William Laud

“I can say it clearly and truly, I have been a man of a sorrowful life.”

“The psalmist tells us that the wicked have no bands in their death; nor was it ever found that a fanatic died in despair.”

“This is my comfort, that my conscience is clear from any corrupt and base ends in this business.”

“Be pleased to understand, I am not so simple as to be ignorant that every man's voice is not a vote in a popular election.”

“When a people, once devoted to religion, have been corrupted by luxury, they will fly to atheism as a sanction for their crimes.”

“I forgive all the world, all and every of those bitter enemies which have persecuted me, and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first, and then of every man.”

“In my fall, the King is weakened, and the Church is weakened.”

“I am for the Church of England, as it is established by law.”

“I have been all my life long a man of moderate counsels.”

“No one thing hath made conscientious men more wavering in their own minds... than the want of uniform and decent order in too many churches of the kingdom.”

“I die, as I have lived, in the true orthodox profession of the Catholic Faith of Christ... a true member of His Catholic Church, within the communion of a living part thereof, the present Church of England.”