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were observed; to inquire into the lives of the members; to enjoin the observance of certain general rules; and to see that the king's supremacy was duly admitted.

Great abominations seem to have been discovered in some societies, which, together with the prospect of avoiding a storm now ready to fall on their heads, induced several convents to resign their charters; and in the session of parliament at the beginning of the next year, an act was passed which dissolved all monasteries of which the annual income was under 2001. (A. D. 1536.)

It is possible that greater abuses might have prevailed in these less extensive establishments, and that such laxity was produced by the freedom which a small number of persons must enjoy, when placed under their own superintendence; but it was easy to perceive that this alienation was but a step to the total dissolution of the monastic orders, and that the same avarice which had swallowed up the weaker bodies was only restrained from destroying the stronger by the want of power. The whole number of monasteries which was included under this bill was much increased by the manner in which their estates were let; for from the system of fines,1 the annual income was generally reduced far be

I When an estate is let in this manner, it is done by the following process. The property is sold for a certain number of years, (at present, according to the laws regulating church property generally, for twenty-one years,) and the fine or purchasemoney so paid belongs to the owner for the time being. But when seven years have elapsed, the purchaser of the property is allowed to renew his lease, or to repurchase the property for seven fresh years, to be reckoned at the end of the fourteen years for which he is now possessed of it. This, by calculation, is worth from one and a quarter to one and a half year's income; and the original lessor, or the owner for the time being, is induced to grant such a fresh lease, from the immediate want of money, or from the uncertainty of his own life; since, if he were himself to die during the fourteen years, he would get nothing, and the whole benefit would accrue to his succesBor. Thus an estate worth 1001. per annum might originally have been sold for its then value, and when seven years were expired the lease might be renewed for 1251. or 1507., making an average annual income of from 181. to 221. instead of 1001. The same process takes place when the property is let on lives. The estate is then originally sold for so long a time as three particular persons, whose names are inserted in the lease, shall either of them live; and when one of these dies, the holder of the property pays a fine, to be allowed

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low the real value of their property. These foundations are said to have amounted to the number of 375, and to have yielded an income of 30,000l. per annum, besides a large sum arising from plate and jewels; but the mass of this wealth was quickly dissipated. And notwithstanding the erection of a court for the express purpose of augmenting the king's revenue, comparatively little advantage arose to the crown from these attacks on the property of the subject.

§ 203. The cause of the Reformation* met with a serious blow in the death of Anne Boleyn, who had uniformly exerted her influence in its favour, and was probably very instrumental in promoting the translation of the Bible now going forward. She had undoubtedly been guilty of indiscretion in the intimacy which she had used towards some of her male attendants; but her real crime consisted in her no longer possessing the love of Henry, who had transferred his affections to Lady J. Sey

to renew the bargain, and to substitute some fresh life in lieu of the one deceased. In former times much of the property of the kingdom was held on this tenure; but in modern days most private land-owners have allowed these leases to run out, and have rclet their estates at annual rents; but almost all the property of corporate bodies is still so leased. From which circumstance it is easy to see why the real income is much less than the nominal property. The original sale generally took place beyond the memory of man; and the bishop, the chapter, or the college cannot afford to run the risk of the loss of the immediate fine, in the hopes of an advantage which their successors may probably reap; so that virtually most church property is mortgaged for fourteen years, in England; and in Ireland, (from the custom of renew. ing every year, instead of every seven years,) for twenty years. In most of such leases, however, there is also an annual rent reserved:-Thus, if an estate be worth 150l. per annum, the fine shall be set as if it were worth 1007. and the tenant be bound to pay 50l. annually for the support of the establishment. In estimating, therefore, the values of the property of these monasteries, the reserved rents may probably have alone entered into the calculation, and the fine have been overlooked, as not forming a part of the income.

2 Fuller, vi. 312.

3 The court of augmentations was established 27th Henry VIII. (Fuller, vi. 348,) by act of parliament, consisting of a chancellor, and many other officers with high salaries, amounting to 7,2491. 10s. 3d. They were appointed to survey and govern the property which fell into the hands of the crown, by the dissolution of monasteries; but as many of the estates were soon sold through the necessities of the king, the court was found to be unnecessarily expensive, was discontinued, and finally dissolved, 1o Mariæ, 1553. 4 Burnet, i.

mour; and one of the strongest argu- $204. On the day after the execution ments in favour of her innocence con- of Anne, Henry married Jane, the sists in the nature of the court before daughter of Sir John Seymour; and in which she was arraigned, and of the the parliament which met on the 8th charges which were separately brought of June, the act of succession passed, against her. She was first condemned which, after conferring the inheritance for adultery, and then divorced on ac- of the crown on the children of the precount of a pre-contract of marriage, sent marriage, left the king, in case there which proved her never to have been were none, at liberty to bestow the the wife of the king. The evidence of throne on whomsoever he pleased, her guilt would not have admitted of either by letters patent or by his will. being brought forward openly, and she Nothing can more strongly mark the was tried in secret, condemned, and absolute sway which this monarch mainexecuted in the Tower, May 19. tained over the parliament, than a power so vested in an individual; while the policy of the transaction equally demands our notice, for he kept both his

self; and by enabling Mary to succeed to the kingdom, paved the way towards. a reconciliation with the emperor, and through him, with the court of Rome, if any future circumstances should dispose him to entertain the wish of doing so. It seems, indeed, that some overtures were about this time made by the pope; but two acts of parliament rendered the attempt perfectly nugatory; for the first subjected to a præmunire all emissaries of the papacy; the second destroyed all grants held under bulls, which were declared null and void; and those whose property was on this tenure were directed to bring the grants into Chancery, in order that they might be renewed by the archbishop of Canterbury, acting for the king.

Her marriage with the king was dissolved by a decision in the archbishop's court, and is said by Burnet to have been annulled in consequence of a pre- daughters entirely dependent upon himcontract between her and Lord Percy, which the queen acknowledged. The effect of this proceeding was to render the princess Elizabeth illegitimate; but it is supposed that Anne was induced to admit the existence of such a bar to the marriage, in hopes of conciliating the favour of the royal father towards her child; and it is probable, that her conduct in her last moments was influenced by the same views. Blame has been attached to Cranmer for his compliance in this instance; but upon the admission of the pre-contract, he had only to pronounce the sentence of the canon law; while the Reformation has been loaded with the obloquy attending the presumed guilt of its patrons as if the cause must be bad which had been promoted by such unworthy instruments. For Henry, little can be said in excuse; yet he always treated Elizabeth with kindness; and Mary was now reconciled to him upon acknowledging the king's supremacy, renouncing the papal usurpations, and giving up all advantage which might personally arise to her from the jurisdiction of Rome.

$ 205. Whatever importance may attached to the acts of this session of parliament, those of the convocation demand at least an equal portion of our attention. Alexander Alesse, a Scotch reformer, had fled his country not long after the persecution of Patrick Hamilton; and having been kindly received into Cromwell's house, was here introduced to the English clergy by the lord vicegerent himself. When his opinion was requested, he argued strongly in favour of rejecting the five sacraments, and was answered by Stokesley, bishop of London, who exhibited much learn

1 Lingard, who wishes to establish the guilt of the queen, supposes that the previous criminal connection of Henry with Mary, the elder sister of Anne, formed the ground of the separation. No reason is assigned for the divorce in the original record of it; sce Wilkins, Con. iii. 801; but the letter of the earl of Northumberland, May 13, in which he denies the existence of any pre-contract, at least ing in the canon law; but Cranmer proves that there was an idea of proceeding against gave a satisfactory reply to his arguher on this ground, and so strengthens the account ments, by adducing the authority of given by Burnet. See also Cavendish's Life of the word of God, and enforcing its Wolsey; Wordsw. Ecc. Biog. i. 363; Lord Herbert's Life, p. 195, comp. hist. superiority.

The parties into which the church was now divided were led by the two

CRANMER, archbp. of Canterbury.
GOODRICH, bishop of Ely.
SHAXTON, bishop of Sarum.
LATIMER, bishop of Worcester.
Fox, bishop of Hereford.
HILSEY, bishop of Rochester.
BARLOW, bishop of St. David's.

After much discussion, certain articles, which had been submitted to them by the king, were agreed upon, and published by the royal authority; and as they may be deemed the first document of the faith of the church of England, they cannot be esteemed unworthy of peculiar notice; their general outline is as follows:1

§ 206. The Bible and the three creeds are laid down as the basis of our faith. Baptism is declared to be absolutely necessary; that is, that children dying unbaptized cannot be saved.

Penance, that is, repentance, is a sacrament, and necessary.

Confession to a priest is necessary and effectual.

The corporal presence is necessary to be believed.

Though justification depend on the merits of Christ, yet good works are necessary in order to obtain eternal life. With regard to ceremonies, it was ordered, that images should be retained as examples to the people, but idolatry, and the abuse of them, was to be guarded against. Saints were to be honoured as examples of life and advancers of our prayers; and they were to be addressed with this view, but not worshipped. Many ceremonies, such as the use of holy water, ashes, palms, &c., were to be retained as typical signs; and praying for the dead was enjoined, though the existence of purgatory is questioned. It should be observed, too, that no mention is here made of the other four sacraments,

They are printed in the Formularies of Faith, Oxford, 1825, 271, a, and in Burnet and Fuller They must be considered as a compromise of opinions between the two parties, rather than as expressing the entire sentiments of either. It is indeed obvious, that the doctrines of the Refor. mation had not at this time made any great progress; for in a protestation of the Lower House, consisting of 67 articles, (Fuller, v. 208, § 28,) there is hardly a point in which the churches of Rome and England differ, in which the tenets of the latter are not reprobated.

archbishops, and may be ranged in the following order :

LEE, archbishop of York.
STOKESLEY, bishop of London.
TONSTAL, bishop of Durham.
GARDINER, bishop of Winchester.
LONGLAND, bishop of Lincoln.
SHERBURN, bishop of Chichester.
KITE, bishop of Carlisle.

though the use of them is inculcated in several of the doctrinal works which were subsequently published during this reign. A royal proclamation was issued immediately after the publication of these articles, of which the following is an abstract.

2

§ 207. Thomas Cromwell, lord vicegerent, directs the clergy to observe all the laws which have been made against the papal supremacy, and to instruct their flocks, at least four times in the year, that the king under God is the supreme head of the church. To explain to the people the articles concerning faith and ceremonies, which had been lately put forth; and to persuade their parishioners to observe the ordinance for abolishing many of the holydays during harvest. To discountenance superstition, and preach that obedience to God's commandments, and works of charity, were more acceptable than pilgrimages and the worshipping of relics. They were to set up Bibles in Latin and English in their churches, and encourage the people to read them; to see that the children within their cures were brought up honestly and religiously, and to teach them the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed, in the mother-tongue. Wherever the incumbent was non-resident, he was to appoint a proper curate; and all the clergy are directed to lead decent and sober lives. Non-residents, on preferments worth twenty pounds, are to give one-fortieth of their stipend to the poor of the parish. Incumbents of preferments worth a hundred pounds per annum are to keep a scholar at the university; and so on for every hundred pounds: and in case of dilapidated buildings, one-fifth of the income was to be expended on repairs. We cannot help observing the sound sense and propriety of these injunctions.

2 Burnet, P. i. B. iii. Rec. No. 7.

§ 208. During the progress of the Reformation, many appeals had been made to a general council; and Paul III., wishing to sanction his proceedings under the appearance of such an authority, yet having no desire that it should be independent of the influence of the papal throne, assembled one at Mantua. Before this tribunal, Henry was cited to appear; but when information of this was brought to the convocation by Fox, bishop of Hereford, that assembly protested against the measure, as more likely to gratify ambition and malice than to satisfy the ends of justice and truth. The king1 also published his reasons against it, showing the absurdity of expecting a fair trial, when the pope, one of the parties, was to sit as judge, and the court itself was so situated, that no Englishman could safely make his appearance at it. Reginald Pole, who was now resident at Padua, attacked the king in his writings; and his book De Unione Ecclesiastica, ends by comparing Henry to Nebuchadnezzar, and praying the emperor to direct his arms against so heretical a Christian, rather than against the Turks.

§ 209. Some progress was made during this summer in the dissolution of monasteries; for, besides those foundations which the liberality of parliament had already bestowed on the king, many abbots made voluntary surrenders of the establishments under their charge, to the commissioners of the augmentation office, in hopes of obtaining better terms and larger allowances for themselves; entertaining little doubts, that the rapacity which had swallowed up the smaller, would soon extend itself over all such ecclesiastical bodies. Many persons were thus deprived of all means of subsistence; for, besides their actual retainers, monasteries were in the habit of feeding a large portion of the neighbouring poor, while the number of actual members ejected must have been considerable. It is not wonderful, then, that persons influenced by passion, as well as urged by necessity, should endeavour to raise disquiet against a government with which they had so little reason to be contented. The court had indeed used some methods for

1 Sleidan's Hist. Ref. 231.

obviating these causes of complaint; thirty-one religious houses had been refounded, and much of the forfeited lands had been sold at very easy rates to the neighbouring gentry; but these innovations had produced a general discontent, and their effects were quickly manifested by a rebellion in Lincolnshire, which was, however, soon quieted by the conciliatory measures of the duke of Suffolk. This was followed by a much more formidable rising in the north; and the insurrection, from the religious turn which was given to it, and from their standards, consisting of representations of the five wounds of Christ, and of the cross, was denominated the pilgrimage of grace. As this event had been produced in great measure by the clergy, the king issued a strong letter to his bishops, enjoining the use of zeal and discretion in their own preaching, and ordering them to publish the articles already set forth; they were also directed to take care that the inferior clergy did the same, and were not to allow any one within their dioceses to preach out of his own church, for whose honesty and judgment they could not answer.

§ 210. The direction of the military operations was committed to the duke of Norfolk, who, when he joined the earl of Shrewsbury, found the rebels so strong and desperate that it was necessary to adopt the greatest caution. They were under the command of a gentleman of the name of Aske, who was well calculated for his office, and numbered among their ranks the archbishop of York, and Lord Darcy, who having been made prisoners at the capture of Pomfret Castle, had taken the oath of the party, viz., that their object was to preserve the king from low-born and pernicious counsellors, and to reestablish true religion. The rebels had already taken Hull and York, and advanced as far as Doncaster; but their further progress was stopped by the prudence of the duke of Norfolk, who, after many delays and much intercourse, obtained for them a general pardon. (A. D. 1537.) Yet discontent soon manifested itself again, and breaking out in a fresh northern rebellion, it

2 Addenda, ix. 360, vol. i. Burnet.

was easily put down by the forces still sive condemnation ; and in many of under the command of the duke of the convents visited by the commissionNorfolk and Lord Shrewsbury, and ers, not only were real devotion and the chief offenders were executed; sound morality found to exist, but the amongst which number were com- liberal hospitality and charitable muprehended Lords Darcy and Hussey, nificence of the members merited for Aske, many gentlemen of considera- them that love which was felt towards tion, and six abbots.1 the monastic orders by a large portion. of the community, particularly by the common people.

§ 211. The suspicion that this rebellion had owed its origin and support chiefly to the encouragement of the § 212. Many abbots now tendered clergy, undoubtedly hastened the sup- their resignations, influenced by various pression of religious houses; but their motives, as either their fears of the king general dissolution arose from other predominated, or as they entertained causes, and would probably have taken views favourable to the Reformation; place, had these events never occurred. while others hoped, by conciliating the In order to prepare the way for this good-will of the ruling powers, to obfresh attack on church property, a new tain for their societies new and more visitation was set on foot, and the dis- useful foundations. The benefit deorders discovered in these establish- rived to the crown by these resignations ments were thrown open to the world; fell infinitely below the amount at for, as the visitors were charged with which it might probably have been receiving bribes,' they found it neces- calculated; for in many cases the estasary to quiet unpleasant reports con- blishments were found to be in a very cerning their own ill conduct, by pub- dilapidated state. The several memlishing such scandalous stories of the bers of such foundations, foreseeing parties visited as fell within their obser- what was likely to happen, had been vation. providing for the storm; and while The vicious lives and conversations they consulted their own personal inof the religious," as they were deno-terests, had neglected the common prominated, were too notorious not to call perty of which they expected so soon forth the indignant animadversions of to be deprived. Several abbots were their enemies; and, as might have been attainted of treason, for having conexpected, the guilt of individuals en-verted the plate of their convents to the tailed a great degree of infamy on the use of the rebels in the north, and on body in general. We have, however, their conviction their abbeys were deso many authentic documents of their gross profligacy and superstitious knavery, that little doubt can be entertained of either their guilt or the benefit which morals have received by the suppression of monasteries.* But there were several exceptions to this exten

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clared forfeited to the king. To most of the ecclesiastical persons now ejected annuities were assigned out of the revenues, which varied according to the nature of the foundations and the merits of the individuals. Religious frauds were in many places destroyed, shrines defaced, and relics taken away; so that the most effectual methods were adopted in order to wean the minds of the people from such superstitions.

§ 213. "The Bishops' Book," or "The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian Man," was now first published; it was afterwards printed in a more perfect form in 1543, when it was denominated "The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man," and, as put forth by royal authority, was called "The King's Book," and

5 Strype's Ecc. Mem. 393.

6

Strype's Ecc. Mem. i. 485.

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