IT is now necessary to take a glance at the religious history of England, upon which the musical history, always closely connected, was especially dependent at this period, as it was again a century later. A series of accidents brought the English King to declare himself independent of the Pope, and to be the personal Head of the English Church. Then followed the dissolution of the smaller monasteries in 1536; and the larger quickly shared this fate, their enormous possessions mainly falling into the hands of the King's favourites. This was a serious blow to the art of music, as every monastery was a permanent choir, maintaining singers and an organist. And, sad to relate, the great change, tremendous both politically and socially, as well as religiously, was carried out without care to preserve what was worth preserving. The nobles pulled down magnificent buildings for the sake of selling the materials. In many cases the huge stores of manuscripts accumulated during several centuries were used as waste paper, and the parchments were sent “by ships’ full,” says Bale, to the bookbinders abroad. When it is remembered that more than 600 monasteries and nunneries were dissolved, and that in the previous chapters all the known remains of pre-Reformation compositions are catalogued, it will be seen how extraordinary the destruction must have been.* How many hundreds of masses and magnificats and motets by Dunstable and Power and Benet and Pasche and Banester and Davy and Cornish and Ludford and Payrfax and Cooper, and their compeers, must have at this time for ever perished!