Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/259

1539.] that any magistrates were deprived or punished. The work which they had neglected was done for them by others, and they were left again to themselves with a clearer field. One noticeable victim, however, fell in this year. There were three indeed, with equal claims to interest; but one, through caprice of fame, has been especially remembered. The great abbots, with but few exceptions, had given cause for suspicion during the late disturbances; that is to say, they had grown to advanced age as faithful subjects of the Papacy; they were too old to begin life again with a new allegiance. The Abbot of Colchester had refused to surrender his house, and concealed or made away with the abbey plate, and had used expressions of most unambiguous anxiety for the success of the rebellions, and of disappointment at their failure. On the first visitation of the monasteries,