from their niches; the
chimes of bells were melted and cast into cannon; while the valuable
libraries were torn up and sold to grocers and soap boilers for
wrapping paper.

At Canterbury, Becket's tomb (S170) was broken open, and after he had
been nearly four centuries in his grave, the saint was summoned to
answer a charge of rebellion and treason. The case was tried at
Westminster Abbey, the martyr's bones were sentenceeed to be burned,
and the jewels and rich offerings of his shrine were seized by the
King.

Among the few monastic buildings which escaped was the beautiful abbey
church, now the cathedral of Peterborough, where Catharine of Aragon
(S345), who died soon after the King's marriage with her rival, was
buried. Henry had the grace to give orders that on her account it
should be spared, saying that he would leave to her memory "one of the
goodliest monuments in Christendom."

The great estates thus suddenly acquired by the Crown were granted to
favorites or thrown away at the gambling table. "It is from this
date," says Hallam, "that the leading families of England, both within
and without the peerage, became conspicuous through having obtained
possession of the monastery lands." These were estimated to comprise
about one fourth of the whole area of the kingdom.

353. Effects of the Destruction of Monasteries.

The sweeping character of this act had a twofold effect. First, it
made the King more absolute than before, for, since it removed the
abbots, who had held seats in the House of Lords, that body was made
just so much smaller and less able to resist the royal will.

Next, the abolition of so many religious institutions necessarily
caused much misery, for the greater part of the monks and all of the
nuns were turned out upon the world destitute of means. In the end,
however, no permanent injury was done, since the monasteries, by their
profuse and indiscriminate charity, had undoubtably encouraged much of
the very pauperism which they had relieved.

354. Distress among the Laboring Classes.

An industrial revolution was also in progress at this time, which was
productive of widespread suffering. It had begun early in Henry's
reign through the great numbers of discharged soldiers, who could not
readily find work.

Sir Thomas More had given a striking picture of their miserable
condition in his "Utopia," a book in which he urged the government to
consider measures for their relief; but t