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.