Laud, Wm Abp
Laud, William, Archbishop
ACHIEVEMENTS: Church of England reforms
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: October 7, 1573, Reading, Berkshire, England
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: January 10, 1645, London, England. Aged 71 (executed)
DISCIPLINE: Archbishop
FIELD: Religion
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: William Laud Mother: Lucy Webb
SIBLINGS: None
SPOUSE: None
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: Reading Grammar School; St John's College, Oxford
MAJOR WORK:
LIFE AND TIMES:
At age 20, Laud became a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. He took a further degree in Divinity and was ordained Deacon in the church of England in 1600, at age 27. After becoming a senior fellow of the College, he was appointed to a divinity fellowship and held the main college lectureship in divinity. In 1603, he became chaplain to the Earl of Devonshire.
Laud, who had strong ambitions from the start, became part of a group of clergy who rejected Puritanism, believing that the status quo must be maintained by uniformity of worship and adherence to traditional ritual and ceremony. Members of this group were often labeled as Arminians, after the Dutch theologian Arminius*, who challenged the Calvinist doctrine of predestination.
At 35, Laud entered the service of the Bishop of Rochester. By 1611, Laud was a royal chaplain as well as President of his old college. Among Laud's supporters was Wren*, the architect.
Laud discouraged any signs of Puritanism, which kept the college faction-free, but caused increasing resentment toward him. Believing beauty to be an integral part of worship, he renovated the college chapel, with new stained glass, a painted ceiling, and a sumptuous altar cloth. He also commissioned new anthems from Orlando Gibbons.
When Charles I* succeeded James in 1626, Laud ingratiated himself with the new King, who shared Laud's belief in beauty and ritual in worship. After Laud preached a sermon stating his belief in the divine right of kings, he was invited to officiate at the coronation in place of the Dean of Westminster.
Through the king, Laud increased his own authority by wielding the royal prerogative ruthlessly. His actions also generated opposition, not only to the king, but also to Anglicanism. Laud was appointed privy councillor in 1627, and became the Bishop of London a year later. In 1629, he became Chancellor of Oxford University.
In his London diocese, Laud set about reducing even further the influence of the Puritans. He embellished or restored churches and chapels. He re-instated the wearing of surplices and the custom of bowing at the name of Jesus. He insisted that services strictly follow the Book of Common Prayer, and he kept the communion table partitioned off at the east end of the chancel.
The Puritans were deeply offended by all these actions, interpreting them as the beginning of a return to Catholicism and to Papal authority.
In 1631, the King chose Laud to raise money for the restoration of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Laud threw himself into the project enthusiastically, and was highly successful, but his methods were questionable. He redirected money that was to have been used for the restitution of grievances into the St. Paul's fund. And he freely issued pardons to sinners after they had made large contributions to the fund.
After Laud was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, he became more draconian. He ordered visitations to every diocese and where Puritan practices were found they were rooted out. He set out detailed instructions for the ways in which clergy should behave and how they should conduct their ministries. This weakened the powers of the ordinary clergy and strengthened the central authority vested in his own office. Since preaching was a part of Puritan belief that Laud judged subversive, he discouraged it and tried to keep it under his control.
His censorship extended also to the printed word, and Puritan writers such as William Prynne were imprisoned and tortured. Not only did he control academic and religious life, but he also tried to influence social policies through his position in the Privy Council.
In 1635, Laud was appointed to the commission of the treasury and became a member of the Privy Council committee on foreign affairs. He saw that the Irish clergy was in need of reform and he approved the appointment of Ussher*, a scholarly and devout Protestant, as Archbishop of Ireland, even though Laud was aware that Ussher did not share all his views.
Laud joined the King's campaign to help stamp out the Puritan element in Scotland. But when the King tried to introduce the new standard English liturgy in the Scottish church, he made enemies of the Covenanters, who were the upholders of Presbyterianism. Because Laud was so publicly identified with King Charles, he too became a target of Scottish hostility.
In 1640, the first Parliament in 11 years was called, as was a clerical convention at which Laud lay down a new set of rules for uniformity of worship. The language he used was inflammatory. He upheld the divine right of kings, and equated resistance to the King with resistance to God.
Puritans saw Laud as favoring royal absolutism. The people at large saw him as responsible for much of what they hated about the King. In 1640 Parliament impeached Laud, and in 1641, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Parliament, however, could find no evidence that Laud had ever discussed reconciliation with Rome (which alone would have been sufficient to convict him). Laud was kept confined but not regarded as a threat by the Parliamentarians. He resigned as Chancellor of Oxford university in 1641. In 1642, he was deprived of his clerical patronage.
In late 1643, the English Parliament voted to accept the Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots Presbyterians. Radical elements in the House of Commons were bitter against Laud for his past slights and they also felt executing him would detract attention from the signing of the Covenant, which was not popular in England. Charles reluctantly signed his death warrant, an act that plagued his conscience to the end of his days.
In March, 1644, Laud's trial began. The prosecution found it had no treasonable case to present, but in January, 1645, Parliament agreed that Laud's crimes were covered by a medieval statute defining treason. Two days before he was executed, Parliament abolished the Book of Common Prayer that he had revised.
ASSESSMENT: His reforms were a genuine attempt to strengthen the Church of England and improve the quality of the clergy. His insensitivity in promoting reforms and his insistence on linking their acceptance with the divine right of kings alienated people of every class.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: John Durie* appealed to him unsuccessfully for help in his work.
He employed Inigo Jones* on St Paul’s.
Radical Hartlib* was witness against him in Parliamentary inquiry.
He was opposed by Milton* and Archibald Napier* who disapproved of his book of prayer in Scotland, and Selden* who was against his attempts at censorship.
He knew Prince Rupert*
ONELINER: William Laud, executed Archbishop of Canterbury
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Carlton, Charles, Archbishop William Laud, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London and New York, 1987