ADDRESSES 239 



ments of the monks and the instruction they were enabled 

 to impart soon led to the establishment in their immediate 

 neighborhood of the first settlement of artificers and retail 

 dealers, while the excess of their crops, their flocks and their 

 herds gave rise to the first markets, which were as a rule 

 held before the gate of the abbey church, or within the 

 church-yard, among the tombs. Thus hamlets and towns 

 were formed which became the centres of trade and general 

 intercourse, and thus originated the market-tolls and the 

 jurisdiction of these spiritual lords. Out of these hamlets 

 clustered around the monasteries arose in England South- 

 ampton, Peterborough, Bath, Colchester, Oxford, Cam- 

 bridge, Ely, and many others. 



In the earlier days the monks had always taken the lead 

 in farming, and if improvements were introduced it was 

 sure to be the monks who were the pioneers. How useful 

 the monasteries had been, and what an important factor 

 they were, is perhaps best seen from the effect their disso- 

 lution had upon the laboring classes. Henry VIII sup- 

 pressed six hundred and forty-four monasteries, ninety col- 

 leges, two thousand three hundred and seventy-four free 

 chapels, and one hundred and ten hospitals. These held 

 one fifth of all the land in the kingdom and one third the na- 

 tional wealth. At the same time nearly one hundred thou- 

 sand male persons were thrown out of employment. "It is 

 possible," says Symes in Traill's "Social England," "that 

 the relieving of a large number of persons from the obliga- 

 tions of celibacy partly accounts for the great increase of the 

 population which undoubtedly took place in Henry's reign. 

 Moreover, experience proves that people reduced to poverty 

 and desperation often show extraordinary recklessness in 



