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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

Bi. c. . :ETREa.

i 'H HILL,

HIGHGAl

^bc (Breat Cburcbnien

Series

EDITED BY

VERNON STALEY

LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

"Great CliiircliiDeii Series"

Life of Richard Hooker

[Ready.

Life of William Laud

[Ready.

Life of Lancelot Andrewes

[In preparation.

Life of John Cosin

[In preparation.

Archiushop Lauo. After I 'aiidykc.

{Frontispiece.

Life of -^ ^ William Laud

BV

The Rev. W. L. MACKINTOSH, M.A.,

PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD, SOMETIME CANON-RESIDENTIARY OF ST. ANDREW'S CATHEDRAL, INVERNESS.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON: MASTERS & CO., LTD. 78, NEW BOND STREET, W.

1907

PREFACE

The following biography of Archbishop Laud has been written for The Great Churchmen Series by request of the General Editor.

Of the difficulties of writing a biography of one, who like William Laud, was the leader of a great religious movement, I am well aware ; and I am equally conscious of the imperfections of my work. There is however one qualification for writing a life of Laud that I lay claim to possess — though curiously, nowadays, this qualification is sometimes denied, — and this is the devotion that I have ever had towards the subject of this biography. On my first visit to my Alma Mater, now many years ago, I well recollect walking straight from the railway-station to St. John's College, to behold before all else in Oxford, the spot most intimately connected with his illustrious name. After seeing the Chapel, the Hall, and other features of the College, I remember being especially pleased with my

64S93'?

vi PREFACE

cicerone, the college Porter, who on my asking whether the name of Laud .was still remembered, answered, " Why, Sir, we swear by him ! "

That a life of Laud is not only difficult to write, but necessarily involves the treatment of matters highly controversial, no one will deny. I wi'ite frankly from the standpoint of an Anglo-Catholic : at the same time, how- ever, I trust I have not been unfair to those who hold opposite opinions. All must admit that the political Puritan was one man and the religious-minded Puritan was another. To a passage of singular beauty in JNIr. Hutton's History of the English Church from the Accession of Charles I. to the Death of Anne, in which he shows that between the devout Anglo-Catholic and the devout Puritan there was much in common,^ I subscribe with all my heart. It is also my opinion that Abbot, the great Puritan Archbishop, who looms so large in the early part of Laud's life, has scarcely received justice at the hands of Church historians.

Owing to the exigencies of space, I ha\'e been obliged in a great measure to pass over the political aspect of Laud's life, i. e. his attitude to the State. The same may also

1 I have quoted part of tlie passage on p. 1 60.

PREFACE vii

be said of the refining influence and the culture of the Laudian movement, which the AngHcan Church has never lost. As to this aspect of the movement, I cannot help quoting here from the late JNlr. Shorthouse's intro- ductory essay to George Herbert's Poems [^The Temple^ Lond. 1883] which is, in its way, quite a literary gem. Speaking of that " exquisite refinement which is the peculiar gift and office of the Church," he continues :

George Herbert himself is a type of this note of the Church : the ascetic priest who was also a fine gentle- man, with his fine cloth, his cambric fall, and his delicate hands. Just as George Herbert, when on his way to the music meeting in the close of Sarujn, hesitated not to soil his hands and clothes, " usually so neat and clean," in helping the man with the cart which had broken down, so this exquisite Church delicate with the scent of violet and Lent-lily, and with the country places which God made and not man . . . still holds forth in town precincts, and back alleys and courts, this gospel of refinement and sacred culture, apparently so alien to the people among whom its lot is cast.

I have divided the life of Laud into salient features, instead of treating it chronologically. This is doubtless a gain in the interests of clearness, but it has perhaps the disadvantage of causing some repetition, and it sometimes makes the chapters unequal in length. Living,

viii PREFACE

as I do, in the "Far North," I regret that I have not had access to the great piibhc hbraries. In conclusion, I have to thank my friend JNIr. Staley, Provost of Inverness Cathedral, for much trouble that he has taken in helping me to look over the proofs.

W. L. Mackintosh.

Inverness,

Eastertide 1907.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

The English Reformation ..... 1

Laud's Life and Work connected with the Refomia- ation — The English Reformation — Revokition versus Reformation — Return to old paths under Hooker — Laud can-ies on this work.

CHAPTER n

Laud at Oxford ....... 25

Laud's Birth and Parentage — Elizabethan Oxford — Laud at St. John's — The False Step — Laud as Parish Priest — Laud at Gloucester.

CHAPTER HI

Laud as Bishop ....... 46

Laud, Bishop of St. David's — Abbot and Williams — Visit of Prince Charles to Spain — Accession of Charles L — Coronation of Charles L — Laud, Bishop of London — The Lecturers — Restoration and Con- secration of Churches.

ix

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

PAOK

Laud as Primate ....... 74-

Laud, Archbishop of Canterbuiy — Moral Refonxi — Sunday Obsei-v'ance — Metropohtical Visitation — Foreign Protestants in England — Ecclesiastical Refoi-m — The Star Chamber — The Court of High Commission.

CHAPTER V

Laud as Reformer . . . . . .101

Laud's Reformation, a reaction against that of Cranmer — Laud's opposition to Calvinism — Episco- pacy, de jure divino — Assertion of Sacramental Doctrine — Reaction towards Catholic Belief and Practice — Ceremonial Refomiation — Limitations in Laud's Reformation.

CHAPTER VI

Laud : Private and Devotional Life . . .129 Portraits of Laud — "Always ailing, never failing" — Simplicity of his Home-Life — Kindness to Dependents — Attitude towards Recreations — Pro- motes Spirituality amongst the Clergy — Laud and FeiTar the Younger.

CHAPTER VII

Laud and Christian Reunion . . . .142^

Laud's attitude towards Reunion — The Cardinal's Hat — Missions of Leandcr and Panzani — Negoti- ations with Windebank — Sanct;i Clara on the Articles — Failure of the Reunion-Project.

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER VIII

PAGE

Laud and Learning . . . . . .162

Popular Misrepresentations of Laud — His Intellect and Tolerance — Mr. Gladstone's Vindication of Laud — Chancellor of Oxford — Incidents in Uni- versity Reform — Laud entertains Charles I. at Oxford — Laud's Munificence to Oxford.

CHAPTER IX

Laud and the Scottish Church . . . .178 Fall of the Ancient Scottish Church — Laud accom- panies King James to Scotland — King Charles visits Scotland — The Scottish Prayer Book.

CHAPTER X

Laud and the Irish Church . . . . .192 Ireland in the Sixteenth Century — Laud and Strafford — The Irish Articles and Canons.

CHAPTER XI

Laud : His Troubles 204

Gathering of the Storm — Animosity against Laud — Convocation and the Canons of l6iO — Laud accused of High Treason — The Trial — The Im- prisonment— Piynne — Bill of Attainder — Laud sentenced to Death.

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XII

PAGE

Laud : His Martyrdom ...... 234

Laud's Execution — His Speech and Prayers — The End — Laud's Will — Persecution, and Desecration of Churches — Reaction — The Prayer Book of 1 66 1 — "Laud saved the English Church."

Index 251

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I. William Laud, from a picture by Vandyke Frontispiece

II. St. John the Baptist's College^ Oxford, from an

early French print .... To face p. 33

III. Interior of the Palace Cliapel of Lambeth Palace,

showing Screen and Stalls. The painted vaulting, executed in lath and plaster, is modern ; previously there was a flat panelled ceiling. Archbishop Laud, during his primacy, refitted and adorned the chapel, and put up the elaborate screen which divides the building into chapel and ante-chapel ; the stalls also are attributed to him. The primate's stall is on the right hand of the entrance at the door of the screen

To face p. 81

IV. Laud blessing StrafFoi'd on his way to execution, from

a picture by Paul de la Roche . . To face p. 193

V. Laud's Trial in the House of Lords, engraved by Hollar, reproduced from Frontispiece to ' Hidden Works of Darkness,' by William Prynne, 1645

To face p. 209

xiu

LIFE OF

WILLIAM LAUD

CHAPTER I

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION

laud's life and work connected with the

reformation the english reformation

revolution vevsus reformation re- turn to old paths under hooker laud

carries on this work

In order to estimate rightly the work and in- fluence of any leader of men, it is well to sur- vey the age in which he lived, and to consider the society, secular and religious, in which he moved ; and, moreover, it is useful, if not necessary, to trace the course of events that immediately led up to the state of affairs that prevailed when he came upon the scene, in which he was to become a prominent actor. This is so in a very marked degree in the case

2 LIFE OF WILLIAjNI LAUD

of William Laud. We must not merely view his surroundings, but we must hark back to the stirring events that preceded his times : in short, we must turn our attention to that great movement which has been somewhat vaguely styled the Reformation.

The life and work of Laud were closely con- nected Avith the English Reformation. Laud has been described as a counter-reformer, a reformer of the Reformation, and even as a conservative reformer ; but still he is closely connected with the Reformation. It will therefore be necessary to begin by briefly con- sidering what the English Reformation really was.

In the first place, all reasonable men, from the Papalist to the Puritan, must admit that at the end of the fifteenth century, or the be- ginning of the sixteenth, some kind of reform- ation was absolutely necessary ; some of the walls of the Church in the Realm of England needed building up, and there were additions to the edifice — later additions out of harmony with the original building — which required to be removed. Dr. I>iddon, in a remarkable sermon preached l)efore the University of Oxford on " the Influences of the Holy Spirit," in speaking of the Reformation uses the terse expression — "a nmch-nccdcd reformation of

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 3

the Church." ^ Certainly, a reformation of the Church in England in the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries was " much needed." Impor- tant matters both of doctrine and practice needed reform. The Church in the Provinces of Canterbury and York, it is true, held the Catholic Faith, that sacred deposit of doctrine handed down to her by her Divine Founder, and enshrined in the creeds — but she had overlaid this faith with certain developments, developments not by way of definition, like the definitions of the great Councils, but developments of doctrine some of them out of harmony with " the faith once delivered to the saints." There were also developments of practice unknown in the early ages of Chris- tianity, which called for reformation. At the present day, when people complacently ac- quiesce in the divisions of Christendom, they do not sufficiently realize the disastrous nature of the great schism of the eleventh cen- tury, when East and AVest were separated. Outward unity being thus marred, it was but natural that the whole Church should suffer, and that errors both of doctrine and of practice should follow. There was, first of all, the position of the Roman See with regard to the Church in England that required re-adjustment.

1 Liddou, University Sermons, 2nd series, 1880, p. 89.

4 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

The moderate Primacy of early days had by degrees developed into a Supremacy, temporal as well as spiritual. From the Pope being regarded as the Primate of Christendom, he eventually claimed to exercise jurisdiction over the Church in all nations. It was urged that jurisdiction proceeded from him alone, and this he was held to confer on JNIetropolitan Bishops, by the gift of the pallium. His patronage in England was immense. He appointed his favourites to some of the wealthiest benefices.^ Amongst other taxes, annates or the first fruits of bishoprics had to be paid to him. Even as far back as the reign of Henry III. it was computed that these Papal nominees in one year drew from the Church more than 80,000 marks, a larger sum than the revenue of the Crown.

In the matters of doctrine and practice re- form was urgently needed, since between the popular teaching of the later middle ages, and the authorized teaching of tlie Church of that period, to say nothing of that of earlier ages, there was wide divergence. The Church, for instance, had always taught that Christ gave her the power to forgive in His name the sins of the penitent ; and upon tliis belief, and upon the belief that the Church has authority

' Stubbs, Constitutional Hint. , ii. Hn.

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 5

to impose penitential discipline, there was built up in the middle ages a system of In- dulgences, which in practice often meant " licenses," obtained at a price, to commit sin. Pardoners went up and down the country, armed with Papal dispensations, who invaded the domain of the parochial clergy, and hawked their Indulgences at a fixed tariff. This glaring evil, perhaps more than anything else, brought to men's minds the necessity of reform. In the same way the guarded teach- ing of the earlier ages as to the state of the soul after death had been developed, almost past recognition, into the popular mediaeval doctrine concerning Purgatory : the cleansing fire was held to be material, and many other like details were added. So also the doctrine of the Communion of Saints,with its resultant practice of asking the saints for their prayers, which can claim the authority of St. Ambrose and St. Gregory Nyssen, had, in many cases, degenerated into a cultus which was undis- tinguishable from that given to Almighty God ; justifying the derisive language of Erasmus ^ on the subject. So also a wise use of images and pictures, sanctioned by the Church as aids to devotion, had been corrupted in the later

^ Erasmus, Encomium Morice, qu. Perry, The Student's English Church Bistori/, Loud. 1878, p. 5.

6 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

middle ages into a worship hardly different from Pagan idolatry. Amongst many church- people in mediaeval times, a crude and mater- ialistic conception of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist prevailed, very different from the teaching of St. Thomas and other great schoolmen. The same may be said with regard to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which had come to be regarded in the same materialistic way, its dependence upon, and its identity with, the Sacrifice of the Cross being ignored. The aspect of the Eucharist as a feast was largely overlooked; for most people, yearly com- munion was deemed sufficient, although recent researches have shown that in parishes the proportion of communicants was higher than it is nowadays. The laity never received the Chahce, a deprivation unknown in the earlier ages of the Church, except possibly in cases where the Sacrament was reserved for the sick and others. Another matter needinsf reform was the existing discipline of the Western Churclies regarding the celibacy of the clergy. From the earliest times the Church, relying upon the words of our Lord and of St. l*aul, held the unmarried state to be the more excellent way, especially for God's ministers ; but tliis was a very different matter from imposing a rigid rule of celibacy upon all

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 7

the clergy, and forbidding not only marriage after ordination, but also reftising to ordain married men unless they consented to live apart from their wives. The history of the medijEval Church, witli the moral scandals attendant upon the enforced celibacy of the clergy, justified the change eventually made by the Church of England, which was probably the best disciplinary reform carried out. Never perhaps has the public worship of God been rendered with more outward solemnity and beauty than was the case in the later medieval times : the words of the service enshrined in the liturgical books, the music, the ceremonial, the instrumenta of worship, the glorious buildings themselves, everything in short that devotion and art could desire, was freely lavished upon the service of the Almighty. Yet, on the other hand, the ser- vices were unintelligible to most of the people, for they were rendered in Latin, a tongue '* not understanded " by them, and the over- elaboration of ceremonial needed simplification. Added to these abuses in doctrine and prac- tice, there is no doubt that by the fifteenth century a general lowering of spirituality had taken place. The Church had become wealthy and powerful, and the result was spiritual deterioration. The remarkable evangelical

8 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

movement of St. Francis of Assisi, in the thirteenth century, had to a great extent spent itself; so much so, that the Franciscan order itself had become Avealthy, and the Friars were more worldly than the INIonks, and less esteemed in popular opinion. The fine gold had indeed become dim.

There was of course a bright side to the later mediseval Church ; there were good and devoted men both amongst clergy and laity. In those days the Church was far more the Church of the people than she is to-day ; for she embraced the whole English nation, and not a little more than half. Belief in the super- natural, and especially in the sacramental sys- tem, was far more widespread than in the times that followed. The wife of JNIartin Luther doubtless stated the truth, when she said that somehow people prayed better before the Reformation than they did in her day. Still in spite of all this, that reformation was required no fair-minded man can deny. Even those Churches which remained in commimion with Rome have admitted this ; for the Council of Trent, although it stereotyped and strengthened the claims of the Papacy, yet assuredly re- formed many of tlie worst errors and abuses of the mediaeval period witli no light hand ; but the Council came too late.

REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 9

Having thus shown the need of reform, let us now proceed to inquire how in England this reformation was carried out. In all great movements, the evil and the good are more or less mingled together, and to this rule the English Reformation was no exception. In some movements the evil for a time gets the mastery of the good, and this was the case in England. To an impartial mind the result of the Reformation viewed, say, in the middle of Elizabeth's reign is, to say the least, disappoint- ing. Revolution against the ancient system had to a great extent taken the place of reformation, and the Church was fast tending to Calvinism. Happily this course was checked by a counter-movement, and this movement was eventually marshalled and led by William Laud. If the Reformation was completed by the Elizabethan settlement — as is often held — it must be pronounced to have been to a great extent a failure : if it was continued, as we hold it was, until the Caroline settlement in 1662, when the fruits of Laud's life work and death were visible, then it was not a failure, but a success ; though, like all human move- ments, it had its obvious limitations and shortcomings.

The best and most impartial historians have shown how, at the beginning of the

10 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Reformation in England, there were two forces at work, the one conservative and constructive, the other revohitionary and even destructive. Wolsey, Colet, and Gardiner have more right to be designated reformers, in the true sense of the word, than Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. Had the Reformation, for instance, been developed on the lines of AVolsey, Colet, and Gardiner, had the reforms been more or less on the basis of A necessary Erudition for any Christian man, commonly called IVie King's Book of 1543, a book formally sanctioned by Convocation, the result would have been very different from what it was. It is not difficult for us to picture to ourseh'es a conservative reformation — a reformation in the true sense of the term. The monasteries would have been reformed, some of them might have been equit- ably suppressed (as had been already done in the middle ages), and their revenues diverted into other religious channels, such as the en- dowment of new bishoprics or of colleges ; tlie old services might have been translated, and better adapted to the needs of tlie day ; errors in doctrine and abuses in discipline miglit have been taken away ; the attitude of tlic Enghsli Church to tlie Roman See might liave been readjusted — a difficult, tliougli pcrliaps not an impossible matter. A conservative reform-

REVOLUTION FERSUS REFORMATION 11

atioii of tliis kind might have taken phice ; but we know full well that it did not. The party that eventually got the upper hand in Edward's reign was destructive rather than constructive ; it advocated revolution rather than reform- ation. This party was moved by two sections ; or rather, we should say, two forces drove it forward. The one force was the influence of a corrupt court and its parasites — creatures of Henry VIII., many of whom had sprung from the lowest of the people — upstarts like Crom- well and others, who, when the monasteries were dissolved, like vultures battened on the spoil. The other force was religious, deriidng its inspiration from abroad, from Wittenburg, Geneva, or Zurich. Nothing would satisfy its agents but a root and branch revolution. They pursued a clear and definite end, — the substitution of a new religious system for the old Catholic system. At first this party was Lutheran, then it became definitely Calvinistic and Zwinglian. With consummate ability it carried forward its plans, secretly but surely, aided, as it was, by the march of political events and assisted by its allies, the Court- party. Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer and others came under the spell of this foreign influence ; they looked with servile admiration upon con- tinental Protestantism. They brought over

12 LIFE OF WILIJAINI LAUD

foreigners, such as Biicer, Peter INIartyr, and John Laski, who were placed in positions of trust and importance in the Universities and elsewhere. In this way Lutheran and Calvinist heresies gradually influenced the nation. The adherents of this party may be said to have been anti-national in religion, and anti-demo- cratic in politics. They imported into England a religion " made in Germany," or " made in Switzerland." English Christianity, as it then existed, was in their eyes a religion beyond reformation. By the destruction of the mon- asteries vast numbers of the peasantry passed from under the sway of the religious houses to that of the "new men," who crushed them under foot. INIuch of the common-land was enclosed, and the kindly, though perhaps in- discriminate charity of the monks and friars was replaced by the revolting barbarities of the Poor Laws of Henry and Edward. I'he Reformation under tliese kings has been aptly described as a revolution of the rich against the poor.^

As to the religious force in the movement, some writers have held that Cranmer and his English colleagues were genuine reformers, whose tlicological standpoint was mucli the same as that of the " moderate higli-church-

' Dixon, History of the Church of Enylund, Loud. 1886, iii. 250.

REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 13

man" of to-day. It has also been definitely asserted, that their aim was the adoption of the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 ; but that such a settlement was overthrown by the foreign reformers, and that the result was the very different book of 1552. Such a theory is plausible, but it does not represent the facts. INIost of the Edwardian reformers would, in these days, be best represented by the Pro- testant agitators of the baser sort, and it is open to doubt whether even the comprehen- siveness of the Anglican Communion would have been wide enough to include them ! By the time that Edward had ascended the throne, Cranmer seems to have broken with the more moderate teaching of Luther, and to have accepted the doctrines of Calvin. INlany of his followers went further, and were avowed Zwinglians. With the Cranmerian party in the reign of Edward VI. it was not so much a question of reforming the old Missal and Breviary ^ — they were in their eyes beyond any possibility of reformation — as of supplanting them by another system altogether. This of course could not be done at once, but necessi- tated a stay at a half-way house — and this

^ Extracts from the shocking and irreverent language used by Cranmer, Latimer, Hooper and others with regard to the mediaeval Eucharistic Service are given in Blunt, Reformation of the Church of England, Lond. 1882, ii. 399-402.

14 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

htalf-way house was the Prayer Book of 1549.^ This Book is now valued in the Anghcan Communion, being by some esteemed as an ideal service-book. Even grantmg all this, it is impossible to deny the sad circumstances of its birth. Nay, even the ultra-Protestant Book of 1552 was not the ultimate goal of Cramner and his party ; since there is good reason to believe that a third and more anti-Catholic book was drawn up by Cranmer himself, the issue of which was only happily averted by the timely death of Edward VI. ^ What can be thought of a Primate of all England who, under pretext of reforming the Church, did his best to overthrow it ? Putting aside his miserable subservience to the will of a tyrant like Henry VIII., his shameless pandering to the King's vices, what can be thought of Thomas Cranmer, who allowed himself to become the mere tool of those astute wire- pullers, the foreign divines and tlie self-seeking Court-party then in power, whose object was the complete overthrow of the ancient system ? As a modern writer has obser^'ed, " The only

^ C'raiimer's spoocli to tlie Devonshire rebels, viiidiratiiie: tlic Prayer liook of 1549, is ol»\ioiisly a liit of jxiliey, and can liardly l)c tiken as liis sincere o]»inion. See I'rrjxinitioiis for flu- nccond I'rttijrr liouk uf Jul ward VI., in Ch. IJuar. JU'i'., No. 7'>, 1UU.'3.

'^ Atcliley, Sowe remarks on thr Ediriirdhm I'rai/cr liook in EnnitjiN on Ci'rrnionutl, Dt'laniore I'l'css, Ijond. 1!>04, p. 27'.). See also Hint, of the '/'rouhkti iit Fninkjurl, liond. l8lLi.

REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 15

deed for which we feel that we owe any gratitude to Cranmer is for his unrivalled liturgical translations, and it may be that this feeling has in some degree served to obscure his real character." ^ It must also in fairness be admitted that his end was not unworthy of a brave man, for he died for his convictions. But had the regime of Edward continued, there is little doubt, humanly speaking, that the Reformation in England would have been like that on the continent ; historical Christianity would have ceased to exist, and the Ecclesia AngUcana would have been no more.

Never did both Church and State sink so low as in the gloomy years of Edward's reign. The nominal ruler of England was but a sickly boy, a mere puppet in the hands of a gang of unprincipled self-seekers ; and had he grown up with ultra-Protestanism on one side, and Tudor traditions on the other, he mio'lit have been the author of untold harm. The discipline of the ancient Church being sus- pended, a period of general demoralization set in. It affected all classes, especially those in the towns.

The sermons preached by honest Hugh Latimer before the Court are a terrible indictment on the practical results of the

1 Ch. quart. Rev., No. 62, 1891, p. 457.

16 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Reformation. The picture he draws of the corruption of morals is truly fearful. It looked as if the Ten Commandments would soon share the fate of the medieeval system ; so much were they set at nought. Traheron naively wTites to Bullinger, — " Religion is indeed prospering, but the wickedness of those who profess the Gospel is wonderfully on the increase." ^ There were good and upright men like Latimer, Ridley, and Hooper, who would have been ornaments to any cause or period ; but on the other hand there were ecclesiastics in the very highest positions who were an open scandal to their profession — men like Holgate, Archbishop of York, who was forbidden to come to Parliament until an investigation was made into his conduct in regard to another man's wife ; ^ and who, being found guilty, was sent to the Tower.^ Or Poynet, Bishop of Win- chester, who lived in open sin with a married woman, and later had to compound with her husband, a butcher, by paying a fine."* Or Voysey and Kitchin, Bishops of Exeter and Landaff, respectively, who found their sees amongst the richest in England, and left them

^ Orvfinul Lettcr.% Parker Soc, p. 324. '^ Dixon, iii. 471 note.

3 Blunt, The Reformation of the Church of England, Load. 1882, ii. 151 note.

< Grey Friars Chronicle, p. 70. Machyiis Diary, p. 8.

REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 17

the poorest.^ As to the foreign divines, they seem to have been no better ; the first wives of JMartin Bucer and Peter JNIartyr were nuns,^ and both men held very loose views about divorce.^ Ochino, who was made prebendary of Canterbury, advocated polygamy ; ^ and Florio, an Italian preacher of some note, was threatened with banishment for a moral offence, " which it is difficult to name in plain Eng- lish."-^

Church-desecration went on apace at this time. The cathedrals and the churches of the land were outrageously profaned and plundered. Reformers, professional and ama- teur, threw down altars, defaced carvings, and broke painted windows ; and, acting in con- junction with the Royal Commissioners, carted off valuable loot in the shape of gold and silver chalices and gorgeous vestments, con- veniently labelled " superstitious," but which were appropriated by the Royal Treasury.^ Even the coin in the poor-boxes was taken, nothing in many cases being left ! Never were the Universities at a lower ebb : the prevailing w^ork of destruction extended to

1 Dixon, iii. 275.

2 Ibid. ii. 521. Blunt, ii. 166.

'' Luckoek, Hint, of Marriage^ Lond, 1894, p. 176 note. * Blunt, ii. 163.

' Dixon, iii. 426. ^ jn^^ 449-455.

2

18 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD

the priceless contents of the Hbraries ; not only- missals and breviaries, but other books were torn up and committed to the flames.^ In- capable foreigners, who could not speak a word of English, were appointed to professorships ; whilst the number of students steadily diminished.

It is sometimes imagined that Edward VI. was a munificent patron of learning ; but this was not the case. So moderate a writer as Professor Gairdner has ably exposed the fallacy of Edward's supposed munificence in the cause of learning. ^ It is true that he founded Christ's Hospital and St. Thomas' Hospital ; but, on the other hand, more than two hundred grammar-schools were successfully plundered by Somerset and others.^ Those schools to which Edward gave his name were each one of them ancient foimdations. In all directions — in East Anglia, in the INIidlands, in the North, in the West country — there were popular risings, partly in defence of the old religion, and partly because of the oppression at the hands of the "new men." These out- bursts were ruthlessly crushed by the party

* Dixon, iii. 109. G.iirdiicr, The Englhh Church in the Six- teenth Crntiin/, Loud. r.)0;5, pp. 290, 291.

^ (iainliicr, p. 'U-l.

3 I^cacli, KiKjUxli Sffioo/x lit the RvforDiiitinn, IjOikI. 1890 ; qu. Wakeniaii and I'ullan, The Jicjbniiution in (Jreut JJrituin, Lond. 1900, p. 30.

REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 19

in power, who imported from the continent bands of mercenaries, both Protestant and Popish, and thousands of half-armed EngHsh peasants were butchered hke sheep. As Dixon has well observed, — " It is a thing to be held in eternal memory that the English Reformation at this great crisis was carried on by tlie aid of foreign cut-throats, who on their return to their own countries sought absolution for the sin of fighting for Heresy." ^ Seldom has the foreign policy of England been more disastrous, — an ignominious peace with France and Scotland, the surrender of Boulogne, and the relinquishment of all rights and claims in either kingdom.

At home the State had to resort to the dire expedient of no less than three times debasing the coinage, and inflicting on the poor misery past description.^ Is it wonderful, then, that a change of government was welcomed on the accession of Queen JNIary ? The " moderate men " of the day, as well as the thorough- going mediaevalists, welcomed the new 7'egime with joy.

To Queen Mary's reign we can only briefly refer. It began well. To a devout Anglican Catholic it is pleasant to read of the building

1 Dixon, iii. 49.

2 Gairdiier, p. 294.

20 LIFE OF WILLIA:\I LAUD

up of broken altars, the restoration of the Eucharist to its true dignity with vestments, hghts, and incense. The strains of the organ were heard once more ; for organs were as much dishked as thuribles by the Edwardian reformers.^

The restoration of the Papal Supremacy in the English Church, which took place in 1554, was however a retrograde step. For this the Edwardian rule may indirectly be blamed. INIen of the old learnino^ who desired genuine reform, like Gardiner and others, had been so shocked by the iniquities of the reign of Edward, that they were driven to believe that Catholicism covdd not be detached from Papalism ; and the residt was, so to speak, a triumph of Ultramontanism. The extreme Romanensian party triumphed in the Church of England in the reign of JNlary. In 1555, the persecution of the Protestants began ; a measure which no one in these days can defend. It was both brutal and detestable, and it was besides a huge political and ecclesiastical mis- take ; for it converted half the nation to Protestantism, a thing wliich the Cranmcrian movement had egregiously failed to do.

On the deatli of INIary, Ehzabetli succeeded to the throne. If slic was a great states-

' Atcliley, The Edwardian P. Bk., p. 273.

REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMATION 21

woman, she was a sovereign singularly lacking in the virtues of her sex. She was cruel, unforgi\'ing, imperious, untruthful, with little personal religion ; and, if* some contempo- rary reports may be believed, strangely lacking in feminine morality. In her reign, the Papal Supremacy was at once abjured, and a return was made to the Book of Common Prayer of 15.52, but Avith certain alterations in the direction of the Book of 1549. In 1571, the XXXIX. Articles were adopted, a reA^ision, m a Catholic direction, of the XLII. Articles of 1553. They were not Articles of " Faith " but of " Religion," — articles to reconcile the more moderate ^larian clergy, as well as those of the " new learning," to the existing state of affairs.

0\Wng to a strange mortality amongst the Marian bishops, and the Romanensian attitude of the survivors, added to political reasons, the Elizabethan episcopate was chosen, with the exception of Parker and Chepiey, almost ex- clusively fi'om the extreme Protestant clergy. Protestantism, thanks to the ]Marian persecu- tion, had now been acclimatized in England, and its cause was also furthered bv the return of the refugees who were ultra-protestants of the Genevan and Zwinglian ty^e. Of the Marian clergy, all, with the exception of about

22 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

three hundred, conformed. The old usages continued in some parts of the country, but the bishops did their best to suppress them. The result of a Protestant episcopate and the return of the refugees, to say nothing of the Romanist conspiracies against the Queen, and the enmity of the Papal powers of Europe to England, tended to make the Church more or less anti-Catholic during the earlier half of Elizabeth's reign.

A moderating influence, however, was that of the Queen, whose religion, as far as it went, was of a more conservative type than that of many of her subjects. In her sister's reign it needed not a great effort on her part to con- form, and in the Chapels Royal a certain amount of ceremonial seems to have been in use. She also directed and supported the beneficial efforts of Archbishops Parker and Whitgift in suppressing ultra-protestant, or as it came to be called Puritan lawlessness, and in this way tlie good that she wrought cannot with justice be overlooked. Never- theless, she can hardly be regarded as a "good Church-woman," when we remember her scandalous; rapacity in seizing upon the patrimony of the Clunx'h, to say nothing of what we know of her personal character. Her zeal against Calvinistic Puritanism was evoked by its

RETURN TO OLD PATHS 23

decidedly anti-monarchical character. Toward the end of her reign, however, a definite reaction against Calvinism set in, a return to the old paths, a veering round to the principles of a constructive Reformation. This return seems to have been gradual and partial, but the trend of affairs is shown by the Canons of 1571. They enjoined the clergy, never to preach anything to be religiously held and believed by the people, but what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments, and which the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have collected out of that doctrine. In theory, the Edwardian Reformers ap- pealed to the Primitive Church ; but it was only so far as its decisions happened to coin- cide with the opinions of the foreign divines, — not a frequent occurrence. In 1589, Ban- croft is found preaching that the Episcopate is of divine origin.^ In 1594, the first four books of Hooker's immortal work. The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, make their appearance. In the following reign we meet with such Catholic-minded divines as Andrewes and Overall. James I. had enough of Presby- terianism in Scotland, and found out that it was unpleasantly republican ; so his influence was exerted on the other side. The Hampton

1 Perry, Student's C'h. Hist., Loud. 1878, p. 343.

24 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Court Conference also favoured the new move- ment ; but it needed some strong man, some leader, some man of action, to organize the attack against the forces of ultra-Protestantism, and to fight a series of engagements which should culminate in victory.

The man who was raised up for this work was William Laud. It is true that, like many- other great leaders, he fell on the field of battle ; but the victory was won. True Reformation- principles took the place of false. Humanly speaking, we can say that if Laud had not lived, the Ecclesia AngUcana would have degenerated into a Protestant sect, and Eng- land would now be like Germany, Holland, or Switzerland, — Lutheran, Calvinistic, or Zwin- glian ; and, moreover, beyond a doubt, a flour- ishing and increasing branch of the Roman Church would be in our midst, as is the case to-day in Protestant countries abroad.

We have dwelt long upon the early history of the English Reformation, for we are con- vinced that it is not possible to estimate rightly the work and influence of AVilliam Laud, Avith- out considering carefully the religious move- ments which had taken place when he came into power.

CHAPTER II

LAUD AT OXFORD

laud's birth and parentage ELIZA- BETHAN OXFORD LAUD AT ST. JOHN's

THE FALSE STEP LAUD AS PARISH PRIEST

LAUD AT GLOUCESTER

Of the early years of William Laud but little is known ; even Peter Heylin his intimate friend and chaplain, to whom we are indebted for many important details of Laud's career recorded in his Cijprianus AngUcus (as he styles his Life of Laud), tells us next to nothing of his boyhood. Laud was born October 7, 1573, in the town of Heading, then as now, the principal town in the county of Berks. His ffither, William Laud, was a clothier in a considerable way of business. His mother's maiden name was Lucy Webb, a sister of Sir W. Webb who was Lord INIayor of London in the year 1591. Her first husband was John llobinson, a clothier of some standing in Read- ing. After his death, she married William

o

25

26 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD

Laud ; and the only offspring of this marriage was the future archbishop.

HeyHn narrates how he one day found Laud walking in the garden at Lambeth, agitated and distressed on reading a foul libel which made reflections upon his birth. On seeing Heylin, he turned to him and said, that " though he had not the good fortune to be born a gentleman, yet he thanked God that he had been born of honest parents who lived in plentiful condition, employed many poor people m their way, and left a good report behind them." To which Heylin reminded the Archbishop, "that Pope Sixtus V., as stout a pope as ever wore the triple crown, but a poor man's son, did use familiarly to say, in con- tempt of such libels as were frequently made against him, that he was born of an illustrious house {domo natus illustri)^ because the sun- beams passing through the broken walls and ragged roof illustrated e\'ery corner of the homely cottage in which he was born."^ Laud tluis sprang from a good middle- class family — a class which in the sixteentli century, as in the present day, was in many ways the backbone of the country.

In the time of VN'^illiam Laud the glories of lleathng had, to a large extent, passed away.

' Heylin, Cypriunus Anylicuft, Loud. 1G71, pp. 43, 44.

LAUD'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 2T

The magnificent abbey, dedicated to St. JNIary and St. Jolin, had been laid waste and was no more ; its wealth doubtless being in the hands of some worthless favourite of Henry VIII. or his descendant : but there still remained the beautiful churches of St. Lawrence and St. Giles. There was also the Grammar-school founded by Thorne, abbot of St. JNIary's in the reign of Edward VI. King Henry VII. en- dowed this school with £lO a year; and in the reign of Queen Mary, Sir Thomas White annexed to it two fellowships of St. John's, Oxford, the college he had lately founded. It was at Reading grammar-school that Laud was educated. As a child, Laud was sickly and constantly ailing, indeed in infancy he was in serious danger of death. However, as is not seldom the case, his will and spirit carried him through all difficulties ; and, as a school-boy, he astonished his master by his application to his studies, and his quickness in acquiring knowledge. In 1 589, he left Reading grammar- school and began his career at Oxford ; so that here it may not be inappropriate to pause for a moment to consider the condition of the University, towards the close of the sixteenth century.

The disastrous i^egime under Edward VI. had been succeeded by more stable times in the

28 LIFE OF WILLIA:M LAUD

reign of JNIaiy, when benefactors came for- ward and founded colleges and scholarships in the cause of sound learning, a thing which they could hardly have been expected to do in the revolutionary days of the previous reign. Amongst the number was Sir Thomas White, who munificently founded the College of St. John the Baptist, upon the ruins of an old Bernardine House. It was not till 1567 that the college was formally incorporated in the University. Sir Thomas AA^hite, like many others of the more moderate Romanensian party, accepted the changes in the reign of Elizabeth, and settled down as a " good churchman," as he doubtless would have been designated to-day. But men of his school were in a considerable minority, the prevailing tone of Elizabethan churchmanship, as has already been observed, being of a foreign rather than of a native type. The slavish deference to Geneva and Zurich, which characterized the leaders of so-called reform in the reign of Edward VI., was again manifesting itself. The reaction in favour of the older paths, wliich was originated by Hooker and others, had hardly yet made itself felt, whilst the followers of Grindal, Cox, and Sandys carried everything before them. Such bishops made short work of any Catholic tendencies

ELIZABETHAN OXFORD 29

and usages that remained here and there, while the greatest violations of the order of the Rook of Common Prayer were winked at, and even encouraged. In both the city and university of Oxford this party reigned supreme, aided as it was by the powerful patronage of the Earl of Leicester, a worthless profligate and a favourite of Elizabeth, who supported this extreme type of Protestantism from political and selfish motives. Here and there, no doubt, faithful men were to be found, like Buckeridge, Laud's tutor, — men who lay low, and hoped and prayed for better times. But the religious tone of Oxford was assuredly that of ultra- Protestantism, or Puritanism^ as it began to be called.

AVhen the campaign against Puritanism was over, and the decisive victory won by the life and death of William Laud, Heylin, his biographer, looking back at the past in the comfortable days of Charles II., could write the following quaint and racy description of Puritan Oxford, as it existed in Elizabeth's days.

By the power and practices of these men^ and the long continuance of the Earl of Leicester in the place of Chancellor tlie face of that University was so much altered^ that there was little to be seen in it of the

1 For the origin and explanation of the epithet " Puritan," see Dr. Paget's Introduction to Hooker, Book V., pp. 10 If.

30 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Church of England according to the Principles and Positions upon -\vhicli it was first Reformed. All the Calvinian Rigors in matters of Predestination, and the Points depending thereupon, received as the Estab- lished Doctrines of the Church of England; the necessity of the one Sacrament, the eminent dignity of the other, and the powerful efficacy of both unto man's salvation, not only disputed but denied. . . . Episcopacy mainbiined by halves not as a distinct Order from that of Presbyters, but only a degree above them, or perhaps not that, for fear of giving scandal to the churches of Calvin's Platform ; the church of Rome inveighed against as the JV/iore of Babylon, or the Mother of Abominations ; the Pope as publickly maintamed to be the Antichrist or Man of sin, and that as positively and magisterially as if it had been one of thechief Articles of the Christian Faith. . . . Nor was there any greater care taken for the Forms and Orders of this Church than there had been for points of Doctrine. The Surplice so disused in officiating the Divine Service of the Church, and the Divine Service of the Church so slubbered over in most of the Colleges that the Prelates and Clerme assembled in Convocation anno l603 were necessitiited to frame two Canons ... to bring them back again to the ancient practices . . . the Habits of the Priests by which they were to be distinguished from other men so much despised and laid aside, that Dr. Reynolds had the confidence to appear in the conference at Hampton Court in his Turkey gown, and therefore may be thought to have worn no other in the University ; and in a word the books of Gilvin made the rule by which all men were to square their Writings, his only word (like the ip.sc dixit of Pythagoras) admitted for the sole canon to which they were to frame and con-

ELIZABETHAN OXFORD 31

form their Judgments and in comparison of whom the ancient Fathers of the Church must be held contemptible. 1

It is interesting for us to try and picture William I^aud, a lad of barely sixteen, entering upon this new world, as it was to him — a world very different from that of the Oxford of the twentieth century. In some ways things have improved, and again in others the laudator temporis acti may be in the right when he confesses that things were better in the past. Life in the university three hundred years ago was, of course, like the manners and customs of the age, far rougher than it is to-day.

What, for instance, would the modern undergraduate think of rising at 5 o'clock in the morning, going to chapel, perhaps, at 5.30, and then studying till 10, the hour of dinner ? — for the meal called " breakfast " was practically unknown till a hundred years later. After dinner there would follow more study, with some recreation interspersed, evening chapel at 4 o'clock, and supper at 5. Two meals a day was then the custom, for not long before the days of Laud, had not such a light of the medical profession as Dr. Andrew Boorde, physician to Henry VIII., dogmatically

1 Heylin, pp. 47, 48.

32 LIFE OF WILLIA:\1 LAUD

declared that he who partook of more than two meals a day doth " live a beestly lyfFe " ? As to the meals themselves, they cannot have been of a very recherche character ; from a sermon preached shortly before Sh* Thomas White founded his college, we learn that the students were content " with a penny piece of beef between four, having a pottage made with the same beef with salt and oatmeal and nothing else ... a supper not better than their dinner."^ After supper, followed more study till 9 or 10 ; and then, before an early retirement to sleep, it was the custom both at Oxford and Cambridge for the undergraduates to trot briskly round " quad," so as to warm themselves before getting into bed, sin(?e their rooms had no fires. It seems also to have been the usual practice for two students to share a room. This was certainly so in the case of Laud, for one John Jones was his " chamber fellow," a man who later turned Romanist, and attained some celebrity as Dom Leander of the Benedictine Abbey of San Martino Cam- postella, in Spain.

In those days the universities -were no doubt more democratic than they are now, for the numerous benefactions and scholarships, tied to the kin of the founders or to the natiA es of

' Iluttou, «. John Bnptkt College, Lond. 1898, p. 35.

ELIZABETHAN OXFORD 33

their counties and cities, enabled many poor and deserving men to go to the University. By a strange irony of fate, both at Oxford and Cambridge, nineteenth-century hberaUsm has, on the plea of throwing open these benefac- tions to all, favoured the rich man's son, who is able to pay expensive tutors ; whilst the poor student from Exeter or Yorkshire, for whose benefit the benefactions were originally in- tended, is now often excluded. In Laud's time, the age of the students was consider- ably lower than it is at present. In his day, inidergraduates at the universities were treated more as the fourth-form boys at a public school, than as men. Again, the intercourse between undergraduates and tutors was then much closer than it is now. The fellows and tutors of a college did not live with their families in villas a mile away, but were un- married and lived in college. If a tutor was unworthy, his example would doubtless have been very injurious amongst the students with whom he lived ; whilst the influence of a faith- ful and devout tutor, who gave himself up to his important duties, must have been very great.

It was to this Elizabethan Oxford that Laud came up in the year 1589, to begin his uni- versity career as a commoner of St. John's

34 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

College. For him the Puritan system had no attractions, his religious training at home had been of a kind more loyal to the Church. Added to this, he had the good fortune to come under the influence of Buckeridge, who was his tutor, a man devoted to the old paths, as we have already said. Laud is described by Anthony a Wood ^ as being " esteemed by all who knew him a ^ ery forward, confident, zealous person." In stature he was small, and in health he was delicate, but he was endowed with more than ordinary strength of character, having also much affection towards his friends. Such a character, backed up by the wise guidance of his tutor, admirably fitted him to swim against the tide, and to take the unpopular side. With him the temptations to amusement and idle- ness that come to young men in vigorous health, had little force ; and we find that he persevered in his old habits of study, which had so pleased his schoolmaster at Reading. He soon became scholar of his college, and after three years was admitted to a fellowship. Laud obtained his B.A. degree in 1504, and his INI. A. in 1,598. He became Proctor in the year 1003, and he was noted for his mildness ; in this he was a contrast to his fellow Proctor.

' iii. col. 121, qu. Le Bas, Z<(/e of Archbishop Laud, Lond. 1836, p. o.

LAUD AT ST. JOHN'S 35

Anthony a Wood has preserved the amusing episode of a drunken fellow, who, being sur- prised by I^aud in his sleep on Peniless Bench, turned to the somewhat diminutive Proctor, exclaiming, *' Thou little morsell of justice, prithee let me alone and be at rest."^

In the year IGOO Laud was ordained deacon, and in the following year priest. At his ordination to the priesthood it is related that Young, Bishop of Rochester, who ordained him, encouraged him in the following words : *' that if he lived he would be an instrument of restoring the Church from the narrow and private principles of modern times, to the more free, large, and public sentiments of the purest and best ages." ^ A true prophecy indeed !

Up to this point the history of Laud had been uneventful. He lived the quiet yet busy life of a fellow of his college, devoted to study and faithful service of God and man, in the station in which he had been placed. But events soon happened which were destined to bring him before the world in a more or less public character. In 1602, he was called upon by his college to read the Lecture of JNIrs. IVIay's foundation. The theme chosen was, " The constant and perpetual visibility of the

1 qu. Iluttou, -S'^. John Baptist College, p. 97.

2 Baines, p. 18.

36 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Church of Christ " ; in which he maintained the identity of the Church of England of his OMTi day with the Pre-reformation Church — an historical commonplace at the present time, but in Calvinistic Oxford of Elizabeth's reign, a proposition regarded as most daring. For a young fellow of a then somewhat obscure college to expound such a startling doctrine, was a bold thing. He assuredly ^ indicated the truth of Anthony h Wood's saying, that he was "forward, confident, and zealous." Such opinions as Laud propounded fell like a bomb upon the leader of the Puritan Party, Dr. George Abbot, INIaster of University CoUege, Dean of Winchester, and in 1603 Vice-Chan- cellor of the University, to whom Laud ever afterwards was the special bete noire.

Again, in the year 1604, he came before the dominant party in the University as the auda- cious exponent of unsound doctrines. In the exercise for the degree of Bachelor of Di^dnity, the subject that he selected was, (i.) the necessity of Baptism; and (ii.) that there could be no true Church without bishops ; both of which pro- positions he earnestly defended. A sermon at the University Church preached in 1606 had also a like effect. It was held to contain such llomish teaching, that he was personally ques- tioned by Dr. Airay, the Vicc-Chancellor ; and

LAUD AT ST. JOHN'S 37

afterwards it was deemed dangerous to ap- proach such a heretic or even to sahite him in the streets ! Laud was now a marked man.

Laud seems to have taken this persecution with marvellous equanimity. He " sat under " Dr. Abbot, that redoubtable Calvinist, and listened to his pulpit fulminations, and even beheld the audience pointing at him all the time as the miscreant concerned. " Perfect coolness and good temper marked Laud's academical career throughout," says Dr. JNIoz- ley.^ One is so apt to think of Laud as the great ecclesiastic only, the leader of a policy, that as the " small man," the obscure Oxford fellow, he is liable to be overlooked. " He was long all but alone, and had an uphill course. Dignitaries condemned, acquaint- ances avoided, even friends suspected him : he endured a humiliating discipline and a severe succession of rubs."^ And, as in the case of other men in very different paths of life, it was this period of isolation and adversity that laid the foundation of his character, and to a great extent gave it that strength which friend and foe alike have admired.

At this point in our narrative it is necessary to go back a year, in order to record an event

^ Essays Historical and Theological, Lond., i. 120. '^ Ibid. i. 115.

38 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

which befell William Laud, a sin over which he mourned to the end of his life. He had been appointed Chaplain to Lord INIountjoy, Earl of Devonshire ; and, by the urgent en- treaties of his patron, he was prevailed upon to solemnize a marriage between him and Lady Penelope Devereux, daughter of the Earl of Essex. This lady had been divorced a inensd et thoro from her husband, Lord Rich, in con- sequence of adultery with the Earl of Devon- shire, who desiring to have the children which she had borne to him accounted legitimate, persuaded Laud to solemnize his marriage with this lady. It appears that in early years an ardent attachment on both sides had been formed, and a verbal but unattested contract of marriage had taken place. For the warmest admirers of Laud to defend his conduct in this matter is quite impossible. He sinned griev- ously, and he knew it. Such a blot stands out in liis life as a paradox, for it was contrary to his character. For a man like Cranmer to have acted in this way would not have aston- ished us ; nay, to such a dweller " in kings' houses," it would have been the natural course to take ; but with Laud it was quite different. He was made of sterner stufi'. He was essen- tially a strong man, a man of principle. The clothier's son, who became Trimate of all

THE FALSE STEP 39

England, was no respecter of persons, even in an age when sycophants abounded. Besides, was he not an upholder of the Book of Com- mon Prayer, and one who walked in the old paths ? The only excuse that can be made for him is that even he was influenced by the loose teaching upon Holy Matrimony of the Lutheran, Cah inistic and Zwinglian factions. Had not Luther permitted the Elector of Hesse to have two wives at the same time ? and was not Bucer — one of the more moderate foreigners — notoriously lax on the subject of divorce ? ^ And not only do we find Heylin holding a lax view about divorce, but a greater man than Heylin fell into much the same sin as Laud. In the case of the divorce of Lady Essex from her husband, Lancelot Andrewes at first pronounced decisively against it ; but, when he took his seat as one of a commission upon the case, he deliberately changed his opinion, unable to resist the influence of the Sovereign. Yet his biographers are unable to produce any proof of his penitence. Laud and Andrewes alike took a false step, but Laud was penitent for his sin to the day of his death. Year by year, he observed St. Stephen's day (the anniversary of the event) as a day of penitence and humiliation before God. Heylin

1 See above^ p. 17.

40 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

concludes his reference to Laud's penitence witli the words, " A brave example of a peni- tent and afflicted soul, which many of us will admire, but few will imitate."^

We must now return to Laud at the Uni- versity. It is somewhat difficult to divide the life of Laud into sections, for he held various benefices and posts at the University at the same time. This chapter will therefore con- clude with his resignation of the Presidentship of St. John's College in 1621.

While still a fellow of his college, Laud was appointed in the year 1607 to the benefice of Stamford in Northamptonshire ; in the follow- ing year another benefice, that of North Kil- worth in Leicestershire, was given to him. In 1608, he proceeded to his degree of Doctor of Divinity. At this time, through the influence of Dr. Buckeridge, he was introduced to Neile, Bishop of Rochester, who made him his chap- lain, upon which he exchanged the benefice of North Kilworth for that of \Yest Tilbury in Essex, in order to be nearer his patron. In 1610, Bisliop Neile presented him to the benefice of Cuckstone in Kent, whereupon he resigned his fellowship.

In these days we sliould look with astonish- ment at any man holding so many cures of

' Heyliiij p. 64.

LAUD AS PARISH PRIEST 41

souls .simultaneously ; but we must remember that, in the early seventeenth century, a bad tradition existed — a tradition which cannot be laid to the charge of the Reformation, for it flourished vigorously in mediaeval times. Moreover, Laud was a mild offender in the matter, for on his appointment to Cuckstone, he resigned his fellowship ; and when made Dean of Gloucester he resigned West Tilbury. Also, as we shall see later, on the very day that he was consecrated Bishop of St. David's, he insisted on giving up the headship of St. John's ; although the King had given him special permission to hold both offices. That a more wholesome feeling in regard to plural- ism is now current, is after all largely due to the true reformation that William Laud effected in the Church.

Concerning Laud's life as a parish priest, little account has been preserved. No doubt he was, to use his own expression, as " thorough " as pastor as he had been whilst fellow of his college. Of necessity he was sometimes non- resident, but it is easy to imagine how, when he did reside, he would have thrown himself heart and soul into parochial work. His in- dustry, activity, single-mindedness, and deter- mination, would doubtless have been displayed. We learn that on taking possession of a cure

42 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD

of souls, he always assigned an annual pension to twelve poor persons, laying aside one-fifth of the income of the benefice for charitable purposes, putting the glebe-house into good repair, and taking care that the church was supplied with decent furniture.^

In the year 1611, Laud was a candidate for the Presidentship of St. John's College, and on this occasion a regrettable incident took place. Bayhe, one of the supporters of Rawlinson, his opponent, perceiving that the result would be favourable to Laud, had the indecency to seize the scrutiny-paper and tear it in pieces. Owing to this action, doubt was thrown upon the regularity of the election. The matter was referred to King James, who adjudicated in person, and, after a hearing of three hours, decided in Laud's favour. This event shows how strong was the feeling in Oxford against Laud, owing to his open and candid espousal of an unpopular cause. It may be mentioned, in proof of his magnani- mous nature, that he forgave the author of tliis outrage, and bestowed upon him his patronage in making him his chaplain, giving him preferment, and eventually by his in- fluence obtaining his election to the President- ship of the college. For the next four years

' Le Bas, p. 17.

LAUD AT GLOUCESTER 43

Laud resided much at Oxford. St. John's, from being a small and unimportant college, under Laud's rule became one of the most famous in the University. Although tolerant, Laud was a disciplinarian, and the government of the college improved under his rule. The material fabric was also added to.

In the year 1G16, Laud became Dean of Gloucester, the duties of which office were comparatively easy to combine with the Presidentship of St. John's College. The Deanery of Gloucester brought him more trouble than emolument ; for it was then that he first came into active opposition with Puritanism. The income of the deanery was greatly impoverished, King James humor- ously designating it, "a shell without a kernel." The Cathedral church of Gloucester was at this time perhaps the worst ordered in the kingdom ; the services were carelessly and irreverently performed, and the rules of the Prayer Book ignored. Laud at once set himself to reform matters, persuading the chapter to remove the Holy Table fi-om the middle of the church to the east end, thus securing it from profanation. He also per- suaded the chapter to make a reverence on entering the quire, an ancient custom which still continued in some other places. The

44. LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Bishop of the Diocese was Dr. ^Miles Smith, a man whose learning was more ponderous than gi'eat. He was one of the translators of the " authorized version " of the Bible, and the composer of that remarkably grotesque effusion in which the book is dedicated to King James I. Dr. Smith, who was a thorough -going Puritan, was transported with indignation at the action of the new Dean ; but not being able to interfere, he ended by philosophically making a vow which he carried out, never again to set foot in the cathedral ! The city of Gloucester seems to have then been a stronghold of the Puritan faction ; and, chiefly through the efforts of Dr. White, the Bishop's chaplain, riots broke out, which were only suppressed by the imprisonment of some of the rioters, and a request to the Court of High Commission for assistance. Eventually order was restored, and, through the firmness of the new Dean, a real reform in the Cathedral-church was effected.

In the year 1617, James paid his first visit to Scotland. The chief motive of the journey was to further his plan of bringing the religion of Scothmd into conformity with that of England. He took witli him several English

I.AUD AT GLOUCESTER 45

divines of learning and ability, Laud being one of the number.

It was about this time that the King seems to have realized the necessity of taking measures to repress the powerful Puritan party in the University of Oxford. Ever since James had left his native land of Scot- land, and ascended the English throne, he had rebelled against the Presbyterian system : this reaction was due to the fact that the Church was intensely monarchical ; whilst Puritanism, in its zeal against Erastianism, was carried away in a republican direction. James was no doubt attracted by the Church's teaching, but it was chiefly the anti-monarchical tendencies of Puritanism that repelled him. Shrewd as he was, he discovered in this system a danger which seriously menaced his dearly- loved royal prerogatives. He accordingly sent to the University certain Royal Injunctions for the restraining of rash preachers, and for the confining of divinity studies to "the Fathers and Councils, Schoolmen, Histories and Con- troversies " in their bearing on Holy Scripture. These Injunctions caused consternation in the Puritan camp, and effectually helped to swell the tide in a direction contrary to that in which they were intended to lead men.

CHAPTER III

LAUD AS BISHOP

LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID's ABBOT AND

WILLIA3IS VISIT OF PRINCE CHARLES TO

SPAIN — ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. CORONA- TION OF CHARLES I. LAUD, BISHOP OF

LONDON THE LECTURERS RESTORATION

AND CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES.

Whilst comparatively little is known of Laud as parish priest, more is known of his life as bishop. ^luch of his history as a bishop, however, is concerned with the affairs of the State. This is especially noticeable in Heylin's biography, a great part of which reads more like a History of England, than the Life of an English bishop. It is a matter for regret that so little is known about the details of Laud's episcopal life, sucli as, for instance, the way he spent his days in tlie different places where he resided. But neither Heylin, nor any other contemporary writer, gives us mucli informa- tion on such points.

Laud was consecrated Bisliop of St. David's

LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID^S 47

on November 18, 1621. He was nominated to this see by King James I. in June, the reason wliy the consecration was so long delayed being an untoward accident which concerned Dr. Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop was staying with his friend Lord Zouch at Bramshill Park, and was one day persuaded to join a shooting party, and also to take a crossbow. His complaisance to his host ended in disaster. As Mr. Le Bas remarks, " his bad marksmanship, though not at all discreditable to his sacred profession, was unhappily fatal to one of the keepers ; for in shooting at a deer it so chanced that he missed the beast and shot the man.''^ Of course it was purely accidental, but as Abbot happened to be Primate of all England, and also head of a religious party professing more than ordinary strictness of life, the incident created a great stir at the time. To the Puritan party, especially, the event appeared as a scandal. The foreign universities at once took up the matter as a theme of discussion. The Sor- bonne in Paris, after three disputations, re- solved that the action amounted to a canonical irregularity ; in other words, that the Primate was by this accident incapable of exercising ecclesiastical authority or jurisdiction. 'Jlie

^ Le BaSj Life of Archbishop Laud, Loud., p. 43.

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48

LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD

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Archbishop himself felt keenly what he had done, and did his best to make amends by- pensioning the widow of the man whom he had killed, and ever after kept the anniversary as a day of fasting and penitence.

Considerable agitation was caused through- out the land, and much erudition was expended upon the subject both by civilians and canon- ists. Eventually the King issued a Commission to Bishop Williams, who was also Lord Keeper, to the Bishops of London and Win- chester, the Bishops Elect of St. David's and Exeter, two Judges of the Common Pleas, and two Doctors of the civil law. At first the delegates could not agree amongst themselves, but finally they acquitted the archbishop. It has been thought that several members of the Commission were convinced that if Abbot had been condemned, Williams, a notorious place- hunter and unworthy of the post, would have got himself advanced to the primacy. The l^ishops Elect of St. David's (Laud), Sahsbury (Davenant), Lincoln (AVilliams), and Exeter (Carey) scrupled to have the hands of even an involuntary homicide laid upon them. They were therefore consecrated by the Bishops of London, Worcester, Cliichester, Ely, LlandalF, and Oxford on November 18, 1G21, in the Chapel of London House.

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LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVIKS

49

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Laud was not able to visit his diocese till the middle of the following year, being pre- vented from so doing by matters of urgency concerning the welfare of Church and State, the King, depending upon his counsels, de- taining him. On July 5, he entered Wales, and four days later began his Visitation of the diocese, which he completed by the middle of August. Finding no chapel at the bishop's house at Aberguilly, he set apart a room for this purpose, furnishing it with care and at considerable expense. In 1625, he paid another visit to Wales, and consecrated tlie chapel on August 28, dedicating it to St. John the Baptist, that day being the eve of the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. He specially notes in his Diary the appropriateness of the festival from its association with his beloved college at Oxford.

One can imagine Laud's arduous and fatigu- ing work in going about his Welsh diocese, assiduously doing his duty as chief pastor, and travelling often by roads in a state far worse than they were in England. In the pages of his Diary w^e read how, on coming to Aber- guilly, the episcopal coach was twice over- turned between that place and Abermarkes. On the first occasion it contained the Bishop, but on the second it was empty. Laud evi-

4.

48 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Archbishop himself felt keenly what he had done, and did his best to make amends by- pensioning the widow of the man whom he had killed, and ever after kept the anniversary as a day of fasting and penitence.

Considerable agitation was caused through- out the land, and much erudition was expended upon the subject both by civilians and canon- ists. Eventually the King issued a Commission to Bishop Williams, who was also Lord Keeper, to the Bishops of London and Win- chester, the Bishops Elect of St. David's and Exeter, two Judges of the Common Pleas, and two Doctors of the civil law. At first the delegates could not agree amongst themselves, but finally they acquitted the archbishop. It has been thought that several members of the Commission were convinced that if Abbot had been condemned, Williams, a notorious place- hunter and unworthy of the post, would have got himself advanced to the primacy. The Bishops Elect of St. David's (Laud), Salisbury (Davenant), Lincoln (AN^ilHams), and Exeter (Carey) scrupled to have the hands of even an involuntary liomicide laid upon them. They were therefore consecrated by the Bishops of London, Worcester, Chichester, Ely, IJandafF, and Oxford on November 18, 1021, in the Chapel of London House.

LAUD, BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S 49

Land was not able to visit his diocese till the middle of the following year, being pre- vented from so doing by matters of urgency concerning the welfare of Church and State, the King, depending upon his counsels, de- taining him. On July 5, he entered Wales, and four days later began his Visitation of the diocese, which he completed by the middle of August. Finding no chapel at the bishop's house at Aberguilly, he set apart a room for this purpose, furnishing it with care and at considerable expense. In 1625, he paid another visit to Wales, and consecrated the chapel on August 28, dedicating it to St. John the Baptist, that day being the eve of the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. He specially notes in his Diary the appropriateness of the festival from its association with his beloved college at Oxford.

One can imagine Laud's arduous and fatigu- ing work in going about his Welsh diocese, assiduously doing his duty as chief pastor, and travelling often by roads in a state far worse than they were in England. In the pages of his Diary we read how, on coming to Aber- guilly, the episcopal coach was twice over- turned between that place and Abermarkes. On the first occasion it contained the Bishop, but on the second it was empty, I^aud evi-

50 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

dently preferring to trudge along on foot.^ Owing to the neglect of his predecessors, numberless matters had to be investigated and set right, abuses to be reformed, and clergy to be interviewed. We may be certain that Laud, with his conscientious nature and un- sparing activity, did his best, notwithstanding the fact of his inability to be long resident in his diocese.

On Laud's return to England, after his first journey to Wales, in the month of August, 1622, the King was forced to take action on account of the unbridled licence in the pulpit of certain Puritan clergy, and in particular of a seditious sermon of one Knight, of Broad- gate Hall, Oxford. He accordingly issued six Injunctions, restraining the parochial clergy from publicly discussing such abstruse questions as Predestination, Election, Reprobation, etc., and enjoining them to preach rather upon faith and holy living. They were also enjoined to avoid meddling with matters of State, and "■ not to fall into undecent railing speeches against Papists and Puritans." Lecturers were in future to be licensed by tlie bisliop of the diocese. Had the six Articles of Henry VIII. been revised and put in practice, they would not have created more commotion

» Laud's Wor/c6; Oxford, 1063 (Diary), iii. 170.

ABBOT AND WILLIAMS 51

amongst the Puritan party than was caused by these Injunctions. At this time Laud seems to have been in frequent attendance upon the King, who had the wisdom to dis- cern and to value both Laud's loyalty to his person and his single-minded zeal for the Church's welfare. Although he was thus in the royal favour, his path was by no means smooth. It was indeed impossible that one occupying such an important post at Court should be preserved from enemies ; especially was this so in the case of a man like Laud, whose blunt honesty was not infrequently devoid of tact. Consequently, we soon meet with Laud's adversaries in the pages of Heylin, and similar references occur in Laud's Diary.

Abbot was no friend to Laud. This animosity was an old story, for it dated from Oxford days when the young fellow of St. John's in his first memorable lecture audaciously attacked the Puritan position. Since that day Abbot re- garded Laud as a dangerous man. By this time Abbot had become virtually the leader of the Puritan party, whilst Laud was the rising man on the other side, so that Abbot's attitude was not to be wondered at.

But Laud had another foe, and more to be dreaded than Abbot, namely, the Lord Keeper Williams, who had lately been consecrated to

52 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

the see of Lincoln. Abbot, it is true, was a Puritan of the narrowest type, and so a con- sistent opponent of Laud's principles, but there was a good side to his character. He seems to have been a sincerely honest man, and indeed a man of high principle, for the stand that he made in the case of Lady Essex's divorce was a noble one. He held to what was right, although Kmg James was against him. Abbot stood firm when even Andrewes fell. He also resisted King Charles when he thought that monarch violated the laws of the realm, and for this he suffered.

Williams was of a different mould. He had not Abbot's high principles. He was, it is true, a man of open-handed generosity, a fairly good diocesan bishop according to the standard of the day, and a man of great ability and learning. But there was another side to his character : he was de^'oid of principle ; and as an opponent he was quite unscrupulous. Bitterly jealous of the favour shown by the Sovereign to Laud, by every means, fair or foul, he tried to prejudice the King against him. As a self-seeker, AVilliams was notorious. In an age of pluralities, he was reckoned to be a pliuahst from the number of benefices which he held. Heylin humorously puts it, " He was a perfect diocese in himself; as being Bishop, Dean, Prebendary, llesi-

ABBOT AND WILLIAMS 53

dentiary and Parson, and all these at once."^ It did not suit a person of this character to be extreme in either one direction or the other. He was in the worst sense of the word a "moderate man," now posing as a staunch Churchman, and now as a Puritan, as it suited his own interest. In one matter Williams never changed, and that was in his unrelenting hatred of Laud — a hatred that was all the more dangerous because it was at times concealed. The courts of kings have ever been noted for the man that " privily slandereth his neigh- bour," for " the deceitful person," and for him "that telleth lies." The courts of James and Charles were no exception to this rule, and courtiers of this type were more dangerous enemies to Laud than the outspoken Puritan like Abbot, who opposed him as being, in his eyes, a Romanizer.

It was at the court that Laud was first brought into contact with Buckingham, the fa\'ourite of King James, a man whose char- acter was very far from perfect. It was the old story, the spoilt and petted child of his mother became the selfish and pleasure-loving man. The friendship that in time sprang up between Laud and Buckingham was that of a man of mature years and maturer piety for a young

1 Heylin^ p. 80.

54 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

man, who with all his faults was not without his good points. It was in short the love of a pastor for an erring sheep. As his fiiend, as his adviser, and in the more spiritual office of confessor. Laud drew out the good traits in Buckingham's character. That Buckingham had times of sincere penitence we cannot doubt ; and Laud's influence over him was wholly for good. His violent death in 1628 was a heavy blow to Laud, who felt it much in the same way as David felt the death of Absalom.

That Buckingham withstood the arguments of clever and accomplished Roman contro- versialists, and remained in the Church of his baptism, was doubtless due to Laud. With his mother, the Countess, Laud was not so successful. The result of the polemical tourna- ment between Laud and Fisher the Jesuit (how dear such contests must have been to the theological and sport-loving King 1) was that she was confirmed in her faith in the Anglican position ; but later, tlirough no fault of Laud, she gave way, and joined the Roman Com- munion.

In the year 1623, the ill-fated journey of Clinrlcs, the Prince of Wales, into Spain to win the liand of the Infanta took place. This scheme of James I. came to nought, and the

VISIT OF PRINCE CHARLES TO SPAIN 55

Prince eventually, in 1625, married a maiden whom he met at a ball in Paris, on his way to Spain, Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Henry IV. of France. It was a true love-match. Into the story of the proposed Spanish match we need not enter, except to notice the extreme care that was taken that the English Church should be fittingly represented at the Court of Madrid. Two chaplains were appointed to minister to the Prince and his suite — Drs. ]Maw and Wren. The latter we know clearly to have been a faithful disciple of Laud, and a man who afterwards, as Bishop of Ely, wit- nessed a good confession.^ Heylin tells us, " His Majesty was pleased, by the advice of the Bishops then about him (of whom Laud was one) to give . . . these instructions follow- ing." Here follow certain detailed injunctions, namely, that a room was to be provided as a private chapel with an altar furnished with proper linen, frontals, candlesticks, chalices, patens, and other things. For the chaplains there were to be four surplices and two copes. The mixed chalice was to be in use, and "smooth wafers to be used for the bread." Daily Mattins and Evensong were to be said, and the Holy

1 He was afterwards described by the Puritans, owing to his name and the shortness of his stature, as, " the least of these birds and the foulest" — the latter attribute referring to the pronounced character of his theological views.

56 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Eucharist was to be celebrated as often " as it shall please the Prince of Wales to set down." No controversial preaching, " but only to con- firm the doctrine and tenets of the Church of England by all positive arguments.'" Laud's share in the drawing up of the injunctions is more than apparent.

Not many years before, the King had sent four divines by way of representing the Church of England on the Calvinist side at the Synod of Dort, almost committing the Church to the support of Calvinism. Now, however, there was a complete change : by the advice of the bishops, the Church was represented as a part of the Catholic Church, rather than as a Protestant sect.

In 1024, when the negotiations with Spain were broken off. Convocation granted a large subsidy to the King, to be levied from the clergy. On this occasion, Laud, who had been a parish priest himself, perceiving how heavily the tax would press upon the parochial clergy, manfully espoused their cause. He devised a plan for bringing relief, which met with the approval of Buckingham, and even Williams. Strangely enough, this proposal was resented by Abbot, who liad ne\'er been a parish priest.

^ Heylin, j). 100.

ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. 57

The year 1625 witnessed the death of James I., and the accession of Charles I., who favoured the Church even more than his father had done. With Charles, devotion to the Church was inspired by no mere political motives, but by genuine -religious convictions. It is not for us in these pages to criticize the character of Charles as a monarch. He had his faults, which have as a rule been unduly emphasized. He was firm where he ought to have been gentle, and gentle where he ought to have been firm ; and, urged by terrible provocation, he broke his faith on more than one occasion. Above all there was his false step in consenting to the condemnation of the Earl of Strafford. But the other side of his character, — who can help admiring it ? The fascination that he exercised is not to be wondered at. A man of princely bearing and manners, brave, manly, pure in heart and life, a patron of art and science, a theologian of no mean repute, a kind friend, a devoted husband, a loving father, — such were some of the virtues of the new king. He was, moreover, a man of deep personal religion — what else could have sustained him in his sufferings ? — a loyal son of the Church, a firm believer in her doctrines, and a faithful observer of her prac- tices. One loves to think of those happy

\

58 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

days he spent at Hampton Court in the company of his wife, whom he almost idohzed, and of his children to whom he was fondly attached. What an example the private life of this king must have been to the nation at large I It elevated and purified home-life in the seventeenth century, just as the example of Queen Victoria did in the nineteenth. But the attraction of Charles I. reached its culmin- ating point in his loneliness at Carisbrooke, and in his martyr-death at Whitehall ; so that notwithstanding the army of detractors of King Charles, there are those to-day who still echo the undying words of John Keble, " Our own, our royal saint."

That William Laud, the devoted champion of the Church, the reformer in the true sense of the word, should have become the trusted friend of Charles I. is only natural. In matters of religion their opinions seem to have been very similar. Laud's influence with the King soon manifested itself in his being com- manded to supply him with a list of the leading ecclesiastics of the day, with *' O," or "P," i.e.., Orthodox or Puritan, against their names, so that the King might be guided in dispensing Church-patronage.^

The day after the assembhng of Charles' first 1 Hcylin, p. 127.

ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. 59

Parliament, Laud preached before the King and the House of Lords at Whitehall. In his sermon he set forth the respective duties of the Church and the State. He animadverted upon the ultimate political designs of the Puritan party. The Commons in this Parlia- ment took upon themselves the role of being theological experts and inquisitors, and forth- with proceeded to summon to their bar Richard Montague, rector of Stanford Rivers, for writ- ing books containing what they judged to be Popish doctrine. This clergyman was annoyed by the proselytizing of certain Jesuits in his parish, one of whom endeavoured to discredit the theology of the English Church by a pamphlet called A Gag for the New Gospel. JNIontague answered this by A New Gag for an Old Goose. In this work Montague took a strong line, and claimed for the English Church its Catholic position, appealing with marked success to the Church of the early centuries. Possessed of considerable learning, in order that his writings might appeal to the people, he adopted a racy and caustic style. This had the effect of calling attention to his statements. After the first commotion in Parliament over the matter, he published a second work, Apello Ccesarem, which was written from the same anti-Puritan stand-

60 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

point. This added fuel to the flames. The interference of a lay-assembly in matters distinctly spiritual was warmly resented by Laud and other prelates, who were backed up by the King. Accordingly, the bishops framed a letter addressed to the Commons, protesting against a purely lay-tribunal deciding theolo- gical questions, and defending Montague as a divine " able in every way to do great services to God, his JNIajesty and the Church of England."

On February 2, the Feast of the Purifica- tion, in the following year, the Coronation took place in the Abbey Church of West- minster. Laud was chosen by Charles to arrange the ceremonial on that great occasion. From his Diary we learn of his care that everything should be carried out with order and reverence. This Coronation is historically important, in that it was, with the exception of the hastily compiled form used in the Corona- tion of James I., the first occasion when the So\'^ereign was crowned witli the English Rite. For this occasion the old I^atin Service was revised by the Archbishop and a committee of 15ishops.' I^aud is said to have caused an ancient silver crucifix to be placed on the altar for the service, but there seems to be some

» Ilultoii, p. -28.

CORONATION OF CHARLES I. 61

doubt as to this. Dr. Abbot, the Primate, would hardly have tolerated such an "image," and when Laud at his trial was accused of this matter, he referred to the unlikelihood of Abbot allowing it, and said that he himself did not remember a crucifix being there. ^ Heylin, however, definitely mentions it. ^ Laud was afterwards falsely charged with altering the Coronation oath.^ The whole ceremony of the Coronation was carried out with the greatest solemnity.* Soon after the Coronation the King's Second Parliament met, and we find Laud again preaching, but this time in the Abbey. His subject was the Blessedness of Unity in both Church and State. In this parliament another attack was made upon Montague, and he was again defended by Laud and other bishops. In August in this year, Laud was translated to the see of Bath and Wells, and in September he was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal. One of his first actions as dean was to put a stop to the practice of concluding the service if the King came in late, and going on to the sermon. When this resolution was reported to the King, he received it with thanks, and acted accordingly.

1 Laud's Works, Oxford, 1856, iv. 211. - Heylin, p. 138.

^ See this fully discussed in Le Bas, pp. 82-84. ^ Ibid. (Diary), iii. 181.

62 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Shortly after, a storm was raised by a sermon preached by Sibthorpe, Vicar of Brackley, who was somewhat of a "poHtical parson," in which he maintained that the King jure divino had power to make laws and impose taxes. Pressure was brought upon Abbot to give his iniprimatur to this ser- mon, but he conscientiously declined, saying that such doctrine was contrary to the laws of the realm. On this Laud and other bishops toned down certain passages, and again submitted it to the Archbishop, but a second time he honourably refused to comply.^ In such a matter every one in these days will approve of the course taken by Abbot, rather than that taken by Laud, who, however, did not go all the way with the sentiments of Sibthorpe, since a sermon of the same kind preached by JNIainwaring, Rector of St. Giles, was not licensed by him, but by JNIontaigne, Bishop of London, and Laud is said to have remonstrated against its being printed." Ser- mons inculcating extreme vieMs upon the rights of the monarchy were likewise preached by Bargrave, Dean of Canterbury, and by Wren, Master of St. Peter's College, Cam- bridge. These divines were of the school of

1 Lo Has, pp. 103-lOG.

a Wakemaii, The Church and the Pnritam, Loud. 1002, p. IIG.

LAUD, BISHOP OF LONDON 63

Laud, and this shows how wedded the Laudian movement was to absolutist views which event- ually did so much harm to the Church's cause. Through the influence, it is believed, of Buck- ingham, the courageous Archbishop was for a time banished from the Court on account of his action.

In the year 1628, Laud was translated to the see of London ; this brought him into more immediate contact with the great events of the day both ecclesiastical and civil. One of his first actions as Bishop of London was to assist at the consecration of Dr. Richard INIon- tague to the see of Chichester. The policy of the King in nominating to a bishopric one who, in the eyes of the Puritans, was an evil- doer, was, to say the least, exceedingly bold. Montague, as a learned and spirited contro- versialist, and a defender of the Church against both Rome and Geneva, doubtless well de- served the reward ; but to single out for promotion the very man whom the House of Commons had twice condemned, was assuredly to be taken as an act of retaliation. During the reigns of James I. and Charles I., the House of Commons had set itself up as a kind of Puritan Holy Office, dictating to the sovereign the religious policy he was to pursue ; it likewise instructed bishops how they

64 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

were to act, denounced books, and censured their authors. In short, in matters of doctrine and disciphne, it constituted itself a sort of infaUible pope, who moreover always spoke ex cathedra / Now the Commons had the mortification of seeing the very man, who had twice escaped their chitches, dehberately ad- vanced to the see of Chichester.

The most important event that followed upon Laud's appointment to the see of London was the Royal Declaration prefixed to the XXXIX. Articles in 1629, for the purpose of guarding them from misinterpreta- tion. It may be described as part of a series of entrenchments constructed to defend the Church from the onslaught of the now active and militant Puritan faction, who at this time realized the gathering strength of the Church party. The XXXIX. Articles of lleligion, issued in the reign of Elizabeth, were Articles of comprehension. They were set forth in the hopes of uniting the Edwardian and the Marian conforming clergy. They were not articles of faith, (though some of tliem contained wluit is of faitli) but "Articles of lleligion," issued with the object of com- prehending in one religious body men of different scliools of tliouglit ; consequently their wording is ollcn intcntiojially ambigu-

LAUD, BISHOP OF LONDON 65

ous. It has been accurately said, that they are " not a creed, but a concordat affording a basis of intercommunion for persons to whose minds divine truth presented itself under different forms and aspects." ^ How far such a course was justifiable and its wisdom has been proved by subsequent events, is a subject upon which we cannot now enter. The dominant ultra-Protestant or Puritan party m the reign of Elizabeth and James had attempted, so to speak, "to capture" the Articles ; and this party taught positively, that the Articles were a confession of Faith, definitely and wholly Calvinistic. The Declar- ation required subscription to the Articles " only in the natural and grammatical sense," and in so doing left a wide and generous liberty. In this way the original intention of the compilers of the Articles was preserved — that they should be regarded as Articles of comprehension. The anger of the Puritan party at the Declaration was unbounded. The air rang with denunciations against the Arminians,^ as those opposed to Calvinism were then called. "An Arminian is the spawn of a Papist ; and if there come warmth

1 Maccoll, The, Reformation Settlement, Loud. 1895, p. 132.

2 So called from Anninius, the great opponent of Calvinism at the Synod of Dort,

5

66 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

of favour upon him you shall see him turn into one of those frogs that rise out of the bottomless pit. And if you mark it well, you shall see an Arminian reaching out his hand to a Papist, a Papist to a Jesuit, and a Jesuit gives one hand to the Pope and another to the King of Spain," — so exclaimed Routh, who, under Cromwell, became afterwards Speaker in the House of Commons.^ The Commons proceeded to issue a protest against thus free- ing the Articles fi*om a Calvinistic interpreta- tion. The Declaration was pronounced to be a plot of the Jesuits to subvert the Gospel ; and in order to give colour to this opinion, a bogus letter was compiled and disseminated, purporting to be ^\Titten by the Hector of the Jesuits at Brussels, commending the Declar- ation and approving of it as a means of undermining the Reformed Faith ! ^

Shortly after this Laud directed his attention to an important matter of reform. Tlu'ough liis influence the King ordered Abbot the Arclibishop to issue certain "Instructions" enjoining tlie bishops to reside in their sees, instead of li\'ing at AVestminstcr as many of them did, " tliose only excepted whose attend- ances at Court is necessarily required." It is true that Laud, wlicn bishop of St. David's

' Le lias, p. 125. " Ilcyliu, i>. 179.

THE LECTURERS 67

and of Bath and A¥ells, had not spent much time in his dioceses ; but then it must be remembered that, according to the evil custom of the age, he had the excuse of Court- business ; and when he did visit his diocese, he did as much in a month as most of the other bishops would have done in a year. In these " Instructions " there were also regula- tions as to Chaplains and Lecturers. None but noblemen and those qualified by law were permitted to have domestic chaplains. Many Puritan squires kept " tame Levites " in the shape of chaplains, who under the protection of their master were often thorns in the sides of the parochial clergy. The Lecturers were enjoined to read the Church-service before their lectures, and to wear the surplice. These men were to a large extent the backbone of the Puritan party. JNlany of them were ecclesiastical fi*ee-lances, who had no respect for the laws of the Church as to jurisdiction and mission. Of Lecturers, in general, there seem to have been at least two varieties. There were first the "stationary lecturers," whose ministrations were supplementary to those of the parish priest. They sprang into existence soon after the Reformation, owing to the inability of many of the clergy to preach. There were also the " running lecturers," men

68 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

who bore a remarkable resemblance to the friars of old, in that they invaded parishes and took little heed to the rights of the parochial clergy, being subject to the Puritan party, just as the friars were to the Pope. These peripatetic Lecturers were the most fanatical, and they struck the hardest blows at the Church- system.

To support this large force of Lecturers, or " painful ministers " as they were called, required a considerable outlay ; and the ex- pedient was hit upon of constituting a trust

'* called the Collectors of St. Antholin's. This trust consisted of four ministers, four lawyers,

\ and four citizens, all of them pronounced Puritans ; and it had for its object the buying up of impropriated tithes, which were applied to the support of the Lecturers. In this way a large body of men were maintained in the pay of the trust, which possessed complete control over them. These spiritual mercen- aries penetrated far and wide through the land, carrying with them the gospel of Puritanism, political as well as religious. The system was contrived with remarkable skill and fore- thought, and was quietly working beneath the surface, when the conspiracy was exposed by Heylin in a sermon before the University of Oxford, based on the appropriate text,

THE LECTURERS 69

" While men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat, and went his way." The exposure caused immense excitement, and the magnitude of the conspiracy at once became apparent.

Through the influence of Laud, the entire \ scheme was submitted to Noye, the Attorney- "] General, who brought it before the Court of / Exchequer. This court gave judgment in / February 1G33 against the trust of feoffment, S which was overthrown, and the impropriations of the feoffees were confiscated to the Crown.v The criminal part of the charge was referred to the Star Chamber, but it was never prose- cuted further. Thus a deep-laid and insidious plot for the overthrow of the Church was nipped in the bud. Of the feoffees. Laud says in his Diary, " they were the main instruments for the Puritan faction to undo the Church." ^

In the year 1630, Laud was made Chancellor of the University of Oxford : to this we shall refer in detail later.

It was during the time when Laud was Bishop of London, that the celebrated prose- cution of Leighton took place. Alexander Leighton, a Scotch preacher, wrote a book entitled, Zions plea against Prelates, in which he counselled the " godly " to slay the bishops,

1 Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 216.

v>rifvrir>r.

S > J«

70

LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD

and ^denounced the Queen as an " idolatress and a Canaanitess " — it was a \ailgar and rabid work. For this Leighton was punished by the Star Chamber ^vdth a fine of £10,000, and the severest corporal chastisement, — an instance of the inhumanity of the seventeenth century. It was also during Laud's occupancy of the see of London that Henry Sherfield, Recorder of Sahsbury, was summoned before the Star Chamber for breaking, in St. Edmund's church, a painted window, which offended him as being, in his opinion, superstitious. For this, he was deprived of his Recordership, fined £1,000, and made to confess his fault in the Cathedral, as well as in St. Edmund's church. This severe sentence, owing to the culprit being an important man, made a great sensation at the time ; and, like many other actions of this Court, the fault was laid to Laud's charge. To blame him for the severity of such punish- ments, as has been done in later times, is unjust ; for we know that at his trial, when the M'hole country was ransacked to produce evidence against him, the case for instance of Leighton was not even mentioned. The story of Laud pulling olf liis cap on Leighton being condemned, thanking God for the sentence, is apocryphal, and was originated by a men-

W

V>t'S

RESTORATION OF CHURCHES

71

dacious and anonymous pamphleteer many years after/

The event most closely connected with Laud's occupancy of the see of London is, perhaps, the effort that he made to restore the great Gothic metropolitan church of St. Paul. In the reign of Elizabeth, the ravages caused by the fire of 1561 were partially repaired. Under the indolent rule of JNIontaigne, Laud's predecessor in the see of London, little seems to have been done to carry on this work. But Laud, with characteristic zeal and energy, threw himself into the plan of restoration. He not only interested the King in the work, but he also succeeded in arousing the interest of men of position and wealth, with the result that, by the year 1G40, £100,000, a large sum for those days, had been expended upon St. Paul's Cathedral.

The picture of the ancient Gothic Cathedral with the Grecian Portico added on to it — the work of Inigo Jones, the first architect of the day — is familiar to many. It is easy enough to criticize the violent contrast between the old work and the new ; but, in considering the life of William Laud and his work in restoring St. Paul's, we must remember the great moral and

1 Le Bas, pp. 142, 143.

r

70 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

and ^denounced the Queen as an " idolatress and a Canaanitess " — it was a vulgar and rabid work. For this Leighton was punished by the Star Chamber A\ath a fine of £10,000, and the severest corporal chastisement, — an instance of the inhumanity of the seventeenth century. It was also during Laud's occupancy of the see of London that Henry Sherfield, Recorder of Salisbury, was summoned before the Star Chamber for breaking, in St. Edmund's church, a painted window, which offended him as being, in his opinion, superstitious. For this, he was deprived of his Recordership, fined £l,000, and made to confess his ftuilt in the Cathedral, as well as in St. Edmund's church. This severe sentence, owing to the culprit being an important man, made a great sensation at the time ; and, like many other actions of this Coiu't, the fjiult was laid to Laud's charge. To blame him for the severity of such punish- ments, as has been done in later times, is unjust ; for we know that at his trial, when the whole coimtry was ransacked to produce evidence against him, the case for instance of Leighton was not even mentioned. The story of Laud pulhng off his cap on Leighton being condemned, thanking God for the sentence, is apocryphal, and was originated by a men-

RESTORATION OF CHURCHES 71

dacious and anonymous pamphleteer many years after/

The event most closely connected with Laud's occupancy of the see of London is, perhaps, the effort that he made to restore the great Gothic metropolitan church of St. Paul. In the reign of Elizabeth, the ravages caused by the fire of 1561 were partially repaired. Under the indolent rule of Montaigne, Laud's predecessor in the see of London, little seems to have been done to carry on this work. But Laud, with characteristic zeal and energy, threw himself into the plan of restoration. He not only interested the King in the work, but he also succeeded in arousing the interest of men of position and wealth, with the result that, by tlie year 1040, £100,000, a large sum for those days, had been expended upon St. Paul's Cathedral.

The picture of the ancient Gothic Cathedral with the Grecian Portico added on to it — the work of Inigo Jones, the first architect of the day — is familiar to many. It is easy enough to criticize the violent contrast between the old work and the new ; but, in considering the life of William Laud and his work in restoring St. Paul's, we must remember the great moral and

1 Le Bas, pp. 142, 143.

72 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

spiritual restoration he effected in the Cathedral, whereby the profanities of " Paul's Walk ' were transferred from the interior to the portico, and thus the church was rescued from irreverence. We may well refer to the opinion of an authority upon architecture, who alludes to the "magnificent western portico, which must assuredly have been the most beautiful of its kind in England."^

When Laud was Bishop of London, he excited Puritanical wrath by consecrating churches in the diocese. During the turmoil of the Reformation period, no translation or revision of the services of consecration in the old Pontificals was put forth. This was owing, no doubt, to the fact that it was then the fashion to pull down rather than to build churches, and also because the " reformers " looked upon churches as preaching-houses, rather than as houses of prayer, and they had little reverence for lioly places and things. But when the tide began to turn, Bishop Andrewes put forth a form of ser\ ice, which he used in his own diocese. 'J'liis form was adopted by Laud with some alterations, and on one occasion in particular, the consecra- tion of St. Catlicrine Cree, with considerable ceremonial ehiboration. The consecration of

' LoftiCj Iniijo Jones and Wren, Load. 1893^ p. 131.

CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES 73

churches being not only against Puritan prin- ciples, but also in those days an innovation, the opposition of the I'uritans was at once aroused — in their eyes the Bishop of London was marching in a Romeward direction ! In the year 1633, the King made his first visit to Scotland, accompanied by Laud. On June 10, Charles entered Edinburgh, and eight days later he was solemnly crowned in Holyrood chapel. After a stay of less than a month in Scotland, Laud returned home to his epis- copal house at Fulham. This visit to Scotland, and the events connected with it, will be more fully treated later in the chapter on " Laud and the Scottish Church."

CHAPTER IV

LAUD AS PRIMATE

LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY — MORAL REFORM SUNDAY OBSERVANCE METRO- POLITICAL VISITATION FOREIGN PROTEST- ANTS IN ENGLAND ECCLESIASTICAL

REFORM — THE STAR CHAMBER THE COURT

OF HIGH COMMISSION

A WRITER in the Clmrch Quarterly Review'^ tersely describes Laud's accession to the primacy by saying, " Laud became actually what he had long been virtually. Primate of all Enfjland." Since the accession of Charles I., it may be said that the chief ruler of the Church was William Laud. After the accident in Bramshill Park, Abbot lay more or less under a cloud ; and, moreover, his Puritanism was not acceptable to the King, while Laud was not only his personal friend, but also one in heart with him in matters religious and ecclesiastical. On August 4, 1();3;3, Abbot died, and two

1 1895, No. 80, p. 271.

7't

LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 75

days later King Charles is said to have greeted Laud with the courtly speech, " INIy Lord's Grace of Canterbury, you are very welcome." On August 23, he was formally elected, and in September, he was translated. Laud was now actual Primate of all England, and a new chapter in his life began. Although there would be no change of policy, since, as we have noticed the Laudian regime had already for several years been in force, yet the trans- ition from George Abbot to William Laud was remarkable enough.

Abbot was the personification of Puritan- ism, the lineal theological descendant of the Edwardian divines. He drew his inspiration from Calvin and Zwingli ; although, by the seventeenth century, continental Protestantism was successfully acclimatised on English soil. At Oxford, as Vice- Chancellor, and Master of University College, his power was great, and he was generally recognized as a leader of the Puritan party, a position which he held to the day of his death. Under James I. his influence as archbishop was considerable, but the accident in the deer-park and the rise of Laud were the means of throwing him into the background. Still he was to the last a power to be reckoned with, a pillar of the Calvinian faction. Heylin tells the following anecdote concerning Abbot :

76 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD

It is related by a late Writer, Tliat towards his death he was not only discontented himself, but that his house was the Rendezvous of all the Mal-contents in Church and State, that he turned Mid-night to Noon-day by constant keeping of Candles lighted in his Chamber and Study ; as also that such Visitants as repaired unto him called themselves Nicodemites, because of their secret coming to him by night.^

Heylin also alludes to Abbot's open toler- ation of Puritan nonconformity to the Church's laws, to his promotion of divines who were " Calvinians " ; and he notices how this Puritan Primate " favoured the Laity above the Clei^gie in all cases which were brought before him," — an episcopal weakness not unknown in more recent days. That Abbot was an avowed opponent of Laud is not to be wondered at, since tlie cause that Laud had at heart was that to which he was honestly opposed.

In the person of Laud, the Church of Eng- land had a primate of a very different mould. Instead of being the favourer of Puritanism, the new archbishop was its strenuous opponent ; instead of tolerating the defiance of the Church's laws, he spared no pains to enforce conform- ity ; instead of promoting Puritan divines, he favoured those who were loyal to the Church ; instead of playing into the hands of the laity, he boldly defended the clerical order

1 Heylin, pp. 229, 230.

LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 77

against lay oppression. In blamelessness of life and conversation, it may be said with truth tliat the two men were alike exemplary. Abbot, like I^aud, followed principle rather than a policy of expediency. The office of Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England in the year 1G33, was no bed of roses. Laud spoke but the truth when he exclaimed in his Diary — " INIethinks I see a cloud arising and threatening the Church of England." ^ This . was in the year 1625, during the disputes in Parliament about Richard Montague : eight years later, the cloud had become much darker. The war between the Parliament and the King may be said to have begun, so far at least as words were concerned. It is true that during these eight years the Church had been steadily growing in power, for the Laudian reformation was making itself felt, and the evils of the Edwardian and Elizabethan times were being remedied. But, on the other hand, Puritanism had also been concentrating and disciplining its forces, and consolidating its system. The gulf between the two rival camps was widen- ing. To an extent, of which in these days we ; have little conception, Puritanism had become synonymous with the popular cause ; whilst the Church seemed indissolubly coimected with

1 Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 180.

78 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

( the monarchy and absolutism. Matters in Church and State were then much more closely connected than they are in our own time. On this battlefield it was that William Laud was called to the post of leading the Church's legions ; and, with signs of coming strife, the results of which threatened to be momentous, the position of leader was not one for com- placent satisfaction and exultation. ^ Besides the new Archbishop's campaign against Puritanism, he undertook the applica- tion of the Church's discipline, which from the Christian standpoint may be called a reforma- tion of morals. Like St. John Baptist, boldly to rebuke vice, is a sure passport to the hatred of those whose vices are rebuked ; and still more is this the case, when punishment is inflicted upon the wrong-doers. Laud was not a man to shrink from consequences ; no wonder, then, that he was hated with a bitter hatred. JMore- over, in the eyes and at the hands of I^aud, there was no respect of persons ; the highest in the land felt the power of the Church's discipline, as much as the lowest. JMost men, who, like I^aud had almost risen from the ranks to a position second only to the royal family, would not hiive been proof against the subtle fascination of high social position. Such men would discreetly have whikcd at the vices

MORAL REFORM 79

of the wealthy and powerful, and would never have dreamt of aggressively attacking them : but Laud acted like the Baptist, and he suffered for it.

The high-born adulterers and profligates, who suffered thus the due reward of their evil deeds, made common cause with the Puritans in their hatred of the man who en- forced the Christian moral law ; and this added to the difficulties with which Laud was surrounded. Amongst others, there is the well-known case of Lady Purbeck, who was condemned by the Court of High Com- mission for living in open sin with Sir Robert Howard. The Court issued an order for a separation, and condemned her to a public penance. She evaded the penance, and was imprisoned ; but she escaped through the help of her paramour. It is a curious comment on the much vaunted morality of Puritanism, that afterwards Laud at his trial was ordered to pay Sir Robert £500 as a compensation for false imprisonment !

So impartial a writer as Dr. Gardiner has stated that, " in questions relating to marriage, the Court struggled against every kind of opposition to uphold a standard of a high morality;'" and Mr. Hutton observes that,

1 Hutton_, p. 102.

80 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

although the treatment by the Court of High Commission was severe, yet it was no more so than the necessity of the times demanded, and he continues : "Its conscientious and courage- ous defence of the purity of the marriage tie, and of the cause of injured women, shows that the King's party was at least as much alive as its opponents to the moral evils of the age." ^

Laud's letters to his friend, the Earl of Strafford, show how he took things, as also a letter to Vossius, the learned Dutch philo- logist, in which he says, " I am resolved to go forward in the way you have seen me go. I hope God will give me constancy and patience, and I heartily desire that you will commend me to His protection by your prayers. Thus fortified, I will go forward whithersoever He shall lead me."^ In such words we see the undaunted coin*age of the man, and still more his profound faith and trust in God. Certainly the office of Primate of all England in the latter half of the reign of Charles I. was one that brought with it considerable responsibility : it was one so beset with dangers and difficulties on all sides, that the holder might well shrink back ; but Laud, as he confessed to A^ossius, was resolved to go forward ; and go forward lie did.

» Ilutton, pp. 104, 105. ^ Bailies, p. 03.

MORAL REFORM 81

The new Archbishop's first act of import- ance was to enforce the Canons of 1603, which enacted that no person was to receive Holy Orders without a title ; that is to say, ' without the allotment of some definite sphere of work either parochial or academical. The ^ reasonableness of such a course is beyond question ; but it at once provoked the hostility of the Puritans, since it struck a blow at their , unattached ministers and lecturers, to whom reference has been made. By this time, Laud's action against these men, by means of the Instructions of 1629 and the suppression of the Collectors of St. Antholin's, was, as it were, hammered home. Heylin observes with his usual quaintness, " From henceforth we hear but little of such vagrant Ministers and Trencher- Chaplains (the old brood being once worn out) as had pestered and annoyed the Church in those latter times." ^

On the very day that this order was sent out by Laud to his suffragans, the King's declaration as to Sunday sports was issued. In the preceding reign, King James had pub- lished his famous Book of jSpojis, in which he maintained that certain sports were not unlawful on the Lord's day out of church- hours. James' object in issuing this Book

1 Heyliu, v. 241.

6

82 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

seems to have been to promote concord amongst his subjects, divided as they were into two factions — those who clung to old English games and pastimes, and the narrow- minded religionists who held that the Christian Sunday and the Je\\dsh Sabbath were identical, and who also regarded all recreation as sinful. One heartily wishes that such a matter as Sunday recreation had not been the subject of minute Royal injunctions, and that a broad- minded tolerance had been applied to the question. But this was not to be, owing to the narroAvness of the extreme Puritans, who held, with dogmatic assurance, that the Jewish Sabbath was of perpetual obligation in Chris- tian times. This doctrine had been promin- ently asserted in a book written in 1G28, by Theophilus Bradburn, a Suffolk clergyman ; in which it was urged that the observance of the Lord's day was binding by virtue of the fourth Commandment. The book was con- demned by the Court of High Commission, upon which the author recanted his opinions. The Sabbatarian controversy was, however, set going, and it continued throughout the reigns of James I. and Charles I. In the hope of bringing this controversy to an end, King Charles resolved to interfere ; and there- upon requested the Archbishop of Canterbury

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE 83

to have the Book of Sports reprinted. To this document the King added his ratification, in which he declared that wakes and other feasts should be observed, and that the magis- trates were to protect the people in their lawful recreations on Sundays, provided that they had first attended divine worship in the churches. The bishops were ordered to cause the document to be read in all parish churches. When we consider the action of the King in re-issuing the Book of Sports, and virtually giving it the force of law, it must be remem- bered that in the seventeenth century the State of England was face to face with an organized tyranny in the shape of popular Puritanism, which was striking a serious blow at the liberty of the subject, by endeavouring to fasten upon him the fetters of Jewish observ- ances. In the opinion of the authorities, this tyranny could only be met by prompt and decided measures, such as the promulgation of' the Book of Sports, which was in reality in- tended to be a bulwark of personal liberty. / As there is some misconception as to what the Book of Sports really was, we here quote the accurate description of it given by ^Ir. Baines in his Lfe of Laud, '^ who says "its object was to make Sunday more attractive to the

1 Loud. 185.5, p. 197.

84 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

poor than Puritanism, which considered the Jewish Sabbath still in force, permitted. It therefore allowed the people to join in all innocent recreations on Sunday afternoons after Divine Service, while it especially pro- hibited all brutalizing amusements such as bull-baiting, etc."

On the other hand, it may be doubted whether the observance in its true form of the Sunday was not impaired by such an enact- ment. Up to a certain point, the Puritan was right in his strict observance of the Lord's day. Was there not then a tendency in such a public document as the Book of Spo7is to cause the people who accepted it to fly off to the opposite extreme ? At the present day we witness the remarkable sight of religiously minded men of all denominations uniting in order to bring about a better and a stricter observance of the Sunday. The joint letter to the nation (January, 1907) issued by the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, and the President of the Nonconformist Free Church Council, is most significant.

In 1634, Laud determined to make a supreme effort, in his province of Canterbury, to bring back the Church as a whole to the old paths from which she had so lamentably

METROPOLITICAL VISITATION 85

strayed — an effort especially connected with the reformation of her outward worship. In this, as on other occasions, he had the full sympathy and approbation of the King. The means adopted was a Visitation as metro- politan of all the dioceses of the Southern province. The Visitation was to last two years. It was entrusted to his Vicar-general, Sir Nathaniel Brent, Warden of JNIerton College, Oxford ; and later to Sir John Lamb, Dean of Arches. When this Visitation was proceeding in the Southern province, a similar one under Neile, Archbishop of York, was taking place in the Northern province.^ In order rightly to estimate the need of the Visitation, we must consider the state of the cathedrals and parish churches in England in the time of Laud.

We have already dwelt upon the Zwinglo- Calvinistic reformation under Edward, with its profanation and spoliation of churches ; and seen how, after a brief respite under Mary, the same spirit manifested itself in the reign of Eliza- beth. It is true that in her reign a re-action set in ; this and the labours of Laud and others had to a slight extent improved matters, but much remained to be done. IVIany of the churches were in a condition which even the

1 Diet. Nat. Bioff., xxxii. 190.

86 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

descendants of the Puritans at the present day would not have tolerated.

One might imagine, for instance, that the private chapel of Abbot, the late archbishop, would have been bare, as befitted his Puritan proclivities ; but we learn that it was actually in a disgraceful condition of neglect and decay. Laud's description of it is expressive, though somewhat blunt and bou?^geois. He says " it was lying nastily." And if such was the case with the place of worship of the Primate of all England, it is not to be wondered at that many a glorious parish church throughout the length and breadth of the land "was lying nastily," too. Into this herculean task of re- storing the houses of God in the land, the new

V Archbishop threw himself heart and soul.

/ The key of the position, as it were, was the Altar. It was upon the abolition of the Altar that the so-called reformers concentrated their efforts. Ilidley and his followers threw down the altars and substituted mo\'able tables, wliich usually stood in the middle of the chancel, or in tlie body of the cluu'ch.^ Some ardent followers outstripped the leaders of the movement, and desecrated altar-slabs by placing them at the threshold of the church, so

1 It is true that in tlic cliajH'ls ntyal and a f»nv other churches tlic old position of the Lord's 'I'ablc was retaiiiud.

METROPOLITICAL VISITATION 87

as to be trodden under the feet of men. It even happened sometimes, that the old altars were more grossly profaned by being put to uses that cannot be mentioned in print. Laud and his party on the other hand restored the Altar, causing it to stand permanently in its old position, and in some cases the new altars were made of stone. Heylin gives us a glimpse of the state of affairs in most parish churches, when Laud took the matter of the restoration in hand. He tells us how the Holy Table — often a very rough wooden erection on trestles — stood in the middle of the church unprotected by rails, and thus it became the place upon which many men tossed their hats, — though the Puritans did not always remove them in church. It also served as a table at which the schoolmaster taught boys to write, it was defiled by dogs, it was full of holes caused by glaziers and carpenters.^ It is hardly open to doubt but that most } of the blame in this desecration must be laid upon the Edwardian " reformers," rather ^ than upon the often ignorant Puritans, who \ faithfully followed them in doctrine and] practice.

The main injunctions of the Visitation Articles were that the Holy Table should stand

1 Heyliu, p. 272.

88 LIFE OF WILLIAIM LAUD

altarwise, and permanently at the east end of the church, and that it should be protected from profanation by rails. In some places galleries had been erected over the east end of the church, — they were ordered to be taken do^m. As to the Cathedral churches, they seem to have been in a better condition than many of the parochial churches, since most of them had already experienced the movement in favour of decency and reverence. Worcester and Durham Cathedrals little needed the Visit- ation, for in them the holy tables were made of stone, altar lights were used, and a considerable amount of ceremonial was in vogue. Some other Cathedrals were likewise favoured. The first Cathedral to be visited was Canterbury, where the altar was found in its right position at the east end of the quire, and the custom of bowing towards it was in use. Thereupon Laud ordered candlesticks, basins, and altar cloths to be provided. A new body of Cathedral Statutes was drawn up. INluch the same was done in tlie case of tlic other Catlicdrals. Some of them possessed copes, and in the case of those which did not, orders were given that they sliould be supplied. This was done in accordance with canon 24, of A.D. 1003. Chichester was required to pro- vide copes " by one a year till they were

METROrOLITICAL VISITATION 89

sufficiently furnished with them." In some places the Puritan spirit burst forth in its opposition to the Visitation, but on the whole matters seemed to have passed off quietly, and a considerable amount of wholesome reformation was effected.

The most serious opposition encountered was at the hands of Laud's old enemy, Williams, Bishop of Lincoln. As we have before noticed, in order to gain his own per- sonal ends, Williams allied himself with the Puritans and favoured them. The altar in his own private chapel at Buckden Palace, stood in its proper place, as also in his Cathedral Church at Lincoln, and in Westminster Abbey, of which he was Dean. He also caused the altar at St. Martin's, Leicester, to be properly placed ; but in December, 1633, when the visit- ation had begun, he granted to the vicar and churchwardens permission to replace the altar in the body of the church.^ Upon this act of hostility, the Archbishop proceeded to make the Diocese of Lincoln the scene of his visit- ation, inhibiting the bishop and his archdeacons while the visitation lasted. Williams, being a man of resource, retaliated by claiming exemption from the inhibition under certain Bulls obtained from Pope Innocent IV., and

1 Hoylin, p. 269.

90 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

he also maintained that the inhibition would act ruinously upon him, by diverting fees and procurations which then formed the chief source of the episcopal income. The matter was referred to the Lords of the Council, and their verdict M^as in favour of the Archbishop ; and so the Visitation proceeded. As soon as the inhibition ceased, AVilliams ^dsited his diocese in person, and proceeded to curry favour with the Puritan party. It is related that, on meeting with Dr. Bret, a Puritan of some eminence, he burst forth with the words of St. Augustine, " although a bishop is greater than a presbyter, yet Augustine is inferior to Jerome," thus playing to the Puritan gallery, by implying that even if a bishop is greater than a presbyter, yet Bret was greater than AVilliams. He also gratified the Puritans by orderuig the Holy Table to stand in the body of the church with a rail about it, and not at the east end with a rail before it. A paper- warfare of pamphlets between \A^illiams and Heylin, Laud's biographer, followed. In 1G27, Williams had put forth his opinions in a Letter to the Vicar of Grantham. Heylin, in 1034-, repubhshed this tract, with an answer appended entitled, A Coal from the Altar. Williams replied in 1037, by a pam- phlet called, Holy Tabk\ name and things

FOREIGN PROTESTANTS IN ENGLAND 91

which drew an answer from HeyUn, Antidotum Lincolniense.

The next event of importance in the primacy of WilHam Laud was his action with regard to the Foreign Protestants who were domiciled in England. They consisted partly of the descend- ants of foreigners, who were imported in the reign of Edward VI., in order to leaven the religion of the country with Protestantism, and partly of refugees from France and the Low Countries, who had fled to England to escape persecution, especially in the reign of Elizaheth, and who were settled in the chief towns and cities. These colonies of foreigners were nests of sedition and heresy, and if it was right for the authorities in Church and State to restrain English Puritanism, it was still more right to restrain the foreign professors of the same system. It is easy at the present day to pass judgment upon Laud for his repressive meas- ures, but one must remember that, in his time, religious toleration was unknown. All religious bodies were intolerant in those days, and per- haps none more so than the Puritans themselves when they got the upper hand, as is shown by their actions during the Commonwealth, and in their New England Colonies. JNIoreover, the foreigners domiciled in England practised their own religion and their own form of

92 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

worship, and thus influenced the native malcontents.

Laud's injunctions were : — First, that all natives should conform to the English Church and attend the parish churches ; and Secondly, that the aliens should use the English Liturgy in their own language. They appealed to the King, and a modification was granted, that the aliens might retain their own discipline, but that none but aliens might be their ministers. When we consider Laud's action towards these people in the light of the seventeenth century, we must admit that it was not intolerant, and that he dealt leniently. A fact to be mentioned is, that the foreigners wrote him a letter of thanks, which he produced at his trial.

Another matter entered into by the untiring energy of the Primate was that of the English congregations abroad. Owing to the influence of foreign Protestantism, the worship of these Anglican congregations seems to have become almost entirely conformed to the ways of Geneva. As Bishop of London, Laud was, ea: officio, in charge of tliese congregations ; and it was then that he first turned his attention to the matter, and drew up certain regulations with regard to chaplains — amongst others, " that every minister or chaplain in any factory or regiment shall read the Common Prayer and

ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM 93

administer the Sacraments, catechize children, and perform all other public ministerial duties, according to the rules and rubrics of the English Liturgy and Canons." Naturally much opposition was aroused, but by 1634 the Archbishop had won the day ; and all English churches and regiments in Holland, Hamburg, Turkey, India, Virginia, Barbadoes, and other places, had to conform to the Church's laws, and were made responsible to the Bishop of London.

In connection with Laud's spiritual care for English people abroad and in the Colonies, we must pass on to consider his action with regard to the Channel Islands. In the sixteenth century the Channel Islands were placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester. Owing partly to their proximity to France, the religious tone of the islands was affected by Calvinism ; and, in the reign of Elizabeth, the Genevan system seems to have been openly tolerated. James I., however, revived the old office of Dean, and caused the Prayer Book to be translated into French. Had Laud been able to carry out his Archiepiscopal Visitation in the Islands, much good would have ensued ; but even his activity had limits, and this had to be given up. He did what he could by providing for a more learned clergy. The

94 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

estate of Sir JNIiles Hubbard, who died in- testate, reverted to the King ; and, through Laud's influence, part of the estate was used to endow fellowships at Exeter, Pembroke, and Jesus Colleges, Oxford.

Another matter which occupied Laud dur- ing his primacy, was the case of the London incumbents. In the reign of Henry VIII. they were, by a decree of the King, allowed the sum of two shillings and ninepence in the pound on the rents of houses. This was after- wards confirmed by Act of Parliament. The legahty of the grant was never disputed, but all sorts of artifices were adopted in order to evade payment. So successful was the plan . adopted, that the clergy were reduced to a sad state of penury. In 1618, they appealed to the Court of Exchequer, and although the judges ordered payment upon the genuine rents of houses, the landlords still evaded their obligations. INIatters became worse in the reign of Charles I., when steps were taken to obtain justice ; but they were frustrated by the political and ecclesiastical troubles that en- sued. The civic dignitaries and shopkeepers never forgot Laud's championsliipof his poorer brethren ; but " the business of the tythes of London " was brought against him at liis trial. It was but another instance of the truth that

THE STAR CHAMBER 95

to do one's duty often results in making bitter enemies.

Here we may turn to consider a series of prosecutions, some of which took place when Laud was bishop of London. These prosecu- tions may, with truth, be said to be more connected with the general history of England than with the life of Archbishop Laud ; but as they took place in the Star Chamber, and Laud was a member of that court, and the offences of the prosecuted were partly against the Church, we must refer to them. The Star Chamber was a court formed in the reign of Henry VII. As Mr. Hutton remarks, — " It was a legal court, contrary though it was to the true principles of the English Constitu- tion ; and Laud took it as he found it, as part of the settled system under which it was his lot to live, and sat among its members as one of the ordinary duties which fell to him to per- form. . . . He sat in the Star Chamber with as clear a conscience, and as single an aim, as those with which many clerks have sat in modern times on the bench of the Petty Sessions." ^

The three cases chiefly associated with Laud are those of Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton. William Prynne was a lawyer of some ability,

1 Hutton, p. 133.

96 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

who from boyhood had been infected with a Puritanism of the most virulent type. With a dihgence worthy of a better cause, he had heaped up a marvellous store of learning, sacred and profane. The theatre was the first object that invited his wrath. A large part of his stock of learning was discharged at plays and play actors, in the shape of a ponderous tome entitled Histrioinastix. But his de- nunciations did not stop at the theatre ; as Heylin expresses it, " he seemed to breathe nothing but disgrace to the nation, infamy to the Church, reproaches to the court, dishonour to the Queen, and some things which were thought to be tending to the destruction of his Majesty's Person." In those days, to attack in writing the person of the monarch was a serious matter, since it implied the crime of High Treason, with its penalty of being hung, drawn and quartered, the latter sometimes being performed before life was extinct. Not long before, during Queen Elizabeth's reign, this penalty was freely meted out, often on the very slightest grounds of proof The punish- ment therefore of Prynne, which consisted in his being imprisoned, fined £5,000, degraded from his profession, set in the pillory, with the loss of his ears, was really moderate when judged by the cruel laws of the day.

THE STAR CHAMBER 97

In 1635, Prynne was again apprehended, this time in company with a Puritan minister, Henry Burton, and a physician, John Bast- wick. Burton was prosecuted for two Ubellous sermons, attacking the Laudian pohcy with the foul-mouthed denunciation of the Puritan- ism of the day. Heyhn gives us samples of his eloquence, and concludes, " These are the principal flowers of Rhetorick which grew in the Garden of H. B., sufficient, questionless, to show how sweet a champion he was like to prove of the Church and Gospel." ^

Bastwick was the author of a parody on the Litany, which, besides being irreverent, was also silly without the saving grace of humour. Prynne's productions were, 2Vie Qiiench-Coal, The unhishopping of Timothy and Titus ^ and l^evcs from Ipsxmch, — so gross were his libels, that Heylin after quoting some of the names applied to the bishops, says that there were " many other odious names not fit to be used by a Christian."

The court condemned Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick to lose their ears, to be each fined £5,000, and to be imprisoned in Guernsey, Jersey, and Scilly. That the sentence was outrageously severe, none can deny ; and it was even more impolitic ; for these three

^ Heylin, p. 311.

7

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coarse libellers became, in the popular estima- tion, saints and confessors, and their persecu- tion only strengthened the Puritan cause. It is worthy of note that Laud did not vote, and also that he said that, under Elizabeth, Penry was hanged, and Udal died in prison, for less than was contained in Burton's sermons. In Laud's eyes, these offenders were traitors against Church and State ; but towards them personally he felt no bitterness ; for he says " I pitied them, as God knows, from my very lieart." ^ It must also in fairness be remembered, that the methods of the Court were not of Laud's making, nor did he select the punishments, as some writers have seemed to imply. To the trials of Leighton and of Sherfield reference has already been made.

A few words must be said about the Court of the High Commission. This Court was established in the reign of Elizabeth. It may be said to have been the creation of Parlia- ment. Its chief duty was to enforce the acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. To a large extent, it took the place of the ancient ecclesiastical courts. If the bishops had acted constitutionally, they would have done so througli their own courts ; but owing to the influence of the State, and from motives

' laud's Wurks, iii. 389,

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of practical convenience, the Court of High Commission became the most important tri- bunal in which ecclesiastical causes were tried. Its proceedings, to a great extent directed against the Puritan party, created much popular odium against the Church. To quote Mr. Hutton, "Probably no human institu- tion has ever been more irrationally or more untruthfully attacked." ^

The Act Books of the Court, which cover two years and a quarter, have been preserved ; and their testimony is that, during this period, only two clergymen were sentenced to de- position from the ministry ; one for a grave moral offence, and the other for teaching that Saturday should be observed as the Sabbath. In the latter case, on submission, the sentence was remitted. Only four clergy were sentenced to deprivation, and suspension from the exer- cise of their functions, one of whom was guilty of dishonesty, and two of reviling their parishioners.

The cloud overhanging the horizon, to which we have already referred, had, by 1637, as- sumed alarming proportions, and every moment it threatened to burst with tremendous fury. In that year the carefully laid plans for bring- ing Scotland into conformity with England

1 Hutton, p. 98.

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in the use of a Service Book, came to nought, by the insurrection that began in Edinburgh, and the troubles into which both Church and State were phniged commenced. The re- maining years of the primacy of William Laud are inextricably connected with these troubles, and they wiU be described in detail later. The same is the case in regard to affairs in Scotland and in Ireland.

CHAPTER V

LAUD AS REFORMER laud's reformation, a re-action against

THAT OF CRANMER LAUD's OPPOSITION TO

CALVINISM EPISCOPACY, DE JURE DIVINO

ASSERTION OF SACRAMENTAL DOCTRINE

RE-ACTION TOWARDS CATHOLIC BELIEF AND

PRACTICE CEREMONIAL REFORMATION

LIMITATIONS IN LAUD's REFORMATION

Reference has already been made in Chapter I. to the downward course which the Reforma- tion took in Enghmd. JMen who are commonly- called " reformers " were really more identified with revolt than with reform ; since by their actions they endeavoured to do away with, rather than to reform, the ancient religious system. We have already noticed that, in the reign of Elizabeth, a re-action set in, in- augurated by such men as Hooker and others. But this movement was not fully developed and carried into effect until the advent of William Laud.

101

102 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

This re-action was a true reformation-move- ment : whilst rejecting Papal and mediaeval accretions, it steadily turned its face towards the genuine teaching of the Holy Catholic Church, and especially the Church before the disastrous Schism between the East and West, which took place in the eleventh century. If this be admitted, then Laud is to be regarded as the great constructive reformer of the Anglican Church ; and in this chapter we are to consider him as such. When we contrast the proceed- ings of the Cranmerian reformers in the days of Edward VL, with the true reformation carried out by Laud and his followers, it cannot be denied that the aims of the former were diametrically opposed to those of the latter. It is quite possible, so to speak, to canonize Cranmer and his colleagues ; but, in doing this. Laud and his party become logically Romanizers, for in their view the Iloman Church was part of the Chiu'ch of Christ, and the Pope was a Christian bishop. In the eyes of the former party the Iloman Church was an Anti-cliristian apostacy, and the Pope was clearly the JNlan of Sin. In the same way, if we hold the Laudian movement to have l)een a genuine reformation, then consequently tliat of Cranmer was a revolution. It is quite true that in the writings of men of Laud's

LAUD^S REFORMATION 103

school, such as Heyhn and others, we find the theory advanced that the Laudian movement was a continuation of the Cranmerian: but such a theory is most difficult to square with facts, and one can only think that these men were driven to write in this strain in order, as they honestly thought, to strengthen their position. The monumental work of Canon Dixon ^ gives a learned and impartial account of the Ed- wardian reformation ; and if we take this as our guide, it is impossible to maintain that) Laud's work was a development of that of) Cranmer. To take one instance, namely, the» treatment of the Altar or Holy Table. What ) the followers of Cranmer threw down, Laud and his party built up. In both cases important/ doctrinal reasons prompted their actions. The Edwardian reformers, as a body, disbelieved, whilst Laud and his followers believed, in th( Eucharistic Sacrifice. It is true that the Laud-] ian divines protested against certain populai mediceval theories of the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Altar ; but from their writings / it is easy to see that they clearly believed in \ that doctrine. If, for instance, we compare '; their statements with those made by a ,^ moderate man of the " old learning," like I

^ History of the Church of England from the abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction, 1877-1900.

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Bishop Gardiner in his celebrated sermon before Edward VI., it is hard to detect any doctrinal differences whatsoever.

That Laud was a Romanizer, in the true sense of that word, is too ridiculous to need refutation. Such an opinion is the result of the MTitinsfs of narrow-minded Puritans. Laud was a Catholic, but of the stoutest Anglican t}^e. He personally re-converted no less than twenty-two persons who had strayed into the Roman fold. In his controversy with Fisher, and on other occasions, he valiantly defended the English Church against Roman attacks. Like all Angio-Catholic divhies of his day, he called himself a Protestant. But we must remember that the meaning of this word has changed ; at the present day even the moderate school in the Anglican Commimion would resent its application to themselves. In the seventeenth century it was different. " Pro- testant " seems to have connoted all Christians wlio protested against the Roman claims. In this sense the Greek Cliurches may rightly be styled Protestant. Sometimes the term Pro- testant was applied to English Churchpeople in contradistinction to Puritan as well as to Papist. Ilcylin, in speaking of Bishop AN'illiams not attending divine service when in the Tower, says : " ^\'heLher it gave the greater

LAUD^S OPPOSITION TO CALVINISM 105

scandal to the Protestants, Pioritans or Papists, it is hard to say."^

The first thing to notice in tlie work of Laud as a reformer, is his conflict with the system of John Calvin. In the reign of Henry VIII., the reforming movement may be said to have been I^utheran in character ; but Lutheranism was far too conservative to please the "new learning" in England, and the Lutheran influence came to an end at Henry's death. During Edward's reign, the prevailing tone was Zwinglian, mingled with Calvinism. By the time of Elizabeth, Calvinism had got the upper hand ; though, no doubt, Zwinglian teaching on the sacraments prevailed. Lutheranism, in its history, soon showed its weakness : it became divided into parties. It had little or no organization, for Luther was no organizer. It was wanting as a religion in completeness and logical precision ; and it tended towards Erastianism. In some parts of Europe, the ground occupied by Lutheranism was captiu'ed by the followers of Calvin. Calvinism was, in many respects, the opposite of Lutheranism. The master-mind of John Calvin had constructed a system which was clear-cut and definite, and it attracted men by its severe logic. Even the terrible dogma that

1 Heylin, p. 324.

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Christ died only for the elect, and that the greater part of mankind were irrevocably pre- destmated to eternal damnation, failed to repel them. At Geneva, Calvin ruled as dictator, possessing more authority than any pope. After his death in 1564, there was no weaken- ing of the system that he founded. Strange though it may appear, there is a resemblance between Calvin and Loyola. Their systems appealed to a certain type of mind, both men possessed a sternness and a narrowness which fascinated, both were intolerant, and both were anti-Erastian. Against Calvinism, and a for- tiori against Zwinghanism, Laud made a stand ; and, so far as the English Church is concerned, eventually conquered. It is true that the XV. Lambeth Articles were rejected in Elizabeth's reign, largely, it is said, through the influence of Andrewes ; but Laud repelled a perhaps more insidious onslaught of Calvmism, when, by the Declaration before the Articles, which was drawn up through his influence, he freed them from a purely Calvinistic interpretation. We have already referred to the consternation that this caused amongst the Puritan party, and how it added to the animosity with Avhich they regarded him. He also in Ireland delivered the Chiu'ch from the Lambeth Articles. Having spoken of Laud's attack upon

LAUD'S OPPOSITION TO CALVINISM 107

Zwinglian Calvinism as a whole, which was the main principle of the Edwardian reforma- tion, we may now turn to the details of his constructive reformation, and see how it was a re-action against, rather that a development of, the teaching of Cranmer and his party. The study of " the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops " had now been going on for some time. The leaven of Anglo- Catholicism had been surely but slowly permeating the Church. When men studied those ancient wi'iters, the radical difference between the Patristic stand- point and that of the "reformers" became evident, and the "inspiration" of Calvin's Institutes was first questioned, then disbelieved, and the book was finally displaced from its position as chief text - book of English theology.

The teaching of the Edwardian divines upon the constitution of the Church was conspicu- ously at variance with that of the Fathers. Episcopacy was indeed retained ; but this seems to have been more for politic reasons than from any belief in the grace of Holy Order. Cranmer and others held but hazy views as to the spiritual character of ecclesias- tical jurisdiction. The ministry of Lutherans and Calvinists, and other non-episcopal com- munions, was regarded by them as valid. In

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the reign of Elizabeth, even so Catholic-minded a ^\Titer as Hooker taught that, in cases of extreme necessity, the grace of Order might be conferred by presbyters. He says "there may be sometimes very just and sufficient reason to allow ordination made without a bishop."^ In Hooker's day, and even later, cures of souls were held by men who had received merely Presbyterian ordination. Bancroft, in his famous sermon of 1589, seems to have been the first English divine to dogmatically assert that bishops were neces- sary to the esse of the Church. The foreign Protestant bodies were deemed by many churchmen in Elizabeth's time, and even later, to be " sister churches," on an equality with the Church of England : by some, they were moreover held to be purer, in that they came nearer to the Genevan ideal. But when the Fathers and the Schoolmen came to be studied, a different conception of the Church of Christ was the result. Then the Catholic doctrine of the grace of Holy Order — with all that de- pends on that doctrine — was accepted. Then it was realized that episcopacy was of the esse, and not merely of the bciie esse of the Clnn*ch. I^ess than twenty years after the death of Laud, his disciples, who revised the Prayer

^ Eccles. Vol., VII. xiv. 11.

EnSCOPACY, DE JURE DIVINO 109

Book, added to the Preface of the Ordinal the significant words " no man shall be accounted, or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon in the Church of England, or suffered to execute any of the said functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted there- unto, according to the form hereafter following, or hath had formerly Episcopal Consecration, or Ordination." This addition to the Preface in 1G62, effectually put an end to erroneous views upon the subject ; but up to that date these ^'iews to some extent survived. Owing to the dread of political Romanism, the Pro- testant Communions of the Continent were looked upon as Churches — though no doubt imperfect — by some writers of the Laudian school. The adoption of the added paragraph may be well compared to a brilliant feat of arms, a dash forward, unlooked for by the foe, by which a strategical position is captured.

Doubtless it was this objective which Laud and his followers had long in their minds. We now have a stereotyped, authoritative de- claration of the Anglican Church that the grace of Order is only to be obtained through the episcopate. The Roman and the Greek Churches, however far they may in certain points have departed from primitive practice, are officially declared by the Anglican Church

110 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

to possess a valid ministry, whilst the ministry of Presbyterians and other Protestant bodies is plainly implied to lack Divine warrant. This is no mere opinion of a school of thought in the Anglican Church, but her official teaching, in accordance with the words of St. Ignatius, that " without these three orders (bishops, priests, and deacons) no Church has a title to the name."^

Following upon the assertion of the Divine constitution of the Church, as depending upon the episcopate, a return was made to the [Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy I Eucharist and other sacramental ordinances. The teaching of Overall and Andrewes on the Sacraments was confirmed by Laud. The real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist was believed and taught by him. Space per- mits only a few quotations upon this point. At his trial he spoke the following words : " The Altar is the greatest place of God's residence upon earth, greater than the pulpit ; for there it is. Hoc est Corpus Meum, This is My Body, but ill the other it is at most but. Hoc est Verhum Mcum., this is My AVord : and a greater reverence is due to the 15ody, than the VV^ord of the I^ord.'-^ In liis conference with Fisher, he wrote, " For the Church of England

1 Ad. Trail. 'A. ^ Worku, iv. 284.

SACRAMENTAL DOCTRINE 111

nothing is more plain than that it beUeves in and teaches the true and real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. ^ From the doctrine of the real Presence of Christ, adoration of his Per- son follows as a consequence. This is clearly- taught by Bishop Jeremy Taylor, a disciple of Laud — " But if He be present to us not in mystery only, but in blessing also, why do we not worship ? But all the Christians always did so from time immemorial. ' No man eats this Flesh, unless he first adores,' said St. Austin : ' For the wise men and the Bar- barians did worship this Body in the manger with veiy much fear and reverence. . . . But thou seest Him, not in the manger, but on the Altar, and thou beholdest Him, not in the Virgin's arms, but represented by the Priest, and brought to thee in sacrifice by the Holy Spirit of God.' So St. Chrysostom argues."^ Jeremy Taylor and others even set forth the propitiatory character of the Eucharistic Sacri- fice— " It follows then that the celebration of this sacrifice be in its proportion an instrument of applying the proper sacrifice to all the purposes which it first designed ; it is minis- terially and by application an instrument propitiatory." ^ Bishop William Forbes, also a

1 Works, ii. 328.

2 The Worthy Communicant, Loud. 1853, p. 383.

3 The Great Ejcemplar, Loud. 1841)^ iii. 715.

(

112 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

follower of Laud, held that not only is the Eucharist propitiatory, but that "the Lord's Body can be offered in the aforesaid manner for the forgiveness of the sins which are daily committed by us ; " ^ and he adds that the Eucharist is " also in a sound sense propitiatory, and is profitable not only to very many of the living, but of the departed also."^ In short, the teaching of the Laudian reformers may be summed up in the words of Bramhall, who asserted that, " Abate us Transubstantiation, and those things which are consequents of their determination of the manner of Pre- sence, and we have no difference with them (the Romanists) in this particular.^ In other words, the scholastic eajplanation of the doc- trine excepted, England and Rome are at one in their belief concerning the doctrine of the real Presence. On the other hand, it is but fair to state that, in the re-action from Scholasticism, certain of the Caroline divines were at times somewhat \'ague, and in their laudable desire to emphasize the virtus sacra- menti, or benefit of communion, they tended in the direction of the virtual theory of the Presence, l^ut if we contrast the teaching of many of the " reformers," and above all their

' ConHidcrntiones Modrsia', Oxford^ UJ.'iG, ii. 007.

^ Ibid. p. 013. ' Works, iii. 1G5.

RE- ACTION TOWARDS CxVTHOLIC BELIEF 113

actions, with those of the followers of Laud, the difference is fundamental.

The Church's claim to forgive, in God's \ name, the sins of the penitent— the power of Absolution committed to her by Jesus Christ — was openly preached by the Laudian divines ; and, fi'om contemporary accounts, we gather that the practice of private confession to the priest was fairly widespread. Confession is mentioned in the Visitation Articles of Mon- tague, Juxon, and other bishops of the period ; and it is frequently referred to in contemporary biographies.

With a fuller apprehension of the Mystery of the Incarnation, as the result of a deeper study of ancient Catholic theology, there of necessity followed a great appreciation of the person and office of St. Mary in the economy of grace — greater perhaps than we find in the Anglican Communion at the present time. To-day her image uncTOtv?ied is set up in St. Paul's cathedral ; in the days of Laud it was set up crowned over the portal of the Uni- versity church of Oxford, and this with the approval of the Archbishop himself, who was then Chancellor of the University. The rever- ential devotion towards the JNIother of oiu* I^ord is a striking attribute of many of the writers of the seventeenth century. Even a 8

114 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

divine so moderate in his theological views as Bishop Hall exclaims : " O blessed JVIary ! he camiot bless thee, he cannot honour thee too much, that deifies thee not."^ Henry Burton, a sturdy Puritan was, from his point of ^dew, consistently scandalized by the publication of a book. The Femall Glory , or the life and death of our Blessed Lady, the Holy Mary^ God's own Immaculate Mother. This remark- able book is an original Anghcan work, and not an adaption from Roman sources, and its author was a layman, "Anthony Stafford, Gent." as he styles himself, a member of the University of Oxford. He begins with several panegyrics in verse upon St. JNIary, and then goes on — not without some learning, pagan and Christian — to give a history of her life. In the quaint and florid language of the seven- teenth century, he enlarges upon her unique glory, and the lionoiu* due to her. There is a chapter upon her Assumption ; and, of the men of his day, he says, "till they are good JNIarians, they shall never be good Christians." ^ For assailing this work in a sermon. Burton was censured by the Star Chamber ; whilst Laud commanded Heylin, his chaplain, to answer Burton's bitter criticism. The con-

' Contcmplatlnns, iii. 2.^, 24.

2 The Femall Glory, Loud. 18G9, p. 170.

RE-ACTION TOWARDS CATHOLIC BELIEF 115

demritation of Burton for attacking the book formed one of Prynne's charges against the Archbishop. It is also not to be wondered at that the Puritan party condemned Bishop INlontague's Apello Cccsarem, a clever, though perhaps satirical attack upon their system, and a setting forth of wliat would nowadays be called " advanced High Church " doctrines. This book was submitted to Laud and four other bishops, and their verdict was that Montague "had not affirmed anything to be the doctrine of the Church of England, but that which in our opinions is the doctrine of the Church of England, or agreeable there- unto."^ Another important Laudian book of considerable research and learning is the post- humous work of William Forbes, Bishop of Edinburgh, Considerationes Modestoe, in which he did his best towards healing the divisions then existing amongst Christians. Its theo- logical position is even more pronounced than that of Montague's book.

Cosin's devotional handbook, A Collection of private devotions in the practice of the Ancient Church called the Hours of Prayer, published in 1627, must not be passed over. At the beginning of the reign of Charles I., when the French ladies-in-waiting in the train of Queen

^ Maccoll, Lawlessnesa . . . , Loud. 1875, p. 319.

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Henrietta INIaria formed part of the English Court, it was noticed that some of their number were provided with books of Hours, and other w^orks of devotion, which they used at cer- tain times during the day. The example of these ladies stimulated a desire on the part of the more devout English courtiers for similar books of an Anglican type. This want was supplied by John Cosin, a prominent figure amongst Laudian divines, by the publication of his book of devotions, which seems to have been taken partly from the Primer issued in Elizabeth's reign, and partly from ancient sources. This book is interesting as a popular manual of devotions of the seventeenth cen- tury, and it passed through many editions. It gave considerable offence to the Puritans, who called it, " Cosins Cousimng Devotions." ^ Its author, they commonly styled " Popish master John."

The divine precept of fasting, and its eccle- siastical applications, appears to have been widely kept in the seventeenth century. This was also the case in the reign of Elizabeth and James, though the State reason of the en- couragement of the fisheries largely helped the a))stincnce from flesh-meat on days of fasting. The fast before Communion was, from con-

1 Evelyn's Diary, Loud. \^1\i, \). 214.

RE-ACTION TOWxVRDS CATHOLIC BELIEF 117

temporary evidence, well observed ; no doubt, far more strictly than it is at the present day. Fasting Communion is constantly inculcated in Caroline books of devotion, and other similar writings. Until the end of the seventeenth century the meal called breakfast, as already mentioned, was almost unknown ; the first meal in the day (except in the case of the deUcate and infirm) being dinner, which was eaten at 10 or 11 o'clock. This fact caused the observance of the fast before Communion to be an easy matter.

The mischievous heresy of Solifidianism, pro- pounded by Luther, was ably refuted by the Laudian divines ; and the teaching of St. Paul was balanced by that of St. James. To depre- ciate good works was admirably consistent on the part of some of those whose good works were a negligible quantity ! But now that a , return was being made to Catholic doctrine and practice, a corresponding increase in godli- ness and piety took place. The bishops and clergy of the Laudian era doubtless had their faults, but in vain do we look for a Poynet or a Holgate amongst them. A different concept tion of the Christian ministry was set forth, the Protestant idea of the mere Preacher giving^ way to the Catholic idea of the Priest. Whilst I the wise permission to the clergy to marry.

118 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

" as they shall judge the same to serve better to godUness," ^ was maintained ; yet, at the same time, the teaching of the Church as to the virgin-state being the more excellent way was not lost sight of, and the voluntary celi- bacy of ilie_j^ergy_jw^^sencoura^ Laud's own views are relatedto usHby Heylin, who says : —

" He was a single man himself and wished perhaps as St. Paul once did, That all men else (that is to say, all men in Holy Ordei^s) would remain so likewise. And some occasion being offered at that time to speak about the conveniences or inconveniences of a married Clergy, he made some declaration of himself to this effect, that in disposing of all Ecclesias- tical Promotions he would prefer the single man before the married, supposing the abilities of the persons were otherwise equal." ^ On the other hand, he was quite loyal to the Article, and on one occasion officiated personally, in the Chapel of London House, at the marriage of one of his chaplains.

Tlie Laudian movement seems to have raised the whole tone of the ecclesiastical state. Tlie ordinary parochial clergy since the Reform- ation appear to have been a despised order in the eyes of tlie laity — the bishops " made

» Article XXXII. 2 Heylin, p. 212.

RE- ACTION TOWAUDS CATHOLIC BELIEF 119

priests of the lowest of the people," but now in the ranks of the clergy all classes were represented. IMen of birth, learning, and wealth were to be found, who sought the priesthood in response to a divine vocation. For instance, we have tlie spectacle of a cultured and refined gentleman like George Herbert, voluntarily surrendering the prospects of a brilliant career at Coin^t, in order to become the humble parish-priest of a Wiltshire village. It was Laud's personal influence that finally decided him to take this step.^ We must also not omit to mention how Nicholas Ferrar, a prosperous city merchant, gave up all worldly hopes and interests, and retired to an obscure Huntingdonshire manor-house, where he founded a semi-monastic society, consisting of his mother, his nieces and other relatives. Here he acted as chaplain to this little community, in which a holy life of prayer and devotion, blended with practical philanthropy, was spent, till the place was sacked by Cromwell's brutal soldiery, and the inmates dispersed. Little Gidding is to-day familiar to many, from the exquisite account of the place and its inmates given in the pages of that great historical romance John Inglesant.

1 Izaak Waltoii;, Life of Mr. George Herbert. Lond. 18GG, p. 274.

120 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Such examples of self-surrender are the fruits rather of a Catholic, than a Protestant type of piety ; and, from what we know of the Laudian reformation, a remarkable ourpouring of the spirit of the heroic virtues seems quietly to have taken place in England at this time, both amongst the clergy and laity ; opposite to the rapacity and godlessness which was common in the preceding age.

In the matter of theological learning the Movement produced a school of divines in the English Church that has, perhaps, never been surpassed. If we take the period, roughly speaking, as beginnmg wdth Hooker, and ex- tending through the seventeenth century, it includes such masters as Andrewes, Overall, Laud, Hammond, Forbes, Thorndike, Cosin, Bramhall, Jeremy Taylor, Sparrow, Sanderson, Pearson, and others. Never perhaps has such a galaxy of theologians existed together, so that a foreign divine was compelled to exclaim, Clerus AngUcanus stupoi' mundi!

We have already alluded to much of Laud's reforming work in a preceding chapter. The JMctropolitical visitation, witli its reverent ordering of the worship of God in cathedrals and parish chin-ches, and the efforts which were tlicn made to raise the tone of the lives of the clergy, was distinctly a work of relbrm.

CEREMONIAL REFORMATION 121

The same may be said of Laud's endeavours to improve Anglican church-services abroad, in the colonies, and in the army and navy. The action of the Court of High Commission in punishing open and notorious evil-livers, however closely we may criticize the means employed, was certainly a work of moral re- formation. These matters have been already referred to.

We must now pass on to describe in more detail the reformation in the ceremonial of the Church, which was carried out under Laud. When a return was made to the " old paths " in doctrine, it necessarily followed that a return should also be made in ceremonial which is the outward expression of doctrine. The Holy Table, as we have seen, was removed to its ancient site at the east end of the church, and placed altar-wise, and commonly described as the Altar. The use i of altar-lights, wafer-bread, and the mixed chalice, seems to have been fairly widespread, and incense was not uncommon. In some churches, an altar-cross was to be seen. Sacred pictures and statuary were again set ( up in churches. The use of the surplice be- came universal. Copes were worn in nearly all cathedrals, and in some parish churches. As to the Eucharistic vestments, we have no

122 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

explicit evidence that they were actually used, although one of the copes at Durham Cathedral, which had upon it " the story of tlie Passion," may possibly have been a full-shaped chasuble.^ ^The reverent custom of bowing towards the j altar was widely observed, and the primitive usage of making the sign ot the cross in daily life seems to have been common. At Durham we hear of the Eucharist being chorally rend- ered 2 and of non-communicants being present.^ An extract fi'om a scurrilous sermon preached by Peter Smart, prebendary of Durham, may be quoted to show what a militant Puritan of the day thought of the ceremonial of the Church —

Before, we had ministers, as the Scripture calls them, we had Communion-tables, we had sacraments ; but now we have priests, and sacrifices, and altars, with much altar furniture and many massing implements. ... If religion consist in altar decking, cope wearing, organ playing, pijiing and singing, cross- ing of cushions and kissing of clouts, oft sbu'ting up and squatting down, nodding of heads, and whirling about till their noses stand eastwai'd, setting basins on tlie altar, candlesticks, and crucifixes, burning wax candles in excessive number when and where there is

' JTierurffin Aru/linnut, Loud. 1003, cd. Staley, Pt. 11.229,230.

^ Arliclrx of tlii' CiDuinons . . . Kjiim flic ronijihiint of I'rtcr Smfiff,iii/iiiiis/ John Cosin, pp. 7-10, qii. Ilirr. Ann/if., I't. 11. p. 225. See also Tvntimonji of li. Ilntvlunsnn . , . qii. Hiid. p. 227-

•' vl rfiftt/otpif of xuiirrxtifioiix in}} ovations In'oiiijlit info DiO'ham cat heel )-ul, pp. 10^ 2», (ju. Ihid. Vt. III. p. 317.

CEREMONIAL REFORMATION 123

no use of lights ; and what is worst of all^ gilding of angelsj and garnishing of images^ and setting them aloft ... if, I say^ religion consist in these and such like superstitious vanities^ ceremonial fooleries^ apish toys, and popish trinkets, we had never more religion than now.i

This worthy seems naturally to have been a thorn in the flesh to the Chapter, and the result of this pulpit eloquence was that he was summarily deposed from his office.

It is interesting also to note the return that was made to mediaeval architecture. All students of architecture are familiar with the excellent examples erected in Laud's time,^ such as parts of the chapel of Jesus College, Oxford, and the chapel of Exeter College, the latter now, alas, no more, thanks to the vandalism of the Victorian era — an age, it has been said, more destructive than the ages of the " reformers " and Puritans combined. What is even more interesting is that in many of the churches of this period, a return was made to ancient usage in dividing the chancel from the nave by a rood-screen, and erecting stalls in the chancel for the clergy and other ministers.

^ Sermon by Peter Smart, pp. 11, 23, 24, qu. Hier. Anglic, I. 75.

2 It must not be fori^otteu however that in the reij^-n of James 1. there was a revival of Gothic architecture, which produced such exquisite buildings as those of Wadham College, Oxford.

124 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Looking back upon the Laudian Reform- ation, when we read the records of the theo- logical beliefs of the leaders of the movement which are preserved to us, and the somewhat scanty accounts of the ceremonial revived by them, we must bear in mmd the numbers of clergy and laity who doubtless followed them in instances of which we have no record.

Before bringing this chapter to a close, reference must briefly be made to what may be called the limitations or imperfections of Laud's reformation. In the first place, when we consider the ^\Titings of Laud and his school, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that they often fail to take a Catholic view of the English Church. Her sad isolation from the rest of Catholic Christendom was hardly realized. Not much in those days was known about the Eastern Church, and owing to the comparatively recent excesses of the Romanensian party in the Church of England in INIary's reign, and such horrors as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day abroad, English Churclimen in the seventeenth century were apt to magnify the differences between England and Rome. The result was that their conception of tlic English Church was ollcn one of the narrowest insularity.

In the matter of the relation of the Church

LIMITS OF LAUD'S REFORMATION 125

to the State, Laud made immense use of the Crown in causing it to issue Proclamations for the due ordering and reformation of the Church. The Regale, in those days when a devoted son of the Church happened to occupy the throne, was a powerful weapon to fight the Church's battles ; and Laud used it to the full. He acted much like the modern vicar, who rehes upon the power of the squire of his parish, who happens to be a good Churchman. Yet Laud was no Erastian, no one held stronger or clearer views on spiritual authority than he did. " JNIy order as a Bishop, and my power of Jurisdiction is by Divine Apostohcal right, and unalterable, for aught I know, in the Church of Christ."^ Dr. Bright has very accurately stated Laud's position in this matter, when he writes, " Although the very reverse of an \ Erastian, he exaggerated the royal supremacy ' in Church matters as a convenient instrument i for his purpose. " ^ We cannot approve of Laud's / pohcy of conferring upon prelates great offices/ of the State, as he did, for instance, in causing Juxon to be made Lord Treasurer, and Spottis- woode Chancellor of Scotland. One is certainly astonished at the exclamation that he made in the former case, " Now, if the Church will not!

1 Laud's Works, iii. 406.

2 Bright, Waymurka in Church History, Loud. 1894^ p. 349.

126 LIFE OF WILLI AIM LAUD

hold up themselves under God, I can do no more."^

Another serious fault in the Laudian Re- formation was that, to a great extent, it came from above ; the mo\'ement was furthered by bishops and dignitaries, rather than by the rank and file of the clergy, who were largely on the Puritan side.^ JNlozley, in criticizing this fault in the movement, points out the fact that Laud had to deal with a superhuman difficulty, a Church that was thoroughly Puritanized ; and he says, " the age was set one way, and he took perhaps the only engine there was for him." ^ Another matter in which fault may be found is that Laud's movement was largely centralized in himself It can hardly be said that he was primus inter pares in relation to his brethren in the episcopate ; but here again the exigencies of the time must be taken into account, for had he acted as a modern English Primate his reforms could never have been carried out. Again, owing to the upheaval of the Great Rebellion, the pro- gress of Laud's work was suddenly checked,

' L;iU(l'.s Works (Diary), iii. 220.

^ For a comparison between the Laudian and the Oxford Movements, see Dr. Neale's interestinf^ article on the subject in Jiis lA'cturrs on Church Difficulties, \)yi. 1(;[J-18(». It must ho confessed, liowevor, tiiat the iearned writer soems hardly fair as regards the Laudian Movement.

^ Esisuys Uidorical and Theological, Lond. 1878, i. 22G.

LIMITS OF LxVUD'S REFORMATION 127

and although it was carried on at the Restora- tion, yet much was left for the Oxford JNIove- ment to effect. For instance, the Laudian divines taught that the Eucharist was the great Christian service,^ and they longed for more frequent, and even for daily celebrations of the Eucharist.2 So again the full ceremonial of the Church, implied in the Ornaments Rubric, w^as left for the nineteenth century to restore.

The history of the English Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries may per- haps be best described as similar to that of an unfortunate sufferer, subjected to the treatment of various quack physicians. Eventually, how- ever, these persons are sent about their business, and a skilled and qualified doctor is called in. The patient greatly improves ; but so grievous are the results of his former treatment, that restoration to perfect health is not to be attained. The evils of the Edwardian and Elizabethan days were so serious, that even Laud could not effect a complete cure.

1 Thonidike, Works, Oxford, 1844, i. 274.

2 See Bishop Jeremy Taylor's passionate yearning for the daily celebration expressed in The Great Exemplar, Lond. 1849, iii. 725. AVliilst Hayward, Bisliop Overall's chaplain, said, " Better were it to endure the absence of tlie peo|)le, than for the minister to neglect the usual and daily sacrifice of the C'hurch, by which all people, whether they be there or no, reap so much benefit ; and this was the opinion of my lord and master, Dr. Overall." — Qu. Cosiu's Works, V. 127.

128 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Such is a brief account of Laud's work as a Reformer, — a constructive work of which the foundations may be said to have been laid by Hooker and others, but which needed a man of Laud's strong personality, fearless courage, and higher position to carry into full effect.

CHAPTER VI

LAUD: PRIVATE AND DEVOTIONAL LIFE

PORTRAITS OF LAUD — " ALWAYS AILING, NEVER

failing" SIMPLICITY OF HIS HOME-LIFE

KINDNESS TO DEPENDENTS — ATTITUDE TO- WARDS RECREATIONS PROMOTES SPIRITUAL- ITY AMONGST THE CLERGY LAUD AND

FERRAR THE YOUNGER

Whilst we know much about the outward life, aims and opinions, of historical characters, not SO much is known of their inner life and personal religion. William Laud is no exception to this rule. But thanks to certain passages in his Diary, and History of his Troubles, and to Heylin's account of his life, and also to Laud's Devotions, we can gather some fragments, and, so to speak, piece them together.

Like most men of mark who have lived

during the past three or four hundred years,

Laud's portrait remains to show what manner

of man he was outwardly. There are several

9 129

130 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD

paintings of undoubted excellence existing, the work of Vandyke and other great masters. Laud seems to have been short of stature, with almost delicately-made features. His eyes are keen and piercing, his forehead is good. He wears the trim pointed beard and moustache of many great prelates of the day, not only in England, but also abroad, as the familiar pictures of Riclielieu and others re- mind us. His hair is closely cut. He wears a rochet and scarf, and upon his head the soft square cap of the period. His face shows energy, activity and determination, there is an intellectual acuteness about it, and it is not without an expression of kindliness.

As has been already observed. Laud suffered as a child from delicacy of health, which never left him. In after life he was constantly unwell ; and yet his pluck and spirit were so great, that the amount of work he accom- plished would have done credit to the strongest of men. Of him, it has been well said that he was " always ailing and never failing," that he had in short, " a vigorous, obstinate, indoors constitution."^ When we consider that, in addition to his episcopal duties, he combined the office of being Chancellor to two uni- versities with that of being virtually Prime

' Moziey, Exfidi/.s- Jlhtoricul and Thcoioyicul, Loud. 1870) I. 111.

' ALWAYS AILING, NEVER FAILING ' 131

Minister ; and when we remember that his work as bishop, and afterwards as archbishop, was carried out with conscientious thoroughness ; it must be confessed that his hfe had much of the busy character of a hardworking twentieth century bishop of London or arch- bishop of Canterbury. If we compare Laud's Hfe and work with that of many of the bishops of the age preceding him, who unblushiugly sought the advancement of themselves and their relations, who carefully feathered their own nests with the patrimony of the Church, who were conveniently servile and complaisant to those in authority — if we compare Laud's life and work with theirs, the contrast is great. However mistaken Laud's opponents may hold him to have been, they are constrained to acknowledge his unselfishness and the loftiness of his character. Even though men may hold Laud's beliefs to have been erroneous and his aims mistaken, they must admit his single- mindedness. For the advancement of the Church's best interests Laud surrendered much that this world counts dear, he led a life of incessant labour, and followed a course that exposed him to enmity. While he was muni- ficent in his charities and benefactions, he seems to have spent little on himself He chose the unmarried state with its freedom from

132 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

domestic cares and its greater opportunities for self-surrender, but with its often accom- panying loneliness and isolation. His liome life was singularly simple, and his mode of living was almost ascetic. The Church's ordered round of worship was carefully ob- served in his chapel. The fasts and festivals were faithfully observed. He laboured on without ceasing, under stress of continual bodily sickness and infirmity. With the ex- ception of a small number of personal friends and followers, there were few around him upon whom he could rely. As to his recrea- tion, it seems to have centred chiefly in his books ; and like many a man his diary was a solace to him. His life though very busy was largely sedentary, and we find him swing- ing books by way of exercise. He appears to have spent much time in fine weather in his garden. Riding on horseback was more common in the seventeenth century than it is now, and at times he used to ride. Every- thing about his life, one may say, was arranged in subservience to the advancement of a great cause. And, as is often the case, this single- mindcdness liad its reward in the remarkable change whicli largely througli his efforts passed over the English Church, — a cliange affecting not only lier outward appearance,

KINDNESS TO DEPENDENTS 133

but her very soul, a cliaiige, moreover, which survived the Great llebeUion and has its fruits in the present day.

Yet we must not look upon Laud as a man of cast-iron rigour, or a mere dictator of an ecclesiastical policy, as has sometimes been done by those who have not fully understood him. The human side of his character was indeed no negligible quantity. His affection for his sovereign was very real, so was also the friendship that he bore to the Duke of Buckingham and to the Earl of Strafford — characters very different from his own. The treatment that a man bestows upon his de- pendents is good indication of his disposition. To his servants Laud was ever a kind master. In his Diary we meet with ample proofs of this. Adam Torless, his steward and right- hand man, is mentioned several times, and his death is touchingly referred to — " Thursday, September 23, 1641, INIr. Adam Torless my ancient, loving and faithful servant, and then my steward, after he had served me full forty and two years, died to my great both loss and grief. For all my accounts since my commitment were in his hands ; and had he not been a very honest and careful man, I must have suffered much more than I did ; yet I suffered enough besides the loss of his

134 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD

person who was now become almost the only comfort of my affliction, and my age."^ On October 26 (1634) when staying at Hampton Court, Laud dreams that his servant William Pemiell is ill at Croydon. He at once rises, orders his coach, drives off, finds the dream to be true, and is just in time to commend the poor man's soul to God.^ Where Laud was intimately known, he appears to have been sincerely beloved, as he was by the poor who lived near him at Lambeth. Laud's kindh- ness is also shown when a young man, JNIr. Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon), ventured to call upon him, and with youthful presump- tion to act the part of the " candid friend " towards the aged Primate ; informing him, as they walked in the garden, how he was evil spoken of throughout the land, and how his blunt speech was causing him to be dis- liked. Laud listened patiently to all that the young man had to say, and then with true hinnility admitted that at times he was hasty and often spoke in a way that he afterwards regretted. Dr. Gardiner speaks of Laud's personal kindness, which sometimes underlay his official severity in the Star Chamber.^

1 Laud's Worloi (Troultlcs), Oxford 11J53, iii. Ud.

2 Jhuf. p. 224.

3 Gardiner, in JJid. Xat. Biog., xxxii. 190 sub "Laud."

LAUD'S CHARACTER 135

That he was quick tempered and spoke im- pulsively is indeed true — and no one grieved over this fault more than himself — but it by no means follows that he was cruel and unfeeling, as some writers have striven to maintain. When Prynne wrote a libellous letter to Laud after his condemnation in the Star Chamber, Noye the Attorney General wished that he should be forbidden pen and ink in his imprisonment ; but Laud would would not hear of such a proposal, and insisted also that his books should be given to him. His magnanimity towards his great opponent, Williams, is noticeable. Of all Laud's foes Williams seems to have been the most danger- ous, because he was the most unprincipled. At one time Williams got into a serious difficidty in a matter concerning the State. He was charged before the Star Chamber with reveal- ing secrets, contrary to his oath as Privy Councillor. Laud had his foe at his feet, but instead of taking advantage of this, he went, as he says in his Diary, " five several times on my knees to the King my Master " in order to obtain his pardon.^ A harsh and narrow-minded man, as some have imagined Laud to have been, would certainly not have taken such a tolerant line on the Sunday

1 Laud's Works (Speeches), VI. i. 73.

136 LIFE OF WILIJAM LAUD

question as he did, and countenanced harmless recreations on Sundays after divine service. Laud stood up against a gloomy Puritanism which hated to see people enjoying themselves, just in the same way as in a later age the same Puritan spirit is said to have tabooed fox-hunting, not so much because of the suffer- ing that it caused to the poor fox, as of the enjoyment that it afforded to the sportsmen !

At Oxford, when executing the office of Chancellor of the University and entertaining royalty, the gi-eat Prelate could unbend and "rejoice with them that do re'joice." In like manner, in his correspondence with Strafford, we constantly come across touches of quiet humour, and Heylin was right when he said of him that he was " one that knew as well how to put off the gravity of his place and person, when he saw occasion, as any man living whatsoever." 1 Laud's attitude to the Stage shows the same liberal spirit, in that he desired its reformation, and not, as the Puritans did, its abolition.

Of Laud's position as a theologian much has been already said in tlicsc pages. It now remains to speak of his devotional life. To regard him as merely a great character in the history of the English Church, is to take

1 Heylin, p. 608.

PROMOTES SPIRITUALITY 137

a very imperfect view of his life. The pubHcity to which he was necessarily exposed has doubtless tended to throw the private aspect of Laud's life into the shade, yet that inner life was very real. His well-known book of Devotions reveals what manner of man he was, and even if this work did not exist his Diary and the History of his Troubles afford ample evidence that, in the midst of a round of ceaseless and strenuous public activity, he was a man of prayer, whose life was "hid with Christ in God." No stress of business, or pressure of work interfered with this inner life : seven times a day did he poiu* out his heart to God in those prayers which are preserved to us. In his book of Devotions there is even provision made for the silent hours of the night. We also find intercessions for all manner of persons and for divers occasions — for the Church, the State, the Khig, the sick and others. There are also prayers as to his own faults and shortcomings, especially for the bridling of the tongue ; and above all there are the penitential prayers for the amiiversary of his great fall in solemnizing the " marriage " of the Earl of Devon, to which allusion has already been made. Some of the devotions are taken from ancient sources, and some from the Book of Common Prayer.

138 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

Nearly all are compiled from Holy Scripture. JNIany of the prayers, such as the prayer " for enemies," breatiie the very highest Christian spirit, and show how unjust is the accusation that Laud was of an unforgiving nature. The prayer " for servants " has the touching petition, " ]\Iake me ever willing, and in some measure able to repay unto them the time and the strength which they either have or shall spend to do me service " ^ — another proof of Laud's consideration of his dependents.

Even Heylin, his faithful disciple and biographer, to a great extent overlooks this inner devotional life ; but it was this that supported Laud in his trials and difficulties. The dangers, for instance, which surrounded liim at the Court of Charles I. were con- siderable. Few of those in authority possessed either his single-heartedness, or his probity. Windebank sadly lacked principle, whilst Cottington was a self-seeker. There was also the strong Roman influence, of which the Queen was the leader, with AValter JNIontague, Hamilton and others as her heutenants. Above all the King liimself, who was sincerely devoted to J^aud and justly valued his loyalty, was easily influenced by others, and was not always to be relied upon. Amongst these dangers,

* The Devotions of Abp. Laud, Oxfd. and Loud. 10G4, p. 11.

LAUD AND FERRAR THE YOUNGER 139

some of them beneath the surface, it needed much circumspection to walk, and this could only be done by one who continually relied upon divine grace.

It was also Laud's personal piety which made him labour not merely for an orthodox and a learned clergy, but for a spiritually- minded clergy. That, by God's help, he did raise the tone of the bishops and priests of his day, no one can deny. His influence is to be seen in the lives of such men as Nicholas Ferrar and George Herbert. He himself laid his hands upon Ferrar, ordaining him deacon, and he ever continued to show his interest in and sympathy with the religious house at Little Gidding, where the voice of prayer and praise never ceased. He brouglit the community to the notice of King Charles, who visited it more than once in person. To- wards young Nicholas Ferrar, the nephew of Ferrar, the King showed great kindness, and promised to take upon himself his mainten- ance at Oxford. The story of the interview which young Ferrar had with Laud is pre- served to us. We are told, how, kneeling down, he took the Archbishop's hand in his and kissed it. Then the Archbishop took him in his arms, and " laid his hand on his cheek, and earnestly besought God Almighty to bless

140 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

him and increase all grace in him, and fit him every day more and more for an instrument of His glory here upon earth and a saint in heaven, 'which,' said he, 'is the only hap- piness that can be desired and ought to be our chief end in all our actions. God bless you ! God bless you ! . . . God will provide for you better than your father can. God bless you and keep you ! ' So he parted from his Grace." ^

This took place on Easter Eve. On Easter Day young Nicholas made his communion, took ill of a fever, and a few days after Ascension Day he passed to his rest. This simple narrative written by the sorrowing father of a youth of extraordinary attainments and piety, strikingly brings out the spiritual side of Laud. In the case of George Herbert, it was Laud's earnest entreaties that finally influenced him to become a priest, and to accept tlie cure of souls of Bcmcrton.

Had Archbisliop I^aud's lot been cast in the more peaceful paths in which I^ancelot An- drewes walked, his piety would have stood out still more prominently. But the best proof of the reality of his inner religion is to be sought and found in the closing years of his long life ;

' qu. from a MS. written ])v .Toliii Ferrar, liis father. Nicholas Form; ed. Carter^ Loud, iyit.% i-p. 2yO-:'<JO.

LAUD AND FERRAR THE YOUNGER 141

when, tried as by fire, his cliaracter pre-emin- ently shone forth— a character moulded by constant communion with God, a character purged and sanctified by sufferings, patiently and heroically endured, even unto death. For it was this that enabled him, by the grace of Him Whose he was and Wliom he served, to meet his end with a fortitude which called forth the admiration even of his enemies.

CHAPTER VII

LAUD AND CHRISTIAN REUNION

laud's attitude towards reunion — THE

cardinal's hat MISSIONS OF LEANDER

AND PANZANI — NEGOTIATIONS AVITH WIN-

DEBANK SANCTA CLARA ON THE ARTICLES

— FAILURE OF THE REUNION-PROJECT

It has been said by a great English theologian that " the Reformation cost much. It broke up, at least in the AVestern Church, visible unity, so dear to all Christians who believe that our Lord uttered the intercessory prayer in St. John, and that the Epistle to the Ephesians is the word of God."^ To put it shortly, the much needed reformation, when it did take place, effected a break in the unity of Christendom— the external union between tlie Church of England and the rest of the AVestern Church was broken. By the time of Laud this rent was an accomplished fact :

' Liddon, Univfrsih/ Sermons, " Gro\vtli in tlie apprehension of truth," Loud. 1880, p. 116.

142

ATTITUDE TOWARDS REUNION 143

and, alas I to this day, the familiar words of the psalmist, " Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself," have ceased to express the truth. Yet in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when party-spirit ran high, many a devout soul on both sides must have yearned for a restoration of unity and brotherly love.

We may dismiss from our consideration those men who firmly held it as a dogma that the great Latin Church was the Babylon of the Apocalypse, and that the first bishop in Christendom was the Man of Sin. Such persons regarded the broken unity as a clear gain ; but what was the attitude of William Laud in regard to this great question ? Did he take any practical steps to bring about reunion ?

In the opinion of the present WTiter, some modern biographers of Laud have minimized his attitude in this matter, and have portrayed him as taking but little interest in the cause of Reunion. It is perfectly true that at the beginning of his episcopate there is not much of the reunionist to be seen. Owing to the persistent aggressions of Rome, champions were needed in those days to defend the Anglican position, and to confirm waverers in the English Church ; and one of such

144 LIFE OF AVILLIAM LAUD

champions was Laud. In his controA ersy with Fisher the Jesuit, his sohd learning and his skill in maintaining the Catholic character of the Church of England are remarkable. This was then a more difficult task than it would have been at the present time ; for the un- Catholic teaching and actions of many in the reigns of Edward and Elizabeth had compro- mised the English Church as to her Catholic claims, to an extent of which we ha\'e little conception. The cruelties of the JNIarian persecutions had also the effisct of steadily drawing her towards foreign Protestantism. Even in Laud himself we find traces of this ultra-Protestant influence, and it is not to be wondered at. All this helped to increase the difficulties of his defence of the Catholic position of the Anglican Church. But a few years after his controversy with Fisher, when the English Church began to reap the fruits of the I^audian Ileformation, and when, through the teaching of her great divines and the restored dignity of her worship, a closer resemblance to tlie rest of Catholic Christen- dom was attained — then on both sides there arose yearnings for lleunion, or at least for reconciliation of some kind.

.Tust at tliis time, however, dark and threat- ening clouds were beginning to gather, and

ATTITUDE TOWARDS REUNION 145

the Archbisliop had his hands full in navigating the ship through dangers which abounded on all sides, to say nothing of the fulfilment of his secular and political duties, which, according to the evil custom of those days, were heaped upon great ecclesiastics. Another reason that prevented Laud from entering into the work of Reunion, was the growing anti-Roman feeling of the nation. No man cared less for mere popular sentiment than he did ; his courage in the midst of difficulties was remarkable ; but to have identified himself with those who were actively promoting Reunion might have brought disaster upon his immediate plans. Although the course of events conspired to prevent Laud from acting in favour of reconciliation, yet on the other hand he earnestly deplored a divided Christendom and wished for a restoration of outward union. His attitude towards Roman aggression was defensive rather than offensive. He could protest against those doctrines in which he conceived the Roman Church had departed from primitive and Catholic teaching, but yet he heartily desired and prayed for the reunion of Christians in one fold. His speech at his trial in reference to Panzani has been quoted to show his indiffer- ence to Reunion ; but then, it must be

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146 LIFE OF WILLIAM LAUD

remembered, he was standing as a prisoner at the bar, with the prospect of death before him. The movement m the direction of Reunion to all intents and purposes had failed ; and the English Church herself was in serious danger. It is therefore not sur- prismg that Laud then referred to the movement with some coldness, especially in view of the assiduous attentions of the Papal agents.

The episode of the Cardinal's hat, in Laud's history, is a strange one. It occurs quite suddenly in his Diary. Under Aug. 4, 1633, the very day of Abbot's death, we read — " That very morning at Greenwich there came one to me seriously, and that avowed ability to perform it, and offered me to be a Cardinal : I went presently to the King, and acquainted him botli with the thing and the person."^ A fortnight later, tlie same mysterious personage appeared upon the scene, and repeated the offer. Laud again informed the King, and also reported in his Diary the answer that he made — " Somewhat dwelt within me which would not suffer that, till Rome were other than it is."^

Who was this man who thus approached the archbishop ? was his offer bojid fide ? and was

' Laud's Works (Diary), iii. 210. " Ibid.

THE CARDINAL'S HAT 147

he really able to perform his promise ? A satisfactory answer has never been given to these questions. Was it a genuine move on the part of the Court of Rome to approach the leader of the English Church, and see whether something could not be done to bring back those provinces which were separated into communion with the rest of the Western Church ? Or, was it again an artifice of the Jesuits, the determined foes of Reunion, to discredit the Archbishop in the eyes of the powerful Puritan party, and so to bring disaster upon the reformation and consolidation of a schismatical communion ? No explanation of the affair has yet been given, but Laud's answer in a few words sums up his own atti- tude. His strong and honest belief in the truth of <