War, so, as we have elsewhere observed, it ended with the end thereof. And God of his goodness hath taken away the leprosy of leprosy in England.

SECTION II.

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL

RALPH SADLEIR, OF STANDON, ESQ. AND ANNE,
HIS VIRTUOUS CONSORT.

It was enacted by a law made in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of king Henry VIII. that "whosoever retained abbey-lands, after the dissolution passed unto them from the crown, should keep a standing-house, or else forfeit every month twenty nobles, recoverable from them in any court of record."

True it is, king James was graciously pleased (in the twenty-first of his reign) to repeal this Act and burn this rod; for which many under the lash, who will not

pay, still owe thanks to his memory. But suppose this penal statute still in force, you may defy all informers for any advantage they may get against you for the

same.

Indeed, you are possessed of the fair convent of Westbury in Gloucestershire, and that on as honourable terms as any lands in England of that nature are enjoyed; bestowed on your grandfather Sir Ralph Sadleir by king Henry VIII. partly in reward of the good service he had done to him the father, partly in encouragement to what he might do to his three children, to all which he was privy counsellor.

Yet no danger of penalty to you, whose house is known to be the centre of hospitality; whence even abbots themselves, and they best skilled in that lesson, might learn to keep a bountiful table, where all are welcomed; the rich for courtesy, when their occasions bring them; the poor for charity, when they bring their occasions to pass by your habitation.

In my "Holy War."

Indeed, the inn-holders of London give for the motto of the arms of their company, "I was a stranger, and ye took me in." But, seeing our Saviour chiefly intended such who did not sell, but give, entertainment to strangers; more properly are the words applicable to yourself, and other self, whose house is so the inngeneral to all poor people, that the neighbourhood of a great and good common is not so advantageous as their vicinity thereunto.

I doubt not but as you often have relieved Christ in his poor members, he will in due time receive you both into his house, wherein there be many mansions of everlasting happiness.

I. ABBEYS ENGROSSED TRADE, IMPOVERISHED PARISH-PRIESTS, ENCOURAGED OFFENDERS.

:

1. Abbots, Farmers, Tanners, Brewers.

THE specious pretences of piety and contempt of the world, abbots and monks, were notoriously covetous, even to the injury of others witness their renting and stocking of farms, keeping of tanhouses and brewhouses in their own hands. For, though the monks themselves were too fine-nosed to dabble in tan-fats, yet they kept others (bred in that trade) to follow their work. These convents, having bark of their own woods, hides of the cattle of their own breeding and killing, and (which was the main) a large stock of money to buy at the best hand, and to allow such chapmen they sold to, a long day of payment, easily ate out such who were bred up in that vocation. Whereupon, in the one-and-twentieth of king Henry VIII. a statute was made, that "no priest, either regular or secular, should on heavy penalties hereafter meddle with such mechanic employments.'

2, 3. Abbots rob Parish Vicars, by Appropriations; and other Priests from Exemption from Tithes.

Secondly. They impoverished parish-priests, by decrying their performances, and magnifying their own merits. Alas! what was the single devotion of a silly priest, in comparison of a corporation of prayers (twisted cables to draw down blessings on their patrons' heads) from a whole monastery? And, suppose (which was seldom done) the parson in the parish preaching to his people; yet sermons Query-" Pretenders to ?"-Edit.

in a church once constituted were needless, as ministering matter of schisms and disputes, and, at the best, only profiting the present; whilst prayers benefited as well the absent as the present, dead as living. But especially prayers of monasteries commanded heaven, pleased with the holy violence of so many and mighty petitioners. By these and other artifices they undermined all priests in the affections of their own people, and procured from pope and prince, that many churches presentative, with their glebes and tithes, were appropriated to their convents, leaving but a poor pittance to the parishvicar; though the pope (as styling himself but a vicar) ought to have been more sensible of their sad condition.

Besides appropriation of such churches, abbeys also wronged parish-priests, by procuring from the pope Paschal II. a. D. 1100, in the council of Mentz, that their demesnes, farms, and granges, (anciently paying tithes like the lands of other laymen,) should hereafter be free from the same. But this exemption was afterwards, by pope Adrian IV. about the year 1150, justly limited and restrained; religious Orders being enjoined the payment of tithes of whatsoever increase they had in their own occupation, save of new improvements by culture of pasture of their cattle, and of gardenfruits. Only three Orders, namely, the Cistercians, Templars, and Knights-Hospitallers, (otherwise called "of St. John's of Jerusalem,") were exempted from the general payment of all tithes whatsoever.

4-6. Freedom from Tithes goeth by Favour; confined to Lands given before the Lateran Council. Offend none in a captious Age.

"And why Cistercians, rather than any other Order?" Give me leave to conjecture three reasons thereof:-1. Adrian IV. our none countryman, was at first a Benedictine monk of St. Alban's; and these Cistercians were only Benedictines refined. 2. They were the Benjamins, one of the youngest remarkable Orders of that age, and therefore made darlings (not to say wantons) by the holy father the pope, 3. It is suspicious, that, by bribery in the court of Rome, they might obtain this privilege, so beneficial unto them. For I find, that king Richard I. disposed his daughter Avarice to be married to the Cistercian Order, as the most grasping and griping of all others. I leave it others to render reasons why Templars and Hospitallers, being mere laymen, and diyers times of late adjudged in the Court of Aids in Paris "no part of the clergy, should have this privilege to be exempted from tithes."+ But we remember they were sword men, and that aweth all into obedience.

* Vide ALEX. IV. in 6, de dec. c. 2, Statuto et Innoc. VIII. tom. ii. page 4, Editio decima Coloniens. LE BRET. Advoc. ex la dicte cour. Playdoie 27.

However, the Lateran council, holden anno 1215, ordered, that this privilege of tithe-freedom to the aforesaid three Orders should not extend to postnates, (as I may term them,) to convents erected since the Lateran council, nor to lands since bestowed on the aforesaid Orders, though their convents were erected before that council. Therefore when the covetous Cistercians, contrary to the canons of that council, purchased Bulls from the pope to discharge their lands from tithes, Henry IV. pitying the plea of the poor parish-priest, by statute nulled such Bulls,* and reduced their lands into that state wherein they were before.

Once it was in my mind to set down a catalogue (easy to do, and useful when done) of such houses of Cistercians, Templars, and Hospitallers, which were founded since the Lateran council, yet going under the general notion of tithe-free, to the great injury of the church. But since, on second thoughts, I conceived it better to let it alone, as not sure, on such discovery, of any blessing from those ministers which should gain, but certain of many curses from such laymen who should lose, thereby.

7. A Prize in the Hand, but no Heart.

Now, when king Henry VIII. dissolved monasteries, there was put into his hand an opportunity and advantage to ingratiate himself and his memory for ever; namely, by restoring tithes, appropriated to abbeys, to their respective parishes. But, whether he wanted mind, or minding, or both, God would not do him so much honour that he should do so much honour to God and his church ; being now passed, like lay-fees, with the rest of the abbey-land, to the great impairing of the just maintenance of ministers.

8, 9. Sanctuaries Sewers of Sin. The conscientious Abbot of

Crowland.

Lastly. One grand mischief (to omit many others) done by monasteries, was by the privileges of sanctuaries; whereby their houses became the sink and centre of sinners, to the great dishonour of God and obstruction of justice.

And here I commend the memory of Turketill, once abbot of Crowland, being confident that the reader will join with me in his commendation. Such vast immunities were bestowed on that convent by Witlaffe, king of Mercia, that if any officer did follow an offender of what nature soever, to fetch him out of that liberty, he was to have his right foot cut off. Strange exchange! when a legal prosecutor is made a malefactor, and the malefactor an innocent; INGULPHI Historia, page 856.

* Anno 2 Henry IV. cap. 4.

such the converting power of a monkish asylum. But in process of time, and depredation of the Danes, this privilege was lost, and proffered afterwards by some Saxon kings to be restored; which Turketill would never consent unto: and take it in the author's own words: Antiquam verò loci impunitatem vel immunitatem nullo modo consensit acquirere, ne sceleratis et impiis refugium a publicis legibus videretur in aliquo præbere, et cum hujusmodi maleficiis compelleretur, vel in aliquo contra conscientiam suam cohabitare, seu consentire.* This privilege other churches of St. Alban's, Beverley, Westminster, did accept. Such sanctuaries were grievances constantly complained of in parliaments, till Richard II. first began, Henry IV. and VII. proceeded, to regulate them as abused and usurping, and Henry VIII. utterly abolished them as useless and unlawful.

II. OF THE PRIME OFFICERS AND OFFICINES OF ABBEYS. 1-6. The Abbot; the Prior; the Sub-Prior; the Secretary; the Chamberlain; the Cellarer.

THE officers in abbeys were either supreme, as the abbot; or, to use a canonical term, obediential,† as all others under him. The abbot had lodgings by himself, with all offices thereunto belonging. The rest took precedences according to the topical statutes of their convents; but, for the generality, they thus may be marshalled:

First. The prior, who, like the president (under the master) in our Colleges in Cambridge, was next to the abbot. Note, by the way, that in some convents, which had no abbots, the prior was principal, as the president in some Oxford foundations; and, being installed priors, some voted as barons in parliament, whereof formerly, as the prior of Canterbury, and Coventry. But, when the abbot was superintendent, there the person termed "prior was his subordinate, who in his absence, in mitred abbeys, by courtesy was saluted the lord prior."

Secondly. The sub-prior, as Hugo Balciam, sub-prior of Ely, founder of Peter-house. Query-Whether any compliment descended so low as to lord the sub-prior in the absence of the prior and abbot? As for the third prior, and fourth prior, (for such diminutives appear, §) they come not within the suspicion of so much

favour.

Thirdly. The secretary, who was the register, auditor, and In Vitis viginti-trium Abbatum St. Alban, page 170. Magdalen, Corpus Christi, Trinity, and St. John's. § In the subscriptions of the Chron. of the Augustinians of Canterbury, page 2294.

*INGULPHI Historia, page 879.