A number grete of armed men
Here all this while do stand,
To look that no disorder be
Nor any filching hand.
For all the church goodes out are brought
Which certainly would be
A bootie good, if every man
Might have his libertie.

Verily Master Googe's fingers itched to carry off some of this "bootie
good," but we are grateful to him for giving us such a realistic
description of the processions on Corpus Christi Day.

Religious plays were also not infrequent. These the city folk dearly
loved. Clerkenwell was a favourite place for their performance, and
there the Worshipful Company of the Clerks of London performed some
wonderful mysteries. In 1391 A.D. they were acting before the King, his
Queen, and many nobles, "The Passion of our Lord and the Creation of the
World," a performance which lasted three days. At Skinners' Well, the
Company of the Skinners "held there certain plays yearly"; and in 1409
the Clerks performed a great play which lasted eight days, when the most
part of the nobles and gentles in England were present. Originally these
plays were performed in the churches, but owing to the gradually
increased size of the stage, the sacred buildings were abandoned as the
scenes of mediaeval drama. Then the churchyards were utilised, and in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the people liked to act their plays
in the highways and public places as at Clerkenwell, which, owing to the
configuration of the ground, was well adapted for the purpose.

Strange scenes of savage punishment attract the attention of the
unfeeling crowd in the city streets, who jeer at the sufferers. Here is
a poor man drawn upon a hurdle from the Guildhall to his own house. He
is a baker who has made faulty bread, and the law states that he should
be so drawn through the great streets where most people are assembled,
and especially through the great streets that are most dirty (that is
especially laid down in the statutes), with the faulty bread hanging
from his neck. There stands the pillory, and on it, with head and hands
fast, is another baker, who has been guilty of a second offence. Blood
is streaming from his face, where cruel stones have hit him, and rotten
eggs and filth are hurled at him during the one hour "at least" which he
has to remain there.

But there were less savage amusements than the baiting of bakers. Jousts
and tournaments periodically created unwonted excitement, as when,