ll. The day came, and that a drear winter day, when its last
mass was sung, its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in rapt
and lowly adoration before the altar there; and, doubtless, as the last
tones of that day's evensong died away in the vaulted roof, there were
not wanting those who lingered in the solemn stillness of the old
massive pile, and who, as the lights disappeared one by one, felt that
there was a void which could never be filled, because their old abbey,
with its beautiful services, its frequent means of grace, its
hospitality to strangers, and its loving care for God's poor, had
passed away like a morning dream, and was gone for ever." (Hart, iii.
49.)

The charter of Henry VIII. founding the see is too long to quote _in
extenso_, but it stated that "Whereas the great convent or monastery,
which, whilst still in being, was called the monastery of St. Peter of
Gloucester, ... and all and singular its manors, ... and possessions,
for certain special and urgent causes were, by Gabriel Moreton, Prior of
the said abbey or monastery and the convent thereof, lately given and
granted to us and our heirs for ever.... We, being influenced by divine
goodness, and desiring above all things, that true religion, and the
true worship of God may not only not be abolished, but entirely restored
to the primitive and genuine rule of simplicity; and that all those
enormities may be corrected into which the lives and profession of the
monks for a long time had deplorably lapsed, have, as far as human
frailty will permit, endeavoured to the utmost that for the future the
pure word of God may be taught in that place, good discipline
preserved...."

The charter goes on to say that, "considering the site of the said late
monastery in which many famous monuments of our renowned ancestors,
Kings of England, are erected, is a very fit and proper place ... we
have decreed that the site of the said monastery be an episcopal see....
We also will and ordain that the said Dean and Prebendaries, and their
successors, shall for ever hereafter be called the Dean and Chapter of
the Holy and Individed Trinity of Gloucester." Henry also assigned to
the Bishop all the premises formerly occupied by the Abbot.

In 1576 the fabric seems to have been in want of considerable repair,
and in 1616, when Dr Laud was Dean, it was said of it that "there was
scarcely a church in England so much in decay." The Dean procured an Act
of the Chap