ARCHBISHOP LAUD.

Five Archbishops of Canterbury have been connected with Gray's Inn, one of whom was the celebrated Laud, Primate of England in 1633, temp. Charles I.; a man as much loved in domestic and private life for his kindness, charity, and tenderness, as he was feared, and indeed hated, as a Churchman and as a statesman, both on account of the rigid intolerance of his religious opinions, and from the uncompromising tenacity with which he strove to enforce every right to which he considered the Church entitled.

Unhappily, this unbending austerity, far from assisting, did but injure the cause he endeavoured to serve, and his zeal was so ill directed, that it eventually brought his head to the block, and was one great cause of the civil and religious war that for so many years desolated this land.

Animated as he was by the religious fervour of the times, Laud was inflexible in his resolution of forcing upon all men the adoption of principles he believed to be right. Even the fatal examples of previous reigns had not taught him that one of the noblest attributes of Christianity is forbearance. Great as was his pride, stern and severe as were his judgments, yet in many respects the Archbishop was a man to be much respected, even much loved. He considered that his pride as a Churchman was but a fitting attribute of the great position he held as Primate of England. He believed that his duty to the Church demanded of him sternness and severity in dealing with her enemies, and he evinced the heartfelt sincerity of his opinions by giving up his life in support of them.

When the end drew near, Laud nobly testified, by the fortitude and calmness with which he faced death, by the tender thoughtfulness he showed for all around him, that his pride and severity were but for his office, that he himself was, as he had ever been, a humble and sincere Christian.

He has been accused by his enemies of endeavouring to overthrow the Protestant religion; but one of the best pamphlets ever published against Roman Catholic tenets was written by Laud in his answer to Dr. Fisher. His foes also were especially rancorous against him for the attempts he made to introduce wholesome and lawful games on Sundays and holy-days; a proceeding viewed with much disfavour by the strict Puritans of the day, who held that all exercises on the Sabbath, save those of religion, tended to Popery.

Laud also endeavoured to restrain the publication of irreligious and other evil books, by subjecting all publications to the revision of the Star Chamber. This endeavour on the part of the Archbishop caused a storm of indignation, for it was held to be an attempt to subvert the existing laws, and to restrain the liberty of the people. The indiscreet zeal, also, that he displayed in his efforts to introduce into Scotland the Liturgy of the Church of England, made him many enemies in that country.

At length, after many years of energetic but fruitless struggles, his foes prevailed against him; he was committed to the Tower, tried before a committee of the House of Lords, and condemned to death.

He was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 10th of January, 1641, in the seventy-second year of his age.

Charles, it is said, though lamenting the death of his old servant, made no attempt to save the life of one who, though opinionated and mistaken, had served his King with affectionate fidelity.

Archbishop Laud's only sister married Sir John Robinson, afterwards Governor of the Tower in the reign of Charles II., and, if we may believe Pepys, an intimate friend and boon companion of that merry monarch. The descendants of Lady Robinson, namely, Sir George Robinson of Cranford, Northamptonshire, Lord Lyveden, of Farming Woods, Northamptonshire, and John Harvey, of Ickwell-Bury, Bedfordshire, still possess many interesting relics of this famous prelate.