ask, in her name, forgiveness for the wrong she had done her. Anne also sent a message to the king, in which she declared her innocence, and commended her daughter Elizabeth to his care; she concluded with saying, "that having from a private gentlewoman made her first a marchioness and then a queen, he now, since he could raise her no higher on earth was about to send her to heaven." On the 19th of May the queen was beheaded, by an executioner sent for from France, because he was more expert than any in England. The next day the shameless and cruel king married Jane Seymour! CHAPTER XVI. DESTRUCTION OF THE MONASTERIES INSURREC -- TIONS PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE BIRTH OF ED FURTHER CATION OF HENRY VIII. 1535 - 1538. HENRY VIII. was not content with making himself the supreme head of the English Church. Prompted, in part, by the advice of those counsellors friendly to the Reformation, but still more by his own rapacity, he now determined to strike another blow at popery in his dominions, by the destruction of the Monasteries. Various causes contributed to the introduction, at an early period, into the church, of that passion for a secluded and ascetic life, to which is to be referred the establishment of the religious houses. In the first place, the warm and enervating climate of the East, where Monastic institutions had their origin, is said to produce a disposition to indolence and melancholy, and a love of solitude. This propensity was augmented by the prevalence of doctrines which taught that matter was the source of all evil, and consequently that the soul would be purified and exalted by the mortification of the body. To these must be added, as another cause, the persecution to which the early Christians were exposed, and by which many were compelled to retire for safety into the woods and caverns. In the course of a few centuries Monasteries and Nunneries, the former inhabited by men who were or pretended to be disgusted with the world, the latter asylums for females whose natural protectors had perished in battle or at the stake, were established in many parts of Christendom. "From the eighth to the twelfth century," says a writer in the Christian Examiner, for September, 1835, "these institutions continued to multiply astonishingly. Multitudes flocked to them of all ages, conditions, and characters; some from devotion, some from ambition, some from timidity, some from remorse, some because they were weary of the world, and some because the world was weary of them. Children of the most opulent families, ladies of the highest fashion, courtiers, warriors, nobles, kings, were of the number; and they did not go empty handed. Many who were not ready to give themselves, gave what the monks were quite willing to take as a substitute, their money or their lands. In this way the revenues of many of the communities soon became enormous. The humble cabins, which sheltered the early monks, were exchanged for those vast, expensive, and imposing structures, which still stand in almost every European country as the proudest monuments of Gothic wealth and taste; and their territorial possessions also soon began to rival those of the most powerful barons. Moreover, in process of time, the cloister began to be regarded as being, what indeed it was, the fairest and most direct road of preferment to the highest dignities in the church; nay, for a long period, even to the highest civil employments, whether as regents, foreign envoys, or ministers of state." The establishments thus described were not without their good effects. They were the only seminaries of learning during the dark ages; and in their libraries were preserved, not only the manuscripts of the ancient Classics, but also those of the Scriptures, which might otherwise have been lost for ever. They served also as retreats for the widow and the orphan; they afforded the last refuge, in those days of war and bloodshed, for virtue and religion; they supplied the wants of the poor, and opened their hospitable doors to the weary traveller. Some of the Monks contributed to the improvement of agriculture by their diligent cultivation of the inferior sorts of land usually bestowed upon them, whilst others devoted their time to the copying of books, to the mechanic arts, and to different kinds of manufactures. Monastic institutions, however, with the increase of their wealth, which was heaped upon them by superstitious nobles and princes, became corrupt. Many of them were the abodes of indolence, avarice, and licentiousness, and supported in idleness, multitudes of men and women, who, while they opposed all attempts to instruct the people and to purify the Church, were the willing agents of wicked popes and prelates. Accordingly, those establishments were selected among the first objects of their attack by the Reformers. In England Archbishop Cranmer advised the dissolution of the Monasteries, and that their revenues should be appropriated to the education of the clergy, and to other purposes connected with the Reformation of the Church. The first part of this advice was immediately followed by the king, since it chimed in with his avaricious desires; the latter part of it, with his usual selfishness and injustice, he took care to neglect. In 1535 persons were appointed to visit the religious houses, to inquire into their character, and to ascertain the amount of their property. These Commissioners, aware of the design of Henry, colored their report as dark as possible; but, after making a proper allowance |