teaches the same lesson as a melancholy instance of one with fair talents, learning and correctness of principle, rendering them all nugatory by a headstrong and intemperate zeal. In the meantime, however, the year 1605 had been marked by an event which deeply stained Laud's character. His patron at this period was Charles, Lord Mountjoy, the Earl of Devonshire, a nobleman high in favor with James I. Laud was induced to solemnize the marriage of the Earl to the Lady Penelope Devereux, with whom he had previously been guilty of an intrigue, which had caused her divorce from her former husband, Lord Rich. His object by this union was, to give legitimacy to the children of their criminal intercourse. But disastrous indeed was the result to all concerned. The earl died within a year through grief at the anger and alienation of the king, "leaving the partner of his frailty to a sorrowful and unhonored widowhood."* Laud was overwhelmed with shame when he found that he had exposed himself to the displeasure of the king and the upbraidings of his enemies. Many years afterwards when James was asked to create him bishop, his answer was-"was there not a certain lady who forsook her husband and married a lord that was her paramour? Who knit that knot? Shall I make a man a prelate, one of the angels of my Church, who hath a flagrant crime upon him?" Laud himself ever afterwards observed the anniversary of that day as a penitential fast, while the very prayer which he composed reveals the fact, that he committed this error in opposition to the light of conscience. "Behold," he writes in his Diary-"I am become a reproach to thy holy name, by serving my ambition, and the sins of others; which, though I did it by the persuasion of other men, yet my own conscience did check and upbraid me in it."‡ It was not until his thirty-fourth year that Laud left the university, and entered upon his duty as a parish priest. Mr. Le Bas informs us, that "of the life and habits of Laud as a parochial clergyman scarcely any notice has been preserved." We can well believe this, for with such marvellous celerity did he change his residence,- having five livings in less than four years-that he could scarcely have entered * Le Bas, p. 11. + Hackett's Life of Williams, Pt. i., p. 63. + Prayer for St. Stephen's Day. § 1607, Vicarage of Stamford; 1608, living of North Kelworth; 1609, living of West Tilbury; 1610, May - living of Cuckstone; 1610, November-living of Norton. 1842.] Quarrels with Bishop Williams. 265 on his duties in one, before he was removed to another. From this time, (under the patronage of Bishop Neile,) his rise was gradual though slow, gaining a stall in one place, a prebendship in another, an archdeaconry in another, and a deanery in a fourth, until in 1621 he was elevated to a bishopric in the see of St. David's. For this last promotion, he was indebted, we are informed by Mr. Le Bas, to "the friendly recommendation of the Marquis of Buckingham and of Bishop Williams." What sympathy could have existed between that infamous courtier Buckingham, and the future archbishop, we cannot imagine. King James himself seems to have had some little doubt of the fitness of Laud for a bishopric. Hackett, in his life of Bishop Williams, relates a conversation which that prelate had with James, in which he urged Laud's claims to the mitre, and the king as strenuously argued against them. At last, wearied out, we are told the king said "Then take him to you; but, on my soul, you will repent it!' and so went away in anger, using other words of fierce and ominous import, too tart to be repeated."* Laud was however consecrated, and took his place in the house of peers. The remainder of the reign of James offers but little for our notice, except that Laud gathered a new cloud of suspicion about him, by being known as the confidant of Buckingham, in his mad expedition with Prince Charles into Spain, to obtain for the latter a princess of the royal family. Of course, the whole protestant zeal of the kingdom was arrayed ainst this popish match, and the prayer which the bishop at this time recorded in his diary, that "the way might be cleared before them, in their great adventure," was afterwards quoted against him on his trial as a petition most hostile to the welfare of the kingdom.t At this time too, he quarrelled with his old patron, Bishop Williams, because they were rival claimants for the grace of the immaculate Buckingham.‡ "It must be allowed," Mr. Le Bas well observes, "that *Hackett's Life of Williams, Pt. i., p. 64. + Prynne, Breviat., p. 14, Heylin, p. 107. Mr. Le Bas (p. 63) suggests another reason for their alienation - their difference of views respecting the non-conformists. Laud thought they should be entirely suppressed. Williams, on the contrary, believed "they might be rendered comparatively innocuous, by gentle and persuasive treatment." If so, it is a question whether Williams was not right. Laud certainly failed through life in his plan. That of Williams might possibly have succeeded. NO. XX-VOL. X. 34 the whole affair has too much the aspect of a jealous competition between two courtiers, for the favour of a great man." At length in 1625 King James died, leaving to his ill-fated successor, a beleaguered throne and Church. We pass rapidly also over the early part of the reign of Charles, merely observing that honors now began to thicken upon Laud, as (through the influence of Buckingham) the power of his rival Williams declined.* He was appointed to attend his majesty, as clerk of the closet; in the same year, created Bishop of Bath and Wells; and in 1628, translated to the see of London. From this time he became the confidential adviser of the king, and was more than ever held answerable for every false step made by that unfortunate monarch. Meanwhile, political troubles increased, as one parliament after another was dissolved, and its members. returned dissatisfied to their homes, to nurse up, in every county of England, the growing indignation of their constituents. It is at this period that Clarendon commences his magnificent work, the "History of the Rebellion," and as a most decided adherent of the royal cause, and a friend of Laud, we may feel safe in quoting his authority when necessary. We may rest assured, that the noble historian would never speak too unfavorably of one who, in those perilous times, bore with himself "the heat and burden of the day." Bishop Warburton, too, has written notes upon Clarendon, some of which would hardly be expected from the author of the Alliance, and we surely cannot be accused of injustice if we also quote occasionally the opinions of this staunch churchman. It is, however, in the next few years that we see in Laud many things which set forth his character in a brighter light. His plans of reform were often judicious. He labored to restore the dilapidated churches and cathedrals, particularly St. Paul's, to their former beauty, that they might be rendered more worthy of Him to whom they were dedicated. In the Harl. MSS., 7000, No. 102, is a letter written to Buckingham by Williams, when the latter was in disgrace, yet wished to be called to officiate at the coronation. Is it not enough almost to make one turn Puritan, to find a bishop of the Church thus addressing that licentious profligate:- "I do humbly beseech your Grace, to crown so many of your Grace's former favors, and to revive a creature of your own, struck dead only by your displeasure, by bringing me to kiss his majesty's hand, with whom I took leave in no displeasure at all. I never was brought into the presence of a king, by any saint besides yourself. Turn me not over, most noble lord, to offer my prayers at any other "allars!" etc., etc. 1842.] Attempt to establish Conformity in Scotland. 267 "His spirit in him strove To cleanse and set in beauty free The ancient shrines, mindful of Him whose love He endeavored to produce uniformity in the performance of the service, and where greater interests were not sacrificed in the attempt, his efforts surely were praiseworthy. The practice (which prevails to this day in the Church of England) was again revived, of requiring a title from candidates before receiving Holy Orders, in other words, that they should not be ordained without some specific appointinent in the Church, which would ensure them a maintenance. This salutary rule gradually removed from the Church those who could not provide a regular support, and, (to use the words of Heylin,) "from henceforth we hear but little of such vagrant ministers, and trencher-chaplains, (the old brood being once worn out,) as had heretofore pestered and annoyed the Church." Of literature, too, he was ever the generous patron, and the University of Oxford shared most largely in his liberality.‡ Thus his life passed on, possessing indeed extensive power, yet at the same time learning the sorrows and perils of greatness, and discovering but too truly, that a mitre may sometimes cover an aching brow. In 1633 he was summoned to attend the king in his expedition into Scotland. Fifteen years before he had accompanied James in a similar journey, when that monarch in vain attempted to introduce conformity in religion into his Scottish dominions, and he was now doomed to see the same failure on the part of his ill-fated son. spirit of opposition to the Southern Church, as it was called, was stern and unyielding; and any one not smitten with utter blindness to the signs of the times, would have hesitated to embark in an enterprise which bid fair to be so inauspicious. He must indeed have been laboring under a species The The Cathedral, by Rev. Isaac Williams. On this subject nothing can be more just than the view taken by Laud, as shown by a passage of his speech before the bar of the House of Lords. "Ever since I came in place, I have labored nothing more than that the external public worship of God, so much slighted in divers parts of this kingdom, might be preserved, and that with as much decency and uniformity as might be. For I evidently saw that the public neglect of God's service in the outward face of it, and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that service, had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward worship of God, which, while we live in the body, needs external helps, and all little enough to keep it in any vigor." + Heylin, p. 255. Le Bas's Life, pp. 213, 214. of insanity, who at this period, looking at the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, remembering their history, and seeing their violent prejudices, could have dreamed of forcing them all into a perfect uniformity. Yet here, as usual, Laud never paused. As Bishop Warburton well says, "he and the king encouraged and inflamed one another in their ill-timed and indiscreet zeal." The attempt was made, and its only effect was, to rouse up the elements which, ere long, were to burst forth into civil war. Bishops were appointed to the different sees, and, to the great indignation of the nobility, these prelates, (as in the old Romish days,) were invested with the highest civil offices of the kingdom. And thus the king left Scotland, followed by the suspicions and dislike of his northern subjects, whom he was to meet no more until they were arrayed in arms against him. Thus baneful in this instance were the counsels of Laud, when, according to custom, he listened only to the promptings of his own intemperate zeal. The return to London beheld Laud elevated to the highest point of ecclesiastical greatness. Archbishop Abbot had just died, and he was nominated for his successor. Through his influence his old friend Dr. Juxon was selected to fi' the vacancy in the diocese of London, and also appointed lord treasurer of the kingdom.* As Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and a member of the Privy Council, Laud stood in importance next to the throne. Yet the years of his greatness were to be few, and even these, clouded as they were with sorrow, were to be the precursors of a fearful fall. The storm which for a long while had been slowly gathering, was now rapidly darkening the horizon, and as men gazed upon it, "their hearts failed them for fear, and for looking after those things which were coming on the earth." Deep was calling unto deep, and on every side were the signs of the gathering strife. The least discerning could perceive that the conflict between two great principles was drawing on, and that soon it would be brought to open issue. The two parties which divided the kingdom were assuming definite forms, and the names of cavalier and roundhead began to have a meaning and significance, which they will Clarendon describes the storm which was raised among the nobility by this appointment to a civil office, vol. i., p. 177. this occasion," adds Bishop Warburton, sonable." "The resentment of the nobility on was surely most legitimate and rea |