" ferve the choiceft books of their well-furnished "Libraries; wherein I find John Leland (a curi"ous fearcher of antiquities) was employed."

As Leo X. had given Henry the name of Defenfor Fidei, Clement the Seventh added to it the title of Liberator Urbis Romanæ.

The book which procured Henry the firft appellation is supposed to have been written by Fisher, Bishop of Rochefter. The immense wealth which Henry had procured by the suppression of the monafteries feems to have been lavished with a prodigality as enormous as the rapacity with which it was acquired.

"Sir Thomas Eliot, Knight, in his Image of "Governance, translated," as he says, "out of "Greke into Englyfhe, in the favour of the Nobilitie," after having enumerated the Emperors, Kings, and Generals of old, who were men of learning, fays, "And to return home to our own "countrey, and whereof we ourselves may be wytneffes, howe much it hath profited unto this "Realme, that it now hath a King, our Sove" reyne Lord King Henry the Eighth, exactly "well learned. Hath not he thereby onely fyfted "out deteftible herefies, late mingled amonge the

corne of his faithfull fubjectes, and caufed much "of the chaffe to be thrown into the fyre? alfo "hypocrify and vayn fuperftition to be cleane banished, whereof I doubte not but that there "fhall

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"fhall be or it be longe a more ample remem"brance to his most noble and immortal re"" noume."

"6

Sir Henry Spelman, in his "< History of Sacri« lege," fays, "Whole thousands of churches and chapels, dedicated to the service of God, toge"ther with the Monafteries, and other Houses of Religion and intended piety, were by Henry « VIII. in a temper of indignation against the "Clergy of that time, mingled with insatiable "avarice, facked, and razed, as by an enemy. It "is true the Parliament did give them to him, "but fo unwillingly, (as I have heard) that when "the bill had stuck long in the Lower House, "and could get no paffage, he commanded the "Commons to attend him in the forenoon in his gallery, where he let them wait till late in the "afternoon; and then coming out of his chamber, walking a turn or two amongst them, and "looking angrily at them, firft on one fide, then "on the other, at last he said, I hear that my bill "will not pass; but I will have it pass, or I will "have some of your heads; and without other " rhetorick or perfuafion returned to his chamber. Enough was faid, the bill paffed, and all was given him as he defired."

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"It is to be obferved," adds Spelman, " that "the Parliament did give all these to the King, yet did they not ordain them to be demolished,

" or employed to any irreligious ufes, leaving it "more to the confcience and piety of the King; who, in a speech to the Parliament, promised "to perform the truft; wherein he faith, I can"not a little rejoyce, when I confider the perfect "truft and confidence which you have put in me, "in my good doings and juft proceedings. For " you, without my defire and request, have com "mitted to my order and disposition, all Chaun"tries, Colleges, and Hofpitals, and other places specified in a certain act, firmly trusting that I "will order them to the glory of God and the profit of the commonwealth. Surely, if I, contrary to your expectation, fhould fuffer the "Minifters 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 fuch a fpecial truft as I am in this cafe, were no trusty "friend to you, nor charitable to my Emne

Chriften, neither a lover of the public wealth; "nor yet one that feareth God, to whom account must be rendered of all our doings. Doubt not, I pray you, but your expectation fhall be "proved more godly and goodly than you will "wifh or defire, as hereafter you shall plainly "perceive."

"But notwithstanding these fair pretences and projects, little was performed, for defolation

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presently

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prefently followed this diffolution: the axe "and the mattock ruined almost all the chief and "moft magnificent ornaments of the kingdom; « 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

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Religious Houfes, two thousand three hundred " and feventy-four Chauntries and Free Chapels. "All these Religious Houfes, Churches, Colleges, "and Hospitals, being about 3500 little and great "in the whole, did amount to an ineftimable

fum, especially if their rents be accounted as "they are now improved in these days. Among "this multitude it is needlefs to speak of the great church of St. Mary in Bulloign; which, ་་ upon the taking of that town in 1544, Henry "caused to be pulled down, and a mount to be "raised in the place thereof, for planting of "ordnances neceffary to annoy a fiege."

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"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

" Cardinal Wolfey, a little before confiscated also "to the King, and a large fum raised by Knight"hood in the 25th year of his reign."

"A man may justly wonder how such an ocean "of wealth fhould come to be exhaufted in fo "short a time of peace. But God's bleffing, as " it seemeth, was not upon it," adds the venerable Antiquarian ; "for within four years after " he had received all this, and had ruined and "facked * three hundred and feventy-fix of the "Monasterics,

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 Li braries): "If there had been in every fhire of England," faith Bale, but one folemn library for the prefervation of "those 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 most "horrible infamy amongst the grave scholars of other na❝tions." He adds, "that they who got and purchased the "Religious Houfes at the Diffolution of them, took the

libraries as part of the bargain and booty; referving (con"tinues he) of thofe library books, fome to ferve their jakes, "fome to fcour their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots "with; fome they fold to the grocers and foap-boilers, and "fome they sent over fea to the bookbinders, not in small "numbers, but at times whole fhip-fulls, to the wondering of "foreign nations. 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.