LAUD, WILLIAM. — Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, born at Reading on 7 October 1573, died beheaded in London on 10 January 1645.
Ordained a minister in 1601, in 1611 he was elected president of St. John College, became 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 order of the King, he held several conferences and conversations with the Jesuit Fr. J. Fisher, of which he left a written account, which Fisher refuted (cf. Sommervogel, III, col. 760). Having been made bishop of Bath and Wells in 1626, he worked effectively to reestablish the doctrine of the 39 Articles. At Buckingham’s death, he and his friend Lord Strafford were the King’s principal advisers, and in that office they incurred hostility because of the severe measures taken against the Puritans and nonconformists. In 1628 he received the bishopric of London, and in 1629 was made chancellor of the University of Oxford. In 1633 he succeeded his enemy, Archbishop Abbot, 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 the bishops to consult entirely with L. for this purpose. When it was completed in 1637 and an attempt was made to impose it, disturbances began, leading 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, L., and the King. L. was accused and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Condemned to death, he obtained with difficulty the commutation of hanging for beheading. Many of his writings are preserved (latest ed. by W. Scott and J. Bliss, 7 vols., Oxford 1847–60), among them his autobiography, containing the astonishing information that before his appointment to the primatial see of England, he had been offered the cardinal’s hat. The biography is followed by the Troubles and tryal, compiled in prison. Several sermons, 200 letters, a summary of devotions, reports on diocesan visitations, and some notes on the Controversies of S. R. Bellarmino are also preserved.