Venerable name, illustrious place: on remembering Archbishop Laud

On this anniversary of the martyrdom of William Laud, words from the conclusion to The Life of Archbishop Laud (1836) by Charles Webb Le Bas, a representative of the Old High Church tradition with connections to the Hackney Phalanx:

Under these impressions it is, that the sons and servants of the church, it is to be hoped, will return from expatiating over those times, when the altar and the throne went down together. And, feeling that an eminent portion of the Church's strength is derived from the unsullied renown of her fathers, her confessors, and her martyrs, they will look indulgently on this attempt to rescue from foul defacement one venerable name. In the endeavour to discharge this sacred duty, it has not been the purpose of the writer of these pages to conceal the frailties of the man; but to vindicate him from unmerited contempt and infamy, and to give him his due rank, among the ancient worthies of the realm. And, so long as perfect integrity and sanctity of purpose, with a heart devoted to the service of his God, his sovereign, and his country, can win, for any human being, the reverence of posterity, so long must an illustrious place, among English Prelates, be assigned to Laud.

(The illustration is from the 1914 picture by Paul Delaroche, of Archbishop Laud gives his blessing to the Earl of Strafford.)

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