igS CHURCH CrOOtis, DORSET, 1552. 



Northampton, which is printed beneath, for at the foot of the document 

 are instructions that similar orders are to be sent to other counties. The 

 list includes Dorset, and the names of the Commissioners are the same 

 as the names of those who signed the inventory of the church goods in 

 Dcrset churches. 



What became of the church goods taken into the King's hands ? 



" The jewels, plate, and ready money (were] to be delivered to the 

 Master of the Kings Jewels in the Tower of London ; the copes of 

 cloth of gold and tissue to be brought into the King's wardrobe ; the 

 rest to be turned into ready money, and that money to be paid to 

 Sir Edmond Peckham, the King's cofferer, for the defraying of the 

 charges of His Majesty's household." 



Heylyn, writing in 1661, believed that by far the greater and the 

 best part of the church goods were embezzled and disposed of privately, 

 " So that, although some profit was hereby raised to the King's 

 exchequer, yet the far greatest part of the prey came to other hands, 

 insomuch that many private metis parlours were hung with altar- 

 cloths ; their tables and beds covered with copes, instead of carpets and 

 coverlids, and many made carousing cups of the sacred chalices, as 

 once Belshazzar celebrated his drunken feast in the sanctified vessels of 

 the Temple. It was a sorry house, and not worth the naming, which 

 had not somewhat of this furniture in it, though it were only a fair 

 large cushion, made of a cope or altar-cloth, to adorn their windows 

 or make their chairs appear to have somewhat in them of a chair of 

 state. Yet how contemptible were these trappings in comparison of 

 those vast sums of money which were made of jewels, plate, and cloth 

 of tissue either conveyed beyond the seas or sold at home, and good 

 lands purchased with the money, nothing the more blessed to the 

 posteiity of them that bought them for being purchased with the 

 consecrated treasures of so many temples." 



In the Dorset County Museum there may be seen an old altar cloth 

 from Wool Church, made up in all probability from " vestments with 

 branchis in silke" or from " copis with branchis" (see " Woole" 

 inventory No* 19) purchased from the Commissioners for the 

 purpose. 



