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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY St. Paul's, and the figure of St. Uncumber, 'with her gay gown and silver shoes,' were taken down ' because the people should do no more idolatry ' to them."** Cromwell also ordered the destruction of the windows in the church of St. Thomas of Aeon which illustrated the life of the archbishop, and of the picture of the death ot St. Thomas over the altar, ' where the saying was that he was born also ; so that there shall no more mention be made of him never.' ^" His image, however, was not removed from the common seal of the City till September 1539.^*' It would seem that in this matter the citizens were less ready than usual to obey the royal command ; and it is possible that many felt aggrieved at the dishonour done to the memory of one of the City's most famous sons, whose protection had for so long been invoked by the inscription on that seal : ' Me que te peperi ne cesses Thoma tueri.' '*^ The new royal Injunctions were published in London in September. Wriothesley specially mentions those which ordered that the Bible in English should lie in a convenient place in every church for the parishioners to read it, that all lights in the churches should be taken down save those in the rood-loft, before the Sacrament, and about the sepulchre, and that a register of weddings &c. should be kept in each parish.'** Another London chronicler,*' besides the clause forbidding lights to be set before images, mentions that commanding every man, woman, and child to learn the Pater- noster, Ave,"" and Creed in English. The Injunctions were triumphantly shown to Richard Hilles by the churchwardens of his parish, but he still refused to contribute to the cost of the rood and sepulchre lights, hoping that those also would be forbidden before long. In the end his mother appeased 'the fury of the dogs' by paying the sum required."^ Wriothesley says that in 1538 the Te Deum was sung in English in the City ' after sermons made by Dr. Barnes . . . and other of their sect, commonly called of the papists the new sect.' '^^ This anticipation of the change to be made ten years later in the language of divine service is interest- ing, but it is probable that it was confined to a few churches. Another event, the abolition, on the authority of the mayor, of the ancient customs connected with the feast of St. Nicholas and the ' boy-bishop ' must have seemed far more important at the time."' The year 1538 is also remarkable for an outbreak of persecution. The first victim was Friar Forest of Greenwich, whose ' heresy ' was a denial of the royal supremacy. Once a well-known preacher at Paul's Cross, he had been imprisoned with his fellow Observants, but had at last ' denied the Bishop of Rome by an oath given by his outward man, but not in the '" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (i), 1393 ; (2) 209 ; Wriothesley, op. cit. i, 84 ; LonJ. Chron. 13, in Camd. Misc. iv. The ballad given by Foxe (op. cit. v, 404-9), written probably in Sept. or Oct. 1538, contains allusions to most of the images destroyed in London during the year. '" Wriothesley, op. cit. i, 86 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (2), 523 ; see also ibid, viii, 626. A general proclamation for the abolition of images and pictures of St. Thomas was made in Nov.; Wriothesley, op. cit. i, 89 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (2), 848. "^ Rec. Corp. Letter Bk. P, fol. 197. "' Stow, Surv. (ed. Klngsford), i, 315. '*' Chron. (Carad. Soc), i, 85. '" Land. Chron. 14, in Camd. Misc. iv. ™ The Ave is not mentioned in the copy of the Injunctions in Cranmer's Register ; Gee and Hardy, Documents, 2'j6 ; cf. supra, p. 265. '^' Orig. Letters (Parker Soc), i, 231-2. '*' Chron. (Camd. Soc), i, 83. '" Rec. Corp. Letter Bk. P, fol. 1721^ ; cf. Wriothesley, op. cit. i, 92. The royal proclamation abolishing this custom in other parts of Enghnd was not issued till I 541 ; Wilkins, Cone, iii, 860. 269