Laudianism, also called Old High Churchmanship, or Orthodox Anglicanism as they styled themselves when debating the Tractarians, was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that tried to avoid the extremes of Roman Catholicism and Puritanism by building on the work of Richard Hooker, and John Jewel and was promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters. It rejected the predestination upheld by Calvinism in favour of free will, and hence the possibility of salvation for all men through objective work of the sacraments. Laudianism had a significant impact on the Anglican high church movement and its emphasis on the sacraments, personal holiness, beautiful liturgy, and the episcopate. Laudianism was the culmination of the move to Arminianism in the Church of England, and led directly to the Caroline Divines, of which Laud was one of the first. The expression of this since the Oxford movement is often called Central churchmanship.

The Elizabethan Settlement of 1559, which set the tone for English religious policy until the rise of Laudianism, was theologically a mixture of Lutheranism, some pre-council of Trent Catholic doctrines, and some minor elements from Calvinism. The doctrine of predestination was to be handled with care at a parish level in order to offset despair and the ensuing disobedience, the seventeenth of the Thirty-Nine Articles sets out a doctrine of predestination to life, in Christ, as one of the founding principles of the English Church and omits reference to reprobation. “Furthermore we must receive God’s promises in such wise as they be generally set forth in holy Scripture; and in our doings that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God.” The word generally is in the Latin generaliter, which means not usually, but universally and Article 31 says "Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual"

Building on this, Laudianism is based in the universality and objectivity of God's grace through the Sacraments, the universal atonement and the free will of all men to obtain salvation in Christ's Church through the Sacraments as means of grace thus, various Reformed theories of predestination were rejected, and predestination was based on God's promise to the Church as the Ark of Salvation in Ecclesiastical Election.

Salvation was conditioned on entering the Church through Baptism and remaining in the church and not departing from it, as well as being nourished and strengthened by Communion.

This is significant since one of the main points of Calvinism is the replacement of the teaching that salvation necessarily came from the Church through the Sacraments, but rather came through the individual, and Unconditional election of God, which could not be forfeited.

However Roman Catholic practices condemned in the 39 Articles like, the Intercession of saints, Eucharistic adoration, and prayers for the dead were rejected, as were the Roman doctrines concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass. Laudianism was as opposed to the "Papists" as the Puritans.

The Sacraments are emphasized as means of Grace open to all who confess their sins and truly repent, and Baptism and Communion were raised over the preaching of sermons. Personal holiness and the necessity of good works are emphasized and taught, and the Daily Office was encouraged and the "Beauty of Holiness" in aesthetics was emphasized against the low church practice of the Calvinists. The services were referred to as high and dry.

Subjective means of determining ones state with God or ones vocation were rejected in favor of objective means, and emotionalism and other forms of Enthusiasm were not to be trusted.