If the tradition recorded upon the famous Foundation-Plate preserved in this edifice could be received as an authentic narrative, it would be rendered by far the most ancient and honourable Church in Britain: but the deficiency, obscurity, and uncertainty, of the ecclesiastical history of England previously to the arrival of Augustine, and the questionable character of those later annalists by whom its events are written, afford but little evidence or information as to the time when this building was really erected. Yet whatever may be the true value of this monument in point of proof,—as a genuine relique of some antiquity, and as exhibiting the age which has now been assumed for this Church for upwards of centuries,—the present historical notices will most properly commence with a copy of the inscription itself . a most accurate, though reduced, Fac-simile of the characters in which it is engraven, now published for the time,[a] —being given on of the annexed Plates.

Bee it knowne to all men that in the yeare of ovr Lord God

179

.

Lvcivs

the

first

Christian King of this Land, then called Britaine, Fovnded y

e

first

Chvrch in London, that is to say, y

e

Chvrch of S

t

. Peter vpon Cornehill: and hee fovnded there an Archbishop's See, and made that Chvrch y

e

Metropolitane and chiefe Chvrch of this Kingdome, and so it indvred y

e

space of

400

yeares and more, vnto the coming of S

t

. Austin the Apostle of England, the which was sent into this Land by S

t

. Gregorie, y

e

Doctor of y

e

Chvrch in the time of King Ethelbert; and then was the Archbishop's See & Pall removed from y

e

foresaid Chvrch of S

t

. Peter vpon Cornehill vnto Dorobernia, that now is called Canterbvrie, & there it remaineth to this day, and Millet a monk which came into this land with S

t

. Austin, hee was made the

first

Bishop of London, and his See was made in Pavl's Chvrch, and this

Lvcivs

King was the

first

fovnder of S

t

. Peter's Chvrch vpon Cornehill, and hee reigned King in this Land after Brvte

1245

, yeares. And in the yeare of ovr Lord God

124

.

Lvcivs

was crowned King: and the yeares of his reigne were

77

yeares, and hee was bvried (after some Chronicles) at London:

It is probable that this difference of statement originated in a difference of translation of the very same passage in the British History of Jeffrey of Monmouth concerning the death of Lucius, book v. chap. i., which is as follows. Inter hæc et ceteros sui propositi actus, in urbe Claudiocestriæ ab hac migravit vita, et in ecclesia primæ sedis honorifice sepultus est. Anno ab Incarnatione Domini centesimo quingentesimo sexto. This is commonly rendered—Amidst these and other acts of his great piety he departed this life in the City of Gloucester, and was honourably buried in the Cathedral Church, in the 156th year after our Lord's Incarnation. Ranulph Higden, in his Polychronicon lib. iv. anno 195, has the more explicit words Lucio Rege Britonum absque liberis defuncto, et in Claudiocestriæ sepultus est, citing Jeffrey in the margin as his authority; and all the best English historians have made the same statement. The words distinguished by Italic letters in the above extract, however, will also very well allow of being construed,—and was honourably buried in the Church of the Chief See;—namely, that of St. Peter at London, which had been constituted the Prime Metropolitan Cathedral. Some particulars concerning the burial-place of Lucius at Gloucester will be found in a future note. Many accounts of this king are entirely at variance with the statement and dates, on the plate as above given, since they represent him as having quitted his kingdom after his baptism, to have become a preacher of the gospel in Germany, and to have died Bishop of Lucion in France: whilst his sister is stated to have suffered martyrdom in the latter country under the name of St. Emerita. See the Liber Chronicarum of Ant. Koberger, commonly called the Nürnberg Chronicle, 1493, fol. cxv b. This discrepancy is noticed and explained in Harrison's Description of Britain prefixed to the first edition of Holinshed's Chronicles, Lond. 1577. fol. vol. i. book i. chap, 7. marked 8. p. 10 a, col. ii.—Second Edit. 1586, vol. i. book ix. chap. 10, p. 25.,—by the circumstance that Lucius, King of Britain, is confounded with Lucius, or Lucion, son of Chlorus and the Empress Helena, and brother of Constantine the Great. This prince had really a sister Emerita—probably only a general appellation for all religious female recluses, &c.—and the British King had a niece called by the same name, which coincidence has increased the confusion.—There is also very considerable doubt and difference of statement as to the exact date which ought to be assigned to the event recorded on the above plate; the time having been computed by various historians according to various methods, from A.D 164 to A.D. 183. Venerable Bede himself records the same circumstance in two different books as having happened in A.D. 156 and A.D. 167; sometimes the period before the baptism of Lucius is not accounted in his reign, and sometimes the space of fifteen years after his death without heirs, when the kingdom was in confusion without a sovereign, is included as a part of it; and Archbishop Usher cites twenty-three different dates assigned as the time of Lu,cius. The Pontiff to whom he sent is also called both Eleutherius and Evaristus; and the two preachers who were employed are named with all the varieties of Eluanus Elvanus, Medwinus, Derwinus, Deruvianus, Dervianus, Dervanus, Duvanus, Divianus, Donatianus, Damianus, Faganus, Phaganus, and Fugatius.—The Concordance of Histories, by Robert Fabyan, Lond. 1559, 4to. Table of the Third Part, signature A v. rev. Part IV. p. 45. Origines Britannicæ, or the Antiquities of the British Churches, by Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, Lond. 1685, fol. pp. 59, 60. De Præsulibus Angliæ, by Francis Godwin, Bishop of Landaff, Edit. by Rev. W. Richardson Cantabr. 1743. fol. p. 17.

and after some Chronicles hee was bvried at Glocester, in that place where y

e

Order of S

t

. Francis standeth now.

The Plate on which this inscription is sculptured, is of tarnished brass lacquered, inches by in the sight-measure of a handsome carved oaken frame, painted black and varnished, in which it is now preserved over the fire-place of the vestry of , In the century it appears to have been chained to a pillar in the Church itself; but though the inscription is considered to be only of about the time of Henry VI.,[c]  the age when the plate was erected cannot now be ascertained from any of the parochial records, as the Vestrybooks do not contain a single order concerning it, though they have been preserved from the year . Probably the author by whom it is mentioned in print, is Raphael Holinshed, in the edition of his Lond. , folio, volume i. History of England, page for a, column . It is also referred to in Stow's , edition, , to. page ; where the author remarks that it was written,

I know not by what authority, but of a late hand.

of

no

late hand;

Now because many haue vrged it very earnestly to me to let them be farther acquainted therewith, I haue here inserted the same, verbatim, as it is recorded in the table.

a copy taken out of the Table fast chained in

St. Peter's Church

upon

Cornhill

.

It is not here intended to enter into any enquiry as to the origin or truth of that history of Lucius and his opiscopal establishment so extravagantly set forth in the British History of Jeffrey of Monmouth, upon the slight and doubtful notices of Venerable Bede and Nennius, taken from , after Gildas, the most ancient genuine British author, had declared that he could not procure any historical records in Britain.[b]  This examination will not be attempted here, as well on account of the length to which it would extend, as that it is to be found so well executed in numerous works, and is not required by the present inscription; which has very remarkably no reference to the fabulous parts of the history, but almost entirely agrees with that plainer statement of it, which is now generally supposed to have been the truth. Of Lucius himself it will therefore be sufficient to relate, that he is at the present time believed to have been a British Prince, not very distantly descended from that Cogidunus on whom the Emperor Claudius bestowed some cities, which authority was continued in the family.[c]  The chief difficulty concerning him appears to be the situation of his kingdom; since if it stood on the north of Hadrian's Wall, he could have had no power over Carlisle and London, where he planted Metropolitan Sees, and if on the south, he must have been only a vassal of the Romans who could not so entirely have abolished heathenism as he is said to have done. The latter objection is, however, answered by the supposition that he retained the favour of the Romans; and Bishop Stillingfleet supposes that the place of his government was in the Counties of Surrey and Sussex, over the people called the Regni.[d]  It is admitted that Christianity had been preached and received in Britain from even the Apostolic age, though the missionary who declared it has not yet been decided upon; but that by the time of Lucius the knowledge of it had from various causes greatly declined, and the country was especially deficient in religious instructors.[e]  The King himself is considered to have been a believer in the Gospel, from the preaching of of the older British Christians; but that he could neither receive all the information which he desired for himself, nor convey the principles of the true faith to his subjects. The plainest narrative of his revival of Christianity at this period, is probably that contained in an ancient historical manuscript concerning the Cathedral of Landaff, cited by Dugdale,[f]  which states that

in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord

156

, Lucius, King of the Britons sent his deputies, namely Elvanus and Medwinus, to Eleutherius, the

twelfth

Pope

Eleutherium xiii loco post beatum Petrum Papam. Spelman's Concilia, Vol. I. p. 17.

of the Apostolic See, beseeching that by his instruction he might become a Christian: this he obtained from him, and giving God thanks that the gentile people who

first

inhabited these regions from Brute, so earnestly desired the Faith of Christ,—the Pontiff was pleased speedily to baptize the same deputies in the Council of the Elders of the City of Rome; and to ordain into the Catholic faith Elvanus as a Bishop, and Medwinus as a teacher. And being thus qualified for learned and eloquent preachers, having the Sacred Scriptures, they returned to Lucius in Britain; and by their holy preaching, Lucius, and all the British chiefs, received baptism; and according to the direction of the blessed Pope Eleutherius, they instituted the ecclesiastical order, ordained

Bishops, and taught the rules of pious living.

With even the very printed notice of this Plate the statement upon it was questioned; since in the

Historie of Englande

There be that affirme how this Lucius should build the Church of St. Peter at

Westminster

,

The author referred to in this place by Holinshed appears by the margin to have been Radulphus Niger, a monk of Bury in Suffolk, who died about A.D. 1217, and whose work is entitled Chronicon succintum de Vitis Imperatorum et tam Franciæ quam Angliæ Regum à Christo ad Anno 1213; which is to be found in a MS. on vellum, written in the thirteenth century, in the Royal Library in the British Museum, marked 13 A xii., 4to. on fol. 5 a of which is the following passage in the reign of Lucius. Then were made the boundaries of the ancient bishoprics, under the Metropolitans London, York, and Caerleon, which is now called St. David's; and then was founded the Abbey of Westminster, in the last year of Antoninus Pius. A long time afterwards the said Abbey was destroyed, and rebuilt and nobly endowed by King Edward.— Almost the very same words are inserted in the Historia Compendiosa Regibus Britonum, of Radulphus De Diceto, printed in Gale's Scriptores XV. Vol. I. p. 555.

though many attribute that acte vnto Sibert, King of the East Saxons, and write how the place was then ouergrowen with thornes and bushes, and thereof tooke the name and was called Thorney.

The authority cited in this place by Harrison, is the Historiæ Angliæ of Polydore Virgil, written about 1521, the words of which are as follow, translated from the edition of Basil, 1570, fol. p. 41, under the year 182.—There are who assign the situation of the Church of the blessed Peter, without the walls of the City of London, though most others have attributed that to Sebert, King of the East Saxons; even as we declare hereafter, when we relate how those Saxons were surnamed East, and others South and West. In this place, firstly, is the most noble cemetery of the kings, and it is commonly called Westminster, because it looks towards the Occident, which is called West (Vuest) in English. It is beside in the highway, and near to the King's palace; and that society of monks, or monastery, as it is called, the convent of the holy Benedict; and also to that most splendid edifice dedicated to St. Stephen; and to that Sanctuary, so long celebrated, for guilty fugitives; and likewise to those courts where causes are fairly impleaded and justice declared. I found in a most ancient volume, though without the name of the author, that this place was formerly surrounded by water, and was called the Isle of Thorns.—In John Leland's book De Rebus Britannicis Collectanea, Lond. 1774, vol. iii. (part iv.) p. 69, marginal page 71, there appears the following entry, also upon the subject, taken from an old volume at the Monastery of Rochester. In the year of our Lord 186 was overthrown the Temple of Apollo which was at Westminster, that was then called Thorney; and then was begun to be built the Church of St. Peter, 274 years before the coming of the Angles into Britain, and 411 years before the arrival of St. Augustine and his associates. In the same year Britain received the Faith of Christ, by the preaching of his word by Fugatius and Damianus, sent by the Pope Eleutherius to King Lucius reigning over the British.

They adde, moreouer, as Harrison saith, how that Thomas, Archbishop of London, preached, redde, and ministred the sacraments there, to such as made resorte vnto him. Howbeit, by the Tables hanging in the reuestry of Sainte Paule's at London, and also by a Table sometime hanging in Saint Peter's Church in

Cornhill

, it shoulde seeme that the sayd Church of Saint Peter in

Cornhill

was the same that Lucius builded. But herein, sayth Harrison, Anno Mundi

4174

, doth lie a scruple: sure Cornell might soone be taken for Thorney, especially in such olde recordes as time, age, euil handling, hath oftentimes defaced.

In like sort also, the rest of the idoll-temples standing in other places were either ouerthrowne, or conuerted into Churches for Christian congregations to assemble in, as our writers doo remember. In the report whereof, giue me leaue, gentle reader of London, my natiue citie, to speak a little: for although it may be, and dooth seeme, impertinent to my purpose, yet it shall not be much, and therefore I will soone make an end. There is a controuersie moued by our historiographers, whether the Church that Lucius builded at London, stood at

Westminster

or in Cornehill. For there is some cause why the Metropolitane Church should be thought to stand where S. Peter's now doth, by the space of

400

and odd yeers before it was remoued to Canterburie by Austine, the monke, if a man should leane to

one

side without anie conference of the asseuerations of the other. But herein, as I take it, there lurketh some scruple: for beside that S. Peter's Church stood in the east end of the Citie, and that of Apollo in the west,

The Authority referred to by Harrison for this statement is contained in the second book of William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, printed by Sir Henry Savile's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam, Lond. 1601, fol. p. 235, line n: But the monastery of the blessed Peter was built in the western part of the City, as it was reported the Apostle himself admonished the messenger.

the word

Cornehill

,—a demomination giuen of late, to speak of, to

one

street,—may easilie be mistaken for

Thorney.

For as the word Thorney proceedeth from the Saxons, who called the west end of the Citie by that name, where

Westminster

now standeth, bicause of the wildenesse and bushinesse of the soile;—soe I doe not read of anie street in London called Cornehill, before the conquest of the Normans. Wherefore I hold with them which make

Westminster

to be the place where Lucius builded his Church vpon the ruines of that Flamine

264

yeeres, as Malmesburie saith, before the coming of the Saxons, and

411

before the arriuall of Augustine.

It has been well observed by Baronius that no testimony of later authors is to be regarded concerning things of remote antiquity, unless supported by the evidence of ancient writers;[f]  and the authenticity of this Inscription- Plate has been therefore the more rigorously examined and denied, because of the very old and doubtful story recorded upon it, for the proof of which it is infinitely too recent to be admitted. The most direct charge against it and enquiry into its age, are contained in the Rev. Samuel Pegge's very curious and learned

Svlloge of remaining authentic Inscriptions relative to the Erection of our English Churches;

The historians who affirm that upon was the original Church founded by Lucius, appear not to be older than the century, and chiefly those of the following, in which case they also become too modern to allow of any considerable dependance being placed upon them as evidence. The authority cited by Stow for this statement is Joceline of Furness, a monk of the Cistercian Abbey of that place in the County of Lancaster, who died A.D. ; and who, beside other works, compiled a book concerning the Bishops of the British, in which the circumstance appears to have been recorded, but it is doubtful whether the work be now extant.[c]  The event was also engraven upon certain historical Tables of brass, somewhat similar to the present, suspended in the old Cathedral of St. Paul, as mentioned by various authors,[d]  which have been confidently referred to as proofs of the authenticity of that in ; of which it is not improbable they were the original. The oldest of these appears to have been that Table or Chronicle mentioned by Leland, containing an abridgement of the history of Jeffrey of Monmouth, with an epitome of the story of the Saxon Kings, and a continuation from the time of William the Conqueror to that of the author; which Tablet was of those given to the Church by Ralph De Baldock,[e]  Bishop of London from A.D. to , when he died. Archbishop Usher states that it was suspended in the porch of the Chapter-house, and gives an extract of the passage in it relating to .[f]  Another Table which is referred to as corresponding with that in , hung in the revestry, or vestry, of , on a pillar near the tomb of Roger Niger, Bishop of London, which stood between the easternmost column in the north aisle on the outside of the choir.[g]  This was of a much later period than the former, since the historical events recorded upon it terminated with the death of Henry V., in the Bois de Vincennes near Paris, , and the Coronation of Henry VI. as King of France, , in the year of his reign. It commences with the ages of the world, and also comprises an abstract of the history of Jeffrey of Monmouth; with the Latin verses concerning the Oracle of Diana, the story of Brute, and the origin of London. In a brief notice of Lucius, it repeats the very uncommon tradition that he was buried at

of a late hand.

a table sometime hanging

of

no

late hand,

Beside the testimony of this Inscription-Plate, it has been argued that the Cathedral founded by Lucius was erected on rather than at , because most, if not all, of the ancient Episcopal Churches were established in , such as London; which was so defended by the Romans long before the time of Lucius. The spot on which Monastery was founded at Thorney was a low marshy wilderness, overflowed by every tide, distant miles from the capital of the Trinobantes, unprotected by the Roman legions, and altogether a place unlikely for the archbishop to fix on as the principal See of the kingdom. , on the contrary, was in the heart of a walled City, and of the highest spots in London, like the site of , whereon it is supposed that there once stood a Temple to Diana, also changed into a Christian Church: added to which the remains of Roman temples yet existing on the Continent, shew that they were almost always erected on high places.[e]  Another indication of the Church of St. Peter upon having been a Cathedral, might be supposed to be found in the school which was anciently belonging to it; because by a Decree of the General Council of Lateran, dated , it was ordained that a school should be attached to every Cathedral Church:[f]  but the earliest date of the establishment connected with this edifice, as cited by Stow, is the year of Henry VI., , when it appears as of the parochial schools directed by the Parliament to be maintained in London.[g]  Some other traces of archiepiscopal dignity have also been discovered in a custom which formerly prevailed here annually on Whit-Monday, when a great procession was made from upon to , of all the Rectors, Priors, and Abbots, of the City: in which the Rector of the former Church took precedence of all others, as successor to the ancient Archbishop, and was also styled the Metropolitan Rector. They were attended by the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Liveries of London, through and West-Cheap,

In the Palace of the Apostolic Prince: the Rectors of that which was formerly the Metropolitan See, ought by reason thereof, to have so much perpetual dignity, as well as reverence from all Rectors,

In the Palace of St. Peter: the

First

Church was founded in London, namely, in the year of our Lord

199

, by King Lucius, and in which was the Metropolitan See for

40

years, and more.

Whatever may be the real antiquity of this Church, Stow commences his account of it, by stating that the edifice of his time was finished in the roof and glazing in the reign of Edward IV., as appeared by the arms which it contained of Noblemen, and Aldermen of London, then living. There are, however, in various records, the following memorials relating to this Church at a much earlier period; when it seems to have been of some celebrity for the number of Chantries which had been established in it, the Chaplain-Clerks belonging to them, and, as is indicated by the following circumstances, as a Sanctuary: which privilege, according to tradition, was given to Christian Churches by King Lucius, and was therefore probably supposed to belong peculiarly to the present edifice.—In -, says Stow, citing the City record called the , the year of Henry III., Ralph De Wainefuntaines was stabbed with a knife by some unknown person in ; so that he died the day following. Geoffrey Russel, Clerk, was with him at the time he was struck, who immediately fled to the Church of St. Peter; and would neither come to the peace of our Lord the King, nor depart from the Church. According to the usual custom with contumacious offenders, the Sheriffs of London caused the Churchyard to be watched, to prevent his departing secretly or receiving food, though the refugee found means to escape from the custody.[c]  Another extract from the same record, states, that in the year of Henry III. an inquisition was taken before the King's Justices at the Tower, concerning the death of Amice, Deacon of the Church of St. Peter de Cornhulle, who had been found slain in the door of Martin, Priest, in the Soke of Cornhulle, upon Eve; . It appeared that he had been killed by Avelac, and Walkelin, Vicar of , who fled: and that Martin, John, and Peter, Chaplains, and Robert, Clerk, of , , who were in the house where the body was found, were taken up on suspicion of the murder, and delivered to Master John De Ponte, Official of the Archdeacon of London; by Henry Fitz-Aucher, Chamberlain, Stephen Buckerell, Sheriff, and James Blund, John de Sabio, Bartholomew De Cornhulle, &c., Aldermen.[d] —In -, a Chantry established in this Church for Roger Fitz-Roger is returned as property belonging to him at his death.[e] —In that assessment of the tenths of all the ecclesiastical benefices in England and Wales granted by Nicholas IV. to Edward I. for years, and thence called the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, executed in , there are the following notices concerning the valuation of this Parish.

Temporalities of the City of London. Goods of the Dean and Chapter of

St. Paul's

, London, in the Parish of St. Peter de Cornhull,

2

l.

13

s.

—Goods of the Prior of the Holy Trinity in the Parish of St. Peter de Cornhull,

1

l.

O

s.

4

d.

— Goods of the Canons of

St. Martin's

in the Parish of St. Peter de Cornhull,

6

s.

8

d

In the year in the return of an inquisition, it is stated, that

the Jurors present that Hugo de Waltham, and the parishioners of St. Peter de Cornehull, have now for

eight

years past erected upon the King's ground a certain house, in which a certain anchorite now inhabits; the which is valued yearly, &c. And that the same parishioners have inclosed a certain place in the same with pales upon the King's ground, to the damage of the district; and that the said place contains

48

feet in length, and

10

feet in width; and that now John of Oxenford holds the place and the Jurors know not by what warrant. Therefore the precept of the Sheriff was issued to cause them to come to him: and afterwards the aforesaid John of Oxenford came, and desired that he might rent the aforesaid tenement of our Lord the King for

12

d.

yearly, and they granted it to him, so that it could be testified

as not being to the damage &c.

Perceiving Death to be approching on me, I bequeath my Soul to Almighty God, and the Blessed Virgin Mary his Moder, and to all Saints; and my Body to be buried before the Aultar of the Holy Trinity in the Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill, London, where my Tomb is now made. Item. I bequeath unto Sir John Mansyn, Parson of the said Church, and to his successors, Parsons of the said Church, and to four of the honester and trustier men, parishioners of the said Parish, al my land, tenements, &c. with al and singular their appurtinances, situate in the Parish of St. Peter upon Cornhill, and St. Magnus the Martyr, of Brugstrete, London;—to find two fit Chaplains, perpetually to celebrate Divine Rites at the Aultar aforesaid, for my Soul, and the Soules of Sarah and Alynor, my wives, and the Soules of my fader and moder, and al to whom I am deservedly bound, and of al the faithful deceased. And to find two torches as often as shall be needful to serve for the lifting of the Body of Christ every day at the Mass of the said two Chaplains: to find one lamp perpetually burning every day and night before the High Cross in the Church of St. Peter aforesaid: and to pay yearly to the Parish Clerk 2 shillings sterling, to keep and light the said lamp, as often when it shalbe needful: and also to pay yearly to the fabric of the body of the said Church of St. Peter, 10s 4d sterling. And I will that the said Parson of the Church of St. Peter and his successors, shal have yearly to themselves of the tenements aforesaid 10 shillings, and no more, per annum, in peril of their Souls in the Day of Judgment: to say every year Placebo and Dirige, and one solemn Mass in the day of my Anniversary: and also to pay unto three other Chaplains on the sayd day to pray for my Soul, and the Souls aforesaid, that is to say to every of them 4 pence sterling.

Of which said tenements three do ly in the street called Grace Church Street; whereof one is situate betwixt the tenement of Gunner Horn, and the tenement late of Sir John Nevyl, Knt. on the north part of the tenement; on Wil. Glover's on the south part; and extendeth itself from the Kings Street towards the west, unto the tenement of John Nevyl toward the east, &c.

Item, I bequeath unto the said John Mansyn and to his successors, the reversion of al the tenements which were of William Bishop in the same Parish; of the shops with the appurtinences, &c. and eight shops, &c. and four, &c. with gardens, and with al their appurtinences.—To the sustentation of the said two Chaplains, and to find torches, a lamp, and also to pay other things as aforesaid and underwritten, to be done and found for ever.

Item, I will that the said two Chaplains, which in form aforesaid shall be celebrated, shall have yearly, and receive every of them 7l.

Item, I bequeath and will that al rents and profits whatsoever, coming of my tenements aforesaid, and of the reversion of the tenements aforesaid, of the shops and gardens, when it shall happen, shall be collected and received by the four trusty men, parishioners, and their successors, parishioners, of the said Church: so as they pay and perform the said legacies, and my will in this my Testament contained.

Item, I bequeath to the four said trusty men, which for the time shall be collectors and receivers of the profits whatsoever coming of the tenements, &c. and of the reversions, &c. shalbe chosen immediately after my decease by the Parson of the Church and by eight of the better sort of the parishioners, and of my executors: and that those men, so chosen, at the end of every year, between the feasts of St. Michael and All Saints, shall render a faithful account of the receits and expenses, in the presence of the Parson, &c. and of my Executors, as long as they shalbe living; and that at the same time every year, one of the said four collectors shalbe chosen by the said collectors to be Principal Labourer for the year ensuing: and so from year to year for ever: and that the Principal Labourer shall have to himself, for his labour about the reparation of the tenements, and in fulfilling my said will, and for his pains taken in that year, 6s 8d.: and that every other of the said collectors shall have 3s 4d.

Item, I will and bequeath that the like assembly and election as is aforesaid for the said four collectors, by the said Parson and parishioners and their successors, shalbe made as often and when it shalbe needful for ever; to have and to hold alway the foresaid lands and tenements, together with the reversion of the land and tenements sometime of Will. Bishop, and with all and singular their appurtinences, unto the said Sir John Mansyn and his successors, Parsons of the said Church; and to the four collectors and their successors, which in form aforesaid shalbe, to fulfil all my bequests of the same lands and tenements in this my Will and Testament contained, of the Chief Lord of the Fees thereof, by the services which to the said lands and tenements appertain for ever.

Item, I bequeath Twenty Pounds of Silver to the sustentation and reparation of my tenements aforesaid, when need shall be: which said money I do will shall remain in a box in the custody of the four collectors, until my said tenements shall happen to be repaired and amended. And in the mean time the poor parishioners shall have the use of the said money by the delivery of the four collectors upon sufficient pledge or other sufficient security, &c.

And if it shall happen my tenements aforesaid, with the appurtenances, be letten to farm for any sum of money over and besides my legacies and the necessary reparations of the said tenements, then I will and bequeath the said sum of money shalbe put into the said box under the custody of the four collectors; to the sustentation of the said tenements, and to that easement of the said Poor of the Parish in manner aforesaid.

Item, I will that within one month after my decease the said two Chaplains shall be chosen by the Parson and collectors; and to the Lord Bishop of London, or the Official, for the time being, shalbe presented, and by them into the said Chantry inducted and Canonically instituted in form of law: and so as often and when it shalbe needful. And if it shall happen that the said Chaplains, or either of them, to behave themselves disorderly, and not to be of good conversation or of honest life or to be absent from the said Church of St. Peter on Sundays and holidays at the Canonical Houres, unless they shalbe hindered by some reasonable cause; I bequeath and will that after such default, such delinquent, unless he speedily reform himself upon the Premonition of the said Parson and collectors, shalbe displaced; and another honest Chaplain shall be chosen in his place.

Item, I bequeath and will that the Keepers of London Bridge, for the time being, and their successors, yeerly, namely between the Feasts of St. Michael and All Saints, shall oversee my said tenements, and also for the Chauntry of the Chaplains aforesaid, bee duely maintained; and if all other charges in this my Will be well and faithfully performed: and so successively from year to year they shall oversee the said four parishioners, collectors of the said rents. And if they shall find any defaults, they shall cause them to be amended by the collectors. And that every of the Keepers of the said Bridge, shall take for his labour for overseeing the said defaults 3s. 4d. sterling yearly. And if they shall not come yearly, for that year wherein they shall fail, he or they, which so shall not come, shall have nothing; saving unto him, notwithstanding, his right to take his wages aforesaid, if he shall come and perform his charge.

And if it shall happen that the said two Chaplains, or either of them, for one year, at any time after my decease, to cease from the Chauntry, that my tenements aforesaid with the reversion may not be holden and kept back because the two Chaplains cannot be sustained, and the charges aforesaid paid and sustained; then I bequeath and will that all my lands and tenements aforesaid, together with the reversion aforesaid, when it shall happen, and with all and singular their appurtenances, shall wholly remain unto the Mayor and Commonalty, and to their successors, for the time being, to find and sustain the said two Chaplains to celebrate Divine Rites in the form above written, in the Chapel upon London Bridge; and for the use and sustentation of the said Bridge for ever.

The record of Chantry-constitutions and bequests belonging to the Church of St. Peter upon , commencing with the preceding, established by William of Kingston,—are preserved in a curious ancient volume compiled by John Whitby, Rector, and written by John Steward, Schoolmaster there, in . In the same book are also contained copies of the foundation-deeds and ordinances, charters, grants, leases, wills, &c. appertaining to the Fraternity or Guild of St. Peter, established in the Church by Henry IV. in , the year of his reign,[c] 

In -, the year of Henry VIII., was instituted the celebrated ecclesiastical survey of England, usually called the , under the authority of an act of Parliament, for ascertaining the value of all the possessions, lands, tenements, hereditaments, &c. of the monasteries, priories, churches, free-chapels and chantries, parsonages, vicarages, &c. of the whole kingdom; with Wales, Calais, Berwick, and the Marches: in which appear the following returns relating to this Church.

To these Chantries and Guilds belonged messuages and tenements in the Parish of St. Peter, in the separate tenures and occupations of Lamb, Wright, Lindsey, Wait, and others; which in went to the King, by virtue of the Act for dissolving those establishments, and in , the year of Edward VI., they were sold to Edward Elrington and Thomas Bental.[d] 

In appeared an Injunction from Thomas Cromwell, as Vicar-General of the King, dated , that Parish-Registers for weddings, christenings, and burials, should be kept by every parson, vicar, and curate, throughout every Diocess in the realm; in consequence of which many such records were immediately commenced, though from various causes comparatively few of them are now in existence. Those belonging to , though certainly kept with some accuracy, do not appear to have been entered in a volume until after that constitution of the year of the reign of Elizabeth, made by the Archbishop, Bishops, and Clergy, of the Province of Canterbury, and approved by the Queen under the Great Seal, dated ; declaring the very great utility of such registers, giving particular directions for their preservation, and ordering that proper persons should examine if such records were kept according to former ordinances, in neglect of which the parishofficers were to be fined.[e]  It was most probably in consequence of these latter regulations that the Registers of this Church were commenced, since the earliest volume containing them begins on the reverse of the leaf

Though in the graue men's bodies soone bee rotten,

Yet heare theyr names will hardlie bee forgotten.

This Booke was bought at the charge of the Parish of St. Peeter's upon , Maister William Ashboold, Doctor, being then Parson, and Maister David Powell and Maister William Partridge beeing then Church Wardens; the and twentith day of September in the Yeare of our Lord fiue nynety and .

Certain Verses upon this Register. Si speculum fluxæ quæris vitæq; caducæ: Nobile tumq; nitens Hic Liber esse potest. Hîc vitæ vera effigies, hîc mortis imago: Hic iam spirantes mors fera sæpe rapit. Aluo in maternâ morientem cernere possis: Infantem tenerum cum sibi fata volunt. Hîc iuvenis moritur, sic splendida comptaq; virgo; Jam sponsata viro non sibi nupta dolet. Hîc diues rapitur congestis vndiq; saccis:Fertur ad infernas, Tartareasq; domos.Hîc qui pauperiem patitur ditatur abunde:Nam fruitur cœlis, possidet atq; Deum.Huc grandesq; senes veniunt iam tempore fessus:In foliisq; meis, nomina scripta volunt.Humani generis sors quæsit sicq; videbis: Nomina voluendo quæ tibi forte dabo.Instead of any modern attempt to translate these verses, it cannot be doubted that the admirer of old English poetry will be much more gratified by the following original and very characteristic paraphrase of them by the author himself. It is surrounded by a frame of black lines dividing it into stanzas, and is written in a beautiful Italian hand on the recto of that which was the last leaf of the book before it was increased and rebound in 1725. Verses made by William Auerell, Clarke of this Churche, in which hee compareth this register to a glasse or mirrour. Loe heare a christall mirror, And glas of manne's vain glorie: Whose vew may bee a terror Gainst pleasures transitorie: Wheare in each human creature May see the course of nature. See heare the Childe now panting In wombe of wofull mother: When life and breath is wanting How th'one's a graue to th'other: The wombe that's made to beare it, Beecomes a tombe t'interre it. The sucking Babe that hangeth Vpon the teat so tender, When fearefull death it pangeth Dies like a slip that's slender: Now born and new baptized, Now dead and sone disguised. The Youth that's strong and lustie, Whose face is full of favor: May heare see youth vntrustie And like a flower in sauor: Now fresh and sweet new gathred, Straight stinking, dead, and withred. The flouring Maid beespangled With red like damaske roses, Must leaue to bee new-fangled And shunne men's flattring glozes: For heare she sees her bewtie Deathe's tribute, debt, and dutie. The Virgin newlie marriedWith pompe and wondrous pleasure,The next day heare is buriedWith sorrow passing measure:Shee melts and mourns in dying,Her spouse and frendes with crying. The Riche Man that hath scrapedTo fill his bagges with treasure,Shall see heare none haue scapedBut Death hath had his seazure:Heare is his name inrouledThat would not bee controuled. The Poore with famine pined—Once beeing heare recorded—Hath treasures trew assigned,And heauenlie foode afforded:In heauen hee's now adornedThat heare on earth was scorned. The feeble Old Man wastedWith yeares, cares, greef, and trouble,Is glad that death hath hastedHis rest for to redouble:Though long hee liu'd and crooked,Yet heare hee must be booked. Thus euery age and callingMay heare beehold theyr faces,Theyr rising and theyr falling,Theyr endes and wretched cases:Which glasse weare it well vsedLife should not bee abused. William Auerell, Clarke.

On the leaf, folium a, is written the following title in a handsome black text, with the verses beneath in an Italian hand in vermilion.

Register of all the Christninges, Burialles, and Weddinges, within the Parish of Saint Peeter's vpon Cornhill, beginning at the raigne of our most Soueraigne Ladie Queen Elizabeth, &c. This booke containes the names of mortall men,But thear's a Booke with characters of goldeNot writ with incke, with pensill, or with pen,Wheare Gode's elect for euer are inrolde:The Booke of Life; wheare labor thou to beeBeefore this Booke hath once registred thee.

The Registers then commence on the reverse of the leaf with the following words written in churchtext, with a blooming capital larger than that drawn to the titles, and an ivy-leaf delineated beneath the inscription.

Certain Christninges frō the Statute of King Henry the

eighth

to the beginning of her Maiesties raigne, some thing vnperfectlie kept:

1538

, Decemb.

14th

. Sunday. Christining of Hugh Kellsall;

On the reverse of the same leaf is written the following.

Iam noua progenies, ô rex sequitur tua proles, >Nam sub te dicant ortus habere suos.

The baptisms contained in this volume extend to ; after which ensues another title in red with a large blooming capital,

1538

, Diuers Burialls in the raignes of King Henry, King Edward, and Quene Mary.

1539

.

January 17th

. Burying of John Jonsonne, the

17th of January

. Anno

39

;

pitts

Buried of them of the Plague (namely, in the whole of London)

30578

.

1603

.

September 9th

. Fridaie. Henrie Ashboold, my scholler, sonne of Mr. Doctor Ashboold, Parson of this Church, a youth composed and framed out of the mould of vertu; for learning and modestie in soe young yeares admirable: hee lieth buried in the high Chauncell, vnder a small blewish stone with his brother.

10

years.

O happie Henry thou hast runne thy race: The graue thie corpes, the heauens thy soule embrace. o(u gar( filei_ qeo\s, a)poqnh/kei neo/s.

(fol.

23

a.

November 5th

. Satterdaie. Jonas Holdsworth, sonne of Henry Holdsworth, Mercer, a boy very toward in learning: his pit in the west yard: hee was about

15

yeres.—Jonas and Richard Holdesworth my schollers.

These vertuous youthes with guiftes of nature blest, Haue left this life and now doe liue at rest.

(fol.

23

b.

The last division of this Register commences with the following title in red,

1538

. Sundry Weddings in the times of King Henry, of King Edward, and Queen Mary;

1538

.

January 19

. Wedding of Richard Holland and Anne Boro.

Notwithstanding the many notices of the antiquity of as a foundation, the age of that building which existed at the time of the Great Fire, appears to have been very inconsiderable. The original edifice was probably destroyed by the Saxons before they embraced Christianity, or in some of the Danish invasions;[b]  and Stow observes of that which was standing in his time, that it

had been lately repaired, if not new built, excepting the steeple, which was ancient.

to the Churchwardens and

sixteen

other parishioners, a messuage and other appurtenances newly built, partly upon the ground where the vestry stood, and partly upon the churchyard: to hold to the said Churchwardens and their successors, and to the said parishioners, with power to the

four

survivors of them after the death of the others, to elect

sixteen

or

twelve

of the best of the Parish as trustees for ever to the uses following:—namely out of the profits thereof not only to keep the Church in repair, but to sustain comfort and relieve, the poor inhabitants of the said Parish; and to pay to the Rector and his successors for ever

2

d.

a year at Michaelmas.

As to the glebe of this Church, in the

first

and

second

of Mary,

1553

-

54

, Dr. John Hodgkins, then Rector thereof, let out to Stephen Heath

two

messuages abutting on the parsonage-house on the south, and on the King's

High Street

on the north parts; (being glebe belonging to this Church) for

31

years, for

4

l.

rent per annum. The premises were again let by Mr. John Pullen, Rector, in the

second

of Elizabeth,

1559

-

60

, to John Hills, for

36

years, for the like yearly rent. Both which leases were confirmed by the Mayor and Commonalty, and also by the Bishop of London.

Having thus laid before the reader such particulars as are yet extant concerning the ancient history and appearance of this Church, the subsequent account of it will perhaps be best continued by the following series of original entries from the parochial records; which shew the principal changes that have taken place in the building, and frequently contain the most curious illustrations of the manners and customs of the times to which they refer.

[a] This Fac-Simile, together with the other three engravings of the Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill, and the Plan of the Fire in Bishopsgate Street, &c.—all contained in the present work,—were originally designed to have formed part of the illustrations of an intended history of that Church and Parish: in which Mr. Robert Wilkinson, the original proprietor and publisher of these volumes, long resided, and to which he was greatly attached. The manuscript collections for it, with extensive extracts from the Parish-books, are now preserved in three volumes folio in the City Library at Guildhall; and have been carefully consulted for the ensuing pages. Entire sets of the plates, eighteen in number, in quarto, though never published, are occasionally to be found; and a list of them may be seen in Mr. William Upcott's Bibliographical Account of the Principal Works relating to English Topography, Lond. 1818.8vo. vol. ii. p. 709.

[c] An attempt was made about the time of Henry VI., by an inscription on a plate in the Church, to prove that the original Church of St. Peter upon Cornhill was, that erected in A.D. 179, by Lucius, King of Britain; but the fallacy of the assertion appeared so clearly demonstrated, even by the words of the inscription itself, that it has been rejected by antiquaries with common consent. Londinum Redivivum, by J. P. Malcolm, vol. iv. Lond. 1807. 4to. p. 572.

[a] The Historie of Great Britaine, by John Speed, Lond. 1611, fol. Vol. I. p. 223. paragr. 11.—Ancient Funerall Monuments, by John Weever, Lond. 1631. fol. p. 413.—The Church Historie of Britaine, by Thomas Fuller, Lond. 1655. fol. p. 13.—Londinopolis, by James Howell, Lond. 1657. fol. p 79.—Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, by Aylett Sammes, Lond. 1676. fol. p. 266.—Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, by James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, Lond. 1687. fol. p. 36.—Chronicles of the Kings of England, by Sir Richard Baker, Lond. 1733. fol. p. 3.—An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, by Jeremy Collier, Lond. 1708. Vol I. p. 117. —History of the Diocess of London, by Richard Newcourt, Lond. 1708. Vol. I. p. 522.—A New View of London, by Edward Hatton, Lond. 1708, 8vo. Vol. II. p. 485; in which the inscription is stated to be on a south pillar.—A History of London, by W. Maitland and the Rev. J. Entick, Lond. 1772, fol. Vol. II. p. 1176.—Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, by John Nichols, Vol. VI. Lond. 1787. 4to. Art. vii. p. 4. The copy of this inscription given in the Rev. J. Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, Lond. 1720. fol. Vol. I. book ii. chap. viii. p. 138, is very inaccurate.

[b] I will endeavour, says Gildas, only to set forth to the world those evils, which in the times of the Roman Emperors, Britain suffered, and also brought upon others, as well her own citizens as strangers; yet, nevertheless, not farther than I am able to declare them: not so much out of the chronicles of the country, or the monuments of its authors,—because, if there have been any such, they are either devoured by the fires of enemies, or have been long since transported into distant nations by the ships of our exiled countrymen, and do not now appear,—as by the relations of foreign writers; which, broken off with many interruptions, are not sufficiently clear.—Gildæ Supientis De Excidio Britannicæ, Liber Querelus, cap. ii. in the Historiæ Britannicæ, Saxonicæ, Anglo-Danicæ, Scriptores XV, by Dr. Thomas Gale, Oxon. 1691. fol. Vol. I. p. 10.—The particulars of Venerable Bede's foreign authorities, and of the origin and gradual increase of the legendary story of Lucius and his extensive episcopal establishment, may be seen in the very curious and learned Preface to An Historical Account of Church Government, by Dr. William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, Lond. 1684. 8vo. signature b.

[c] History of England by the Rev. John Lingard, D.D. Vol. I. Lond. 1819, 4to. chap. i. p. 49. The most copious collection of the various details relative to the history and conversion of King Lucius is certainly that contained in chap. iv. of the Britannicarun Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, by Archbishop Usher; to whose diligence nothing material has been or can be added, nor have the conjectures of later ecclesiastical writers cast any additional light upon the subject. The same history will also be found discussed and illustrated in Sir Henry Spelman's Concilia, &c. in re Ecclesiarum Orbis Britannici, Vol. I. Lond. 1639, fol. pp. 12-16. Sammes' Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, pp. 261-268. Stillingfleet's Origines Britannicæ, pp. 58-68. Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Vol. I. pp. 12-18; History of Great Britain, by Robert Henry. D D. Vol. I. Lond. 1771, 4to. book i. chap. ii. sec. ii. pp. 136-139; and the Rev. John Milner's History, and Civil and Ecclesiastical Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester, Lond. 1798, 4to. Vol. I. chap. iii. pp. 37-43.—There are but very few circumstances relating to Lucius which can be stated with even probability; though his legendary historians have given a most extravagant account of his ecclesiastical acts, especially of his institution of the right of sanctuary attached to Churches. Beside these, says Stillingfleet. they make him to found and endow so many Churches, with such unlikely circumstances, as hath made others to question whether there ever were such a being in the world as King Lucius; that being the common effect of saying much more than is true, to make what is really true more doubtful and suspicious.

[d] Stillingfleet's Origines Britannicæ, pp. 63-64: Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Vol.I. cent. ii. p.12; Sammes' Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, p.267.

[e] The most probable period when Christianity was originally preached in Britain is supposed to have been between the government of Aulus Plautius, and the battle of Boadicea and Suetonius, A.D. 43 and A.D. 61.: St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James, St. Simon Zelotes, Polycarp, Aristobulus, and Joseph of Arimathea, have all been named as the first preachers, though most of them with great improbability and none with unobjectionable claims. A full examination into the subject will be found in the following works: A Defense of the Apologie of the Churche of Englande, by John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, Lond. 1571, 16th Sept. fol. p. 12.; Usher's Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, chap. i. ii.; Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, vol. i. cent. i. pp. 2-12.; Bishop Godwin De Præsulibus Angliæ, pp. 1-26; The Historia Britonum of Nennius, by the Rev. W. Gunn, Lond. 1819, 8vo. pp. 134-136.—That the Christian Faith was partially preserved in Britain from the time it was first preached until the reign of Lucius, is asserted by Gildas, who states that though in the beginning it was received with indifference, it was in some places retained entire without the least abatement until the ninth persecution by the tyrant Dioclesian, about A.D. 303; in which the Church was subverted throughout the whole world, and all the Sacred Scriptures which could be found were burned in the streets; and flocks of priests ordained to the Lord, were slaughtered like innocent sheep, and therefore is it that now so little appears of the Christian religion in so few provinces, though it was found capable of being established. De Excidio Britannicæ, cap. vii. Gale's Scriptores XV. Vol. I. p. II.

[f] Monasticon Anglicanum by Sir William Dugdale, Vol. III. Savoy, (in London) 1673, fol. p. 188.

[a] Edit. Lond. 1577. fol. Vol. I. p. 57, for 75, col. i.—Second Edit. 1586. vol. ii. book iv, chap. 19. p. 52, col. 1.

[e] Harrison's expression in this place refers to Jeffrey of Monmouth's notorious account of the conversion of the twenty-eight Roman Flamines and three Arch flamines established in Britain in the time of Lucius, into as many Christian Bishops and Archbishops: when the Metropolitan Sees of the latter were fixed at London, York, and the City of the Legions, upon the Uske in Glamorganshire.—See The British History of Jeffrey of Moumouth, Translated into English, with a large Preface concerning the authority of the History, by Aaron Thompson, 1718, 8vo. book iv. chap. 19.—An examination and exposure of this statement may be consulted in Spelman's Concilia, Vol. l. p. 13.; Stillingfleet's Origines Britannicæ, pp. 78-82., and Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, Vol. I. p. 13. In the History of English Poetry by Thomas Warton, Lond. 1824, 8vo. Vol. I. Dissert. i. p. ix. note t, it is stated that there are no Flamines nor Archflamines mentioned in the original British History which Jeffrey of Monmouth translated: but the word Flamines is used to express Christian Bishops, in the proceedings of the Council held at Elvira in Grenada, A.D 305, capp. ii. iii. iv.—Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, by Chas. Dufresne, Seign. Du Cange, Paris, 1733, fol.—An excellent enquiry into the authenticity and intention of Jeffrey's history is contained in Mr. Sharon Turner's History of England during the Middle Ages, Vol. IV. Lond. 1825, 8vo. book ii. chap. vi. pp. 339-355

[f] Quod enim a recentiore auctore de rebus adeo antiquis, sine alicujus vetustioris auctoritate profertur, contemnitur.—Annales Ecclesiastici: by Cesar Baronio Sorano, Augsb. 1738, Vol. I. col. 62. paragr xii.

[g] Vol. VI. Lond. 1787, 4to. Art. vii. No. 1.

[a] Notitia Monastica by Dr. Thos. Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph. Edit. by the Rev. James Nasmith, Lond. 1787, fol.—Xiii. Gloucestershire 10.

[b] A New History of Gloucester, by Samuel Rudder, Lond. 1779, fol. p. 197.—Rev. T. D. Fosbroke's Original History of Gloucester. Lond. 1819, fol. p. 171. Parish of St. Mary de Lode, called also St. Mary before the Gate of St. Peter, St. Mary Broad Gate, and St. Mary Port. In the Church is a monument absurdly ascribed to King Lucius; but it is the figure of a religious person, and has the robe of a monk, and the arms crossed on the breast, the common attitude of these religious. It lies under an arch, and this shews that it is, as well as the Church in the main, of the style of the thirteenth century.—There is a considerable distance between the situations of the two places assigned for the burial-place of Lucius in Gloucester; the Grey Friars having stood in the south of the city, and St. Mary de Lode's Church on the north-west next the city-mead. That much legendary matter has been attached to the story of Lucius, says the Rev. T. D. Fosbroke as above cited, p. 15, is beyond a doubt; nor in his era was sepulture in Churches usual: but the certain antiquity of King's Holm; the term King Street, which led from thence to Gloucester; the existence of a palace, or of a castle or citadel, older than the Normans; the tradition of the interment of Lucius in St. Mary de Lode's Church, in which parish King's Holm lies;—certainly lead to the habitation of subordinate kings at Gloucester, whose place of residence was out of the station, and most probably on the site of the Mercian palace.—Another burial-place assigned to Lucius is in Winchester Cathedral, which he is also said to have built, the probable origin of which error is pointed out by the Rev. John Milner, in his History of Winchester, vol. ii. p. 62. The supposed tomb is a flat monument of grey marble, without any inscription or ornament, raised about two feet above the ground, lying beyond the two grand chantries in the middle of the centre aisle, before the entrance into the Chapel of the Virgin. It really belonged to Godfrey de Lucy, Bishop of Winchester from A.D. 1189 to 1204, the last founder of this part of the Cathedral, who here lies interred in the centre of his own work; and the similarity of whose name, especially in a Latin form, easily confounded him with Lucius. In July 1797 the tomb was opened, which it evidently appeared to have been before. There was then found in it a skull of the common size, with the thigh bones lying near it, and the remains of some silk garments of a yellow colour, which, however, might have been either purple or red: some parts of them had been embroidered with a stripe of gold.—Besides the interment of Lucius at Gloucester, London, and Winchester, Radulphus De Diceto states that he was buried at York, and supposes him to have been slain by the Picts. Dr. Gale's Seriptores XV. Vol. I. p. 555.

[c] Usher's Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, p. 36.—Bibliotheca Britanico-Hibernica, by Dr. Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph, Lond. 1748, fol. p. 429.

[d] The following notice of one of the Plates in St. Paul's may be added to those mentioned above and in the ensuing notes.—Of this Lucius it is shewed in a Table hangyne vpon ye wall of the north syde of ye Isle in the back of ye Quere of Sainte Paule's Churche in London, that the said Lucius raigned ouer the Brytons lxxvii yeres. Fabyan's Chronicle, book iii, chap. 60. p. 45, col. i., and see also the table of the third part, signature A v. reverse.

[e] In Tabulis, sive Chronicis, Radulphi de Baldoc, est abbreviato historiæ Galfredi Monemutensis. Tum præterea epitome historiæ Regum Saxonicorum. Postremo etiam a tempore Gulielmi Conquestoris ad sua tempora.—J. Lelandi Collectanea, Vol. L. (part ii) p. 357.—Istas Tabulas, cum suprascriptis, dedit huic Ecclesiæ Radulphus De Baldoc, bonæ memoriæ, quondam Episcopus London.—Ibid. p. 353. These tables also contained lists of the Bishops of London and Deans of St Paul's. Upon the credit of this chronicle the Prelate is included as an historian in Tanner's Bibliotheca, p. 66; in which he is called a man of much reading and experience, especially in the affairs and acts of our Princes; who had procured for himself future renown if he, who was most worthy of credit, had related and delivered to posterity those things which he himself had seen. His English History, however, begins with the origin of this country, but the subsequent part by which it is excellently finished, is by far the most instructive. In a late careful reading of the Annals of English Affairs, by John, Abbot of Peterborough, in arriving at the 1292, I there met with a fair mention of the History of Ralph Baldock; upon which I took occasion to search after it, seeing that the book was not to be disregarded, and at length found it and read it through in the church of St. Paul. This passage evidently refers to another copy of the Prelate's Chronicle in a volume preserved in the Cathedral Library.

[f] Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, p. 36.—The passage is as follows.—In the vestibule of the Chapter-house of the Church of St. Paul, we have seen,— namely, before the Fire of London,—a large Table fixed up: on which it was thus written:—'In the time of the Britons many Archbishops flourished in the City of London: but in the age of the Saxons their dignity was translated to Canterbury, and Mellitus had the first Bishop's See in the Church of St. Paul, London, when it was founded by Ethelbert, King of Kent.'—Also in the Chronicle of Ralf De Baldock, Bishop of London, we read thus:—'In the Year of our Lord 179, King Lucius founded the first church in London, namely the Church of St. Peter of Cornhulle, and there was the Metropolitan See for 4 0 years and more, before the coming of St. Augustine, the Apostle of the English.'—The like is on a hanging-table in the same church of St. Peter upon the Corn Hill, or Cornhill; which is commonly called Cornell.—These authorities, without any additional information, are also cited in Henry Wharton's Historia de Episcopis et Decanis Londinensibus et Assavensibus, Lond. 1695, 8vo. p. 5.

[g] The Inscription-plates suspended in this part of the Cathedral, appear to have been three in number; of which there is not any other account in Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, than a copy of one, and an extract from another. Entire transcripts of them all with notices of their several situations, are, however, preserved at the commencement of a vellum MS. of the fifteenth century in the Harleian Collection, No. 565, 4to. consisting of A Chronicle of English Affairs, and especially of those relating to the City of London, from the 1st year of King Richard I., 1189 to the 21st year of Henry VI., 1442 inclusive: and in the Notes to the printed edition of it, entitled A Chronicle of London, 1827, 4to.—The first plate was suspended on a column next to the monument of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; and the inscription consisted of a statement of the various dimensions of the old Cathedral, terminating with an account of the depositing of certain reliques of Saints in the cross of the belfry, the 11th of the Kalends of August, 22nd July, 1339: a copy of it will be found in the Harleian MS., fol. 2 a, in Sir. H. Ellis' edition of Dugdale's St. Paul's, Lond. 1818, fol. p. 61, and in the Chronicle of London with an English translation, pp. 174, 181. The second was against the middle column, eastward between the tomb of the Duke of Lancaster, and that of Roger, sometime Bishop of London; and the inscription consisted of a chronology of events, concluding with the notice of an earthquake throughout all England, on May 21st, the 12th of the kalends of June, the fourth day before Pentecost, 1382, in the sixth (fifth) year of Richard II.: copies of it are in the Harleian MS. fol. 2 b., and the Chronicle of London, pp. 174, 181; and an extract from it is in Dugdale, p. 62. The third plate was designated the Great Table, and was affixed close to the tomb of the Bishop, still more to the east: its contents have been already stated above, and copies of it are in the Harleian MS. fol. 4 a, and the Chronicle of London, pp. 176, 183.—The inscription-plate at St. Peter's is of the plainest and most modern form of these tabular records those of the fourteenth century being frequently decorated with ornamental borders, and even armorial ensigns, as may be seen on those erected on the monuments of Sebba, and Ethelred, Kings of the East Saxons, and Sir Simon Burley, engraven in Dugdale's St. Paul's, pp. 64, 69. From these, and other specimens, they appear to have been generally of a long form, with a loop in the centre at the top for suspension, whence they received their general name of Pensile Tables. They were sometimes surrounded by a border and divided into compartments, by projecting ornamented lines, and were sculptured with a small black character.—A foundation-plate of brass, resembling in subject and design that at St. Peter's, was affixed to a column in Glastonbury Church, Somersetshire, and contained a very full account of the original establishment of that edifice by Joseph of Arimathea and his associates. It was of an octangular shape, with a separate piece beneath formed like a pedestal, measuring altogether 10 inches by 6 1/2 at the widest part, the two plates being affixed to the pillar by twelve projecting holes; and the inscription, enclosed by a line, was coarsely and deeply engraven in the Monkish Gothic character of about the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Impressions and counter-impressions of these plates are given in Sir Henry Spelman's Concilia, Vol. I. pp. 7-10, with remarks on their antiquity and authenticity: and from the appearance of the letters, the author concludes that they were not more than three centuries old at the publication of his work in 1639.—The subjects engraven on Pensile Tables appear to have been very various; since they included epitaphs, genealogies of persons buried in their place of suspension, indulgences granted to such as prayed for the deceased, registers of miracles, the foundations and dimensions of buildings, lists of Bishops, &c. gifts, histories, and chronicles, prayers, texts, and psalms, and the order of religious services for the priests who were to perform them. The material used for those which were intended as records, appears to have been always brass; but some temporary inscriptions were written on wood. Their use in Churches may probably be referred to that of the classical Tabula Votiva suspended in heathen temples as records of cures, deliverances, and vows and their performance: these were commonly made of copper.

[a] The following is the passage taken from the copy preserved in the Harleian MS. fol. 6, Chronicle of London, p. 178. Anno millesimo ducentesimo quadrigentesimo quinto post mortem Bruti, Rex Lucius extat. Anno Gracie cmo. xxiiijto. Coronacio Lucii, primi Regis Christiani: regnantis lxxvij. annis. London sepullus est.

[b] Rev. Sam. Pegge's Sylloge, &c. pp. 5, 6.—Richard Gough remarks that Roman letters appear cut on brass plates for inscriptions towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII.—Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain, Part ii. Lond. 1796. fol. p. ccxlix. The first book which is known to have been printed with the Roman letter in England, was the treatise De Arte Supputandi, by Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, executed by Richard Pynson in 1522.—Ames' Typographical Antiquities, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, D.D. vol. ii. Lond. 1812, 4to. Preliminary Observations to Pynson, p. viii.—It is supposed by Pegge that the old Inscription-Plate at St. Peter's was destroyed with the Church in the Great Fire, because Newcourt in his Diocess of London, Vol. I p. 524, states, that there remained in this Church before the burning thereof in 1666, a table which is now again renewed; but Strype appears to intimate that the ancient record had been saved from the conflagration, his words being this inscription is still preserved in the new built Church, and hangs in a table against a pillar. Strype's Stow's Survey of London, Vol. I. book ii. chap. viii. p. 138.

[c] On the same page of the work last cited will be found an explanation by Stow himself, of his expression of late time, to wit, within these fifty years; and, supposing him to have meant the same space when writing of the Plate at St. Peter's, fifty years deducted from that when his Survey was first published, would bring the date to 1548, the beginning of the reign of Edward VI.

[d] The first defacing of Monuments. In the time of King (Henry VIII.) Edward VI., and the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, such pretenders were some to zeal for a thorough reformation in religion, that, under colour of pulling down the images here, which had been superstitiously worshipped by the people, as then was said, the beautiful and costly portraitures of brass fixed on several marbles in sundry churches of this realm, and so consequently in this, escaping not their sacrilegious hands, were torn away, and for a small matter sold to coppersmiths and tinkers: the greediness of those who hunted after gain by these barbarous means being such, as that though the said Queen by proclamation bearing date at Windsor, 19th Sept. in the 2nd year of her reign, 1560, taking notice thereof, strictly prohibited any farther spoil in that kind; they ceased not to proceed therein, till she issued another in the 14th year of her said reign, charging the Justices of the Assize to be very severe in the punishment of such offenders. History of St. Paul's Cathedral, by Sir William Dugdale; Edit. by Sir H. Ellis, Lond. 1818. fol. p. 31.—See also Weever's Funerall Monuments, pp. 50-55.

[e] MS. Collections of Mr. R. Wilkinson. (History.) Large folio, pp. 26, 36.

[f] Article xxii.—Chronica Gervasii Dorobornensis.—Henr. II.—Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores X. by Roger Twysden, Lond. 1652, fol. col. 1454.

[g] Strype's Stow's Survey of London, Vol. I. book ii. chap. viii. p. 139.—Rotuli Parliamenti ut et Petitiones et Placita in Parliamento. fol. Vol. V. p. 137. A.D 1447. 25th Henry VI. Petitions to the Commons Membr. 2. No. 1.

[a] The following notice of this procession for the year 1554, appears in the continuation of Fabyan's Chronicle, p. 561. The xiii daie of Maie was Mondaie in Whitson weke, and then came the procession of St. Peter's in Cornhill, with diuers other parishes, and the Maior and Aldermen, Fisshmongers and Goldsmithes, vnto Poule's, after the old custom, and other processions all the three daies, as thei were wont to doe. Thomas White, Mayor.

[b] MS. Collections of Mr. R. Wilkinson. (History.) Largefolio, pp. 26, 36.

[c] The words Peace of the King in this passage, express a submission to the protection and authority of the laws or other institutions of the country, in contradistinction to the Peace of the Church, or Sanctuary, which any offender, excepting one guilty of high treason or sacrilege, could claim for forty days: after which he became an outlaw. The remarkable custom of watching and starving a prisoner who had fled to a common church or unprivileged refuge, is illustrated in the Rev. Samuel Pegge's excellent paper on the Asylum or Sanctuary, printed in the Archaeologia, vol. viii, 1787. art. i. pp. 7. 39, 40.

[d] Strype's Stow's Survey of London, Vol. I. book ii. chap. viii. pp. 141, 142. The Liber Albus Transcriptorum, was probably so named from the white leather with which it is covered, and is supposed by Strype to have been compiled by John Carpenter, Town Clerk of London in the reign of Henry V., and a great benefactor to the City. It is dated November, 1419, in the Mayoralty of Richard Whyttington, and contains as it is stated on one of the opening pages, laudable customs, not written, wont to be observed in the City, and other notable things worthy of remembrance, written here and there scatteringly without any order. The nature of these articles was partly the cause of the title of the volume,—the White Book of Transcripts;—and they consist as the Latin prologue remarks, of short indexes to the other City books, rolls, and charters, which are cited by their names or marks. The manuscript itself is of parchment, and the contents are written in a small court-hand in Latin: in size it is a small folio, of moderate thickness, and the binding is of wood, covered with discoloured white leather, with metal bosses and clasps, now black with age. In the centre of the upper cover is a metal frame, holding down a plate of horn, beneath which is a piece of parchment bearing the title of the book in a clear black letter, with an inscription stating that its contents commence in the 4th year of Edward I., 1275, and finish in his 22d, 1293.—Some account of this, very valuable record is contained in the Preface to Strype's Stow's Surcey of London, First Edition only, 1720, Vol, I. pp. iii, iv.

[e] Calendarium Inquisitiones Post Mortem. 13 Edw. I. No. 119.

[f] Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliæ et Walliæ auctoritate P. Nicholai IV. Circa A.D. 1291. Vol. I. pp. 13b, 18.

[a] Rotuli Parliamentorum, ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento. Vol. i. pp. 418, 419. A.D. 1324-25, 18th Edward II. No. 9.—Inquisition in consequence of a petition to the King from John De Oxenford that the place granted to him in the Draynes of London, for 12d. yearly, might be confirmed to him and his heirs, and that he might build upon the same to the profit of the King and for raising the said rent.

[b] Newconrt's Diocess of London, vol. i. p. 523; from the volume in the Bishop of London's Registry called Baudake, fol. 61.

[c] MS. Coilections of Mr. R. Wilkinson (History) Large folio. p. 66.—Henry IV. at the supplication of his Queen Johanna, granted to William Aghton, Parson, and Hugh Rybrede, John Bury, and Peter Mason, to found a Fraternity to the honour of God and St. Peter, they being to maintain two Chaplains; by Charter dated at Westminster the 26th day of April, and the 4th year of his reign, 1403. By virtue whereof the Fraternity was founded, and ordinances made first in English and then in Latin:—John Whitby, Clerk, John Hull, William Floodgate, and Walter Palmer, Wardens (Custodes); William Brampton, and William Askham, (Fishmongers) Aldermen; William Aghton, Parson; Hugh Rybrede, John Bury, Peter Mason, John Brygge, Walter Cecil, Robert Yelington, John Stachniden, John Waleys alias Conysburgh, and Richard Stondon alias Manhale, Brothers. Ibid.

[a] MS. Collections of Mr. R. Wilkinson (History) Large folio, p. 66.

[d] Strype's Stow's Survey of London, Vol. 1. book ii. chap. viii. p. 139.

[e] Registrum Ecclesiæ Parochialis: the History of Parish Registers in England, by John Southenden Burn, Lond. 1829. 8vo. pp. 6, 17, 22. In this curious and excellent work the disputed subject of the real time of the establishment of these records is carefully examined and illustrated, pp. 4-15.

[a] The following notices of the burials in the Parish of St. Peter upon Cornhill for some of the most remarkable years of Pestilence are taken from A Collection of the Yearly Bills of Montality from 1657 to 1758, &c. Lond. 1759, 4to. 1593, Buried 112; 5 of the Plague: 1625, Buried 318; 78 of the Plague: 1636, Buried 27; 7 of the Plague: 1665, Buried 136; 76 of the Plague: 1366, Buried 24; 4 of the Plague.

[b] MS. Collections of Mr. R. Wilkinson (History) Large folio. p. 56.

[c] Ibid.—Newcourt's Diocess of London. Vol. p. 523, from the volume in the Bishop of London's Registry called Bonner, fol. 284.

[a] This interesting view of St. Peter's Church, and of several other ancient objects in the vicinity, is contained in Plate I. of the Antique Remains of the Parish of St. Martin Outwich, Lond. published by R. Wilkinson, 7th Jan. 1797, 4to. It is entitled Typus Parochiæ Divi Martini, vulgo St. Martin's Outwich, unâ cum parte Parochiæ Divi Petri in Cornhill, in Civitate Londini. Inventus et factus per Gulielmum Goodman, 1mo Januarii, A.D. 1599. A copy from this plate, including the Church of St. Peter, may be seen in the ancient north-east view of Cornhill, &c. given in the First Volume of this work.—In the large view entitled London the most flourishing City of Britain, by John Cornelius Visscher, published in Holland in 1616, the Church is represented on the southern side as a much more compact building with a clear roof surrounded by battlements, a regular series of arched windows in the body of the edifice, and the tower surmounted by a tall spire.

[b] Newcourt's Diocess of London, Vol. I. p. 523; from the Episcopal Registers marked Bonner fol. 390, and Grindall fol. 9.