On Laudianism
Piety, Polemic and Politics During the Personal Rule of Charles I
By Peter Lake
Cambridge, 654 pages, $49.99
A movement in the Church of England away from a broadly Calvinist hegemony started in the 1590s, hit obstacles in the reign of James VI and I, but then flourished during the Personal Rule of Charles I. This movement had several key figures. Some historians have argued it began with subtle shifts in the thought of Richard Hooker and continued in the innovative work of Lancelot Andrewes.
The presiding light in the 1630s was Archbishop William Laud. Thus this movement, one associated with railed altars and a polemical shift from anti-Puritanism to anti-Calvinism, is often called Laudianism. This is not because Laud provided all its ideas, but because it simply is the best option.
Peter Lake’s On Laudianism is the culmination of decades of research over a long career focused on post-Reformation England and specifically this movement. His body of work includes, most importantly, Anglicans and Puritans? Presbyterianism and English Conformist Thought (1988).
Like many of Lake’s later books, most notably The Anti-Christ’s Lewd Hat (2002), On Laudianism is lengthy and highly detailed; it is a study, as Lake puts it, of the “public transcript” of the Laudian church, i.e., its sermons, published texts, visitation articles, and correspondence.
This book is categorically not for the novice. No one should turn to this book seeking an inspiring poem by George Herbert or a devotional sermon by Lancelot Andrewes. It is certainly not a confessional vindication of Anglicanism, although Lake, like others, addresses the way Laudian texts have been used by certain Anglican apologists.
Tracking with other senior scholars of this period, perhaps Diarmaid MacCulloch and Nicholas Tyacke most of all, Lake argues that Laudianism was a remaking of the English church. It was a “second reformation,” to borrow from Anthony Milton, and one often at odds with the original reformers.
Lake rejects Kevin Sharpe’s presentation that Laudianism was merely “Anglican business as usual” during the reign of Charles I. He insists that Laudianism cannot be understood merely by select policies, the obvious example being the restoration of altars.
Lake believes there is only limited use to tracking the way the Laudians manipulated historical narratives about conformism, that is, they way they shaped a new definition of what it meant to be faithful to the Church of England. By re-telling the story of the English reformation, for example, the Laudians attempted to make their agenda appear consistent with an earlier age, that of Elizabeth Tudor. This appearance was meant to confer legitimacy on obvious changes to accepted patterns of prayer book worship. The best example of these changes is the Laudian drive to re-position tables as altars. The Laudians also used this kind of historical polemic against their opponents by recasting them as out of step with the legacy of the English reformation.
That was my argument in The Laudians and the Elizabethan Church (2013), i.e., that the Laudian agenda included a re-working of historical narratives seeking legitimacy. That book was inspired partially by Lake’s claims about the way conformism was redefined by the Laudians, his notion of “moving the goal posts.” But here in his On Laudianism, Lake writes that such a “minimalist” position only appeared at the Restoration.
Addressing a range of issues, such as the polemical use of “Puritanism,” the ritual life of the church, predestination, and how later generations—including the Restoration-era divines and then the Tractarians of the 19th century—appropriated the ideas that had their day during the Personal Rule, Lake portrays Laudianism as a distinctly theological movement.
It was about ideas: the way God makes himself present; the way God saves; the distinction between sacred and profane; the ordering the world. Lake challenges portrayals of Laudianism as held together merely by a fixation with outward forms, “the beauty of holiness.” He tells us that while those things—that material state of churches—were intensely important to the Laudians, that was only because of a particular theological perspective.
A church building, which had widely been considered as principally a venue for preaching, was for them the setting for certain sorts of liturgical and sacramental practice. The space should be expressive, Lake writes, “of the divine presence contained, displayed, and distributed therein.” Thus the creative yet disruptive movement of Laudianism, in Lake’s presentation, was about ideas and theology.
The Rev. Calvin Lane, PhD is the Editor of Covenant: The Online Journal of The Living Church. The author of two books on the Reformation, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2013 . In addition to serving as associate rector of St. George's Episcopal Church, Dayton, Ohio, Dr. Lane has taught for various seminaries and colleges, including as Affiliate Professor at Nashotah House. His service to the church includes a term on the General Board of Examining Chaplains (2018-2024).
