In 1606 Laud preached a sermon before the univer- sity for which he was vehemently attacked by the vice- chancellor as a papist ; and though he contrived to es- cape formal censure from the authorities, he acknowl- edged afterwards to Ileylin that such was the repute in which he was generally held at the university that " it was reckoned a heresy to speak to him, and a suspicion of heresy to salute him as he walked the street." Still, Laud was not without powerful friends, who sympa- thized with him and his opinions, and especially active among them was Dr. Neile, then bishop of Rochester. In 1607 he ivas preferred to the vicarage of Stamford, received the advowson of North Kilworth, and took his degree of D.D. In 1608 he was appointed chaplain of bishop Neile, exchanged North Kilworth for 'West Til- bury, and preached his first sermon before king James at Theobald's. The next year he was presented to the living of Cuckstone, whereupon he resigned his fellow- ship in St. John's and resided on his benefice. The cli- mate of Cuckstone not agreeing with his health, he soon exchanged this benefice for that of Norton. In the mean time Neile, having been translated to the see of Lichfield, recommended Laud so powerfully to the king that he obtained for him a prebend's stall in the Cathe- dral of Westminster, the deanery of which Neile, as bishop of Rochester, had held in commendam. In 1611, after a violently contested canvass. Laud was elected president of St. John's College, owing his success chiefly to the strenuous efforts of bishop Neile and of Dr. Buck- eridge. At the same time he became one of king James's chaplains, while, to his great chagrin. Abbot, upon the death of archbishop Bancroft, was raised to the primacy. Abbot is charged by Laud's friends as hav- ing been the inveterate enemy of the latter, and the great retarder of his ecclesiastical promotion. Of the "enmity," it may be said once for all that there seems to be no evidence beyond the constant repetition of the charge. The simple truth of the case seems to be that Laud became the " inveterate enemy" of Abbot because the latter, when he had the power, refused to promote him, and conscientiously discouraged the advancement of a man in whom he had no confidence. Bishop Neile now bestowed ujion Laud the prebendary of Bugden, and in 1615 the archdeaconry of Huntingdon. In 1616 James himself bestowed upon him the deanery of Glou- cester, and he thus obtained the prospect of reaching the higher prizes he had in view. A second time he got into hot water by a sermon preached before the uni- versity. For this he was taken to task by Dr. Robert Abbot, then vice-chancellor, and brother of the arcli- bisliop. Abbot now, like bishop Hall before, charged him with tr^-ing to keep on both sides at once. In his deanery of (iloucester he proceeded to "reform and set in order" according to his own ecclesiastical notions, or- dering the communion-table to the east end of the choir, to stand as the " altar" formerly stood, and enjoining a becoming reverence, i. e., due bowings and genuflexions, upon the clergy and officers on entering the church or chancel, and proceeding withal in a most high-handed manner. Returning to court. Laud procured directions for the "better government" of the university, which contained the first official disapprobation of the tenets of the Calvinists, and which, being evidently levelled against the Puritans, are conceded by one of Laud's most ardent eulogists (Lawson) to have been "not alto- gether justifial)le," inasmuch as they deprived the uni- versity of its independence, and subjected it completely to the control of the king. " But," he adds, with char-
LAITD
270
LAUD
acteristlc fallacy and oiic-sidcdncss, " the state of the times rendered such instructions necessarj- ; and the con- sternation of the Puritan faction, when they were made known at Oxford, is a proof of the wisdom of the monarch and his advisers in thus placing a timely restraint on tlic progress of sectarian partisanship and enthusiasm." James liad already (1(510-12 ) re-established episcopacy in Scotland, and with a special view to effect a more per- fect uniformity in the two churches, he set out in 1G17 to visit his northern kingdom for the first time since his accession to the English throne, and ordered Laud to ac- company him. The king's favorite object was to sub- stitute in the Scottish Church the Episcopal liturgy in- stead of the Presbyterian form of worship; and, though the Presbyterians prayed that they might be preserved from the same, Laud and some of the royal chaplains encouraged James to persist in regarding the mass of the nation as a set of "factious enthusiasts," and to obsti- nately adhere to his purpose of imposing upon these people his own form of religion in the name of " the Church." James and Laud, with a little knot of arch- bishops and bishops who had been consecrated to their office, not in Scotland, but at Westminster, were " the Church," and the Scottish nation was " the faction" — a mistake big with sad and fearful consequences. James now propounded the famous Five Articles, which he subjected first to the assembly called together at St. Andrew's, and later to the assembly at Perth, where, through the indefatigable exertions of the bishops, and the shrewd and cunning management of the king, the Five Articles were confirmed. These articles were rig- idly enforced, but without the desired effect. The Scot- tish " rabble" were too " factious" to submit to a religion manufactured for them and forcibly imposed upon them by others. It was left for James's successor to continue his father's design, but with still worse success ; and it was reserved for Laud to take a more dominant part in the business, and from a higher position, at a subsequent period. On his return through Lincolnshire he was in- ducted into the rectory of Ibstock, which he had taken in exchange for Norton ; and, arriving at Oxford, ho learned with pleasure that his exertions had effectually restrained the "Puritan enthusiasm" at Gloucester.