Page:VCH London 1.djvu/305

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY they prayed at the tomb of Bishop WiUiam, and then passed on to the place in the churchyard where the parents of Thomas Becket were buried, and there said the De Profundis for all the faithful departed. Thence returning through Cheapside, they made offering of id. each at the church of St. Thomas of Aeon."' In 141 5, however, the thanksgiving for the victory of Agincourt took place on that day, and the usual procedure was modified. When the news came the bells of every church were set ringing, ' and solemnly all the priests . . . and other men that were lettered sung Te Deum Laudamus, etc. ; and against ix of the bell were warned ' all the monks and friars of the City to go with the mayor and aldermen, the queen, the lords, and an immense number of the commonalty from St. Paul's to the shrine of St. Edward at Westminster to make a thank-offering.'^'^ On All Saints' Day, Christmas Day, the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John, the Circumcision, and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, the mayor and aldermen assembled at the church of St. Thomas of Aeon and proceeded to St. Paul's to hear Vespers,"* standing in order of rank along the sides of the quire, the mayor next to the dean's stall. On the feast of the Innocents they heard Vespers at the church of St. Thomas of Aeon. On the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Whitsun week they went to St. Paul's, and, the Vent Creator having been sung, made offering at the high altar. In 1429 the mayor gave, to the praise of God and the glory and honour of Mother Church, a great thurible, weighing 13I lb., of good and pure silver, to be used every year in censing the people who causa devocionis went with them to St. Paul's that week. On each day the mayor's procession was preceded by that of the clergy and people of one of the archdeaconries of the diocese. Monday was the day of the archdeaconry of London, and the procession started from the church of St. Peter in Cornhill. An ' apostolic contention ' had often arisen concerning the place of honour in processions, which was claimed, more by the parishioners than the rectors, for St. Magnus, St. Nicholas Coleabbey, and St. Peter Cornhill. An ordinance of 141 7 assigned it for ever to the rectors of St. Peter's, because that ' basilica ' had once been a metropolitan see, and therefore they were 'priors, or rather abbots,' over all the rectors of the City."^ The mayor and aldermen seem to have been present very frequently, if not on every Sunday morning, to hear the sermon at Paul s Cross ; "° and they attended in state the Easter sermons preached from another outdoor pulpit at St. Mary Spital. On Good Friday some ' especial learned man ' used to preach at Paul's Cross, treating of Christ's passion ; on the following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday other learned men, appointed by the aldermen, at the Spital, treating of the Resurrection ; on Low Sunday yet another made the ' Rehearsal Sermon ' at Paul's Cross, commending or 1S3 I33a Riley, Mem. ofLond. 565 ; Monum. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 163 ; Liber Albus (Rolls Ser.), 26. • For notices of this and other processions between I415 and I448 see Riley, op. cit. 620 ; Chron. of Lend. (ed. Nicolas), 102 ; Chron. of Land. (ed. Kingsford), 269 ; Hist. Coll. of a Lend. Citizen (Camd. Soc), 113; Chron. Jdae de Usk (ed. Thompson), 128-9, '3^ ! Rymer, Foedera, ix, 372, 569 ; Wilkins, Cone, iii, 431 ; Lond. Epis. Reg. Gilbert, fol. 89 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, App. i, 634. '" On Christmas, the Epiphany, and the Purification, Compline also. '" Liber Albus (Rolls Ser.), 27-30 ; Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 79 ; sufra, p. 188 ; D. and C. St. Paul's, A, box 28, no. 241 (of. Monum. Franc. [Rolls Ser.], ii, 216-17 ; VVriothesley, Ckron. [Camd. Soc], ii, 2, 3 ; Rec. Corp. Repert. xi, fol. 431) ; Riley, op. cit. 651 ; cf. 466. "' Cf. Sharpe, Cai. Letter Bk. I, 231, and notices of these sermons in various chronicles, Sic, passim. 223