y Dr. Thomas Smith in 1696, and a more
ample one by Mr. Joseph Planta, Principal Librarian of the British
Museum, in 1802.

'Omnis ab illo
Et Camdene tua, et Seldeni gloria crevit.'[29]

WILLIAM LAUD, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 1573-1645

William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose eventful history is well
known, was born at Reading on the 7th of October 1573. He was the son of
a clothier of that town, and was first educated in the free grammar
school of his native place, and afterwards proceeded to St. John's
College, Oxford, where he successively obtained a scholarship and a
fellowship, and in 1611 became President of the College. In 1616 James
I. conferred on him the Deanery of Gloucester, on the 22nd of January
1621 he was installed as a prebendary of Westminster, and on the 29th of
June in the same year he obtained the See of St. David's. On the
accession of Charles I. to the throne Laud's influence became very
great, and in 1626 he was made Bishop of Bath and Wells, and two years
later Bishop of London. In 1630 he was elected Chancellor of the
University of Oxford, and in 1633 he was appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury. Shortly after the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640
Laud was impeached of treason by the House of Commons, and committed to
the Tower. After an imprisonment of three years he was brought to trial
before the Lords, but as they showed an inclination to acquit him, the
Commons passed an ordinance of attainder, declaring him guilty of
treason, to which they compelled the Peers to assent, and on the 10th of
January 1645 he was brought to the scaffold on Tower Hill. His body was
interred in the chancel of All Hallows, Barking, where it remained until
1663, when it was removed to the Chapel of St. John's College, Oxford.

Archbishop Laud was an ardent collector of books, especially of
manuscripts, but Wood in his _Athenae Oxonienses_ says he was 'such a
liberal benefactor towards the advancement of learning that he left
himself little or nothing for his own use.' The Bodleian Library is
indebted to him for a large portion of its choicest treasures,
especially of Oriental literature. Between the years 1635 and 1640 he
enriched the Library with repeated gifts of valuable manuscripts. In
1635 he presented four hundred and sixty-two volumes and five rolls.
Among these were forty-six Latin manuscripts, 'e Collegio Herbipolensi
[Wuerzburg] in Germania sumpti, A.D. 1631, cu