Penarth Chronicle and District Advertiser

W 0 L S IS Y, MB CARDINAL-CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND. HISTORICAL :ROMANCE! (ALL BIGHTS EESNRYED.j -lad gone far on his way bd aem back for a red buckram bag which he had left in bt, almonry sealed with his sea.). The messenger, ridmg with speed brought the bag to Pomfret, and it wao handed to the Cardinal soon after he retired to M< chamber in the abbey at night. The bag contained three ahirts of hair, which he delivered to his chaplain, his ghostly father very tecreMy." On leaving Pomfret the monks and the townsfolk turned out, craved his benediction, and running before him with candies in their hands, cried God save you? gra.cp, my good Lord Cardinal'" Thus he entered the monastery of Blackfriars, near Doncaster. On the morrow Wolsey was taken to Sheffield Park accompanied by a mighty concourse of all classes, who cried and lamented as be rode along." 4, The earl and counteas, with a train of gentle- women and gentlemen, and yeomen, standing with- out at the gates, received him. "My lord," quoth the earl, "your grace is most heartily welcome. I am right glad to see you in my poor Jod(>, and have often desired to entertain you. Woutd that you bad come hither under happier con- ditions Ah. my gentle lord of Shrewsbury," said the Cardinal, I heartily thank you Md although I have no cause to rejoice, yet, so far a t sorrowful heart may have joy, I am glad that I i,;Ave come into the hMds and custody of so Bob'e a person, of whose ap- proved honour and wisdom there can be no doubt." The earl declared that he did cot receive him as a prisoue?, but as "a good lord and the King's true faithhj! subject." May it please you, my lord Cardinal," cried the warm-hearted nobleman, here comes my wife to salute you." Wolsey, advancing bareheaded, kissed the coun- tess and saluted all her gentlewomen in a familiar way, shaking hands with all the gentlemen and yeo- men there assembled. He was then conducted into a fair chamber at the end of a goodly gallery, within a new tower." Across the midst of the apartment a traverse of sarsa-net was drawn, dividing it in twain—one part for the Cardiaa.1 and the other for the earl. Here it was that his custodian informed him that he daily received letters from the King commanding him to pnteirtain the Primate as one that he loveth." A missive with cheering words also reached Wolsey here from Patch, otherwise John Williams, which rented his master to tears. Be assured, my good !ord," said the jester, that thy poor fooi bears thy revered name in mind, and will m no case tail to keep thee in honour before the Kmg." The Cardinal bfJgan to grow worse every day. After tarry lag a? Sbem?d Park for nearly a fort- night, an apothecary was called upon to prescribe for him, and sent a "white confection" which greatly thieved him. In the course of the day on which thia madicH.'e was adrntaiatered to Wolsey, Sir Wtltia.m Kingston, Constable of the Tower, arrived and took charge of the prisoner. Th's had the effect of exciting him very much. Baving been informed by some fortune-tellers in previous 'yül\rs that he should have his end at Kingbolt," he interpreted their statement to mesn that he would die at Kiagston-on-Thames, which p!ace being near Hampten Court, might not un- reasonably have been nxed upon by them as the <cece of his demise. In the Cardinal's weak state, harrowed by his journey and long itiness, he was eredu!oHS enough to believe that he would perish in the Tower white in the custody of Kingston. Death, however, was nearer at hand, and doubtless saved him from the fate of Buckingham, whom he was fatsdy accused of having sent to the block whereas a few flippant words respecting Henry's ex- travagance and folly at Gruines on the occasion of his 'meeting with F.fa.ads on the Field of the Cloth of Go)d. brought: about the resutc. Whf'a the Constable of the Tower assured his pr'sofBr that be had orders to convey him by easy -jour cn-ys to London," Wolsey seemed to be somewhat reinsured, but he evidently felt that he had already ent,f,red into the vatley of the shadow of death. i caank you for your good news and kindnesa, Alai,i-,er K:ngt.ton, said the Cardinal, when ashed on what: day he was wilung to proceed, "and woularide foMh with you at onco, but I am sorely distressed, haYiag a maiacty whIch mal:eth me very weak, and EasMe to sit on my muie Dur:cg the easuiMg night he was so seriously HI that it was thought ha would die. By some it was said the Carciitia.l had been poisoned, and by others that he had poisoned himself. I If I !lave not some be)p shortly," he whispered f&mtiy to C&vandish, it wut co&t me my hfe." Thea it was that Dr. NicholM, a physician, was I COHSuited, aEir, gave an opmion to the ea'cct that he wcuid not !ive iocgfr tha.n four or five dayf. NMver- theless the Cardina,' d-sired to set forth, arid nfxt 6ay, against a)J advice, "he took jouruey with Master Kingston and the guard." The servants about him were sorely distressed, and when the melancholy party reached Hardwick-on- LiG8, about four miles from I-.I"ew8tead, wbere the Earl of Shrewsbury had another house—not Hardwtck Hall m Derbyshire—it was clear that the band of death was upon him, Being anxious to proceed, and refusing a litter which was prepared for hur), he was carried forward to Nottingham, where, "stcker stiU," he lodged t.hat night. The next day the Cardina! waxed so sick that he Was divers times tiheiy to have fallen from his muie." De!ay on the road prevented them from reaching Leicester before night!a! bat the Abbot, with aU in Ma convent, being apprised of his coming, met him with the light of many torches," and received the dying Prelate with honour and reverence. Father Abbot," said Wotsey, I am come hither to leave my bones amopg you." They then brought, him on his mule to the foot of the stairs leading ro his chamber, and as there flighted. The CoMtaMe of the Tower who assisted him said he never carried so heavy a burden in his life. This was on Saturday night. On the morrow he became woref, and on Monday, Cavendish, standing by his bedside, about eight o'clock, the 'windows being close shut, and wax hghto burning on t the cupboard," beheld hit mMter, "iast drawine to tMeend."

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and the plate belonging to St. Martin's Church. In the following year other articles were similarly dis- posed of by the churchwardens. Meanwhile the Bibte was faatened to one of the pillars of the build- ing fat public perusal, and works enforcing the doc- trines of the Reformed Church—such as the Part- phrase of Erasmus'—were purchased for the use of the congregation. When young Edward had suc- ceeded his father, the strapping of the remaining ornaments from St. Martin's Church was continued: and, very generally in all the churches, the altars were taken down, communion tables being substi- tuted." In the nsxt reign, when Queen Mary followed her brother as sovereign, on his decease, an at- tempt was made to reverse all the ptoceed:ngs taken by the reformers by the restoration of the ornaments in the churches, and of the use of the old ritual." It is further on record thM the infatuated revivalists per- secuted a;) oung husbandman, named Thomas Moore, who was summoned to appear before the Bishop of Lincoin, in the churches of St. Martin and St. Margaret, to meet various charges of heresy. In answer to questions, bebo!d)y avowed his betiet in the Real Presence,' saying that the body of Christ was no more in the sacrament on the altar than his body within his doublet would be a piece of bread, if he were to say, I Take, eat-this is my body.' He was burnt to death at Leicester for heresy in the month of June, 1 556." THE POOR OF LEICESTER AFTER THE REFORMATION'. It is to the credit of Leicester that the first care of the authorities after the Reformation was to Rnd profitable industry for the poor inhabitants who had been wont to crowd around the gateway of the Abbey and the doors of the religious houses, there to receive the doles handed to them by the moni:s." Mr. Thompson is of opinion that "a class of abject paupers must thus have been created." The earliest endeavour, he remarks, in this direction was in the reign of Edward the Sixth, when it was agreed at a Commons Hall that every year each of the Twenty-Four '—as the leading men of the municipal body were then designated—sboutd cause two 'Kerseys' to be made, and each of the' Forty-Eight* —an inferior body—one 'Kersey' to be made," a Kersey being a piece of woollen cloth eighteen yards long. This system, however, did not last for manyye&rs, and was nnaUy abandoned in 1584. NevettheJess, it is worthy of note as tending to show what difficulties had to be encountered in connection with mabiag provision for indigent persons when the monasteries and other religtous houses had been suppressed. The Mayor, in letters addressed to the Earl of Hunt- ingdon, when ;Elizabeth was on the throne, cus- tomarily dated them from the poor town of Leicester, and the well-known antiqt.to.rian from whose work the foregoing details have been gathered states tba.t m a report on the condition of the town drawn up in October, 1587, a jury of investigation set forth that 33.5 houses, which formerly belonged to the dissolved colleges, hospitals, and guilds, were in great decay that there were 4u6 bays of bouses with the timber, piaster, and states utterly wasted and carried away; and that some of these, once standing in thf< principal streets; ha.d fa!)en into ruin. Thirty parish churches had come to be six, and twenty.four wards to ten." ? CHARTER OF INCORPORATION. The great charter given to Leicester by Queen Elizabeth was associated with the attempted invasion of Eng!and by the Spanish Armada. The High Sheriff of the County summoned all males between the ages of 19 and 50 able to bear arms." Two thousand of them were despatched to the camp at Tiitmry, there to be ready for service." the remainder, some ten thousand, being sent back to their homes, furnished with various weapons and under orders to muster as soon as they should hear news of the Spaniards having !anded in Eng!and." It is abun- dantiy evident that Leicester would have rallied to the support of the throne and delence of fatherland had necessity for concerted action arisen. x- STATE OF THE MONASTERIES WHEN DISSOLVED. RAPACITY OF REFORMERS. All authorities concur in stating that the condition of the religious houses at the period of Wotsey's death was very bad indeed. There can be no doubt," says the Rev. George &!eig, "that the crimes of the monastic orders were numerous, and that the frauds which thay practised, in order to keep the peopie in ignorance and mentat slavery, merited not only ex- posure, but punishment. Probably, too, the aggre- gate wealth of the clergy was exorbitant; but the violence which characterised the proceedings of the Reformers-their bounciess MpMity and utter dis- regard of the customs of ages—proved more fatal to puh)ic morals, at least for the time, than all the vices of the condemned ecclesiastics. Regardless of the entreaties of Cranmer and the remonstrances of Latimer. Henry distributed with a profuse band the spoits of the Church among his favourites. No care was taken to set aeido even a portion of the plunder to sacred uses. Poor benefices, which had been repre- sent'd to be as a pnncipa.! source of scandai under the ancient system, were left in their original poverty. Not oniy estates, but tithes passed into lay hands, a.nd a race hitherto unknown in the history of the Christian world, name)y, lay impropriators, sprang up and aouriehed. It was to no purpose that the friends of religion remonstrated against these abuses, or strove to save the tithe by a ready sacrifice of the !ands. It was equally in vain that they interceded for the maintenance of one or two naonasteri' s in ? each county, not that they should stand in mockery, but f,¡ 1j,f. t < he converted into preaching, stuoy, and prpv r t to secure the support of the nobility and gentry, Henry bad given up to them the whole ordering of this matter, and they found too many attr&ctionsinthe rich manors and titheries spread out before them to be swayed from their purposes by arguments or expostulation. DISGRACEFUL SCENES. The metike, hitherto the principal owners of 'the tithe, hp.d givea. in too many instances, a wretched stipend to the vicars. In an address to the members of both Houses of Parliament," Henry Brinhlow de- clared "Nov there is no vicar at all, but the farmer is vic&r and parson altogether and only an old cast- away monk or friar, who can searcely say his matins, is hired for twenty or thirty shillings, meat and drirk-Vea, in some places for meat and drink atone, without any wagos. I know, and not I alone, but ,:)<nty thousand pfnp)e t;now, more tbaa nve hwn'imd vica'ages and pililrso.nages thus wett and gospfHy sf-rved, after the now gospel of England." Then it came to pass that worn-out menials of tavern-keepers and other illiterate men were pre- j? aected to benencea" whtch "_wpu!d not suSge to '?