The influence of the Church on morals was probably no greater in the Middle Ages than it is now. Certainly men were no more moral than they are now. In saying this, one is not attacking the moral influence of the Church. In a time of greater rudeness, greater ignorance, greater lack of self-command, greater violence, one would expect what actually happened, viz. that there were times when the power of the Church seemed lost, _e.g._ in the Civil Wars of King Stephen’s reign. As for the City, much the same cheating went on in trade, and there was quite as much laxity in morals of every other kind as we can boast of in our own time. Moreover, it is always difficult to decide when the law punishes an evil-doer-whether it is the law or the preaching of the Church which restrains others from becoming evil-doers. As regards the superstitions of the people of London. They were at all times believers in magic and sorcery, but, as always happens, many of the popular beliefs seemed often to sleep or to be dead. It was only from time to time that there occurred an outbreak of belief showing that superstition of this kind still existed among them. The most notable case, for instance, is that of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, whom we heard of at p. 210: she was accused of attempting to compass the death of Henry the Sixth by means of a magic image. Everybody seems to have firmly believed this story, which, indeed, may have been perfectly true. She, however, did penance in the City of London, and was confined for life in Chester Castle, and the woman who assisted her was put to death. Later on, Richard the Third endeavoured to make out that Elizabeth Woodville had been guilty of magic and sorcery. [Illustration: THE CHAPEL OF THE HOSPITAL FOR LEPERS IN KENT STREET, SOUTHWARK, CALLED LE LOCK, _dedicated to S^t. Mary and S^t. Leonard_. Founded prior to the XIV{^th}. of Edw II. M B This Chapel Was Built To the Honour of God and for the Use of the Poor Infirm and Impotent People Harbourd Within this Hospital _May Mar Bond Esq Treasurer_ Anno 1636 _Inscription over the Door_ From the Grangerised Edition of Brayley’s _London and Middlesex_, in the Guildhall Library.] Other superstitions the people had, and, as at the present day, obscure persons earned their livelihood by pretending to discover where stolen property was to be found, and by telling fortunes and the like. A curious superstition is mentioned by Chaucer. He tells us that, by the help of a bone of a wether’s right shoulder, from which the flesh had been boiled (not roasted) away, some could tell what was being done in far countries, “tokens of pees and of werre, the staat of the relme, sleynge of men, and spousebreche.”