The Dissolution of Whitby – part 2

Whitby Abbey

Abbot John Topcliffe was forced to resign his position, and was allowed to become one of the brothers again. In the presence of the officers we were ordered to elect as Abbot, Henry Davell. The officers also siezed the revenues of the Abbey, leaving us with little to feed ourselves, and the villages and communities we serve. We had hoped that would be an end to it, but the King wanted more.

We believe that he wants to break the authority of the church. He says he wants to root out corruption. We are told that he has been reading many of the pamphlets put out by dissenting preachers in Europe. We have heard that he has disagreed with much of what is written, after all, it is not long since he wrote ‘Assertio Septum Sacramentorum’ a defense of the seven sacraments, including marriage, and of the authority of the Pope. Look where he is now with those.

Among the the writings he has agreed with though is a pamphlett by Desiderius Erasmus in which he claims that among other things religious communities are ‘havens for idle drones; concerned only for their own existence, reserving for themselves an excessive share of the commonwealth’s religious assets, and contributing little or nothing to the spiritual needs of ordinary people’…….. That many communities perpertrated frauds on the people by selling indulgences and relics; and lastly that in concentrating on the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience we set aside the God given sacraments of Baptism and the teaching of the gospels.

Cromwell’s Commissioners, travelling around in the name of the King in1534 claim to have found many communities where the rules were lax, and they even closed some there and then, but most communities, like ours were feeding the poor at the gates, looking after the sick and elderly in our infirmaries and providing corrodies for former servants so that when they are unable to work, they have a place to live and food to eat.

But now I hear the bell being rung, calling us all to the Chapter House for what we know will be the final meeting of the community. We have discussed for weeks what we should do, but we know there is nothing we can do. Abbot Henry will have tried in his meeting just now, to persuade the commissioners to continue to pay the corrodies, and to provide for the needs of the elderly and infirm in the town of Whitby. We have heard that the Commissioners have been receptive to requests such as these in other places. The King seems determined to show that it is not our money he is after, only the corruption. Maybe the religious have now got too powerful and too rich. Maybe these changes will be good for our souls, but It doesn’t feel like it at the moment.

So at this, our last Chapter meeting we will watch Abbot Henry hand over to the Kings commissioners the keys of the Abbey. We will all return to our cells where we will collect our few belongings, and then walk out of the precinct for the last time. I will go down to the village, where I have arranged to live with the widow of one of the fishermen who died in a storm last winter. The pension of £5 a year which the king has promised to us all, will mean that she will no longer have to live in complete poverty, and I will be well looked after. Some of the younger members of the community will be returning to their families. Abbot Henry and a couple of the others who are priests as well as monks, have been asked to look after some of the parish churches that the community has served for generations. We have not been forbidden to meet together to pray, but we feel that having already incurred the king’s wrath, to do so might not be sensible. So here ends the Benedictine community of the Abbey of St Peter in Whitby.

The Dissolution of Whitby – part 1

Whitby Abbey

Date – 14^th December in the year of our Lord 1539 – The Abbey of St Peter at Whitby, formerly known as the Priory at Streoneshalh has existed on this site for most of the last 1000 years. Its story has been recorded in the annals of the abbey and it has been my privilege as librarian, to record the important events in our life as a community. I fear that this may be the last entry ever written in this book, as a few hours ago the King’s Commissioners rode into the abbey precincts and are even now closeted with Abbot Henry.

It is difficult to tell where this final part of our story really begins. It could begin in 1518 when Cardinal Wolsey, then head of the church in England obtained a Papal Bull allowing some reforms to the English Church. He wanted to raise some money to build in his honour, the Grammar School in Ipswich and Cardinal College at Oxford (Now known as Christ Church). By shutting down some of the smaller religious communities, he was able to use their funds for his foundation. The story of our downfall could begin in 1531 when the King, being unable to get a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon, because he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, had himself declared head of the church in England. It could begin in 1534 when Chancellor Thomas Cromwell sent out commissioners to all of the religious communities in the land, to supposedly assess us for tax, now that the King was in charge and not the Pope.

Cromwell’s commissioners reported back to the king in 1535 and immediately the King put through parliament the Suppression of Religious Houses Act, supposedly to deal with the corruption, lewness, debauchery and debt found among the religious communities around the land. In the ‘Valor Ecclesiasticus‘, the records of the commissioners, our community was assessed as having an annual income of £437 2s 9d, which thankfully for us put us well above the level of £200 set out as the minimum income required for a religious community. All those communities with an income of less than £200 were closed down.

However we did not meet the requirement in that Act for a community of at least 12 monks needed to perform the Daily Offices. It is a sad reflection that not many of the religious houses around the country, so I am told, actually have 12 or more members in their communities. What is the world coming to.

Personally I think that this day has been brought about for us, by the actions of the men of Yorkshire. When they heard about the affects of the dissolution of some of the monasteries in York, following the passing of the Act in parliament, became more and more outraged. On the 13th October of 1536, a local man, Robert Aske was able to lead a band of 9,000 followers to York, where they removed the tenants from the former monasteries and reinstalled the monks and nuns. Catholic observances resumed again in them. This act of rebellion they called the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’. The King was absolutely outraged at this rebellion, and sent the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Shrewsbury to deal with it. By the time they arrived in Doncaster to negotiate, Aske had nearly 40,000 people assembled, nearly five times the number of men that Norfolk and Shrewsbury had with them. Norfolk made promises to grant remedies for the grievances and Aske dismissed the crowds home again. Whereupon Norfolk accused the rebels of not dispursing properly and promptly arrested and executed 216 of the leaders of the rebellion.

The people had had so much to rebel about by then. The year of 1535 was a very bad year. Many of the harvests failed, and there was much starvation among the people. It is true that in the preaching in the churches we oversee, the Priests might well have suggested that the reason for the bad harvest was the dissolution of the smaller religious houses, and the king taking upon himself the authority as the head of the church, but we did not set out to foment rebellion. However the Kings officers did not see the distinction, and when the rebellion had been put down, they came riding into the Abbey with talk of our treasonous behaviour on their lips.

The Synod of Whitby – part 2

Synod of Whitby

Deusdedit, Archbishop of Canterbury and his entourage would have been impressed when their boat rounded the point and came into the mouth of the river Esk, and up to the harbour below the Abbey. We are told that he would have seen up on the cliffs, high above the port, surrounded by a wooden fence, stood the stone built church at the heart of the Abbey complex, the foundations of which are under our present great Abbey church. Around the abbey church would have been a number of round huts, some perhaps built of stone, others of wattle and daub, all roofed with thatch. Members of the community, both men and women, for this was then a conhospitae, a joint house, would live together in these huts. Some would have married, and their children would be brought up in the community. In those days the community, men and women were led by a woman, the Abbess Hilda. As well as these buildings there would have been accommodation for visitors and a library, a long wooden rectangular building, which would have housed the community’s collection of books each hanging in a bag from a peg on the walls. There would have been many valuable books then, as the Abbess was a member of the royal family of Northumbria, and would have encouraged donations to the abbey library. As there are now, there would have been a garden for vegetables and herbs, workshops for metal workers, carpenters and cooks, and stables for horses.

From the safety of the community, missionaries would go out to the surrounding areas to preach and convert the local pagan Saxons. They would have been visible as members of the community as like all members of Celtic religious houses the men would shave their heads forward of a line running from ear to ear, following the inspiration of St John, the beloved disciple to whom Jesus gave his mother, as opposed the tonsure on the back of the head we now wear, to imitate the crown of thorns, following in the tradition of St Peter.

Having guests for the great synod would have meant that members of the community would have had to share their accommodation with some of them, while the most important guests would have been housed in the guest house.

The Synod convened in the Abbey church. The Roman faction led by Deusdedit, archbishop of Canterbury, included Wilfred of Ripon, who was chosen to present the arguments in favour of Rome, as Deusdedit was not a well man. Colman, Bishop of Northumbria presented the arguments in favour of the Ionan church. The arguments boiled down this, Wilfred stated that firstly, the Roman way of doing the tonsure was the right one as St Peter was the one to whom Christ had given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Secondly Rome had got the date of Easter right because it was using the more modern and up to date calculations and calendar.

Colman countered saying that the Ionan calculation of Easter was based on the agreement at the Council of Nicea in the year of our Lord 325. Rome had chosen to go it alone on changing the calendar, and in decreeing that Easter could not be celebrated on the same day as the Jewish Passover. This was utterly ridiculous as Christ was himself a Jew, and it was well known that he had died at the time of Passover. To have it at any other time of year was to totally divorce the celebration from the origins of the event itself.

The debate was recorded as being very noisy and acrimonious. Oswiu listened to all the arguments and after consideration decided in favour of Rome as it was to Peter, the founder of the Roman Church that the keys to the kingdom of heaven had been given, so his authority was greater than that of St John.

After the synod, some people left straight away for Ireland, where they would still be able to practice the ways of the Ionan church. Gradually over many years, the Roman way took hold in England. Women were expelled from monasteries and were confined to their own Nunneries or sent back to their families. Marriages of community members were declared as unlawful and children were torn from their parents and sent away. It took about 250 years for the last remnants of the Ionan church to be routed out of the far reaches of Cornwall, but it was finally done, and England at last became a Christian country following the true church.