In 1633 the preaching was removed into the choir "for the repaire of the Church," though we cannot quite see in what way this could help the repairing. Those who shortly afterwards obtained control of the City could tolerate neither the name nor the actual cross, and were afraid of disturbances as well. The structure came down, and although it was said at the time only to make way for another "fairer and bigger," was never restored again. The endowments out of which the preachers were paid went to the Sunday morning preachers, and these latter are the legitimate successors of the old-time divines.
[Illustration: THE CHAPTER HOUSE AND CLOISTER. _After Hollar._]
=The Clochier=, or =Bell Tower=, with its lead-covered spire crowned with a statue of St. Paul, stood at the east end of the churchyard. There must have been a tower here from a very early period if this was the bell that summoned the folk-mote. The Guild of Jesus owned the four bells of later times; and when that body was dissolved they reverted to the Crown, and were lost at dice to a Sir Miles Partridge, subsequently executed for sharing in the fortunes of the Protector Somerset. The cloister of the =Chapter House=, or =Convocation House=, shut off almost entirely the west wall of the south transept and four bays of the south wall of the nave. This was of the unusual arrangement of two stories, and formed a square of some ninety feet on the plan, with seven windows in either story. This was called the "Lesser Cloisters," apparently to distinguish it from the cloister of Pardon Church Haugh. In the centre of the square, and approached through a vestibule from the east, was the Chapter House, an octagon with a diameter of nearly forty feet, supported by massive buttresses. In Dugdale's engraving the lofty roof has gone; and the tracery of Chapter House and Cloisters alike are Perpendicular. It will be seen there were two places for the two Houses of Convocation, one near the west door of the nave, and this.
There was St. Peter's College, where the Petty Canons lived, Holmes College, and the Lancaster College. Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, executed for high treason against his cousin, Edward II., who was canonised by the people, though not by the Pope, had a tablet somewhere in the church at which miracles were believed to be wrought, and two offices to himself. But whether the Lancaster College referred to him or to John of Gaunt, or where it was situated, is uncertain.