en of the Reformation,
they show themselves unfit to be trusted with the
custody of our national annals. The Acts of Parliament
speak plainly of the enormous abuses which had
grown up under these bulls. Yet even the emphatic
language of the statutes scarcely prepares us to find an
abbot able to purchase with jewels stolen from his own
convent a faculty to confer holy orders, though he had
never been consecrated bishop, and to make a thousand
pounds by selling the exercise of his privileges. This
is the most flagrant case which has fallen under the eyes
of the present writer. Yet it is but a choice specimen
out of many. He was taught to believe, like other
modern students of history, that the papal dispensations
for immorality, of which we read in Fox and other
Protestant writers, were calumnies, but he has been
forced against his will to perceive that the supposed
calumnies were but the plain truth; he has found
among the records--for one thing, a list of more than
twenty clergy in one diocese who had obtained licences
to keep concubines [Tanner MS. 105, Bodleian Library,
Oxford]. After some experience, he advises
all persons who are anxious to understand the English
Reformation to place implicit confidence in the Statute
Book. Every fresh record which is brought to light
is a fresh evidence in its favour. In the fluctuations of
the conflict there were parliaments, as there were
princes, of opposing sentiments; and measures were
passed, amended, repealed, or censured, as Protestants
and Catholics came alternately into power. But whatever
were the differences of opinion, the facts on either
side which are stated in an Act of Parliament may be
uniformly trusted. Even in the attainders for treason
and heresy we admire the truthfulness of the details
of the indictments, although we deplore the prejudice
which at times could make a crime of virtue.

We pass on to the next picture. Equal justice, or
some attempt at it, was promised, and we shall perhaps
part from the friends of the monasteries on better terms
than they believe. At least, we shall add to our own
history and to the Catholic martyrology a story of
genuine interest.

We have many accounts of the abbeys at the time
of their actual dissolution. The resistance or acquiescence
of superiors, the dismissals of the brethren, the
sale of the property, the destruction of relics, &c., are
all described. We know how the windows were taken
out, how the glass appr