The first twenty years
after his election were passed, like those of his predecessors, in the
duties of his choir, in the exercise of hospitality, in attention to the
extensive possessions of his house, or in the improvement of his
buildings; but a storm was approaching, before which either his
conscience or his bigotry prevented him from bending, and which
precipitated his ruin and that of the abbey. The religious houses in
general were now greatly relaxed in discipline, and many of them
dreadfully corrupted in morals. What was the state of Whalley must now
be left to conjecture, though charity should incline us to think no evil
to those against whom no specific evidence appears. The Pilgrimage of
Grace was now commenced, and Paslew seems to have been pushed into the
foremost ranks of the rebellion; when this expedition ended in the
discomfiture and disgrace of its promoters, every art of submission and
corruption was vainly employed to ward off the blow. Paslew was
arraigned for high treason, tried, and condemned, and is supposed to
have been interred in the north aisle of the parish church, under a
stone yet remaining; the ignominious part of his sentence being
remitted, out of respect to his order.
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