THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE SUPPRESSION OF THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES OF STAFFORDSHIRE BY FRANCIS AIDAN HIBBERT, M.A. OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; THIRLWALL AND SEATONIAN PRIZES IN THE UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF “THE INFLUENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH GILDS,” “MONASTICISM IN STAFFORDSHIRE,” ETC. HEADMASTER OF DENSTONE LONDON: SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD. NO. 1 AMEN CORNER, E.C. 1910 PRINTED BY SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD., LONDON, BATH AND NEW YORK 1910 PREFACE The following study of the Dissolution of the Monasteries will be found to have the following characteristics: (1) there are few references to books on the general subject of the Suppression; and (2) it is concerned with the County of Staffordshire alone. I hope it will not be inferred that I have learnt nothing from the scholars who have dealt with the subject, as such is very far from being the case. But I desired to investigate the history without being influenced by prepossessions and prejudices, and I have accordingly tried to work with a perfectly open mind. I have looked first at the facts, which have been obtained nearly always at first hand, and only then have I drawn deductions. The reason why I have strictly limited myself to Staffordshire is explained in my first chapter. I have made no attempt to fit the Staffordshire history into the general history of England: if the two do not always run on parallel lines it is all the more useful that the divergences should appear. Not seldom my deductions may be wrong, but the facts upon which they are based are always given very clearly and fully, and I must confess that in working out my book in my own way I have had cause to modify, and even to reverse, a good many of my earlier opinions. The history of the Dissolution of the Staffordshire monasteries gives strong support to the view that the suppression by Henry VIII and Cromwell was prompted far less by anti-papal necessities than by sheer cupidity, and not at all for moral reasons. Most of the documents which are given in full are printed from the originals. Some of those in the Appendix have been printed previously, but none, I think, in books easily accessible to ordinary readers.