LETTER CXXXIII.

Lord Cromwell to the King, dated London 17th March in the Evening. A portion of a Letter : concerning an Irish Monk, one of the Traitors before mentioned.

I TAKE God to be not onely your Grace's protector but also a merveillouse favorer, so that in my hert I hold me assured although all the rest shuld have conspired agenst your Grace, yet ye shall prevail through his grace assuredly; seeing that now I understand from Ireland that your rebels Desmond, Byryn, O nell, and Odonell do moch combyne and practise togeder. I think a miracle of the arry vaill of the Irish monk which was wether driven hither, they were iiij. Ships at their departure of Scotland a fortnight ere they could procede any thing forward; and, by tempest, iij. of them drowned in th'other sight wherein this monk was dryven to this your Grace's land by the wynd; whereto of all places in the world he was the most lothe to arryve. It shalbe a great hindrance to the said Irishe rebells purposes and practises whan they shall knowe themselves so to be at this tyme by the in

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terception of this monk, their messenger, so interrupted. We cannot as yet gett the pyth of his credence, wherby I am advised to morowe ones to go to the Tower and see hym sett in the Bracks a and by torment compelled to confesse the truth.

*

LETTER CXXXIV.

E. Hord Prior of Henton in Somersetshire to his brother Alen Horde, announcing his intention of submitting to the King.

[MS. COTTON. CLEOP. E. IV. fol. 270. Orig.]

This Letter, from the Prior of a Carthusian Monastery to his brother, probably explains the feeling of a large portion of the Heads of the Religious Houses at the time of the Suppression. They were called upon to give up that "which was not theirs to give;" that which was dedicated to the Almighty for service to be done to his honor continually; and limited in its distribution to deeds of charity. They yielded to necessity. Willis says that Henton was surrendered to the King by the Prior and nineteen monks March 31st. 1539.

a The Brack or Brake, was a species of rack. The very instrument which Cromwell professes the intention of using, or a portion of the horrid machine, was lately remaining in the Tower. It is engraved on wood in the Notes to Isaac Reed's edition of Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 231. It is also mentioned by Judge Blackstone in his Commentaries, vol. iv. ch. 25. He says,." The trial by rack is utterly unknown to the Law of England; though once when the Dukes of Exeter and Suffolk and other ministers of Henry the VIth, had laid a design to introduce the civil law into this kingdom as the rule of government, for a beginning thereof they erected a rack for torture which was called in derision the Duke of Exeter's daughter, and still remains in the Tower of London; where it was occasionally used as an engine of State, not of Law, more than once in the reign of Queen Elizabeth." In Mary's time it had been frequently used.

Jhus

IN Owr Lord Jhesu shall be yowr Salutation. And where ye marvelle that I and my brotherne do nott frelye and voluntarilie geve and surrendure upe owr Howse at the mocyone off the Kyngs Commissinars, but stonde styfflye (and as ye thynke) obstenatlye in owr opynion, trulye Brothere I marvelle gretlye that ye thynke soo; but, rather that ye wolde have thowght us lyghte and hastye in gevyn upe that thynge whyche ys not owrs to geve, but dedicate to Allmyghtye Gode for service to be done to hys honoure contynuallye, with other many goode dedds off charite whiche daylye be done in thys Howse to owr Christen neybors. And consideryng that ther ys no cause gevyn by us why the Howse shull be putt downe, but that the service off Gode, religious conversacion off the bretherne, hospitalite, almes deddis, with all other owr duties be as well observyde in this poore Howse as in eny relygious Howse in thys Realme or in Fraunce; whiche we have trustyde that the Kynges Grace wolde considere, But by cause that ye wrytte off the Kyngs hye displeasure and my Lorde Prevy Sealis, who ever hath byn my especialle good Lorde, and I truste yette wyll be, I wyll endevere my selffe, as muche as I maye, to perswade my brotherne to a comfformyte in thys matere; soo that the Kyngs Hynes nor my sayd good Lorde shall have eny cause to be displeside with us: trustyng that my poor brothern (whiche knowe not

where to have theme lyvynge) shall be charitable looke uppon. Thus owr Lord Jhesu preserve yow

in

grace.

Thomas Lord La Warr to Lord Cromwell desiring that Boxgrave Abbey may be spared.

[MS. COTTON. CLEOP. E. IV. fol. 234. Orig.]

This Letter stands in need of a short Introduction. Lord La Warr calls himself in it the Founder of Boxgrave Priory; that is THE PATRON.

By the ancient institutions of the Realm, it was lawful for the donors of lands to religious and charitable uses, or their heirs, to resume them if the rents and profits were not applied to the purposes for which they were bestowed. This is expressly stated in a Latin letter from King Edward the Third to the Pope, printed in Rymer's Fœdera. a Hence also the care so frequently observable in our Abbey Registers to perpetuate the descents of those in whom the right of patronage was vested.

Boxgrave Priory in Sussex was founded at an early period as a Cell to the Abbey of De l'Essay in Normandy, from which it was afterwards severed, as an Alien Cell, and made indigenous, in the reign of Edward the Third. Sir Thomas West Lord La Warr inherited the patronage of this Priory as descended from Robert de Haya who had given it to De l'Essay.

In this Letter Lord La Warr solicits first that Boxgrave may remain

Rym, Fœd. tom. iii. p. 135.

unsuppressed; then, if it cannot so remain, that it may be converted into a College; thirdly, that, if that may not be, he may have the farm of it, with all such other things as the Prior had for the provision of the House, granted to him by the King.

The Site and premises of this Priory were actually granted to Lord La Warr, who, as appears by a Letter from the Visitors to Lord Cromwell dated 27th March, paid 1257. 13s. 4d. for the goods belonging to the House.

This was one of very few instances in which the descendant of a founder, at the time of the Dissolution, recovered the alienated patrimony of his family. Earl's Colne in Essex granted to John Vere earl of Oxford was another.

It was to the credit of the English nobility, that no selfish motives on their part led them either to wish for or to promote the suppression of the Religious Houses.

Sir Thomas More has a remarkable passage to this effect in his Works: "And to say the truth, much marvel have I to see some folk now so much and so boldly speak of taking away any possessions of the clergy. For al be it that once in the time of the famous Prince King Henry the Fourth, about the time of a great rumble that the heretics made, when they would have destroyed not the clergy only but the King also and his nobility too, there was a foolish Bill and a fals put into a Parliament or twain, and sped as they were worthy : yet had I never founden in all my time while I was conversant in the Court, of all the Nobility of this land above the number of SEAVEN (of which seaven there are now three dead) that ever I perceived to be of the mind, that it were either right or reasonable, or could be to the realme profitable without lawful cause, to take any possessions away from the clergy, which good and holy Princes and other devout virtuous people, of whom there be now many blessed saints in heaven, have of devotion toward God given to the clergy, to serve God and pray for all christen soules.” a

When the Houses were once dissolved, the Nobility, with the rest of the world, thought it no sacrilege to share in the acquisition of conventual estates. Papists and Protestants, indiscriminately, accepted grants. The Suppression of these Houses it will be remembered was prior to the Reformation of Religion, and was effected by a King and Parliament of the popish communion.

RIGHT worshipfull Sir, in my most harty wise I recommend me to you, verey desyrus to here of your

a The Apology of Syr Thomas More knt. made An. 1533. Works, edit. 1557. p. 885.