A PERILOUS PASSAGE

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bearing messages and dispatches. He left Rotterdam in the beginning of February 1632. "Lady Lewistone," he writes to his father, "was pleased notwithstanding the small size of the pink to let me pass over with her. Our passage was both tedious and extremely perilous.

The former was caused by the inconstancy of the weather; the latter by the ignorance of the pilot, both which together kept us from discovering land for three days and nights. Monday at six o'clock of night we landed at Margate, and Tuesday morning presently after ten I rendered myself safe (thanks to God) at my mother's lodgings, from whence I went immediately to my Lord Dorchester and delivered him the packet, who after his perusal of it wished me to get in readiness what I had to discharge myself of with the speediest. I did accordingly, and the next morning I had couched in writing the two dispatches and carried them along with me by my Lord Dorchester's command, to present them to the king that his majesty might peruse them himself, or command me to read them to his majesty, and this latter I did. His majesty was pleased to give a gracious and attentive audience, and when I had discharged your Lordship's whole commission, told me that I had acquitted myself well, and so left me."

Vane then went back to the Lord Treasurer, who was displeased that he was not furnished with a copy; his words were: "Mr Vane, I used to have a copy first." Young Vane sent the day after a copy of the articles of the peace betwixt the French and the Swedish king. He had an interview with the Lord Treasurer Weston and his son Wake,

them, Henry Vane could not have played the parts of Buckingham, Laud, or Wentworth.

At this time the third parliament of Charles I. had been dissolved for three years. The foes of liberty were jubilant; the friends of liberty discouraged, prescribed, and pursued: Sir John Eliot was languishing in the Tower in the last stage of consumption, denied the privilege of breathing the fresh air. The elder Vane, now a great man at court, was naturally anxious that his gifted son should follow the same path to fortune as himself, and the desire of entering the service of the government was a great temptation. But when he had a little time to watch what was going on in England, young Henry Vane sought the ministrations of the persecuted Puritans with whose religious views he was already in sympathy, and gave his heart to the popular cause.

CHAPTER IV

Interview of young Vane with Bishop Laud. Character and Aims of Laud. Vane resolves to leave his country for the New World. His Letter to his Father.

ALTHOUGH young Vane was not without caution and powers of reserve, his views were too decided and his piety too deep to escape the inquisition of the high church party, and there were rival courtiers ready to point out that the comptroller's eldest son was grown into a dislike of the discipline and ceremonies of the church, and that his favourite associates belonged to the popular party. According to Clarendon, his father still appeared highly conformable and exceedingly sharp against those who were There is a story that the elder Vane, thinking that his son could not resist the personal influence of the king, arranged to leave him in the royal presencechamber. Hearing the king approach, the young man, wishing to escape, hid himself behind the tapestry. Charles, noticing a motion in the hangings, poked at the place with his stick when Vane came out in confusion.

not.

At any rate it was arranged that Laud, then Bishop of London, should see the young man and try to persuade him to abandon the Puritan notions with

D

which he had so inopportunely become infected; and thus met these two men, each destined to play a conspicuous, though very different part, in the great struggle between royal prerogative and parliamentary government.

William Laud, the son of a clothier at Reading, was educated in St John's College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1601. Being docile, with a good memory and attentive to details, he gained honours, as such men do at Universities, was made Proctor, Doctor, and at last President (1611), a little sour-looking, redfaced man with pinched features and peering eyes, sharp of speech, bitter against non-conformists and picking quarrels with the lecturers and public readers. St John's College was then poorly endowed, and he lived on a narrow income for twenty years till his use as a tool for arbitrary power was recognised. Naturally subservient, to differ from the king and the bishops, especially when they were agreed, seemed to Dr Laud a wicked presumption which he longed to have the pleasure of chastising. His highest desire was to enforce conformity to the pattern of church discipline, the gowns, tippets, hoods, and postures approved by the dressy Elizabeth, with a longing, backward glance upon the abandoned ceremonies of the Romish Church and the discipline and drill of its hierarchy. He was favourable to the celibacy of the clergy, and upheld the views of Arminius against those of Calvin. His mind was kept dwelling on omens, presages, and coincidences. He was learned in the lore which makes men no wiser, read the Fathers and the theologians, and recorded his promotions and his dreams, the misfortunes of his opponents,

LAUD'S CHARACTER

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and the tortures inflicted on his victims in good Latin: ambition, malice, and superstition were the three leading features of his character. He was fond of collecting books and manuscripts, and knew enough of history to make far-fetched references. He was given to preach unity in things apparent, for he had no idea of a deeper unity. His religion was a thing of details and ceremonies without the fervent piety of the heart. King James took Laud with him to Scotland in 1617, where the Anglican gave offence by wearing his surplice at a funeral. He was recommended by Bishop Williams, the Lord Keeper, for the see of St David's; but the old king distrusted him. Dr Laud, he said, was "a restless spirit to be kept back from all places of authority, for he cannot see when matters are well, but loves to toss and change and bring things to a reformation floating in his own brain." Laud, he added, had in spite of rebuffs

1 Besides his Diary published by Prynne to bring Laud into contempt, and since edited in a more complete form, we have seven of his sermons, all of them of a political character (see History of the Troubles and Trials of Archbishop Laud. Oxford, 1853).

In a court chaplain we might expect to hear a good deal about the king, perhaps not so much about God, and a polished, if not a lofty, style; but the language of these sermons is without elegance and without vigour. Solecisms are not infrequent, and he has many shabby plays upon words; altogether the composition of a man who never got to the pith of anything. The only feature that could have made these productions pleasing to King Charles was the fulsome flattery he uses.

Imagine Charles's third parliament to whom Laud was set up to preach being influenced by such an argument as this: "Well provide for the keeping of unity, and what then? Why then, God bless you with the success of this day. For this day, the 17th of March, Julius Cæsar overthrew Sextus Cneius Pompeyus, and that victory was in Spain, and Spain, which had long been troublesome, settled and came quietly on by that one action, and this very day too, Frederick II. entered Jerusalem and recovered whatsoever Saladin had taken from the Christians. But I must tell you these emperors and their forces were great keepers of unity."