gels seem to have been used as supporters. About 1788 the motto
"Verbum Domini manet in eternum" (The word of the Lord endureth for
ever) began to be adopted, and in the same year the crest of an eagle
was used. On the silver badge of the Company's porter the supporters are
naked winged boys, and the eagle on the chevron is turned into a dove
holding an olive-branch. Some of the buildings of the present hall are
still let to Paternoster Row booksellers as warehouses.

The list of masters of this Company includes Sir John Key, Bart. ("Don
Key"), Lord Mayor in 1831-1832. In 1712 Thomas Parkhurst, who had been
Master of the Worshipful Company in 1683, left L37 to purchase Bibles
and Psalters, to be annually given to the poor; hence the old custom of
giving Bibles to apprentices bound at Stationers' Hall.

This is the first of the many City companies of which we shall have by
turns to make mention in the course of this work. Though no longer
useful as a guild to protect a trade which now needs no fostering, we
have seen that it still retains some of its mediaeval virtues. It is
hospitable and charitable as ever, if not so given to grand funeral
services and ecclesiastical ceremonials. Its privileges have grown out
of date and obsolete, but they harm no one but authors, and to the
wrongs of authors both Governments and Parliaments have been from time
immemorial systematically indifferent.

[Illustration: OLD ST. PAUL'S, FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR.]

CHAPTER XX.

ST. PAUL'S.

London's chief Sanctuary of Religion--The Site of St. Paul's--The
Earliest authenticated Church there--The Shrine of Erkenwald--St.
Paul's Burnt and Rebuilt--It becomes the Scene of a Strange
Incident--Important Political Meeting within its Walls--The Great
Charter published there--St. Paul's and Papal Power in
England--Turmoils around the Grand Cathedral--Relics and Chantry
Chapels in St. Paul's--Royal Visits to St. Paul's--Richard, Duke of
York, and Henry VI.--A Fruitless Reconciliation--Jane Shore's
Penance--A Tragedy of the Lollards' Tower--A Royal Marriage--Henry
VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey at St. Paul's--"Peter of Westminster"--A
Bonfire of Bibles--The Cathedral Clergy Fined--A Miraculous
Rood--St. Paul's under Edward VI. and Bishop Ridley--A Protestant
Tumult at Paul's Cross--Strange Ceremonials--Queen Elizabeth's
Munificence--The Burning of the Spire--Desecration of the
Nave--Eliza