and atheism will supervene upon dissent. If the Scripture be the rule, the interpreter is the tradition of the church; the one forms the piers of the bridge, the other the superstructure; and under flows the river of hell. You are silent, Mr. Chillingworth.

CHILLINGWORTH. My lord, what should I say? If we may not trust to reason, to what may we trust? Your Grace will answer, authority; but whither is authority leading us? Though I be a man of the study my window looks out upon the world; and I know (far better your Grace must know) how fast and hot indignation grows. Here a church window broken, there an altar destroyed; here a tumult in the services, there an abstention from them. Scurrilous tracts in all men's hands, libels affixed to the walls, and intruded into your very chamber. This is the unity authority enforces! How is it better than sects and schisms?

LAUD. Oh, Mr. Chillingworth, these are the troubles of government. We do but what we can, the issue is in other hands. Maintaining the authority of the Church we maintain the bond of all society. If we fail (which God forbid!) the state fails with us. The Monarchy stands or falls with the Church, England with the Monarchy. The cause is urgent indeed,

and the sedition you describe (alas! too truly) calls rather for severity than relaxation. I would have you pray that strength and wisdom be granted to us all; for these are serious times!

III

Strafford and his former Tutor Greenwood in the Tower

May 11, 1641

[Strafford was executed the following day.]