Edwardian Inventories For Bedf PDF Download

Excerpt from The Edwardian Inventories for Bedfordshire The political exigences of Henry VIII's breach with the Pope caused him to suppress the English monastic houses, with the twofold end of crushing that part of the body spiritual which was the strongest bulwark of papal power in England, and of obtaining lands to grant to the nobility, so that he might secure their favour and support. Begun in 1535 under the pretext of suppressing some of the lesser houses on account of their corruption, this policy of sacrilege went on until every religious house was gone, and in 1545 it was extended to colleges, chantries and free chapels, although it seems that the seizure of the plate and ornaments of these latter did not take place until early in the reign of Edward VI. It is easy to see that this work of sacrilege and confiscation was not likely to stop short of the parish churches, and it began to be extended to them at the very beginning of the reign of Edward VI. Enquiries as to the goods of parish churches were made of the bishops in 1547, and early in 1549 a commission for making inventories was issued to sheriffs and justices of the peace. On 3rd March 1551 it was ordered by the Privy Council "that for as muche as the Kinge's Majestie had neede presently of a masse of mooney, therfore Commissions shulde be addressed into all shires of Englande to take into the Kinges handes suche churche plate as remaigneth, to be emploied unto his highnes use." This however was not done immediately. On 29th January 1552 a letter was addressed to each custos rotulorum requiring the delivery of the inventories which had been made under the commissions of 1549. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.