It loth not appear that any computation bath been made of the number of persons contained in the religious houses.
'Those of the lesser monasteries dissolved by 27 lien.
VIII. were reckoned It 10,000Viii. were reckoned It 10,000 It' we suppose the colleges and hospitals to have con tained a proportionable number, these will make about 5,347 If we reckon the number in the greater monasteries, a•cordinif to the nroportion of their revenues, they will be about 35.000 but as probably they had larger allowauces in proportion to their number than th ose of the lesser monasteries, if' we abate upon that account 5,000, they will then be . . 30.000 One for ea -h chantry and free chapel 2 374 Total . . . 47,721 But as there were probably more than one person to in several of the free chapels, and there were other houses which are not included within this ealeulation, per haps they may be computed In one general estimate at about 50,000. As there were pensions paid to almost all those of the greater monasteries. the king did not immediately come into the 11111 enjoyment of their whole revenues : however, by means of what he did receive, he founded six new bishop rics, viz.. those of Westminster. (which was changed by Queen Elizabeth into a deanery, with twelve prebends a tol 11 school.) Peterborough, Chester, Gloucester, Bristol, and Oxford. And in eight other sees he founded deaneries and chapters.
by converting the friars and monks into deans and daries. viz., Canterbury. Winchester. Dnrhin, Rochester. Norwich, Ely. and Carlisle. I le riunded also the coller,s of Christ•Church in Oxford, and Trinity in Cam bridge, and finished King's College Chapel there. De like wise founded professorships of divinity, law, physic, and of the Hebrew and Greek in both the said universities. Ile gave the house of Gray Friars, and St. Bartholomew's hospital, to the City of London; and a perpetual pension to the poor knights of Windsor; and laid out great sums in bui.ding and ftwtifying many ports in the Channel. It is obser%ab.e, upon the w hole, that the dissolution of their houses was an act, not of the church, but of the state, in the period preceding the Reformation, by a king and parlia ment of the Roman Catholic communion in all 'Joints except the king's supremacy ;tow blob the pope himself; by his bulls and licenses, had led the way.
Although tars Will now be found entirely to approve either the original establishment. or continued subsistence of monas tei \ et the destruction of them was felt and lamented, for a considerable time, as a great evil ; and with good reason. One inconvenience that attended their dissolution was the loss of many valuable books, which their several libraries contained: for, during the niiddle ages, religious houses were the repositories of literature :Ind science. Besides, they were schools of education and learning; for every eon vent had one person or more appointed for this purpose; and all the neighbours that desired it, might have their children tatillt, grammar and church music there, without any expense. In the nunneries also, young females were taught to work and read ; and not only people of the lower rank, hut noblemen's and gentlemen's daughters, were instructed in those places. All the monasteries were also in effect great hospitals, and were most of them obliged to relieve many poor people every day. They were likewise houses of enter tainment for all travellers. And the nobility and gentry provided not only for their old servants in these houses, by cortotfies, but for their younger children, and impoverished friends, by making them first monks and nuns, and in time priors and prioresses, abbots and abbesses. On the other hdnd, they wore very injurious to the secular and parochial clergy, by taking on themselves many prebends and benefices, by gutting man) churches appropriated to them. and pensions out of many others ; and by the exemptions they got from the episcopal jurisdiction, and from the payment of tithes. We say nothing now of the laxity of discipline, and acts of moral turpitude, which have been attributed to the inmates of such establishments; which, however greatly they have been exaggerated, did unquestionably prevail in some in stances. Such faults, however, are chargeable rather upon individuals, than upon the system, against which the previous objections are of greater weight.