under
the most rigorous conditions imaginable. The results were to be seen in
the enormous increase of beggars, deprived now of the hospitality they
were accustomed to receive; and the roads everywhere were thronged with
those who had been holders of corrodies, or daily sustenance in the
houses; as well as with the evicted Religious, some of whom, dismissed
against their will, were on their way to the universities, where, in
spite of the Visitation, it was thought that support was still to be
had; and others, less reputable, who preferred freedom to monastic
discipline. Yet others were to be met with, though not many in number,
who were on their way to London to lay complaints of various kinds
against their superiors.

From these and like events the whole country was astir. Men gathered in
groups outside the village inns and discussed the situation, and feeling
ran high on the movements of the day. What chiefly encouraged the
malcontents was the fact that the benefits to be gained by the
dissolution of the monasteries were evident and present, while the
ill-results lay in the future. The great Religious Houses, their farms
and stock, the jewels of the treasury, were visible objects; men
actually laid eyes on them as they went to and from their work or knelt
at mass on Sundays; it was all so much wealth that did not belong to
them, and that might do so, while the corrodies, the daily hospitality,
the employment of labour, and such things, lay either out of sight, or
affected only certain individuals. Characters too that were chiefly
stirred by such arguments, were those of the noisy and self-assertive
faction; while those who saw a little deeper into things, and understood
the enormous charities of the Religious Houses and the manner in which
extreme poverty was kept in check by them,--even more, those who valued
the spiritual benefits that flowed from the fact of their existence, and
saw how life was kindled and inspired by these vast homes of
prayer--such, then as always, were those who would not voluntarily put
themselves forward in debate, or be able, when they did so, to use
arguments that would appeal to the village gatherings. Their natural
leaders too, the country clergy, who alone might have pointed out
effectively the considerations that lay beneath the surface had been
skilfully and peremptorily silenced by the episcopal withdrawing of all
preaching licenses.

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In