William Laud
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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.
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Clergyman
William Laud was born in a house on Broad Street in Reading, of comparatively lowly origins; his father, also named William, was a cloth merchant (a fact about which Laud was to remain sensitive throughout his career). He was baptised at St Laurence's Church in Reading.[] He was educated at Reading School and, through a White Scholarship, St John's College, Oxford.
Laud was ordained on 5 April 1601; he soon gained a reputation for Arminian and High Church tendencies and antipathy to Puritanism and for intellectual and organisational brilliance. 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, Lord Devonshire, by conducting his marriage to a divorcée, Penelope, 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 the 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 Lord 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. He also acquired, at some expense, two Arabic script printing sets from the Netherlands, first publishing in Oxford in 1639.[] His most significant contribution was the creation of a new set of statutes for the university, a task completed in 1636.[] Laud served as the fifth Chancellor of the University of Dublin between 1633 and 1645.
High Church policy
The 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 Archibald Armstrong. Laud was known to be touchy about his diminutive stature.
Whereas Lord Wentworth 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 uniformity on the Church of England, which was driven by a belief that this was the duty of his office but, to those of 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".
Trial and execution
The Long Parliament of 1640 accused Laud of treason and, in the Grand Remonstrance of 1641, called for his imprisonment.[] 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 with a Commemoration on 10 January. He is buried at St. John's College, Oxford.
See also
Bibliography
- Hugh Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645 ISBN 1-84212-202-9
