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History of the Rebellion
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General SummaryThe History of the Rebellion, by Edward Hyde, first earl of Clarendon (1609–1674), is one of the great works of English literature. The book was not published until after Clarendon’s death, but large parts of it were composed between 1646 and 1648, when the events described remained fresh in the author’s memory. Clarendon belonged to the Royalist party and took an active part in political and military affairs during the stirring age of the Puritan Revolution. He writes, therefore, as a contemporary, and with evident bias, for he wished to justify the course followed by Charles I and the Royalists. In spite of this fact, the impression made on the reader’s mind is one of the author’s sincerity and honest conviction. As a man of letters, Clarendon stands very high. His character sketches of Laud, Strafford, Hampden, Charles I, Cromwell, and others form a gallery of portraits perhaps unmatched elsewhere in English historical writing.
READINGS IN MODERN
EUROPEAN HISTORY
CHAPTER I
Characters and Episodes of the Great Rebellion1
1. Archbishop Laud2
It was within one week after the king’s return from Scotland,
that Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, died at his house at
Lambeth. And the king took very little time to consider who
should be his successor, but the next time the bishop of London
came to him, his Majesty greeted him very cheerfully with the
words, "My lord’s grace of Canterbury, you are very welcome,"
and gave orders the same day for the dispatch of all the necessary
forms for the translation. Within a month or thereabouts after
the death of the other archbishop, he was completely invested in
that high dignity, and settled in his palace at Lambeth. This
great prelate had been before in high favor with the duke of
Buckingham, whose confidant he was, and by him recommended
to the king, as fittest to be trusted in conferring all ecclesiastical
preferments, when he was but bishop of St. David’s, or newly
preferred to Bath and Wells; and from that time he entirely
governed that province without a rival, so that his promotion to
Canterbury was long foreseen and expected; nor was it attended
with any increase of envy or dislike.
He was a man of great parts, and very exemplary virtues,
allayed and discredited by some unpopular natural infirmities;
the greatest of which was (besides a hasty, sharp way of expressing
himself) that he believed innocence of heart and integrity
of manners formed a guard strong enough to secure any man in
his voyage through this world, in what company soever he
traveled and through what ways soever he was to pass; and
surely never any man was better supplied with that provision.
He was born of honest parents, who were well able to provide
for his education in the schools of learning, whence they sent
him to St. John’s College in Oxford, the worst endowed at that
time of any in that famous university. From a scholar he became
a fellow, and then the president of that college, after he had received
all the graces and degrees (the proctorship and the doctorship)
which could be obtained there. He was always maligned
and persecuted by those who were of the Calvinistic faction,
which was then very powerful, and who, according to their useful
maxim and practice, call every man they do not love, papist.
Under this senseless appellation they created for him many
troubles and vexations; and so far suppressed him, that, though
he was the king’s chaplain, and taken notice of for an excellent
preacher and a scholar of the most sublime parts, he had not any
preferment to invite him to leave his poor college, which only
gave him bread, till the vigor of his age was past. When he was
promoted by King James, it was but to a poor bishopric in Wales,
which was not so good a support for a bishop, as his college was
for a private scholar, though a doctor.
Parliaments at that time were frequent, and grew very busy;
and the party under which he had suffered a continual persecution
appeared very powerful, and they who had the courage to
oppose them began to be taken notice of with approbation and
countenance. In this way he came to be first cherished by the
duke of Buckingham, after the latter had made some experiments
of the temper and spirit of the other people, not at all to his satisfaction.
From this time he prospered at the rate of his own
wishes, and being transplanted out of his cold barren diocese of
St. David’s, into a warmer climate, he was left, as was said
before, by that omnipotent favorite in that great trust with the
king, who was sufficiently indisposed toward the persons or the
principles of Mr. Calvin’s disciples.
When he came into great authority, it may be that he retained
too keen a memory of those who had so unjustly and uncharitably
persecuted him before; and, I doubt, was so far transported
with the same passions he had reason to complain of in
his adversaries, that, as they accused him of popery, because he
had some doctrinal opinions which they liked not, though they
were in no way allied to popery; so he entertained too much
prejudice to some persons, as if they were enemies to the discipline
of the Church, because they concurred with Calvin in
some doctrinal points.
1 , by Edward, Earl of Clarendon. 7 vols. Oxford, 1859.
University Press.
2 Clarendon, , vol. i, pp. 126#8211;129.
Contents:
Chicago: "Archbishop Laud," History of the Rebellion in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 2–3. Original Sources, accessed November 7, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M17RFCTL65U67L2&H=1.
MLA: . "Archbishop Laud." History of the Rebellion, Vol. i, in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, pp. 2–3. Original Sources. 7 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M17RFCTL65U67L2&H=1.
Harvard: , 'Archbishop Laud' in History of the Rebellion. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.2–3. Original Sources, retrieved 7 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M17RFCTL65U67L2&H=1.
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