standing.

(M663)

Much dissatisfaction was displayed against Bludworth for his want of
resolution during the crisis,(1310) and when Michaelmas-day arrived, and
he was about to go out of office, he was called to account for his
conduct. In anticipation of lord mayor's day he wrote to Joseph
Williamson, afterwards Secretary of State, bespeaking his favour and
support. He professed not to live by popular applause (he said), but he
needed and desired the support and esteem of government, "having had the
misfortune to serve in the severest year that ever man did."(1311)

(M664)

As to the origin of the fire the wildest rumours at the time prevailed,
and for years afterwards it was commonly attributed to Papists wishing to
destroy the stronghold of the reformed religion, notwithstanding the fact
that not a scintilla of evidence was forthcoming in support of such a
charge, after a most careful investigation.(1312) The citizens were not
satisfied with the first inquiry, and in March, 1668, a petition was
prepared to lay before parliament to re-open the question and to receive
fresh evidence.(1313) Thirteen years later the belief that the Papists had
a hand in causing the wholesale destruction of the city was formally
promulgated by the House of Commons (10 Jan., 1681),(1314) and the same
belief was perpetuated by an inscription on the Monument commemorating the
fire, an inscription which met with the approval of the municipal
authorities of the day.(1315)

(M665)

Sir Patience Ward happened to be mayor at the time, but was probably no
more responsible for the inscription than any other member of the Court of
Aldermen or Common Council, notwithstanding the severe reflection passed
upon him by his namesake Thomas Ward,(1316) who, speaking of Titus Oates
and his bogus "discoveries," wrote:

"He swore--with flaming faggot sticks,
In sixteen hundred sixty-six,
That they through London took their marches,
And burnt the city down with torches;
Yet all invisible they were,
Clad in their coats of Lapland air.
The sniffling Whig-mayor Patience Ward
To this damn'd lie paid such regard,
That he his godly masons sent,
T' engrave it round the Monument:
They did so; but let such things pass--
His men were fools, himself an ass."

(M666)

On the accession of James II the obnoxious inscription was removed, but
the feeling against Papists had obtained so strong a hold over the popular
mind, that it was again set up as soon as W