Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/172

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152
CARTHUSIANS

courage, firm in his faith. We call to mind pathetic scenes in connection with the Carthusians of the Charterhouse, men still earnest in their high ideals, their piety and devotion. They had not lost the old simplicity and asceticism of ten centuries ago, and their refusal to acknowledge that Henry VIII. was Supreme Head of the Church of England on earth was the signal for their doom. Some were hanged, some cast into prison, where they were chained in an upright position for the space of thirteen days, after which they were executed. After the monasteries were suppressed and some 9,000 friars, monks, and nuns cast adrift, wanton destruction of property took place: chalices of gold and silver, embroidered stuffs, illuminated books and missals, bells, images—the very lead from the roof was seized, and only the lonely moss-covered walls speak to us to-day of the departed glory of a bygone age.

With the suppression of the monasteries came the closing of many schools in connection with them. But the grammar schools of Edward VI. are still famous in many provincial towns, and it is a fact of no mean significance that between the years 1509 and 1553 over one hundred schools were opened in England, Notwithstanding this,