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248 YORK.
to be instructed in the schools carried on within their
walls.
But their doom was sealed. Remonstrances no
doubt were made in more quarters than one. In
April, 1536, we find Lee, the Archbishop of York,
pleading with Cromwell for two within his jurisdiction.^
One was the foundation of St. Oswald's at Nostell,
which he represents as being not of necessity a religious
house, but a libera capella archiepiscopi, of which the
prior is removable at his pleasure : and that, if he
thought fit, he could at any time make it into a
college of secular canons. The other was Hexham,
the position of which on the Borders rendered its
maintenance, in every point of view, most desirable.
The Archbishop's letter refers also to other matters.
His archiepiscopal authority had been invoked by
Cromwell to check tlie abstraction of movables, and
plate and jewels, on the part of many of the abbots
and monks, who, seeing that the storm was about to
break, were disposed to do as much as might be for
their own private advantage. The Archbishop seems
to have done all he could, by private as well as public
admonition to the members of the different monastic
houses, to put some restraint upon these fraudulent
proceedings, which had evidently been carried on to a
very considerable extent. The Lord Mayor of York
and other citizens, and specially the Master of the
Mint there, were also warned of the risk which would
be incurred if they became receivers of goods thus
embezzled. The letter concludes with a reference to
the injunctions about preaching which had issued from
* " Letters," &c.. pp. 123-5.