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rising the persons named in them to visit all churches, monasteries, and priories, both of men and women; and to inquire into the conduct of archbishops, bishops, and other dignitaries, as well as into the conduct of all superiors of religious houses, both in spirituals and temporals, with directions to make their reports to him on all these circumstances. The visitors,-probably, in conformity to the injunctions given to them by Cromwell, abstained from interfering with the secular clergy, but made a general visitation of all the houses of the regulars. With some exceptions, the report was, in the highest degree, unfavourable to them. The smaller monasteries were said to be the most irregular. The king, already determined on their destruction, dissolved, by an act of the thirty-seventh year of his reign, all the houses of monks, canons, and nuns, which had not above 2001. yearly revenue; and which did not contain more than twelve members; vesting, at the same time, in himself, all their real and personal property. The number of houses dissolved, by this act, was three hundred and seventy-six. Their annual revenue was computed at 32,000/; their personal effects at 100,000l.

XVII. 5.

The Dissolution of the greater Monasteries. IN 1537, the king ordered a visitation to be made of the remaining or greater houses. The commissioners were directed to inquire into the practices,

by which the religious, as it was alleged, had deceived the people, and nourished superstition, to enrich themselves.

Many of the monks were so much alarmed, that they surrendered their houses and possessions to the king, without waiting the arrival of the visitors. "The chief employment of the visitors, in this, and "the two following years," says doctor Henry*, "seems to have been settling the surrenders of the monasteries, and the pensions of the abbots,

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priors, and monks; making surveys of their "estates;-taking possession of their relics, jewels, "and plate, which, in some houses, was of great "value: selling their furniture, pulling down their churches, and such of their other buildings, as 66 were only suited, and useful, to monastics; disposing of their bells, lead, and other materials. "It is incredible how many magnificent churches, ❝ cloisters, libraries, and other buildings, which had "been erected at an immense expense of money and labour, were unroofed and ruined in the short space of three or four years. To this dreadful "havoc, Henry and his courtiers were prompted, partly by their avarice, and partly to prevent the "re-establishment of monasteries. To finish this great affair, a parliament was called, which met "at Westminster, April 28, in the year 1540. On the 13th of May, a bill was brought into the house, for granting to the king, his heirs and successors, all the houses, lands, and goods, of all "the abbies, priories, nunneries, chantries, hos* History of Great Britain, vol. vi. p. 443.

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pitals, and religious houses, that had been already "surrendered or suppressed, or that should there"after be surrendered or suppressed. The bill "passed both houses, with much less opposition

than might be expected; and, in consequence of "it, all the possessions of six hundred and forty"five convents, ninety colleges, two thousand three "hundred and seventy-four chantries and free

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chapels, and of one hundred and ten hospitals, "were annexed to the crown. The yearly rent of "their lands was estimated at one hundred and "sixty thousand pounds. The jewels, plate, fur"niture, and other goods, must have amounted to a prodigious sum, of which no computation can 66 now be made."

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A very small proportion only of the property of the convents was appropriated to the service of the public. The whole was soon distributed by the monarch, with inconsiderate profuseness, among his courtiers. The best account of this extraordinary event, which has come to the hands of the writer, is given in Collier's Ecclesiastical History. He sheds a generous tear over the sufferers; and, while he asserts the criminality of some individuals, and the disorders of some houses, he honourably and successfully advocates the general integrity of the body.

In the opinion of the writer of these pages, the report of the commissioners is wholly unworthy of credit. We have seen, how little attention to truth, and how gross a violation of justice, were shown, even in the proceedings of the parliament, and in

the highest courts of justice, against the most exalted and most distinguished personages, whom the king wished to oppress, and whom all, except the king, wished to save. How much less, then, must naturally have been the attention paid, either to truth or justice, where monks and nuns were to be persecuted? Where obscure individuals were appointed to report upon their conduct; where the king was determinately bent upon their ruin; where his courtiers were indifferent to their fate; and where plunder of them was the general aim;-thè immediate expectation of many, and the sanguine hope of almost all!

XVII. 6.

The Loss which Learning sustained by the Dissolution of Monasteries.

THE loss which learning sustained by the destruction of books and manuscripts, was great. Bale, a man remarkably hostile to the romancatholic religion, and to monastic institutions, says*, that "a number of them, which purchased these "superstitious mansions, reserved of those library

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books, some, to form their jakes; some, to scour "their candlesticks; and some, to rub their boots. "And some, they sold to grocers, and soap sellers; "and some, they sent over the sea to the bookbinders, not in small numbers, but, at times, in ships. I know a merchant, (who shall, at this

* Declaration upon Leland's Journal, ann. 1549. Fuller's Church History, book vi. p. 333.

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"time, be nameless), that bought the contents of ❝ two noble libraries, for forty shillings price. A "shame it is to be spoken! This stuff has been "occupied instead of grey paper. I judge this to "be true,—and utter it with heaviness,-that nei"ther the Britains, under the Romans and Saxons; nor yet the English people, under the Danes and "Normans, had ever such damage of their learned "monuments, as we have, in this our time. Our posterity may well curse the wicked fall of our age; this unreasonable sport of England's most "noble antiquities."

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CHAP. XVIII.

POPE PAUL THE THIRD EXCOMMUNICATES HENRY THE EIGHTH.

IT has been related, that, when Clement the seventh pronounced his sentence for the validity of Henry's marriage with Katharine of Arragon, it was accompanied with a threat of excommunication, in case he refused to adhere to the marriage: "But the pope lived not," says Echard*, "to execute any censures against the king: so, "that, instead of the matters being past reconci"liation, there was only a sentence, annulling "what the archbishop of Canterbury had done." Moderate men, therefore, still hoped, that an ami* History of England, vol. ii. p. 281.

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