He justified, and did all he could to support Charles I. in all the illegal and arbitrary measures of his government. In 1626, after he had dissolved his Parliament, because they were too intent upon the redress of grievances, though they had voted four subsidies, and three fifteenths, he resolved to raise money by the illegal method of a loan. And to promote this, who so fit as Laud; who, with others of his brethren, were, as the complete historian expresses it, unhappily “engaged in the interest of Buckingham, and very forward in those measures which the king unfortunately took.” Accordingly Laud received a command from the king to draw up instructions to shew the urgency of the king’s affairs, and his occasions of supply. These instructions Laud soon got ready; and the king sent them as letters of precept to the two archbishops, to be communicated to their suffragans, to be published in all the parishes of the kingdom. This was justly looked upon as a stratagem of state to promote the raising of money without a parliament, and Laud was employed as the fittest tool to promote these arbitrary measures of the king. The papists joined with the bishops, and were very forward in the loan: whilst the puritans were backward in it; and some of the best gentlemen in the kingdom, upon their refusal to lend money, were immediately committed to several jails. Besides this, the court had their parsons to preach up absolute obedience to the king’s commands. Sibthorp, in his sermon at Northampton, laid it down as gospel, that “It is the king’s duty to direct and make laws; that he doth whatever pleaseth him; and that it is the subject’s duty to yield a passive obedience.” Manwaring, in a sermon, spoke more plainly, and affirmed, that “the king was not bound to observe the laws of the realm concerning the subject’s rights and liberties; but that his royal will and command, in imposing loans and taxes, without common consent of Parliament, doth oblige the subject’s conscience, upon pain of eternal damnation;” and that those who refused the loan, became guilty of impiety, disloyalty, and rebellion. And yet infamous as this doctrine was, and subversive of all the laws of the kingdom, Laud was their patron and advocate; and in contempt of the censure of the House of Lords on Manwaring, gave him first as his reward a good benefice, and afterwards advanced him to the Bishoprick of St. David. And because this parliament, which had censured Manwaring, had also complained of Laud himself, and passed a vote against innovations in religion, and against such as should counsel and advise the levying of tonnage and poundage without grant of parliament; Laud, out of his great love for the liberties of the kingdom, advised the king to dissolve it; which he accordingly did, to the great discontent of the nation in general.