llewyn be revelacion
Took off the Bysshop upon a day licence
To leede Kyng Edmund ageyn to Bury town.
But by a maner symulacion
The bysshop granteth, and under that gan werche
Hym to translate into Powlys cherche;

Upon a day took with hym clerkis thre,
Entreth the cherche off seyn Gregory,
In purpose fully, yiff it wolde be,
To karye the martir fro thenys prevyly.
But whan the bysshop was therto most besy
With the body to Poulis forto gon,
Yt stood as fyx as a gret hill off ston.

Multitude ther myhte noon avayle,
Al be they dyde ther fforce and besy peyne;
For but in ydel they spent ther travayle.
The peple lefte, the bysshop gan dysdeyne:
Drauht off corde nor off no myhty chayne
Halp lyte or nouht--this myracle is no fable--
For lik a mount it stood ylyche stable.

Wherupon the bysshop gan mervaylle,
Fully diffraudyd off his entencion.
And whan ther power and fforce gan to faylle,
Ayllewyn kam neer with humble affeccion,
Meekly knelyng sayde his orysoun:
The kyng requeryng lowly for Crystes sake
His owyn contre he sholde not forsake.

With this praier Ayllewyn aroos,
Gan ley to hand: fond no resistence,
Took the chest wher the kyng lay cloos,
Leffte hym up withoute violence.
The bysshop thanne with dreed and reverence
Conveyed hym forth with processioun,
Till he was passid the subarbis off the toun.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VII.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS TILL THE DESTRUCTION OF THE
CATHEDRAL.

_Fresh signs of Decay and Neglect_--_Visit of James I._--_Bishop
Earle's Account of Paul's Walk_--_Laud's Letter to the Citizens_
--_Sir Paul Pindar's Munificence_--_The Rebellion_--_Monuments
of the Stuart Period:_ _Carey_, _Donne_, _Stokesley_, _Ravis_,
_King_, _Vandyke_--_Attempts at Restoration:_ _Inigo Jones_,
_Wren_--_The Great Fire:_ _Accounts of Pepys and Evelyn_,
_Eye-witnesses_--_Sancroft's desire to Restore the Old Cathedral
found quite impossible_--_Final Decision to Build a New One._

We saw how, in the reign of Elizabeth, a great calamity befell the
cathedral in the falling of the spire, and through this the great
injury to the roof, and further how the Queen, as well as the
citizens, endeavoured to repair the damage. The spire was not rebuilt,
but the roof was renewed. But fifty years later it was discovered that
the work had been fraudulently done,