one man's hands, which cannot till them, the ploughs be decayed, and the farmhouses and other dwelling-houses; so that when there was in a town twenty or thirty dwelling-houses they be now decayed, ploughs and all the people clean gone, and the churches down, and no more parishioners in many parishes, but a neatherd and a shepherd instead of three score or four score persons."--_Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, second series, 854. [90] Abbot of York to Cromwell--_Miscellaneous MS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. LII. [91] See a very remarkable letter of Sir William Parr to Cromwell, dated April 8, 1536, a few months only before the outbreak of the rebellion: _Miscellaneous MS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. XXXI. [92] It was said that the visitors' servants had made apparel, doublets, yea, even saddle-cloths, of the churches' vestments.--Examination of John Dakyn: _Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, first series, 402. [93] _Rolls House MS._ [94] Ibid., Miscellaneous, first series, 402. [95] Aske's Deposition: _Rolls House MS._ [96] Depositions on the Rebellion, _passim_, among the MSS. in the State Paper Office and the Rolls House. [97] George Lumley, the eldest son of Lord Lumley, said in his evidence that there was not a spiritual man in the whole north of England who had not assisted the rebellion with arms or money.--_Rolls House MS._ [98] The parish priest of Wyley, in Essex, had been absent for three weeks in the north, in the month of August, and on returning, about the 2d of September, said to one of his villagers, Thomas Rogers, "There shall be business shortly in the north, and I trust to help and strengthen my countrymen with ten thousand such as I am myself; and I shall be one of the worst of them all. The king shall not reign long."--Confession of Thomas Rogers: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXX. p. 112. [99] Deposition of Thomas Brian: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29. [100] We find curious and humorous instances of monastic rage at this time. One monk was seen following a plough, and cursing his day that he should have to work for his bread. Another, a Welshman, "wished he had the king on Snowdon, that he might souse his head against the stones."--Depositions on the Rebellion: _Rolls House MS._