Even if we allow that these vestments, being royal gifts, or royal furniture, were of larger price than usual, it still remains evident that a set of vestments was an expensive luxury. And when we consider the enormous number of vestments which were existing in the different cathedral establishments, we can hardly wonder at the cupidity of Henry VIII being aroused. Mr St John Hope has calculated that in Lincoln (of which we possess perhaps the fullest set of inventories) the commissioners of 1536 found 125 red copes, 7 purple, 20 green, 36 blue, 9 black, 60 white, 2 yellow, 2 various, and perhaps 4 for choristers—265 in all; 16 red chasubles, 3 purple, 6 green, 11 blue, 5 black, 9 white, 1 yellow and 1 various—52 in all; 2 dalmatics, 94 tunicles, and 131 albs, not to mention other property in embroidered work, such as altar frontals, or in precious metal, such as chalices. It is, of course, impossible to assign an estimate of the value of this vestry, but even if we reckoned the copes at £50 of our money—a low estimate in the majority of cases—these vestments alone would be worth £13,250 together. But this is pure guesswork and of no practical value; of more importance is such an entry as the following, from the old Durham 'Book of Rites' (printed by the Surtees Society):

'Prossession of Hallowe Thursdaie, Whitsondaie & Trinitie Sonday, by the Prior and the Monnckes.—The next morninge, being Hallow Thursdaie, they had also a generall Prossession, with two crosses borne before theme, the one of the crosses, the staff and all, of gould, the other of sylver and parcell gilt ... with all the riche Copes that was in the Church, every Monnke had one, and the Prior had a marvellous riche cope on, of clothe of ffyne pure gould, the which he was not able to goe upright with it, for the weightines thereof, but as men did staye it and holde it up of every side when he had it on. He went with his crutch in his hand, which was of sylver and duble gilt, with a rich myter on his head.'

In the private account-book of the last prior but one of Worcester[83] is given the following interesting bill for a mitre:

'Item to John Cranckes gold smyth of london for al maner of stuff belongyng of the new mytur, with the makyng of the same as hit apereth by parcelles foloyng:
In primis for v grete stonesxvis viijd.
Item for xx⁄iiij & vj stones prece viijd apeece to the fronteslvijs iiijd.
Item for xxj stones sett in golde, weyng di. vncesxiijs iiijd.
Item for xl medyll stones, prece vjd a stonexxs.
Item for xx⁄iij & xv smale stones prece iiijd a stone, to garnesshexxvs.
Item for iij vnces & a quarter of fyne peerll, at iij li. the vnceiij[84] li xvs.
Item for xij vnces of medull peerll, at xs the vncevj li.
Item the selver warke weys, in all xx⁄iiij xiij vnces, which is with the fassheon & allxiiij li xvjs.
Item to the broderar vj wokes (? wekes) xijd a day, besydes mete & drynckexxxvjs.
Item payd for lynnen cloth to cowech ytt on with perllvijd.
Item for sylke to thred the seid perll & steche the peerll j vnce & dixvd.
Item for yalow thredjd.
Item for Rybande of iiijd brede ij yeardsviijd.
Item for Reband of ijd brede A yeardeijd.
Item for Rownde selk about the bordurejd. ob.
Item for red selke to sow hytt with all, di. quarter the vnceijd ob.
Item for pastiiijd.
(Item) for a quarter of sarcenett to lyne hyttxiiijd.
Item for a case to the mytur of lethuriiijs.
Summa xlixli. xvs. the coste of the mytur.'

Before parting with the ancient vestments of the Western Church, let us spend a few moments on another, and to the antiquary a melancholy, subject, namely, the fate which has befallen them.

The number of actual vestments which survive to our own day is comparatively small. Notwithstanding the scrupulous care with which they were kept, the action of time and probably of moths could not but destroy the perishable material of which they were made; and as so sacred were they regarded that when a vestment was worn out it was burnt, and the ashes thrown into and washed down the drain of the piscina, or font; so, at least, it was ordered by the ninth canon of the Synod of Dublin, 1186.[85] In France and in England, however, far the greatest havoc was wrought in the religious and political troubles of the eighteenth century in the former case, of the two centuries preceding in the latter.

The destruction of churches and church property in France at the hands of the atheistical mobs of the Revolution was incalculable. Monuments, glass and fabrics were broken and ruined, if not utterly destroyed, and the vestments and Processional crosses were torn from the treasuries and heaped up in the streets to be burnt in bonfires. In England the damage was perhaps even more considerable, though it was executed in a quieter and more deliberate manner. In the reaction after the revival of the Roman faith under Queen Mary, orders were sent to the churchwardens of the different parishes requesting returns from them as to the relics of popery, if any, which remained in the churches under their care, and the manner in which such superstitious objects had been disposed of, whenever they had been removed. A very perfect series of these returns exists for Lincolnshire, and they have been edited by Mr Edward Peacock, F.S.A., in a highly-interesting volume entitled 'English Church Furniture and Decorations,' published in 1866. In each return is a note describing what was done with the vestments and other pre-Reformation furniture of the church to which the return relates. From them we extract the following entries, which may serve as specimens of the varied fate of vestments, not only in the county of Lincoln, but throughout the country: