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WESTMINSTER ABBEY
THE LAST DAYS OF THE
MONASTERY



Works by the same Author

——

ST. MARGARET’S, WESTMINSTER
THE PARISH GILDS OF MEDIÆVAL ENGLAND
WESTMINSTER, AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
ETC.
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WESTMINSTER ABBEY

THE LAST DAYS OF THE

MONASTERY

AS SHOWN BY THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

ABBOT JOHN ISLIP
1464-1532

BY

H. F. WESTLAKE, M.A., F.S.A.

Custodian and Minor Canon of Westminster Abbey


LONDON
PHILIP ALLAN & CO.
QUALITY COURT, CHANCERY LANE
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First Published in April, 1921


Printed by Whitehead Brothers, Wolverhampton{v}

FOREWORD

The story of the last forty years of the monastery of Westminstercentres round two persons. In the thirty-two years of John Islip’s ruleas Abbot he raised its glory to a height which it had never beforeattained. In the eight years that followed Abbot Boston reduced it to alevel which made its dissolution easy. To plead that Boston was merelyCromwell’s tool is to offer but little excuse, for it was a positionIslip would have disdained to occupy. Had Islip lived to witness an endwhich perhaps was inevitable he might well have been involved in atragedy such as that of Abbot Whiting of Glastonbury. As a man on thefringe of public life some accusation would not have been difficult tofabricate.

The history of these days therefore is best told in a biographical form,for Islip’s activities and Boston’s slack rule touched every departmentof monastic life. There are few subjects about which greatermisconceptions still prevail than the dissolution of the monastichouses, and while this little book cannot hope to clear these away itmay at least provide the true story of one such dissolution. The tale ofthe revival of the monastery under Feckenham in the reign of Queen Maryhas not been told. It is a detached episode of very great interest butof very little importance save in one respect quite unconcerned with theafter history of Westminster Abbey, namely that one of Feckenham’s monkslived to pass on the lighted torch of the Benedictine succession.

H. F. Westlake.

The Cloisters,
Westminster Abbey.
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CONTENTS