york00orns

272 YORK.
with the friars' houses at Tickhill, Doncaster, Pontefract,
and the city of York ; and that not a murmur
had been heard. Nay, they were even " thanckefully
receyvede," as within the next few days they intend
more fully to certify him. The lead and bells at
Bolton Abbey were, it seems, to be reserved, whether
for the king's highness' benefit or for that of his vicargeneral
is not quite apparent.
Wherever it was practicable surrenders were taken
from the heads of the religious houses. It was
Cromwell's policy that the dissolution should wear
the semblance of a voluntary act, so as to escape the
odium which was sure to be incurred by a forcible
expulsion.
It was a policy which Cranmer evidently
entered into. We find him requesting Cromwell to
refrain for a time from the expulsion of the prior of
the Carthusian house in the Isle of Axholme, telling
him that through the influence of friends he hoped
to procure his voluntary resignation.^
The inmates of the different monasteries and
nunneries were sent out into the world with pensions,
the amounts of which were fixed apparently by the
commissioners, and regulated, according to their instructions,
in proportion to " the rates and revenues
and possessions of the howses and the quality of the
personnes." The maximum seems to have been
_;^ioo per annum. This, at least, was the paj-ment
to Marmaduke Bradley, the Abbot of Fountains
that great and rich foundation, the nett yearly income
of which was certified in 1535 as amounting to
' " Letters Relating to the Suppression of Monasteries,"'
P- 173-