DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32038#0082
50
GLASTONBURY ABBEY, SOMERSETSHIRE.
with an order to await the king’s pleasure; but, upon his arrival at Wells, he
was unexpectedly summoned to take his trial, 14th November, 1539. Several
artful charges were made out, of the abbot having robbed his church of some
plate ; and of his concealing a treasonable book, which censured the king’s
divorce, and which had been found on searching his chambers.* On these
strange indictments he w Tas condemned to suffer the cruel death of a traitor; j-
and, the next day, the venerable old man was taken to Glastonbury, without
the least regard being paid to his age and character: for he was not even
allowed to take leave of his brethren,—a small indulgence, which he is said to
have begged with tears, but, being laid upon a hurdle, he was drawn up to the
Torr Hill, and there hanged and quartered. Two monks, named Roger Jacob
and John Thorne, were executed, at the same time and place, with their abbot,
as his accomplices. J The abbey was immediately seized by the king’s officers;
and the monks were expelled.§
The buildings of Glastonbury Abbey were the work of many successive
abbots ; and, at the period of its dissolution, the wdiole was most extensive and
magnificent. The abbey cliurch was exceeded, in grandeur, by very few cathe-
drals; and the cloisters and habitable apartments were built on a scale corre-
higli treason and heresy; and beheaded, without the formality of a trial, 20th July, 1540: about
three months after lie had been created Earl of Essex.
* See an original letter, from the Visitors to the Lord Privy Seal, No. 67. of the Records in
Burnet’s History of the Reformation, vol. iii. part 2. p. 211, Oxford edition, 1816. Hugh Cook,
alias Farringdon, abbot of Reading, with two of his monks; and John Beche, abbot of Colchester,
were executed about the same time, and on similar charges. Collier and Willis say they were con-
demned as traitors for denying the king’s supremacy; but tliis they had acknowledged four years
before, or they would not have been spared so long.
f See the terms of the sentence passed on Edward, Duke of Buckingham, in 1521, Gentleman’s
Magazine, March 1834, p. 268. This horrible penalty has only been latety struck out of the
English statutes, long after the actual perpetration of the butchery prescribed by the law had been
discontinued.
f The following report was transmitted by John, lord Russell, in a letter from Wells, dated
15th November, 1539: “ My Lorde thies shalbe to asserteyne that on Thursdaye the xiiiith daye of
this present moneth the Abbott of Glastonburye was arrayned, and the next daye putt to execucyon
wyth 2 other of liis monkes for the robbyng of Glastonburye eliurche, on the Torre Hille next unto
the towne of Glastonburye ; the seyde abbot’s body being devyded into fower parts, and hedde
stryken off; whereof oone quarter stondythe at Welles, another at Bathe, and at Ylchester, and
Brigewater the rest: and his head uppon the abby-gate of Glastonbui'ye.”
See Ellis’s Original Letters (First Series), vol. ii. p. 98.
§ The site of Glastonbury Abbey was granted, 1 Edward VI. to Edward, Duke of Somerset: and
afterwards, 1 Elizabeth, to Sir Peter Carew.
GLASTONBURY ABBEY, SOMERSETSHIRE.
with an order to await the king’s pleasure; but, upon his arrival at Wells, he
was unexpectedly summoned to take his trial, 14th November, 1539. Several
artful charges were made out, of the abbot having robbed his church of some
plate ; and of his concealing a treasonable book, which censured the king’s
divorce, and which had been found on searching his chambers.* On these
strange indictments he w Tas condemned to suffer the cruel death of a traitor; j-
and, the next day, the venerable old man was taken to Glastonbury, without
the least regard being paid to his age and character: for he was not even
allowed to take leave of his brethren,—a small indulgence, which he is said to
have begged with tears, but, being laid upon a hurdle, he was drawn up to the
Torr Hill, and there hanged and quartered. Two monks, named Roger Jacob
and John Thorne, were executed, at the same time and place, with their abbot,
as his accomplices. J The abbey was immediately seized by the king’s officers;
and the monks were expelled.§
The buildings of Glastonbury Abbey were the work of many successive
abbots ; and, at the period of its dissolution, the wdiole was most extensive and
magnificent. The abbey cliurch was exceeded, in grandeur, by very few cathe-
drals; and the cloisters and habitable apartments were built on a scale corre-
higli treason and heresy; and beheaded, without the formality of a trial, 20th July, 1540: about
three months after lie had been created Earl of Essex.
* See an original letter, from the Visitors to the Lord Privy Seal, No. 67. of the Records in
Burnet’s History of the Reformation, vol. iii. part 2. p. 211, Oxford edition, 1816. Hugh Cook,
alias Farringdon, abbot of Reading, with two of his monks; and John Beche, abbot of Colchester,
were executed about the same time, and on similar charges. Collier and Willis say they were con-
demned as traitors for denying the king’s supremacy; but tliis they had acknowledged four years
before, or they would not have been spared so long.
f See the terms of the sentence passed on Edward, Duke of Buckingham, in 1521, Gentleman’s
Magazine, March 1834, p. 268. This horrible penalty has only been latety struck out of the
English statutes, long after the actual perpetration of the butchery prescribed by the law had been
discontinued.
f The following report was transmitted by John, lord Russell, in a letter from Wells, dated
15th November, 1539: “ My Lorde thies shalbe to asserteyne that on Thursdaye the xiiiith daye of
this present moneth the Abbott of Glastonburye was arrayned, and the next daye putt to execucyon
wyth 2 other of liis monkes for the robbyng of Glastonburye eliurche, on the Torre Hille next unto
the towne of Glastonburye ; the seyde abbot’s body being devyded into fower parts, and hedde
stryken off; whereof oone quarter stondythe at Welles, another at Bathe, and at Ylchester, and
Brigewater the rest: and his head uppon the abby-gate of Glastonbui'ye.”
See Ellis’s Original Letters (First Series), vol. ii. p. 98.
§ The site of Glastonbury Abbey was granted, 1 Edward VI. to Edward, Duke of Somerset: and
afterwards, 1 Elizabeth, to Sir Peter Carew.