At the Parliament held in 1537, the Pope’s jurisdiction was terminated
for ever in England, but it must be remembered that the
“Seven years’ Parliament did not pass a single statute, nor clause
of a statute, which had for its object the annihilation of the old
religious body of the land or the formation of a new religious
body; and that all changes received the prior assent of the old
national church, through its representative assembly of
convocation.”--_English Church History_ (Rev. C. ARTHUR LANE).
The Dissolution brought about the creation of six new
Bishoprics--Westminster, Chester, Gloucester, Peterborough, Oxford and
Bristol--the old abbey churches of which became cathedrals. Other
monastic churches were made collegiate and some parochial--in the latter
case the parishioners frequently purchased the church from the King’s
Commissioners. There are many instances of the nave only being saved out
of the general wreck, and these, to this day, form the bodies of
churches so rescued from the wholesale destruction of monastic houses.
It must be remembered that though these perhaps salutary changes were
going on in the Church, none of the property taken from the monasteries
was given to the Bishop or parochial clergy; and “in no one instance
were the appropriated tithes restored to the parochial clergy”
(Hallam), but, passing into laymen’s hands, have been bought and sold,
willed and inherited, like other property, with the result that many
parochial rectorial tithes are now in the possession of lay
impropriators. During Mary’s reign a great effort was made to restore
monasticism--Westminster being placed again in the hands of Benedictine
monks, only to be crushed by Elizabeth, in whose reign the English
Reformation was finally established by the ratification of the
Thirty-Nine Articles, and the Scottish Reformation accomplished by John
Knox, the reformer, to whose influence the destruction of the northern
monasteries is due. Religious revival under Charles I. in like manner
was swept away by the Puritans, who, following the dire example of the
Tudor King, laid desecrating hands on cathedral and parish church,
extending their destruction to the Crown itself. But the desire for more
devotional life again asserted itself later in the 17th century and
steadily grew and developed as time went on. During this period the loss
of monastic life was keenly felt. In the present day a decided movement
is on foot to restore monasticism--many thinkers indeed regard it as the
saving and rebuilding of a Church, which, since its earliest times, has
been the object of many vicissitudes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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