brought to trial which, however, ended without a verdict. The parliament took up the issue and eventually passed a bill of attainder under which he was beheaded on 10 January, 1645 on Tower Hill, notwithstanding being granted a royal pardon.

Laud is remembered in both the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with a Commemoration on 10 January. He is buried at St. John's College, Oxford.

Bibliography

• Hugh Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645 ISBN 1-84212-202-9

References

1. ^ Phillips, Daphne (1980). The Story of Reading. Countryside Books. p. 47. ISBN 0-905392-07-8. 
2. ^ Anthony Milton, "Laud, William (1573–1645)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. (Accessed 5 October 2006.)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Laud

• Royal Berkshire History: William Laud

Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Portland (Lord High Treasurer)	First Lord of the Treasury 1635–1636	Succeeded by William Juxon (Lord High Treasurer)
Church of England titles
Preceded by Arthur Lake	Bishop of Bath and Wells 1626–1628	Succeeded by Leonard Mawe
Preceded by Richard Milbourne	Bishop of St David's 1628–1633	Succeeded by Theophilus Field
Preceded by George Monteigne	Bishop of London 1628–1633	Succeeded by William Juxon
Preceded by George Abbot	Archbishop of Canterbury 1633–1645	Succeeded by William Juxon in 1660
Academic offices
Preceded by 3rd Earl of Pembroke	Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1630–1641	Succeeded by 4th Earl of Pembroke

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