The Last Abbot of Glastonbury

The Last Abbot of Glastonbury            1

                  The Last Abbot of Glastonbury
The final days of Glastonbury Abbey and the last Abbot Richard Whiting

An upright and religious Monk
Richard Whiting was the sixtieth and last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey during the
years 1525 to 1539. The most likely date for his birth has been suggested as 1459;
he was probably in his mid-sixties when he commenced his tenure as Abbot.
Unfortunately for Whiting he had been elected to preside over a community of
Benedictine monks at the most turbulent time in English ecclesiastical history; the
Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII. He was executed
for unclear reasons on Glastonbury Tor on 15 November 1539.

Whiting's family was of a west-country origin and distantly connected with that of
Bishop Stapeldon of Exeter, the generous founder of Exeter College, Oxford, who
possessed considerable estates in Devon and Somerset. Whiting came of a junior
branch of the family from the valley of Wrington. Members of this family were
destined to work in the church; another Richard, probably an uncle, was chamberlain
at the monastery of Bath, and a Jane Whiting had taken the habit as a nun in the
convent of Wilton. Later, two of Abbot Whiting's nieces were admitted into religious
orders at the English Franciscan house at Bruges.

Whiting went on to Cambridge to complete his education, taking his MA in 1483.
After completing his degree the young Benedictine monk returned to his monastery
at Glastonbury and was probably occupied here in teaching. Whiting received the
minor order of acolyte in the month of September, 1498. In the two succeeding years
he was made sub-deacon and then deacon. On the 6th March, 1501, he was
ordained into the priesthood at Wells by Bishop Cornish in the now destroyed chapel
of the Blessed Virgin.

For the next 25 years, we know very little of Whiting's activities; it is likely he worked
in seclusion carrying out his duties at the Abbey. In 1505, he returned to Cambridge
and took his final degree as Doctor in Theology. At the monastery he held the office
of Chamberlain, which would give him the care of the dormitory, lavatory, and
wardrobe of the community, and placed him over the numerous officials and
servants necessary to this office in so important and vast an establishment as
Glastonbury then was.

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 In February 1525 Abbot Bere died after worthily presiding over the Abbey for more
than thirty years. After failing to agree on a successor the Glastonbury monks
charged Cardinal Wolsey to make the choice of their abbot. After obtaining
permission form the King, Wolsey declared that Whiting was his choice as Abbot,
stating that he was "an upright and religious monk, a provident and discreet man,
and a priest commendable for his life, virtues and learning." Whiting had shown
himself to be, "watchful and circumspect" in both spirituals and temporals, and had
proved that he possessed "ability and determination to uphold the rights of his
monastery.” As a result of his election as head of the Abbey he obtained a
distinguished seat in the House of Lords. John Leland, antiquary to Henry VIII,
referred to Whiting as "a man truly upright and of spotless life and my sincere friend."

Five years after Abbot Whiting's election, the fall of Cardinal Wolsey opened the way
for the advancement of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, and one of the
strongest advocates of the English Reformation, the English church's break with the
papacy in Rome. On the fall of the old order he built up his own fortune. “For ten
years England groaned beneath his rule - in truth it was a reign of terror unparalleled
in the history of the country.” As chief minister to King Henry from 1532 to 1540,
remorseless and tenacious in pursuing his aims, Cromwell 's power grew as he
became the chief political contriver of religious change in England.

The King's Divorce and the Suppression of the Religious Houses
In 1530 a curious document was presented to Abbot Whiting which turned out to be
the beginning of the end for him and his monastery. The letter addressed to Pope
Clement VII called for the papacy to dissolve King Henry's marriage to Catherine of
Aragon. The letter had been drawn up at the King's court and was now being passed

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around the Spiritual Peers and the Lords Temporal for endorsement. Whiting, like
most of his fellow subjects, did not approve. Henry had grown frustrated by his lack
of a male heir and since 1526 had begun to separate from Catherine because he
had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, one of the Queen's ladies, and sister to one of
the King's mistresses.

The Abbot of Glastonbury did eventually sign the letter along with twenty one other
Abbots but Rome still refused to grant the King a divorce. By December 1532 Anne
was pregnant and insisted on the status of Queen. Now relying on the devious
counsel of Thomas Cromwell, Henry was forced to act to avoid any issues to the
legitimacy of the child. In January 1533 Anne and Henry were secretly married.
Although the King's marriage to Catherine was not dissolved, yet in the King's eyes it
had never existed in the first place, so he was free to marry whoever he wanted. On
May 23 the marriage of Henry and Catherine was officially proclaimed invalid by
Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the English
Reformation.

With the conclusion of Henry's divorce case came the end of the peaceful years of
Abbot Whiting's rule. Now began the anxious days which were to end for him in
execution on Glastonbury Tor as a traitor.

As part of the King's scheme for a National Church, enforcing a break with Rome,
Cromwell inaugurated a policy of dissolving the religious houses and confiscating
their wealth. Dissolution of abbeys and convents was nothing new. The British
monarchy had sold French monastic possessions in England seized during the
Hundred Years War. Even Thomas Wolsey had closed a number of small priories.
However, on these occasions the proceeds had been used for charitable courses.
But in 1532 with Cromwell's rise to power a new precedent was set with the
Augustinian house at Aldgate being required to sign a deed of gift to the monarch.
Cromwell saw this as a legitimate means to solving the King's financial problems.

On 3rd November, 1534, the "Act of Supremacy" was hurried through Parliament,
and a second statute made it treason to deny this new royal prerogative. Resistance
was futile with the oath of royal supremacy taken wherever it was tendered, and
Glastonbury was no exception. Abbot Whiting and fifty-one of the Glastonbury
community attached their names to the required declaration, renouncing obedience
to the Pope. However, this should not be misconstrued as an act of betrayal to their
faith by the Benedictine community. Indeed, many did not see the oath of royal
supremacy over the Church of England as being derogatory to Rome. Whereas King
Henry was seen as the head of the Temporal church he was never seen as the head
of the Spiritual church by many religious houses.

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Within a year of general oath taking the whole approach to religious houses changed
in 1535. Cromwell, now Henry’s vicegerent, was responsible for the day-to-day
running of the Church and ordered that all religious houses should be visited by one
of his representatives. He constructed a program of inspection, known as the ‘Valor
Ecclesiasticus’ to determine how much property was owned by the Church in
England and Wales. Royal commissioners toured the religious houses, the methods
they employed, leave no doubt that the real object was the destruction of the
monasteries under the cloak of reformation, then submitted a report, of questionable
accuracy, back to Cromwell.

The ‘Valor Ecclesiasticus’ combined with the inspections proved to be a difficult
problem for the religious houses. Cromwell claimed the intention was not to abolish
monasticism but to purify it. Many of the visits were carried out by 'royal
commissioners' Thomas Legh and Richard Layton, perhaps the most trusted of
Cromwell's employees. These two ambitious men were aware of the result required
by Cromwell, their reports appropriately tailored accordingly to provide the
information he desired.

Following the 'inspections', Cromwell set out injunctions that were so exacting in
detail that essentially they were meant to be unworkable. In the hands of Cromwell's
agents they were, as they were designed to be, intolerable. And at Glastonbury, as
elsewhere, the injunctions were more than simply impracticable, but restrictive in the
principles of religious discipline. Abbot Whiting, like so many religious superiors at
this time, petitioned for some mitigation. Nicholas Fitzjames, a neighbour, dispatched
an earnest letter to Cromwell in support of the abbot's petition.

Duly, the royal commissioner Richard Layton arrived at Glastonbury on Saturday,
21st August 1535. After his inspection of the Abbey he wrote to Cromwell stating he
could find nothing untoward under Abbot Whiting's rule; “At Bruton and Glastonbury
there is nothing notable; the brethren be so straight kept that they cannot offend : but
fain they would if they might, as they confess, and so the fault is not with them."

The act of suppression of 1536 had condemned houses with an annual income of
less than £200, suggesting they might wish to voluntarily surrender. However, by
1538 rumour was rife of the forthcoming dissolution of even the greatest religious
houses, with one after another falling into the King's hands all across the country.
However, Cromwell issued a letter denying the intention of general suppression of all
the monasteries. This letter could scarcely have done much to reassure Abbot
Whiting as to Cromwell's real intentions, in view of the obvious facts which each day
made them ever more clear. Bath and Keynsham, had fallen shortly after the
Christmas that year with Benedictine Athelney and Hinton Charterhouse following,
where upon rigid questioning on the matter of royal-supremacy one of the Hinton
community had been imprisoned for "affirming the Bishop of Rome to be Vicar of

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Christ.” For weeks the royal wreckers swarmed over Somerset, like a biblical plague,
"defacing, destroying, and prostrating the churches, cloisters, belfreys, and other
buildings of the late monasteries; and the roads were worn with carts carrying away
the lead melted from the roofs, barrels of broken bell-metal, and other plunder."

By the beginning of 1539, Glastonbury was the only religious house left standing in
the whole county of Somerset; Abbot Whiting must have been aware of the fate that
awaited him.

The Final Days of Glastonbury Abbey
In April 1539 The Second Act of Suppression came in to force that included a
retrospective clause covering the illegal suppression of the greater monasteries
which had already passed into the king's hands, which granted to Henry all
monasteries which shall hereafter happen to be dissolved, suppressed, renounced,
relinquished, forfeited, given up or come unto the king's highness. The Act included a
clause referring to such other religious houses as "shall happen to come to the king's
highness by attainder or attainders of treason.” By the summer of 1539 few of the
great houses remained undissolved and it is surprising that such an attractive house

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as Glastonbury had survived this long. But after several reassurances to the Abbot
there seemed to be a change of plan and the Vicar General revealed his end game.

The sequence of events from September through November are not all together
clear and a full account of the beginning of the end of Glastonbury Abbey and Abbot
Whiting's final days is not available due to the absence of key documents amongst
the records relating to the closing years of Cromwell's administration. Yet, among
Cromwell's memorandum, still extant in his own handwriting, dated from the
beginning of September, 1539, the Vicar General's intention are quite unambiguous;
"Item, for proceeding against the abbots of Reading, Glaston and the other, in their
own countries."

On 16th September in a letter to Cromwell, indicating future intent, Richard Layton
requests his pardon for praising Abbot Whiting at his previous visit in 1535; "The
Abbot of Glastonbury, appeareth neither then nor now to have known God, nor his
prince, nor any part of a good Christian man's religion."

Three days later, on Friday, September 19th, the royal commissioners, Layton,
Pollard and Moyle, arrived at Glastonbury at about ten o'clock in the morning without
warning. The Abbot was at his grange at Sharpham, about a mile from the
monastery. Whiting was questioned there then taken to the Abbey. In his study they
found a book of arguments against the King's divorce and a copy of the life of
Thomas Becket. They sent him, a weak and sickly man, to the Tower of London so
that Cromwell might interrogate him further.

A week later, on 28th September, the royal commissioners write to Cromwell saying
that they have found treasures and monies hidden in secret places in the Abbey,
sufficient to have"begun a new abbey.” They concluded by asking what the King
wished to have done in respect of the two monks who were the treasurers of the
church, John (Arthur) Thorne and Roger James (Wilfrid).

The commissioners gathered, or constructed, statements from local informers about
the Abbot's treasonable opinions. On the 2nd October the inquisitors write again to
say that they have discovered evidence of "divers and sundry treasons" committed
by Abbot Whiting, "the certainty whereof shall appear unto your lordship in a book
herein enclosed, with the accusers' names put to the same, which we think to be
very high and rank treasons." The book has long since disappeared but creases in
the original letter seem to indicate it was enclosed therein.

By now, with Whiting in the Tower, the monks were quickly dispatched and
Glastonbury Abbey already considered a royal possession. But from the very
beginning of the suppression Whiting had co-operated with the king and his agents.
He had signed the petition to the Pope concerning the royal divorce and subscribed

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to the oath accepting royal supremacy. Yet Cromwell's notes reveal the Vicar
General had already decided the Abbot's fate; in a memorandum dated before the
end of October, he wrote: 'Item, the Abbot of Glaston, to be tried at Glaston and also
executed there with his complices'

Whiting should have been tried by parliament by act of attainder but this was totally
ignored in his case; evidently his sentence had been decided before Parliament
came together. The House was due to have sat on 1st November and would have
considered the charges against Whiting at that time but assembly was delayed till
the arrival of the King's fourth wife, Ann of Cleeves. Whiting would remain in the
Tower till then.

Pollard took the frail old Abbot, who must have been nearing eighty years of age by
now, back to Somerset on 14th November where he was taken immediately into the
Bishop's Palace at Wells, without giving the condemned man even time to recover
from his journey. Lord Russell had assembled a jury, which included John
Sydenham, Thomas Horner, and Nicholas Fitzjames, the same who, but a year or
two before, had written to Cromwell on Abbot Whiting's behalf. Friends and allies
turned against the Abbot for a share in the rich booty to be had at the Abbey. Pollard
directed the indictment, which Cromwell had drafted based on evidence revealed
during the secret interrogations conducted during Whiting's two months'
imprisonment in the Tower. From the crowd gathered at Wells tenants, and others,
came forward to testify against him with new accusations of wrongs and injuries
committed against them by the Abbot. No doubt they had been paid their piece of
silver by Cromwell's agents. At the last minute the charge seemed to have been
changed from treason to one of robbery. Whiting, absurdly accused of robbing his
own abbey, was tried amongst common felons, four accused of rape and burglary
who were condemned to hang the next day. The records of the trial fail to make clear
the charges, or indeed the verdict. No defence or cross examination was allowed; it
appears to proceed immediately to the execution.

This was clearly no more than a mock trial; as we have seen above, Abbot Whiting's
fate was already settled, at Cromwell's own hand, before he left the Tower, the Vicar
General, acting alone as prosecuting counsel, jury and judge, had already reached
his decision. Cromwell ruled Whiting guilty and determined that he should suffer
before all the world the ultimate indignity and destined for him the gruesome death of
a traitor in the sight of his own subjects who had known and loved him for many
years on the scene of his own former glory. Cromwell decreed the Abbot was to be
hung, drawn and quartered at Glastonbury.

The following morning, 15th November, Whiting and the Abbey treasurers John
Thorne and Roger James, were taken to Glastonbury. On the outskirts of the town
he was spread-eagled across a hurdle which was tethered to a horse, and then

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dragged through the streets of Glastonbury, past his beloved Abbey and up the Tor
where the gallows had been erected by the side of St Michael's tower. Pollard writes
that the Glastonbury three "took their deaths very patiently” and added "whose souls
God pardon."

Whiting's lifeless body was cut down, the head hacked off and his corpse divided into
four parts. One part despatched to Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and the fourth to
Bridgewater, whilst the head was fixed over the Abbey gates.

Following the fate of Glastonbury, only one more monastery was to be dissolved,
that of Waltham Abbey. At the start of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536,
there were over 800 religious houses in Britain. By 1540 there were none with more
than 15,000 monks and nuns dispersed and the buildings taken into ownership by
the Crown to be sold off or leased out. The process had taken just four short years.
Many of these religious communities owed their very existence to the wave of
monastic enthusiasm that had swept across England and Wales in the 11th and 12th
centuries, many as with Glastonbury, claiming to built upon early Celtic or Anglo-
Saxon foundations. Glastonbury appeared early in that wave with tradition claiming it
to be the site of the first Christian church in England, established by Joseph of
Arimathea in the first century AD. It is difficult to disagree with the description of the
suppression of the monasteries as simply "an enormous scheme for filling the royal
purse."

Less than a year after Whiting's execution, justice, perhaps in part at least, was had
when Cromwell fell from favour after arranging the King's disastrous marriage to
Anne of Cleeves. He was charged with treason and heresy and executed on Tower
Hill on 28 July 1540. With Cromwell's death the Dissolution of the Monasteries
quickly ran out of steam.

True to his faith to the end, Richard Whiting is considered a martyr by the Roman
Catholic Church, which beatified him on 13 May 1896. Beatification provides the title
of "Blessed," a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's
entrance into Heaven and the third of the four steps in the canonization process, the
act by which the Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint.