Criminal Cases, Part 3

When the Mayor of London says you have to dress for diner, you dress for dinner. On the Feast of Pentecost in 1382, the Mayor of London and the Aldermen were to meet at the Church of St. Peter in Cornhill. From there they would make a procession through the City to the Church of St. Paul in Walbrook.The Mayor and Aldermen had agreed beforehand that everyone in the procession should be dressed with a cloak lined with green taffeta (silk).The Alderman of the Ward of Walbrook, John Sely, appeared in a cloak that was not lined with anything, much less green taffeta.Whereupon, by advice of the Mayor and other Aldermen, it was then adjudged, and assented to, that the said Mayor and other Aldermen should dine with the same John at his house, and that, at the proper costs of the said John, on the Thursday following; and further, the said John was to line his cloak in manner aforesaid: and so it was done. And this judgment shall extend to all other Aldermen, hereafter to come, without sparing…