LAUD, lad, William, English prelate: b. Reading, Berkshire, 7 Oct. 1573; d. London, 10 Jan. 1645. He was educated at Saint John's College, Oxford-, took priest's orders in 1601; became vicar of Stanford, Northamptonshire, 1607, and rector of West Tilbury, Essex, 1609• was made archdeacon of Huntingdon in 1615 and dean of Gloucester 1616, and as king's chaplain in 1617 accompanied James I to Scot where he attempted to enforce Episcopacy with no success. In January 1621 he became a canon of Westminster and in the following June, bishop of Saint David's. After the acces sion of Charles I, Laud was translated in 1626 to the see of Bath and Wells, and in 1628 to that of London. In 1629 he was elected chan cellor.of the University of Oxford, which he enriched with a valuable collection of manu scripts, establishing also a professorship of Arabic. In 1633 he was promoted to the see of Canterbury. In 1634 he instituted rigorous proceedings against all who would not conform to the Church of England, and sought to ex tinguish all forms of dissent by means of fines, imprisonment and exile. When the Long Par
liament met (1640) the archbishop was im peached for high treason at the bar of the House of Lords by Denzil Holies and corn mined to the Tower. After three years he was brought to trial, but the Lords deferred giving judgment. The House of Commons, however, passed a bill of attainder (January 1644), de claring him guilty of high treason, and con demned him to death. He met his end on the scaffold at Tower Hill with great firmness. He was opposed to Rome on the one hand and to Puritanism on the other, laid stress on sacra mental grace and apostolic succession and or der in public worship, favored a national ob servance of Sunday, had a high repute for learning, but was tactless in his handling of his opponents. Consult Gardiner, S. R., The Personal Government of Charles P (1871) and 'The Fall of the Monarchy of Charles P (1881) ; and 'Lives) by Benson (1887) ; Hut ton (1885) ; Mackintosh (1907) ; Simpkinson (1894), and Waterman (1912).