By the Rev. W. Gilchrist Clark, M.A. 



289 



religion," to found and endow his new Cardinal College (now 

 Christ Church) at Oxford, and his school at Ipswich. 



Cromwell came to power on Wolsey's fall, and at once began to 

 work for the purpose which he had set before himself, i.e., the 

 unification of England by prostrating it in personal subjection at 

 the foot of the throne : to which was now of necessity added the 

 duty of replenishing Henry's treasury, exhausted by the profuse 

 magnificence of his court. Both these objects would be served by 

 the dissolution of the monasteries ; for, as long as they existed, they 

 served as a stronghold (far more than did the secular clergy) of the 

 Papal influence, and thus hindered the absolute personal supremacy 

 of the King ; while the confiscation of their goods would bring into 

 the King's coffers a sum amounting on a reasonable estimate to 

 £320,000, or eight seventy-fifths of the whole revenue of the 

 kingdom. The plan of attack which Cromwell proposed (for I 

 cannot resist the conclusion that the scheme was due to his inventive 

 genius) was to proceed on strictly constitutional lines. No sudden 

 revolution was to be attempted, no armed force to be employed. 

 Legislation was the means adopted, and the first legislation was 

 passed in 1533 in the Acts for Restraint of Appeals to Rome, for 

 the Restraint of Annates, concerning Peter Pence and Dispensations, 

 and for the Submission of the Clergy. These made the declaration 

 of the King's supremacy, not as of a new principle, but as of one 

 which had always existed, but had been obscured by the usurped 

 pretensions of the Bishops of Rome. By the Act concerning Peter 

 Pence the right of visitation of monasteries, which had in large part 

 vested only in the Pope or his legate, was transferred to the King. 

 This gave Cromwell the constitutional guise which he desired for 

 his act of spoliation. The next step was to appoint Cromwell 

 Vicar- Greneral in matters ecclesiastical, and the preparations were 

 complete. 



In January, 1535, commissions were made out for ascertaining 

 " the true value of the firstfruits and tenths of all sees and benefices," 

 and the result was what we now know as the " Valor Ecclesiasticus," 

 giving the value of the possessions of all religious, both regular and 

 secular, at that date. It is interesting to observe that in the interval 



