Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/191

 post was rendered a particularly difficult one by the fact that, although open warfare had ceased, the Burmese were still avowedly hostile to British influence—an anomalous state of things which lasted until the definitive treaty of 1862. The vigilance and activity which Latter exhibited in repressing disaffection in the neighbourhood of Prome during the following year rendered him specially obnoxious to the court of Ava, and at two o'clock on the morning of 8 Dec. 1853 he was murdered in his bed. He was buried at Prome with military honours on the following day.



LAUD, WILLIAM (1573–1645), archbishop of Canterbury, born at Reading 7 Oct. 1573, was the only son of William Laud, a clothier. His mother, whose maiden name was Lucy Webbe, was widow of John Robinson, who, as well as her second husband, was a clothier of Reading. The younger William Laud was educated at the free borough school of that town. In 1589 he proceeded to St. John's College, Oxford, matriculating on 17 Oct., and was in 1590 nominated to a scholarship set apart for boys educated at Reading school. In 1593 he became a fellow on the same foundation. He graduated B.A. in 1594, M.A. in 1598, and D.D. in 1608 (, Cyprianus Anglicus, pp. 41–5;, Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc.).

As an undergraduate Laud had for his tutor [q.v.], who became president of St. John's in 1605. Buckeridge was one of those who, during the closing years of Elizabeth's reign, headed at the two universities a reaction against the dominant Calvinism, and who, standing between Roman catholicism on the one hand and puritanism on the other, laid stress on sacramental grace and on the episcopal organisation of the church of England. Buckeridge's teaching proved congenial to Laud, who was by nature impatient of doctrinal controversy, and strongly attached to the observance of external order. Laud was ordained deacon on 4 Jan. 1601, and priest on 5 April in the same year. On 4 May 1603 he was one of the proctors for the year. On 3 Sept. 1603 he was made chaplain to, earl of Devonshire [q.v.], and on 26 Dec. 1605 he married his patron to the divorced wife of Lord Rich, an action for which he was afterwards bitterly penitent (Works, iii. 81, 131, 132).

By this time Laud had come into collision with the Oxford theologians. There was a sharpness of antagonism about him, and a perfect fearlessness in expressing his views, which could not fail to rouse opposition. When in 1604 he took the degree of bachelor of divinity, he maintained 'the necessity of baptism,' and 'that there could be no true church without diocesan bishops,' thereby incurring a reproof from Dr. Holland, who was in the chair. On 26 Oct. 1606 he preached a sermon at St. Mary's, for which he was called to account by the vice-chancellor, Dr. Airay, on the ground that it contained popish opinions. Laud, however, escaped without having to make any public recantation, though he became a marked man in the university as one who sought to introduce the doctrines of Rome into the church. On the other hand, the increasing number of those who were hostile to Calvinism were on his side. Preferments flowed in. In 1607 he became vicar of Stanford in Northamptonshire. Having taken the degree of D.D. in 1608, he was in the same year made chaplain to Bishop Neile, and on 17 Sept. preached before the king at Theobalds. On 2 Oct. 1610 Laud resigned his fellowship to attend to his duties at Cuxton in Kent, to the living of which he had recently been appointed by Bishop Neile ('Diary' in Works, iii. 134).

On 10 May 1611 Laud was elected to the presidentship of St. John's, Buckeridge having been appointed to the see of Rochester. Even before his election an ineffectual attempt had been made to exclude him by the influence of Archbishop Abbot and Chancellor Ellesmere, the main pillars of the Calvinist party at court. After the election was completed, Laud's opponents urged that it had been in some respects irregular. On 29 Aug. King James heard the parties, and decided that the election was to stand good on the ground that the irregularity had arisen from an unintentional mistake (ib. iii. 135; Works, iii. 34; 'Answer to Lord Say's Speech,' Works, vi. 88; letters between James I and Bishop Bilson, State Papers, Dom. lxiv. 35, 36, lxvi. 25).

The headship of a college did not satisfy the mind of a man who was aiming at a reform of the church, and indeed Laud's position at Oxford was not altogether comfortable. In 1614 he was violently attacked by Dr. Robert Abbot from the university pulpit for having declared in a sermon that presbyterians were as bad as papists, and was scornfully asked whether he was himself a papist or a protestant. His isolation in the university may to some extent account for what would in the present day be considered as unseemly eagerness for promotion, shown in a complaint to his patron, Bishop Neile. In 1614 indeed Neile, then bishop of Lincoln,