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THE CAPUCHIN MISSION TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 233 centre of a Catholic revival in London 93 • Nor was it an exaggeration on Archbold's part to speak of a Catholic revival. The French Capuchins were a sensation in the city 94 • At first they had been constrained to wear black cassocks and long coats in order to appear less conspicuous. Such a concession to religious prejudice irked the friars who by training and experience had a disregard, and almost a disdain, for public criticism. After a few weeks the cassocks were laid aside. The foreign friars in strange religious dress became as great a curiosity for London as the coloured slaves or the birds with fantastically coloured plumage which explorers were bringing from the fabulous lands of the New World. The laying aside of the long black coats was symbolic of the intention to take London by storm. Crowds flocked to the queen's chapel. Sir Nicholas White of Leixlip, county Dublin, assessed from personal observation that about six thousand people heard Mass there on Sundays and holy days 95 • This statement may have been an exaggeration but it nevertheless indicates how the tide was turning in favour of Catholicism in London. Services were held daily from six in the morning until noonday. On Sundays and holy days there was a special instruction in religious controversy beginning at 1 p.m., followed by sung Vespers and a sermon. Instruction in Catholic doctrine was given publicly three times a week in both French and English. The leading Catholics were brought together in the Confra– ternity of the Holy Rosary. The variety, dignity and colour of the Catholic ceremonies helped to draw congregations hungry for external religious expression after the bare ritual of the Anglican and Presbyterian services. The Capuchin superior wrote from London to Propaganda on 6 October 1636 telling of the continuous demand for confessions which were heard in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Latin; he reported that there was an average of eight hundred communions a week, and that up to that time seven hundred converts had been received 96 • The French Capuchins, for all their zeal, were moderate and charming in their approach. It was for this reason they were able to win over a weekly average of two or three of the nobility, and even to count Anglican clergymen among their 93 ARCHBOLD, Evangel.Fruict, 231. 94 ALBION, op. cit., 107; ARCHBOLD, Evangel.Fruict, 207, 210, 289; DEDOUVRES, Joseph de Paris II, 110-120. 9 5 ARCHBOLD, Evangel.Fruict, 289-290. "" Gun.DAY, English Catholic refugees, 296 n.2. See also P. HUGHES, art. cit., in Clergy Review 8(1934) 118.