Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical SketchDimock, Arthur
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch
Dimock, Arthur
St. Paul's Cathedral (London, England)
The exposure was followed next St. Bartholomew's eve by the removal of
the Great Rood at the north door, and those of our Lady of Grace and
of St. Uncumber. This last saint is supposed to be a foreign princess
of early times, styled also in England St. Wilgeforte. A peck of oats
was a favourite offering at her shrine in St. Paul's by those who
wished for favours; and according to Sir Thomas More she owed her
popular name because wives unhappy in their union so offered in the
hope that she would _uncumber_ (_i.e._, disencumber) them of their
husbands. The disgrace of Thomas Cromwell put a temporary stop to
actions of this nature; and we find Gardiner at the Cross denouncing
both Rome and Luther. We further find Barnes, our quondam penitent,
amongst those who replied from the same famous pulpit, and likening
himself and Gardiner to two fighting cocks, only that the _garden_
cock lacked good spurs. The result was that Barnes ended his chequered
career at the stake, as did others.
=Edward VI.=--So long as Henry lived it was dangerous to uphold either
the Petrine claims or the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and
it was equally dangerous to oppose the doctrine of transubstantiation;
but the Council of the child king would not have this latter doctrine,
and was distinctly Protestant. The endowments of the chantries had been
transferred to the Court of Augmentations in the autumn of 1545 (37
Henry VIII. c. 4) for the benefit of the king; but when at the
beginning of 1547 Edward succeeded his father, St. Paul's still
enjoyed her own. Somerset and his Protestant council not only wanted
the property, but objected to masses for the dead, and a renewing Act
was quickly passed, Edward's name taking his father's place. So went
chantries and _obits_ into the royal coffers, the list in Dugdale, as
returned to the Court, filling ten folio pages; while but little
commiseration was felt for the hard lot of these illiterate chaplains
deprived of their livelihood. And this was not all. Besides any
remaining roods and crucifixes, altars were demolished, tombs wrecked,
plate, jewels, vestments and frontals sold. Elaborate gold and silver
embroidered work found its way to Spanish cathedrals, and up to a short
time ago was reported to be still there.[26] Pardon Haugh Chapel was
desecrated, and the bones carted away to Finsbury; the Chapter House
cloisters went to build Somerset House. The dean, William May, was an
advanced Protestant; but so was not his bishop, Bonner. Bonner preached
at the Cross upholding transubstantiation, and was deprived and
imprisoned. It is to the credit of his successor, Ridley, that he
supported Bonner's mother and sister at Fulham; "Our mother Bonner"--he
was unmarried--taking the head of his table. Yet Ridley was one of the
judges at St. Paul's who sent the Anabaptist woman Joan Bucher to the
stake for heresy. During the first year or two of this reign, complains
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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