unsparing hand. He had not the perception to see that the machinery was obsolete. When the cruel sentence on Leighton, the Scottish maintainer of the Divine right of Presbyterianism, was passed in the Star Chamber, it is related that Laud took off his cap and gave thanks to God, who had given him the victory over his enemies. In the Court of High Commission he was incessantly active. It was the cruelty of the sentences of these Courts that more than anything else raised popular fury against him. The rest of the facts of his career are soon told. In 1631 he consecrated the church of St. Catherine Cree, in London, where by his bowings and ritual he needlessly offended the Puritans who abounded in the city. In 1633 he was made Archbishop of Canterbury. He believed that he had been offered a Cardinal's hat from Rome; but, at any rate, the offer was private.

In 1633 he further checked Puritanism by getting the King to write to the Bishops against ordaining except to a cure of souls, with a view of stopping the Puritan lectureships. He also obtained a decision from Charles that no Holy Table must be moved into the body of the chancel without leave of the Ordinary.

He rated Chief-Justice Richardson for interfering with the Somerset wakes, and warmly approved of the republication of the Book of Sports.

In 1635 he was placed on the Committee of the Treasury and that for Foreign Affairs. "His dealings with temporal matters were not successful. . . . All opposition he took as a personal slight."

From 1634 to 1637 Laud held a metropolitical visitation of the whole province of Canterbury. His Vicar-General, Sir Nathaniel Brent, went from diocese to diocese enforcing conformity. There were many abuses and irregularities to be corrected; but this rigid imposition of one standard hastened the disruption and overthrow of the Church. Much of this was regarded as a deliberate return towards Rome. From 1634 to 1636 the presence of the Pope's representative in England, Panzani, encouraged the idea. Laud knew that Rome would only accept absolute submission; but his distinction was not appreciated by the country.

In 1636 Charles, at the suggestion of Laud, made Juxon, Bishop of London, Lord Treasurer. "No Churchman," wrote Laud, "had it since

Henry VIII's time. I pray God bless him to carry it so that the Church may have honour and the King and the State service and contentment by it; and now, if the Church will not hold up themselves, under God, I can do no more." Such a policy made the Church in the eyes of the people a "kingdom of this world," exacting punishment, rather than a helper in a godly life.

In the same year the Privy Council acknowledged his right to his right to visit the visit the Universities. Oxford was already submissive; he could now rule Cambridge.1

The final explosion, after multiplied attacks by the representatives of the old non-sacerdotal Reformation principles, took place over the King's attempts to enforce new Canons and a new Prayer Book on the Scottish Church. Laud had already said that the course taken in Scotland seemed to him not a Reformation but a Deformation; and when the new system was sent down it was understood to be animated by his spirit, if not his own work.

1 In 1633 he was elected Chancellor of Dublin University where he also provided new statutes. Through Strafford he exercised a vigorous personal influence over the Irish Church.

Everywhere he was held up as the real author of the Scottish troubles, which ended in the final alienation of the Scottish people from Episcopacy. He was a vehement supporter of his friend Strafford in the second war with Scotland.

In 1640, as Convocation was was still sitting, though Parliament had been dissolved, Laud passed through Convocation those abortive Canons which endeavoured to enforce the Divine right of kings, and to impose upon the many the religion of the few. The oath of obedience to these Canons, which was rendered ambiguous by the words et cetera after the specification of the governors of the Church, was met with inextinguishable ridicule, and was stopped by Charles himself.

Laud was now by common consent treated as the source of those evils in Church and State of which Strafford was regarded as the most vigorous defender. Libellers assailed him, and mobs called for his punishment. As the summer of 1640 passed away, he saw the ground slipping from beneath his feet by the miscarriage of the King's efforts to provide an army capable of defying the Scots. On November 3rd the Long Parliament met.

On

December 18th the Commons impeached Laud of treason. He was placed in confinement, and on February 24th, 1641, articles of impeachment were voted against him. On March 1st he was committed to the Tower." His trial was a foregone conclusion, and after a long and weary imprisonment he was beheaded on Tower Hill on January 10th, 1645. No part of his life became him better than the ending of it. He died with courage and dignity, and upheld in a touching speech, as he was well able and entitled to do, his absolute integrity and sincerity in all the mistaken policy which brought about his downfall.

Laud's tragedy illustrates by way of contrast three principles: 1. " My kingdom is not of this world"; 2. The words of our Lord and His Apostles are of more theological importance than the whole mass of patristic comments and traditions; 3. "Be not many masters": "Domineer not over God's heritage."