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VOL. I <7
CODBETT. ON THE REFORMATION.
Mistory of the Protestant “Reformation,” in England and Ire-
~" Tand; ‘in a series of Letters, addressed to all sensible and just
Englishmen.” By Wiitras-Copserr.
"8 0 LETTER Y.
|» (Continued from our last.)
a
,
eke
qnestion: we hare the aristocracy, and we must, by a public pro-
vision of some sort, e younger branches of it, prevent it
ma falling into the degradation. inseparable from.
‘This provision was, in the times of which’ we are speaking, made
by the Monasteries, which received a great number of its monks
and nuns from the families of the nobles.: ‘This rendered those
‘edieus and burdensome things, pensioris and sinecures, unneces-
sory. It, of course, spared the taxes. It was a-provision that
was not degrading to the receivers; and it created no grudging
d discontent among the people, from whom the receivers took
ng. Another great advantage arising from this mode of
providing for the younger branches of the-nobility was, that it
secured the government against the temptation to give offices
ond to lodge power in_unfil hands.: Look at our pension and
sinecure list; look at the list of those who have commands, and
‘who fill other offices of emolument y.and you will, at once, see
the great benefit which must have been derived from institutions,
which left the government quite free to choose commanders, ams
bassadors, governors and other persons, to exercise power and
to be intrusted in the carrying on of the public affairs... These
institations tended, too, to check the increase of the race of no-4
bles{ to prevent the. persons connected with that order from.
extent to which they naturally would,
They tended also to make the nobles
not so dependent on the crown, a provision being made for their
poor relations without the crown’s assistance ; and, at the same.
je monasteries 4
set, the example, as.masters and landlords ;:an example that
others were, in a great degree, compelled to follow. And thus;
all. ranks and: degrees’ were benefitted by these institutions,
which, with maligaant historians, have been a subject of endless
" abuse, and the destruction of which they have recorded with so
auch delight, as being one of the brightest features in the “ Res
formation 1” ‘
5, Nor reust we, by any means, overlook the-effects of these.
tutions on the mere face of the country. That soul must be
low and mean indeed, which is insensille to all feeling of pride
in the noble edifices of its country. : Love of country, that va-
riety of feelings which, all together, constitute what we properly
tal] patriatism, consist in part of the admiration of, and yenera~
Hon for, ancient and magvifi¢ent proofs of skill and of opulence.
‘The monasties built as well as wrote for posterity: The never-
dying nature: of their institutions set. aside, in all their under-
takings, every calculation as to time and age. Whether they
built or planted, they set the generous example of providing-for
the pleasure, the.honour, the. wealth and greatness of genera-
tions upon generatious yet unborn. They executed every thing
in the very best.manner: their gardens, fish-ponds; farms; :in
all,in the-whole of their economy, they setan example tending
to make the-country beautiful, to make, it an object of pride
with the people; and:to make-the nation truly and permanently
freat, Go into any county, and survey, even at this day, the
Yaing of its, perhaps, twenty Abbeys and Priories: and, then,
ask yourself, “ what have we in exchange Sor these?” : Go to the
site of some once-opulent Convent. Look at the cloister, now
ecome; in the-hands of a rack-renter, the receptacle for dung,
fodder and faggot wood: sce the hall, where, for ages, the wi-
ow, the orphan, the aged and the stranger, found a table ready
Spread; see-a.bit of its walls now helping.to make a catt! “shed,
the rest having been hauled away to build a workhouse: reco,
Nire, in the side of a barn, a part of the. once-magnificent Cha-
Pel: and; if, chained to the spot by your melancholy musings,
, You be admonished of the approach of night by the voice of the
Sereech-owl, issuing from those arches, which once; at the same
hour, resounded with the. vespers of the mouk, and which have,
3,\ Seven hundred years;. been assailed.by storms and:tempests
'n vain ; if ‘thus admonished ofthe necessity of seeking food,
shelter, and a bed, lift your eyes and look at the white-washed
and dry-rotten shell on the hill, called “gentleman’s house ;”
and, apprized of the “ board-wages” and the spring-guns, sude
i ur head}, jog away fromthe scene of devastation;
with “old English }¥ospitality” in your mind, reach the nearest
ima, and there, in a room-half warmed and half lighted; and with
*eception precisely proportioned to the presumed length of your
Imuse, sit down and listen to an account of the hypocritical pre-
‘thers, the:base motives, the tyrannical and bloody-means, un.
at whichs from..which- and by which, that devastation was
"fected, and.that hospitality banished for ever from the kind.
36.;, We-haveralready. seen something of those pretences,
Atrotives. an
nd acts .of tyranny and barharity ; we have seen that
» the benstly.lust of the chief tyrant. was the gronndwork‘of what
NEW-YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1825.
have proceeded in his course without the concurrence of: par-
liament; we have seen, that to obtain that concurrence, he held
out to those who composed it a participation in the spoils of the
monasteries; and, when we look at the magnitude of their pos-
sessions when we consider the beauty and fertility of the spots
on which they, in general, were situated, when we think of the
envy which the love borne them by the pecple must have excited
in the hearts ofa great many of the noblemen’ and gentlemen ;
when we thus reflect, we are not surprised, that jhese were ea-
ger for a “ Reformation” that promised to transfer the envied
possessions to them, i : :
157..When we have power to commit, and are resolved to
commit, acts of injustice, they are never at a loss for pretences.
We shall presently see what were the pretences under which
this devastation of England was begun; but, to do the work,
there required a workman, as, to slaughter an ox, there requires
a butcher. - To turn the possessors of so large a part of the es-
tates out of those estates, to destroy establishinents venerated
by the people from their childhood, to set all law, divine as well
as human, at defiance, to violate every principle on which pro-
perty rested, to rob the poor and helpless of the means of suste-
nance, to deface the beauty. of the country, and make itliteralty
a heap of ruins;.to do these things, there required a suitable
agent;’ and that agent the tyrantfound in Tnomas Crowwint,
whose name, along with that of Craymur, ought “to stand for
ever accursed in the calendar.” ‘This Cromwet. was the son of
a blacksmith of Pumey, in Surrey... He had beea an underling,
of somé sort in the family of. Carpinat Woorsgy. and had re.
commended hitaself to the king by his sycophancy to him, and
~The king:now became head of
g the. supremacy to exercise, bad very
judiciously provided himself with CrasneRas a primate; and,
im, he provided himself with Cromwett, who was
equal to Cranmer in impiousness and baseness, rather surpass-
ed him in dastardliness, and exceedéd decidedly in-quality of
rufian. All nature could not, perhaps, have another. man so
fit to be the “ Royat Vicecerent and Vicak-Gexera.” of the
new head of the English Church,. :
158. Accordingly with this character the brutal blacksmith was
invested, He was to exercise “all the spiritual authority belong-
ay administration. of justice in all
ing to the king, for the due
“cases touching the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the godly
“ reformation and redress of errors, heresies, and abuses, in the
“ said church.’ We shall very soon see proofs enough of the
baseness of this man, for whom rufian is. too geutle a.term.
What chance, then, did the monasteries stand in hishands? He
was created a peer.. Ile sat before the Primate ia Parliament,
he sat above all the bishops in assemblies of the clergy, he took
precedence of ali the nobles, whether in office or out of office,
and, as in character as in place, he was sécond only to the chief
tyrant himself. toe as
159s. In order to begin the “ godly reformation,” that is to-say,
the work of plunder, the ‘‘ Vicegerent” blacksmith set on foota
visitation of the Monasteries! | Dreadful visitation ! He, active
as he was in wickedness, could not do all the work himeelf,. He
therefore appointed deputi'sto assist in making this visitation,
The kingdom was divided into districts for this purpose, and two
deputies were appointed to.visit each district. The object was
to obtain grounds of accusation against the monks and nuns.
When we consider what the object was, and what was the chia«
racter of the man towbom the work was committed, we may
easily imagine what sort of men.these deputies. were: They
were, in fact, fit_to -be the subalterns of sucha chief. Some of
the very,worst men in all England; men of notoriously infamous
characters; men who had been.convicted of heinous crimes ;
some of whom hadjactually been’ branded; and, probably, not
one man who had not repeatedly deserved a halter. Think of
a respectable, harmless, and pious family broken-in upon, all of
asudden, by a brace of burglars, with murder writtea on their
scowling brows, demanding au instant production of their title-
write. :
e monks and nuns, who hads never dreamed of the
possibility of such proceedings, who had never had an idea that
Magna Charta, and alf the laws of the land, could be set aside
in a moment, and whose recluse and; peaceful lives reudered
lany, fell before these raffians as:chickens fall before the kite.
he reports made-by these villains met with no contradiction;
Was no court for them to appear in; they dared not, even if they
had had the means, to offer a defence or make ay complaint;
for they had seen -theshorrible consequences, the burnings, the
rippings up, of -all those of their brethren who.had ventured to
the accused parties had no means -of making a defence; there | -
NOw23
other ground than that of reports, made out by men, sent, as the
malignant Home himselficonfesses, for the express. purpose of:
finding a pretence for the dissolution of the Monasteries, and
for the King’s taking to himself property that had never belong-
ed to him or his predecessors,’ -
161. Ilume dares not, in the face of such a multitude of facts.
that are upon record to the contrary, pretend that these reports
were true; but, be does his best to put @ gloss upon them, as we-
have seen in paragraph 129. He says; in order to effect by in-
sinuation that. which he does not venture to assert, that * it is,
“indeed, probable, that the blind submission of the people, dur--
“ ing those ages, rendered the friars and nuns moreunguarded and’
“more dissolute than they are in any Roman Catholic country *
at present.” Oh! say i
world, the “friars and nans” should have become more fuard-
dd! However, we have here his acquittal of the monasteries of ©
the present doy;: and that is no small matter. It will be dificult,
I believe, to make it appear “ probable,” that they were more
unguarded, or more dissolute, in the 16th century ; unlese we
believe, that the profound piety (which Hows, calls’ superstition)
of the people was not pariaken of by the inhabitants of con-
vents. Before we ean listen to his insinuations -in favour of °
these reports, we mus! beli
e:
a rous communities
of women, whe devoted. their whole lives to the nursing of the
sick poor! ' vod
162. However, upon reports, thus obtained, an Act of Parlia-
ment was passed, in March, 1536, the same year that saw the
end of Axxe Bovrax, for the suppression, that is to say, confis-
eation, of three hundred and serenty-sic monasteries, and for
granting their estates, real and personal, to the King and his
heirs! He took plme, jewels, goldand silver images and orna-
ments. This Act of monstrous tyranny was, however, base as
the Parliament was, and full as it was of greedy plunderers, not
passed without some.opposition. Hume Says, that“* it does not
“appear that any opposition was, made to this important law.””
He trequently quotes Spetwan as an historical author ‘ity; but,
it did not suit him to quote Sparman’s * History-of Sactilege,”
in which this Frotestant historian’says, that * the Bill stuck long
«; in the Lower Honse, and could get no passage, when the King
“commanded the Commons to attend him in the forenoon in
“his gallery, where he Jet them wait till late iu the afternoon,
“and then, coming ont of his chamber, walking a turn or two:
“
&
“aeill not pass: but, Twill have it pass,
“ your heads; and, witt
““chauber, Enough was said; the Bill passed, and all was given:
“him as he desired.” oo ‘ -
163. Thus, then, it was an act of sheer tyranny ; it wasa pure
Algerine proceeding at last. The pretences availed nothing; the
reports of Crouwe at's myrmidons were not credited j every ar--
1 Some such -
man, he says, was necessury, to bring about this great and glori-
ousevent.”. What! was ever good yet produced by wickedness
so atrocious? Did any man but this Borwet, and his country-
man, Heme, ever affectto believe, that such barefaced injustice
and tyranny were justified -on the ground of their tending to
good consequences? :
164..In the next Number, when ] shall have given an account
of the whole of that devastation and sacking, of which we have,
as yet, only seen a mere beginning, I shall come to the conse-
quences, not only to the monks and nuns, but. to the people at
large; and shall show. how a foundation was, in this very Act
of Parliament, laid for that pauperism, misery, degradation,
and ‘crime, which’ are now proposed to: be checked by laws to”
render the women. barren, or to export the people to foreign «
lands. nN ‘ .
Woes LETTER VID
Confisent in of the Monasteries. —Base and cruel Means of doing
this.— The Sucking and Defacing of the Country.— Breaking
up the Tomb of Alfred.—More Wives divorced and killed.— »
Death of the Misereant Cromwell.— Death of the. Tyrant him--
self. .
MeFriesns, 6 Kensington, 30th April, 1825. .
165, At the close of the foregoing Letter, we saw the egin~
ning only of the devastation of England... In the Present Letter ©
we shall see its horrible progress, as far ag
e taken, were to
have no conrtin which to plead their cause, no means.of obtain-
inga hearing, could make even
their lives. Théy and tho:
Wealted the.Reformation;” we have seen that he could not
no complaint but at the peril-of | stranger. . But [ must given more fu
. who depended on them were to be, | the Act of Parliament itself, before
atonce,stripped of this great-inass of Property, without aby! mitted in conseprence of it,
ry VITL We have seen in what manner was obtained the first
act for the suppression of monasterics; that is to Say, int reali
for robbing the proprietors of estates, and also the poor and th
I proceed to the deeds com
—( Ta be cantinned.} .
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