jewels and plate as they
purposed to remove, and were going away; when, the day being late and
the weather foul, they changed their minds, and resolved to spend the
night where they were. In the evening, "the abbot," says Sir Piers,
"gathered together a great company, to the number of two or three
hundred persons, so that the commissioners were in fear of their lives,
and were fain to take a tower there; and therefrom sent a letter unto
me, ascertaining me what danger they were in, and desiring me to come
and assist them, or they were never likely to come thence. Which letter
came to me about nine of the clock, and about two o'clock on the same
night I came thither with such of my tenants as I had near about me, and
found divers fires made, as well within the gates as without; and the
said abbot had caused an ox to be killed, with other victuals, and
prepared for such of his company as he had there. I used some policy,
and came suddenly upon them. Some of them took to the pools and water,
and it was so dark that I could not find them. Howbeit I took the abbot
and three of his canons, and brought them to the king's castle of
Hatton."[509]

[Sidenote: Monks under 24, and nuns under 21, set free from their vows.]

If, however, the appropriation of the jewels led to occasional
resistance, another duty which the commissioners were to discharge
secured them as often a warm and eager welcome. It was believed that the
monastic institutions had furnished an opportunity, in many quarters,
for the disposal of inconvenient members of families. Children of both
sexes, it was thought, had been forced into abbeys and convents at an
age too young to have allowed them a free choice in the sacrifice of
their lives. To all such, therefore, the doors of their prison house
were thrown open. On the day of visitation, when the brethren, or the
sisterhood, were assembled, the visitors informed everywhere such monks
as were under twenty-four, and such nuns as were under twenty-one, that
they might go where they pleased. To those among them who preferred to
return to the world, a secular dress was given, and forty shillings in
money, and they were restored to the full privileges of the laity.

[Sidenote: The monks at Fordham petition for release.]

The opportunity so justly offered was passionately embraced. It was
attended only with this misfortune, that the line was arbitrarily drawn,
and many poor wretches who found themselves condemned b