A HISTORY OF LONDON of the churchyard, pointed out by Latimer in 1552/°^ large crowds of citizens attended the Sunday sermons ; and on all important occasions the lord mayor and aldermen were present. Seats were provided for these dignitaries, but the accommodation for the City officers in attendance on them was insufficient till in 1567 the City undertook to enlarge their bench 'so that they may quietly sit there during the time of the sermons.' -"' At the same time it was ordered that the gutter which had hitherto discharged rain-water on the heads of these minor officials should be diverted.-"^ In 1569 a ' house ' ^"^ was erected by the lord mayor for the wives of the City magnates 'to sit in at the sermons' ; ^"^ and it was ordered that on the Whitsun holy days in that year ' not only my Lord Mayor and Alderman to be there in scarlet for Whitsun Sunday and Monday, and in violet of Tues- days, but their wives also to be there ... in such apparel as they lik.e.'^'° The scene must have been a brilliant one, especially on such a day as 8 September 1588, when at the great thanksgiving at Paul's Cross for the defeat of the Armada, there were ' openly showed eleven ensigns, being the banners taken in the Spanish navy ; ^" and particularly one streamer wherein was an image of our Lady with her Son in her arms, which was held in a man's hand over the pulpit.' ^'^ Few things serve to illustrate the growth of Puritan influence in London more forcibly than the change which took place with regard to the observance of Sunday. From time immemorial English people ' had been accustomed to consider that at the close of divine service the religious duties of the day were at an end.' ^'^ As has been shown above, effiDrts had been made during the reign of Edward VI to enforce a stricter order of things, but without much success. When Elizabeth came to the throne ' stage-plays and interludes ' were performed in London on Sundays in private houses as well as in theatres ; *^* bear-baitings took place ; *^° and on Sunday evenings the Exchange was enlivened by the music of the City waits."' But long before Dr. Bound published"" his book on Sunday observance a great change had come over the City in this respect. In 1574 an order was issued that plays were not to be performed on Sunday except by licence from the lord mayor, and never during service-time, as it was thought that {inter alia) they caused the citizens to absent themselves from church. -^^ In 158 i, and again in 1583, the performance of plays, interludes, bear-baitings, &c., on 'the Sabbath-day' was altogether prohibited.-" About the same time carriers were forbidden to pass through the City on Sunday, while shops and ale-houses were ordered to be closed during divine service."" Certain drapers of Birchin Lane, Lombard Street, and Cornhill having disre- garded this last injunction, their neighbours lodged a complaint against them "Mn a sermon on the third Sunday in Advent, 1552, quoted by J. H. Marldand, Remarks on Engl. Churches, 184.
- "' Corp. Rec. Letter Bk. V, fol. 139^. *"' Ibid. "" i.e. permanent covered seats.
- "' Corp. Rec. Letter Bk. V, fol. 224, 227^, 237, 274^.
"•> Ibid. 236. "' See S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxv, 54. "' Nichols, Progresses of Eliz. ii, 537. *" Gardiner, Hist, of Engl, iii, 247. '" Corp. Rec. Letter Bk. V, fol. 216. '" Ibid. Z, fol. 271^. "^ Corp. Rec. Repert. xvii, fol. 300 ; Sharpe, Lond. anil the Kingdom, i, 501-2. "'In 1595. "* Corp. Rec. Liber Legum X, 363. Jets ofP.C. xiii, 270 ; Corp. Rec. Letter Bk. Z, fol. 271^. Corp. Rec. Journ. xxi, 325 ; Letter Bk. Z, fol. 72. 322 119 US
