of the cloisters and the Dissolution many further important changes took
place, both in the interior and in the exterior of the fabric.

John Morwent (1421-1437), utterly destroyed the west front, with its two
towers, which, in the opinion of many, may have been counterparts of
those at Tewkesbury. To him also is credited, mainly on Leland's
authority, the insertion of the south porch.

Abbot Seabroke (1450-1457) took down the tower as far as the Norman
piers, and built the present beautiful structure. He died before it was
finished, and Robert Tully, one of the monks of the monastery, carried
out the work, as the inscription on the wall in the interior (_vide_ p.
63) testifies.

Before the tower was complete, the present Lady Chapel (which was
finished before 1500) was begun by Abbot Hanley, and finished by Abbot
Farley.

John the Baptist's Chapel is usually ascribed to Abbot John Browne (or
Newton), from the similarity of his initials to those of the saint.

The eastern bay of the chapter-house dates back to Abbot Hanley's
time--_i.e._ between 1457-1472.

In 1540 Henry VIII. sent his commissioners, and they demanded the
surrender of the Abbey to the king. This cannot have been a surprise to
any of the monks who were in the Abbey at the time. As far back as 1534
they had all been compelled to take the oath by which they acknowledged
the king as supreme head of the Church of England, and denied that any
foreign bishop had any authority in these realms.

The monks, too, had seen the smaller monasteries in Gloucester dissolved
two years before, and the more thoughtful of them must have foreseen
that it was a mere question of time for the greedy king to absorb the
larger monasteries as well.

Abbot Parker's tomb, and also that of King Osric, practically date
themselves, and of the same period are presumably the gateway into
Palace Yard, and part of the Abbot's lodging on the site of the present
Bishop's Palace. From Leland we learn that the south gate--_i.e._ King
Edward's gate--is of the same date, having been rebuilt by Osborne the
cellarer.

The library, and the set of rooms beneath it, now used as vestry and
practice-room for the choir, are perhaps the latest additions to the
buildings.

At the Dissolution the Abbey which had "existed for more than eight
centuries under different forms, in poverty and in wealth, in meanness
and in magnificence, in misfortune and success, finally succumbed to the
royal wi