Bishop Latimer, in one of his discourses, preached in Lincolnshire, in 1552, makes an observation on this preaching in St. Paul's church-yard, in which we have no doubt there was a good deal of truth. We have, in recent times, had many undoubted proofs of infectious diseases having thus originated. "The citizens of Naim," says the worthy prelate, "" had their burying place without the city, which no doubt is a laudable thing, and I do marvel, that London, being so great a city, hath not a burial place without, for no doubt it is an unwholesome thing to bury within the city, especially at such a time, when there be great sicknesses, and many die together. I think verily that many a man taketh his death in Paul's churchyard, and this I speak of experience; for I myself, when I have been there on some mornings, to hear the sermons, have felt such an ill-savoured and unwholesome savour, that I was the worse for it a great while after; and I think no less but it is the occasion of great sicknesse and disease."

Every encouragement was given to obtain good preachers at Paul's cross. Such as came from a distance, were ordered by the mayor and aldermen to be freely accommodated with clean and convenient lodgings, fire, candle, and all necessaries, for five days.

A sort of inn was kept expressly for the purpose of their reception, which was called "The Shunamites' House." They received besides, forty-five shillings for each sermon. Latterly, however, these allowances were reduced to four days' board and lodging, in the Shunamites', and forty shillings for the sermon. It was at St. Paul's Cross that Dr. Shaw, on the 19th of June, 1483, preached his memorable sermon

from the words of Solomon, that "bastard slips shall never take deep root ;" and by endeavouring to prove the illegitimacy of the young princes, sought to pave the way of the Duke of Gloucester to that throne to which he afterwards ascended through blood. The worthless preacher, however, prostituted his sacred calling to no purpose. Stowe says, that the multitude "stood as they had been turned into stones, for wonder of this shameful sermon." " Having once ended," adds he, "the preacher got him home, and never after durst look out for shame, but kept him out of sight, like an owl; and when he once asked one who had been his old friend, what the people talked of him, albeit his own conscience well shewed him, that they talked no good; yet, when the other answered him, that there was in every man's mouth spoken of him much shame, it did so strike him to the heart, that within a few days after he withered and consumed away."

When the great reformer, Henry, quarrelled with the see of Rome, he issued an order in council, commanding, that from " Sunday to Sunday," such as should preach at Paul's cross, should teach and declare to the people, that neither the pope nor any of his predecessors were any thing more than simple bishops of Rome, and had no more authority within this realm than any other foreign bishop," and the bishop of London was ordered, at his peril, to suffer none other to preach there but " such as would preach and set forth the same."

On the accession of Mary to the throne, the preaching at St. Paul's cross took a different turn. A few days after, one Bourn, chaplain to the infamous Bishop Bonner, delivered a sermon here, so full

of papistical notions, that one of the auditors, in the warmth of his indignation, hurled a dagger at the preacher, which stuck in a side post of the pulpit; nor would he have escaped probably with his life, but for the interference of the two popular protestant ministers, Bradford and Rogers, who rescued him from the fury of the people. On the following Sunday, the queen sent a guard of two hundred halberdiers to protect Dr. Watson, another of her favourite preachers, in inculcating the same doctrines, and agreeably to her majesty's command there were also present, to assist in keeping the peace, "all the crafts of London in their best liveries, together with the lord mayor and aldermen." How long this military guard was kept up does not appear; but that there was long occasion for it, is evident from the recurrence of a similar act of violence in the following year. One Sunday, whilst Dr. Pendleton was preaching at the cross, a gun was secretly fired at him, the ball from which passed close by him and struck on the church wall. Proclamation was issued in consequence of this outrage, forbidding the carrying of weapons and all shooting with hand guns.

When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, popery was again preached down at Paul's cross, by a series of very able preachers, such as Horne, Jewel, Sandys, &c. Pennant says, the last sermon preached at this place was that which we have before mentioned as delivered before James I. but there is evidence of sermons having been preached there, at a later period, which were attended by Charles the First.

The station of St. Paul's cross was not confined merely to inculcating religious duties, but was employed for various other purposes, both ecclesiastical and po

litical, for the publishing of papal bulls, for giving force to oaths, for the declaration of a change in the succession to the throne, for anathematizing sinners, for penances and recantations.

It was here that, in 1262, King Henry III. caused the bull of Pope Urban IV. to be read, absolving him from his oath, in swearing to maintain the articles made in the parliament at Oxford, known by the name of the mad parliament. Here, in 1299, Ralph de Baldock pronounced all those who had searched or consented to the digging for treasure within the church of St. Martin le Grand, accursed; and here, in 1417, Lord Strange and Sir John Trussel were excommunicated for an affray in the church of St. Dunstan's in the East. It was here also, that in 1483, the unfortunate Jane Shore was put to the worst of shame, an open penance, "6 gazing," as the historian of Edward V. says, "before a crosse on a Sondaye at procession, with a taper in her hande; in the which she went in countenance and pace so womanly, and albeit she was out of al her arraye, savying her kyrtell onelye, yet went she so fayre and lovely, and namelye when the wondrying of the people cast a comelye rud in her cheeks, of the which she before had most mysse, that her great shame wonne her much praise."

In 1496, several Lollards did penance at Paul's cross "shryned" with faggots. In 1502, the marriage of James IV. of Scotland with Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. was proclaimed here. On Sunday, the 24th of February, 1538, Stowe relates, "the rood of Boxley in Kent, called the Rood of Grace, made with divers vices to moove the eyes and lips, was

shewed at Pawle's cross by the preacher, which was the Bishop of Rochester, and there was it broken and plucked to pieces." But, perhaps, the most whimsical ceremony that ever took place at Paul's cross was on the 8th of March, 1555, when," while a doctor preached at the cross, a man did penance for transgressing Lent, holding two pigs, ready drest, whereof one was upon his head, having brought them to sell."

The cross was demolished in 1643, by an order of parliament, and was never after restored.

NEW ST. PAUL'S.

"I honour antiquity so much the more," says an author of the time of Charles I. " because it so much loved the church, and I can but admire the charity of former times, to build such famous temples, whereas these ages cannot find repaire to them; but then the world was all church, and now the church is all the world." Had the writer lived but a few years later, he would have found reason to speak very differently of the moderns, since it is much to be doubted, that in any country even when the Roman power was in its zenith, and the lives and fortunes of millions at its disposal, so many ecclesiastical structures were erected as in the age that immediately succeeded the great fire of London in 1666. One single architect, whom God seemed to have blessed with long life and extraordinary vigour of intellect, that he might raise temples to his glory, during a period of thirty years erected fifty churches, which exhibit all the merits and varieties of almost every style of architecture;