Basilica Anglicana

Cross became a centre around which the excitement of polemical controversy converged . Hither came the champions ofthe old and tho new style , of Christ and Antichrist , according as the heat of argument and partizanship suggested either compliment . Here Latimer preached his three great sermons in 1547 , and Ridley in 1553 .

But what a scene was there in 1588 . Prom Ratcliff to Westminster the river was thronged with barges darting across each other , " their oarsmen in their scarlet , purple , green , yellow , and blue waistcoats , looking like men who had fallen into a fortune , or were newly married . " The grave citizens of the Goldsmiths , the Merchant Tailors , the

Haberdashers , Fishmongers , and various other guilds , seemed as if relieved from a great weight , whilst their wives and daughters , in gorgeous bodices and quilted petticoats , indulged in laughter without restraint , and in that overflowing good humour for which these ladies were then remarkable . It was indeed high holidayfrom Temple Bar to Crilegate .

, pp Charing Cross was then a suburban village , Holborn was occupied by meadows , St . Martin ' s ancl St . Giles were literally in the fields . If that much quoted and ill-used personage , Lorcl Macaulay ' s New Zealander , could have been within sound of Bow bells that clay , lie would have thought that the good people of England has taken leave of'their

senses . But the truth was that the " Invincible Armada " had been scattered to the winds , and Queen Elizabeth was going to Paul ' s Cross to return thanks to God for the delivery of her realm . First came tlie mummers in their

varicoloured suits , then remnants of the old archers , citizens with quarter staves , arquebuss men , the Queen ' s body guard , and those lusty yeomen of the guard , the forerunners of the modern Beefeaters , then the Queen on her palfrey , surrounded by her ministers of state . In the midst of this universal rejoicing there was not the trace of a smile visible

iu the serene but somewhat stem face of Elizabeth . There was no emotion recognizable in her blue eyes , bright and scrutinizing as was peculiar to the Tudors , as the queen passed under the bleaching skulls on the "Bar , " whose sparse locks dangled in the wind . "The pulpit cross in St . Paul ' s churchyard was newly repairedpaintedand

, , partly closed with a wall of brick . Dr . Fletcher , Bishop of London , preached there in praise of the Queen , ancl prayed for her Majesty before the Lord Mayor , Aldermen and citizens in their best liveries . Which sermon being ended , upon the church leades the trumpets sounded , the cornets winded , and the quirists sung an an theme . On the steeple

many lights were burned , the Tower shot off her ordinance , the bells were rung ancl bonefires were made . " The Queen returned to Westminster calm and impassable . Perhaps she recollected that it was in that pulpit cross at Paul ' s that the rights of Queen Catherine were first assailed ; there that her own mother was denouncedthere that her own

; and her half sister ' s claims found advocates and enemies ; there that Anne of York mourned like Rachael for her offspring ; there that Jane Shore did penance in a white sheet .

Within a very short period of this episode , Old St . Paul ' s met with its penultimate misfortune . An accident , however , had previously befallen the church , which we had nearl y omitted to mention . A violent tempest of thunder and wind burst over the metropolis on the 1 st of February , 1444 . The li ghtning struck and set fire to the steeple , ivhich was

composed of wood , and the flames were not extinguished until one of the canons with laudable zeal had , in the attempt to subdue them , nearly sacrificed his own life . But in 1561 , on the 4 th of June , a thoughtless plumber left a pan of coals burning within the spire while he went to dinner . When be returned the whole building was in a blaze . Everything in

and about the church that could be burned was reduced to ashes . Elizabeth , assisted b y the nation , directed all her energy to its restoration and refitting , but it never recovered

its ancient splendour . The spire was never rebuilt , but after an interval of five years the church was reopened for public worship . The fire had however permanently injured it , and we read of it fallen into complete decay in 1608 , but the cost required for its repair being twenty thousand pounds , it could not be restored . In 1633 howeverCharles I . gave

, , the commission to Inigo Jones , upwards of £ 100 , 000 having been subscribed by the public for its restoration . This celebrated architect erected a portico of great beauty at the west end of the church . It consisted of fourteen columns , each rising to the height of forty-six feet , the whole supporting an entablature crowned with statues of apostles , confessors ,

and martyrs . The aspect of the artistic addition was said to be most effective and imposing , and to compensate for many if not all of the lost g lories of the sacred building . But a day of [ storms was coming . The strifes that had sprung up in the religious and political world were deepening and widening . The old cathedral was decorated with flags

as the king passed on his way to the city and heard the shouts of the citizens ,. and in less than two months afterwards . she put on deep mourning as his blood reddened the pavement of Whitehall . The funds which had been subscribed for its restoration had been seized by the parliament . The beautiful entablature which had just been erected was thrown

clown , and the figures of the saints mutilated . The scaffolding was given to Colonel Jephsou ' s troopers for arrears of pay , and they dug pits in the very centre of the nave to saw the timber in . Another part of the building was turned into a

barracks and stables for a troop of dragoons . But even a worse fate had befallen this centre of national worship in tho apathy for religion that had preceded and succeeded the ascendancy of Puritanism , which , whatever may be said of it , operated as a hurricane does when in throwing destruction broadcast it warns the mariner to be sober and wary and

have his compasses adjusted . Towards the close of the sixteenth century the benches at the door of the choir were lounges for beggars and drunkards to sleep upon . There was actually a large dunghill within one of the doors . More than twenty private houses were built against its very wallsand the owners—shrewd business

, men , no doubt—had bored through to make room for lumber or stores , and even down into the vaults , which they converted into cellars . At one of the visitations the verger represented that "the shrouds and cloisters under the convocation house are made a common laystall for books , boards , trunks ancl chestsbeing let down to the trunkmakers

, , whereby , their daily knocking and noise , the church is greatly disturbed . " One house , which was literally let into the church , was stated to have been used as a i _ layhouse . An accomplished baker had even erected an oven in ono of the buttresses , where he baked bread and pies and did a thriving business . At length came that great calamity the fire , which

destroyed London from the Tower to the Temple , and in its progress overthrew church and mart . The . venerable pile in which sixty generations had prayed , succumbed to the devourin < r element and rose in its ancient form no more . We have mentioned Paul's Cross so particularly , because it supplied in many respects the purposes of the

cathedral , that is to say , when repairs wore being carried ou , the one might be' said to stand for thc other . There is a very old engraving representing the court of James I . attending divine service here . The cross would appear to have stood in front of the western entrance , facing the north western angle . It was a round pulpit , with a canopy

surmounted by a cross . The royal p hilosopher , with Prince Charles , is seated in a box forming tlie centre compartment of a temporary gallery , of which the other two are occupied by the nobility and ministers of state . In a gallery immediately underneath are seated the judges in their robes , and below them again the lord mayor , aldermen , and common council . Tlie clergy , consisting of the dean and chapter , arc