Note 31 — THE ANTIQUITIES OF BRIDGNORTH. PART I.

It is a very common opinion, that the suppression of the Religious Houses in the reign of Henry VIII. was universally countenanced and encouraged by the Reformers; and Roman Catholic writers are very anxious to give this opinion currency; but it is wholly groundless. Almost all the Bishops of the new learning, as the Reformers were called, were against the misapplication of the Abbey lands; and Queen Anne Boleyn, though so strong a favourer of the Reformation, is said to have been so averse to the measure, that she put up Bishop Latimer upon preaching against it before the King. On the other hand, the measure found very strong advocates among the Roman Catholics, Laity and Clergy; and of these one of the most conspicuous was the famous Bishop Gardener, who is said to have been as busy as any in declaiming against the Religious Houses, and to have commended the King in many of his sermons for suppressing them.—See some curious statements on the subject in Tanner’s Notitia Monastica, p. xl, notes.