RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Latitudinarians Laud
called to Louvain, where he was appointed regular professor of theology and canon of St. Peter's in 1535, becoming rector of the university two years later. He protested against the Collegium trilingue founded at Louvain by Erasmus in his De trium linguarum et studii theologici ratione dialogus (Antwerp, 1519) and was henceforth stigmatized by the admirers of Erasmus as an enemy of the new learning. Melanchthon and the Lutherans contributed to the general contempt and irony heaped upon the theologians of Louvain and Latomus defended them in his Articulorum doctrinoe fratris M. Lutheri per theologos Lovanienses damnatorum ratio ex sacris Uteris et veteribus tractatoribus (Antwerp, 1521). Luther immediately replied, and four years later Latomus responded with his De primatu pontificis adversus Lutherum. In the same year he attacked (Ecolampadius and Beatus Rhenanus in his De confessione secreta (Antwerp, 1525), and also wrote against Tyndale. He was likewise the author of treatises on various doctrinal problems, and in the year of his death published his Duce epistola, una in libellum de ecclesia, Philippo Melanchthoni adscripta; altera contra orationem factiosorum in comitiis Ratisbonensibus habitant (Antwerp, 1544). He was the object of the special antipathy of the Lutherans on account of his zeal against heretics and as the theological coadjutor of Franz van der Hulst, the imperial inquisitor in the Netherlands, in 1522.
(G. Kawerau.)
Bibliography: His Opera appeared, Louvain, 1550. Consult: Biographie nationale de Belgique, xi. 434, Brussels, 1891; KL, vii. 1506-07/ Bibliotheca reformata Nerlandica, iii., 1905.
LATRIA: See Dulia; Saints, Veneration of.
LATTER-DAY SAINTS. See Mormons.
LAUD, led, WILLIAM: Archbishop of Canterbury; b. at Reading Oct. 7, 1573; d. at London Jan. 10, 1645. He was the son of a clothier, and studied at St. John's College, Oxford (B.A., 1594; M.A., 1598; D.D., 1608), being a fellow at the age of twenty. In 1601 he was ordained, and in 1603 became chaplain to the earl of Devonshire. His ability was already winning attention, and his advance was rapid. In 1607 he was made vicar of Stanford, Northamptonshire, and chaplain to Richard Neile, later archbishop of York, who in 1610 presented him to the living of Cuxton in Kent, and he resigned his fellowship to enter upon his parochial duties. In 1611 he was elected head of his college. His position there was difficult; the Oxford of his day was thoroughly Calvinistic, while Laud was equally hostile to Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. The Puritan antipathy to him became intense. Robert Abbot, later bishop of Salisbury, made a violent attack on him in 1614, but his stanch friend Neile gave him the prebend of Buckden in the same year and the archdeaconry of Huntingdon in 1615, while in 1616 he became dean of Gloucester. There, with most excellent intentions, he roused opposition by his besetting fault, lack of tact, when he directed that the altar, placed through Puritan influence in the center of the choir, should be restored to its ancient position against the eastern wall. He increased his unpop-
ularity in 1617 by wearing a surplice at a funeral in Scotland. His favor with the king, on the other hand, increased. In Jan., 1621, he was installed as a prebendary of Westminster, and six months later was consecrated bishop of St. David's. It is characteristic of his rigid adherence to what he deemed right, that he refused to hold the two offices of bishop and head of St. John's, although he had express permission to do so. In 1622 the affair of the countess of Buckingham, who was inclining toward Roman Catholicism, required him to define his position toward the Church of Rome, which he acknowledged to be a true Church, although neither at that time nor at any other did he approach or accept its characteristic teachings.
With the death of James I. (Mar. 27, 1625) Laud's real power in the English Church began. Firmly convinced of the justice of his cause, he sought to make the king an instrument in forcing his own views on the entire body of the Church. A firm advocate of the alliance between Church and State, he stressed the doctrine of the divine right of kings until the Puritan house of commons came to regard him as the enemy both of civil and religious liberty. On the other hand, Charles rewarded his fidelity richly. On June 20, 1626, he was nominated bishop of Bath and Wells, and continued his attempts at reform in his new post, notwithstanding Puritan opposition, which he did not try to conciliate. In 1633, on the death of George Abbot, who had been his bitter opponent, Laud became archbishop of Canterbury. About this same time an event happened which was a puzzle at once to the Puritans and the Roman Catholics; Laud, suspected by the Puritans of Roman Catholic tendencies, received the offer of a cardinal's hat, but refused, saying " somewhat dwelt within me which would not suffer that till Rome were other than it is." He entered energetically on his new duties, as head of the Church of England. The use of the prayer-book was enforced, dignity of worship was insisted on, the churches were repaired, the system of "lecturers," by which sermons attacking Anglican principles were fostered, was curbed, and aggressive Puritanism, as exemplified by the polemics of the overzealous William Prynne (q.v.) was checked. On the other hand, his insistence upon bowing at the name of Jesus, and the placing of the altar at the eastern wall of the church, thus distinguishing it from the communion table of the Puritans, as well as his plea for healthful recreation on Sunday as contrasted with Puritan asceticism, were violently assailed. At the same time he incurred the hostility of the queen, who was a Roman Catholic, by his protest against the favoritism shown her coreligionists. As he himself said he was " very like corn between two mill-stones."
In the first year of his incumbency of the see of Canterbury Laud attempted to force ritualism on the Scotch churches, which were strongly Presbyterian; the results were disastrous, leading to riots in the churches, particularly in St. Giles', Edinburgh (see Geddes, Jenny), and ultimately to the renewal of the Solemn League and Covenant in 1638 (see Covenanters). The unfavor-
Laud Lavater