On the 1st of February 1444, the steeple was set on fire in the middle by lightning; and again destroyed, together with the roof of the building, by a similar accident in June 1561. The roof was speedily repaired by means of public contributions; but the steeple was not rebuilt till 1631, when the whole church was repaired and enlarged under the superintendence of Inigo Jones, at the cost of upwards of 100,000/. collected for that purpose.

During the civil war, which soon afterwards broke out, St. Paul's suffered along with other sacred edifices. The revenues of the dean and chapter were seized by order of the parliament; the marble pavement was torn up, the stalls in the choir were taken away, the monuments defaced, and sawpits dug in the church, which was frequently used as quarters for horse

soldiers; while parts were suffered to tumble down for want of repair. In this ruinous state the edifice remained till it was utterly destroyed by the great fire in 1666.

Among the various appendages of the old Cathedral, the most famous for several ages was St. Paul's Cross, which stood on the north side of the church-yard, and was used for various purposes, both religious and secular. It is conjectured to have been originally an ordinary cross, and coeval with the church. The period of its conversion into a pulpit cross is uncertain. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1382; and, though several bishops collected considerable sums by offering the usual bait of indulgences (pardon for sins committed or to be committed) to all contributors, it was not rebuilt till 1449. It was a pulpit of hexagonal form, constructed of timber, covered with

lead, raised upon a flight of stone steps, and surmounted by a large cross.

At this Cross, by command of Richard Duke of Gloucester, the celebrated Dr. Shaw first broached the project of that usurper to assume the crown. Here Jane Shore, the unfortunate favourite of Edward IV, was compelled, in the decline of life, to do penance. From this Cross was proclaimed the marriage between James IV. of Scotland, and Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, in 1502, when Te Deum was sung, twelve bonfires made, and twelve hogsheads of Gascoigne wine given to the populace," to be drunken of all men freelie." Here likewise the first English translation of the Bible was publicly burned by order of Bishop Stokesley; and the Pope's sentence against Luther was promulgated in 1521 by Cardinal Wolsey. The ceremony was followed

by a sermon delivered by Fisher, bishop of Rochester, during which many of the German reformer's books were burned in the churchyard.

When Henry VIII. had determined to renounce the pope's authority, an order from the King in council was issued, commanding that such as should preach " from Sonday to Sonday at Paule's Crosse" should declare to the people, that neither the pope nor any of his predecessors were anything more than merely bishops of Rome, the paramount jurisdiction which they claimed being only usurped, and "under sufferance of princes." His daughter Mary, on her accession, appointed several of her ablest divines to preach here in furtherance of her design to restore the supremacy of the pope. Several disturbances were the consequence, and attempts were even made to

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assassinate the preacher in the midst of his discourse.

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, the doctrines of the Reformation were again promulgated from this Cross by divines, some of whom subsequently attained to the highest dignities of the church. Here, by the royal command, a sermon of thanksgiving was preached after the signal defeat of the Invincible Armada; and another after the execution of the unfortunate Earl of Essex, for the purpose of stigmatizing his memory: but this ungenerous procedure is supposed to have originated with some of the Queen's council rather than Elizabeth herself, whose remorse for having spilt the blood of her favourite is known to have accelerated her own dissolution.

In March 1620, James I. attended a sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross, by Bishop King,