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Laud: our Cyprian

Bramhall in An answer to Monsieur de la Militiere (1653), after describing the witness of the Royal Martyr, turns to "the other most glorious Martyr". The description he provides evokes thoughts of the ancient episcopal martyr to whom Peter Heylyn looked in his later account of Laud, Cyprianus anglicus. 

It is difficult to think of a more effective summary of the content and significance of Laud's witness than that provided by Bramhall:

the other most glorious Martyr, the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, a man of profound learning, and exemplary life, of clean hands, of a most sincere heart, a patron of all good learning, a Professor of ancient truth, a great friend indeed, and earnest pursuer, of Order, Unity, and uniformity in Religion ... I wish all your great Ecclesiastics had his Innocency, and fervent zeal for God's Church, and the peace thereof, to plead for them at the day of Judgement.

Elsewhere in the work, Bramhall points to Saint Cyprian's vision of episcopacy as that of the ecclesia Anglicana:

He liked not the swelling title of Bishop of Bishops, nor that one Bishop should tyrannically terrify another into obedience; No more do we. He gave a primacy, or principality of order to the Chair of St. Peter as principium unitatis; so do we: But he believed that every Bishop, had an equal share of Episcopal power; so do we. He provided a part, as he thought fit in a Provincial Council for his own safety, and the safety of his flock; so did we.

It was this vision of episcopal order which Laud promoted and defended, in England and for the wider Church, even unto death.  He was our Cyprian.

From The Works of The Most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall, Volume I.

(The coin is from the Restoration era.)

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