William Laud. Constitution of England. CHAPTER XXXV. WILLIAM LAUD A STATESMAN. Laud as a Statesman.-The Caroline divines.-State of matters at Oxford.-Reform in the election of Proctors.-Reform of the University statutes.-Laud, Chancellor of Oxford.-His benefactions to his College and the University.-The royal declaration appended to the Thirty-nine Articles.-Petition of the puritans.-The case of the Feoffees.-Measures of conciliation.-Attitude of the House of Commons.-Attacks upon Laud.-His illness.-He devises measures for correcting abuses in the Church.-Royal instructions.-Controversial preaching forbidden.-Bishop Davenant's troubles.-Itinerant lecturers suppressed.-Violent preaching at Oxford.-The many projects of Laud.-Restoration of St. Paul's Cathedral.-Controversies at Oxford.-Proceedings in the Star Chamber.-The case of Leighton.And of Prynne.-Changes in the Bishoprics.-The painted window at Salisbury. The foreign chaplaincies.-Royal visit to Scotland.Death of Archbishop Abbot. CHAP. By the death of Buckingham, a great change took place XXXV. in the social position and the history of Laud. The King determined to make him his adviser, counsellor, and friend. 1633-45. Henceforth Laud is to be regarded in his character as a statesman. The general opinion is that Laud represented a party in the Church, and that for upholding his party he was ready to make almost any sacrifice. Such was certainly not the case. Laud's object was plain and simple; it was to enforce the law, as the law then existed, whether in civil affairs or in ecclesiastical. What does the law require was his question to enforce what the law required was his determination. He was homo unius sententiæ. We may condemn him certainly as a most unwise minister, as one wanting in the sagacity to perceive that a modi XXXV. William Laud. fication of the existing constitution was required by the CHAP. exigencies of the age in which he lived; but although he may thus be justly exposed to censure by politicians, we ought not to forget that the office of sole minister of the 1633-45. Crown had been thrust upon him; and that he thought that he was acting as a conservative patriot, when he stood opposed to those who in effecting innovations in Church and State, are in these days justly regarded as laying the foundations of English liberty. Laud felt it to be his duty to preserve the constitution as he found it. He did not deny that it required reform, but thought that all reform should emanate from the throne. He regarded all attempts at reform from without, as an indication of insubordination, if not an act of treason. Why should he be wiser than James I.? James, enraged by the legal independence of Sir Edward Coke, declared it to be treason to affirm that the king was under the law. We may credit Laud with greater wisdom than this; but he subscribed to the dictum of Bracton, "Rex non debet esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et Lege." "A large margin is here implied; and the whole controversy, during the early part of Charles's reign, was involved in the sense in which the affirmation was to be understood. Living as we do under the blessings of a constitution which, through a variety of revolutions, some open and avowed, and some conducted by a succession of scarcely perceptible events, has become a model to foreign nations when struggling for their freedom, it is very difficult to place ourselves, in our imaginations, in the position of a statesman of the seventeenth century. While among the statesmen there were some who considered the monarchical government, in itself, a grievance, there were others who, acting as conservatives, determined to contend for * 12 Coke, 63. XXXV. Laud. the last. CHAP. the royal prerogative, and to support the royal power to Instead of making generous concessions to William the wishes of the people, and anticipating their desires, 1633-45. this party only yielded to outward pressure. By first resisting and then complying they were continually inviting further opposition; they saw the weakness of the Crown, and began to suspect the sincerity of the king. The Kings of Spain and of France were despotic, and Charles thought it reflected disgrace upon the King of England if he were less powerful than they. His patriotism led him to place England on the same footing as foreign countries, while his people thought first of establishing their own rights. Laud as a statesman. While we censure Laud for a want of foresight and of forethought, as a statesman-and a statesman's education he had not received-justice ought to be done to his administration. He accepted the constitution as he found it. He regarded the will of the king to be law, except when it was limited by Magna Charta, or by acts of parliament. He regarded the acts of parliament merely as concessions made from time to time by the Crown. The parliament was looked upon as a council to be consulted, but not to legislate; to grant subsidies, but not to control their expenditure. No one can read the history of Henry VIII. and of Queen Elizabeth, without seeing that their notion of parliament was little removed from that of a great squire in regard to a parish vestry. The vestry was to vote the rate, and then to submit to the great man's commands. Until the reign of Charles I. the notion of parliament was that it was an institution to tax the subject; and not to suggest measures, but to consider what the Crown might offer for discussion or debate. To volunteer an address on the part of parliament was, in the time of the Tudors, resented by the sovereign as an insult. Even in the matter of raising money, although it CHAP. XXXV. was admitted that direct taxation depended upon the will of parliament, there were other means of raising money which, though more than questionable, and after a time William denounced by the patriots, were at first regarded as legitimate. Ample justice is done to the short reign of Oliver Cromwell, for the prosperity to which he, in a brief space of time, raised the country; let equal justice be done to Laud. His success, before the triumph of faction, was brilliant. Commerce was extended, and the foundation. was laid of that commercial aristocracy for which the north of England is still celebrated. Fresh land was brought under cultivation, and, through an increase of rent, yeomen had grown into gentlemen. The abodes of nobles vied in splendour with the palaces of ancient kings. "Invested," says M. Guizot, "as to civil affairs, with a less extended and less concentrated authority than that of Strafford in Ireland, and less able than his friend, Laud did not fail to pursue the same (reforming) line of conduct. As Commissioner of the Treasury, he not only repressed all pilferings and illegitimate expenditure, but applied himself to the thorough understanding of the various branches of the public revenue, and to the finding out by what means its collection could be rendered less onerous to the subject. Vexatious impediments, grave abuses, had been introduced into the administration of the customs duties, for the profit of private interests. Laud listened to the complaints and representations of merchants; employed his leisure in conversing with them, informed himself by degrees as to the general interests of commerce, and freed it from trammels which had materially injured it, without any advantage to the exchequer. In March, 1636, the office of High Treasurer was given, on his recommendation, to Juxon, Bishop of London, a laborious, moderate-minded man, Laud. 1633-45. СНАР. XXXV. William Laud. who put an end to numberless disorders which had alike been injurious to the Crown and to the citizens. To serve, as he fancied, the king and the Church, Laud was 1633-45. capable of oppressing the people, of giving the most iniquitous advice: but where neither king nor Church was in question, he aimed at good, at truth, and upheld them without fear as to himself; without the slightest consideration for other interests."* Church affairs. for the The statesmen who surrounded Charles might fairly contrast the prosperous state of England with the ruin and bloodshed of the Continent. Anyone might be ex cused for being incredulous, if it were stated that beneath the pastures of peace and plenty a volcano was about to burst, which would render England,-though ultimately restored to prosperity—for a long season, a bye-word among the nations, for misery, crime, and civil war. In Church matters, Strafford, co-operating with Laud, had compelled Ireland to bend to the sovereign will, and to conform to the Church. Even Scotland, the future source of the miseries of the country, at first seemed calm, and the king and Laud, warned by the vacillations of James and Abbot, thought that only time and firmness of purpose were wanted to make the three kingdoms His work obedient to the Church. That firmness which had enabled Laud to work a reformation in the cathedral church of Gloucester; that energy by which he had removed or abated so many abuses in his first diocese of St. David's, characterised also his action as Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury. When primate, he received reports every year from the bishops of his province, and they were, generally speaking, of a satisfactory character. The ecclesiastical fabrics were restored, and the bishops, if too eager to increase their revenues, nevertheless ex Church. * Guizot's History of English Revolution, p. 40. |