Bolton Priory

Bolton Abbey is a perennially favourite place to visit by people from East Lancashire and West Yorkshire. Undeterred by the steep parking charges, hundreds of cars arrive daily to see the river, drink the coffees and walk the hills. Part of the Duchy of Devonshire, it is a large estate and pretty village with an impressive old church, which, rather confusingly, is called Bolton Priory. At the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, much of it was ransacked and sold off, but half of the edifice was preserved as a parish church for use by the local population. History has left us a half-ruined priory attached to a well-preserved and rather lofty parish church.

The reasons for this peculiar combination of destruction and preservation were at the heart of Tudor government. The state wanted people to be religious and devout, because it was assumed that these qualities bred loyalty to the king. On the other hand, monastic worship was frowned upon, chiefly because the king envied the Church’s vast holdings of land. Although I sympathise with the critics of monasticism who espied well-fed and indolent men living easy lives (or worse), the loss of their learning, hospitality, healthcare and welfare was a blow to the nation from which we did not recover until the twentieth century, when the state itself provided many of the services which the old priors and abbots had previously supplied.

The destruction of churches is not the sole preserve of greedy Tudors, marauding Vikings, zealous Mohammedans or godless communists. The Lord Jesus Himself extinguishes churches which refuse faithfulness to His word. The letters to the seven churches in the early chapters of the book of Revelation make clear the Lord’s willingness to remove faithless, apostate or corrupted congregations which claim His good name. Why Rome has been suffered so long, I cannot tell, though I suspect she features in some eschatological (end times) plan still unfolding. The compromised British nonconformist churches will be snuffed out during this very century, while pockets of truth-loving, Christ-honouring remnants may be preserved, much as Bolton Priory’s function of local worship was kept, but its land-holding affairs curtailed.

We sometimes talk about increasing intolerance of Christians and Christianity in this country, and quite rightly. Yet the Lord Jesus is quite possibly the least tolerant of them all. Although He loves His people and is so gently patient with their weaknesses and foibles, gererously dispensing from an eternal stock of grace and mercy, He seems rather less indulgent of church leaders and congregations when they dilute His word or use His cause for personal gain.

…Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you…I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth…repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.…Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Revelation 2-3