OP MONASTERIES, &C. 139 



besides their plate and other goods, computed at 

 100,000 more ; and in 1538, the greater monas- 

 teries were suppressed. 



The better to reconcile the people to this great 

 innovation, accounts Mere published of the de- 

 testable lives which the friars lived in their 

 convents ; the relics, also, and other remains of 

 superstitious veneration, were now brought forth) 

 and became objects of derision to the reformers. 

 The king, in the whole, suppressed 645 monasteries ; 

 of which 28 had abbots who held scats in parliament : 

 with SO colleges, 2374 chantries and free chapels, 

 and 1 10 hospitals. The whole revenue of those 

 establishments amounted to 161,100. Such was 

 the conduct of Henry ; such were the disasters 

 which befel the monks, & c an ^ which decided 

 their fate in this kingdom* 



Whatever good resulted from the dissolution of 

 those religious houses, no ingenuous person can 

 justify the measures which the king adopted to ac- 

 complish his purposes, in pulling down houses, and 

 taking property from their owners. Such however 

 was the fact, and the priory at Keldholme, which ia 

 the next article in this volume, was one of those 

 religious houses which the merciless vengeaiiQe o 

 the times reduced 10 ruins. 



KILDENHOLM,KELDON, KELDEHOLM, 



OR KELDHOtM, 

 In the parish of Kirkny-Moorside, and in the wap- 



entake of Ry dale, is about a mile east of the 

 S 2 



