The dissolution of the monasteries

by Francis Aidan Hibbert

But their poverty was no permanent security. On February 6th, 1538, Dr. Ingworth, the renegade Prior of the richest house of the Black Friars in England, and lately made Suffragan Bishop of Dover, was commissioned to visit all the friaries, and he rapidly carried out his work. We have very full particulars of his campaign in Staffordshire, and some remarkable details. On August 7th he was at the house of the Grey Friars at Lichfield, on August 9th he decided the fate of both the friaries at Stafford, and next day he was equally effective at Newcastle-under-Lyme;[149] and this in spite of the fact that he was obliged to confess that “the Friars in these parts have many favourers, and great labour is made for their continuance. Divers trust to see them set up again, and some have gone up to sue for them.” But he tells Latimer (on August 23rd) that such strong expressions of popular opinion had had no terrors for him; he had visited 18 places, including Lichfield, Stafford, and Newcastle, and had only left one house standing.[150]

The Staffordshire friaries were without exception poor places in every respect, and the Bishop cleverly made that a strong argument against them. In spite of poverty, the friars clung to their old homes and work, although he invariably offered them money payments to depart. Writing from Lichfield, he told Cromwell that “divers of the Friars are very loath to forsake their houses, and yet they are not able to live.” The house at Lichfield, for instance, he says, “is in that taking, and yet loath to give up.”[151] The day after he had been there he wrote Cromwell a full account of his visit.[152] He announced that in spite of their wishes he had induced them all to surrender. The warden was in a pitiable state of ill-health, with a loathsome disease on his face. He had been little at home for the past six months, “yet now he came home and was loath to give up his house, though it is more in debt than all the stuff that belongs to it will pay, chalice, bells, and all, by 20 nobles.” The certificate of surrender is dated August 7th.[153] It states that the house was surrendered voluntarily, without any counsel or constraining, for very poverty—a manifest falsehood, as the Bishop’s own letters testify. The witnesses of this surrender were Richard Wetwode, “Master of the Guild there,” and the two constables, Alexander Grene and Thomas Lont. The Visitor delivered the house and goods to these three, gave every friar a letter, and departed. An inventory of the goods so delivered follows, and comprises articles in kitchen, brewhouse, choir, and sextry. There is also a statement of the debts owing by the house, which were partly for malt and rye, with 30 shillings which had been borrowed “for byldyng of the quere” and 20 shillings due to the Bishop for five years’ rent. Four days later Dr. Legh wrote to Cromwell, on his own account and also at the instance of the Bishop, to both of whom Wetwode had shown “great pleasure,” asking that Wetwode should have the preferment.[154] It is evident that just as great lords and enterprising country squires were interested parties in the suppression of monasteries, so the rising tradesmen in the towns cast longing eyes on the houses of the friars. This accounts for the co-operation of the municipal authorities in the work of dissolution.

A very full and detailed account of the Bishop’s procedure in regard to the friars is given in a memorandum referring to the visitation of the two houses at Stafford. This most interesting and valuable document is as follows:[155]

“Mem. This 9 day of August in the 30 year of our most dred Sovereign lord King Henry VIII., Richard Bishop of Dover, visitor under the Lord Privy Seal for the King’s Grace, was in Stafford in the Grey Friars and also in the Austen Friars, where that the said Visitor said to the heads and brethren of both places these words: Brethren, where that I understand ye have had information that I should come, by the King’s Commission, to suppress your house and put you out, fear not, for I have no such commission, nor I use no such fashion in any place. I am sent to reform every man to a good order and to give injunctions for preservation of the same. If ye can be content and think yourself able here to live and to be reformed and to observe such reasonable injunctions as I shall leave with you, the which or that I require your answer, ye shall here and see in writing, then I am and shall be content that ye shall with the King’s favour continue as before ye have do. If that ye be not able to live and observe the same then if ye of your own minds and wills give your houses into the King’s hands I must receive them. The said injunctions were read to them which were reasonable. The said heads with all the brethren with one assent, without any counsel or co-action, gave their houses into the Visitor’s hands to the King’s use. The Visitor received the same, and of the houses and implements made inventories and delivered them to such as should keep them to the King’s use, and so delivered to each friar a letter to visit his friends and so departed. This witnesseth John Savage and Thos. Russell, Bailiffs of the borough of Stafford; Wm. Stamforde and Ric. Warde, gentlemen, with divers others.”

The mean trickery as well as absolute perversion of truth in the Bishop’s conduct and statement could not be better shown than in this interesting record. The wretched friars were already trembling for their own safety, as they saw the monks on every side dispossessed and impoverished, and impoverished themselves at any rate by the check which the events of recent years must inevitably have given to bequests and alms to all religious institutions. Disheartened by long uncertainty, they fell easy victims to the bullying and falsehoods of the plausible Visitor and his coadjutors, the vulgar and rich shopkeepers who accompanied him, the latter eager for the site and buildings, adjoining perhaps their own places of business, and certainly convenient for warehouses and store-rooms. It was not till the spring of 1539 that Parliament passed an Act recognising the fait accompli and giving the King all the religious houses.

The Inventory of the possessions of the Austin Friars at Stafford, which were placed in charge of William Stamforde, of Rowley, and Master Richard Warde, of Tylynton, is full of interesting details throwing much light on the ecclesiastical and domestic arrangements of the time.[156] In the vestry there was a cross of copper gilt “with an image silver of parcel gilt,” a copper censer, four “suits” (i.e., sets) of vestments, one black set for requiems, and one with “images” of the Blessed Virgin, two green copes, one black “chamlet,” etc. In the choir were two old altar-cloths, two small candlesticks, a sacring-bell, and a “pair of organs.” There were two bells in the steeple. In the church were two stained cloths, an alabaster table, two ladders, and two benches. The contents of hall, kitchen, recreation-house, etc., are also given. There was little or no lead, and the yearly rents amounted only to 51s. 8d. The Visitor took into his own keeping the chalice, which weighed 13 oz., and he ordered that the servants should be paid ten shillings of their wages at the next Michaelmas.

The Inventory of the house of the Grey Friars is similarly detailed.[157] In the sextry there were five “suits” without albs; a suit for requiems, one each of dun silk, yellow sey, and branched green silk. There were six copes, two being of linen cloth “stained with image work.” There were six altar-cloths, a pyx of latten, etc. In the church were four alabaster tables, a pair of large candlesticks, a cross, and a censer of latten, two missals, one printed and one written, “a pair of small organs,” etc. There was much lead, for half the choir was leaded and one of the chapels. The rents only came to 26s. 8d. Again the chalice was taken by the Visitor, with six spoons: 16 oz. in all.

Next day he was at Newcastle-under-Lyme.[158] He found it owed £14, for which all its substance was in pledge, yet was insufficient to meet the debt. The Inventory was again signed by the town officials, John Lymforde, Mayor, and Thomas Brodsha and Richard Smyth. The Inventory of the goods showed that in the vestry there were “suits” of blue silk, of silk with roses, and of green silk. There were eleven chasubles, five copes, and two old tunicles. In the choir there were two pairs of candlesticks of copper and latten, one cross of copper and gilt with a “Mary and John.” “A pair of organs” is mentioned and an alabaster table on the High Altar. In the steeple were two bells. In the house were two old feather beds, one old bolster, and five old coverlets, an old chest, and a green covering of say. The usual articles are mentioned in kitchen, brewhouse, hall, and buttery. The choir and cloisters were roofed with lead, and the rents came to 40s. a year. The Bishop of Dover took possession of the chalice, which was a small one, five spoons, and “two narrow bands of masers” (14 oz.), but he sent up to Cromwell three boxes “of evidence,” one of the King’s, one of other gentlemen’s, and one of the Convent’s.

He wrote from Lichfield an account of his journey to that point, and supplemented it on August 13th by another letter written at Shrewsbury.[159] He apologises for not being able to send at once all the Inventories, but he had no leisure for such work, and, moreover, his servants were ill. Perhaps they could not stand the rapidity with which he travelled, “but I trust to se yower lordschype within a veke, and be that tyme I trust to make an ende in all Walys.” He continues: “Sumwhat to certyfye yower lordeschype of the state off suche as I have receyveyd sythe that I wrote to yow towcheynge Stafforde, the Austen Fryeres ther ys a pore howse, with small implementes, no jwelles but on lytyll chales, no led in the howse, in rentes by yere lis. xiiid. The Graye Fryeres ther, halfe the quere ledeyd and a chapell, small implementes, no plate but a chales and vi. small sponys, in renttes xxvis. iiiid. The Blacke Fryeres in Newecastell Underlyne, all in ruyne, and a pore howse, the quere ledeyd and the cloeyster led redy to fall downe, the reste slate and schyngyll; in fermys by yere xls. On master Broke hathe of late fownde the menys with the prior to gett of hym the more parte of they howseys and grownde ther by iii. leseys, and that for lytyll money; he wolde a gyve me golde to a grantteyd to hys leseys, but I toke no peny of hym nor of non other, nor non woll. Iff he have thoys leseys there ys lytyll besyde, for he hathe lyberte allmost in all. Ther ys a proper wode, but he hathe all in lese. No sylver above xiii. ounce.” The property had been fully mortgaged to Mr. Broke, possibly, but not probably—for the general poverty of the house amply accounts for it—with a view to the threatened visit of Dr. Ingworth. But the Bishop’s elaborate assertion of his superiority to bribery must have been amusing reading to Cromwell: he “doth protest too much, methinks.” He was not chary of sycophancy, however. He proceeds, after describing the ruined state of the Austin Friars at Shrewsbury: “My synguler good lorde, I beseche youe pardon me of my rude wrytynge, and yf that I do not my dewte as I owte to do I beseche youe pardon me, for my hart and intente ys to do that thynge that shulde specyally plese God, the kynges grace, and yower lordschype, accordeynge to my dewte.” He then goes on to “beseche” his Lordship, the son of the drunken brewer, “that yf before my cumynge there be any order taken for Newecastell Underlyne, that ye wolde be good lorde to on Master Johan Bothe, a servant of the kynges graces, the whyche is a grett bylder in theys partes, that he myght for money have the slate and schyngyll ther; for ther ys no other to be don with the more parte of that howse, but save the lede and slate, and take the profete of the grownde. That master Bothe for yower sake sheuyd me many plesures and gave me venyson; wherefor I may no lesse do but wryght to yower lordeschype besecheynge yow to be good lorde to hym, an I ever yower orator to Jhesu, who preserve yower lordschype.”

In this year Bishop Lee issued a series of injunctions to the clergy of the diocese.[160] In these he ordered sermons to be preached at least quarterly in “all monasteries.” There were few remaining by the end of the year, and only one—Burton-on-Trent, in Staffordshire. No monks or friars were to have any “cure or servyce,” “except they be lawfully dispensed withall or licensed by the ordinary.” Confessions to monks and friars were forbidden, though ordered to be made to parish priests, before Communion, and the wearing of secular dress was sternly condemned.