On Sundays and holy days the Exchange was enlivened during a portion of the year with the music of the city waits, who were ordered by the Court of Aldermen (April, 1572) to play on their instruments as they had hitherto been accustomed at the Royal Exchange, from seven o'clock till eight o'clock in the[pg 502] evening up to the Feast of Pentecost, after which they were to commence playing at eight p.m., and "to hold on" till nine p.m. up to Michaelmas.[1542] There is another circumstance connected with the same building that deserves a passing notice, which is that football used to be played within its walls, a game forbidden in 1576 to be played any longer either there or in any of the city's wards.[1543]
Gresham College and Lectures.
The citizens of London are indebted to Sir Thomas Gresham for something more than their Royal Exchange. By will dated 5th July, 1575, proved and enrolled in the Court of Husting,[1544] Gresham disposed of the reversion of the Royal Exchange and of his mansion-house in the parish of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, after the decease of his wife, to the mayor and corporation of the city and to the wardens and commonalty of the Mercers' Company in equal moieties in trust (inter alia) for the maintenance of seven lectures on the several subjects of Divinity, Astronomy, Music, Geometry, Law, Physic and Rhetoric. In 1596 these two corporate bodies came into possession of the property, and in the following year drew up ordinances for the regulation of the various lectures. According to the terms of Gresham's will the lectures were delivered at Gresham House. When Gresham House, which escaped the Fire of London, became dilapidated, the City and the Company on more than one occasion petitioned Parliament for leave to pull it down and to erect another building on its site. The proposal, however, was not entertained, but in the year 1767 an Act was[pg 503] passed vesting Gresham House in the Crown for the purpose of an Excise Office, and providing for the payment by the Crown to the City and Company of a perpetual annuity of £500 per annum. For some time the lectures ceased to be delivered for lack of accommodation. When they were next delivered it was at the City of London School, where they continued until Gresham College was erected in Basinghall Street.[1545]
The Act of Uniformity strictly enforced, 1565.
In the meantime Protestantism had been gaining ground in England as well as on the continent. Many who in the evil days of the Marian persecution had sought refuge in Switzerland and Germany had returned to England as soon as they were assured of safety under Elizabeth, and had introduced into the country the religious tenets of Calvin they had learnt abroad. Elizabeth found herself confronted not only by Catholics but by Puritans. As she felt herself seated more strongly on the throne she determined to enforce more strictly than hitherto the Act of Uniformity. In 1565 the London clergy were ordered to wear the surplice and to conform in other particulars. Between thirty and forty of them—and those the most intelligent and active of them—refused and resigned their cures. Their congregations supported them, and thus a large body of good Protestants were driven into opposition. But there all action against them ceased. It was otherwise with the Protestants on the continent, where a determination arrived at in the same year that Elizabeth enforced the Act of Uniformity, to suppress heresy, led to the most horrible[pg 504] persecution, and drove many of the inhabitants to seek refuge in England.
Gresham's hospitality to Cardinal Chastillon, 1568.
Of the hundreds of foreigners who sought this country, driven from France or Spain by religious persecution,[1546] none was more hospitably received than the brother of the great Coligny, the Cardinal Chastillon. The Bishop of London having excused himself entertaining the cardinal at Fulham, his eminence was lodged and hospitably treated for a whole week by Gresham. During his visit he paid a visit, Huguenot as he was, to the French Church established in the city, where his co-religionists were allowed to worship without fear of molestation. He further paid his host the compliment of visiting the Exchange, then approaching completion. At the end of the week he removed to Sion House, where accommodation had been found for him.[1547]
The city crowded with refugees from the continent.
The influx of refugees from the continent was far from being an unmixed blessing. Whilst some settled peacefully down and taught the London artizan the art of silk-weaving, others betook themselves to the river's side, where they defied the civic authorities.[1548] A fresh return was ordered to be made of their number.[1549] It became necessary to forbid aliens remaining in the city more than a day and a night; they might reside in other places if they liked, but not in the city of London.[1550] Mortality increased so much that a[pg 505] committee hud to be appointed (March, 1569) "to peruse about the cytie where apte and convenient places maye be had and founde for the buryall of the deade in tyme of plage and other tymes of gret deathe," and to report thereon to the Court of Aldermen.[1551] An acre of ground, more or less, near Bethlem Hospital was subsequently prepared as a cemetery by the civic authorities,[1552] whilst a friend of the mayor agreed under certain conditions to enclose it with a wall, erect a pulpit and make other improvements at his own cost.[1553]
The Prince of Orange receives substantial assistance from the citizens.