Volume 1

London / edited by Charles Knight.

Date:
1841-1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: London / edited by Charles Knight. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/912 (page 39)
    commerce existing was still in great part a commerce of barter, money was often scarce even with those who had plenty of everything else; accordingly it was here provided that, while a poor layman might borrow to the extent of ten pounds from the fund, the dean or any of the principal canons of the Cathedral might have a loan of twice that sum, a citizen or nobleman one to the same amount, and the bishop of the diocese one of forty or even of nearly fifty pounds.* It would be interesting to know if any of the noble or right reverend borrowers was ever proclaimed as a defaulter at the Cross; and also whether on occasion of such occurrences it was customary for the preacher to adapt his discourse to the case in hand, as would seem to be implied by the regulation that he should make the announcement in the course of his sermon. It is easy to conceive how forcibly he might illustrate certain of the moral duties by the happy application of this method—how the precept might not only be sent home by the example, as by the blow of a hammer, but the example itself mighty according to the Horatian rule, be made more stimulating by being addressed to the eyes as well as to the ears of the congregation, through the actual exhibition of the forfeited pledge from the pulpit—of the humbler tradesman’s holiday suit or best yew bow, the merchant’s bale of broad-cloth, the nobleman’s silver drinking-cup, or the bishop’s holy book or richest mule-trappings. Indeed the register of this ancient pawnbroking establishment would be altogether one of the most curious relics of the middle ages if it could be recovered; but it has no doubt perished long ago, as well as the good bishop’s legacy itself, with the chest, secured by three keys, in which it was kept, and the pledges of the last borrowers, upon whom probably the Reformation, or some other earlier convulsion, came suddenly some fine morning, foreclosing all redemption. But to return to the sermons. In 1388 the then bishop, Robert de Braybroke, in certain letters addressed to his clergy, describes Paul’s Cross—“ the high cross standing in the greater churchyard of our cathedral”—as the station from which the word of God was in use to be preached to the people in the most public and distinguished part of the cemetery. The object of the bishop’s letters was to call upon his clergy to stir up their flocks to contribute to the repair of the Cross, which “ was then gro^vn ruinous by reason of winds and tempests.” It is said to have suflered, with many other buildings, by the earthquake which was felt all over the south of England on the morning of the 21st of May, 1382. Stow records that in Kent especially “ it sunk some churches and threw them down to the earth.”t The restoration of Paul’s Cross was taken up as a matter in which the church over the whole kingdom was concerned. Other letters, inviting the faith- ful to assist in the good work, were written by the Archbishop of Canterbury; “ as also,” continues Dugdale, “ the Bishops of Ely, Bath, Coventry and Lich- field, Llandaff, and Bangor sent out at the same time, promising indulgence of forty days to all such as (de peccatis suis vere penitentibus, confessis, et contritis) J should contribute thereto.” It is affirmed that considerable contributions were in this way drawn from the pockets of the people, but that Braybroke and the other bishops, instead of applying the money to the pious purpose for which it was * Dugdale. f Annals. 1 “ For rtieir sins truly repenting, having made confession, and felt contrition tlie condition expressed in all ^mpal indulgences.