Note 304 — The Drawing Room.

"These were some of the resolute steps King Henry made towards the obtaining again this long struggled for, and almost lost, right and prerogative of kings, in their own dominions, of being supreme, against the encroachments of the bishops of Rome. Secretary Cromwel had the great stroke in all this. All these counsels and methods were struck out of his head." Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials; vol. i., p. 205. When great murmurs ensued, on the suppression of the monasteries, because of the cessation of hospitality exercised in them, "Cromwell advised the king to sell their lands, at very easie rates, to the gentry in the several counties, obliging them, since they had them upon such terms, to keep up the wonted hospitality. This drew in the gentry apace," &c. Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation; vol. i., p. 223. "Archbishop Cranmer is said to have counselled and pressed the king to dissolve the monasteries; but for other ends (than those of personal enmity against 'the monks or friars'—or of enriching himself 'with the spoils' of the same); viz. that, out of the revenues of these monasteries, the king might found more bishoprics; and that dioceses, being reduced into less compass, the diocesans might the better discharge their office, according to the scripture and primitive rules.——And the archbishop hoped that, from these ruins, there would be new foundations in every cathedral erected, to be nurseries of learning for the use of the whole diocese." Strype's Life of Archbishop Cranmer, p. 35.