The queen's coronation, 15 Jan., 1559.
The Court of Common Council (21 Nov.) agreed to levy two fifteenths on the inhabitants of the city for the customary present to be given the new queen on her passing through the city to her coronation, which was to take place on the 15th January following, as well as for defraying the costs of pageants on the occasion.[1478] Committees were appointed to see that the several conduits, the Standard and Cross in Cheap, and other parts of the city were seemly trimmed and decked with pageants, fine paintings and rich cloth of Arras, silver and gold, as at the coronation of Queen Mary, and better still if it conveniently could be done.[1479] Among those appointed to devise pageants for the occasion and to act as masters of the ceremony was Richard Grafton, the printer.[1480] Eight commoners were appointed by the Court of Aldermen (17 Dec.) to attend upon the chief butler of England at the cupboard at the coronation banquet.[1481]
A strike among the painters.
A curious instance of a strike among painters is recorded at this time. The painters of the city, we are told, utterly refused to fresh paint and trim the great conduit in Cheap for the coronation for the sum of twenty marks. This being the case, the surveyors of the city were instructed to cause the same to be covered with cloth of Arras having escutcheons of the queen's Arms finely made and set therein, and the wardens of the Painters' Company were called upon[pg 486] to render assistance with advice and men for reasonable remuneration.[1482]
Elizabeth's policy of moderation, 1558.
The main object which Elizabeth kept before her eyes, from first to last, was the preservation of peace—peace within the Church and without. Her natural inclination was towards the more ornate ritual of the Roman Church, but the necessity she was under of gaining the support of the Protestants, whom even the fires of Smithfield had failed to suppress, inspired restraint. All her actions were marked with caution and deliberation. From the day of her accession religious persecution in its worst form ceased. Non-conformity was no longer punished by death. Preachers who took advantage of the lull which followed the Marian persecution and resumed disputatious sermons, as they did more especially in the city, were silenced by royal proclamation,[1483] which ordered them to confine themselves to reading the gospel and epistle for the day, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue, without adding any comment. They were further ordered to make use of no public prayer, rite or ceremony other than that already accepted until parliament should ordain otherwise.
The Act of Uniformity and Supremacy, 1558.
Parliament met in January, 1559, and at once acknowledged the queen's legitimacy and her title to the crown, an acknowledgment which she had failed to obtain from the Pope. An Act of Uniformity was passed forbidding the use of any form of public prayer other than that set out in the last Prayer Book of Edward VI, amended in those particulars which savoured of ultra-Protestantism. The same parliament[pg 487] also passed an Act of Supremacy, which dropt the title of supreme head of the Church with reference to the queen, but still upheld the ancient jurisdiction of the Crown over all ecclesiastics. Having accomplished this much, parliament was dissolved (8 May).
The restoration of the Prayer Book and abolition of the Mass, 1559.
On the following Whitsunday (14 May) Divine Service was conducted in the city in English according to the Book of Common Prayer.[1484] Commissioners were appointed in July "to ride about the realm for the establishing of true religion," four being nominated for the city, whose duty it was to call before them divers persons of every parish and make them swear to observe "certain injunctions newly set out in print."[1485] The election of a new mayor at Michaelmas was followed by the celebration of a "communion" in the Guildhall Chapel."[1486]