Thomas Cromwell had been Cardinal Wolsey's private secretary; but he
had now become chief counselor to the King, and in his crooked and
cruel policy reduced bloodshed to a science. He first introduced the
practice of condemning an accused prisoner without any form of trial
(by Act of Attainder), and sending him to the block[1] without
allowing him to speak in his own defense (S356). No one was now safe
who did not openly side with the King.
[1] Act of Attainder. See Constitutional Documents in Appendix,
p. xxxii.
Sir Thomas More, who had been Lord Chancellor (S339), and the aged
Bishop Fisher were executed because they could not affirm that they
conscientiously believed that Henry was morally and spiritually
entitled to be the head of the English Church (S349).
Both died with Christian fortitude. More said to the governor of the
Tower with a flash of his old humor, as the steps leading to the
scaffold shook while he was mounting them, "Do you see me safe up, and
I will make shift to get down by myself."
352. Destruction of the Monasteries; Seizure of their Property,
1536-1539.
When the intelligence of the judicial murder of the venerable
ex-chancellor reached Rome, the Pope issued a bull of excommunication
and deposition against Henry (S194). It delivered his soul to Satan,
and his kingdom to the first invader.
The King retaliated by the suppression of the monasteries. In doing
so, he simply hastened a process which had already begun. Years
before, Cardinal Wolsey had not scrupled to shut up several, and take
their revenues to found Christ Church College at Oxford. The truth
was, that, in most cases, monasticism "was dead long before the
Reformation came to bury it" (S339, note 1). It was dead because it
had done its work,--in many respects a great and good work, which the
world could ill have spared (SS43, 45, 46, 60). The monasteries
simply shared the fate of all human institutions, however excellent
they may be.
"Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they."[1]
[1] Tennyson's "In Memoriam."
Henry, however, had no such worthy object as Wolsey had. His pretext
was that these institutions had sunk into a state of ingnorance,
drunkenness, and profligacy. This may have been true of some of the
smaller monasteries, though not of the large ones. But the vices of
the monasteries the King had already made his own. It was their
wealth which he now coveted. The smaller religious houses were
speedily swept out of existence (1536). This caused a furious
insurrection in the North, called the "Pilgrimage of Grace" (1537);
but the revolt was soon put down.
Though Parliament had readily given its sanction to the extinction of
the smaller monasteries, it hesitated about abolishing the greater
ones. Henry, it is reported, sent for a leading member of the House o
Commons, and, laying his hand on the head of the kneeling
representative, said, "Get my bill passed by to-morrow, little man, or
else to-morrow this head of yours will come off." The next day the
bill passed, and the work of destruction began anew (1539). Property
worth millions of pounds was confiscated, and abbots like those of
Glastonbury and Charter House, who dared to resist, were speedily
hanged.[1]
[1] The total number of religious houses destroyed was 645
monasteries, 2374 chapels, 90 collegiate churches, and 110 charitable
institutions. Among the most famous of these ruins are Glastonbury,
Kirkstal, Furness, Netley, Tintern, and Fountains abbeys.
The magnificent monastic buildings throughout England were now
stripped of everything of value, and left as ruins. (See map
opposite.) The beautiful windowes of stained glass were wantonly
broken; the images of the saints were cast down from their niches; the
chimes of bells were melted and cast into cannon; while the valuable
libraries were torn up and sold to grocers and soap boilers for
wrapping paper.
At Canterbury, Becket's tomb (S170) was broken open, and after he had
been nearly four centuries in his grave, the saint was summoned to
answer a charge of rebellion and treason. The case was tried at
Westminster Abbey, the martyr's bones were sentenceeed to be burned,
and the jewels and rich offerings of his shrine were seized by the
King.
Among the few monastic buildings which escaped was the beautiful abbey
church, now the cathedral of Peterborough, where Catharine of Aragon
(S345), who died soon after the King's marriage with her rival, was
buried. Henry had the grace to give orders that on her account it
should be spared, saying that he would leave to her memory "one of the
goodliest monuments in Christendom."
The great estates thus suddenly acquired by the Crown were granted to
favorites or thrown away at the gambling table. "It is from this
date," says Hallam, "that the leading families of England, both within
and without the peerage, became conspicuous through having obtained
possession of the monastery lands." These were estimated to comprise
about one fourth of the whole area of the kingdom.