Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/70

 Bath; and, of Exeter. The well-known organ of the latter, in the cathedral of the city in which he resided, is deserving of notice on many points, but time will not allow me now to dwell upon it.

We now arrive at the period which explains the cause of many of the old instruments I have named having been so ruthlessly swept away—the Great Rebellion.

An ordinance being passed in the House of Lords, January 4, 1644, establishing a new form of divine worship, in which no music was allowed but plain psalm singing, it was thought necessary, for the promotion of true religion, that no organs should be suffered to remain in the churches; that choral books should be torn; painted glass windows broken; sepulchral brass inscriptions defaced; and, in short, that the Cathedral service should be totally abolished. In consequence of this ordinance, collegiate and parochial churches were stripped of their organs and ornaments; some of the instruments