I may have
been governed in aiming at the monastic property, he was therefore able
to bring forward many political considerations, which coincided with
those arising out of religious doctrines, to make his measures
intelligible to his people, and consequently easy to himself. Among the
various plausible reasons which were urged against the continued
existence of the conventual houses, one of the most likely to appeal to
the practical sense of the multitude was the misuse of the resources
with which they had been endowed. While it was admitted that in their
earlier days they had been extremely useful in mitigating distress among
the poor, it was now argued that their indiscriminate charities were
doing more harm than good, and that the changed economic conditions of
the sixteenth century called for a corresponding change in the
distribution of relief, to save the country from being overrun by
undeserving mendicants, amongst whom some of the religious Orders were
themselves to be reckoned. It does not appear that any part of this
argument held good against the Augustinian Canons, or that the more
serious moral charges brought against the smaller communities were at
all applicable to their case, which was rather one of involvement in a
common ruin than the result of any specific accusation. It is true there
are instances of laxity at individual houses, showing a too easy
discipline where they occurred, but there is nothing sufficiently
extensive or important to compromise the Order as a whole, or materially
damage its character in the eyes of the impartial modern student.[10]

It might have been expected that some immunity from the wholesale
spoliation which followed the Act would have been granted to Rahere's
foundation, in view of his special provision for the poor in the
hospital which was an integral part of it. The hospital has indeed been
allowed to survive as a separate institution; but the whole of the
strictly monastic buildings were doomed, the nave of the church being at
once pulled down, and the choir only preserved for the use of the
parish. With this reservation, the site of the Priory and the buildings
upon it, including the Lady Chapel, were sold in 1546 to Sir Richard
Rich, Knight (Attorney General), for the consideration of L1,064 11_s._
3_d._, and the property has remained in the hands of his descendants
till quite recent years. The possession was, however, interrupted by
Queen Mary, who introduced the D