Home > William Laud

On April 5, 1601, he entered the church, and his Catholic tendencies, combined with his intellectual and organisational brilliance, soon made him a name. At that time, the Calvinist party was strong in the Church, and Laud's affirmation of the Apostolic succession was unpopular in many quarters. In 1605Events April 13 Tsar Boris Godunow dies Feodor II accedes to the throne May 16 Paul V becomes Pope June 1 Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother. They are later executed June 20 Pretender Dmitri and his supporters march to Moscow July, somewhat against his will, he obliged his patron, Charles Blount, earl of Devonshire, by performing his marriage service--to a divorcée.

He continued to rise through the ranks, becoming Bishop of St David'sSt David's ( Welsh: Tyddewi is the smallest city in the United Kingdom, with a population of under 2,000 people. It lies on on the River Alun, on Saint David's peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The city is built around Saint David's Cathedral, which in t in 1622Events January 1 In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of March 25. February 8 King James I of England disbands the English Parliament. March 22 In the Jamestown massacre, Algonquian Indians kill 347 Englis, Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1626Events September 30 Nurhaci , chieftain of the Jurchens and founder of the Qing Dynasty dies and is succeeded by his son Hong Taiji. Spanish establish a trading colony on Taiwan. Peter Minuit, director of the New Netherland colony, begins a policy of "pur, and Bishop of LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri in 1628. Thanks to patrons who included George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and the king himself, he reached the highest position the church had to offer in 1633. At the same time, he was prominent in government, taking the king's line and that of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford in all important matters.

Laud was a sincere Anglican and loyal Englishman, who must have been frustrated at the charges of Popery levelled against him by the Puritan element in the Church. Whereas Strafford saw the political dangers of Puritanism, Laud saw the threat to the episcopacy. But the Puritans themselves felt threatened; the Counter-Reformation was succeeding abroad, and the Thirty Years War was not progressing to the advantage of the Protestants. It was inevitable that in this climate, Laud's aggressive high church policy was seen as a sinister development.

Laud's policy was influenced by another aspect of his character: his desire to impose total uniformity on the Church. This, too, was driven by a sincere belief that this was the duty of his office, but to those of even slightly differing views it came as persecution. Perhaps this had the unintended consequence of garnerning support for the most implacable opponents of the Anglican compromise. In 1637, William Prynne and two others were sentenced to mutilation (removal of ears and branding on both cheeks) for the crime of seditious libel.

His intolerance towards the Presbyterians extended to Scotland where it led to the Covenanter movement and the Bishops' Wars. The Long Parliament of 1640 accused him of treason, resulting in his imprisonment in the Tower of London, where he remained throughout the early stages of the English Civil War. In the spring of 1644 he was brought to trial, but it ended without being able to reach a verdict. The parliament took up the issue, and eventually passed a Bill of attainder under which he was beheaded on January 10, 1645 on Tower Hill.