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 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY tabernacles of St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Leonard's Eastcheap were after- wards used as schoolrooms.'* To provide the large sums needed for rebuilding the City churches the •draft Bill of 1667 proposed that all sites and materials should be sold by the lord mayor and aldermen. The scheme was both irregular and insufficient, and accordingly a tax of zs. per chaldron on seaborne coal brought within the liberties from 1667 to 1677 was applied to this purpose.'^ By the Act of 1670 an additional 2j. per chaldron was imposed from that year till 1687, one quarter of the sum realized being assigned to the rebuilding of St. Paul's ; to this was added money imposed in lieu of penance in North Wales. '^ By means of the coal tax, ^104,500 was raised between 1670 and 1678. By that time jr20,ooo had been borrowed on its security, and ^255,000 more was needed to complete Wren's scheme, the work already done on thirty-two ■churches having cost ^165,000," in which was included the internal decora- tions, an integral part of his designs. All the money obtained was paid into the Chamber of the City, and administered by the commissioners. In rebuilding a church the commissioners first obtained a contract on Wren's •specifications ; before any work could be begun the parishioners had to deposit in the Chamber ^^500, afterwards repaid, and on this the com- missioners advanced a sum equal to half the estimated cost ; " the Court of Aldermen advanced the guarantee money for St. Laurence Jewry and other churches.'' The parishes were divided into two classes : the first or ordinary class, in which no substantial help from the parishioners was forthcoming ; and the second, where the money was advanced by the parishioners and was repaid without interest. Some parishes raised large sums : that of St. Stephen Coleman had paid in jr2,ooo by 1674, and promised as much more as should be wanted, while the parishioners of St. Dionis advanced in all j^5,ooo."° The nave of St. Mary Aldermary was rebuilt with ^{^5,000 left for that purpose by Henry Rogers," St. Mary le Bow received ^2,385 in gifts,''^ and St. Michael Cornhill '^'^ and other churches benefited in the same way. The rebuilding was begun in June 1670 by Wren, working under the commissioners, with whom the corporation was in touch. ^* The first churches ordered to be rebuilt were St. Sepulchre's, on which the rector had already spent jC^oo ; St. Anne and St. Agnes,'^ St. Magnus, Christ Church, and St. Vedast Foster, where the old walls were used and faced with Portland stone ; ^" St. Christopher le Stocks, where the same plan was probably followed ; St. Bride's and St. Laurence Jewry, the ruins of which were demolished ; *^^ St. Clave Jewry and St. Michael Queenhithe, built on the old foundations ; ^^ St. Mary le Bow, St. Augustine's, and St. Michael Cornhill.^' By January " Bodl. Lib. Tanner MS. 124, fol. 171 ; 125, fol. 122. " Ibid. 142, fol. 118, 120 ; Stat. 19 Chas. II, cap. 3. '* Stat. 22 Chas. II, cap. 11 ; Bodl. Lib. Tanner MS. I24, fol. 59. " D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. 10 (24 June 1678). " Ibid. W.E. 16, 17; W.E. 10, fol. 26 ; ibid. 13 May 1670, &c. " Rec. Corp. Repert. Ixxxi, fol. ob. '" D. and C.St. Paul's, W.E. 10, fol. 4 ; ibid. II Aug. 1674, 10 Oct. 1681 ; Bodl. Lib. Tanner MS. 142, fol. 93. " Gent. Mag. Lib. ' Topog.' xvi, 44. " St. Mary le Bow Vestry Minutes. " Thoresby, Diary, 26 May 1695. » D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. 10, fol. I ; Rec. Corp. Repert. xlvi, fol. 132/^. « D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. lo (13 June 1670) ; W.E. 3 ; W.E. 10, fol. 23. >« Birch, Lond. Churches, 2. " D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. I, fol. 8, 14. " Birch, loc. cif. ■ " D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. 10 (13 June 1670).