52 General History of Bath. 



The Bishop, though by virtue of his office Abbot of Bath, 

 did not as a rule interfere with the government and adininis- 

 tration of the Prior. But at the commencement of the 

 sixteenth century he exercised his Abbatial rights in a very 

 marked manner. The income of the monastery was then 

 ;£df%o 1 6s. 6d., and there "were, besides the Prior, sixteen 

 monks. The Bishop, finding the Abbey Church, his 

 "Cathedral Church," as he terms it, out of repair, and 

 anxious, as so many churchmen at that time were, to show 

 his taste in perpendicular architecture, ordered the monks- 

 to reduce their expenditure to ;£i6o, and pay the surplus, 

 to him for the building work. 



Prior Bird and the monks entered with hearti- 

 The Dissolution j^^^^ -^^^^ ^^^ schcme, and at the date of the 



of tlie Pnory. ' 



Dissolution the main fabric of the present 

 Abbey Church was already built, and the stores for its. 

 completion had been got together. 



It is needless to relate how, before the actual blow fell,, 

 the monks were plundered by Cromwell and his assistants,, 

 how pensions were extorted, and corodies, advowsons, and 

 next presentations were filched away. The story is the- 

 same throughout Englandi, The Commissioners certified, 

 the income of the monastery at £fi 1 7, and Holloway the 

 Prior, a weak, time-serving man, in 1539 surrendered the 

 estates he held in trust into the King's hands. For this he- 

 was rewarded by a pension of £,?>o, the lease for his life of a 

 house in Stall street, and such perquisites as he could get 

 from those who used the Baths. The other twenty-nine- 

 monks and lay brethren received pittances varying from J^^ 

 to £,^ 6s. 8d., and the monastery, which had existed for- 

 nearly 1,000 years, lay deserted. 



There was not even a pretence of regarding the public 



