The Paul’s Cross sermons—Out of the cathedral and into the public square

Abstract

Paul’s Cross, located in the northeastern yard of St. Paul’s Cathedral, was the site of public sermons which were integral to the social fabric of early modern London. These sermons brought together a wide swath of London’s population, “a great Congregation of thy Children... of all sorts... from the Lieutenant of thy Lieutenant, to the meanest sonne of thy sonne” in John Donne’s words, for an event which served as a conduit from the King, through the Church, and out to the people of England. Early modern sermons were not merely lectures, but were theatrical conversations between the preacher and his congregation in which each had an active role to play, staged for their entertainment value as well as to elevate the spirit and the mind. The Paul’s Cross Project attempts to understand this interplay between preacher and congregation in an open, public space through acoustical and visual modeling of St. Paul’s churchyard as it existed before the Great Fire of 1666. The acoustical modeling has resulted in an...