. The great civil war of the times of Charles I and Cromwell; with thirty highly-finished engravings . ring the occupation of Lichfieldby the profligate followers of Sir John GeU. The carvings, the rich windows, the curiouspavement, the costly tombs, the records belonging to the Close and city, were all destroyedor mutilated. The governor set the example of spoliation by appropriating to himself thecommunion-plate and linen. The soldiers kept coui-ts of guard in the aisles, and made thelofty roofs echo to their lewd revelry. The pulpit was occupied from time to time byvarious fanatical preache
. The great civil war of the times of Charles I and Cromwell; with thirty highly-finished engravings . ring the occupation of Lichfieldby the profligate followers of Sir John GeU. The carvings, the rich windows, the curiouspavement, the costly tombs, the records belonging to the Close and city, were all destroyedor mutilated. The governor set the example of spoliation by appropriating to himself thecommunion-plate and linen. The soldiers kept coui-ts of guard in the aisles, and made thelofty roofs echo to their lewd revelry. The pulpit was occupied from time to time byvarious fanatical preachers, who cncomaged these acts of profanation. Here, as well as,among other places, at Sudley, they established a slaughter-house ■\\itliin the consecratedbuilding, and cut up the carcases upon the altar. At Sudley, they threw the oflal intothe burial vault of the noble family of Chaudos. St. Pauls was converted into a stablefor the cavaby horses. In several chvuches, they brought calves, swine, and other animalsto the fonts; where they sprinkled them with water, and named them, iu derision of the. THE CIIUUCH IN DESOLATION. 109 holy sacrament of baptism. At Westminster^ under the very eyes of the parliament^ thesoldiers sat diiuking and smoking at the altar, lived in the abhey, and converted its sacredprecincts to the vilest uses. lu the chapel at Lambeth, Parkers monument was throwndoAA-n, the remains of the prelate bmied in a dimgliill, aird the leaden cofhn which enclosedthem sold. Though it be true that of these, and the numberless other enormities of the samekind recorded, some were merely the natural outbursts of vulgar wantonness, in a periodof reaction and excitement, for which the governing powers sliould not be held respon-sible; yet the same excuse cannot be alleged in regard to others. Can the warmestfriends of freedom, political or reUgious, defend that course of ciniel statesmanship,to which all nobler principles were sacrificed in the case of the unhappy but cou
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcattermolerichard1795, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850
