IN the time of the first St. Paul's Church, London, where the present Cathedral stands, there was a pulpit formed of wood called Paul's Cross. Here the most famous divines were appointed to preach every Sunday in the forenoon. Here the Mayor and Aldermen and principal citizens of London used to resort; here also came the Court and the King and his train. The greater part of the congregation sat, in the open air; the King with his train had covered galleries. In rough weather a covered space on the side of the old church protected the congregation.
The "cross" itself was subjected to change and to rough usage, but for a very long period important announcements were made from it. So far back as 1262 a Papal Bull was published from it, by order of the King, Henry III.; and coming down to Henry VIII's time, we find the then Bishop of London compelled by the King to find preachers to preach down the Pope's authority at the cross from Sunday to Sunday, and to prove to the people that the Pope was merely Bishop of Rome.
The building of the Cathedral of St. Paul, London, of our own day, was commenced in 1697, upon the site of the old church, and a considerable time after the occurrence of such scenes as are represented in our little engraving. Out-of-door preachings were fashionable in Queen Mary's reign, and, as the presence of the armed guard shows, were, at least at times, conducted under military authority. Bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries gave forth their sermons and their statements at St. Paul's Cross in her reign, and the Londoners on occasions crowded to hear them. There proclamations were made; there at the command of the notorious Bishop of London, Bonner, in 1555, the declaration from which we quote was made by Dr. Chedsey. Bonner was looked upon by the people as full of cruelty, and he endeavored to shift the burden of his persecuting deeds to the shoulders of Queen Mary, affirming that she charged "the bishops with remissness and negligence in instructing the people infected with heresy" —as he termed the truth of the Gospel—"and in punishing them if they will be obstinate and willful." "The Lord Bishop of London," proceeded the declaration, "offereth himself ready to do his duty to the uttermost," and announced "that he had sent to all the prisons of the city to know what persons are there for heresy.”
As the Scriptures had entered England by royal authority before Queen Mary's time, the people, as is now the case, knew to a very great extent the truths of the Bible; hence, if the heresy "of the Gospel faith was to be rooted out of the land, very great energy was necessary. The" arguments " brought forward by the Papal party consisted chiefly in the punishment or burning of such as would not yield up their faith in God's Word, consequently the party was not by any means popular.
The Queen inhibited by proclamation the reading and preaching the Word of God in churches, and the printing and selling of religious books other than as by authority. The plea against "the printers and stationers" was that they "set out to sale to her Grace's subjects, of an evil zeal for lucre, and covetousness of vile gain," these books. While preaching at Paul's Cross on this matter, the canon who was in the pulpit raised such a storm of indignation against himself, that the Queen's guard with their weapons were sent the next day to guard the preacher. And we find precisely the same spirit active in our own times. The present Pope, Leo XIII., only last year forbade the printing and selling religious books, as was done in Queen Mary's days! The document which thus binds the fetters on the Pope's subjects is called an "Apostolic Constitution." The Roman Catholic bookseller is forbidden to vend books unauthorized, while to print "books of the sacred Scriptures, or notes, or commentaries upon them" brings down upon the offender "excommunication unreserved"; and all who read such books, without being granted special permission, are to be "restrained by canonical penalties." "All versions in the vernacular" of the sacred Books, "even though made by Catholics, are entirely forbidden unless approved by the Holy See or issued under the care of Bishops"; while "prohibited are all versions of the Holy Scriptures made by whatever non-Catholic writer in whatever vulgar tongue, and those especially which are spread abroad by Bible Societies, again and again condemned by the Roman Pontiffs.”
“Put out the light! Put out the light!" is ever the cry of superstition, for when the light shines darkness flees away.
The great Erasmus narrates how his publishing the New Testament in its original language met with a great deal of clamor and opposition; and how that one college in the University of Cambridge, in particular, absolutely forbade the use of it. "These," says he, "object to us the feigned authority of synods, and magnify the great peril of the Christian faith and the danger of the Church, which they pretend to support with their shoulders, which are much fitter to prop a wagon. And these clamors they disperse among the ignorant and superstitious populace, with whom, having the reputation of being great divines, they are very loath to have their opinions called in question, and are afraid that when they quote the Scripture wrong, as they often do, the authority of the Greek and Hebrew verity should be cast in their teeth, and that by-and-bye appear to be a dream which was by them given out for an oracle.”
The Vicar of Croydon in Surrey is said to have expressed himself to the following purpose in a sermon which he preached at Paul's Cross about this time: "We must root out printing, or printing will root out us." That vicar would not believe himself if he could see what printing has done for England in our century. And the fact that numbers of the large daily newspapers have Jesuits upon their staffs only proves the value the Papist sets upon the press. These do their best to keep truths about Rome out of the public papers and away from the knowledge of the people. Also in various publishing houses the Jesuits have found entrance, their effort being to disparage and keep down Protestant literature. So the old vicar of Croydon's utterance at St. Paul's Cross was indeed a true one.
Printing has rooted out the errors of Rome from millions of human souls, and it has planted within them the truths of the Gospel of God. The liberty of free speech and of a free press are boons to the land possessing them, which are not generally realized by those who have been born heirs to liberty. Let anyone try the effect of free speech in reference to the Scriptures in parts of Austria, and he will presently find himself in prison; or let him make a similar effort in parts of Spain, in favor of a free press, and he will soon experience the penalties of the law, on the ground that such statements are contrary to the religion of the land; such countries afford a just idea of what religious bondage was like in our land before the Reformation.
Free speech is the most powerful of weapons against error and for truth: hence there need be no surprise that those who love error and hate truth strive to keep free speech out of a country or a community. Even in some parts of England, where it is politic or possible, the exposure of the false in religion is now met with such furious storms of noise and blows that free speech is hardly possible. And as the influence of the priests grows this will be increasingly the case, for such civil office-bearers as are ruled by priestly power, will be more active to prevent the light from shining upon the practices of false religion.