William Laud 1573-1645
1573 William Laud was born at Reading, Berkshire.
1601 Educated at St John's College, Oxford and ordained in 1601.
1617 He accompanied King James I to Scotland as one of his chaplains.
1620 Laud was installed as Prebendary of Westminster.
1621 He became Bishop of St David's in 1621.
1628 He was moved to Bath and Wells and then became Bishop of London in 1628.
1630 Elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford to which he donated many manuscripts.
1633 He went with King Charles to Scotland. When he returned he was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury.
He felt that the discipline was breaking down in the Church and tried to promote the traditional and ceremonial ways of worship, and to make sure that all parishes worshipped in the same way. This aroused suspicion and fear of a return to Roman Catholicism. The surplice controversy - In services clergy usually wore a cassock (long floor-length black garment) covered by a surplice (white, knee-length, loose sleeves). The Puritans objected to the surplice saying it was something that Roman Catholics used to wear. Services were violently disrupted where surplices were worn - in one Oxford chapel all the surplices were stolen and put in a dung-pit.
As Archbishop, Laud was obliged to punish offences against the Church and he made it his policy to proceed not only against the poor but also against the rich and powerful.
1637 Laud's movement for Church reform spread to Scotland when King Charles tried to force a new Prayer Book on them to bring them in line with the English...which led to riots and ultimately to resistance by the Scottish National Covenant...and the Bishops' Wars.
1640 The Long Parliament issued orders for his arrest on a charge of high treason and he was sent to the Tower.
1644 Eventually brought to trial before the Lords, he was first of all acquitted. Then parliament passed a bill of attainder declaring Laud to be guilty of treason which they forced the Lords to pass. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
1645 January 10th - Laud was beheaded on Tower Hill.
His prayer on the scaffold was -

The Lord receive my soul, and have mercy on me, and bless this kingdom with peace and charity, that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them.