Paul's again for
Vespers, and again at Christmas, on the Epiphany, and on Candlemas Day
(Purification). On Whitsun Monday they met at St. Peter's, Cornhill,
and on this occasion the City clergy all joined the procession, and
again they assembled in the cathedral nave, while the _Veni Creator
Spiritus_ was sung antiphonally, and a chorister, robed as an angel,
waved incense from the rood screen above.[4] Next day the same
ceremony was repeated, but this time it was "the common folk" who
joined in the procession, which returned by Newgate, and finished
at the Church of St. Michael le Querne.[5] And once more they went
through the ceremony, the "common folk of Essex" this time assisting.
There could not be fuller proof of the sense of religious duty in
civil and commercial life. The history of the City Guilds is full of
the same interweaving of the life of the people with the duties of
religion. There is an amusing incident recorded of one of these
Pentecostal functions. On Whitsun Monday, 1382, John Sely, Alderman of
Walbrook, wore a cloak without a lining.
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