The Irish standard., 1912-11-16
Greedy Courtiers of Elizabeth En-
riched by Property of Church
at Reformation.
Wealth of Old Nobility Based on
Confscation of Endowments for
Noble Purposes.
The British Aristocracy of Today
Living on Stolen Charity of
Religious Houses.

In the British parliament some
months ago, MI. Lloyd-George, in
debate, told the son of Lord Salisbury
that his hands were dripping with the
fat Of sacrilege because the property
he possessed was contiscated from the
Catholic Church at the time of the
Reformation. Spencer Hughes, NJ. p,
writes as follows to Reynolds News
paper in confirmation Of the charge
by Lloyd-George:
''It is urged that because money
was left in or before the twelfth CELL
tury to purposes of piety in Wales,
it is an act of robbing God if some OF
that money be now handed over by
law for purposes of public utility,
such as education and so forth To
begin with, We ought to remember
that the church to which it was orig
inally left has been supplanted by Il
sect, and that the original purposes
of piety included education and also
the relief Of the poor, and that the
church which is anxious to retain all
the money has long since left those
particular causes to be financed by
the education or poor law authorities.
I .fss Hut Is, ho~evai; Uy ITO n,esns the
most interesting fact which may be
considered by the public today. For
when this cry of 'sacrilege' goes UP
it may be we'll to remember that a
number of noble families in this coun-
try have been living for centuries; on
the fat of the land owing to the most
barefaced robbery, spoliation and sac
rilege known to history. Yet the
members of some of these families are
the first to raise yelps of horror and
of protest against the governments
proposals. ....
II give a few samples from list
that is far too long to be exhausted
in one article, and l say that the facts
here set forth. and many others, can
be found in that excellent work, Our
Old Nobility by Howard Evans. Be
ing filed with reverence for the laws
of precedence, will begin with the
family of the head of the peerage-
the Duke of Norfolk. According to
the History of Confiscation,' by Sir
H. Spelman:
"'Thomas Howard, who was Duke
of Norfolk when the monasteries We're
suppressed, managed to capture thir-
teen religious houses in tho eastern
counties alone. The phrase religious
house may not be quite clear, and sc
I may explain that if we take only
one, Castleacre abbey, it possesses II
manors and 33 rectories in Norfolk,
rectories in other counties, and lands
tithes and rents in 142 Norfolk par
ishes.'
There arc two branches of the Ce-
Gil family-the Exeter branch and the
Salisbury branch-and both have ir
bygone days managed to do fairly
the Marquis of Exeter was all there
when the monasteres were suppressed
and alike from Henry VIII, from Ed.
ward VI, and from Elizabeth, Ire OBJ.
tained splendid property that wa:
taken from the church and handed
over to him. There was no conscien
tious scrupe about the sin of 'sacri
lege' in, those days. Nor were thu
Salisbury Cecils far behind him in thi.
form of lucrative enterprise. In tn
fifth year of James I. Robert Cecil
then earl of Salisbury, obtained
(good worldly grant of the manor
rectory, advowsons of the vicarage
glebe lands and tithe3 of Cranbourne
in Dorset. In connection with thi
impudent plumber Of the church, How
ard Evans has we'll said:
1.-THE next time a Marquis Of Sails
bury speaks against disestablishmen
it might be worth his while to explain
how it can be wrong for DR.. Cliffor'
to advocate the disendowment of tn
church, and right for the Cecils t
hold part of the ancient endowment
of the church, 1 suppose the answe
of a modern Cecil would be the oil,
reply of the parson, DO as I say