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246 YORK.
Cromwell 600 marks if he would make him abbot, to
be paid down at once after his election. He had also
given them to understand that he was in a position to
pay the first-fruits to the king (amounting to ^1,000)
without fail within three years. The visitors further
intimate to Cromwell that if Marmaduke were made
abbot he would have the prebendal stall at Ripon to
dispose of. Marmaduke became the head of Fountains,
but he quite declined to give up his prebend.
" The wisest monk within England," saw plainly
enough that the monastic houses were doomed. "Of
very trewthe," said he to Cromwell, " this howse that
I am preferred in, is so farre in danger, all maner of
wayes, that I have raither wyll to resign the abbotship
than my prebend." It ended in his retaining both.^
The report of the commissioners was laid before
Parliament. As regarded the state of the greater
monasteries it was not, on the whole, unfavourable.
The lesser houses were described as being, for the
most part, dissolute in their lives, wasteful as regarded
the management of their property, and heedless of the
obligations which their vows imposed. The charges
made as to relaxation of morals were of the most
repulsive character. That there was only too much
room for accusations against the clergy and many of
the monks for immorality is a thing that cannot be
gainsaid, for there is evidence respecting it of a much
more unimpeachable character than that which is
furnished by the \isit0r3 of the monasteries. We
'
"Memorials of Founlains .Vbbey " (Put- Surtees Soc), i.
p. 2S6.