erly dismantled, save
where, happening to be parish churches also, as was the case at St.
Alban's, Tewkesbury, Malvern, and elsewhere, they were rescued in whole,
or in part, from Henry's harpies, by the petitions or the pecuniary
contributions of the pious inhabitants;[5] libraries, of which most
monasteries contained one, treated by their new possessors with barbaric
contempt; "some books reserved for their jakes, some to scour their
candlesticks, some to rub their boots, some sold to the grocers and
soap-boilers, and some sent over sea to book-binders, not in small
numbers, but at times whole shipsful, to the wondering of foreign
nations; a single merchant purchasing at forty shillings a piece two
noble libraries to be used as grey-paper, and such as having already
sufficed for ten years were abundantly enough (says the eye-witness
whose words are here quoted) for many years more;"[6] these were some
of the coarser features of those times; howbeit there were many besides
these. For the churches were now treated with gross irreverence; horses
and mules were led through them; they were profaned by dogs and hawks,
by doves and owls, by stares and choughs;[7] they were plundered of
their plate by churchwardens, or other powerful parishioners,[8] who
might argue, that if they spared, others would spoil; or who might wish
ill to the cause of the Reformation, and take such means to scandalize
it. London, says Latimer, was never so full of ill; charity was waxen
cold in it. "Oh, London, London," cries this earnest old man, "repent!
repent! for I think God more displeased with London, than he ever was
with the city of Nebo."[9] Such was the profligacy of its youth, that
he marvels the earth gaped not to swallow it up. There were many that
denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of a heaven
or a hell.[10] Manly sports and pastimes had been exchanged for the
gaming-table. Divorces, even amongst the inferior classes of society,
were become common; for marriage being declared no sacrament, probably
many chose to interpret the declaration to mean that it was no bond.[11]
The elementary bread of the eucharist was expressed by base and indecent
nicknames.[12] The alehouses were filled with profane disputants upon
the mysteries of our faith, and the dissolute scoffers made songs upon
them:[13] "Green Sleeves," "Maggy Lauder," and "John Anderson my Jo,"
with numbers more, were all of this class of compositions; and psalms