MER, CRAN- which owr mooste horryble abominations and execrable perAbp. Cant. suacions of yowr grace's people to detestable errours, and our long coveted ypocrisie, cloked with fayned sanctity; we, revolving dayly, and continually ponderyng in owr sorrowfull harts, and thereby perseyving the botomlas gulf of everlasting fyre redye to devowre us, if persysting in this state of lyvyng, we shulde depart from this uncertyn and transitory liffe, constrayned by the intollerable anguysh of owr conscience, called, as we trust, by the grace of God, who wold have no man to perysh in synne, with harts moost contrited and repentante, prostrate at the noble feet of yowr moost royal majestye, moost lamentably doe crave of yowr highness, of yowr abundant mercy, to grant unto us moost grievous against God, and yowr highness, your most gracious pardon, for owr saide sondry offences, omyssions, and negligences, comytted as before by us is confessed, against yowr highness, and yowr most noble progenitors. And where your highness, being supreme hedd, immediately after Christ, of his Church, in this yowr roialme of England, so consequently generall and onely reformator of all religiouse persons there, have full authority to correct or dyssolve at yowr grace's pleasure, and liberty, all covents and religious companyes abusing the rewles of their profession. And moreover to your highness, being owr soveraygn lord, and undoubted fownder of yowr said monastery, by dissolution whereof apperteyneth only the oryginal title, and propre inherytance, as well of all other goods moveable and unmoveable, to the said monastery in any wyse apperteyning or belonging, to be disposed and imployed, as to yowr grace's most excellent wysedeme shall seme expedient and necessary. "Per me Franciscum Priorem. Per me Johannem Sub-priorem. Per me Jo. Harold. Per me Tho. Smith. Per me Tho. Golston. Per me Rob. Martin. Per me Jacob. Hopkins. Per me Will. Ward. Per me Will. Fowler." VIII. 27 Hen. 8. cap. 28. Monast. 1048. Monast. It is somewhat strange the charge of immorality should run HENRY so high against the religious in general, since no longer than four years ago, the greater monasteries had so fair a testimony of their behaviour from the parliament itself. Amongst other Dugdale's instances of disorder, the abbots are some of them charged vol. 1. with coining: but this, upon consideration, will be found no Bp. Burnet, fault; for not only the archbishop of Canterbury, but some of pt. 1. p. 190. the great abbeys, had the privilege of a mint. The abbey of Dugdale's Reading, in Berkshire, particularly, had the grant of coinage vol.i. p. 417. inserted in their charter, by their founder, king Henry I. The cil Spelm. Conarchbishop of York, the bishop of Durham, and the dean of St. Martin's-le-Grand, had the same privilege. The lord Herbert is of opinion, the king's title to the re- 17 Edw. 4. ligious houses was not founded either upon statute, or claim cap. 1. of right; he chose rather to insist on voluntary surrender, or Reports. forfeiture however, the proceedings, as hath been observed, de mixt having been somewhat singular, it was thought proper to get Moneyes." them confirmed by act of parliament. To this purpose he issued out his writ of summons: the session began April twenty-eight, one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine. 14 Henry 8. cap. 12. See Davis's "Le Case war and the dissolu In the meantime, there were very serviceable reports spread Reports of throughout the kingdom. It was said cardinal Pole was public dansoliciting several princes to draw a kind of crusade upon king ger made Henry. The late truce between the emperor and the French tion of the abbeys less king, made this news not altogether impossible. The credi- regretted. bility improved by the king's dispatching several people of quality to visit the ports, and by his own progress soon after for that purpose. Upon general alarms and advices of danger, forts were erected, the fleet equipped, and musters taken all over the kingdom. It is true, the lord Herbert, who relates all this, does not point upon the place of any formidable preparation, or discover the enemy either by sea or land. How- Id. p. 443. ever, the scene looked busy and black upon the people, threw in an amusement, and made them drop their concern at the suppression of the abbeys. They hoped the charge of the war would be supported by the crown, and their own pockets spared by such an expedient. But all this noise of an invasion was looked on as no better than management and mystery, by a great many: it was a strain, they said, of a party, to colour the practice, and carry on the design. There was a melancholy account of the ruin of religious houses transmitted beyond sea. MER, CRAN- The methods for bringing this matter about, the razing Abp. Cant. stately buildings, laying churches and chapels in rubbish, the profane scrambling of some of the visitors, and the lamentable disappointment of the country, made a tragical relation. The rest of Christendom stood at gaze at the English court, and were surprised to astonishment. The king's necessities were too faint a colour to discharge the imputation. The censure went deep, and the scandal spread, notwithstanding this allegation. An act for regulating precedency. 31 Hen. 8. cap. 10. Statutes at Large. 161. 31 Hen. 8. cap. 13. An act for settling the abbey-lands upon the crown. Sir Edward mark of the ment of the king The parliament was now sitting, and the bill passed for regulating the precedency of the lords of parliament: and here we meet with a recital of the king's being supreme head of the Church of England: and that for the "good exercise of the said most royal dignity and office, his highness hath made Thomas lord Cromwell, and lord privy seal, his vicegerent for good and due ministration of justice, to be had in all causes and cases touching the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and for the godly reformation and redress of all heresies and abuses in the said Church." And in consequence of this delegation, the act gives Cromwell place of the archbishop of Canterbury. The next act relating to the Church conveys all the religious houses, colleges, and hospitals, dissolved or to be dissolved hereafter, to the king, his heirs and successors, for ever. The preamble sets forth, that sundry abbots, priors, abbesses, and prioresses, &c., have given the king their "manors, lands, &c., of their own free and voluntary minds, good wills, and assent, without constraint or compulsion of any manner of person or persons," &c. This bill, we may observe, was drawn with great care, to prevent the suspicion of hard usage and forced surrenders. To make it pass the better, a prospect of vast advantage was opened to the subject: the reader shall have the detail in sir Edward Coke's words : "On the king's behalf," saith this learned gentleman, "the members of both houses were informed in parliament, that no disappoint king or kingdom was safe, but where the king had three abilities: first, to live of his own, and able to defend his kingdoms upon any sudden invasion or insurrection; secondly, to aid his mised by the confederates, otherwise they would never assist him; thirdly, to reward his well-deserving servants. Now, the project was, dom in what was pro court. VIII. if the parliament would give unto him all the abbeys, priories, HENRY friaries, nunneries, and other monasteries, that for ever, in time then to come, he would take order that the same should not be converted to private use: but, first, that his exchequer, for the purposes aforesaid, should be enriched; secondly, the kingdom be strengthened by the maintenance of forty thousand well-trained soldiers, with skilful captains and commanders; thirdly, for the benefit and ease of the subject, who never afterwards, as was projected, in any time to come, should be charged with subsidies, fifteenths, loans, or other common aids; fourthly, lest the honour of the realm should receive any diminution by the dissolution of the said monasteries, there being twenty-nine lords of parliament of the abbots and priors that held of the king 'per baroniam,' that the king would create a number of nobles. The said monasteries were given to the king by the authority of divers acts of parliament; but no provision was therein made for the said project, 27 Hen. 8. or any part thereof; only 'ad faciendum populum,' these pos- 31 Hen. 8. sesions were given to the king, his heirs and successors, to do 23. and use therewith his and their own wills, to the pleasure of cap. 14. Almighty God, the honour and profit of the realm.' 6 cap. 28. 32 Hen. 8. 32 Hen. 8. cap. 23. сар. 34. "Now, observe the catastrophe. In the same parliament of cap. 16. 32nd Henry VIII., when the great and opulent priory of 37 Henry 8. St. John's of Jerusalem was given to the king, he demanded and had a subsidy, both of the laity and clergy; and the like he had in 34th Henry VIII.; and, in 37th Henry VIII., he had another subsidy; and, since the dissolution of the aforesaid monasteries, he exacted great loans, and against law received the same." Thus far sir Edward Coke. Coke's Institut. pt. 4. fol. 44. Warwick To bring the houses to a farther disposition for passing the bill, the nobility were promised large shares in the spoils, as sir William Dugdale phraseth it. They had the prospect either Dugdale's of free gifts, easy purchases, or very advantageous exchanges. shire, p. 802. The lay gentry were likewise promised a considerable rise, both The nobility have large in honour and estate. Neither were they disappointed in their promises expectation for no small part of the abbey-lands were granted made them of abbeyto the laity before the sitting of this parliament. This was done lands. by the advice of the visitor-general Cromwell. The parcelling An. 30 these lands out amongst a great many proprietors was the only way, as he told the king, to clinch the business, and make the VOL. V. C Rot. Pat. Hen. 8. MER, Ld.Herbert, Cromwell's CRAN- settlement irrevocable. Fox makes this suppression of abbeys Abp. Cant. a principal part of Cromwell's commendation; but, by the favour of this martyrologist, Cromwell's advising the king to part with the abbey-lands is not altogether covered from exception: for, by conveying these lands into a great many hands, the crown was disfurnished, and the promise of maintaining a great army out of these revenues made impracticable. In short, the public was quite disappointed by this expedient, and the necessity of taxes continued as great as ever. Besides, Fox might have considered that the monastic life is no part of popery for popery, to take it rightly, means nothing more than the encroachments and innovations of the court of Rome. But it is well known there were monks, both in the East and West, before these grievances appeared; and now, to say nothing more, there are monasteries in the Greek Church where the pope is disowned. However, it must be said, Cromwell's thought was politic enough for his purpose. The pulling down the buildings, likewise, of the religious houses, was not ill contrived for the new establishment. This was Dugdale's carefully done in most places. To give an instance: when the shire, p. 803. abbey of Leicester was surrendered, Cave, one of the commisgious houses sioners, informed Cromwell that himself and the other visitors pulled down. had made sale of the ornaments of the church, amounting to two hundred twenty-eight pounds, besides the plate, lead, bells, &c. From hence he proceeds to desire this vicar-general's order for defacing the church and other superstitious buildings. Warwick The reli Biblioth. Remarks upon the dis solution of the abbeys. The ruin of the monasteries giving a new face to the kingdom, and appearing so very extraordinary, it may not be improper to make a few remarks upon so great an alteration. By what hath been related already, it is pretty plain the lives of the religious were not so irregular as some authors represent them. But, granting this charge had been true, it would have been no sufficient reason to have seized their estates. If insobriety and misbehaviour were sufficient grounds for forfeiture, —if ill living, and not answering the ends of an estate, would justify the dispossessing the owner,-property would be very precarious, and the English tenures slenderly guarded. For if we consider the matter closely, all Christians are bound to strict living, to discipline, to large distributions of charity, little less than the monks. They are false to the engagement of baptism if they manage otherwise. The monas |