ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY changes made in the English Church at the Reformation, was a diminution of the number of festivals observed in the City. The Court of Common Council agreed that all the dedication feasts of churches should henceforth be kept on 3 October," and letters were issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London sanctioning the change. The archbishop's letter, addressed to the preacher at Paul's Cross, stated that he had come to the above decision ex instantiis et supplicationibus of the clergy and people of the City parishes within his jurisdiction, and for other reasons.*^ The bishop's is much longer,^' and gives in full the reasons for the change. He said that the frequent feast days, instead of being spent in prayer, fasting, or pious meditation, were profaned by empty talk, dancing, drinking, and debauchery. Consequently it had seemed good to the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty to restrict [refrenare) the great multitude of feasts, especially those of the dedications of churches, which even more than the rest were spent by idle young people in voluptatibus, and they had recently urged him as their pastor to find a remedy for the evil. He, reflecting ' that the Sabbath was made for man,' and having consulted his brethren the canons of St. Paul's, now decreed that the dedication feasts should henceforth all be kept on 3 October. Their celebration at any other time he expressly forbade on pain of excommunication.'" In the autumn of 1523 William Tyndale came up to London from Gloucestershire. He applied vainly to the bishop for a chaplaincy, but was helped by a rich cloth merchant named Monmouth, who had heard him preach at St. Dunstan's in the West. In Monmouth's house he lived for six months ' like a good priest ' ; ' he studied most part of the day and of the night.' When he went abroad Monmouth gave him ^10 to pray for the souls of his father and mother, and he got ;^io more from others." Thus it was largely the charity of Londoners which made possible the translation and printing of the new English version of the Bible. Tunstall was employed in political business during the greater part of 1525, but he was also zealously endeavouring to check the spread of Lutheranism.'* It is probable that the rapidity with which some of the new opinions were adopted in the City was largely the result of the close connexion of its merchants with those of Flanders and the cities of North Germany. Luther's books were introduced into London by the corporation of the Steelyard or Hans, merchants, and the somewhat similar settlement of English merchants in Flanders protected Tyndale and his followers, and disseminated their works. '^ Early in 1526 proceedings were being taken by commissioners appointed by Wolsey as legate against some Hanse merchants accused of heresy. One of the articles of inquiry was why the mass of the body of Christ, which the fellows of the Steelyard used to celebrate in their parish church, AUhallows the Great, had been discontinued. All the accused " Rec. Corp. Letter Bk. N, fol. 243^ ; cf. Repert. vi, fol. 28. *' Ibid. Letter Bk. N, fol. 246.
- ' Wilkins, Concilia, 'in, 701-2 ; also in Letter Bk. N.
^ Cf. the decree of Convocation abrogating certain holy days in 1536 ; Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 823. °' Strype, Mem. i (ii), 364. " Letter of Erasmus to Tunstall, L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, 1841. For a great 'general procession' this year, after which Wolsey granted ' plenary remission ' to the people in St. Paul's, see Momim. Franc. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 191 ; Wriothesley, Chron. (Camd. Soc), i, 14 ; and cf. Strype, op. cit. i (ii), 367-8. Fide infra, and"cf. L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, Introd. pp. ccclxvi et seq. 253
