york00orns

CHAPTER XVIII.
The movement which followed the dissolution of the
monasteries began in Lincolnshire. AVild stories
were told, and met with ready credence, that the next
step contemplated by the ruling powers was the pulling
down of the parish churches, and the abstraction of
their jjlate and ornaments. The clergy throughout
the northern counties did all they could to foment
disaffection. It was not a very difficult task, for other
grievances, of a secular kind, were subjects of complaint.
There was great discontent on account of the
difficulties and complications arising from the working
of the Statute of Uses. A change, moreover, was going
on in the country, which was breaking up the old system
of things. The development of trade had led the
owners of property to see that it would be to their
advantage to enclose the commons and turn their corn
land into pasture. The small farms began to be
absorbed by the larger holders, and the occupants of
the former found their occupation gone. As in all
such changes. Government was blamed, and Cromwell
in particular met with no small share of popular hatred.
The great nobility hated him as an upstart, the lower
class ignorantly blamed and abused him as the author
of changes by which they were injuriously affected,
but which arose in reality from a variety of causes
which no Government could control.