s; and if
the truth was concealed, with expedients for discovering it, in which
practice soon made them skilful. All but everywhere the result was the
same. At intervals a light breaks through, and symptoms appear of some
efforts after decency; but in the vast majority of the smaller houses,
the previous results were repeated, the popular suspicions were more
than confirmed. Wolsey, when writing to the pope of his intended
reformation, had spoken of the _animus improbus_, and the frightful
symptoms which existed of it. He was accused, in his attempted
impeachment, of having defamed the character of the English clergy. Yet
Wolsey had written no more than the truth, as was too plainly
discovered. I do not know what to say on this matter, or what to leave
unsaid. If I am to relate the suppression of the monasteries, I should
relate also why they were suppressed. If I were to tell the truth, I
should have first to warn all modest eyes to close the book, and read no
further. It will perhaps be sufficient if I introduce a few superficial
stories, suggestive rather than illustrative of the dark matter which
remains in the shade.

[Sidenote: Sion Monastery.]

[Sidenote: The confessional, and the fruits of it.]

I have spoken more than once of the monastery of Sion. It was the scene of
the Nun of Kent's intrigues. It furnished more than one martyr for the
Catholic cause; and the order was Carthusian--one of the strictest in
England. There were two houses attached to the same establishment--one of
monks, another of nuns. The confessors of the women were chosen from the
friars, and they were found to have abused their opportunities in the most
infamous manner. With a hateful mixture of sensuality and superstition, the
offence and the absolution went hand-in-hand. One of these confessors, so
zealous for the pope that he professed himself ready to die for the Roman
cause, was in the habit of using language so filthy to his penitents, that
it was necessary to "sequester him from hearing ladies' confessions." The
nuns petitioned the visitors, on the exposure of the seduction of a sister,
that he and his companion might come to them no more; and the friar was
told that his abominable conduct might be the occasion that "shrift should
be laid down in England."[502]

This is one instance of an evil found fatally prevalent.

[Sidenote: Forged licenses for profligacy.]

Again, the clergy were suspected of obtaining dispensations from