LAUD, WILLIAM. - Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, b. at Reading on 7 Oct. 1573, d. by beheading in London on 10 Jan. 1645.
Ordained a minister in 1601, he was elected president of St. John’s College in 1611, chaplain to James I, and, some years later, dean of Gloucester, where he devoted himself to restoring Anglican worship and doctrine. In 1621 he was appointed bishop of St. David’s, a diocese which he visited with great diligence. By command of the king he held several conferences and discussions with Fr. John Fisher, S.J., leaving an account of them which Fisher refuted (cf. Sommervogel, III, col. 76). In 1626 he became bishop of Bath and Wells and worked effectively to restore the doctrine of the 39 Articles. After the death of Buckingham, he and his friend Lord Strafford became the king’s chief counsellors, and in this role incurred hatred for the severe measures taken against Puritans and nonconformists. In 1628 he received the see of London, and in 1629 was made chancellor of the University of Oxford. In 1633 he succeeded his opponent, Archbishop Abbott, in the primatial see of Canterbury, and in the same year accompanied the king of Scotland for his coronation. On this occasion Charles I ordered that a new Prayer Book be compiled for the Scottish Church and wished that the bishops should fully cooperate with Laud for this purpose. When the book was completed in 1637 and an attempt was made to impose it, disturbances began which led to the formation of the Covenant, by which the Scots swore to defend their form of religion against any imposition. In 1640 the English Parliament declared itself opposed to the policy of Lord Strafford, Laud, and the king. Laud was accused and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Condemned to death, he barely obtained a change from hanging to beheading.
Many of his writings survive (latest ed. by W. Scott and J. Bliss, 7 vols., Oxford 1847–60), including his autobiography, which contains the extraordinary claim that before his elevation to the primatial see of England he had been offered the red hat of a cardinal. Following the biography are the Troubles and Tryal, compiled in prison. Also preserved are several sermons, 200 letters, a manual of devotions, reports on diocesan visitations, and some notes on the Controversies of St. Robert Bellarmine.