Henry IV. petitioned the king, that laymen might not invade the possessions of alien priories, but those foundations might be furnished, native English substituted in their rooms: whose request, by reason of the king's death ensuing, took no effect. But this doth intimate, (though I had rather learn than teach in so dark a point,) that those alien priories still stood undissolved by Act of State, with a possibility to revert to their former use; and though the king had fastened upon their profits by his absolute power, yet as yet they were not settled and established in the crown by Act of Parliament,

5, 6. Their Dissolution.

The dangerous Influence of this Precedent.

But in the fourth year of king Henry V. in the heat and height of his wars with France, all such priories alien as were not conventual were by Act of Parliament dissolved and bestowed on the king it being conceived unsafe, that men, moving according to a foreign interest, having their affections leading them beyond the seas, and their actions following, (when befriended with secrecy,) should be maintained in this kingdom. Besides, it tended to the manifest detriment of the state, that such should transport our coin and commodities into an enemy's country, without returning a proportionable profit to the commonwealth. Other alien priories, which were conventual, survived until the general mortality of English monasteries. These alien priories were not conceived to have such a temptation to disloyalty as the others, having their absolute subsistence here; and though the monks therein were strangers in respect of their birth, they were counted naturalized in a manner, in regard of their education and livelihood.

The dissolving of these priories made a dangerous impression on all the rest. Say not that "English abbeys were unconcerned, because these strangers being rather suckers than branches of their tree, their growing was a burthen, and their pruning off a benefit thereunto;" for, though aliens in their country, they were allies in their cause, there being an affinity betwixt all religious foundations. And now here was an Act of State for precedent, that without sin of sacrilege such donations might be dissolved. Use was made hereof, beyond the king's intention, who in this act not covetous, but politic, aiming rather to secure than enrich himself: whereas now some courtiers by his bounty tasting on the sweet of abbey-lands, made their breakfasts thereon in the time of Henry V. which

• HARPSFIELD Hist. Ang. sæculo decimo quinto, cap. 8. Rastall, titul, monasteries.

† Parliament Rolls

increased their appetites to dine on the same in the days of king Henry VIII. not so glutted, but they could sup on the reversions left in the reign of king Edward VI.

SECTION III.

TO THE HONOURABLE, THE LADY MARY FOUNTAINE.

MADAM,

THOUGH none can expect courtship, many will require congruity, from me. Such will charge me with a great impropriety for dedicating a discourse of monks and friars to your ladyship; where some passages of their wantonness may occasion your blushing for them, who never blushed for themselves. But, know it done by design, that you may plainly perceive how far marriage-chastity transcended forced and pretended virginity: or, if you please, how much a springing Fountain is better than a standing pool soon subject to putrefaction.

Your family, though not a nunnery, may be a religious house; seeing God hath multiplied you into a whole convent;—I mean, the fourteen children which you have at this present: I say "have;" for this reason is rendered, why the children of Job, after his restitution, were not doubled unto him as his cattle were,-because they were utterly foregone, his children only gone before on which account those six removed from you into a better world still remain yours. God in due time translate you, and your worthy husband, in a good old age, into the same place of happiness.

I. OF CARDINAL WOLSEY'S OMINOUS SUPPRESSING OF FORTY LESSER MONASTERIES, THEREWITH, TO BUILD TWO COLLEGES,

1, 2. Wolsey's Wealth and Want. Wolsey's Act justly

censured.

VAST were the revenues of cardinal Wolsey, if we account both his wives and concubines, I mean, the place whereon he resided, and churches he held in commendam; being at the same time, the

pope's legate a latere, archbishop of York, chancellor of England, bishop of Winchester, abbot of St. Alban's, beside other meaner preferments. Yet he found Solomon's observation true, "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them," Eccles. v. 11: insomuch, that his magnificent mind was poor in his plenty; and, in the midst of his wealth, wanted means to compass his vast designs. Wherefore, intending to erect two fair colleges, one, where he was born, in Ipswich; the other, where he was bred, in Oxford; and finding himself unable to endow them at his own charges, he obtained license of pope Clement VII. anno 1525, to suppress forty smaller monasteries in England, and to lay their old land to his new foundations; which was done accordingly. For the cardinal thought, that these petty Houses, like little sparks of diamonds, were inconsiderable in themselves; whereas they would make a fair show, if all were put together into two jewels only, (his two colleges,) and he carry away all the credit thereof.

An action condemned by the conscientious in that age, accounting it essential to charity, that the thing given be the proper goods of the donor. "Cast thy bread," saith Solomon, "upon the waters," Eccles. xi. 1. It must be THY bread, otherwise, though stolen bread may be pleasant to men, Prov. ix. 17, it is nauseous and distasteful to the God of heaven; who in such cases will not be the receiver, though man be the thief; solemnly disavowing the acceptance of such donations. Witness his own words: "I hate robbery for burnt-offering," Isaiah lxi. 8.

3, 4. Fig-Leaves to cover it, in vain. The miserable Ends of the Cardinal's Instruments herein.

Plead not in the cardinal's excuse, that the Houses by him suppressed were of small value; it being as great, yea, greater sacrilege to invade the widow's mite, than the large gifts which the rich priests cast into corban: because their bounties were but superfluous wens, whilst hers was an essential limb; yea, as our Saviour observes, the whole body of her estate, Luke xxi. 4; as, probably, some of those poor foundations were erected by founders, like those of Macedonia," to their power, and beyond their power, willing of themselves," 2 Cor. viii. 3. As for the poor people, formerly living in these then-dissolved Houses, they may be presumed more religious than others that were richer; poverty being a protection for their piety, and they unable to go to the cost of luxurious extravagancies. I find not what provision was afterward made for these helpless souls, thrust out of house and home; so that it is suspicious, that the cardinal, notwithstanding his prodigious hospitality, made more beggars than ever he relieved.

Others allege, that these Houses were still continued to the general end of pious uses. However, it was not fair to alienate them from the primitive intention of the founders; yea, God himself seemed not well-pleased therewith. I know, that "no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked," &c. Eccles. ix. 1, 2. However, God's exemplary hand ought to be heeded in the signal fatality of such as by the cardinal were employed in this service. Five they were in number; two whereof challenging the field of each other, one was slain,* and the other hanged for it. A third, throwing himself headlong into a well, perished wilfully. A fourth, formerly wealthy, grew so poor, that he begged his bread. The fifth, Dr. Allen, one of especial note, afterward archbishop of Dublin, was slain in Ireland. What became of the cardinal himself, is notoriously known; and, as for his two colleges, that in Ipswich-the emblem of its builder, soon up, soon down-presently vanished into private houses; whilst the other, Christ Church in Oxford, was fain to disclaim its founder; and, being adopted the issue of the bounty of king Henry VIII. at this day owns not him for father who first gave it life, but who afterwards kept it from dying. In a word, this dissolution of forty small Houses caused by the cardinal, made all the forest of religious foundations in England to shake, justly fearing the king would finish to fell the oaks, seeing the cardinal began to cut the underwood.

II. OF THE FIRST PRIORY WHICH WAS SOLEMNLY
SUPPRESSED BY KING HENRY VIII.

1, 2. Christ-Church Priory near Aldgate first and solely dissolved. The Antiquity, Wealth, and Dignity thereof. SOME six years after, whilst as yet all other abbeys flourished in their height and happiness, as safe and secure as ever before; king Henry VIII. for reasons best known to himself, singled out the priory of Christ-Church nigh Aldgate in London, and dissolved the same. This he bestowed as a boon on Thomas Audley,+ Speaker in the Parliament; and, indeed, it was an excellent receipt to clear his voice, to make him speak shrill and loud for his master. This shrewdly shook the freehold of all abbeys; seeing now, two such great men, Wolsey and Audley, both in their times lord

GODWIN'S " Annals of Henry VIII." anno 1525. Yet Mr. Fox maketh the lord Cromwell the principal person employed by the cardinal therein.

"Chronicle," anno 1525.

† HALL'S

chancellors of England, (and, therefore, presumed well versed in cases of conscience,) the one a divine first took, the other a common lawyer first received, such lands into their possession.

A word of the antiquity, wealth, and dignity of this convent, because in each respect it was remarkable. It was founded, anno 1108, by queen Matilda, wife to king Henry I. dedicated to the Holy Trinity, for black canons or canons-regular; and one Norman (by name and nation) was first prior thereof. In process of time it became rich in land and ornaments, and passed all the priories in London or Middlesex, especially in this particular,—that the prior thereof was always an alderman of London,† namely, of Portsoken ward, (though otherwise their convent standeth in Aldgate ward,) and used to ride amongst the alderman in a livery like the rest, save that his habit was in the shape of a spiritual person. In the year 1264, Eustathius the eighth prior of this convent, because he himself was loath to deal in temporal matters, instituted Theobald Fitz-Ivo alderman in his place. They were most bountiful housekeepers, relieving all comers and goers, and got themselves much reputation for their hospitality.

3-5. A Guess at King Henry's Design. The Priory taken by Composition; the Effect thereof upon the People.

Some conjecture this was king Henry's design in dissolving this priory, thereby to make a discovery in people's affections how they resented the same. He dispatched this convent first, as the forlorn hope is sent out before the body of the army; which, if meeting with unsuspected dangers, may give timely notice to the rest, to advance no farther. And, if he had found the people much startled thereat, he could quickly knock off, retrench his resolutions, and (dexterous to decline envy for himself) handsomely cast the same on his instruments employed therein. Others think, the king as yet had no such project in intention, but did it merely to gratify Sir Thomas Audley, whom he loved the better for hating cardinal Wolsey, now beginning to fall; against whom he had bitterly inveighed in the parliament.

As for the manner of the dissolving thereof: Whereas all other abbeys afterwards were stormed by violence, (whatsoever is plausibly pretended to the contrary,) this only was fairly taken by composition. For the prior thereof, was sent for by the king, commended for his hospitality, promised preferment as a man worthy greater dignity; which promise surely he performed, though the particulars of the agreement are not to be known. Whereupon, STOW's "Survey of London,"

• HARPSFIELD in his Catalogue of Abbeys. page 145.

Idem, ibidem.