ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



dissolution to Sir William Parr,' and news of the destruction of the buildings 

 having reached London, a commission was appointed in 1540 to inquire into 

 the matter. One of the commissioners was actually the late abbot. The 

 account of their findings given in the article on the Religious Houses will 

 show how ruthlessly the buildings were despoiled. The fabrics of the other 

 monasteries in the county were similarly treated, hardly one stone being left 

 upon another to tell the tale of their former life. 



There is no evidence of any such open rebellion in this county against 

 the suppression of the monasteries as occurred in the north, and to some 

 extent in Lincolnshire. The only abbot in Northamptonshire of really dis- 

 tinguished position, Chambers of Peterborough, whose conduct Gunton 

 explains by saying that he probably loved to sleep in a whole skin, and de- 

 sired to die in his nest,** was told he would be bishop of the new see, and 

 made no protest.' St. Andrew's, Northampton, with its patronage of the 

 town livings, had not been in harmony with the strong municipal life of the 

 borough ; and the undoubted popularity of St. James's and other houses does 

 not seem to have extended beyond those persons who received benefactions, 

 or the immediate neighbourhood. Many of the landed gentry shared in the 

 spoil, and although the dissolution came before changes in doctrine and ritual 

 had taken place in the church, the prevalence of Lollardism in this county 

 would tend to encourage any anti-monastic bias in the minds of the people. 



Thus it will be seen that Northamptonshire at this crisis presents no 

 special features, but illustrates the general character of the problem. The cases 

 of the Northamptonshire houses show, what recent historians have made clear, 

 that the bulk of the ' religious,' especially in the larger foundations, were 

 leading good lives; while the absence of any marks of popular indignation at 

 the time of their fall indicates that, apart altogether from the character of 

 their inmates, they were less in touch than formerly with the life and vigour 

 of the country. The many reasons which led to their downfall — namely, their 

 relation to the now repudiated papal authority, the demands of the national 

 government for more resources, the decay of faith of the mediaeval type before 

 the learning and the ruthless criticism of the Renaissance, the unscrupulous 

 character of Henry and his ministers, the steady growth of religious ideas 

 deeply anti-monastic in character, the opportunity for satisfying the greed of 

 courtiers and officials — all these divers forces shared in the result, and will be 

 accorded different values according to the pre-dispositions of students. 



No particular events in the county mark the phase of opinion or policy 

 of which ' The Six Articles ' were the expression, and the next change came 

 when, after the suppression of the monasteries, the king and his advisers turned 

 their attention to the chantries. 



Chantries, which were primarily foundations for the maintenance of one 

 or more priests to offer up prayers for the soul of the founder, his family and 

 ancestors, and all Christian souls, spread throughout England in the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth centuries. There were only two named in the whole of the 



' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, No. 466 ; Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. cix. No. 29. 



' Gunton, Hist, of Peterborough (16S6), 57-8. 



' The inhabitants of Peterborough, however, petitioned Queen Elizabeth in I 581 for relief, complaining 

 that their trade was decaying, and that they and their interests had been better protected by the late abbey, 

 with its power and influence, than they were now by the bishop and the dean and chapter. {Cal. S. P. Dom. 

 Eliz.. cxlviii, 38). 



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