Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/163

 "I was in Rome when the news of Laud's death arrived. There was great rejoicing in Rome at it. They spoke of his murder as of the greatest enemy the Church of Rome had in England being cut off, and the greatest champion of the Church of England silenced." Laud, at his trial, referred to this charge of Popery, and distinctly denied it. "Perhaps, my lords," he said, "I am not ignorant what party of men have raised this scandal upon me," i.e., the scandal that he was charged of endeavouring "to bring in Popery," "nor for what end; nor perhaps by whom set on; but I would fain have a good reason given me if my conscience lead me that way, and that with my conscience I could subscribe to the Church of Rome, what should have kept me here, before my imprisonment, to endure the libels, and the slanders, and the base usage of all kinds which have been put upon me, and these to end in this question of my life?" "In point of my religion &hellip; by God's grace, I have ever hated dissimulation; and had I not hated it, perhaps it might have been better with me for worldly safety than now it is. But it can no way become a Christian Bishop to halt with God."

Again, Laud said, "I was born and bred up in and under the Church of England, as it yet stands established by law; I have, by God's blessing and the favour of my prince, grown up in it to the years which are now upon me, and to the place of preferment which I yet bear; and in this Church, by the grace and goodness of God, I resolve to die. I have ever, since I understood aught of divinity, kept one constant tenour in this my profession, without variation, or