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



305 



|)f March, 1540, there was not a religious house standing in 



i England, so far as I can discover. 



Of the internal history of the surviving monasteries during the 

 jDeriod 1536 — 39 we have little information, though an occasional 

 fclimpse is afforded us "by one or another of the letters of Cromwell's 



voluminous correspondence. The picture they reveal to us is one of 

 ■steady pressure on the one side by stringent " injunctions," and 



jvexatious interference in the internal affairs of houses, brought to 

 Jbear by Cromwell and his subordinates with the object of making 

 [existence under such conditions intolerable, and so bringing about 

 ithe "voluntary" surrenders by which these houses were to come 



into the King's hands, met by resistance, complaint, or bribery on 

 Ithe part of the religious — all equally unavailing to deter the 



powerful minister from his purpose. 



How much trouble could be caused by interference in the affairs 



of a religious house we see when we find the Prioress of Wilton 



writing at an earlier period — on March 28th, 1533 1 — to complain 



of the interference of Dr. Hayley (or Hilley) , their ordinary, during 



a time when the office of abbess was vacant : — 2 



" Ryght honorable In ow 1 ' most humblest maner I w* my powr systers, yo r 

 unfaynyd beydwomen ow 1 ' convent recommend us hertily unto yowre good 

 masterschypp, Instantly desyryng you to contynew gud M r unto us accordyng to 

 ow r frynds report. For we stonde and have done long for lack of an heed yn 

 grett Inquyetnes and danger as God know th not only in the dekey lett and 

 dystoble [i.e., disturbance] of the servyce of God accordyng to ow 1 ' relygyon but 

 also of the dystructyon and dysolatyon of ow 1 ' monesterje. For we be soethre- 

 tonyd by owre ordynarye Master docto 1 ' Hylley that we know nott what to doe, he 

 cummythe to us many tymes and amonge us as he seys he doys butt ord r us aft 1 ' 

 the law but as God know th we be unlerneyd [unlearned] and nott wont to so muche 

 law as he dothe excercyse among us. And by cause that we dyffer suche matters 

 as he wold that we schuld consent unto the which as we do suppose and thynke 

 be nother lawfull ne yett profyttable to us ne ow r howse he doys sore and 

 grevoslye threton us and haythe hertofor putt us to grett vexatyon and troble 

 and yett myndythe soe to doe and contynew for he haythe admyttyd to bayre 

 rule with us yn thys ow 1 ' vacatyon [vacancy (of the office of abbess)] one 

 Crystopher Whyloybye and other the which Crystopher for hys sobtyll craf tye aud 

 false demaners hays hym [? byn] expellyd fyrst by Dame Cecell Whyloybye the 

 Abbas and then after hys servyce was utterlye ref usyd by Isabell Jordane ow 1 ' last 



1 Wrongly assigned by Gasquet to 1539. Cecile Bodcnham, last abbess, was 

 elected in April, 1534. Letters and Papers, vii., 589 (3). 



2 lb., vi., 285. 



