Page:VCH London 1.djvu/391

 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Truth.' She accepted it, ' thanking the City especially for that gift and promising to be a diligent reader thereof.' ^*^ At the coronation the old service was used. In April 1559 Westminster Abbey became the scene of a great ' dispu- tation ' between the English prelates and the reformers.^** The latter had been much encouraged by the fact that during Lent various ' gospellers ' had been allowed to preach three times a week before the queen herself.^** The Easter sermons at St. Mary's Spital and Paul's Cross were also preached by reformers.^" Protestant feeling amongst the common people showed itself in various sacrilegious outrages. The image of St. Thomas of Canterbury which stood over the door of the Mercers' Hall was torn down and broken.^** In the church of St. Mary le Bow the tabernacle and images were pulled down, and books and vestments defaced.^*' During this intermediate period great variety prevailed as to religious rites. The use of the mass at funerals was gradually discontinued, its place being taken by a few English prayers and a sermon.**^ On St. Mark's Day (25 April) processions with banners ' went abroad ' in various London parishes ' singing in Latin Kyrie Eleison after the old fashion.' ^*^ The marriage service was performed in Latin at St. Andrew by the Wardrobe on 30 May, mass being celebrated on the occasion ; but the parties were afterwards remarried. ^^^ Meanwhile Parliament had been busily engaged on the business of Church reform ; '^^ the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity were passed, and the new Book of Common Prayer was issued, and ordered to be used on and after 24 June 1559."^ As a matter of fact it came into use in the queen's chapel and in many London parishes during May.^" Bishop Bonner refused to allow its use in St. Paul's, and when bidden by the Council to do so, replied ' I possess three things, soul, body, and property ; of the two [last] you may dispose at your pleasure, but as to the soul God alone may command me.'^^* He was deprived on 30 May.^" The Council tried hard to make him resign, but he steadily refused. When asked how he proposed to live, he replied that he hoped in God and his friends, and that he could get his living by teaching children, or as a lawyer, or gardener,"^ or, should all else fail, as a beggar."' Dismissed by the Council, the bishop took sanctuary in Westmins- ter Abbey. ^" He was ultimately imprisoned in the Marshalsea,"^^ where he died, 5 September 1569, having resolutely refused to secure his liberty at the '" ^nna/s of Queen £/iz. (Camd. Soc), 15. '"Ibid. 19 ; Wilkins, Concilia, iv, 191 ; Zurich Letters, i, 1 1 et seq. ; Machyn, Diary, 192 ; Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 144 ; S.P. Dom. Eliz. iii, 51, 52. "♦Machyn, Diary, 189, 190 ; Zurich Letters, ii, 16. '"Machyn, Diary, 192 ; Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 144. '"Ibid. 143. '"Acts of P.C. vii, 77. For proclamation against defacing tombs, &c., see below. '"Machyn, Diary, 193, 194, &c. '"Ibid. 196. '"Ibid. 199, 373. '" Dr. Feckenham, Abbot of Westminster, the last mitred abbot who ever sat in Parliament, made a spirited speech, laying before the House a comparison of the new and old religions ; Somers Tracts, i, 58. '" Stat. I Eliz. cap. i, 2. '"' Machyn, Diary, 197 ; Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 145. '" Cal. Venetian S.P. 1558-80, p. 94. '" Machyn, Diary, 200 ; Gee, op. cit. 34. "' 'I know how to labour with my hands in gardens and orchards ... as well as any gardener in this kingdom.' '^' Cal. Venetian S.P. 1558-80, p. 95. »' Ibid. Gee, E/iz. C/e'rgy, 144 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ii, App. 152. 305 39 169