Barlings Abbey

This solitary ruin is the sole remaining evidence of Barlings Abbey in Lincolnshire. It would appear that its final abbot, Matthew Mackarel, was engaged in the Romanist insurrection against Henry VIII called the Pilgrimage of Grace, for which trouble he and six of his colleagues were executed at Tyburn. The whole affair gave that greedy monarch a better excuse to seize Barlings ahead of the others and to enrich his cronies.

I suspect that Abbot Mackarel, contrary to convenient Protestant stereotypes, was more sincere and pious than the opportunistic, greedy king to whose policies he objected. Nevertheless, while Henrician Protestantism was a warped and ill-defined entity, the fully blown Romanism of Mackarel and his abbey was more consistent but little better. Can one die for the wrong cause? Can one sincerely give one’s life and fortune for something that is itself mistaken?

Yes.

This is why we must be faithful to God’s word. It alone offers us God’s truth and a cause to live for and die in; anything based on human tradition, feelings, assumptions or spurious revelations, is bound to lead to a dead end, regardless of how sincerely and faithfully we gave ourselves for it.

For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth. Psalm 33:4

A D