glory of God and the profit of the common"wealth. Surely, if I, contrary to your ex"pectation, fhould fuffer the Ministers of the "Churches to decay, or learning (which is fo

great a jewel) to be minished, or the poor and "miferable to be unrelieved, you might well fay, "that I, being put in such a special trust as I am "in this cafe, were no trusty friend to you, nor "charitable to my Emne-Christen, neither a "lover of the public wealth; nor yet one that "feareth God, to whom account must be ren"dered of all our doings. Doubt not, I pray

you, but your expectation fhall be proved "more godly and goodly than you will wish or "defire, as hereafter you fhall plainly perceive."

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"But notwithstanding these fair pretences and "projects, little was performed, for defolation presently followed this diffolution: the axe "and the mattock ruined almost all the chief " and most magnificent ornaments of the king"dom; viz. three hundred and feventy-fix of "the leffer Monafteries, fix hundred and forty"five of the greater fort, ninety Colleges, one "hundred and ten Religious Houses, two thou"fand three hundred and feventy-four Chaunt"ries and Free Chapels. All these Religious "Houses, Churches, Colleges, and Hofpitals, "being about 3500 little and great in the whole,

« did

"did amount to an inestimable fum, especially if "their rents be accounted as they are now im

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proved in these days. Among this multitude "it is needless to speak of the great church of "St. Mary in Bulloign; which, upon the taking "of that town in 1544, Henry caused to be દ pulled down, and a mount to be raised in the "place thereof, for planting of ordnances neceffary to annoy a fiege."

"The revenue that came to the King in ten years space," continues Sir Henry," was more, "if I mistake it not, than quadruple that of the "Crown-lands, befides a magazine of treasure "raifed out of the money, plate, jewels, orna"ments, and implements of Churches, Mona❝fteries, and Houfes, with their goods, ftate, "cattle, &c. together with a fubfidy, tenth, and "fifteenth, from the laity at the fame time: to "which I may add the incomparable wealth of "Cardinal Wolfey, a little before confifcated "alfo to the King, and a large fum raised by Knighthood in the 25th year of this reign.'

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"A man may justly wonder how fuch an 66 ocean of wealth fhould come to be exhausted "in fo fhort a time of peace. But God's bleff

.

ing, as it feemeth, was not upon it," adds the venerable Antiquarian; " for within four years

"after

*

"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 so dry, that in "the thirty-first year of his reign, the Parlia

*This defolation was fo univerfal, that John Bale very much laments the lofs and spoil of Books and Libraries in his Epiftle 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

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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 destroy all without confideration, is and will be "unto England for ever a moft horrible infamy amongst ❝ the grave scholars of other nations." He adds, "that "they who got and purchafed the Religious Houfes 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, fome to fcour their can"dlesticks, and fome to rub their boots with; fome they "fold to the grocers and foap-boilers, and fome they fent t 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 fhall "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 space of more than ten

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 "country as they ought to do."

VOL. I,

E

"ment

"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

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even then was not this King fo fufficiently fur"nished for building of a few Block-houses for "defence of the coaft, 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 Jerufalem, both " in England and in Ireland."

"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

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Bishopricks (which have been long levelled at) "had been his Majefty'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 fmall 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 increasing his own reve

66

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nues."

"I fpeak

"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 space 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, touching the King's "own fortunes accompanying the wealth and "treasure gotten by him, as we have declared, "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; fcil. "That the King fhould not be one farthing the "richer the next year following *."

"What

* When James the Fourth, King of Scotland, was advised by Sir Ralph Sadler, Ambassador 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 "have

E 2