Westminster Abbey: The last days of the monastery as shown by the life and times of Abbot John Islip, 1464-1532

WESTMINSTER ABBEY THE LAST DAYS OF THE MONASTERY Works by the same Author —— ST. MARGARET’S, WESTMINSTER THE PARISH GILDS OF MEDIÆVAL ENGLAND WESTMINSTER, AN HISTORICAL SKETCH ETC.
AS SHOWN BY THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ABBOT JOHN ISLIP 1464-1532 BY H. F. WESTLAKE, M.A., F.S.A. Custodian and Minor Canon of Westminster Abbey
LONDON PHILIP ALLAN & CO. QUALITY COURT, CHANCERY LANE First Published in April, 1921 Printed by Whitehead Brothers, Wolverhampton
The story of the last forty years of the monastery of Westminster centres round two persons. In the thirty-two years of John Islip’s rule as Abbot he raised its glory to a height which it had never before attained. In the eight years that followed Abbot Boston reduced it to a level which made its dissolution easy. To plead that Boston was merely Cromwell’s tool is to offer but little excuse, for it was a position Islip would have disdained to occupy. Had Islip lived to witness an end which perhaps was inevitable he might well have been involved in a tragedy such as that of Abbot Whiting of Glastonbury. As a man on the fringe of public life some accusation would not have been difficult to fabricate.
The history of these days therefore is best told in a biographical form, for Islip’s activities and Boston’s slack rule touched every department of monastic life. There are few subjects about which greater misconceptions still prevail than the dissolution of the monastic houses, and while this little book cannot hope to clear these away it may at least provide the true story of one such dissolution. The tale of the revival of the monastery under Feckenham in the reign of Queen Mary has not been told. It is a detached episode of very great interest but of very little importance save in one respect quite unconcerned with the after history of Westminster Abbey, namely that one of Feckenham’s monks lived to pass on the lighted torch of the Benedictine succession.
H. F. Westlake.