Page:VCH London 1.djvu/376

 A HISTORY OF LONDON but more money was spent in this way later, although it is improbable from the amounts given that a general destruction of all such pictures took place in many churches during the reign." The churchwardens endeavoured to meet the extraordinary expenditure of these years by selling such church goods as they considered no longer necessary. Some even obtained small sums for the images and pictures. Many sold by weight quantities of old iron and latten — the disused candlesticks and lamps of the paschal and other lights, &c. An existing set of answers from forty-two City parishes to the inquiry ordered by the king's Council in October i 547 shows that since 1544 much plate also had been sold or pawned, only two of the parishes being able to state that they had thus disposed of no- thing more valuable than latten, while, with one notable exception (St. Martin Outwich), they had all received large sums, from ^3 15J. to over >Ci°°5 ^'^^ plate. The dates of the sales are not always clear, but at least fourteen, and probably over twenty, were in 1547. The receipts from these varied between ^9 gs. id. and over £jj, most being over jTzo. In eleven out of the fourteen cases detailed lists of articles sold are given : chalices (St. Edmund's Lombard Street had sold three), censers, ships for incense, and processional crosses all appear, severally or together, in more than half of these lists. The money had generally been spent on ' reparations ' of the church, which included ' white liming,' painting, and glazing.^' In January 1 548 the aldermen decided to ask for a proclamation to stop the disregard of fast days and the irreverent railing against the Sacrament of the Altar ; in February they resolved to enforce that against unlicensed preachers, and in May they complained of the ' demeanour of certain preachers and other disobedient persons.' '* Meanwhile Latimer, in January 1 547—8, preached a series of sermons denouncing the sins of the citizens. ^° There was at this time a great influx into England of foreign reformers, whose teaching was henceforth an important religious influence.^' In the course of the year many ancient religious ceremonies were discontinued ; e.g. the Whitsuntide censing at St. Paul's, for which sermons were substituted ; " the use of candles on Candlemas Day, ashes on Ash Wednesday, and palms on Palm Sunday ; the watching of the Sepulchre, and the Corpus Christi procession. Tabernacles were taken down and silver monstrances and pyxes sold.^* But no alteration yet made by authority can have affected the religious life of every individual citizen so much as the introduction into the English ' Order of Communion,' issued early in March, of a form of general confes- sion, leaving private confession to a priest to be used by ' those that would,' " Par. Rec. ut. sup. ; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, v, 19 ; Ch. Gds. (Exch. K.R.), 4. The latter give much information about parochial expenditure from 1547 to 1552. " Par. Rec. and Ch. Gds. (Exch. K.R.), ut sup. ; Lond. Epis. Reg. Bonner, fol. 2673 ; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, V, 19. The latter can be dated between 10 Oct. and 28 Dec. 1547 by internal evidence and a comparison as regards names, amounts, S:c. with the Par. Rec, Ch. Gds. and Hennessy, Novum Repert. 83, 86. " Corp. Rec. Letter Bk. Q, fol. 230 ; Repert. xi, fol. 377, 379^, 395, 399, 433^ ; Monum. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 215-16. " Monum. Franc, ii, 215 ; Stow, Annals ; Latimer, Sermon on the Plough. ■' De Selve, Corresp. 21 Nov., 5, 23 Dec. 1547; Orig. Letters (Parker Sec), i, passim; Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 2; Monum. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 215. See W. Page, Hist. Introd. DeniTiations and Naturaii- zations (Huguenot Soc). " Corp. Rec. Repert. xi, fol. 431. " See Par. Rec. gen. ; Ch. Gds. (Exch. K.R.) ; Monum. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 216-17. 290