land, if of the second generation since their settlement, should be withdrawn from the churches of their parents, and obliged to attend at the church of the parish in which they might happen to reside. The independence of the French and Dutch churches in this kingdom had been repeatedly confirmed since the days of Edward the Sixth, and more recently by James, and even by Charles himself. The strangers belonging to these communions, amounting to several thousand persons, protested loudly against the obtrusive tyranny to which the primate was concerned to subject them. But they were told that their submission in this respect was indispensable, and that the evil of their departure from the kingdom was less to be deplored than that of their being allowed to perpetuate within it a schismatical worship. The archbishop observes subsequently that their resistance had been in part subdued, and flattered himself that he was strengthening the cause of the church of England, while exposing her to the contempt or resentment of every protestant communion in Christendom. When her hour of trial came, her rulers became somewhat aware of their impolicy in this respect, but even then could hardly descend to acknowledge it *.

nies.

Had the archbishop limited his zeal, as the advocate of uniformity, to such matters as law and custom had in some sort established, the disaffection with regard to many of those things, respect to reliDisputes with on account of their Romish origin, was so prevalent and gious ceremopowerful, as to have afforded ample occasion for that exercise of authority which was manifestly so grateful to him. But with the ceremonies of acknowledged obligation, many novelties of his own were associated as of no less authority. These novelties were all of a kind to give more pomp, complexity-in short, a more Romish character to the established ritual. The primate saw in them something of the greatness of his present power, but they were also a principal cause of the fears and disaffection which were daily increasing among the people. It would almost seem to have been the opinion of this powerful churchman, that religious scruples are best subdued by multiplying the causes which produce them, and that the national abhorrence of popery was to be best eradicated by making the nearest possible approach to the domination of papal policy, and the pageantry of papal worship. In his view there was a sort of infallibility inseparable from the possessors of monarchical and priestly power, and resistance in any shape became nothing less than rebellion

* Rushworth, ii. 249-251, 272. Collier, ii. 752, 753, 763–765. Prynne's Cant. Doom. 369. Clarendon, Hist. iii. 664-367. It is Clarendon who informs us that Laud, when told that the English ambassador at Paris had declined going to the protestant church at Charenton, as had been the custom of his predecessors, remarked openly upon it-" he is the wiser." It came indeed to be well understood, that "the church of England," meaning by that expression the men who now ruled it, did not "look on the Hugonots as part of their communion." Ibid. Laud afterwards became a little more modest on this subject, but it was as the Scotch troubles approached. Baillie's Letters, i. 191-194.

and impiety and accordingly he never appears to have doubted either the justice or expediency of employing any amount of illegal force that might be necessary to secure obedience to those powers. Such, indeed, was his fanaticism on these points, that while inflicting the most barbarous penalties on the refractory, his diary presents him to us as supplicating the divine clemency upon the sufferers, and an increase of patience for himself. It may be admitted, that he was in some sort generally conscientious; but his love of power was his ruling passion, and his conscience was of that description, which a little ingenuity and special pleading could satisfy whenever the object to be pursued was one commending itself to his governing feeling. His moral character, including in that his sense of truth and justice, is not to be saved, except at the cost of his understanding; and are we to be always censuring a great people for refusing to become passive in the hands of a man who was so manifestly incompetent to the government of himself?

Disputes respecting the place of the

communion table.

1633.

It was a favourite project with the archbishop to have the communion table removed from the centre to the east end of the church, and to have it distinguished moreover by the name of the altar. Many books were written in support of this change, and others against it, and there were few parishes in the kingdom where it did not occasion litigation or dispute. Many of the clergy and churchwardens described the requisition as contrary to law and reason; but Charles determined the question in person in favour of the primate, and the disobedient found themselves exposed to the displeasure of the spiritual courts, which left them without appeal. To accomplish this change in some churches, it became necessary to take down the galleries, in others to remove ancient monuments; cases of the former description involved expenses which the parishioners were not always well able to bear, and the removal of monuments gave offence to many considerable families, and was much censured as an injury to the dead. The table was now placed two or three steps above the floor of the church, and enclosed with rails. Many persons refused to come up to the rails in receiving the sacrament, and of these several hundred were fined or excommunicated. The whole of this proceeding was an evident violation of the eighty-second canon,

* We find him, while bishop of St. David's, a petitioner to Buckingham for a place in the commission court. "The commission," he observes, "is a place of great experience for any man that is a governor in the church: and I would be loath to be excluded from that which might give me experience, and so enable me to perform my duty. I humbly desire, even against my own ease and quiet, that I may not be deprived of that experience which is necessary for my place." Cabala, 115. When obliged to attempt a justification of his conduct as a churchman, in being a party to the sentence pronounced on Leighton, he said, " to take away the ear is not loss of hearing, and so no member lost: so for burning the face, or whipping, no loss of life or member: "-and thus he persuaded himself that he had not violated the canon which provided that no clergyman should have to do with a sentence affecting life or member.

passed in the convocation of 1603;-a regulation on this subject which neither the primate nor the sovereign had authority to revoke or alter *.

With these innovations, Laud introduced the custom of bowing to the altar, not only in the time of service, but on entering or leaving the church; and all his majesty's chaplains, and even the common people, were enjoined to conform themselves to this practice. The same necessity was laid upon the dean and prebendaries of Canterbury, by a new regulation framed by the primate, and confirmed under the great seal. The people could not look with indifference on this novelty, as they were at a loss to discover its meaning, except as indicating some kind of belief in the real presence, -the practice being unquestionably borrowed from those who held that doctrine.

St. Catharine's
Church.

1630.

The ceremonies used by the archbishop at the consecration of St. Catharine's church afford a striking proof of the excess to Ceremonies which he carried his taste in such matters. About nine used in the consecration of o'clock on Sunday morning the bishop came to the church, followed by a body of civilians, and some members of the high commission court. As he approached the western door, which was shut, and guarded by men with halberts, a signal was given, and a number of voices cried aloud, "Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in!" The doors then flew open, and the bishop, with those in his train, entered. Looking round upon the place, lifting his eyes to heaven, and spreading his arms abroad, he fell upon his knees, and said, "This place is holy; the ground is holy; in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I pronounce it holy." Passing along the middle aisle toward the chancel, he took up some of the dust and threw it several times into the air, and approaching near the communion table, made five or six obeisances before it. He then led the procession round the church, repeating first the hundredth, and then the nineteenth psalms, as prescribed by the Roman pontifical. Several collects were next read, in one of which the Almighty was implored to accept the beautiful building raised for his worship, and the act of consecration was repeated, with prayers that all who should be buried within its walls might rest in their sepulchres in peace until Christ's coming to judgment. The bishop then took his seat under a cloth of state in the aisle of the chancel near the communion table, and from a written book pronounced curses, some twenty in number, upon all who should hereafter profane that holy place by musters of soldiers,

*Rushworth, ii. 207, 300, 316. Prynne's Cant. Doom. 100, 101. The following is the language of the canon of 1603, on this subject :-"We appoint that the table for the celebration of the Holy Communion shall be covered with a fair linen cloth at the time of administration, and shall then be placed in so good sort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer, and the communicants may more conveniently and in more numbers communicate."

carrying burthens through it, or holding within it profane law courts; and at the close of each curse the prelate bowed his head, and repeated the words "Let all the people say Amen!" The curses were followed by blessings, pronounced on all persons who had contributed, or who should in any way contribute, to the use and ornament of the edifice. The sermon followed, and then the sacrament, the cousecration of which was in the following manner:-The bishop made slow advances from the pulpit toward the side of the altar, bowing to it five or six times in the way, and then renewed his prostrations seven times before the covered bread and wine. After reading several prayers, he went nearer to the bread, and slowly lifting the corner of the napkin, looked in upon it, and immediately, as though awe-struck, drew back a pace or two, and bowed again three times, In the next advance he uncovered the bread, but not without several acts of obeisance. He next approached the cup, before which all the acts of the same ceremonial were performed. The bread and the wine being thus duly consecrated, the bishop first received of them; he then gave to those about him, and after some further prayers, the consecration was pronounced to be complete. It was for the sake of such follies that Laud was willing to embitter his own life, and to spread discord and unhappiness through more than one kingdom*.

It is not surprising that a mind so fond of pageantry in religious wor The case of ship should have shown itself favourable to the use of Sherfield. images and pictures. The case of Sherfield, recorder of Sarum, manifested the ardour of the primate's devotion to those favourite instruments of superstition. In the windows of St. Edmund's church at Salisbury were seven pictures of the Almighty in the form of a little old man in a coat of red and blue. In one, this personage appeared adjusting the heavenly bodies by the aid of a pair of compasses; in others, as variously employed on the works of creation; and in the last as resting from his labours in an elbow chair. Many persons on entering and leaving the church were accustomed to bow to these representations with a religious reverence. Sherfield procured a vestry meeting, including six magistrates, and obtained permission to remove the pictures. The recorder, however, was summoned to answer for his conduct in the star-chamber. He defended himself on the ground that St. Edmund's church was a lay fee, and as such not subject in this matter to the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese; that the obnoxious painting contained a false account of the creation, the work of the fifth day being put in the place of the fourth, and the sixth in the place of the fifth. He further maintained, that to make an image or picture of the Almighty was an act condemned by the wisest of the fathers and reformers, by the doctrines and homilies of the church of England, by several canons and injunc

* Rushworth, ii. 76-79.

tions under Elizabeth, and by a multitude of ancient councils. He professed, moreover, a sincere attachment to the church of England, and denied having at any time encouraged opposition to episcopal authority, the present act being that of a vestry meeting, an authority by which much greater changes had been made in St. Edmund's church, without any questioning from its diocesan. Satisfactory as this defence should have been, his conduct was adjudged to be an insult wickedly cast on the episcopal order, and an evil precedent which should by no means go unpunished. He was, in consequence, deprived of his recordership, and sent to the Fleet until he should pay a fine of 5007., and find security for his conduct in future *.

Sherfield, as a common lawyer, was one of a class of men on whom Laud had looked for some time as forming a principal barHostility of rier in the path of his ambition. The civil law was much the ruling more favourable to his views of government generally, and clergy to the particularly to his views as a churchman, than the laws of

common law.

his country: It was for this reason that he prevailed with Charles to appoint that half the masters in chancery should be civilians. This proceeding excited much jealousy and complaint. But the primate did not rest here. In 1637, the business of the ecclesiastical courts began to be conducted in the name of the bishops, in the place of that of the king, and without the usual patent under the great seal; and though much was said and written in censure of this innovation, Charles descended to justify what had been done. At the trial of Bastwick, not only Laud, but several other prelates who were present, declared in plain terms, that their jurisdiction as bishops was not from the king;-an assumption, says a lawyer of the time, that would hardly have passed without censure in the days of Henry the Second, or Edward the Third, and which in the time of Henry the Eighth would have been confuted by some of those "kingly arguments," which that prince so well knew how to use t.

the sabbath.

While the archbishop, by thus treading in the steps of his great predecessor Thomas à Becket, was making himself enemies Controversy among a body of men not easily crushed, various of his respecting the measures were of a nature to extend this feeling to the mass observance of of the people. This was especially the case with respect to his interference about the observance of the sabbath, and on the subject of preaching. The authority of the "Book of Sports," published by the late king, had by this time fallen very low, the name by which it was generally known being that of the "Dancing Book;" and two of the

Rushworth, ii, 153-158. State Trials, iii. 519-562. Hume says that Sherfield broke the window "contrary to the bishop of Salisbury's express injunctions ;" a statement which the authority he cites will be found to contradict.

Whitelocke's Memorials, i. 22. Heylin's Life of Laud, 407. Rushworth, ii. 450, 451.