We are at Whitby... a town on the Yorkshire Moors overlooking the North Sea... an historic fishing village with close connections to Australia through Captain James Cook. He was born in a village down the coast a little bit... but came to Whitby to undertake his apprenticeship and form a base for his career in coastal shipping... living here for over a decade. All the ships used in Cook's adventures were constructed at Whitby... probably many of the sailors for those ships were recruited from this town (although we have not had confirmation of this).
When Australia wanted a replica of the Endeavour built, they came again to Whitby. A statue of James stands on the headland overlooking the harbour... in pride of place. The town has a Captain Cook Museum... and we plan to head that way first thing tomorrow.
Whitby's association with Captain Cook forms a nice backdrop to the town... but the relationship is straightforward... no intrigue or loose ends there.
What does raise lots of questions is the gigantic ruins of the Abbey that dominate the northern headlands... the other side of the harbour from Captain Cook. Why was it built? ... why was it destroyed? ... and what would UK be like if the Dissolution (orchestrated by Henry VIII) had been better directed?
I find it difficult to appreciate the religious fervour that swept western Europe (and the UK) in the 11th and 12th centuries. Major landholders gave their most prized tracts of land to the Church of Rome... not just a few people... everyone of wealth competed with each other to be the most generous. Now, the church did indulge in some suspect selling practices... they allocated bits of real estate in heaven in exchange for real estate on Earth... without full disclosure. I suspect the seat on the left-hand side of God was sold to more than one individual... imagine the confusion and displays of ill-temper that would occur on Judgement Day... "Show me your seat allocation pass!" would be a frequent cry. "The Pope gave me his word... I don't need a pass!" would be the popular refrain. The rudeness would make the 1st Class Cabin of Qantas look like a Boy Scout Jamboree.
Just before Henry VIII undertook the Dissolution, monastic orders owned two-fifths of all land in the UK. Within the city of London, they owned double that. Monasteries had a monopoly on nearly every educated brain in the land... the best and brightest (both male and female) sought employment in a monastic order. Many of the Abbeys, Convents and Friaries conducted their business with better management practices than other commercial enterprises in the land.
Henry probably had a point in opposing all this wealth... all this industry being done for the benefit of a self-perpetuating... self-selected group who pretended to have a monopoly on rights to enter the kingdom of heaven. Henry saw himself as a much more worthy beneficiary... and who could blame him?
But the way Henry stole property from the monastic orders shows how short sighted he was. He, and his good mate Thomas Cromwell (no relative of Oliver) listed 625 monastic institutions to be dissolved... 625! Before today, I had thought that these Monasteries and Abbeys were quaint little country churches with a farm attached... perhaps a string of houses for clerics and laypeople. But the dimension of Henry's destruction hit home today... when the size of Whitby Abbey was seen. It looks bigger than Westminster Cathedral... Notre Dame (Paris)... Alhambra (Granada)... and yet you had not heard of Whitby Abbey... right?
I have no doubt that, in its day, Whitby Abbey had rich decorations... icons carrying the important stories of its time... manuscripts that would provide a record of culture at that time. All of this has disappeared... maybe taken into the houses of the wealthy nobility... but lost through careless maintenance.
Multiply Whitby Abbey by 625 and you get a glimpse at the true cost of Henry's ego trip. I despaired at the way the church in Italy and Spain took money from the poor... and poured it into palatial cathedrals. In England, the church did the same exploitation of the poor... but then some clown destroyed all the buildings. Which is worse?
England fell behind Europe after Henry's reign... both militarily and economically. Arguably, England suffered because management skills developed in the monastic institutions were scattered in the wind... lost as an economic advantage... not to be recovered for centuries. If Henry had been as smart as Captain Cook... he could have... should have... taken ownership of the resources and applied them to continue their productivity to his benefit.
To just destroy a business because you don't like the owner seems particularly dumb... moronic!
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