Excerpt from The Greater Abbeys of England Thomas Crumwell was Henry's vicar-general in Spirituals, and acting in this capacity he projected a royal visitation of all religious houses in the autumn of 1535. The subordinates chosen by the vicar-general for the work were worthy instruments of their master and their letters prove them to have been utterly unscrupulous and entirely reckless in their accusations. At the same time preachers were sent over the country to prepare the popular mind for the contemplated seizure of monastic property. These emissaries of Crumwell were instructed to orate against the monks as hypocrites, sorcerers and idle drones, etc.; to tell the people that the monks made the land unprofitable and that if the abbeys went down, the King would never want for any taxes again. The destruction of the monasteries consequently was not only an item in the general policy of Henry and his minister, but it was certainly determined upon before the Visitors were sent on their rounds, and hence was quite independent of any reports they sent in. It would be out Of place to enter here into the details of the visitation. The work was done so rapidly that it was quite impossible that there could have been any serious Inquiry into the moral state of the houses visited. That these men who acted for Crumwell in this matter. Suggested in their letters and reports all manner of evil against the good name of the monasteries, is true, and was quite what was to be expected. 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.