that I have caused xxli. to be delyvered unto my ffelowe Thomas Avery to the use of your good lordeshype, humbly besechyng your lordshyppes ffavour and goodnes that as shall stand wyth the kynges plesure I may other purchase or have in fferm the demenez of Gracedewe abbey, whych I am in possessyon of, and my ffelowe Whalley to eethere, by your honorable lettres. Whych seyd abbey the erle of Huntyngdon* doth labour to take ffrom me, whych have no truste but of your lordshyppes goodnes, wythoute whych I am undoyn; ffor I do ffeyre the seyd erle and hys sonnes do seke my lyffe, and all ffor the truthe sake, ffor I have secret warnyng by one off hys counsell to weyre a prevy cote, whych ys not suffycyent ffor me, hys powere beyng envyron my poore howse. Besechyng God that your lordeshyp wyll take in good parte my inornate colleccyon of the kynges supremyty, wherin ys no thyng apte to be presented unto your lordshyp, but the apparaunce of a trewe herte, with whych I shall contenewally pray and labour to send your lordshyp your moste noble hertes desyre. From Whellesborough, the xxvijth daye of Decembre. Your humble servaunt, JOHN BEAMOUNT.† * This was George Hastings, first earl of Huntingdon of the family which still enjoys the title. John Beaumont, Esq. of Thringston, county of Leicester, was appointed Jan. 30, 1534-5, to take the ecclesiastical survey of the county of Leicester. He was appointed Recorder of Leicester in 1550, and in the same year, Dec. 3, was constituted Master of the Rolls. He resigned that office in disgrace May 28, 1552. He was grandfather of Francis Beaumont, the dramatic poet. (See Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. iii. pp. 655, 661*, 1125.) His "fellow Whalley" above mentioned was the receiver of Yorkshire. CHAPTER III. FINAL SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTIC HOUSES AND CONFISCATION OF THEIR PROPERTY. After the searching visitation of the commissioners sent round the country in 1538, only a few of the larger houses, chiefly the mitred abbeys, remained unsuppressed. Some of these latter had been voluntarily surrendered, or confiscated by the attainder of their abbots. From the Journals of the House of Lords, we find that in the par. liament of 1536, on the seventeenth of July, the following abbots were present (distinguished by a p.) or voted by proxy. p. Abbas Westm. p. Abbas sancti Albani. Abbas sancti Augustini Cantor. p. Abbas Burgi sancti Edmundi. Abbas sancte Marie Ebor. Abbas Glaston. p. Abbas de Abyngdon. Abbas Glocestre. Abbas de Ramesey. Abbas Burgi sancti Petri. p. Abbas de Redyng. p. Abbas de Crowlande. p. Abbas de Selby. Abbas Bardeney. p. Abbas de Bello. p. Abbas de Wynchecombe. p. Abbas de Waltham. p. Abbas Cirencest. p. Prior de Coventre. p. Abbas de Tewkesbury. Abbas Salopie. Abbas de Hyde. Abbas sancti Benedicti. Abbas Colchestrie. Abbas Tavestok. In the parliament which was opened on the 27th of April, 1539, they were dimi. nished to the following list, showing those who were present or sent their proxies on that day. p. Abbas Westm. p. Abbas sancti Albani. p. Abbas Burgi sancti Edmundi. p. Abbas beate Marie Ebor Abbas de Glaston p. Abbas de Glocestrie. p. Abbas de Ramsey. p. Abbas de Evesham. p Abbas Burgi sancti Petri. Abbas sancti Johannis Colcestri p. Abbas de Redyng. p. Abbas de Crowlande. p. Abbas de Selby. p. Abbas de Thorney. p. Abbas de Wynchcombe. p. Abbas de Waltham. p. Abbas Cirencestrie. p. Abbas Tewkysbury. When this parliament held its second session, beginning on the 12th of April, 1540, all the abbots had disappeared from the house. It was in fact in the session of 1539 that the act was passed giving the monastic estates to the king (Statutes, 31 Hen. VIII. chap. 13). This act, after reciting that a great number of religious houses had been voluntarily surrendered to the king, invests them, as well as all houses afterwards to be surrendered or dissolved, with all their sites, possessions, &c. in the king and his successors. It contains a general saving of rights to present tenants, &c., with a proviso annulling all leases or grants made within a year before the dissolution, which was called for by the eagerness with which the monks endeavoured to make away the property of their houses to enrich themselves before they were driven out, which is frequently alluded to in the foregoing letters. The Act of Parliament just alluded to did not dissolve the monasteries. It appears to have been the policy of the court to persuade or terrify the occupants into a voluntary surrender, which was successful, except in a very small number of instances. Several of the abbots who were stubborn in refusing surrender, or who thwarted the king's measures or disobeyed his arbitrary commands, were on one charge or other indicted for high treason, and brought to the block or to the gallows, which helped to strike terror into the others. Among these were John Beche, abbot of St. John's at Colchester, Hugh Cook, abbot of Reading, and Richard Whiting, abbot of the ancient and noble abbey of Glastonbury. The following letters relate to the trial and execution of the person last mentioned. The death of abbot Whiting appears to have caused a great sensation and to have been long remembered in the West of England; a Somersetshire peasant, visiting Glastonbury on his way to London, in a song of the seventeenth century,* is made to say, "Ice azked whose tooke downe the leads an the beels, And thay 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 Achans wedge, How thick zame goolden thing did zettz teeth an edge. "Tis an ominous thing how this church is abused, * A Collection of Pieces in the Dialect of Zummerzet. Edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq. (8vo. Lond. 1843) p. 4. CXXVI. THE COMMISSIONERS TO CROMWELL. [From Burnet's Reform. vol. iii. p. 160, who printed it from MSS. Tanner at Oxford.] A Letter of the visitors, sent to examine the Abbot of Glassenbury. Please hyt your lordship to be advertised, that we came to Glastenbury on Fryday last past, about tenn of the clock in the forenoone and for that the abbot was then at Sharpham, a place of hys, a myle and somewhat more fro thabbey, we, without any delay, went unto the same place; and there, after communication declaring unto him theffect of our coming, examined him upon certain articles. And for that his answer was not then to our purpose, we advised him to call to his remembrance that which he had as then forgotten, and so declare the truth, and then came with him the same day to the abbey; and there of new proceeded that night to search his study for letters and books: and found in his study secretly laid, as well a written book of arguments against the divorce of his kinges majestie and the lady dowager, which we take to be a great matters, as also divers pardons, copies of bulls, and the counterfit lyfe of Thomas Bequet in print; but we could not find any letter that was materiall. And so we proceeded again to his examination concerning the articles we received from your lordship, in the answers whereof, as we take it, shall appear his cankerd and traiterous heart and mind. against the kinges majestie and his succession; as by the same answers, syned with his hand, and sent to your lordship by this bearer, more plainly shall appear. And so, with as fair words as * It would have been desirable to have collated this letter with the original; but, although the Tanner MSS. have been a century in the Bodleian Library, they still remain uncatalogued, and, out of the large number of volumes of letters in that collec. tion, it is almost useless to search for a single document. we could, we have conveyed him from hence into the tower, being but a very weak man and sickly. And as yet we have neither discharged servant nor monk; but now the abbot being gone, we will, with as much celerity as we may, proceed to the dispatching of them. We have in money 300l. and above; but the certainty of plate and other stuffe there as yet we know not, for we have not had opportunity for the same, but shortly we intend (God willing) to proceed to the same; whereof we shall ascertain your lordship so shortly as we may. This is also to advertise your lordship, that we have found a fair chalice of gold, and divers other parcels of plate, which the abbot had hid secretly from all such commissioners as have bine there in times past; and as yet he knoweth not that we have found the same: whereby we think, that he thought to make his hand, by his untruth to his kinges majesty. It may please your lordship to advertise us of the kinges pleasure by this bearer, to whom we shall deliver the custody and keeping of the house, with such stuff as we intend to leave there convenient to the kinges use. We assure your lordship it is the goodliest house of that sort that ever we have seen. We wold that your lordship did know it as we do; then we doubt not but your lordship would judge it a house mete for the kinges majesty, and for no man else: which is to our great comfort; and we trust verily that there shall never come any double hood within that house again. Also this is to advertise your lordship, that there is never a one doctor within that house; but there be three batchelors of divinity, which be but meanly learned, as we can perceive. And thus our Lord preserve your good lordship. From Glastenbury, the 22 day of September. Yours to command, RICHARD POLLARD, RICHARD LAYTON. To the ryght honorable and their syngular good lord, my lord pryvye seal, thys be delivired. |