while poor scholars were unable to obtain their usual assistance, and the number of the students was therefore rapidly decreasing, some few individuals began to establish foundation schools. Certain portions of the monastic revenues were devoted to the same purpose; and so much was this the fashion, that the name of Edward VI. is indissolubly connected with our Grammar Schools, though more frequently on account of the grants being completed with his sanction than on account of liberality of his own. Dean Colet's School of St. Paul's, and Christ Church Hospital, in the old Monastery of Grey Friars, are the best known of such establishments.

Against this general diffusion of knowledge it was impossible that the Church should have continued long the hold which superstition gave it upon the multitude.

Consequent failure of credulity.

Erasmus

describes in his Colloquies, in a thoroughly sceptical spirit, the relics that he saw at Walsingham, when he visited it, accompanied by Aldrich, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. His disbelief in the authenticity of the relics excited the fury of the official: “What need to ask such questions," he said, "when you have the authenticated inscription ?” Erasmus also visited Canterbury, in company with Colet-on this occasion it was the Englishman who was the most sceptical. A dirty rag, said to have belonged to St. Thomas, was offered to him; he, not sufficiently grateful, drew it together with his fingers, not without some expression of disgust, and disdainfully replaced it. He was asked in the neighbourhood to kiss a piece of a shoe with a glass jewel, said to be the shoe of St. Thomas. 66 What,” said he, “do these brutes imagine we must kiss every good man's shoe?" The amount of superstition which had to be overthrown, on the other hand, was very great. England was full of places of pilgrimage, where wonder-working relics were kept and exhibited in the interest of the monks who possessed them.1 Among the duties of the Commissioners for the dissolution of monasteries, a very important one was the examination of these relics. For instance, we hear at one time of the great wooden Christ, called "Dderfel-Gadern," which was brought from Wales, and burnt under the unfortunate Friar Forest, who was hung in

1 As a single instance, Leyton the Commissioner says of Maiden Bradley: "By this bringar, my servant, I send yowe relyquis, fyrste, two flowres wrappede in white and blake sarcenet that one Christynmas evyn will spring and burgen and bere blossoms, quod expertum esse, saith the prior of Maiden Bradley; ye shall also receve a bage of reliquis, wherein ye shall se straingeis thynges, as shall appere by the scripture, as, Godes cote, Oure lades smoke, Parte of Godes supper in cena domini," etc.-Wright's Suppression of Monasteries, Camden Society, p. 58.

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chains above it. At another time, it is a phial of blood in the village of Hales in Worcestershire, the influence of which even Henry VIII. was not able to withstand; or an image of the Virgin in a priory at Cardigan, with a taper which did not waste for nine years, and was then extinguished by a perjurer; or the Rood at Boxley, which moved its eyes and head, which is the subject of investigation, and of which the imposture is disclosed.

2

But it was neither in its political nor its learned pre-eminence, nor indeed in the superstitious influence which it ex- Destruction of ercised, that the great revolution in the Church took the monasteries. place. It was the loss of its wealth and social pre-eminence, by the destruction of the monasteries, which chiefly changed its position. These institutions were at the very summit of their importance. Their splendour rivalled, nay surpassed, that of the greatest nobles. When the Abbot of St. Albans dined, his table was raised fifteen steps above the rest of the hall, and the monks who waited on him sung a hymn at every fifth step. He sat alone in the middle of his table, and guests even of the highest rank were only allowed to sit at the end. Their hospitality was vast also; not only were there daily distributions of fragments to the poor about the gates, but travellers and pilgrims were sure to find a welcome. At St. Thomas's of Canterbury, as at other monasteries, there was a vast hall regularly set and attended every day. They had no difficulty in affording this, for their wealth was enormous. The revenue of the Abbey of Glastonbury is estimated at £3500, or about £35,000 of our money. And this was not quite the richest among them.

It is not probable that in the larger abbeys much disorder reigned beyond what is inseparable from an idle community with considerable wealth at its command and an exemption from the common duties of citizenship. But in the smaller monasteries, where men of lower rank and education constituted the body of monks, and towards which the eye of the public was not often directed, iniquities of the vilest nature were rife. The proof of this is indisputable. Cromwell, no doubt, employed coarse and eager instruments, but the stories given of proved immorality, and of abbots and monks surprised with the evidences of loose life about them, are too circumstantial to be doubted. Not only did profound immorality, but also

2 Suppression of Monasteries, p. 188.

1 Seventh Sermon before Edward VI. 3 This is amply proved by the letters in Wright's Suppression of Monasteries. In the same monastery at Maiden Bradley, for instance, Leyton finds "An holy father prior, and hath but vj. children, and but one dowghter mariede yet, of the goodes of the monasterie, trystyng shortly to mary the reste."

profound ignorance find a home in these smaller societies-ignorance and immorality too which would not be corrected. The Abbot of Warden, in Bedfordshire, gives the following account of his monastry :-"Item, that whereas we by the said injunctions be commanded to have early lecture of divinity, we have none; and when it is read few or none of the monks come to it. Item, I did assign Thomas London to read the divinity lecture, and he undiscreetly did read the books of Eccius Omelies, which books be all carnal and of a brutal understanding. . . . Item, forasmuch as I did perceive ignorance was a great cause why these my brethren were thus far out of good order and in continual unquietness, . I caused books of grammar to be bought for each of them, and assigned my brother to instruct them, but there would come none to him but one Richard Baldock and Thomas Clement. Item, they be in number fifteen brethren, and except three of them, none understand nor know their rule, nor the statutes of their religion." The rest of the letter describes a threatened assault upon himself for his attempts at reform, and instances of the grossest immorality.

The condition of the monasteries had been known for years. Both Warham and Wolsey had inquired into them, and intended to reform them. It may have been his knowledge of this plan of his former master's which suggested to Cromwell's essentially secular mind the idea of at once striking a blow at the Church, removing a real abuse, and replenishing the King's exchequer. It is certain that the idea was acted upon very thoroughly.

In the autumn of 1535 a general visitation of monasteries was ordered, and a commission was appointed for the purpose. Of this commission the most vigorous inembers appear to have been Legh and Leyton, who went to work at their somewhat disgusting duties as if they found pleasure in them. There were others who were almost as keen in the work. The process of visitation was a vigorous and summary one. All other ecclesiastical authority over the monasteries were removed, and the visitors were practically absolute. "My Lord of Lincoln visited here," says Leyton, "and through his diocese in these parts only to prevent the King's visitation . . . to the derogation of my Lord of Canterbury's power and prerogative metropolitan given him by the King's highness. If he will so suffer his power to be contemned it is pity he should have his mitre." Armed with this authority, the commissioners proceeded at once to the monasteries, called the monks together, and in many instances at all events, told all who wished it they were free to go. Such as left

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the monastery were supplied with priests' dress, if they were men, or secular dresses, if women. There seem to have been a considerable number who availed themselves of this permission. We find Legh writing to ask Cromwell :-" Also I desire you to send me word what shall be done with these religious persons, which, kneeling on their knees, holding up their hands, instantly with humble petition desire of God, the King, and you, to be dismissed from their religion, saying they live in it contrary to God's law and their conscience."1 Again, Margaret Vernon, an abbess, writes to ask "what way shall be best for me to take, seeing there shall be none left here but myself and this poor maiden."2 When the monastery was thus cleared of its unwilling inhabitants, all the rest were shut up. Such were the injunctions given; there seems to have been some little difference in practice, for we find, among others, Legh complaining that "Mr. Doctor Leyton hath not done the same in places where he hath been, but licensed the heads and masters to go abroad, which I suppose maketh the brethren to grudge the more." This restriction was no doubt very irksome, as was also the closing up of all private entrances to the monasteries, one entrance alone being allowed. When they were thus secured in their houses, evidence was taken of all sorts, inventories of their property made, their accounts and leases carefully examined, and their morality sifted. Evidence of a very poor kind was accepted, and informers were no doubt plentiful. Nor was this all,—the more zealous visitors at all events set to work with a preconceived notion of the guilt of the monks, and as experience strengthened this belief, no denial would avail. At the College of Newark, in Leicester, the monks would not confess-"The abbess here is confederate, we suppose, and nothing will confess. The abbot is an honest man and doth very well, but he hath here the most obstinate and factious canons that ever I knew." And so Dr. Leyton says he will bring against them specific charges, which he confesses he had never heard brought against any of them, but confession of which he hopes to wring from them. If after such examination much was found amiss, whether gross immorality or gross mismanagement, which seems to have been very common, the visitors had power to compel surrender at once. The mismanagement is curious, the living being often beyond the income of the monastery, and the lands being let on

1 Sup. Mon. xxxvi.

2 Sup. Mon., Letter xxii.

3 Thus in Kent the Commissioners report, "We have been at the monasteries of Laydon, Dover and Folkestone, and have taken a clear surrender of every of the same monasteries."

ridiculous leases. In the Charterhouse, for instance, the yearly revenue of the house is put at £642, Os. 4d., and the provision for living as amounting to £658, 7s. 4d. "I learn here," says the visitor, "that heretofore, when all victual was at a convenient price, and also when they were fewer persons in number than they now be, the proctor hath accounted for a thousand pounds a year, their rental being but as above, which costly fare, buildings and others, were then borne by the benevolence and charity of the city of London." He also complains that "to the cloistered door there are no less than fourand-twenty keys in four-and-twenty persons' hands; also to the buttery door there be twelve sundry keys in twelve men's hands, wherein seemeth to be small husbandry." The causes on which they insisted on surrenders were sometimes trivial enough. There is an excellent letter from the Abbot of Faversham, urging that his age was no valid reason for surrendering his monastery.

By February 1536 sufficient evidence was collected, and many surrenders and dissolutions already effected. Here and there abbeys were well reported of, though scarcely any by either Legh or Leyton. Thus the Abbot and convent of Ramsay was praised. George Giffard begs that Woolstrope Abbey may be unsuppressed. The nuns of Polesworth are declared pure, and Latimer entreats for the Priory of Great Malvern. Enough, however, had been collected to show that there was really a vast amount of wickedness in the monasteries, and the King and Parliament being alike interested in the matter, a statute was passed declaring the dissolution of all monasteries under two hundred a year rental, excepting any which the King might except; their property, saving the vested rights of leaseholders, was the King's absolutely. The monks who still wished to keep their orders were drafted into the larger abbeys. There was at once a scramble for the prey. Abbots clamoured to be placed in the list of exceptions. Founders, or founders' kin, begged for their foundations, or that the temporality should be returned to them, or that at least they should have the right of pre-emption. Needy courtiers begged for grants of the confiscated land. Sir Thomas Elliot, a scholar and a diplomatist, begs Cromwell in cringing terms "so to bring me into the King's most noble remembrance, that of his most bounteous liberality it may like his highness to reward me with some convenient portion of the suppressed lands." Humphrey Stafford writes, "And if it would please your mastership to be so good master unto me as to help me to Warspryng Priory, I were and will be whilst I live your bedeman."