Westminster Abbey has been surprisingly neglected by early modern historians. This article attempts to recreate a full sense of the institution and its character during this period, in order to build it into our picture of the post-Reformation religious landscape. The abbey, it is argued, continued to be an important religious institution, while its high-profile ceremonialism, coupled with strong secular and religious jurisdiction over the surrounding locality, may have served as an inspiration for the emerging Laudian movement. Nevertheless, the abbey and its school were never exclusively proto-Laudian in their religious character.