RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



March,"' but they could learn very little. On 

 the previous Sunday Roger had commanded the 

 brethren in the chapter-house to say nothing, 

 and threatened to put the younger men in prison 

 if they were found telling anything outside."" 

 Even the friar seems to have been silent. On 

 1 3 March the bailiff met him on the road between 

 Furness and Dalton, and asked what would 

 happen to the monk Salley, now my lords were 

 come. Legate replied, ' Nothing ; I will say 

 nothing.'"' On 21 March Sussex wrote that 

 the monks of Furness had been as bad as any 

 other ; the king desired that the whole truth 

 about their disloyalty should be sought out ; but 

 on 10 April Sussex replied that only two had 

 been committed to Lancaster, ' which was all we 

 could find faulty.' "* 



Still the general impression was too strong, 

 and some damaging depositions had been made. 

 The abbot saw that he could not hold out much 

 longer. If the brethren had been united, and 

 their head less selfish and weak, the abbey might 

 have lasted till the suppression of the great 

 houses, since nearly all the evidence referred to 

 acts and speech done before the general pardon 

 of the previous autumn. Sussex, in the letter 

 just quoted, admits that there seemed no like- 

 lihood of finding anything further. But he knew 

 with whom he had to deal, and found a way of 

 getting rid of the monks, so that the abbey in 

 his own words ' might be at your gracious 

 pleasure.' ^*° The abbot was brought to Whalley. 

 After a futile examination, Sussex himself 

 ' assayed ' Roger. Would he be content to sur- 

 render his house ? The abbot was very facile, 

 and thought the convent would not be hard to 

 manage.^** So, on 5 April, he signed his surren- 

 der."^ Three gentlemen were sent off immedi- 

 ately to take possession. Later in the evening 

 the justice, Mr. Fitzherbert, came, approved of 

 the deed, and attested it ; he also drew up a formal 

 surrender, which was signed four days later by 

 abbot, prior, and twenty-eight monks."* The 

 earl then made the full examination which has 

 given us the history of the last few months. 



"^ They were at Furness at the time of the bailiff's 

 deposition. 



"' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (l), 842. According to 

 Legate the abbot had pursued the same policy before 

 the visitors came to the abbey : some of the monies 

 admitted to him that ' they did sigh every day in their 

 haste because they toke so much upon their conscience,' 

 saying that if all had confessed what they were bound 

 to do they should have been a sorry house ; ibid. 841. 



"' Salley had repeated his saying about ' lay knaves' 

 a fortnight before ; this was one of the very few 

 chiiges post indu/gentiam. He confessed on 23 March, 

 and was sent to Lancaster ; ibid, xii (l), 652, 841, 

 1089. Salley complained of Legate's preaching, so 

 the friar was rather considerate in his case. 



"8 Ibid, xii (I), 69s, 840. '" Ibid. 380. "» Ibid. 



"' Ibid. ; Wright, SufiJ>ression of Mm. 153-4. 



'" Dep. Keeper's Rep. viii, App. ii, 21. 



King Henry was much relieved, and at once 

 made arrangements for the government of the 

 barony and the dismissal of the monks. The 

 conduct of affairs at the abbey was left to Sussex' 

 discretion, since His Majesty knew he would both 

 look to the king's profit, ' and yet rid the said 

 monks in such honest sort as all parties shall be 

 therewith content.' "' Sir Marmaduke Tunstall 

 was appointed deputy to the Lord Privy Seal in 

 the Lonsdale district, with instructions to execute 

 justice, exact lawful payments, and reconcile the 

 tenants to the rule of the royal landlord."* At 

 the end of the year Sir John Lamplugh was sent 

 to the abbey with similar commands."" On 

 23 June Robert Southwell arrived at Furness to 

 see the monks off the premises. He found them 

 discontented and excited. Sussex had made large 

 promises, but fixed nothing ; and the brethren 

 thought 0.0s. and their ' capacities ' too little. 

 Southwell speaks of them with the utmost con- 

 tempt. None of them seem to have availed 

 themselves of the permission to join other monas- 

 teries, and the commissioner had to threaten 

 them with this fate before he could get them to 

 submit quietly. They complained that they 

 had been compelled to surrender ; so Southwell 

 had a document prepared which was read in the 

 hall before 500 persons, and was then signed by 

 monks and people. When he said that the king 

 desired them to join other houses, they eagerly 

 confessed their unworthiness to retain their habit, 

 and went away with 40T. and their permits. 

 Southwell says he could give them no less, since 

 ' the traitors of Whalley ' had the same, but he 

 consoles himself and Cromwell with the reflection 

 that most of it would be spent in the purchase 

 of their secular weeds, without which he would 

 not suffer them to depart. Precautions were 

 taken that they should not wander over the 

 moors to Shap, where a rebellious bill had been 

 nailed upon the abbey door ; as a last word, 

 Southwell reminded them of some 'goodly ex- 

 periments that hangeth on each side of York, 

 some in rochets, and some in cowls.' So they 

 departed with much chatter and grumbling, the 

 victims of their own indecision and selfishness, of 

 an unworthy abbot, and a spying friar. They 

 were content to have infirmity to be their cause, 

 but in no case would have it read in the hall 

 before their neighbours. The writer wishes 

 Cromwell could have heard it all. 



After I denied them their liberty, and would assign 

 them to religion, I never heard written nor spoken of 

 religion that was worst, to be worse than they them- 

 selves were content to confess. I have not seen in 

 my life such gentle companions ; it were great pity if 

 such goodly possessions should not be assigned out for 

 the pasturing of such blessed carcasses.'" 



'" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (i), 896. 



'** Ibid. 881. '"Ibid. (2), 1216. 



"° Ibid. 205 ; Beck, /inn. Fumes. 356-60. 



125 



