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A fifteenth century chronicler, William Gregory of the Skinners Company, Mayor of London in 1451, made a list of the parish churches and monasteries within and without the walled city (153 in total). In addition to the mere names and numbers of the churches, he provided  descriptive comments about some of the monastic foundations. Three of these were in the area close to Bishopsgate and operated as charitable institutions, or 'hospitals' ― in medieval usage, 'an institution supported by alms or bequests for care of the needy'.  1    Pappy Chyrche in the Walle be twyne Algate and Bevysse Markes       And hyt ys a grete frateryte of prestys and of othyr seqular men. And there ben founde of almys cetayne prestys, both blynde and lame, that be empotent; and they have day masse and xiiij d. [14 pence] a weke, barber and launder, and one to dresse and provyde for hyr mete and drynke. 2    A chyrche of Owre Lady that ys namyde Bedlem     ...

  (Bridewell and Bawdry) 1554 The xij day of Desember dyd ryd in a car a-bowt London for baldre one Kay wyffe dwellyng be-syd sant Mare Spytyll at the corner. 1555   [The ij of May three persons for their abominable living were carted through the city, from Guildhall to Cheapside, and so through Newgate, and through Smithfield, and back again to the Standard in Cheap, where the proclamation of their unclean living was mad, viz, master] Manwaring a gentyllman, and ij women, on ... Warren dwellyng at the Hale in Chepe, and the odur a gold-smyth('s) wyff, for baudry and hordom, and dyvers [times taken] with-all; and so cared out of Algatt. The iiij day of Desember was a voman [set in the] pelere [pillory] for beytyng her chyld with rodes and ... to peteusly; and the sam day was a man and a voman cared a-bowt London at a care-arse [cart's tail] for baudry and ... 1556 The xxix day of Aprell was a man baude sette up one the pelere [pillory] for bryngyng unto men prentes [apprentice...

  'Sports and follies against the Pope' "... the eruption of misrule registered under Henry and Edward ... that festive mode characterized by licence, parody, and inversion known in England as misrule ... early Tudor evangelical propaganda as characterized by a 'gleeful destructiveness' in 'utilising public ridicule against traditional devotion' while employing a 'savagely symbolic overturning of the past'."      "Insight into the motives behind evangelical topsy-turveydom is provided by what amounts to a strategy statement left to us by Thomas Cromwell's secretary Richard Morison, entitled A Discourse Touching the Reformation of the Lawes of England  (1534-5). Since carnivalesque processions and plays are 'daily by all meanes ... inculked and driven into the peoples heddes' to prop up 'the bysshop of Rome', Morison reasons, reformers must fight back with the same weapons, while eradicating Catholic traditions: 'How...