Et)f J^icUgious pension ^o\\ of licrlJi)s1)itc, 

 temp. Otoarti VH. 



By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 



HOSE who have but slightly studied the question of 

 Henry VHI.'s destruction of the monasteries 

 generally hold the opinion that all, or almost all, 

 the dispossessed religious — whether canons, monks, 

 friars, or nuns — received comfortable pensions ; and in this 

 view they are supported by two or three of our national 

 historians who ought to have known better. The facts, how- 

 ever, of the case lead to very different conclusions. 



To begin with, it should be recollected that the terms of 

 the Act of Parliament, passed in February, 1536, for the 

 suppression of all monasteries possessed of an income of under 

 ;^2oo a year, merely provided for an annual pension being 

 secured " to every chief head and governor of every such religious 

 house."* As to the rest of the community, the Act gave them 

 the choice of being committed to a larger monastery of the 

 same order, or to have their " capacities," with " some convenient 

 charity disposed to them towards their living." By having their 

 capacities was meant permission to act as secular clergy. The 

 largest sum ever given by way of charity to the ejected of 1536 

 was 40s., but the men usually had a priest's gown also given 

 them, and the nuns such apparel as was worn by ordinary 

 secular women. 



Moreover, the royal visitors appointed in 1535, the chief of 

 whom were the evil-lived Doctors Legh and Layton, appear to 



* 27 Henry VIII., cap. 28. 



