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 AD. 1539 by some private memoranda of Cromwell's which still exist in his handwriting: idea of a "trial," and of evi 'Item, Certain persons to be sent to the Tower for the Cromfurther examination of the Abbot of Glaston. Item, The well's Abbot of Glaston to be tried at Glaston, and also to be executed". there with his accomplices. Counsellors to give evidence dence against 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, • Ellis' Orig. Letters, II. ii. 120, from Cotton. MS., Titus, b. i. CHAP 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 folbe told in the words of Lord Russel : with wan lowed may "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." His gentle. While he was waiting for the hangman, he was ness and patience 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." Popular feeling on What impression this piteous tragedy made upor the subject the people of the West Country is partly shown by 7 Stevens' History of Monasteries, i. 452. 8 Supp. of Monast., Camd. Soc., 260 9 Ibid., 262. 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, 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 VI CHAP again, the fate of some much-venerated dean may be told to future centuries, and that of his brother A.D. 1540 deans be scarcely noticed. Second sion And so at last the way was cleared for the Second Act of Suppression [31 Hen. VIII. cap. 13], by which the devastation, sacrilege, and rapacity of the last four years was to be legalized. The way had been so well cleared that, as far as can be made out, no further resistance was offered in Parliament or elsewhere. Despair had taken hold upon all who were yet left to represent the so lately widespread and influential communities of monks, and the last of them melted away before the giant power of Tudor will and tyranny. Enough is told of the Act itself when it is said the object of it was not to suppress monasteries, but to invest in the Crown all which had been surrendered, or should be thereafter sursimply for rendered. As the abbots and brethren were only investing monastic trustees of their houses and estates, having nothing property in the Crown more than a life-interest in them, they could only surrender the life-interest which they possessed. The Act of Parliament was therefore necessary to place all their property permanently in the hands of the King and his successors. It does not, like the Act of 1535, allege any reasons for doing this, but simply states that "sundry abbots, priors, abbesses, prioresses, and other ecclesiastical governors and governesses of divers monasteries of their own free and voluntary minds, good wills, and assents, "Item, the Abbot of Reading to be A further record of the im- VI St. Join without constraint, coaction, or compulsion of any CHAP manner of person or persons," have resigned and granted to the King all their houses, estates, and A.D. 1540 privileges, and therefore it is enacted that the King shall have, hold, possess, and enjoy them to himself and to his successors for ever. An Act of the fol- Knights of lowing year suppressed the Knights of St. John of suppressed Jerusalem; and in 1545-6 one was passed [37 Hen. VIII. cap. 4] which placed the endowments of the universities, of all colleges of priests, and of all chantries, at the mercy of the King. were appointed under the latter Act to take posses- Hen. VIII sion of the institutions confiscated; but before they were able to do this Henry's death took place, and another Act became necessary in the next reign.3 Commissioners Further in tentions of to morality Thus we come to the end of this vast scheme of spoliation. But before gathering up some of the results which followed, there is one important question which remains yet untouched. It may be said that Inquiry as although there was much fraud, cruelty, and wanton of monks destruction of Church property associated with the dissolution of the monasteries, yet the general wickedness and the useless lives of their inmates was such as fully to justify their suppression. One may regret, it may be added, that so much Church property should have been diverted from Church uses, and that so many sacred buildings should have been 3 It is somewhat singular that Henry VIII's great financial attacks on the Church occurred in regular succession, and at regular intervals of about five years. In 1530 he imposed an enormous fine on the clergy in 1535 dissolved the monasteries under £200 a year income in 1540 completed count. |