A.D. 1536. The monks distributed larger CH. 10. distributed in the great abbeys, or 'to be dismissed with a permission,' if they desired it, 'to live hoMarch. nestly and virtuously abroad.' 'Some convenient either to be charity' was to be allowed them for their living; among the and the chief head or governor was to have 'such houses, or pension as should be commensurate with his to be pen- degree or quality.'* All debts, whether of the houses or of the brothers individually, were to be carefully paid; and finally, one more clause was added, sufficient in itself to show the temper in which the suppression had been resolved upon. The visitors had reported a few of the smaller sioned off, to live honestly abroad. The few houses re puted clear abbeys as free from stain. The king was em established may be re- powered, at his discretion, to permit them to survive; and under this permission thirty-two houses were refounded in perpetuam eleemosynam.† by the Crown. This is the history of the first suppression of the monasteries under Henry VIII. We regret the depravity by which it was occasioned; but the measure itself, in the absence of any preferable alternative, we must regard as bravely and wisely resolved. In the general imperfection of human things, no measure affecting the interests of large bodies of men was ever yet devised which has not pressed unequally, and is not in some respects open to objection. We can but choose the best among many doubtful courses, tions as should secure the dis-a-year, being the income of an *The monks generally were allowed from four to eight pounds + BURNET's Collect., p. 80. when we would be gladly spared, if we might be Cп. 10. spared, from choosing at all. A.D. 1536. The laity their way In this great transaction, it is well to observe March. that the laity alone saw their way clearly. The only see majority of the bishops, writhing under the in- clearly. hibitions, looked on in sullen acquiescence, submitting in a forced conformity, and believing, not without cause, that a tide which flowed so hotly would before long turn and ebb back again. Among the reforming clergy there was neither union nor prudence; and the protestants, in the sudden sunshine, were becoming unmanageable and extravagant. On the bench there were but four prelates who were on the moving sideCranmer, Latimer, Shaxton, and Barlow*-and among these Cranmer only approved the policy of the government. Shaxton was an arrogant braggart, and Barlow a feeble enthusiast. Shaxton, who had flinched from the stake when Bilney was. burnt, Shaxton, who subsequently relapsed under Mary, and became himself a Romanist persecutor, Unwisdom was now strutting in his new authority, and protestant punishing, suspending, and inhibiting in behalf bishops. of protestant doctrines which were not yet tolerated by the law.† Barlow had been openly preaching that purgatory was a delusion; that a layman might be a bishop; that where two or three, it might be, 'cobblers or weavers,' 'were in company in the name of God, there was the *In the autumn of 1535 Latimer had been made Bishop of Worcester, Shaxton of Salisbury, and Barlow of St. David's. + STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i. Appendix, p. 222; BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 92. VOL. II. G G of the A.D. 1536. CH. 10. church of God.'* Such ill-judged precipitancy was of darker omen to the Reformation than papal excommunications or imperial menaces, and would soon be dearly paid for in fresh martyr-fires. Latimer, too, notwithstanding his clear perception and gallant heart, looked with bitterness on the confiscation of establishments which his mind had pictured to him as garrisoned with a reforming army, as nurseries of apostles of the truth. Like most fiery-natured men, he was ill-pleased to see the stream flowing in a channel other than that which he had marked for it; and the state of his feeling, and the state of the English world, with all its confused imaginings, in these months, is described with some distinctness in a letter written by a London curate to the Mayor of Plymouth, on the 13th of March, 1535-6, while the bill for the suppression of the abbeys was in progress through parliament. Letter of a curate to of Ply mouth. 'Right Worshipful,-On the morrow after that Master Hawkins departed from hence, I, the Mayor having nothing to do as an idler, went to Lambeth to the bishop's palace, to see what news; and I took a wherry at Paul's Wharf, wherein also was already a doctor named Crewkhorne, which was sent for to come to the Bishop of Canterbury. And he, before the three Bishops of Vision of Canterbury, Worcester, and Salisbury, confessed that he was rapt into heaven, where he saw the Trinity sitting in a pall or mantle or cope of blew colour; and from the middle upward they were the Trinity by Dr. Crewk horne. STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i. Appendix, p. 273. A.D. 1536. three bodies, and from the middle downward were СH. 10. they closed all three into one body. And he spake with Our Lady, and she took him by the hand, March. and bade him serve her as he had done in time past; and bade him preach abroad that she would be honoured at Ipswich and Willesdon as she hath been in old times. 'On Tuesday in Ember week, the Bishop of March 13. Rochester* came to Crutched Friars, and inhibited a doctor and three or four more to hear confession; and so in Cardmaker and other places. Then the Bishop of London's apparitor came and railed on the other bishops, and said that he, nor no such as he, shall have jurisdiction within his Lord's precincts. Then was the Bishop of London sent for to make answer; but he was sick and might not come. On Friday, the clergy sat on it in Convocation-house a long time, and left off till another day; and in the meantime, all men that have taken loss or wrong at his hands, must bring in their bills, and shall have recompence. preaches Cross, and persons in 'On Sunday last, the Bishop of Worcester Latimer preached at Paul's Cross, and he said that at Paul's bishops, abbots, priors, parsons, canons, resident is disrepriests, and all, were strong thieves; yea, dukes, spectful to lords, and all. The king, quoth he, made a mar- authority. vellous good act of parliament, that certain men should sow every of them two acres of hemp; but it were all too little, even if so much more, to hang the thieves that be in England. Bishops, * John Hilsey. CH. 10. abbots, with such others, should not have so A.D. 1536. many servants, nor so many dishes; but to go to March 13. their first foundation; and keep hospitality to What Cranmer will do with the feed the needy people-not jolly fellows, with golden chains and velvet gowns; ne let these not once come into houses of religion for repast. Let them call knave bishop, knave abbot, knave prior, yet feed none of them all, nor their horses, nor their dogs. Also, to eat flesh and white meat in Lent, so it be done without hurting weak consciences, and without sedition; and likewise on Fridays and all days. 'The Bishop of Canterbury saith that the King's Grace is at full point for friars and unpreach chauntry priests, that they shall away all, saving ing friars. them that can preach. Then one said to the bishop, that they had good trust that they should serve forth their life-times; and he said they should serve it out at a cart, then, for any other service they should have by that.' The Vagrant Act the firstfruits of the suppression. The concluding paragraph of this letter is of still greater interest. It refers to the famous Vagrant Act, of which I have spoken in the first chapter of this work.* 'On Saturday in the Ember week, the King's Grace came in among the burgesses of the parliament, and delivered them a bill, and bade them look upon it, and weigh it in conscience; for he would not, he said, have them pass either it or any other thing because his Grace giveth in the bill; but they to see if it be for the commonweal |