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232 YORK.
was the harbinger of another interference with the
religious houses. Further powers of dealing with
monastic property were soon obtained. In 1528
another bull was granted by the pope which sanctioned
the dissolution of as many monasteries as would bring
in a yearly revenue of 8,000 ducats, with the proviso
that those only should be suppressed whose inmates
did not exceed six in number. About the same time
a further bull was issued, at the king's request, for
the suppression of other religious houses, of both
sexes, whose numbers respectively fell short of twelve,
and the annexation of their possessions to the greater
monasteries. The reason assigned to the pope for
making this request was this :—an idea had suggested
itself to the king that some of the larger and richer
monastic establishments in the great towns should be
made episcopal sees, and that the endowments of the
latter should be furnished out of the revenues of the
former. It does not appear that the pope showed any
unwillingness to sanction the proposed arrangement,
for in the following year he sent a commission giving
the necessary powers to establish as many new sees
as might be deemed requisite.
These proceedings were obviously tentative, but
they seem to indicate, not very obscurely, the lines
upon which Wolsey would have proceeded with
reference to the reformation of the Church of this
country, for we can scarcely doubt that the papal
bulls were procured at his suggestion. We may not
unreasonably, perhaps, assume that the monastic
institutions were doomed in his mind to a gradual
extinction." Their wealth would probably have been