[210-*] In addition to these were, in some churches, shrines
and reliquaries, enriched by the lavish donations of devotees, and wooden
images excessively decked out and appareled[211-*]--objects of
superstition, to which pilgrimages and offerings were made. And if in the
review of the conceptions of a prior age, viz. of the fourteenth century,
we find a higher rank of art to be evinced, and the style and combination
of architectural and sculptured detail to be more severe and pure, at no
period were our churches adorned to greater excess than on the eve of that
in which all were about to undergo spoliation, and many of them wanton
destruction.
For on the suppression of the monasteries and colleges, to the number of
700 and upwards, and of the chantries, in number more than 2300, effected
between the years 1535 and 1540, the abbey churches were not only
despoiled of their costly vestments, altar plate and furniture, and
shrines enriched with silver, gold, and jewels, but many of them were
entirely dismantled, and the sites with the materials granted to
individuals by whom they were soon reduced to a state of ruin. Some were
even, either then or in after-times, converted into dwelling-houses; and
others, or some portion of such, were allowed to be preserved as parochial
churches; but the private chantry altars, though left bare and forsaken,
were not as yet ordered to be destroyed.
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