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Untitled Article
whatsoever , and who , acting on the pernicious principle which they have adopted in their lucuhrations on the Scriptures , namely ,- private interpretation , against which principle a protest cannot be too often made in these pages , choose to trust to the impulses of their own conceited imaginations . " As to Charles , his only crime was , that he " was Tesolved not to be a mere nominal king , but to be king in reality . " Yet after all this comes one of the usual qualifications which neutralize our author ' s propositions , whatever they are ; for we are told that Abbot ' s offence , which Laud turned to so good account , " did not merit any punishment ; " though , lest this admission should work unfavourably , we are also cautioned to recollect , with Collier , that " the good king was misdirected" ( by whom ?) ' into these rigours , and believed himself in the right . "
Laud's next proceeding is a striking specimen of his meddling disposition . We allude to his procuring the issuing of the king ' s instructions to the Archbishop of Canterbury to send out orders to the bishops of his province , directed against Puritan practices , and prescribing the forms of worship , and a careful noticing of absentees and recusants . Abbot officially obeyed the instruction , but took care to shew the feelings with which he regarded the impertinent interference . Laud , however , was determined that at least in his own diocese no zeal should be wanting , and offences , however trifling , were punished with no sparing hand . * ' Perhaps , " Mr , Lavvson observes , with his usual conciliatory concession , "the punishments exceeded the offence , abstractedly considered . " But as concerns Laud personally , his ' * activity and noble works were conspicuous ; " and " no visionary declamation concerning liberty can restrain a civil government from taking cognizance of such malcontents , nor is it inconsistent with the spirit of freedom to make examples of them to others . " As to the sentence of Leighton , ( who , to be sure , carried his insubordination so far as to be for " smiting the bishops under
the fifth rib , " ) and whom it was thought expedient to make expiate the crudities of a sermon by cropt ears , a slit nose , a branded forehead , a whipping , ( every lash of which brought away the flesh , ) pillory in frost and snow , imprisonment for life , and a fine of £ 10 , 000 ( all very " consistent with the spirit of freedom , " ) our biographer , according to custom , tries to save his own character by admitting , as a general proposition , that " the sentence was severe , " that it " excites the shudder of humanity . " Yet , by way of set-off , the next sentence tells us that it was " only severe with respect to the cutting oft' the ears , the slitting of the nose , and the branding of the forehead , which , however , were the modes of punishment in that age . " Again ; " if the man was insane , his insanity , under any circumstances , was dangerous ; " therefore , to be cured by this new mode of letting blood ; and the whole is salved over , if not shewn to be actually praiseworthy , by " the necessity of affairs at that time , which required this severity from the hand of the magistrate . " It becomes difficult to decide whether Laud or his biographer best deserves the character of " a pattern of liberality , " " the advocate of moderation . " ( To be continued . )
Untitled Article
Life and Times of Archbishop Laud . 377
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 377, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/9/
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