Nor can the civic authorities themselves be altogether acquitted of vandalism. They destroyed the churches of St. Nicholas Shambles and St. Ewin, and sold the plate and windows, but the proceeds were distributed among the poor.[1289] They went further than this. They removed the fine tombs and altars, as well as the choir stalls, from the church of the Grey Friars, where mingled the ashes of some of the noblest and best in the land. There was some excuse, however, for these acts. The house and church of the Grey Friars had been granted to the City at the close of the last reign on the express condition that the churches of St. Nicholas and St. Ewin should be abolished, and that the church of the Grey Friars should be established as a parish church in their place under the name of Christ Church. It was probably in order to render the old monastic church more convenient as a parish church that they removed much of what to the antiquary of to-day would have seemed of priceless value, and at the same time reduced the dimensions of the choir.[1290]
The "communion" substituted for the mass, 1548.
At Easter, 1548, a new communion service in English took the place of the mass.[1291] At the election[pg 429] of the mayor on the following Michaelmas-day, on which occasion a mass had always been celebrated at the Guildhall Chapel since the time of Whitington, an endeavour appears to have been made by the Court of Aldermen to effect a compromise between mass and communion, for whilst it ordered that a mass of the Holy Ghost should be solemnly sung in English in the Guildhall Chapel (which had been confiscated by Henry VIII)[1292] as theretofore, it further ordered that the holy communion should be administered to two or three of the priests there at the same mass.[1293] Orders were issued by the king's council that candles should no longer be carried about on Candlemas-day, ashes on Ash Wednesday, palms on Palm Sunday. These practices were now considered superstitious, as also was the "sensyng" which hitherto had taken place in St. Paul's at Whitsuntide, but which the Court of Aldermen now decreed to be abolished, and the preaching of sermons substituted in its place.[1294]
The "tuning of the pulpits."
The people were at this time extremely distracted by the various and contradictory opinions of their preachers; and as they were totally incapable of judging of the force of arguments adduced on one side or the other, but conceived that everything spoken from the pulpit was of equal authority, great confusion and perplexity of mind ensued. In order to "tune the[pg 430] pulpits" and to effect uniformity of doctrine and service, the Lord Protector resorted to proclamations, which, although no longer having the authority of statutes as in the reign of Henry VIII, practically answered the same purpose. Preaching was thus restricted to those who had previously obtained a licence from the king, his visitors, the archbishop of Canterbury, or the bishop of the diocese.[1295] The same want of uniformity which appeared in the preachers appeared also in their congregations; some "kepte holy day and manny kepte none, but dyd worke opynly, and in some churches servys and some none, soche was the devysyon."[1296]
The insurrections of 1549.
In the meantime great discontent had been caused by the Protector's measures. The rich nobleman and country gentleman said nothing, for their assent had been purchased by gifts of church property, but the tenants and bourgeois class suffered from increased rents, from enclosures and evictions. Church lands had always been underlet; the monks were easy landlords. Not so the new proprietors of the confiscated abbey lands, they were determined to make the most out of their newly-acquired property.[1297] Insurrection broke out in various parts of the[pg 431] country. Not only were enclosures thrown open and fences removed, but a cry was raised for the restoration of the old religion. Information of what was taking place was sent to Sir Henry Amcotes, the mayor, and steps were at once taken (2 July, 1549) for putting the city into a state of defence and for the preservation of the king's peace. A "false draw-brydge" was ordered (inter alia) to be made for London Bridge "in case nede should requyer by reason "of the sterrynge of the people (which God defende!) to caste downe thother."[1298] The city gates were constantly watched and the walls mounted with artillery.[1299]
Cranmer at St. Paul's, 21 July, 1549.
In the midst of these preparations there was a lull. On the 21st day of July, being the 6th Sunday after Trinity, came Archbishop Cranmer to St. Paul's. He wore no vestment save a cope over an alb, and bore neither mitre nor cross, but only a staff. He conducted the whole of the service as set out in the "king's book" recently published, which differed but slightly from the church service in use at the present day, and he administered the "Communion" to himself, the dean and others, according to Act of Parliament. The mayor and most of the aldermen occupied seats in the choir. Cranmer's object in coming to the city on that day was to exhort the citizens to obey the king as the supreme head of the realm, and to pray the Almighty to avert the trouble with which, for their sins, they were threatened.[1300]
The king passes through the city, 23 July.