Being at St Paul's yesterday I took opportunity to have a proper look at the St Paul's Cross memorial, which I've not done before. According to the plaque there the pulpit in St Paul's churchyard goes back to 1191. It was what Alexandra Walsham (Providence in early modern England, p 281) calls a ‘rostrum contemporaries revered as the ‘chiefest Watchtower’ and the very ‘stage of this land’’. She reproduces a crude 1625 woodcut of Thomas Brewer preaching there. There are better visuals here and a digest of a 1925 article by E Beresford Chancellor saying that it was the setting, perhaps the inspiration in part, for some of the most pregnant scenes in London’s, indeed England’s, history. Even before it was the cathedral pulpit, it was a traditional spot for announcing proclamations, civil and religious. At times of national crisis, Londoners were drawn there as by a magnet. Its history goes back at least to the 13th Century. Down the years declarations, proclamations and public confessions were made there; impostors and frauds were exposed, traitors denounced, sermons preached, books burned. In the late 15th Century the pulpit was rebuilt. Largely of timber, mounted on steps of stone with a lead covered roof and a low wall around, it held three or four. It was said that ‘All the Reformation was accomplished from the Cross’ - where my interest arose. It fell into disuse early in Elizabeth’s reign but was revived and continued until swept away in 1643. From then the site remained unmarked until in 1910 a new cross was built that marks the site today.
A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
St Paul's Cross
Being at St Paul's yesterday I took opportunity to have a proper look at the St Paul's Cross memorial, which I've not done before. According to the plaque there the pulpit in St Paul's churchyard goes back to 1191. It was what Alexandra Walsham (Providence in early modern England, p 281) calls a ‘rostrum contemporaries revered as the ‘chiefest Watchtower’ and the very ‘stage of this land’’. She reproduces a crude 1625 woodcut of Thomas Brewer preaching there. There are better visuals here and a digest of a 1925 article by E Beresford Chancellor saying that it was the setting, perhaps the inspiration in part, for some of the most pregnant scenes in London’s, indeed England’s, history. Even before it was the cathedral pulpit, it was a traditional spot for announcing proclamations, civil and religious. At times of national crisis, Londoners were drawn there as by a magnet. Its history goes back at least to the 13th Century. Down the years declarations, proclamations and public confessions were made there; impostors and frauds were exposed, traitors denounced, sermons preached, books burned. In the late 15th Century the pulpit was rebuilt. Largely of timber, mounted on steps of stone with a lead covered roof and a low wall around, it held three or four. It was said that ‘All the Reformation was accomplished from the Cross’ - where my interest arose. It fell into disuse early in Elizabeth’s reign but was revived and continued until swept away in 1643. From then the site remained unmarked until in 1910 a new cross was built that marks the site today.
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