hat
the London merchants themselves owned him a master in matters of trade.
Of statesmanship indeed he had none. The shrewdness of James had read
the very heart of the man when Buckingham pressed for his first
advancement to the see of St. David's. "He hath a restless spirit," said
the old king, "which cannot see when things are well, but loves to toss
and change, and to bring matters to a pitch of reformation floating in
his own brain. Take him with you, but by my soul you will repent it."
But Laud's influence was really derived from this oneness of purpose. He
directed all the power of a clear, narrow mind and a dogged will to the
realization of a single aim. His resolve was to raise the Church of
England to what he conceived to be its real position as a branch, though
a reformed branch, of the great Catholic Church throughout the world;
protesting alike against the innovations of Rome and the innovations of
Calvin, and basing its doctrines and usages on those of the Christian
communion in the centuries which preceded the Council of Nicaea. The
first step in the realization of such a theory was the severance of
whatever ties had hitherto united the English Church to the Reformed
Churches of the Continent. In Laud's view episcopal succession was of
the essence of a Church; and by their rejection of bishops the Lutheran
and Calvinistic Churches of Germany and Switzerland had ceased to be
Churches at all. The freedom of worship therefore which had been allowed
to the Huguenot refugees from France, or the Walloons from Flanders, was
suddenly withdrawn; and the requirement of conformity with the Anglican
ritual drove them in crowds from the southern ports to seek toleration
in Holland. The same conformity was required from the English soldiers
and merchants abroad, who had hitherto attended without scruple the
services of the Calvinistic churches. The English ambassador in Paris
was forbidden to visit the Huguenot conventicle at Charenton.

[Sidenote: Laud and the Puritans.]

As Laud drew further from the Protestants of the Continent, he drew,
consciously or unconsciously, nearer to Rome. His theory owned Rome as a
true branch of the Church, though severed from that of England by errors
and innovations against which the Primate vigorously protested. But with
the removal of these obstacles reunion would naturally follow; and his
dream was that of bridging over the gulf which ever since the
Reformation had parted the two Ch