"Monafteries, and brought their fubftance to his "treafury, befides all the godly revenues of the

Crown, he was drawn fo dry, that in the thirty"first year of his reign, the Parliament was con"strained by his importunity to 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 fo fufficiently furnished 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 fhould 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, otherwife it was much to "be feared that Deans and Chapters, if not 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

"This ftuff hath he used for the space of more than ten years, "instead of grey paper, to wrap up his goods with, and he "hath enough remaining for many years to come:a prodi"gious example indeed," adds he," is this, and greatly to be "abhorred of all men who love their country as they ought “to do."

"lands with them before the Diffolution, giving "them racked lands and fmall things for "goodly manors and lordships, and also impropriations for their folid patrimony in finable "lands; like the exchange that Palamedes made " with Glaucus, thereby much increasing his own "revenues,"

"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 thefe eleven years visited him " with five or fix rebellions. And although re"bellions and infurrections are not to be defended, "yet they difcover to us what the displeasure and "the diflike of the common people were for fpoiling the revenue of the Church, (whereby they were great lofers) the Clergy being mer"ciful landlords, and bountiful benefactors to "all men, by their great hofpitality 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 fpeech of the Archbishop of Canterbury used in the Parliament of the fixth of Henry the Fourth feemeth performed; fcil. "That

"That the King fhould not be one farthing the "richer the next year following *."

"What the whole body of the Kingdom hath fuffered," fays Sir Henry, fince thefe 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 purpofe is "not to defend their iniquities; the thing I la

ment is, that the wheat perifhed with the dar"nel; things of good and pious inftitution with "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 king❝ dom)

* When James the Fourth, King of Scotland, was advised by Sir Ralph Sadler, Ambaffador from Henry the Eighth, të increase his revenues by taking the revenues of the Abbeylands into his hands, he replied, "What need have I to take "them into my own hands, when I may 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." Bishop Latimer, who fat in the Parliament that diffolved Monafteries, gave it as his opinion, that two or three of the greater Abbies fhould be perferved in every County of England for pious and charitable purpofes. This," fays Spelman, was a wife and a godly motion, and was perhaps the "occafion, that King Henry did convert fome (in part) te "good uses."

"dom) were utterly cut off and extinguish-. "ed; many thousand mafterlefs fervants turned "loofe into the world, and many thousands of "poor people, who were actually fed, clad, and "nourished by the Monafteries, now like young "ravens feek their meat from Heaven. Every.

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

nastery an hofpital commonly for travellers, and "an infirmary (which we now call a Spital) for "the fick and difeafed perfons, with officers and "attendants to take care of them. Gentlemen " and others, having children without means of "maintenance, had them here brought up and

provided for. Thefe and fuch other miferies. falling upon the meaner fort of people, drove "them into fo many rebellions as we spake 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 500 marks a-year added to them, to be united, and called Christ Church founded by King Henry the Eighth, and to be Hospitals "for relieving the poor; the Bishop of Rochester declaring his bounty at St. Paul's Crofs on the "third day of January, and on the twenty-eighth day following the King died."

"

"What

"What in Henry the Seventh," fays Lord Herbert, " is called, covetoufnefs by fome per

fons, was a royal virtue; whereas the exceffive "and needlefs expences of Henry the Eighth "drew after him thofe miferable confequences "which the world hath often reproached. How

beit, here may be occafion to doubt whether "the immense treasure which Henry the Seventh " left behind him was not accidentally the cause "of thofe ills that followed; while the young "Prince his fon, finding fuch a mafs of money, "did first carelessly spend, and after strive to fupply as he could.”

"One of the liberties," fays Lord Herbert, "which our King took at his fpare time, was to "love. For as recommendable parts concurred "in his perfon, and they again were exalted in "his high dignity and valour, fo it must seem less strange, if amid the many faire Ladies which "lived in his Court he both gave and received "temptation."

Puttenham, in his " Art of Poetry," gives the following account of a vifit this Prince paid to fome Lady of his Court:

"The King (Henry the Eighth,)" fays Puttenham," having Sir Andrew Flamack, his "ftandard-bearer (a merry-conceited man, and

apt to fcoffe) with him in his barge, paffing from Westminster to Greenwich, to vifit a fair Lady

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