VI truth, there was never none such consent made by me, CHAP nor my brethren; nor no person nor persons had authority so to do in our names."7 A.D. 1537 Let it not be supposed then that the documents called surrenders really speak the truth as to the spirit in which the monks quitted their monasteries, A judicial mind, otherwise well-informed as to the history of the transactions they profess to represent, must reject them at once, and will have little hesita- Surrenders tion in saying that they have the nature of malicious forgeries, got up by such profligate and unscrupulous men as London, Layton, and Legh. Much more historical vraisemblance is there in the letter which a Somersetshire prior, the Prior of Hinton, wrote to his brother Alan Horde of the Middle Temple, announcing that at last he and his brethren were ready to give way. His letter is preserved among the Cottonian Manuscripts, and is as follows: "Jhus. generally about sur "In our Lord Jhesu shall be your salutation. And where ye marvel that I and my brethren do not freely and voluntarily give and surrender up our house at the motion of the King's A prior's commissioners, but stand stiffly, and, as ye think, obstinately our feelings in our opinion; truly, brother, I marvel greatly that ye think rendering so; but rather that ye would have thought us light and hasty in giving up that thing which is not ours to give, but dedicate to Almighty God for service to be done to his honour continually, with other many good deeds of charity which daily be done in this house to our Christian neighbours. And considering that there is no cause given by us why the house shall be put down, but that the service of God, religious con 7 Supp. of Monasteries, Camd. Soc., p. 244. This letter was written on Sept. 9, 1539. The forged Act of Surrender, profess- VI CHAP versation of the brethren, hospitality, alms-deeds, with all other our duties, be as well observed in this poor house as in A.D. 1537 any religious house in this realm or in France; which we have trusted that the King's grace would consider. But because that ye write of the King's high displeasure, and my lord privy seal's, who ever hath been my especial good lord, and I trust yet will be, I will endeavour myself, as much as I may, to persuade my brethren to a conformity in this matter; so that the King's highness nor my said good lord shall have any cause to be displeased with us, trusting that my poor brethren, which know not where to have their living, shall be charitably looked upon. Thus our Lord Jhesu preserve you in grace. "E. HORD." Such was the real character of the acts by which the commissioners obtained possession of the monasteries. It can hardly be considered that the "sur renders" were more satisfactory, as regards justice Parallel of and constitutional law, than would be the uncondia supposed tional surrender of all the rectories, their churches, surrender their lands, tithes, secular and ecclesiastical furniture, modern What fol surrenders into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for the use of the present sovereign of England. But comparatively few of the monasteries were able to hold out against the various influences which were brought to bear upon them; and although some still remained to be disposed of when the second Act of Suppression was passed in the year 1539-40, most of them had by that time succumbed. And after the "surrender came the razing," lowed the which must have left a very conspicuous trail of material desolation along the course of the commissioners' travels. Piteous as it is to think upon their stones and to see them in the dust, even when we forget how Fountains, or Whitby, or Tynemouth, or Valle Crucis, or Tintern, or Glastonbury, or Read NINE TONS OF GOLD AND SILVER PLATE TAKEN 341 VI A.D. 1537 ing, or Bury St. Edmund's came to be what they CHAP are, it is still more piteous when we come to see that but for wanton waste and lawless avarice they might still be what Westminster, or Beverley, or Chester, or Peterborough are at the present day. Wherever the visitors came they first packed up and sent away Taking all the valuables which they could find, Cromwell's possession private instructions being evidently in agreement ables with one of his memoranda still preserved. “Item, to remember all the jewels of all the monasteries in of valu plate ap of the church" (Leicester), "which amount unto 228 pounds. The plate. . . is valued at by weight 190 pounds." In the account-roll of the King's Amount of jewel-keeper, the quantity of plate thus set down is propriated 14,531 ounces of gold, 207,635 of silver-gilt, and by the 67,000 ounces of silver, or about nine tons of gold and silver plate. In the same document is entered about £80,000 which had been received in for other goods belonging to the monasteries." Ellis' Orig. Letters, II. ii. 120, from Cotton. MS., Titus, b. i. Ibid., III. iii. 185. 1 Supp. of Monast., Camd. Soc., money King p. 144. CHAP VI After the jewels and plate, the next things to which the visitors turned their attention were the A.D. 1538 lead and the bells, respecting which there are also many entries in the letters and accounts of the visitors. Sometimes they appear to have been either too busy or too indifferent to go further in the work of destruction, but there were many cases in which nothing more was done, simply because the buildings were too massive to be destroyed, except at the cost of more money than the materials could be sold for. Destruc "It may please your good Lordship to understand," writes tion of the John Freeman to Cromwell, "that the King's Commission buildings commandeth me to pull down to the ground all the walls of the churches, steeples, cloisters, frater-houses, dormitories, chapter-houses, with all other houses, saving them that be necessary for a farmer. Sir, there be more of great houses in Lincolnshire than be in England beside suppressed of their values, with thick walls, and most part of them vaulted, and few buyers of either stone, glass, or slate, which might help the charges of plucking down of them. Wherefore, I certify your Lordship that it will be chargeable to the King, the down-pulling of them, if I should follow the commission, by the least 1000 pounds within the shire. Therefore, I think it Bells and were best to avoid this charge, to take first down the bells and lead, which I am about to do; for I had both a plumber and finer from London with me with all necessaries to them appertaining; which bells and lead will rise well and to a great sum, by the least six or seven thousand marks: and this done, to pull down the roofs, battlements, and stairs, and let the walls stand, and charge some with them as a quarry of stone to make sales of, as they that hath need will fetch." lead sold Thus was the utter ruin of the monks' dwellings Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 268. The present writer remembers an old sexton of Tynemouth who told him that he had often blown up portions of the priory church there with gunpowder, to sell the stones; and that houses were built with them VI and offices, and of the Houses of God, brought about CHAP as it might have been brought about by a company of Mahometans or Pagans. In some accounts which A.D. 1538 are preserved are such entries as these: stained &c. "Sold to Ralph Sheldon, Esqre., and Mr. Markham, the iron and glass in the windows of the north side of the cloister. . . . Item, received of the same Mr. Greville for a little table and the paving stone there. . . . Item, sold to Mr. Selling Markham the paving tile of the north side of the cloister. . . . glass, carv Item, the pavement of the east side of the cloister sold to a ings, tiles, servant of the Bishops of Worcester [Latimer]. . . . Item, the glass of the east side of the cloister sold to Mr. Morgan. Item, sold to Thomas Norton a buttress at the east end of the church. .. Item, the pavement in the choir, sold to Mr. Streets. Item, the friars seats in the choir, sold to John Laughton. Item, the roof of the church, sold to Sir Thomas Gilbert and Edmund Wetherins of Chekeley parish. ... Item, the glass and iron in the windows of Saint Michael's chapel, sold to John Forman. Item, the timber of the said chapel, sold to William Loghtonhouse. of the same chapel, sold to William Bagnall." Item, the shingle Almost more sad than this spirit of merchandize is the wanton sacrilege recorded of himself by the infamous Dr. London : "At Reading I did only deface the church: all the windows Dr. Lon. don only being full of friars; and left the roof and walls whole to the defaces King's use. . . . At Aylesbury . . . . I only sold the glass churches windows and their ornaments with their utensils. I left the house whole, and only defaced the church. . . . At Warwick ... I defaced the church windows and the cells of the dormitory as I did in every place, saving in Bedford and Aylesbury, where were few buyers."" But when it began to be fully understood that this Supp. of Monast., Camd. Soc., pp. 266-278. 131. |