96 LAND REFORM 



These commissioners, who were creatures of the 

 court, proceeded to vilify the lives and characters of 

 those whom it had been decided beforehand to despoil, 

 and afterwards they, with their staff and helpers, 

 secured a goodly share of the plunder.^ 



The sacking of these institutions inflicted on the 

 nation at large losses that were irreparable. Splendid 

 monastic buildings were stripped of historic monuments, 

 ornaments, old bells, screens, windows, metal work, and 

 everything else that could be turned into money, and 

 then left in ruins which were used as common quarries 

 by the people in the neighbourhood. Great libraries 

 containing rare books and priceless MSS. were either 

 destroyed or sold for trifling sums. It is recorded that 

 " two noble libraries " were sold to a merchant for forty 

 shillings and were used mostly for waste paper. Cart- 

 loads of precious documents found their way into the 



^ Speaking of " these instruments employed by the Lord Cromwell," 

 Fuller writes: "The inquisitors were men who well understood the 

 message they were sent on, and would not come back without a satisfac- 

 tory answer to him who sent them knowing themselves to be no losers 

 thereby." Of one of the principal of these commissioners he remarks : 

 "Though employed to correct others he was no great saint himself; for 

 afterwards he was publicly convicted of perjury and adjudged to ride 

 with his face to the horse-tail at Windsor and Oakingham with papers 

 about his head; which was done accordingly." ("Church History," 

 Vol. II, p. 214.) 



This part of the question, though perhaps not quite pertinent to the 

 subject treated in these pages, is an interesting one. No doubt the report 

 of these commissioners, known as the " Black Book," created to a large 

 extent the desired effect. Among the great population of the religious 

 houses there were doubtless many individuals guilty of the alleged crimes, 

 but looking at the corrupt character and evil purpose of the accusers, the 

 non-judicial methods of the inquiry, the rapidity with which it was carried 

 out, and the absence of any sifting of evidence, the impartial student 

 must come to the conclusion that the sweeping indictment of the religious 

 orders as a whole, as it was presented by these inquisitors, is not worthy 

 of acceptance or belief. 



