types of God's gifts, money for the poor, prayers, ourselves; but when Laud spoke of "three sacrifices: one by the priest only; that is the commemorative sacrifice of Christ's death, represented in bread broken and wine poured out," his language appeared to his contemporaries as nearly akin to that of the Council of Trent. Laud had no theological acumen; his doctrinal writings contain many contradictions and ambiguities; and it is probable that he himself was not aware how contrary to the spirit of the Reformation, " Popish," or "Romish," these and other like statements of his would appear. In the same way, to a Church which had been accustomed to be on intimate terms of friendship with the Reformed non-episcopalian Churches of the Continent, which Abbot had delighted by insisting that the Albigenses, the Waldenses, and the like were the truest representatives of Christ's Body, and which considered itself as alien to Rome and akin to the Reformed Churches in all matters except episcopal government (which was in the eyes of all English theologians since the Reformation a matter of the bene esse, not of the esse of a Church), Laud's doctrine of Episcopacy as an exclusive essential seemed a retrogressive step

to the Romish days from Augustine to Warham. It is necessary to state these contrasts in order to understand the extraordinary opposition which Laud's opinions, which are now very common in the Church, excited in his own day.

Laud was ordained Deacon on January 4th, 1601, and Presbyter on April 5th the same year. In 1603 he became Proctor, and also Chaplain to Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire. In 1605 he married his patron to the wife of Lord Rich, with whom Lord Devonshire had previously committed adultery--a compliance for which he was afterwards bitterly penitent.

At Oxford he won the reputation of being "a very confident and busy person." As early as 1604, in a thesis for the degree of B.D., he maintained that there could be no true Church without diocesan Bishops, and was reproved by the presiding Professor. In 1606 a University sermon was thought by the Vice-Chancellor to contain popish opinions. In 1607 his desire for preferment began to be gratified; he became Vicar of Stanford, Northamptonshire; in 1608 D.D. and Chaplain to Bishop Neile ; and on September 17th that year he preached before James I. at Theobald's. In 1610 he

resigned his Fellowship on being presented by Bishop Neile to the rectory of Cuxton, Kent.

On May 10th, 1614, he was elected President of St. John's. The election was disputed ; King James heard the parties, and decided for its validity on the ground that the alleged irregularity had been unintentional.

In 1614 he was attacked in the University pulpit by Dr. Robert Abbot, brother of the Primate, for a sermon declaring that Presbyterians were as bad as Papists. In the same year Bishop Neile made him Prebendary of Buckden in Lincoln Cathedral, and in 1615 Archdeacon of Huntingdon. In 1616 King James appointed him to the deanery of

Gloucester.

It was not only in principles but in methods that Laud offended the men of his time. At Gloucester Cathedral the rubric ordering the Holy Table to be in the middle of the chancel was strictly observed, and the aged Bishop, Miles Smith, learned and strongly Protestant approved the custom. In most cathedrals and in the King's chapels the Table was still at the east. Laud persuaded the Chapter to remove the Table eastwards, but took no pains to explain and recommend his action in public.

"If he had authority on his side, he considered it unnecessary even to attempt to win over by persuasion those who differed from him."

In 1617 he needlessly made another unfortunate impression; he wore a surplice at the funeral of a guardsman when staying with James in Scotland. In 1621 he became Pre

bendary of Westminster; the same year James, a shrewd observer of character, reluctantly yielded to the entreaties of Charles and the favourite Buckingham, and made him Bishop of St. David's. Although allowed to keep his Headship, he conscientiously resigned it. It is characteristic of his uncompromising temper that he refused to allow the Primate Abbot to take part in his consecration, as he had accidentally shot a keeper.

The year 1622 was marked by the controversy with Father Percy (Fisher the Jesuit), undertaken at the request of James on behalf of Buckingham's mother. The subject was the Infallibility of the Church. Laud was induced by his desire to escape from the trammels of Calvinistic dogmatism to take up a wider and nobler position. In what he himself believed he was as arbitrary as any Calvinist; but the only way out of Calvinistic influence was by

adopting a position of greater width.

He argued that not all points defined by the Church are fundamental; limited as far as possible the domain and extent of soul-saving faith; and urged that the foundations of the faith are the Scriptures and the Creeds. In case of doubt about the meaning of the Articles, or superstructures upon them-(" which are doctrines about the faith, not the faith itself, unless when they be immediate consequences ")-then, both in and of these, a lawful and free General Council, determining according to Scripture, is the best judge on earth.

In the next month after the Conference Laud became Confessor to the Duke of Buckingham, ever afterwards holding him in extraordinary affection.

This year for the first time Laud spent a month in his diocese. He ordered the erection of a chapel at the Bishop's house at Abergwili, and presented it with rich communion plate.

On March 27th, 1625, James died, and with the reign of Charles, sacerdotalist and autocrat, Laud's real power began. It lasted fifteen years, and seldom has so short a period been fraught with consequences so momentous or results so permanent. It was Laud's unhappy