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"after he had received all this, and had ruined

and facked three hundred and feventy-fix of "the Monasteries, and brought their substance "to his treasury, befides all the goodly revenues "of the Crown, he was drawn fo dry, that in "the thirty-first year of his reign, the Parlia

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*This defolation was fo univerfal, that John Bale very much laments the lofs and fpoil of Books and Libraries in his Epistle upon Leland's Journal (Leland being employed by the King to furvey and preferve the choiceft Books in their Libraries): "If there had been in every fhire of "England," faith Bale, "but one folemn library for the "prefervation of thofe noble works, and preferment of good learning in our pofterity, it had been fomewhat ; but to deftroy all without confideration, is and will be "unto England for ever a moft horrible infamy amongst "the grave fcholars of other nations." He adds, "that "they who got and purchafed the Religious Houses at the "Diffolution of them, took the libraries as part of the bar"gain and booty; referving (continues he) of those library "books, fome to serve their jakes, some to scour their can"dlesticks, and fome to rub their boots with; fome they "fold to the grocers and foap-boilers, and fome they fent ἐσ over fea to the bookbinders, not in fmall numbers, but at

times whole fhip-fulls, to the wondering of foreign na“tions. I know a merchant-man, who at this time shall "be nameless, that bought the contents of two noble

libraries for forty fhillings a-piece-a fhame it is to be told. "This stuff hath he used for the fpace of more than ten 66 years, inftead of grey paper, to wrap up his goods with, "and yet he hath enough remaining for many years to

come: a prodigious example indeed," adds he, " is this, "and greatly to be abhorred of all men who love their 66 country as they ought to do."

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"ment was conftrained by his importunity to

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fupply his wants with the refidue of all the "Monafteries of the kingdom, fix hundred and "forty-five great ones and illuftrious, with all "their wealth and prince-like poffeffions. Yet

even then was not this King so sufficiently fur"nished for building of a few Block-houses for "defence of the coast, but the next year after he "must have another fubfidy of four-fifteenths "to bear out his charges: and, left that should "be too little, all the houses, lands, and goods "of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, both " in England and in Ireland.”.

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"The next year," fays Sir Henry, was the "King's fatal period, otherwise it was much "to be feared that Deans and Chapters, if not "Bishopricks (which have been long levelled at)

had been his Majesty's next defign; for he "took a very good fay of them, by exchanging "lands with them before the Diffolution, giving " them racked lands and small things for goodly "manors and lordships, and alfo impropriations " for their folid patrimony in finable lands; like "the exchange that Palamedes made with Glaucus, thereby much increafing his own reve"nues."

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"I fpeak not of his prodigal hand in the "blood of his own fubjects, which no doubt *much alienated the hearts of them from him. "But God in the fpace of these eleven years "vifited him with five or fix rebellions. And "although rebellions and infurrections are not "to be defended, yet they discover to us what "the displeasure and the dislike of the common "people were for fpoiling the revenue of the * Church, (whereby they were great lofers,) the "Clergy being merciful landlords, and bountiful "benefactors to all men, by their great hofpi"tality and acts of charity."

"Thus much," concludes the learned and venerable Antiquarian, 66 touching the King's "own fortunes accompanying the wealth and "treasure gotten by him, as we have declared,

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by confifcating the Monafteries; wherein the "prophetical speech that the Archbishop of Can"terbury used in the Parliament of the fixth of "Henry the Fourth feemeth performed; scil. "That the King should not be one farthing the "richer the next year following *.”

"What

When James the Fourth, King of Scotland, was advifed by Sir Ralph Sadler, Ambaffador from Henry the Eighth, to increase his revenues by taking the revenues of the Abbey lands into his hands, he replied, "What need have I to take them into my own hands, when I may

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"What the whole body of the Kingdom hath fuffered," fays Sir Henry, "fince these acts "of confifcation of the Monafteries and their "Churches, is very remarkable. Let the Monks "and Fryers shift as they deserved, the good (if you will) and the bad together, my purpose is "not to defend their iniquities; the thing I la"ment is, that the wheat perished with the dar"nel; things of good and pious inftitution with.

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thofe that abufed and perverted them; by "reafon whereof, the fervice of God was not "only grievously wounded, and bleedeth at this

day, but infinite works of charity (whereby

"the poor were univerfally relieved through the "kingdom) were utterly cut off and extin

guifhed; many thousand mafterlefs fervants "turned loofe into the world, and many thou"fands of poor people, who were actually fed, "clad, and nourished by the Monafteries, now "like young ravens feek their meat from Heaven.

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"have any thing that I require of them? If there be abuses in any Monafteries, I will reform them. There be ftill many that are very good." Bifhop Latimer, who fat in the Parliament that diffolved Monafteries, gave it as his opinion, that two or three of the greater Abbies fhould be preserved in every County of England for pious and charitable purposes. This," fays Spelman, "was a wife and a godly motion, and was perhaps the occafion that King Henry did convert fome (in part) to good ufes."

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Every Monastery, according to its ability, had "an Ambery, (greater or lefs,) for the daily re"lief of the poor about them. Every principal

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Monastery an hospital commonly for travellers, "and an infirmary (which we now call a Spital) " for the fick and diseased persons, with officers "and attendants to take care of them. Gen"tlemen and others having children without "means of maintenance, had them here brought "up and provided for. These and fuch other mi"feries falling upon the meaner fort of people, "drove them into fo many rebellions as we fpake

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of, and rung fuch loud peals in King Henry's "ears, that on his death-bed he gave back the Spital of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, and "the Church of the Gray Friars, with other "Churches, and 500marks a-year added to them,

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to be united, and called Christ Church founded by King Henry the Eighth, and to be Hofpitals "for relieving the poor; the Bishop of Rochefter declaring his bounty at St. Paul's Cross on

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"the third day of January, and on the twenty

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eighth day following the King died.”

"What in Henry the Seventh," fays Lord Herbert," is called covetousness by fome per“fons, was a royal virtue; whereas the exceffive "and needlefs expences of Henry the Eighth "drew after them thofe miferable confequences "which the world hath often reproached. How"beit,

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