ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



' secret bearers.' The notorious Dr. Legh, the future scourge of the 

 monasteries, one of the secret bearers of the accused monk, interceded in 

 his behalf and reminded Cromwell that he was capable of doing the 

 King good service in that house and on the Border. 1 When we know 

 that this was the monk, who was subsequently chosen Abbot of Holm- 

 cultram for the purpose of surrendering the monastery into the King's 

 hands, the scandal assumes a new magnitude and the intrigues of the 

 royal agents come into view. We can now understand why it was that 

 Borradale's name was omitted in after years from the infamous charges 

 which blackened the characters of the rest of his brethren, when Legh 

 and his associates made their reports to the King and Parliament on the 

 eve of the suppression. 



Cromwell was now master of the monasteries. Every religious 

 house in England was entangled in his net. There was no room in 

 his system to distinguish between their virtues and their vices ; the 

 hour for their complete overthrow had come. But the tales of his 

 agents must be arranged in formal language and invigorated with 

 official sanction. With this view, royal commissioners 2 were despatched 

 to visit the monasteries and bring back a report for the information of 

 the King and Parliament. It is of some interest to know that Thomas 

 Legh, the most diligent of these visitors, was a native of Isell in Cum- 

 berland. His associate, Richard Lay ton, was also north country born. 

 These two men were the chief commissioners for the north. In their 

 petition 3 to Cromwell begging for the post, it is stated that they knew 

 ' the fassion off the countre and the rudenes of the pepull ' and that 

 through ' owre frendes and kynsfookes dispersyde in thos parties ther 

 ys nother monasterie, selle, priorie nor any other religiouse howse in 

 the north but other doctor Lee or I have familier acqwayntance ' with 

 it. Ready tools like these could not be disregarded by a minister 

 who was a matchless judge of men. With astonishing quickness they 

 accomplished their task. From a study of their movements, not more 

 than a few days could have been devoted to the visitation of all the 

 houses in Cumberland and Westmorland. It is absurd to suppose that 

 the commissioners had any intention to make a bona fide report on the 

 condition of individual monasteries. There was no time to hold a 

 serious investigation, and there is no evidence that any court of inquiry 

 was held or witnesses called. By 28 February 1536, it was announced 

 to Cromwell that ' a clean booke of the compertes ' was made and sent 

 to his honourable mastership ' bye yor commissaries Doctor Layton and 

 Doctor Lee ' and * a duble thereof would be brought to him shortly.* 



1 L. and P. of Henry V III., vol. vi. 985, 986. 



2 The instructions to the commissioners for the county of Westmorland have been printed in Trans. 

 Cumbld. and Westmorld. Archaeol. Soc., xiii. 385-8, from the original book (L. and P. of Henry VIII., vol. v. 

 721 (2). General instructions will be found in Burnet (Collection of Records, Oxford, 1816, i. pt. ii. 24-26). 



3 Layton's petition on behalf of Legh and himself has been printed by Wright (Suppression of the 

 Monasteries, Camden Soc., pp. 156-7) from Cotton MS. Cleopatra, E. iv. f. 10. The business he was so 

 desirous to undertake appeared so light, that he proposed ' to ryde downe one syde ' of England ' and 

 cum up the other.' 



L. and P. of Henry VIII., vol. x. 363. 



ii 49 7 



