THE HAND OF GOD, OR MERE COINCIDENCE?

The Six Hundred and Sixteen Families upon which the Curse of the Pillaged English Monasteries Fell

in Three Parts by Paul Stenhouse, M.S.C., Ph.D

PART I:
The Curse

Maurice Baring, a member of the well-known banking family, and a convert to Catholicism, was in Russia at the height of the Bolshevik revolution. He relates an incident that occurred in a Russian village when a band of atheists (calling themselves 'Bezbozhniks' i.e. 'Without God-ites'), arrived, mocking the faith of the peasants. The leader of the Bezbozhniks addressed a gathering of the villagers and taking a sacred ikon said: "I will spit on this ikon and you will see whether fire comes down from heaven to kill me, or not.' He then spat on the ikon and said to the peasants: 'You see, God hasn't killed me.' 'No,' said the peasants, 'but we will' And they did.

Sacrilege means the profanation of something or somebody or some place set aside for the worship, glory and service of God.

Growing Used to Sacrilege

The retribution for the sacrilege of the Bezbozhnik was swift in the instance recounted by Maurice Baring. But mention sacrilege these days, and you will be rewarded with a pitying glance, an uplifted eye on a dismissive wave of the hand. 'Sacrilege' is as unfashionable a concept for many of our contemporaries as is the existence of the God whose majesty it offends.

We rightly deplore the use of lead in petrol, and fear carbon monoxide poisoning. The' 'green-house' effect is as lamented as the use of asbestos or the pollution of the sea by oil leakages. Yet sacrilege is more lethal, for it can kill the soul, not just the body; and it offends not simply nature, but the God of nature.

Sacrilege, whether acknowledged or not, is no longer the shocking things it was for our Catholic ancestors. It has become part of the air that we "liberated' moderns breathe; the staple diet of the dead or dying hearts of materialistic western societies, of big business, especially the publishing business, of many 'educators,' of politics, and of the 'entertainment industry, especially of the unrelenting, if ephemeral, media.

As young religious, I and my contemporaries used to be warned: 'sanctt sancte tractanda sunt', i.e. 'holy things must be treated holily'. This needs repeating in a world grown used to hearing God's name, and the names of his saints, not just taken 'in vain' (i.e. lightly) but often coupled with obscenities and blasphemies.

The French Revolutionaries, Napoleon and successive atheistic governments in Prance helped make sacrilege fashionable, as did the Nazis, the Fascists, and the Communists in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Spain and Mexico. But they were not the first, and recent history in the Middle East and Balkans, to say nothing of Rwanda, a number of Latin American countries, and East Timor, has shown that they are by no means the last.

Sacrilege is 'Trendy'

Sacrilege in modern times is multi-faceted. Catholic faith and practice, morality and tradition are not only questioned, they are sacrilegiously derided and dismissed as irrelevant, or ridiculed by TV producers, 'journalists,' radio commentators, pop or movie stars, or politicians, many of whom arrogate to themselves prerogatives that properly belong to the Church, to bishops and priests and others legitimately authorised to teach or comment on matters of faith and morals.

Abuse of the Catholic Church is, sadly, also not uncommon among many Protestant sects whose vehement denunciation of the Mass, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sacraments, the authority of the Pope and of the Church, even holy water and the sign of the Cross, constitutes sacrilege.

Archbishop John Whitgift, 1530-1604, the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury who attended Queen Elizabeth I in her last hours and crowned James I, bravely warned the queen to beware lest she incur the curse that afflicted her father when he usurped the rights of the Church, and sacrilegiously confiscated lands, buildings and wealth intended for the glory of God, not of the house of Tudor.

The Curses

He pointed out to Elizabeth that countless kings, queens, nobles and private individuals had endowed the monasteries, convents, priories, cathedrals and chapels, guildhalls and chantries 'and entailed a curse upon the alienators of them. God prevent your majesty from being liable to that curse'.

The curse to which the archbishop referred has come down to us in various forms.

One that is given by Dom Edmond Martene, OSB (1654-1739) in his Ancient Rites of the Church (De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, tome ii, book iii, cap. 3) is too long to give in full. It ends thus: 'May evildoers, thieves and those who prey on the possessions and rights and liberties of the Monastery of... find their lot thrown in with Chora, Dathan and Abiron who descended living into hell; with Judas and Pilate, Caiphas and Annas may they be punished with never-ending torment. So that they may never have fellowship in heavenly peace with Christ and his saints, but rather fellowship with the devil and his companions in the torments of hell. May they perish eternally. Let this be.'

Lest some readers think this curse is a bit tough, we should note that earlier on, the prayer to safeguard the holy place begged God not to punish the evildoers etc 'if they repent of their evil-doing. If they are willing to make amends for what they have done, then may the blessing of Almighty God come upon them, as well as the reward for good works.' The curse only follows if the evil- doers persist in their evil-doing.

Another curse adds: 'May they be cursed in their cities, in their fields, in their castles, in their islands, in the fruit of their womb and in their homes. May they be cursed when they go out, and cursed in all places. May the heaven above them be of bronze, and the land they till be of iron... if they be not ashamed, and repent of their evil-doing, grant that they be eternally cut off from the heavenly host and the land of the living, and may they be banished now and for evermore.'

When donors granted money to be used for endowing the saying of Masses for the repose of their souls and those of their families, or as alms for the poor, or for the building of Churches or the providing of chalices and other consecrated objects to be used in the liturgy of the Mass, it was usual for a curse to be added: 'Should anyone, therefore, which I by no means believe will be the case, steal or otherwise alienate what I have offered and dedicated, let him be held accountable to the Lord God, under pain of sacrilege. If anyone should try to alter my provisions by any strategems or propositions... let such a one be anathema.'

Henry VIII's Greed

In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII all monasteries not having £200 per annum in revenue, were confiscated. In the thirty-first year, all the rest throughout the kingdom. In the thirty-second year all the hospitals and hospital churches of St John of Jerusalem in England and Ireland, with all their lands and possessions were confiscated to the Crown. In the thirty-fourth year all colleges, chapels, chantries, hospitals, fraternities and guilds were confiscated to the Crown. Had Henry not died in the next year who knows what would have been next on the list: bishoprics and Cathedral Churches probably.

In all, Henry VIII took possession of 374 lesser monasteries, 186 great monasteries and abbeys, ninety colleges, 110 religious hospitals, 2,374 chapels and chantries.

The Warning

No-one seems to know for certain who first warned the lay possessors of monastic lands of the dangers that lay in wait for them for the sacrilege they committed. Perhaps it was Dr Feckenham, the last Benedictine Abbot of St Peter's Monastery at Westminster who in his famous Caveat Emptor warned the avaricious plunderers of the Catholic Church property to beware of the consequences for themselves and their children. Regrettably, his warning fell on ears so deafened by the tinkling of gold and silver that like Ananias and Sapphira (Act 5, 1-6) they could not hear the footsteps of those coming to bury them.

Many years later. Sir Henry Spelman, a protestant who had gained possession of the sites of the Abbeys of Blackborough and Wormgay in Norfolk became embroiled in expensive lawsuits that eventually dispossessed him of the Abbey lands, a circumstance that brought him financial ruin and convinced him of the 'infelicity of meddling with consecrated places.'

The accounts that follow are taken from Sir Henry's now forgotten work 'The History and Fate of Sacrilege...published for the terror of evil-doers' in 1698. Written in 1632 it lay unpublished for years 'lest it give offence to the nobility and gentry.'

Next Month: What happened to the king, his family and those directly involved in the plundering of the monasteries.

PART II:
What happened to the King, the Lords and Barons

The dissolution (a euphemism for 'theft') of the monasteries, and the usurpation of the rights and role of the Catholic Church in England by King Henry VIII, in the words of Sir Henry Spelman - one who benefited temporarily from the pillage - writing in 1632, exposed 'the most magnificent ornaments of the kingdom' to the 'axe and mattock,' and much worse besides.

John Bale, (1495-1563) formerly a Carmelite priest, and then a protestant and eventually, under Edward VI bishop of Ossary, thus described the destruction of the monastic libraries: 'If there had been in every shire in England but one solemn library to the preservation of those noble works, and preferment of good learning in our posterity, it had been yet somewhat. But to destroy all without consideration, it is and will be unto England for ever, a most horrible infamy amongst the grave seniors of other nations.'

Bale goes on to describe how the rapacious possessors of the monasteries not only drove the monks and nuns from their homes (many of them elderly and infirm) but also took their libraries as part of the booty. The precious books that had adorned the liturgy and beautified the libraries for generations were torn apart and used 'to serve their jakes (i.e. toilets), some to scour their candlesticks and some to rub their boots. Some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers and some they sent over sea to the book binderss: not in small numbers but a times whole shipfulls, to the wonderment of foreign nations'.

He adds sorrowfully, 'I know a merchantman . . . that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings each, a shame it is to be spoken: this stuff hath he occasioned instead of grey paper (i.e. he has sold it as wrapping paper - what today we call 'brown' paper) by the space of more than these ten years and yet he hath enough for many years to come: a prodigious example is this, and to be abhorred of all men who love their nation as they should do.'

During the years until his death, Henry's revenue increased four-fold, not just from the sale of the Church lands, but also from the treasure that was raised out of the money, gold and silver plate, jewels, ornaments, books and implements from the churches, monasteries and other properties that were confiscated along with their buildings, cattle, crops and assets of numerous kinds.

From the shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury the king's 'receiver' confessed that the gold, silver and precious stones and sacred vestments taken away filled 'six and twenty carts'. In the treasurer's Roll, the weight of the plunder was assessed as follows: 'Pure gold, 5,030 3/4 ounces; silver gilt 4,425 ounces; parcel gilt, 840 ounces; silver 5,286.'

Tomb of St Thomas

A Venetian visitor in 1500 described the tomb as follows: 'The tomb of St Thomas of Canterbury exceeds all belief. Notwithstanding its great size, it is wholly covered with plates of pure gold; yet the gold is scarcely seen because it is covered with various precious stones, as sapphires, balasses (resembling rubies, Ed.) diamonds, rubies and emeralds; and wherever the eye turns something more beautiful than the rest is observed. Nor, in addition to these natural beauties' is the skill of art wanting, for in the midst of the gold are the h most beautiful sculptured gems both small and large, as well such as are in relief as agates, onyxes, cornelians and cameos; and some cameos are of such size as I am afraid to name it. But everything is far surpassed by a ruby, not larger than a thumbnail, which is fixed at the right of the altar. The church is somewhat dark, and particularly where the shrine is placed, and when we went to sec it the sun was near setting and the weather was cloudy. Nevertheless I saw the ruby as if I had it in my hand. They say it was given by a king of France.' (Polydore Vergil's 'Relation'. Camden Society, p.30).

The ruby was a gift of King Louis VII of FFrance, who visited the shrine in 1179. Henry VIII had it put in a thumb ring and wore it

Property of 'Traitors'

To all this over ten years must be added the vast wealth that came to the Crown from the properties and wealth of 'traitors' whose goods, like their lives, were forfeit to a greedy king and his ministers; the property and wealth of Cardinal Wolsey, the king's tutor and former friend, among them.

Despite the vastness of this almost incalculable wealth, it was dissipated by the thirty-seventh years of his reign. And Henry had his eye firmly set on the property of bishoprics when death intervened. He had already 'exchanged' infertile land and cramped buildings for more than 72 properties belonging to the diocese of York, 30 properties belonging formerly to the bishopric of Norwich (left with nothing save the residence of the bishop) and quite considerable properties belonging to the bishopric of London.

During those eleven years, Henry had to put down six rebellions, one in Lincolnshire, one in Somersetshire, and four in Yorkshire. And he died aged fifty-six, much deteriorated physically and mentally, in 1547 a ruined and disillusioned man; but not as disillusioned as the monks and nuns whose homes had been taken from them, many of whose lives had been taken, all of whose lives had been destroyed, and all of whom were reduced to begging or to living off their families.

Of Henry's two sons and three daughters, one son and daughter died in infancy, and the other three succeeded to their father's throne, but died without children; as did his illegitimate son, the Duke or Richmond. With the death of Elizabeth who was, like her father, adept at sacrilege, and the murderess of Mary Queen of Scots as well as the destroyer of some of the noblest families in her kingdom, the Tudor line was extinct and all that Henry had hoped for his family came to naught.

Thomas Cromwell, one of the principal instigators of the suppression of the monasteries, who promised to make Henry the richest king ever in England, was beheaded by Henry less than eight weeks after being made Earl of Sussex, in 1540.

The 17 lay lords who formed the parliament that approved the dissolution suffered grievous misfortunes and most of their families became extinct.

  1.      Thomas Lord Audley of Waldon, died without male issue in 1544. The first husband of his only daughter died in battle childless. The second husband was beheaded in 1572. Her son by this second husband, along with his daughter, were put to death for murder.
  2.      The Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, was committed to the Tower. His son Henry, was beheaded at the king's command as he lay on his death bed. His grandson was beheaded by Elizabeth. The family of his son Thomas became extinct in the next generation.
  3.      The Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon, was married four times. By his first wife he had no children. By his second he had a daughter married to Lord Monteagle, whose title then became extinct. By his third he had one son who died as a child, and two daughters. One married Henry, Duke of Suffolk who was beheaded. By him she had a daughter, who was beheaded, and another daughter who after being divorced married Edward, Earl of Hertford, who was beheaded. A third daughter had no children. The duke's second daughter had two sons who died as children. By his fourth wife, the duke had two sons who died as children in a single day. The duke's name, family and title was wiped out
  4.      The Marquis of Dorset, Henry Grey, was beheaded. His son died before him, childless. His daughter. Lady Jane Grey, and her husband, were beheaded.
  5.      The Earl of Oxon, John Vere. His grandson utterly wasted the inheritance of the earldom, and his great-grandson died without heirs.
  6.      The Earl of Southampton. William Fitz-William. Died without heirs.
  7.      The Earl of Arundel, William Fitz-Alan. His four daughters had no children. His son Henry had a son who died in his father's lifetime without children. The title became extinct in the male line.
  8.      The Earl of Shrewsbury, Francis Talbot. All his children died without issue, and the family became extinct.
  9.      The Earl of Essex, Henry Bourchier, broke his neck by a fall from a horse.
  10.      The Earl of Derby, Edward Lord Stanley. His family became extinct.
  11.      The Earl of Rutland, Thomas Manners. The title became extinct
  12.      The Earl of Cumberland, Henry Clifford. The title became extinct.
  13.      The Earl of Sussex, Robert Ratcliff. The family became extinct.
  14.      The Earl of Huntington, George Lord Hastings. The family became extinct.
  15.      The Earl of Hertford, Edward Seymour. Beheaded. Two of his sons died without issue.
  16.      The Earl of Bridgewater, Henry Lord Daubeney. He died without issue and his name, family and dignity became extinct.
  17.      The Earl of Worcester, Henry Somerset. Of the lords who supported Henry, this family did not become extinct, but it did suffer grievous misfortune: Henry's son Thomas died in the Tower. His youngest son, Francis, was killed at Musselborough field, and his son-in-law was beheaded.

Of the 25 barons present in parliament on that occasion, the families and titles of all but three became extinct

Leonard Lord Grey, lord lieutenant of Ireland, who called together the parliament that suppressed the abbeys in that country was, five years later, beheaded by Henry VIII.

The Dukes of Norfolk

The Norfolks, contrary to popular belief, shared in the pillage of the Monasteries like their peers. This unhappy family (see No. 2 above) took possession of the following religious houses:

Benedictine Nunnery, Bungay, Suffolk

Priory of the Austin Canons, Butley, Suffolk

Priory of the Cluniac Monks, Castle Acre. Norfolk

Prior of the Austin Canons, Cokesford, Norfolk

Benedictine Cell*, Doping, Lincolnshire

Benedictine Cell, Felixstowe, Suffolk

Cluniac Cell, Hitcham, Norfolk

Cistercian Abbey, Newenham, Devon

Benedictine Cell, St Catherine, Norwich

Benedictine Priory, Snape, Suffolk

Cluniac Priory, Thetford, Norfolk

College, Thetford, Norfolk

Cluniac Cell, Wangford, Suffolk

I conclude this article with the words of Sir Henry Spelman, written in 1632: 'As the nobility spoiled God of his honour by pulling those things from him and communicating them to lazy and vulgar persons, so God, to requite them, hath taken the ancient honours of nobility and communicated them to the meanest of the people, to shopkeepers, taverners, tailors, tradesmen, burghers, brewers and graziers.'

* Cells. Also called 'Alien Priories,' these were convents or monasteries built on land that came into the possession of mainly French monasteries at the time of the Norman conquest. They were usually inhabited by French monks or nuns and their revenues belonged to their French Monastery or Abbey.

Next Month: The Fate of the Families that took possession of the Abbeys, Convents and Monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII.

PART III:
The Fate of the New 'Owners'

Eight hundred years before Henry VIII plundered the Monasteries and Abbeys of England and Ireland a hermit named Egelredus predicted that dire calamities would fall on the realm as a result of 'The effusion of blood, drunkenness, and contempt for the House of God'.

Sir Henry Spelman, writing in 1632 as one whose family had been involved in the carve up of the monastic lands and possessions, noted what he took to be a confirmation of his conviction that a curse lay on all who participated in sacrilegiously usurping God's rights and abusing places and persons consecrated to Him.

Evil Rampant

With the exception of some small sums paid for educational purposes at Oxford and Cambridge, and for the establishments of six new bishoprics created out of the ruins of monastic houses at Westminster, Oxford, Chester, Gloucester, Bristol and Peterborough, the whole sum realised by the plundering of the monasteries (acknowledged officially in the Rolls of the treasurer of the Augmentation, as amounting to £1,423,500 which was a fortune unimaginable in those times, and does not include the worth of vestments and the countless precious stones and jewels taken from all the monasteries and Churches of England and largely unaccounted for) was spent for private and secular purposes.

Contemporary writers describe how Henry 'gave a religious house to Mistress ... for presenting him with a dish of puddings which pleased his palate.' Another writer (B.M. Arund. Ms 151 f.387) describes how a cook who pleased the king with a well-cooked suckling pig had as his reward 'the college of St Edmund, Salisbury, with certain rectories.'

In the same way. Fuller who was the king's agent for Yorkshire in this matter, describes how Henry, 'Once, being at Dice, played Sir Miles Partridge for Jesus' bells, hanging in a steeple not far from St Pauls in London and as great and tuneable as any in the city, and lost them at a cast.' Partridge was afterwards hanged.

£64,000 went for coast fortifications, £28,000 for naval matters, £137,000 for foreign wars, the defence of Calais, and around £500,000 on the military, one half of that sum for the purchase and manufacture of guns to which also the metal of a large number of the monastery bells was devoted. Of the remainder, large sums were spent on royal palaces, enclosing royal parks and purchasing land, and £274,086 19s 3/4d was given as cash to the king.

The fate of the homeless monks, friars & nuns

The Superiors of monasteries and abbeys who agreed to their dissolution, generally appeared to have received a small pension, but most of the religious received little or no support from the Crown after their homes were taken from them.

Some of the estimated 8,000 monks and nuns found their way abroad, like an old monk of Westminster named Henry Stils who had been born blind. After wandering the continent he reached the Abbey of St Ghislain in Belgium. On May l8, 1579 he visited the new seminary at Douai in company with Dr Allen, its founder and on October 17, 1588 he died at St Ghislain where, as the annals of the Abbey relate, 'he had a long time before taken refuge from the religious troubles in England, and the persecutions of Catholics and above all of the religious a great number of whom came to seek asylum in the Low Countries.' He had been brought over from London by a youth who remained with him until his death.

Dame Isabel Whitehead had been a nun at the convent of Arthington, in Yorkshire, until it was suppressed. A contemporary account describes her end: 'She lived with Lady Midleton, at Stuborn or Stokell (Stockeld) until she died; and then wandering up and down doing charitable work till she stayed with a Mrs Ardington. She became ill, and whilst in that state the house was searched at Michelmas 1587 for Catholics. The officers took Mrs Ardington and her daughter and also entered the place where Dame Isabel Whitehead, a nun, lay sick in her bed. They did stand over her with their naked swords and rapiers and did threaten to kill her unless she would tell them where David Ingleby and Mr Winsour were. She was carried away to York Castle and died in the following March, and was buried under the castle walls.'

There is no space to describe even briefly the misfortunes of all the lay possessors of the monastic lands and properties. We can only detail a selection of the material collected by Sir Henry Spelman, and later editors of his work:

Shouldham Abbey, Norfolk: It became the property of Sir Francis Gaudy. He died without issue from a stroke.

Croyland Abbey. Lincolnshire: Owned by Edward Lord Clinton. Extinct in the male line.

St John's Abbey. Colchester. Thomas Lord Darcy: Family extinct.

Castle-Acre Abbey. Norfolk: Sir Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter owned it. His family is extinct in the male line.

Waltham Abbey: Sir Antony Denny. Family extinct.

St Edmonds Bury: John Eyre. Died childless.

Massingham Abbey: Sir Thomas Gresham owned it. He died without male issue. His daughter's son Thomas died without issue. Her other son Francis lived much of his life in gaol and seems to have died there. Her daughter died without male issue. Her daughter's daughter Jane married Sir William Whitpel, and was mad. Her other granddaughter, Elizabeth, married Lord Barkley and also was mad.

Flitcham Abbey: Sir Thomas Hollis got it, but lost it as payment for debt. It came into the possession of the Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded by Elizabeth and it passed to the Crown.

Cosford Abbey: The Duke of Norfolk took it. Beheaded 1572 by Elizabeth.

Burnham Abbey: Owned by the Southwells of St Faiths. Now extinct.

Mareham Abbey: Owned by Sir Nicholas Hare. Family extinct.

Monastery of the Black Nuns of St Gregory, Thetford: Belonged first to the Duke of Norfolk, beheaded by Elizabeth. Then it passed to Sir Richard Fulmerstone who died without male issue. It passed through his daughter to Sir Edward Clark whose family is now extinct. Clark was a notorious hunter after Church lands and goods. Spelman says of him: 'sewing these unfortunate pieces of new-gotten cloth into the garment of his old inheritance, the new hath not only rent away the old garment, but the family itself which it served.'

Shrewsbury Benedictine Abbey: Thomas Forster. No trace of him can be found. The next grantee was Edward Watson - family extinct.

Evesham Benedictine Abbey: Philip Hobey. Family extinct. The family of Sir Thomas Hobey his half-brother whom he made his heir, is also extinct.

Selby Benedictine Abbey: Sir Ralph Sadler. Family extinct in the direct line.

St Alban's Benedictine Abbey: Sir Richard Lee, received as a reward for his wife's adultery with Henry VIII. Died childless.

Abingdon Benedictine Abbey:

Cirencester Augustinian Abbey:

Winchelcombe Benedictine Abbey: Lord Seymour of Sudeley, beheaded 1549.

Glastonbury Benedictine Abbey:

Reading Benedictine Abbey: Edward, Duke of Somerset. Beheaded 1549.

St Mary's Benedictine Abbey, York: Thomas Lord Wriothesley: family now extinct.

Of the six hundred and thirty families that were granted or sold Church lands in the time of Henry VIII only fourteen were not extinct at the time the revised edition of Spelman's work was published in 1895.

Dean Boys of Canterbury, a fulsome supporter of Elizabeth I still could proclaim: 'Read the Chronicles, examine Histories and show me one Church-Robber's heir that thrived into the third generation'.

Of the 43 noble families implicated with the king at the time of the suppression of the monasteries, 32 are now extinct, of which 15 had become extinct within fifty years. Members of the 9 families that are not extinct have been plagued by misfortunes too numerous to list here, and cannot be said to have 'thrived' to use Dean Boys term.

Interested readers are directed to the original work by Sir Henry Spelman, written in 1632, printed in London in 1698 entitled: The History and Fate of Sacrilege. Our edition, printed in 1895, has been brought up to date by successive editors.

Annals Australia, June, July and August 1996

Subscription Rates to "Annals Australasia" and "Catholic Answers to Bible Christians"


Return to Annals Australia unofficial Home Page

Sean Ó Lachtnáin's Home Page