A HISTORY OF DORSET 



caused by the unwieldiness of a community whose numbers taxed even its 

 resources, and demanded powers of organization and government not always 

 at command. 



The absence of visitation reports in the century preceding the Dissolution 

 makes one hesitate to pronounce with any certainty as to the condition of the 

 monasteries in the latter part of their career, but, in spite of the fact that the 

 number of their inmates had undoubtedly fallen, signs are not wanting of 

 renewed vitality and a restoration of discipline and order. The chantries that 

 continued to be founded in their conventual churches testify to the hold they 

 still maintained on the affections of many. As the social and religious ideals 

 of a succeeding age slowly emerged we find schools established in connexion 

 with them, whose value even those engineering the changes of the sixteenth 

 century were forced to recognize.""^ The Valor Eccksiasticus with its record 

 of organized almsgiving and round of fixed anniversaries exhibits the monks 

 still faithful to the memory and charitable bequests of their founders and 

 benefactors. 



It is interesting to note the shadow of coming events in the appointment 

 of superiors on the eve of the Dissolution. Many appear to have been expressly 

 chosen with a view to their compliance with court schemes, and all were care- 

 fully imbued with the idea that liberal treatment would attend due submission. 

 The example of Bindon, the only house in Dorset coming under the earlier Act 

 for the suppression of monasteries under the yearly value of jTaoo,^"' doubtless 

 encouraged a delusion that certain houses might be spared for a consideration. 

 Sir Thomas Arundel wrote to Cromwell on i8 December, 1538 that in spite 

 of representations the abbess of Shaftesbury refused to follow the ' moo ' 

 (majority) and yield her abbey, and that she and the abbot of Cerne were pre- 

 pared to offer 'His Majesty' 500 marks and 'your lordship' ^100 to obtain 

 the continuation of their houses.^"* It was useless, the stroke that in less than 

 a month should deprive Dorset of her sole remaining links with an historic 

 past, the outward and visible signs of ancient glory departed, fell the March 

 following (1539) ; Milton, which surrendered on the iith of that month, was 

 followed by Abbotsbury on the 12th, Tarrant Kaines on the 13th, Bindon on 

 the 14th, Sherborne with its dependent cell, the priory of Horton, on the 18th, 

 Holme, a dependent cell of Montacute (Somerset), on the 20th, Shaftesbury, 

 greatest and last of all,^°' fell on the 23 rd. 



The heavy hand of Henry VIII did not stop with the monasteries, and 

 to his successor he bequeathed measures for the suppression of colleges, chan- 

 tries, gilds, and hospitals which were carried out by Acts i and 2 Edward VI. 

 The commissioners appointed to report on the ' lands, tenements, jewels, 

 plate, goods and stocke ' belonging to the colleges &c. in this county esti- 

 mated their value at ^(^631 oj. id., with a deduction in 'rents resolute' of 



'"- Besides the well-known school at Sherborne and the free school established in connexion with the 

 chantry of the countess of Richmond and Derby in Wimborne Minster, there was a free school founded by 

 William de Middleton, abbot of Milton, which was described as 'of good regard and in former times much 

 frequented.' Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iv, 396. 



"" Bindon, on the payment of ;^30o to the king, was restored by royal letters patent 29 Sept. 1538, 

 only to fall a few months later with the larger houses. L. and P. Hen. VllI, xiii (2), 177 ; xiv (i), 

 506. 



'»■' Ibid, xiii (2), 1090. 



*"" The last with the exception of Cranborne which was surrendered with the abbey of Tewkesbury, 

 31 Jan. 1540. Ibid, xv, 49. 



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