On 20th August 1588 Dean Newell made, at the cross, the first public announcement of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
On 17th November 1595, at a special thanksgiving service for the long reign of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Fletcher, of London, preached at Paul's Cross, which had been repaired and partly enclosed with a low brick wall for the occasion.
In 1616, at the instance of Harry Farley, one John Gipkyn painted a panel picture, in which he represented, by anticipation, the attendance of James I. at a sermon at Paul's Cross, which actually came to pass on 26th March 1620. The panel now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries affords the most authentic view extant of the preaching cross (see Fig. [142]).
Charles I. attended in state to hear a sermon at the cross in 1630, and Archbishop Laud preached there in 1631, perhaps the last preacher of eminence to occupy the pulpit—for in 1633 the use of Paul's Cross as an open-air pulpit was formally abandoned. Its consequent demolition cannot have been long delayed, although it has been contended that the cross was pulled down only that the pulpit might be reconstructed on a grander scale—a project which, however, was never attempted. In a publication of the year 1641 occurs the passage: "Paul's Crosse, the most famous preaching-place, is downe and quite taken away," which shows that the date usually given for the abolition of the cross, viz., 1643, cannot be correct. But it is the fact that, in May 1643, the parishioners of St Faith's complained of the obstruction caused by the presence of "stones, rubbish, and pales" in the churchyard, presumably the uncleared refuse from the demolished cross. In time the very site was forgotten; but in the spring of 1879 it was discovered by Mr C. F. Penrose, the cathedral surveyor. The cross stood about 12 ft. from the wall of Old St Paul's; and close to the north-east corner of Wren's cathedral. The octagonal base measured some 37 ft. across. "The platform itself," writes Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, "was supported by a vault. A brick wall was found which probably carried the timber supports of the pulpit proper. The probable diameter of the pulpit itself was 18 ft."
Paul's Cross was not the only preaching cross in London. There were, at least, two others. One stood in the churchyard on the south side of St Michael's, Cornhill. This cross was built by Sir John Rudstone, Mayor, who, dying in 1531, was buried beneath it. St Mary Spital, without Bishopsgate, also had an open-air pulpit-cross, where special sermons were preached in Easter week, year by year.
146, 147. LEIGHTON BUZZARD, BEDFORDSHIRE
MARKET CROSS