security of the Marshalsea, without any undue vigour or
harshness. Mary's first dean, Feckenham, had been made abbot of the
resuscitated regular foundation of Westminster, and his successor was
quietly ejected in favour of the restored May, whilst a few of the
other dignitaries lost their stalls. The Epistle and Gospel were first
read in English, and eventually the Prayer Book was resumed; but the
changes were made gradually; and, considering the provocation, no
vindictive spirit was displayed.

In June, 1561, the beautiful spire was destroyed by fire caused by
lightning or by a plumber's neglect, and the Chapter House seriously
injured. We have no trustworthy plates prior to this fire, and the
various estimates about the height of the spire and other matters are
anything but infallible. Service was held at St. Gregory's, and the
roof and other parts restored at a cost of L6,700, but the
architecture was never the same afterwards. Of course the disappointed
Romanists attributed the disaster to the Divine anger, and Bishop
Pilkington, of Durham, preaching next Sunday at the Cross, to the
still continued desecration.

It is difficult for us to understand why this desecration was allowed
to go on. A pillory was indeed set up outside near the bishop's
palace, and a man convicted of fighting nailed there by his ears,
which were afterwards cut off; but this must have been an offence
exceptionally outrageous. "What swearing is there," says Dekker, "what
shouldering, what jostling, what jeering, what biting of thumbs to
beget quarrels." At Bishop Bancroft's Visitation a verger complained
that colliers with coal-sacks, butchers' men with meat, and others
made the interior a short cut. Bishop Corbet, of Norwich, wrote:

"When I past Paules, and travelled in that Walke
Where all our Brittaine-sinners sweare and talke,
Ould Harry-ruffians, bankrupts, suthe-sayers,
And youth, whose cousenage is as ould as theirs."

The choir boys even during service time were on the alert for "spur
money," a fine due for the wearing of spurs. "Paul's Walk" (the
central aisle of the nave), said Bishop Earle, of Salisbury, "is the
land's epitome.... It is the general mart of all famous lies."
Shakespeare was thinking of his own time, as well as of the time of
Henry IV. (2 Henry IV., act 1, scene 2) when he makes Falstaff engage
Bardolph, out of place and standing at the servant-men's pillow to be
hired. John Evelyn called the