“Pulling down monasteries, colleges for priests, and hospitals that were looked after by monks and nuns.”
“But why?”
“Now you’ll have to think of your history. About fifty years ago, counting that we are now in the year 1590, Elizabeth’s father, Henry the Eighth, was reigning. Remember his quarrel with the Pope. Remember how he made his subjects become Protestants. The monasteries were the homes of the monks, so they were swept away because they represented the old Roman Catholic faith. When Elizabeth came to the throne, London was as full of ruins as it had formerly been full of monasteries. Now, as we shall see, new buildings are everywhere rising on the sites of the old religious houses. But as yet there hasn’t been time to build over all of them. This, for instance,” she pointed to the crumbling walls and broken pillars at which Betty was sadly gazing, “is still nothing but a heap of ruins.”
“What was it?”
“A college for priests, called the College of St. Spirit, built by our old friend Dick Whittington.”
“Oh, what a shame!” cried Betty. “It’s dreadful to come back to London and find so many beautiful places gone or spoilt, Godmother.”
“Yes, it’s sad, I agree. Though it’s true that the power of the Church had grown too great, and most of the clergy had become rich and idle, it seems unnecessary to destroy the beauty of churches and monasteries because the people to whom they belonged were unworthy. However, nothing can remain as it was for ever, you know, and though we shall find much that was beautiful in the fourteenth century vanished for ever, we shall also see new beautiful things that have sprung, or are springing into life in this, the sixteenth century. Let us go and look at some of them. We’ll go first to the Royal Exchange.”
“Why, we’ve just been there!”
“Not to the one we’re going to see, though it stands in exactly the same place. We’ll walk to it through the Chepe.”
“It was called Cheapside this morning when we drove down it,” said Betty, smiling. “How funny it is to think it should be really the same place.”