A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



on the Eucharist. 1 A ghastly scene is also recorded of the martyrdom of one 

 Peke, of Earl Stonham, at Ipswich. 2 In the days of Bishop William Rugg 

 (1536-50), the ex-abbot of Holme, persecutions continued by the immediate 

 and direct instigation of the king. Two men of Mendlesham, Kerley and 

 Clarke, were burnt in 1546, the one at Ipswich and the other at Bury ; their 

 chief offence was the denial of Transubstantiation. 3 



Bishop Nykke died on 14 January, 1536; but his successor, Bishop Rugg, 

 was not consecrated until 1 1 June of the same year. Henry VIII employed 

 the interval in stripping the old East Anglian see of all its possessions, 

 including the very ancient Suffolk property and favourite residence at Hoxne. 

 The original revenues of the abbey of Holme and the priory of Hickling were 

 assigned for the upkeep of the see ; but probably the king had some thoughts 

 of re-arranging and possibly dividing the bishopric of Norwich, as on 

 19 March, whilst the see was vacant, he caused Thomas Manning, prior 

 of the Austin house of Butley, to be consecrated bishop of Ipswich, and John 

 Salisbury, prior of Horsham St. Faiths, to be at the same time consecrated, 

 by Cranmer at Lambeth, bishop of Thetford. 4 There is no record, however, 

 of Manning having ever acted as a suffragan in this diocese ; Salisbury 

 became bishop of Sodor and Man in 1 57 1 . 



The story of the dissolution of the monasteries, with which the name 

 of Henry VIII will for ever be associated, is told with some degree of 

 particularity under the respective religious houses, and need not here be 

 repeated. Between 1536 and 1539 Suffolk was swept clean of all the 

 religious orders. Probably no other county felt the change more keenly 

 from a social and economic standpoint than was the case with Suffolk ; the 

 vast amount of alms so constantly distributed at some thirty convent gates 

 instantly ceased; the great tithes of upwards of 150 parishes passed from 

 religious control into the hands of the purely selfish lay impropriators, and 

 the monastic lords of the manor and landowners gave place in every direction 

 to the sterner rule of suddenly aggrandized civilians. There was deep 

 discontent, but every outward expression of it was crushed with the most 

 rigorous severity. 



The spoils taken from the monasteries were, however, soon dissipated. 

 In 1544 Henry VIII had to apply to Parliament to discharge his debts, and 

 in 1545 he turned his eyes again to the spoiling of a variety of institutions 

 administered by the church. An Act was passed for vesting in the crown 

 all free chapels, chantries, colleges, hospitals, brotherhoods, and gilds of an 

 ecclesiastical nature. 



When Edward VI came to the throne there were still remaining 

 unspoiled six collegiate churches (including that of Stoke, which was the 

 richest of all such establishments in England), nineteen hospitals or lazar- 

 houses, as well as a great variety of chantries and gilds. The Suppression 

 Act of 1547 was on almost the same lines as the lapsed one of Henry VIII ; 

 but it went a step or two farther, for it was therein provided that in addition 

 to colleges, chantries, and gilds, all lands or rent-charges providing for obits 



1 Foxe, v, 254. ' Ibid. * Ibid. 530-3. 



4 Epis. Reg. Cant. Cranmer, fol. 187-8. Both of these suffragan titles have recently been revived. 

 Arthur Thomas Lloyd was consecrated bishop of Thetford in 1 894 ; and George Cormac Fisher was 

 translated from the suffragan bishopric of Southampton to that of Ipswich in 1899. 



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