was interrupted by the authorities at Brussels. But the plate which England could supply travelled along the same bad road, and all the mints, through the whole year of 1550, plied their abominable trade. Zeal against superstition was the universal pretext for the pillage of the churches. The shrines and crucifixes were already gone. This year, 'the King's Highness having need of a mass of money,' an order of council went out for all the plate remaining in all the churches in England to be brought to the treasury.[1] 'All the church plate in the Tower was to be melted into wedges' for the great cesspool;[2] and so narrow was the gleaning, that 'the gold, silver, and jewels' were 'ordered to be stripped' from the mass books, legend books, and such like, in his Highness's library at Westminster. It is to be admitted that the public expenditure was slightly reduced, the debts partially paid off—but it was only by defrauding the public of the means—through the currency.[3] To conceal the trick which they were practising, or to prevent the consequences of it, Warwick and his friends endeavoured to enforce violently an arbitrary system of prices. The harvest of 1550 was a bad one. The existing scarcity was aggravated by a failure of the crops.
- ↑ Privy Council Records, Edward VI. MS.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Owing to the carelessness with which the public accounts were kept, it is difficult to ascertain to what the debts of the Crown really amounted at any given time. Bills were renewed as they fell due, and the calculation of money to be provided at any given time only touched what was immediately necessary. It will be seen, however, that, on the whole, Warwick would have accomplished something, had not the remedy which he employed been worse than the disorder to be cured.
