Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 Excerpt:...if we have read his life rightly, must consider as one of the most cruel, cold-blooded creatures ever associated with this or any other country. This person acquired enormous power over the mind of the King, and suggested a ready means of replenishing an almost ever-failing exchequer. Why not secure some of the possessions of the Church? The monasteries were rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and the King had but to command his all too-willing agents. Henry, unable to resist the reasoning of Cromwell, thereupon invested him with power as Vicar-General, first to visit the monasteries, and to report on their condition, especially as to the value of their possessions. There were two distinct classes of monasteries in the country at this time--the National, and the Foreign Orders. The National orders were composed of the Benedictines, and the Augustinians. The Foreign orders consisted of the Cistercians and the Carthusians. The National monasteries submitted to the control of the Bishops, but the Foreign orders recognised no authority but that of the Pope. The Constitution and Uses of the Monasteries.--The monasteries were the homes of those who professed the monastic life. The word is generally used to denote abbeys, priories or nunneries alike. It is believed that for the first 250 years after Christ, monks by such name were unknown in the Church. Up to that time those who lived a life wholly apart from the world were known as ascetics. St. Augustine introduced the Monastic System in this country (a.d. 596), and we read that so great a hold did it obtain in the land that within the next 200 years thirty kings and queens were amongst the founders of monasteries, in which they ended their days in retirement and seclusion from the world. Monks were originally mo...