Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch — John Shaqi
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)
What was to be done with the bishop? To allow him to continue in his
high office was tantamount to a grave scandal to religion, and his
person was not safe from the fury of the populace. He was replaced by
Edmund Grindal, and spent the remaining ten years of his life chiefly
in the security of the Marshalsea, without any undue vigour or
harshness. Mary's first dean, Feckenham, had been made abbot of the
resuscitated regular foundation of Westminster, and his successor was
quietly ejected in favour of the restored May, whilst a few of the
other dignitaries lost their stalls. The Epistle and Gospel were first
read in English, and eventually the Prayer Book was resumed; but the
changes were made gradually; and, considering the provocation, no
vindictive spirit was displayed.
In June, 1561, the beautiful spire was destroyed by fire caused by
lightning or by a plumber's neglect, and the Chapter House seriously
injured. We have no trustworthy plates prior to this fire, and the
various estimates about the height of the spire and other matters are
anything but infallible. Service was held at St. Gregory's, and the
roof and other parts restored at a cost of L6,700, but the
architecture was never the same afterwards. Of course the disappointed
Romanists attributed the disaster to the Divine anger, and Bishop
Pilkington, of Durham, preaching next Sunday at the Cross, to the
still continued desecration.
It is difficult for us to understand why this desecration was allowed
to go on. A pillory was indeed set up outside near the bishop's
palace, and a man convicted of fighting nailed there by his ears,
which were afterwards cut off; but this must have been an offence
exceptionally outrageous. "What swearing is there," says Dekker, "what
shouldering, what jostling, what jeering, what biting of thumbs to
beget quarrels." At Bishop Bancroft's Visitation a verger complained
that colliers with coal-sacks, butchers' men with meat, and others
made the interior a short cut. Bishop Corbet, of Norwich, wrote:
"When I past Paules, and travelled in that Walke
Where all our Brittaine-sinners sweare and talke,
Ould Harry-ruffians, bankrupts, suthe-sayers,
And youth, whose cousenage is as ould as theirs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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