The story of Abbot Boston’s rule cannot be told in any detail owing to the lack of material. A kind of paralysis seems to have fallen on the monastery with his election. Account rolls if written at all were left untotalled, unbalanced and unaudited. He gathered into his own hands the more important offices as they fell vacant, holding ultimately those of the Sacrist, Cellarer, Warden of the New Work, Warden of the Lady Chapel, and Domestic Treasurer. It would almost seem as if Boston had been brought in to undo all that Islip had wrought and deliberately to provide an excuse for a dissolution which in Islip’s day would have been hard to find. Under Cromwell’s influence and in obedience to his orders as Vicar-General Boston allowed his monks to be absent from the monastery on any plea of mental or bodily recreation. It was a subtle move thus to recreate a desire for the world that had once been renounced. This and the absence of any responsibility of office within the monastery were swift to sever the bonds of what in Islip’s day had been a family with but little dissension, and the path to the final dissolution was an easy one. On January 16th, 1540, the deed of surrender was signed by Boston and twenty-six of the brethren. The Abbot became Dean of the new collegiate foundation and many of the house remained therein as prebendaries or minor canons. Among these was Thomas Elfrede, who was installed as ninth prebendary. To him the change cannot have brought much comfort. Forty-two years previously he had taken part in Fascet’s election as Abbot, and he had been one of those who voted in 1500 for Islip. It would be small wonder if his heart yearned for the older days and misliked the new. There is a note of pathos in the request which the old man recorded in his Will that he should be buried by the south door of the church in what was _sometyme the procession waye_, desiring to be carried in death along the path he had trodden so many times in the more peaceful days of his profession. THE END. NOTES MATERIALS FOR CHAPTER I. WESTMINSTER ABBEY MUNIMENTS: Rolls and Accounts of the Obedientiaries, 1480-1532. BOOKS: Bentley: _Excerpta Historica_, p. 404. MATERIALS FOR CHAPTER II. BOOKS: _The Rites of Durham_: Surtees Society, 1902 Vol. II. _Customary of St. Augustine’s Canterbury and St. Peter’s Westminster_, Henry Bradshaw Society, Vol. I., 1902; Vol. II., 1904. WESTMINSTER ABBEY MUNIMENTS: _Islip’s Diary_, Mun. 33290. _Sub-Almoner’s Notebook_, Mun. 33301. _Domesday Chartulary._ _Mortuary Roll of John Islip._ _Infirmarer’s Rolls_, 1480-84. Muns. 9462, 12790, 6631 _dors._ VOW ON PROFESSION.