"What the whole body of the Kingdom hath "fuffered," fays Sir Henry, "fince these acts "of confifcation of the Monafteries and their "Churches, is very remarkable. Let the Monks "and Fryers fhift as they deferved, the good (if you will) and the bad together, my purpose is "not to defend their iniquities; the thing I la

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ment is, that the wheat perifhed with the dar"nel; things of good and pious institution with "thofe that abufed and perverted them; by "reafon whereof, the service of God was not "only grievoufly wounded, and bleedeth at this day, but infinite works of charity (whereby "the poor were univerfally relieved through the kingdom) were utterly cut off and extin

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guished; many thousand masterless servants "turned loose into the world, and many thou"fands of poor people, who were actually fed, "clad, and nourished by the Monasteries, now "like young ravens feek their meat from Heaven.

"have any thing that I require of them? If there be abuses "in any Monafteries, I will reform them. There be ftill

many that are very good." Bishop Latimer, who fat in the Parliament that diffolved Monasteries, gave it as his opinion, that two or three of the greater Abbies should be preferved in every County of England for pious and charitable purposes." This," fays Spelman, "was a wife and "a godly motion, and was perhaps the occafion that King "Henry did convert fome (in part) to good uses."

"Every

Every Monastery, according to its ability, had "an Ambery, (greater or lefs,) for the daily re"lief of the poor about them. Every principal

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Monaftery an hofpital commonly for travellers, "and an infirmary (which we now call a Spital) "for the fick and diseased perfons, with officers "and attendants to take care of them. Gen"tlemen and others having children without "means of maintenance, had them here brought up and provided for. These and such other mi"feries falling upon the meaner fort of people, "drove them into fo many rebellions as we spake

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of, and rung fuch loud peals in King Henry's

ears, that on his death-bed he gave back the

Spital of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, and "the Church of the Gray Friars, with other "Churches, and 500 marks a-year added to them, "to be united, and called Christ Church founded

by King Henry the Eighth, and to be Hospitals "for relieving the poor; the Bishop of Rochef"ter declaring his bounty at St. Paul's Cross on "the third day of January, and on the twentyeighth day following the King died."

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"What in Henry the Seventh," fays Lord Herbert," is called covetousness by fome per

fons, was a royal virtue; whereas the exceffive "and needlefs expences of Henry the Eighth "drew after them those miserable confequences "which the world hath often reproached. How

"beit, here may be occafion to doubt whether "the immenfe treasure which Henry the Seventh « left behind him was not accidentally the cause "of thofe ills that followed; while the young "Prince his fon, finding fuch a mass of money, "did first carelessly fpend, and after ftrive to fupply as he could."

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"One of the liberties," fays Lord Herbert, "which our King took at his spare time, was to "love. For as recommendable parts concurred "in his perfon, and they again were exalted in "his high dignity and valour, so it must seem "lefs ftrange, if amid the many faire Ladies "which lived in his Court he both gave and "received temptation."

Puttenham, in his "Art of Poetry," gives the following account of a vifit this Prince paid to fome Lady of his Court:

"The King (Henry the Eighth)," fays Puttenham, "having Sir Andrew Flamack his "ftandard-bearer (a merry-conceited man, and

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apt to fcoffe) with him in his barge, paffing "from Westminster to Greenwich, to visit a fair "Lady whom the King loved, and who was lodged in the tower of the park; the King

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coming within fight of the tower, and being disposed to be merry, faid, Flamack, let us

"rhyme. As well as I can, faid Flamack, if it

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please your Grace.

"The King began thus:

"Within this towre

"There lieth a floure

"That hath my hart."

"Flamack answered," adds Puttenham, "in "fo uncleanlie terms as might not now become cc me by the rules of decorum to utter, writing "to fo great a Majestie (Queene Elizabeth); but "the King took them in fo evil part, as he bid Flamack, Avaunt, varlet! and that he should "be no more neere unto him."

'

"Her Majesty's noble father," fays Puttenham, fpeaking of Henry the Eighth, father of Queen Elizabeth, " caufed his own head and all

his courtiers to be polled, and his beard to be 66 cut short. Before that time," adds he," it "was thought more decent both for old and

young to be all fhaven, and to weare long "haire, either rounded or fquare. Now again "at this time the young Gentlemen of the Court "have taken up the long haire trayling upon "their fhoulders, and think it more decent; for "what refpect I fhould be glad to knowe.”

According to Hollinfhed, this Prince thus addreffed the Court at Black Fryers, on his conjugal fcruples:

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YE REVEREND FATHERS,

"I have in marriage a wyfe to me moft deere, " & entirely beloved, both for hyr fingular vir"tues of mynde, & alfo for her nobilities of "birth. But fith I am the king of a mightie "kingdom, I must provide that it may be law

ful for me to lye with hyr duely, lawfully, " & godlye, & to have children by her, unto "the whiche the inheritance of the kingdome "maie by righte mofte juftlie defcend; which

two things fhall follow, if you by juste judge"ment approve our marriage lawful: if there "be any doubte, I fhall defyre you by your au"thoritie to declare the fame, or fo to take it "awaie, that in this thing both my confcience " & the mynds of the people may be quieted "for after."

"After this," adds Hollinfhed, "cometh the "Queen, the which there, in prefence of the "whole Court, accufeth the Cardinal of un"trouth, deceit, wickedneffe & malice, which "had fowen diffention betwixt her & the King "her husbande, & therefore openly protested "that she did utterly abhorre, refuse, and for"fake fuch a judge as was not only a most ma

"licious