CHAPTER II

THE CHURCH AND DISSENT

After the Restoration the religious condition of the City was greatly modified. First the Church of England was enormously stronger than it had been in any part of Charles the First’s reign. Then the persecution of Roman Catholics and Nonconformists affected London more than the country, first because many of the former had taken refuge in London, and next because the City contained thousands of the latter, some of whom obstinately refused any show of conformity. In 1666 the King banished all Roman Catholic priests; in the following year he forbade his subjects to hear Mass at the Queen’s or any Ambassador’s chapel. At the same time he called upon the civil officers to enforce the statutes provided. In 1671, when as yet few City churches were rebuilt, he ordered that certain places hitherto used as conventicles should be used as churches, served by orthodox ministers appointed by the Bishop of London:—

“In Fisher’s-folly, in Bishopsgate Street—a convenient place, with two galleries, pews, and seats.

In Hand-alley, in Bishopsgate Street—a large room, purposely built for a meeting-house, with three galleries, thirty large pews, and many benches and forms, known by the name of Vincent’s congregation.

In St. Michael’s Lane—a large room, with two galleries and thirty-nine forms.

In Mugwell Street—Mr. Doolittle’s meeting-house, built of brick, with three galleries, full of large pews; and thirty-eight large pews below, with locks and keys to them, besides benches and forms.

The Cockpit in Jewin Street—a meeting-house of one Grimes, many pews, forms, and benches.

In Blackfriars—Mr. Wood’s meeting-house; four rooms, opening into one another, with lattice partitions, each room conveniently fitted with benches and forms.

In Salisbury Court—four rooms, opening into one another, in the possession of John Foule, a schoolmaster.

In New Street, within Shoe Lane—four rooms, opening into one another, with seventeen pews, and divers benches, in the possession of Mrs. Turner.”

During the Commonwealth we find certain games forbidden, as the “Whimsey Board,” which used to be played in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Persons guilty of playing the virginals in taverns were punished for “living loosely.” Search was continually made for Catholics. There were dissensions in certain City churches about altar rails and other things. The word saint was omitted. Weddings were celebrated by the Alderman of the ward, and banns were published in Leadenhall Market. The hospitals, with revenues greatly diminished, were used for the wounded soldiers. In the same year it was thought necessary to repeat the order for the banishment of priests, and in 1673 Catholic recusants were forbidden to enter the Palace or Park of St. James’s or the precincts of Whitehall. The Catholics, however, continued to flock to the Ambassadors’ chapels. It was therefore ordered that messengers of the Chamber or other officers should be stationed at the approaches to these chapels in order to arrest those proposing to attend service there.

In 1679 all Roman Catholics in London were ordered to leave the City and to withdraw at least ten miles from it.

The constant repetition of these ordinances proves that they were never enforced save by occasional fits of zeal; the Catholics went away; a week later they returned; no doubt the officers were bribed to shut their eyes. Yet the system was most exasperating; for a Catholic to be compelled to attend a Protestant service was almost as bad as for a Mohammedan to be compelled to eat pig; the Catholic rule about attending heretical services is never relaxed; while a zealous churchwarden, armed with blank warrants, which he could fill up as he pleased in order to arrest and to fine, might make life intolerable. A good many young Catholics went abroad for education, and presently found it expedient to stay there. The Nonconformists, for their part, had no intention of submitting meekly. There were riots and tumults in the City. In 1681 the Middlesex magistrates endeavoured to put in execution the Act of Charles II.:—

“Which enacts, that all those who preached in conventicles or meetings, contrary to the statutes of the realm, shall not come within five miles of a corporation; that no person shall teach in any school under the penalty of £40, unless he attend the established church. And that of the 20th year of the same reign, which ordains, that if any person above sixteen years of age attended a religious assembly in a house where more than five others, exclusive of the household, were present, except the rites were according to the established church, any person preaching there should forfeit a certain sum.”

It was presently reported, to the blind terror and indignation of the zealous, that in certain houses lately erected Catholics had opened schools, and had attracted many pupils and numbers of people, their parents and relations. It was therefore enacted that those persons who, having licences for keeping houses of entertainment, did not attend church and, instead, attended any kind of conventicle, should lose their licence, and—a very serious blow against Catholics and Nonconformists—money should not be given to the poor unless they attended church. The Privy Council, having a list of Catholic tradesmen in St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, St. Giles’s, and St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, set an example to the City by ordering the Justices of the Peace to proceed against them according to law.

The history of Nonconformity in London has been treated in the book of the Eighteenth Century. The following, however, is a list of conventicles and preachers in the year 1680:—

“Holborn, Short’s Gardens, Case, Presbyterian Minister. Chequer Yard, Dowgate Hill, Watson, Presbyterian, 300. Cutler’s Hall, Cole, Presbyterian, 400. Hand Alley, Bishopsgate Street, Vincent the Elder, 800. Glovers’ Hall, Beech Lane, Cripplegate, Fifth Monarchy Meeting. Devonshire House, Bishopsgate, Harcostell, Anabaptist. New Street, Fetter Lane, Cross. Gracechurch Street, Gibson. Devonshire House, Haward, drysalter. Barking, Benj. Antrobus. The Golden Harrow, Bishopsgate Without, linen-draper. Plaistow, Clement Plumstead, ironmonger. Three Cranes, Thames Street, R. Haward, coal merchant. Barking, T. Bagley, Lothbury, clockmaker. Little Eastcheap, R. Whitepace, butcher. Cornhill, W. Mead, draper. Leadenhall Street, S. Loveday, Anabaptist. Star Alley, East Smithfield, Isaac Lamb, shoemaker.”

The example of religious discussion and the examination of doctrine penetrated, as has been set forth, to the lower classes. A case in point is that of Oliver Cromwell’s porter. This man, whose Christian name was Daniel, learned in Cromwell’s service much of the cant that prevailed at that time. He was a great plodder in books of divinity, especially in those of the mystical kind, which are supposed to have turned his brain. He was many years in Bedlam, where his library was, after some time, allowed him, as there was not the least probability of his cure. The most conspicuous of his books was a large Bible given him by Nell Gwynne. He frequently preached and sometimes prophesied, and was said to have foretold several remarkable events, particularly the Fire of London. One would think that Butler had this frantic enthusiast in view when he says:—

“Had lights where better eyes were blind, As pigs are said to see the wind; Fill’d Bedlam with predestination.” (_Hudibras_).

Mr. Charles Leslie, who has placed him in the same class with Fox and Muggleton, tells us that people often went to hear him preach, and “would sit many hours under his window with great signs of devotion.” That gentleman had the curiosity to ask a grave matron who was among his auditors, “What she could profit by hearing that madman?” She, with a composed countenance, as pitying his ignorance, replied, that “Festus thought Paul was mad.”

In the year 1692 one Robert Midgley was moved to speak out on behalf of the churches and their services. His pamphlet is useful in showing the conduct of the religious services in the City of London at that time. He imitated the methods of the theatres in issuing a printed paper of services and hours. I omit a portion of his preamble:—

“And now considering the ways and methods which Satan and his Emissaries have taken to fill his Chirches, the Theatres, with Votaries, have been (not by Bells, which make a great noise near hand and are not heard afar off, but) by silently dispersing their Bills, and setting them up at the corners of the streets, whereby they do draw People from all Parts to their contagious Assemblies, I was easily convinced of the Success of the like Undertaking for the Service of Almighty God, and therefore could no longer excuse myself for the Omission thereof. These are, therefore, Dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, to acquaint you where ye may daily, with the congregations of the Faithful, assemble together at the House of Prayer; where you may, in Imitation of the Apostles of our Lord, every Lord’s Day partake of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; and lastly, where there are any extraordinary regular Lectures to be heard; in all which, for your good, I have spared no pains for the certainty of my own information nor Charges in the Dispersing hereof for yours. And now know that the wilful Neglect of these means will one day have a sad after-reckoning, and that this Paper will then rise up in judgment against you.

If this Paper[5] have its desired effect, I trust Almighty God will open the hearts of his faithful Labourers, to set up Daily Prayer and weekly Communion in many of their own churches, where at present it is not.

For the sake of such as, during the whole time this is dispersing, may happen, either by sickness, Absence, or otherwise, not to come in the way of it, there shall be of them to be bought, _Price one Halfpenny_, which is also _Corban_, and therefore put into the hands but of one person to sell; whoever else, therefore, does sell them, does also Print them, and consequently does not only rob this Bookseller of his Copy (which cost the Author so much labour to form) but all the Poor also of their just due herein, which it is hoped every Christian Buyer will remember and consider. ROB. MIDGLEY.”

From his list it appears that there were four daily services in one church, three in seven churches, two in forty-one, and one in thirty-six. That the Holy Communion was administered every Sunday in eight churches, three times a month in two, twice at two churches, viz. the chapels of Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn, and on the first Sunday of the month at all the other churches. As regards the hour, at two churches there were two celebrations at 7 A.M. and noon, in two at 6 A.M., in one at 8 A.M.; in all the rest at noon.

There were lectures in three churches at 6 A.M. every Sunday, in one church at 7 A.M., in one at 10 A.M., in two at 4 P.M., in ten at 5 P.M., and in one at 6 P.M. On week days there were four churches where a lecture was given once a week at 6 A.M., one at 9 A.M., twelve at 10 A.M., one at 11 A.M., one at 2 P.M., three at 3 P.M., four at 4 P.M., one at 5 P.M., and one at 6 P.M. Of evening service, as we understand it, there was none. It is, however, without doubt that all the churches were open practically every day for service, and that all the week round a pious person might hear a sermon in the morning and another in the evening; or he might run round from church to church and hear sermons all day long.

Charity has always been closely coupled with church-going in theory at least. In Appendix III. will be found a list of the almshouses of London of this period.

This list, containing forty-one almshouses in which hospitals are not included and seventeen schools, appears to speak well for the charity, well directed and deliberate, of the seventeenth century. Out of the whole number of almshouses in existence in the year 1756, when this list was compiled, the seventeenth century founded nearly the half, and of the whole number of endowed schools existing in 1753, the seventeenth century contributed exactly one half.

Of the greatest of all the “almshouses” founded in the Stuart period, viz. Chelsea Hospital, I do not speak in this place, as a full account of it is given elsewhere in the Survey.[6]