THE advances that all parts of Learn­ing have within these few years made in England, are very obvious; but the progress is visible in nothing more, than in the illustrations of our own Hi­story and Antiquities. To which end we have had our ancient Records and Annals published from the Originals, the Chorographical De­scription of these Kingdoms very much im­proved, and some attempts made toward a just body of English History. For those also that are more particularly curious, we have had not only the Histories both Natural and Civil of several Counties, the descriptions of Cities, and the Monuments and Antiquities of Cathedral Churches accurately collected; but even the memoirs of private Families, Villages, and Houses, compiled and published. And the great prices those Books bear in our publick Auctions are a sufficient demonstration of their Credit and Esteem with Men of Learning▪ seeing no Library is thought complete without them. For the inquisitive Men of the Nation now find the pleasure and use of being well versed [Page] in the History and ancient customs of their own Country, of reading the Acts of their re­nown'd Ancestors, and of having their own Names recorded to posterity.

So that to satisfie the curiosity of those who are willing to know, when, by whom, and for whom these Religious Houses were Founded, (the Majesty of whose very ruines strike Tra­vellers with admiration:) To preserve some remembrance of these Structures, once the Glory of our English Nation, and of their Founders, that so highly deserved of the several Ages they lived in, is the design of this Book. Tho' I am not ignorant that the generality of people ever since the Dissolution, have thro' a mistaken zeal, and false prejudices, thought that the very memory of those Great Men, who erected these places, ought to be buried in the rubbish of those Structures that they design'd should perpetuate their Names to Eternity. Thus, they have been always censured as well wishers to the introducing of Popery, who endeavoured to give any account of Monaste­ries. Such unjust and ill-natured Reflections have been the principal reasons that have de­terred several of our Historians from dis­coursing so largely about them, as they could or indeed their occasions required; and have been the chief causes why so few have treated purposely of them, or published any things immediately relating to them or their Lands. 'Tis well known, Mr. Camden ^a and Mr. Weaver ^b were forced to apologize for barely mentioning [Page] the Monasteries; and what outcries were made upon the Publication of that glorious work the Monasticon? In so much that a very Learned and ingenious person ^a wroto a Latin Letter to Dr. Langbain (to whom Mr. Dugdale had com­municated his Collections) to encourage the design, by shewing the great use of such a work, and removing all objections that could be raised against it. Which is printed in some few Copies of the first Volume. Nay, so much are some people possess'd against them, that the least mention is odious and ungrateful. But there are no grounds for it; seeing these Reli­gious places were by the well intended charity of their Founders and Benefactors built, en­dowed and adorned (how much soever they were afterward abused) to the Glory of God, the service of Religion, and the relief of poor Christians. But I would not be thought in this or any other expressions that may be found in this discourse, in the least to vindicate the Superstition or vices of the Monks; tho' per­haps it would be but common justice to infuse a better opinion of Monasteries into the gene­rality of Protestants. And indeed, considering the provisions that are made in the Universities, for the encouragement and attainment of Learn­ing, and the many Hospitals that have been since the Reformation built for the relief of the poor, there is less reason to lament their loss.

It will be here expected that something of the general state of Monasteries should be said by way of Preface. And 'tis readily own'd that [Page] this would have been a very proper place for a Dissertation concerning the first beginners of a Monastick life, the Original of Monasteries in this Isle, the Institutions of the old British Monks and Clergy; the Monks of the Ro­man Communion; the manners of Secular married Clergy before the Conquest; the introducing of the Benedictine Order into this Kingdom, and the several Tribes of it, viz. the Cluniac, Cistercian, Carthusian, and other Orders, as also of the Regular Canons, Austins, Praemon­stratensians, Gilbertines, &c. giving a summary of their Rules, Habits, and the most remarkable of their local Statutes. To this might be added an account of the Original and Constitutions of the Templers, Hospitalers, of Collegiate Churches, Frieries, Gilds, and Hermitages. The whole might have been interwoven with pertinent digressions touching the state of Learning among the Monks, their Privileges, Riches, and contentions with the Friers and Secular Clergy. The reasons pretended for founding and endowing Religious Houses, the methods of the Suppression, and several other things would naturally fall in with these, and very much tend to the illustration of our English Civil and Ecclesiastical History. Some­thing of this nature was intended to have been drawn up and prefixed to this Book, but the compleating of it requiring more time and pains, than a greater work (which I have now upon my hands) would permit, and more materials than my years and small reading could furnish me with; I am forced to lay aside that design [Page] at present; and must desire the Reader to be content with the following lines, which will serve to explain the subject and method of this Book, and in some measure to understand the Rise, Progress, State and Suppression of Mona­steries in England.

It was before observed, that little had been done toward the History of Monasteries in this Kingdom; for which reason some well versed in Antiquities were pleased to think that this Manual would not be ungrateful to the World. At the Dissolution of these Places, King Henry VIII. wisely ordered the famous Antiquary Iohn Leland, under the Broad Seal to examine all their Archives, and to take an account of their Founders and Benefactors. The effects of whose labours in this kind, we have the rude draughts of in his MSS. Collections, but he di [...]d and left this with several other Noble De­signs unfinish'd. His MSS. coming into the hands of Mr. Burton of Leicestershire, he drew up a Catalogue of the Religious Houses within the Realm of England and Wales, with their many Orders, Founders, and Values, most of them being Suppressed by King Henry VIII. Together with such other sacred places, as either then mere by him left standing, or since have been erected. This Ca­talogue, which is Printed at the end of Mr. Speed's Reign of King Henry VIII. I ever thought to have been drawn up by Mr. Speed himself, and have still mentioned it under Mr. Speed's name; but Sir H. Spelman ^a has better [Page] informed me, and restored it to it's genuine Author. As for the Orders, Names, and true Va­luations of the Monasteries, the Author in the Preface owns he had them out of the Original Book taken by Commission and given to the King: the Founders and the time of the Foundations, in all probability he had out of the imperfect Notes of Leland, and Camden's Britannia. How defective and erroneous this Catalogue is, may b [...] seen by our Notitia, in which the Reader will find some hundreds of mistakes and omissions corrected and supplied out of the Monasticon and other good Authorities.

Besides, this Catalogue or Table of Mr. Bur­ton [...]s, I could never find any thing done to this subject, till the publication of the Monasti­con by the joint labours of those two famous Antiquaries Roger Dodsworth Esq and Mr. Will. Dugdale. Indeed Mr. Rich. Broughton a Missio­nary Priest, and Author of the Ecclesiastical Hi­story of Great Britain, from the Nativity of Christ unto the happy conversion of the Saxons, &c. Doway 1633. fol. had collected a rapsody of stories which he entitled Monasticon Britanicum, or an Historical Narration of the first Founding and flou­rishing estate of the ancient Monasteries, Religious Rules and Orders of Great Britain in the times of the Britains and primitive Church of the Saxons, &c. This was not Printed till after the Author's death, (which was in A. D. 1634.) viz. A. D. 1655. 8 [...]. The very same year was published at Lon­don the First Tome of the Monasticon, contain­ing the Charters and Muniments of the Bene­dictine, Cluniac, Cistercian and Carthusian Orders. [Page] The Second Volume did not come out till A. D. 1661. In this were comprised the Houses of the Regular Canons of St. Austin, the Hospitalers, Templers, Gilbertines, Premonstratenses and Matu­rins or Trinitarians. The Third and last Vo­lume of the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches with Additaments to the two former, was pub­lish'd in the year 1673. These three Folio's being too voluminous and costly for the gene­rality of Readers, I am willing to believe, that this Short History will be grateful to those, that have neither leasure to consult, nor money enough to purchase the Monasticon. And it may likewise be usefull to those that have the Monasticon allready, upon account of the Additions and Corrections, the Arms, the Repertory of MS. Registers and Char­ters, and the references to the Monasticon and other Printed Histories. For it cannot be de­nied but that the Monasticon is capable of many Additions. The principal design of the Editors of those Noble Volumes being to col­lect Charters and other Authentick Muniments, they neglected several short notes, which give an account of the Foundation, Order, and De­dication of several Monasteries. This is evi­dent from Leland's MSS. which tho' Sir Will. D [...]gdale frequently perused and partly tran­scribed, yet short accounts of great many Reli­gious Houses are to be met with therein, which are totally omitted in the Monasticon. And the greatness of that work forced the industrious [...]ublishers to let slip several mistakes, which we might expect to have found corrected in the late [Page] Epitome of it. But therein, to the errors of the Original are added several of the Translator; and 'tis pity that Charters and Records should loose their use and authority by being thus curtail'd and mangled, or as the term is, abridg'd. Tho' it is not pretended that this short History of Re­ligious Houses is complete or free from all errors, (which is impossible considering the great loss of Monastick Records) yet all imaginable care was taken that it should be more full and cor­rect than any Book of this kind extant. To which end all our printed Historians were ex­amined, that might any way conduce toward the story of these Places; as also Leland's Col­lections and Itinerary, and several other MSS. Two particularly were very useful; one of which was an old Parchment MS. wrote by a Monk of Canterbury, about the later end of Henry VI. Reign. It is in the Bodleian Library, (NE. E. 2. 17) and contains the Names, Dedi­cation, and Orders of all the Religious Houses in every Shire. Wherein tho' the Monasteries were often false placed, yet it gave great light towards recovering of the Order and Dedica­tion of several of them. The other was a fair paper MS. in the Ashmolean Musaeum, (Num. 839.) collected not long after the Dissolution, by one who probably had a sight of Leland's Col­lections. This chiefly supplied me with the Names of several Founders, which were before wanting. More errors might possibly have been amended, and defects supplied, could we but have got the sight of that Book (which I am afraid is now lost) which Henry Crump a Cistercian [Page] Monk and Doctor of Divinity of this Univer­sity wrote about A. D. 1380. Concerning the Foundation of all the Monasteries in England, from the time of S. Birin the first Bishop of Dorchester, till the age of Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lin­coln.

The method observed in this Book is to take the Counties according to Alphabetical order, and in them to describe the Monasteries accord­ing to the seniority of their Foundations. The time when some of them was built, is not yet discovered; and those are put behind all the rest, but before the Colleges, because we may take it for granted, that all or most of the Mo­nasteries were founded before the Statute of Mortmain, whereas few or none of the Colleges were [...]ounded before.

Now the Reader may be pleased to know something more concerning the subject of this Book, The Religious Houses in England and Wales. By Religious Houses are only imply'd Cathedral Churches, Abbies, Priories, Priories-Alien, Col­leges and Preceptories. Houses of Friers are pur­ [...]osely omitted, because not endowed with Lands; Chantries, because they were not incorpo­ [...]ate; Hospitals and Gilds, because they consisted of Lay-Brethren. Few are ignorant of what is meant by Cathedral Churches; but the distinction [...]etwixt an Abbey and a Priory, and the Names of Priories-Alien, Colleges and Preceptories are not [...]o well understood. An Abbey was a Society of Religious People wherein presided an Abbat [...]r Abbess; and a Priory was where the chief [...]erson was term'd a Prior or Prioress. Not [Page] but in every Abby there was a Prior imme­diately under the Abbat, who, during the Abbat's absence had the chief care of the House; under him was the Sub-Prior, and in great Ab­bies the third and fourth Prior, who were Of­ficers in the House, and all removeable at the will of the Abbat, as were also the other Obe­dientiarii. And here by the way, we may take notice that in every Abby and great Priory there were four great Obedientiarii (or Officers) viz. (1) the Sacrista or Sexton, who took care of the buildings, the vessels, the Books and Vestments of the Church. (2) The Thesaurarius or Bursar, who received all the Rents and Revenues of the Mo­nastery, and disbursed all expences. (3) The Cel­lerar, who provided food for the Monks. (4) The Camerarius or Chamberlain, who found the Monks clothing. These were the four chief Officers; but beside these was also the Hospita­larius, who took care that Hospitality was kept up, and that entertainment was afforded to strangers who resorted to the Monastery. The Eleemosynarius or A [...]moner had the oversight of the alms of the House which were daily distri­buted at the gate to the poor. The Infirmarius had the charge of the Infirmary and the sick Monks, who were carried thither out of the common Dormitory. Many other Officers there were in Monasteries, but these were the chief. But to return to Priories; which were of two sorts, one where the Prior was chief Governour, as absolute as any Abbat in his Abby, and was chosen by the Convent; such were the Cathe­dral Priors and most of those of the Austin [Page] Order. The other was where the Priory was a Cell, subordinate to some great Abby, and the Prior placed and removed at the will of the Abbat Soveraign: and even among these there was a great deal of difference; some were alto­gether subject to their respective Abbies, who sent them what Officers and Monks they pleased, and the revenues of these went to the common stock of the Abby; others consisted of a certain number of Monks, only had the Prior from the greater Abby, and paid a small pen­sion yearly as an acknowledgement of their sub­jection. These Priories were allways of the same Order with the Abbies on whom they de­pended, tho' sometimes of a different Sex; it being usual after the Conquest for some grea [...] Abbies to build Nunneries in some of their Mannors, which were Priories to the Abbies, and subject to their Visitation. Priories-Alien were when Mannors or Tithes were given to any foreign Monastery: the Monks either to encrease their own Rule, or rather to have faith­ful Stewards of their Lands, built convenient Houses for the reception of a small Convent, and then sent over such a number as they thought fit, constituting Priors over them suc­cessively as occasion required. Colleges or Col­legiate Churches were a certain number of Secu­lar Canons living under the government of a Dean, Warden, Provost or Master: There belonged to these Foundations sometimes Chaplains, Singing-men, Clerks and Choristers. Preceptories or Commanderies were Mannors of the Knights Templers and Hospitalers, where erecting [Page] Churches for the Service of God and conveni­ent houses for habitation, they sent part of their Fraternity thither, who were to be under the government of the Preceptor or Commander, and to take care of the Lands and Rents belong­ing to the Order in the neighbouring Country, and so they were Cells to their principal Man­sions in London.

Of all these Religious Houses in England and Wales, the Reader may expect a Short History, viz. the Foundation, the Order, Dedication, and Valuation. Concerning the Foundation the Reader will be troubled with no more than barely the Names and Qualities of the Founders, and the time of the first Foundation. It may be necessary here to note, that in our Monastick Writers we find often mention of the First, Se­cond, &c. Founder; and I have seen the Sixth Founder. But the first may only be properly said to be the true Founder; the others by their great Benefactions either restoring the old o [...] making some new additional Foundation. I [...] may be also observed, that the Successors of the Founders, the Patrons and chief Lords of the Fee, were sometimes stiled Founders.

The Orders were either Religious or Mili­tary; of the first were all Monks and Ca­nons. Of the Monks, the most ancient an [...] the Benedictines or those that follow the Rul [...] of St. Benedict or Bennet, who was born at Nu [...] ­sia in Italy about the year 480. He found­ed twelve Monasteries, in his own Country the chief whereof was Mont Cassin, and gav [...] them a Rule, which was afterward approved [...] [Page] by Pope Gregory the Great A. D. 595. They were called also Black Monks, from the colour of their Habit, which was a black loose Coat of stuff reaching down to their heels, with a cowl or hood of the same, and a Scapular; and under that Coat another white Habit as large as the former, made of white flannen, and boots on their legs. Of this Order were all our Ca­thedral Priories, except Carliol, and most of the richest Abbies in the Kingdom.

The Reformation of some things that seemed too remiss in St. Bennet's Rule, by Odo Abbat of Cluny in Burgundy about A. D. 912. gave occasion to the rise of the Cluniac Order. Most of our English Houses of this Order were subordinate to the Abby of Cluny or some other foreign Clu­niac Monastery, and so were seis [...]d as Alien-Priories during the wars with France: but were afterward made indigenae, and so discharged from all subjection and obedience to any for­reign Abby. Their Habit was little different from the Benedictines.

The Carthusians were also a branch of the Be­nedictines, whose Rule with the addition of a great many a [...]sterities they follow. Their Au­thor was one Bruno born at Colen in Germany, who first instituted this Order at Chartreuse in the Diocese of Gren [...]ble about A. D. 1080. Their Rule is the most strict and severe of any of the Religious Orders; they never eat flesh, always wear a hair Shirt next their skin, none ever stir out of their Monasteries (which are called Charter-houses) upon any pretence whatsoever, except the Prior and Procurator. Their Habit is [Page] all white, except their plaited Cloak, which is black.

Rob. Harding (an English man ^a) Abbat of Molisme in Burgundy, first planted the Cistercian Order at Cistertium or Citeaux in the Bishoprick of Chalons, A. D. 1098. They were called Bernar­dines from St. Bernard Abbat of Clarevall, a great propagator of this Order, and also White Monks from the whiteness of their Garments. For their Habit was a white Cassock with a narrow Scapulary, and a black Gown with long sleeves when they went abroad; but going to Church they wore it white. Their Monasteries were all of them dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary. These were all the Orders of Monks that were to be met with in England?

The Canons were either Secular or Regular. The Secular Canons were [...]ergy men, called Secu­lar because they served the world (Seculum) in per­forming spiritual Offices for the Laity, and taking upon them the care of Souls, which the Regulars were incapable of. They differed in nothing from ordinary Priests, save that they were un­der the government of some local Statutes, but were not so strictly obliged to live under one Roof as the Monks and Regular Canons; but generally lived apart, and were severally main­tain'd by distinct Prebends, in almost the same manner with the Canons and Prebendaries of our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches a [...] this day.

[Page] Regular Canons [...]were so called because they were obliged to a strict observance of the Rule of St. Austin, which enjoin'd them to have all things in common, &c. Their Habit is a long black Cassock, a white Rochet over it, over all a black Cloak and Hood. They wear also beards (the Monks were always shaved) and a Cap upon their heads. They pretend St. Austin of Hippo to have been their Founder, but they were not eminent till the tenth or eleventh Century, and not in England till after the Conquest. For Authors disagree about the time when this Or­der was first brought into England. Iohn Rosse ⁶ saith that it was placed first at Colchester in the reign of King Stephen. Reyner ^b tells us, Nosthell in Yorkshire was the first this Kingdom had, which was founded temp. Hen. I. Stow ^c saith that Trinity within Aldgate London was the first, which was founded A. D. 1107. But Mr. Som­ner's ^d opinion is more consonant to truth, who tells us that S. Gregorie's in Canterbury was the first, that being built by Arch-bishop Lan [...]ranc A. D. 1084. So that the Reader is desired to take notice, that tho' he may find mention made in this book of Black or Regular Canons before the Conquest, yet they were the same at the foundation with Secular Canons, but afterwards assumed the Habit and Rule of St. Austin. For it was usual in those old times to stile the Secular Canons of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches Canonici Regulares, to distinguish them from or­dinary Parish Priests.

[Page]The Premonstratensian Canons lived accord­ing to the Rule of St. Austin reformed by one Norbert, who instituted this Order about A. D. 1120. at Praemonstratum in Laon in France. They were called also White Canons from their Habit, which was a white Cassock with a Rochet over it, and a long white Cloak.

The Sempringham or Gilbertine Canons were instituted by St. Gilbert at Sempringham in Lin­colnshire A. D. 1148. His Rule is composed out of those of St. Austin and St. Bennet, with some special Statutes of his own. The Habit of these Canons is a black Cassock, over which they wear a furred Cloak and a Hood lined with Lamb skins: The Monasteries of this Order consisted both of Men and Women, who lived under the same Roof, and were separated by a wall.

Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulcher, were founded in imitation of those Regulars instituted in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of our Saviour at Ierusalem. Their Habit was the [...]ame as of other black Canons, with the distinction of a double red Cross upon the breast of their Cloak or upper garment. The endeavours of these Religious for the regaining of the Holy Land, after the loss of Ierusalem, coming to no­thing, their Lands, Revenues and Privileges, were transferred to the Maturines or Friers of the Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives, who were instituted by S. Iohn de Matta and Felix de Valois about A. D. 1200. It was confirmed by Pope Innocent III. who gave them white Robes with a Cross red and blew on their breasts, and appointed that all the [Page] possessions which they should enjoy, should be equally divided into three parts, one for the en­tertainment and reception of Religious persons, the other to relieve the poor, and the third to redeem Christians kept Captive by the Infidels. These Canons were also called Trinitarians, be­cause all their Churches were by the Rules of their Order to be dedicated to the Holy Trinity. And here in England, they were said to be of the Order of I [...]gham, because that Monastery (in Norfolk) was the chief House of that Rule.

There were another Order of Canons of the Austin Rule in England called Bonhommes or Good-men; They were first brought into this Kingdom A. D. 1283. 11, 12. Edw. I. and placed in a Rectory or College founded by Edmund Earl of Cornwall at Asser [...]g in Bucks. Of which Order in England there was but one more, viz. at Edingdon in Wiltshire. The Reader may ob­serve that they were not the same with the Friers Minimes or Franciscans, whom some Au­thors call Bonhommes, because our Bonhommes were amply endowed with Lands and Rents, which that Mendicant Order could never be possess'd of. Neither could they be of the Order of Grandmont, the Religious whereof were called Bonhommes; because these were only Benedictines reformed.

As for the Nunneries of the Benedictine, Climiac, Cistercian and Carthusian Rules, and the Austin, Premonstratensian and Gilber [...]ine Nuns, they were [...]nstituted by the same as the Monks of those Orders; they follow the same Rules with the Monks, omitting only that which is not con­venient [Page] for their Sex, and wear habits of the same colour, their Heads being always covered with a Vail. Besides these, we had in England three other Orders of Religious Females, (1) Clarisses or of the Order of St. Clare, who in­stituted it at Assise in Italy about A. D. 1225. (2) Brigettan Nuns, who were founded by St. Bridget Queen of Sweedland about A. D. 1360. (3) Nuns of the Order of Fontevrault, who wear a black Habit with a white Vail. This Order was a Reformation of the Benedictine be­gun by Robert de Arbusculo at Font Ebrald in Poictiers, A. D. 1117. There were also Monks of this Rule, but none, I think, in England, ex­cept it were in such Alien-Priories as were Cells to that Abby. So without doubt other Alien-Priories that were subordinate to St. Victor at Paris and Grandmont in France, (the Canons of the first and the Monks of the last having par­ticular Rules distinct from any other Order) were of the same Constitutions with those Abbies.

Of the Military Orders there is mention made but of two in this book, viz. of the Knights Hospitalers of S. Iohn of Ierusalem, and the Knights Templers. The Hospitalers since called Knights of Rhodes or Malta, were first taken notice of about A. D. 1090. and were mightily favoured by Godfrey of Bullen, and his successor Baldwin King of Ierusalem. They followed partly St. Austin's Rule, and wore a white Cross upon their black Habit. There was also in England one House of Nuns of the Order of St. Iohn of Ierusalem, viz. Buckland in Somersetshire. The [Page] Knights Templers, so called from having their residence in certain Rooms adjoining to the Temple at Ierusalem, were instituted A. D. 1118. They followed the Cistercian Rule, and their duty was to guard Pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. Their Habit was white, with a red Cross.

Thus I have in short traced the several Mo­nastick Orders by their Original, Institutions, and Habits, and in the Notitia have been very careful to note the Order of every Religious House, which may be very useful, (besides the curiosity of knowing what sort of Monks in­habited every Country) in the matter of tithes especially. The Cistercians, Premonstratenses, H [...]s­pitalers and Templers, being discharged from the payment of tithes in their own Dem [...]snes. Such Monasteries, I mean, of those Orders as were founded before the Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215. and such of the Cistercians and Pre­monstratensians, being valued above 200 ^l. per an. as were not dissolved by the Statute of 27. Hen. VIII. See Sir Sim. Degge's Parsons Counsellor, Lib. II. Cap. 21.

The next thing the Reader will be informed of, in this Short History of the Religious Houses, is their Dedication, which is very necessary to be known, for distinction sake in great Towns or Cities, where are two or more Monasteries. This may be also of some use in reading our old Historians; for in them the Monastery is often mentioned under the bare name of the Saint to whom it is dedicated. Thus we fre­quently meet with Monasterium or Abbatia S. [Page] Aldhelmi, for Malmsbury in Wiltshire, S. [...] for Chich in Essex, Prioratus S. Swithini for the Cathedral at Winchester, and several other in­stances of the like nature, which some, even the more understanding Readers, may stick at. But this is remedied in the following book by turn­ing to the Index of Names, wherein under the Saints Name may be found the Pages, in which are any Monasteries dedicated to that Saint. The Virgin Mary must be excepted, because she being the Patroness of all the Cistercian Houses, and of a great many other Monasteries, is men­tioned once or twice in almost every Page.

And that the Reader may know what reve­nues every Religious House had, and so partly guess at the number of the Foundation, here is set down the valuation of them; which was taken by the Kings Commissioners 26. Hen. VIII. Of this valuation we have two very different Copies, the one given us by Mr. Burton or Mr. Speed, in the Catalogue of Religious Houses, which was taken from the very Original deli­vered in to King Henry VIII. by the Commissi­oners. The other at the end of the first Tome of the Monasticon taken by Sir Will. Dugdale out of an ancient Copy in the Cottonian Library. These two valuations seldom or never agree in the same sum, and for that reason, because there is good Authority for both, it is thought fit that the revenues according to both Rates should be inserted. That of Dugdale's in the Monasticon generally amounting to a less sum, than that of Speed [...]s, I shall not endeavour to reconcile them or to give a reason of the dif­ference. [Page] It was once thought that Dugdale's valuation had been the clear revenues over and above all Pensions, Corrodies, Alms, &c. but adding the sums of these Reprises (which are at large mentioned in Sir Will. Dugdale's History of the Monasteries in Warwickshire) to the va­lue in the Monasticon, it would not even then agree with Speed's. It is also very probable that there are other Copies of the valuations of the Religious Houses besides those two. For Le­land gives us the worth of the annual revenues of several Abbies in Lincolnshire altogether different from Dugdale or Speed. So the Charter of Henry VIII. by which he re-founds the Pri­ory of Stixwold in Com. Linc. tells us, that the value of the old Priory was 152 ^l. 10 ^s. 7 ^d. whereas according to Mr. Speed's Rate it is 163 ^l. 1 ^s. 2 ^d. ob. and according to Sir. Will. Dugdale but 114 ^l. 5 ^•. 2 ^l. ob. And in Warwickshire the valua­tion, which Sir Will. Dugdale had out of a MS. in the custody of Sir Sim. Archer, is also very dif­ferent from the rest.

Having thus explained the use and several parts of the following book, and let the Reader understand that he will find the Foundation, Order, Dedication and valuation, of these Reli­gious Houses, but barely hinted to in this Manual; It will be convenient for such whose business or curiosity require a more large ac­count of them, their Foundations, Endow­ments, &c. to have directions where they may be satisfied. To which end, after the account of every Monastery, References are made, not only to the Tome and Page of the Monasticon, [Page] but also to all other Printed Books, wherein is any thing relating to the History of that House, and to all MSS. whether original Charters, Re­gisters or Annals thereunto belonging, that are yet preserved. All men that know what me­moirs are contained in these MSS. will readily own that no body that is engaged in the pub­lick or private History of this Kingdom or any part of it, should omit to consult these Records. For as to the general History of England, what can be of greater authority than the Chronicles that were compiled every year by those per­sons, who were eye-witnesses of some, and lived in the time when all the actions which they mention were done? For in all the greater Abbies there were persons appointed to take notice of the principal occurrences of the King­dom, and at the end of every year to digest them into Annals ^a. And not only so, but the Constitutions of the Clergy in their National or Provincial Synods, and, after the Conquest, Acts of Parliament were sent to the Abbies to be recorded. Here may be found Letters to, and Treaties with foreign Princes, Provisions, Proclamations, Charters, and almost all other things that relate to the Prerogative of the King, or the Liberties of the Clergy and People ^b. The story of King Edw. I. is well known, how he sent to the Religious Houses to search for his Title to the Kingdom of Scotland, in their Leigers and Chronicles, as the most authentick Records for the proof of his right to the Crown. [Page] And 'tis easie to observe, that the Learned Sel­den has from old Monastick Charters the greatest evidences, for asserting the Dominion of the Narrow Sea to belong to the Kings of Great Britain. And how helpfull these Muniments were to that great Antiquary Mr. Iohn Stow, who was the first that drew up our English Hi­story in any tolerable method, appears from that Learned Man's collecting above threescore Chronicles and Leiger-books of Monasteries, and acknowledging that he made great use of them in the compiling his Annals.

As for the History of Counties and Towns, it is impossible to recover any tolerable account of them, except the Charters and Couchers of the adjacent Abbies be carefully perused. For the quantities of Land these Religious Houses had in all parts of England being so great, and the Monks so accurate in Registring the Dona­tions, and preserving all Charters, Leases, and other Deeds, relating to their possessions not only after, but also before it came into their hands, here we may find the succession of the mean Lords of their Mannors and Fees, the Privileges, Tenures, and Rents of them; the Foundation, Endowment, and Appropriation of several Parochial Churches, with the Ordi­nations of their Vicarages: as also very fre­quently the ancient bounds of Forests, Hun­dreds, Parishes, and lesser Estates. And then as to the histories of private Families, these Books are of unspeakable use. For the gratitude of the Religious would not suffer the memories and Charity of their Pious Founders and Benefa­ctors [Page] to be buried in oblivion. In their Leiger-books we have not only the bare mention of the Benefactors, but something of the lives of their Founders and their successors their Patrons. We have in them, generally, the days and years of their Births and Obits, their Marriages, Children, and the most considerable of their actions: Here are also very often we find their Coats of Arms and Seals delineated and pre­served. How useful these Records are to the Histories of places and Families, the numerous references in Sir Will. Dugdale's Warwickshire to MS. Charters and Registers, and the quotations of the Monasticon in every column of the Ba­ronage, sufficiently manifest: which two Noble Volumes, tho' they are the most perfect pieces in that kind that ever were published, might yet have been in several particulars more compleat, if that Learned and industrious Author had had the opportunity of consulting more of these Monastick Books. I shall add but one thing more; and that is concerning the great use that some eminent Common Lawyers have made of these Registers; who wish that those who apply themselves to that study would have oftner recourse to these Records. Here they may find all sorts of Writs, old forms of Grants, Leases and Wills; the original and se­veral kinds of Tenures, the Privileges, Customs, Homages, Services and Rents of the mean Te­nents; Cases concerning Reservation of Quit­rents upon Gifts in puram & perpetuam cleemosy­nam, concerning Mortmains, Corrodies, and Pensions. The methods of Pleading in the Ab­bat's [Page] Courts; the manner of appropriating Churches, and endowing Vicarages. These and several other Law-matters an industrious Stu­dent may find in the Cartularies; and make use of to many good purposes; and so will have no reason to repent of the time and pains he shall bestow in reading these Books. And if we are willing to take example in this from the French, whom we are ready enough to imitate in several other things, we shall find that the most eminent of their Advocates and Coun­sellors of Parliament, make it their business to be well versed in the Muniments of their Reli­gious Houses, as the best places to be informed in the customs of their Country, about all mat­ters relating to estates either personal or real.

I am last of all to account for the Coats of Arms of the Religious Houses, which (in hopes that they will be grateful to the Curious, be­cause most of them were never before publish'd) I have caused to be engraven on five Copper plates. Most of these I took out of an ancient MS. in the Ashmolean Library, wrote about the [...]ime of the Reformation, the rest I had from good Authorities; the Arms of the Episcopal [...]ees are also added in their proper places, not [...]hat they are rare, but because I was willing [...]o make the Collection as compleat as possible; [...]he Arms also of the six new Bishopricks found­ [...]d by King Henry VIII. are the same with the [...]ld Priories. I am not ignorant that several Monasteries had no Arms, and of those that [...]ad, few used them in the Common Seal of the House, that being generally the Saint or Saints [Page] to whom it was dedicated, tho' the Arms are sometimes found at the lower part of the Seal, or else they are used as a Counter-Seal.

Thus here is given, as briefly as the matter would permit, some account of the method, con­tents, and use of the following Book. In the sequel of this discourse some attempts will be made toward a brief History of the general state of Monasteries in this Island, from the time of the Britains till the Dissolution, with some reflections on their Learning.

The original of Monks in Britain may be dated from the first plantation of Christianity therein, if we may give any credit to a very Learned Gentleman ^a, who tells us, That it is probable that some of the Druids having been con­verted from the Pagan Religion, whereof they were the Priests, became our first Monks; being thereunto much inclined by the severity of their former disci­pline. But however, 'tis just to suppose, that several Christians to avoid the heat of the per­secution, which raged so fiercely here in the reign of Dioclesian, did withdraw into solitary places, and there accustoming themselves to live, were our first Ascetics. This retired life afterward became more eligible, when Britain was in a combustion by reason of the wars be­tween the Usurpers of the Roman Empire, which were followed by the incursions of the Picts, and the Conquest of the Saxons. These troublesome times without doubt, inclined con­templative [Page] persons to fly into the most pri­vate solitudes, Caves, Forests and Mountains, where they spent their time in reading the Scri­ptures, and other duties of Religion, having no tye or vows, but what they from time to time impos'd upon themselves. There is great question among the Learned, who it was that brought over the Monastic Rules and first in­stituted Abbies in Britain. It is the opinion of the Right Reverend Bishop of Worcester, (to whom the Church Antiquities of these ages owe their greatest light) ^a That the British Monasteries were no older than S. Patrick's time. Indeed the Winchester Historian would make the World believe ^b, that there was an Abby founded in that City for Monks of the Order of St. Mark the Evangelist by King Lucius A. D. 194. who endowed the Bishops and them with the Lands and Privileges of the Flamen, viz. all the Country twelve miles round the City. But every part of this ill grounded story is so erroneous, that 'tis not worth the while to confute it. Besides this, Capgrave and from him Bale and Pits, seem to contradict the forementioned opinion, by as­serting that Pelagius the Heretick who flourish­ed about A. D. 400. was Abbat of Bangor. But there is no probability at all in the Monkish tradi­tion of Pelagius's being Abbat of Bangor; and there is not much more of Bangor's being so famous a Monastery at that time, or of Pelagius's being a Monk therein. For the British Monasteries were no elder [Page] than St. Patrick's time.—And in Pelagius's time, those were called Monks at Rome, who had no office in the Church, but yet retired from the common em­ployments of the World for sacred Studies and de­votion; and where any number of these lived tog [...] ­ther, that was called a Monastery. Thus that great Prelate. And 'tis likely that Congellus about A. D. 530. was the first that converted the House of Bangor into a Monastery, tho' not the first that brought the Monastick way of living into Britain, as Mr. Camden ^a will have it. As for St. Patrick, after he had converted the Irish to the Christian Faith A. D. 433. he came over into this Isle, and finding at Glastonbury ^b twelve Anchorites he gathered them together, and mak­ing himself Abbat taught them to live accord­ing to the Monastick Rules. And this is the more probable, because he was Nephew to St. Martin of Tours, who brought this manner of life into France, and from whom St. Patric [...] might easily have learned it. Malmsbury ^c also calls this Monastery in another place the oldest that he knew in England. In the next age the British Historians report ^d, that St. Dubriciu [...] Arch-bishop of St. Davids founded twelve Mo­nasteries, and taught his Monks to live after the manner of the Asians and Africans upon the works of their own hands; This was about the year 512. Not long after, as 'twas before ob­serv'd, the Abby of Bangor was instituted [Page] which, as Bede ^a saith, consisted of seven Classes, each Class containing three hundred Monks who all lived on their own labours. What other things were enjoined them we have no account, but that they had a Rule is plain from Gildas, who mentions Monachorum decreta ^b, and Monachi Votum ^c; but whether the Rule of the Welsh Monasteries was the same with that St. Patrick instituted at Glastonbury? Or if dif­ferent, whether either was the same used in any other parts of the World, we have no light from Antiquity to discover. Indeed that great Antiquary Sir Roger Twisden ^d tells us, The Monks of Bangor were not unlike the Order of St. Basil, if not of it.

Upon the Conversion of the Pagan Saxons, (who then domineer'd over the largest Province of Britain since called England) Monasteries were founded in all parts, where Christianity had any footing. Thus St. Austin and his fol­lowers erected Monasteries in Kent, and the Scottish Bishops and Monks propagated the Chri­stian Faith after the same way among the Nor­thumbrians. Tho' it appears by a passage of Bede, that after the death of St. Austin, the Monks found no great encouragement in the South parts. For that Venerable Author saith ^e, that about A. D. 640. ‘ Earcongota daughter to Ear­combert King of Kent, was made Nun at Brige (in France). Because at that time there being [Page] very few Monasteries in Britain, many went to the Religious Houses of France, for the sake of a Monastick life; and also they used to send their daughters thither to be taught and devoted to the service of God,’ &c. But about this time the West-Saxons and Mercians were converted to Christianity, upon which Monasteries were every where built with great zeal for God's glory, and liberally endowed by the Saxon Kings.

It will seem strange to some, that nothing should be hitherto said about the Order of St. Austin the Monk, and to prove that the old Saxon Monks were Benedictines. But if I might presume to offer any thing in this case, I should rather think that the Benedictine Rule was scarce heard of in England till some hundred of years after, and never perfectly observed till after the Conquest. There is no great credit to be given to the Chronicle ^a, that records, how that St. Wilfrid A. D. 666. introduced that Rule, or ra­ther (as others ^b say) improved the Orders of the English Churches by it. And as for the Bull of Pope Constantine, commanding that the Monks of Evesham should live under that Rule, there are great probabilities that 'tis forged and spu­rious; and tho' 'twas genuine, it does not make much for the Patrons of the Benedictines, because it follows in the next words, that at that time ( A. D. 709.) that Rule was very little used in En­gland. For Bede who hath given us a very ac­curate [Page] account of the state of Religion in this Isle till A. D. 731. hath nothing of Saint Ben­net or his Rule. And at the first Regulation of the Monks in England by Arch-bishop Cuthbert A. D. 747. in the great Synod at Clovesho, there is not the least mention of it. In this Council se­veral things were amended relating to the Habit and manners of the Monks; and according to the Canons thereof without doubt the Religi­ous, especially of the Province of Canterbury, walked till the fatal invasions of the Danes; who were very barbarous, where ere they came, in rifling and burning Monasteries, and strip­ping, wounding, and very often killin [...] the poor Monks. During their incursions, Monkery and with it Christianity had almost been extin­guished, and there were scarce any remains of a Monastery ^a save at Glastonbury and Abingdon. And even at ^b Winchester and ^c Canterbury in King Alfred's time, there was such a scarcity of Monks, that Seculars were permitted to assist them in performing the Divine Offices. Nay, Gervasius saith ^d, that before St. Dunstan's time the name of Abbat was scarce heard of, and very few had seen a Convent of Monks. This Dunstan being promoted to the Archiepiscopal Se [...], and countenanced by King Edgar, was the great re­storer of the Monastick way of living, by re­pairing the ruinous Churches and Religious Houses, and placing Monks and Nuns in the room of Secular Canons. It was by his advice [Page] that King Edgar made the second Reformation of our ancient English Monks in the Council of Winchester, A. D. 965. To this end several Monks were sent for from Fleury and Corby in France, who were to inform them in the par­ticulars of St. Bennet's Order. So little was that rule known then in England, which several fondly imagine was generally received some hundreds of years before. At this Synod was framed a general Constitution for our English Mon [...]s, composed partly out of the Rule of St. Bennet, and partly out of the ancient customs of the English Devotees. This was called Regularis con­cordia An [...]licae Nationis, and is published in Sax­on and Latin by the Learned Selden in his Spici­legium after Eadmerus ^a. According to this Rule were Monasteries founded and governed in the Southern and more civilized part of Britain: and their number encreased so very much, that [...] is King is recorded to have erected or rather re-founded fourty seven. Neither were new Monasteries only founded, but all the Lands, which by the iniquity of the times had been taken away from Religious places, were re­stored by the authority of the King, and the care of Dunstan Arch-bishop of Canterbury, E­thelwold Bishop of Winchester, and Wulstan Bishop of Worcester. After this Kings death, the Se­cular Clergy began to lift up their heads again, and were encouraged by Elfere Prince of Mercia, who expelled the Monks out of all the Mona­steries in that Province, and restored the Secular [Page] Canons. These things occasioned the contests between the Monks and Seculars at the Synods of Winchester, Caln, and Ambresbury, in the time of King Edward the elder. Where being con­vinced by pretended miracles, or else over­ruled by the power of Arch-bishop Dunstan and others of the Monks party, the Seculars made no great stir afterward, and so the Monks qui­etly enjoyed their Lands till the Conquest.

But this must be understood only of the state of Monasteries in the South parts of the Isle; in the Kingdom of the Northumbrians Monasteries were more frequent even from their first re­ceiving Christianity. For here the new Con­verts being mightily taken with the powerfull Preaching and exemplary lives of Aidan and the Scotch Monks, were very zealous in building and endowing Religious Houses. So great an opinion had they of the sanctity of those Monks, and their way of living, that it was very usual for their Nobles, and very often their Kings and Queens to renounce the world, (as they call'd it) and put on Religious Habits. Not to make any mention here of the old Scottish Monks or Culdees, of whom we had none in En­gland, except at St. Peter's in York, because they were the same with the Monks of the Irish Rules. As in the South parts of England 'twas usual to send their children to France to learn the Monastick way of living, so in the North they were sent into Ireland to the Monasteries there, to be instructed in Learning ^a. But (as [Page] Sim. Dunelmensis ^a saith) after the devastation of that Country by the Danes, (A. D. 867.) who re­duced the Churches and Monasteries to ashes, Chri­stianity was almost extinct, very few Churches (and those only built with hurdles and covered with straw) were rebuilt, but no Monasteries were re-founded for almost two hundred years after. The Countrey people never heard of the name of a Monk, and were frighted at their very Habit, till three Monks from Winchelcomb brought again the Monastick way of living to Durham, York, and Whitby.

It may be necessary here to note, (1) Some­thing concerning the Nunneries before the Con­quest. That we had Nuns in the time of the Britains is very probable, because the Irish and Scots allowed of them before St. Austin came into England, and the Constitution of the Bri­tish Churches were in a manner the same with them. But if Leland's authority be allowed in this case, I think it is clear enough to decide the controversie; for he tells us of Nunneries in the time of the Britains more than once, par­ticularly of one at ^b Caermarden. What Mona­stick Rules so ever St. Austin might introduce, we meet with none relating to religious Vir­gins. Yet in the next Century we find them very frequent among the Saxons. King Eadbald is re­corded to have founded about A. D. 630. a Nunne­ [...]y at Folkstone in Kent, which 'tis likely was the first in England. So according to this, it must be an oversight in Mr. Weaver ^c and Sir W. Dugdale ^d to say, that Barking in Essex was the first Nunnery [Page] in England, which was not built till A. D. 680. About which time (without doubt) Nuns were in great plenty, because we find in that year Domneva to have presided over no fewer than se­venty in one Monastery in the Isle of Thanet. And A. D. 694. Abbesses were in so great e­steem for their Sanctity and Prudence, that they were summon'd to the Council at Becan­celd, and the names of five (and not one Abbat) subscribed to the Constitutions there made. Bi­shop Aidan made Hieu (who was afterward Abbess and Foundress of Hartlepool) the first Nun among the Northumbrians A. D. 640. And 'twas afterward a custom in Northumberland and Scotland in these old times for Monks and Nuns to live together in the same Monastery, who were all subject to the government of the Abbess; thus it was at Whitby, Repingdon, Coldingham, &c.

2. Some account of the Secular Clergy (who make so great a noise in the Ecclesiastical Hi­story of the Saxon times) would not be imper­tinent. But the Monks having so blacken'd them, it will be a very hard matter to recover their just character. The invective Oration King Edgar made against them, hath given us a catalogue of their crimes, but probably their me­mories had not suffered so much, if their defences had been as carefully preserved. I am not sa­tisfied what was the distinction between the old Secular Canons and the Monks, for Historians by calling the Houses of Monks Collegia ^a, and the Chapters of Secular Canons Monasteria ^b, con­found these two sorts of Religious Persons. [Page] Nor does the opinion of the Learned Mr. Whar­ton ^a seem unlikely, when he tells us, that be­fore the Reformation by King Edgar and St. Dunstan, our Monasteries were nothing but Convents of Secular married Clergy. This con­jecture he confirms by a great many quotations, which must be here omitted. I shall only pre­sume to acquaint the Reader farther, that 'tis probable the Monks and Nuns in the first ages of Monkery might marry; a pregnant proof of which we have from Bede ^b, who reports, that in St. Iohn of Beverley's time the Abbess of a Monastery called Vetadun had a carnal daugh­ter, who was Nun of that House. And on the contrary some of the Seculars obliged them­selves to the vow of chastity. It is certain they observed some regular Constitutions, for the Canons of Durham ^c read the Psalms in the same order, as they were appointed in the Rule of St. Bennet. At Peykirk, as Ingulphus ^d relates, they observed the Canonical hours of the Monks, and took the vows of Chastity and Obedience. And at Canterbury they wore the very Habit of the Monks, but indeed (as Ger­vasius notes) did not strictly observe the Rule. So that in all likelyhood the terms of Monk and Secular Canons were indifferently used, or at most with very little distinction, till King Edgar's time, when St. Dunstan enforcing a stricter observation of St. Bennet's Rule, those that were willing to retain their wives and Pa­rochial [Page] Cures were termed Secular Clerks, and those came to be called Monks or Regulars, who quitted both, according to the Constitutions of that Order.

Lastly, The Monks of this Isle were never under one Rule before the second Reformation. For not to mention the difference between the British, Scottish, and Roman Monks, we may ob­serve, that every holy Man that was an Abbat, laid down particular Rules of the Monastick way of living for those under his jurisdiction. Hence it is that we meet with the Rules of St. Patric, S. Congall, S. Columba, Molva, S. Columban, S. Carthagus, Segenius, Fursaeus, S. Coman, and others among the Irish and Scots; S. David, S. Asaph, S. Cuthbert, S. Aldhelm, &c. among the Britains and Saxons. Neither did Arch-bishop Cuthbert's Regulation make an uniformity in these mat­ters, for in King Alfred's time there were diversi generis Monachi ^a. And even after the Conquest at a general Visitation of Religious Houses A. D. 1232. among the Benedictines, there were not two Monasteries that lived after the same manner ^b.

At the Conquest, Monasteries had a deep share in the afflictions of the Conquer'd Nation. Some of the best of their Mannors were sacrile­giously taken away, their Treasuries were rifled, and their Liberties infringed by the insulting Normans. Most of the English Abbats being deposed for small or no causes, strangers were preferr'd to the richest Abbies in the Kingdom: [Page] who introduced several new customs to the grievance of the old Saxon Monks. One thing that seemed very hard, was the altering their Missals: Upon this account, what heats were in the Abby of Glastonbury? when Thurstan the pragmatical Norman Abbat would needs com­pell the Monks to lay aside the old Gregorian service, which had been sung in that Abby time out of mind, and to make use of the new devo­tions of one William of Fiscamp. These and several other innovations in the Divine Wor­ship, were growing up apace in the Church, had they not been stopp'd by the pains of Os­mund Bishop of Salisbury, who composed a new Ritual, which was afterwards known by the name of Missale in usum Sarum, and generally used in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

2. Another thing, that was a burden to the Religious, especially those of the Cathedral Convents, was the making of Secular Priests Bishops of those Churches. Of this the Monks made loud complaints, because it was rarely, or, as they pretended, never heard of in the Saxon times, and even forbid by a positive Canon made in the time of Arch-bishop Theodore, and afterwards confirm'd by King Edgar ^a. And this was so strictly observed among the Saxons, that tho' a Secular Priest was nominated or e­lected by a Conventual Chapter, yet he was forced to be made Monk, before he could be consecrated. Thus Odo Bishop of Shirburn be­ing [Page] chose Arch-bishop of Canterbury, could not get his Pall or be Installed, till he had received the Religious Habit from the Abbat of Fleury. Thus the Monks, who after the Conquest would be as exempt as possible from the jurisdiction of any Secular, made this a plea for all or most of their quarrels with the Bishops. They were always very jealous of their privileges, and upon the least occasion were ready to pub­lish, how much the Secular Bishops acted to the disadvantage of the Cathedral Priories, by imposing several things repugnant to the Im­munities of their Order.

3. The third disadvantage, that was occasioned in Monasteries by the Conquest, was the distin­ction, that was afterward made between the Lands of the Bishop and the Convent. For during the Saxon times whatever donations happened, they were given Deo & Ecclesiae to the Bishops, Priors and Monks in common ^a. But after the Conquest the Bishops assigned what revenues, they thought sufficient to maintain the Prior and Convent, and reserved the rest and best part of the Church-Lands to the use of themselves and their successors. This divi­sion, I am afraid, fell very hard upon the Monks in several places, for the Canterbury Historian ^b complains, that their Arch-bishop had retain­ed the Services and Fees of the Earls, Barons and Knights, and allowed the Monks none but Yeomen and Husbandmen. Certain it is, that [Page] this gave occasion, at first for the distinction in other Monasteries of the Lands of the Abbat and Convent, and afterward of the several great Officers of the House. So that we never read till after the Conquest, that any grants were made in usum Prioris, Sacristae, Eleemosynarii, Cellerarii, Camerarii, &c. or as others run in more particular terms, ad vestitum Monachorum, ad victum, ad luminaria, ad hospitalitatem faciendam, ad fabricam Ecclesiae, ad reparanda Ecclesiae orna­menta, and other uses, to which those revenues were particularly appropriated.

The last grievance that shall be mentioned, which indeed affected the Clergy in general, was the Conqueror's charging Church-Lands with Military Services. This is taken notice of by Matthew Paris; but I shall crave leave to de­scribe it in the words of a late ingenious Wri­ter ^a, ‘Whereas (saith he) before (the Con­queror's time) the Clergy held all their land by Franc Almonage, and subject to no duties or impositions, but such as they laid upon themselves in their Ecclesiastical Assemblies. This Prince finding above a third part of the Lands of the Kingdom in the possession of the Clergy, and the Forces of the Crown, which consisted in Knights service, lessened in pro­portion by their Immunities. He reduced all their Lands to the common tenure of Knight's Fees and Baronage, and thereby subjected them to an attendance upon the King in his wars, and to other services anciently due, and [Page] sometimes raised upon all Lands, that held in Fee from the Crown. This innovation touch­ed not only the Bishops, but all the Abbats throughout the Kingdom, many of whom were endowed with great Lands and Reve­nues.’ But Sir Will. Temple must pardon me, if I suspend my opinion in this particular, till better inform'd, viz. That the Conqueror found above a third part of the Lands of the Kingdom in Possession of the Clergy. 'The truth of this may be examined with more certainty, than any other part of English History, the Lands of the Ec­clesiasticks being all particularly recorded in Doomsday-book, so that it will be easie to com­pute the proportion. But not having in this place the opportunity of consulting the Ori­ginal, it cannot be very accurate. However by the transcript of those few Counties we have, a pretty exact guess may be made. In Cheshire ^a were but twenty seven Mannors belonging to Churchmen; in ^b Warwickshire not fourty; in ^c Berkshire about sixty; in ^d Staffordshire about fifty; and in Nottinghamshire ^e but fourty. Besides it ought to be considered, that one fourth of the Lands, that were in Church-men's hand in the time of King Edward III. (at which time the Commons shewed the King that the Tem­poralities of the Clergy amounted only to above a third part of the Kingdom) was not given to Religious places at King William's first coming to [Page] the Crown. For there were not above an hun­dred Monasteries and endowed Churches found­ed before the Conquest, which, tho' they were richer for the most part than any after found­ed, yet according to the highest account, the revenues could not amount to above a fourth part of the incomes of the Religious Houses in the time of Edward III. And if so, then the Ecclesiasticks had but, at most, a twelfth part of the Lands of the Kingdom in their hands at the time when the Conqueror imposed these ser­vices, viz. A. D. 1170.

After this digression we must again carry on some brief account of the state of the Monastick Orders here in England. It was in the Conque­ror's time, that the third and last Regulation of Monks was made, by Arch-bishop Lanfranc in the Council held at London, A. D. 1075. This Reformation brought the English Monks nearer the Benedictines than ever before, I mean those of the old Foundations; but as for the new Mo­nasteries, they were replenished with Monks of what Order the Founder pleased. For during this Reign were brought into England the Or­ders of Regular Canons of St. Austin and of Cluniac Monks. Of each sort were six founded in this Kings time; as also sixteen Benedictine Abbies and Priories, besides fourteen Alien-Priories. A note annexed to an old MS. book of Ecclesiastical Constitutions in the Bodle [...]n Library ^a desires us to note the slyght of the Pope, that when he had causyd the Deuke of Normandy [Page] to Conquer England; under pretence of penance causyd him to give muche Lands to Abbyes, and that Deuke dyd bylde many of the Order of Cluny, because Pope Gregory VI. was a Monk of Cluny. Tho [...] I cannot find that ever he founded any of this Order, yet he built and endowed the great Abbies of Battel Com. Suss. and Selby in Com. Ebor. and the Priory of Hitchinbroke in Com. Hunt. and the Alien-Priories of Frampton in Com. Dors. Paunsfeld in Com. Essex, Derehirst in Com. Gloc. Andover in Com. Hants. and Stayning in Com. [...]uss.

Will. Rufus succeeded next, heir to the vices, not the vertues of his Father. He miserably oppressed the Religious, seised upon the Reve­nues of the vacant Abbies and Bishopricks, and would never let them be filled without some Simoniacal bargain. In this Kings Reign se­veral of the Bishops, ^a of whom Walkeline Bishop of Winchester was the chief, made strong efforts to expel all the Monks out of Cathedral Churches, and to place Secular Canons in their rooms. This infallibly they had accomplished, having got the Kings consent, had not Arch­bishop Lanfranc (a man of universal Goodness and approved Wisdom ^b) maintain'd the cause of the Monks with a great deal of courage; and not only brought the King to change his mind, but also procured a Bull from the Pope, pro­hibiting the like attempts for the future. In the thirteen years of this Kings reign were not above thirteen Religious Houses (except [Page] Priories Alien) founded, viz. seven of the Bene­dictine, four of the Cluniac, and two of the Au­stin Order, and about nine Alien-Priories; but not one Collegiate Church in this or the pre­ceeding Reign. The King built only the small Priories of Armethwait in Com. Cumb. and S. Ni­cholas in Exeter.

King Henry I. is recorded to have been a very pious good Prince, an encourager of Learn­ing and Piety, and one that had a great esteem for the Church and all Religious Persons. His founding nine or ten Monasteries confirms the truth of this character, viz. the Episcopal See and Priory of Regular Canons at Carlisle, the Abbies of Cirencester in Com. Gloc. and Mert [...]n in Com. Surr. with the Priories of Dunstable in Com. Bedf. St. Dennis at Southampton, and Wells near Grims [...]y in Com. Linc. of the same Order; as also the stately Benedictine Abby at Reading; besides the Alien-Priories of Steventon in Com. Berks. Tackley in Com. Essex, and Newent in Com. Gloc. In the beginning of this Kings Reign the Knights Hospitalers settled in Lon­don; A. D. 1128. the Cistercians were first brought into England, and placed at Waver [...]y in Surrey: and about this time the Canons [...] the Holy S [...]pulcher came to Warwick. The number of Religious Houses founded in the Reign of King Henry I. were above an hundred viz, about thirty of the Benedictine Monasterie [...] fourty of the Austin Order, five Cluniac, ten Ci­stercian Houses, four Colleges, two Preceptories and thirteen Alien-Priories.

[Page] King Stephen was Virtuous, Religious and Liberal, and after the wars between him and Maud the Empress were ended, a great builder of Religious Houses. To him the Benedictines at Carow in Com. Norf. and at Heyham in Com. Cant. the Black Canons at Thorn [...]olm in Com. Linc. and the Cluniac Monks at Feversham in Com. Cant. owe their Foundations and endow­ments, and the Knights Hospitalers their Com­manderies at Cressing Temple in Com Essex, and at Egle in Com. Linc. A. D. 1146. the Prem [...]n­stratensian Order was brought into England, their first Monastery being Newhouse in Lincoln­shire. Two years after, the Gilbertine [...]rder had its rise at Sempringham in that County. The troubles, the Kingdom was for a great part of this Reign embroiled in, could not restrain the Piety and Charity of the English from building Religious Houses, to the number of fifteen of the Benedictine Order, twenty five Priories of black Canons, thirty five Cistercian Abbies, six Houses of the Premonstratensian, six of the Gil­bertine, and four of the Cluniac Rule; one Col­lege, two Preceptories, and three Alien-Pri­ories.

King Henry II. was very obliging to the Clergy, especially after the murder of S. Thomas Becket of Canterbury. He founded the first house the Carth [...]sians had in England, viz. Witham in Somersetshire, as also Waltham in Com. Essex, Newstede in Com. Nott. Ivy Church in Com. Wilt. and Marton in Com. Ebor. of the Austin Order; Newstede in Com. Linc. for Gilbertine Canons; Stonely in Com. Warw. for Cistercian Monks, and [Page] the Alien-Priory of Hagh in Com. Linc. In his Reign were founded twenty two Benedictine, thirty Austin, eight Premonstratensian, four Gil­bertine, and six Cluniac Monasteries, three Colle­giate Churches, six Preceptories, (for in the year 1185. the Templers came into England) eight Alien-Priories, and what is more remarkable, almost twenty Cistercian Abbies, notwithstand­ing it was contrary to a Canon made at the ge­neral Chapter of the Cistercian Order A. D. 1152 ^a wherein the erection of any more Ab­bies of that Rule was expresly forbid, because there were above five hundred of them already founded.

In Richard I. time, the humour of going to recover Holy Land from the Saracens mightily prevail'd in England, as well as in all other parts of Christendom. And the mony design'd for pious uses being expended in those Wars and for the Ransom of the King, there were few Monasteries built in this Reign, viz. six of the Benedictine, four of the Austin, one of the Cistercian, four of the Premonstratensian, and two of the Gilbertine Order, with one Alien-Priory. This King is said ^b to have mortally hated the Black Monks, the Cistercians and the Templers, and not only those three sorts, but also all Re­ligious Men, for we do not find that he built one Monastery in England.

King Iohn tho' he was always prejudiced a­gainst the Ecclesiasticks, yet he founded a stately [Page] Abby for the Cistercians at Beaulieu in Com. Hants. to which he made Farendon in Com. Berks. a Cell. He built also the Ben. Nunnery of Lambley in Com. Northumb. and made Otte­rington in Com. Devon an Alien-Priory. In his Reign were founded seven Benedictine Abbies and Priories, eleven for Regular Canons, seven for Cistercian Monks, one Preceptory, two Pre­monstratensian Abbies, six of the Gilbertine Or­der, and two Alien-Priories.

In King Henry the third's long Reign we find but four Benedictine Abbies and Priories built, fifteen of the Austin, nine of the Cistercian, and of the Gilbertine and Cluniac Orders each one, as also one of the Premonstratensian, viz. Tichfield in Com. Hants. which was the last of that Or­der that was built in England, and one Alien-Priory, viz. Rumney in Com. Cant. the last that was subjected to any foreign Monastery. And the King himself founded only the small Gilber­tine Cell of Fordham in Com. Cantab. For during this Reign came the Dominican or Preaching Friers into this Kingdom, A. D. 1217. and the Franciscans or Friers Minors A. D. 1224. who for the pretended severity of their lives, and their frequent Preaching, were at first mightily admired by the people, to the great loss of the parish Priests, as well as the Regulars.

King Edward I. succeeded next▪ who built the stately Abby of Vale-Royal in Com. Cest. In this King's time the Charity and Devotion of the English began to be very cold; the great­ness and riches of the Ecclesiasticks being en­vied by the Nobility and Gentry, and the af­fections [Page] of the people alienated by the Sermons, Pamphlets, and secret insinuations of the begging Friers. The Nobility and Commons being thus prepared, the Statute of Mortmain easily passed, A. D. 1279. 7. Edw. I. By this Act ^a it was not allowed to any Religious per­son to enter upon any Fees, ‘either to buy them or to receive them of the gift of others, without licence of the chief Lords, upon pain of forfeiture;’ and the reason of this Statute was, because the services due from such Fees, and which at the beginning were provided for the defence of the Realm, are wrongfully with­drawn, and the chief Lords do loose their es­cheats of the same. Upon the making this Statute the Religious seem'd to complain ^b, and to supply the loss of new benefactions, procured pensions, privileges from paying Tithes, and, what the Church finds the inconvenience of to this very day, Impropriations. These last, tho [...] they were sometimes used before, yet after the enacting this law were obtained by Bulls from Rome on every small occasion. A. D. 1295. the King seised all the Ali [...]n-Priories, the rents and profits, which issued out of them to foreign Monasteries, in case they received as formerly, being conceived of advantage to the Kings ene­mies. In this King's time were founded three Monasteries of the Benedictine Order, two Austin Priories, three Cistercian Abbies, one Preceptory and nine Colleges, as also one Gilbertine Priory, viz. Pulton in Wiltshire, which was the last House of that Order in England.

[Page] In King Edward II. his Reign we find no great stir made about the Monks or their lands. Indeed the Knights Templers were seised, and their goods and revenues confiscated; tho' they were not appropriated to any Secular use, but settled on the Knights Hospitalers by Act of Parliament, 17. Edw. II. In which Statute ^a there are some things very remarkable, which shew the opinion Parliaments in those times had of Church-lands. ‘It seemeth good (these are the words of the Act) to our Lord the King, the Noblemen and others assembled in Parliament, for the health of their Souls, and the discharge of their consciences, that where­as the Military Order of Temples were ori­ginally instituted for the defence of Christi­ans and the Universal Holy Church, subver­sion of the enemies of Christ and Christians, and canoniz'd to the augmentation of the ho­nour of God and liberal almsgiving. That the foresaid lands and tenements in demesnes, Lordships, Services, &c. according to the wills of the givers, shall be assign'd and delivered to other men of most holy Religion, to the intent the fruits, obventions, and profits of the same lands, tenements, and other things may be converted and charitably disposed of to godly uses.’ I can't meet with any Mona­stery founded by this unhappy Prince, and in­deed but two of the Benedictine, and two of the Austin Order during his whole Reign.

King Edward III. is character'd by the Monks [Page] to have been a pious, as well as a valiant Prince. For tho' his wars with France would not suffer him to give much to Religious Houses, and forced him to be severe upon the Alien-Priories. Yet there were a great many Monasteries found­ed in his Reign, viz. three Benedictine Houses, six of the Austin Order, one Cistercian, and se­venteen Colleges. And notwithstanding his own extraordinary charges, he founded and liberally endowed the Austin Nunnery at Dert­ford in Com. Cant. with the two large Colleges of St. George at Windsor and St. Stephen at West­minster.

In King Rich. II. his time Wicklive's Doctrines were greedily embraced, and the Mendicant Friers began to lose their reputation. There were no Monasteries, except two or three Charterhouses, founded in this Reign, besides ten or eleven Colleges. Thus after the Laity were prohibited to erect and endow Houses for the Regular Orders, the Secular Priests became more in vogue. It being perhaps more easie to get Mortmain's for them, who had not so many privileges as the Regulars had; or else they were maintain'd by Appropriations, which were no Lay Fees, and so not within the reach of the Statute; or lastly, it was no hard matter to enfeoffe such a number of persons with lands for the payment of certain annual stipends to the Dean and Prebendaries. To the same rea­sons may be referr'd the erecting so many Chantries and Hospitals in the two Centuries before the Reformation. This King founded no Monastery or College, but gave several [Page] Alien-Priories, that had been seis'd into his Grand-fathers hands, to the Carthusians at Mount­grace in Com. Ebor. St. Anns near Coventry, &c.

In the sixth year of Henry the Fourth's reign A. D. 1404. was the Parliamentum indoctum, so called, because none that were learned in the Laws of the Land were suffered to be chosen Members of it. Herein, methods were to be considered on to raise mony for the defence of the Realm against the Welsh and Scots at home, and for carrying on a war against the Britains, Flemings and Frenchmen abroad. Among other resolutions, some forward men among the Com­mons moved, that the Clergy should be deprived of all their Temporal possessions, to the relief of the King's necessities. In answer to this Tho­mas Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury shewed, what great service the Clergy did the Crown for their lands, how that more of their tenants went forth to the King's wars, than the tenants of the Lay-Fees. And after he had at large set forth how ready the Clergy were to assist the King with their Prayers, Counsels, and Purses: kneeling before the King, he humbly desired his Majesty to remember his Coronation Oath, wherein he swore to advance the honour of the Church, and to maintain and cherish the Mini­sters thereof: He prayed him also to think on the Curses which those incurr'd, that took a­way any Lands or Privileges from the Church, &c. To this the King gave a gracious answer, saying, That he was fully resolv'd to leave the Church in as good state, or better than he found it. When the Arch-bishop heard this, he [Page] turned to the Commons, and told them, That some had advised the King and his Predeces­sors to seise on the Alien-Priories, affirming, that thereby great riches would accrue to the Crown, and indeed their goods and possessions were worth many thousands of gold, and yet the King was not at that day half a mark the richer, because they had begg'd them: That it was easie to conjecture, that they had now re­quested the Temporalities of the Clergy, not to advance the Kings profit, but to satisfie their own covetousness: for most certain, if the King should in this (which God forbid) gratifie their wicked desires, he would not be one farthing the richer the next year after ^a. Yet A. D. 1410. there was a new bill exhibited against the Cler [...]y, shewing how great an Army the Tem­poralities of the Clergy would maintain. But the King after he had fully considered the matter, misliked this motion, and commanded, that for the future, they should not presume to think of any such thing ^b. This King built the College of Battlefield in Com. Salop. which with two or three Colleges more, and a Carthu­sian Priory, were all the Foundations during this Reign.

In 2. Henry V. there was another attempt made against the possessions of the Church, but Arch-bishop Chichley earnestly pressing the young King to recover his right to the Crown of France, and for the vigorous carrying on of a war, he promising in the name of the Clergy, [Page] such a benevolence as scarce ever had been given by the Subject. The King readily embraced this proposal, and so the Church was once more preserv'd from Sacrilege. But in a Par­liament held this same year at Leicester, all the Alien-Priories were given to the King, with all their Lands, Houses, &c. except those that were Conventual, i. e. that had liberty to choose their own Prior. For after the first sei [...]ures of these Cells by King Edw. I. and afterward by King Edw. III. the greatest of them got to be made Prioratus indigenae or Denison, such were all those who have any valuations in the No­ti [...]i [...]. By this Naturalization they were freed from subjection to any foreign Monastery, had power to elect a Prior, and to use a common Seal, &c. But of the rest few were given or sold to the Laity, but most of them were still continued for sacred uses, being bestowed by Richard II. Henry IV. Henry V, VI. and Edw. IV. on several Monasteries and Colleges. In this Kings short reign were founded only six Colleges and an Austin Priory, besides the Car­thusian Abby at Sheen in Com. Surr. and the House of the Brigettan Order at Syon in Com. Middl. which were built and liberally endowed by the King himself.

King Henry VI. succeeded next, a Reli­gious but unfortunate Prince, he founded Eaton College in Com. Bucks. and Kings in Cambridge, and endowed them chiefly out of the suppressed Alien-Priories. Beside them were six Colleges founded in this Reign.

[Page] During the Civil wars between the York and Lancaster parties in the time of Edw. IV. we must not expect to meet with any considerable additions to the Church, it being very good fortune that she had prudence enough to keep her own in those troublesome times. There were some few Colleges built in this Reign.

The Reader is desired to observe, that tho' here is noted, how many Religious Houses were built in every King's Reign, yet it is not pretended that the numbers are exact, be­cause there are almost two hundred and fifty Abbies, Priories and Colleges mentioned in this Book, the times of whose Foundations are yet unknown.

As for what relates to Monastick affairs in the Reigns of Richard III. and King Henry VII. our Histories are silent, so that there is nothing remarkable till the Dissolution, which happned in the very next Reign. For the 27. of Henry VIII. all the lesser Monasteries not having 200 ^•. per ann. (of which there were above three hun­dred and seventy) were dissolved, and all their Lands, Rents, Houses, &c. with their stock of Cattel, Corn, &c. given to the King. In the 31st. year of his Reign all the great Abbies to the number of six hundred fourty and five had the same fate. And in the 37th. year, ninety Colleges, one hundred and ten Hospitals, and two thousand three hundred seventy four Chan­tries and Free Chappels, were granted to sup­ply the Kings necessities; besides the Houses, Lands, and Goods of the Knights of St. Iohn of Ierusalem, which were suppressed 32. Hen. VIII. [Page] These things I have but barely named, because the account Sir Will. Dugdale has given us of the methods used in the Dissolution of Mona­steries shall be here subjoin'd at large out of his celebrated History of Warwickshire ^a.

After he had told us that the Commissioners had signified to the Visitor General, ^b That after strict scrutiny, not only by the fame of the Country, but by examinati [...]n of several persons, they found the Nuns (of Polesworth) Vertuous and Religious Women, and of good conversation. He goes on and tells us, That it was not the strict and regular lives of these devout Ladies; nor any thing, that might be said in behalf of the Monasteries, that could pre­vent their ruine then approaching, so great an aime had the King to make himself thereby glorious, and many others no less hopes to be enricht in a conside­rable manner: But, to the end that such a change should not overwhelm those that might be active there­in, in regard the people every where had no small esteem of these Houses for their devout and daily exercises, in Prayer, Alms-deeds, Hospitality, and the like; whereby, not only the Souls of their deceased Ancestors had much benefit, as was then thought, but themselves, the poor, as also strangers and pil­grims, constant advantage, there wanted not the most subtil contrivances to effect this stupendious work, that (I think) any age hath beheld; whereof it will not be thought impertinent I presume, to take here a short view.

In order therefore to it, was that which Cardinal [Page] Wolsey had done, for the founding his Colleges in Oxford and Ipswich, made ^a a president: viz. the dissolving of above thirty Religious Houses, (most very small ones) by the license of the King and Pope Clement VII. And that it might be the better carried on, Mr. Thomas Cromwell who had been an old servant to the Cardinal, and not a little active in that, was the chief person pitched upon, to assist therein: For I look upon this business, as not origi­nally designed by the King; but by some principal ambitious men of that age, who projected to them­selves all worldly advantages imaginable, thro' that deluge of wealth, which was like to flow amongst them by this hideous storm.

First, therefore having insinuated ^b to the King matter of Profit and Honour; scil. Profit by so vast enlargement of his Revenue; and Honour in being able to maintain mighty Armies to recover his rights in France; as also to strengthen himself against the Pope, whose Supremacy he himself abolish'd, and make the firmer alliance with such Princes, as had done the like, did they procure Cranmer's ^c advance­ment to the See of Canterbury, and more of the Protestant Clergy (as my authority terms them) to other Bishopricks, and high places; to the end that the rest should not be able in a full Council to carry any thing against their design; sending out ^d Preach­ers [...]o perswade the people that they should stand fast to the King, without fear of the Popes Curse, or his dissolving their allegiance.

[Page] Next, that it might be the more plausibly carried on, care was taken so to represent the lives of the Monks, Nuns, Canons, &c. to the world, as that the less regret might be made at their ruine: To which purpose T. Cromwell being constituted ^a General Visitor, imploy'd sundry persons, who acted therein their parts accordingly; viz. ^b Rich. Layton, Tho­mas Legh, and William Petre Doctors of Law, Dr. John London Dean of Walingford, and o­thers; to whom he gave instructions in eighty six Ar­ticles; by which they were to enquire into the Go­vernment and behaviour of the Religious of both Sexes; which Commissioners, the better to manage their design, gave encouragement to the Monks, not only to accuse their Governours, but to inform against each other; compelling them also to produce the Char­ters and Evidences of their Lands, as also their Plate and Money, and to give an inventory thereof. And hereunto did they add certain ^c injunctions from the King, containing most severe and strict Rules; by means whereof divers being found obnoxious to their censure, [...]were expelled: and many discerning themselves not able to live from some exception or advantage, that might be taken against them, desired to leave their Habit ^d.

And having by these Visitors, thus search't into their lives; which by a ^e Black Book containing a world of enormities, were represented in no small measure scandalous; to the end that the people might [...]e better satisfied with their proceedings, it was [Page] thought convenient to suggest, that the lesser Houses for want of good Government, were chiefly guilty of these crimes that were laid to their charge: and so they did, as appears by the preamble of that Act ^a for their Dissolution, made in 27. Hen. VIII. which Parliament, consisting of the most part of such Mem­bers as were packt for the purpose, through private interest; as is evident by divers ^b original Letters of that time; many of the Nobility, for the like re­spects also favouring the design, assented to the sup­pressing of all such Houses, as had been certified of less value then 200 ^•. per ann. and giving them, with their lands and revenues to tho King: yet so as not only the Religious Persons therein should be committed to the great and honou­rable Monasteries of this Realm, where they might be compell'd to live religiously for refor­mation of their lives; wherein, thanks be to God, Religion is well kept and observ'd, (as are the very words of that Act) but that the pos­sessions belonging to such Houses should be converted to better uses, to the pleasure of Al­mighty God, and to the honour and profit o [...] the Realm.

But how well the tenour thereof was pursued, [...] shall soon see; these specious pretences being mad [...] use of for no other purpose, than by opening this gap to make way for the total ruine of the greater Houses [...] wherein it is by the said Act acknowledg'd, tha [...] Religion was so well observed. For no soone [...] were the Monks, &c. turned out; and the House d [...]molish'd (that being it which was first thought r [...] ­quisite, [Page] least some accidental change might conduce to their restitution) but care was taken to prefer ^a such persons to the Superiority in Government, up­on any vacancy of those greater Houses, as might be instrumental to their surrender, by perswading with the Covent to that purpose; whose activeness was such, that within the space of two years, several Covents were wrought upon, and Commissioners sent down to take them at their hands to the Kings use: of which number I find ^b, that besides the before spe­cified Doctors of Law, (scil. Legh, Petre, and Lay­ton, and Dr. London Dean of Walingford) there was Rob. Earl of Sussex, Sir John St. Clere, Sir Will. Pirton, Sir Henry Farington Knights, and Richard Devereux sometimes a Frier: And of Gentlemen Anthony Fitz-Herbert, (afterwards one of the Iustices of the Common Pleas) John Gage, Will. Leland, John Williams, Tho. Mildmay, ... Jobson, Richard Cromwell, Rob. South­well, Will. Parr, Thomas Bedyll, Henry Polsted, John Anthony, Edmund Knightly, John Lane, George Giffard, John Grevill, Sim. Mountfort, Thomas Holt, Roger Wigston, Rob. Burgoin, Richard Pollard, Philip Parys, John Smith, Edw. Carn, Rich. Gwent, Will. Barners, John Arnold, John ap Rice, and Rich. Paulet.

The truth is, that there was no omission of any endeavour, that can well be imagined, to accomplish these surrenders, For so subtilly did the Commissioners act their parts, as that after earnest solicitation ^c with the Abbats, and finding them backwards, they [Page] first attempted them with the promises of ^a good Pen­sions during life; whereby they found some forward enough to promote the work, as the Abbat of Hales in Com. Gloc. was, who had high commendation for it by the Commissioners, as their Letters ^b to the Vi­sitor General do manifest: So likewise had the ^c Ab­bats of Ramsey and the Prior of Ely. Nay, som [...] were to be obsequious, that after they had wrought the surrender of their own Houses, they were im­ployed ^d as Commissioners to perswade with others, as the Prior of Gisborn in Yorkshire for one. Neither were the Courtiers unactive in driving on this work, as may seem by the Lord Chancellour Audley's imploying a special Agent ^e to treat with the Abbat of Athelney, and to offer him an hundred marks per annum Pension, in case he would surren­der; which the Abbat refused, insisting upon a greater sum: And the personal endeavours that he used with the Abbat of St. Osithe's in Essex, as by his Letter ^f to the said Visitor; wherein it is signified, That he had by great solicitation prevail'd with the said Abbat; but withall insinuated his desire, that his place of Lord Chancellour being very charge­able, the King might be moved for an addition of some more profitable Offices unto him. Nay, I find that this great Man the Lord Chancellour hunt­ing eagerly after the Abby of Walden in Essex, (out of the ruines whereof afterwards that magni­ficent Fabrick, called by the name of Audley-end was built) as an argument the sooner to obtain it, did, besides the extenuation of its worth, alledge, [Page] ^a That he had in this world sustained great da­mage and infamy in his serving the King, which the grant of that should recompense.

Amongst the particular arguments, which were used by those that were averse to surrender, I find, that the Abbat of Feversham alledg'd ^b the anti­quity of that Monasterie's foundation: scil. by King Stephen, whose body with the bodies of the Queen and Prince lay there interr'd, and for whom were used continual suffrages and com­mendations by Prayers; yet it would not avail: For resolv'd they were to effect what they had begun, by one means or other; in so much as they procured the Bishop of London to come to the Nuns of Sion with their Confessor, to solicite them thereunto; who, after many perswasions ^c Took it upon their con­sciences, that they ought to submit unto the King's pleasure therein by God's Law. But what could not be effected by such arguments and fair pro­mises, which were not wanting nor unfulfilled, as appears by the larg [...] Pensions ^d that some active Monks and Canons had, in comparison of others, even to a fift and sixth fold proportion more than or­dinary, was by terrour and straight dealing brought to pass; for under pretence of ^e suffering dilapidation in the buildings, or negligent administration of their Offices; as also for breaking the Kings injunctions, they dep [...]ived some ^f Abbats, and then put others, that were more pliant in their rooms.

From others they took ^g their Covent Seals, to the end they might not, by making Leases, nor sale of [Page] their Iewels raise money, either for supply of their present wants, or payment of their debts, and so be necessitated to surrender. Nay to some, as in par­ticular to the Canons of Leicester, the Commissioners threatned ^e That they would charge them with Adultery and Buggery, unless they would sub­mit: And Dr. London ^f told the Nuns of God­stow, That because he found them obstinate, he would dissolve the House by vertue of the Kings Commission in spite of their teeth. And yet all was so managed, as that the King ^g was so­licited to accept of them, not being willing to have it thought they were by terrour moved thereunto, and special notice was taken of them ^h as did give out that their surrenders were by compulsion.

Which courses, after so many, thro [...] under hand corruption, had led the way, brought on others apace, as appears by their Dates, which I have observed from the very Instruments ⁱ themselves: in so much as the rest stood amazed, not knowing which way to turn them. Some therefore thought fit to try, whe­ther money might save their Houses from this dis­mal fate so near at hand, the Abbat of Peterburgh offering ^k 2500. marks to the King, and 300 ^l. to the Visitor General therein. Others with great con­stancy refused to be thus accessary in violating the donations of their Pious Founders: but these as they were not many, so did they taste of no little severity: For touching the Abbat of Fountains in Yorkshire, I find ^l that being charged by the Commissioners for [Page] taking into his private hands some Iewels belonging to that Monastery, which they called Theft and Sa­crilege, they pronounced him perjured, and so depo­sing him, extorted a private resignation. And it appears ^m that the Monks of Charterhouse in the Suburbs of London were committed to Newgate; where, with hard and barbarous usage five of them died, and five more lay at the point of death, as the Commissioners signified ⁿ; but withall alledged, ^o That the Suppression of that House, being of so strict a Rule, would occasion great scandal to their doings, forasmuch as it stood in the face of the world, infinite concourse from all parts coming to that populous City, and therefore desired it might be altered to some other use. And lastly, that ^p under the like pretence of robbing the Church (wherewith the before specified Abbat of Fountains was charged) the Abbat of Glastonbury, with two of his Monks, being condemned to death, was drawn from Wells upon a Hurdle, then hanged upon the Hill called the Tor, (near Glastonbury) his head set upon the Abby gate, and his quarters disposed of to Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgewater. Nor did the Abbats of Colchester and Reading speed much better, as they that shall consult the story ^q of that time, may see: And for farther terrour to th [...] rest, some Priors, and other Ecclesiastick persons, who had spoke against the Kings Supremacy (a thing then somewhat uncouth, being so newly set up) were condemn'd as Traitors ^r and executed.

And now that all this was effected; to the end it [Page] might not be thought, that these things were done by a high hand, the King having protested ^s That he would suppress none without consent of Par­liament. A Parliament ^t being called April 28. Anno 1539. to confirm these surrenders so made, as hath been said, there wanted not plausible ins [...] ­ations to both Houses, for drawing on their consent with all smoothness thereto; the Nobility being pro­mised large shares in the spoil, either by free gift from the King, easie purchases, or most advantageous exchanges; and many of the active Gentry, ad­vancements to honour, with increase of their estates: all which, we see, happened to them accordingly: And the better to satisfie the vulgar, was it repre­sented to them, ^u that by this deluge of Wealth the Kingdom should be strengthened with an Army of fourty thousand Men, and that for the future they should never be charged with Subsidies, Fifteens, Loans or common Aids. By which means the Par­liament ratifying the before specified surrenders, the work became compleated; for the more firm setttling whereof, a sudden course was taken to pull down and destroy the buildings, as had been before upon that Dissolution of smaller Houses, whereof I have touch't. Next to disperse a great proportion of their Lands amongst the Nobility and Gentry, as had been pro­jected, which was accordingly done, ^v the Visitor General having told the King, ^x That the more had interest in them, the more they would be irrevocable.

And least any domestick stirs, by reason of this [Page] great and strange alteration should arise, rumours ^y were spread, that Cardinal Pool laboured with di­vers Princes to procure forces against this Realm, and that an invasion was threatned; which seemed the more credible, because the Truce concluded be­twixt the Emperour and the French King was ge­nerally known, neither of them wanting a pretence to bring them hither. And this was also seconded by a suddain journey of the King unto the Sea Coasts: unto divers parts whereof he had sent sundry of the Nobles and expert persons to visit the Ports and places of danger; who failed not for their dis­charge upon all events, to affirm the peril in each place to be so great, as one would have thought every place had needed a Fortification. Besides, he forth­with caused his Navy to be in a readiness, and Musters to be taken over all the Kingdom: All which preparations being made against a danger believed imminent, seemed so to excuse this Suppression of the Abbies, as that the people willing to save their own Purses, began to suffer it easily, especi­ally when they saw order taken for building such Forts.

But let us look a little upon the success; wherein I find ^z that the said Visitor General (the grand Actor in this tragick business) having contracted upon himself such an Odium from the Nobility, by reason of his low birth, tho' not long before made Knight of the Garter, Earl of Essex, and Lord High Chancellour of England; as also from the Catholicks, for having thus operated in the Dissolution of Ab­bies, that before the end of the before specified Par­liament, [Page] wherein that was ratified, which he had with so much industry brought to pass; the King, not having any more use of him, gave way to his Enemies accusations; whereupon being arrested ^a by the Duke of Norfolk at the Counsel Table, when he least dream't of it, and committed to the Tower, he was condemn'd by ^b the same Parliament for Heresie and Treason un [...]eard and little pittied; and on the xxviii. of July, viz. four days after the Parlia­ment was dissolved, had ^c his head cut off on Tower Hill.

And as for the Fruit, which the People reapt, af­ter all their hopes built upon those specious pretences, which I have instanc'd, it was very little: For plain it is, that ^d Subsidies from the Clergy, and Fifteens of Lay-mens goods were soon after exacted: And that in Edw. VI. time, the Commons were constrain­ed to supply ^e the Kings wants by a new invention, viz. Sheep, Clothes, Goods, Debts, &c. for three years: which Tax grew so heavy, that the year following they prayed the King ^f for mitigation thereof. Nor is it a little observable, that whilst the Monasteries stood, there was no Act for the re­lief of the Poor, so amply did those Houses give succour to them that were in want; whereas in the next age, viz. 39. Eliz. no less than eleven Bills were brought into the House of Commons for that purpose.

So far this Learned Knight. Many other ill consequences, that attended the Suppression of [Page] these Religious Houses, might be here farther observed; but, besides that they would lead me into a long and tedious digression, it is an an invidious subject, which few in this age can bear. So that 'tis my design at present to take notice only of the great decay of Learning, that was like to ensue the Dissolution: in so much that in the Parliaments held 2. Edw. VI. and 3. Edw. VI. there were Bills brought in for incouraging men to give lands for the mainte­nance of Schools of learning ^g And the loss of good Books was irreparable, for Bale ho­nestly tells us, ^h Never had we bene offended for the loss of our Lybraryes, beynge so many in nombre, and in so desolate places for the more parte, yf the chiefe monumentes and most notable workes' of our most excellent wryters, had bene reserved. If there had bene in every Shyre of Englande, but one solempne Lybrarye to the preservacyon of those noble workes, and preferrement of good lernynge in oure posteritye, it had bene sumwhat. But to destroye all without consideracyon, is and wyll be unto Englande for ever, a moste horryble infamy amonge the grave Se­nyours of other Nacyons. A great nombre of them, whych purchased those superstycyouse mansyons, re­served of those Lybrary bokes, some to serve theyr Iakes, some to scoure their candelstyckes, and some to rubbe their bootes. Some they sold to the Grossers and Sopesellers, and some they sent over See to the Bokebynders, not in small nombre, but at tymes whole Shyppes full, to the wonderynge of foren Nacy­ons. [Page] Yea, the Vnyversytees of thys Realme are not all clere in this detestable fact. But cursed is that bellye, whyche seketh to be fedde with suche ungodly gaynes, and so depelye shameth his natural Countrey. I knowe a Merchaunt Man, whych shall at thys tyme be namelesse, that boughte the contentes of two noble Lybraryes for xl. shyllynges pryce, a shame it is to be spoken. Thys stuffe hath he occupyed in the stede of graye paper by the space of more than these ten years, and yet he hath store ynough for as many years to come. A prodyg [...]ouse example is this, and to be abhorred of all Men which love their Nation, as they should do. Thus Bale, one of the bitterest enemies the Monks ever had, is forced to la­ment the great damage the Learned World sustained at the Dissolution. Indeed, those well furnish't Libraries, that were in most Mo­nasteries plainly shew, that we are too much prejudic'd against the Monks, when we rashly condemn them, as idle, ignorant, and discou­ragers of Learning; and that on the contrary we ought to esteem many of them to be Learned and industrious, and promoters of several use­full parts of knowledge. In every great Abby there was a large Room called the ⁱ Scriptorium, to which belonged several Writers, whose whole business it was to transcribe good Books for the use of the publick Library of the House. Tho' sometimes they wrote the Leiger-books, as also Missals, and other Books used in Divine Service, yet, generally they were upon other [Page] Works, viz. Fathers, Classicks, Histories, Phi­losophy, &c. And to give but one instance; the care they had to encrease the number of good Books will appear by the large Cata­logue of Books, which were transcrib'd at Gla­stonbury ^k in one Abbat's time, and are as follow,

• Bibliotheca una.
• Plinius de Naturali Historia.
• Cassiodorus super Psalteriam.
• Tria Missalia magna.
• Duo Lectionaria.
• Breviarium (in domo infirmorum.)
• Jeronimus super Ieremiam & Isaiam.
• Origines super Vetus Testamentum.
• Ejusdem Omeliae.
• Idem super Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos.
• Hieronymus super Epistolam ad Galathas & ad Ephesios, & ad Titum, & ad Philemonem.
• Vitae Patrum.
• Collationes Patrum.
• Breviarium (Hospitum.)
• Antiphonarium.
• Pars una Moralium.
• Cyprianus.
• Registrum.
• Liber dictus Paradisus.
• Jeronimus contra Iovinianum.
• Ambrosius contra Novatianos.
• Septem Volumina de Passionibus Sanctorum per totum anni circulum.
• Vit [...]e Caesarum.
• [Page] Gesta Britonum.
• Gesta Anglorum.
• Gesta Francorum.
• Pascasius.
• Radbertus de corpore sanguine Domini.
• Summae quaedam.
• Liber Abbatis Clarevallensis de amando Deo.
• Hugo de S. Victore de duodecim gradibus Hu­militatis & de Oratione.
• Physionomia, Lapidarium, & Liber Petri Alfimii in uno volumine.
• Rhetorica prima & secunda.
• Vnum Volumen Quintiliani de causis.
• Epistola Augustini de oratione Dominica & super Psalmum Miserere mei Deus.
• Benedictionale unum Episcopale.
• Decreta Juonis Carnotensis Episcopi.
• Jeronimus super XII. Prophetas & Lamentationes Ieremiae.
• Augustinus de Trinitate.
• Augustinus super Genesin.
• Ysidori Etymologiae.
• Paterius.
• Augustinus de verbis Domini.
• Hugo de Sacramentis.
• Cassianus de Incarnatione Domini.
• Anselmus cur Deus Homo.

These valuable Books could never have been without the expence of a great deal of time and money transcribed, had not the Monks had a Spirit of Learning and industry. There were no less than ^l 1700. MSS. Tracts in the Library [Page] at Peterburgh; and the Catalogues ^m of Books belonging to the Priory of Dover, and the Abby of St. Mary de la Pre at Leicester clearly evince, that those Houses had no mean Libraries, and those kept in very good order. Nay, so zea­lous were the Monks for the encouragement of Learning, that they very often got Churches ⁿ appropriated ad libros faciendos. And in the Abby of St. Austin at Canterbury ^o there was (temp. Edw. II.) an order made by Thomas the Abbat, with the unanimous consent of the whole Convent, that yearly on the first day of Lent, Prayers should be made for the Souls of the dead, and the good estates of the living Benefactors to the Library; that for the living the Mass of the Holy Ghost should be solemnly sung, and for the dead the Mass Pro Defunctis, with the Prayer Inclina, &c. And not only their diligence in procuring new Books, but their care in preserving the old, was very com­mendable. Of this St. Aldhelm's Psalter at Malmsbury ^p, and St. Cuthbert's ^q Gospels kept till the Dissolution in Durham Abby, (and now among that curious Collection of MSS. belong­ing to Sir Iohn Cotton at Westminster) are preg­nant instances. And Leland ^r tells us, that in Bath Library he found several Books given them by King Ethelstan. To this end they had in some Monasteries Librarians, as Flaccus Al­binus [Page] ^s at York, and William Somerset at Malms­bury, and in others there is reason to believe, the Libraries were under the care of the Came­rarius. It would be too hard a censure to think that those, who were so great lovers of Books, should not make some use of them. The an­cient British, Irish, and Saxon Monasteries, we find ^t, were the Schools and Universities of those times; they were not only Cells of De­votion, but also Nurseries of Learned Men for the use of the Church. The works of Bede are a sufficient argument of the knowledge the Monks of those times had in all parts of Learn­ing. Their skill in the Learned Languages was so very eminent, that 'tis reported ^u some of them understood Greek and Latin, as well as their Mother-tongue. But it is to no purpose to enlarge any more in this matter, which re­quires a particular Treatise. When the Monks were rooted out by the Danish wars, an univer­sal ignorance overspread the land, in so much that there was scarce any one in England, that could read or write Latin ^v. But when by the care of King Edgar and Arch-bishop Dunstan, Monasteries were restored, Learning found it's former encouragement, and flourished very much within the walls of the Cloisters. So that Leland (who was no great friend to the Monks) often confesses ^x, that in these old times there few or no Writers but Monks, and [Page] that all the knowledge of those dark ages was amongst them. Even after the Conquest, tho' by reason of the introducing several new Or­ders of Religious, (who minded their Devo­tions, more than Books) there were but few Learned Men, yet all or most of the Writers were Monks and Regular Canons till the rise of the Mendicant Orders, in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry III. In the preceding Centuries Learning began to flourish in our Universities, tho' the original, or, at least, the Restoration of one of them is owing to the [...]onks ^y of Croiland. In them were taught [...]chool Divinity and Canon Law, then mightily [...] vogue, and the Friers resorting thither in [...]reat numbers, and applying themselves to [...]earning with indefatigable industry, went be­ [...]ond the Monks in all parts of the then fashio­ [...]able knowledge. But in the next age the [...]onks had Colleges in the Universities found­ [...] and liberally endowed for the education of [...]eir Novices. Thus Leland ^z tells us, The [...]mes of Peterburgh Haulle, Semplingham and [...]auldey remain at Stanford, as places for those [...]ouses of Men of Religion, that sent their Scholars [...]ther to study. And in Oxford we had Glocester, [...]rham, Canterbury and London Colleges, for [...] Benedictines, St. Marie's (near North-gate) [...] the Austin Canons, and the College of St. [...] for the Cistercians. Here the young [...]onks were instructed for some years, in Gram­mar, [Page] Rhetorick, Philosophy, School Divinit [...] &c. and then returning home, improv'd the [...] knowledge by their private Studies, to the se [...]vice of God and the honour of their respecti [...] Societies. So that a little before the Reformatio [...] the greatest part of the Proceeders in Divini [...] were Monks and Regular Canons, as will [...] appear from the Fasti Oxonienses ^a. It farther observable, that when Printing was [...] known, the Monks were the chief promote [...] of that excellent invention in England. [...] Hollingshead ^b saith, William Caxton of Lond [...] Mercer, brought Printing into England about [...] year 1471. and first, practised the same in the [...] of St. Peter at Westminster, after which time was likewise practised in the Abbies of St. [...] at Canterbury, St. Albans, and other Monaster [...] These are all the remarks that I shall [...] in favour of the Learning of the Mon [...] tho' I pretend not to justifie the ignora [...] of some of them, or to compare the [...] lege of those dark ages with that of [...] times: but it is my design only to shew, [...] there were some persons among the [...] who were (allowance being made for the [...] wherein they liv'd) very good Scholars the [...] selves, and encouragers of Learning in other [...]

Having detain'd the Reader with such a [...]dious Preface, I shall make no other apol [...] for it and the whole Book, than in the [...] of our Great Master Camden ^c who saith, [...] [Page] are some, I hear, who take it ill, that I have men­tioned Monasteries, and their Founders; I am sorry to hear it; but (not to give them any just offence) let 'em be angry if they will. Perhaps they would have it forgotten, that our Ancestors were, and we are Christians; since there were never more certain indications and glorious Monuments of Christian Piety and Devotion to God, than those; nor were there any other Seminaries for the propagation of the Christian Religion and good literature, however it came to pass, that in a loose age some rank weeds run up too fast, which required rooting out.

I shall crave leave to suggest but one thing more, which is, that some able pen would give us an exact and full account of all, that Pro­testants have given or laid out for the Publick Good since the Reformation, in works of Piety and Charity, for the promotion of Learning, the relief of the Poor, and the honour of the Nation. Some such thing was attempted by Dr. Willet in his Synopsis Papismi; but that be­ing imperfect, by reason of the almost innu­merable Benefactions bestowed since; a Book of this nature deserves the encouragement of all Publick spirited Men and true English Protestants: because it would be a standing Monument of the Publick affection and zeal of this Protestant King­dom to Piety and good works. By such a Book as this it would appear, That there is no pretence (that I may use the words ^a of a Right Reverend father of our Church) to upbraid us, that error [Page] and superstition could make Men more zealous of good Works, than the Doctrine of the true Religion; and that our adversaries of Rome may be convinced, that our Piety is as generous and charitable as theirs, but would not be so arrogant and presumptuous; and that whilst we disclaim merit, yet we do most stedfastly believe the obligation and necessity of good Works.

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