insatiable avarice of the king, yet we have cause to rejoice that the temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction of this kingdom was rescued from Romish usurpation; that the revenues of the Church were no longer absorbed by absentee archbishops and bishops owing allegiance to an alien sceptre; that many wildly invented and impious dogmas, such as transubstantiation,' purgatory, priestly absolution, indulgences, infallibility, with a host of minor idolatries, were at once exploded, and a fierce usurping creed, that held in fetters the bodies and souls of men, deprived this land of free thought and honest liberty, and which exhibited in every act an intolerable despotism, was at length expelled to darker and more benighted climes, where now its empire may be known by the ignorance, confusion, bloodshed, oppression, turbulence, revolution, and slavery, that surround it on every side."

But let not the reader imagine that King Henry VIII. either encouraged or tolerated these results. The three Protestant martyrs, Bilney, Bayfield, and Baynam, attest his faithful allegiance to popery to the last. With a sort of frantic fury he persecuted all those who advanced before him in the march of reformation. In his last will and testament he appealed to the Virgin Mary and all the company of saints; he appointed mass to be celebrated in Westminster Abbey for ever; and he left alms and benefactions for establishing perpetual prayers for his soul. From such a monarch did popery receive its condign punishment for the oppression and usurpation of centuries.

"Long trains of ill may pass unheeded, dumb;

But Justice is behind, and Vengeance is to come."

1 Henry moreover published an edict called the "bloody statute," by which it was ordained that whoever, by word or writing, denied transubstantiation—that whoever maintained that the communion in both kinds was necessary, or that it was lawful for priests to marry, or that vows of chastity could innocently be broken, or that private masses were unprofitable, or that auricular confession was unnecessary—should be burnt or hanged, as the court should determine. We are here reminded of some lines in an old Scotch ballad, satirising this cannibal doctrine :

See also Waller's Dying Indian :

"Gif God be transubstantiall

In breid with hoc est corpus meum,

Why are ye sae unnaturall

As tak him in your teeth and sla him ?"

"Tell her I ne'er have worshipped

With those that eat their God."

2 We need simply refer to France, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, for its revolutionary fruits; and to Italy, the seat of papal power, for an example of abject slavery. The Protestant nations, on the other hand, will be found firm, stable, and durable, both in monarchical and religious institutions.

CHAPTER V.

GISBOROUGH PRIORY.

Yet do we love these auncient ruins;
We never tread upon them, but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history;
And, questionless, here in this open court
(Which now lies naked to the injuries

Of stormy tempests) some men lie interr'd,
Who loved the church right well, gave largely to it,
And thought it should have canopied their bones
Till Domesday. But all things have their end:
Churches and cities (which have decease like men)
Must have like death that we have.

WEBSTER'S Dutchess of Malfy.

O narrate faithfully the history of this noble and famous monument of ancient piety, in a manner correspondent with our own partial enthusiasm, the importance of the subject, and in accordance with the vast mass of materials accumulated on all sides, would, we fear, quite exhaust any reasonable space now at our disposal, and form indeed an ample supply for a separate volume. We must therefore abridge our description to its nearest possible limit, stating the nature of the institution, the origin and date of the foundation, the grants, possessions, and revenues belonging to it, with other historical notabilia of the rise and fall of this venerable temple of the Deity.

Religious houses comprehended cathedral and collegiate churches, abbeys, priories, colleges, hospitals, preceptories, and friaries. The difference between abbeys and priories lay chiefly in the magnitude of the houses, and the right of precedence of abbots. Some of these were so considerable, that the abbots and priors were called to parliament, had seats and votes in the House of Lords, and possessed houses in Westminster. In the parliamentary writs we find the prior of Gisbourne, Gisborne, Gisburne, or Giseburn, was summoned to parliament at Westminster, Aug. 1, 1295, 23 Ed. I.; also, on the first Sunday in Lent, March 27, Ed. I. Again, being returned from the county of York, as holding lands either in capite or otherwise, to the amount of 407. yearly value, and upwards, he was summoned under the general writ to perform military service against the Scots, to muster at Carlisle on the nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 28 Ed. I. They had the power and authority of bishops within the limits of their several houses, bestowed the solemn benediction, conferred all lesser

orders, wore mitres, sandals, &c., and carried croziers or pastorals in their right hands. Some of their houses were exempted from the jurisdiction of both archbishop and bishop, and subjected to the pope only.

A PRIORY was a society of religious, having a prior1 as governor, who enjoyed a power as absolute as any abbot, generally chosen from among the canons, free from any interference of the patron, and by general suffrage alone. The second and minor class of priories were dependent upon the larger abbeys, to whom they were subject in form and discipline, paid a pension yearly in token of subjection, and received from them their priors, and frequently their monks and officers. But the priors alien were cells to foreign monasteries, dependent on foreign houses, from whence they received priors and monks, and to whom they paid their revenues and owned allegiance. These foreign institutions were a bastard off-shoot of the Norman invasion, utterly alien and repugnant to English interests and feelings, and during the wars with France were greatly discouraged, if not altogether annihilated.

OFFICERS.-The six greater officers of monasteries were,-1. The magister operis, or master of the fabric, whose duty it was to preserve the buildings in good repair. 2. Eleemosynarius, or the almoner, who managed the alms of the house, distributed money or food every day at the gate to the poor, bestowed gifts upon the founder'sday, and at obits and anniversaries; and in some cases provided for the maintenance and education of the choristers, as in the register of the Holy Trinity, London: "Lego tenentum officio eleemosynariæ dictæ domus ad perpetuum incrementum sustentationis puerorum, viz. choristarum dictæ ecclesiæ imperpetuum deservientium." 3. Pitantiarius, who had the care of the pietancies, or allowances over and above the common provisions. 4. Sacrista, or the sexton, who took care of the vessels, books, and vestments belonging to the church, and such legacies as were given to the fabric, accounted for oblations at the great altar, provided bread and wine for the sacrament, and attended to the burying of the dead. 5. Camerarius, or the chamberlain, who had the chief care of the dormitory, and provided beds and bedding for the monks, all the conveniences of the dormitory, the whole or greater part of the clothing and linen, and, according to Fuller, had charge of the treasury, receiving and paying all the greater sums. 6. Cellarius, or the cellarer, who procured provision for the monks, and all strangers (for the monasteries were the only inns and hostelries in these days) resorting to the convent, viz. flesh, fish, fowls, wine, bread, corn, ale, beer, &c., besides wood for firing,

1

Every prior was to be in priest's orders, according to the decree of the Council of London, A.D. 1126. ? Of all these important benefits, supplied by the liberality of the founders and benefactors, the poor of England were summarily deprived at the Reformation, and the burden heretofore borne by the monasteries and religious houses afterwards fell upon other than Church property. The act of Queen Elizabeth was the first step for providing for the poor, and the confiscations of Church lands were, by this law, perpetuated in the hands of the laity, in a manner altogether foreign to the intentions of the original founders.

3 See Gunton's Peterborough, p. 297.