THE ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM. 
21 
with lead, and there is preserved also among Dodsworth’s MSS. a 
record that at sunrise on St. James'da)/, 1375, during a great storm, 
the spire was struck by lightning and set on fire, the tower and 
bells being greatly damaged. There is, however, evidence to show 
that the monks speedily endeavoured to repair the loss. 
Fortunately we have during the recent excavations made a few 
discoveries which help the elucidation of the design of this central 
ornament of the Abbey. 
Simon de Warwick was succeeded by Benedict de Malton, who 
received the Royal assent to his election on August 7th, 1296. A 
great deal of building work no doubt was done during his abbacy, 
including many of the richly-carved bosses from the roofs of the 
frater, and the beautiful wall arcading of the cloisters. 
The rebuilding of the spire would be taken in hand during the 
abbacy of William Marreys, who ruled 1359 to 1382. 
In all there were 30 Abbots, William Thornton being the last. 
He was confirmed Abbot on March 2nd, 1530, and continued till 
the time of the Dissolution, 1539, when he surrendered the Abbey 
with its 50 monks, along with, as Speed tells us, a revenue of 
something like £2, 085, into the hands of the King’s Visitors on 
November 26th—373 years ago ; and for this the Abbot received 
a pension of 400 marks per annum. 
When the monks were dispersed, the church, as well as the 
noble apartments attached to it, became useless. Some of the 
greater monasteries were converted into Episcopal Churches, but 
York was and had been for ages an episcopal see, and the parish 
of St. Olave already being possessed of a church, there was there¬ 
fore no sacred purpose to which the Abbey Church could be 
applied, and it was doomed to destruction. In the population of 
a large town there would not be wanting many, then, and as I am 
afraid now-a-days, who from mere love of mischief would be ready 
to aid those who were urged by religious feeling to overthrow what 
they regarded as strongholds of superstition, and those who might 
have been able to stem the tide of religious fury perhaps thought 
more of their own interests than restricting the onslaught. 
But that which chiefly contributed to the almost total overthrow 
of the Church and monastery, especially the Choir and Chapter 
House, was the order issued by the Crown soon after the Dissolu¬ 
tion to erect a palace for the King. 
The Abbot’s House, erected by William Sever, who ruled from 
1485 to 1495, parts of which are remaining in the School for the 
