VI such exemptions from diocesan jurisdiction offered to CHAP all progress in that direction; and by persevering application at Rome, he obtained an authority over all monasteries as legate a latere, which he would doubtless have used as a lever for the restoration of proper jurisdiction to every bishop. were very in their effect It will thus be seen that the increase of monas- Such evils teries in England had been accompanied by two important very serious evils, the suppression of which would have been perfectly lawful, since they interfered with the general welfare of the body politic and the body ecclesiastic. How far excessive wealth and excessive liberty led to other evils is a question upon which no certain verdict can be given, through the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence which has come down to us. This subject will, however, be brought before the reader again in a subsequent page. But even supposing there was no extraordinary wickedness among the monks of the sixteenth century, it must be admitted that there were strong arguments for reforming the monastic sys- and quite justified tem; that it had wandered into wrong principles as plans for regards its relations both to the Church and the tion State; and that it is extremely probable these deviations in principle had led to practical abuses which contemporary lookers-on saw very clearly, and which we too should see clearly if we had more perfect records of those distant times.8 8 Wolsey issued a commission (as legate a latere) to the Bishop of Sarum, empowering him to visit the nunneries of his diocese, and proceed against such as were guilty of "enormities, misgover nances and slanderous living." reforma CHAP of Henry confisca tions If, however, these constitutional errors of the monastic system were to be represented as influencing Henry VIII. in respect to his project of dissolution, we should be fairly open to the charge of though no making a fine-drawn apology for a fallen angel real excuse whose de-nigration is beyond the power of an imVIII.'s partial historian. The accomplishment of his will and the furtherance of his interests were the only objects which Henry set before himself, and the only apology that can justly be made for him is that he was not wholly without constitutional authority and precedent in taking the course which he did. The dissolution was immediately suggested to him, no doubt, by the steps which Wolsey had taken towards Suggested converting many monasteries into colleges and sey's dis- bishoprics, and amalgamating the smaller ones with solution of the larger. To do this it was necessary that the monasteries to be converted should first be dissolved, and the Cardinal had proceeded so far with his plans as to have actually dissolved the thirty or forty whose revenues were applied to the foundation of Christ Church and Ipswich Colleges. Thus a pathway had been made, and the machinery had been of which constructed; and Cromwell, Henry's chief agent in had been dissolving the monasteries, had already learned in an agent what direction to go, and how to use the machinery of dissolution, while in the service of his old master the Cardinal. by Wol religious houses Cromwell Other precedents There were also royal precedents for dissolution, the knowledge of which would doubtless weigh with Henry when the project was once entertained. The Bromehall, in the year 1521, and 64. Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii 2080, 2630.] VI dissolved Knights Templars had been dissolved in the time of CHAP Edward II.; and by a bull dated November 22, 1307, Clement V. had given the custody of their Templars lands in England to the King until further orders A.D. 1307 were sent from the Apostolic See. The ultimate disposition of these lands was, however, taken into consideration by Parliament, and an Act was passed [17 Edw. II. cap. 3] in 1324, which declared as follows: (1) That the King and other lords of the fecs might well and lawfully, by the laws of the realm, retain the lands as their escheats in regard of the dissolution of the order. (2) But because the lands had been given for the defence of Christians, and the Holy Land against Pagans and Saracens and other enemies of Christ and the Church, it is enacted that neither King nor any other person shall retain those lands, notwithstanding any law or custom of the realm. (3) Wherefore the King with the assent of his Parliament assigns them to the Brethren of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. More than a century later, Henry V. dissolved a number of "alien and alien priories priories," cells of French monasteries whose inmates A.D. 1416 seemed likely to be dangerous while he was carrying on his war with France. But with some of their lands he endowed the noble monasteries of Sheen and Sion, and others he gave to New College and Winchester. It does not appear, therefore, that either but proof these kings was so bold as actually to appropriate alienated to secular use the whole of the property which had from the once been set apart for sacred objects: and thus 9 Johnstone's Assurance of Abbey Lands, p. 40. Rymer states that Clement granted these lands, and the King confirmed the grant on Nov. 28, 1313: but that, not- perty not Church VI Yet the CHAP these royal precedents were far from justifying the course taken by Henry VIII. On the other hand, there were certain principles of the English law which seem to have been well established, and well known. (1) The Crown had a right to all ownerless lands, and to all confiscated lands, as ultimate lord of the fee. (2) (2) "According to the most ancient laws. of the kingdom, whatever possessions or revenues were conferred on the Church or a religious house, under terms and conditions, or for a certain and determined use, if the receivers neglected to observe, fulfil, or execute, the use, cause, condition, or terms of the primary donation, then the collators or their heirs by reason of such defect or failure might re-enter, and possess the said lands and revenues." law permitted such alienation Hence a quasi legal go on Though there is no evidence whatever that Henry VIII had VIII. desired anything else than to increase his power and replenish his treasury by the suppression ground to of religious houses, yet it is clear that he wished to keep up a semblance of constitutional justice, and these principles and precedents may thus be taken for what they are worth, and as far as they will go, in his justification. The personal character of this monarch is far from being of paramount importance as a matter of research in the history of the Reformation but having asserted that the true faults of the monastic system formed no part of Henry's real reasons for opposing and destroying it, there seemed a necessity for pointing out the probable grounds 1 To these royal precedents may be added that of Henry's contemporary, Philip, Landegrave of Hesse, who confiscated monasteries in 1526, and with some of their endowments founded the University of Marburg. Probably he did this by the advice of Luther: by whose 135. VI upon which he did proceed. And these ante- CHAP cedent considerations being brought to a close, we may now resume the thread of the history, and follow out in detail the course of the dissolution. dissolved houses for good of The steps which had been taken by Cardinal Wolsey Wolsey towards the suppression of a large number religious of monasteries, were taken with the object of making their estates and possessions more practically useful Church to the Church, and so long as he was in power, the King was not able to lay his all-grasping hands upon any portion of those possessions. On the ruin of Wolsey, Henry immediately swept them all into his coffers as if they had been the private property of the Cardinal, and were so forfeited to the crown. He doled out, indeed, some fragmentary scraps of what he had appropriated, towards the meagre completion of Christ Church; but the far greater part he used for his own purposes. The spoil thus acquired, from this and other sources, by the destruc- Henry tion of his great minister, sufficed to eke out the King's vast expenditure for a year or two; but he extravasoon began to be pinched again for a revenue pro- penditure portionate to his extravagance. He had, indeed, passed through a kind of parliamentary insolvent court in 1530, and added to his many extortionate acts that of repudiating all his debts. He had also appropriated the annates and first-fruits which used 3 By an Act of Parliament [21 Hen. VIII. c. 26], entitled "an Act for the releasing unto the King's Highness of such sums of money as was to be required of him by any of his subjects for any manner of Loan, by his letters missive, or other ways or manners whatsoever." se These loans (equivalent to our VIII. to meet his gant ex |