London’s long reformation, the Corporation, and St Paul’s

The story of the early modern St Paul’s has often been told as one of decline and decay: the cathedral was too big to adjust to the very different liturgical needs of a Reformed church. This paper argues that early modern St. Paul’s was a success: its clergy had found a way to make this building work as a cathedral for a Protestant city. The Corporation and citizens of London valued it as the ‘mother church’ of the city. The ways in which they reorganised ceremonial events involving religious services at the cathedral allowed them to maintain, indeed strengthened, their relationship with the building. This commitment to St Paul’s did not end with the Civil War. We need to look beyond Dugdale’s embittered History to see how the citizens, their elected representatives, and those who lived and worked in the cathedral precinct all sought to maintain and preserve St Paul’s.