144 Readings in European History "I forgive thee, but I promise thee that thou shalt never have honesty of the striking of my head, my neck is so short." Also even when he should lay down his head on the block he, having a great gray beard, struck out his beard, and said to the hangman, " I pray you let me lay my beard over the block lest ye should cut it." Thus with a mock he ended his life. VI. Church Reforms of Henry VIII Henry VIII was no Protestant. He cruelly enforced the acceptance by his subjects of the old beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, except that concerning the supremacy of the pope. Nevertheless, as " supreme head " of the English Church, he introduced some momentous changes : (i) He brought the clergy com- pletely under his despotic control, and even issued ordi- nances relating to the Church without submitting them to the clergy at all. (2) He approved the reading of the Bible in English, and (3) ordered that the services be conducted in English instead of Latin. (4) Lastly, he did away with all the monasteries, great and small, and appropriated their lands. Thousands of men and women were in consequence cast adrift, and toward a third of all the lands in England are supposed to have been involved. The following is an extract from an account of the destruction of the monasteries, written about 1591 by one whose father and uncle witnessed the acts of the visitors in some parts. As soon as the visitors [i.e. the king's commissioners] were entered within the gates, they called the abbot and 272. An account of tion of the other officers of the house, and caused them to deliver up to monasteries, them all their keys, and took an inventory of all their goods
