Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
can take them. What we can say is that they were brought by the same forces: the
spice trade, global maritime connections and a keen interest in Oriental knowledge
among scholars of the day.
____________________
Archbishop Laud was a controversial figure to his contemporaries and a complic-
ated person to himself. A celibate vicar of modest upbringing, Laud rose to the
powerful post of Bishop of London under James I and was appointed Archbishop
ofCanterburyunderCharlesI.Thefurtherheroseintheserviceoftheincreasingly
unpopular Stuart kings, the more staunchly he supported them, even to the point of
upholding James's claim to divine right. Laud was a shrewd man, instinctual in his
ability to manipulate others, but he was also vain about his own judgements and
thus easily gulled by his own certainties. He had risen from very modest circum-
stances,whichmayexplaininparthispoliticalambitionbutnottheactualpolitical
course he ended up taking. Someone more devoted to his own personal advantage
wouldhavefiguredouthowtopulloutofthedownwardpoliticaltailspinthatledin
1641 to his incarceration in the Tower. He was alert enough to see what was com-
ing two years earlier, when he donated the bulk of his Oriental manuscripts to the
Bodleian rather than let them fall into the hands of his enemies. But he was not so
ambitious as to abandon the principles by which he powered that ambition, which
included the sanctity of the king and the preservation of the Church he headed.
ThreeandahalfyearslaterhewouldbebeheadedbythePuritanextremists hedis-
dained.
Laud's disconcerting combination of theological subtlety and political appetite
madehimreveredbysome,loathedbymanyandavoidedbymostwhentheydidn't
owe him anything. John Selden was among the latter. Not being a churchman or
interested in religious matters, he had nothing to do with Laud until his second
imprisonment, when the archbishop chose to position himself as Selden's patron.
It was rumoured that Laud worked out the deal with Charles to release Selden in
exchange for the publication of
The Closed Sea
, although that rumour may have
originated with Laud himself. Some kind of deal was struck, to judge from Laud's
diary entry for 2 February 1636: 'My nearer care of J.S. was professed, and his
promise to be guided by me; and absolutely settled on Friday after.'
Selden may have misled himself into thinking he could exploit Laud to find a
middle way between the king and bishops clamouring for their prerogatives on the
one side and the republicans in Parliament who wanted to tear down those priv-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search