All Hallows the Great

All-Hallows-the-Great
Location	Upper Thames Street, London
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Roman Catholic, Anglican
Architecture
Architect(s)	Christopher Wren
Style	Baroque
Demolished	1894

All-Hallows-the-Great was a church in the City of London, located on what is now Upper Thames Street, first mentioned in 1235. Destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, the church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. All-Hallows-the-Great was demolished in 1894 when many bodies were disinterred from the churchyard and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.

All Hallows (meaning "All Saints") was one of six churches in London having the same dedication. The church's suffix was given to distinguish it from another All Hallows located above a gate in a large house nearby, which was known as All-Hallows-the-Less.

The earliest surviving reference is in a charter of Bishop Gilbert of London in 1100–07, as Omnium Sanctorum in London quae dicitur Semannesire (All Saints that is called Seamen's church, in London). Other early records refer to the church by a number of names, including All Hallows the More, All Hallows Thames Street, All Hallows in the Hay and All Hallows in the Ropery. According to John Stow, the latter descriptions were given because hay was sold at the nearby Hay Wharf and ropes were made in the high street.

All-Hallows-the-Great was also the church of the German community of the nearby Steelyard, since the Hanseatic community had only a chapel of their own on the Steelyard premises. The church was sufficiently large to include a large cloister on its south side and accommodate a grammar school, founded by Henry VI in 1447.

During the Commonwealth, All-Hallows-the-Great was a centre for the Fifth Monarchy Men, a millenarian sect that preached the coming of the reign of saints following the demise of the fifth rule of kings, as prophesied in the Book of Daniel. The recent beheading of Charles I, and the looming of the year 1666 was interpreted as a sign that the end of the fifth rule of kings was nigh. The effect of the radical doctrine on the congregation may be surmised by Samuel Pepys's account of their setting up the Royal coat of arms of Charles II, one month before the Restoration. After the Restoration, however, the parish petitioned the Archbishop for the retention of Robert Bragge, the Commonwealth incumbent, who they claimed was "sound in doctrine and of a holy conversation."

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