Next adjoining this Royal Exchange remaineth one part of a large stone house, and is now called the Castle of such a sign; at a tavern door there is a passage through out of Cornehill into Threeneedle street; the other part of the said stone house was taken down for enlarging the Royal Exchange: this stone house was said of some to have been a church, whereof it had no proportion, of others a Jew’s house, as though none but Jews had dwelt in stone houses; but that opinion is without warrant, for besides the strong building of stone houses against the invasion of thieves in the night, when no watches were kept, in the 1st year of Richard I., to prevent the casualties of fire, which often had happened in the city, when the houses were built of timber, and covered with reed or straw, Henry Fitz Alewine being mayor, it was decreed, that from henceforth no man should build within the city but of stone, until a certain height, and to cover the same building with slate or burnt tile; and this was the very cause of such stone buildings, whereof many have remained till our time, that for winning of ground they have been taken down, and in place of some one of them being low, as but two stories above the ground, many houses of four or five stories high are placed. From this stone house down to the Stocks are divers large houses, especially for height, for merchants and artificers. On the south side of this high street is the parish church of St. Peter upon Cornehill, which seemeth to be of an ancient building, but not so ancient as fame reporteth, for it hath been lately repaired, if not all new built, except the steeple, which is ancient. The roof of this church, and glazing, were finished in the reign of Edward IV., as appeareth by arms of noblemen and aldermen of London then living. There remaineth in this church a table whereon it is written, I know not by what authority, but of a late hand, that King Lucius founded the same church to be an archbishop’s see metropolitan,[162] and chief church of his kingdom, and that it so endured the space of four hundred years, unto the coming of Augustin the monk. Joceline of Furness writeth, that Thean, the first archbishop of London, in the reign of Lucius, built the said church by the aid of Ciran, chief butler to King Lucius; and also that Eluanus, the second archbishop, built a library to the same adjoining, and converted many of the Druids, learned men in the Pagan law, to Christianity. True it is, that a library there was pertaining to this parish church of old time, built of stone, and of late repaired with brick by the executors of Sir John Crosby, alderman, as his arms on the south end doth witness.