" PAST " TROOBLE AT MONASTERY DURHAM 1433

 

Mighty Durham Cathedral and its Monastic Cloister stolen during the Deformation.

 

 

 

In 1083, on the site of an informal Celtic "monastery",  Bishop William of Durham founded a formal Monastery, gathering into it the "23 monks from the small Celtic "monasteries"at relatively new communities at Jarrow and Wearmouth. These had been re-founded on the sites of ancient Monasteries - at Jarrow the Venerable Bede had lived three hundred years earlier. Bede had written the life of St. Cuthbert who was buried here at Durham and, as late as 1050 Aelfred, a Priest of Durham, had removed St. Bede's remains to Durham also.

Bishop William determined that he would himself be Abbott of the new Monastery . He delegated the day to day running of the Monastery to the Prior.The first Prior's name was Aldwin. The Monastery was to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict.But because of the Bishop/Abbot's necessary preoccupation with Diocesan affairs and the governance by the Prior, instead of being known as Durham Abbey it became known as Durham Priory.

The second Prior, Turgot by name, under the Bishop/Abbot's direction commenced construction of the great Priory church , now Durham Cathedral in 1093.In 1104 the remains of Saint Cuthbert were able to be transferred to their Shrine in the apse, at the rear of the High Altar. Devotion to Saint Cuthbert had always been strong, and very soon the Shrine was said to rival many of the greater shrines in England and even in Europe some said.King Henry VI visited the Shrine in 1448 and Richard III in 1483.The monks of the Priory and the Shrine were widely held in high regard. The result was that the Priory grew to become the richest Religious institute North of York.

There were up to 40 monks in the 1400's and the Priory operated two infirmaries for the poor, the ill, and the elderly including married couples.There were no "social services" provided by the Crown or anyone else but the monasteries in pre Deformation England.Every day , the Priory provide meals for 300 people including the 40 monks. The financial affairs of the Priory were therefore big business. The Priory was the largest factor in the whole regional economy both buying and selling and acting as landlord of the very many properties bequeathed to it.

Durham Cathedral and Priory Church

 

 

So much was this so, that very great problems arose in trying to find a monk capable and willing to act as Bursar. Between 1419 and 1432 the Prior tried three different monks in the role without success. It is hardly surprising, especially in those times, that someone who had entered the Monastery to devote his life to the things of God, should not be an ideal or even willing Business Manager as we would term him to-day.

And so it happened, that in the Autumn of 1432 the desperate Prior appointed Thomas Lawson who had been the Cellarer for the last four years , as Bursar. The measured, steady life of the Cellarer was one thing, the hectic, varied demands of the office of Bursar were something else again.

Poor Brother Thomas, at Whitsuntide each year , the Bursar was bound to produce the Accounts of the Monastery for the last year.Written on several pieces of parchment, they were finally stitched together to be made into one long roll.They were made in triplicate and showed receipts and disbursements. They were inspected by senior monks and presented to a General Chapter in June each year.In 1433 Brother Thomas pleaded insufficient time to complete the task. The Prior was firm in demanding that the rule be observed. Brother Thomas became overwrought and desperate, and some of the monks feared that he might harm himself, such was his state of mind. Finally he did produce some accounts, which everyone believed were "cooked"to balance. His accounts for the next 5 years are preserved at Durham.

But ," the truth will out "as the saying goes. Brother Thomas had been failing to record debts in order to balance the books. The Terrar of the Priory was responsible for the properties of the Monastery, and he was receiving complaints from tradesmen and others who had not been paid. He was Brother Henry Helay and he drew up an accurate report of the state of affairs which showed that Brother Thomas had concealed debts of 1,210 Pounds. Poor wretched Brother Thomas was away from the Monastery inspecting land holdings when he received the news. Panic-stricken he disappeared into the night and tried to avoid confronting his shocked brethren. The Prior struggled to get control of the situation. None of the monks would agree to takeover the role. Finally the Prior had to divide up the work among several monks.

Economic times were tough. A war with Scotland, plague, cattle disease - all had served to diminish income which fell from 2,200 Pounds in 1330-31 to only 1,470 Pounds in 1347-48.Despite all this the monks, through their frugality and responsible use of their resources, managed to maintain their massive services to the Durham community.

On 31st December , 1539 the then Prior succumbed to the demands of the King's Commissioners and the great Cathedral Church and Monastery was stolen by Henry VIII, they did not even try to trump up any charges of scandal against the monks as they often did in other places.

Earlier, the Commissioners had sent their agents up ladders to break into the Shrine of Saint Cuthbert on its high pedestal. They opened the Coffin and found "the body lying whole, uncorrupt, with his face bare, and his beard as it had been a fortnight's growth and all his vestments upon him, as he was accustomed to say Mass withal."

Their Superior Dr. Henley ordered that the bones be thrown down. He was told that it was impossible due to the sinews and skin forming the body. Dr. Henley and his henchman Dr. Leigh had to climb up to see. The body was taken down and re-buried under a simple slab and the great Shrine was destroyed after removal of gold, silver and jewels for the King's benefit.

The Anglican Dean in the 1570's had all the carvings and brasses in the Cathedral destroyed in the 1570's and his wife burned the famous banner of St. Cuthbert and used the stone Holy Water font as a sink in her kitchen and used headstones from the monks' cemetery to pave her kitchen- Anglicanism in full "flower ".

" PAST " ENGLAND'S ROYAL MONSTER PART III RETRIBUTION

 

ENGLAND’S ROYAL MONSTER PART III RETRIBUTION

The moral judgment of Henry VIII’s public crimes of sacrilege, murder, bigamy, theft etc. is a matter for God alone. The same is true of those incidentally complicit in his deeds – the purchasers or recipients of stolen Church property: whole estates, selected buildings, lead from roof structures and their massive timbers, jewelry from sacred shrines and vessels etc.And it is not as if this was property simply bought by the Church in the past – no – most of all of this was the sacred gift or bequest of the faithful, clerical and lay and of Royal benefactors, given for devout intentions, dedicated to Almighty God. In the case of the chantries the gift entailed the solemn obligation to pray and offer Holy Mass for the repose of the souls of specific persons. It was a monstrous outrage before God and man.

When we study the record, what do we find? Did the villains prosper?

“God is not mocked “

The modern day visitor to London slowly begins to realise a great difference between London and other cities of its age. There are almost no very old churches there. The answer is simple, but devastating. The Great Fire of London in 1666.

We will find that a great deal of the retribution borne by the co-operants and beneficiaries in and of the plunder of the Catholic Church in England had already been exacted, but now came the crowning cataclysmic event that destroyed the heart of the infamous kingdom.

It came 119 years after the death of England’s Royal Monster, but , going beyond “ grinding exceeding small” in its four day inferno , it reduced to ashes 70,000 of the city’s 80,000 residences. Along with the greater part of the Capital, the ancient Catholic St.Paul’s Cathedral (far larger than Wren’s mini St Peters, the new St. Paul’s) was destroyed together with no less than 87 churches which had also been stolen from the Catholic Church.

Only six deaths were recorded in the calamity. It is now believed that there were two reasons for this – firstly the destruction of many bodies by the intensity of the fire and secondly a certain official disregard for the fate of the common folk.

London at the time had been as great as the next 50 cities in England combined –the extent of the disaster nationally can readily be assessed. This was spectacularly visible retribution.

However, 34 years earlier, Sir Henry Spelman had become convinced from what he had already witnessed, that the recipients of the spoils were cursed over generations His interest was not an idle one. His family was one which had shared in the proceeds of the Royal plunder.

630 Families, according to Spelman shared in the King’s plunder of the Catholic Church. When a revised edition of Spelman’s book was published in 1895, 616 were extinct. Of the 43 noble families sharing in the King’s plunder 15 were extinct within 50 years and only 9 now survive and are wracked with woes. The Anglican Dean Boys of Canterbury – a strong supporter of Elizabeth wrote:”Read the Chronicles examine the Histories and show me one Church Robber’s heir that thrived into the third generation.”

The seventeen Lay Lords in the Parliament which approved the Dissolution of the Monasteries provide potted histories of the type of retribution visited more widely on the 630:

No. 1 Thomas Lord Audley of Walden

Died without male heir 1544.

His only daughter’s husband died in battle childless.

Her second husband was beheaded in 1572.

Her son and daughter by that husband were executed for murder.

No.2Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk

Committed to the Tower.

His son Henry was beheaded by order of Henry VIII as the King lay on his own deathbed.

Grandson beheaded by Elizabeth I

His son Thomas’ family extinct in the next generation..

No.3 Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

Married 4 times:

Wife 1 – no children.

Wife 2-a daughter who married Lord Monteagle – line extinct.

Wife 3 –a son, died as a child, and 2 daughters:

1 married Henry Duke of Suffolk- he was beheaded .They had had 3 daughters of whom

1 was beheaded 1 divorced and then married Edward Earl of Hartford who was beheaded

1 had no children.

The second of the Duke’s daughters had two sons who died as children.

Wife 4 – Two sons who died as children on the same day. The Name, Title and family ceased to exist.

No4 Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset.

Beheaded. His son died before him, childless. Daughter Lady Jane Grey and her husband were beheaded.

N0 5 John Vere, Earl of Oxon

His grandson utterly wasted the estate and inheritance of the Earldom and his Great grandson died without heir.



No. 6 William Fitz William, Earl of Southampton

Died without heir.



N0.7 William Fitz Alan Earl of Arundel

Four daughters – all childless. His son had an heir who died childless in his father’s lifetime. Title extinct in the male line.

No.8 Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury

All children died without issue – family extinct.



No.9 Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex

Killed in fall from a horse – broken neck.



No’s 10 to 14 Edward Lord Stanley Earl of Derby, Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, Robert Ratcliff Earl of Sussex, George Lord Hastings , Earl of Huntington - all became extinct.

No.15 Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford

Beheaded. His two sons died without issue.

No. 16 Henry Lord Daubeney, Earl of Bridgewater

Died without issue. Name, Family and Title extinct.

No.17 Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester

Son died in the Tower.

Another son killed at Musselborough field and his son in law was beheaded.

There were in addition, 25 Barons in the same Parliament. The Families and titles of all but 3 are now extinct.

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Leonard Lord Grey who summoned the Parliament to approve the Dissolution there, was himself beheaded by Henry VIII five years later.

The pattern is at least discernible! In Truth it roars in our faces as if from the jaws of Hell itself.

We know of Henry VIII’s miserable death. His several children what of them? He had two legitimate sons and three daughters and an illegitimate son. One son and one daughter died in infancy. The remaining legitimate son and two daughters succeeded to the throne. Edward VI died as a youth without issue. Queen Mary restored the Catholic Religion but she died without an heir. Elizabeth I had a long and murderous reign reaching the depths of its infamy in the murder of the legitimate heir to the throne Mary Queen of Scots.

Henry’s illegitimate son the Duke of Richmond died without children.

Elizabeth herself died without issue and the Tudor line was extinct – the end of all Henry’s monstrous crimes was totally vanquished. What a catalogue of evil begetting evil and ending in destruction.




This posting owes much to Sir Henry Spelman's research and early articles in Annals Australasia edited by the great Father Paul Stenhouse M.S.C.and originally appeared in FOUNDATION August, 2010 Issue.

.

" PAST " ENGLAND'S ROYAL MONSTER PART II FINANCIAL PROBLEMS AND SACRILEGIOUS PLUNDER

 

Tintern Abbey

 

 

ENGLAND’S ROYAL MONSTER PART II

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS – SACRILEGIOUS PLUNDER



KING HENRY VIII now bestrode his realm like a colossus – albeit a somewhat uncomfortable colossus : physically the serious injury caused to his leg in a jousting contest in 1535 was troubling him as it would do for the remaining years of his life. Financially, his Treasury was strapped for cash. Years of foreign wars and the King’s personal gambling brought him to a desperate condition.

Henry now had as his principal agent and adviser, one Thomas Crumwell (now usually spelled Cromwell – a piece of Protestant propagandising). This Crumwell had been Cardinal Wolsey’s principal agent and frequent Commissioner. But when Wolsey’s downfall was in progress, Crumwell stole from Wolsey’s private records Henry’s license under Seal, authorizing Wolsey to exercise his Legatine powers within the Realm. He delivered the document back to the King. This was a critical event for Henry’s purposes, for he was charging Wolsey with Praemunire offences for the very act of exercising his Papal Legate A Latere (Abroad) powers in the Realm!

The King’s gratitude seems to have hardly known any bounds. For Crumwell became (in a unique Royal office) “Vicar General of the Realm”, Lord Privy Seal, Chancellor of Cambridge University (succeeding St John Fisher so lately martyred by the King!) and, though not a Cleric, Dean of Wells along with other religious benefices and, in Parliament, he took precedence over all of the Nobility and the Bishops!

Melrose Abbey

 

Crumwell had been Cardinal Wolsey’s Commissioner in the examination of the lesser Monasteries, in an endeavour to assess their viability. Many were not believed to fulfill their religious obligations,  have too few monks to function properly and to fulfill those obligations. Cardinal Wolsey, using his Legatine powers, had canonically suppressed those monasteries and negotiated the re-location of their monks to larger monasteries of their Orders. The properties were sold and the proceeds used to build Cardinal College Oxford.

Crumwell’s past therefore enabled him to suggest a solution to the King’s financial distress. Now that the King was, according to his Parliament, Head of the Church in England, and able to threaten all and sundry with trial under the Law of Praemunire should they displease him, he had legal power over the monasteries. If he came to “believe “that the monasteries were corrupt, why should he not suppress them? No! that was a canonical term; why not rather, dissolve them! The proceeds of their dissolution would be made forfeit to the Crown- financial problem solved!

Glastonbury Abbey

In the 27th year of his reign, in 1536, the Dissolution of the Monasteries was commenced.

All monasteries whose annual income did not reach 200 Pounds were dissolved and were confiscated by the Crown. They were STOLEN there is no other term to describe the process honestly. The process involved sending out the King’s Commissioners who assessed the Monasteries’ incomes and took an inventory including property, Sacred Vessels, Shrines and cash. The inventory would be useful for later stages of the Dissolution process.

The Commissioners were carefully chosen by Crumwell to produce the desired results, and knew what was expected of them. They were mostly Protestant sympathizers and, to meet the complaints at the dissolution of each Monastery from the community it supported they created tales of scandals and disrepute which varied from ridiculous palpable lies to malign distortions of innocent facts.

It is appropriate here to consider the role of the Monasteries in England at the time. Their practical significance for their surrounding communities was very substantial. Most monasteries were by that time, very old and owned significant lands in their region, as a result of bequests, donations and their earnings from rents on their holdings. The monks of course received no personal income and the monasteries were thus very effective in building up their assets. They were, apart from the properties of the Nobility, the principal factor in the local economy, much of which depended on them and the local community relied heavily on the monasteries. At that time, there were no “Social Services” provided by the Crown and no secular welfare services. The monasteries provided food and lodgings for the poor, the distressed and the unsupported aged and the ill.

Even local Parish clergy depended on the monasteries. Before the Protestant Deformation of the Church, outside the Cities, the local Parish clergy were appointed as “Vicars” of the local Abbot. The Church of England still uses the term “Vicar” to describe its Parish ministers, but the origin of the term can be seen to be Catholic – from the time of the stolen monasteries.

It can be quickly seen that demolition of this social structure was going to create turmoil and great strife and would take dramatic justification if it was to be accomplished without revolution. Lies about scandal, and the bigger the lie the better, would do nicely.

This was no small undertaking. No less than 374 of these lesser monasteries were dissolved and this took about 4 years. The Commissioners would arrive after the earlier assessment; turn out the monks onto the street – if they were not killed- as sometimes happened. They would then pillage the Monastery taking all Sacred Vessels, Votive Offerings, Shrines of value, Reliquaries(after desecrating the relics they contained) .Then they would strip the monastery of its valuable lead roof and its great timber beams, and these were carted away for sale.

The Commissioners were entitled to their cut first- often a fee plus " costs”, but it can be shown that it was commonly exceptional. They then returned the rest of the proceeds to the Royal Treasury via Crumwell who often reserved items for himself (e.g. in one case a particularly valuable Monstrance he had earlier spotted and noted for his own booty.)

Our knowledge of the sordid detail is great, in part because, when Crumwell himself fell, he fell far and fast- so fast he did not have time to destroy his papers, even his meticulous personal notes, which are preserved.

After the four years of severe pillage and plunder, Henry turned his attention to the Hospitals and Hospital Churches of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England and Ireland, which with all their lands and assets were also confiscated to the Crown.

We are told that “practice makes perfect”. These institutions were devoured within two years. But the Monster had acquired an enormous appetite and was still ravenous.

In the 34th year of his reign Henry turned on all the Colleges, Chapels, Chantries, Hospitals, Fraternities and Guilds and their properties and assets were all confiscated to the Crown.

 

By the time the exercise was completed, the Royal Monster had devoured:

374 Lesser Monasteries

186 Great Monasteries and Abbeys

90 Colleges

110Religious Hospitals

2,374 Chapels and Chantries.  

THE PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF CATHOLIC ENGLAND’S LIFE BUILT UP OVER THE PRECEDING 1,300 YEARS HAD BEEN STOLEN AND CONVERTED TO CASH WITHIN 10 YEARS. THE VALUE OF THE THEFT WAS METICULOUSLY ASSESSED BY THE KING’S COMMISSIONERS AT 1,338,442 Pounds 9 Shillings and 2Pence and 1 Ha’penny. in the currency of the day. 

 

 

 

Whitby Abbey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four hundred and sixty three years have passed since that infamous accounting. Who would attempt a conversion to modern currency allowing for inflation? Certainly it would be a dreadful task. But if the result was not billions of dollars, one would be surprised.

This extraordinary amount did not include the value of Sacred Vessels, Shrines, Votive Offerings and Reliquaries. Some idea of what that entailed may be gleaned from an account of the goods stolen from the greatest of the Shrines, that of St. Thomas A’Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral. The King’s Receiver records removing 26 carts of gold, silver, precious stones and sacred vestments. In the Treasurer’s Roll, the plunder was assessed by weight:

Thomas Crumwell

 

 

 

 

Pure Gold 5,030 ¾ ounces

Silver Gilt 4,425 ounces

Parcel Gilt 840 ounces

(this is gilding inside a vessel)

Silver 5,286 ounces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately for the Archdioceses and Dioceses and their great Cathedrals, Henry died in 1547. For in the preceding year his attention had turned ominously to them and he had forced the “exchange “of 72 properties belonging to the Archdiocese of York for certain infertile Crown Lands and 30 properties belonging to the Diocese of Norwich and considerable properties belonging to the Diocese of London  on the same basis.                                                         

 

In our next installment, we shall look at what became of the funds realised from the stolen properties and, in God’s good time, what became of the receivers of the stolen property. It is a sorry story.

" PAST " SERVING WITH THE ANGELS CATHOLIC AGAIN

 

                                                            Martin Luther Death Mask

Serving with the Angels


CATHOLIC  AGAIN!      Acolyte was recently reflecting on his Family Tree. On the Paternal side Irish Catholic.

On the Maternal side German ( Lutheran)and English (Protestant Church of England...sort of). My Mother’s conversion to Catholicism brought back to the Faith branches of the Family Tree which had strayed for over 450 years.

“The evil that men do lives after them….”Shakespeare has Mark Antony say, it is so very true! In the cases of Martin Luther – the drunken, blasphemous, sacrilegious and bitterly anti-Semitic beginner of Protestantism and King Henry VIII the hypocritical, sex-obsessed plunderer and persecutor of the Church, it is clear that at some stage in the late 1500’s they both set in motion forces that compelled or induced my German and English ancestors to abandon the Faith into which they were born and which had sustained their , and my, earlier ancestors for at least 1,000 years since their conversion from paganism.

The outrageous nature of such an act comes sharply into focus when we consider Our Lord’s description of our relationship in the Church to Him: “I am the Vine; you are the branches…..”These two sinning, arrogant, lustful men literally tore the branches away from the Vine.”And not just once, but on and on for generation after generation.

KING HENRY VIII

That was not the limit of this atrocity. Like every person in serious error, these successive generations sought to justify their false position by greater and greater error. So we see a multiplying of the number of Protestant sects and at a constantly increasing rate-Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Unitarians, Mormons, Latter Day (!!) Saints and on and on , at such a rate that in the U.S.A. alone the number of Protestant sects has gone from 20,000 to 40,000 in about 60 years. And Henry’s Church of England in its decrepitation, has long since gone beyond parody.

Scientists have very recently reported the discovery that Cancer cells are very much more sophisticated than they had believed. Not only do they multiply at an alarming rate, but they actively disable the defences of healthy cells adjoining them. The cancerous growth of Protestantism has sought to invade the Church since before Vatican II through the back door with false ecumenism. “Niceness” has become prized by some in place of Truth, “Shared Values” in place of Principles and Sacred Tradition which come to us from the Apostles they would put aside, to accommodate the inclinations of our “separated brethren”.

Thank God for our truly Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, who gently but firmly cuts through humbug and falsity and vigorously pursues authentic ecumenism which leads those in error back to unity in the Catholic Church.

The errant behavior of Luther and Henry VIII are for God Himself to judge. The sad results for hundreds of millions since their time are difficult to address and have required a long term view. The broken branches have withered where they fell and fertilized myriad coarse weeds. We need to pray for the Holy Father’s success to increase more and more, adding luster to his well earned title of the Pope of Christian Unity.

Catholic Again indeed! Thanks be to God.

Acolyte
Copyright This article first appeared in the May,2010 issue of FOUNDATION.