ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY times even lodged in churches. The church at Loughborough in 1643 was turned into temporary barracks, and the parishioners were expected to find nurses, shrouds, and graves for those who were wounded or killed in the neighbourhood.* 18 Prisoners were brought for safe keeping once into Hinckley church, and again into the chapel of Market Harborough after Naseby fight. 21 * In the matter of irreverence, there seems little to choose between the king's forces and those of the Parliament. If complaints were made of the rough usage of church, parsonage, and parson by the Parlia- mentary army at Coleorton, 216 the rector of Houghton on the Hill and the vicar of Theddingworth had a like accusation to bring against the king's men ; 216 and it was alleged that Sir Henry Hastings's troopers once rode right into the church at Loughborough and threatened the preacher in the pulpit. 217 In the town of Leicester, when it was stormed, there was a fierce fight in St. Martin's churchyard, and the soldiers of the king broke the locks off the church doors and robbed the poor men's box. 218 These facts cause no surprise to those who are acquainted with the manners of the times, and know some- thing of the history of continental warfare during the seventeenth century. The rough soldiers of those days, whatever their religion might be, were not likely to show much respect for holy places ; and very few commanders of that age were able, even if they wished it, to keep a firm hand upon their troops in the stress of storm and siege. Yet the Civil War in England, with all its horrors, has no records so hideous as those which disfigure the German and Italian wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A certain amount of damage and desecration was no doubt wrought by the Parliament men quite deliberately, in the desire to destroy everything that savoured of superstition. And the new zeal for reform swept away some few ornaments in the churches which had survived the iconoclasm of Elizabeth's reign. The eagle lectern at Loughborough was sold in 1646 for old brass, at 6d. per lb. 219 The steps before the altar in St. Martin's, Lei- cester, were taken away, and the font removed ; 22 the font was sold at St. Mary's, 221 and probably in other places also. 222 A laudable but ineffectual effort was made by the Committee for Plundered Ministers to deal with the difficulties of the Leicestershire vicars. It was indeed a great scandal that so many vicarages and curacies should be so scantily endowed, while the greater tithes went to support the lay rector in luxury and ease. In 1650, when a return was made of the revenues of ni Dimock-Fletcher, Chapters in the Hist, of Loughborough, 26-7, gives certain items in the Churchwardens' Accts. which show these facts. Payments were made for ' dressing the church after the soldiers, and for frankincense to sweeten it,' in 1644, and there is a similar entry under 1645. Graves, sheets, and women to watch the wounded are also entered. 114 Nichols, Leic. iii, App. p. 33 ; Hill, Hist. ofMarket Harborough, 20. JU Nichols, Leic. iii, App. p. 927 ; and in a petition quoted in Grosart's preface to the works of Sir John Beaumont (Fuller Worthies' Library). 116 S.P. Dom. Interr. F. I (20 May, 1646) ; Nichols, Leu. ii, 827. 117 Nichols, Leic. iii, App. p. 38 ; they did much the same at Rothley. 118 Ibid, i, 578. Churchwardens' Accts. 119 Dimock-Fletcher, Chapters in the Hist, of Loughborough, 30. This item stands in the Churchwardens' Accts. for 1 646, showing that the sale was carried out just after the ejection of Dr. Hall. " Nichols, Leic. i, 578, from the Churchwardens' Accts. The font was replaced by a ba;in more con- venient for the Presbyterian manner of baptism. 121 Also shown in the Churchwardens' Accts. for 1659. Trans. Leic. Arch. Soc. vi, 242. "* It is alleged of Captain Yaxley, the last incumbent of Kibworth Beauchamp before the Restoration, that he turned out the font into the street, to be used as a horse-trough. Nichols, Leic. ii, 652. 383
