her; but the sin of having yielded to the solicitations of her royal lover-the handsomest man of his age, -was undeniable, and she was consequently led from the Bishop's Palace to the Cross, to confess her transgression before the assembled multitude. "In her penance," says Holinshed, "she went in countenance and pace demure; so womanly, that albeit she was out of all array, save her kirtle only, yet went she so fair and lovely, while the wondering of the people cast a comely red in her cheeks (of which she before had most want) that her great shame was her most praise among those that were more amorous of her body than curious of her soul." Granger informs us that the Duchess of Montagu had a lock of her hair, which looked as if it had been powdered with gold-dust.

When Richard the Third, then Duke of Gloucester, had completed his foul project of depriving his nephew of the crown, and placing it on his own head, it was at Paul's Cross that he caused his intentions to be announced to the astonished multitude. Notwithstanding that his mother, the venerable Duchess of York, was still living, and that her reputation had never hitherto been breathed upon, he caused his partizans to load her with the foul charge of having conferred her favours on different lovers, by one of whom it was asserted that she had become the mother of the late King Edward the Fourth, and of the Duke of Clarence. Of all her sons, it was insisted that the Duke of Gloucester alone was the true and legitimate off

spring of the Duke of York. It is difficult to believe that such a charge should have been publicly made by a son against his own mother; and yet not only was such the case, but Dr. John Shaw, brother of the Lord Mayor, was appointed to preach at Paul's Cross for the express purpose of promulgating it among the people. Having selected for his text the following words from the Book of Wisdom-"Bastard slips shall not strike deep roots," he in the first instance made use of every argument which tended to throw suspicion on the legitimacy of the late King and of the Duke of Clarence, and then concluded his profligate harangue by bursting forth into a fulsome panegyric on the Duke of Gloucester. "Behold this excellent prince," he exclaimed, "the express image of his noble father; the genuine descendant of the House of York; bearing no less in the virtues of his mind, than in the features of his countenance, the character of the gallant Richard, once your hero and favourite he alone is entitled to your allegiance; he must deliver you from the dominion of all intruders; he alone can restore the lost glory and honour of the nation." According to Sir Thomas More, it had been previously concerted that "at the speaking of these words, the Protector should have come in among the people to the sermonward, to the end that these words, meeting with his presence, might have been taken among the hearers as though the Holy Spirit had put them in the preacher's mouth, and should have moved' the

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people to cry King Richard! King Richard!' that it might have been after said that he was specially chosen by God, and in a manner by miracle." By some ludicrous mischance, however, this piece of clap-trap was completely thrown away; the Duke not making his appearance till some time after the words had been spoken, when he suddenly presented himself in an upper story of one of the galleries. The preacher, consequently, was compelled to repeat his fulsome rhetoric; which signally failed in producing the intended effect. The people, we are told, stood "as though they had been turned into stones," to the great discomposure of the Protector and his reverend panegyrist.

We have already mentioned that in ancient times it was the custom to declare Royal marriages at Paul's Cross. In 1501, we find the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Henry the Seventh, with James the Fourth of Scotland, proclaimed with great ceremony at this spot. The Te Deum was sung; bonfires blazed in the streets, and twelve hogsheads of wine were distributed among the citizens.

Paul's Cross is intimately associated with the progress of the Reformation in England. Here Henry the Eighth engaged the most eminent divines to preach against the Pope's supremacy; and here, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, Bishop Latimer proclaimed those pure doctrines for which he afterwards suffered martyrdom in the flames. He preached his first sermon at Paul's Cross, on New

Year's Day 1548, and his second and third on the two following Sundays. Another illustrious martyr, Bishop Ridley, was also a frequent preacher at Paul's Cross. Perhaps the most memorable occasion on which he officiated was on the 1st of November 1552; when, says Stow," Being the feast of All Saints, the new service book, called of Common Prayer, began in Paul's Church, and the like through the whole city. The Bishop of London, Dr. Ridley, executing the service in Paul's Church in the forenoon, in his rochet only, without cope or vestment, preached in the choir; and at afternoon he preached at Paul's Cross, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and crafts in their best liveries being present; which sermon, tending to the setting forth the said late-made Book of Common Prayer, continued till almost five of the clock at night; so that the Mayor, Aldermen, and Companies entered not into Paul's Church, as had been accustomed, but departed home by torchlight." Another interesting occasion, on which Ridley preached at Paul's Cross, was on the 9th of July 1553, three days after the death of Edward the Sixth, when he advocated the claims of the Lady Jane Grey, and congratulated his audience on having escaped the dangers which would have attended the accession of Queen Mary.

But the fate of both the Lady Jane and of Ridley was sealed. Queen Mary had no sooner established herself on the throne, than the champions of the Reformation were compelled to succumb to

the Roman Catholic priesthood, who once more thundered forth their anathemas from Paul's Cross, on those who had dared to impugn the truth and immutability of the old religion. Strype mentions a sermon which was preached at Paul's Cross, about five weeks after the Queen's accession, by Dr. Bourn, incumbent of High Ongar, in Essex, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and a large assemblage of citizens. "This man," he says, "did, according to his instructions, fiercely lay about him in accusing the doings of the former reign, with such reflections upon things that were dear to the people, that it set them all into a hurly-burly; and such an uproar began, such a shouting at the sermon, and casting up of caps, as that one, who lived in those times and kept a journal of matters that then fell out, writ it was as if the people were mad; and that there might have been great mischief done, had not the people been awed somewhat by the presence of the Mayor and Lord Courtenay." A dagger was actually hurled at the preacher, which stuck in the pulpit; and it was only by the timely interference of two influential Protestant clergymen, John Bradford and John Rogers,-both of whom subsequently suffered martyrdom at the stake,—that Bourn was conveyed in safety to a house in the neighbourhood. On the following Sunday it was thought necessary to surround Paul's Cross with two hundred of the Queen's guards, in order to insure the safety of the preacher.

During the reign of Queen Mary, and the con