LATTER-DAY SAINTS. See MORMONS.

LAUD, WILLIAM, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Reading, son of a
clothier; studied at and became a Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford,
was ordained in 1601; early gave evidence of his High-Church proclivities
and his hostility to the Puritans, whom for their disdain of forms he
regarded as the subverters of the Church; he rose by a succession of
preferments, archdeaconship of Huntingdon one of them, to the Primacy,
but declined the offer of a cardinal's hat at the hands of the Pope, and
became along with Strafford a chief adviser of the unfortunate Charles
I.; his advice did not help the king out of his troubles, and his
obstinate, narrow-minded pedantry brought his own head to the block; he
was beheaded for treason on Tower Hill, Jan. 10, 1645; he "could _see_ no
religion" in Scotland once on a visit there, "because he saw no ritual,
and his soul was grieved" (1573-1645).

LAUDERDALE, JOHN MAITLAND, DUKE OF, Scottish Secretary under Charles
II., professed Covenanting sympathies in his youth, and attended the
Westminster Assembly of Divines as a Commissioner for Scotland 1643;
succeeding to the earldom in 1645 he joined the Royalists in the Civil
War, was made prisoner at Worcester 1651, and confined for nine years;
receiving his Scottish office at the Restoration he devoted himself to
establishing by every means the absolute power of the king in Church and
State; his measures were responsible for the rising of 1666 and in part
for that of 1677; but he made the Episcopal Church quite subservient;
appointed to the Privy Council, he sat in the "Cabal" ministry, was made
duke in 1672, and in spite of intrigues and an attempt to censure him in
the Commons, remained in power till 1680; he was shrewd, clever, witty,
sensual, and unscrupulous; then and still hated in Scotland (1616-1682).

LAUENBURG (49), a duchy of N. Germany, between Holstein and
Mecklenburg, was annexed to Prussia in 1876.

LAUGHING PHILOSOPHER, a name given to Democrates of Abdera for a
certain flippancy he showed.

LAUNCESTON (17), on the Tamar, the second city in Tasmania, is the
chief port and market in the N., a fine city, carrying on a good trade
with Australian ports, and serving as a summer resort to Melbourne.

LAURA, a young Avignonese married lady, for whom Petrarch conceived
a Platonic affection, and who exercised a lifelong influence over him.

LAUREATE, POET, originally an officer of t