ety colleges were demolished in several counties;
two thousand three hundred and seventy-four chantries and free chapels;
a hundred and ten hospitals. The whole revenue of these establishments
amounted to one hundred and sixty-one thousand one hundred pounds.[**]
It is worthy of observation, that all the lands and possessions and
revenue of England had, a little before this period, been rated at four
millions a year; so that the revenues of the monks, even comprehending
the lesser monasteries, did not exceed the twentieth part of the
national income; a sum vastly inferior to what is commonly apprehended.
The lands belonging to the convents were usually let at very low rent;
and the farmers, who regarded themselves as a species of proprietors,
took always care to renew their leases before they expired.[***] [13]

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 244.

** Lord Herbert. Camden. Speed.

*** See note M, at the end of the volume.

Great murmurs were every where excited on account of these violences;
and men much questioned whether priors and monks, who were only trustees
or tenants for life, could, by any deed, however voluntary, transfer to
the king the entire property of their estates, In order to reconcile the
people to such mighty innovations, they were told that the king would
never thenceforth have occasion to levy taxes, but would be able, from
the abbey lands alone, to bear, during war as well as peace, the whole
charges of government.[*] While such topics were employed to appease the
populace, Henry took an effectual method of interesting the nobility and
gentry in the success of his measures:[**] he either made a gift of the
revenues of convents to his favorites and courtiers, or sold them at low
prices, or exchanged them for other lands on very disadvantageous terms.
He was so profuse in these liberalities, that he is said to have given
a woman the whole revenue of a convent, as a reward for making a pudding
which happened to gratify his palate.[***] He also settled pensions on
the abbots and priors, proportioned to their former revenues or to their
merits; and gave each monk a yearly pension of eight marks: he erected
six new bishoprics, Westminster, Oxford, Peterborough, Bristol, Chester,
and Glocester; of which five subsist at this day: and by all these means
of expense and dissipation, the profit which the king reaped by the
seizure of church lands fell much short of vulgar opinion. As the ruin
of convent