house and the chapel' were turned into dwelling-houses and shops, and the tombs and monuments were pulled down, and the bones buried in the fields.[1]
The work, however, which Parliament would have to undertake, on its assembling, would not be exclusively religious. It has been mentioned that parallel to the religious Reformation, social changes of vast importance were silently keeping pace with it. In the breakup of feudal ideas, the relations of landowners to their property and their tenants were passing through a revolution; and between the gentlemen and the small farmers and yeomen and labourers were large differences of opinion as to their respective rights. The high price of wool, and the comparative cheapness of sheep farming, continued to tempt the landlords to throw their plough lands into grass, to amalgamate farms, and turn the people who were thrown out of employment adrift to shift for themselves. The commons at the same time were being largely enclosed, forests turned into parks, and public pastures hedged round and appropriated. Under the late reign these tendencies had with great difficulty been held partially in check; but on the death of Henry they acquired new force and activity. The enclosing, especially, was carried forward with a disregard of all rights and interests, except those of the proprietors.
Periods of revolution bring out and develope extraordinary characters; they produce saints and heroes,
- ↑ Stow's Annals; Stow's Survey of London; Chronicle of the Grey Friars.
