Religion and the Rise of Capitalism · Character

William Laud

The Archbishop who defended a spiritual organism against the economic machine, insisting that no Christian commonwealth should tolerate private gain at the neighbor's hurt.

supporting

Also known as Laud, 267 Laud, William Laud

First appearance: religion and the rise of capitalism

As a supporting figure in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, William Laud is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Mentioned as a figure whose experiment in a confessional State ended with the Restoration, marking the end of religious claims to enforce economic morality.

In the storyI: The Medieval BackgroundOpen this moment free

Laud stands for the conservative religious reaction against a spirit that seemed to him the triumph of Mammon, restating the medieval appeal to the average conscience with the emphasis of a menaced creed. His world is one where society is a spiritual organism, not an economic machine, and where economic activity must answer to moral law. In Tawney's narrative he marks the last great literary stand of an older social order against the dislocations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

See William Laud in I: The Medieval Background Book page

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Character Web

21 connections

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Character groups

Puritan Religious Leaders
Capitalism and Reformation Figures
Protagonist

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Story tension across the book.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

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In the story

William Laud appears across 4 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

I: The Medieval Background
Mentioned as a figure whose experiment in a confessional State ended with the Restoration, marking the end of religious claims to enforce economic morality.
III: The Church of England
Quoted at the chapter's opening, emphasizing the connection between private interest and the commonwealth and the Church.
Puritanism and Society
Mentioned as reversing Elizabethan policy by harassing foreign artisans, illustrating the collision between economic interests and religious conformity.
The New Medicine for Poverty
Mentioned as a figure in the early seventeenth century who continued the tradition of religious condemnation of enclosure and depopulation.

Chapter companion notes

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See William Laud in religion and the rise of capitalism

See William Laud in I: The Medieval Background