ABSTRACT
Saint Botolph Aldgate was located outside the old city wall, north of the Tower, and the parish was over 45 acres in area. Parish leaders of Saint Botolph Aldgate also faced other issues, including questions concerning the parish’s legally defined physical boundaries. In 1546, Green complained to the Court of Augmentations that, since Bishop Knight had been allowed to restore the altar and font at the Minories, he had lost income and “was unable to pay the farm of the rectory of Saint Botolph Aldgate.” By the summer of 1548, liturgical decisions in numerous London parishes and at Saint Paul’s Cathedral went beyond governmental or ecclesiastical directive, and so it was at Saint Botolph’s. Microhistorical analysis reveals how the parish’s lack of unity, along with a lack of strong authoritative local institutions, abetted by a weak national government, helps to explain why Saint Botolph Aldgate experienced such intense conflict in 1548.
