failed of effect, menaces and even extreme
violence were employed; and as several of the abbots, since the breach
with Rome, had been named by the court with a view to this event, the
king's intentions were the more easily effected. Some, also, having
secretly embraced the doctrine of the reformation, were glad to be freed
from their vows; and on the whole, the design was conducted with such
success, than in less than two years the king had got possession of all
the monastic revenues.

In several places, particularly the county of Oxford, great interest was
made to preserve some convents of women, who, as they lived in the most
irreproachable manner, justly merited, it was thought, that their houses
should be saved from the general destruction.[*]

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 328.

There appeared, also, great difference between the case of nuns and that
of friars; and the one institution might be laudable, while the other
was exposed to much blame. The males of all ranks, if endowed with
industry might be of service to the public; and none of them could want
employment suited to his station and capacity. But a woman of family who
failed of a settlement in the married state,--an accident to which such
persons were more liable than women of lower station,--had really
no rank which she properly filled; and a convent was a retreat both
honorable and agreeable, from the inutility, and often want, which
attended her situation. But the king was determined to abolish
monasteries of every denomination; and probably thought that these
ancient establishments would be the sooner forgotten, if no remains of
them of any kind were allowed to subsist in the kingdom.

The better to reconcile the people to this great innovation, stories
were propagated of the detestable lives of the friars in many of the
convents; and great care was taken to defame those whom the court had
determined to ruin. The relics also and other superstitions, which had
so long been the object of the people's veneration, were exposed to
their ridicule; and the religious spirit, now less bent on exterior
observances and sensible objects, was encouraged in this new direction.
It is needless to be prolix in an enumeration of particulars: Protestant
historians mention on this occasion, with great triumph, the sacred
repositories of convents; the parings of St. Edmond's toes; some of
the coals that roasted St. Laurence; the girdle of the Virgin shown in
eleven several