CHAP VI Destruc tion the mation When wise and good men of that day had these opinions and plans respecting the monasteries and their reformation, it is not for us of three centuries and a half later to say that there was no good reason why they should not have remained in statu quo. They, at least, are reliable witnesses, who saw what we cannot see, and who desired, as much as we can desire, that the Church and her institutions should be developed to the utmost for the promotion of God's glory and man's good. Perhaps the true explanation of the great catasNemesis of trophe which ensued during these eventful ten years non-refor- is, that reformation such as these good and wise men saw to be needed was put off too long. As in many other cases, the Church failed to reconstruct and purify her own ancillary institutions, and then another power was suffered to come in like a flood and sweep them away. Before concluding this chapter, the reader will naturally ask for some information as to the immediate and proximate consequences which followed upon a social change of so much importance as that involved in the dissolution of many monasteries in Inquiry as every county. What became of the monks? What of Dissolu- became of their property? What changes were effected in the general aspect of the Church and kingdom? to results tion 1. What became of the monks, whose number is supposed to have amounted to 100,000, a very large proportion of the population when it numbered not many more than three millions altogether. Whatever their number was, it diminished a good deal during the years occupied by the Dissolution VI of monks death by the help of the executioner. Every opportunity CHAP was taken by Cromwell of bringing them under the operation of laws which involved the penalty of Great death, and it seems more than probable that the numbers passion for blood with which he and his master were put to possessed, endeavoured to satiate itself upon this doomed class. Many, no doubt, enlisted in the Pilgrimage of Grace, of whom, certainly, not one escaped who survived it and came within reach of Cromwell's vengeance. We have detailed records only respecting the more prominent men, such as the abbots and priors but, after Wolsey's fall, every week of Henry's reign was stained with the blood of his subjects, and a class so odious to him as the monks had become must have suffered most severely.1 Their numbers, doubtless, went to swell largely the army of 80,000 alleged "thieves" and other "criminals" who were hanged during this dreadful reign.2 gaged in Many lay monks, especially those who were quite Others en young, were no doubt able to turn to secular employ-secular ments. Here and there one comes across floating pursuits traditions of their labours after the Dissolution, as in the building of East Dereham Church tower, and others in Suffolk. As the ecclesiastical style of art utterly died out within a generation after the Dis 1 The wholesale character of Henry's executions is often illustrated by the State Papers. A band of robbers, for example, attacked some of his waggons and then fled to sanctuary. He caught 80 and hanged them all. After "Evil May Day" 400 riotous men and boys, and 11 women, were brought before him in Westminster Hall, with halters round their necks; and it was only after the long entreaty of Wolsey, supported by the Queens Catherine, Mary of That this supposition respect- VI CHAP solution, so it is not unlikely that its lingering for a few years was owing to the fact that monastic traditions and monastic hands were still having their influence for a short time, and still stemming the influx of that miserable and soulless torrent which, under the name of the "revival of letters," was crushing out the life of our national arts, and marring all their beauty. Some in holy orders Two kinds of provisions were contemplated by the employed official documents connected with the Dissolution in Church for those monks who were in holy orders, and who seem to have formed a large majority in the latter days of the monasteries. The one was the pension for every one who willingly surrendered to the visitors, and was desirous of receiving such a provision; the other was was employment as chantry priests, that is, to say private masses for the departed, which were paid for sometimes by endowments and sometimes by fees. Their employment as clergy seems to have been discouraged by those in ecclesiastical authority. It was objected that they came to churches as perfect strangers-poor, haggard, and half-starved tramps, probably-and that none could be sure whether or not they were in holy orders. ful execution to be done upon a The Archbishop of to others. Finally, forasmuch as all these troubles have ensued by the solicitation and traitorous conspiracies of the monks and canons of these parts, we desire you, at such places as they have conspired and kept their houses with force since the appointment at Doncaster, you shall, without pity or circumstance, cause all the monks and canons that be in any wise faulty to be tied up without further delay or ceremony." VI clerical with York required that every monk should show his CHAP letters of orders before he was allowed to officiate in any church, but, writes one of the visitors to Cromwell, "Some must go an hundred miles to seek them, The diffiand when they come there the charges of searching culties the register is so great that they be not able to pay monks met it, and so they come home again confounded." And though the visitor told the Archbishop that when the houses were surrendered, due inquiry had been made who were priests and who were not, and that the certificate then given should suffice, it is easy to see that no wise bishop would allow such dangers of promiscuous playing with the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist if he could possibly prevent it. And, at the best, what a miserable spectacle must it have been to see men who were considered to be fitted for the highest duties of the altar thus sent about the country to beg that the laity and the clergy would put them "into one of the priest's offices for a piece of bread !" to monks This very circumstance seems to show that either the pensions were wretchedly insufficient for maintenance, or that they were not duly paid. The bestowal of these "pensions" was left by the Act of Parliament entirely to the discretion of the King. In the vast majority of cases they amounted to a Pensions single payment of forty shillings and the gift of a and nuns priest's gown on dismissal from the gate of the monastery. Those monks or nuns who had been in the house for a long time before the dissolution (diu antea is the expression used in the patents), had small annual sums of from £2 to £8 granted to them; while abbots and friars were entitled to receive from Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 187. VI to payment of these CHAP £20 to £60 a year, when not provided with benefices. To get rid of these payments many were appointed to benefices, as has been shown by a quotation made Doubts as from Latimer's sermon in a previous page. Where the amount was small, and came within the range of regular unnoticeable payments to be made by subordinate officials, it is, perhaps, possible that they were honestly paid, especially after the deaths of Cromwell and Henry VIII. Fuller gives two stories in illustration of this,-one of a prioress of Clerkenwell, who lived until 1571 (but of the payment of whose pension he adds nothing), and the other of an anonymous monk or nun, he knows not which, who received the last payment in 1608. Allowing the fullest force to every argument respecting these pensions, it is to be feared that few except the more compliant dignitaries, the abbots and priors, received anything like a sufficient maintenance; and that if they had no better resource even the pensioned monks and nuns must have been reduced to a condition of abject poverty and misery. Summary as to fate The general answer to the question, What became of monks of the monks ? must be that large numbers perished by the halter, and by the miseries immediately attendant on the dissolution; that a good proportion turned to secular employments; that a few were fairly pensioned; and that the rest lived on as mere paupers, to whom one can only hope the world at large was more just and feeling than those who took an active part in the dissolution. 2. The next question which we have set ourselves Fuller instances Sir William Weston, Prior of the Knights Hospitallers, who died of grief the day after his house was dissolved. Old men of strong feelings were very likely to come soon to their end thus. |
