anniversary of
Elizabeth's accession, had been celebrated in London in 1679 with the
most elaborate processions.[1047] In the earlier part of the eighteenth
century it was still a great day in some parishes for riotous
meetings,[1048] and was solemnised in some churches with special sermons
and religious services.[1049] On the 14th or 20th of August there were
also commemorative sermons in several London churches in remembrance of
the defeat of the Armada.[1050] At St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, this
custom still survives.

Throughout the eighteenth century the old laws which required due
attendance on public worship were still in force. They were, in fact,
formally confirmed in the thirty-first year of George the Third;[1051]
and however much they had fallen into neglect, they were not removed
from the statute-book till the ninth and tenth years of the present
reign.[1052] We are told, however, that when the Toleration Act was
passed in 1689, by one of the chief provisions of which persons who
frequented a legal dissenting congregation were excused from all
penalties for not coming to church, there was a general and observable
falling off in the attendance at divine worship.[1053] Hitherto
congregations had been swelled by numbers who went for no better reason
than because it was the established rule of the realm that they must go.
Henceforward, mistaken or not, it was the popular impression that people
'had full liberty to go to church or stay away; and the services were
much deserted in favour of the ale-houses.'[1054] At the beginning,
however, of the eighteenth century, the churches were once again fuller
than they had been for some time previously. Dissent was at that time
thoroughly unpopular; and the practice of occasional conformity brought
a considerable number of moderate Dissenters into church. It was
observed that churches in London which once had been very thinly
attended now had overflowing congregations.[1055] Unfortunately, this
revival of church attendance was not long-lived. Year after year it
continued to fall off, until it had become in many parts of the country
deplorably small. In 1738 Secker deplored the 'greatly increased
disregard to public worship.'[1056] It was never neglected in England so
much as during the corresponding period in Germany. Even in the worst of
times, as a modern writer has truly observed, the average Englishman
never failed to acknowledge that attendance at church or chapel w