Excerpt from The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain "I humbly crave leave, before I advance any farther, publickly to profess myself to be a sincere, though very unworthy Member of the Church of England, and that I have as true and as hearty Affection for her Interest as perhaps any other Person whatsoever. And yet I cannot but here publickly declare that I think it would have been more happy for Her, as well as for the Nation in general had King Henry VIII. only reformed and not destroyed the Abbeys and other Religious Houses. Monastic Institution is very ancient, and it had been very laudable had he reduced the Manner of Worship to the Primitive Form." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.