88 History of the Company. 



1632. May loth. 



" At this Court the repalringe of Paule's Church was 

 considered of and it is ordered that there shalbe given 

 towards it the sum of fifteen pounds to bee paid by 

 X.^ a yeare if the worke goe on, if not to cease The 

 first to be paid p'sently." 



Ten years afterwards, a sum of nearly ^17,000 

 remaining in hand of the restoration fund for the 

 still unfinished works, was appropriated by the 

 Parliament. The edifice Itself was turned Into a 

 barracks for Cromwell's Iconoclasts, and Its sacred 

 precincts Into a ninepin court for his profane and 

 brawling troopers. Archbishop Laud was be- 

 headed In 1644. 



We now enter upon the era of the Revolution, 

 ,, the period from which to the- Res- 



The period of the \ , i i • i i 



Revolution and toration IS memorable m the annals 



the Restoration. r .^ r^ i r ^i. 



01 the Company, by reason 01 the 

 prolonged strain upon Its resources consequent 

 upon the rapacity of Charles I., and the exigencies 

 of the State during the subsequent Internecine 

 struggles of the country. 



The first demand of Charles I. upon the City 

 for money which affected the Saddlers' Company- 

 appears In their minutes on the 20th December, 

 1627, which record a precept received from the 

 Lord Mayor for the loan of ^600, and the money 

 Is ordered to be borrowed at Interest upon the 

 Company's seal. The reason for the precept Is 

 not stated, but, according to the City records, it 



