CHAPTER VI W THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES [A.D 1535-A.D. 1545] VI against the WHEN Henry VIII. took upon himself to shut CHAP up all monasteries throughout the land, to appropriate their possessions, and to turn their inmates adrift, he accomplished his work in a tyrannical, unjust, cruel, and covetous manner. Most of the persons whom he used as his agents in the business were unprincipled men, for whom not a What is to word of good can be justly said; and most of those be said who encouraged and assist the King in the dis- mode of solution did so for selfish objects, and for selfish objects alone. If the results of the dissolution had been wholly good, the manner in which those results were attained must still have been condemned as base, criminal, and sacrilegious; and the character of the men by whom they were brought about could not have been redeemed from just odium and abhorrence by them. dissolution that is to Yet the dissolution of the monasteries was not Not all without justification, and if the truth is to be told on be justly one side, it must be told on the other also. It is true that as the monastic principle is entirely said VI monastic system 280 MONASTIC SYSTEM ORIGINALLY ADMIRABLE CHAP a reasonable one, so its practical development in England had been attended with very noble results. That development was in itself a sign that a living Merits of and active Christianity was at work in the land; and there never was a finer human institution than that of the Benedictine order, which maintained civilization, saved learning from destruction, and raised glorious edifices, where a never-ceasing round of praise and prayer was offered to the Divine Majesty. And what the Benedictines were on a large scale, other communities of the religious often were on a smaller In theory the lives of all monks and nuns were spent in praying to God, and in working for Him; and there is good reason to believe that thousands upon thousands made their practice as consistent with their theory as human imperfection would allow. The idea that monastic institutions Absurd to were essentially opposed to good morals and a high essentially tone of Christianity, is one of those foolish notions which got hold of the popular mind in days when partisan falsehoods and profligate ribaldry were looked up to as authoritative evidence; but it is one of those notions which must vanish away as soon as historical truth is brought to light. suppose it evil systems wear out It is quite possible, however, that there may be a point at which the best of human institutions cease to be a benefit to society, at least in the form in But best which they were originally founded. To put this in an extreme form, it would have been folly to have maintained an order of Knights Templars after pilgrimages to the Holy Land had been discontinued; or to maintain the numerous mediaval hospitals which were provided for lepers in an age when that fearful disease had become almost extinct. teries VI It may be said, indeed, that such orders as that of CHAP the Benedictines had nothing of this special character about them, but were suited to all ages; and that it is doubtful whether an active Christianity could ever exist without some such association of men and women into praying and working communities. But, Monasallowing this to be true, it still only goes to the ought not extent of suggesting what many good men main- all to have tained at the time of the Reformation, who yet thought that the monastic system had outgrown its proper bounds, namely, that the dissolution of religious houses went too far, and that some should have been left in every diocese as houses for contemplative devotion, and as centres of active work. been dis solved became too numerous The excessive number of monasteries was, in fact, But they the cause of their ruin. A small number existed before the Norman conquest, but nearly twelve hundred (including one hundred hospitals) were founded between that epoch and the Reformation, and as some of them were very large, it is manifest that they must have reached an unreasonable disproportion to a population which never exceeded four and a half millions. During the three hundred years between the Conquest and the end of Henry III.'s long reign, about eleven hundred of these institutions were founded, but not more than fifty in the two centuries and a half which ensued before the Reform- and their ation; the annual proportion during the latter period at last being therefore less than one-twentieth of that stopped in of the former. These facts show that there was a quence vast number of these institutions existing in the Middle Ages, and that for some reason or other the establishment of them had conspicuously slackened foundation conse CHAP in the five or six generations which preceded their final dissolution. VI Restraints It had, indeed, been found, long before the sixnecessary teenth century, that public policy required some for public welfare restraint to be put upon the action of the monastic system, for it was gradually absorbing the lands of the country to such an extent as to make the monks proprietors of the soil in a proportion far beyond what was expedient for the general good.' The estimates of their possessions at the time of the Reformation vary, but the lowest allows that they amounted to one-tenth of the soil of England and Wales; while the highest makes it no less than one-fifth. It was not by unfair dealing or rapacity that the monasteries had acquired such immense possessions. Excessive zeal for the interest of their communities no doubt led individual monks here and there to urge bequests on dying persons; but there were other causes for this accumulation of land and wealth, which were so active in their operation that it is not necessary to imagine this one How the general. (1) The monasteries were for ages the wealth ac. natural depository of that stream of wealth which is cumulated always flowing towards the service of God. They monastic had become the central establishments for the constant and worthy offering of divine worship, and also 1 Sir Henry Spelman says that an estimate of their lands was taken in Edward I.'s reign, when it was found that the whole lands of England amounting to 67,000 Knights' fees, 28,000 of these were in the hands of the clergy. Probably this includes all Church lands. Spelman's History of Sacrilege, p. 200, ed. 1853. They often exercised consider able legal ingenuity in preventing the alienation of bequests. [See Blackstone, book ii. chap. 18.] But this was a very different thing from obtaining the bequests to be made by fraud or undue pressure. The same legal ingenuity is used every day in evading the stringency with which entailments tie up the sale of land. VI wealth of penitential for the dispensation of alms. To further these two CHAP great objects of Christian zeal and love, riches were placed in their hands by the living who wished so to apply them, and by the dying also; and of both living and dying there are multitudes in every age who would wish so to apply their property from the as the very best of motives. The Christian spirit which modern now places many hundreds of thousands a year in societies the hands of missionary, Bible, school, and other societies, gave it, in these ages, to the monastic bodies; trusting them for its proper expenditure as we trust committees and secretaries. (2) In ages of great lawlessness and rough dealing it often happened that penitents were unable to make the actual restitution which they desired for the wrong deeds of their former life, and they naturally substituted through for it the dedication of their ill-gotten property to sacred uses, themselves very frequently taking a monk's habit, and living the rest of their days in the monastery which they had enriched. It might be a rough way of making amends for a rough life, but it was better than none. (3) The current ideas respecting a future life made it appear possible that those who gave largely to religious institutions would escape some of the penalties due to their sins. The same ideas are found in every age, and the modern usurer will on such grounds leave his money to a and belief hospital. In the Middle Ages persons tried to ensure purgatory their speedy deliverance from the pains of a future life (that is, as they understood it, the pains of purgatory) by bestowing large bequests on ecclesiastical corporations, with the condition that constant prayers were to be offered for their suffering souls. In these various ways, the monastic corporations remorse in a penal |
