Chapter I: Preface

The following study of the Dissolution of the Monasteries will be found to have the following characteristics: (1) there are few references to books on the general subject of the Suppression; and (2) it is concerned with the County of Staffordshire alone.

I hope it will not be inferred that I have learnt nothing from the scholars who have dealt with the subject, as such is very far from being the case. But I desired to investigate the history without being influenced by prepossessions and prejudices, and I have accordingly tried to work with a perfectly open mind. I have looked first at the facts, which have been obtained nearly always at first hand, and only then have I drawn deductions. The reason why I have strictly limited myself to Staffordshire is explained in my first chapter. I have made no attempt to fit the Staffordshire history into the general history of England: if the two do not always run on parallel lines it is all the more useful that the divergences should appear.

Not seldom my deductions may be wrong, but the facts upon which they are based are always given very clearly and fully, and I must confess that in working out my book in my own way I have had cause to modify, and even to reverse, a good many of my earlier opinions. The history of the Dissolution of the Staffordshire monasteries gives strong support to the view that the suppression by Henry VIII and Cromwell was prompted far less by anti-papal necessities than by sheer cupidity, and not at all for moral reasons.

Most of the documents which are given in full are printed from the originals. Some of those in the Appendix have been printed previously, but none, I think, in books easily accessible to ordinary readers.

Professor Savine’s book on _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ appeared while my own was being written and after most of it was completed. I observe with some trepidation that my conclusions differ from his in not a few particulars, some of which are not unimportant. Nevertheless, I venture with all diffidence to state my opinions: they were independently formed, and perhaps it is as well that local peculiarities should be noted for comparison with generalisations for the whole country.

FRANCIS AIDAN HIBBERT.

DENSTONE COLLEGE,
STAFFORDSHIRE.

List of Printed Books to which References are made

(See Preface)

_Annales Monastici_, Vol. I, edited by H. R. Luard, 1864.

Bacon, J., _Liber Regis sen Thesaurus rerum
ecclesiasticarum_, 1786.

Bazin, René, _The Nun_ (a novel).

Burnet, Gilbert, _The History of the Reformation of the
Church of England_. 4 vols., 1839.

_Burton-on-Trent Chartulary_, printed in _Salt
Collections_, Vol. V, Pt. I and _Derbyshire Arch. Soc._,
Vol. II.

_Calendars of the Patent Rolls_--Edward I, 1281–92,
1292–1301, Edward II, 1307–13, 1313–18; Richard II,
1377–81; Henry IV, 1405–8; Henry VI, Vol. II.

_Calendars of State Papers, Domestic_, 1547–80, 1601–1603
(Addenda, 1547–65), 1603–10.

_Collections for a History of Staffordshire_, published by
the William Salt Archæological Society, cited as “_Salt
Collections_.”

Cunningham, William, _The Growth of English History and
Commerce_ (Vol. I), 1896.

_Derbyshire Archæological and Natural History Society,
Journal_ of, Vol. VII, 1885.

_Description of Leicestershire, A_, William Burton, 1622.

_Dictionary of National Biography_, 63 vols., 1885–1900.

_Dieulacres Chartulary_, printed in _Salt Collections_,
Vol. IX, new series.

Dugdale, Sir William, _Monasticon Anglicanum_, 6 vols.,
1830 (cited as _Monasticon_).

_Encyclopædia Britannica_, 9th Edn., 1875–88.

Froude, J. A., _History of England from the Fall of
Wolsey_, 12 vols., 1893.

Gairdner, James, _The English Church in the Sixteenth
Century_, 1904.

Gasquet, Francis Aidan, _Henry VIII and the English
Monasteries_, 1 vol., 1899.

Green, John Richard, _A Short History of the English
People_, 1898.

_Letters and Papers ... of the Reign of Henry VIII_, 18
vols., 1862–1901.

_Monasticism in Staffordshire_, F. A. Hibbert, 1909.

_Monasticon_, see Dugdale.

Morison, J. C., _The Life and Times of Saint Bernard_.

Norbury, Roger [Bishop of Lichfield 1322–59], his Register,
printed in _Salt Collections_, Vol. I.

Rogers, Thorold, _The Economic Interpretation of History_,
1888.

_Salt Collections_, see _Collections for a History of
Staffordshire_.

Sleigh, John, _A History of the Ancient Parish of Leek_,
2nd Edn., 1883.

_State Papers, Henry VIII_, Part I, 1830.

_Statutes at Large_, 1758.

Stretton, Robert [Bishop of Lichfield 1360–85], his _2nd
Register, 1360–85_, printed in _Salt Collections_, Vol.
VIII, new series.

Strype, John, _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, 6 vols., Oxford,
1822.

Stubbs, William, _Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum_, Oxford,
1858.

„ „ _Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern
History_, 1887.

_Valor Ecclesiasticus, temp. Hen. VIII, auctoritate regia
institutus_, 6 vols., 1810–34.

Wright, Thomas, _Letters relating to the Suppression of
Monasteries_, Camden Society, 1843.

CONTENTS

CHAP.