Mr. Gossald bought the Abby of Mr. Benson and lest it to his Wife in Jointure Mr. Henry Gossald of Ireland his Son and Heir sold the Reversion to Sir Thomas Holland and goeth into Ireland Mr. Nicholas Timperley bought it of Sir Tho. Holland Malsingham-Abby not in the Tax It was Sir Tho. Gresham's who died as was said suddenly in his Kitchin without Issue-male His Daughter and Heir was married to Sir William Read who had this Abby Sir Tho. Read his eldest Son married Mildred Daughter of Sir Tho. Cecil after Earl of Exeter and died without Issue Sir Francis Read his 2d Son an unthrift lived much in the Gaol if he died not there The Daughter of Sir William was married to Sir Michael Stanhope who died without Issue-male Jane the eldest Daughter of Sir Michael married to Sir William is out of her Wits and Sir William her Husband in sore danger of his life about the slaughter of 6 or 7 Men tumultuously kill'd at Elizabeth the younger of his Daughters and Heirs married to the Lord Barkley is out of her Wits Flitcham-Abby Sir Tho. Hollis had it and was by report at Dinner taken out of it in Execution for Debt by the Sheriff and his Goods sold whereof my Father bought some Much suit there was about it between one Payne and him or his Heir but the matter being at length reserr'd to the Duke of Norfolk he bought both their Titles He the Duke had it and was attainted and beheaded and it then came to the Crown King James gave it in Fee Farm to my Lord of Suffolk who was fined in the Star-Chamber and put out of Treasure-ship and suffer'd much Affliction by the Attainder of the Lady Francis Countess of Somerset his Daughter and of her Husband the Earl My Lord Cooke bought it of the Earl of Suffolk and bought out the Fee-Farm from King James He was put out of the place of Ch. Justice of the King's Bench fell into great Displeasure of the King and hath been laded with Afflictions proceeding chiefly from his own Wife who liveth from him in Separation His eldest Son Sir Robert having been married many Years hath yet no Issue His Daughter the Lady Vicountess of Purbeck the Fable of the Time and her Husband a Lunatick Wendling Wendling-Abby differ'd from all the rest of this Circuit for it was not dissolv'd by the Statute or by the Act of Hen. 8. but before that time by Cardinal Wolsey and was one of the 40 small Monasteries that Pope Clement the 7th gave him licence to suppress for the Erection of his 2 Colleges Christ-Church in Oxon and another at Ipswich The Cardinal employed 5 Persons especially in this business whereof one was slain by another of those his Companions that other was hanged for the Fact the third drowned himself in a Well the fourth being a Man of good Wealth in those days fell within three years after so poor that he begg'd till his Death the fifth Dr. Allen promoted to a Bishoprick in Ireland was there cruelly maimed The Cardinal himself fell out of favour with the King and Kingdom and condemned in a praemunire lost all his Offices Honours Goods and Estate and being called into further danger died for grief by the way not without suspicion of poisoning himself The Pope who gave the Licence was by the Duke of Bourbon's Army driven out of his City of Rome it cruelly sack'd and himself besieg'd in the Castle of St. Angelo taken Prisoner scorned and put to Ransom And after all this was at last as some affirm poison'd with certain of his Cardinals and Friends by the Fume of a Torch prepared for that purpose Stow in Anno Dom. Bale 18. 6. Besides all these Mr. Tho. Cromwell who then was but Servant to the Cardinal having a principal hand in the Destruction of these Monasteries given to his Master had also a principal share in this Tragedy for tho' he were after promoted to great Honours yet in the end he was thrown out of them all convicted of Treason attainted and beheaded as in other places heretofore we have more fully related Now we come nearer to and particularly to this Abbey wherein as also in others of that Nature in Corporations and Bodies Politick that are the Seminaries of the Church little attention is to be expected yet see what happened to their Tenants and Farmers profanely abusing the consecrate places thereof The Cardinal did grant it to his Coll. at Christ-Church in Oxon and to whom they first leased it I do not yet find but Mr. Tho. Hogan of Bradenham that was Sheriff of Norfolk Eliz. died in his Sheriffship and not long after him his Son Mr. Hen. Hogan leaving his Son and Heir very young who attaining near to his full Age and falling sick acknowledged a fine upon his Death-Bed to the use of his Mother the Lady Caesar that now is and his half Sisters and dying without reversing it did by that means cut off his Heirs at common Law and was the last of his Father's House in that Inheritance This begat great Suits in the Star-Chamber Chancery and Parliament it self The Lease is since come to Mr. Hamon Nor did the Colleges for which these Monasteries were suppressed by the Cardinal and which he meant to make so glorious come to good effect for that of Ipswich was pulled down and the other of Christ-Church was never finished as also neither that of King's College in Cambridge rising out of the Ruins of the Priory's Aliens Coxford Abbey al Ratha Abbey Coxford Abbey after the Dissolution came to the Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded 2d June 1572 Eliz. 14. The Queen then granted it to Edw. Earl of Oxon who wasted all his Patrimony Sir Roger Townsend then bought it who had Issue Sir Jo. Townsend and Sir Robert Townsend Sir Robert died without Issue Sir Jo. had Issue Sir Robert the Bar. and Stanhope and Ann married to Joh. Spelman he falling into a Quarrel with Sir Matthew Brown of Beach-North Castle in Surrey each of them slew other in a Duel 1 Jac. Stanhope Townsend wounded mortally by in a Duel in the Low Countries came into England and died at London Sir Roger the Bar. intending to build a goodly House at Rainham and to fetch Stone for the same from Coxford Abbey by advice of Sir Nathanael Bacon his Grandfather began to demolish the Church there which till then was standing and beginning with the Steeple the first Stone as 't is said in the fall brake a Man's Leg which somewhat amazed them yet contemning such Advertisement they proceeded in the Work and overthrowing the Steeple it fell upon a House by and breaking it down slew in it one Mr. Seller that lay lame in it of a broken Leg gotten at Foot-ball others having saved themselves by Fright and Flight Sir Roger having digged the Cellering of his new House and raised the Walls with some of the
terrible Fire broke out of an House and spreading suddenly over a great part of the Town the whole Company was disperst and only the Monks left to end the Office begun The Funeral notwithstanding proceeded afterwards in great Solemnity the Bishops and Abbots of Normandy attending it But when the Mass was done and that the Bishop of Ebroscen at the end of his Sermon had desired all that were present to pray for the dead Prince and charitably to forgive him if he had offended any of them one Anselm Fitz-Arthur rising up said aloud The Ground whereon ye stand was the floor of my Father's House and the Man for whom ye make Intercession took it violently from him while he was Duke of Normandy and founded this House upon it I now therefore claim my own and forbid him that took it away by violence to 〈◊〉 covered with my Earth or to be buried 〈◊〉 my Inheritance The Bishops and Nobility hearing this and understanding it to be true by the Testimony of others presently compounded with the Party in fair manner giving him 60 s. in Hand for the place of Burial and promising a just Satisfaction for the rest for which he received afterwards a 100 l. in Silver by consent of Henry the Conqueror's Son This Blur being thus wiped away they proceeded to put the Corps into the Tomb or Coffin prepared by the Mason whereupon another followed very loathsome for it being too short and strait as they strove violently to thrust the Corps into it the fat Belly not being Boweled burst in pieces and vapoured forth so horrible a savour as the smoak of Frankincense and other Aromaticks ascending plentifully from the Censers prevail'd not to suppress it but both Priest and Company were driven tumultuously to dispatch the Business and get them gone Thus much of the Disasters touching the Person of the Conqueror To which may be added that his very Death proceeded from a violent Accident happening unto him in the Sacking of Medant where the heat and heaviness of his Armour and the extream clamor upon his Soldiers wrought as was reported a Dissolution of his Entrails à ruina intestinorum ejus liquefacta saith Gemeticensis for tho' he liv'd a while after yet he languish'd till his Death But note by the way that he who had in his Life-time destroy'd so many Churches and Burying-places being dead although he were so great a King yet he wanted the Office of his Children Friends and Servants to carry him to Church or to take care of his Burial that being carried thither by others the very Fire wherewith he had devoured certain Churches interrupted his Passage that being come to the Church he that had put so many by their places of Burial was now put by his own And lastly that when the place of his Burial was obtain'd for Money it happened fatally that it was too strait to receive him as tho' the Earth of the Church which he had so grievously injured were unwilling to open her Mouth to entertain him But after all difficulties Did he not rest quiet at last Reason would he should for the Grave is Asilum Requiei the Sanctuary of Rest and he did enjoy it for many Ages Yet the Bishop of Bajeux in the Year 1542. opened his Tomb and brought to light his Epitaph hidden in it Graven upon a Gilded-plate of Brass But in the Year 1562. certain French Soldiers with some English that under the Conduct of the Chastillon took the City of Caen and fell to spoiling of Churches there did barbarously break down and deface the Monument of this great King and as tho' the Malus Genius of the Churches which himself had destroy'd still pursued him with Revenge did take out his Bones and cast them away Verst p. 184. What befel these Soldiers that thus rifled Churches appeareth not obscurity and oblivion do conceal them But the lamentable end of the Chastillon himself that suffered this Outrage is very notorious in the Massacre of Paris To come to his Posterity his Sons were four all of them at times in War amongst themselves Robert the eldest deprived of his Birth-right the Crown of England first by his Brother William then by his Brother Henry who also took from him his Dutchy of Normandy put out his Eyes and kept him cruelly in Prison till the Day of his Death His only Son Richard hunting in the New-Forest was slain in the Life of his Father by an Arrow shot casually as Florentius Wigorneinsis reporteth Others name him Henry and say he was hanged there like Absalom by the Hair of the Head Be it one or both the Death was violent and in the New-Forest But thus Robert died without Issue nothing prospering with him as Stow noteth after his Father Cursed him Richard second Son of the Conqueror Duke of Beorne as Stow saith died also in the same Forest in the fifteenth Year of his Father upon a pernicious Blast that happened on him but Gemeticensis lib. 11. c. 9. saith with a blow of a Tree William Rufus the third Son was contaminate as well with his own as his Fathers Sacrilege for he would part with no Bishoprick that came into his Hands without Money for it by reason whereof he had lying upon his Hand for want of Chapmen thirteen Bishopricks at the time of his Death He was also slain in the same Forest An. with an Arrow out of the Quiver of God shot casually by Sir Walter Tyrell and as Florentius reporteth in the very self-same place where a Church did stand till the Conqueror destroy'd it He also died without Issue Gemeticens lib. 7. cap. 9. Henry the fourth Son being King Hen. I. abstain'd as I imagine Hunting in the New-Forest but God met with him in another Corner for having but two Sons William legitimate and Richard natural they were in the fifteenth Year of his Reign both drowned with other of the Nobility coming out of France and himself dying afterward without Issue Male in the Year 1135. gave a period to this Norman Family Here I must observe as elsewhere I have done that about the very same point of time viz. 68 Years wherein God cut off the Issue of Nebuchadnezzar and gave his Kingdom to another Nation after he had invaded the holy Things of the Temple About the very same point of time I say after the Conqueror had made this Spoil of Churches did God cut off his Issue Male and gave his Kingdom to another Nation not of Normandy but Bloys Inter An. 1061. An. 1070. Vrsus Abbot was made Sheriff of Worcester by William the Conqueror and building a Castle in Worcester near the Monastery cut a part of the Church-yard into the Dike of his Castle which Aldred the Arch-Bishop of York seeing said to him Hatest thou Urse have thou God's curse unless thou takest down this Castle and know assuredly that thy Posterity shall not long inherit this Ground of St. Mary ' s. He foretold
Lalale in Ireland left himself as little Land in England as his great Grandfather left to the Monasteries and was I think the first and only Peer of the Realm not having any Land within it by the feudal Law his Barony I doubt if it had been feudal had likewise gone but by the Mercy of God a Noble Gentleman now holds the Stile of it and long may he Having sailed thus far in this Ocean we will advance yet further if it please God to give us a favourable passage and take a view of the Parliament themselves that put the wrackful Sword in the King's Hands The chief whereof was as we have said before that of the 27 Year of his Reign touching smaller Houses and that of 31 touching the greater I have sought the Office of the Clerk of the Upper House of Parliament to see what Lords were present at the passing of the Acts of Dissolution but so ill have they been kept as that the Names of 27 H. 8. were not then to be found and farther since I have not search'd for them The other of 31 H. 8. I did find and doubt not but the most of them were the same which also sate in the Parliament of 27 tho' some of them of 27 were either dead or not present in 31. Those that were present at the passing of the Bill of 31 I have here under mention'd in such order as I therein did find them and will as faithfully as I can attain unto the knowledge of them relate what after hath befaln themselves and their Posterity The Names of the Lords Spiritual who were present in the Parliament upon Friday the 23d of May 31 Hen. VIII being the 15th day of the Parliament when the Bill for assuring the Monasteries c. to the King was pass'd 1. The Lord Cromwell Vicegerent for the King in the Spiritualties and having place thereby both in the Parliament and Convocation-house above the Archbishops was beheaded the 28th of July in the next Year being the 32 of the King Confessing at his death publickly That he had been seduced but died a Papist 2. The Archbishop of Canterbury Tho. Cranmer D. D. was burnt in the Castle-ditch at Oxford 21. March 1556 3 Mary 3. The Archbishop of York Dr. Edw. Lee died 13th of Septemb. 1544. 36 H. 8. 4. The Bishop of London John Stokesley died within 4 Months after viz. 3. Septemb 1539. 5. The Bishop of Durham Cuthbert Tonstal was imprisoned in the Tower all King Edwards time for Religion and depriv'd of his Bishoprick and the same inter alia Sacrilegia non pauca saith Godwin dissolv'd and given to the King by Parliament 7 Edw. VI. but the King being immediately taken away Queen Mary restor'd both it and him An. 1 o. Parl. 2. c. 3. and Queen Elizabeth again depriv'd him and committed him to the Archbishop of Canterbury where he died in July 1559. 6. The Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner was committed to the Tower 30 June 1548 in Edw. VI's time for that he had not declared in his Sermon the day before at Paul's-Cross certain Opinions appointed to him by the Council Two Years after because he approv'd not the Reformation he was depriv'd of his Bishoprick and kept in Prison all King Edward's days but restor'd by Queen Mary He died of the Gout 12. Nov. 1555 being the 3d of her Reign 7. The Bishop of Exeter John Voisey alias Horman had the Education of the King's Daughter the Lady Mary and discontented with the Reformation aliened the Lands of the Bishoprick to Courtiers or made long Leases of them at little Rent leaving scarcely 7 or 8 Mannors of 22 and them also of the least and leased or laden with Pensions Nefandum Sacrilegium saith Godwin Being suspected of the Rebellion of Devonshire about the change of Religion he was put from his Bishoprick but restor'd by Queen Mary and died 1555 Mar. 3. 8. The Bishop of Lincoln John Longland the King's Confessor died 1547 1 Edw. VI. 9. The Bishop of Bath and Wells John Clerk carried and commended in an Oration to the Cardinals the King's Book against Luther with much commendation But being afterwards sent in Ambassage to the Duke of Cleve to shew the reason why the King renounc'd his Marriage with the Lady Ann the Duke's Sister for the reward of his unwelcome Message was poison'd as they said in Germany and returning with much adoe died in England in Febr. 1540 i.e. 32 Hen. 8. 10. The Bishop of Ely Thomas Goodrick continu'd from and in 26 Hen. 8. till 1. Maii 1. Mariae 11. The Bishop of Bangor John Salcot alias Capen Abbot of Hide was consecrated 19. Apr. next before this Parliament and translated to Salisbury in August following where it seems he continu'd till Q. Mary's time 12. The Bishop of Salisbury Nic. Shaxton being consecrated 27 Hen 8. was put out July 1539 i. e. 31 Hen. 8. together with Latimer and for the same cause but recanted 13. The Bishop of Worcester Hugh Latimer made 27 Hen. 8. renounc'd his Bishoprick in July 31 of the King and was burnt with Dr. Ridley at Oxon. 16. October 1559. 14. The Bishop of Rochester Nich. Heath made 4. April before this Parliament in 31 Hen. 8. and about 4 Years after translated to Worcester was depos'd by Edw. 6. but made Archbishop of York 1 Mariae afterwards also Chancellor of England 15. The Bishop of Chichester Richard Sampson made June 5. 1536 and 28 Hen. 8. was translated to Lichfield 12. May 1543. To flatter the King he wrote an Apology for his Supremacy yet in the Year of this Parliament 31. he was committed to the Tower for relieving such as were imprison'd for denying it But it seems his Apology was written after this Commitment to recover Favour About 2 Ed. 6. he declared himself for the Pope whom he had written against and so after divers turnings and returnings he died 1554 2 Mar. 16. The Bishop of Norwich William Rugg alias Rupp made 1536 28 Hen. 8. and died 1550 about 4 or 5 Edw. 6. 17. The Bishop of St. David's William Barlow was translated hither from St. Asaph in April 1536 28 Hen. 8. and by King Edw. after to Bath and Wells fled into Germany in Qu. Mary's time and 2 Eliz was made Bishop of Chichester 18. The Bishop of St. Asaph Robert Porpey alias Werbington or Warton was made 2. July 28. Hen. 8. where having sate 18 Years and nequissimo Sacrilegio sold and spoil'd the Lands of the Bishoprick by long Leases he was by Qu. Mary An. 1. translated to Hereford where he sate almost till her death 19. The Bishop of Landaff Rob. Holgate 25. March 1537 28. Hen. S. and in the 36th of his Reign translated to the Archbishoprick of York and by Qu. Mary at her entrance committed to the Tower where within half a Year he was depriv'd 20. The Bishop of Carlisle Rob. Aldrich was elected 18. July 1537 29 Hen. 8. and died 5 Mar.