Cromwell also issued injunctions to the clergy, on September 5th, 1538,[161] ordering, among other things, “that such Images as ye know in any of your cures to be so abused with pilgrimages or offerings of anything made thereunto ye shall for avoiding of that most detestable offence of Idolatry furthwith take down and deley ... admonyishng your parishioners that Images serve for no other purpose but as to be bookes of unlearned men that can no letters.... And therefor the kinges highnes graciously tenderyng the weale of his subjectes sowles hath in parte alredy and more will hereafter travail for the abolishing of suche Images as might be occasion of so greate an offence to god and so gret daunger to the sowles of his loving subjectes.” No charge of superstition had been brought against the image of St. Modwen at Burton by Layton and Legh at their visitation, but none the less it was pulled down. Sir William Bassett, of Meynell Langley, a few miles from Burton, wrote as follows to Cromwell:[162] “Ryght honorabull my inesspeyciall gud lord, accordyng to my bownden dewte and the teynor of youre lordschypys lettres lately to me dyrectyd, I have sende unto yowre gud lordschyp by thys beyrer, my brother, Francis Bassett, the ymages off sentt Anne off Buxtone and sentt Mudwen of Burtun apon Trentt, the wych ymages I dyd take frome the place where they dyd stande, and browght them to my owne howss within xlviiie howres after the contemplation of yowre seyd lordschypis lettres, in as soober maner as my lyttull and rude wytt wollde serve me. And ffor that there schullde no more idollatre and supersticion be there usyd, I dyd nott only deface the tabernaculles and placis where they dyd stande, butt allso dyd take away cruchys, schertes, and schetes, with wax offeryd, being thynges thatt dyd alure and intyse the yngnorantt pepull to the seyd offeryng; allso gyffyng the kepers of bothe placis admonicion and charge thatt no more offeryng schulld be made in those placis tyll the kynges plesure and yowre lordschypis be ffurther knowen in that behallf.... And, my lord, as concerning the opynion off the pepull and the ffonde trust that they dyd putt in those ymages and the vanyte of the thynges, thys beyrer my brother can telle yowre lordschyp much better att large then I can wryte, for he was with me att the doing of all.” The said Francis Bassett was in the service of Cranmer, and we shall meet with him again; “There cam nothyng with theym but the bare imagis.” Bishop Lee saved from the spoilers the jewels of St. Chad’s Shrine at the Cathedral for “necessary uses.” Prebendary Arthur Dudley was one of the authorized commissioners for holding such Church goods as were seized by the Crown, but he apparently reverenced holy things, and gave the bones of St. Chad to some female relatives of his. The latter handed them to two brothers named Hodgetts, and eventually some of them have been deposited in the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Birmingham. The shrine disappeared, and as the relics had gone the Cathedral was spared such sacrilege as was witnessed elsewhere.
CHAPTER VIII
THE GENERAL SUPPRESSION: SECOND STAGE
Meanwhile the harrying of the houses continued, and the feeling of uncertainty deepened. It became more and more evident that the whole monastic edifice was falling. The dissolution of the lesser monasteries and the sharing of their spoils had served the useful purpose of creating an appetite for more. On February 20th, 1538, Francis Lord Hastings wrote to Cromwell begging the Abbey of Burton, apologizing for not having written sooner, and explaining that he should have done so but that he had been suffering from measles.[163] On August 23rd, Cranmer wrote urging on Cromwell the suppression of Tutbury, and desiring that Commissions should be sent to Rocester and Croxden.[164] The three had paid large sums for their continuance only a year before, but Cranmer was interested in obtaining them, or one of them, for his servant, Francis Bassett. Again, on December 14th, he wrote begging for Croxden to be given to Bassett.[165]
Bishop Roland Lee had continued his pleading for the Priory at Stafford, and when time went by without seeming to bring him nearer obtaining it he began to suspect Legh of playing him false. The latter, however, assured him he was as interested as the Bishop himself in the matter, though he advised an application direct to Cromwell. “I have spoken,” he wrote,[166] “to Mr. Strete for the suppression of St. Thomas’s, but I would your lordship should write to my Lord Privy Seal (Cromwell) for your own matter, and to thank him, for he told me he would move the King for you and your heirs to have St. Thomas’s, and no doubt the King will be content, and, indeed, it is all one. Remember to write to my lord to put away sinister suspicion, and be not light of credit against me: mistrust without cause is very unpleasant.” Thus encouraged, Lee returned to the charge, adding fresh inducements. He suggests that the longer the matter is delayed the less there will be to confiscate, “as the Prior makes unreasonable waste.” He asks that the Priory may be let to him “at an easy rent, that the poor boys, my nephews, may have some relief thereby”; and he begs that Cromwell will write to the surveyors that he may buy what things belonging to the house he desires.[167] The latter request he obtained. Again, on December 13th, he wrote to Cromwell on the same subject. He even ventured to apply direct to the King, both in person and by letter. There is a letter of his written to the King on December 26th, which says: “Where at my being with your Majesty, I moved the same for the late Priory of St. Thomas, I was minded to pay a certain sum as your Grace should determine. I am so much bound to your Majesty that I can crave no more; but, being charged with eight poor children of my sister’s, now fatherless and motherless, I am forced to show the truth.”[168]
Other petitions had flowed in, and gradually matters were arranged. Some houses were granted as they stood, sites, buildings, furniture and other contents, stores, animals, farm implements, etc., to a single recipient in return for a single money payment. No doubt influential petitioners like Bishop Roland Lee and Lord Derby (who obtained Dieulacres) met with less rivalry than more obscure suitors who made efforts for the smaller houses. There appears to have been keen competition for the little nunnery at Brewood.
When the houses and belongings were to be sold en bloc, Dr. Legh, with whom went William Cavendish as auditor, appears to have had the management, while Scudamore conducted the business where other arrangements had been made, and the contents of the houses were sold by public auction.
The religious houses found that their attempts to secure a further lease of life for themselves by authorized payments to the Royal Treasury, or by irregular bribes to Cromwell and his friends, had all failed. The large fines recently paid served to prolong the houses for a twelvemonth only, and as the autumn of 1538 drew on the news probably reached all the houses that they were doomed.
The harvest having been safely gathered in by the monks, in accordance with the royal injunctions, the royal agents began to close round them once more, and the last agony began.
John Scudamore was appointed “Receiver-General unto the King’s Majesty of the dissolved possessions” in Staffordshire and elsewhere. He received his authorization on August 23rd, 1538, from Sir Richard Riche, the Solicitor-General and Chancellor of Augmentations. His instructions were to survey all the lands of surrendered houses and to make a return of their yearly value, with such pensions and corrodies, etc., as they might be burdened with. The bells and superfluous houses were to be sold, and the lead melted into “plokes” and sows and marked with the Royal mark, and delivered under indenture to the constables of neighbouring castles.[169] On September 27th, the goods of both houses at Stafford were sold, on October 4th the friary at Lichfield, on the 15th Scudamore was at Croxden, and next day at Rocester; on the 21st he was at Hulton. The details of all these sales are extant and are full of interest.
The sales were evidently conducted in a most wasteful way, as Robert Burgoyne, who acted as auditor at the sales at Stafford, testified. He told Scudamore, “I have sold in some ffrire houses all the buyldynges, the cause was for that they were so spoyled and torne by suche as sold the goodes, that in manner they were downe, and yff they shuld nott have ben sold, the kyng shuld have hadd nothyng theroff.”[170]