[1167] Suppression of Monasteries, p. 170.—Strype’s Eccles. Memor. I. 262.
[1168] Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, Book I. Chap. ix.
[1169] Suppression of Monast. pp. 194, 203.
[1170] A letter from John Bartelot to Cromwell shows that the abbot purchased secrecy by distributing thirty pounds to those who detected him, and promising them thirty more. This latter sum was subsequently reduced to six pounds, for which the holy man gave his note. This not being paid at maturity, he was sued, when he had the audacity to complain to Cromwell, and to threaten to prosecute the intruders for robbery and force them to return the money paid. Bartelot relates his share in the somewhat questionable transaction with great naïveté, and applies to Cromwell for protection.—Suppression of Monasteries, Letter xxv.
[1171] This may have been true, for Dr. London was one of the miserable tools who are the fitting representatives of the time. His desire to discover the irregularities of the monastic orders arose from no reverence for virtue, for he underwent public penance at Oxford for adultery with a mother and daughter (Strype, Eccles. Memor. I. 376); and his zeal in suppressing the monasteries was complemented with equal zeal in persecuting Protestants. In 1543 he made himself conspicuous, in conjunction with Gardiner, by having heretics burned under the provisions of the Six Articles. His eagerness in this good work led him to commit perjury, on conviction of which he was pilloried in Windsor, Reading, and Newbury, and thrust into the Fleet, where he died.—Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, Book I. Chap. 26, 27.
In fact, Henry’s capricious despotism rendered it almost impossible that he could be served by men of self-respect and honor.
[1172] Burnet I. 238-43.—See also Froude’s Hist. Engl. III. 285 et seq. During his visitation (Aug. 27th, 1538), the Bishop of Dover writes to Cromwell, “I have Malkow’s ere that Peter stroke of, as yt ys wrytyn, and a M. as trewe as that” (Suppression of Monasteries, p. 212). In a report of Dec. 28th, 1538, Dr. London observes, with dry humor, “I have dyvers other propre thinges, as two heddes of seynt Ursula, wich bycause ther ys no maner of sylver abowt them, I reserve tyll I have another hedd of herse, wich I schall fynd in my waye within theese xiiii. days, as I am creadably informyd” (Ibid. p. 234). Dr. Leighton writes in the same spirit to Cromwell—“Yee shall also receive a Bag of Relicks wherein ye shall see Stranger Things as shall appear by the Scripture. As God’s Coat, or Ladie’s Smock; Part of God’s Supper, In cœna Domini; Pars petræ super qua natus erat Jesus in Bethlehem. Besides there is in Bethlehem plenty of Stones and sometimes Quarries, and maketh their mangers of Stone. The scripture of every thing shall declare you all. And all these of Mayden Bradley. Where is a holy Father Prior; and hath but six Sons and one Daughter married yet of the goods of the Monastery. And he thanketh God, he never meddled with married women; but all with Maidens, the fairest could be gotten. And always married them right well. The Pope, considering his fragility, gave him license to keep a w——: and hath good writing, sub Plumbo, to discharge his conscience” (Strype, Eccles. Memor. I. 253).—Nicander Nucius (op. cit. pp. 51-62) relates some of the stories current at the time of the miracles engineered by the monks to stave off their impending doom.
[1173] Parl. Hist. I. 535.
[1174] 31 Henry VIII. c. 13 (Parl. Hist. I. 537).
[1175] 32 Hen. VIII. c. 24 (Ibid. 543-44).