ABSTRACT
From Thomas Starkey’s letter to Henry VIII, c. June 1536, printed in Starkey’s Life and Letters, ed. S. J. Herrtage, Early English Text Society, extra series, XXXII (1878), pp. liii-lviii. After expressing his hope that the passage of the recent act will enrich the king’s subjects Starkey presents arguments defending a limited diversion of monastic resources, even if this appears to run counter to the founders’ wishes. He concludes with a plea that the sites and buildings of the dissolved monasteries will not be depopulated and turned into sheep-runs.
