By the Rev. W. Gilchrist Clark, M.A. 307 



>now, with £60 per annum, to three probably recently professed 

 )rethren, who receive £2 apiece. At Lacock seventeen ladies re- 

 eived sums varying from £40 to Johan Temmes, the abbess, and 

 35 to Elenor Monmorthe, prioress, to a like minimum of £2. 



This was the beginning of the end. The inmates of the Wiltshire 

 •eligious houses seem to have become convinced, like the rest of 

 heir brethren, of the inutility of further resistance, and surrender 

 became only a question of time, delayed for a longer or shorter 

 Deriod according to the temper and courage of the head in each 

 nstance. 



The nature of the instructions, indeed, issued to those who were 

 jommissioned to receive these so-called "voluntary" surrenders 

 .eaves little doubt of the result which must have followed. 1 



In addition to the knowledge of this we must remember that the 

 3piscopal jurisdiction over all religious houses had been suspended 

 since October, 1535 ; so that everything combined to render the 

 jjituation intolerable. 



Wilton surrenders on the 25th of March, and Edington on the 

 ;30th of the same month. When, however, the Eoyal Commissioners 

 larrived at Amesbury, imagining that they would easily there too 

 :accomplish their errand, they met with an unexpected resistance. 

 ^Florence Bonnerman, the prioress, absolutely declined to surrender. 2 



" Pleasith it your goode Lordishippe to be advertised yesterday the surrenders 

 ;of the monasteries of Shaftisbury and Wilton being before us taken, we came to 

 Ambresbury and there communyd w* thabbasse for thaccomplishmente of the 

 'Kings highnes commyssion in lyke sorte, And albeit we have used as many wayes 

 I with her as o r poore witts cowde atteyne, yet in theende we cowde not by any 

 persuasions bringe her to any conformytie but at all tymes she restid and soo 

 remayneth in thies termes, yf the kings highnes commaunde me to goo from this 

 howse, I will gladlye goo, though I begge my breade, and as for pension I care 

 for none, in thies termes she was in all her conversacion praying us many tymes 

 to trouble her no furth r herein for she had declared her full mynde in the whiche 

 we might playnlie gather of her words she was fully fixed befor o r comyng. 

 This we have thought goode according to our most bounden dueties to signifie 

 unto yo r lordishippe redye w* all our powers to accomplishe that vo r 

 lordishippe shall further commaunde us herein. We have sente to Winton 



1 See Gasquet, Henry VIII. and the Monasteries, ii., 226. 

 2 Letters and Papers, xiv. (i.) 629. 



