2 VI counterfeit life of Thomas Becket in print; but we could not find any letter that was material." Having thus found an old pamphlet among the litter of the A.D. 1539 abbot's study, and a life of Becket in his "Golden Legend," they considered themselves provided with What they ample materials for a charge of treason, but thought prove him proper to put him through another examination, his a traitor answers, they write to Cromwell, clearly making appear his cankered and traiterous heart and mind against the King's Majesty and his succession.' Then they sent him up to London to the Tower, apologizing to Cromwell for their leniency, by explaining that the abbot is "a very weak man and sickly." This apology is succeeded by a significant statement, which shows what the real object of the commissioners was : found to business at "As yet we have neither discharged servant nor monk; but Their true now the abbot being gone, we will, with as much celerity as we Glastonmay, proceed to the dispatching of them. We have in money bury £300 and above; but the certainty of plate and other stuff there as yet we know not, for we have not had opportunity for the same, but shortly we intend (God willing) to proceed. to the same; whereof we shall ascertain your Lordship so shortly as we may. This is also to advertise your Lordship that we have found a fair chalice of gold, and divers other parcels of plate, which the Abbot had hid secretly from all such commissioners as have been there in times past; and as yet he knoweth not that we have found the same; whereby we think that he thought to make his hand, by his untruth to his King's majesty."3 A week later they write "We have daily found and tried out both money and plate 2 In Stevens' History of Monasteries, i. 452, it is asserted that the searchers themselves brought in this little book against the di vorce without Whiting's know- 3 256. VI A. D. 1539 They rifle the abbey ... CHAP hid and mured up in walls, vaults, and other secret places, as well by the abbot as other of the convent, and also conveyed to divers places in the country. . . . At our first entry into the treasure house and vestry also we neither found jewels, plate, nor ornaments sufficient to serve a poor parish church, whereof we could not a little marvel: and thereupon immediately made so diligent enquiry and search, that with vigilant labour we much improved the same, and have recovered again into our hands both money, plate, and ornaments of the church. How much plate we know not, for we had no leisure yet to weigh the same; but we think it of a great value, and we increase it more every day, and shall do as we suppose, for our time here being. We assure your Lordship that the abbot and the monks aforesaid had embezzled and stolen as much plate and adornments as would have sufficed to have begun a new abbey: what they meant thereby, we leave it to your judgment. Whether the King's pleasure shall be to execute his laws upon the said four persons, and to minister justice, according to their desert, or to extend his mercy toward them, and what his majesty's pleasure is, it may please your Lordship to advertise us thereof." The ab bot's real crime in their eyes On the 2nd of October the same commissioners, Pollard, Moyle, and Layton, write that they have discovered divers and sundry treasons committed by the abbot, which they have noted in a book accompanying their letter. The real "treason" committed by the abbot and his brethren was that of endeavouring to save the treasures dedicated to God from the hands of the King and courtiers by concealing them. The same thing is said to have been done in other places; and at Durham there is a tradition (known also on the Continent), that the jewels and plate of the cathedral still remain in their place of concealment." This Supp. of Mon., Camd. Soc., p. 258. made to discover this place of concealment in the year 1867. was a kind of treason which was unpardonable, and CHAP provision was made for trying the abbot at Wells. VI What kind of provision was thus made is indicated A.D. 1539 by some private memoranda of Cromwell's which still exist in his handwriting dence Item, Certain persons to be sent to the Tower for the Cromfurther examination of the Abbot of Glaston. Item, The well's idea of a Abbot of Glaston to be tried at Glaston, and also to be executed "trial," there with his accomplices. Counsellors to give evidence and of eviagainst the Abbot of Glaston, Richard Pollard, Lewis Forscen, Thomas Moyle. Item, To see that the evidence be WELL SORTED, and the indictments well drawn against the said Abbot and their accomplices." So the grand old abbot, much broken in mind with sickness and imprisonment, was taken to Wells, to go through the formality of a trial by jury, his condemnation having been already insured by a "sorting" of the evidence, and his execution having been already determined upon. trial was When he arrived at Wells, the old man was in- How the formed that there was an assembly of the gentry conducted and nobility, and that he was summoned to it: on which he proceeded to take his seat among them, the habits of a long and honourable life clinging to him even after his imprisonment. Upon this the crier of the court called him to the bar to answer a charge of high treason. "What does it all mean?" he asked of his attendant, his memory, and probably his sight and hearing, having failed. His servant replied that they were only trying to alarm him into submission, and probably this was the opinion of most who attended the court, as well as of the jurors, as worshipful a jury," writes Lord Russel to Cromwell, 6 Ellis' Orig. Letters, II. ii. 120, from Cotton. MS., Titus, b. i. CHAP VI abbot con as was charged here this many years. And there was never seen in these parts so great an appearance A.D. 1539 as were at this present time, and never better willing The aged to serve the King." He was soon condemned, demned though he appears not to have understood what had happened; and the next day, November 15, 1539, he was taken to Glastonbury in his horse-litter. It was only when a priest came to receive his confession as he lay that he comprehended the state of things; then he begged that he might be allowed to take leave of his monks before going to execution, and also to have a few hours to prepare for his death. and treated But no delay was permitted, and the old man was ton cruelty thrust out of the litter on to a hurdle, upon which he was rudely dragged through the town to the top of the hill which overlooks the monastery." What followed may be told in the words of Lord Russel : with wan "My Lord, this shall be to ascertain that on Thursday the 14th day of this present month the Abbot of Glastonbury was arraigned, and the next day put to execution with two other of his monks, for the robbing of Glastonbury Church, on the Torr Hill next unto the town of Glaston, the said Abbot's body being divided in four parts, and head stricken off, whereof one quarter standeth at Wells, another at Bath, and at Ilchester and Bridgewater the rest, and his head upon the abbey gate at Glaston,8 J. RUSSEL." While he was waiting for the hangman, he was ness and questioned again by Pollard as to the concealment of plate, but he had nothing more to say, and would accuse neither himself nor others," but "thereupon took his death very patiently.” His gentle Popular feeling on What impression this piteous tragedy made upon the subject the people of the West Country is partly shown by VI two verses of a Somersetshire ballad belonging to the CHAP succeeding century; in which a countryman on his way to London by Glastonbury is made to sing as A.D. 1539 follows: "Ice azked whose tooke downe the leads an the beels, And they tould me a doctar that lived about Wels: In the 7th of Jozhua pray bid them goe looke, Chill be hanged if thick same chaptar be not out of his booke. Vor thare you may reade about Achan's wedge, How thick zame goolden thing did zettz teeth an edge. 'Tis an ominous thing how this church is abused, "1 only such It was probably but one tragedy among many, but Not the the age of the victim, his venerable character, and tragedy probably other circumstances of which the memory is lost, helped to give this a detailed place in the history of the dissolution when others have only left a name and a date. So, if such days should come 2 |