Having now sufficiently proved the Institution of the _Public Stews_ to be a Political Good, and answer’d all the religious Objections against it; I shall conclude with observing, That I have the Authority of _Italy_, the most Politic Nation in the World, to back me in the first Part of my Argument; and the Opinion of _Holland_, one of the strictest Reformed Churches, to vindicate me in the second; and that we ourselves enjoy’d the Benefit of this Institution till we were depriv’d of it by the over-hasty Zeal of our first Reformers in the sixteenth Century.
The _Public Stews_ were antiently kept in _Southwark_, by an express Licence from the Government, and open Permission both Civil and Ecclesiastical, for they paid regular Taxes to the _Lord-Mayor_ of the _City_, and to the Bishop of the _See_.
We do not find that they were ever molested ’till the 25th of _Edward_ the Third, when, in the Parliament at _Westminster_, at the Request of the _Londoners_, says _Daniel_, an Act passed, obliging all Common Whores to distinguish themselves, by wearing Hoods striped with divers Colours, or Furs, and their Gowns turn’d _inside_ out.
This, indeed, was but a Trifle to what they suffer’d thirty Years after by _Wat Tyler_’s Rebellion.
In the fifth of _Richard_ the Second, _Wat_ marched up from _Dartworth_, with a true Spirit of Reformation, fully resolv’d to burn and destroy every thing that oppos’d him: If the Archbishop’s Palace at _Lambeth_ could not escape, there was little Mercy to be expected for the _Stews_[9]; besides, Whoring was not the least of _Wat_’s Grievances: He began his Rebellion by killing a Collector of the Poll-Tax for being a little too brisk upon his Daughter; and his Antipathy to the _Stews_ was still increased, by the _Lord-Mayor_’s shutting the City-Gates, and denying him Entrance; for he could not revenge the Affront more effectually, than by _cutting off so large a Branch of his Lordship’s Revenue_.
[9] On the Feast of _Corpus Christi_, or the 13th of _June_, the Commons of _Kent_ brake down the STEW-HOUSES near _London-Bridge_, at that Time in the hands of the Frowes of _Flanders_, who had farmed them of the Mayor of _London_. STOW’s Chron. p. 285.
In short, every thing concurred to the Destruction of the _Stews_, and demolish’d they were.