Penitents, under ecclesiastical censure, came here to perform public penance; and perhaps the most familiar name of those who came is Jane Shore. It was in the year 1483 that she did public penance. She was one of the mistresses of Edward IV., who died in 1483, and, within two months of his death, she was tried by Richard III. for sorcery and witchcraft, but he failed in proving his charges. He took property from her equal to about L20,000 of the present time. His next step was to bring her before the Ecclesiastical Courts and have her tried for incontinence. It was for this crime that she had to do penance in the streets of London. She proceeded from the Bishop's Palace, clothed in a white sheet, and carrying in her hand a wax taper, and before her was carried a cross. We are told by Rowe: "Submissive, sad, and lowly was her look, A burning taper in her hand she bore, And on her shoulders, carelessly confus'd With loose neglect, her lovely tresses hung, Upon her cheeks a faintish flush was spread, Feeble she seem'd, and sorely smit with pain, While barefoot as she trod the flinty pavement, Her footsteps all along were mark'd with blood. Yet silent still she pass'd, and unrepining, Her streaming eyes bent ever on the earth, Except when, in some bitter pang of sorrow, To Heaven she seem'd in fervent zeal to raise And beg that mercy man denied her here." It was on June 19th, 1483, that Dr. Ralph Shaw, brother of the Lord Mayor, preached a famous sermon at the cross. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, intended seizing the crown. Dr. Shaw was directed to make the purpose known in his sermon, and, accordingly, took for his text the fourth chapter of the Book of Wisdom: "Bastard slips shall not take root." He tried to prove the illegitimacy of Edward V. and his brother, saying that when Edward IV. married their mother, Elizabeth Woodville, he was already the husband of Lady Eleanor Boteler, of Sudeley. Next, he expressed a doubt if Edward was in reality the son of Richard, Duke of York, and entitled to the crown of England. He made a strong point of the fact that no likeness existed between him and his reputed father. Continuing his sermon, he observed that "my Lord Protector, that very noble prince, the pattern of all heroic deeds, represented the very face and mind of the great Duke, his father; he is the perfect image of his father; his features are the same, and the very express likeness of that noble Duke." Sir Thomas More says that it had been arranged that, when the words had been spoken, the Protector should have come amongst the assembly, "to the end that these words, reciting with his presence, might have been taken by the hearers as though the Holy Ghost had put them in the preacher's mouth, and should have moved the people even then to cry, 'King Richard! King Richard!' that it might have been after said that he was specially chosen by God, and in a manner by miracle. But the device failed, either