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 A HISTORY OF LONDON crucifix which had stood in the churchyard of St. Margaret Pattens for more than thirty years, the offerings made to it being employed towards the re- building of the church, was destroyed during the night of 22—3 May. More than twenty men confessed that they had helped to pull it down, as they had heard through 'Mr. Cromer' (? Dr. Crome) and the bishop of Worcester (Latimer) that the Lord Privy Seal had commanded that it should be removed.^" It would seem from a sermon preached at the end of May by the curate of St. Benet Gracechurch that some images at St. Paul's were broken up about this time.^^^ He begged the people to pray to saints, and, railing against 'young wits,' told them how St. Austin landed with a cross of wood and a picture of Christ — thus further scandalizing some of his hearers, who remembered that St. Austin was the ' legate of a reprobate master, the pope.' On Trinity Sunday he preached that St. Paul went about to prove predestination, but could not attain to it."^ The fact that his parishioners complained of him to Cromwell seems to show that in one London parish at least there was a majority in favour of the new opinions. But possibly the conservative party was especially weak at that time, since their protector, Stokesley, was himself in danger. He was arrested at the end of May, under the Statute of Praemunire, because he had admitted two brethren and a nun into the Bridgettine convent of Syon, in accordance with a i 5th-century bull setting forth the rules of their order. He at once threw himself on the king's mercy, and was pardoned in July."' It is probable that the pardon was bought by the cession of some valuable property to the king and Crom- well. A letter from Stokesley to the latter concerning this matter refers to the existing religious disorder, saying that Bishop Hilsey appointed the preachers at the Cross, ' and all others preach that will.' ^^' Some effects of this disorder are illustrated by the case of John Forde, the rector of St. Mar- garet Lothbury who had scorned the injunctions of 1536. He now refused to begin mattins sooner to give time for a sermon, would not preach him- self, on one occasion retired to the vestry to avoid hearing a sermon, and on another went on with his mass in the middle of a sermon to prevent it from being finished.'*" The unequal contest still raging between Stokesley and Cromwell is illustrated by the reply of a woman to a servant of the Marquis of Exeter, who had said that heretics would soon be tied together, sacked, and thrown into the Thames by the bishop's authority — ' We care not for the Bishop of London, thanked be God and our gracious King.'*" This anecdote occurs in a deposition which, with others taken that autumn, shows that Stokesley's opponents were then trying to ruin him by finding proof of his treasonable communication with those whom the king chose to consider his enemies.'*^ In July more ' notable images ' were brought up to London and burnt,'*' and in August, by Cromwell's orders, the famous rood at the north door of "' Rec. Corp. Repert. x, fol. 34.^; Wriothesley, op. cit. i, 81 ; Lend. Chron. 13 in Camd. Misc. iv ; Stow, Sart'. (ed. Kingsford), i, 209 ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (2), 596. "' Cf. Land. Chron. 13 in Camd. Misc. iv, 'Our Lady of Grace' : see Hale, A Series of Precedents, 81. This may have been the im.ige hidden by 'they of Pauls,' and discovered in 1547 ; Wriothesley, op. cit. ii, i. "' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (i), nil. '» Ibid. 1095, 1096, 15 19 (3) ; ibid. (2), 803. »' Ibid. (I), 1499, 1500 (cf. 1096) ; (2), 119. »° Ibid. (I), 1492 ; (2), 13. "' Ibid. (2), 820. '" Ibid. (2), 695, 830 (5, vii) ; cf. 248, 797, 803, 828, 829 (2). '" Wriothesley, op. cit. i, 83 ; Land. Chron. 13 in Camd. Misc. iv. 268