168 The HIS T 0 RY of the PuRtTANs. VoL. 11 K. Charles I. they may enjoy their ancient laws, and other liberties; and then having ~44· forgiven his enemies, he concl'oded with the Lord's prayer. After which .~ he gave his paper to Dr. Sterne, f.1ying, doCtor l give you this, to l11ew your fellow chaplains, that they may fee how 1 am gone out of the world, and God's bleiling and his mercy be upon them. When the fca!fold was cleared, he pulled off his doublet, and faid, God's will be done, I am willing to go out of the world; no man can be more willing to fend me out. Then turning to the executioner he gave him fome money, and bid him do his office in mercy; he then kneeled down, and after a !hort prayer, laid his head on the block, and fa id Lord Jefus receive my Spirit~ which being the fign, the executioner did his office at one blow. The archbi!hop's corpfe was put into a coffin, and by the permiffion of parliament bur.ied in Barkin church, with the fervice of the church read over him. The infcription upon the coffin was this, in hac cijlu– la conduntur exuvice Gulielmi Laud, archiepifcopi Cantuarienfis, qui fe· curi percu!Jits immortalitem adiit, die x0 Januarii, cetatis.Jitce 72. archie– piji·opatus xii. Bu~ after the retl-oration, his body was removed to Ox– ford, and depofited with great folemnity in a brick vault, according to his lafi will and tefiament, near the altar of the chapel of St. John Bap. tift college, July 24. 1663. His cbaracThus died Dr. WrLLIAM LAuD, archbilhopofCanterbur,y, primate of ttr. all England, and metropolitan; fome time chancellor of the univerfities of O:iford and Dublin, one of the commiffioners of his majefiy's Exche– quer, and privy couilfellor to the king, in the feventy-fecond year of his age, and twelfth of his archiepifcopal tranflation. He was of low fta– ture, and a ruddy countenance; his natural temper was fevere and on– courtly, his fpirit active and refilefs, which pu!hed him on to the mofiha– zardous enterprizes. His conduct was rafh and precipitate, for according to Dr. Hey/in, 'he attempted more alterations in the church in one year, than a prudent man would have done in a great many. His C<:mnfels inflate af– fairs were high and arbitrary; he was at the head of all the illegal projects, of fhip-money, loans, monopolies, fiar-chamber fines, &c. which were the ruin of the king and conflitution. ' His maxims in the church were no lefs fevere, for he fharpened the fpi– ritual fword, and drew it againfl: all forts of offenders, intending (as lord Clarendon expreffes it) that the difcipline of the church lbould be felt as well as fpoken of. There had not been fuch a crowd of bufinefs in the high commijfio12 court fince the reformation, nor fo many large fines im– pofed, as under this prelates adminifl:ration, with little or no abatement, becaufe they were afiigned to the repair of St. Paul's, which gave oc- . cafion
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=