abbot, and King Edward often visited it and received aid for his Scottish wars. This Godfrey built the large gateway. A century later the abbot was endowed with the privilege of a mitre, and thus took his seat in the House of Peers; and during this fourteenth century the lantern tower was erected with an octagon framed of wood, the triforium windows changed into the Decorated style, and the west front improved by the erection of the spire and the central porch. During the fifteenth century we hear sad complaints of the relaxation of the discipline of the monks, who too often frequented taverns and "the vulgar company of dancers and ballad singers." Abbot Kirton was a notable man, who built, or rather finished, "that goodly building at the east end of the church, now commonly known by the name of the new building," begun by his predecessor Ashton; and his rebus--a _kirk_ and a _tun_--appears on the grand gate, now leading to the Deanery. At this time several Norman windows were filled with Perpendicular tracery. We see Cardinal Wolsey visiting the Abbey, and on Maundy Thursday washing the feet of poor persons, and the luckless Catherine of Arragon being buried here in 1535. Then came the dissolution of monasteries, and Peterborough shared the fate of the rest. Whether it was on account of the subservience of the abbot, or because it contained the ashes of his queen, Henry VIII. spared the church, and made it a Cathedral, the last abbot being the first bishop. The burial of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 is the next historical event which was here witnessed. We can imagine the scene of the torchlight procession bearing the executed body of the frail but fair queen into the church, and the last solemn obsequies of that sad and stormy life. Cromwell's soldiers "did after their kind," and Dean Patrick tells us of "the rifling and defacing" that ensued:-- "The next day after their arrival, early in the morning, they break open the church doors, pull down the organs, of which there were two pair. "Then the souldiers enter the quire, and their first business was to tear in pieces all the common-prayer books that could be found. The great bible indeed, that lay upon a brass eagle for reading the lessons, had the good hap to escape with the loss only of the apocrypha. "Next they break down all the seats, stalls and wainscot that was behind them, being adorned with several historical passages out of the old testament.