66 ACCUMULATION OF 



CHAP. XVIII. 



bon in Rome, and we may easily believe that the 

 soldiers of the catholic emperor would not hesitate 

 to apply the same rapacity to the other catholic 

 churches. The progress of the reformation in the 

 north of Europe had lessened what little disposi- 

 tion had existed of a profuse expenditure in de- 

 corating the churches. The inhabitants had never 

 indulged in those feelings of chivalrous religion 

 which were the characteristic of the natives of 

 Spain ; and though they built costly cathedrals 

 and monasteries, either from their want of the 

 same kind of enthusiasm, or from their poverty, 

 they were much less furnished with gold and silver 

 utensils and ornaments than similar establishments 

 in the peninsula. 



A considerable progress, however, appears to 

 have been made, in this period, in the application 

 of the precious metals to articles of domestic orna- 

 ment and accommodation. The rich burghers of 

 Antwerp, Ghent, and the other cities of Flanders, 

 are stated by Guicciardini to have had their houses 

 furnished with many vessels of massive plate. We 

 find Hollingshed, when speaking of the increase 

 of luxury in England, after noticing the introduc- 

 tion of pillows, and censuring it as effeminate, 

 complains of " the exchange of treene platters (or 

 trenchers) for pewter plates, and of wooden spoons 

 for those made of silver." 



Many of our English nobility in this age had 

 large stocks of plate, especially the Earls of Lei- 



