While archbishop, he attempted unsuccessfully to resolve differences with the native British bishops by corresponding with them about points of dispute.

[9] He brought back with him Gregory's replies to Augustine's questions, a document commonly known as the Libellus responsionum, that Bede incorporated in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.

[14] Bede makes a point of comparing Augustine's action in consecrating Laurence to Saint Peter's action of consecrating Clement as Bishop of Rome during Peter's lifetime, which the theologian J. Robert Wright believes may be Bede's way of criticising the practices of the church in his day.

[15] In 610 Laurence received letters from Pope Boniface IV, addressed to him as archbishop and Augustine's successor.

[16] The correspondence was in response to Laurence having sent Mellitus to Rome earlier in 610, to solicit advice from the papacy on matters concerning the English Church.

[13] Bede relates the story that Laurence had been prepared to give up when he was visited by St Peter in a dream or vision.

[21] Bede, however, hints that it was the death of some of the leaders of the pagan party in battle that really persuaded Laurence to stay.

[22] Wright argues that another point Bede is making is that it is because of the intercession of St Peter himself that the mission continued.

Nicholas Brooks states that the king was converted during Laurence's archiepiscopate, within a year of him succeeding his father.

[26] Another factor in the pagan reaction was Laurence's objection to Eadbald's marriage to his father's widow, something that Christians considered to be unlawful.

[24] Laurence's tenure as archbishop is mainly remembered for his failure to secure a settlement with the Celtic church and for his reconversion of Eadbald following Æthelbert's death.